Daily Verse

I’d Rather Have Jesus at Sunshine

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 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:7-8 NLT

Just as Paul had almost finished His race, many of my friends in memory care have almost finished theirs. This morning it was such an awesome time with our song session at Sunshine Home. There were a few more than our normal crowd and almost half of the sweet ladies were singing quite animatedly. It felt so much like church that as we closed in prayer and said amen, one of the nurses shouted, “Hallelujah!” Now I am pretty sure she was being lighthearted, but it did go to show that God showed up today and we could all feel His presence as we worshipped. I hope you will enjoy my own rendition of this song along with the West Wing Singers. Have a blessed week everybody!

I Hate to Edit!

/ pastorpete51 / 12 Comments 
For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives. Hebrews 12:6

I enjoy writing poetry, prose or even an occasional song because I love putting into words the emotions and ideas that come bubbling up in my heart. But just as much as I enjoy putting words together, I hate and despise having to edit them. While editing I feel as if the joy of writing gets lost in the weeds of parsing sentence structure, checking for misspelled words or switching adjectives. There are even days, when I just feel like deleting everything and starting over! But I have learned that unless I stick with the annoyances of editing. I will face the embarrassment of discovering my mistakes in print, after my article is published!

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A few verses before today’s passage, God is named as the author of our salvation, and here we are reminded that He is also the editor of our daily lives. I am so glad that God does not hate to edit. He doesn’t just wad us up and toss us in the waste basket when we sin, He lovingly edits and corrects all His children. Some days I feel as if everything needs to be deleted and my plans redrawn. But the Bible reminds me that changes and corrections are a normal part of the life of all God’s children. None of us gets to go to heaven unedited. The author of our salvation knows best how every line of our story should be written and He has an amazing ending in mind. So, let’s put our manuscript on our editor’s desk and ask Him to rewrite it His way, all the way to the end!

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At the Foot of the Cross

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments 
Our part is to listen
His is to speak
For the words that He says
Will be heard by the meek

While His ways seem a mystery and not understood
God works in Heaven through it all for our good
When fears of dark nights seem to stand in our way
He sticks close by our side till the first light of day

And He calls us to follow
In both joy and through loss
For we come nearest to Him
At the foot of His Cross

At the Foot of the Cross
by Peter Caligiuri
Copyright ©  2023 
All Rights reserved

 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.  John 19:26-27 ESV