Jen Chapin - Into The Mystic (Van Morrison)

The Trials of a Teacup

I haven’t always been a teacup. There was a time in my life when I was just a lump of clay. Then my Master took me and began to pat and mold and shape me. It was very painful and I begged Him to stop, but He only smiled and said, “Not yet!”

Then He placed me on a spinning wheel and I went ’round and ’round. I got so sick I thought I wasn’t going to make it, but then He finally let me off. Just as I thought I was going to be all right, my Master put me in an oven. I’ve never understood why He wanted to burn me; I yelled and begged for Him to stop, to let me out. I could see dimly through the glass in the oven door, but He only smiled, shook His head and said, “Not yet!”

Finally He came and took me out. “Oh, that sure feels better,” I said to myself. Then all of the sudden, my Master picked me up and started sanding and brushing me. Then He took a paintbrush and started painting colors all over me. The fumes were so strong I thought I was going to pass out. I pleaded with Him to stop, but He continued to smile and said, “Not yet!”

Then He placed me in another oven. This one was twice as hot as the first. I knew that I would suffocate. I begged, I pleaded, I cried, but He still only smiled and said, “Not yet!”

I began to feel there was no hope. I would never make it. I couldn’t take any more. It was all over for me. I decided to give it all up. Then the door swung open and Master said, “Now!”

He lifted me up and He placed me on a shelf to rest. Later He came to me with a mirror and told me to look. As I looked at myself, I could not believe my eyes. I said, “Oh my, what a beautiful teacup.”

Then the Master explained: “I want you to understand that I knew it hurt when I patted and molded you. I knew the spinning wheel made you sick. But if I had left you alone, you would have dried up and always have been just a lump of clay. You would not have had any personality in your life.

“I knew it was hot when I put you in the first oven, but if I hadn’t, you would just have crumbled.

“I knew it really bothered you to be brushed and painted, but if I hadn’t, you would not have had any color in your life.

“Oh, how I knew the second oven was hard for you! But you see, if I had not put you there, you would not have been able to stand the pressures of life. Your strength would not have lasted, so you would not have survived for very long .

“So you see, when you thought it was all so very hard, I still had you in My care. I knew all along what you would be today. I had the finished product in mind from the day I first touched you!”

Change journey & a piece of clothing

You can think of your personal change journey as being like a piece of clothing. Turn it inside-out. That’s when you see how it’s made. You see all the inner stitching and what holds it together. You see the quality of the seam work. You see the labels, the washing and drying instructions. You see if it’s made to last or if it’s a little flaky. You see if it needs the delicate cycle or if it’s sturdy enough to take the normal or even tough cycle. Inside-out is where you essentially get to see what that piece of clothing is made of.
Every person is a different piece of clothing, each piece requiring customized care and customized washing and drying. Right now you feel like that piece of clothing being turned inside-out. You’re getting to take a hard look at the inside of you and how you operate—your mindsets, the different attitudes and perspectives you’ve adhered to over the years, and how you appear to others.
Real change comes from the inside.

Desperate Prayer

This is one of those special songs that lifts me when I'm down, warms me when I'm cold, wipes my tears & gives me a reason to smile again cause it reminds me that the raging storm will cease.
Click on the post title to hear the song.

What is Love

What is Love? Divine adornment
Of the soul that wears it high.
It's the crystal-golden pathway
Keeping us by Jesus' side!

It's sublime and never ending
Always following God's own chart,
Reaching over lands and oceans
To console a single heart.

Jesus, Jesus, Lord of loving,
Teach me from Thy tender heart
How to serve all those around me,
To fulfill my loving part!

I found love; I found the answer!
Finally I've found out now
That to love and serve another
I just have to ask You how!

Every soul that looks to Heaven,
Every heart that's warm and kind,
Can discover in God's beauty
All that no one else can find!
--Christina Rose

The Secret To You

Gratitude Attitude

Gratitude and trust are closely related. In order to be thankful for everyone and everything in my life‚ I need to trust that the universe makes sense, that everything my soul has chosen to experience in my lifetime has been for my ultimate highest good. I trust that when it appears I'm failing, I'm only learning. I make a great effort to bless my life as it is, both the so-called triumphs and disasters. A line from Kipling's poem If often comes to mind: "If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat these two impostors just the same."

