As winter closes in, nights turn from cool to cold; wind chimes echo season’s sweet carol. Cyclone snowstorms circle a northern realm dumping snow and ice — Old Man Winter’s helm. A deep, silent blanket quiets all and frees a wonderland of miniature trees mingled with houses dwarfed by such depths of icy precipitation and street troughs now cleared deep ‘mongst the puffy white blanket mounds draped across the frigid landscape net. Living in winter’s wonderland of snow hinders all daily movement to and fro; no designs from Jack Frost on the window for it only reveals cold, bleak, white snow blanketing all, piled high to that tree bough — Winter’s Wonderland reels all motion — Slow!
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Photo Above: Snow and Ice Covered Walls by Amanda Vick @ Unsplash.com.
Source: Holy Bible — New King James Version (NKJV)
Lydia Becomes a Christian
Acts 16:11-15
11 — “Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samo-thrace, and the next day came to Neapolis,”
12 — “and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days.”
13 — “And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there.”
14 — “Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.”
15 — “And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.’ So she persuaded us.”
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Lydia was a businesswoman who met with a group of women to make prayer on the Sabbath day by the riverside in Philippi of Macedonia. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira.
Paul and his party, who had just recently arrived in Philippi, joined the women. There, Paul met Lydia. “And the Lord opened her [Lydia’s] heart to heed the things spoken by Paul,” (Acts 16:14 NKJV). Thus, God had seen Lydia’s heart and had deemed her prayers worthy of being heard. He answered her prayers by sending Paul to speak with her.
Lydia and her household saw the truth in Paul’s teachings and were baptized into Christ’s church. Afterward, she begged of Paul and his team that they stay in her house if they judged her heart to be faithful to God. Paul said she persuaded them.
What this says is, even before she became a Christian, Lydia’s prayers were fervent enough to be heard by God and Jesus Christ. Her prayers were recognized as those of a woman who was truly searching for the truth, and He answered her prayers.
Typically, When the prayers uttered before becoming a Christian are referenced as being ‘heard’, it is those of Cornelius that are mentioned and studied.
Perhaps, as encouragement to devout women of faith, we should make an effort to show the same virtue and righteous recognition are given to Lydia’s prayers. Thus, when a woman of ‘faith’ prays, God hears and answers.
Lydia continued to support efforts to grow the church in Philippi.
November
Thanksgiving vibes flow through our veins,
fill the atmosphere with celebratory strains.
Our hearts overflow with holiday cheer
as carols ring out in the blustery air.
Tinsels, lights and bows are strung
along the streets, in our homes are hung
as shoppers search for gifts far flung.
Christmas carols begin to be sung
by old and young and those in between,
and one can almost see a glistening sheen
as everywhere people cast doubt aside
and swear by His will they do abide.
Thanksgiving Day we'll offer up a prayer
for all the love, food and wealth we share --
the Spirit overcomes all we cannot hold dear.
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Photo above:The First Thanksgiving -- by Bettman/Corbis @ Smithsonian.org,
John 1:1-5 (NKJV) John 1:1 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word Was God.” John 1:2 – “He was in the beginning with God.” John 1:3 – “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” John 1:4 – “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” John 1:5 – “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
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John 14:6 (NKJV) “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’“
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John 5:19-24 (NKJV) John 5:19 – “Then Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do, for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.‘” John 5:20 – “‘For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does, and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.‘” John 5:21 – “‘For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.‘” John 5:22 – “‘For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son,‘” John 5:23 – “‘that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.'” John 5:24 – “‘Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.‘”
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NOTES — by tkbrown
The apostle John tells the story of Jesus birth, life, death and resurrection from a perspective of love. He tells of the love that God had, and still has, for man. In a previous discussion, we leaned from . . .
John 3:16 – “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Holy Bible: The New King James Version
. . . God has no desire that any should perish. We also saw that God does not condemn any person; it is the lack of belief in His Son that condemns a person. If we believe, we can have everlasting life.
In John chapter 1, above, we are told that the “Word,” or Jesus, existed in the beginning – that He was with God, that He was God. This shows the connectedness of God the Father and God the Son.
In John 14:6, Jesus tells us He is the way, the truth and the life. He further states – no man [or woman] comes to the Father but by Him.
