After the beginning…

Sin Has Damaged Everything

Nothing works perfectly. Because the entire human race has made poor choices …

Everything’s broken, and nothing on this planet works perfectly. Sin has damaged everything.

Sin has ruined everything. Sin has destroyed everything. Sin has corrupted and spoiled everything. Sin has injured everything — every relationship, idea, dream, and human body. Everything has been touched by this damage.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon describes six dimensions of your life that sin has damaged. Over the next few days, we’ll look at these six dimensions.

1. The first result is natural disasters and deformities.

We’re not living in Eden anymore. As John Milton wrote in a very famous poem, paradise was lost. We live on a broken planet. And, as a result, we have hurricanes, typhoons, wacky weather, earthquakes, droughts, and floods.

It’s amazing to me that insurance calls all these things acts of God but doesn’t call the birth of a baby an act of God. In other words, an act of God is only the negative stuff that happens. God does not want these things happening in the world. And he is as upset by natural disasters as we are. The world was broken when sin damaged everything.

The Bible says in Romans 8:20, “Creation is confused” (CEV). Everything on this planet has lost its original purpose. Everything in the world was damaged including your DNA, your parents’ DNA, and their parents’ DNA. Have you figured out yet that your body doesn’t work right? If everybody’s body worked perfectly, there would be no need for doctors.

2. The second result is physical decay and death.

There was no death on this planet until sin entered the world. Ecclesiastes 8:8 says, “We cannot control the wind or determine the day of our death.” We know that death is inevitable, but we sure try to stop it. We go to great lengths to postpone the decay, too.

But there’s actually good news: God doesn’t want you to live forever on this planet. He wants you to live forever in a perfect place, not on a planet that’s been broken by sin.

 

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
Romans 8:22 ESV

This devotional © 2014 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

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To the family and Students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

I live 10 minutes away from the Highschool where that terrible shooting took place.

This is a very simple post.

I ask you to pray with me for those families that lost their loved ones. May the Lord comfort them in this terrible trial. Valentine’s day in Florida will never be the same.

The Lord Is My Shepherd

A Psalm of David.

23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
²     He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.^[a]
3     He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness^[b]
    for his name’s sake.

⁴ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,^[c]
    I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely^[d] goodness and mercy^[e] shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell^[f] in the house of the Lord
    forever.^[g]

R.I.P.

There Was Still is a friend

I just received the third Picture in 2 weeks from a younger friend of my father. My father will be 80 years old this year. Mom and Dad always had around younger people having in them a capability to grasp young and older people attention and affection. For a few years, I was a happy 7, 8 and 9 years old because of music. These young sixties Italian friends were different from their generation peers. Dad and about a dozen young man in Milan put together the first NewOrleans band in Italy before he met my mom. After they married,  my parents spent many nights playing music in clubs and took me with them.

I loved that smell of beer and wine in the air plus the dusk cloud if smoke even when I was so very tired and would fall asleep anywhere. I would have never changed this new life I thought at that time.

They had a friend, one of the younger ones 18 19  years old my father being 23 at that time.  Giuliano could never stay still.He pretty much saw all corners of the world and loves the orient the most..while, you can see Wild elephants drinking water at the opposite ending of this picture and, he is again on the go and I will wait for the next photograph, in about 40 days he will reach Laos. Giuliano loves the Orient. I met so many interesting people when I was young and a few are coming back around now that we are getting older.another piece of what I would love to write someday if I get a miracle and a true writer would help me. I really need to write the Miracles of God in my life, before I die. I cannot remember everything but it would be sufficient to feel a decent size non-fiction book. Help I scream and wait for a miracle.There is a lot to say about Giuliano and how he believes in Christ and has since he was on a fishing boat in Island. I cannot put all this in order. I remember him. As a usual friend coming and going away in the word with only his guitar and a sleeping bag.He also loved jazz that particular New Orleand Original Jazz. Louis Armstrong is one of them the best next to his mentor King Oliver.

I have no idea when I will continuous this.

I will upload the photo Later and edit.

God bless you,

later,

Pat

Devotional

Know Your Calling

Every Christian has two callings in life: a spiritual one to salvation and also a vocational calling. Life is too short to miss either one. Your two callings are separate but inseparable. The first informs the way you’ll live out your second calling. The realization of what Christ has done for us produces a compulsion to live for Him. When we talk about one’s “calling,” we’re speaking about the vocational kind that answers this question: “I’ve decided to follow God, but how does He want me to use my gifts and passions?”

Asking the right questions is crucial for discerning one’s calling. Oftentimes, we fail to ask the correct questions and then wonder why our answers are so dissatisfying. Seeking God’s will for your life begins by asking yourself, “What keeps me awake when I should be falling asleep at night?” The answer will expose what makes you mad, what makes you cry, what lingers in your mind when the world goes dark. The second question you should ask yourself is, “What wakes me up when I should still be sleeping in the morning?” The answer will uncover what you value, what you’re committed to, and what excites you.

Here are several others I think are helpful for deciphering God ’s invitation to you:

What are your passions and gifts? At the intersection of these two elements, you’ll find your purpose in life.
What would you work on or want to do for free? That is usually a good sign of what God has designed you to do.
What energized you when you were a child? Does it still animate you? Knowing your calling is often directly connected to childhood passions and gifts.
If you could do anything and take a pay cut, what would that be? You may have to blow up your financial goals in order to pursue your true calling.
What barriers are preventing you from pursuing your true calling? Can you begin removing those?
If you aren’t engaging your gifts and talents where you find yourself now, could you make changes in your current role to better engage those? Don’t rule out the possibility that where you are is where you need to be.

God Bless you

Later,

Pat.