WORD Week 8-28-05 CHANGE

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 (King James Version)

1To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; 3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. 9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth? 10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. 11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.


CHANGE

The only thing that is constant and consistent in life is CHANGE. From the time that we exit our mothers' womb until the time that our bodies decompose and return to dust, our existence is fraught with transitions.

GOD in his gracious wisdom renders us clues, consistently, even before we can babble our first identifiable utterances, that CHANGE is an essential dimension of our humanity and spirituality. While there are numerous reasons why the infant child cries, one of those reasons is undoubtedly a consequence of change.

Such a significant dimension of our lives is driven via the acquisition of those things which appear to guarantee certainty commensurate with the anticipated hope that those things that time brings to fruition will provide for us a permanency plan. Alarmed by the presence of our transitory existence and unintended and unanticipated results, we struggle, we experience emotional overload, we experience trauma drama, we shut down and/or shut off, we wear masks that give others the false impression that all is well in our world when in actuality it is falling to pieces, we deny the grace and beauty of aging, and we embrace a philosophy of escapism that affirms what we desire to see, yet denies the sanctity of change! We lament, for we long for things to be as they once were. In essence, we do not welcome nor like change!

However, in order that we might embrace the glorious gift of change, we must understand that our ability to become at one with CHANGE is a dichotomous invitation in that it impacts us in a twofold manner. CHANGE impacts us in the following two ways: 1) Losses and 2) Gains!

When we look into the window of the fairy Tale of Snow White by the Brothers Grimm, we are given a kitchen window view of the potency, breadth, and scope of change and its power to incite and to exacerbate anxiety, envy, fear, malfeasance, and self-destruction when it is fueled by resistance. The stepmother in this narrative attempted to keep her beauty static and could not fathom the thought that her external beauty waned in comparison to that of her stepdaughter, Snow White. Additionally, the stepmother was unable to grieve the loss of that which was and to wait in anticipation of the gains that would be gift via the sanctity of change due to the consequences of her own malignant narcissism [plainly stated, vanity]. She did not understand that beauty originates from the inside out; a gift that the time of circumstances offers us when our regiment in imbued with regular doses of love, forgiveness, atonement, spirituality, faith, community, wisdom, rest, and play.

While we are cognizant that the focal point of the narrative identifies Snow White as the three-dimensional charater and victim [which is the case], our ability to be empathic towards the difficulties of others enables us to have compassion on the stepmother and in having done so, we see that the stepmother is a victim of herself.

Consequently, because we allow ourselves to become intimate with the stepmother's suffering, we are able to embrace a powerful lesson that she inadvertently offers us; i.e., CHANGE and experience renewal or RESIST CHANGE and experience stagnation. As we are aware, the queen's inability to accept CHANGE as a gift of the human condition, resulted in her own psychoemotional, psychological, physiological, and psychospiritual self-destruction.

Will you allow your resistance to CHANGE to destroy you or those around you?

Will you offer your grief as an offering to be burned as sweet incense in the presence of a loving and compassionate GOD?

Will you trust GOD to not only walk with you through the CHANGE, but to be present on the other side of it waiting to embrace you in safety, solace, love, and completeness?

The text of Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 clearly reinforces the message that there is a season for everything and a time to every purpose of the sun. God reminds of this with the onslaught of the season of Autumn, which brings the entity of change via the changing of the seasons: 1] Losses - plants and animal life outdoors die in preparation for the new cycle of life and 2] Gains - Autumn, the season of Harvest, is at hand and the earth ushers humanity a plethora of a beautiful and nutritious bounty that will sustain us through the times ahead! God does make provisions for us!

Go on, it is right there for you! Step into that wondrous glorious gift of CHANGE that is waiting to liberate and bless you!

THANK GOD FOR THE GLORIOUS GIFT OF CHANGE!

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Blessings
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K.Mason (c) 2005


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PRAYERS FOR OUR WORLD

To The Beloved Community of God

"God is our refuge and strength, a present help in trouble." Psalm 46:1

As we render thanks unto the Lord for his tender mercies throughout the past week.
Let us render thanks to the Lord for right now.

Let us render prayers of intercession for those whom are outcast, forgotten, down trodden, oppressed, sick, lonely, overwhelmed, and those at impasses in their lives.

