Thursday

April 30, 2009, The Lion is a Pussy Cat

We are constantly learning how to live His unconditional Love and as we do we allow it to come back to us experientially and exponentially in so many amazing ways.

If we focus on the lion he will devour us, if we focus on the fire it will burn us, if we focus on the water we will drown. When we 'focus' on Jesus we invite Him to be our protector and provider.

I have really struggled throughout the day writing this off and on, editing and reediting until I've come to this. Maybe it's because I've been struggling with the lion or the fire or the water. But once I let go, I always find peace and strength because these devouring, burning, drowning circumstances, have no power over me.

The lion then becomes a big pussy cat...


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3154/2410412512_c463696a26.jpg?v=0

Wednesday

April 29, 2009, Not One Hour

I am so thankful to be a part of such amazing experiences lately. To be able to see God's glory in death and resurrection as it shows up in so many lives. To be able to live and experience God's Amazing Grace, through the total dying of my'self' and reemerge into a beautiful person from within, and the experiencing through the senses all the beauty within here, and out there. How can we ever explain in words what is happening? We are so limited in our vocabulary to express God's amazing Love, and what He did for us, coming to be one of us, and dying for us to redeem us from our'selves'. Fear is constantly dying to be anything more than I am, fear is constantly dying to anything that is contradictory to what He is teaching me about His Great Love and how He always takes care of us.

Matthew 6:25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (NIV)

Tuesday

April 28, 2009 Interpersonal Conflict and Effective Communication

The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers. M. Scott Peck

We are no longer a one sided relationship, we strive to be an empathetic receiver, and a compassionate giver.

It came to me yesterday as Ken and I work through conflict that my perceptions have been skewed in regard to conflict. I said to him afterwards, 'our conflicts are inevitable, what we must continually learn is to respect where we are, regardless of our perception'.

Then I came across this article on Interpersonal Conflict and Effective Communication which opens the article with 'Conflict between people is a fact of life – and it’s not necessarily a bad thing'.

Over our lives we have been taught that conflict is a bad thing. Since childhood we are punished in many ways for engaging in conflict regardless of what that may be. It is our nature to have conflict and it is inevitable. How we deal with conflict and our awareness of the deeper communication that is occurring with conflict, will open our hearts towards a greater, deeper connected relationship in all systems, family, friendships and business.

