The Lord said Go and witness against the killing of my unborn babies.
And I said Who, me?
And He said Yes, you.
And I said
You mean in public? I can’t leave the kids. And you know how hard it is to find a sitter. Besides, there’s company coming.
And He said You’re stalling.
And the Lord said Go and witness against abortion.
And I said I don’t want to.
And He said I didn’t ask if you wanted to.
And I said
Listen, that’s not my style. I’m not the kind of person who gets involved in controversy. Besides, my family won’t like it. Or my friends. Or my boss. And what will my neighbors think?
And He said Baloney. Go.
And yet a third time the Lord said Go and save my babies.
And I said Do have to?
And he said Do you love me?
And I said
Lord, I’m scared. People will hate me. And make fun of me. And cut me up into little pieces. And maybe I won’t know what to say.
And He said Where do you think I’ll be?
And the Lord said Go!
And I sighed Here I am. Send me.

…..Unknown

In many cases we who can no longer do a push-up or a squat have to admit that we can no longer do them because it has been a long, long time since we even tried. Johanna has kept her skills because she refused to let them go. Below the video I am posting a 7 minute daily exercise routine which would do much to keep us stronger and more limber.

This 86 Year-Old Gymnast Has AMAZING Skills and Strength! from alegator21 on GodTube.

“86-year-old gymnast Johanna Quaas kicks serious ass on the gymnastics floor. Not only is the German woman in fantastic enough shape to rock a leotard, but her physical moves in a floor routine and parallel bars — parallel bars! — should both inspire us and put us all to shame.”

She also showed some serious, and seriously impressive skills on the parallel bars, and, in a German interview translated into English at Gymnastike.org, Quaas says she has been performing gymnastics since she was a twentysomething, and that she was also a member of the East German handball champion team.

Watch Quaas in action with her floor routine and amazing parallel bars performance below, then, you know, get up, walk away from your computer and do something:

This is the kind of blog comment that makes you want to know its author. It came as a response to my post, years back, on The Gift of Tongues. I post it today with immense gratitude for the time he took to write it and with appreciation for the depth of his insight. Enjoy. And if it makes you think a little, that was the idea.

This article is incredible, and very sincere. It lacks complexity, is non-scripted, incorporates truth, and is from the heart. Very rare today. Even Jesus’ ministry was rare and didn’t heed that much worldy attention. The 5,000 people He had to feed was not even a visible blemish considering world population at the time was exasperatingly way higher than that.

I want to say this, to someone, anyone out there who reads this. Just know that it is true, God is real. This gift of tounges, it’s real. Is it mysterious? Very. Can science and math explain it just like it attempts to explain one God in three persons? Let me ask you this.. Can you completely explain science without using ANY math and vice versa? The creation cannot explain the creator. Before the first mind, thought up the first mathematical renditions, math was already in existance. Science, government, math, philosophy are partial understands from God. Think of when you went to college. ‘101, 102, 103’ and so on course structures. Well, consider ALL the branchs of world and astro sciences are just a 101 to true reality. 101. Nothing more. Basic, as complex as they are. The Bible is also basic. Everything we need to live and to please God and protect ourselves can be found in the texts, but it’s still basic. So when it comes to human philosophies, including our understanding of the earth through sciences and numbers won’t we then be limited? Can a tree know everything about the ground it lies in? Before the tree, the ground was. Evolution should simply be defined by this statement: “The process in which God tests man by allowing his mind to move into more discovered roads of understanding and into even greater free will, stirred by permissable deceptive influencial interferrance.” (A book usually always gets more and more captivating up until it ends.) Using a two dimensional mind in two dimensional thought processes will produce two dimensional results. Period. Will oak trees grow from the pumpkin seeds you planted? So, instead of using our “problem-solving impulses” of our human nature so much so to the point of commiting idolatry (that is worshipping the tools He has given us instead of Truth), let’s give God…AND His mysteries, a chance. Just like you won’t grow muscles unless you eat food, you won’t know God unless you use faith. God’s glory is deep within the things He has chosen to HIDE from us. And us having to “know everything” further and directly proves how selfish, irrogant, and truly self-centered the fallen human race really is….and, driven by fear. Fear has many forms. One of it’s forms is to have to know, all the time. Have all and complete understanding, avoid unmistakable fate. Right? Wrong. Even if we knew everything, what would we do with what we knew being the world that we are?

Some things God does is a mystery. We, as people, might need to build a bridge and get over it.

Human understanding, mixed with our fallen state, incorporated with suggestions and lies of our unseen enemies will GREATLY use tactics, deception, stealth, and emotion to pervert God’s glory of concealment into division, seperation, confusion, indulgence, isolation and compulsion to rebuttal. Think of a painting suddenly springing to life and demanding the artist to tell it how he created the color blue. Shut up creation, and enjoy the beauty of what’s on the canvass. In this example, yes ignorance WOULD be bliss.

