Casting Crowns has long been one of my favorite bands to listen to, especially when I need encouragement. Something about their lyrics. In particular, this song. It's the ring tone on my phone. It is the song I play when I am feeling any kind of fear or uneasiness in life. Particularly relevant for today. Not only because of the spiritual warfare storm happening in our world; but also because of Hurricane Ian which is supposed to cause some stormy weather in my area. As the hurricane which caused so much damage in Florida yesterday makes its way inland, we are expecting some heavy rain and stormy weather here in North Carolina. First, I pray for those in Florida affected by this storm that God's protection and mercy would be present for them in this difficult time. I also pray for God's protection for all those in the path of this storm as it makes its way inland. Personally, all I really want is to make it to work before it hits and make it home from work during a lull in the storm. Have a blessed day!
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“I am [in your world].’ said Aslan. ‘But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia The Chronicles of Narnia has long been my favorite series of books. C.S. Lewis was a genius. A master storyteller and the reason why I grew up loving books the way that I did. I was introduced to Narnia at a very early age and can't even tell you the number of times I've read through the entire series. But it wasn't until I met Jesus at the age of sixteen that I started fully understanding the allegory within the book. Aslan isn't just a storybook lion; he is a picture of Jesus. The stone table wasn't just a stone table. It was a picture of the cross. When Aslan allows himself to be tortured and killed by the White Witch to save Edmond, the one who betrayed Him, it was a picture of Jesus being crucified for our sins. When the stone table cracked and Aslan "woke up", it was a picture of the stone being rolled away and the resurrection of Jesus. C.S. Lewis wasn't just a storyteller though; he was a scholar and a man of deep faith who has written many books on the subject. If you've never read CS Lewis, I highly recommend. The wisdom contained in his writings is priceless. Once people stop believing in God, the problem is not that they will believe in nothing; rather, the problem is that they will believe anything. C. S. Lewis We are seeing example after example of the truth of this statement in the world we are living in today, aren't we? We've allowed God to be taken out of everything while we slept as though we ourselves are victims of the white witch's wand turning us all into stone so we can't see or hear or understand the evil our culture has been overrun with. But Aslan is on the move; We have hope that in the same way that Aslan moved through Narnia, as a roaring lion, waking people up from their slumber, our Lord and Savior Jesus will do the same for us. It's time for the world to wake up. Now, I must go pull out my Narnia books and read through them yet again. If you've never visited Narnia, you should give it a try. I promise, you are in for a treat. Have a great day! From Psalm 139..... In season two of The Chosen, there are multiple scenes where these verses are repeated over and over again. Matthew helping Mary Magdelene and Ramah learn Torah. The Pharisees of the day would have had a fit over this since women were not allowed to go to school, but Jesus thought it a good idea. Psalm 139 is one of my favorite passages of scripture as it is a wonderful reminder of how deeply God knows us, from the moment of our creation, inside and out. It also holds a bit of a special memory for me from many years ago when a friend and I challenged each other to memorize Psalm 139 word for word to help us understand how deeply God knows us, inside and out. Are there any passages of scripture that trigger fond memories for you? This one is the one for me so every time I watch through Season 2 of The Chosen and hear these words repeated over and over again... "if I ascend to Heaven, you are there....", I think of that day and that time with those people I cherished that I do not get to see much anymore, and it makes me smile. Have a great day! Good morning, How to keep TRUST and stay hopeful when the world has gone so sideways, as it has in our world today. Every day you hear something else that makes you wonder how reasonable people can trust anything being said by the people we are told we are supposed to put our trust in. Only trust in God; HE is the only one who is truly trustworthy. Lauren Daigle has become one of my favorite artists. Amazing to me that she is so embraced by mainstream enough to be given a chance to perform on TV Shows like "The Voice". "American Idol". "Good Morning America". And she comes out singing songs like this beautiful one all about TRUSTING GOD when all seems lost. I love her boldness. And I love the message in this song. Lord Jesus, help us ALL to find the boldness to speak truth to those in the world who need to hear it and the ability to TRUST YOU in all things. For you are the only one truly trustworthy. Have a great day! Good morning, Recall last week when I was talking about that song that got stuck in my head. Interesting, this morning I stumbled into a small devotional that talked about just that; understanding that when a song gets stuck in your head like that, it could be God trying to break through. To get us the "hear" HIS voice. When you have a dream that speaks deeply into your soul to the point that you never forget the impact it had on you, that's God trying to break through. To get us to hear HIS voice. If I'm going to have something meaningful to say, I need to learn to turn off the noise around me and truly "listen". This is my goal. Have a great day!
