Dayzee's Food For The Soul

  
(Page 8 of 74: Viewing entries 71 to 80)  
[First 10 entry] Page Links:  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  [Last 10 entry]  
♥- Dayzee- ♥

I got THE- power!! Jesus.
 
 
Purred: Mon Feb 2, '09 4:04am PST 
Here is a new way to look at a deck of cards!!

Deck of Cards

It was quiet that day, the guns and the mortars, and land mines for some reason hadn't been heard.

The young soldier knew it was Sunday, the holiest day of the week.

As he was sitting there, he got out an old deck of cards and laid them out across his bunk.

Just then an army sergeant came in and said, 'Why aren't you with the rest of the platoon?'

The soldier replied, 'I thought I would stay behind and spend some time with the Lord.'

The sergeant said, 'Looks to me like you're going to play cards.'

The soldier said, 'No, sir. You see, since we are not allowed to have Bibles or other spiritual books in this country,

I've decided to talk to the Lord by studying this deck of cards.'

The sergeant asked in disbelief, 'How will you do that?'

'You see the Ace, Sergeant? It reminds me that there is only one God.

The Two represents the two parts of the Bible, Old and New Testaments

The Three represents the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The Four stands for the Four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John .

The Five is for the five virgins there were ten but only five of them were glorified.

The Six is for the six days it took God to create the Heavens and Earth.

The Seven is for the day God rested after ma king His Creation.

The Eight is for the family of Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives -- the eight people God spared from the flood that destroyed the Earth.

The Nine is for the lepers that Jesus cleansed of leprosy He cleansed ten, but nine never thanked Him.

The Ten represents the Ten Commandments that God handed down to Moses on tablets made of stone.

The Jack is a reminder of Satan, one of God's first angels, but he got kicked out of heaven for his sly and wicked ways and is now the joker of eternal heck.

The Queen stands for the Virgin Mary..

The King stands for Jesus, for he is the King of all kings.

When I count the dots on all the cards, I come up with 365 total, one for every day of the year.

There are a total of 52 cards in a deck; each is a week - 52 weeks in a year.

The four suits represent the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

Each suit has thirteen cards -- there are exactly thirteen weeks in a quarter.

So when I want to talk to God and thank Him, I just pull out this old deck of cards and they remind me of all that I have to be thankful for.'

The sergeant just stood there. After a minute, with tears in his eyes and pain in his heart, he said, 'Soldier, can I borrow that deck of cards?'

♥- Dayzee- ♥

I got THE- power!! Jesus.
 
 
Purred: Tue Feb 3, '09 4:33am PST 
Today's Power Thought:
Make Contact With the Source of All Energy.

Contact with God establishes within us a flow of the same type of energy that re-creates the world and that renews springtime every year. When in spiritual contact with God through our thought processes, the Divine energy flows through the personality, automatically renewing the original creative act. When contact with the Divine energy is broken, the personality gradually becomes depleted in body, mind, and spirit.

♥- Dayzee- ♥

I got THE- power!! Jesus.
 
 
Purred: Wed Feb 4, '09 4:54am PST 
WHEN YOUR HUT IS ON FIRE

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.
Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions. One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost.
He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. He cried out, "God! How could you do this to me?"
Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island! It had come to rescue him! "How did you know I was here?" asked the weary man of his rescuers. "We saw your smoke signal," they replied.
The Moral of the Story:
It's easy to get discouraged when things are going bad, but we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain and suffering. Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground. It just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God.


♥- Dayzee- ♥

I got THE- power!! Jesus.
 
 
Purred: Thu Feb 5, '09 4:23am PST 
Upside Down
============

"Sometimes He has to turn your life upside down
so that you can live it right side up."

♥- Dayzee- ♥

I got THE- power!! Jesus.
 
 
Purred: Fri Feb 6, '09 3:42am PST 
Incline your ear, and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live.
Isaiah 55:3

Most people live on the surface. They miss the most astonishing things. They see and yet they do not see. And the reason is they aren’t really looking. The same is true about what they hear. They listen with the outer ear only. For example, people go to church, and the Gospel never penetrates beyond the outer consciousness. That is because people do not listen with all their faculties. They do not lose themselves in it. But when one inclines his ear and hears, listening as though his life depended upon it, getting every word, letting it sink into his mind by a deep and powerful penetration, then the message falls like a healing potency upon him. Every spiritual disease germ is killed, and he lives with new health and strength.

♥- Dayzee- ♥

I got THE- power!! Jesus.
 
