tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38978112972140164182024-03-13T14:32:20.679-07:00Sunshine on Four Oaks Farm.Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.comBlogger84125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-33853306110072832992022-02-11T05:08:00.013-08:002022-02-13T04:14:02.456-08:00Perfection<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgwiQnHQCY-wjhJmR7gW3rsl3jiGamFsk6QJ-AuG0ornfg_8K1boZyqic056XImPIJqcwOqACnzcgmhD1APnbwjNexdZtxwL6-04ci6Xltriii93pmC9llDu7yKN3NCmLlCJWB5gO1IJM-v4qfy3Mr5lv2pfccfeFzOjA4JJQnqxQFHjS45FHvOh6A6=s2048" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgwiQnHQCY-wjhJmR7gW3rsl3jiGamFsk6QJ-AuG0ornfg_8K1boZyqic056XImPIJqcwOqACnzcgmhD1APnbwjNexdZtxwL6-04ci6Xltriii93pmC9llDu7yKN3NCmLlCJWB5gO1IJM-v4qfy3Mr5lv2pfccfeFzOjA4JJQnqxQFHjS45FHvOh6A6=s320"/></a></div>
What is perfection to me?--
The bark on an old oak tree,
the colors of a lake just waking up,
the cool waves of the sea?
What is perfection?--the chubby hands of a child,
the evening call of a whipporwill, frisky puppies going wild.
The cardinal in his flaming red suit, showy and brilliant always catching my eye, the embrace of a mother calming the fray, the calloused hands of a man gently leading the way. Perfection is living and loving and seizing the day.
What is perfection to me? The heart emptied of pride now filling with life, the turning of the eyes towards the light. Perfection is the beginning of redemption, the first steps towards "home".
Who can condemn the heart who's relented, repented and real? Not perfect in all of our ways, but perfectly in process of being healed.
What is perfection to me?--It is love covering another's faults, it's holding of hands and carrying on. Perfection is people clean through the cross, all covered in grace, accepting themselves, who we are, who we were, and who we will be.
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Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-81690750219560129502022-01-11T16:27:00.004-08:002022-01-11T16:33:51.027-08:00The Long ConversationEvery blog has a song inside it. Today a love song because our Father so deeply loves us. Click and loop to hear it while you read. š
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I have pulled up a chair, poured a hot cup, I've had a cleaning cry when I needed to, I've poured it all out and I've kept it all in and found that it's ok either way. I've stayed as long as I've liked, and I've come back when I may because there is time--my lifetime going on forever. The conversation that will never end has been a midnight discourse, a pondering parley, it's been a desperate question with a year's long answer, an immovable opinion remedied with His single word. You're invited into the dialogue, but I've found it is prudent to listen awhile too--listen a lifetime.
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I've peered into the Great Story to see some of the first starters like, "Let there be light!" and "Be fruitful and multiply". I've heard the first words of young Jesus saying, "Didn't you know I would be about my Father's business?" Year after year, page after page, His Word permeates the reader, overflowing one's life, bringing eyes and ears alive to Him. It leaps off the page to meet me here in room, in my car, in my world. The conversation has begun, and it will never end, but one must take one's place and join in.
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All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved...Romans 10:13
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I've tossed silly, stormy questions that He hung straight up to dry. I've volleyed words only to run from His replies, blocking them out, pretending I didn't hear. I've marched into His office, and I've cowered behind the curtain unsure if I had His audience, if I had been heard. I've written Him books and books full of feelings, told Him my dreams and listened to His for me. I've heard that He traces the lines of every word, following along and I've known Him to break right in. He's rang bells to seize a moment with me, He's sent a song to share in my thoughts as I pray. And it's a conversation with no end. You can join in too. Most of you already have.
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Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.....Isaiah 1:18
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It started for me with a kneeling-prayer on my dad and mom's dining room floor, an admission, a repentance, a glancing back at a self-driven life to say goodbye and start anew, start the conversation that has gone on until now and will go on forever.
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Sometimes I step back from the dialogue in ugly unbelief while He moves near. I may falter in my speech while He's finessed a forest for me to find a word in, to feed my ears and eyes His feelings for me and the way forward. I may stutter. I will stammer only to feel the wind and find the sky has coalesced into meaning and direction. I find He has carved a cloud into holy speech, a picture of His written Word. And this conversation will go on and on. If you don't yet know, He wants to talk to you too...but I bet you know.
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There have been love notes galore that remind me, "For God so loved the world", and books sent to shake me out of my stupors and into discipline and correction. His words have come by way of men and women speaking His heart's utterance for me.
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Do not neglect the spiritual gift that is in you, which was given to you when the prophets spoke and the elders laid their hands on you. 1Timothy 4:14)
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I've heard it through signs on the highway, signs in the sky, from stones on the ground, from the mouths of children, the eyes of animals and in any way He chooses to reveal His mind and echo His timeless nature and Word. I posture myself to hear with belief. I exhort myself to listen and join the conversation with all of my heart as His whole world opens to form His-voice-to-see as it did in the beginning.
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For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world Godās invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. Romans 1:19-20
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The long conversation starts here:
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Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-18755051600382663372021-11-25T04:58:00.002-08:002021-11-25T08:54:01.806-08:00What I Didn't DoLooking in the mirror at the curling locks that reach around and down the front of my shirt. It was what I didn't do that created this moment for me. It's been awhile and I don't even know why. The bun or the braid or the pony tail lengthens and I have done nothing about it. And those strands of silver wisping lighter than the black, here they come and I let them show. It's what I didn't do that allows them their time and maybe I look all of my 55 these days because of what I didn't do.
