August 2005
Monthly Archive
Moving On Over!!
Posted by Paul on 28 Aug 2005 | Tagged as: General
Hi Family, Friends and Fellow Bloggers!!
Hill Country Thoughts is moving over to its new digs!
Please forgive the dust and things as we are moving things around, sprucing it up a little and getting it into shape!
Please forgive the dust and things as we are moving things around, sprucing it up a little and getting it into shape!
Everything from Blogspot is being moved over, so please note change of url to
http://hillcountrythoughts.com/blogAlso there will be a new chat program called ShoutOut as today was Doodle-Board’s last day. They are closing down. Sure will miss them!
Would appreciate your prayers as this new season and new chapter in Hill Country Thoughts and Coffee Cup Ministry begins!
My heart’s cry and desire is to be that of an exhorter and encourager to others as they walk this path called life. To let them know, that we are not a people without hope.
That out strength, our hope, comes from the Lord and it is He that goes before us and prepares the way!
Again thank you for your prayers as I learn to use WordPress, post pictures and all the other things that come with this new venture and new season in the Lord!
Till later,
Paul
Special Prayer Request For One Of God’s Children
Posted by Paul on 22 Aug 2005 | Tagged as: General
Please take time to visit Rebekah’s Blog
Stand With Her and Her Family
In Prayer!
Visit Rebekah’s Page to get updates, read messages and send messages to Rebekah and her family through comments. Please be warned: This is a public “diary” of a family whose 3 year old is fighting inoperable cancer. You will get into their hearts, minds and souls as they share their joys and sorrows. It can sometimes be very difficult to read. Hopefully it can also be very rewarding and uplifting to you and others. It is their goal that others may find some peace in what they read here.
Note: This is not my grandaughter Rebekah
More Light Please!!
Posted by Paul on 18 Aug 2005 | Tagged as: General
Thought I would share something I wrote last August and have modified it just a little bit for Georgia.
I woke up at around 05:30 this morning so I thought I would get up and sit here at the dinning room table for awhile before everyone woke up.
As I sat down and lit the oil lamp, the thought again, came to me how when it was lit, the darkness around me disappeared.
Though there was darkness, the dinning room was lit up from the soft glow of the oil lamp and I was able to see everything. It was all brought into the light so that I would not stumble or fall or trip over anything in my path.
That is what it is like when we come to the Lord. A light is lit within and it begins to expose those things that need to be dealt with in our lives so that the Lord can bring the changes that are so necessary.
But the light does more than expose things, it illuminates the way before us. The Word of the Lord is a lamp unto our feet, showing us the way to walk and guiding us in the paths of the Lord.
Light is an important aspect in our life. The light keeps us from falling into the traps that the enemy sets before us. Keeps us aware of his tactics.
Light also shows us the beauty of things around us, that we can see the Lord reflected in so many things.
It is up to us as to how much light we want to shine forth. As I adjusted the wick, I could get the flame so small that you could barely tell there was any light at all, but as I adjusted the wick it got brighter and brighter and eventually the whole dinning room and surrounding area was covered with the radiance of the light, of its glow.
So what do you want to do with the light of Christ? Do we hide it under a bushel? Keep it for ourselves, not to share it or do we set it on the table and let it shine forth and adjust it to get the maximum light, not so low you barely see it.
Let us adjust the light for its maximum effectiveness, to allow the Lord to adjust the light within, that we will give off a light that will make it easier for others to see that in the midst of a world full of darkness, there is hope, there is a way.
To give hope to those around us and to shine forth and truly reflect the light of the Lord. To reflect the reality of who He is.
Shine on my friends, Shine On!!
Till later,
Paul
P.S. Want to encourage to visit my friend Donna’s By Grace Alone Blog where she has written a poem “Illuminate”, as well as many other poems, that have given me a real understanding of poetry, which I never had before. Thanks Donna!
Secret Prayer!
Posted by Paul on 15 Aug 2005 | Tagged as: General
“Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” Luke 18:1
E.M. Bounds in Purpose of Prayer, Chapter 7, makes the following statements:
“The words are the words of our Lord, who not only ever sought to impress upon His followers the urgency and the importance of prayer, but set them an example which they alas have been far too slow to copy.”
“The always speaks for itself. Prayer is not a meaningless function or duty to be crowded into the busy or the weary ends of the day, and we are not obeying our Lord’s command when we content ourselves with a few minutes upon our knees in the morning rush or late at night when the faculties, tired with the tasks of the day, call out for rest.”
“God is always within call, it is true; His ear is ever attentive to the cry of His child, but we can never get to know Him if we use the vehicle of prayer as we use the telephone—for a few words of hurried conversation.”
“Intimacy requires development. We can never know God as it is our privilege to know Him, by brief and fragmentary and unconsidered repetitions of intercessions that are requests for personal favours and nothing more. That is not the way in which we can come into communication with heaven’s King.”
“The goal of prayer is the ear of God,” a goal that can only be reached by patient and continued and continuous waiting upon Him, pouring out our heart to Him and permitting Him to speak to us. Only by so doing can we expect to know Him, and as we come to know Him better we shall spend more time in His presence and find that presence a constant and ever-increasing delight.”
