"A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams." -- unknown
Seventy-six million strong, baby boomers have lived through some of the most fascinating times in modern history.  We are the generation that changed the way kids are educated in our schools.  We changed the way we are entertained, the food we eat and how we worship in our churches.  We still have a voice to say what is acceptable and what is not. We volunteer and we are the face of community activism. We have spunk and sass and are screaming, "Here I am, Lord, send me!"-  Read more ... my newest book is available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble

I am an original ...

Came to a conclusion today.

I am indeed one of a kind.

I don’t have to take someone’s idea, reproduce it and claim it as being my original thought.

I am an original.

I don’t have to take someone’s words that have become some sort of catch phrase.

I choose to not use them.

I am an original.

I seriously do not have to worry about giving credit where credit is due.

Each word I write is mine - belonging to me -

Having been birthed from this mind.

I am an original.

Just because she is wearing her hair this way this year -

Just because others feel the urge to do the same

I don’t have to.

I am an original

We live in a very insecure world.

Folks don’t get it or understand

God made each of us separately and individually and uniquely.

Marvelous are His works,

Fore we are free to think our own thoughts,

Move through life in our own special way.

We can dance when everybody else is complaining

We can laugh through our tears

While others feel no hope.

We find joy in the simplest

And satisfaction in the mundane.

I see colors and hue

All around me

So much so I’ve been known to weep.

I am the creativity of God’s creation.

I am an original.

(c) 2014, Debi Mason, Oakland, CA, USA

Painting by Janet Weight Reed

Calling Me To Prayer

“Those persons who know the deep peace of God, the unfathomable peace that passeth all understanding, are always men and women of much prayer.”~ R. A. Torrey

I felt the Lord calling me to prayer this morning.  I, like a spoiled child, ignored it, rolled over and went back to sleep only to be nudged again by the Lord calling me to prayer. Uncomfortable at this point I finally said, "Here am I, Lord. Speak fore I know that you are guiding my foot steps."

While waiting for the coffee, I checked my messages and saw that a young relative of a friend had taken their life over the weekend.  Without a doubt in my mind, I knew immediately why the Lord wanted me to get up and pray. 

It is very sad when a family member dies of natural causes but it even more tragic when that family member takes their own life.  I was wondering what would make someone just give up? What could be so painful, so terrible that the only alternative in your mind would be to end your own life?  

Apparently, I have forgotten. The distance that the Lord has brought me and kept me is yet a distant memory. I forgot about that place of darkness, that alone space. I forgot about that closed in place without windows or doors that I had once found myself in.  That choking unable to breathe time when all seemd to stop. No progress. No hope. No joy.

I don't even remember how I happened to find myself in that place of wanting to end my life at one time. Was it one thing that happened? Perhaps it was a history of pain and disappointement. Was it feelings of failure and unlovableness that built up to over-flowing on one particular day, at that God forsaken time.  That time when my thoughts had convinced me that it was over and done with.  Finished.

Thinking now of the future.  Does it make any kind of sense His love for me? No, because of His grace I am still here, loving, laughing, being me.  What a glorious time! Without a doubt this marvelous light in which I travel would not be without Him first capturing me.  He grabbed hold before I could do something that could not be taken back.  He has given me purpose and each day it becomes more and more clear how I am to walk in that purpose.

Waking up in the morning is purpose.  Breathing is purpose.  Just living is purpose. Each life is a testimony to His greatness, His love and His power.  Somebody needs to know.

So when I think about the young person that committed suicide this past weekend I am also taking a vow to not take for granted the lives of people around me.  The person next to me, including family members, might be boxed in that place without windows or doors and is about to give up and they may not be able to reach the light, that place of safety, in time.

It is my blessing my purpose today to let somebody know that they are not alone.  What God has done for me , He will do for you.  There is nothing so wrong that cannot be corrected and there is no devil in hell that cannot be silenced.

We are our brother's keeper and we are all being called to prayer one for another.

(c) 2014, Debi Mason, Oakland, CA, USA

What Believeth Thou?

John 11:25-26  “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he

that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:  And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

Although this is written when Lazarus was raised from the dead by Christ, it also speaks to the fact that Jesus got up out of the grave!