 
Purred: Fri Feb 6, '09 4:22am PST 
The Big Flash
==============

For those of you who are old enough to remember, what you were
doing when you heard the news that President Kennedy had been
shot?

I was almost seven years old.

I was walking down a large hill leading to our house on Rockmart
Drive heading home from school. Someone pulled up beside me in
a car and said, "President Kennedy has been shot."

That's been almost 40 years ago and though I was just a small
boy, the memory vividly lingers.

Major traumatic events like a camera flash freeze the moment.
It is a picture that remains and even time itself doesn't erase
it. Most Americans remember what they were doing when a
traumatic event occurred.

Today is such a day for me.

It's February 6th.

The day has no special meaning for most of you but for me it's
one of those flash days.

It's not exactly the typical Kodak™ moment.

February 6th is the day my brother died.

I remember receiving a 911 page on my beeper. I had been in the
shower and didn't answer the phone. When I returned the call it
was my youngest brother telling me that my 38-year-old brother
had been taken to the hospital after passing out.

It was Sunday morning. I was due to deliver the Sunday morning
message in church in two hours. I rushed to the hospital. Only
my brother's wife was there when I arrived. She explained the
events of the morning.

Although I knew from the description it sounded medically
serious, I knew my brother was a young, healthy, and vibrant
man.

The thought of death seemed impossible.

Two of his neighbors were doctors and they rode in the ambulance
with him and even went into the emergency room to assist.

When his neighbor walked out of the emergency room and walked
past us shaking his head he spoke no words. The gesture and
look was enough to convey the meaning.

This couldn't be. . . and yet it was.

It was the greatest mountain that I had ever faced.

It was a blinding flash.

He had a blood clot in his leg migrate to his lungs.

He had complained and gone to the hospital with difficulty of
breathing several days earlier. The doctors ran tests and said
that he was fine and sent him home.

If he had been diagnosed properly, anti-clotting drugs could
have easily dissolved the clot before it did fatal damage.

Often mountains are caused by the failure of others to do their
job properly.

People will make mistakes. You will make mistakes. I will make
mistakes.


Of all of the sermons that I have preached, I can only remember
the exact date and subject of one, the sermon that I preached on
that Sunday morning.

There was nothing fantastic about the sermon just as there was
nothing fantastic about my downhill walk on the day President
Kennedy was shot.

But it was a sermon preached in the light of a flash.
You remember everything in the light of a flash.

In my mind I was tempted to change my prepared sermon and
deliver a message appropriate to the moment.

A still small voice said, "No, deliver that which you have been
given."

The message was entitled, "Would Jesus be happy with your
giving?"

I later understood the importance of that message in light of
the events of that day. When we leave this world, it won't be
important what we've gotten, but rather what we gave. All of
our accumulations and possessions won't really matter.

Great mountains will change you. They are the challenges and
the obstacles that will either make you stronger or break you.

They will make you better or bitter, a climber or a complainer

The mountain will allow you to see a vision that you can't see
from the valley.

The mountain can also make you so cringe with the fear of
falling that you tightly clamp your eyes shut.

You can revel in the pure rarefied air.

You can gasp for breath from the thinness of it.

The mountain can do great or terrible things.

It depends on both perspective and preparation.

A flash can change your life like none other.

It can either blind you or illuminate dark areas where you could
not see.

It depends on both perspective and preparation.

The Kennedy flash I remember very well but it didn't change me.

I was never the same after the February 6th flash.

I later preached two sermons about how the experience changed my
life.

They are still some of the most downloaded and listened to
sermons on www.TheOnLineWord.com.

If you ever have the flash of the loss of a loved one, go and
listen to “1 Hour and 40 Minutes” and “The Eulogy of Effie
Thomas.”

It will help you fly over that mountain.

I shouldn't say "if" you ever have a flash of the loss of a
loved one.

If you live long enough, you will have several.

Those types of flashes MUST come. It is an inevitable part of
life. You cannot stop them and often can't even delay them.

The flashes are not the problem.
The problem is not being prepared to fly when the inevitable
flashes come.

How do you prepare for a flash?

You don't.

You learn to live each day to the best of your ability and to
see the beauty.

You learn to laugh at the traffic jam instead of cursing it.

You learn to smile when someone attacks you.

You learn to have patience when the grocery checkout line stands
still.

You learn to handle the little things.

The little things prepare you for the big flashes.

When my brother left this earth, I could honestly say that I had
done everything as an older brother that I could have done for
him in life.