In John 5, verses 19 through 24, Jesus explains God’s expectation that He [Jesus – God’s Son] be honored just the same as we honor God. God has backed this up by granting judgment of all to Jesus, His Son. If we believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, we will honor and obey Him just as we honor God. All who do this, will have life through Him [Jesus Christ – God’s Son].
Do you believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God? If you do, are you willing to say that in front of men? These are two requirements of anyone who wishes to become a Christian. If we do not believe, then we have already condemned ourselves. God does not have to condemn us. On the other hand, if we do believe, then God loves us as much as He loves His Son. If we obey all that Jesus commands of us, then God will give us life everlasting. How much more can He love us?
Do you love your children’s friends enough to give them a permanent home with you – and to make them joint heirs with your child? That is what God does. If we love His Son, Jesus Christ, then God will give us a permanent home and life everlasting. Again, I ask, how much more can He love us? This is love that goes beyond all other love.
Bless you for taking the time to read! Have a Blessed Lord’s Day!
Halloween . . .
is about the most candy ever seen.
You'll find it for months
betwixt and between.
As it hypes kids up
and makes them mean;
if any goes missing
eyes will be keen
for any sign
of the need to intervene.
It's easier from the bottle
a toddler to wean.
'Twill make a kid fat,
he'll no more be lean.
It makes me wonder,
is the ER keen
to the increased numbers
of diabetics they screen?
How many new sugar cases have been
first diagnosed . . .
on Halloween?
Ingratitude is an attitude that can interfere with calm life, fills it with ire, trouble and strife, allows rage to gain altitude as voice ramps up the amplitude -- volume overflowing with rife . . . Ingratitude!
It leads to responses of rude interchange with one's husband or wife that wounds the soul, cuts like a knife, leaving disbelief at such a rude . . . Ingratitude.
October October brings cooler days and colder nights blanketed with red and yellow, crimson and orange — color sights to deck the hills, welcome bellows whence we fan the flame on cold nights. Bonfires and hayrides, fun for all, caramel apples and smores bites fill tummies midst those dunking calls. Bobbing for apples, ghoulish frights are all part of October fare; fall festivals and frightful dights round out the Trick or Treat scare. Then as the month comes to a close we pull out our warm winter clothes, wear a scarf to cover our nose.
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Photo above:Fall Apple Harvest -- Portland Monthly@ google.com.
First cup of joe in early morn -- it starts the day in bliss array; clearing the mist almost away, aroma wafting high airborne, opulent pleasure ever worn throughout the day to mold the fray. First cup of joe!
Anticipative thoughts adorn the scent its brewing casts my way -- words to describe are wont to say, casting aside the fog forlorn! First cup of joe!
John 13:34-37 — “Love one another . . .” John 13:34 — “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another: as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” John 13:35 — “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” John 13:36 — “Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,” John 13:37 — “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?”
John 13:38-40 — “Love the Lord they God . . .” John 13:38 — “Jesus said unto him, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heaert, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.'” John 13:39 — “‘This is the first and great commandment.'” John 13:40 — “‘On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.'”
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Notes: by tkbrown
First, we are told to “Love the Lord thy God . . . ” above all others. If we do this, then the second – which is like unto the first – will follow. Jesus said, “This is the first and great commandment.“
Second, we are to “love one another . . . ” as Jesus loved us. By this, His disciples shall be known. If we strive to emulate Christ in our lives, others can see Him in us by the love that we have one for another.
Finally, He goes on to say that “on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” All else that we as Christians are required to strive toward hinges upon these two commandments. If we strive toward complete obedience of these two commandments, all else will fall into place.
William Christopher ‘W. C.’ Handy — Father of the Blues — published “Memphis Blues”, considered to be the first blues song.
On 27 September 1912, W. C. Handy, musician and ‘Father of the Blues’, published “Memphis Blues”, which is considered the first blues song.
William Christopher Handy — born 16 November 1873 in Florence, Alabama, USA — is considered one of the most influential American songwriters. While he did not create the blues genre, he took it from a regional music style (Delta blues) with a limited audiencce to one of the dominant national forces in American music. As such, he is known as the ‘Father of the Blues’.
by tkbrown 
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