IT'S AN AWFUL, BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL, LIFE

Greetings O Ye Fans of Life. Is your life WONDERFUL...full of WONDER, or is your life full of hopelessness, a constant stream of disappointments, and one dream after dream short circuited by situations, circumstances and derailments?

GODISNOWHERE. As you view this phrase...you will either see GOD IS NO WHERE...or you will see GOD IS NOW HERE. It all depends on your point of view. How you view what is happening in your life...will determine how you will deal with your life.

As I do a voyeuristic journey in Facebook...looking at pictures...reading comments...you can get a limited feel about your "friends" views of life. Some are positive, upbeat, lovin' life...while others whine, complain, grouse, about every little thing in their lives...and I am sure...a lot of it is warranted. As noted in the title of this Rambling..."IT'S AN AWFUL, BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL LIFE..I have added the words AWFUL and BEAUTIFUL. One of my favorite songs is by Darryl Worley...whose song AWFUL, BEAUTIFUL LIFE has the line..."I love this crazy tragic...sometimes almost magic...awful, beautiful life." Add in the title from the movie It's A Wonderful Life...and you have an interesting perspective...that depending on how you view GODISNOWHERE...will as we said...will determine on how you deal with life.

Well...Tis Da Season...when one of my favorite movies is dragged out of the CHRIST-mas closet and makes it's rounds on T.V...IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE.

The movie IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE originally had it's roots in a short story called THE GREATEST GIFT by Philip Van Doren Stern...that he made into a Christmas Card and sent to 200 friends and family members in 1943. Though a series of events...THE GREATEST GIFT fell into the hands of Frank Capra...who saw the potential to make a movie. It was made into a movie in 1946 that was initially considered a box office flop...even though it received 5 Oscar nominations (no wins). It became a Christmas Classic and is a personal favorite of Wayne "Zuzu's Petals" Berry.
NOTE: Have yourself a Berry Berry CHRIST-mas.

The liner notes in the IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A NOVEL states:

"Here is the timeless tale of George Bailey, a small town nobody who wants to make a difference without realizing that he already has...In its poignant and sensitive way....IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE encourages us to asks the question...what would life have been like wif we hadn't been born? During one CRISIS FILLED night, in the little town of Bedford Falls, circa 1945, George Bailey--father, husband, and president of the Bailey Building and Loan--facing the prospect of scandal ad ruin, finds out. With the not -quiet an angel Clarence (Angel 2nd class...no wings)...at his side to show him...George is given a gift anyone might wish for...to see the world as if he had never lived in it. As if he had never met his wife, saved his family's business, rescued his brother from drowning, or single-handed freed his lovely town from the greed and selfishness of a rich, old man (Mr. Potter).

George Bailey received a gift of a different perspective on his life.

George went from having dreams of a life...with constant interruptions and distractions where he becomes trapped in his not so wonderful life... to the point of despair and hopelessness...to the point of suicidal ideations...to the intervention by an angel...that was moved into motion by the prayers of those who loved George Bailey...to the point of reaching bottom...and crying out to God. The cause and effect of all of this was restoration to his family...and the realization that as Clarence wrote him..."Dear George...Remember, no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings! Love Clarence."

Well...what a wonderful movie...with wonderful thoughts. Oh if we could only see beyond where we are...to see who we are in Him. Oh if we could only see smack dab in the middle of stuff that is happening to us...that God causes ALL THINGS (the good, the bad, and the ugly), to WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD...to him/her who (1) loves the Lord (2) are called according to HIS PURPOSE. (Romans 8:28) If we could only see...as Phil Keaggy's song off of his LOVE BROKE THROUGH album..."DISappointment...HISappointment."

GODISNOWHERE. Depending on how you view it...this AWFUL, BEAUTIFUL WONDERFUL LIFE...can be lived to the fullest in the moment...even when bad is surrounding us. As I tell my patients when they don't FEEL...or SEE any improvement..."You are to close to your situation... and you can't see the progress that you are making." Family, friends, and in my case the Speech Pathologist...sees from a different perspective.

Love and Wonderful Life Kisses
Rodney "God is NOW Here" Boyd

WHAT YOU SEE...IS NOT ALWAYS WHAT YOU GET.

