FORGIVENESS = HEAVEN

Monday, February 27, 2017

Welcome to my Monday Blog, my Friends!

Well, I just returned from a week of tears, laughter and celebration…all at the same time. My brother-in-law, “Uncle Bernie”, made his heavenly flight on Tuesday and naturally left the rest of us to weep, rejoice and laugh ourselves silly as we told some extraordinary tales on him. He deserved it too!! Uncle Bernie was the kind of person who would walk up to a group of folks and comfortably join the conversation, and laughter would soon follow. It was always hard to get away from Uncle Bernie and when you did have to leave, he would immediately say something nice about the one who left. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Uncle Bernie for over fifty years and I can honestly say I don’t think I ever heard him say anything bad about anyone. Oh, he had his frustrations about this or that, but he just didn’t allow negativity and anger to take up space in his beautiful heart. He loved his wife, his boys and his grandchildren. He loved Jesus Christ with a devout faith and could pray in such a way that you didn’t want him to stop once he got started. He took from no one but gave to everyone. He was a humble man, with a light-hearted spirit, filled with kindness for others and a sweet generous heart. I will surely miss my dear long-time friend, prayer warrior and counselor…”Uncle Bernie”; however, I’m  certain he’s doing some serious entertaining right about now, behind those pearly gates—Hallelujah, Bernie. I love you the most!!

I dedicate today’s Blog to my beloved, Bernie E. Maness – for his love, kindness, courage and most of all his ability to forgive. Amen!!

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”  – Colossians 3:13

God is Good! God is Great!! Always!!!

I love you,

Margaret

PS If someone has hurt you and a wall is up, remember…you can’t make choices for them —only you…so you FORGIVE and you move on. Amen!

https://www.amazon.com/That-Melvin-Bray-Margaret-McBride/product-reviews/1458212122

 

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What Happens In Heaven When We Pray?

 

Monday, February 13, 2017

Hello Friends,

Welcome to my Monday Blog!!

“I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, “This is the Receiving Section. This is where all petitions to God said in prayer, are received.”

I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.

The angel then said to me, “This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them.” I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally, at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. “This is the Acknowledgment Section,” my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed.

“How is it that there is no work going on here?” I asked.

“So sad,” the angel sighed. “After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments.”

“How does one acknowledge God’s blessings?” I asked.
“Simple,” the angel answered. Just say, “Thank you, Lord.”

“What blessings should they acknowledge?” I asked.

“If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy, and if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day.

If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 700 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world.

If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you’re unique to all those in doubt and despair”

“Ok,” I said. “What now? How can I start?”

The Angel said, “If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.”

So…a friend of mine sent this to me in an email yesterday and after I read it a few times, it touched me so, that I wanted to share it with all of you today. I, for one, know I live in the “deficit” column when it comes to thanking the good Lord for my never-ending blessings. Gosh, if I stayed on my knees for the rest of this Life (He gave me), I’d still be in arrears! This started me to thinking more vividly, about what I might do differently to show God how sincere and grateful I am for the incredible gifts He favors me with every single day of my precious Life.

Well, I do an awful lot of PRAYING, I told myself. That’s true, but most of those prayers are ASKING for just another miracle—another gift, another this, another that—another something for me, my family, my friends, my life. Then I reasoned with myself and admitted that I do waaaay more asking God than thanking God. I felt ashamed and promised God I will do better—and I WILL.

If you feel as I, that you’re not doing right by God, then just ask yourself what would you do if you didn’t have God in your Life; if you couldn’t go to Him for everything you need—regardless of the need—it’s your need and you know God’s always there for you. Now, that’s scary to me! The mere thought of God not being there for me…frightening!! No way—I wouldn’t get out of bed.

All I’m saying is that if someone asked me to sit down and actually count all my blessings,   I’d never finish! I’ve taken God for granted more than I want to admit, and I’m going to begin by acknowledging this fact, ask for His forgiveness, forgive myself and show Him a new Attitude of Gratitude! A better me! I want that Angel in the “Acknowledgement Department” in Heaven to see my “Thank You” messages!  Amen & Hallelujah!!

My prayer for all of us this week, is that we will COUNT OUR BLESSINGS—ONE BY ONE and that we will begin each new day with a simple “Thank You, Lord”…

God is Good! God is Great!! Always!!!

I love you,

Margaret

If I have nothing but YOU, I have everything I need. THANK YOU, LORD. —Margaret

https://www.amazon.com/That-Melvin-Bray-Margaret-McBride/product-reviews/1458212122

ANGELS Walk Among Us!!

Monday, February 6, 2017

Hello, my dear Friends!

Welcome to my Monday Blog, and just in case I don’t say “Thank You” every week, for visiting here with me and commenting, it certainly doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate You to infinity and back! I DO!! Please, let’s just chalk it up to bad manners and I must work on that (remember, nobody’s perfect- “I am so not perfect!” – MMcB).

Recently I spoke about integrating my novel, That Melvin Bray into my blogs over the next several months. The purpose of this is to share my humble views on Faith and Forgiveness. As a Christian, I believe these to be the root and impetus to our joy, peace and happiness.