“Always does not mean that we are to neglect the ordinary duties of life; what it means is that the soul which has come into intimate contact with God in the silence of the prayer-chamber is never out of conscious touch with the Father, that the heart is always going out to Him in loving communion, and that the moment the mind is released from the task upon which it is engaged it returns as naturally to God as the bird does to its nest.”
“What a beautiful conception of prayer we get if we regard it in this light, if we view it as a constant fellowship, an unbroken audience with the King. Prayer then loses every vestige of dread which it may once have possessed; we regard it no longer as a duty which must be performed, but rather as a privilege which is to be enjoyed, a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty.”
How awesome are these quotes and how blessed I was as I read them and realized that this has been the very thing that the Lord has been doing in my life over the last three years.
That he has been teaching me what it means to be in an attitude of prayer, of worship and praise. That he desires that intimate relationship with us so that we are attuned to Him. To hear His voice as we go about our everyday life. To pray for those He brings into our lives no matter where we are.
Learning to be intimate with the Lord is very important. For it is during these times that we learn to hear His voice, to hear His heart and it is during these times that He brings healing to our inner most being and He begins to show us how to pray for others, to lift them to Him in prayer. To intercede and stand in the gap as needed.
One of the most important things that I have learned is that no matter where I am at or what I am doing, I can always be in that attitude of prayer, that relationship with the Lord and it is the same for you my friends.
He calls us into this intimacy so that we can learn to be one with Him, leaning upon Him and hearing His heartbeat.
There have been many times while sitting at Starbucks, drinking coffee, journaling and reading, that I will pray for different ones that come into Starbucks.
An attitude of prayer keeps us open and alert to that still small voice of the Spirit speaking to our hearts to pray, to intercede and to pray as He leads.
It can be at home, at WalMart, or walking around the neighborhood, that you can be in that attitude and relationship with the Lord.
Let us go to the Lord with a heart that is open to Him, receive and to give out of that which has been given to us!
Till later,
Paul
Ya Never Know!!
Posted by Paul on 12 Aug 2005 | Tagged as: General
Last Saturday morning was a very interesting morning for me!
Got up early and headed to Starbucks for the Saturday morning fellowship with Mario, Andre, Jonathan and myself. As always it was a blessed time of sharing, exhorting and encouraging one another and sharing some laughs.
But what really made this morning special was that as I was getting up to get a refill, a couple of young girls, sisters, got real excited and said, “Mommy, Daddy, look a cowboy!” I nodded my head and said, “Yep, I am a cowboy, that I really was from Texas! They were excited because it reminded them of Texas where they have family members.
But that was not what made my day, it was when I was heading for my refill when a women said, “Hi Paul!” I said “Hi,” having no clue who she was or why she would know my name. So, I had a very puzzled look on my face until she said I am Yellow Rose. Right then and there I knew who she was.
She was one of my fellow blogger’s and writers. She and her family where heading out of town to a meeting and stopped here at Starbucks to get a cup of coffee and she saw me sitting over in the corner where I normally sit, fellowshipping with my friends and figured that there are not to many men, in Kennesaw, in Starbucks and of course I am pretty sure knew it was me because of my picture that is posted on Hill Country Thoughts.
So I was blessed to meet a fellow blogger, make a new friend and also had the honor of meeting Big Daddy, her husband and Bubba, her son. It was a joy to meet them all.
Thank you Yellow Rose for making my day and introducing yourself. Isn’t it just like the Lord to allow people to meet. We call them divine appointments!
So, if your ever in Kennesaw, Georgia and you pull into Starbucks off Highway 41, near Wal-Mart and see someone that reminds you of Friar Tuck, you know, from Robin Hood, wearing a cowboy hat, it’s most likely me. So make sure ya say howdy!
Till later,
Paul
It’s A Starbucks Night!
Posted by Paul on 11 Aug 2005 | Tagged as: General
Just got here a little while ago and I am enjoying a nice hot cup of the house blend coffee.
Recently, as I sat down at my favorite spot, a young gentlemen at a table near me introduced himself, asking if I was from Texas, of course with the cowboy hat on, I said yep.
It is always amazing how the Lord will open doors for us to be able to reach out and encourage others. To listen and to hear their hearts.
As we began to talk I found out that he was a fellow Christian, a theological student and we where able to share and encourage one another in the faith and hopefully those around us.
As I share often, it is when we say, “Here I am Lord, use me.” He will. He will give us opportunities no matter where we are to share with others. To be an encourager.
So, I guess you would say, that I indeed have a coffee cup ministry. That it is in the fellowship over a cup of coffee or tea, that the Lord allows us to touch others for Him. To plant seeds of hope.
Even as we put our hands to the keyboard, the Lord allows us to encourage others to share what He has written upon their hearts.
It is not an accident that you write or share. It is an opportunity to travel the world via the internet and link with others and encourage them, serving them through this medium called the net, blogging. Linking together!
I shared recently with a friend, what is our motivation for writing? For Blogging? Is it to encourage others, to build them up or to see how many commets we get? If we don’t get comments do we say, no more, that’s it?
Our motivation should be that of a servant, to serve others, to encourage them in the Lord, in their walk, to lift them up in prayer, to write from the heart of God. That others can see that we can walk in the Lord now. That we can share from the heart the things that He has written upon, that He has made real in our lives.
Rejoice my friends, even when you don’t receive comments, know that there are lives that are being touched, even though you might not know this side of heaven.
Blessings,
Till later,
Paul
