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    I’m home….wonderful, long week.


    I need a bit to recover.


    blessings, all…Jim


     


     

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    The Darkened Path


     


    Help me Lord,                                                                                            mistpath2
        when I am blind


    and cannot see your face;

    When life and pressures
            crowd my mind


    and I don’t know the place


    To put my feet
        upon Your path,


    or where the path may be.


    Oh,be there Father God, my help
    in ways that eyes can’t see.


    Guide me, channel all my steps
    Lord, see my journey through


    So that when coming to my end
    my ways end up in You.




    ©copyright Feb 2006 James A Smallish      


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    We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog,
    peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the
    weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then,
    see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly
    just as he knows us!


    1 Cor 13:12 (The Message)


     


    image from freefoto.com

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    In one week we are leaving for MEXICO!! We are going to
    be building homes for the poor in a small border town (pop. about
    30,000, as I understand it). I thought I’d share a little about the group
    through which we will be working. The name of the ministry is
    “FAITH MINISTRY  -  MINISTERIO de FE”, and it has its offices
    in McAllen, Texas, a south Texas border town near Harlingen and
    Brownsville. I think the best introduction to this ministry would be to
    hear from its founder, Deantin Guerra; the following by him, from
    their website, explains a little about his heart, and that of this ministry.



                                                           













    The Starfish Story









    When I went to work in the mission field, I had a hard time facing what I was seeing for the first time. I guess you can say that I was “culture shocked”. You see, when I was growing up in Corpus Christi, Texas, we were poor and had eight in our family. We lived in government projects all of our lives. We were poor, but we always had a roof over our heads, clothing, and food. When I saw the type of poverty the people were facing in Mexico, I was overwhelmed. I could not face it or understand it. I had never seen people die of hunger, illness, or just because they did not have what they needed. It was very hard for me to take. I used to go home in the evenings and tell my wife that I had made a mistake. I could not take the daily depression and sadness that I was seeing. I wanted to go back into the sporting goods business. But now I understand that I was facing the problems with the wrong attitude. You see, I wanted to be able to solve the “big problem” all at once and I could not. I felt very depressed until I discussed my situation with a friend of mine that is a Presbyterian Pastor. After I shared with him how I felt, he gave me a book to read. And in that book, I found the Starfish Story which goes like this:

    A father and his young boy of about five or six years of age were walking down the beach one day. The tide had brought in hundreds of starfish and they were all dying on the shore. The little boy would pick one up at a time and throw it into the sea and it would come back to life. After about thirty minutes of this, the father said, “Son, will you stop doing that? You are going to hurt your back and probably get sick. When we get home your mother is going to blame me. Anyway, there are so many of them and they are all dying, what difference does it make?” The little boy picked up another one, threw it into the sea, and it came back to life and he said, “It made a difference to that one.”


    I have learned through mission work that you can make a difference, in HIS Name and in HIS Glory, in people’s lives. We can do it if we take one person at a time, one family at a time, one house at a time, or one colonia (community) at a time.


    Deantin Guerra
    Executive Director and Founder of Faith Ministry/Ministerio de Fe, Inc.

  • A Valentine’s Day “Rap”

    (the rap portion of the background music
    has about the right rhythm – have fun!) if you are viewing this after Feb. 16th,
    and still want the background rhythm/music, select
    “Lean on Me” on the “Jukebox”, and click “Play”.

    ARCHIVE EDIT: JUST CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK FOR THE BACKGROUND MUSIC:
     http://www.freewebtown.com/jimmish/library/audio/12%20-%20Lean%20On%20Me.wma

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    Now I think love is a healthy thing -
           makes the spirit soar
                      and the heart to sing


    But the healthy thing’s not the only goal
           ’cause there’s something more
                      deep within the soul

    There’s something more  that in the nighttime cries,
           ”Oh, I need someone who can give me life.”


