Heart of the word

by Sharon O | Aug 5, 2015 | Uncategorized

I was listening to my car radio the other day and a favorite Pastor of mine came on with a wonderful lesson.
I was actually surprised and happy he was on the radio teaching.
His name was Ron Mehl he was the Pastor at Beaverton Four Square church, Beaverton Oregon.
There is a website called Heart of the word which is the continuation of his ministry.
https://www.compassion-ministries.org/heartnewsletter.aspx
http://www.compassion-ministries.org/products/
I always loved his teachings as he was a man on a journey fighting leukemia, always praying for healing and always trusting in God’s process and time.
He was not just here playing games, he was here to share God with who ever would listen.
He passed away many years ago but I still enjoy his teaching and listening to his very gentle voice.
The title of the talk for the day was ‘Lessons to be learned by the hero’s of old’, sharing about the prophets of the Old Testament and how we can learn from their stories.
In the book of Hebrews which is in the New Testament and in chapter 12:1-3 there is the growing and living by faith chapter that tells us we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses who have gone before us.
It is always good to remember our walk of faith has purpose.
1st thing to remember: he said recall what we have learned.
Remember the former days of our lives and how God has blessed us.
Remember how he delivered us.
Elijah heard the still small voice and listened.
Mary listened and believed in the miracle she was to be a part of.
Shadrach said going into the fires: We will not be broke down.
Each of them said, “Lord what do you want me to do?”
2nd thing to remember: he said to walk by faith and listen to the voice speaking to us.
Surrender to the plan even if we don’t understand it, we know our problem and He knows how to fix it.
3rd thing to remember: he said remember God always comes through for us, we must learn to resist great doubt.
He is faithful and will come through in his time and maybe not ours.
4th thing to remember: he said we need to learn to say, “God persist in our hearts. Teach us to be faithful.
I will trust you and will not quit even when I don’t fully understand.
No matter what I will trust in you.”
5th thing to remember: he said to stand in your faith.
Stand firm always.
As you pray for your family, your friends and others.
Remember to say,
“Lord you are the only one who can make this happen and then step back in trust.”
Daniel in the Old testament prayed and a nation was changed.
He said to remember the former days and how far we have come.
He always comes through as a rescuer for us, even when we don’t expect it to happen.
He said, learn to not ask so much and just trust him.
We are called to endure and wait, living by faith and trusting and believing.
Real love always includes sacrifice.
Sacrificial, biblical love. Giving up what we love the most.
It is not friendship love, it is love that gives deeply from a bleeding heart.

The heart of the word, giving up oneself so that others can be healed and blessed through the message.

Friday’s word prompt

by Sharon O | Jul 31, 2015 | Uncategorized

The word for the day is TRY, there are many directions I could go with this one little three lettered word.
I remember as our children were growing up, they would get frustrated in doing something and I would say to them, “you just need to try” and soon they mastered the frustrating moment.
It is pushing oneself to do more, to do better, to risk and maybe move from your comfort zone.
To ride that bike and do it well, to dive in that water, to step foot in a plane for the first time, to learn to hike rough terrain or climb into a hot air balloon. (No I have not done that)
To write that first blog post and push publish.
To try it and to take a risk and force yourself to step in to place you have never been before.
In seven days we are heading off to our ‘favorite canoe trip.’
Four days away from noise, and words, and internet and hot showers as I like them and my favorite bed and my kitties and my comfort zone and place of safety.
The first time we were planning on going I didn’t want to.
I strongly dislike camping. I was afraid of the water.
I was not knowing what we would do in a canoe all day long.
It was not looking like any thing I would enjoy.
My husband said, “just try it.”
So we went on our first trip and you know what? I enjoyed it a lot.
I forced myself to ‘try’ something new.
I so enjoyed seeing the outdoors and feeling the wind and warmth and watching the birds fly over our heads.
I so enjoyed hearing the lapping of the water when we moved the canoe with our oars.
I sat in the quiet and felt blessed and full of peace.

I told myself it would be a new adventure and it would be an experience I could write about.
The word try is challenging.
Anytime we do something new we have a choice.
The big decision is whether we will try to do it with a good attitude.

Our coast trip part two

by Sharon O | Jul 22, 2015 | Uncategorized

We continued to walk on the edge of the town of Astoria.
It was about 76 degrees outside with a refreshing cool breeze.
So nice to get away from our high temps in town.
We stopped and had lunch at a brew pub.
The wait was very long as they were busy with a lot of people wanting something to eat.
The cool ‘beer’ was refreshing and the ice water was nice.

After we ate our long awaited lunch we continued our walk to other ‘view points’.

This is another water picture of the ship and the type of wood structure the seagulls were resting on.

The ships were very amazing and we could walk up close to them but not enter. It was close to the museum and if one had tickets to the museum they could enter the red boat.
We chose to not do that this time.
As we continued to walk we noticed one of the buildings had incredible art work on the outside.

Notice the kitties in the picture and the faces in the windows, it is a very interesting picture.

I stood for quite some time just looking at each detail, it was amazing to see the creative pictures.

A very cool red door was nearby one of the pictures it brought a whimsical look to the building for sure.

The trip was fun and we had great times of chatting and sharing together. Another day of our coast trip to Astoria.

The flag on the ferry boat waving in the wind reminding me always to say “God bless our America.”

Our coastal day out of town

by Sharon O | Jul 22, 2015 | Uncategorized

This last weekend we took a day off and went ‘sight seeing’ on the Oregon Coast.
My favorite place to go.
Our journey included a drive to Gearheart which is a lovely little beach town full of quaint little beach homes nestled among the sand and grass. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of them.
After doing a bit of geocaching which the guys love to do we headed on to Astoria.
In Astoria we were amazed to find some wonderful ships on the water just moving so slow through the waves and current I could have watched them all day long.

They were large in size and amazing to look at then we walked down the trolley car track to see other ships. Here I am walking down the track watching my steps on the uneven wood.

As we headed to the other side of the tracks to see more we enjoyed the cool wind in our faces.

This is the trolley car when it’s picking up people along the route.
We were going to ride it then decided to just walk the track to our next viewpoint.
The trolley was very crowded. 
We came around the corner and as we were looking over the waters view point I looked up and saw this mother seagull protecting her babies. She stood up and made all kind of noise to let us know we were close.
We had never seen a seagull and babies in a ‘nesting rest’ spot before it was very fun to see.

The babies had their soft feathers and it only looked like it was two of them. High on a perch over the waters edge on a large piece of wood. They were very cute and very quiet.

The ferry we were heading to see was this one, a Coast Guard ferry we were not allowed to enter.

It was very pretty sitting in all it’s glory against the blue water and landscaping.

Here is another large ship in the water. Amazing to see as it moved slowly into the channel.
At one point in time there were four of them waiting to enter the channel many miles away from where we were standing. So big this picture does not show how large it really was.

This is the top of the ferry boat. Amazing and very high.

If you look closely there are four ships out there far away from us.

The top of one of the ships we were standing next to not far from the very high Astoria bridge.

It was amazing to see the barge ships come through that very high passage way. We watched them move so slowly and yet so guided by a plan and a destination. Amazing to be a part of and watch and very refreshing out in the wind by the water.