Most Commented Religion & Spirituality Blogs (1,493)

nuff said, watch the video clip.....

I saw this piece in my local newspaper by someone who wrote this and sharing with others. Pretty powerful!

By Loren Hardin

Lucy was in her sixties, but I’m just guessing, because it’s been more than thirty years since Lucy departed this world for her Heavenly home. It was back when Mercy hospital was still standing; back when we had three competing hospitals in this small rural city of Portsmouth.

I met Lucy at Mercy Hospital when her doctor referred her to our Social Work Department for discharge planning. Lucy had just been diagnosed with cancer which turned her world upside down. She had been referred to the cancer center for chemotherapy and stated, “But I don’t have any way to get there”. So I volunteered to transport Lucy there and back home each visit, and she accepted.

Our trips to and from the cancer center afforded us the opportunity to get to know each other pretty well. As Lucy’s condition declined she struggled to get in and out of her upstairs apartment. Therefore, I helped her secure an apartment at “Old Market Square” and my brother, Tony, and I moved her in with his old white van. Lucy’s full-size bed was too large for her efficiency apartment. I told my wife, Susie, over the dinner table that I needed to find Lucy a half bed. Then our daughter, Mandy, who was six at the time, spoke up and said, “Dad, Lucy can have my bed. I can sleep on the floor.” So Mandy did for a while.

I eventually invited Lucy to church with my family and she accepted. The church embraced Lucy and Lucy embraced the church. But it was a while before Lucy embraced Jesus as her Lord and savior. Just so you know, there were no strong-arm tactics, no emotional blackmail, and no manipulation. You see, God won’t accept less than our love, and love can only exist when there is absolute free will and mutual consent.

Lucy attended church with my family and me for several months. She seemed to be doing well. She was spry and feisty, outgoing and getting out. I can’t remember the reason for her hospitalization but she was admitted to Southern Ohio Medical Center. I visited her there and she seemed to be recovering well and was ready for discharge. She sat up at the side of the bed as we talked and I told her that I would pick her up for church Sunday morning.

I think you can understand why I was taken aback when Lucy’s daughter, Dee, called me that evening and informed me, “Loren, you can’t believe what just happened. Mom just died. I was at the hospital visiting her and she was sitting up on the side of the bed talking with me. She seemed like she was doing really good but then all of a sudden she told me, ‘Well Dee, I have to go. Jesus is here for me and I have to leave.’ Then mom smiled, waved bye to me, fell back on the bed and then she was gone.”

We are never alone when we are “in Christ Jesus”. If you don’t believe me, then take His word for it: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also…I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you,” (John, chapter15).

Lucy’s departure from this world reminds me of the words of a song by Carrie Underwood: “Old man, hospital bed, the room is filled with people he loves, and he whispers ‘Don’t cry for me, I’ll see you all someday.’ He looks up and says, ‘I can see God’s face. This is my temporary home; it’s not where I belong, windows and rooms that I’m passing through. This is just a stop on the way to where I’m going. I’m not afraid because I know, this is my temporary home,” (My Temporary Home).

I just read that and even when I think is true I cant deny sometimes it seems so difficult to keep in faith. When life seems so difficult its so hard to continue. We can only hope it wouldnt be like that forever.
Blessings to all.

John 12:20-33

Jesus Predicts His Death

20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.

23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify Your Name!”

Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to Him.

30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death He was going to die.

Thank you in advance for reading and commenting

I've just found out something that quite interesting. Let's see

And these


And much more, but I can not upload all ...

It's a curious thing how many people fail to make use of the largely unclaimed gift that provides us with the highest "feel good" return present in God's creation: Love. The act of giving as well as receiving love, for some individuals, seems to be as effortless as taking their next breath. Although for others it is just as difficult to receive and feel loved as it is to offer it.

According to the Bible, God is love and He freely provides love (1 Jn. 4:16) However, receiving His love is our responsibility, since we must respond to His love by embracing it. The two acts together, giving and receiving, form the most notable of all of our relationships on this as well as the other side of the grave. Additionally, it is here where we find one of the most significant, as well as free, benefits for our lives: PEACE. You see, the very moment we begin our relationship with God, through His Son Jesus, we can claim the gift of peace... daily peace as well as eternal peace!

Daily peace provides you with the peace of God and with eternal peace you obtain peace with God.


Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS (Mat. 11:28-30).


Do not be anxious about nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:7).


Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1).



Daily peace is where you will find contentment for your everyday life. This does not mean that living a life as a follower of Christ will always be easy...God doesn't promise freedom from trouble. What He does promise is not the elimination of trails but His presence and peace to carry you through them. As humans, we all thirst for infinite fulfillment, but the problem is a finite can never satisfy and infinite thirst. Human, or finite, love cannot completely fulfill us. Each of us, regardless of what family we were or were not born into, came into this world with an internal "God-shaped" vacuum that cannot be filled apart from God. Blaise Pascal affirmed this:


What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are , though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God Himself.


