What Man Can Do- Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics

I just finished watching the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The final event, the lighting of the cauldron and the fireworks display brought tears to my eyes-- I'm not sure why, but a thought kept running through my mind, "If this is what man, in a country that does not know God can do, what can God do?"

The fireworks, the cauldron, the artistic program were beautiful.

If man can create this beauty here on fallen earth, what will heaven, the new earth be like? What did the process of creation look like?

I'm in awe of God and I can't wait to know.

Waiting and imagining-
k8t

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Please include the following statement on any distributed or linked copy: By Kaet Johnson. © faceofagirl.com. Website: faceofagirl.com

Where Few Go and Even Fewer Make It Out Alive

I've spent the last three days substitute teaching. I'm worn out-- physically and emotionally. The kids were good for the most part-- I really enjoy them, though, I was, at times, taken aback with the hostility some of the children exhibit. Their anger was seemingly directed at me, at school, but in reality, their anger was directed at the world at large and everyone in it.

What has happened in these children's lives that has caused them to be so angry? How do you grow into a contributing adult with such deep seated anger? How do you ever see God, anywhere?

I am troubled by what I see in some of the children I meet. They have lots of trouble at school, but their problems don't stem from school. For the most part, their problems stem from somewhere else-- these troubled kids are either neglected, abused or over indulged; many are neglected by overindulgence-- a new form of emotional and physical abuse.

Children need the basics in life: food, shelter, clothing. They also need boundaries, consequences and love; the kind of love that says you are accepted no matter because you are mine, the kind of love that is committed to promises made, the kind of love that says the family is so important that mom and dad are going to nurture their love for each other so that the children benefit from two parents in the same home, the kind of love that says there are times you are going to be unhappy today because I am looking ahead to what is best for you and your tomorrows, the kind of love that models service and learning. This kind of love realizes children should not be indulged with every material thing they ask for or with every social activity or sport they want to be a part of. This kind of love does not allow the parent to live, to glean importance for themselves, through the child's accomplishments and activities.

Children are indeed our future, they should be our focus, but our focal point should be the future, not the present. Children need to be taught how to handle the tough things in life. They need to be empowered, given the opportunity to learn the skills that will enable them to succeed-- to finish what they start, to strive for excellence in all they do. Children need to be a part of their parents lives and contributors to their families. Children need time to work, time to play, and time to rest (from work and play). Children need to be valued for who they are, not what they can do for us.

God created "family" to show case Himself, to teach us about Father, Spirit and Son, to grow us into His likeness, the likeness of His Son, to propagate this knowledge to every nation and language under the sun. Family does not exist to build the ego of the parent-- to show-case the parents. Family does not exist to get; not for the parent, not for the child. Family exists to give.

Traveling dangerous territory,
k8t

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Please include the following statement on any distributed or linked copy: By Kaet Johnson. © faceofagirl.com. Website: faceofagirl.com

Pure and Perfect Pleasure

I was watching a cooking competition on T.V. today with my children. It was a cake contest; Dr. Seuss cakes. One of the contestants had chosen Horton Hears A Who as his theme. At one point, the contestant spun some colored sugar and made it into a pink, fluffy ball and placed it on the end of "stem". It was the flower that the Who's lived in. The contestants emotions, over the successful creation of that little flower, moved him to the point of almost crying. It was not a sappy or unmanly almost-cry. It was tears of complete joy in the ability to envision and then successfully create. Before, there was an empty stem, nothing sat atop it. After, a small, pink, fluffy, flower existed. It was perfect!

It struck me, as I was watching this artist, this sculpture, who started with blocks of regular old cake and ended with a work of art, that just as he had created for the pure joy of the process and the end product, so too, the Creator, the Sculpture, created the earth and everything in it for His pleasure.

If one man can be moved to tears of joy at the creation of a sugar flower that came out perfect, what does God feel, what did Jesus experience, how long did the Spirit rejoice at the creation of Earth, Eden, and the man and woman therein? God created us for His pleasure. He created mankind through his son, Jesus, and He offers men and women, young and old, poor and rich, His Spirit, to fill us and sustain us till the day that we once again can walk and talk with Him and see His creation from His point of view.

If we think that God is not near, if we doubt that we matter, if we doubt that He finds joy in us, if we reject that He has left us messages everywhere we go of His love for us, recall the feelings you had the last time you successfully created something for your pleasure; a meal, a cake, a fabulously green yard, the perfect play or move in a game, a craft project, a home project. Recall the joy, the pleasure you experienced in the process and the end product. Your pleasure is a faint echo of God's. If you multiply the joy you experienced by the size of God, you'll have an approximation of the pleasure God had when He created you!

Pondering His pleasure,
k8t
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Please include the following statement on any distributed or linked copy: By Kaet Johnson. © faceofagirl.com. Website: faceofagirl.com

COME I THIS DAY

As I said yesterday, I found many wonderful prayers when researching the Celts. Below is another prayer I found that comes from the humble, soft heart of an ancient believer in the triune Yahweh. It is the prayer of a believer in who is laying himself at the feet of Yehsua with complete trust. May you be able to say this prayer and trust that Yeshua is your savior and your shelter.

Come I this day to the Father

Come I this day to the Son,

Come I to the Holy Spirit powerful;

Come I this day with God,

Come I this day with Christ,

Come I with the Spirit of kindly bairn.

God, and Spirit, and Jesus,

From the crown of my head

To the soles of my feet;

Come I with my reputation,

Come I with my testimony,

Come I to Thee, Jesu -

Jesu, shelter me.