Let us pray for those who are unable to speak with their own voices due to their plight in life.
Let us pray for the wisdom, knowledge, and courage to advocate for those who are unable to do so for themselves.
Let us pray for those who are homeless, hungry, and incarcerated, locally, nationally, and world-wide.
Let us pray for those who are victims of national and international abduction and exploitation.

Let us pray for those who are entrusted to take the voices of the masses to officials who can affect change and have an impact on the lives of others.

Let us pray for those whose comforts in life have removed them from the presence of suffering in our world.
Let us pray for those who mourn.

Let us pray for those who suffer.

Let us pray for those who are companioned by grief.

Let us pray for the pulling down of destructive strong holds in our churches, schools, communities, and our nation.

Let us pray for those who refer to our brothers and sisters as "those people" because they look different, act differently, speak differently, pray differently, and grieve differently.

Let us pray for those whose hurts have caused them to fear LOVE.

Let us pray for victims of domestic and institutionalized abuse.

Let us pray for those who have hurt others.

Let us pray for those in our faith communities whose doctrines move them to express love of God on one hand, yet despise their brothers and sisters on the other hand.

Let us pray for those who desire a faith of convenience and comfort.

These prayers we lift up to thee O' God in Jesus' name our Savior, Lord, Strength and Redeemer!

Prayers For Our World

(2005) Reverend K. Mason

For your convenience, all of the links to Plethora Ministries sites are listed below. All you are required to do is "click" and be blessed! Please pass this on family members, friends, co-workers, and other travelers on their journey to spiritual integration and wholeness.


Blessings

Plethora Ministries

Plethora Ministries

Click here for Web log Page [contains additional reflections not sent via mail and pictures]Comments may be entered in any entry of your choice

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/t/i/itiswell.htm

Click here for "IT IS WELL" Musical Midi

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Plethora Ministries
Please spread the word to others you know and if they are interested in receiving the WORD Of Reflection Devotion weekly , please have them send an email to plethoraministries@yahoo.com and state in the subject line: "Request for WORD." Please feel free to write Plethora Ministries with your comments:

K.Mason

(c) 2005

Metaphors for Life

Since the commencement of humanity to the present time, men and women have takenpilgrimages in life to engender clarity, direction, spiritual insight, development, formation, and wisdom. Oftentimes, such journeys have been provoked by psychospiritual needs that arise as a critical part of the human condition that are couched in existential issues, many of which warrant a formation process before clarity is ascertained.

Thus, the human condition, like that of the four seasons, dynamically unfolds in its spectacular brilliance and brings with each transition a plethora and range of experiences that are imbued with mystery, meaning, and potential.

However, while the journey itself is the catalyst around which movement or a immersion into the depths is a critical and essential dimension, the driving force which provokes the journey is man/woman’s pursuit for meaning.

Consequently, the fertile ground that renders birth to the driving force "meaning," is cultivated by the fertilizers of suffering, justice, loss, death, hope, pain, presence, ambiguity, and grace.Significantly, human beings discovered many centuries ago that a medium, namely, metaphor, could be utilized in one’s attempt to articulate, to recollect, to venerate, and toascribe meaning to the journey.

Artists, Theologians, Philosophers, Prophets, Poets, and Musicians understood that the journey is fraught not so much with certainty as it is with paradox and inconsistency.
Thus, metaphor was and is used as a vehicle to render expression, integration,and spiritual wholeness to the journey and on the journey as human beings pondered and struggled with the vicissitudes of the human condition.

Moreover, three genres illustrative of the metaphor-journey are literature, music, and visual arts. The three aforementioned genres are not only critical aspects of society’s development, but our development as pastoral persons.

What metaphors do you use to define and to add meaning to your journey,life?