When I remind myself that I am a student in Earth School, choosing those lessons that enhance my soul's purpose, it's possible to more readily bless every circumstance of my life. Of course, from a more unenlightened segment of myself, I sometimes wonder, "Why did I choose this particular misery?" Yet, gratitude for, and trust in, ultimate justice is the best antidote for the poisonous emotions of self-pity and resentment. I find it impossible to experience gratitude and negative emotions simultaneously.

When my soul arrived in Earth School, it set up some challenging lessons. Many years went by before I learned to see the blessings in these experiences. When I could honestly begin to understand their purpose and to feel gratitude for them‚ I made an escape from the darkness of a victim's prison into the light of freedom and joy.

Looking back over my life, I can see the beauty that the windstorms have carved. I trust current and future challenges to facilitate additional soul growth. My heart is filled with gratitude for all the people and events in my life because I now understand their higher purpose. My heart overflows with gratitude for the Divine Love that enfolds, guides, protects and sustains us all!

Check the link for Danielle Peck's song "Isn't that Everything"

Trust...

When the times get rough, the storms get high, the night gets darker, the despair and the discouragement get deeper, don't give up, don't surrender! Even if you feel that you can't fight, just look unto Him and trust. Read His Word and trust. For trust in the darkness brings triumph at dawn. The trust through the darkness in my life brought forth the greatness of the dawn and the light that poured forth, and the inspiration that came out. All of this was part of the squeezing, all of this was part of the proving. For He could trust me because He knew I trusted Him. And He wants to be able to trust you. So prove that you can trust Him through it all.

I know He is there with you! He is there in the dark­ness. He is there in the trial. He is there in the test. He is there in the confusion. He is there in the depths. He is there because He loves you. He knows you have to go through these things, even as He had to go through the death and the suffering of the cross. But He is there to help you through. He is there because He loves you, because you are very dear to Him.

No matter what, trust Him! Every man and woman of God goes through it. Your mom and dad have gone through it. I went through it. My mom and dad went through it. Heaven is full of people that went through it! That's why they're Here, and that's why they have such glorious rewards, because they trusted Him!

So trust Him, won't ya? Look to His Word! Look to Him! Praise Him and thank Him through the storms. He'll bring you through and He is right there. Just trust Him, hold on to Him, don't let go. Keep fighting! Keep praising! Keep trusting! He'll bring you through. And believe me, it's worth it! It's well worth it. For the glories that are Here are well worth the trials that are there. The rewards of trusting are far beyond all that you could imagine!

Easter Messiah - Via Dolorosa - Isaiah 53 - Sandi Patty

Happy Easter everyone

This morning I came upon this short but meaningful story about how obstacles can actually be a help to us. If we learn to look at them in the right way sometimes we'll see how they can get us going into the right direction. What ever the obstacle there is always a good side to it even if we don't see it right away.

Making a Beeline

By Curtis Peter Van Gorder

I was waiting for a friend to pick me up and decided to bide my time in the quiet of an empty restaurant. Against a window pane next to where I was sitting, a bee frantically tried to escape his transparent prison. It would fly up the pane until it became so tired that it fell back to the bottom, only to repeat the futile effort over and over. It seemed programmed to do no other. The curious thing was that only a few inches away there was an open door. The bee just didn't see it. Perhaps it never considered a horizontal flight path to freedom, or perhaps the few inches of window frame seemed impossible to circumvent. To the bee, the outside and freedom looked so real, so close, yet inaccessible.

It wasn't until after about 10 minutes of failure after failure that the bee escaped. How did it do it? It was scared into it. A passer-by inadvertently bumped the window pane from the outside and the bee felt threatened. It didn't understand that the glass that separated it from freedom also shielded it from its imagined predator. Trying to avoid danger, it broke out of its routine, darted back a few inches, saw daylight elsewhere, and took off through the open door.

Have you ever felt like that bee? Have you ever felt like a prisoner to a routine from which there was no way to escape? Has the thought of freedom been compelling, but actual freedom seemed unattainable? God does allow obstacles in all of our lives that can seem as insurmountable and impenetrable as that pane of glass, but often it's to get us to go another direction, through an open door and on a beeline to freedom.