Plethora Ministries

Monday, December 23, 2013

Season's Greeting & Holiday Reflection

Season's Greetings & A Holiday Reflection

As you embark upon the journey for the New Year 2014: May you be companioned by the warmth, Overflow with the joy, Bask in the wonder, Be showered in the goodness, Marvel in the splendor, Be a beneficiary of the prosperity, Be enraptured by the inspiration, Be revitalized by the renewal, And Be blessed by the glad tidings of peace During this season, now and throughout the year to come!

Be Blessed,

K. Mason

(c) 2009
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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 (Forthcoming in a new format in Fall 2009...stay tuned),
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) 2009

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

THANKSGIVING BLESSINGS 2013

May the spirit, grace, presence, peace, love, warm, comfort, and goodness of Thanksgiving be with you and those whom you cherish and love now and throughout the year! Cornucopia blessings to you for a blessed harvest of God's abundance in grace, mercy, assurance, joy, and peace!

Be Blessed,

K. Mason

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Thursday, September 12, 2013

HONORING THE GIFT OF HOWARD THURMAN

REVEREND DR. HOWARD THURMAN

Preacher, Pastor, Mystic, Leader, Visionary, Prophet

Poet, Writer, Maverick, Pioneer, Man of God

Howard Thurman, Boston University, Marsh Chapel dean

Bibliography

The Greatest of These (1944)
Deep River: Reflections on the Religious Insight of Certain of the Negro Spirituals (1945) [also published as The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death (same year)]
Meditation for Apostles of Sensitiveness (1948)
Jesus and the Disinherited (1949)
Deep is the Hunger: Meditations for Apostles of Sensitiveness (1951)
Christmas Is the Season of Affirmation (1951)
Meditations of the Heart (1953)
The Creative Encounter: An Interpretation of Religion and the Social Witness (1954)
The Growing Edge (1956)
Footprints of a Dream: The Story of the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples (1959)
Mysticism and the Experience of Love (1961)
The Inward Journey: Meditations on the Spiritual Quest (1961)
Temptations of Jesus: Five Sermons Given By Dean Howard Thurman in Marsh Chapel, Boston University, 1962 (1962)
Disciplines of the Spirit (1963)
The Luminous Darkness: A Personal Interpretation of the Anatomy of Segregation and the Ground of Hope (1965)
The Centering Moment (1969)
The Search for Common Ground (1971)
The Mood of Christmas (1973)
A Track to the Water's Edge: The Olive Schreiner Reader (1973)
The First Footprints (1975)
With Head and Heart: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman (1979)

Posthumous- Also, several of his books were reprinted after his death.

For the Inward Journey: Writings of Howard Thurman (1984)
A Strange Freedom: The Best of Howard Thurman on Religious Experience (1998)
Meditations of the Heart (1999)
Howard Thurman: Essential Writings (2006)

Be Blessed,

K. Mason

(c) 2013
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.
BlessingsPlethora Ministries
Plethora Ministries

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words and reflections that are designed to inspire us.

Thank you so very much for having visiting this blog.

I pray that something was expressed within the contents of these pages that will inspire, enlighten, encourage, and/ or affirm your uniqueness to our gracious and loving LORD

and GOD'S destiny for your life.

Be Blessed Beloved

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Saturday, July 13, 2013

Minnie Riperton Montage

Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Minnie Riperton

11/8/1947-7/12/1979

Minnie Riperton Montage

Minnie, a rare once in a lifetime voice with a vocal register kissed by the breath of GOD and the whisper of angels with a spirit so free, so loving, and so beautiful. May you forever be loved and always remembered. Thank you for the immortal gift of your artistry. Your voice soared to the heavens and your song writing ability was like that of a canvas of flowers that were sprinkled poetry to the soul. There is and never will be another like you! “Loving you is easy, because you are beautiful.”

