Chronic Hope IV- A New Hope

This blog has been dormant for over a year because I needed it to.  I wish I could give some great, eloquent thoughts on how I was developing it, but, I can't.  You see, what was really under construction was me.  Until I was ready to share the thoughts of the journey again, I wasn't able to write.

Much has happened in the past year, and in the right time I will share what was going on, but what finally brought me back to this blog was the need to write, and to share the random thoughts that in the past would have been part of sermons or newsletters or other writings.

You will notice the introduction is different than before, and the focus of this blog will be new as well. I am not excluding those with chronic illnesses, and my perspective is even more acute than before. (Pun intended :-)  What I've come to realize is that part of what was blocking me was the focus on illness. None of us who are chronically struggling with anything want to be defined by that struggle. A cancer warrior or person fighting any illness doesn't want to be known only by their diagnosis, but by who they are as people, just like everyone else.

So this blog is a place for everyone on the journey of life. You are welcome here and hopefully some words will speak encouragement to your heart and spirit. Sometimes the posts will be serious, some will be funny, but all are intended to be thought provoking and uplifting.

At that I will leave you with a quote from a movie I like "Don't take life too seriously. You won't make it out alive."

peace and hope,
Andrea

ps-  extra points for anyone who can name that movie!  :-)

Sunday Worship Meditations

John 6:35, 41-51 35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 41 Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." 42 They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, "I have come down from heaven'?" 43 Jesus answered them, "Do not complain among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, "And they shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

Matt Redman - 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)

Saturday Prayers~ Blake Shelton - God Gave Me You (Official Video)

"Let my prayer rise before you as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice"

Praying today for all those people who God has given us to help us through the ups and downs...
Praying with gratitude for those times when God has placed us in others lives to help...
Praying for forgiveness for those times when we haven't been there for others.


This song was suggested for this blog by my daughter, Rebecca, one of the precious gifts of God in my life~

Chronic Hope- Rebooted

²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,^*
his mercies never come to an end;
²³ they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul,
‘therefore I will hope in him.’   Lamentations 3:22-24

Some days, we just need to reboot.  It's a great computer term that means to start up again.  Right now it is time for this blog to reboot. Over the past months I've not been blogging much due to some challenges in life and some challenges I've been facing in my own attitude.  I'll reflect upon these things in the days and months ahead.  Part of what took me so long to get back to blogging is that I didn't really know how to explain why I was gone, or where to start again.

A fresh start is sometimes important. It doesn't mean that what has come before is gone and forgotten, it just means that we choose a new place as our orienting point. As if we were moving to a new place to get a better view of the terrain.

God's mercy is fresh every morning. No matter what we faced yesterday, today is a reboot.  The circumstances that we face will still be there, but it is an opportunity to face them with a fresh mind and heart.
May today be a fresh new morning for all of us.
peace,
Andrea

Dear Lord, may your mercy and grace pour over us once again today. Renew us, forgive us, lead us and help us to start this day where you want us to be.  Amen.

Mercyme- The Hurt & The Healer

(original) Man In Nursing Home Reacts To Hearing Music From His Era

" it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord,
‘For he is good,
for his steadfast love endures for ever’,  2 Chronicles 5:13


I came across the following clip about the effects music has upon the elderly and profoundly ill.  May the music that follows that clip bring more life to your day and help you tackle the challenges and opportunities that will be laid before you.
Peace, Andrea

"Mercy Came Running" Phillips, Craig & Dean

Toccata on Christ the Lord arr. Diane Bish

Resurrection Day- Readings and Music for worship

John 20:1-18

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes. 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." 16 Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' " 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

 

 

Acts 10:34-43

34 Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. 37 That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40 but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

1 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! 2 Let Israel say, "His steadfast love endures forever."

14 The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. 15 There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous: "The right hand of the Lord does valiantly; 16 the right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly." 17 I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord. 18 The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death. 19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. 20 This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it. 21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. 22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. 23 This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. 24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

1 Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, 2 through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain. 3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.


Lord, on this day you changed everything.  Thank you...thank you...thank you.   Amen.


May the words of these lessons, and the music that follows bless you... Blessed Easter to each of you~
Andrea

I Can Only Imagine ~ MercyMe w/ London Symphony Orchestra

Chris Tomlin- How Great is Our God (World Edition)

In Christ Alone by Newsboys

GF HANDEL: Messiah - Hallelujah