(c) 2001

Pre-Harvest Reflection

In the midst of our compulsive and convulsive world men and women raise their voices time
and time again to announce with incredible boldness that were are waiting for a Liberator. We are waiting: for the healer to bind the wounds of the wounded with the balm compassion. We are waiting: for the musician to play his lyre to soothe our weariness into the quiet of the blue satin night. We are waiting: for the heroine to release the captives and render to them new birth from her primordial wound. We are waiting: for the seeker to impart enlightenment to those blinded by the bliss of comfort and complacency. We are waiting: for love’s elevator to escalate us to the sky and to the stratosphere of a spirituality that is never wanting, yet always seeking. We are waiting: for the fire of our hearts to be ignited by TRUTH that feeds our flames but does not extinguish our FIRE. We are waiting: for the chosen to arrive and to proclaim the LOGOS that is love that sings the same song but in different tongues. We are waiting: for the artist to paint colors of ecstasy and passion upon the canvas of our hearts and to release the frozen hopes and abandoned dreams from the slate of our psyche. We are waiting: to dip our finger into or quench our thirst from the ancient rivers not knowing that ancient river is housed in a stream of our salty tears. We are waiting: for the dreamer to dream knew dreams yet have forgotten that it is the dream that is dreaming us. We are waiting: for the that future moment when the NOW HERE moment the PRE-SENT moment which is GOD’s covenant of LOVE that reminds us the PRE-SENT moment is a present (gift) that renders us PRESENCE which provides us with everything that we need!

We then ask,"Where shall we find this individual?" Will she come form a land of riches?
Will he come from streets of addiction? Will she be wise? Will he be courageous? Will she
be a visionary? Will he be a prophet? Will she RED, BLACK, WHITE, or YELLOW? Will he be
UNPROFESSED, ISLAMIC, JEWISH, HINDU, CHRISTIAN, BUDDHIST, or believe in the GREAT SPIRIT?

In the words of the Prophet Isaiah, the OLD TESTAMENT offers us the answer to this existential ponderation, namely "Here I AM LORD, SEND ME." For the place that he shall be found and the place which she shall render birth lives within each and everyone of us, thus go and embrace and honor "THE DIVINE" within you for in doing so others will be blessed and you as well for having given yourself to the call of love. May "WISDOM" guide you, "FAITH" sustain you, "FRIENDSHIP" companion you, and "LOVE" shelter you!

Copyright 2001 KAM

Plethora Ministries Web Log

Greetings to the Beloved Community of GOD:


We are excited and pleased to announce that Plethora Ministries has made available to you a WEBLOG that contains the weekly devotion, WORD, an acronym for Word of Devotion Reflection!

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In essence, Plethora Ministries is a sacred and quiet place where the weary traveler can seek refuge, nourishment, rest, renewal, and a deeper sense of "centeredness" anytime of the day and any day of the week!

We also have linked to a Music Midi at Cyberhymnal. org to offer you an even more enriched encounter with the DIVINE, through musical reflections that access our spirits in places that words may evade.

For your convenience, all of the links to the aforementioned sites are listed below. All you are required to do is "click" and be blessed! Please pass this on family members, friends, co-workers, and other travelers on their journey to spiritual integration and wholeness.

Blessings
Plethora Ministries
Plethora Ministries Click here for Weblog Page [contains additional reflections not sent via mail and pictures]Comments may be entered in any entry of your choice

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/t/i/itiswell.htmClick here for "IT IS WELL" Musical Midi

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Please spread the word to others you know and if they are interested in receiving the WORD Of Reflection Devotion weekly , please have them send an email to plethoraministries@yahoo.com and state in the subject line: "Request for WORD." Please feel free to write Plethora Ministries with your comments:

(c) 2005


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WORD Week 08-21-2005 LIGHT

LIGHT

Isaiah 60:20

Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end. [NIV]

Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. [KJV]

The word of God offers us comfort in challenging and distressing times.

Far too frequently, in our personal lives, we have witnessed the light of possibilities relinquish itself to darkness, complacency, and sometimes despair. In essence, mourning offers us companionship because morning has become night. We look for glimmers of sunshine or radiance in the daily malaise of our existence and find no sun, no light, but pervasive gray overcast instead.

The story of the Twelve Apostles by the Brothers Grimm depicts the circumstances of a woman who had twelve sons. Times became increasingly difficult and the mother finds it even more increasingly difficult for her to feed her children. In her earnest desire to appease their suffering, she prayed to God daily and requested that God would allow her sons to be with the Savior on earth as the promised day arrived.

As her circumstance appeared increasingly bleak, so too, did her inability to see light. As her desperation increased, she had little expectation that the light would shine again on her mourning as she doubted that morning would arise again.

