Blessed Memories

Happy Sunday!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you awesome ladies reading this!  This week is a repost from 2019!  It still holds true for women and men!  Enjoy!

Who remembers the carnations that were sold or provided in the black church on Mother's Day?  I can't recall if it was the Mother's Board, or the Usher Board selling them, but everyone wanted one. You wore the white flower if your mother had gone to heaven, and the red flower if your mother was still here with you.  I don't have to tell you Mother's Day was quite emotional at church during these services.  A soloist would be selected to sing, "Motherless Child".  If you don't know this song, Google it Baby!  Have your Kleenex ready, it's a tear jerker with roots that go all the way back to slavery when children were sold away from their mothers.

I totally get it!  There are days when I break into tears thinking about my mother, and my sweet grandmother, Eliza Williams.  After I snap back to reality, I feel so grateful for their lives and everything they taught me and shared with me.  Joni Mitchell sang, "Don't it always seem to go. That you don't know what you've got til it's gone."   Sometimes, this is true.  BUT it doesn't have to be this way!  We have a great OPPORTUNITY right now to love, and appreciate those dear ones in our lives.

Psalm 90:12 says, "Teach us to number our days so that we may TRULY live and achieve wisdom."(Voice).  Don't miss this!  As my son, Terrence A. Pruitt always says, "God does not waste instructional minutes."  He's always trying to get wisdom, and answers to us! This scripture reminds us there is a limit on this earthly life.  If Jesus doesn't return before your "time", you will die.  Numbering our days doesn't have to be morbid.  It's just good to remind yourself every day to ENJOY the simple things, LAUGH at the funny things, CHERISH those you love, and IGNORE the foolishness.  God has not given us a spirit of fear, so don't go into next week fearing death. Proverbs 9:11 lets us in on a little secret.  You can extend your life!  Did you know this?  It says, "Wisdom will help you LIVE longer; she will add years to your life."(Easy-to-Read Version).

So, what can we do with this wonderful life we've been given!  So glad you asked!  Proverbs 10:7 says, "Good people leave memories that BLESS us, but the wicked are soon forgotten."(Easy-to-Read Version).  Leave memories that Bless others.  Don't be that one mean family member that no one cares to recall, unless they are trying to convey how hard their life has been.  Make good memories now for those you love, and those that love you.

Love and prayers, Cynthia

I'm Complete

 Happy Sunday!

"God made my life COMPLETE

    when I placed ALL the pieces before him.

When I got my act together,

    he gave me a FRESH start.

Now I’m ALERT to God’s ways.

    I don’t take God for granted.

EVERY day I review the ways he works.

    I try not to miss a trick.

I feel put back together,

    and I’m watching my step.

God REWROTE the text of my life

    when I opened the BOOK of my heart to his eyes.

The GOOD people taste your goodness,

The WHOLE people taste your health,

The TRUE people taste your truth,

The bad ones CAN'T figure you out.

You take the side of the down-and-out,

But the stuck-up you take down a notch.

SUDDENLY, God, you floodlight my life.

    I’m blazing with glory, God’s glory!

I smash the bands of marauders,

    I vault the highest fences.

What a GOD! His road

    stretches straight and smooth.

Every God-direction is road-tested.

    Everyone who runs toward him MAKES it." (Psalm 18:20-30 Message).

Love and prayers, Cynthia

BE

 Happy Sunday!

I hope that you had a great week since the last Happy Sunday message.  Life is not without challenges, but you are equipped to handle it ALL!  God has given us, "all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:"(2 Peter 1:3, KJV).  The Living Bible says it like this, 'For as you KNOW him BETTER, he will give you, through his great power, EVERYTHING you NEED for living a truly GOOD LIFE: he even shares his own glory and his own goodness with us!"(2 Peter 1:3, TLB).  It's just what the Psalmist said, "Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need!"(Psalm 23, TLB).

As we continue to "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ", we will get better and better at handling life's challenges. (2 Peter 3:18, KJV).   Think about the Apostle Peter.  He was hot-headed, impulsive, denied the Lord three times and even cut a man's ear off with a sword. (John 18:10).  BUT after receiving he Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost he preached The Gospel to a massive crowd and 3000 believed and were baptized! (Acts 2:41).  What a transformation!

This is how he encouraged the Believer's later in his life.

"Summing up: BE agreeable, BE sympathetic, BE loving, BE compassionate, BE humble. That goes for ALL of you, no exceptions. NO retaliation. NO sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.

Whoever wants to embrace life

    and SEE the day fill up with GOOD,

Here’s what you do:

    Say nothing evil or hurtful.

Snub evil and cultivate good.

    run after peace for all you’re worth.

God LOOKS on all this with APPROVAL,

    listening and RESPONDING well to what he’s asked.

BUT he turns his back

    on those who do evil things."(1 Peter 3:8-12, Message).

Love and prayers, Cynthia

Right Reward

 Happy Sunday!

"The Lord says: CURSED is the man who puts his TRUST in mortal MAN and turns his heart away from God.  He is like a stunted shrub in the desert, with NO HOPE for the future; he lives on the salt-encrusted plains in the barren wilderness; good times PASS HIM by forever.