Interpersonal Conflict and Effective Communication
Conflict between people is a fact of life – and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, a relationship with frequent conflict may be healthier than one with no observable conflict. Conflicts occur at all levels of interaction – at work, among friends, within families and between relationship partners. When conflict occurs, the relationship may be weakened or strengthened. Thus, conflict is a critical event in the course of a relationship. Conflict can cause resentment, hostility and perhaps the ending of the relationship. If it is handled well, however, conflict can be productive – leading to deeper understanding, mutual respect and closeness. Whether a relationship is healthy or unhealthy depends not so much on the number of conflicts between participants, but on how the conflicts are resolved.
Sometimes people shy away from conflict, and the reasons for this are numerous. They may, for example, feel that their underlying anger may go out of control if they open the door to conflict. Thus, they may see conflict as an all-or-nothing situation (either they avoid it altogether or they end up in an all-out combative mode, regardless of the real severity of the conflict). Or they may find it difficult to face conflict because they feel inadequate in general or in the particular relationship. They may have difficulty in positively asserting their views and feelings. Children who grow up surrounded by destructive conflict may, as adults, determine never to participate in discord. In this situation, the person may never have learned that there are effective, adaptive ways to communicate in the face of conflict.
People adopt a number of different styles in facing conflict. First, it is very common to see a person avoid or deny the existence of conflict. Unfortunately, in this case, the conflict often lingers in the background during interaction between the participants and creates the potential for further tension and even more conflict. A second response style is that of one person getting mad and blaming the other person. This occurs when a person mistakenly equates conflict with anger. This stance does nothing to resolve the conflict and in fact only serves to increase the degree of friction between the two participants by amplifying defensiveness. A third way which some people use to resolve conflict is by using power and influence to win at the other’s expense. They welcome conflict because it allows their competitive impulses to emerge, but they fail to understand that the conflict is not really resolved since the “loser” will continue to harbor resentment. Similarly, some people appear to compromise in resolving the conflict, but they subtly manipulate the other person in the process, and this, again, perpetuates the conflict between the two parties and compromises the trust between them. There are better ways to handle interpersonal conflict.
Healthy Approaches to Conflict Resolution
Conflicts run all the way from minor, unimportant differences to disputes which can threaten the existence of a relationship. Conflicts with a loved one or a long-term friend are, of course, different from negotiating with someone who does not care about your needs, like a stranger or a salesperson. However, there is an underlying principle that underscores all successful conflict resolution. That is, both parties must view their conflict as a problem to be solved mutually so that both parties have the feeling of winning – or at least finding a solution which is acceptable to both. Each person must participate actively in the resolution and make an effort and commitment to find answers which are as fair as possible to both. This is an easy principle to understand, but it is often difficult to put into practice.
We may get so caught up with our own immediate interests that we damage our relationships. If we disregard or minimize the position of the other person, if fear and power are used to win, or if we always have to get our own way, the other person will feel hurt and the relationship may be wounded. Similarly, if we always surrender just to avoid conflict, we give the message to the other person that it is acceptable to act self-serving at our expense and insensitive to our needs. Our feeling of self-worth suffers, resentment festers, and we feel poisoned in the relationship. Instead, it is healthier if both parties can remain open, honest, assertive and respectful of the other position. Mutual trust and respect, as well as a positive, constructive attitude, are fundamental necessities in relationships that matter.
Preventing Conflict
Most people have no interest in creating conflict with others. Most of us know enough about human behavior to distinguish between healthy communication and the words or actions that contribute to rocky relationships. It is in our interest to maintain relations which are smooth, flexible, and mutually enhancing. The problem occurs when we fail to use cooperative approaches consistently in our dealing with others. We seldom create conflict intentionally. We do it because we may not be aware of how our own behavior contributes to interpersonal problems. Sometimes we forget, or we are frustrated and annoyed, and sometimes we just have a bad day. At times we feel so exasperated that we focus on our own needs at the expense of others’. And then we find ourselves in conflict.
To prevent conflict from happening in the first place, it is important to identify the ways in which we contribute to the disagreement. One way of doing this is to identify a specific, recent conflicted situation, recall what you said, and then think specifically about how you could have used more effective language. Think about ways in which your communication could have set a more trustful tone or reduced defensiveness. Then, once you have identified your part in the conflict, such as blaming, practice working on that particular behavior for a day or a week. At the end of the time period, evaluate your progress. Did you succeed? In what situations did you not succeed? (While it may be the other person who created the conflict, you are the other half of the interaction and it is your own response that you have control over and can change.)
Using Effective Communication Techniques to Reduce Conflict
Once you find yourself in a conflicted situation with someone else, it is important to reduce the emotional charge from the situation so that you and the other person can deal with your differences on a rational level in resolving the conflict.
The Defusing Technique: The other person might be angry and may come to the situation armed with a number of arguments describing how you are to blame for his or her unhappiness. Your goal is to address the other’s anger – and you do this by simply agreeing with the person. When you find some truth in the other point of view, it is difficult for the other person to maintain anger. For example, “I know that I said I would call you last night. You are absolutely right. I wish I could be more responsible sometimes.” The accusation might be completely unreasonable from your viewpoint, but there is always some truth in what the other person says. At the very least, we need to acknowledge that individuals have different ways of seeing things. This does not mean that we have to compromise our own basic principles. We simply validate the other’s stance so that we can move on to a healthier resolution of the conflict. This may be hard to do in a volatile situation, but a sign of individual strength and integrity is the ability to postpone our immediate reactions in order to achieve positive goals. Sometimes we have to “lose” in order, ultimately, to “win.”
Empathy: Try to put yourself into the shoes of the other person. See the world through their eyes. Empathy is an important listening technique which gives the other feedback that he or she is being heard. There are two forms of empathy. Thought Empathy gives the message that you understand what the other is trying to say. You can do this in conversation by paraphrasing the words of the other person. For example, “I understand you to say that your trust in me has been broken.” Feeling Empathy is your acknowledgment of how the other person probably feels. It is important never to attribute emotions which may not exist for the other person (such as, “You’re confused with all your emotional upheaval right now”), but rather to indicate your perception of how the person must be feeling. For example, “I guess you probably feel pretty mad at me right now.”
Exploration: Ask gentle, probing questions about what the other person is thinking and feeling. Encourage the other to talk fully about what is on his or her mind. For example, “Are there any other thoughts that you need to share with me?”
Using “I” Statements: Take responsibility for your own thoughts rather than attributing motives to the other person. This decreases the chance that the other person will become defensive. For example, “I feel pretty upset that this thing has come between us.” This statement is much more effective than saying, “You have made me feel very upset.”
Stroking: Find positive things to say about the other person, even if the other is angry with you. Show a respectful attitude. For example, “I genuinely respect you for having the courage to bring this problem to me. I admire your strength and your caring attitude.”

http://www.drbalternatives.com/articles/cc2.html

Sunday

April 26, 2009 Crushed to Life

It came to me to read this scripture this morning:

Jeremiah 10:17 Grab your bags, all you who are under attack. 18 God has given notice: "Attention! I'm evicting Everyone who lives here, And right now - yes, right now! I'm going to press them to the limit, squeeze the life right out of them." 19 But it's a black day for me! Hopelessly wounded, I said, "Why, oh why did I think I could bear it?" 20 My house is ruined - the roof caved in. Our children are gone - we'll never see them again. No one left to help in rebuilding, no one to make a new start! 21 It's because our leaders are stupid. They never asked God for counsel, And so nothing worked right. The people are scattered all over. 22 But listen! Something's coming! A big commotion from the northern borders! Judah's towns about to be smashed, left to all the stray dogs and cats! 23 I know, God, that mere mortals can't run their own lives, That men and women don't have what it takes to take charge of life. 24 So correct us, God, as you see best. Don't lose your temper. That would be the end of us. 25 Vent your anger on the godless nations, who refuse to acknowledge you, And on the people who won't pray to you - The very ones who've made hash out of Jacob, yes, made hash And devoured him whole, people and pastures alike. (The Message)

