An Invitation to Imagine

This is an interesting post written by Beth Moore.  It's written from Joseph of Arimathea's point of view.  He is the guy who offered his new tomb for the body of Jesus (Matthew 27:57.)

This really made me think.  Enjoy!

An Invitation to Imagine

Dessert. Need I Say More?

So... Dessert is a wonderful thing. I'm a baker and I enjoy baking desserts. I love sugar and it abounds in dessert. Dessert finishes off the meal and gives a sense of completeness. It is often colorful and I am drawn to the fruity and sauced and sweet and chocolaty.  Every day.

People who do not like desserts must be saints or from another planet. People who do not like dessert have never tried them!

Lately, I've had to examine my love of dessert. My dear husband and I have tickets to a Broadway Series in Des Moines, along with 10 good friends. Before the show, we like to try different restaurants; it's part of the whole experience.

The meal can be going along very nicely, until the end when the waiter asks about ordering dessert. Silence. No one, including me, wants to say what they really want, which would be private desserts. Usually what happens is, some one will say they are too full, but they could eat one bite of _________. That's when the problem starts...

We all know that most dessert menus have one shining star, that one item that is more delectable than the others. The other items on the menu are side kicks; they are there for the purpose of supporting the star. They might be good, but really, they just fill a spot on the menu because 'menu' means more than one choice.

Is there anything better than creme brûlée?  I mean... why look any further on the menu if creme brûlée is listed!

So finally, after the waiter has been standing there waiting with pen in hand for our decision, someone will say, "Let's order one of each of the desserts and pass them around so we can taste all of them."

Oh rats...

Each dessert is partitioned off into 12 crumb-sized pieces and passed around.

It's always so disappointing.

I could have had my own personally selected, full-sized dessert if I would have not cared what others thought (who wants to be the pig at the table?) I could have enjoyed the picture-perfect view of the plate that the chef created and each drop of sauce could have been mine. I could have taken a picture of it and posted its deliciousness on fb.

I could have picked up the plate and licked it; no one would have cared.

Of course, the reality is, I get to have dessert. I live in such freedom and financial security that dessert is an option for me and it is not the case for so many people around the world.  The reality is that dessert is not important and not even good for me and I should just get over it!

Sharing is my downfall.

There is one thing that I don't ever have to share - Jesus!

This is really good news.

We don't order one serving of Him and partition Him off in order for all to experience Him.  He comes to each of us individually personalized to suite our needs. We get to be fully satisfied with Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit. In fact, I believe I will never come to a point at which I'm done learning and loving and adoring and experiencing and believing in the Three in One, the mighty Jehovah, the great I AM, my Savior, and my Lord. It is not possible to over-indulge in the glory of God, nor will I ever get bored of hearing about and experiencing His love and grace. God's beauty will always bring wonder and awe and worship and praise.  Every day.

And I believe God woos us to 'order up' more of Him.

I have so many choices on the menu of my day. How will I choose to use these minutes, or these thoughts, or these skills, or these resources? I know I need a large serving of the Word and prayer. I know I need to hear from my heavenly Father. The more I dig in, the more I will be satisfied:

"My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you." Psalm 63:8

Dig in. Enjoy Him. Pure satisfaction. No sharing.

"Taste and see that the Lord is good."  Psalm 34:8.

If you love reading blogs as much as I do, I bring to your attention a new website entitled Thought Circus = Extraordinary Information About our World

It is being developed by my clever and dashing son-in-law, Jeremy Anderberg and his friend, Rob Wormley.  This website is a blogging website and has been quite popular, especially considering it has been up and running about 6 weeks!

Jeremy asked me to be a contributing writer for Thought Circus!  (poor guy... I'm, of course, his mother-in-law!!)  You can read my post for Thought Circus here!  Jeremy did a great job of editing.

All the writers are interesting and the topics are vast.  I'll be writing in the 'faith' column.

I love the website title!  Enjoy!

Mama Dig Radios...

So... I had a good laugh the other day...  As I was texting my son Jack, my phone jumped into intuitive mode and started guessing what I was trying to say.  I was trying to say "Mama Degrados" which is a local pasta and pizza joint that we frequent quite often.  Instead, my phone proclaimed "Mama dig radios" which of course, I do, but that's beside the point...

It just goes to show you that phones don't know everything.  And how could they?  They're phones...

