God's Love Calenders

God's Love Calenders

So my daughter Anita and I put together this Calender and its available on Zazzle.com

Just trying this out. Take a look and let us know what you think...

Here's the link to the calender...

http://www.zazzle.com/gods_love_calender-158175494783271520

Have a wonderful blessed day. :)

Where Are You Lord?

Are you in the man that you lovingly created,

Whom you formed, with tender care,

Carefully placing each strand of hair,

Connecting the muscles, nerves & veins,

Placing the heart, in tandem to the brain.

Taking care to enclose it all in delicate skin.

And giving man freewill,

…and yet, …we chose to sin.

Are you in the Sun that gives light and life,

That takes its shift with the moon that lights the night.

In the majesty of the sea, in perfect balance with the clouds,

To bring the rain, to drench the ground,

That grows the tree that sprouts the apple blossom.

Are You in the fragrance and intricacy of its flower

And even its regeneration, perfectly designed,

…and yet, …we thought we could make it better.

Are you in the cities, that man has built,

In the monstrous office towers,

The Super-Malls, and the multiplexes,

The grocery-stores and the dollar stores.

Are you there in the building of our black tar roads,

And when we fill them from bumper to bumper,

Are you on that street, when its white with snow,

On the corner with the homeless crowd, few would know,

…and are You in the one who reaches out…to give them a hand.

Are you in your community, You call your church

Did You skillfully knit each one together,

Those that profess to serve you…

Are you there in our cliques, filled with hypocrites, and drones,

Are you there when we gossip with our haughty tones,

…When we have not earned the right…to throw a stone,

Are you there with the sick, the depressed and the lonely,

The elderly and the children,

…and within those that despite it all…tirelessly serve them.

I am...

Yes, I was there in my Son when his feet touched the earth,

And I was there when triumphantly I sat Him on My right side.

And I was there in the Spirit we lovingly left behind.

I am there in the oceans, the trees and the flowers

And in heart of every comforting friend in those office towers.

I am there in the church I call my body,

And yes I carefully grafted each member together,

Forgiving, growing, guiding, and sending them out.

And yes...I am there in those little coincidences that freak you out,

           …and I am there in the heart of every soul…that chooses to serve.

By Maria F. Godinho 

11/2011

Community, Accountability and God - the Polyphony

       It seems to me that accountability itself, in a Christian community, is a polyphonic three pronged relationship between our willpower, the Christian community, and God. 

       If we lean too heavily on our willpower and ignore those who prophetically speak into our lives, then we run the risk of thinking we’ve done it all on our own and we fail to give glory to God. Thus we weaken the vertical connection with God. We see this in the case of Saul in 1 Samuel as he becomes jealous of David’s notoriety. He fails to acknowledge God’s hand in both his and David’s victory.[1]

       If we lean to heavily on community for correction, then the community becomes a crutch for us, and our willpower muscle becomes underdeveloped. We run the risk of operating in a sin/correction/repent/sin cycle. The community becomes our external conscience and again the focus is on community not God.

       Instead, our focus should always be on God. As He challenges us to grow, we hear prophetic confirmation from those in the community with us, whose focus is again on God. Sometimes, community challenge can be the catalyst for change, the jolt out of denial of our sins that we need; as in the case with David and Nathan regarding Bathsheba.[2] Ultimately the onus is on David to make the change required, to admit his sin and come to repentance and right relationship with God.

       We want others to see God in us and mirror back to them, God in them. Ramsey points out, “when we see God present in those around us, then within the pastoral community we stand half a chance of becoming present to one another.”[3]

[1] 1 Sam 18:8

[2] 2 Sam 12:7—9

[3] G. Lee Ramsey Jr. Care-full Preaching, 48

Are you the reflection of God into people's life around you?

Have a blessed day!

Maria F. Godinho

Excerpt from my Pastoral care paper on Cultivating Caring Community

I was reading Renewing Pastoral Practice by Neil Pembroke he describes the relationship of the Trinity as a polyphony; "The chief attribute of this musical term is ‘simultaneous non-excluding difference: that is, more than one note is played at a time, and none of these notes is so dominant that it renders another mute." ...I loved that description. 

Is being a gentlemen, lost today?