Good morning, One of my favorite worship songs of all time is "Waymaker"... but it is one that has been recorded by so many people, I have never known who wrote the beautiful song. I've always wanted to give credit to Michael W. Smith because he has written so many wonderful songs and he did record it on one of his albums. But, I was wrong. It was written by a Nigerian songwriter who goes by the name Sinach who was inspired by the words in Genisis 12:1-5, "Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." The courage to trust God even when he is asking you to do something that seems impossible. Or scary. Or just simply too much trouble because of what we see as obstacles standing in the way. This song is a beautiful reminder that God IS our Waymaker and will help us find our way through whatever is standing in our way. We just need to trust HIM. A beautiful version of this song by the original artist, for sure. But MY favorite version is a live version by Leeland...... I could probably spend all day posting videos of all the different versions of this beautiful song, but I'll stop there. Hope it blesses you all to hear these beautiful words as it does me. Have a great Sunday. It's Saturday, so the only real day of the week I can sleep in good so this explains the later start to my day here. About three years ago or so, about this time of year, I went to a Women's conference that was done by Worship leader, Rita Springer. Anyone familiar with her? It wasn't a worship conference at all, though she did lead us all in some wonderful worship services. Honestly, I can't even really remember what the main focus was. What I DO remember is it is where I became familiar with her music, which now I listen to quite often. In particular the album entitled "Battles". She can be found on Spotify, Prime music, probably anywhere you like to stream music. When I first started becoming aware fully of the very real "spiritual warfare" raging all around me, I was reminded of some of these songs. "Jesus Has NEVER lost a Battle". "Every Battle Belongs to The Lord". Never more evident than in the world we are living today and a good reminder of who is really in control. Never before in my lifetime has it been more evident that there is a very real enemy raging war all around us. My Pastor said a while back "if whatever you are hearing doesn't make any sense at all but is being touted as truth, you know it's coming from the pit of hell". He is so right and while I don't really want to make a list of the many examples I can think of here on this blog, I'm sure we all can think of many examples happening today that make it clearly evident that the issues we are facing in our world today are just that - an agenda from Hell trying to thwart the majesty and authority of Jesus and confuse the masses with true evil put in deceptive packages that makes it seem good. Take a look at what is happening in the way of children's programming. Disney promoting witchcraft in its Children's shows. FX/Disney promoting a TV Show called "Little Demon" that is literally about the spawn of Satan. How did we get to the point where these kinds of things were permissible? We fell asleep. We stopped paying attention. We allowed our eyes to be blinded to the truth of Hell's agenda while we were busy entertaining ourselves with things that seemed to be good and fun but were designed to distract us so we wouldn't notice. Lord Jesus, help us to wake up and boldly pray against all the wickedness raging around us for we know that it is in YOU where our victory will come. The good news is, as is the truth contained in Rita's songs... JESUS has never lost a battle and we can be certain that THIS current battle is already won. GOD WINS. Have a wonderful day! This is one of those mornings. Not a lot of time so need to find some quick inspiration! Yesterday while at work, a song popped in my head and wouldn't leave. Have you ever had that happen? These lyrics ran over and over on a loop in my mind making me think God was trying to tell me something. He knows. He hears. He cares. He comforts. I have no reason to fear anything; because God Only Knows, the REAL me. And when I am tempted to lose hope, to give into fear, to lose my way... HE is there to remind me of his love for me and HIS desire to protect me despite what I consider to be my failures. God Only Knows the REAL ME. by King and Country. One day I'll get that Music blog up and running. I will have some time over the weekend to give some real thought to finishing the setup of the site... or at least time to come up with some ideas for the set up. In the meantime, hope you all have a wonderful Friday. God Bless Catlover04 Good Morning and Happy First Day of Fall, This morning's Give Him 15 was all about Prayer and was taken from the Dutch Sheets book, "An Appeal to Heaven". Which made me think of Ted Dekker. Why, you might ask? Ted Dekker has long been one of my favorite authors. While I can't say I've read all of his books, I have read a significant number of them and one in particular is "Heaven's Wager", the first book in his Heaven's Trilogy series. If you are not familiar with this book, I highly recommend. This book tells the story of an old woman of faith who had tragedy strike twice in her family in a short amount of time, throwing her Son-in-law into a precarious and dangerous place. Of his own making, sure. But still, he needed help, and he had deaf ears to anything she had to say to him. It is a long and very engaging story, and one I would hate to spoil for anyone so will leave details out, but very much worth the read. This Give Him 15 podcast today about the Power of Prayer made me think of it because of how fascinated I was with this simple concept of Helen prayer walking for