You see, in a futile attempt to satisfy this unquenchable need, many find they are, as the saying goes, "looking for love in all the wrong places," as they eventually discover that worldly pleasures cannot ultimately provide us with the intimacy our hearts long for. This is because the finite things of life are a poor substitute for the infinite, for only the infinite can bring infinite fulfillment.


In other words...


AN ULTIMATE COMMITMENT TO ANYTHING LESS THAN THE ULTIMATE WILL NOT ULTIMATELY SATISFY YOU!


We learn this from perhaps the only human that ever lived who had the position and resources to test this principle: King Solomon in Ecclesiastes (see Ecc. 1-3) Solomon experienced wine, women, works, worldliness, and wealth on a level that we will never witness. After tasting the "fruits" that most would die for, Solomon was left confessing that "all is vanity!" Meaning there is no ultimate (complete or lasting happiness) in the temporal things, since God has set eternity in our hearts (Ecc. 3:11).







Continued...

The electromagnetic spectrum is the distribution of electromagnetic radiation according to frequency or wavelength, and energy.
Frequency is defined as the number of cycles per second (Hertz)
Wavelength is the length of a single wave or cycle.

The energy of a frequency is proportional to its magnitude, i.e.,
low frequencies have low energies and high frequencies have high energies.

All these frequencies can be present together and occupy the same space simultaneously. This is demonstrated by the presence of frequencies from the various radio and television stations being present in space. We can select a particular station by tuning in our radio or television receiver to its frequency which enables us to receive its broadcast only.

A band of frequencies constitute a dimension or universe.
There are a multiple number of dimensions, meaning that there are multiple universes.

Your consciousness is tuned to the 3D wavelength, which determines what you physically see and how you interact with objects. The 4th dimension has a different set of properties, hence you cannot see anything from the 4D reality, unless you change the frequency of your body to correspond to the frequency of the 4th dimension. Each dimension has its own specific frequencies and wavelengths. Life in the universe is not limited to the 3rd dimension; it is just that we cannot see the other realities that exist, because those realities have different frequencies and wavelengths that do not correspond to our 3D senses. Therefore, our physical existence on Earth is simply one of many infinite realities in the “Multidimensional Universe.”

I believe that when we die, our consciousness, soul, spirit or whatever, enters into a different dimension with a different frequency or vibration from that which we can normally feel or sense in ordinary day-to-day life. If someone is able to tune in to that frequency range, they may receive messages or signals from that dimension. This is similar to the reception of broadcasts from various radio stations or television channels, where we need to tune in to the operating frequency of a particular station or channel.

Signals from these different dimensions or frequencies are always present around us. I think that certain people like a “medium” in a séance, or a shaman, may be able to tune in to those other frequencies or dimensions and to communicate with others who exist in those dimensions. However, I prefer to confine such interactions with those dimensions to different frequencies, within the electromagnetic spectrum, which can be experienced right here on Earth. I cannot quite grasp the idea of an individual, or part of an individual actually travelling in outer space to some distant planet, star or galaxy as some persons claim.

However, I can see how the idea could have originated. Shamanism was first practised thousands of years ago among aboriginal or indigenous peoples, who had no knowledge of science regarding frequencies and dimensions. In fact, such science was not even developed at that time in the Western world where it originated,(I think). Such an experience certainly must have felt like an "out of this world" experience, (which, in fact, it is, if one considers it involved a frequency dimension that is different from that of ordinary day-to-day experience). It seems natural to me that those shamans would have associated those experiences with the distant planets, stars and galaxies that are literally out of this world, i.e., planet Earth.

Paranormal experiences, such as ESP, probably occur when there is an interaction of the reality of some other dimension with that of our ordinary day-to-day world.

- See more at:

Many times we make vows or a promise to do something for others and fail to keep that promise. Many times we have also made a vow or promise to God, that if He helps us through or out of such and such, we promise to never do it again, or never say this or that again; or we promise if He gets rid of John or make Sally go away and leave us along, we promise never to be in their company again. Yet, when God delivers us out of whatever we have asked of Him, based on our prayer request (s) and promises we make to Him, for whatever reason (s), we tend to turn right around and repeat, or get back together with certain persons or people, or do the very thing that we promised God we would not do again if He delivered us.

But have you ever noticed that God keeps His vows to us but we fail to keep our vows to Him. We make void and empty vows which are promise, that we know we are not going to keep, just to get over and feel spiritually connected with God.

