Listening Ears

O you who dwell in the gardens, with companions listening for your voice; let me            hear it.  Song of Solomon 8:13

Ears

Only ears can hear

That’s just the way God made us

If ears could see or hear

They’d certainly betray us

But when God fashioned ears

Those humble awkward things

That flop about and wiggle

On little inner springs

He made a way to tell us

How much we’d been forgiven

And then He set and tuned them

To hear His words from heaven

Oh – only ears can hear

That’s just the way God made them

Humble listening gifts

That lead us to obey Him

 

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I always begin my prayer in silence, for it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks. God is the friend of silence-we need to listen to God because it’s not what we say but what He says to us and through us that matters. God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer.  Mother Teresa

“Hearing is an ability but listening is a choice!”  P C Caligiuri

An Hour That Begins With Forever

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” John 11:21-22 ESV

Sometimes it seem that life gets tangled up and more complicated than we ever imagined. A fog of difficulties and disappointments rolls in around us and make us wonder if where Jesus is.

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But Martha; who sometimes gets a bad rap because of her busyness, gives us the perfect example for our own pots and pans lifestyle. She believed that even though her brother lay in the grave and nothing was working out as she had hope even in the fog bank of her life that Jesus still knew the way. Martha still believed that as long as Jesus was there that “Even now” there was still hope. She believed in something she couldn’t see or understand.

When Jesus answered her He said something He had never told anyone; “I Am the Resurrection and the Life!” Jesus wanted her to know that she didn’t need to wait for some far off day in eternity. Instead  in His presence is an eternal now.

 

An Hour That Begins With Forever

 When a fog rolls in from the sea

On those mornings just dripping and gray

Remember Jesus said He will guide us

For forever and that means today

So call folks, to come sit at His table

Where forever Jesus sits and He waits

When an hour that begins with forever

Comes by and a brand new day breaks

An Hour That Begins With Forever  Peter Caligiuri 2020

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A Holy Land Tour

Though my wife and I have been blessed to travel a bit when we were younger, we have always wanted to see the Holy Land. These days most of our traveling outside of going to church revolves around the doctor, the gym and the grocery store and I am wondering if we will ever see more than just photographs. No boo-hooing going on here because I know that going to Jerusalem is inevitably on our Lord’s travel destination for us whether in this life or the next. With that thought in mind here is a little poem I wrote a couple of years back which I revised a bit and I pray it may bless your day:

 

The Places Where I’ve been

I have not been to Israel

Or seen its Holy sites

Nor to the Sea of Galilee

Where You taught us wrong from right

But Your voice that calmed the storm

Has spoken in my mind

And Your hands that healed the sick

Have gently taken mine

Then You called me to Yourself

And You Said You were The Way

Forgave my sin

Renewed my Hope

And walked with me today!

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