Amy's Place ... Poetry and Potpourri ... July, August and September, 2017

July 1, 2017 | Meg33, The Mayor, Trisham, JustAmy

[JustAmy]

Welcome To....


'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets
and those who enjoy poetry.
'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.
Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepers
your thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*.

Enjoy! :)









Never Forget!





Bad Penny



Amy's personal guardian ~
the ever charming, lovable, huggable,
LouieWolf




Many thanks for stopping by. : )

[The Mayor]

Thanks Meg!

[The Mayor]

Freep mail me to be on or off the Daily Bread ping list

A “New Man”

July 31, 2017

Continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. Colossians 1:23

As a group of teenagers visited a home for the elderly in Montego Bay, Jamaica, one young woman noticed a lonely looking man at the end of the room. He appeared to have little left in this world but a bed to sleep on—a bed from which he could not move because of his disability.

The teen began right away to share the story of God’s love for us and read some Bible passages to him. “As I shared with him,” she would say later, “I started to feel his eagerness to hear more.” Responding to his interest, she explained the wonder of Jesus’s sacrificial death for us. “It was hard for this man, who had no hope and no family,” she recalled, “to understand that Someone he’s never met would love him enough to die on the cross for his sins.”

Lord, thank You for the new life we have in Jesus Christ.

She told him more about Jesus—and then about the promise of heaven (including a new body) for all who believe. He asked her, “Will you dance with me up there?” She saw him begin to imagine himself free of his worn-out body and crippling limitations.

When he said he wanted to trust Jesus as his Savior, she helped him pray a prayer of forgiveness and faith. When she asked him if she could get a picture with him, he replied, “If you help me sit up. I’m a new man.”

Praise God for the life-changing, hope-giving, available-to-all gospel of Jesus Christ! It offers new life for all who trust Him (Col. 1:5, 23).

Lord, thank You for the new life we have in Jesus Christ. Help us to share the hope of that new life with others so they can be made new as well.

INSIGHT:

Colossae, the destination of the letter to the Colossian church, was a city in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). It was a city of some significance commercially in the first century because of its location on a main trade route east from Ephesus. We are not told in the New Testament how this church was founded, but in this letter Paul writes to encourage and instruct the believers there as if it were one of the churches he himself had founded. Bill Crowder 

[Kitty Mittens]

Thank you for the Beautiful Pings & Posts, Dear FRiends.
(((((Goodnight, and God Bless)))))

[The Mayor]

Freep mail me to be on or off the Daily Bread ping list

Nozomi Hope

August 1, 2017

We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 2 Corinthians 4:7

In 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake and a resulting tsunami took nearly 19,000 lives and destroyed 230,000 homes in the region northeast of Tokyo. In its aftermath, The Nozomi Project, named for the Japanese word for “hope,” was born to provide sustainable income, community, dignity, and hope in a God who provides.

Nozomi women sift through the rubble of homes and furnishings to discover broken china shards that they sand and insert into fittings to form jewelry. The jewelry is sold around the world, providing a livelihood for the women while sharing symbols of their faith in Christ.

Dear God, please show Your power as I share the treasure of Your gospel in my broken, but beautiful life.

In New Testament times, it was customary to hide valuables in the unlikely vessels of simple clay pots. Paul describes how the treasure of the gospel is contained in the human frailty of followers of Christ: jars of clay (2 Cor. 4:7). He suggests that the meager—and even at times broken—vessels of our lives actually can reveal God’s power in contrast to our imperfections.

When God inhabits the imperfect and broken pieces in our lives, the healing hope of His power is often more visible to others. Yes, His repair work in our hearts often leaves the scars of cracks. But perhaps those lines from our learning are the etchings in our beings that make His character more visible to others.

Dear God, please show others Your power as I share the treasure of Your gospel in my broken, but beautiful life.

Brokenness can lead to wholeness.

INSIGHT:

Paul declared, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness” (2 Cor. 11:30) because he had found strength through reliance upon God. While lamenting his “thorn in [the] flesh” (12:6–9), Paul affirmed, “I delight in weaknesses . . . . For when I am weak, then I am strong” (v. 10).

What areas of brokenness in your life can become pathways for Christ’s strength? Bill Crowder

[The Mayor]

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The Professor’s Confession

August 2, 2017

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. 1 John 3:16

Horrified by his students’ poor writing habits, renowned author and college professor David Foster Wallace considered how he might improve their skills. That’s when a startling question confronted him. The professor had to ask himself why a student would listen to someone “as smug, narrow, self-righteous, [and] condescending” as he was. He knew he had a problem with pride.

That professor could and did change, but he could never become one of his students. Yet when Jesus came to Earth, He showed us what humility looks like by becoming one of us. Stepping across all kinds of boundaries, Jesus made Himself at home everywhere by serving, teaching, and doing the will of His Father.

Jesus loved us by serving.

Even as He was being crucified, Jesus prayed for forgiveness for His executioners (Luke 23:34). Straining for every anguished breath, He still granted eternal life to a criminal dying with Him (vv. 42–43).

Why would Jesus do that? Why would He serve people like us to the very end? The apostle John gets to the point. Out of love! He writes, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” Then he drives that point home. “And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16).

Jesus showed us that His love eradicates our pride, our smugness, our condescension. And He did it in the most powerful way possible. He gave His life.