When he had gone to the hospital days earlier I laid my hands on
him and prayed a prayer of comfort and peace.

His told his wife later that he felt a warm glow go over him and
his fear left him.

It was just a touch, but a touch in love.

Neither of us knew what lay ahead.

Neither do you know what is ahead.

Don't worry about that.

Just do the right thing now.

Stay at peace in the grocery line.

Stay at peace with the little things.

Touch someone in love,

And treat your brother right.

Then you'll be better prepared to handle the big flashes.

It depends on both perspective and preparation.

Whether the big flashes light you up

Or burn you up.


~A MountainWings Original~

♥- Dayzee- ♥

I got THE- power!! Jesus.
 
 
Purred: Sat Feb 7, '09 5:55am PST 
Everyone in the apartment complex I lived in knew who Ugly was. Ugly was the resident tomcat. Ugly loved three things in this world: Fighting, eating garbage, and shall we say... love.

The combination of these things combined with a life spent outside had their effect on Ugly. To start with he had only one eye, and where the other should have been was a gaping hole. He was also missing his ear on the same side, his left foot appeared to have been badly broken at one time, and had healed at an unnatural angle, making him look like he was always turning the corner. His tail has long since been lost leaving only the smallest stub, which he would constantly jerk and twist.

Ugly would have been a dark gray tabby striped-type, except for the sores covering his head, neck, even his shoulders with thick, yellowing scabs. Every time someone saw Ugly there was the same reaction. "That's one UGLY cat!!"

All the children were warned not to touch him, the adults threw rocks at him, hosed him down, squirted him when he tried to come in their homes or shut his paws in the door when he would not leave.

Ugly always had the same reaction. If you turned the hose on him, he would stand there getting soaked until you gave up and quit. If you threw things at him, he would curl his lanky body around your feet in forgiveness. Whenever he spied children he would come running, meowing frantically, and bump his head against their hands begging for their love. If you ever picked him up he would immediately begin suckling at your shirt, earrings, whatever he could find.

One day Ugly shared his love with the neighbor's huskies. They did not respond kindly and Ugly was badly mauled. From my apartment I could hear his screams and I tried to rush to his aid. By the time I got to where he was laying, it was apparent Ugly's sad life was almost at an end.

Ugly lay in a wet circle, his back legs and lower back twisted grossly out of shape, a gaping tear in the white strip of fur that ran down his front. As I picked him up and tried to carry him home I could hear him wheezing and gasping, and could feel him struggling. I must be hurting him terribly I thought.

Then I felt a familiar tugging, sucking sensation on my ear. Ugly, in so much pain, suffering and obviously dying was trying to suckle my ear. I pulled him closer to me and he bumped the palm of my hand with his head, then he turned his one golden eye towards me, and I could hear the distinct sound of purring. Even in the greatest pain, that ugly battle-scarred cat was asking only for a little affection, perhaps some compassion.

At that moment I thought Ugly was the most beautiful loving creature I'd ever seen. Never once did he try to bite or scratch me, or even try to get away from me, or struggle in any way. Ugly just looked up at me completely trusting in me to relieve his pain.

Ugly died in my arms before I could get inside, but I sat and held him for a long time afterwards, thinking about how one scarred, deformed little stray could alter my opinion about what it means to have true pureness of spirit, to love so totally and truly. Ugly taught me more about giving and compassion than a thousand books, lectures, or talk show specials ever could, and for that I will always be thankful.

He had been scarred on the outside, but I was scarred on the inside, and it was time for me to move on and learn how to love truly and deeply. To give my total to those I cared for.

Many people want to be richer, more successful, well liked, beautiful... but for me, I will always try to be Ugly.

♥- Dayzee- ♥

I got THE- power!! Jesus.
 
 
Purred: Sun Feb 8, '09 5:31am PST 
What Grade Are You In?
=======================

As I was taking my son to school he asked me,
"Daddy, do you go to school?"

The question hit me.

I instantly recognized it was not a simple answer.

He then asked, punctuating my pensive silence with another
question, "Daddy, are you through with school?"

Both questions silenced me.

The answer on the child's level was obviously "No, Daddy does
not go to school because Daddy is finished with school."

That answer would have satisfied him and would have been
technically correct.

Writing MountainWings has subtly changed my thought patterns.

It would have satisfied my son, but it would have left a lump in
my throat.

A big lump that tasted like a lie.

Finished school? Not hardly!

I think I learn more now than ever.

I learn more now than I did in nursery, elementary, high school
and college.

It's not so much that the classroom has changed, but the student
has changed.