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<br />
If I didn't worry... if I didn't ...what then? It would take time, but something would grow from that looking away...that ignoring. Like the long curls cascading down the back a slow change would occur from what I didn't do... if I didn't worry, if I didn't.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM-UmmW_cc-S7sKtrI3yKApNr30lkyAOUh2LoHooeB5YkSIpBXzIGggLaMyjlLEubhMuz5740p8wNla-VgSNTQ537eReZ2_E3spHIImUzK9xt7fitBWBUGTTWDmM6epgJrVelc8EjqZSw/s750/253795699_405708964507770_300390761445366000_n.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="750" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM-UmmW_cc-S7sKtrI3yKApNr30lkyAOUh2LoHooeB5YkSIpBXzIGggLaMyjlLEubhMuz5740p8wNla-VgSNTQ537eReZ2_E3spHIImUzK9xt7fitBWBUGTTWDmM6epgJrVelc8EjqZSw/s320/253795699_405708964507770_300390761445366000_n.jpg"/></a></div>
And it has begun; the slow, the easy, the steady change, the turning of the back to the prodding problem, to the frightful future. To the bad news I turn my back and do nothing...Instead of acting, I just "trust fall" again and again. To the heavy thoughts of days ahead alone, of getting older and when things go wrong, of sickness and such silly things I do not sink into concern. I do not feed the frenzy that comes to me poking, asking, threatening to invade my head and my heart.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx9RM-CBJsq9JCEqxIitCkbqRDHFKHPcOqUEBFWRFBLsfUtcunloKRtEGH-G5i08TL7Uo6XHbbfZx6Zf6lbRXhWu31Dgub8ZHsgHkhdWMyCf4VIzDmmkWsOC5WXt8JBsymbbAJnSaoBgM/s2048/252132863_657030859036554_2812736658673011068_n.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx9RM-CBJsq9JCEqxIitCkbqRDHFKHPcOqUEBFWRFBLsfUtcunloKRtEGH-G5i08TL7Uo6XHbbfZx6Zf6lbRXhWu31Dgub8ZHsgHkhdWMyCf4VIzDmmkWsOC5WXt8JBsymbbAJnSaoBgM/s320/252132863_657030859036554_2812736658673011068_n.jpg"/></a></div>
Once the frenzy came shouting at me and I pulled up a chair to listen awhile. What if "this"? What if "that"? It shouted. I went for a walk with my friend. 'Round and 'round on the road winding between tombstones and big old trees we walked shuffling a gathering of Canadians into the graves.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw7Ro_hikonfXr_JdGIPXjDyM_ayPRxgVU35DbpcF3ktrQxaBG1zQfjLWgXhhiIFz-_i51n0rkUsWPWqkOtOAmn3W-uG3y4i-cBKt3BenojFZehc6dz0Dnp8xA8AGV0ssjFIGXz-nYepw/s2048/248337665_880286902880579_6262015381552293022_n.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw7Ro_hikonfXr_JdGIPXjDyM_ayPRxgVU35DbpcF3ktrQxaBG1zQfjLWgXhhiIFz-_i51n0rkUsWPWqkOtOAmn3W-uG3y4i-cBKt3BenojFZehc6dz0Dnp8xA8AGV0ssjFIGXz-nYepw/s320/248337665_880286902880579_6262015381552293022_n.jpg"/></a></div>
I told her what I'd heard and she said, "Rhonda....the Lord! The Lord is already there at the end of each concern and He will take care of you." Sometimes I need a friend to help me in what I shouldn't do. I shouldn't worry. And if I don't something new will grow. It will. And I will look different. I will talk different. A change will come because of what I didn't do.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk5d7Hcd39xMSbrzyPO4AXgaaMOqThMlAQhwzxJG3RtEpUJhjfKyzKAqjvnrwsIdTXlhe1Bwai42yI_pXQiK2YLBQbgsR0eqb0Blk5uY6QJsPB49dVWBG_V8RM9X_bgd_EpDVnq4hTMd8/s2048/256310232_3092742461003405_8126224239121623190_n.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk5d7Hcd39xMSbrzyPO4AXgaaMOqThMlAQhwzxJG3RtEpUJhjfKyzKAqjvnrwsIdTXlhe1Bwai42yI_pXQiK2YLBQbgsR0eqb0Blk5uY6QJsPB49dVWBG_V8RM9X_bgd_EpDVnq4hTMd8/s320/256310232_3092742461003405_8126224239121623190_n.jpg"/></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe class="BLOG_video_class" allowfullscreen="" youtube-src-id="duLKCOmxbJs" width="320" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/duLKCOmxbJs"></iframe></div>Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-26183831613149623022021-05-30T09:56:00.003-07:002021-06-09T19:08:07.306-07:00May May I sit with you for but a few more hours
and bless you for being you?
May I smell your blooming flowers
and watch your mulberries ripen soon?
May I brag about the roses
that choose your welcome to open wide?
And may I bring you this offering,
this feeling? I will try.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTRh8iJYLB75-oPc0y3VsJBCD7RN2_s0jSy7AN9kM84sWJMEAMk3ErxQ96TLaPXiQ2MsJYSt-ssP2ISRSV8W2uZMJDbh48i-FneejDq_Qm0rroqysRURexyU-8C-33uIE60VOYthfuymw/s2048/187237188_566876190950289_9113817960158347669_n.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTRh8iJYLB75-oPc0y3VsJBCD7RN2_s0jSy7AN9kM84sWJMEAMk3ErxQ96TLaPXiQ2MsJYSt-ssP2ISRSV8W2uZMJDbh48i-FneejDq_Qm0rroqysRURexyU-8C-33uIE60VOYthfuymw/s320/187237188_566876190950289_9113817960158347669_n.jpg"/></a></div>
Your days grow sweetly longer,
your showers come to find
the soil that needs more water,
the flowers and the vines.
I breath you in to savor.
I drink you in my thirst.
I bless you in your breezes,
I marvel at your worth!
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir1V1bwP6oYBXNkXUmNK0zdfFe1KDxzCMsLpMuM1gvJj90Rqzd4PeyKarzSnH8GtUmXs9IjFijX1G9b5tY-jXVgf3-7vVzLdp9MC32z0ksb4KFtu_f53L5b5ix7BqlyJhm3b13PRjJ0FQ/s2048/187472525_509038477205854_8992435811909168847_n.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir1V1bwP6oYBXNkXUmNK0zdfFe1KDxzCMsLpMuM1gvJj90Rqzd4PeyKarzSnH8GtUmXs9IjFijX1G9b5tY-jXVgf3-7vVzLdp9MC32z0ksb4KFtu_f53L5b5ix7BqlyJhm3b13PRjJ0FQ/s320/187472525_509038477205854_8992435811909168847_n.jpg"/></a></div>
The purest smell of privet,
the dandelion blooms,
daylily and magnolia
all draw me from my room.
I'll plant a little garden
when I find a piece of ground,
an orchard and a vineyard
'cause you'll be back real soon.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBnUOtOOqdgZaQggpps5WEJtoi1SgwnFwakgfSRVdR3xv11si2wutmLI2a_hYPmMEFDbnczy4aqWl43gQgBEOHnEPqLMpcd31Bo3hpwNGCZwMmuqyHCnfRhM5ERYdMJPLTKIFg6RW4XTg/s2048/187515717_1422956791396634_2596566263102634303_n.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBnUOtOOqdgZaQggpps5WEJtoi1SgwnFwakgfSRVdR3xv11si2wutmLI2a_hYPmMEFDbnczy4aqWl43gQgBEOHnEPqLMpcd31Bo3hpwNGCZwMmuqyHCnfRhM5ERYdMJPLTKIFg6RW4XTg/s320/187515717_1422956791396634_2596566263102634303_n.jpg"/></a></div>
You are my shining favorite.
I don't wish for you to go.
Can't we just start all over?
-- May 1st, I love you so.
Your days passed by too quickly,
your benefits astound
and I am left to linger
till you circle back around.
Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-65548464673290266542020-12-08T05:04:00.005-08:002020-12-08T06:39:02.841-08:00The Cat's Way<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); color: black; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0.4pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The sight of a soft cat on the floor, utterly relaxed,
batting the ornament she took from my small tree caught my eye.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is rolling about with it, immersed in the
amusement. It has struck me that these are moments of the profound.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); color: black; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0.4pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Nearby an uptight human sitting at her computer, praying robust and hard
prayers for sons, for country, for city, for leaders, for churches, for
justice, her shoulders are tightly held, her mind is fixed and her heart is
sober and hopeful until this glancing to the right and this funny beholding
sets the mind suddenly free as the full-bodied, well-fed cat bats the small, red ornament
under the couch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She may do this for the
entire day, I mused. Sheās evidently done this all night as I found the small tree
laying flat on its face and ornaments scattered across the room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sheād jumped into my lap three times this
morning hoping to sway me to her will: āPat me. Pay attention to only me! Canāt
you hear me purring?!ā <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); color: black; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0.4pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What is the profound in this to me?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> It is this,</span> "Don't forget to be free, to be
at ease, to linger in the peace that is yours to enjoy." Should only the cat
enjoy the peace and ease afforded us? Let your prayers for justice, for
freedom, for truth, for mercy rise high. Pray your prayers and then rest in a measure
of the catās peace and you will have it all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span><span face=""Segoe UI Emoji",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); color: black; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0.4pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol-ext; mso-hansi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; mso-symbol-font-family: "Segoe UI Emoji";">š</span><span style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); color: black; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0.4pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Segoe UI Emoji",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); color: black; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0.4pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol-ext; mso-hansi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; mso-symbol-font-family: "Segoe UI Emoji";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Segoe UI Emoji",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); color: black; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0.4pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol-ext; mso-hansi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; mso-symbol-font-family: "Segoe UI Emoji";"><span face="DDG_ProximaNova, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_0, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_1, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_2, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_3, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_4, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_5, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_6, "Proxima Nova", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Segoe UI", "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", "Open Sans", FreeSans, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #494949; font-size: 14.4px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And</span><span face="DDG_ProximaNova, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_0, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_1, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_2, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_3, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_4, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_5, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_6, "Proxima Nova", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Segoe UI", "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", "Open Sans", FreeSans, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-size: 14.4px; letter-spacing: normal;"> </span><span face="DDG_ProximaNova, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_0, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_1, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_2, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_3, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_4, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_5, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_6, "Proxima Nova", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Segoe UI", "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", "Open Sans", FreeSans, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #494949; font-size: 14.4px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the</span><span face="DDG_ProximaNova, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_0, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_1, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_2, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_3, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_4, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_5, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_6, "Proxima Nova", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Segoe UI", "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", "Open Sans", FreeSans, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-size: 14.4px; letter-spacing: normal;"> </span><span face="DDG_ProximaNova, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_0, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_1, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_2, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_3, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_4, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_5, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_6, "Proxima Nova", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Segoe UI", "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", "Open Sans", FreeSans, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #494949; font-size: 14.4px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">peace</span><span face="DDG_ProximaNova, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_0, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_1, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_2, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_3, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_4, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_5, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_6, "Proxima Nova", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Segoe UI", "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", "Open Sans", FreeSans, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-size: 14.4px; letter-spacing: normal;"> </span><span face="DDG_ProximaNova, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_0, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_1, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_2, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_3, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_4, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_5, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_6, "Proxima Nova", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Segoe UI", "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", "Open Sans", FreeSans, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #494949; font-size: 14.4px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">of</span><span face="DDG_ProximaNova, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_0, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_1, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_2, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_3, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_4, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_5, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_6, "Proxima Nova", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Segoe UI", "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", "Open Sans", FreeSans, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-size: 14.4px; letter-spacing: normal;"> </span><span face="DDG_ProximaNova, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_0, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_1, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_2, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_3, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_4, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_5, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_6, "Proxima Nova", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Segoe UI", "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", "Open Sans", FreeSans, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #494949; font-size: 14.4px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">God</span><span face="DDG_ProximaNova, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_0, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_1, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_2, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_3, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_4, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_5, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_6, "Proxima Nova", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Segoe UI", "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", "Open Sans", FreeSans, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-size: 14.4px; letter-spacing: normal;">, which surpasses all comprehension, will </span><span face="DDG_ProximaNova, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_0, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_1, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_2, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_3, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_4, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_5, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_6, "Proxima Nova", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Segoe UI", "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", "Open Sans", FreeSans, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #494949; font-size: 14.4px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">guard</span><span face="DDG_ProximaNova, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_0, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_1, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_2, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_3, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_4, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_5, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_6, "Proxima Nova", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Segoe UI", "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", "Open Sans", FreeSans, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-size: 14.4px; letter-spacing: normal;"> </span><span face="DDG_ProximaNova, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_0, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_1, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_2, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_3, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_4, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_5, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_6, "Proxima Nova", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Segoe UI", "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", "Open Sans", FreeSans, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #494949; font-size: 14.4px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">your</span><span face="DDG_ProximaNova, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_0, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_1, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_2, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_3, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_4, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_5, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_6, "Proxima Nova", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Segoe UI", "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", "Open Sans", FreeSans, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-size: 14.4px; letter-spacing: normal;"> hearts and your </span><span face="DDG_ProximaNova, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_0, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_1, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_2, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_3, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_4, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_5, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_6, "Proxima Nova", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Segoe UI", "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", "Open Sans", FreeSans, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #494949; font-size: 14.4px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">minds</span><span face="DDG_ProximaNova, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_0, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_1, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_2, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_3, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_4, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_5, DDG_ProximaNova_UI_6, "Proxima Nova", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Segoe UI", "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", "Open Sans", FreeSans, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-size: 14.4px; letter-spacing: normal;"> in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Segoe UI Emoji",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); color: black; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0.4pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol-ext; mso-hansi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; mso-symbol-font-family: "Segoe UI Emoji";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1-en2B82lfnxqSCb48g-QxNdsZRn24MSQ_3e8kx62jzuiGJvP4BC_qMJTumbwKtzh0EqxynXzTOCQtWbPaUsjH7wz_0xWdBKeNoW723oZFcrKxuel6Y4ESRT7Ei2XNOu1CNfLDNMwquA/s1440/125276903_3409939822456198_8515045050360017328_o.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1072" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1-en2B82lfnxqSCb48g-QxNdsZRn24MSQ_3e8kx62jzuiGJvP4BC_qMJTumbwKtzh0EqxynXzTOCQtWbPaUsjH7wz_0xWdBKeNoW723oZFcrKxuel6Y4ESRT7Ei2XNOu1CNfLDNMwquA/s320/125276903_3409939822456198_8515045050360017328_o.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7jmgF2nCEB7CbSdwFtlYGUqfVM4v2rXNUqz3Y5F5-0b8E8uXrUojxJ5FLb7Of4wMxVd-0eKWeEsc1reDoK65ggFvdClIEmFnSrVB2JXepoOpY0V5nWx0-eB3CckZ4ZDwSGOYKhFKXVQ8/s2048/130088586_409796450216607_8283932960820193530_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7jmgF2nCEB7CbSdwFtlYGUqfVM4v2rXNUqz3Y5F5-0b8E8uXrUojxJ5FLb7Of4wMxVd-0eKWeEsc1reDoK65ggFvdClIEmFnSrVB2JXepoOpY0V5nWx0-eB3CckZ4ZDwSGOYKhFKXVQ8/s320/130088586_409796450216607_8283932960820193530_n.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC95GB21fsf0cL6vCvz1GZekJEa2g9c2m_dHyGoGdSuhWA1b3te-ahzBsi4fpj8lWVWGyc-fLBPF6i8XBfIfvNJICYvq5Rbs48SlIOWC4xtEfDrOeCqvZbNJ7TSWWznoJlPhrLJhalHI0/s2048/130516160_379924519750291_2243219118582171993_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC95GB21fsf0cL6vCvz1GZekJEa2g9c2m_dHyGoGdSuhWA1b3te-ahzBsi4fpj8lWVWGyc-fLBPF6i8XBfIfvNJICYvq5Rbs48SlIOWC4xtEfDrOeCqvZbNJ7TSWWznoJlPhrLJhalHI0/s320/130516160_379924519750291_2243219118582171993_n.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span face=""Segoe UI Emoji",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); color: black; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0.4pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-char-type: symbol-ext; mso-hansi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; mso-symbol-font-family: "Segoe UI Emoji";"><br /></span><p></p>Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-76967277879116720532020-08-03T14:08:00.005-07:002020-08-04T04:09:50.122-07:00Little Worm<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Who is this little worm, but a mite on my
windshield?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wiggling about, such a phenomenon.
