Open wides you gates ….and let the King Of Glory come in….We had a guest visitor, Eric Butler. This man is a psalmist and prophet of God. His message for this region (CNY upstate NY and western NY) was a powerful one. I was especially touched by what he said about those who have waited on a promise for a very …long time. He used the story of the man who sat by the gate beautiful for 40 years. This man had become used to being there…leaning to the reward of a few fleshly coins. Most of those who passed him by had nothing more to give him-but those coins. Then one day the disciples of Jesus came by him and when the man begged them they simply said to him:”silver and gold have I none….but such that I have I give unto thee…rise up and walk.” Many of us sit by the gate beautiful…that door that is open to us…the door where lives will be changed forevermore… if we can be awakened to a new level of life that God has for each one…sometimes it takes someone who does not look at you like everyone else does…expecting the same old..familiar thing….someone who sees far beyond what can be seen with our eyes. It takes someone like this to awaken those who sleep by the gate beautiful….someone who encourages them to walk through the gate….where those promises have laid waiting…………for years.

Even from childhood I have been fascinated by trains…as so many other kids. I love the way they make a wailing lament as they enter into a city…almost to say “Oh how I would love to stop for awhile…to rest…. to settle down in your city….but my job is to just keep on going”….as if in a deep travail. Those that are in a city for a time sometimes get the wanderlust…”Oh if I could just go somewhere else and sense or feel something new…but my job is just to stay right here”.., again almost in deep travail. I was driving parallel to a train today and I got a bit of a thrill to think that I was going where the train was going…down that long road we went. As I was driving it seemed as if the train was running with me…faster….faster. I had to stop at a stop light…..looked to my right at the train and to my amazement the train was stopped….all this time I thought I was chasing the train….but it was never moving. We often run after things…with our own contrived concept until one day we discover …it was nothing like what we thought it was. The truth is what sets us free…not our own contrived concepts.

…Is good because you know you are still breathing for one more year…at least, of course..the year just past. …Is a day to be thankful for …my mom loved us in her own way, she had a rough life, but she saw fit to give me life and to take care of me while I was vulnerable and defenseless….so I am thankful!
….is always a day for you …if you make it that. This is the first year in years that I was not fasting on my birthday…so I had a big strawberry sundae for me!!
You know being born on a history-maker’s birthday seems to always give you the desire to make history…beyond Elvis, I know that I am going to make history somehow!…I mean that in a good way!!
…having a great birthday..so far!
Happy birthday to all the others who were born today!!!!!!Hope it’s a great day for you too!!

Check out an interesting interview with Margaret and Diane as well as feedback from some very brave women on http://dianeestrella.com/?p=616

The New Year seems like that “chance to start again” that I spoke about on the contact page. I guess that it is all… in the way that you look at things…you know, how you perceive that new chance. Some people have been so wounded -that they find it hard to look ahead with hope for something better to happen next. Yet others are always hoping, always pushing forward toward the mark of their calling….why are they here?, what have they yet to do that they have not had the chance to fulfill. I hope for you that this New Year is filled with so many wonderful surprises…. so much happiness and so much life!!! I am always glad to see another year and I try to remain thankful for what the next year will bring my way! I encourage you to look forward to this year expecting something good to happen. Happy New Year!!!