Tuesday, July 09, 2013

ACRONYM FOR CHANGE

CHANGE

Beloved of the Most High: You have not happened upon this meditation neither by accident nor by default. There have been many challenges that you have faced recently and you're feeling overpowered; oftentimes, like you are being overtaken and drowning in the tidal waves of life. You might be wondering whether or not if it is worth it to read any further because it appears that your efforts are in vain and the result is futile.

Beloved, you were carried here by the very waves that you thought would consume you. You were lead here by a gracious and loving FORCE that is greater than you.

You have been seeking an answer(s), a response, and a resolution. Stay a while and rest. Be still as the answer is not in your fight against the waves, but by your ability to embrace them, give in to them, recognize them, seek to understand the message that they are offering you, and become one them for in doing so you are allowing not only yourself, but your perspective, and your circumstances to CHANGE. There is tremendous power in letting go! When one lets go, he/she opens himself/herself to new and greater opportunities in God's plan and grace!

May you be graced by the gift of the blessing of CHANGE on this day; even right now as you read and reflect upon this quiet meditation. May the LORD grant you "divine courage and loving hope" and the quiet and sure confidence that surpasses all understanding, circumstances, knowledge, troubles, doubt, anxiety, and fear(s). May you find comfort, solace, and assurance today and everyday. Amen.

The dynamic blessedness of glorious CHANGE is not defined by the presence of adversity, tension, or disappointment, but CHANGE is an indicator that the gracious and loving presence of GOD'S grace and presence of The Holy Spirit has a greater calling, responsibility, and destiny for you as well as your life! Yes, be encouraged! Your circumstances have not defeated you! You are not a write-off! Do not give up! CHANGE is on the way! CHANGE is your gift!

Trust not in what you see and place not your treasures in earthen vessels, but have faith as "faith is the substance of things hoped and the presence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1. God is still on the throne!

Take heart, comfort, and solace, because "the race is not given to the swift, but to he that endures to the end!

My prayer for you is the grace, the wisdom, and the blessedness of Glorious & Divine CHANGE.

Below are two brief Acronyms for Change. Read Them, Reflect Upon Them, & Rest In Them!

CHANGE IS A PROCESS, NOT AN EVENT

C - Courageous

H - Hope

A - Affects

N - New

G - Grace

E - Everyday

_________________________________________________________________________

C - Cultivating

H - Human

A - Altruism

N - Necessitates

G - Growth

E - Everyday

Be Blessed,

K. Mason

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

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Monday, July 01, 2013

ACRONYM FOR PEACE

PEACE

Beloved of the Most High: You have not happened upon this meditation neither by accident nor by default. You were lead here by a gracious and loving FORCE that is greater than you. You have been seeking an answer(s)...a response. Stay a while and rest. "Be Still." Psalm 46:10

May you be blessed with the gift of peace on this day; even right now as you read and reflect upon this quiet meditation. May the LORD grant you "divine peace." Peace that surpasses all understanding, circumstances, knowledge, troubles, doubt, anxiety, and fear(s). May your heart be comforted and your mind placed at ease. May you be granted peace!

Peace. Peace. Sweet Peace Beloved.

Peace is not defined by the absence of adversity, challenges, or disappointments, but peace is the gracious and loving presence of GOD'S grace and presence of The Holy Spirit to sustain you and enable you to stand, yes, even right now, when circumstances would have otherwise overtaken and defeated you! You are not written off! Your circumstances have not defeated you! Do not give up!

Take heart, comfort, and solace, because "the race is not given to the swift, but to he that endures to the end!

May our Heavenly Father bless you and keep you always in His care, His grace and grant you His Peace.

Below are 3 brief Acronyms for Peace. Read Them, Reflect Upon Them, &; Rest In Them!

P - Prayers

E - Energize

A - All

C - Cellular

E - Energy

P - Positive

E - Energy

A - Activates

C - Constant

E - Elevation

P - People

E - Everywhere

A - Are

C - Created

E - Equal

Be Blessed,

K. Mason

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

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Sunday, March 10, 2013

LIGHTS FROM THE CELESTIAL CITY OFGOD

LIGHTS FROM THE CELESTIAL CITY OF GOD

Prayer for Today: God is our strength, our hope, our refuge, and the light that provides sight upon our gloomy paths. On this day may you find peace, encouragement, and comfort in the presence of God's gracious loving kindness and be embraced by the rays of his love that radiates like the Eternal Light from the Lamp of Celestial City of God. Amen.

