Mary Cantell

Jan

02

New Year

Uncategorized  Posted by / 0 comments

images5New Year’s Eve used to bring such excitement to me as a kid. I’d be allowed to stay up until midnight at which time the celebration came to a climax and then, minutes later, everything settled into just another day.

All of that fervor, excitement and hopefulness the New Year celebration brought! The anticipation had been building all day and into the night, but when the pot banging and fireworks ended, I felt let down. Is that all there is?

Every year, the same thing. It soon got old for me. Eventually, I became so disillusioned at the holiday season.

From that day on, I’ve maintained a sober spirit about New Year’s eve. And the subsequent new year as well. Sadly, I sound like a wet blanket, I know but for me, it keeps me sane. In reality, the day after December 31st is just another day.

On the bright side of New Years’ eve, I look at the day after as one day closer to the Lord coming back. For that alone, I rejoice that the new year is here!

Happy New Year everyone!

Dec

27

Merry Christmas… really?

Uncategorized  Posted by / 0 comments

outoffocus_christmas_lights_1959351While walking through our neighborhood, it’s lovely to see the creative scenery on display for Christmas:  twinkling lights, candles in windows, red, green, and multi-colored adornments everywhere. Each lawn dressed to the nines.

There was a time when we first bought our house that I didn’t really care to dress it up with lights. The festoonery, to me, was just that. A carnival display. Not for my Lord. He is worth so much more.

For several years, probably a decade, to view our house from the street, one might conclude the people inside did not celebrate Christmas. Then several years ago, a thought hit me. Our house looked dead.

Shouldn’t we have something to show for our love for the Lord? Even though he wasn’t really born in the winter, the historians tell us, still we felt the need to celebrate His birth.

I’d never been a fan of purchasing a dead tree–cut down, dragged into the house, pine needles everywhere, a potential fire hazard, animals could pull it down, although we don’t have animals, but you never know when a neighbor’s dog might amble through the front door. (It’s happened.) Then after Christmas, it’s dragged back out of the house and discarded at the street. Just what is the point?

So since we have a tree out front that’s there all year round–alive and well–I decorated that one. A dozen Christmas balls and a string of lights later, there is the Cantell family Christmas tree.

As our family celebrates the birth of the Lord every day, this was the perfect solution to our formerly Jewish home.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

 

 

Dec

17

Let it snow…

Uncategorized  Posted by / 0 comments

pexels-photo-1976351

Another winter upon us.

Some dread the cold season while others make their living from the snowfall.

The winter season brings with it so many memories:  the Volkswagen I saw from my childhood bedroom window that had been completely immersed in six feet or more of snow… sledding down inclines that today I’d have to think twice about… driving home on a snow emergency route just before the governor  declared the road shut down. (I was the only one on the roadway and had my pick of lanes, so I drove straight down the middle.)

I’ve danced in the snow… shoveled the snow… and watched it fall from the warm confines of a fireplace while sipping hot chocolate. I don’t recall ever creating a snowman in the snow, although I must have, right? While in school, my boyfriend-turned-husband made a snow alligator. He is not a conformist by any stretch.

While I’m not so sentimental that I look forward to a white Christmas–that’s for the Hallmark Family. Nor am I particularly looking forward to celebrating Christmas just on December 25th. For me, that would be anti-climatic, since I celebrate the birth of  Messiah Jesus every day of the year.

I rejoice with you all that the reason for the season is all about Him. May your hearts embrace Him this season and throughout the year.

zx-bethlehem4-31

 

 

Dec

12

Stay focused

Uncategorized  Posted by / 0 comments

How comforting to know that the Lord is on the throne.

When I’d first heard that statement, I had to process it. It had come from someone at my church who’d been looking for a job and things didn’t look bright–at least, not from the world’s perspective. I’d felt so sorry for him, and while he kept studying for a test to allow him the opportunity to apply for a particular position, he kept flunking. Sometimes by just a few points. At one point at church, he said, “It’s okay… God’s still on the throne.”

He had such peace about it. While I was “fretting” for him, he seemed perfectly content.

God is still on the throne. He always is and was and will be… How comforting to know that His word is true, and while on the throne, we as believers are in His grace. All we need to remember is to keep our eyes on Jesus, and He will give us peace–not as the world does. It’s deeper and more abiding than anything the word can offer.

May God strengthen your walk with Him as you receive His peace on your journey today.

Dec

04

Gratitude

Uncategorized  Posted by / 0 comments

wedps136_3_001-572x290

Is there anything too small to say to God, “Thank you”? Do only special things require thanks… or the grand or unexpected?

These exceptional times are worthy of our gratitude, but God’s word says, “…in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

Giving thanks honors God. When we realize that God is the source of our blessings, we make Him the recipient of our undying gratitude and entrust Him with our total dependence.

When we are not thankful, seeds of thanklessness are able to easily root… Ingratitude leads to murmuring, complaining, and pettiness. A sense of pride and focus on ourselves become the tares that may eventually choke out our joy and lend to bitterness.

A bitter person has no hope. Hopelessness leads to depression. At all costs, we should continually use our tongues and hearts to give praise to God. When we focus on this instead of ourselves, God is sure to inhabit the praise of His people and the benefit of this is priceless.

Nov

27

A day to give thanks…

Uncategorized  Posted by / 0 comments

images2

The celebration of Thanksgiving has always been associated with a peaceful feast between the first natives to our land–the Indians–and the Pilgrims. When the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts Bay, they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had survived slavery in England and knew their language. He taught them to grow corn, to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags and thanked God for their good fortune and bounty.

While skirmishes and raids between the Indians and the “white” men had occurred over the years, historical revisionists would have us believe that these dreadful incidents should preclude our positive feelings and/or happiness about our national holiday.

