Joni's Pain

...Pain is a bruising of a blessing; but it is a blessing nevertheless.  It's a strange, dark companion, but a companion---if only because it has passed through God's inspecting hand.  It's an unwelcome guest, but still a guest.  I know that it drives me to a nearer, more intimate place of fellowship with Jesus, and so I take pain as though I were taking the left hand of God.

Chapter 1 - Report From The Front Lines  Book: A Place of Healing Joni E. Tada 

"...yes, I pray that my pain might be removed, that it might cease; but more so, I pray for the strength to bear it, the grace to benefit from it, and the devotion of offer it up to God as a sacrifice of praise..."  Chapter 1 - Report from the Front Lines  Book: A Place of Healing Joni E. Tada 

The REAL question about God and healing: "It is whether or not God wills to heal all those who truly come to Him in faith."  AND her answer: "God reserves the right to heal or not...as He sees fit."   Romans 11:33 "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God?  How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!"  Chapter 2 . God and Healing: What's the Real question?

Liturgy Concepts

BED COVERS - a cocoon to emerge from to face a new day - begin with the sign of the cross and dedication of day to God

MAKING THE BED - awareness of habits and rituals

These come from book: "Liturgy of the Ordinary"  chapters 1 and 2

A Funny Easter Story

On Easter Sundays I make an effort to "dress up".  So, this Sunday I went to my closet and chose a colorful favorite skirt to wear.  The colors were "Easter-ish".  I hadn't worn this skirt in years and the elastic waist band lost its holding power. (no doubt you know where this story is going - yet I want to give you a verbal picture)  At the conclusion of the service after our pastor gave the blessing I sat down to retrieve my Bible and purse from the pew rack in front of me.  When I stood, my skirt fell down around my ankles!  I sat down FAST and saw our pastor's wife a couple of rows in front of me.  I called her name and motioned for her to come back.  She helped me check the skirt and slip to make sure I was getting it back up in place.  Fortunately I wore a shawl so I wrapped it around my waist to help hold the skirt in place.  During worship a couple of close friends were sitting next to us and earlier on the husband said, "Gini, I think your skirt is falling down"...I told him it was the design of the skirt and I thought all was well.  They had exited the pew when the skirt fell so when I saw him later and told him what happened, I thought he would NEVER stop laughing!  The folks behind us were first time visitors, and I am HOPING they had left before my skirt did its thing.  This is an Easter I won't soon forget!

Communion on the Moon

The  Moon (& God) - VERY INTERESTING - July 20, 1969

What  was the first liquid and food consumed on the moon? I ' m betting that most are  unaware of this story.

Forty-five  years ago, two human beings changed history by walking on the surface of the  moon.

But,  what happened before Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong exited the Lunar Module is  perhaps even more amazing, if only  because so few people know about it.  I ' m talking about the fact that  Buzz Aldrin took communion on the surface of the moon.

Some months after  his return, he wrote about it in Guideposts magazine.

The  background to the story is that Aldrin was an elder at his Presbyterian Church  in Texas during this period in his life; and,  knowing that he would soon be doing something unprecedented in human history,  he felt that he should mark the occasion somehow.  He asked his minister  to help him and so the minister consecrated a communion wafer and a small vial  of communion wine.  Buzz Aldrin took them with him out of the Earth ' s  orbit and onto the surface of the moon.  He and Armstrong had only been  on the lunar surface for a few minutes when Aldrin made the following public  statement:

This  is the LM (Lunar Module) pilot. I ' d like to take this opportunity to ask every  person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment  and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or  her own way.  He then ended radio communication, and there, on the silent  surface of the moon, 250,000 miles from home, he read a verse from the Gospel  of John, and he took communion.

Here  is his own account of what happened:

"In the  radio blackout, I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread  and the wine.  I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given  me.  In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and  gracefully came up the side of the cup.  Then I read the  scripture:  ' I am  the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much  fruit ... Apart from me you can do nothing. '

"I  had intended to read my communion passage back to Earth, but at the last  minute they had requested that I not do this. NASA was already embroiled in  a legal battle with Madelyn Murray O ' Hare, the celebrated opponent of  religion, over the Apollo 8 crew ' s reading from Genesis while orbiting the  moon at Christmas. I agreed reluctantly."

"I  ate the tiny toast and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence  and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility .  It was interesting for me to think that the very first liquid ever poured on  the moon and the very first food eaten there were the communion  elements."

"And,  of course, it ' s interesting to think that some of the first words spoken on  the moon were the words of Jesus Christ, who made the Earth and the moon - and  who, in the immortal words of Dante, is Himself the "Love that moves the Sun  and other stars."

How  many of you knew this? Too bad this type of news doesn ' t travel as fast as the  bad does.

Share  with others you know . . . . . .

The  nicest place to be is in someone ' s thoughts, the safest place to be is in  someone ' s prayers, and the very best place to be is in the hands of God.  Amen.

Christians' Symbol

"The Old Rugged Cross" and "When I Survey The Wondrous Cross". Isn't is amazing this emblem of suffering and shame is cherished by believers. No other religion I know does this.

The Old Rugged Cross

My thoughts about Good Friday (God's Friday) --- The Cross - It seems that often the cross has become just a beautiful or simple piece of jewelry...and I have two: One that is so shinny and has black stones at the 4 ends. The other is not a polished silver, but has a little purple stone in the middle and a ring around the cross bars.... I've read the words of the well known hymn "The Old Rugged Cross"...here are a few phrases - "The emblem of suffering and shame"..."that old rugged cross, so despised by the world"..."the old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine," "To the old rugged cross I will ever be true, its shame and reproach gladly bear"..."the dear Lamb of God (Jesus) left His glory above to bear it (the old rugged cross) to dark Calvary". These words certainly paint a different picture than my necklaces. I wonder if my crosses have weakened the message of this hymn. Maybe not...perhaps when I wear them, a conversation about that "old rugged cross" may begin. Today, the Tuesday after Palm Sunday and just days before Good Friday, is a day to contemplate a cross that was old, and rugged, and blood stained. It held the Creator of the world as He bore ALL the evil of the world...and His Father looked away. But, wait...Here comes Easter!

A Newspaper Column Debate

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made 'no sense' to go to church every Sunday.

He wrote: "I've gone for 30 years now, and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons, but for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them.  So, I think I'm wasting my time, the preachers and priests are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."

This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column

Much to the 'delight' of the editor, it went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:

"I've been married for 30 years now.  In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals."

"But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today".

"Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"

When you are DOWN to nothing, God is UP to something!

Gini's Response: Hmmmmm and Mmmmm  So true.  now that I am 72 I have lost track of the sermons.  Some were definitely "snoozers"  and some were "100% nailed it".  I grew up Southern Baptist, small little Banning church, went to Cal Baptist College (now University).  One of the requirements at CBC was taking two years in Bible (one Old Testament and one New Testament.  The professors was in the "snoozer" category.  She was in her 70s and her lectures were straight read from the text book by Hester.  Actually she was a joke around campus - SAD.  But here I am at age 72 and I LOVE to read God's Word.  So Hmmm and Mmmm.  His Word says "His Word will not return to Him void."  It NEVER grows old.  It continues to nourish this old lady.