Where did the teaching ever come from that said being wounded, destroyed is a bad thing (because spiritual death really is the only thing to fear)? As I reread scripture I see nothing but God's Love and in His Love when we are able to understand, the crushing comes in our surrender and in the surrender there is no fear. If we surrender to the purging fire, the crushing Hand of God, we will see the beauty of New Birth, and Life only comes with death, abundance from lack, hope from despair, vision from brokenness and a crushed ego. Now God can use us. How often do we see people crying out to God and on their knees in times of devastation? Every time. But over time we forget. The real test is to remember the beauty of being crushed and reborn.

Please read the following very carefully. We restrict or inhibit God by resistance, control, pride and egos. When all the thick superficial dust of our egos settle down, then we see His Love and Light clearly. We can see clearly that God is a Loving God, compassionate and slow to anger regardless of the outward circumstances. Now instead of crushing being a punishment, it becomes necessary for growth and New Life. Now there is no fear, ever, only Peace knowing His Truth.

We are 'mere mortals' who when trying to run our own lives, limit experiencing the fullness of God. When we ask God for counsel and accept how He chooses to bring New Life, even if He chooses by crushing and squeezing the life out of us, it is because He will bring New Life and New Birth and raise us from the dead. Remember the example of many who have asked God to teach them patience? This is a great example of this illustration. Do we know what is on the other side of this prayer when we completely surrender to God's method to teach us?

I am remembering again, one profound statement given to me which helped me see clearly my life's purpose and allowed me to see a way to surrender to that purpose. It was, 'Teresa, you are in this because you have chosen to be in this, in following Him'. Faith reveals Jesus Christ and His Love, far greater than any control of my own.

I surrender all. Nothing can destroy His Love.

Saturday

April 25, 2009, Saturday, April 25, 1981

April 25, 1981

Looking back at our marriage after 28 years, Ken and I are reemerging and reuniting to be fully present and attentive to each other's hearts as husband and wife.

I accepted your invitation Ken to be your wife to honor and respect your journey to fully be the man God created you to be and I the woman He created me to be. Now realizing that our own personal work is a never ending work of resisting fear or control from fear, in order for us to be complete and fully intimate with each other in action, thought and word. And regardless of circumstances, regardless of how crazy things may seem we hold strong in Love for each other. We continue to search and strive for openness and honesty as we walk side by side, not in front of, nor behind, down the treacherous path towards Jesus' Light as we hold each other with encouragement and love to remember our source is only God, Who in His everlasting Love chose this exact time in creation to bring us together in order to give Him glory and allowing us to Love two precious fruits of our Love with hearts like His, Josh and Jesse. Ken, we are finding our purpose together as God allows us to complete our journey in this life until we are eternally with Him. I love you so much. We're making it Hun!!

I am sharing this as a testimony to our beautiful family and friends and so thankful for the sacrifice and support, those reminding us to keep our eyes on Jesus. We thank all of you for your love and prayers. We are living proof that Love and prayers work.

Thursday

April 23, 2009 His Heart My Heart Your Heart


LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE
LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE
LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE
LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE
LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE
LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE
LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE
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LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE
LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE
LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE

Wednesday

April 22, 2009 Warrior Child

We are like innocent children who have no fear death. There is no fear because our Pappa is with us, always. We are called to be in this growing army, fighting for Life.

Susan here's this amazing song that Ken and I were talking about yesterday. It was originally sung by Twila Paris and I thought of it since we were talking about going out in the battlefield. This outer exterior of strength, is no strength at all. We are children crying and hiding inside the full body gear of His covering. Remember David? The armor didn't fit. He was a child warrior. Covered in His Wings, His Arms, His Hands, His Shadow, His Mercy, His Grace, His Love. We are children in battle gear, totally depending on Papa to give us strength, pick us up when we fall down. This battle is not of flesh and blood. The Battle Plan: 'Stand', with the heart and unconditional love of a child.

Warrior is a Child, Gary Valenciano
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XHmua3TTRQ&feature=related


Tuesday

April 21, 2009 Everything and more than enough...

Oh wow, I remembered this song by Todd Agnew and it in itself is awesome. But when I found this on youtube with the art...double wow!

This is all I want to share this morning. It is quite enough. Sometimes I need to get Him deeper inside of me, which really is always.

This is certainly everything and more than enough...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcGJb-mPMmg&feature=related

Monday

April 20, 2009 Here We Are

James 5: 13 Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. 14 Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. 15 Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you've sinned, you'll be forgiven - healed inside and out. 16 Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. (The Message)

It's prayer from our hearts that is so powerful. It's our heart conversation with God, and each other. The mouth moves but the heart is speaking. We have an answer when we pray, ask, believe, we receive, Matthew 11:24.

