SOULS SPRING FORTH LIKE FRAGRANT BLOSSOMS

Have you seen the color? The brilliance of God’s good earth is everywhere! His blessing of beauty is like a reward for the plain and dull winter we have just come through. Do you remember the first snow of the 2009 season? Wasn’t it wonderful and clean and bright? But, soon the white turned to dirty gray and the slush pilled up like rubble heaps in the corners of shopping malls, marring the reflecting pools near by. That is so much like many of our lives. The precious infant that began life with the promise of all that would be good and beautiful, as adults sometimes turns black and gets pushed to the margins of life, unloved and unwanted. While that is all true, the miracle of a reborn Spring is a yearly reminder that life can be brought back to a hopeful beginning again. No matter how dark the stain, how cold the heart, or how sluggish the mind, the soul can spring forth again to a new beginning, with a new meaning, and a fresh purpose - to love Him and to spread that love to all those around us. Let us pray

“Holy Father, God of all there is, we stand in awe at the beauty you share with us in the Springtime of our lives. Thank you that Spring can come at any age, under any circumstances, and regardless of any secret ice that has chilled our hearts. Your holiness can melt any cold shoulder and clean any blot on the beautiful garments of life you have given us. Like ladies of old, holding their heads high as their skirt tails drug through the filthy streets, the garments you give us come clean each new day when our head and heart remain above the slush and swill of the world. Dirty shoes only means we have labored in your streets. Filthy hearts mean that the streets have found their way inside our souls like a cold wind that snaps through the cracks around us. You, oh God, have blessed us with the beauty of Spring, a visible witness to your grace and forgiveness. Forgive us when we only see the dirty dark caves of life and not the diamonds that glitter in the walls. With gold comes the mining, with fragrant flowers comes the rain. Thank you Father for all your precious blossoms that bloom all around us, which we forget to take the time to see, and are not humble enough to bend low to touch the petals. Thank you for the Spring of our lives that comes after every bitter season. May we always look for the sweetness of each new day, which follows a time of night. We pray in the name of your precious son Jesus, who sprang up again like the lilies of the field from a night of death and a time of sorrow. To you of God be all glory and honor and praise. Amen”
Doris
Copyright 2010 Doris Gaines Rapp, Ph.D.
“God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine.”


New articles appear every week . Check them out at: www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/dorisrappphd

WHEN DID WE SEE YOU IN PRISON?

Most of you know that I am serving as an Interim Psychologist at a men’s prison among 2,500 offenders. But, my friends, the look of emptiness I see in some of their eyes is not unlike the vacant expression we can see on the streets in the desperate faces of some of our friends and neighbors. What is prison but a separation and isolation from society? Many free-souls are incarcerated behind the bars of their own pain, their own fear, and their own separation from love and the giver of love, our Lord Jesus. They may believe that they no longer hold the key to their freedom and salvation. Because of you, my friend, they do not have to know the way from darkness to light. You can hold the lamp for them and lead them to the door of Heaven through your caring, your patience, your love, and your willingness to shine on them. How? The God of the Heavens shines through you, the believer, not for your own sake alone, but that you may be a light to others. Shine believer, shine for those in darkness need to see the glow in order to move toward the brilliance that awaits them. Shine believer, shine! Let us pray:

“Oh Lord God of Light and Love, holy, holy, holy is your name. May your kingdom of perfect peace shine through the vast nothingness of this life that we may see the truth of the golden city that awaits above and within. We pray this very day that we may be a light for someone who stumbles in the darkness. We do not even have to have any awareness of the brilliance of the glow that emanates from us, your children, for the light is not for us but for those we lead. We can reach out our hand at any time and you will walk us through the greatest storm or the darkest night or the saddest day. Oh Lord, you have given us two hands, that we might hold onto another and guide them through the night. Together, we will walk in the brilliance that glitters from the path you have blazed across the sky before us. Let us shine, not in the mirror, but in someone’s night of grief and sadness, pain and loneliness. We thank you, thank you, thank you for your love and light, and your son our savior, Jesus the Christ, our Lord. Amen.”
Doris
Copyright 2010 Doris Gaines Rapp, Ph.D.
“God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine.”

New articles appear every week . Check them out at: www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/dorisrappphd

HE IS RISEN!

Some people awakened on Easter and said, “So what?” Other greeted the day with, “So what now?!”

With the salvation story of Easter comes the mission message of the empty tomb. What he has done for us is not ours to selfishly hold but is for us to give away. We live in mission times. The last several decades have seen the rise of the me-generation. “I am entitled to whatever I want and whatever I can get.” As we look around at our neighbors’ economic/work situations, we must accept a new label, “The Christ-generation, the new mission-generation. With the fragrance of Easter lilies still clinging to our Sunday clothes, let us turn our attention to his children who are afraid, are sick, are in economic crisis, and are longing for someone who knows their friend Jesus, who will come and give them encouragement and love. He is Risen indeed, so what is now asked of us is that we take him from the tomb and out into a frightened and lonely world. Let us pray:

“Our father God, who sent your only son our Lord, Jesus Christ, to die and rise again for even me, holy is your name and precious is the blood of your son, our brother Jesus. May your kingdom fill the void where selfishness had taken root in the rich soil of too much, too soon, too self-focused. Let me hear my brother’s cry; let me see my sister struggle to feed her family; let me touch your children with your words and guidance while their parents try to meet their earthly needs. We will survive this difficult time if we will but put you first in our lives. Forgive us when we have whined about not having enough so that we may share what you have given us with extravagant generosity. Keep your children safe within your arms and held close to your beating heart, that we may feel the sweetness of your presence. In the name of your son Jesus Christ our Savior I pray. Amen”
Doris
Copyright 2010 Doris Gaines Rapp, Ph.D.
“God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine.”