Mud or Stars

"Two men looked out from prison bars; one saw mud, the other saw stars."

This struck me as totally true. We can look at life as though we're always on the short end of the stick or we can enjoy being where we are and find joy in it. We can really encourage ourselves by looking (and sometimes you have to look really hard) for the good things in our lives. We can make the little things that are blessings into BIG joys by thanking God for them, OR we can make the bad things into BIG problems that keep us from enjoying the life God gave us.

Here's another quote that kinda goes along with my thoughts:

"A happy person is not a person with a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes."

Now, I know that the only way to have joy is to have Jesus, but sometimes even though we have Jesus we're not really happy. We won't let ourselves be happy because we focus on the bad things in our lives. I'm not saying to ignore things, but just always try to look up. We have a heavenly Father who cares and even when the bad things come we can be joyous and happy when we delight ourselves in Him and all He's done for us.

So, I'll leave you until September 8th or so. God bless you! Look up and delight yourself in the Lord!

Pope Says "No More Limbo"

No, he wasn't talking about the game where the horizontal pole is between 2 vertical ones and you try to shimmy under it as the pole gets lowered each time. He was talking about THIS limbo. Amazing to me that this man can just go and change something that has been taught by the Roman Cathlic Church for centuries. Something these people have held onto for years and years was changed in a few minutes by a pope's declaration. What's to stop him from decreeing that there's no real Heaven? If I were a Roman Catholic I'd be worrying a little bit. If something so widely taught by my religion could be ridded of by a pope I'd be concerned about what he was going to get rid of or change next.

I am SO glad I have the Word of God that has been given by God and preserved for us. No matter what anyone says about Christianity (and by that I mean knowing Jesus Christ as personal Saviour, NOT a religion) I can go to the Bible and know what God says. His Word never changes! It's never changed and will stand forever no matter what men say. It's great comfort to know that if I rest on His Word it will still be standing when it comes time for me to die. If something happens to my baby I know my baby will go to Heaven, not because of what some Pope decrees, but because that's what God has always said in the Bible. How wonderful it is to have the Bible!

I think it's interesting the pope got rid of limbo and one of his main reasons was because "it isn't found in the Bible". That's true, it ISN'T found in the Bible, then why was it something millions of Catholics were taught to be true? How many OTHER things have Catholics been taught that aren't actually found in Scripture? Purgatory, baptism of infants, Peter being the first Catholic priest (he was married!!), that the bread and wine become Jesus' actual flesh and blood, that Mary was the mother of God (she was the Virgin that God used to bring His Son into the world, but she acknowledges in the Bible that she needed Jesus as her Saviour! She was not sinless, but a sinner who needed the Saviour the same as we all do), confession to priests, monks and nuns (actually the Bible warns against people who forbid to marry and tell you to obstain from meats 1 Timothy 4:3) , popes (the Bible says there is ONE mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus! Thank the Lord I don't have to go through a priest, but I can speak directly to God through Jesus Christ, His Son). These are just a few of the things the Roman Catholic Church has taught for ages none of which can be found in the Bible.

I have a lot of dear Catholic friends and I wish they would stop and think about their religion. It is something than can, and has been, changed by men over and over. It's not a firm foundation.