Oh thanks for reminding me

I hadn't read this passage in a while. Today it appeared in something I was reading and on this hot hot hot summer day it seemed to cool down a lot of things...


Isaiah 43: 1-3

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you;...
For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

Thanks, I needed that.

God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2009

Calvin's idea

COR MEUM TIBI OFFERO
DOMINE PROMPTE ET SINCERE, “I offer you my
heart, Lord, readily and sincerely.” John Calvin

Grace and Peace,
How much is enough?

Ok, why are we surprised that it is 100 ...it's July and we are in Oklahoma. We put up a large mosquito net over the patio to bring a little shade and it was 10 degrees cooler than the day before without it. Just that little bit of netting made such a difference.

So many times we think we have to do something BIG for God for it to be worthwhile, for it to make a difference, for our lives to make a difference. But I don't think that is altogether true. I believe, and have seen in action, how little things can make big changes. How a smile here or there, a kind word, a gift of something simple, all these things can make all the difference in someones life.

We watched an old movie, The Bells are Ringing, with Judy Holiday and Dean Martin and at one point they are on the street corner and she says that if you just speak to people they will be friendly in return. They do this...and sure enough, (ok it is a movie) people start speaking and saying hello and introducing themselves. What if we did that?

What if when the waitperson came to your table and said..Hi I'm Sue and I'll be serving you today. You responded. Hi I'm Bobbie and this is John and we are going to be your patrons today.

Have you ever noticed sometimes you go into a store and you don't even make eyecontact with the check out person?

I guess what I am rambling on about is that we need to see God in those next to us as much as to watch for some humdinger of a whizbang epiphany. Maybe they are the same?

Mother Teresa wrote, "Do something beautiful for God"

Let's do that all day, all week, all the time

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey

d365

Children's shoes outside the dining room in Varanasi India
"We have everything - We have Jesus!"






Check out d365 website for a great touchstone way to start your days..

Susan Reed wrote
The example of Christ is something that is hard to grasp. There is an irony in this verse from Corinthians: “so that by his poverty you might become rich.” I think most people would be willing to give up something so that others do not go without. For example, if you had a foot-long sub and someone else had no lunch, would you give them six inches of yours? Probably. Sharing is something we learn at a very young age.

However, if you had a foot-long sub and someone else had no lunch, would you give them your entire sandwich? On a much grander scale, that’s what Christ did for us. Jesus came to live on earth — not so that we could have a little bit of a relationship with God, but so that we could have a full relationship with God. The life and death of Christ happened so that we could have life — life in abundance, life lived in communion with God, our Creator.

Susan Reed

How many shoes do you have? How many feet do you have? How many pairs of shoes can you wear at at time?

Humm

Happy Summer day...

God Abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2009
Photo by MarthaMcGarey all rights reserved

Time F L I E S

Grace and peace to you all. Wow how can it be July? I have got to get back to a regular routine of writing to You.

Is it not amazing how things come to us when we are open and receptive to them? I flashed on the picture of Jesus standing at the door and knocking...and inviting him in. When you open yourself up to God's activity in your life things come to you...especially when that activity in your life is outward focused... when we work for another/one another.

Not long ago in a conversation with a man that my husband John had recently met we recognized that we both have a passion for mission in India. He has connections and I do as well so it was going benefit both of us. The odd part is that God led us to this through stories of planes being delayed. If I'd never had a plane delayed... we wouldn't have begun or sustained this conversation... There suddenly in the middle of it was the connection the flight from Delhi to Chicago.

Open yourself to the workings of the Spirit all around you and be sure that God's presence is full and real waiting...waiting for you to open that door..

God abides
Happy Summer

Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2009

What me Work?

Hello Friends,

David H. Jensen writes in the Austin Seminary publication Communitas:
"Christian worship does not simply occur as a pause at the end of the week; rather, it begins the week, the time that we have, by announcing good news to the world for all time. As God gives time to the world, there is always enough to go around. Christian worship both occurs in the midst of ordinary time, at the beginning of the work week, and beyond time, as God breaks into an ordinary day and promises communion to a time-starved and often bread-starved people." (pg 9, v.5)

In recent years daily calendars and planners have Sunday not at the beginning of the week but at the end. The week planning starts with Monday. There has always been something unsettling about this for me. To be honest my week is often focused on the next Sunday...but is this not then a reminder for me that Sunday is the beginning...for all of us. Is this true for you? (you can leave comments you know) Is Sunday the beginning of your week or the end of one...
Seems to me I read somewhere that most heart attacks happen between 8 and 9 am on Monday morning. Perhaps what we need to remember as we prepare Sunday worship is that
we are setting folk out for a dangerous time.

Jensen continued... "Good work extends the gift of time to others, where the time I spend working in some way rebounds to others' enjoyment of the time they're given."

Think with me about these things. What is it that gives meaning to what we do? Our work is not limited to those things which provide payment. Our work is our daily way of Being in this world.
Our work is in sharing the abundance in which we live. Our work is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves.

Therein lies great meaning and peace.

God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2009

Meet-ing

Friday morning at 8:30 is the beginning of the Presbytery Meeting in Tulsa. That's about 3 hours from here...without morning traffic that I hope to avoid.

Our daughter went to medical school there at OSU-College of Osteopathic Medicine.
So I know the way to tulsa. I wish I had time to see my best friend and also cousins that are there but it just won't work this time.

We will meet from 8:30 to 8:30 with some time in between for little meetings and worship.
The vice Moderator of our General Assembly, that's presbyterian speak, will be there and I am looking forward to meeting him face to face. My husband John met him this past week in TX.
My goodness the moderator and vice moderator travel a lot!

We get together in one or more rooms for meetings. We greet one another, check out one another's name tags, and discuss , pray and vote on different issues. It should be a good time.
I like it when we play together as churches, and this time all the Presbyterian churches in the whole of Oklahoma will be together.

Tell me something I didn't know...I'm always ready to learn...

Our son and daughter in law are coming up to help us sort,toss and pack some more in the house. I am going to leave instructions that if the sentence contains the words..."mom will never notice" they are to stop what they are doing, packing, throwing, etc... Grin... no seriously
grin...no really



God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2009

Chorus

In a movie I watched not long ago a man from NYC was visiting Savannah and before he goes to sleep he turned on a tape recording of car-big city noises-- these apparently made him feel at home.

If you open the windows this time of year where we live in Oklahoma in the evening the frogs singing are a beautiful chorus... They sing through most of the night. We have also had the Midnight mockingbird return. Seriously it's midnight between 12-3am (don't ask how I know). This singer, they say it is the males who sing at night, had 14 songs he sings. I've counted them three times... It's not as hard as it sounds.
These sounds make a difference in the world. You can hear them and focus on them and enjoy them.
We also have a train or two that come through at night. The one from the south is full as you can hear the difference in the way the train cars sound as they go by. I'm really not sure what they are hauling but really does it matter?

Somehow this world has sounds that we miss because the sounds of engines and people are everywhere. Here in the Middle (Oklahoma) there is a lot of quiet. And it is delightful.
Enjoy the quiet. Enjoy the pauses in your life.

What nature songs make you feel at home...?

listen

God Abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2009