    Yes, I need love, but it needs to be
             from Someone greater than you or me;


    I need a Friend with the pow’r to heal
              I need a lover with the love that’s real.


    Now an earthly lover is not a bad thing
             this kind, too, makes our heart bells ring.


    Still, a human lover will someday die
             or in some way fail us
                     or make us cry.


    But the love of God’s a forever thing;
              makes the spirit soar
                    and the heart to sing 
    And it never leaves us or 
              fades away
                     with it’s power to heal
                              each and ev’ry day.


    Now I have a love that’s a healing thing;
             makes my spirit  soar and my heart to sing.

    You see, the love that I have’s a forever thing
             ’cause I have the love of my God and King.

    ©copyright Feb. 2006 James A. Smallish     


                     
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    Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us; that we should be called, “Children of God”.
    (1 John 3:1)     


     


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  • I saw this on heathersavage‘s site, and was so impressed, I had to share it! This young believer has as beautiful a view of God’s plan for us individually, as His people, and for his world, as I’ve ever heard articulated. Enjoy!…Jim


    I went on a mission trip this summer to the maritimes to do childrens programs with a team of twelve and it was the most amazing experience I’ve ever had..this being completely part of a group of people where you belong and your heart is being ministered to by them. 


     It totally put into focus who God is, and what he really wants of me.  that he wants me to know his heart, to sit in his arms and gaze up at his beauty in awe, to lay all my broken pieces before him in complete humility and yet with expectancy knowing that he will reach down, and pick them all up, and put me together; not the way I was, but as a new creation…


     what I realized is that this being broken before the Lord does not only occur at conversion, but that it is a continual brokeness constantly letting him tear down walls.  always lying prostrate before him – - allowing him to change me, to love me, to pour his grace within me so that I will always be available to then spread this blessing, this grace, this mercy and healing, to others around me,


    and THIS is what living in Christian community is like. 


    If each person in the trusted community is willing to live like this before the Lord, then they will be able to live out of this and minister to each other…be the body of Christ, and


    THEN out of this being ministered (to) by both His Spirit within ourselves; and through His Spirit through others, we can be refreshed and will be alive and ready to outreach to those around us or around the world who need this love; this water, because they have never heard or have never been cared for or loved and they are living in a parched land. 


    We can then bring the spirit of Christ to them so that he can be their wellspring where there was none. 


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    Through drops of dew
    the world is viewed
    in ways not seen before


    And through a child’s
    unjaded eye
    fresh worlds are held in store.


    We pass the years
    with clouded lens
    bescarred by many sins


    Oh, help us Lord
    regain young eyes


    and see You new again!
    © copyright 2006 James A. Smallish


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  • The Gift (continued)


    In shells of glass
        And failing flesh


    the heart of God resides


    And in the frailest earthen ware
        A kingdom so abides


     


    With feet of clay
        and trembling hands
               we bear     The Gift today


    As Joseph’s bride and he
         once did
              when, wrapped in cloths it lay.


    No regal horns
         nor crowd’s acclaim
               proclaimed this Gift; this King


    And when we daily give the Gift
          No earthly choirs sing.


    It’s our embrace
         of those who ache
               which ushers in the Lord,


    And our own voices,
         played with grace,
              may herald in His Word. 


    So look not on
         how humbly-cased
               God’s “packages” may come,


    But see your self
         and others, too,
                to be His sacred home.


    Though not enwrapped in gilded foil,
              nor gem and silver crowned


    We’re urns of God’s most precious gift;


                 and precious so we’re found.
                 ©copyright 2006 James A. Smallish


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    “…God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.   


     But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. ” (2 Cor. 4:6&7) 


     


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  • The Gift


    In shells of glass
        And failing flesh


    the heart of God resides


    And in the frailest earthen ware
        A kingdom so abides


     


    With feet of clay
        and trembling hands
               we bear     The Gift today


    As Joseph’s bride and he
         once did
              when, wrapped in cloths it lay.