So small, not more than half a centimeter, but charged with the vigor of an
athlete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought his tummy must be
full of food to have such energy-- and how did he light upon my windshield?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Had he been spinning a long strand of web
too?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I had a trunk full of groceries.</span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I bought a little extra this time in case I
canāt go back soon. </span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The little worm
shrugged at me with a blushing of pink all about.</span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt;">He has no care over powerful monopolies of food and such things. He needs no warehouse of goods to sustain him. He feeds in the
open air as I plopped my bulk groceries down into a large cart. Alone in the
warehouse full of people, no one bothered to look much at the other, all awkward
behind masks. </span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt;">He feeds outside of the
system Iām in, I mused. </span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt;">He does not envy
me nor beg to come in.</span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt;">What more could
he need? Little worm, how I'd like to enter yours.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I, inside my car, trying to enjoy a moment beside
a lovely lake, but concerned about the cottage cheese and meat in my cooler and
concerned that I find a bathroom in due time. Iām caught up in a system chosen
for me before I was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Need it always be? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Little worm, may I come into your way?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leave the extra canned goods behind and wander
in the ease of your dwellings?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lake was
mine for only a few moments, but it is yours your whole life through, though beautifully
short and sweet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> We t</span>ry much harder than you to extend ours.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">"Get out of the car, get out of the race for the
normal and safe", I say to myself. Let the world go on fading and the King take His place. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What am I saying?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do I even yet know?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Iām
only āconsidering the liliesā and a promise I hold. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="background: white; border: 1pt none; color: #8497b0; font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #8497B0; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=60000 lumo=40000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153; padding: 0in;">Mathew 6:</span></i></b><i><span style="background: white; color: #8497b0; font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #8497B0; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=60000 lumo=40000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;"> 25 "Therefore I tell </span><b style="font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">you</span></b>, <b style="font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">do</span></b> <b style="font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">not</span></b> <b style="font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">worry</span></b> <b style="font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">about</span></b> <b style="font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">your</span></b> <b style="font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">life</span></b>, <b style="font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">what</span></b> <b style="font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">you</span></b> <b style="font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">will</span></b> <b style="font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">eat</span></b> or drink; or
about your body, what you will wear. Is not <b style="font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">life</span></b> more than
food, and the body more than clothesā¦ā¦.</i><i><span style="color: #8497b0; font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #8497B0; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=60000 lumo=40000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text2; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghW0sNP1RKZBfgx6jENg8wlovgQD8cVGD-SDMRL0sNMKQ9nuhViLsVmuvEBiT2UQ9Aw-60-pG5pdY02_YAVRDWfkkRl3P0xZAdCd7x2MzG7fj6CuKj9FQ9o5A7jIv4WCU4iwjhnh15yuE/s443/baby+jack.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="443" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghW0sNP1RKZBfgx6jENg8wlovgQD8cVGD-SDMRL0sNMKQ9nuhViLsVmuvEBiT2UQ9Aw-60-pG5pdY02_YAVRDWfkkRl3P0xZAdCd7x2MzG7fj6CuKj9FQ9o5A7jIv4WCU4iwjhnh15yuE/s0/baby+jack.png" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><br />Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-35778914416878228842020-07-31T07:05:00.003-07:002020-08-02T19:45:51.203-07:00Adams Rd.<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">I saw a parcel of land for sale for a solid sum. In the photo advertising, a large oak tree stood next to a shabby white house with ivy growing up the trunk. I think I would give the whole sum for one oak tree if my bank account obliged. Massive limb-arms made of strength and integrity and wood; great limbs stretch horizontal far. And when any oak hangs its massive limbs low, like the giant arms of my father, for a daughter or a son of Adam to climb up, a transaction is made that can never be revoked. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">No one has ever forgotten climbing about on an oak limb, nor the feeling of bark against the skin; legs dangling over the earth, one would go even higher--knees pressed into the ridges struggling for ascent, blood rushing under the skin, and a breeze igniting a sense of losing the bonds of the earth. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Adams Road, Ozark. <font color="#ed7d31"><o:p></o:p></font></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font color="#ed7d31"><b> </b></font></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><font color="#ed7d31"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh83x7pSJ3H8tubfPzOPAB76SmEG-sb2e3r-SAdb7_g4vdnxnHZUQ4HnKPlOYIqw6l8M6sDvfKSb9wdqTCXjnI5kswXKwBCeFuuGdDlEY8bvDIe5CKO6s6QEF4YIl1ses5Q2JhMlts8G4c/s2048/IMG_2200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh83x7pSJ3H8tubfPzOPAB76SmEG-sb2e3r-SAdb7_g4vdnxnHZUQ4HnKPlOYIqw6l8M6sDvfKSb9wdqTCXjnI5kswXKwBCeFuuGdDlEY8bvDIe5CKO6s6QEF4YIl1ses5Q2JhMlts8G4c/w328-h218/IMG_2200.jpg" width="328" /></a></b></font></div><p></p><div><o:p><font color="#ed7d31"><b><br /></b></font></o:p></div>Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-58043734579422453232020-07-09T05:48:00.000-07:002020-07-10T09:05:41.597-07:00The Cardinal<br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">I heard a cardinal chirping in the morning and spotted
him perched on the chain-linked fence separating the yard from the menacing-looking trailers
next door. They, clearly ravaged by time and uncaring, stand in sick declaration
of how lives gone off the rails might live.</span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt;"> I think they</span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt;"> should be pulled away and burned, their land liberated from their oppression, but some are occupied and one in
view through the privet sits empty.</span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">The
red-singing-glory sat on the fence, breaking my view of them and rousing a sense of awe
in me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Red-feathered-he had no prejudice of perch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He lit on the fence much closer to the
trailers than the cozy, sage house I was watching from.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><i>My God, your beauty is for us all.</i><i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> It is found</span> perching on the old and the new,
the stigmatized and the glorified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Beholding this scarlet-feathered-flame elevates us all. </span>Your
beauty and presence is for the reeking drug addicts, the demoralized among us
who disgust with their behavior and waste, and it is for the sanitized, the
rich, and the privileged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It lights upon this green gable, the room in which I live, and offers the beauty of relationship, renewal,of communion and connection
again and again in complete gentleness and humility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> You, God, have no prejudice while offering yourself to all.</span></i></span></div>
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<br />Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-29901940636409384772020-04-10T17:47:00.001-07:002020-04-19T06:03:08.828-07:00Little Stars<br />
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<span class="verse v8" data-usfm="AMO.5.8" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><span style="color: #f1c232;">He</span></i></b><i><span style="color: #f1c232;"><b> who made the Pleiades and Orion, </b></span></i></span></span></span><i style="text-indent: -1em;"><span style="color: #f1c232; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>who turns midnight into dawn</b></span></i></div>
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<span class="verse v8" data-usfm="AMO.5.8" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i><span style="color: #f1c232; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>and darkens day into night, </b></span></i></span><i style="text-indent: -2em;"><span style="color: #f1c232; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>who calls for the waters of the sea</b></span></i></div>
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<span class="verse v8" data-usfm="AMO.5.8" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i><span style="color: #f1c232; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>and pours them out over the face of the landā</b></span></i></span><i style="text-indent: -1em;"><span style="color: #f1c232; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box;">the </span><span class="nd" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Lord </span></span><span class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box;">is his name. </span></b></span></i></div>
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<i style="text-indent: -1em;"><span style="color: #f1c232; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Amos 5:8</span></b></span></i></div>
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<i style="text-indent: -1em;"><span style="color: #f1c232; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br /></span></b></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16pt; text-indent: -1em;">When You speak, Lord, You light a runnerās torch within
us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Weāre compelled to move carrying Your dancing flame. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And after the light burns low, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">when the last emberās glow has just disappeared<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">one turns to investigate all that You said, this speech