The test of our faith brings endurance. If you've ever run a marathon you know that there is much training for the body to reach that goal and once that day comes the real test comes. And at mile 20 there is a decision to make, to give up or push through to finish. Translated into prayer that is pray through, we don't need to run, but instead we stand - in the gap, asking Jesus on behalf of another in need of physical healing, emotional healing, relational healing so he may heal them 'inside and out'. We sometimes forget the 'inside' part. This is the most important.

We all have 'outward' tests and difficulties either with our own lives, family or friends. An invitation to be set free from the things which bind, restrict, inhibit and block Love from the Holy Spirit may first come with an altar call but does not end there. How do I know this? My confession is, after much crushing and breaking and surrendering of my heart, not my mind I can see clearly a path opening to other's hearts but only from my vulnerable heart. So my desire is to Love until other's hearts are set free. This only happened because of dear brothers and sisters in the Lord who with unconditional Love stood by, waited with tremendous patience, encouraged, and lived by example this testimony of Love. The growth never ceases, the experiences never cease and the Love never stops growing. We begin to see that no circumstances, no downfall, no economic loss, no disaster can take us away from His Love. It starts with desire to know Him more and more and more....

It takes Love to penetrate through and 'past' the exterior and superficial to see and connect with others deeply. It is a state of being broken that brings total vulnerability and new birth, leaving us totally free and starving to do it again again. We become more desiring of knowing the inner person more and more because this is where His genuine Love lives, in every beautiful heart. It is one thing to look into the eyes of a person and hold attention, it is truly another experience to look into the eyes of a person and look straight into their soul allowing their experience to become yours, the same pain they feel, the same hurt, the same searching, the same desire. There is no ignoring anyone anymore, everyone is created in the unfathomable image of God. It is here we search for God, together we pray, ask, believe and receive, we forgive and ask to be forgiven, where two are more are, He is there also and whatever we ask from our hearts, He will do it.

Yesterday I forwarded this entire email from Jim Spivey, it is so powerful on Love (if you didn't get it and want to read it let me know). This gives us a glimpse of how to Love with His Love and see with His eyes and hear with His ears, with a heart like His. When we see it isn't the 'outside' then we can love the 'inside', the total created human 'becoming'.

"Help me, Lord, to see
past coldness
past bitterness
past meanness
and into the hearts of those
who need to be loved the most (which really is everyone),
and to lay myself down there,
as you laid yourself down for me!"
-- Alice Joyce Davidson

Here I am Lord...every piece of me....inside and out...


http://www.manchacabaptist.com/images/425_03.lego.art.jpg

Sunday

April 19, 2009 If I live one life

Without His love I can do nothing, with His love there is nothing I cannot do. Unknown

I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love. Mother Teresa

If I live one life at home and another life in church and another life at work or in community; if I love conditionally it is not love. Love does not lie, love does not require anything of anyone, love does not separate or exclude, love does not fear nor is jealous nor envious nor competes. Love does not flaunt appearances or prestige as power. Love does not judge, gossip, condemn, control, exclude, remove, damage, abandon, neglect but instead Love is tender, kind, open, sets free, embraces, receives, gives, includes, invites, nurtures, nourishes, fulfills, energizes, gives Life.

There was a dear elderly woman Ken and I knew. She was so in love with Jesus, every word that came out of her mouth was about love and her tenderness won many to know Jesus. Here name was Helyn Lee Schieck, she said 'you can love someone into the kingdom of Heaven'. I really believe that, honestly who can resist?

1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2 If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.


http://static.flickr.com/1438/1483193019_b8870c9ada.jpg

Saturday

April 18, 2009 For a rainy day

In a lifetime:
We consume 10,866 carrots
We eat 10,000 chocolate bars
Drink 15,000 pints of milk.
Eat 854 tins of baked beans in a lifetime
The program is the brainchild of Nick Watts, who was inspired while having a (? e.g. single) beer in the pub three years ago.
"I was thinking to myself how full a swimming pool would become if I tipped into it all the beer I drank in a lifetime," he told the Daily Telegraph.
He spent the next two years compiling hundreds of statistics with his team.

They discovered that during the 2,475,576,000 seconds of the average length life,
We speak 123,205,750 words,
Women on average speak twice as many words as men (so!)
Shed 121 pints of tears
Pay £286,311 in taxes (U.S. on the exchange probably the same)


http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/04_02/human1CH4_468x293.jpg

Crunch on 5,272 apples

The team then came up with ways to visualize their data: "It's about wondering what it would look like if all the clothes, washing machines and toilet paper you ever used were piled in front of your door," Nick said.
"Or if you lay out all the bread you will ever eat or cups of tea you will drink."
To that end, he laid out 74,802 cups of tea (U.S must be coffee) in Trafalgar Square today to promote the show.



http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/04_02/humanfootprint1G_468x352.jpg

