The Power Of Words:

Life

Or Death

This was an e-mail sent to me...and very worthy of publishing. I don't know who the author was. I pray that my words will always be encouraging ones to others. But I'm a human being, with MANY FAULTS. The tongue is the hardest thing in the world to control. I can only control my own...and that seems to be an impossibility! I ask God to help me.

The Story:
A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs gathered around the pit. When they saw how deep the pit was, they told the two frogs that they were as good as dead. The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit with all of their might. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead. Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down and died. The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the other frogs said, "Did you not hear us?" The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.

This story teaches two lessons:

1. There is power of life and death in the tongue. An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it through the day.

2. A destructive word to someone who is down can be what it takes to kill them. Be careful of what you say.

Speak life to those who cross your path. The power of words....it is sometimes hard to understand that an encouraging word can go such a long way. Anyone can speak words that tend to rob another of the spirit to continue in difficult times. Special is the individual who will take the time to encourage another.

The Seventh Sign

Last night I watched a movie called "The Seventh Sign" with Demi Moore. It was an older movie (1988) that I had seen before but forgotten. It was on the apocalypse. For anyone who hasn't seen the movie, it was about the angel opening the seals, based on Revelations. Each time a seal was opened, horrible things happened, and with each the world was closer to the end. Earth quakes, volcano's, every living thing in the sea died, on and on. As I watched, I noticed that the people that made the movie was using the Bible...but really didn't understand it.

After the movie was over, I took my dogs outside. It was about 9:00 pm. The sky was beautiful. It is extremely dark where I live, so on a clear night you can see the beauty of the night skies. All of a sudden after clearing some tree branches, I saw an unusual site. THE MOON! I had never seen the moon look like that before! All of the events in the movie began racing through my mind! I ran inside and got my husband. I had him go look. Then we got on line to see what a lunar eclipse looked like, since neither one of us had seen one. PHEW! That's what it was! On February 20th...there was to be an eclipse!

At the time it was scary. Then later I chuckled to myself, because I had allowed a movie to make me believe that perhaps the time was near. Then today I began thinking about all of this. We don't know the time, do we? We will see signs of the apocalypse. The signs have already begun. In a sense, it will be scary. But we are not suppose to be afraid. "Fear is of Satan, not of God". If we allow fear in, we are allowing satan to have control over our lives. I do not choose fear.

When that time comes, we are to look up for our Savior. He will be there to save us. All of these things must come to pass, to bring about the changes that we need to survive. To live in a world that no longer is filled with hate or disease. I look forward to that day.

There is a story in the Bible about the virgins who are awaiting the groom to come. Anxiously they prepare for that night. They have no idea when it will be. In Jewish customs of that day, the groom would ask the Father for the hand of his daughter in marriage. If the Father agreed, then the prospective groom would be asked over for dinner. The hopeful groom would then pour a glass of wine for the woman for whom he wished to marry. If she took the glass and drank it, she was accepting his wedding proposal. If not, he left without a word. The symbolism here is remarkable. We too, have to accept the marriage proposal....the Savior is the groom. By accepting Him, we must drink His wine.

Once the woman drank from her future husband's glass, he would leave. The reason was to go prepare a home for her. He would begin constructing their home. Always taking into account all of the things He thought she would love. The home was His gift to her! She not knowing when the construction would be finished, knew that when it was...he would come get her! It is said he would come like a theif in the night! How she awaited him:) So she prepared all that she would take, and had it ready. The most important item was a lamp and oil. The lamp was needed to see where they were going, since the groom would be coming at night.

In the Bible it talks about the virgins who didn't have their lamp and oil. They went around trying to borrow from others, to no avail. Therefore they missed the groom. But those who had their lamps ready, went on to be with the groom. This story is a true one of the Jewish customs of that day.

