Morning Mountain Mist

God gave me the title to this poem our first winter in Maine in 2001. HE gave me the words to the poem yesterday.
Ain't God GREAT!!! cm


Morning Mountain Mist

The morning is cold,
The air is crisp,
As I stroll up the road,
I see a beautiful
Morning Mountain Mist.

Treetops kiss the low-hanging clouds,
Branches sway in the breeze,
Freezing snow glistens, hugging the trees,
In this early Morning Mountain Mist.

My mind empty of troubles
I gaze upon a sight to behold,
Such beauty, a gift from God,
This Morning Mountain Mist.

A breathtaking view,
Words fail me, I cannot speak,
The glory of God in all His splendor,
This Morning Mountain Mist.

I am blessed by the sight,
I stand in reverent Awe,
An appointment arranged by the Creator,
This Morning Mountain Mist.

Snow gently falling,
A fog comes rolling in,
While the sun shines through I am lost
In this Morning Mountain Mist.

The fog clears, I see snow covered trees,
I am completely captured by the beauty,
Captured by The Saviour, lost in His love,
Lost in the beauty, of a Morning Mountain Mist.


By Candace Mills
July 18, 2007

Changing Doubt to Trust

Changing Doubt to Trust
by Dr. Charles Stanley
READ | Psalm 19:7-11

Moments of doubt come to every believer occasionally. Perhaps we've prayed about a problem, but the solution falls through. Maybe we've obeyed God, but our situation worsens. Or a criticism might make us question our ability to carry out His plan.

When doubts linger, they can affect our relationship with God in a variety of ways:

First, doubt affects our fellowship with God. Believers are to live by faith, which is the only way to please God. Doubt short-circuits faith and causes insecurity.

Second, our prayer life suffers. Our prayers become ineffective when we fail to trust God. The impossible becomes possible only for those who believe God and don't doubt.

Third, doubt can affect our service to God. The Lord asks Christians to do God-sized tasks. But He doesn't leave us to our own devices. He promises the Holy Spirit will empower us to fulfill His plan. When we doubt, we'll either fail to answer God's call or stop halfway through.

Fourth, doubt affects our blessings. It produces discouragement, which crowds out our joy and peace in the Lord.

Spiritual uncertainty comes from a variety of sources. These include unconfessed sin, lingering guilt, misplaced focus, and misunderstanding or ignorance of the truths of Scripture. When doubts surface, follow these simple steps:
First, identify which part of your thinking is causing you not to trust God.
Second, recall a time when He faithfully carried you through a trial.
And, third, identify one of God's promises or attributes that point the way back to faith.

The Seed

A successful Christian business man was growing old and knew it was time to chose a successor to take over the business. Instead of choosing one of his directors or his children, he decided to do something different.

He called all the young executives in his company together.

"It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO," he said. "I have decided to choose one of you."

The young executives were shocked, but the boss continued. "I am going to give each one of you a seed today - a very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO."

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed.

He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed.

Every day, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew.

Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure.

Six months went by - still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however. He just kept watering and fertilizing the soil - he so wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest about what happened.

Jim felt sick at his stomach. It was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right.

He took his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful--in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed. A few felt sorry for him!

When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives.

Jim just tried to hide in the back.

"My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown," said the CEO.

"Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!"

All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered the financial director to bring him to the front.

Jim was terrified. He thought, "The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!"

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed. Jim told him the story.

The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, "Here is your next Chief Executive! His name is Jim!"

Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new CEO the others said?

Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed.

I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not possible for them to grow.

All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers.

"When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive!"

If you plant honesty, you will reap trust

If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.

If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.

If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment

If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective.

If you plant hard work, you will reap success.

If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.

If you plant faith in Christ, you will reap a harvest.

So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap later.

Two thousand years ago Paul wrote to the church at Galatia the same story but with fewer words, "What you sow, so shall you reap" (Gal. 6:7).

"We are grass that will wither and die but the incorruptible seed of God's Word will live forever - sow it daily into the life of your family! (1 Peter 1: 23 - 25).

--Author Unknown

A Message from Miki Earle

From Miki Earle:

On Monday I woke up with this question reverberating in my mind..."Can you learn to breath under water?" Needless to say I pondered on that for most of the morning. Later that day as I was driving to Windham, with no fore thought, these words came to my heart form the Lord,

"Learning to live FROM the love of God is like learning to breathe under water."

As I let that settle in my mind I got a steady stream of thought about this statement. The Bible,both Old and New Testament is full of imagery of water. Revelation tells us there is a river that flows from the throne of God, a crystal clear river of life. I now believe that in the kingdom reality of this life that there is an actual river that flows to us directly from the seat of all authority.

It is as "un-natural " for us to love first, especially when we feel defenseless or wronged, as it is to breathe under water. To take that first breath when all of our senses are telling us we will die seems impossible to my natural mind. And yet, that is what we are being asked to do in the scripture...to love...to forgive.. to lay down our lives..to take up a cross..to share in the death of Christ and the fellowship of His suffering and to live from our spirit, that part that has been made alive in Christ. We are being asked to do that which is impossible from the natural man...but possible IN Christ, and that is to love and to love more with each day. Why else did Christ say that we would be known as His children by the way we love one another.

Surely this love He spoke of is not a natural love, because there is nothing unusual or distinct about the normal love between people. But to love supernaturally, even when our normal defenses would cry out for protection and withdrawal...now there is a love that would mark us as a people set apart.

Many of you do not know me well, but my entire life has been marked by leadership and respectability. I have drawn the confidence of people since very young, and now I find myself so desperate for the constant presence of God that acceptability is falling to a much lesser place in my mind. Never will I be satisfied by hype or emotional fervor, but I will not tell my beloved Lord how He must be for me to hear Him. He speaks. I listen. Surely I can know Him well enough to know what is Him!
We are approaching a crossroads in the church. Will we continue as we have come, speaking the Word of God but living from the natural... or will we learn to breathe under water?