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Cheryl Mendoza

How He speaks to me…..Or… can't He just call my cell when He wants to talk?

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christian

My National Monument…..

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Funny thing was…I took this as we came in.

I thought it would be a nice drive to Porterville.  My son was there for work, and so we went down to have lunch with him.  It was a nice leisurely drive down CA43 and a relaxing lunch getting all the info on the job he was doing.

After lunch I was not expecting much, you see we had bee bopped around the house all morning.  Typically, we get up and out early, but this morning we had been moving kind of slow.  So I was not expecting to head into the mountains for long drawn out ride.  How naïve of me. Continue reading “My National Monument…..”

Memorial Day

 

UnknownI have had a love affair with history since I was young.  I have gone through different stages, where I have read everything I could about various eras.  I hate to say it, but I am fascinated by war.  To tell you the truth I am really not sure why?

I would say that I am a pacifist, but in the Sergeant York type of way.  I believe that war is the worst way we have to solve problems, and should be avoided if at all possible.  There is a realist in me though, and she knows that sometimes war is how problems are solved.

So today, in celebration of Memorial Day, I just wanted to look back and think about those who have died fighting for the ideals of our country.  Specifically, those who fought in the costliest war in our history. Continue reading “Memorial Day”

Brains day off….

IMG_5156What happens when in one day, you are going from the mid eighties to the mid ninties, after weeks of  the mid seventies?  You head to the coast.  And when your hubby wants to take sunrise pictures, you get up at dark thirty so that you can make it to the coast before the sun comes up.

IMG_5163At 3:30 this morning, I was really not in the mood to worry about my own camera, so I just decided to use my iphone.  I snapped a good amount of pictures, but not too many.  It had been a long week.  My brain had been on overload and I wanted to spend some time just enjoying the beauty that surrounded me. Continue reading “Brains day off….”

Only one thing gonna set you free…

I feel like God has really been trying to convince me how important images-6His love is.  I know that seems really silly, of course His love is important.  I mean really, He so loved the world.  This is Jesus 101.  Where the problem lies is not if I “get it” or not, but if I really choose to accept it and just do it.

Now I was really encouraged by a song I heard on Tuesday, and on Wednesday I looked a little more into it.  The song?  Well it is not your typical “christian” song.  It is “Let My Love Open the Door” by Pete Townshend.  What I find so interesting in this song, is that he writes it from God’s viewpoint. Continue reading “Only one thing gonna set you free…”

#MakeTodayBetterIn4Words

images-5You know this writing thing is not all that it’s cracked up to be.  I sit, I ponder and usually out come words.  Then I am stuck.  No, it’s not writers block, I just know that I am going to start deleting words.  I guess it keeps me humble?  So I’m gonna start where I think God wants me to, and delete those other 400 words.

“May God continue the unity of our country, as this railroad unites the two great oceans of the world.”

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Continue reading “#MakeTodayBetterIn4Words”

A good look in the mirror…

Dear Church (not the building, but those who make up the body),

Is it ok to laugh?  No, not the joyful kind of laughter, but that nervous giggle that has to do with truth.  You know.  You are sitting in service and the pastor says something that images-4holds up a mirror.  And instead of taking a breath and looking full into that mirror, you glance over thinking you know what it shows and just give a nervous giggle.  I don’t know when I stopped giggling and started being sad, but it happened at some point.

In the church we talk about sin quite a bit.  Sometimes it seems that we tend to talk about other people’s sin more than our own, and we have chosen some particular ones as our favorites.  I think the biggest problem though is when we do bring up sin that is present in the church, we seem to be met with a more relaxed attitude toward it.  Something like, no one is perfect, but that is why we have Jesus to “wash them all away”.   What I guess I am trying to say is, while God forgives, shouldn’t we be more brokenhearted by our own wrongdoings? Continue reading “A good look in the mirror…”

Ready to worship?

Unknown-1I was challenged this Easter, but it was done in a very round about manner.  It started off as a feeling I got from a couple of comments made in an Easter service.  The comments gave the impression that the congregations response was somewhat lacking.  They kind of irritated me, but then I started to ponder what was said.  I went back to the old advice that I would always give my sons.  They would do something wrong, Dad would yell a bit and then I would remind them…..”Don’t listen to how he said it, but what he said”.  If there is truth in the words, even if they were said a little harshly, then listen to the truth. Continue reading “Ready to worship?”

Actions v. Words – Mixed messages?

images-1So I was trolling FaceBook the other day and saw a post that was shared by one of my friends.  An author, Lysa TerKeurst, had come across a quote that she said had challenged her.  The quote, “who you are speaks so loudly, I can barely hear what you’re saying”, had her thinking about how our actions speak louder than words.

I totally agree, but…..  That does not let us off the hook for what we say.  There has to be a balance between the two.  I wrote the other day about how my Great-Grandmother taught me to love.  The way I learned from her, was by how she treated all of us.  I am still learning from her.  I look back at her life and I see that her actions spoke so much louder than words.  Wait though, what I think is so amazing is that her words never contradicted her actions. Continue reading “Actions v. Words – Mixed messages?”

Confession time…

I chose to do a little confessing today, so I wrote a post for the church blog.   I figured if I was going to come clean, then I might as well do it in front of everyone.  Enjoy!

So it started off on really good footing. I like the days that I go to church and the pastor is speaking to someone else. You know, you do not have that feeling that he is talking directly to you. Well I thought that this was my Sunday. He was speaking to “other” people today, not really to me. He was addressing some very relevant issues that were pointed straight at the church. The very issue of the “Do’s and Don’ts of Christianity. The rules that we get hung up on that keep us from really being able to do the “love one another” thing that we are supposed to be known for.
Continue reading “Confession time…”

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