Summer Delights

Summers here warm and bright

Days filled with opportunities

A time to spread our wings 

To enjoy what God has given us.

Summer is that time of year when we can get out doors. The air is warm, some times hot, but always providing what we missed just a few months ago.

The trees are in full leaf and the farmers fields are getting greener by the day.

Rivers and lakes are a swimmers delight while other people go boating, camping, golfing or hiking in mountains and woods. Let's take a trip and even go horse back riding in a national park and enjoy what nature has provided for our enjoyment.

Summer, the one time of year when city folks can visit provinces, states and other countries basking in the delights that are unique to each. A time to visit the far north and enjoy uniqueness of the people and marvel at the multitude of artistic hand made goods that are not only beautiful but practical. Something unique to enjoy for years to come.

Summer, a time for the reenactment of famous battles between the men who brought freedom to our great land. Let's celebrate the men and women who gave all they had for home and country.

A million things to do and so little time to do it all. Not to worry, what we don't do this summer we can plan on doing next year.

Get out there and enjoy. Summer only last but a few short months.

Do I do it or not?

It was a long life, 80 years and counting. He didn't know what happened but here he was sitting on the edge of a cliff. He didn't know how he got there, but he did know what he was about to do....

Why does any one contemplate suicide? Is it because of excess stress in a person's life? Or maybe depression that developed over many years? He really didn't know, but somehow, he decided to end it all.

Thankfully their was a woman who just happened to be out for a long walk and came upon him. He told her his name and she told him hers. It so happened that they were neighbors for several years but had never met. She had been married but her husband died a few years earlier and she was now alone. He, of course, was divorced and lived alone. They talked about the weather, their kids and some other nonsense. 

As they talked, he began to feel better and kinda decided not to end his life that day. He then asked her if she would like to have lunch with him - she said yes.

It's funny how when we are at our most vulnerable state in life someone comes along to help us over come our problems. It could be a smile from a stranger or a pat on the back by a friend. What ever it takes for a person to change their minds or turn away from a troubling situation happens at just the right moment.

Life can be as good or as bad as we make it out to be. If we choose it to be bad, it will be very bad. However, if we chose good, it can be very good taking us from being suicidal to being in a state of freedom. Freedom from stress or perhaps a state of depression that presses us to make wrong decision. Decisions that leads to more stress or intensifies our depressive state.

All too often people find themselves in a predicament that they just can't get out of easily. The person ask the question, that all of us has asked, at one time or another in our life. "How did I get myself into this predicament"? "Where did I go wrong".  

None of us wants to be in a situation where we contemplate suicide. There are just to many good things in life for us to experience. There is no need for us to to be anything but happy. Looking forward to being with friends and family. Experiencing the beauty a national park, boating with friends or just reading a good book.

It is up to us as to how we live our life and to minimize the dangers and pit falls that are all around us.

Look for the good things in life. Look for the good in people. Look for what can make us happy and embrace it with all our heart and mind and soul.

Share our findings with other people. When they see how happy we are, they want to be happy also. Our happiness flows from our innermost being with love that surrounds us and others changing our thoughts and expectations into pure joy. Why not? Our happiness is right here. Right where we are now and can be grasped in an instant. Go for the "gold" and make someone happy right now. You'll be surprised as to what you can do for yourself and them.

Bible lesson

My son's Bible lesson he prepared for his youth group April 2015.

I read a review on Mike Bickle. I think it's perfectly fine for someone to have a different interpretation of eschatology. I also think it's ok to be a little flexible using our best understanding of the culture, language, knowledge of the author, and the context of what and when the book was written. When it comes to the prophetic, and the pursuit of the prophetic, I am very cautious. For the Word says:

Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths. But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you. (‭2 Timothy‬ ‭4‬:‭2-5‬ NLT)

I listen to a lot of the prophetic. Probably more than I should sometimes. Even the prophetic that may be of the enemy can give us an idea of what's going on. As the verses speak of above, I am learning that although the prophetic is interesting, I need to focus and teach the Good News and not change nor alter the Word in any way. For Jesus is the Word (John 1:14), the Way, the Truth and the Light. People love quoting John 3:16, but they don't read it in context. 