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/s/l/lsliadsh.htm
(Please click link to hear music)

Here are the words and music to the great hymn, Like Sliver Lamps in a Distant Shrine

This hymn captures the essence of this Reflection

William C. Dix (Words) 1867

Charles H. Steggall (Music) 1867

Like Sliver Lamps in a Distant Shrine

Like silver lamps in a distant shrine,
The stars are sparkling bright;
The bells of the city of God ring out,
For the Son of Mary is born tonight.
The gloom is past, and the morn at last
Is coming with orient light.

No earthly songs are half so sweet
As those which are filling the skies,
And never a palace shone half so fair
As the manger-bed where our Savior lies;
No night in the year is half so dear
As this which has ended our sighs

The stars of heaven still shine as at first
They gleamed on this wonderful night,
The bells of the city of God peal out,
And the angels’ song still rings in the height,
And loves still turns where the Godhead burns,
Hid in flesh from fleshly sight.

Faith sees no longer the stable floor,
The pavement of sapphire is there,
The clear light of Heaven streams out to the world,
And the angels of God are crowding the air,
And Heaven and earth, thro’ the spotless birth,
Are at peace on this night so fair.

El Greco's "The Disrobing of Christ" (1577-1579) Oil on Canvas

Be Blessed,

K. Mason

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

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Wednesday, March 06, 2013

PRAYER FOR WISDOM

Wisdom is the astute application of knowledge. It embodies a profound comprehension and awareness of people, human behavior, circumstances, nature, the universe, and the presence of GOD, coalescing into the ability to appropriately and compassionately execute discernment, decisions, and actions all in keeping with this understanding. When King Solomon was the successor of the United Kingdom of Judah and Israel, he neither asked GOD for power, wealth, status, longevity, nor self-adulation. Instead, King Solomon asked GOD to help him govern his kingdom well and wisely. GOD was pleased with Solomon’s request because it was a humble, an earnest, and a selfless request. God honored Solomon’s requests and also granted him two things which most people desire: longevity and riches.

PRAYER FOR TODAY: Gracious LORD, we come before thy presence in a posture of gratitude and a heart of thanksgiving to express our deep and sincere reverence for the profound grace that you have bestowed upon us as your people; the sheep of your pasture and partakers of thy gracious bounty. We pray Dear LORD, that you would remind us of how special we are to you and that neither part of our hearts, our minds, nor our bodies are unknown to thee. Grant us the wisdom to trust in you and the movement of thy Holy Spirit and render us with the faith the size of a mustard seed. Teach us to petition thee for wisdom, temperance, patience, and love in place of our immodest desires and the temptations of self-indulgence, personal agenda, self-promotion, or supremacy over others. We ask this prayer in thy precious name. Amen.

Be Blessed,

K. Mason

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

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Monday, March 04, 2013

STAND STILL

Stand Still

We are living in some of the most preeminent times, yet some of the most challenging times. It appears on some level that genuine compassion for others and the spiritual imperative that we are our brothers and sisters keepers are merely platitudes and that the spiritual imperative, that subsequent to our love for GOD, that we should love our neighbor as thyself is merely an exercise in rhetoric are all too often swallowed up by malignant narcissism, obsessive self-indulgence, and the unrestrained dislodge of power. It seems that our spiritual compass has gone awry and that the land is desolate and its people starving though gorging themselves on all types of substitutes to feed their hungry souls, yet never appeasing their gluttony. Evil appears to blatantly flourish in the face hope and at the expense of good, while the acceptance of brokenness and injustice are elements that daily occur and has caused far too many persons to abdicate their faith for reason and to believe that this is as good as it gets. Beloved, be not dismayed as God is still sovereign. It is during such times that we must continue to pray and act with spiritual temperance, wisdom, and love.