The enemy is good. No, you don’t understand, the enemy is very good. He invented deception. Think of the worst person you’ve heard of you can possibly imagine. Now think of that man, or woman, humbly and bashfully walking up to the very Thought that entered their minds and drove them into choosing to act and asking for it’s autograph.
There is so much more to the definition of the word ‘Lie’ then simply just “not telling the truth.” Picture the biggest mall you can possibly conceive and fill that mall with as many departments as you can think of. Now name it. Call the entire mall, “DECEPTION”. There really are driving intelligent forces that invent new ways of deceiving man. What you think you may be seeing is not always really what it seems. Think of a well known illusionist. His very job is to trick your mind. If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, looks like a duck and flies like a duck, it must be a duck right? There is no absolute truth or law to that. So, no.

Then what on earth are we to do? What is truly real and what is counterfeit? Thank God for, well God.

The Holy Spirit is the lens of Truth. He is a person, not electricity or the holy force of God. Call Him a Ghost or a Spirit only because you cannot see him, but as the wind remains invisible as it blows through the trees, He’s there and He’s a Person.

One of The Holy Spirit’s responsibility is in our gifts and accomplishments as a human race and as mankind. Tongues is one of many. Sometimes we as people, under tradition, will baulk when Y doesn’t equal X and no matter how hard we try, 2 + 2 won’t equal 4 even though WE KNOW it should. It’s OK. Everything’s gonna be OK. God’s got us, and glorifies Himself with His hidden mysterious that we may never comprehend nor understand. Well that’s not fair, we may say, again we need to get over it. That’s called suffering as God kills the pride in our hearts. He=God. We=People…NEVER to be God or gods. We can do all things (suffer) in Christ who gives us strength. And one thing we do is suffer. Jesus helps us suffer the refining process of purification God uses to burn the impurities out of His gold…us.

So before we judge, divide, ask questions, or impulsively respond, let’s invite (because He’s a gentlemen and won’t force Himself on us….also, life is a TEST) the One Truth Triune God into our lives, speech, and understanding.

My prayer is that this made sense to somebody. It is very deep and very thought provoking I will admit, but that’s just the way He made me. I once was a very ignorant agnostic. Be sure He didn’t make that. I choose it based on my understanding of the world around me, out of the eyes of a child on throughout early adulthood. What or who we used to be, is not who we really are once we learn of our true selves through the eyes of God. Just like when we think we know something, we really know nothing based on how much MORE is out there then our microscopic revelation.

May all the glory and praise be bestowed upon our very humble, yet furious, just, yet merciful, great and holy God. Thanks be to Him through the glorious Lord Christ Jesus, Amen.

If this inspired you; praise God, ask for His wisdom, go outside and share your testimony and God’s love. What Jesus did for you, He did for everybody.

Don’t fight either. I cannot stress that enough. Rebuke the IMPULSE to attack a skeptic’s misunderstanding or to defend God. If you feel you need to defend God through argument then your God is too small. Repent and accept Jesus. 🙂 Our God is a big eternal God and can handle himself. Can YOU handle your own responsbile response to an unbeliever’s questionable doubt? People refute due to lack of understanding or being stained by the acetone of religion. If you don’t know the right answer for them then pray and find someone who does. Give them a Bible, love them, pray for them, invite them to your home, feed them, cloth them, don’t ignore them. You never know which one is Jesus in disguise…testing YOU. He has the tendency of disciplining, training, correcting, guiding His own people before moving onto the world for it’s punishment.   (Kevin McCurrie, elipticaleclipse@gmail.com)

When Joyce posted this little poem below on Facebook, it somehow hit home. I’ve been assured that I do not have Alzheimer’s (yet) but most people who have reached my age have noted decided slipping — decreased strength, agility, memory, hearing,  vision, energy, mental acuity. My new geriatrician inquired especially about my memory and when I said I have lately had more trouble remembering people’s names he said that was not unusual. He asked if I had trouble remembering the names of things and I immediately thought of Peg (now gone to the Lord) asking for “the name of the thing that goes over the water.” My friend and I came up with “bridge” and looked at each other. Peg was indeed slipping.

A few years ago I read the book Elegy for Iris, a famous author who was aware of the first signs of her slipping into what was finally to be  a devastating condition of being “sick, sad, and lost” as in the poem below.  What struck me was that at the beginning, Iris, herself, was aware of the onset.

Oh it’s a long, long while
from May ‘till December
And the days grow short
When you reach September.
When the Autumn weather
turns the leaves to flame
One hasn’t got time
For the waiting game.

For the days dwindle down
To a precious few…
September…November…
And these few precious days
I’ll spend with you.
These precious days
I’ll spend with you.

Having weathered yet another winter I find I am enjoying this springtime more than ever. The blue sky, the warm sunshine, discovering the my fig tree has survived the snow and the frost once again.  How many times do we have to see life spring forth from the ashes before we will believe in it?  As I watch myself slip physically almost imperceptibly, how is it that I feel, at the same time, growth  in strange and unexplainable  ways?

When you know it is already December and the slipping becomes obvious, it is time to put it all in the hands of the God who does all things well. I have six children who are both good and kind and doubt that anyone will ever find me sitting alone on the sturbcone, chewing gubber rum. Being sick, sad, and lost does not appeal (not do any of the other terrible things that can happen to people) but even suffering has a reason and there comes a time to “Let go and let God.”