I now recognize the opportunity to learn through all of the
experiences that life presents to us each day.

I now recognize the benefit of that learning.

I still hadn't answered him as I steeped in these thoughts.

Sensing a need to help his father understand the question, he
said hoping to clarify his question, "school is a building."

That also is very true.

School is a building of character, a building of knowledge, a
building of wisdom and experience.

I think people relationships have taught me more about
communication than English 101.

I think marriage has taught me more than Math 101 about what
happens when you add one plus one.

I think making ends meet each month has taught me more than
Economics 101.

Reading, Righting and Rithmatic, the three R's, life's got them
beat as far as learning is concerned. Especially Righting is
difficult if you understand the play on words.

My son would rather not go to school.

There are some lessons I sure don't want to repeat.

In life you can have two students with the same teacher,
one will pay attention, learn the lesson, and pass the class
with flying colors.

Another student will become distracted, focus on things other
than the main purpose, lose interest, fail the class, and have
to repeat it over and over.

Many of the latter persuasion never pass but simply give up and
move on, with the grade permanently on their record.

You have the same teacher, class and lesson but different
students and results.

Life is a school.


The simple words of a child plunged me so deep in thought.


Were they really that simple?


Were they really the mere words of a child or a divine question
sent through a child?


What did I finally answer my son?


"I sure am in school son, everyday, and I am not nearly
finished, neither is my final grade tabulated."



What grade are you in?


~A MountainWings Original~

♥- Dayzee- ♥

I got THE- power!! Jesus.
 
 
Purred: Mon Feb 9, '09 5:27am PST 
A Contented Mind
=================

To be satisfied with a little, is the greatest wisdom;
and he that increaseth his riches, increaseth his cares;
but a contented mind is a hidden treasure,
and trouble findeth it not.
~Akhenaton~

A contented mind is a hidden treasure,
and trouble findeth it not.

An excellent quote for the times of today.

♥- Dayzee- ♥

I got THE- power!! Jesus.
 
 
Purred: Tue Feb 10, '09 5:37am PST 
The Encounter With The Cold Glass of Water
===========================================

About four years ago I was a missionary in Honduras. My wife
and three-year-old daughter were with me as we traveled to
remote areas building medical clinics.

We accomplished most of the work during the summer months when
school was out in the States. At times we would have one group
get on an airplane to leave the country and have another group
get off an airplane to start back on a project.

We would assist the new group getting into a hotel to rest after
the long trip and then while they rested, go back to our little
house and do laundry, cut the yard and load up to head back to
the mountains for the next one or two weeks.

It was during one of these between group prep times that I had a
MountainWings Moment.

I was running on just a few hours of sleep, and it was over 100
degrees Fahrenheit outside. My grass was almost knee high and
all I had to cut it with was a line trimmer, or as we call it, a
“weed eater.” However difficult it was, I was blessed to have
the line trimmer. Most of my neighbors used machetes and a
crooked stick to cut their yards.

I had been cutting for some time when I noticed a small boy
leaning on my security fence. It was common for beggars to come
to my fence and even go through my trash looking for something
to eat. I must admit, I had a lot to do and I was ignoring the
little boy.

He just kept standing there. He was dirty and wore only a little
pair of tattered shorts. I was covered with cut grass, hot and
had too much to do before getting back out in the field to be
bothered with giving handouts. The group would be waiting.

Finally, I had to take a break, and I walked over to the little
boy and sat down near him. He looked up at me with his dirty
little face and asked “Papa, (Spanish for Father/Priest) may I
have a cup of water.” Immediately Matthew 10:42 came to my
mind.

Here I was, so caught up in missions work, I had forgotten the
mission. I went in, got one of our best glasses (not one of the
usual paper cups reserved for such occasions), and filled it
with ice and water. I took it to the little boy and watched him
as he savored every last drop. He then handed me the glass;
and with a smile as big as his face, he said,

“Thank you and God bless you Father.”

No, I’m not a priest or even Catholic, but he gave me the
highest salutation he could think of.

We continued on with the group that had arrived that day and
numerous others who had come with a heart to help the Honduran
people, but I have never looked at things the same way since
that encounter with the cold glass of water.

~A MountainWings Original by Tim McGill, Director of
Environmental Service, Walker Baptist Medical Center, Jasper
Alabama and Pastor, Junior High Students, Sumiton Church of God,
Sumiton, Alabama~

  (Page 8 of 74: Viewing entries 71 to 80)  
[First 10 entry] Page Links:  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  [Last 10 entry]