I heard a story the other day (which I will retell with permission of course, but the names have been changed) I consider this a good example of the colliding of Christian and secular world views.…

A young man, we’ll call him Bob, was having a few friends over for the evening and was getting along very well with a young lady, we’ll call her Cheryl.  He was enjoying some playful banter with her all night.  She had a few drinks and was tired and he offered her his room to stay in for the night.  Sexual innuendos were flying in both directions, but he, out of respect for her, excused himself and left her alone to go to sleep for the night.  She however apparently was expecting Bob to return and curl up in bed with her.  After a long period of time, it was evident Bob was not returning and Cheryl was mortified.  From her perspective, she had made herself available and Bob had shunned her offer.  Bob, however, was not aware of an offer being on the table, not that the idea hadn’t occurred to Bob, but he thought he was being respectful.  She got dressed and shyly said her good-byes without any explanation.  Bob was none the wiser until his friends pointed out why Cheryl seemed so upset.  Poor Bob endured some serious teasing from his friends and Cheryl, completely crushed, never talked to Bob again. If only Cheryl could see the situation from a different perspective; in actuality Bob was not shunning & thus disgracing her, as she perceived; Bob was actually treating Cheryl with dignity, knowing that her value was not based on her sexuality.  Then perhaps she would have walked away feeling honoured and cherished instead of crushed.

Bob is apparently a dying breed, he is a gentleman.  He was raised with Christian values and was taught to respect women.  Cheryl, I’m not aware of her views but I suspect, she was doing what she had come to accept as the norm . Its in the movies we watch, the shows on TV, the magazines we read. The fact it never occurred to Cheryl that Bob did not want to take advantage of her, out of respect for her as a person; says something about our society at large today.  Has the value of being a “lady” and a “gentleman” become extinct? 

Well its not extinct to the Lord; the Lord treats us all as if we are Ladies and Gentlemen, cherishing us and valuing us as the people we are, and lovingly partnering with us to become the best we can be.  He also expects us to love and cherish all those He puts in our lives in the same way.  Jesus, when asked, what the 2 most important commandments were; “He answered:'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" God loves us, wants us to love Him, and then go spread that love to those around us.

…Hopefully, I pray, they will understand they are being loved, cherished and respected.

Let’s try not to miss it, when God is pouring into our lives.

How do you see God at work today?

Blankets of blessings on you.

Love without power?

"Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love." — Martin Luther King Jr.

I read the above quote the other day and it started me thinking…Now I love Martin Luther King and pretty much everything the man said is filled with passion and love for the Lord, but the above quote bothered me. Specifically “love without power is sentimental and anemic.” 1 John 4:8 says “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” If God is love than technically we can not have love without power. Can we?

I think the problem today is that we throw the word love around too easily, and for the wrong things and then love gets a bad rap. Anytime we love someone, they are affected, even if it is not evident. Anytime we do something out of love for someone, it only benefits them in the end. Now don’t misunderstand me, I’m not talking about lust and temptation, which often gets confused with love; I’m talking about true, other centered, God filled, love. The kind that accepts unconditionally, no matter how messed up we are, the kind that forgives all things, that rejoices and cries with us, and the kind that always wants the best for us. I know that Mr King was talking about love as it pertains to justice, but even then I don’t think you can have love without power.

                                                               …God is love and He is all powerful…

“Jesus replied, “What is impossible with human beings is possible with God.” Luke 18:27

Where do you see God today?

Have a blessed day!

A New Year's Gift...

My new year’s story about seeing God is one I remember every year because it is my youngest son’s birthday.  He is turning 23 today, and he was and is a gift from God in so many ways.  We had decided to only have 2 children but just when my son Anthony was out of diapers, God decided otherwise.  I hate to admit that at the time, my views on abortion were quite different and for about a split second I considered it, but looking at my 2 other children, I realized I couldn’t even entertain the thought.  He was due January 7th and I prayed for the baby to be born on Jesus’ birthday.  Well Christmas came and went and I just figured that my prayer was not answered.  January 1^st 1988 my son Daniel Paul Godinho was born at 4:35am.  First to be born at KW Hospital in Waterloo that year. 

Many years later I remember watching a documentary on the true date of Jesus birthday, and they had claimed that a monk had been asked to find the actual date of Jesus’ birth and to revise the current calendar to start from that date; so according to this documentary Jesus birthday would be January 1^st.  The closest I’ve come, on internet searches is identifying that “Pope John the First asked a monk named Dionysius to prepare a standardized calendar for the western Church.” But apparently they say he was off by a few years.  As far as the day goes, there are various theories, but I am going to keep searching.  So maybe God did answer my prayer after all…whether or not he was born on Jesus’ actual birthday, he is my gift from God at New Year’s. 

Each of my children are special to me in their own ways, Daniel is my motivator, the optimist that keeps me on my toes, the one that knows just how to push my buttons, stubborn, like me, we get into disagreements that can only end in stalemate…he is also my baby that still needs nurturing, he is my sweet, big strong muscular man that is as beautiful on the inside as he is on the outside…oh ahem sorry, I mean handsome, he is one of my children, all precious gifts from God, this one given to me to hold and nurture, on New Year’s Day.

Thank you God.


