Thursday's Thoughts

Do you recall the worst experience you've had in the last six months? What about the best? Are you able to share?

Table Talk - Tuesdays Topic

Hello Friends...here it is our topic for this Tuesday's table talk.....tears. It's funny how I came to choose this topic. It's rainy here, and I used to tell my kids it was God's happy tears over how special His children are.

About mid-morning I was driving my kids to the dentist and I turned around to see what the kids were doing. As I turned I caught my 9 year old son with the sweetest and most innocent smile. Those are few and far between (the sweet and innocent part,) so I told him how sweet his smile was. He told me about a night at Jam Camp when a song was playing and everyone was crying and really feeling Jesus. He said as he was thinking back on that moment he was tearing up, and that is when I spotted him so he smiled. He said sometimes when he is really thinking on Jesus, he gets tears. If you know my boy, you know he does not spend much time sharing such things. He mostly told me there was no zip line this time, and he did not like the messy relays. But, believing in God's timing we left him alone about it, and I was rewarded with the gift of that smile and tear. That was my boy's inner reflection of an experience at camp and with his Lord. Perhaps I will believe our rain today is God's happy tears as He and my boy had a special experience this morning.

Other tears are not so welcome. I know there is great pain and sadness around, and in us today. I can say to you with every ounce of my heart and soul, that God sees your tears, and He is so very near. You may not feel Him or may feel abandoned, but be encouraged in knowing that after the rain, there is light and rainbows. If your world is dark today and your tear is not a happy one, cling with every energy you have to the hope and faith in your Holy God; and I am joining you now in prayer for His unfailing love and comfort to overwhelm you. I pray that your next tear will be a happy tear...one of reflection and a special experience with the God of us all, your Lord and Precious Savior

Please forward me your thoughts on happy or sad tears, and keep those topics coming for our Tuesday Talks. Love to you all, Mary

Tuesday Talks

Alright friends, I have been thinking about something interactive that you can all participate in . I think this will be it. Table Talks on Tuesday, on Topics that interest YOU. You can all submit subjects that you would like to discuss. We will open each week a new topic and round table it. You know you're excited!!!

Please send all questions comments and concerns in this week and we will begin our table talks next Tuesday. I cannot wait to see what is on everyone's mind, and how we can join together and share.

Please do not send anything that you know is distasteful, and we will all play nice together.

Okay, let's go! mary

Hey guys,

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http://vimeo.com/channels/lifenotes

Faith and Deeds from the book of James

James 2
Faith and Deeds

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? ...."

I love this passage, and am drawn closer to it since recently writing about salvation. I make a point to say our lives actually begin after salvation. I sat on my salvation, rather than take the new life and grow with it!! For a time after planting, yet a while before harvesting....perhaps we can grow and seek and prepare for our works and deeds. Will these works and deeds save us and get us to heaven? No, there is only one way through Jesus our precious Savior. But I tell you, that as I spent so many years with my faith and doing absolutely nothing with it, I may as well have been in a coma. I had life, or did I? There was no evidence of it.

"...Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead........"



Zero activity in a new life must be one of the saddest things to our God. For we know the truth, and choose not to feast on as much as we possibly can, to grow and work in the Kingdom of God. What better testimony is there? If I call myself a christian, yet I do nothing to grow, serve and honor God; what must the unsaved think? They may think what is the difference between their lives and mine. But if I take my salvation and feed on the word of God, seek His face and serve others with love; perhaps others might desire this life that is set apart by Christ.



"...But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God, Good! Even the demons believe that ---and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone....."



One way to make a better name for Christianity is to show myself as a workman approved by God, and do unto others; and take care of the widows and children and so on and so on. God did not give me life and light to stay inside myself unchanged. God wants my life to be abundantly full so that I might shine brightly for him and serve others...for I know every person, saved and unsaved, is a child of God. It is my privilege to show the unsaved how differently their lives "and future" will most certainly be with the unfailing belief in Jesus as their savior. My actions are evidence and testimony to my belief - and closing argument to the jury of unbelievers.



"..In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead..."



My faith is made complete, by my life transformed and ever growing in God's kingdom. My journey with God is personal - but evident in my actions, words and deeds. What should I be "doing" with my faith now? A lot more than I do, that's for sure. But, thank goodness we all have a loving and merciful God beside us as we grow.

Love to all, Mary