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants. ” (‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭16-21‬ NLT)

It says "anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged".  As well, satan believes in Jesus, but he doesn't "... come to the light". It's also too late for him:
Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged. (‭John‬ ‭16‬:‭11‬ NLT)

1Co 12 tells us to pursue the gifts. I fear too many see the gifts for their own self and not for His glory. That is why I have stop pursuing the gifts and and focusing on the gospel.  If He so chooses, if and when (if ever) I'm ready in His eyes, the gifts will come:

Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. (‭Colossians‬ ‭3‬:‭10-11‬ NLT)

I love the Word! All those years I lost searching for the Truth.  I studied and read so much, ignore the Bible all that time believing the lie.  All that ever gave me was the "mental ascent" I craved, but was left all the more empty. It was only when I read the Word that I learned the Truth and received the Holy Spirit; praise God!

Geesh, it's after 12:30. Gotta go to bed.

Hope you decide to accept my challenge one day to read the New Testament with me. Perhaps we could do a chapter a day and share our thoughts by Email.  

Amen...

Above

High above the white washed sand stands a lone person.

Could that person be you?

No, it's an illusion of the most wonderful type 

This is a place for the lonely 

A world filled with light.

Lite drives out the negative and and washes away the loneliness.

To conquer all in its bid for the person of its charge.

Let the light shine where it will, for it brings love

to the heart of the lonely one.

Where are We?

The past catches us unaware.
It chips away at us for hour, days and weeks.
We don't understand what's happening to us, and yet,
We have that knowing that is always there.
Our lives are filled with despair ever searching for relief.

We know that there is more to our life than past mistakes, or outlandish wonderings.

Tomorrow is another day, but what kind of a day will it be? We don't know but hope for the best.

Starting from the beginning we strive to do all that we can to bring a little joy, love and happiness into to our lives. We forget that we are only one in the multitude of billions. Our life is worthy of every challenge that comes our way. We embrace it with all our being charging into it with enthusiasm knowing that we have what it takes to over come any obstacle in our way.

It is our nature to solve problems and remove obstacles that we encounter in our daily life. Once we encounter a problem, we start working on it by calling upon the knowledge we've gained from the influence of our parents, friends and society in general and knowledge gained through our education. We even use knowledge we have gained through radio and television programs.

You create your own reality and take personal responsibility for it. Your life is a reflection of who you are and the experiences that you, as a soul, planned for in this life.

Spring

Can there be any season that brings us so much as spring? That time of year when life in the Northern hemisphere starts to awaken. The snow is melting exposing the browns, blacks and other colors of the earth.

The trees are budding and the gift of the maple tree is ready for wide eyed children and the elderly alike. The sugar shack, the horse drawn wagons and the many trees with buckets hanging from them.

I've watched the squirrels playing in the snow all winter chasing each other up and down their trees as they go for their stash of winter food. What a delight!

Like so many, I look forward to seeing the flowers of spring forcing their way through the thawing earth as they search for the warmth of the sun. Not only does the earth awaken but all life in general. We look for the day when we can retire our snow shoes and winter coats and just enjoy being out in the warmth of the sun.

Spring is also a time when those of us afraid to slip and fall on icy sidewalks can now get out for a safe walk and go to church to be with friends once again. The snow birds are returning from Florida and the robins and those pesky gulls. It's ok mister gull I know you have a right to be here as you are a part of God’s children of the air. Dig out those spring clothes, dust off the roller skates and get ready for summer vacations and lots of friends gathering around the picnic table. It's a time of sharing with special friends and family. How about a softball game or a friendly game of football? Let's go swimming? Or maybe to grandma’s for some special family get together.

We have so much to be thankful for and Mother Nature’s seasons have their special offerings that delight us and challenge us in many ways. Let's get together and have some fun. 

Faith

Faith has brought me here 

It gave me the courage to preserver

Faith took me to greater heights and

Showed me the way

Faith was all I had and nothing else was needed

It led me to achieve the Unachievable

It gave me the opportunity to go the last mile

It strengthened me and gave me hope

Faith is all I need to get where I want to be

And faith will forever help me when nothing else will

Webster describes faith as a “Complete confidence in a person or plan.” 