her beloved Son-In-Law every day until she saw Heaven move the mountain keeping him from Jesus. Every day, feeling called by Jesus to do so, she would leave early on her walk and not come home until she felt something shift in the spirit. And while she is doing that, you get a very long and involved story from Him that will keep you engaged in seeing how her supporting him in Prayer eventually helps him see the truths he needed to see. I think this is something all of us could learn a true lesson about. I know I have many things that need a "shift in the spirit" through prayer to see the mountain move. As we all probably do. A lost family member. A difficult situation at work or at home. Our Nation, which is in dire need right now of prayer warriors taking to the street, or just on our knees, to pray until the mountains standing in the way of its healing moves. When covid first hit, I was sitting in Church one day when my Pastor played a video from Nate and Christy Johnston from Australia (but living in California, I think) that gave me hope and helped open my eyes even more than they were already opened about the spiritual battle we are all facing today here in the US, and not just here but also around the world. I play it often just to remind myself that God Wins and is fully in control but we ALL should be covering our Country in prayer. I would like to share this with you now, as a call to prayer to see the mountains standing in the way of the healing of this Country move, and not just this Country but the entire world. Perhaps I should go have a good "prayer walk" after work today. Have a wonderful first day of Fall. Ever had one of those days when the inspiration is just not there? I'm having those right now. Not a lot of time and what should I say to start our day here? So I'm keeping it short and letting "The Chosen" give us one of my favorite moments of Season 1. The calling of Matthew. Matthew, the tax collector. The one despised by his people. Aren't we thankful that God loves everyone, even those who have chosen to walk in a path away from Him for a time. In this depiction of this moment, Matthew does not hesitate when he is called by Jesus. He walks away from his post and doesn't look back. Some days will be short like this; others I might be more inspired for a longer blog. Be patient with me; this is new and I'm not yet quite sure how to work much into my busy schedule during the week. But if God is in it, we will figure it out as we go. God Bless and have a great Wednesday! If you visited "The Chosen" blog page on the first day of this site, you saw a bit of a devotional from The Chosen's "40 Days With Jesus" First Devotional Book. Here is a link, in case you missed it.. The Chosen Season 3 - Entertainment Good For The Soul (weebly.com) About eleven years ago, I was raising three kids and not working outside the home... and while I didn't really watch a lot of network TV at the time (kids always had control of the remote in the evening) I had fallen in love with the TV show Survivor. Something about the game fascinated me. The challenges. The strategy involved. Who chooses to align with who? If you know the show, you get this. While I know a lot of RTV's are more scripted than they want to admit, I have never believed that about Survivor. I had stumbled into an EW recap after watching an episode and there found a home among a bunch of Survivor fans. A few have become quite good online friends. The fun of analyzing the gameplay of this show with people as intensely as fanatic about it as I was proved to be great fun. Things happened over the years, and I ended up creating a free Disqus channel back when they had those for the purpose of having a "separate from the recaps" space to chat Survivor with a few people as fanatic about it as I was. I won't go into what led to that today but what began as a nice, friendly place to chat Survivor turned into a place to chat through episodes of many different shows. I don't participate in all that happens there; but it has given people a free space to enjoy this kind of online interaction with folks who enjoy the fun of a good TV Show chat. I was becoming an unapologetic TV Fanatic and was blind to any reason why there would be anything wrong with that. And for the record, I do not regret any of it for one second. The RTV Site has been great fun and I feel strongly connected to the small group of people who play along there and have been dedicated to the site. But a couple of years ago, my heart started turning a different direction. I started seeing things, troubling things, in the content of the shows I was choosing. Some I could overlook; some I just couldn't. That set me on a search to find somewhere in the world of visual entertainment that would be uplifting and positive and not cause me to feel like I was compromising my morals and maybe even my very soul to watch. Enter, The Chosen. I had never seen anything like this show. Completely produced and funded outside of the Hollywood establishment, this series was the first of its kind. A crowd source funded Series event to tell the story of Jesus through the eyes of his disciples. To me, it was life changing. This verse opens the second chapter of the "40 Days with Jesus" Season 1 Devotional and focuses on Mary Magdelene and the fact that when Jesus delivered her from her demons, she became completely devoted to him. She followed him everywhere during his three years of ministry, she was loyal to him. And she was faithful to him. She was there at the foot of the cross when he was crucified. And she was the first one he appeared to after he had risen allowing her to be the one to spread this good news. We should all strive to be as devoted to Jesus, our deliverer, as Mary Magdelene was.