However, I know that this phone is trainable.  If I text Mama Degrados several times, it will learn and intuitively guess quickly and correctly.

Jack actually knew what I was trying to text and I'm sure he just rolled his eyes a bit and thought nothing of his mother's technical blunder...

So what should I learn from this?

1.  Text more accurately...

2.  Proof read...

3.  Laugh more...

4.  Perhaps listen to the radio more???

Good thing this post is short...

I can find absolutely no spiritual insight in this... can you?

Well Done... Well Done...

So...  Every December, I plant amaryllis bulbs because I believe in the miraculous.

These unceremonious lumps of earth-colored bulbs produce some of the most gorgeous amaryllis blooms on the face of this planet.



Early December, when the stores start getting bulbs in, I stockpile most of the bulbs in town and start planting and watering.  I have some pots that I reserve for this purpose and the time to do this is simply factored in between Christmas candy-making, rehearsals and harp gigs...


At first, it looks like the bulbs aren't doing much, but I know their roots are swelling and coming to life and then... sure enough, the bulbs produce....  and produce... and produce...  The stems can grow almost 4 feet tall and the blossoms come in multiples and measure 6 - 8 inches across.

These bulbs really know how to pour on the steam!


And every year, I say the same thing:  "I am again witnessing the miraculous.  How is all that plant power stuffed into that brown lumpy dead-looking bulb?  Where does it come from?

Well done... Well done..."


The bulbs give their all.  I don't think they could possibly give any more color, any more velvetiness, any more height, any more blooms.  They intensely produce blossom after blossom and bless my socks off.


Oh, what a good reminder....



Oh, I hope hope hope...

That Jesus says as I (or you) am ushered into heaven, "I have witnessed the miraculous!

How could (insert my name or your name) have gotten all that done for Me!

He/She gave her all for Me...


He/She really poured on the steam...

He/She produced blessing after blessing...  He/She gave and gave and blessed my socks off!










See that love he/she produced and poured out!  It reaches to the heavens!

See that faith... It was on display for all to see!

Well done... Well done..."

Isaiah 58:11b:
     
               You (are) my well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Favorite Cruise Boat Story #2...

So...  here's another cruise boat story.

About 10 years ago, the four of us jumped in the car in the wee hours to catch a flight to Florida for a cruise.  At the time, our daughter was 16 and our son was 12.  We did not take our passports.  Our passports were tightly locked up in the safety deposit box at the bank and we did not think of them in time...

We arrived at the boat and after many shuffles from this agent to that agent and aided with lots of smiling,  we sweet talked our way onto the gangway.  No problem!

It was a lovely boat and we were having a lovely time and all was going well, except for a rather disturbing message that we received repeatedly.  Someone from the records department wanted to see our passports.  And as we received more and more of these irksome messages, we wanted to see our passports, too!  But how?  We were on a boat far, far away.

These messages were especially disturbing because our son's ID was from his middle school and it was sans picture.  It did not even qualify as an ID!  At least our daughter, John and I had drivers' licenses.

We did not know how serious this all was until we tried to get off the boat. Those very serious, non-smiling officers in uniform were very daunting.  They absolutely could not understand how anyone let us get on the boat without passports.  And how could they possibly let us back into the United States without passports.

We just stood there... They looked at us and we looked at them... There was nothing we could do.  We knew we were U.S. citizens and I think they did, too.  We were just pitiful...

Finally, the lady officer rolled her eyes and threw up her hands and said, "Sing the national anthem."

I looked at John and the kids and said, "How many verses?"

We proudly sang...  in harmony...  I knew all 3 verses because I had taught elementary music for years and years and taught the Star Spangled Banner to hundreds of children.  The words to that song are in my soul forever!

At the beginning of verse 2, the uniforms waved us on while still shaking their heads.  Holding our heads high, we marched right into the United States.

This story illustrates a truth we all need to be reminded of:  I knew that song.  It was in my soul.  And that's how it should be with God.

            We need to get the Word of God into our souls.

                         We need to gather some experiences with God by spending time in prayer and worship.

                                      We need to seek and find the Father.

                                                   We need to learn to hear His voice.

May our lives be so full of God our Father that when the time comes for us to prove who we are and Who's we are, we are ready with God-filled words and God-filled actions coming from deep in our souls.