that sprang from the breath of a star; our Morning Star. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial";"> </span><i><b><span style="color: #f1c232; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright </span><span style="color: #f1c232; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">morning star</span><span style="color: #f1c232; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. Revelations 22:16</span></b></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now we hold Your words under a light, still warm
from the fire </span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">to study under a lamp Your guiding Words. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">Rendered speech too great for me, yet anchoring inside
of me</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">and now the articulations of Orion drip from the
tip of my own common pen. How can this be?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Iāve become bearer of light, too; His little star.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Morning Star took His rightful place
within us, now He shines.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: black;">Oh God, You are the surge
that chases through the cord and brings us into light. We are Your prophesied
walking stars, tipping to spill into the night. </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: #f1c232; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;"><i><b>Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky. Philippians 2:15</b></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">And I am all human and, as this, I can only try.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We shine within an honor that no one can fully
describe, this privilege of living as Godās image
bearers; His Tribe.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We, <i><span style="color: #ffc000;">luminous
lanterns</span></i><span style="color: #ffc000;"> </span>hung up through Christ
against the dark, one by one by one through the ages hung by the Father <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #ffc000;"><b>of lights</b></span></i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><i><span style="color: #f1c232;"><b>Arise, you who sleep,<o:p></o:p></b></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><i><span style="color: #f1c232;"><b>Arise from the dead,<o:p></o:p></b></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><i><span style="color: #f1c232;"><b>And Christ will give you light.<o:p></o:p></b></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><i><span style="color: #f1c232;"><b>Ephesians 5:14</b></span></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">The morning He set the cornerstone of the
earthās foundation-- when foundations were laid, angels and stars sang songs of
awe and wonder.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> In our day, we pick up their chorus. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><i style="color: #ffd966; font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 21.3333px;"><b>Job 38:7</b></i><br />
<i style="color: #ffd966; font-family: "baskerville old face", serif; font-size: 21.3333px;"><b><br /></b></i>
<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">Beloved, give your praise a song,</span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16pt;"> y</span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">ou walking stars, beloved lights on
earth.</span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">Orionās belt--- truth pulled
tight around your waists.</span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He looks to earth and sees the darkness lit up, His
racing heart proclaims, āMy beloved!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span class="label" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #616161; display: inherit; font-family: "arialmt" , "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "liberation sans" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-right: 5px; padding: inherit; text-indent: 16px;"><br /></span><span class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #616161; font-family: "arialmt" , "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "liberation sans" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-indent: 16px;"> </span><span style="color: #f1c232; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><b><span class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: 16px;">Those who are wise</span><span class="note f" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: 16px;"></span><span class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-indent: 16px;"> will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. Daniel 12:3</span></b></i></span>Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-33151343131838814622020-04-06T08:47:00.003-07:002020-04-06T10:04:28.495-07:00April 6, 2019<br />
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<span style="font-family: "gabriola"; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">There's
beauty in the mists of life when definition wanes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "gabriola"; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">And
captivating pontificating about what may lie ahead<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "gabriola"; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">The
river's winding curves can hide what's just around the bend <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "gabriola"; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">And in
the trees and forest floors are creatures blending in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "gabriola"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;">--------------------------</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "gabriola"; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">A
sudden morning fog sets in and clarity is veiled<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "gabriola"; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">All
the vision that I'd had suddenly has failed<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "gabriola"; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">In the
haze I hold on to what I know is true<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "gabriola"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;">and
take the path I see by faith-- it will lead me through </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "gabriola"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "gabriola"; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">Then
in the potter's kiln I find all has filled with smoke<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "gabriola"; font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">The
heat and flame, sure to fuse the crumbled and the broke<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "gabriola"; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "gabriola";">The
cloud has hid the sacred work but soon it will emerge</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "gabriola"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;">A brilliant
piece of priceless art, the Potterās secret work</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "gabriola"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">-------------<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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1 Cor. 13:<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span class="versenum" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">12 </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;</span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-28678V" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28678V" title="See cross-reference V">V</a>)" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> then we shall see face to face.</span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-28678W" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NIV-28678W" title="See cross-reference W">W</a>)" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.</span></i></span></div>
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<br />Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-39347038812526644042020-04-04T08:00:00.002-07:002020-04-04T13:54:01.361-07:00Coming and GoingMy eyesight is both going and coming. When I look at this white screen with only bare eyes, the images and letters are not clear to me; my sight is going. But as I sit typing, looking through my purchased lenses, I see as the letters and images actually are....quite clear.<br />
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I am getting older. My vision is losing clarity. <br />
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When I was young and my eyes could see clearly, my spiritual eyes were impaired. I would wonder in my relation to God, I often could not see myself in relation to Him and I had many fears and many things along life's path seemed a blur. But as my physical eyes are waning, my spiritual eyes are sharpening. I have new lenses that sharpen my view. I see through lenses of faith and spirit and there is much more to see than I once thought! This is the grace of God at work in a growing habitual surrender to His love, His Word, and His path.<br />
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<span style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people. Ephesians 1:18.</span><br />
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Faith sees what mortal eyes can't see. I no longer fear what my natural eyes can or cannot see, for faith sees what I need to see! <br />
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Beyond the vision of two brown eyes is a glimpse of a Kingdom without end! I see Him, my God, holding my hands, putting light on a path that I daily walk in. I see, I see! I see Him sitting on His throne in Heaven, I see my spot in that place. No longer feeling alone in troubled times, no longer feeling responsible for it all. Faith sees all the things Jesus promised, provided, and planned.<br />
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Thank you, Father, for Jesus...<br />
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<i><span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">He has sent
me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">and recovery of sight for the blind,</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">to set the
oppressed free </span><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Luke 4:18</span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Thank you for sight, for reversing the effects of spiritual blindness.<br />
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May your eyes be blessed today to see all He desires for you to see and give you peace.<br />
<br />Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-64616854618124083562020-03-28T11:28:00.005-07:002020-03-28T12:40:32.832-07:00Intentions: Asking For a Friend<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">When spring
awakens and rubs her sleepy eyes, lifting a fresh gaze across the barren landscape
has she come to bring bouquets or storms?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And when summer burns away her sweet morning dew and dries the rolling
white streams, has it come to scorch the earth or ripen garden vegetables and
fruit? And when the leaves turn golden within autumnās warm crescendo, has death
been ushered in upon the land or has it brought the season of harvest, pumpkins, football and friends?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when
winter blasts the earth with an exacting icy grip, is all lost or has it come
to purify with its milky blankets of snow, to bring rest for one and all? <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">When He
made the earth full of seed and people to walk bare and free upon it, was His
plan all along to banish us and set us under a curse, or was his intention fruitful