Jesus, from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, here I am, shelter me.
k8t

this prayer and many others can be found at http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaidhlig/corpus/Carmina/
where many ancient Gaelic prayers from Scotland have been recorded and translated.
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Please include the following statement on any distributed or linked copy: By Kaet Johnson. © faceofagirl.com. Website: faceofagirl.com

St. Patrick: I

I have been curious, lately, about early Christianity. And, for a long while, I've had an interest in the Celts. That interest may stem from my ancestry; both my mother and father trace ancestors back to Cornwall, England (an area settled by the Celts). I am a true mutt, so to speak, I also have Scottish (which could be Celtic), Danish, Swedish, and maybe some (a wee bit) Irish (Celtic) in me.

My curiosity in these two areas has had me doing some interesting reading. I am NOT a historian, but what I have found, I believe, is that the Britain and Irish Celts were related to the Gauls-- pagans and fierce warriors who originated over on the mainland of Europe somewhere, and were related to the people in Galatia -- Galatians, they would be. The Gauls held oak trees as sacred and sacrificed their own to their gods (they were animists and polytheists). These are the Galatians Paul visited twice and wrote to. One of his letters lives on in the Bible. The Gauls that formed Galatia arrived in that region about 279 BC. The area was formerly the home of the ancient Hittites.

By the time of Paul's visits (mid-first century A.D.), the Galatians had been absorbed into the Roman Empire and had adopted many of the Greek and Roman gods into their religion. When the Galatians witnessed a miracle done by Paul, they wanted to worship him-- to sacrifice to him, calling he and Barnabas Hermes and Zeus (Acts 14). They did not yet know Yahweh or Yeshua.

Tracking down the Celts in the British Isles led me to Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland. He has a very interesting account of his life-- what struck me was his complete confidence that he was called by Yahweh to reach the pagan peoples of Ireland just as Paul had complete confidence that he was called by Yeshua to reach the pagan peoples of Rome, Greece, and Asia Minor.

Out of Patrick's (and other Christian missionaries to the British Isles) travels and work for Yahweh come some wonderful prayers and blessings that focus on Yahweh, Yeshua and Spirit; the Trinity-- I'm rather long in breath today, so I'll quit here, but hope to continue more soon. In closing, I'll leave you with part of an old Gaelic prayer and a blessing:

I am bending my knee
In the eye of the Father who created me,
In the eye of the Son who purchased me,
In the eye of the Spirit who cleansed me,
In friendship and affection.
Through Thine own Anointed One, O God,
Bestow upon us fullness in our need,
Love towards God,
The affection of God,
The smile of God,
The wisdom of God.
The grace of God,
The fear of God,
And the will of God
To do on the world of the Three,
As angels and saints
Do in heaven;
Each shade and light,
Each day and night,
Each time in kindness,
Give Thou us Thy Spirit.

Beannachd Dia dhuit
(blessings of God be with you),
k8t
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Please include the following statement on any distributed or linked copy: By Kaet Johnson. © faceofagirl.com. Website: faceofagirl.com

The Road of Good Intentions

I found this graphic today. It says it all. Unfortunately, nothing counts if you're are not in The Club, on The Right Road, so to speak.

I'm not a clique-y person, not at all, I've actually been known to leave a group if they start down that road, but the Jesus Club, that's one I'm happy to be a part of.

This is hard, I know, especially for you compassionate souls out there. I know that we want our actions, our life, to count, to get us somewhere, to get us to God, to heaven. But the TRUTH is, nothing we do counts toward reaching God. If we want to get to God, we need to call on His name. We need to call on the name of Jesus, His divine son. Then, God will make Himself known to us; He'll make it so we can see Him (He was always there), through Jesus who is the one anointed to Save.

So, instead of following the Road of Good Intentions that leads to death, instead of choosing The Wrong Club, choose the road far less traveled that leads to true wellness and has LIFE as its final destination.

Member of the Jesus Club traveling the road that leads to LIFE-- join me!
k8t

See this graphic and more by visiting the irreverent teampyro.blogspot.com and clicking on the "Emergent-see" poster.
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Please include the following statement on any distributed copy or link: By Kaet Johnson. © faceofagirl.com. Website: faceofagirl.com

Live With LIFE

I did an inductive study on Philippians recently. Philippians is Paul’s letter to the believers, the saints of Philippi, a Roman Colony in ancient Macedonia (now northeastern Greece) on the Aegean Sea. He wrote to them during one of his imprisonments in Rome.

I was thinking; had God not allowed Paul to be imprisoned, Paul would not have had the time to write to the churches and the people he told about Jesus. God would not have had hours upon hours to speak to Paul and teach him. And it follows we, modern saints of the body of Jesus, would not have the results of Paul’s quantity time with God.

So, as we go about our days and become “imprisoned” at the doctor’s office, in traffic, with a sick child at home, in line at the DMV or anywhere else where all we can do is wait– spend some time with God. Get an audio Bible or one of paper and print and carry it with you in the car glove compartment, your bag or your pocket– go online (www.blueletterbible.org is great for this) and print out a chapter or book.

Don’t treat your Bible or the Word of God as a holy relic that can only be touched when you yourself feel holy– treat it just as you treat all other elements essential to life– you have to have them no matter what; you schedule your days around them, you fit them in whenever you can so that you can live. The Word of God is no different, to LIVE, to have LIFE you must have It!

Pondering LIFE!
k8t

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Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By Kaet Johnson. © faceofagirl.com. Website: faceofagirl.com