We profess and confess, that ‘God is good all the time, and all the times God is good’. But have you ever ask yourselves the questions, 'why God has been so good to me, and He's good all the time? Why it is that I’m not good all the time, and all the time I'm not good or thankful to God for what He has done for me, even when I'm undeserving of any of His goodness? Why does He keep on blessing me?

God in all His love, grace and mercy, gets us in and out of troubles, even if He allows us to suffer the consequences of our wrongs, He's still with us as we endure our just punishments. James tells us that, if a person knows to do right, and does not do it, for that person this is sin! (James chapter 4) Those God loves He also must punish as would our earthly parents punished us for wrong doings. This we don't like, but the chastisement of the Lord brings us into knowledge and position as to who we are in Him, and who He is in us.(Hebrew chapter 12) God keeps His promises whether we're good or wicked, saints or sinners, with blessings or punishments, or whether we like the punishment or not, or praise Him or not. All in all He is still God and we are the vessels of His craftsmanship.

Thanksgiving comes once a year, and its always a good thing to stop in all our busyness and give thanks to God, that it is as it is in your lives, could very well be worse. You should thank Him for what He has already done in your life; thank Him for what He is doing in your life; and thank Him for what He’s going to do in your life although it has not yet come to pass. But knowing that He is a Promise Keeper; and if you have faith to believe in your heart that what you have asked of Him in your prayer requests according to Him perfect will, plans and purposes in your life, whatsoever you asked, He promises it shall be done.

God has been good to all of us year round daily, and we have so much to be thankful for as nations of people and as individuals we have our freedom. Therefore, we should have no problems freely giving God the praise and honor and glory due His holy name. Thanks be to God that it as well as it is in our lives, our homes, our cities, in our nations, and for the condition our condition is in; thanks be to God everyday for your reasonable health and strength and for being "half-way enclosed in your right mind", thanks be to God for all things whether good , bad, ugly, the indifferent, your family, your friends, and your foes, and prayerfully, lessons for daily living have been learnt through everything we have experienced this past year. Knowing that, had it not been for the Lord on our side, you could very well been dead and gone on this earth sleeping in your grave.

O, Praise the LORD GOD of Israel, all you people! Praise Him all you people, for His merciful kindness is great toward us; and the truth of the LORD endures forever... LET EVERYTHING THAT HAS BREATH PRAISE THE LORD!!! Psalm 117

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE ON CS!

THE POLICEMAN STOOD AND FACED HIS GOD,
WHICH MUST ALWAYS COME TO PASS.
HE HOPED HIS SHOES WERE SHINING,
JUST AS BRIGHTLY AS HIS BRASS.

"STEP FORWARD NOW, POLICEMAN.
HOW SHALL I DEAL WITH YOU?
HAVE YOU ALWAYS TURNED THE OTHER CHEEK?
TO MY CHURCH HAVE YOU BEEN TRUE?"

THE POLICEMAN SQUARED HIS SHOULDERS AND SAID:

"NO LORD, I GUESS I AIN'T,
BECAUSE THOSE OF US THAT CARRY BADGES
CAN'T ALWAYS BE A SAINT.
I'VE HAD TO WORK MOST SUNDAYS,
AND AT TIMES MY TALK WAS ROUGH,
AND SOMETIMES I'VE BEEN VIOLENT,
BECAUSE THE STREETS ARE AWFULLY TOUGH.
BUT I NEVER TOOK A PENNY,
THAT WASN'T MINE TO KEEP.
THOUGH I WORKED A LOT OF OVERTIME
WHEN THE BILLS JUST GOT TOO STEEP.
AND I NEVER PASSED A CRY FOR HELP,
THOUGH AT TIMES I SHOOK WITH FEAR.
AND SOMETIMES GOD, FORGIVE ME,
BUT I'VE WEPT UNMANLY TEARS.
I KNOW I DON'T DESERVE A PLACE
AMONG THE PEOPLE HERE.
THEY NEVER WANTED ME AROUND
EXCEPT TO CALM THEIR FEAR.
IF YOU'VE A PLACE FOR ME HERE,
LORD IT NEEDN'T BE SO GRAND,
I NEVER EXPECTED OR HAD MUCH
BUT IF YOU DON'T I'LL UNDERSTAND."

THERE WAS SILENCE ALL AROUND THE THRONE
WHERE THE SAINTS HAD OFTEN TROD,
AS THE POLICEMAN WAITED QUIETLY
FOR THE JUDGEMENT OF HIS GOD.

"STEP FORWARD NOW, POLICEMAN.
YOU'VE BORNE YOUR BURDENS WELL.
COME WALK A BEAT ON HEAVENS STREETS
YOU'VE DONE YOUR TIME IN HELL."
--AUTHOR UNKNOWN--