Father, we are so prone to look down on each other. Please forgive us. Give us the heart of love Your Son showed to us.

INSIGHT:

In today's reading, John uses the word love six times. He begins his teaching on love by stating the disastrous consequences of not loving each other. It is interesting that John correlates death with hate. His argument seems to go like this: If you don’t love, you hate (and here John means continuing to hate, not just an angry response); if you hate, you’re a murderer; no murderers have eternal life; therefore, if you love, you have life.

What does love look like? Verse 16 says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” But it’s the practical examples that drive the point home: If we don’t take care of those in need, love is not in us.

People around us have many needs—whether physical, emotional, or spiritual. How can you show Christ’s love by serving someone today? 

For more on the topic of love read Compassion: Learning to Love Like Jesus at discoveryseries.org/q0208. J.R. Hudberg

[MEG33]

Happy Warm Fuzzy Wednesday To
Amy's Place

"Mine...No Mine...NO OURS"
Wishing You A Wonderful Day

[MEG33]

Good Morning

Amen, Rus.
Thank you for always being here with ODB.
You are appreciated.

[The Mayor]

Morning Meg!
Summer in full swing up here. Hazy, hot and humid August.

[MEG33]

It’s 73 here with a predicted high of 80 instead of triple digits..We have had gentle rain all morning!

What a lovely break!
Thank you, God

[ConorMacNessa]

HAPPY WFW TO
AMY’S PLACE!



With my son David at Hillsboro Inlet
Pompano Beach, Florida
28 July 2017

Clan MacNessa Wishes A Happy
Warm & Fuzzy Wednesday
To All!!!

[MEG33]

So happy you had a visit! I love your smiles!

[left that other site]

I used to live near there.

[ConorMacNessa]

It was a great visit. We took a drive down to Miami and I showed him the places I lived while I was down there. I also showed him the hospital where his older Sister was born and toured the University of Miami where I went to Law School.

The scope of development down there since I came back north in the early 80's is just mind boggling.

"I am an American fighting man. I serve in the forces guarding our country and our way of life.
I am prepared to give my life in their defense."

[left that other site]

Indeed. Even in the sixteen years that i lived there I saw entire landscape changes, from cow pastures to huge gated communities.

[The Mayor]

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Peace and Trust

August 3, 2017

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27

When I was six years old I rode a roller coaster for the first time with my older brothers. As soon as we hit a turn at a high speed I started to yell: “Stop this thing right now! I want to get off!” Of course the roller coaster didn’t stop, and I had to “white knuckle” it, hanging on tight for the rest of the ride.

Sometimes life can feel like an unwanted roller coaster ride, with “downhill” drops and hairpin curves we never see coming. When unexpected difficulties occur, the Bible reminds us that our best recourse is to place our trust in God. It was in a tumultuous time when invasion threatened his country that the prophet Isaiah, inspired by the Spirit, discerned this powerful promise from the Lord: “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you” (Isa. 26:3).

Life will have its difficulties, but our Savior, who loves us more than life, is greater than them all.

The peace our Savior gives us as we turn to Him “transcends all understanding” (Phil. 4:7). I will never forget the words of a woman who was struggling with breast cancer. After a group from our church prayed for her one evening, she said, “I don’t know what will happen, but I know that I’ll be okay, because the Lord was here with us tonight.”

Life will have its difficulties, but our Savior, who loves us more than life, is greater than them all.

Lord, help me to trust in You so that I may live in peace.

For help, read Navigating the Storms of Life at discoveryseries.org/hp061.

Jesus is our peace.INSIGHT:

The peace Paul referenced in Philippians 4:7 closely parallels the rest that Jesus offers us in Matthew 11:28–29. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” This gift of “soul rest” is the peace that every heart craves—a peace that comes from wholeness and rightness (Isa. 26:3). This peace is much more than the absence of conflict; it is the blessing that comes from resting in Christ and His strength. As we learn to rest in Him, we will experience the resulting peace of His presence and power.

Are there specific struggles that are wearing you down? How might you become more intentional about drawing on Christ’s strength? Bill Crowder

[MEG33]

Happy Thankful Thursday To Amy's Place

It rained yesterday... and temps were 20 degrees below average!
I Am Thanking God
*Wishing You A Lovely Thankful Day*

[MEG33]

We took our children on a trip down memory lane to Californis after my son graduated high school...The changes in San Diego from Navy days were astonishing...The house we had rented when husband had come home from deployment and we lived in until Navy days ended was taken in by Mission Bay!
There was a bridge to Coronado over the bay instead of just a ferry.
We had a great time and visited old Navy friends in San Marino.

[trisham]

Dont worry spiders

Don't worry, spiders,
I keep house
casually.

Kobayashi Issa

Have a wonderful thankful Thursday, everyone!

[trisham]

We had a series of thunderstorms yesterday with some spectacular lightning and thunder with 3.5 inches of rain. It was great!

[ConorMacNessa]

Happy Thankful Thursday
To Amy's Place!



HM/2 Glenn Simpson & HM/2 Tom Mitchell
An Hoa Fire Base RVN
4 August 1969

I'm thankful to be alive 48 years after hoisting a few with my Brother-in-Arms, Glenn Simpson, during a brief visit to the rear.