The Forecast

 

I hear it's a great day in heaven!

Not a cloud or a tear to be found

Gallons of joy for the breakfast

Lashings of laughter all round

Oh to be captured and raptured

loosed from this body of sin

"Free Travel" for all to God's glory

Immortal! The only thing's WHEN?

Some say it will be on a Monday

While others say Saturday noon

All I say, .. and many in Foxford

"It can't come a moment too soon!"

But I want all my buddies in Ireland

side by side as we soar up above

It just wouldn't be heaven without them

just imagine the joy and the LOVE!

So I'm sending out invites to Erin

"Paid in full" ... just present at the DOOR!

Sure I know youv'e a great fear of Fl-(D)-ying

But there's Céad Míle Fáilte a Stór

Don't even think of refusing this invite

R.S.V.P and tell us the score ....

{Without you there'll be someone missing}

So will I hold just one seat? Or some more? 

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2 Cor 5: 18-19  (In my own words)

"To be straight about it .. it was all God's idea from the start: 

He took the first step: sent Jesus down here to settle things completely: 

Well when we got word of it and that it had all been settled: WOW!  Suddenly things between us and God were back better than ever: 

and then He told us to pass on the news to you as well:Yes He mentioned you personally!  So that's it now in a nutshell"

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 Psalm 46:     "Relax and know that I am Elohim; I shall be exalted among the nations; I shall be exalted in the earth"

We’ve heard the typical statement from believers that they want to be “busy doing the Lord’s work.” A good pious-sounding statement if ever there was one: ! However if we are to be honest ..many struggle with trying to find out just what that work is: And of course there are so many spiritual disc jockeys out there to tell them exactly what to do: so they “busy” themselves and clutter their calendars and the flesh feels good while the spirit mourns:

Monday night = A    Wednesday = B   Thursday midday is  C  and of course

good old Sun-Day is D:  Now don't get mad at me yet: Have patience with me! : You see I'm in love with HIM {Jesus} and if A or B or C or D is not what He's at then I'm out of there because He's out of there:  Boring! Dead! Lifeless!

So in considering just what is “the Lord’s work,” Paul told the Philippians that 

“… it is God which worketh in you …” (2:13). 

What this implies is that if there is any work to be done, then it is not the believer who should be doing it 

– God is already doing the work! So what is “the Lord’s work?” The Lord’s work is Him working in the believer!

Our job is to find out what He is at and  join the fun: You say: "That's too simple" I know! I know!

When we “busy” ourselves in the struggle  do the Lord’s will we are acting illegally: Worse still when we 

try and organise the Lord around our weekly schedule we have completely missed the point: 

We have inserted ourselves into the vicious cycle of feelings of frustration and failure that are the 

inevitable result of self-effort, which only gets in the way of the true work of the Lord.

Can you imagine Jesus planning the week ahead like that: "Now on Monday it's time I climbed a mountain, Peter find a high mountain for me, and we must arrange a dramatic event just as I come down from the mountain:BTW our scheduled time out for prayer is on Wednesday boys so I want you all there ... and Thursday next is Pharisee bashing day again: Don't miss it:"

Foolish you say and yet that's similar to how the flesh wants you and me to operate:

Can you hear Paul's voice?  "O foolish Mayo-ites! or Dublinites! Or Londonites!

Ye used to live according to the spirit and every day was so exciting:

What happened to get abandon all that freedom and go back to the flesh?

But God has really made it quite easy to know just what it is He is doing, just what His work is. 

Here is the key! The rest of the verse tells us that God is working in us “to will 

and to do of His good pleasure.” Wow! 

That is easy. It doesn’t say that He is working in the believer to go on Tuesday night visitation, or attend Wednesday night prayer vigils, or participate in Thursday night choir practice, or even, dare we say, go to “church.” on Sunday morning:

So stop as psalm 46 says: Cease: Stuff everything and just listen to Him: He has a Rhema for you: An inner declaration as to what He is willing inside and actually what He is doing:

 When that Rhema breaks through .. just tag along and enjoy! After all you are one with Him in spirit if you have Christ living inside: Like 2 horses ploughing together and coupled with a yoke .. its so easy to walk step in step: And soon it will not feel like a yoke at all but like dancing together as the power of God explodes into lives and situations you encounter:

That Rhema or inner declaration may be in the form  a desire (will) to accomplish something (do) in your life, to visit someone you have not seen for 6 years {even at the expense of missing out on that Tuesday night specialrise up against that uncircumcised giant of TV in your life: or simply climb a mountain and chat to Him all day:

This is not magic! This is simple faith rising in your heart and na desire to do something in love:and it is done in faith and love: Listen to your heart: God is at work in you His purpose to perform:This is Christ living out His life in the believer. Isn’t that a wonderful thing, 

to know that we are pleasing God in this manner, that God takes delight, pleasure and satisfaction in us when we believe, trust and rest in His work?

It really is o.k. to do things, when we acknowledge that God is God, and that He is the One directing our lives (c.f. Proverbs 3:6).

 Let’s relax and get out of God’s way so that His work can finally be accomplished in our lives.It’s so much easier to leave the details to God, and let Him “worry” about being busy doing His own work. That way we can rest, and enjoy our lives.

 If we need to know something, let’s allow God to reveal it to us in

 His own time and manner. As it has been said, quit trying, and start trusting: 

(Better than a holiday in Spain)

. 

Let God work out the details today , and begin enjoying your life in Him.

Heb 4:.9-10  "Consequently a Sabbath is left for the people of God. For he who is entering 

                     into His stopping,  he also stops from his works even as God from His own.

Mona Lisa

The speaker was most impressive and had already spoken for 35 minutes detailing the oil painting by Leonardo Da Vinci, painted between 1503 and 1519.He said that it was probably the world’s most-famous painting on a poplar wood panel. He explained that The poplar panel shows evidence of warping and was stabilized in 1951 with the addition of an oak frame and in 1970 with four vertical braces. Dovetails also were added, to prevent the widening of a small crack visible near the centre of the upper edge of the painting. The sitter’s mysterious smile and her unproven identity have made the painting a source of ongoing investigation and fascination.

He went on to talk about the its exquisite synthesis of sitter and landscape , all the while staring at the back of the canvas

“The painting presents a woman in half-body portrait, which has as a backdrop a distant landscape. We admire the sensuous curves of the sitter’s hair and clothing, created through use of fine shading, These are echoed in the shapes of the valleys and rivers behind her. The sense of overall harmony achieved in the painting—especially apparent in the sitter’s faint smile—reflects Leonardo’s idea of the cosmic link connecting humanity and nature, making this painting an enduring record of Leonardo’s vision".

All the while the little girl had sat obedient and mystified but eventually could contain her frustration no longer

“Mummy” she whispered “why does he talk and talk and not just show us the  Moana Lisa painting?

Her mother briefly explained what all grown ups already knew and accepted. She explained how a very evil ruler banned the viewing of the actual painting many years ago because it’s beauty far exceeded that of his new bride and also because such simple absolute beauty could be a distraction and moral danger for simple folk

The little girl was perplexed and asked who the man was who was boring her to sleep

“But who is this man up there mummy.. Has he ever actually seen the painting?”

"This is one of our learned men" the mother explained … No he had never seen the painting but he had gone away to a special training college to qualify him for the onerous task of explaining to all about the Mona Lisa. 

“Only for wonderful persons like him, the mummy continued we would never know anything about the exquisite beauty and mystic quality of the painting

The little girl seemed distant for a moment and then asked absent mindedly

“Can I play with my Nintendo now?

“Yes: Later when we get in the car”