Prayer: Gracious LORD, we come before thy presence and ask that you will encourage our hearts, while reminding us that the race is not given to the swift, but to he/she who endures. LORD, help us to remember that sometimes, all that you require that we do is to trust you and stand still in thy holy presence and in your presence take solace under the shelter of your divine wings of refuge. Hear our prayer LORD we pray. Amen.

Be Blessed,

K. Mason

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
plethoraministries@yahoo.com
Plethora Ministries

Please feel free to write Plethora Ministries with your comments:
plethoraministries@yahoo.com

K.Mason (c) 2013

Strength and Weakness

On this day dear LORD caution us to never cease praying and to expect the miraculous in the ordinary. Teach us daily and by the moment to accept thy will and grant us the wisdom, faith, and the serenity to discern self-will from thy will. Teach us to humbly embrace the weakness of our strength and the strength of our weakness. This is our prayer today as we render thee thanks in Jesus’ name we pray. Hear us dear LORD we pray. Amen

Be Blessed,

K. Mason

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

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Tuesday, March 06, 2012

A Prayer For Those Who Have Loss A Loved One

A Reflection For You

"While the dust of that which you have loss has only started to settle,

the profundity of the absence of your beloved is still very profound, palpable, present.

An emptiness and a void seems to envelop you, while the absence of your beloved is dramatically heighten and felt as holidays and anniversaries approach and fold one into the other as you long for his/her presence.

Though salty tears flood the windowpanes of your eyelids, invite and allow them to flow steady and run deeply like the Nile River,
For in their flowing they tell their own stories while cleansing one's soul, leaving their salty trail down your cheek.

As you reflect upon memories of happy times that caused your heart to soar and your mouth to burst with uncontrollable laughter, bask in the warmth of them as if being warmed by the sun at the height of the noonday. May you be nourished, strengthened, comforted, healed, and renewed by them.

When the sweet fragrance of spring fills your nostrils, allow this fragrance divine to wrap and intoxicate you causing you to drift away transcending both time and space with the knowledge that though a flower dies, the memory of its fragrance is eternal.

As a melody of the joyous sound of the music of air and the singing of birds caress the shell of your ear, allow it to touch, enrapture, and comfort your heart, dance upon your windowpane of your soul, and inspire you to love more deeply, more widely, and more freely because you come from love and because you are loved.

May you take solace and comfort in knowing that your beloved is near... he is/she is...

Because the presence of God is with you and the Spirit of God lives within you now and forever." Amen.

Blessings

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
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 (Forthcoming in a new book format in Fall 2012...stay tuned),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) 2012

Sunday, February 05, 2012

Immortal Invisible

Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the in habitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord

Joel 1:14

Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God.

Joel 2:21-23a

That which lives forever is immortal and that which we cannot see is invisible like the air that we breathe.

In our present time we are beset by an array of challenges that summon both our time and our attention. While life often presents us with the challenge to resolve urgent presenting issues immediately, we become simultaneously inundated or even avalanched by a cascade of more pressing issues subsequent to the issue that we are in the midst of remedying. We ponder and muse to ourselves that we are at the brink of breaking-point; i.e., the point of no return. Sometimes it appears that we are gasping for air, yet feel suffocated by the circumstances that beset us with little to no relief on the horizon. Sometimes those moments that we must gasp for air are further intensified and evident when our marriages fail, when our children go astray, when we are betrayed by those whom we trust, when our friends take a hiatus during the times we need them most, when years of dedicated service result in months of unemployment, when we lose our homes, when our finances are depleted, when sickness brings life as we once celebrated it to a halt, when the shadow of death claims the lives of those whom we love, when parents place their children on psychological probation, when the good that we exemplify is spoken of as evil, when shame and slander are the news of the day, when doors of opportunity are slammed shut, when our brothers and sisters find shelter on the streets, when food is discarded in large quantities daily, yet far too families are left to starve while they bear witness to their children who fall prey to the disease of malnutrition, when we as members of this great nation, resort to internal fighting and conflict due to our own fears, biases, idiosyncrasies, and insecurities, while forgetting those things that unify us as one in the bond of love of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. It appears that we have forgotten the unity that bonded us when our fathers, mothers, brother, sisters, and other beloved had returned home from world wars and civil wars as well as those times when collective medical efforts conquered disease. It seems that we have forgotten the sacrifices of those who paved the way before us who traversed rocky precipices in hues of Black, Red, White, Yellow, and Brown. It seems that we have forgotten those types of adversities that have changed our lives as we once knew it such as the horror of 911 and the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina all of which caused us to reckon with the reality that we are all in this thing called “life” together. What does this apathy that we, at present, experience mean we ponder? How did we veer off-track we muse? Is all lost? Is there anything reconcilable we ask ourselves even as we pray with heavy hearts and troubled minds? What does God require of us in such challenging times? What must we require of one another?