    No regal horns
         nor crowd’s acclaim
               proclaimed this Gift; this King


    And when we daily give the Gift
          No earthly choirs sing.


    It’s our embrace
         of those who ache
               which ushers in the Lord,


    And our own voices,
         played with grace,
              may herald in His Word.   
              
          



    Everyone…it might be a day or two before I get the rest of this up. Nothing bad, I’m just going to be REALLY tied up for a bit. blessings to all…Jim

  • Okay, here’s a filler while I stew on the vagaries of Love (something I’ve been ruminating on lately)


    CS LEWIS
    from “The Four Loves”


    “To love at all is to be vulnerable.
    Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken.



    If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries …
    lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.


    But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. …


    The only place outside heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love is hell!”


    “Why love if losing hurts so much? We love to know that we are not alone.”


     


    reveling in the knowledge that we are indeed loved, and not alone


    Jim


    = = = = =


    edit #3…Chris Rice paints a beautiful portrait of the love we long for in this song..it’s called “Intimacy”
    edit….I’ve moved it onto the music player @ the left…it’s the last song

  • The Way Home
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    As I struggled
          As I slipped
                    and stumbled
               muck-covered


    I wiped at my
                 clouded eyes
                        with my
                 muddy hands


    And slipped again

    Chill-bone tired,
           I blinked    and
                  strained to see


    The high dry Path
             from which I had -
         in lightning-fall
                               plunged;
                                         no, leapt


    back to my own primal swamp.


    No longer warm and comforting, 
                it ate and burned at my 
                        now unnative being.


    Pitiless
          Cold
               I remembered Home,
                                 and reached out
     
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    The Hand once bloodied
                  by the spike;
    Now alive, and
                  pulse’d with light

    Enfolded me in all my ooze

    Washed off my shame
                 and helped me choose

    With clearer eye
                 and wiser ken
    The Way beyond the ways of men.
     
    My sight’s on Him
              Who is the Way
    Not on the feet which quickly stray:
    (they’re my own feet, and made of clay)


    O’er pits, and paths, and waves
               I’ll go
    And follow Him Who loves me so


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    So, cleansed (again)
               and grateful
                            (again)
    I set my vision;
                 clearer now

    With deeper love               
                                 on the Path
                    the way home 
                              on Him;
                                     path,
                                          way,
                                             rescuer,
                                        lover of my soul,
                                                         Who is my home.


                              © copyright 2006 James A. Smallish


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    Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”


     Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” 
                                                                             ( John 14:5&6)


     


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  • The Kingdom of God

    O WORLD invisible, we view thee,
    O world intangible, we touch thee,
    O world unknowable, we know thee,
    Inapprehensible, we clutch thee!

    Does the fish soar to find the ocean,
    The eagle plunge to find the air—
    That we ask of the stars in motion
    If they have rumour of thee there?

    Not where the wheeling systems darken,
    And our benumbed conceiving soars!—
    The drift of pinions, would we hearken,
    Beats at our own clay-shuttered doors.

    The angels keep their ancient places;—
    Turn but a stone, and start a wing!
    ‘Tis ye, ‘tis your estrangèd faces,
    That miss the many-splendoured thing.

    But (when so sad thou canst not sadder)
    Cry;—and upon thy so sore loss
    Shall shine the traffic of Jacob’s ladder
    Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross.

    Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter,
    Cry,—clinging Heaven by the hems;
    And lo, Christ walking on the water
    Not of Gennesareth, but Thames!

    by     Francis Thompson 1859-1907


               * * * * * * * * * *


    Asked …when the kingdom of God would come,
    He replied to them by saying,


    ” The kingdom of God does not come with signs to be observed or with visible display,   Nor will people say, Look! Here [it is]! or, See, [it is] there! For behold, the kingdom of God is within you [in your hearts] and among you [surrounding you].”

    …Luke 17:20-21, Amplified Bible