Morning Coffee - Live in the Deep

"If you live on the surface of life by focusing on ever-changing phenomena, you will find yourself echoing the words of Solomon:  'Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless!'”

Sarah Young

Jesus Calling

I love this analogy, living on the surface of life. Isn’t this what the world is pulling us to do, especially right now; live shallow where every worldly – and constantly changing - thing is calling for our time and attention?   

During this season of Advent, it might be good for me to remember that the real Christmas story is found in the deep – far away from the clamor, chaos and glitz.  

Time for a second cup of coffee and some time spent in the deep.

Merry Christmas!

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Donate a Sweater!

Here is an easy way to donate a sweater to someone in need.  If you have a Facebook account, go to MerrySweater.com and create your own fun photo.  Caribou Coffee with donate a sweater for each sweater photo created. 

Merry Christmas!

Morning Coffee - Restoring order

Make me the focal point of your search for security.  In your private thoughts, you are still trying to order your world so that it is predictable and feels safe. Not only is this an impossible goal, but it is also counterproductive to spiritual growth.

Sarah Young

Jesus Calling

In my cloud of thoughts, GET ORGANIZED dominates.  It is huge and overshadows everything else.  How often I have declared that the goal of the day is to get organized; to get a handle on things again.  Because it is then that I feel I have control of my life.  But I don’t, really – it will all come undone again in a matter of days and I will once again feel anxious and out of sync.

Sarah Young points out that my focus is what needs reorganizing.  God should be the biggest tag in my cloud of thoughts.  I need to make His presence my goal for the day.  That is where lasting safety and security is found.

Time for a second cup of coffee and some ordering of my day!

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Christmas Ice Luminaries - Repost

I've been thinking about starting to make my Christmas Ice Candle Luminaries.  I posted about these once before - but I think it's been a couple of years so thought I would mention them again.  These big ice globes are so easy to make yet are so naturally pretty.

My little freezer is pretty empty so I have lots of room to store these until Christmas Eve and while I won't have my official Candle Lighter to give them a good start, I may just count on him to keep them lit through the Christmas night.

Here are the directions in case you want to try them.

Supplies Needed:

1 Ice Cream Pail – or something similar
1 large balloon
Water
Freezer

Attach your balloon to your facet and fill with water until the balloon fills the bucket.

Blow into the balloon to flatten out the top of the water and tie off the balloon.

Put the bucket containing the filled balloon into your freezer for about 14 hours - or until you have solid frozen walls but still a liquid center.  Remove bucket and pop the balloon.

Using a screwdriver or small hammer, poke through the top of the ice making a hole large enough to allow the lighting of the candle.

Pour out the remaining water and remove from bucket. 

Just add a candle and Ta Da! You now have a beautiful luminary for Christmas Eve.


(Obviously they can be frozen outside too, if it’s cold enough. But the freezer gives you a constant temp and therefore, a constant freezing time for easier planning.)

Enjoy!

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Morning Coffee - Refocusing!

"Don’t weigh yourself down with responsibilities that are not your own. Instead, make your relationship with Me your primary concern.  Rather than trying to fix everything that comes to your attention, ask me to show you what is truly important."

Sarah Young

Jesus Calling

Why do I think I need to restore order and rightness to every out-of-kilter situation I encounter?  Why do I stew and fret about things I can’t control.  Planning can certainly be a good and responsible thing to do – but not if it gets in the way of my relationship with God.  My prayer for today is that I let go of those situations that are crowding my thoughts and sapping my energy and fully trust that God has everything under His control.

Time for that second cup of coffee while I refocus my thoughts for this day.

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Christmas Music

My new favorite Christmas Song.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Casting Crowns
Peace on Earth

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Morning Coffee - Preparing for Advent

The Miraculous Journey

Anticipating God in the Christmas Season

Marty A. Bullis

Selected from the Introduction:

Christmas is coming … a season of arrivals!  Friends will come to our homes; grown children will return to their parents to celebrate and feast.  Physical objects will get caught up with us in the movement – trees tied in place, stockings will be hung, and presents start appearing.

Christ entered the world in motion: traveling to visit Elizabeth while in Mary’s womb, journeying to Bethlehem to be born, visiting Jerusalem with His parents weeks after His stable birth, and fleeing to Egypt to avoid King Herod’s wrath.  Yet this child, this Word-made-flesh, brought stability into a tumultuous world.

As we gear up for motion this holiday season, as we prepare for all the arrivals, stability awaits us in the life of Christ – stability in motion.

Searching for and counting on the stability of Christ in my life seems to be my personal theme right now.  During these past 3 months since Jim’s passing I have been shown just how rock-solid His presence is and just how constant His help.  I think this will be a good study for me this Advent Season.

I think I’ll pour another cup of coffee and make a count of His infinite blessings in my life.

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I Give You Joy!

"Thankfulness takes the sting out of adversity.  That is why I have instructed you to give thanks for everything.  There is an element of mystery in this transaction: You give Me thanks (regardless of your feelings), and I give you Joy (regardless of your circumstances)."

~ Sarah Young
Jesus Calling

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Morning Coffee - Unstable Sand

In his Eulogy of Brother Lawrence, Abbe’ of Beaufort wrote:  “[Brother Lawrence] decided to seek entrance into a monastic community in order to embrace a type of life whose rules, founded on the firm rock of Jesus Christ and not on the unstable sand of passing feelings, might strengthen him against the instability of his conduct.”

“…and not on the unstable sand of passing feelings…”

Doesn’t it seem that feelings are the foundation of our modern culture? 

How do you feel? 

How did that make you feel? 

What are you feeling now? 

Does it feel good? 

Isn’t there an entire self-help industry built on the study and glorification of feelings?  Aren’t our children taught to honor their feelings over self-discipline and principles?  Isn’t it all about how we feel? 

Time to refill my cup and begin my day – not focused on the unstable sand of feelings but on the firm rock of Jesus Christ, so that I might be strengthened against the instability of  [my] conduct.

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