work, creativity, fellowship, and happiness forever? </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When He gave us the great law on the mountain in
tablets of stone, did He wait to see us fail or give us hope to one day live a
splendid way?</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Has He intended
to fully keep us, provide for us, give us hope, gather us under His wing, free
us from all that entangles us and keeps us from the pure expression of who we
are here to be? Or has He left us to be afraid, confused, abandoned from time to time,
expecting us to figure it all out in a worldly wilderness alone without a daily
guide? Will He let sickness overcome us alone and the fear that surrounds it to steal
the upward curving of smiling lips, the creativity from our minds, the deep love in our hearts for one another?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">I believe that spring awakens to scatter a field with blooms of vetch and mountain buttercup. I believe she blows winds of change to give us more. I believe spring comes with her pockets full of hyacinth and daffodil, that summer comes with long days and warm nights to give us time to sit under the stars and chase lightning bugs. I am sure that autumn clothes us with comfort and winter with repose and I believe that all God's intentions are good, noble, and right--that He is perfectly kind. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So when one asks Him why, there need be no fear in the answer. He has the best of intentions.</span></div>
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Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-5038618691718565872020-03-27T06:17:00.002-07:002021-04-24T17:52:45.396-07:00Mists and Miracles 2013<div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" itemprop="blogPost" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting" style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #333333; min-height: 0px; position: relative;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The mist was rising mystical and beautiful over Gar Creek early as I drove past. It captures our gazes from behind the rolled up windows every time. And now the steam rising from the silver pot of Italian vegetable soup on the stove; always, always I pause and think of it and how to explain it to the kids....those vapors rising.<br /><br />And I smile wide this morning. I smile and I sob too because I remember His word saying this in the book of James:<br /><br /><br /><em><span style="color: #134f5c;">You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes................</span></em><br /><em><span style="color: #134f5c;"><br /></span></em><br /><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="color: black;">And my very small mind</span> <span style="color: black;">reaches for this...........<strong>reaches hard</strong> to comprehend a few things like: </span></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="color: #134f5c;"><em>You clothed me with skin and flesh, and you knit my bones and sinews together--Job 10:11)</em></span><br /><span style="color: black;">..........within a vapor</span><br /><em><span style="color: #134f5c;"><br /></span></em><br /><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><em>For I know the plans I have for <b>you</b>," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper <b>you</b> and not to harm <b>you</b>, plans to <b>give you hope</b> and a <b>future--Jeremiah 29:11.</b></em></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: black;">..........within a vapor</span><br /><strong><em><span style="color: #134f5c;"><br /></span></em></strong><br /><span style="color: #134f5c;"><em>For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end. Psalms 48:14</em></span><br /><span style="color: black;">..........within a vapor</span><br /><em><span style="color: #134f5c;"><br /></span></em><br /><span style="color: black;">Somewhere within the wisps you and I have come. In the mist I have run in fields and scaled those giant round bales of hay. I have had puppies and written papers, had break ups and enjoyed brownies. I have felt conviction of my sins then later was "joy drowned" when they were washed away from me. I have felt compassion and hatred, have seen my babies born on hospital beds and became their admirer and servant forever. In the vapors I have learned bird songs and bought groceries, have prayed for a friend and asked for advice. I have tried really hard and later, understood grace. It suddenly seems so amazing that all of this He calls a vapor?</span><br /><br /><br />And I breath out the miracle of my breath and His plans for me and us, and consider that if <strong><em>all</em></strong> of this is just a vapor to Him, then what more does He have in store?<br /><br /><br />And then He reminds me,<br /><br /><br /> <em><span style="color: #134f5c;">"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." 1 Cor. 2:9</span></em><span class="p"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span><br /><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span><br /><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></span></div>
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Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-3117921860403281372019-11-30T06:40:00.003-08:002021-02-05T19:06:22.543-08:00Heavy Rain<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">I see it through a small clear space above the windowsill.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Rain falls in autumn.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">I hear it from a
nice room densely filled with peace,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">enjoyed with a
warm cup, a warm heart, a warm place <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Cool fall rain
for me and thunder far away,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">cars passing by
on the wet road make a different sound <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Lightening flickers with a cool November rainfall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">It is almost 8
and I have engaged a fresh day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Now the rain is
twice as much as it was;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">falling heavy, real
and "now".<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Life is heavy
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Iāve just noticed some words to the left
of the space Iād been watching-- the one affording a peek at the rain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> They echo. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Heavy rain and I am not drowning. Heavy rain, and still, I will see the sun coming up over the hills. Heavy rain; the cleansing kind, the watering kind. Is this water for the thirst that will come later on when it is dry? </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Heavy rain can be kind. It is today. Heavy rain is mine.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Rain falls in autumn. Do I speak audaciously as if I am the only one? No. Yet I am all of just one. And for just one and a billion it falls. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">I hope you feel it is falling for you. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;"><i>The LORD your God is with you; his power gives you victory. The LORD will take delight in you, and in his love he will give you new life. He will sing and be joyful over you</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #ffd966;">Zephaniah 3:17 (</span><span style="color: #ffd966;">T</span><span style="color: #ffd966;">oday He is singin' in the rain</span><span style="color: #ffd966;">)</span></div>
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<br />Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-80790983585521557592019-10-19T08:35:00.001-07:002020-11-09T05:27:22.069-08:00We Worship<br />
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 242;">The
singers stand ready on the stage, hearts warmly postured toward praise, their
inward worship is stirred and spilling before a sound is made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 242;">The
strings announce the sound and the drum leads this beautiful company forward. Their
voices each rise like a plume of pure and golden breath, lifting like incense to
Jesus; Savior.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 242;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 242;">We
worship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 242;">Voices
tuned up, tuned in and tight-- spark a flame. As the song ascends, one bright
and rising plume leans into the other and intertwines, one voice now clinging
to the other, both disappearing into one fresh sound.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The next reaches and vines around them; like rivers converging into one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 242;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 242;">We worship.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 242;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 242;">The horn breaks in, making declarations! Announcing freedom, proclaiming the kingdom come! We lift our eyes higher, our hearts beat together and we hone our gaze deeper into this place of reverence and awe. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 242;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 242;">We worship.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A diverse gathering has joined the song; they feel the familiar ease of dear friends and exhale their cares into the bosom of family.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We worship.</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #ffc000; font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; mso-themecolor: accent4;">May they be one as you and I are
one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John 17<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-34704926553808388142019-10-11T05:52:00.001-07:002019-10-14T18:17:39.792-07:00The Town Bird<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One day I suddenly came to town and slept under a town sky, under a shingled town roof, and beneath a white chenille bedspread I bought in the town. When I woke, the sound of the rooster was far off in the country and I couldn't hear him and his rousing reverence to the rising sun. The luscious red cardinal perched in the oak tree beside the worn country porch was singing without my daily delight in him. The mockingbirds and blue jays, the crows and the doves were charging the air and the nuthatch was still making his funny sound like a rubber duck smashed under foot, but without me to laugh at him.<br />
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It seemed to me the town boasted only the sounds of men and women moving mindlessly about in cars, passing me by under the white chenille bedspread, and the church bells kept telling us all its time to move on. But where was the morning song? Where was the chickadee wearing his tidy black cap and sounding so sweet like the high-low squeak of an old teeter-totter in need of oiling? And who was going to call up the sun when not a rooster was allowed under this strange town sky? And so my heart was grieved for the country birds because I didn't hear their familiar, soul-feeding song that assured me that this world in the country was the most beautiful world of all.<br />