Hello Faith People. What you see...ain't always what you get. Just ask Earnest T. Bass. He wanted to woo Charlene Darling with his charms. He just want to court the love of his life... even though she was married by Sheriff Andy Griffith of Mayberry. To resolve the problem... a "real preacher" was coming through...and Dud and Charlene were going to get married by a "real preacher" to satisfy Earnest T. Bass. Ernest T. plotted to steal the bride before the wedding could take place. Everyone was in place for the wedding...the preacher was there... brothers and father of the bride was there...the witnesses were there...the bride and groom were ready to make there vows. SUDDENLY...Ernest T. should up and kidnapped the bride. All looked well...until...he removed the veil...and discovered that his bride was in reality a substitute...Deputy Barney Fife. The real bride was safely being married. Barney Fife's response to Briscoe Darling's assertion of Ernest T. Bass being a strange...Barney sums it it...
"HE'S A NUT." What he saw...was not what he got.

Look at a couple of examples:

ISAWABUNDANCEONTHETABLE

Did you see I SAW A BUN DANCE ON THE TABLE...or did you see I SAW ABUNDANCE ON THE TABLE?

GODISNOWHERE

Did you see GOD IS NO WHERE or did you see GOD IS NOW HERE?

What you see...is what you believe...is what you speak...is how you act. IT ALL DEPENDS ON HOW YOU LOOK AT IT. It's the old... the glass is half empty or half full MINDSET.

We see with either a RENEWED MIND...or an UNRENEWED MIND. When we are BELIEVERS in the D.B.R...and we keep our minds renewed with the washing of the water of the WORD OF GOD...we begin to look at things DIFFERENTLY than a lost person or a carnal Christian.

"For we WALK BY FAITH [that is, we REGULATE our lives and conduct ourselves by our conviction or belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, with trust and holy fervor; thus WE WALK]...not by SIGHT or APPEARANCE."
(II Corinthians 5:7 The Amplified Bible)

"Now FAITH IS...the assurance (the confirmation, the title-deed) of the things [we] HOPED FOR......being the proof of things/evidence of things [we]...DO NOT SEE...and the CONVICTION OF THEIR REALITY---FAITH...PERCEIVING...as REAL FACT...what is NOT...
REVEALED TO THE SENSES." (Hebrews 11:1 The Amplified Bible)

"But without FAITH it is IMPOSSIBLE to please and be satisfactory to Him. For WHOEVER (that would be you) would come near to God...must (necessarily) believe that God exists and that He is the Rewarder of those who EARNESTLY and DILIGENTLY...SEE HIM (out)." (Hebrews 11:6)

What do you see...when debt overwhelms you...when sickness lingers...when anxiety, worry, and tension pulls you in twenty different directions. Do you see WOE IS ME...this must be God's will for me...or do you see:

"And MY GOD will liberally SUPPLY (fill to the full) your EVERY NEED according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."
(Philippians 4:19)

Do you see:

"I have STRENGTH for ALL THINGS in Christ Who empowers me--I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses INNER STRENGTH INTO ME, [that is, I am self-sufficient in CHRIST'S SUFFICIENCY]. (Phillipians 4:13)

Whatever you are going through....don't FOCUS on your problems/needs...and don't deny that you have problems/needs....HOWEVER... look intently into the face of God...via the WORD OF GOD...and begin to speak your solution instead of the problem. As the old song says... "Turn your eyes upon Jesus...look full in His Wonderful face...and the THINGS OF EARTH will grow strangely dim...in the light of His GLORY AND GRACE. Between the point of prayer....................................................................and the point of provision....walk by faith, act by faith, speak by faith. Remember:

UNRESTRAINED THOUGHTS....PRODUCE UNRESTRAINED WORDS....RESULTING IN UNRESTRAINED ACTIONS. What we THINK...what we SAY...what we DO...is based on if we SEE....I SAW ABUNDANCE ON THE TABLE...and...GOD IS NOW HERE.

Love and Faith Kisses
Rodney "I've Got My Feet Planted On The Good, Good Word...I'm Standing On The Promises That I Heard...Signed, Sealed, Delivered by the Blood of the Lamb...I'm Not Moved By What I Feel...I'm Only Moved By The Word That's Real...The Word Came To Life, Came To
Me" Boyd

P.S. Thanks to Janny Grien for the Song Covenant Woman.