Reblog: Only Love’s atmosphere

When this writer saw a tornado, she quickly prayed. She realized the political turmoil in her neighborhood was affecting the whole atmosphere. Prayer brought a resolution to the political problems and to the weather. 

Only Love’s atmosphere

Prayer can bring calm to a storm – and even to political campaigns.

By Jane Hickson

Late one afternoon, my granddaughter and I decided to make a quick trip to the pet store. It was closing shortly, but we had just enough time to drive there and make our purchase. Not far from home, stopped at a red light, I looked up. There in the sky, hovering over the pet store, was a funnel cloud – something I had never seen before, except in photos and on TV. I remembered someone saying earlier in the afternoon that there were tornadoes in the area, and that much damage had been done in several other places.

I reached out to God for an answer as to what to do. Then, I suddenly remembered that we were nearing the day to vote for governor of our state, and that this funnel cloud was directly over the home town of one of the candidates.

The campaign had been filled with political mudslinging, criticisms, accusations, and much condemnation hurled at one another. In fact, it was not unusual to be out in public and to overhear a stranger comment on how confusing it was to know how to vote, or to say there was no good choice of candidate. Neither candidate seemed very desirable.

I began to pray – about both the tornado and the negative political campaign…Read more

God’s “pruning” of our lives


When I first started gardening the idea of pruning was intimidating to me. How do you know where to prune? Doesn’t it hurt the bush or tree?

Now, I’m amazed at how pruning works. It’s like saying, “Nope, that’s a dead-end ” and the shrub or tree will then grow in a new way. It doesn’t stop or limit growth because new growth is always happening.

God works a similar way in our lives. God lovingly shows us where the dead-end roads are in life so that we can avoid wasting energy going that way. These dead-end roads consist of materiality – material living and thinking – such as a love of money, looking to material possessions for satisfaction, looking to a human being to complete us, looking to a human body to tell us how happy and healthy we are, and comparing ourselves with others to determine how successful we are. These are just a few but there are many dead-end roads we may discover.

Christ Jesus advised, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14 NIV)

When you prune a shrub, you are helping the shrub to fulfill its purpose. You probably planted the shrub for a reason: to help create privacy or to cover something unattractive or just to have something lively and pretty to enjoy. Whatever the reason is, pruning – and starting early on – will help the plant grow into something beautiful and useful.

God’s pruning of our thought takes a way thoughts and desires that would be harmful to us and others so that we can have productive, beautiful and useful thoughts. These thoughts are then expressed in right actions and exemplified in our lives.

Repost: Colorado Wildfires

A haven during the Colorado wildfires

CSMonitor.com

As I write this, Colorado is on fire. Ten wildfires have broken out on the slopes and foothills of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, one so close to the city of Colorado Springs that whole neighborhoods are on mandatory evacuation orders. Structures have burned and major thoroughfares are jammed with cars carrying thousands of people to safety….

Media reports often speak of the unpredictable cruelty of Mother Nature. Yet the Bible gently reminds me that the motherhood of God prevails: “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you” (Isaiah 66:13). It is the province of divine Love to tenderly nurture Her creation, for as Science and Health puts it, “In divine Science, we have not as much authority for considering God masculine, as we have for considering Him feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of Deity” (p. 517). Read more