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Spring quickly turned to summer who yawned slowly into a broadening autumn and nothing much had changed. I walked in the town yard behind the house where I slept and noted the squirrels jumping from tree to tree. One ambitious fellow carried a discarded apple high into the sugar berry tree and losing his grip, dropped it, landing with a thud just in front of me. I walked along the city sidewalks, passing the shop that sold cigarettes and tobacco, sometimes stopping on the bridge to watch the fish swim in the creek below, and always slowing to regard the antique roses that hung pink and rosy in the yard of the 1st Baptist church. Somewhere in my moving about I began to pause at the sound of the church bells tolling out the hour and I began to feel grateful and reposed.<br />
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And then one morning, waking under the town roof, under the dark and sleepy town sky, I heard a sound I hadn't noticed before. It came from the the south, from the river's edge and broke open my town life with the same sweetness of the country bird's song that once called up the joy of each brand new day. For just like the birds, the sound rang out from the depths of Truth, Wisdom and from the sure Hope for the future.<br />
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And within the new sound I heard these words:<br />
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<b><i>"Here is the new sound. Hear the sound for a new season and a new time. Can you not perceive it?" </i></b><br />
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And under the town sky a heart now stirs at the sound of the <i><span style="color: purple;">train whistle</span></i> calling from the river's edge and assuring that my world is the most beautiful of all still.<br />
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<i><span style="color: orange;">And surely I am with you always</span></i>...... Matthew 28:20<br />
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<br />Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-57729861590566841002019-10-05T05:01:00.002-07:002019-10-27T19:32:28.014-07:00Come Home With Me<br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Come home with me you stout little man with your
little brown turban and tiny pointed chin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihynKBvV6R1ENWylWwMUFRPblODCcFi0DSb-shRZkXFGNSgh8CjpCVvpyg0j7HhedHdNkEnlXMuPkx-3ZDMNplRFRukWattzyiCOFrMPKlquJTZBubFt9pXsjr8mIVH7jQNRZxJEXYQ4k/s1600/acorn3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1497" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihynKBvV6R1ENWylWwMUFRPblODCcFi0DSb-shRZkXFGNSgh8CjpCVvpyg0j7HhedHdNkEnlXMuPkx-3ZDMNplRFRukWattzyiCOFrMPKlquJTZBubFt9pXsjr8mIVH7jQNRZxJEXYQ4k/s200/acorn3.jpg" width="186" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Remind me of mornings draped round with autumn once again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Come sit now on the windowsill. In the small room
you can recount your times in sun, wind, and wild spring rain; of seasons here and gone. I will listen to you and imagine the things you say, the sights you've seen. I will open the window just behind my eyes and see whatever you say. Give me your visions, show me vignettes of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>powerful progeny, of mighty oaks and of humble fallen seeds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What a firm voice from a such a wee seed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And such towering tales you tell!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">I passed a respectable grove of oaks in early spring. E</span></span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">merald leaves painted deep with dew shimmered in morning light and made the oak forest seem enchanted. </span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Catkins dangled playfully in the breeze from many branches like a gang of little-boy-legs hanging lazily off a dock in summertime. Are they dreaming and bragging of becoming an oak tree too someday; a righteous towering oak? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Mother Oak and Father Oak have followed me all my days. Mother, holding the ropes that carried me high on a homemade swing long ago, Father standing firm with his lavish breadth of shade beside my bedroom windows last year. And just yesterday, standing along the path offering acorns at my feet. When they whisper, I am comforted and intrigued. When they shout, I laugh and cry and am undone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">So, stay with me little acorn. Stay fall and winter too on the windowsill here in my room. I will listen to you and in the springtime, set you back along the path. </span><br />
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<br />Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-64325754666808843362019-07-10T06:51:00.000-07:002019-07-10T10:54:14.858-07:00You and Me<br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You, God, and Your golden speech are the life of my
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Let it be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">And let us talk over the "you" and the "me"---can I see more clearly the power of "we"? I'll have no need for</span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16pt;"> hyperbole. Ever may it be. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">The "you" and the "me" entwined to make "we", ever may this be. Will You reveal more of this mystery?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">Encompassed in Three, surrounded yet free, the God-head and me--amazingly! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-73888740558370532682019-04-22T18:22:00.002-07:002019-04-22T18:22:52.324-07:00Love Never FailsLove never fails. Love never comes to an end. <br />
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.Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-73859425037963341772019-04-18T14:05:00.000-07:002019-04-18T17:07:14.943-07:00Backdrop of the Battlefield <br />
<span style="font-size: large;">An old held-back post, or note to self in the blog files. I must have been feeling the battle. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">-------------------------------------------------</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Your life is not about any of this, Rhonda Michelle. </span><span id="goog_1172754979" style="font-size: large;"></span><span id="goog_1172754980" style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;"> All of this only creates the backdrop to the battlefield for your soul and for the souls of others. Your mortgage, the leak in your radiator, your family gatherings, your bank account, Christmas coming, your home, land, your debt, your cars and what is or isn't in your refrigerator are not what they may seem to be. These are not just your life on a Wed. in 2014. They are only the backdrop to your real life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Jesus prayed for you like this, <span class="text John-17-15" id="en-NIV-26775"><span class="woj"><sup class="versenum">5 </sup>My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. We are meant to be here, but we need this prayer of Jesus to tread here because it is more than it seems. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text John-17-15" id="en-NIV-26775"><span class="woj"> </span></span><span class="text John-17-15" id="en-NIV-26775"><span class="woj"> </span></span></span><br />
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<span class="text John-17-15" id="en-NIV-26775"><span class="woj"><span style="font-size: large;">Jesus, our glorious man, is not recorded to have concerned Himself much with my list of things in above paragraph, as IF these were not the most important things in life?! What of that!? If He didn't then why do I? </span></span></span><br />
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<span class="text John-17-15"><span class="woj"><span style="font-size: large;"> His hike into the wilderness was an epic battle with the devil during a 40 day fast. All my hikes are to see beauty and gain strength. Most of my fasts are because I feel chubby. And when I kayak across the lake it is to feel something, see something and enjoy myself. But in 2014 I'm seeing them all in a different way; they are more. All is more.</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="text John-17-15"><span class="woj"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmT0TfhIvRoLXe-5WB-rKLDQgehqRSRHf6QCFEJfRwD_k2jsHLfNJ_hbYaXRlxgkcazUTxESwtOA6RN_vrGb8jbJrVLHtnQPUQ3OdL1ezaQ-OXHhE55hfJKipe4VfCtzZlNirbv33OZQk/s1600/IMG_1133.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmT0TfhIvRoLXe-5WB-rKLDQgehqRSRHf6QCFEJfRwD_k2jsHLfNJ_hbYaXRlxgkcazUTxESwtOA6RN_vrGb8jbJrVLHtnQPUQ3OdL1ezaQ-OXHhE55hfJKipe4VfCtzZlNirbv33OZQk/s320/IMG_1133.JPG" width="213" /></a></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="text John-17-15"><span class="woj"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span class="text John-17-15"><span class="woj"><span style="font-size: large;">When Jesus skimmed the waters of the lake, it was with eternal purposes in his heart. Maybe the beauty of the sun glistening off of the water that day, and maybe there were fresh smells, the feel of the water between His fingers, the breeze and gentle waves making soft sounds against the boat. But He was going to command demons and set a chained man free. (Mark 5) He had the same sort of backdrop as me, but lived out of another dimension. I want His dimension.</span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh46jNbccIryLLvYXWZ-O-Fqh9CZAM1JGLM1LZffufXo7dtupuFdBpXSkz3p_65jlCAf8XlfJ5wifzF3myqgT_fvp-OlCT8SyMIc8ZlTZi3geHeswagVpoR-_EYedE_asoWG4QVb8ve8RE/s1600/IMG_0426.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh46jNbccIryLLvYXWZ-O-Fqh9CZAM1JGLM1LZffufXo7dtupuFdBpXSkz3p_65jlCAf8XlfJ5wifzF3myqgT_fvp-OlCT8SyMIc8ZlTZi3geHeswagVpoR-_EYedE_asoWG4QVb8ve8RE/s320/IMG_0426.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">With purpose He crossed from life over to death, and to life again to set many more free. And He is pulling back the backdrop of my life so I can live like this glorious God-man.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiamxcll8HnCsB9YEOfLMGKi_Jf_Otym3PijyGZe-PjPfNY34_rPq5uG4oVmrOOhAffn17YTbs5ysYCQjCpzYRhncPKpcEGmE4PWrZ_KLQS78vZwnF__owA5RbwtH34PVRRBOj4fPKWMx4/s1600/IMG_0061.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiamxcll8HnCsB9YEOfLMGKi_Jf_Otym3PijyGZe-PjPfNY34_rPq5uG4oVmrOOhAffn17YTbs5ysYCQjCpzYRhncPKpcEGmE4PWrZ_KLQS78vZwnF__owA5RbwtH34PVRRBOj4fPKWMx4/s320/IMG_0061.JPG" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-54311032905245546242019-04-08T19:59:00.002-07:002019-04-09T20:20:04.955-07:00A Song Sung Free<span style="font-size: large;">The big bird is the loudest on my farm. He is rooster, hear him cockadoodle-do. He is drawing in the morning air and thrusting out his morning song. I like it. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtXypschc1Hsnle_a0sPAgCujZvSuevVfAp5-eYjSTM3ftJ8zNwnajOtXJRIef3eC14AF7AnXLRlUiXwBLomtiSOLRNVywcYQc_NRDuIfdurYX-UqBIvPoWjiMd50Y2_qTfB6WdY7lS14/s1600/IMG_0221.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtXypschc1Hsnle_a0sPAgCujZvSuevVfAp5-eYjSTM3ftJ8zNwnajOtXJRIef3eC14AF7AnXLRlUiXwBLomtiSOLRNVywcYQc_NRDuIfdurYX-UqBIvPoWjiMd50Y2_qTfB6WdY7lS14/s320/IMG_0221.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He has to. Some instinct laid within his chest from the beginning assures that he will sing it up every morning where ever he is, whatever he is doing. I never doubt that he will sing. "Someone" else chose for him to sing, and he ever will.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> But me, I am higher than him, created in a different order, from a different print. Something distinct was laid within my chest from the beginning and I know it-- I can feel it. I can wield it, this something higher than instinct, this something royal and right, this autonomy tucked inside of me. I am free to sing or not to. </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> But he is warming me up to the morning. Cockadoodle-do. He is unbolting a door, stirring up the choice in me. The morning air seems delicious coming up through his jolly throat. But</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjGIN81kZBi-Yl0UDE2fK7urIXtxLmyWMRkK_3eh_JLsFnZnRdRD7AJTA2PPi0ioELG8XV0Lou73_z-PpQ9sAtDbYzQRnTmrawwQrginvhMjLrWz3v1llaQQPRKoI4MMy3pYVhaqaV00E/s1600/IMG_1008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjGIN81kZBi-Yl0UDE2fK7urIXtxLmyWMRkK_3eh_JLsFnZnRdRD7AJTA2PPi0ioELG8XV0Lou73_z-PpQ9sAtDbYzQRnTmrawwQrginvhMjLrWz3v1llaQQPRKoI4MMy3pYVhaqaV00E/s320/IMG_1008.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"> let the lady-farmer sing a better song than him. Let morning air breath a higher word from me. Let my choice charge the air with praise. Liberty makes my song so different than his, and heaven knows the sound of a song sung free.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-14048623349934944432019-02-18T10:16:00.001-08:002019-02-18T10:57:23.409-08:00How it Always is<br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is how it always is; eyes open, the dark
