WEDNESDAY ADDENDUM:

When Hopeful Spirit asked us to join in this about why I am THANKFUL to be a Christian...click here to see other's responses...
I had JUST posted this one and it speaks to EXACTLY why I am thankful....

***I ORIGINALLY POSTED THIS AS PART OF MY CWO POST...I hope it inspires...****

IT'S WHY I'M THANKFUL TO BE A CHRISTIAN

Tonight, I am putting the finishing touches on my post for the CWO cafe...

Sometimes you hear something and you just can't shake it...That is what's happened this week with this letter that Scott shared with me earlier in the week, from his Max Lucado Devotional Bible. I included it in my Thankful Thursday post, but it still has been nudging at me to look at it even more closely.

St. Cyprian wrote this letter to his friend Donatus sometime in the third century.

"This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you know very well what I would see.... brigands on the land, pirates on the seas, in the amphitheaters men murdered to please the applauding crowds, under all roofs misery and selfishness. It really is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. YET, in the midst of it, I have found a quiet place and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of this sinful life. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are Christians....and I am one of them. (Gordon MacDonald, Forging a Real Faith)

As I was lying in bed this morning, it came to me...what would this letter look like if I wrote it,

TODAY...


"It seems a cheerful world, ladies at the Cafe, when I view it from my warm sunroom where I type to you looking into a forest, where the leaves dance in splendor, under the canopy of autumn trees.
But, if I climbed the nearest mountain and looked out over the wide land, you know very well what I would see.....

terrorism over the land, drought in my state, fires in another, Ugandan Orphans in need of pen pals and so much more, sadness in Darfur, materialism run rampant, Hollywood (ugh), disgraceful politicians, entertainment that is horrific and murderous, discouraging news, stadiums filled with "role models" who don't want to be role models,
under all roofs misery and selfishness.

It really is a bad world girls, an incredibly bad world.
YET in the midst of it, I have found a quiet place, and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of this sinful life. They have overcome the world. These people, ladies, are Christians...and I am one of them."
~lori

It seems to me that we have always lived in an incredibly bad world...and as I sit here in my comfortable house, there are days where I only have to climb the stairs of my own home and look over the banister to see the challenges, let alone a mountain...but truth Cyprian spoke...
we have something different... we have the peace that transcends all understanding. WE ARE CHRISTIANS...
wow!

so what do we do with that...I think we boldly climb that mountain and "LOOK" out over that "wide land" and see....
then we must heed the words of
Luke 12:48

"From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more."

for we have the HOPE that can change the world,
we have the PEACE that can not be explained,
we have the LIGHT that must shine for all,
we have the LOVE of Christ in our hearts.
We are the Christians who MUST choose to make a difference.


Father,
The world today looks much like the world Cyprian spoke of...so much in this "bad world."
Thank you Father that you sent your Son into the world to bring HOPE. As I look around today, help me Father to break out of my sanctuary and go into the world as a Light, just as Jesus did.
Thank you for the joy that is a thousand times better than any sinful life and thank you for surrounding me with a quiet place and holy people to help me on my journey.
As I try daily to live this life with your Son Jesus as my guide, help me to look and see all that is around me, waiting for ME,
a Christian, to do something...
something to make a difference in the world...
~amen

In HIM,