My take? While history should not repeat itself, it usually does by those who do not understand that sin in this world is always the source of our struggles. Until man recognizes that he is not able to overcome sin in his own strength and, most importantly, that he is not master over himself but God is, there will be struggles, evil, and trials on the earth.

Thanksgiving has been observed in different ways throughout the centuries… During the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress issued various proclamations for national days of prayer and giving thanks, usually in November and December.

In 1789, George Washington said he wanted the people to be thankful “for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed.”

The proclamation also makes it clear that the Thanksgiving Day, in Washington’s opinion, should be a day of prayer, especially for lawmakers and government officials.

It was President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 who issued the next major Thanksgiving Day proclamation, and every President since Lincoln has issued an annual proclamation.

“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

Nov

18

Our new president

Uncategorized  Posted by / 0 comments

Whether you voted for Donald Trump or not, he is our 45th president of the land of the free. Whether you like him or not, I believe this man has been chosen by God to rule. Like God has used men of ancient times to do God’s bidding; i.e., King Cyrus, Donald Trump will be used as well.

I’m saddened by the rioting in the streets that comes from those who are claiming to be afraid and fearful of their future in America. As though their rights are going to be taken away because the GOP is now in power? Who is ginning up this fear?

For so long, our country has been directed by socialist leaning leadership that would have America be a country that we need to somehow pardon… that we should be ashamed somehow of our nation and that someone needs to change it.1868211031 Through a scope of liberalism, our leadership was bound to take America down–slowly, through a thousand cuts–and guide its passage into a global, one-world, borderless free market entity… down an abyss and devoid of God. This was the plan. But it’s been thwarted–for now.

With Donald Trump in power, I believe God has given America a chance to redeem our country from the brink of the unimaginable. May God continue to use our country’s leadership to bring about His plans and protocols for America and that we would remain free to share the Gospel.

Nov

11

A special day to remember…

Uncategorized  Posted by / 0 comments

To all of the Veterans who’ve served in foreign wars to keep our enemies at bay and who risked their lives, America thanks you for your selfless service.

I cannot fathom all that goes through a serviceman’s mind when faced with enemy combatants surrounding on all sides. The fear of losing one’s life in this capacity can only come to me vicariously through your stories. To that sacrifice, you are all heroes.

In light of the turmoil in America today with people burning flags and demeaning the culture because of grievances, the only redeeming thing today is that the flag still flies in the hearts of Americans who value life that’s been given to them. Through the storms of war and tragedy, our Lord God, the almighty, reigns and has been with America since its conception. God has shone his face on this great nation and will continue as long as His will reigns.

Despite the acts of a few desperate and ignorant souls who currently make up the minority in their petty and heartless acts today, the glory of God’s hand on this country will not be snuffed out. Our future America is still bright, and as long as God continues to rule in the hearts and minds of its citizens, the nation will prosper.

It’s my prayer that God speaks to these wayward people, a sad and desperate people who do not understand that God is the solution to every grievance. May God continue to bless America, and thank you Vets for your courage and bravery to keep the country the land of the free.images1-2

Nov

05

On life, liberty and social justice…

Uncategorized  Posted by / 0 comments

There’s a root that has taken hold in our country. It’s not new, but it’s been driven deeper to the point where now a wedge has formed that speaks to the founding principles of liberty and life as something not lent to us by our Creator.

Through a secular utopian mindset, man has now inserted himself as the new arbiter of social justice that somehow precludes God.  The social justice mantra is now King.

So what’s wrong with social justice?

The secular utopian mindset driving social justice is that man is the engine to bring about perfection while on earth, yet our founding fathers believed that man was fallible given his own devices. (Therein lies the value of our Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution.) At the same time, there is an overt persuasion to denigrate America and our founding documents, which ascribe that all men are created equal and have been given life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Liberally inspired revisionists are now changing the face of history. History is being rewritten to teach today that America is an illegitimate country. The new word is that the holocaust never existed; it’s been expunged right from the record. Truths are being redefined and obscured about so many things, including the Supreme Court’s edifice with Moses holding the 10 commandments–only now it’s the “10 amendments” the Washington, D.C. guides are told to say.  It’s now somehow anti-American to hold to a religiosity that some do not adhere to.

America is being painted in a poor light as though the country should be somehow ashamed of itself. Just like communist propaganda indoctrination is used to mollify the masses into a politically correct stupor (easier to control that way), America is on the road one day to this same end through the denial of God and the life that He’s created.

What’s also being mocked is the life that God has created. Why is life  so important? Without life, no other rights matter.1868211031 We’re at a crossroads in America. Just days before our Presidential election. it is incumbent for us as Americans to vote. All the more, consider your vote a referendum on where you want the nation to go as a people, and to what value do you ascribe to life.

Oct

28

Seeking higher ground…

Uncategorized  Posted by / 0 comments

psalm1431“And my tongue shall declare Your righteousness and Your praise all day long.” Psalm 35:28

The divisiveness of the upcoming presidential has affected many both inwardly and outwardly. As a Christian, we are told to speak in love. However, when communicating on social media, as it’s an incomplete medium, we are not able to fully express facial expressions or tones of voice. It makes for opportunity to misidentify someone’s just intentions and allows the devil to insert himself as a force of reckoning.

So in attempting to be a Christian apologist or politically astute, sometimes the path to take on Facebook is to get off the road. If our righteous anger is misplaced or misunderstood and comes off in an unloving manner, then we need to redirect our speech to a safer medium and ask for God’s forgiveness. As God knows our heart, we trust that He will direct us to higher ground.

As God’s word tells us in Matthew 10:14 and elsewhere in the N.T., “Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet.” 

Let us seek a better way and a higher ground. And move on…