This story has always been a special one to me. I know that it is all symbolism, but to this very day...I keep lantern's, oil, and candles. When the lights go out, our home is the lightest one anywhere! When we lived in another town, the electricity had been off for a long time. Neighbors called us, thinking that we were the only ones who had lights! It was just my candles and lamps:) My daughters have caught onto my tradition of having ample candles...it is now a family tradition! I don't know if they ever understood why I kept these things...but if they read this, they will:)

Keep your lights burning:)

Mystery # 1

Kristie and I talk about the Bible at times. When I first was saved, I studied the word quite a bit. I'm afraid I have been a little lax in the last few years. Somehow I always came across things that I had never seen or heard others talk about before. These things have and always will be mysteries to me. I assume God knows my inquisitive nature, and allows me to find these nuggets of truth. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has found these. Many Bible scholars out there, have found them too. So if any of you have found some of these things, please give me your comments and your interpretations.

The first thing I would like to talk about is at the death of Christ. Now we all know that Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John are written  by each man that the book is named after. All
four of these men were with the Savior throughout his last days. So each book is their own interpretation of the 
events that they saw concerning the Lord's life, miracles, and death. As you already know, 
if four of us wrote about the same events, some of us would find one event more worthy 
of writing about...while someone else may not. Or if you saw something that you didn't understand, 
perhaps you wouldn't even write about that particular event. That's why it is so important to read all four gospels, to get a more rounded interpretation of the times of Christ.

The first scripture I would like to get some opinions on is the only one in the four gospels of Christ it appears. If someone knows of this anywhere else, please let me know.  I have looked elsewhere for it, but as far as I know, it ONLY appears here. Pay particular attention to 51-54.
This is Matthew 27:45-54:

The Death of Jesus
45From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. 46About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi,[c] lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"[d]

47When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He's calling Elijah."

48Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49The rest said, "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to save him."

50And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

51At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. 52The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

54When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, "Surely he was the Son[e] of God!"

No where else have I found this. When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain was ripped (study about the curtain and what it represented)...and the holy people who had died were raised BACK TO LIFE. They went into the city, AFTER Jesus was resurrected....and appeared to many people. This in itself showed those that didn't believe that Jesus was the son of God, that HE WAS WHO HE SAID HE WAS. For a Book to last all of these centuries, we know there had to be truth in it. We also KNOW that those 
who wrote the Book, guarded it, passed it down from one generation to another...had to have good reason to 
BELIEVE it. I would say seeing those you knew, raised up out of their graves, well and speaking...would be a 
good reason to believe in miracles! 

Now another question raised in my mind. The people that were resurrected way back then, where are they now?
I assume that they also went to be with the Father, when Jesus went many days after His resurrection. But what if they didn't? We know that they wouldn't have died again. Could they possibly still be here on earth? Going about their Father's business? I wonder:)

My Dearest James,

It was such a short time that I have known you.  But from the minute I met you, I knew that I loved you!  All of your little quirks, I knew them all!  Each and every one of them made me love you even more!  I will never forget your sadness, as you told me how much you had missed your Mom.  We talked about it daily.  I know others sometimes got tired of hearing your stories of your Mom, but I never did!  I could tell how much you missed her and just wanted to be with her again:)

We talked about her being in heaven, and you kept telling me you wanted to join her.  I asked you if you had ever accepted Jesus Christ into your heart, and you said "yes".  Then I told you that by doing that, you would join your Mom someday.  You kept asking me when you could go.  I continued telling you that was up to the Lord, it could be years from now, or days....even minutes!  You kept telling me it wasn't fair, because you wanted to go now!

My dear sweet James, the Lord heard your cries.  He came swiftly and silently, taking you quickly.  I doubt you felt any pain...the Lord is sweet that way.  Now you are in heaven with your Mom:)  I'm so happy that you have finally gotten your wish!  But James, I have to tell you...I now know how you felt.  For I'm missing you, just like you missed her.  I will see you someday!  But I unlike you, want it to be awhile yet.  I have family to look after right now, and grand children to watch grow.  But always know, you will be in my heart until we see each other again.

*James was one of the people I cared for where I used to work. I learned a lot from him:)