Life expectancy ? 78.5 years or 2,475,576,000 seconds Friendships ?
1,700
Baths ? 7,163 (Doesn't sound like enough)
Dreams ? 104,390
Beef and Veal consumed - 4.5 cows per person (Texas probably about 10)
Chickens consumed ? 1,201 Potatoes consumed - 2,327 kilos Chocolate - 10,354 bars Baked Beans ? 845 tins Farts ? 35,815 litres of wind (I always said God has a sense of humor)
Soap ? 656 Toothpaste -276 (What tubes or brushings? Yikes)
Deodorant ? 272,
Shampoo ? 198
Beer ? 10,351 pints
Wine ? 1,694 bottles
Vomit produced ? 149 litres (didn't need to know that)
Sex - 4,239 times
Holidays - 59 trips
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-450618/Fancy-cuppa-We-drink-74-802-them.html

More Interesting Facts:
The average human breathes about 700,000 cubic inches of air every day
A newborn baby has 350 bones, but a fully-grown adult has only 206.
Blood is a liquid organ.
Everyone is colorblind at birth.
Our lungs inhale over two million liters of air every day, without even thinking. The surface area of the lungs is approximately the same size as a tennis court.
The average adult is made up of 100 trillion cells.
Our brain is more complex than the most powerful computer and has over 100 billion nerve cells.
Each cell in your body has an estimated 6 to 8 feet of DNA.
The total length of your circulatory system stretches an amazing 60,000 miles. That is more than twice the distance around the Earth.
In one square inch of skin there are four yards of nerve fibers, 600 pain sensors, 1300 nerve cells, 9000 nerve endings, 36 heat sensors, 75 pressure sensors, 100 sweat glands, 3 million cells, and 3 yards of blood vessels
Your body has about 5.6 liters (6 quarts) of blood. These 5.6 liters of blood circulates through the body three times every minute. In one day, the blood travels a total of 19,000 km (12,000 miles) - that's four times the distance across the US from coast to coast.
Research has shown that guilt damages your immune system by lowering your immunoglobulin levels.
Our sense of touch is more refined than any device ever created.
We give birth to 100 billion red blood cells every day and about two million red blood cells every second.
Your heart beats about 100,000 times in one day and about 40,000,000 times a year.
In one hour the heart works hard enough to produce enough energy to raise almost one ton of weight one yard from the ground. (maybe they could utilize this for alternate power source)
The liver is often called the body's chemical factory. Scientists have counted over 500 liver functions.
The central nervous system is connected to every part of the body by 43 pairs of nerves. Twelve pairs go to and from the brain, 31 pairs going from the spinal cord. There are nearly 45 miles of nerves running through our bodies.
Messages travel along the nerves as electrical impulses. They travel at speeds up to 248 mile per hour.
The central nervous system is the master system of all functions within your body and has a reciprocal Neurophysiologic relationship with the Acupressure Meridian and Chakra (Emotional Energy Centers) Systems of energetic function within your being. Subluxations in your spine, cranium and extremities, interfere with the flow of nerve impulse energy information and acupressure meridian energy within your body.
The aorta, the largest artery in the body, is almost the diameter of a garden hose. Capillaries, on the other hand, are so small that it takes ten of them to equal the thickness of a human hair.
5.6 liters of blood circulates through the body three times every minute. In one day, the blood travels a total of 19,000 km (12,000 miles) - that's four times the distance across the US from coast to coast.
Our eyes can distinguish up to one million color surfaces and take in more information than the largest telescope known to man.
Our hearing is so sensitive it can distinguish between hundreds of thousands of different sounds.
Our sense of touch is more refined than any device ever created.
We give birth to 100 billion red blood cells every day and about two million red blood cells every second.
When we touch something, we send a message to our brain at 124 mph.
We have over 600 muscles.
We exercise at least 30 muscles when we smile.
We are about 70 percent water.
We make one liter of saliva a day.
Our nose is our personal air-conditioning system: it warms cold air, cools hot air and filters impurities.
We have copper, zinc, cobalt, calcium, manganese, phosphates, nickel and silicon in our bodies.
If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
During the first month of life, the number of connections or synapses, dramatically increases from 50 trillion to 1 quadrillion. If an infant's body grew at a comparable rate, his weight would increase from 8.5 pounds at birth to 170 pounds at one month old.
The average life of a taste bud is 10 days.
Our bodies contain enough water to fill a ten-gallon tank.
We have enough carbon to manufacture 900 pencils.
Fingernails are one of the human body's strongest components. They contain keratin, which is also found in rhino horns,
Babies are not fully naked in the womb. In fact, their entire bodies are usually covered in a thin layer of dark hair by the end of the fifth month of pregnancy, which disappear when the baby is born.
People blink once every four seconds. That's because the eyelashes act as windscreen wipers, keeping dust and grime from getting into the eye itself.
Humans are one of the only mammals who are unable to 'turn' their ears in order to hear approaching predators.
An embryo is genderless for the first 6-8 weeks of pregnancy. Only after that the body decides whether the baby will be a boy or girl through dominant hormones that emerge.
Every tongue has its own individual print, which is unique to each person.
The big toe is actually one of the most important elements within the body, as it balances the skeleton and enables the owner to move forward when walking without it, we would simply fall over.
If the population of China walked by you in single file the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction. (wouldn't that be from everywhere?)
If a person has two-thirds of their liver removed from trauma or surgery, it will grow back to its original size in four weeks time.
On average, you breathe 23,000 times a day. You take about 600 million breaths during your lifetime.
A person can live without food for about 40 days, but only about 7 days without water, 6-8 minutes without air, and literally an instant without Life Force.
Among the top ten causes of death in the US are toxic reactions to correctly prescribed drugs, which make more than two million Americans seriously ill every year, and kill 106,000 more. Incorrectly prescribed drugs account for another 90,000 deaths each year
The odds of being struck by lightning are about 600,000 to one.
It is normal to lose 100 hairs per day from the scalp.
We take about 600 million breaths during our lifetime.
There are more bacteria in your mouth than the human population of US and Canada combined.
There are more than 1,000 chemicals in a cup of coffee. Of these, only 26 have been tested, and half caused cancer in rats.
The average human body contains enough: Sulfur to kill all fleas on an average dog,
Carbon to make 900 pencils,
Potassium to fire toy cannon,
Fat to make 7 bars of soap,
Phosphorus to make 2,200 match heads,
enough water to fill a ten gallon tank.
If you could save all the times your eyes blink in one lifetime and use them all at once you would see blackness for 1.2 years!
In one square inch of skin there are four yards of nerve fibers, 1300 nerve cells, 100 sweat glands, 3 million cells, and 3 yards of blood vessels.
Except for your brain cells, 50,000,000 of the cells in your body will have died and been replaced with others, all while you have been reading this sentence.
The adult heart beats about 40,000,000 times a year. In one hour the heart works hard enough to produce enough energy to raise almost one ton of weight one yard from the ground.
http://hubpages.com/hub/AMAZING_HUMAN_FACTS