First let’s understand what we hear all the time: “He died so that we might live.”  This is simple. The bible says that Christ was born in the flesh. He was born a man to be a bloody sacrifice for all.  Before the Cross, mankind sacrificed goats and bulls and shed blood before God in the hopes that their sins and transgressions would be forgiven.  Christ, a man without sin, became sin. ("Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows..." Isaiah 53 KJV)  He was tortured beyond anything we can imagine and nailed to the cross as the ultimate sacrifice for all of us.  “ye were bought with a price.”  1 Corinthians 6:20

Christ fulfilled a prophesy clearly stated in the Old Testament concerning the purpose of the coming Messiah. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 1Peter 1:3  Through our faith we are born again. Through the spilling of his blood, we are washed clean.  This was not a onetime event.  We are renewed and refreshed and given new mercies each and every day of our lives because of his love, his grace and his mercy and his sacrifice on the cross.  This is salvation.  One of the best things about it is that we can have a one on one relationship with Jesus Christ.  We do not need a holy man, a priest or an evangelist to get to him.  We have been given direct access to the throne of grace.  Because we believe that He is, we believe that He hears our petitions and prayers and because He hears , we believe that He answers.  This is faith.

It is important to know without a doubt that Jesus is real.  He did die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins and he did, indeed rise (in his flesh) from the grave on the third day. He defeated death and he is yet alive.  As we wonder about the future of mankind, let us look to John 5:24 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”  Belief in the resurrection was the faith of the Early Church and is the foundation that the church of today must stand.

Putting it simply: Mohammed, Confucius and the Buddha died and are still dead.  Jesus got up and is still ALIVE.  If Christ had not risen, many of us that are living and breathing today would still be dead to sin.  Some of us  would still be drunken dope addicts, pimps, prostitutes, thieves and the like - physically, mentally and spiritually dead. Because of the one and only living God who died on the cross and rose again. We are alive because He is alive.

Because of our faith that He yet lives we also know that he is coming back for his church “without spot or wrinkle”.  He gives us chance after chance to live right, to talk right, walk right and just be right.  Man’s future lies in this fact alone.  This is our hope. This is our reason for living. We are all just trying to make it in.  This what we mean when we say that we are saved.

Yep. He got up.  Be glad about it!

(c) Debi Mason, 2014, USA
#whatithoughtwassojustaint
@DebiOak

Perhaps

Perhaps this is the time when I come into my own...the moment when I can freely declare that I am my own person.  Shall I claim ownership of my own thoughts and ideas?

Perhaps.

Perhaps this is that time in life when selfish contemplation of the world ceases and prayers to be a blessing to others for the rest of my days becomes something real. Maybe this is the day that the condemning voice of the naysayer will be stilled in a mind, in a heart, in a spirit leaving room for an abundant life to spring forth.

Perhaps.

Perhaps this is a day of revelation that rides on the beam of spring's golden morning sunshine bringing with it new mercies.  Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is yet to be.  Today is all there is and it is finally understood that at the core of every dream dreamed is faith unwavering. Yet and still the solid rock underfoot is a trust that cannot be shaken, a leaning not and fully knowing that He sees.  He guides.  He cares.  He is. 

Perhaps the time is now.

(c) Debi Mason, Oakland, CA, USA, 2014

#whatithoughtwassojustaint

God Of My Rock

"The God of my rock. In Him will I trust. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my high tower and my refuge, my saviour that saved me from violence."    2Samuel 22:3  KJV

God my foundation, firm soil, unmovable, unchanging -

He holds me.

My trust is His as His mighty hand shields even as the turbulent winds blow.  It is "He who makes the storm a calm".

He restores me.

The author of completeness and perfection. All that I am or will ever be - 

The essence of my very soul.

He so loves me.

Salvation still in this place of refuge standing like an ancient, tall tree.  With a loving embrace He fills with abundant grace.

Standing in His shadow -

He keeps me.

(c) Debi Mason, 2014, Oakland, CA, USA

#whatithoughtwassojustaint

A crack in the door

A Crack In The Door

He comes to steal joy

That thief in the night

Working under the cover of darkness -

The accuser of our souls slips through

We are unaware 

There is a crack in the door.

Wide enough for him to slither through

He comes to kill spirit

To dim light

With tools of conviction and  lie.

That crack in the door -

Powerful.

One slip of thought

One misstep

Peace that surpasses all understanding,

That crack in the door -

Illusive.

Through that crack in the door

The stench of sin

Heavily flows like a syrupy sweet of days past

A reminder of deliverance

What brought out from

Bought with a price

Sin acknowledged and forgiven.

That crack in the door -

Oppressive.

That crack in the door

a reminder that you are a child of the Most High God

whose deliverance is not tenuous unless you let it be so

But is permanent and lasting

as you stand in the shadow of the cross.

With each prayer the light of worldliness grows dim

That crack in the door grows smaller still

With the lifting of prayer for the sick, the sinful, the lost.

Pushing hard against the hugeness of sin that cannot slip through

That crack in the door.

Heavy is this door 

Yet the power of the blood is stronger

One more push

One quick slam in the name of Jesus

And that crack in the door

Is no more.

https://www.facebook.com/debimason.writer

(c) 2014, Debi Mason, USA

#whatithoughtwassojustaint