I suppose we all have things in our lives we need to be delivered from in order to draw closer to Jesus in our walk and He surely will deliver us when we ask with true repentance in our hearts. For me, perhaps this TV addiction is the main thing. But there was a point when I started looking into those ministries and/or faith and family friendly TV sources to find a more positive and uplifting message in media. And then once finding some good sources, I started praying about ways to use this information. The idea for this site came from a desire to support and draw attention to those who have gone up against big Media to bring a more positive message to the industry. Streaming sites like Pureflix, not terribly expensive and full of faith-based content. This is where you would find the Kevin Sorbo produced movies. You know, formerly known as Hercules back in the 80's, who was blacklisted from Hollywood for his faith and chose to start his own movie studio to fight back producing such popular movies as the "God's Not Dead" series, for example. Also, if you have kids, you can find every single Veggie Tale video on this platform. Just a couple of examples but they also have been doing some original shows, a couple of which I have watched. Will do a writeup on the "Pureflix" blog to highlight those soon. The TV Channel UPTV with its corresponding Streaming site UpFaith and Family, is another source of fun for sweet Romance and Christmas movies and they have a pretty large catalogue on their streaming site. This is where my current "Heartland" binge is happening. The Great American Family and Living Channels and it's soon to be Streaming App which will launch on September 26th called The Great American Community and will feature original shows from some of its most popular actors. Looking forward to checking this one out. They also have been producing some wonderful original movies and will launch their Christmas season soon. More on that on their corresponding blog soon. And Hallmark, while it is not without its controversy these days, still has some pretty good content. It is still the home of the wonderful series based on the Jeanette Oke series of books, "When Calls the Heart", for example. And, of course their Christmas Season movies can usually provide a person with as much sappy romance as their heart's desires. And I love them. Most of the time. And back to The Chosen, they actually have their own app too called "Angel Studios" that can be downloaded on streaming devices such as Fire TV and Roku and not only houses ALL content from The Chosen, but also has other of their crowd source funded content as well. So, there you have it; how I became to feel that a site to promote and support faith based and family friendly content was necessary. I want this to be a safe place for faith conversation but also a fun place for Faith and Family TV Chats. Not sure how it will all look moving forward but as soon as we get a bit of a following, we will figure it out. If you are a person like me who enjoys TV and movies but wants to be uplifted and encouraged, I hope this site can offer you some good information. And some great chats as we grow a little. Of course, the RTV site still exists and I'm sure I will continue to manage it and to obsess over Survivor and The Amazing Race, to name a couple of my favorites. But I felt that if I wanted to focus on THIS kind of TV Show content, I needed a separate outlet to do so. Have a great day! Catlover04 Are any of you familiar with Dutch? He has a daily podcast he does called "Give Him 15", a call to God's people to commit to give just 15 minutes a day to pray. For our nation. For our leaders. For help from heaven to overcome our enemies. Never so important as it is in the world we are living in today. Dutch is one of my favorite "go to" Pastor's to hear a bit of God's word before starting my day. Today's message was about King David and his passion for being in the presence of God. A link if anyone cares to listen to a short sermon this morning taken from the book "The Pleasure of HIS Company" written by Dutch. I try to start my day with Dutch as often as I can. In the future, I think I will try to do this devotion page the night before so I don't run out of time as I am right now. I do have a full-time job so sometimes am unavailable to chat during the day. However, I do plan to check in from time to time to see if anyone has come around. A bit of housekeeping... Most original movies for Great American Family, Hallmark, UpTV are released over the weekend so sometime this week I will be assembling a "kick-off" list for this weekend. Not envisioning it being a "chat through the movie" kind of thing, as we often do on the other site but more just providing a space to chat about the movies after they air. Short recap maybe? Nothing spoilery but more just a "thumbs up or down" kind of thing. Any new pages created on other blogs will be linked to this first Daily page just to make them easy to find for people. Thanks for stopping by this brand-new site and if you would like to be added to the tag list, please let me know in the comments. Have a wonderful Monday! If anyone should drop by this page, welcome. With the new Fall TV seasons approaching and new original shows and movies popping up all the time on streaming sites that promote family friendly content such as Great American Family, Pureflix, UpTV etc. thought it might be fun to go ahead a try to find a few interested participants in a site like this. But need some time to finish setting it up. If you drop by here and want to be kept informed of anything new coming up, please let me know in the comments and I will put you on a "tag" list to make sure you get a notification when anything new comes up. Thanks, and Welcome!
Catlover04 |