The Prophet, Joel, considered a minor prophet, yet with a major proclamation, petitions and reminds us that HOPE in God is still very much alive and that we must reconcile ourselves to God through our faith in Jesus Christ, whom redeems us. Joel reminds us that we must assemble and humble ourselves before God and petition his grace and mercy with the aid of our elders in a posture of submission coupled with the relinquishment of our self-righteousness and pompousness. When we place ourselves before the presence of God our Holy Father at the base of the Mercy Seat in an authentic and self-revelatory manner, fear, shame, doubt, desolation, brokenness, exclusion, and apathy can no longer lay claim to our destiny, our faith, and our royal priesthood because God our Father, who is the Ancient of Days is still on the throne! Because God is sovereign, trees will bear fruit, fountains will flow with living water, pastures will become green, and we as the sheep of his pasture will be enveloped in the presence of the Immortal Invisible, yet Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Be Blessed,
K. Mason
(c) 2012

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

Monday, September 26, 2011

PRAYER REFLECTION FOR OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS

PRAYERS FOR OUR

BROTHERS AND SISTERS WORLDWIDE

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

Mahatma Gandhi

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Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Thanksgiving Prayer For God's Grace

Thanksgiving Prayer

Thanksgiving is a time of solemnly humble reflection and profound gratitude as we render thanks to GOD for the bounty of his infinitely vast and incomprehensible blessings of unmerited and amazing supernatural grace; blessings that have tumbled from the celestial corridor of heaven, all unsolicited by mortal merit, like a bountiful harvest that bursts from the earth from an endless and ever overflowing cornucopia.

GOD, we thank you for days of sun and days of rain. We thank you for the change of seasons. We thank you for the triumph of hope over experience. We thank you for the gains. We thank you for the losses and lessons and wisdom garnered from them. We thank you for respite and peace. We thank you for family, friends, neighbors, kin, and community. We thank you for the laughter and the tears. We thank you for solitude and travail. We thank you for miracles and mysteries that confound those who gloat in their own perceived wisdom and power. We thank you for the meek and humble. We thank you for Jesus Christ and thy Holy Spirit.

This is our prayer and for this we beseech thee that thou will accept thou humble petition in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Be Blessed,
K. Mason
(c) 2009

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

Please spread the word to others you know and if they are interested in receiving the WORD Of Reflection Devotion weekly (Forthcoming in a new format in Fall 2009...stay tuned),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:

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

GOD IS ALWAYS THERE

GOD IS ALWAYS THERE

Through agonies, trails, perplexities, deferred hopes, and obstructed dreams, GOD is always there! In our sins of omission and commission, GOD is always there!

We move in absolutely nothing else but the love and mercry of and in the incomprehensible vastbess of GOD'S Grace! When we marvel at the vastness of GOD'S creation, who are we that GOD would be mindful of us and love us like HE does and as much as HE does?

The answer: Jesus Christ!

Glory be to GOD in the highest!

Be Blessed,

K. Mason

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

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