And faith is more than just a vague belief in a person or plan. Faith is personal. Faith gives us the courage to go ahead with our plans believing that God will be there to help us.  It can make the difference between succeeding or failing in a project, family planning, a trip around the world, being able to sing or talk in front of a thousand people, and much much more.

Faith took my parents my three brothers and sister and me to live in California in May of 1952.

When I was in my senior year of high school I had to make a decision as to whether I would go to junior college to become a electronic engineering technician or go to college to become a missionary or minister, I went to junior college. It would take another 45 years for me to be ready for ordination.

God in His infinite wisdom knew that it would take a long time for me to over come the multitude of childhood problems I didn't know I had, before I could be ordained. It actually took me being divorced for me to really start dealing with my childhood problems.

Let me give you an idea as to what I had to do to be ordained.

In the mid 1980s I started taking mediumship development courses with Rev. Marylyn Rosner at the Spiritual Science Fellowship in Montreal. In the mid 1990s I left the SSF and started attending a church in Montreal north that also had a ministry program.

I took mediumship development courses, healing work shops and a number of other types of workshops that were required for ordination. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, at the church in Montreal north, I worked with another student on Thursday nights learning how to conducting devotional church service and using my mediumship gift.  After a few more years I became a Licensed Minister. One step below ordination. However, the church didn't teach me anything about Spiritualism.

In 2003 I learned from a minister friend about the National Spiritualist Association of Churches (NSAC) in the U. S.

The National Spiritualist Association of Churches has several educational programs conducted by the Morris Pratt Institute in Wisconsin. I learned that I could take home study courses from Morris Pratt Institute in Modern Spiritualism that would prepare me for ordination. I signed up. 

During the time I started courses with Morris Pratt I continued taking courses at the church in Montreal north. The first course I took with Morris Pratt was a Course in The History of Modern Spiritualism that was based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's two volumes Books on The History of Modern Spiritualism. I then signed up for their 30 lesson Course in Modern Spiritualism. After completing the Course in Modern Spiritualism I then attended the NSAC's Course in Pastoral Skills. 

A few years later I learned that I could not be ordained by the NSAC because I lived in Canada and I had to be sponsored by a Spiritualist Church in the U. S.. And I could not be a member of any other church or association in Canada. At that time I was a member of the Spiritualist Church of Canada and a member of the Spiritualist church in Montreal north. What to do? Well, I presented to the Montreal church the course work I took with the Morris Pratt Institute. After attended for 8 years the Montreal church's ministry course. they refused to ordain me. However, not all was at a loss. Rev. Robert Johnstone knew of my work and I asked him to ordain me. Bob ordained me at my house in Boucherville Quebec in May 2007 and a number of my friends were there as witnesses. 

Two years later I applied to the Spiritualist Church of Canada (SCC) for ordination by them. The SCC accepted my certifies and studies with Morris Pratt to be ordained and after two years as a member of the Spiritualist Church of Canada and completing a requirement they had that I needed, I was ordained by them. 

It took a lot of faith and 30 years of hard work and 45 year after leaving high school for me to be ordained.

God is the source of all faith and it is faith in Him and our abilities that makes the difference between success or failure in this world. It was through faith that I became ordained. 

Some would say that we planned our present life while in the Spirit World and lessons we would achieve to the smallest detail. The question is why would we need to incarnate, if we already new the lessons our life here had for us. However, if we believe that we only planned our lessons for our life here, but not the particulars required to learn those lessons, then it would be up to us to make the decisions necessary to fulfill those lessons.

It is through the multitude of challenges and decisions that we have to make in our daily life that we fulfill our lessons here. 

We are all on a spiritual path serving our fellow man/woman as a son, daughter, owner of a company, salesman, engineer, or in what ever capacity we are trained and able to perform. It is by faith that we are able to accomplish the impossible in our lives and help others along the way.

Faith gives us a reason to live and gives us the desire to develop the methods and steps that are necessary in the development of our spiritual selves and to meet the challenges of everyday life.

Faith is what is needed to accomplish our lessons here and God changes our faith into reality.