Tag: heart

Posted in Living in Today's World, The Joy of His Love, Time for Sharing

What’s Love Got To Do With It? Pt. 3

Posted on by Streim

2011 Family 003

The Beatitudes of Love

Blessed are those who find love everywhere, for they may never be lonely.

Blessed are those who always give love, for they shall always have more to give.

Blessed are those who make it easier for others to love them, for they shall always have plenty of friends.

Blessed are those who always communicate in love, for they are channels of blessing wherever they go.

Blessed are those that bestow healing love, for they may be known as the physicians of the soul.

Blessed are those who ;eave love wherever they go, for the world will be a better place because they lived.

Blessed are those who love to work, for theirs is the kingdom of service.

Blessed are those who share, for theirs is the kingdom of joy everywhere.

Blessed are those who love to wait, for theirs is the kingdom of patience.

Blessed are those that love to praise others, for theirs is the kingdom of appreciation.

Blessed are those who put others first, for theirs is the kingdom of humility.

Blessed are those who love to be courteous, for theirs is the kingdom of good manners.

Blessed are those who love God first, and above all, for theirs is the kingdom of right relationship to God and people.

Blessed are love Jesus Christ, for they share His tender compassion on the whole world.

Blessed are those who love and receive the Holy Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of holiness.

Blessed are those who practice love in relation to all people at all times, for theirs is the kingdom of intimate kindness.

Blessed are those who plan to practice love always, for they shall live in the house of love and dwell in the city of God for ever. (Thomas Albert Carruth/1975)

♥♥♥♥♥

Jude 21 “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

Zephaniah 3:17 “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”

1 Timothy 1:5 “The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

Posted in Living in Today's World, Random, Time for Sharing

Torn Coat and Weathered Hands

Posted on by Streim

homeless manHomeless man with wind burnt face, standing on a corner, head hung in disgrace

Everyone just kept driving by as though he wasn’t there, heading to the mall like runners in a race.

The cardboard sign he held, had words scrawled out in sheer despair

“I am homeless, could you please help me?” As he stood hunched over in a ragged jacket, shoes with holes and shaggy hair

The saddest moments where watching so many passersby,  and no one showed not a care.

I told my care giver who was driving to turn at the next block and go back around;  she listened but didn’t make a sound.

We drove up to him by the side of the road, I rolled down the window and said “Sir please come here”, I watched him limp as he walked to the car

weathered hands

I took his weathered hand  as he shivered in the frozen  north wind and when I looked him in the eye,  I began to cry.

I told him I wanted him to know that God truly loved him (as I handed him a folded bill) then he smiled and said to me, “I know He does ma’am I have Jesus in my heart”

He thanked me several times, three times to be exact, but I told him he need not thank me, it was a joy to and that this  moment with him had made my day”

We spoke a while longer as he told me how hard today’s world is,  he said he’s tried to get help to get back on his feet,

Then he told me that sleeping in the frigid cold was the worst part of living on the street.

As we drove away I wondered how so many live that way, when 70 per cent of Americans are Christians, or so they say

No one should be without a home, a place of warmth and love… for our Lord Jesus has instructed us to share with the poor in every way.

Some so-called Christians would ridicule my deed and say, he’s just lazy or a drunken bum so let him live that way

And my response to them “Except for the grace of God that could be any one of us, for we know not why he’s homeless

And we need not consider why, God’s Word tells us “to give everything we have and nothing less.”

The true meaning of Christmas arose in my heart for the first time that day, as the stores all crowded with crabby folks no matter where we went

My patience was gone for reckless drivers, grumpy clerks and people hustling  trying to get a good deal

It took a homeless man, with torn coat and weathered hands, to show the joy of Christmas and the love of our “Jesus” so very real.

♥Streim ©

Matthew 1: 20-24  “But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.  And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”  So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:  “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,”  which is translated, “God with us.”

Posted in Finding Comfort, Listening To God, Living in Today's World, Praise and Worship, The Joy of His Love, Time for Sharing

Is Confession Good For The Soul?

Posted on by Streim

Confession leads to forgiveness, but what does that look like?  The picture is presented to us in a wonderful way in Psalm 51.  The results of forgiveness are a clean heart, a renewed spirit, a restored relationship with God and the joyful experience of God’s salvation.  God “cleans us up”, makes us “presentable to Him” and “reorients us toward Himself” and helping us to focus on that which is right.  When God forgives us, HE crosses over the deep canyon that separates us from Him.  When you put all of this together~~there is much cause to be joyful!  Forgiveness is truly more than a theological principle…it makes our salvation a very personal experience with Almighty God, Creator of all things!  It takes all the wrong things in our life and makes them right in our Father’s eyes.


Psalm 51: 10-17

10)* Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. **11) Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. ***12) Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 13) Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. ****14) Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 15)  O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.  16)  For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. *****17)  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

~references from Psalm 51 and other Scriptures of importance~

* Ezekiel 18:31
  “Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel?”
**Luke 11:13
“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
***2 Corinthians 12-18
 “Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains , because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit”
**** Ezekiel 33:8
 “If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.”
***** Psalm 34:18
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
Isaiah 57:15
“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.'”
Isaiah 66:2
 “All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


To me joy is an honest Spirit-filled overwhelming awareness of the grace of God in my life.