But BLESSED is the man who TRUSTS in the Lord and has made the Lord his HOPE and CONFIDENCE.  He is like a tree planted along a riverbank, with its roots reaching DEEP into the water—a tree not bothered by the heat NOR WORRIED by long months of drought. Its leaves stay green, and it goes right on producing all its luscious fruit.

The heart is the most deceitful thing there is and desperately wicked. No one can really know how bad it is!  Only the LORD knows! He searches ALL hearts and examines deepest motives so he can GIVE to each person his right REWARD, according to his DEEDS—how he has lived."(Jeremiah 17:5-10 Living Bible).

Love and prayers, Cynthia

The LAST DAYS

 Happy Sunday!

"Don’t be NAIVE. There are difficult times ahead. As THE END approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and ALLERGIC to GOD. They’ll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they’re animals. STAY CLEAR of these people."

"These are the kind of people who smooth-talk themselves into the homes of unstable and needy women and take advantage of them; women who, depressed by their sinfulness, take up with every new religious fad that calls itself “truth.” They get exploited every time and never really learn. These men are like those old Egyptian frauds Jannes and Jambres, who challenged Moses. They were REJECTS from the faith, twisted in their thinking, defying truth itself. But nothing will come of these latest impostors. Everyone will see through them, just as people saw through that Egyptian hoax."

"You’ve been a good apprentice to me, a part of my teaching, my manner of life, direction, faith, steadiness, love, patience, troubles, sufferings—suffering along with me in all the grief I had to put up with in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. And you also well know that God rescued me! Anyone who wants to live all out for Christ is in for a lot of trouble; there’s no getting around it. Unscrupulous con men will continue to exploit the faith. They’re as deceived as the people they lead astray. As long as they are out there, things can only get worse."

"But don’t let it FAZE you. Stick with what you LEARNED and BELIEVED, sure of the integrity of your teachers—why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother’s milk! There’s nothing like the written WORD of God for showing you the WAY to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us TRUTH, exposing our rebellion, CORRECTING our mistakes, TRAINING us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us."(2 Timothy 3:1-17 Message).

Love and prayers, Cynthia

Reasons

 Happy Resurrection Sunday!

"[But] he who commits sin [who practices evildoing] is of the devil [takes his character from the evil one], for the devil has sinned (violated the divine law) from the beginning. The REASON the Son of God was made manifest (visible) was to UNDO (destroy, loosen, and dissolve) the works the devil [has done].”(1 John 3:8 AMPC).

I’m always interested in the reason behind things.  For instance, while traveling I frequently look up information about city names and street names.  While speaking with a customer recently their address intrigued me.  I couldn’t wait to look up the street name and learn why!  The street name is Elsie Faye Heggins if you are curious like me!

At Christmastime, people will sing and say that, “Jesus is the Reason for the Season”!  Yes, He definitely is, but what is the reason for his coming?  I’m so glad you asked!  Adam and Eve got us all tangled up and Jesus came to fix it!  Romans 5:15 says, “But God’s free gift is not like Adam’s sin. Many people died because of the sin of that one man. But the grace that people received from God was much greater. Many received God’s gift of life by the grace of this other man, Jesus Christ.”(ERV).

This is the GOOD NEWS!  We are not doomed by what Adam did!  We have the opportunity to accept what Jesus did for us and live LIFE ABUNDANTLY.  John 10:10 says, “The thief approaches with malicious intent, looking to steal, slaughter, and destroy; I came to give life with JOY and abundance.”(Voice).

Colossians 2:10-15 says, “YOU have everything when you have Christ, and you are filled with God through your union with Christ. He is the highest Ruler, with AUTHORITY over every other power.  When you came to Christ, he set you FREE from your evil desires, not by a bodily operation of circumcision but by a spiritual operation, the baptism of your souls. For in baptism, you see how your old, evil nature DIED with him and was buried with him; and then you came up out of death with him into a new life because you trusted the Word of the mighty God who raised Christ from the dead. You were dead in sins, and your sinful desires were not yet cut away. Then he gave you a share in the VERY life of Christ, for he FORGAVE all your sins, and BLOTTED out the charges proved against you, the list of his commandments which you had not obeyed. He took this list of sins and destroyed it by NAILING it to Christ’s CROSS.”(TLB).

Love and prayers, Cynthia

Why would you ever complain?

 Happy Sunday!

"Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,

    or, whine, Israel, saying,

“God has lost track of me.

    He doesn’t care what happens to me”?

Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been LISTENING?

God doesn’t come and go. God LASTS.

    He’s Creator of ALL you can see or imagine.

He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath.

    And he knows everything, inside and out.

He ENERGIZES those who get tired,

    gives fresh STRENGTH to dropouts.

For even young people tire and drop out,

    young folk in their prime stumble and fall.

But THOSE who wait upon God get fresh strength.

    They spread their wings and soar like eagles,

They run and don’t get tired,

    they walk and don’t lag behind."(Isaiah 40:27-31 Message).

Love and prayers, Cynthia