Consequently, she sent her sons out, one after the other, into the world to seek his bread. The oldest son was called Peter. After having completed a long days journey, Peter found himself lost in the deep bowels of the forest with thirst and hunger as his only companions. He became so weak that he was forced to lie down on the ground and believed that he was near death.
Suddenly, a small boy appeared. He countenance was radiant and brilliant with light. The boy-child clapped his hands so as to get the attention of Peter, who then looked up. The boy said, "Why are you sitting there with such a troubled look." Peter told the boy that he was wandering about the world seeking bread so that he might see the Savior on the promised day, which was his greatest wish.

The boy petitioned Peter to follow him and gently took him by the hand. The boy-child tells Peter that his wish will be granted. Peter is led between two cliffs to a large cave. As they entered, everything glistened with gold, silver, and crystal. In the middle of the cave stood twelve cradles in a row. Then the angel said, "Lie down in the first one and sleep a little. I'm going to rock you."

Peter complied as requested. As he slept, the second brother, who was also guided by the guardian angel, entered the cave and was rocked to sleep like Peter. Afterwards, the others came, one after another, until all twelve lay fast asleep in the golden cradles. They slept three hundred years until the night that the Savior of the world was born. Then they awoke and were with him on earth and were called the twelve apostles.

This narrative offers us hope and illumination about LIGHT. Oftentimes, in our quest for light, we seek it externally. However, the most effective manner by which its brilliance can be accessed is to allow ourselves to become enlightened and have our burdens lightened by allowing ourselves to be present to our own darkness via inward reflection; i.e., when we offer our woundedness, hopelessness, fear, despair, ambivalence, and complacency to the LORD, we are, subsequently, enlightened and embraced by the light of God.

Consequently, in order that we might access the places where gold, silver, and crystal are found, we must be amenable to entering our own caves! Peter was required to walk through the chasm between two large cliffs before he could access the splendors of God and become enlighted, so too, must we.

What are the "caves" and "cliffs" in your life that you might be reluctant to entrust to God's healing light?

What are the places in your life where the gold, silver, and crystal are found; hope allows you to view them, but the presence of fear and doubt keeps them remaining beyond your reach?

In essence, in order for us to access the light, we must allow ourselves and the things to which we cling to be "rocked." Closer amplification of this narrative renders us two perspectives on "rocking:" 1] The mother, like each of us, has experienced our world being rocked by the unpredictable, the unexpected, the dreaded, and that which is undesirable and 2] When we are impacted by the first "rocking" of our circumstances, the Lord desires us to be gently "rocked" by his loving presence in his loving light, like the loving parent who rocks the child and like the mother and Peter.

When was the last time that you allowed yourself to lie down in the safety of GOD'S loving presence and simply be "rocked" in the light of GOD?

You might be wandering what about the meaning of this LIGHT: It is GOD'S
Love

Intimately

Given to

Heal and to

Transform

Come, Rest, Sleep, and be Rocked!

Blessings

Plethora Ministries

plethoraministries@yahoo.com

Please spread the word to others you know and if they are interested in receiving the WORD Of Reflection Devotion weekly , please have them send an email to plethoraministries@yahoo.com and state in the subject line: "Request for WORD."
Please feel free to write Plethora Ministries with your comments:

(c) 2005

This message is confidential, intended only for the named recipient(s) and may contain information that is privileged or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient(s), and If you receive this message in error, or are not the named recipient(s), please notify the sender at the e-mail address or by telephone, and delete this e-mail from your computer. Thank you.

Evening Prayer and Reflection

Oh Lord Oh Lord How Majestic Is Your Name In All The Earth!

Today, may the spirit of GOD'S peace abide with each man, woman, girl, and boy.
May his spirit abide with all nations because we all are his people.

May the Divine Presence of our GOD, who never sleeps, comfort those who are weary and provoke those to action who are complacent.

May every human being be a direct recipient of GOD'S all encompassing love.

May the poor, broken, wounded, homeless, sick, bereaved, hungered, inimical, and forgotten be led to greener pastures.