And that is just humans.

Oh well, something to do on a rainy day. Regardless of all we do and don't do, searching or not searching, heeding or unobservant, there is nothing that can separate us from the Love of God, absolutely nothing!

Romans 8:38 I'm absolutely convinced that nothing - nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, 39 high or low, thinkable or unthinkable - absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. (The Message)

Friday

April 17, 2009 Never ending road

When everything appears to be going wrong or years of hard work looks as though it was wasted, we can be sure that God's hand is reaching for us to lift us up out of the muck or moving things into place until the pieces fit perfectly together. Because when it looks crazy it probably is God and honestly sometimes it makes me crazy trying to figure Him out. So when the road looks like it's going to end and you are going to fall off over the next hill, we need to remember that is just an illusion, because the horizon never ends.

Hey, someone get that bull off the road so I can see where I'm going!
Nice bully! :-)


Thursday

April 16, 2009 ˈbyu tə fəl

beau-ti-ful  /ˈbyu tə fəl/ [byoo-tuh-fuhl]
1. having beauty; having qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind: a beautiful dress; a beautiful speech.
2. excellent of its kind: a beautiful putt on the seventh hole; The chef served us a beautiful roast of beef.
3. wonderful; very pleasing or satisfying.

Yes, that's just it. Just like the word Love, the word Beauty has been misused, perverted and prostituted. The outward illusion of beauty has been fed over the past century (but really has always existed) with the fakeness in media, magazines filled with carefully arranged and planned-out pages of 'stuff', subliminal messages and sales pitches. The angle, the lighting, use of color, hidden messages, the airbrushing, the well planned 'look', the seduction to lure even an 80 year to think they are 20 again, all for gaining power and wealth, that is, within the industry doing the luring. There isn't anything ˈbyu tə fəl about it. If you only knew what went on behind the curtains or on the planning boards, it is anything but beautiful, it's ugly. While previously in this profession of advertising and graphics design, I sometimes caught a glimpse of this ugly lie but it paid the bills and was a way to acquire more, by helping businesses produce more sales. It was an admired profession which fed everyone's egos and that couldn't possibly be bad, especially if everyone looked good, right? The addiction to the illusion is no different than any other addiction. For businesses, it is gain, power, gain, power, gain and for consumers it is feel good, want more, feel good, want more, all inevitably leading to loss and collapse in order to reconsider and reorganize to find what was missing all along - Love of God, self and neighbor.

Regardless of age (and for some more so with increasing age), both men and women feel they need to do more for 'appearance'. It's all wrapped up in the clothes, the shoes, the hair, the makeup, the walk, the look, the talk, the presentation, the delivery. The external appeal is only a bandaged facade over the entrapped Real Beauty of the inner woman and man. We dance this dance around each other and our inner being is crying, hurting, in pain and shame and desiring to be loved just for who we are, not because of what we do or how we look. We desire to be completely set free from the illusion of perfection on the outside because this is futile.