Have a blessing filled 2011, and may you see God everyday.

24 hrs to Christmas Eve...

So here I was Christmas Eve eve and just about to begin my Christmas shopping, (well actually that’s not true, I did have one gift)  Every year I vow to start Christmas shopping early, and every year I do the same thing, …but I have to admit, I do like the rush of shopping when everything is Christmasy.  This was the latest I’d ever left it though.  I went with gift cards, (except for the kids) I know it sounds like a copout but I put thought into it and bought gift cards specific to everyone’s interests. 

God tells us to give Him everything and I prayed for the Lord to guide my shopping and preparations for Christmas; a tall order seeing as I had just finished cleaning the house, I still needed to get some last minute food (because our fridge isn’t working properly and freezes everything, so anything fresh had to be bought last minute) and we didn’t have a tree YET.  Talk about a “wing and a prayer,” I needed both! I asked my husband to go food shopping with a list, and my 2 son’s volunteered to get a tree that day, that left me free for the gifts.  Whew, that’s the first sign of God; usually, getting any of my guys to help out is like pulling teeth.

Next I strategized, the sequence to hit my destined stores…2^nd sign of God, only one semi-grumpy store clerk, that smiled when I said “Merry Christmas!”  3^rd sign…I waited in line at Indigo to buy my gift cards and the line was only 3 persons long!  I thought “Yes!”  But, I got to the cashier and realized I forgot my wallet in the car! “NO!” When I came back… the line was now about 8 persons long! “OH No!” I debated going to the back of the line and looked at my watch, 8:50pm, and one more store to hit.  So I took a chance, “excuse me,” I said to the guy in the front of the line “ do you mind if I go ahead?” and I explained what happened.  He says “knock yourself out! Go ahead!”  yeah! “Thank you God!”

3 places left, stores are closing, and at home my husband tells me the store was out of crab, and no tree yet!  What!  They’ll go in the morning they said.  OH my gosh!

Christmas Eve morning the sequence was easy. The bakery opened at 6am, the Mall at 8:30 and the Art Store at 10am, all in a nice circle off the highway.  By the way, did I mention we celebrate Christmas the European way, Christmas Eve night!

Didn’t get up until 7am, was on the road and realized I forgot to take out the 12 kg turkey for Christmas Day that needs 48 hrs to defrost. Oh-Oh.  Called home. Thank God I remembered …God #4

Got to the bakery and they still had crab…God #5.  The last 2 people on my list, I have to admit, I was copping out and had decided on general Mall gift certificates, “and the line up is going to be outrageous…sigh.”  As I’m on the way to the info desk I pass a store called FACES.  “Hum, what’s this?”  I walked in and asked the clerk what they sell there…perfect! “I’d like to buy some gift certificates please” …God #7.  OK, one last person, my son the workout fanatic.  “Come on Maria you can do better than Mall certificates”…let’s check out the sporting places. Thanks for the inspiration Lord…God #8.  Done here.

I was on the last leg of my rounds, tired and hungry, I drive in front of the Art Store, and no parking spots, sigh. “ …But wait someone’s walking to their car, right in front of the store! Now tell me that’s not God?” …#9 11:30am and on my way home.

Arrived home to see our fresh new tree already up. Whew, thank you Lord!...#10 OK now, wrap the presents, write the cards, shower and start cooking…and eating of course.

So here it was, family was arriving and the tree decorating was started; my husband had pulled out some decorations he found in the attic, my son said the gold beads strung around the tree made it look like it was bound, and my son-in-law to be, finally found the lights and Angel he’d been looking for the day before, …on our tree! I guess they forgot them behind when they moved out…God #11 (chuckle, chuckle) Well, it had all come together in time, thank God #12. 

I’ve been a little down in the dumps lately, this was a good test for me to see God…23 people to buy for and Christmas to prepare, in less than 24 hours; I couldn’t have done it without Him.  I’ve heard people talk about praying for parking spots, and it seemed to me, so trivial a thing to pray about.  Recently I heard a Pastor from South Africa talk about life there, “We trust God for everything” he said.  They trust Him for their next meal, for the bar of soap to wash their clothes, for shoes for their feet, things most of us here don’t think twice about.  What would my life look like if I keep living the way I did for 24 hours, and trust God for everything?  Trust that He would provide a parking space when I need it or if He didn’t, that maybe someone else needed it more.  Trust that the things God presents me with, are things He knows I can handle because I can trust Him to provide what I need, not necessarily what I want,

…but everything I need.

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” Matthew 6:26

After all, God provided us with our Saviour, who’s birth we celebrate Christmas day, compared to that, anything else is a breeze.

Thank God.

Blessings for all.

Next, ...getting ready for New Year’s!