My petition to thee LORD

Sliver Lamps in a Distant Shrine

Like Silver Lamps in a Distant Shrine < << Click Here For Music

Beloved friends in our FATHER'S VINEYARD and laborers in our MOTHER'S GARDEN:
Oftentimes, we give unceasingly and carry the weight of the world on our shoulders and the suffering of our people in our souls. Sometimes, words evade our utterances in their feeble attempt to name or capture the depths of our agony and suffering. Sometimes, in our service to the LORD, we might unconsciously relinquish the hope and the fulfillment of our dreams to thinking that the secret and inner most desires of our hearts are unimportant to GOD, thereby, allowing our aspirations to be taken hostage trusting in only that which we see! Beloved, remained encouraged as the slow HAND of GOD is at work in your life, "for eyes have not seen, neither have ears heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what GOD has in store you," whom he knows loves HIM. YOU ARE IN MY PRAYERS!

Whispering Beauty

"Inside every man is the seed of a flower, if he looks within, he finds beauty inside."
Minnie Riperton

Our Deepest Fear

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,
our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let out own ligth shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others."

Return to Love Marianne Williamson

The Legacy of the Prophet and the Visionary

"The Lord brings light where there is darkness, hope where there is despair, healing where there is suffering of mind, body, or spirit." St. Francis

Daybreak

African Proverb:

However long the night, the dawn will break.
















"Flamming June"
Frederick Leighton

Footprints In the Sand

Footprints in the Sand

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there was one only.
This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from anguish,
sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints,
so I said to the Lord,
"You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life
there has only been one set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?"
The Lord replied,
"The years when you have seen only one set of footprints,
my child, is when I carried you."


Mary Stevenson
© 1984

The Majesty of God

"What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within us out into the world, miracles happen." H.D. Thoreau

Peace

May the seeker find refuge in solace

WORD:The Door Week 08-14-2005

Go Through The Door

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."
Helen Keller

Reflection:

"Behold, I stand t the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with me." Revelation 3:20 KJV

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am door of the sheep....I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." John 10:7b, 9 KJV

You are at the right place! While today has ushered in some challenges and anxieties which were not anticipated, these circumstances, though fraught with stress, provide another opportunity for GOD to "break open the windows of heaven " and to open another door for you! Consequently, that which looks like obstacle is really opportunity...in other words, metaphorically, it is really like the "soot-covered maiden," unbeknown to others and even herself, as she had forgotten who she really is...believing it to be only a dream, who is in reality, CINDERELLA, or the Hunchback of Notre Dame disfigured and despised by many who on the outside appeared inimical, yet on the inside whose soul is as beautiful and spectacular as a multifaceted diamond!


Too many times, we have found ourselves staring at a closed door. Only when we have reached beyond the vestibule of our woundedness, complacency, fear, depression, loneliness, anger, sadness, doubt, and finite thinking can we see and access the open door to spectacular possibilities! God's love and your possibilities!


As we step through the door, suddenly, we become like Dorothy who was catapulted by turbulent world-winds into a strange land. She stepped into the "Land of Oz" not fully via her own volition, but by the force of grace, which like air, cannot be seen, but felt. Consequently, the world becomes alive with color, joy, and possibilities we have never allowed ourselves to imagine before and love we have never allowed ourselves feel before.


In essence, we know that OZ, The Ball, nor the ringing of The Bell does not last forever, neither are they experienced without the mixture of positive and negative danger. However, it enables our world to come alive with rich vivid color, infinite possibilities, and rich meaning! We can experience renewed hope and love daily! In essence, Cinderella offers us new garments of God, the Hunchback of Notre Dame the Holy Invocation to look inward, and still Dorothy the freedom allow to ourselves to journey through many doors which lead to new paths.

You must not only to look for another open door, but walk through that door!

Walk through the open door waiting for you!

Trust God! It is right there.

plethoraministries@yahoo.com

Plethora Ministries
Please spread the word to others you know and if they are interested in receiving the WORD Of Reflection Devotion weekly , please have them send an email to plethoraministries@yahoo.com and state in the subject line: "Request for WORD." (c) 2005

This message is confidential, intended only for the named recipient(s) and may contain information that is privileged or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient(s), and If you receive this message in error, or are not the named recipient(s), please notify the sender at the e-mail address or by telephone, and delete this e-mail from your computer. Thank you.