Friday, May 28, 2010

New Orleans, Florida, Tucson--places of the heart--at risk

My heart, anyway.

Our culture is threatened, our economy is threatened, and everything that I know and love is at risk.

I was born in the beautiful Southeast with its sugar-white sands, azaleas and hanging moss, night-blooming jasmine. I lived there many years, gave birth there.

So, I could not imagine falling in love with the cactus and rocks of the desert Southwest. But as someone reassured me just before we moved there, the desert has a beauty all its own. And fall in love, I did. I lived in Tucson for six years and hated to move away again.

But while I was there, one of the local hospitals closed, and another in a nearby small town, did, too. Both went bankrupt. Now, local taxpayers in that small town had no hospital. Because so many women came to Arizona to have "anchor babies." Babies who were automatically citizens and a free pass for the parents. Who will grow up in a few years, and vote for radical changes, if the rhetoric is any indication.

The U.S. is a generous country. We want to help others and we do. But the problem is, in a word, gushing. Oil gushing up, illegals gushing in, money gushing out. How can we keep paying the bills for everyone?

Our borders are so open, anyone from anywhere is coming in. We realize many are looking for freedom and opportunity? What about the others, the OTMs, Other Than Mexicans? Where do they come from and what do they want?

Another place is my beloved New Orleans. My wip is set there. My heroine loves the city: its history, music, charm and food. She adds to its art, its laughter. She gets lost for a while in its alleged dark side. Finds peace with God again in the afternoon sunshine. That's my fiction.

Now, in reality, there's our food. On a recent trip, I enjoyed this delicious soft-shell crab.





Others are dying a slow death, by what is to most living things, poison.



By an accident that could have been avoided. By other things, too, long before this.

Seafood restaurants support fishermen, not to mention the restaurateurs, chefs, and wait staff. If the industry adapted and switched to steak and chicken, I wonder:

Who would go to New Orleans for a steak?

I would. Because of everything else there that my heroine loves. Anybody else? Some, not many.

Today, Louisiana's Rep. Charlie Melancon wept in Congress and I wept along with him as he said,

Our culture is threatened, our economy is threatened, and everything that I know and love is at risk.
After struggling with his emotions, he stopped speaking, got up, and left the room. The chairman assured him in respectful tones that everyone was praying for the people along the Gulf.

I know I am.

Monday, May 10, 2010

"Welcome, Holy Spirit!"Concert Pentecost Sunday's comin'!

 

We sing about God the Father and God the Son at Christmas and Easter. Why not God the Holy Spirit at Pentecost? 

The Jewish feast is held fifty days after Passover. 

May 20 is Pentecost Sunday. It's not just another day on the Liturgical Calendar. It's when He birthed empowered the Church with His presence! GOD in US, conforming us to the image of Christ!
And He promises never to leave us. To celebrate and prepare hearts, I've collected these songs into a "concert." Just click on the titles.  Welcome, Holy Spirit!

Father, I Adore You

Welcome, Holy Spirit

Come Holy Spirit Revive the Church Today!

Cece Winans- Holy Spirit Come Fill This Place

Holy Spirit Rain Down Alvin Slaughter

Holy Spirit Rain Down with lyrics

Come Holy Spirit by Israel Houghton

Let Your Spirit Fall


Come Holy Spirit I Need Thee

Spirit of the Living God

Come Holy Spirit Fall Afresh On Me

Elvis Presley introduces The Stamps - Sweet Sweet Spirit 1972 live

The Amen - Prayer to the Holy Spirit

It's Beginning To Rain

Holy Spirit You Are Welcome Here

Adoration by Mike Adkins

Shine Jesus Shine
 ... blaze, Spirit, blaze...

Holy Spirit Come

If you have any requests for other songs about the Holy Spirit, please leave a comment. Thanks.

Acts 10:38 is my favorite Bible verse, besides salvation verses.

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power,

Amazing! Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit. The Bible doesn't speak of Him doing any miracles or teaching until then. But then! But then, He

went about doing good and healing *all* who were oppressed of the devil for God was with Him.

I love it because we, too, are commanded to be filled with the same Holy Spirit who empowered Jesus.

We know that God the Father sits in Heaven, and God the Son sits beside Him. It's God the Holy Spirit who lives in us and through us, and heals us and encourages us....

And He gives us the power of the gifts of the Spirit for victory in situations of life and we will receive the fruit of the Holy Spirit for victories within ourselves. And *be being* transformed into the image of Christ!

I Corinthians 12, 13, and 14 are about the Spirit's power, love, and again, power. A Holy Spirit sandwich. And I want the whoooole thing!

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