My desire is to be the inner being God created me, where inner beauty shows beyond my created outer illusion of beauty. I feel more alive and free than I ever had in my life. All the unnecessary parading with carefully planned attire, hair and presentation no longer 'consume' my life. What I wear is not me, how I look outwardly is not me, but how I love and my desire to be and live like Jesus is me. I now am a woman of inner appeal desiring to help men and women find their Real Beauty. Real Beauty without measure which can only be found after pushing away the superficial layers.

If you could only know how Beautiful you really are. We finally are able to accept it when we can let go of all the outward need for the illusion of perfection and all these taped messages of lies have been erased and rerecorded with God's unconditional message of Truth and Love.

In any language we understand. This is for you and me. God is singing to us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29zQGhnKQck&feature=related
Thank you God for loving us.


http://farm1.static.flickr.com/174/385870804_95474378c7_m.jpg

Tuesday

April 14, 2009 Focus on Grace

Thank you Raquel for this scripture this morning. It comes at a perfect time to remind me of where I need to focus.

"The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you." -Romans 16:20

We no longer need to focus on Satan, any evil scheming of his no longer controls us. My only focus is my unworthiness of God's Love and Grace. Jesus has called us to Love Him completely with our whole heart, mind and soul. What else is there? Except that I give Him everything, my most precious possession, my whole heart.

Monday

April 13, 2009 Friends Love

After such a glorious day reminding us of Jesus' Love and Promise of Eternal Life as we receive Him what else is there? Really? So why do we become fearful when we choose to look at circumstances? What happens when we totally surrender and keep ourselves in a place of waiting without giving up? What if we never get tired of pondering and living out His call to follow Him and serve Him as we serve each other?

What if in this surrender and waiting, we could see this Promise, this Eternal Life, walking through every difficult circumstance, treacherous and deadly obstacles?

We hold onto Jesus and each other, then we find His Great Love together. This is all we need. Really.

Here is the most amazing woman, she lives in Austin. Our family watched this on Texas Country Reporter yesterday. I had to find it to share with you. Listen to her story of serving and loving people in a poor area of Austin. After losing her family to sickness and then being homeless with her child, she started this little 'hole-in-the-wall' restaurant in East Austin. With three tables she does it all. She feeds the homeless everyday (Texas Country Reporter showed they come to the back of her restaurant while she works her business in the front). She said 'all the blessings that flow in, flow out'. Lola has a servant's heart, she is a friend of God and God's people. WOW, this touched my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=nubian+queen+austin&aq=f
http://www.nubianqueenlolas.com/ (here you can see more of the restaurant, it's decorated with real love)

John 15:15 I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father. 16 "You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you. 17 "But remember the root command: Love one another. (The Message)

Let's be friends.


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3107/3132710877_5e7ec882a0_m.jpg

Sunday

April 12, 2009 Resurrection

An Awesome Resurrection Sunday, Joy Unspeakable Joy knowing that He conquered the grave and it was all for Love.

Go out and Love with His Love, everywhere, start with our family.

Hearts together with His.

Saturday

April 11, 2009 Called to Love

Go out with the Love of Jesus'.

Remembering Love for my family and my youngest sister Sandy, precious in His sight, Happy Birthday!!

Friday

April 10, 2009 His Heart

Sometimes words are totally unnecessary. Thank you Susan, today we can all feel this together.

Holy God
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQjjX7Lgwyo

Thursday

April 9, 2009 A Very Special Day

The purpose of this life is to be in a vertical (which is really inward) communication with God in a linear path of life and from time to time we lose sight of this. To experience God's wonderful hands in all the perfection of life happens when we let go of this world while passing through it. Our human finite minds wonder about the glory before us, our hearts experience a glimpse of the glory within us.

Today is my dad's first birthday, April 9th, 1931, it was a very special day. His second birth was on Mother's Day last year, it is a very special day because this birth put him straight into the arms of Jesus. We love you dad, we know you are in His Love, His Arms and holding a place for us all, but until that time we have work to do here. And when we get to see, the family is very very large, you know that already :-). Sending our love and receiving your love. The separation is only temporary (on our side), but really isn't a separation at all, we are still one heart, one mind, one soul.

I Can Only Imagine, Mercy Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GanvfPrZUMI

Wednesday

April 8, 2009 A Path with Trash

What a complicated, perplexing, journey down a path that is straight and narrow but cluttered with debris which we alone have the choice to look at or keep our eyes at the end of the path where we see God's Light. The gate is small and the path is narrow, maybe it isn't so much as wandering off the path as much as it is stumbling over trash that is thrown on the path. It becomes a matter of kicking it off to the side where it belongs then the small gate at the end becomes visible for us to enter.

We really are all on the path to life, how can I judge someone in front of me, or behind me, or next to me when we are all stumbling on the debris. Instead we walk with each other to the gate and if someone can't see because of the piled up trash, we can show them the way to 'take out the trash' so the Light in the gate is visible. It came to me, how can we possibly see something so small when we can't see something so big? The beam gives us a blinding headache and the speck stings. Our individual walk and journey is sacred and precious and no one else can walk our walk for us. No one ever said (or should have said) it would be easy, but together we can encourage each other and help each other when the trash piles up too high.