When I began writing That Melvin Bray I had no idea whatsoever as to where I was going with it; frankly, it started out as a personal journal. I had just read The Shack and man, what an effect that little book had on me—It put me in overdrive and my little journal became a 293 page book, complete with photos!! Now, I admit it took me over four years to complete it and get it published; however, it was about sixty years “in the making”, as they say.

That Melvin Bray is a story about anger in the heart and how such anger can suck the precious gift-of-life right out of you if you allow it. In my case, I wasn’t even psychologically aware that such anger had taken up residence in my heart way back in childhood —That’s a downer— But once I started that little “journal”, my life changed and talk about an epiphany — WOW!!

So when we do personally acknowledge, accept and embrace the need to truly change for the better, our lives become so much more worth-living!! This is what happened to me as I delved into my heart and soul by writing my novel, That Melvin Bray. There were some days when I honestly couldn’t finish a paragraph, due to the incredible emotion I was feeling due to the catharses which was taking place within me…

catharses: a purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal or release of tension, as in pity and fear; elimination of a complex by bringing it to consciousness and affording it expression

This is what writing my novel did for me. Hallelujah!! Obviously though, there are numerous ways to help ourselves when we’re suffering in an emotional crises mode; however, the paramount issue here is to get help! I can share only my personal path with you here, in hopes of touching an emotional chord in you, that may cause you to reach inside yourself and perform what I call a “heart & soul check-up.” I offer this as a guide: in all we do, we need to start from a place of humility and gratitude for what we already have, then ask for what we believe we need…be honest and willing to care enough about ourselves to want to better ourselves on a soul basis —This is not about stuff, rather, what kind of human being we are and even more importantly, what kind of human being we truly want to be while we’re living out our gift of Life on Earth. 

“We all need to develop an attitude of gratitude.” This doesn’t mean we should live pretending nothing negative exists. It simply means to make it our goal in life to be as positive as possible. A positive approach opens the door for God to work.” —Joyce Meyer 

As a small child, growing up with a wonderful Mother who loved the Lord, I wanted to be a “heavenly angel”.  I just wanted to be anywhere and everywhere to help anyone and everyone with their problems. Of course I didn’t realize that meant I would have to “die and go to heaven”, to be one of those heavenly angels, as my older siblings explained to me more than once. I thought angels were just about the greatest thing on earth, but not really on earth; however, one unforgettable Sunday at church, Pastor Meyers, gave me a ray of hope where Angels are concerned:

“That Melvin Bray”, Chapter 10 – Lillian Fay O’Malley

“The church sermon that Sunday was very interesting. Even I paid attention. Pastor Meyers was in rare form and was wearing a white robe. He usually wore a dark gray pin-striped suit, so I guess his new look was what caught my eye in the first place. I looked around the sanctuary and noticed Danny-Boy sitting between Mr. and Mrs. Brown. He was sitting on the edge of his seat—listening earnestly for some new verses to use at his next funeral, no doubt. I’m sure the white robe had gotten his attention as well. Pastor Meyers guided us to Colossians 1:16-17and  Job 38-4-7. He performed his version of the Easter play—a one-act, one-man show. He was acting as an angel in heaven. He explained that angels had specific jobs to do and that God created angels to minister to and for God. The message was very interesting to me (I was all of 6 years old). Then Pastor Meyers took off the white robe, and there he stood in his usual dark grey pin-striped suit. He then referred the congregation to Psalm 91:11, Matthew 19:10, and Luke 15:1-10. He explained he was still an angel, but he represents an angel on Earth this time and was now dressed in his earthly suit. These earthly angels, he said , were messengers from God also and were here on assignment from God. They were able to come into our world, walk as humans, and do as humans. We would not see wings on these angels, but they were still angels. God sent them to Earth to help us in times of need and desperation. The point of the sermon was that we are to be careful how we treat each other here on Earth, because these earthly angels see and report back to God, as they have watch and charge over us. Pastor Meyers ended the sermon with Hebrews 13:2, saying, “Remember to welcome strangers, because some who have done so have entertained angels without knowing it.” Pastor Meyers then finished his sermon and released the congregation from the pews. It seemed to me that everyone was especially nice and kind to each other on the way out of the church that Sunday. Pastor Meyers must have felt good about his angel sermon, because he was smiling extra big as he greeted each of us on our way out of the church. He did his job quite well that day. Surely God and the angels were smiling too.  That Sunday sermon was the only sermon I can actually remember of all the Sundays I spent at church throughout my childhood, but in hindsight, I know why. Amazing, those angels!” (Plus, I was convinced on that Sunday that I could in fact be an angel in heaven and on earth too, and wouldn’t necessarily have to leave my family on Earth —Life was so good!).

I’ve come to the conclusion that an “attitude of gratitude” is precisely what God’s heavenly angels possess…They must!

My prayer for all of us this week is that we will embrace the knowledge that we can all live an Angel-like life, filled with goodness and kindness towards everyone who crosses our paths…right here on Earth. Amen!

God is Good! God is Great!!Always!!!

I love you,

Margaret

“Praise the Lord, you Angels, you mighty ones who carry out His plans, listening for each of His commands.” – Psalm 103:20

https://www.amazon.com/That-Melvin-Bray-Margaret-McBride/product-reviews/1458212122