room, socked-up feet walking the cool hall to the cup of coffee, the open
journal, the open Word, and then my words-- the words and the working out a
life before a āPersonā attending to me in those early morning hours. While a
dog snores at my feet, there is a conversation, a qualifying prayer, a life
that has become one long prayer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ever may
it be. This is not my story, but OUR story and how it always is. Iām saying it
because I want to, and because we often want to say this and canāt find the words
for each other to hear us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is how it always is and how it forever will
be; our lives taken into the bosom of, NOT āthe universeā, but the One who flings
universes into place, and meets waking loved ones like this. And the comfort of this has changed our lives of questions
and fear to something more. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heās ever
changing our lives to āmoreā. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is how it always is, a daily learning that
He is there; not scolding, not anxious to point out a flaw, a mistake, a misjudgment,
a fault.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But anxious to delve deep into
love with us so that all those things can be carried away one by one,
liberation by liberation, step by step, freedom to freedom, and glory to glory
as it has long been called. All the while, He's showing us how to love one another like this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is how it always is; fingers to keys, pencils to paper, or
voices in our rooms to say thank yous, and why we are so-- to ask questions
with golden letters because He said our questions are golden to Him. When He
says things to me, they are clickedy-clicked out in red, as I like to remind
myself that red is the color He chose to free us in, hung up and held by the
punishment of someone elseās sinsā<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">every-
āsomeoneā - ever. <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is how it always is, every day sitting, standing, walking in the never-ending
invitation to come closer, but not always seeing it for ourselves. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Waking to learn how good He is, just how great,
how kind and there. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is how it
always is because HE IS and always will be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-83599471813054856282019-02-15T05:39:00.002-08:002021-04-11T05:17:03.885-07:00 Come and See<br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;">Heās prepared a table, come and see.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the presence of the enemy, all you can eat</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;">Heās made a way with a plan and means<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: large;">Come and see, oh come and see.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">His robe draped round your frame</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; line-height: 107%;">The grip of sin </span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;">blew apart at the seams</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;">And we step into what seems like a dream.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: large;">Come and see. Oh, come and see.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: large;">Remember when He gave you His ring</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: large; line-height: 107%;">As if you hadnāt squandered everything<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; line-height: 107%;">Welcomed l</span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;">ike you'd always belonged</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;">Come and see. Oh, come and see.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;">The way is lit, just press your steps</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;">And watch a desert turn to spring </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;">You'll hear yourself both laugh and sing</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;">Come and see. Oh, come and see</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: large;">Cause you are free,
you are free.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Oh, come and see!
Oh, come and see!</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />(A song)<br />
<br /><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: large;">. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+23%3A5&version=VOICE" target="_blank">Psalms 23:5</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jeremiah+29%3A11&version=VOICE" target="_blank">Jeremiah 29:11</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+15%3A11-22&version=VOICE" target="_blank">Luke 15:11-22</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalms+126&version=VOICE" target="_blank">Psalms 126</a></span><br />
<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+3%3A17&version=NIV" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: large;">2 </span><span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: large;">Corinthians 3:17</span></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isaiah+35&version=NIV" target="_blank">Isaih 35</a></span><br />
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<br />Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-74290117214293954302019-02-05T04:48:00.003-08:002021-04-11T05:19:52.137-07:00The Eve of a New Year<span style="font-size: large;">A crisp white page and a crisp new year right around the clock's corner. From a rickety leather recliner in the spot by the window, sitting so aware of the last hours of the year I want to render something meaningful and true before I must let it go. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I get a snack, a drink, look out a window, change the wet laundry to the drier and then sit down to carry on. Lively Wheatens wrestle one another next to me on my chair. The warm bodies crowding me, getting out of control. One sits proudly right down on my resting right arm then ignites off the chair, raucously into play. :) </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> A realization has come over me and I don't have to try in order to sit grateful to the core in the eve of a new year. I just am. And </span><span style="font-size: large;">I see why we're invited, called really, and directed into thankfulness. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I think it is where the human heart was created to be, where we would be most alive. Gratefulness is a perfect fit for us, a sweet spot for the soul. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> Morning by morning, like a safe shelter one can run to, or a life raft for one's heart no matter the depths of what could be despair. How deep no longer matters when always buoyed right up to where the sun shines--this has been the power of thankfulness to me. </span><span style="font-size: large;">It has caused me to survey the passing year with such fondness (though full of trial and pain), as if it were the best year, but maybe what I'm saying is it was my most grateful year and that has colored everything in a rosy glow. </span>Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3897811297214016418.post-52877541994971232102019-02-05T04:39:00.000-08:002019-02-05T05:07:29.052-08:00The Precious Black and White<br />
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The precious black and white that communicates</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Splendid words, arranged to perfection </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Tales of a pounding heart for people</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A love that runs into hell to rescue them</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The precious black and white lit up before the sun</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The<span id="goog_1888712713"></span> <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/" target="_blank">tab</a><span id="goog_1888712714"></span> on the screen is my friend</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The black and white comfort</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The black and white hope</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">On the white screen lies the best words for free</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">I gobble them in the quiet</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">As they lift up from the white screen</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And I am filled full again and again</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Open a <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/" target="_blank">tab</a> into the place, the space for a human race</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Click the portal of beauty and truth</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">It's free, it's free</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14pt;">Push the tab and see</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Redemption plan, mercy for man<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">What a lucky girl I am</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">The black and white</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">the dark, the light</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And me entwined in a story that started <i>"in the beginning"</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">I saw you there too</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">It's true. It's all true</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">There's a Father, a family waiting for you</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The precious black and white that communicates</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Splendid words arranged to perfection</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">A click on the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3%3A16&version=NIV" target="_blank">link</a>, and before you can blink</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">You're served a feast before the sun comes up today</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Click and find a Gateway to <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1&version=NIV" target="_blank">The Precious Black and White</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "baskerville old face" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<br />Rhonda Gunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672077175080359918noreply@blogger.com1