Matthew 7:1 Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. 6 "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces. 7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. 13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

This trash on the road is an illusion of comfort, don't sit down it's a trap...




Remembering when we come out of bondage and traveling on a road to the Promise Land.

Tuesday

April 7, 2009 One Source

I started with this yesterday but didn't finish:
The msn.com headlines alone (and I have no desire to read further) are enough to make our heads spin with its crazy, insane, sensational reports (which most are none of our business anyway), along side of rehearsed, rewritten, edited false hope to hold onto something that isn't real or truth, but instead a trap to slowly blind our eyes and entrap our hearts until ever bit of life is sucked out of us by power hungry seducing lies. It's a matter of focus and when my focus is on the headlines with these insane reports I get really blinded by them. Then I remember to look beyond this world.

Proverbs 3:5 Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. 6 Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track.

Then this morning to add to the above:
Now coming to an experienced connection with everyone. Our work environment (wherever that may be) and the rising fear happening everywhere (when not fully grounded to our True Source) when believing the world's lie, that the flow of resources and income will cease when paychecks cease and rising up above this lie to fully knowing that our Source is not the paycheck (or our spouse's, father's, mother's, roommate's, sibling's, government's...paycheck) but flowing directly from God to His children. We can be blinded at the bank as we cash the check and believe that our needs are met by any other source other than God.

I want to look past what is in my hand to my only Source, Who lifts me up higher and higher. To the One Who promises us that He will never leave us or forsake us, that He will supply all our needs, promises us that we will never see the righteous forsaken or His children begging bread. There is work to be done, but not at the office or on a computer but a work from within that will carry us to that place where we know the paycheck is not our security. We know it is beyond the bank and comes with our hearts totally trusting an Omniparous God.

As we hold onto Jesus, He lifts us up high above all the world's lies and craziness and from the eyes of a child and it might look like this, where we are carefree and needing nothing but the smiles on our faces because we have His assurance that He does supply our needs, everyday of our lives, where we are confident and excited in the moment while flying high waiting for Him to catch us.

Enjoy the experience!


http://farm1.static.flickr.com/103/316981810_82bbf7ff06_m.jpg



http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1044/1346520669_dfb11a086d_m.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3011/2695663776_cfc12040bf_m.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3431/3379893680_bf347472cf_m.jpg

Beautiful! You know what it sounds like, the giggles and laughter of a child when allowed to fly without a worry in the world.


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1099/800198436_35e2b3a446_m.jpg

Sunday

April 5, 2009 Searching for Love

Teaching in a classroom setting, lessons follow a curriculum, goals and objectives which are measured by a grade which are either passing or failing. In the classroom of Life there is no measure or grade and everyone passes.

I am one heart, one accord and one mind with those near and dear to me. I deeply feel you and as I think of you I pray for you. We are connected through our hearts and when we come together the only test is to learn how to Love one another, to have compassion, be patient, watchful without control, allowing each to find their own way as they find His light within themselves. This I know to be true, I will never be able to 'teach' Love, but instead I must pass the ultimate test to 'live' Love.

Philippians 2:1 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.


The Title is 'Studying Life'
The caption under this photo is
'A true moment of complete unawareness of me... just like I like it'

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2022/2126162889_9aabd9e312.jpg?v=0


Searching for answers to Life, there really is only one test, to learn how to Love, with the same Love as Christ.

Friday

April 3, 2009 Not Withholding

These days I am slowing down, not because of age (at least not yet), but purposefully, willingly, consciously. There is a miracle that is not just 'going to happen' but 'is happening now' every minute of everyday, right 'now'.

Truth, life are perpetual gifts from God. The paradox is the need to slow down to see the perpetual movement of these gifts. There is no stopping the gifts of God, ever, they flow freely. Any limits we experience is a result of our limiting...not God's withholding.

Sometime back it came to me, it's like someone standing in the shower wearing a rain coat. This is how we are. To add to what I originally shared about this, He is showering on us His love, His mercy, His grace, His gifts are constantly pouring out on us and we inhibit them. When we can allow the rain coat to be stripped off and stand naked and vulnerable before Him we then can receive all that He is pouring on us.

Romans 12:1 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2 Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. 3 I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. 4 In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around.

In order to embrace what God is pouring out on me everyday, I must become a....

http://thm-a02.yimg.com/image/64161cbad31707be

(what are the odds that a diver would find a sponge the shape of a heart?!)

Wednesday

April 1, 2009 Magnificent Performance

There really is an amazing rhythm with creation, a beauty available when we can see how God created us to be in this magnificent place. He watches while so In Love With Us as we catch a glimpse and respond to His irreplicable gifts. There is a symphony, a rhythm, a renaissance whose ears respond and bow only to the Hands of God clapping. A magnificent performance just as is without rehearsal.

For this one I will applaud the amazing performance and yell, 'Bravo!, Bravo!, Encore! Thank You so much God!'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnbMYzdjuBs