Just Juliet
JUST JULIET Spiritual Poetry and writings by Juliet Mancini Tross that get into the heart of the matter.
"Hero's Love Song" "Hero's Love Song"
Once upon a time
a Hero made a choice
that because He was the Word
He would become a human voice.
And with that voice He called
His beloved so she'd hear,
"come near, my love
come near."
At first she couldn't hear Him
for she was so far away,
but the Hero did persue her
longing for her night and day
untill the passion and the power
and the fierceness that is love
Pierced straight through the Hero,
broke his body, drew His blood.
Now everytime she takes the cup
and drinks the crimson wine
and every night at evening's end
when she sits down to dine
she's reminded of her Hero
and the words He speaks through time,
"Be mine, my love,
be mine."
(And I, John, saw the Holy City, The New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven like a bride prepared for her Husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people and God Himself will be with them, and be their God")
("And the Spirit and the Bride say "Come!")
The Spirit and the Bride say "Come!"
The Spirit and the Bride say "Come!"
The Spirit and the Bride say "Come!"
Be Mine! (Come near) Be mine (come near) Be mine, my love!
Come near! (Be mine!) Come Near (be mine!) Come near my love!
Oh, my Love, my darling, I hunger for your touch...
(Be mine. The Spirit and the Bride say "Come!")
- JM Stephens C.2012 All rights reserved
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EASY BANANA CREAM PIE
1 pkg. vanilla wafers
1 pkg. vanilla pudding (not instant)
2 bananas, sliced
Whipped cream
Line a glass pie pan with vanilla wafers.
Make the pudding, following package directions. Pour half of the pudding over the cookies, then put a layer of sliced bananas on top. Cover with the rest of the pudding, and top with whipped cream. Refrigerate for 4 or 5 hours, then serve.
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Food History
Whipped Cream
When was whipped cream invented?
Note: This article is purely my own speculation on the subject.
I have never seen any reference to when people began whipping cream. However, there are several clues from the physical properties of cream and its ability to 'whip' (increase in volume).
1. Unpasteurized, unhomogenized cream whips much easier then pasteurized or pasteurized & homogenized cream.
2. Cream must be below 50 degrees to whip, at 50 or above it churns into butter rather than whips.
3. The whipping action must be just that - moving a whisk back and forth churns the cream, rather than whipping it and increasing its volume.
Possibilities:
- someone trying to make butter in a hurry ends up with partially whipped cream (raw cream whips easier).
- someone on horseback is carrying a half full container of cream and riding fast - which partially whips the cream.
As you can see from these examples, the properties of cream that enable it to be whipped to increase its volume probably mean it was discovered accidentally many times by many different people.
Someone (or several different people in different areas and times) finally realized what caused it and started to do it on purpose. It must have happened in winter (cream whips easier when cold). Which gives a high probability it happened in northern Europe.
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Subject: wedding song...
Done. The meat and cheese platters, the macaroni salad, and the song. Here's the song. The verses are for Shaun and Merigen.
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I Want to Walk You Home
verse 1: A young boy glances with a shine in his eye
and notices a young girl as she walks by,
"Isn't she pretty? Isn't she fine?
isn't she sweet, I'm gonna make her mine. isn't she sweet, I'm gonna make her my own one day soon, I'm gonna walk her home."
Chorus: Home is where the heart is
and my heart is with you
and with you is where I want to be
my whole life through.
And yes, this life may not be long
but darling, it is wide
and I want to walk across it
with you right by my side.
Verse 2: The girl glanced back. One glance was enough,
He was a little bit tender, a little bit tough
and what she saw was a diamond in the rough
she saw that gritty, shining stuff.
And she couldn't forget what she was shown. "one day soon, I'm gonna walk that boy home."
Verse 3: The sparkle of the diamond and the sparkle of the sea were no match for the sparkle in his eyes as he reached into his pocket and got down on his knee and said, "Lovely lady, will you marry me? You're the truest love that I've ever known, Take my hand, I want to walk you home."
Chorus: Home is where the heart is
and my heart is with you
and with you is where I want to be
my whole life through.
And yes, this life may not be long
but darling, it is wide
and I want to walk across it
with you right by my side.
Verse 4: So the bride walked the aisle on he Daddy's arm, on her daddy's heart and in her Daddy's warmth and he walked her to the altar and he walked her to the man who was waiting for her and he gave the groom her hand he said "love her and protect her. Never let her be alone." but he could tell by their eyes,
that they would walk eachother home.
("Isn't she pretty? Isn't she fine?")
( What she saw was a diamomd in the rough.) ("You're the truest love that I've ever known.")
And we can tell by their eyes that they'll walk eachother home.
Home is where the heart is
and my heart is with you...
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Title. Subject: MOTIVATIONAL QUOTE
"Do do is to be" - Kant
"Do be is to do" - Socrates
"Do be do be do" - Sinatra
(just another quote!!! )
-me
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Subject: in awe...
Hey, listen:
"Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all libererality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. For the administration of this service (armsoflovefellowship) not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God, while, through the proof of this ministry (armsoflovefellowship), they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ and for your
liberal sharing with them and all men, and by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you.
Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"
(2 Cor 9:10-15)
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Subject: for nj people
Made me smile till I was homesick!!!
:) Love, Juliet
YOU'RE FROM JERSEY IF:
- You don't think of fruit when people mention "The Oranges".
- You know that it's called Great Adventure,not Six Flags.
- A good, quick breakfast is a hard roll with butter.
- You've known the way to Seaside Heights since you were seven.
- You've eaten at a Diner,when you were stoned or drunk, at 3 am
- You remember that the "Two Guys" were from Harrison.
- You know that the state isn't one big oil refinery.
- At least three people in your family still love Bruce
Springsteen, and you know the town Jon Bon Jovi is from.
- You know what a "jug handle" is.
- You know that WaWa is a convenience store.
- You know that the state isn't all farmland.
- You know that there are no "beaches" in New Jersey -there's
"The Shore". And you don't go "to the shore", you go "down the
Shore". And when you are there, you're not "at the shore", you are "down the Shore".
- Even your school cafeteria made good Italian subs. And it's a\
"sub" - not a submarine sandwich or worse yet, a hoagy, a hero, or a grinder.
- You remember the song from the Palisades Parkcommercials.
- You know how to properly negotiate a Circle.
- You knew that the last sentence had to do with driving.
- You know that this is the only "New..." state that doesn't
require "New" to identify it.(like try...Mexico,York,Hampshire
doesn't work, does it?)
- You only go to New York City for day trips,and you call it "The City".
- You know that a "White Castle" is the name of BOTH a fast food chain AND a fast food sandwich.
- You consider putting mayo on a corned beef sandwich a sacrilege.
- You don't think "What exit" is very funny.
- You know that the first "strip shopping center" in the country
was on Route 22.
- You know that people from the 609 area code are "a little different".
- You know that no respectable New Jerseyan goes to Princeton - that'sfor out-of-staters.
- The Jets-Giants game has started fights at your school or local bar
- You live within 20 minutes of at least three different malls
- You refer to all highways and interstates by their numbers.
- Every year, you had a least one kid in your class named Tony.
- You know the location of every clip shown in the Sopranos opening credits.
- You've gotten on the wrong highway trying to get out of the mall.
- You know that people from North Jersey go to Seaside Heights,
and people from Central Jersey go to Belmar and people from South Jersey go to Wildwood. It can be no other way.
- You were not raised in New Jersey. You were raised in either
North Jersey, Central Jersey or South Jersey.
- You don't consider Newark or Camden to actually be part of the
state.
- You remember the stores Korvette's, Two Guys, Rickel's, Channel, Bamberger's and Orbach's.
- You've had a Boardwalk cheese steak and vinegar fries.
- You start planning for Memorial Day weekend in February. - And finally... - You've NEVER, NEVER pumped your own gas.
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Beyond: The Bride Beyond the churches, beyond the Bible studies, beyond the sweet worship on Sunday mornings and beyond the intense prayer on Tuesday nights, there is a place just outside our field of view where our One and Only waits...
He waits for us to be done with all the righteous busy-ness of our lives and with all the fillers that occupy us, no matter how noble... He waits for us to be done posting on Christian sites, to be done telling our friends and family all about Him, He waits for us to be done feeding the hungry and clothing the poor, He waits, proud of our commitment to Him, but longing still...
He waits for those times when we come home from the events of our day - or when we awaken from the events of our dreams. When all is still and silent, He waits for us in our solitude. And when we respond, when we meet Him there, it is then that we are truly the Bride.
When He can inhabit us, when our very flesh can become His home, when we can be voulnerable and honest and bare before His searching eyes, it is then that we are what we are called to be. His Beloved. His Own. His own, who whispers in His ear "I love you" a thousand times. His own, who listens intently and hangs on His every word like a love song that lingers. His own, who recognises the very scent of Him, and follows...
That's what we are called to. We are called to be His own. He longs to be our One and Only. And ALL the church services, and ALL the Bible study, and ALL the ministry in the world - although it may make us friends of the Bridegroom - is NOT what makes us the Bride.
Intimacy with Jesus is what makes us the Bride.
Just another thought...
Love in Jesus,
Juliet
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Date: Sat, Jan 18, 2003
Subject: here it is...
...the poem you couldn't find.
All I Only Ever Wanted
All I only ever wanted,
all I only ever need,
is to be born, untorn, untaunted
into (and from) eternal seed.
Into (and from) the mercy seat
So safe in Grace and deep in Love,
my heart, so soft and silent beats
awaits the labor and the blood.
Birth me, Lord, with might from Heaven!
With a mighty push out from my flesh!
And let me ride upon the water
from your womb of righteousness.
You will be my rest and drink,
Your Beauty will be all I cry,
You'll be my cradle and my dreams,
My soft and silent lullabye...
So birth me, Lord, into your Mansion,
into the place where holy seed
bursts into light and Light unending...
is all I only ever need.
c.2012 Juliet Mancini Tross
All Rights Reserved
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Title. Where's the Mother????? Where's the Mother?
Have you noticed anything fishy about the inspection teams who have arrived
in Iraq? They're all men! How in the name of the United Nations does anyone expect men to find Saddam's stash? We all know that men have a blind spot when it comes to finding things. For crying' out loud!
Men can't find the dirty clothes hamper.
Men can't find the jar of jelly until it falls out of the cupboard and splatters on the floor...and these are the people we have sent into Iraq to search for hidden weapons of mass destruction?
I keep wondering why groups of mothers weren't sent in. Mothers can sniff out secrets quicker than a drug dog can find a gram of dope. Mothers can find gin bottles that dads have stashed in the attic beneath the rafters. They can sniff out a diary two rooms and one floor away.
They can tell when the lid of a cookie jar has been disturbed and notice when a quarter inch slice has been shaved off a chocolate cake.
A mother can smell alcohol on your breath before you get your key in the front door and can smell cigarette smoke from a block away. By examining laundry, a mother knows more about their kids than Sherlock Holmes. And if a mother wants an answer to a question, she can read an offender's eyes quicker than a homicide detective.
So...considering the value a mother could bring to an inspection team, why are we sending a bunch of old men who will rely on electronic equipment to scout out hidden threat ? My mother would walk in with a wooden soup spoon in one hand, grab Saddam by the ear, give it a good twist and snap, "Young man, do you have any weapons of mass destruction?"
And God help him if he tried to lie to her.
She'd march him down the street to some secret bunker and shove his nose into a nuclear bomb and say, "Uh, huh, and what do you call this, mister?"
Whap! Thump! Whap! Whap! Whap! And she'd lay some stripes across his bare bottom with that soup spoon, then march him home in front of all the people of Baghdad. He'd not only come clean and apologize for lying about it; he'd cut every lawn in Baghdad for free for the whole darn summer.
Inspectors? My foot!! You want the job done? Call my mother!
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Subject: I've always loved this song... ______________________________________________
If a picture paints a thousand words,
Then why can't I paint you?
The words will never show
The you I've come to know.
If a face could launch a thousand ships, Then where am I to go?
There's no one home but you,
You're all that's left, me too.
And when my love for life is running dry, You'll come and pour yourself on me.
If a man could be two places at one time I'd be with you,
Tomorrow and today,
Beside you all the way.
If the world should stop revolving
Spinning slowly down to die,
I'd spend the end with you,
And when the world was through,
Then one by one,
The stars would all go out,
Then you and I,
Would simply fly away
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Subject: The Dual Fire
"Therefore, since we are recieving a kingdom that can not be shaken, let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably, with reverance and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." (Heb 12:28-29)
Our God IS a consuming fire. In the lives of those who have vowed to live for Him, He will stop at nothing to make us into the image of Jesus Christ. We've all heard of the Refiner's Fire,(and those of us who have felt it, can not forget it) how God, like a goldsmith refining gold, turns up the heat beneith his treasure so that all the dross, all the imputity and any triviality will rise to the top and be skimmed off. And he repeats the process over and over, turning the heat higher and higher untill the moment when he can see his reflection in the gold, and thus be sure that it has been truly purified.
Scary, huh?
God has promised us that He will refine us, that His fire will purify us and make us a reflection of Him. Things in our life are amputated, circumstances that we face devistate our pride until we can barely bear the weight of it. I'm sure we all know what it's like to be in a place where all we can do is cry out to God to please take the cup FROM us or take the cup FOR us. We've all been there. And we have all survived.
How? Listen:
John the Baptist proclaimed: "Indeed, I baptise you with water unto repentance; but He that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."
(Matt 3:11)
God is merciful, abounding in grace and compassionate. He knew what He requires in the hearts and lives of those who are called by His name. He knew that they would face His purifying fire on their lives, so He made a way... he sent the fire of His Spirit into their hearts so they could endure it.
Gods fire without would break us were it not for God's fire within.
It is the fire of the Spirit of God within us that cries out for more - for more of His presence, for more of His discipline.
It is the fire within us that causes us to recieve the firey trials with gladness, because we KNOW that all of it will only bring us closer to the character of the Lover of our Soul.
And in mercy, He brings the fire without as well. If all He gave us was the burning desire to have fellowship with Him, but no means by which to be conformed into His likeness, then all we would be would be wretched people, aching in the frustration; longing for home, but without the road to get there.
And so we are given a dual fire.
A fire that kills us
and
A fire that fills us.
A fire that turns us back into the ashes from which the first Adam came and
A fire that was breathed into us as we were made into a new creation.
I pray that we all seek the dual fire.
I pray we all shine forth as gold.
I love you guys!
Juliet
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Subject: Is there a devil?
Hi everybody!
This was forwarded to me, and got me to thinking. (ut-oh!) If you dig deep enough below the surface of the world's "a la carte" theology where so many are convinced that they have to option of believing whatever "feels right" to them - If you dig deep enough into the world of relative truth and tolerance, you will ultimately find the deciever. The father of lies. Old Slewfoot.
In a world where people who are not Christians believe in the ressurrection, and people who are Christians, don't believe in God - it is obvious that there is a definate,violent,spiritual war going on for the souls of men. God seeks to redeem and set free and the enemy seeks to blind and confuse.
Listen to this:
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Is There a Devil?
By Cathryn Conroy, CompuServe News Editor
Look to your left. Look to your right. Chances are both people you see believe in the devil and hell. We are a nation of believers. A Harris Poll surveyed 2,201 American adults about their religious beliefs and found out some fascinating information. While most Christians--not surprisingly--believe in God, the survival of the soul after death, miracles, heaven, the Virgin birth, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, more than half of all adults also believe in ghosts. About a third believe in astrology. And more than a quarter believe they were reincarnated from other people who walked on this Earth generations ago.
This is what your friends and neighbors believe in:
God: 90 percent
Miracles: 89 percent
Survival of the soul after death: 84 percent
Resurrection of Christ: 80 percent
Virgin birth: 77 percent
Devil: 68 percent
Hell: 69 percent
Ghosts: 51 percent
Astrology: 31 percent
Reincarnation: 27 percent
Where will you go after you die?
Expect to go to heaven: 63 percent
Expect to go to hell: 1 percent
Expect to go to purgatory: 6 percent
Expect to go someplace else: 11 percent
Don't have a clue: 18 percent
Here are some fun facts from The Harris Poll:
--Not all people who call themselves Christians actually hold conventional Christian beliefs. For example, 1 percent of Christians do not believe in God and 8 percent do not believe in the survival of the soul after death.
--More than a quarter of those who say they are not Christian do believe in the resurrection of Christ and the Virgin birth.
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Things that make you go "Hmmmm"?
Love in Jesus,
Juliet
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Subject: Challenging the box
Hi Guys!
Listen to this:
"If anyone has material posessions, and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."
1Jn3:17
and this:
"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help you?' He will reply 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me'." (Matt25:44-45)
and this too:
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after widos and orphans in their distress and to keep onesself from being polluted by the world." (Jas1:27)
What if...
What if we are NOT called to gather as many into ourselves as we can fit into our building, but to go out among the lost and be Jesus on the highways and by-ways?
What if the "gathering of ourselves together" has nothing to do with sound systems, padded pews and bulletins?
What if every person in your church was involved in ministry outside the church walls and the coming together was to worship and give praise reports of the things that God has done through each of the people in your fellowship while they wewe NOT in church?
What if there is NO SUCH THING as a layman? What if God has called ALL OF US to be ministers of the Gospel?
What if, every time we saw a vagrant, everytime we saw the person infront of us in the grocery store line, every time we saw someone standing at the exit ramp holding a "will work for food" sign and everytime we see someone at the side of the road getting hauled away in a police car, we looked hard enough to see the nail prints in their hands and feet and recognise them as Jesus.
What if we are called beyond our comfort zone? (Because we are!)
God has been speaking to my heart lately... no, Screaming to my heart lately, that His people are stewards of those who He desires to be His people. Which is everyone.
The lost and broken are His first priority. If they weren't, then He never would have become man and endured death on the cross.
And since we are His Body, and we are inhabited by His Spirit, then the lost and the broken should our first priority too.
Call me crazy, but hear me out...
Here's a challenge that I'd like each of you to take to your fellowships and suggest that they implement:
Instead of showing our God how much we love Him by showing up at Church 4 times a week, maybe we should consider showing up at the prisons, at the AIDS wards, at the orphanages and at the convalescent homes, and just BE Jesus, like He commanded us to do. And then meet together on a Sunday morning to testify of all the He has done.
Unconventional steps? Yeah.
Required steps? You've read the scriptures I started with. You tell Me.
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Title. It's a Wednesday night and you are at a church prayer meeting
when
somebody runs in from the parking lot and says, "Turn on a radio,
turn on a
radio."
And while the church listens to a little transistor radio with a
microphone stuck up to it, the announcement is made: "Two women are lying in
a Long Island hospital dying from the mystery flu."
Within hours it seems, this thing just sweeps across the country.
People
are working around the clock trying to find an antidote. Nothing is
working.
California, Oregon, Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts. It's as though
it's just
sweeping in from the borders. And then, all of a sudden the news
comes out.
The code has been broken. A cure can be found. A vaccine can be made.
It's
going to take the blood of somebody who hasn't been infected, and so,
sure
enough, all through the Midwest, through all those channels of
emergency
broadcasting, everyone is ! asked to do one simple thing: Go to your
downtown
hospital and have your blood type taken.
"That's all we ask of you.
When you
hear the sirens go off in your neighborhood, please make your way
quickly,
quietly, and safely to the hospitals."
Sure enough, when you and your family get down there late on that
Friday
night, there is a long line, and they've got nurses and doctors
coming out
and pricking fingers and taking blood and putting labels on it. Your
wife and
your kids are out there, and they take your blood type and they
say, "Wait
here in the parking lot and if we call your name, you can be
dismissed and go
home." You stand around, scared, with your neighbors, wondering what
in the
world is going on and if this is the end of the world. Suddenly
a young man comes running out of the hospital screaming. He's yelling
a name
and waving a clipboard. "What?" He yells it again! And your son tugs
on your
jacket and says, "Daddy, that's me."
Before you know it, they have
grabbed
your boy. "Wait a minute. Hold on!" And they say, "It's okay, his
blood is
clean. His blood is pure. We want to make sure he doesn't have the
disease.
We think he has got the right type."
Five tense minutes later, out come the doctors and nurses, crying
and
hugging one another-some are even laughing. It's the first time you
have seen
anybody laugh in a week, and an old doctor walks up to you and
says, "Thank
you, sir. Your son's blood type is perfect.
It's clean, it is pure,
and we
can make the vaccine." As the word begins to spread all across that
parking
lot full of folks, people are screaming and praying and laughing and
crying.
But then the gray-haired doctor pulls you and you wife aside and
says, "May we see you for moment?"
We didn't realize that the donor would be a minor and we need ...
we need
you to sign a consent form." You begin to sign and then you see that
the
number of pints of blood to be taken is empty. "H-how many pints?"
And that
is when the old doctor's smile fades and he says, " We had no idea it
would
be a little child. We weren't prepared. We need it all."
"But-but...You don't understand."
"We are talking about the world here.
Please sign. We need it
all!"
"But can't you give him a transfusion?"
"If we had clean blood we would."
Can you sign? Would you sign?
In numb silence, you do. Then they say, "Would you like to have a
moment
with him before we begin?"
Can you walk back? Can you walk back to that room where he sits
on a
table saying, "Daddy? Mommy? What's going on?"
Can you take his hands and say, "Son, your mommy and I love you,
and we
would never ever let anything happen to you that didn't just have to
be. Do
you understand that?"
And when that old doctor comes back in and says, "I'm sorry,
we've-got to
get started. People all over the world are dying.
Can you leave? Can you walk out while he is saying, "Dad? Mom?
Dad? "Why,
why
have you forsaken me?"
And then next week, when they have the ceremony to honor your
son, and
some
folks sleep through it, and some folks don't even come because they
go to the
lake, or to the beach, or some have to go shopping, or some don't
want to
take off from work and some folks come with a pretentious smile and
just
pretend to care. Would you want to jump up and say, "MY SON DIED FOR
YOU!
DON'T YOU CARE?"
Is that what GOD wants to say? "MY SON DIED FOR YOU. DON'T YOU
KNOW
HOW MUCH I CARE?"
Father, seeing it from your eyes breaks our hearts. Maybe now we
can
begin to comprehend the great Love you have for us."
You can now spread the gospel... or delete it. If you are not
ashamed
of God or what he has done for you, pass this on, PLEASE spread the
word. So,
take a few moments to forward this.
It is not a dirge
This thing within me
It is not in blackness
Like I'd once perceived.
And out it grows
into oppositeness,
Into something I had only
Seen in dreams -
The shroud fell,
The shell cracked
And the bird emerged
Free
Not a raven
Not a vulture
But an eagle, a dove
An innocent yellow feathered puppet
With crossed and trusting eyes.
It is not a dirge
This passion within me
There is no death in
The ink that I offer here.
For so many years
I searched for a tragedy
To write it all effectively.
To be a kindred spirit
To my suicidal sisters,
But
Wrong is not a pleasant thing
To be. But no
It is not a dirge
This thing within me.
It is an easter.
JMS 3.88
The rain seems
Right today
As clouds
Make my heart dark
As fog makes my
Skin flinch
At the thought of
This morning's massacre.
A carnival
Where no ride is taken
Where dares are
Forsaken for a safer tent.
You have left your sent
On me though,
That this rain cannot
Wash away.
JMS 88
HER NAME WAS SEASHELL
AND SHE FLEW
AND IN HER HANDS ARE SILVER AND
IN HER EYES WERE TEARS SHE
LIVED IN A HOUSE ON A STREET IN A TOWN (IN A
STATE) IN A COUNTRY ON A CONTINENT ON THE EARTH IN A GALIXY
IN A UNIVERSE THAT nobody SAW
nobody FLEW.
CAME UPON A PIPER AND BECAME A PIPER
CAME UPON A KING AND BECAME A KING
CAME UPON CHILDREN AND BECAME A CHILD ... UPON
THE SEA AND BECAME A
WAVE SHE WAS
OH
WAVE SHE WAS AND HER NAME IS SEASHELL
AND SHE IS FLUTE AND SHE IS PIPER AND SHE
IS ORANGE AND SHE IS ARES
AND SHE IS A UNIVERSE THAT nobody SAW
AND IN HER HANDS WAS SILVER.
JMS 81 for suzanne n.
Easter Sunday Roll away the stone
Here I stand - alone
Wanting. Waiting for the dead to rise.
I can see the treasure hidden
Deep in the folds of linen
And I can see the tomb's abyss in your eyes.
A rumble? What could be there?
Is it possible that I hear
A muffled heartbeat still, from beneath your
Sweet disguise?
I step a little closer now
And you retreat to silence, how
Am I to find the patience?
I wait for the dead to rise.
JMS 4.20.87 12:42am For John
Ten minutes left
O let me glorify
Why am I so heavy?
Why is me so down
To the outer parts of the
Concrete to the
Fullest extent of the law
I am still in bondage
As were my answers
As were my questions
As will be
So watch out
For you may be also.
Ten minutes left
Fall through the dark space
Lit only by your need and
The silver stars
Take it all down and
Raise them all higher
If there is only one thing that
Has my certainty it is this
I AM not alone
Wipe away my tears, O truest love
And turn me to a silver glowing
White in your space
Let me not turn back again
Because
For all I know
There may be only
Ten minutes left.
JMS 78
Subject: Adam's bad rap
I'm not saying that this is set in stone, but after alot of thought, it makes more sense of what happened than any other explanation ever has. Tell me what you think.
Over the past couple of decades, I've heard lots of trash talked about our great, great, great, great, great, great (and so on, but you get the idea) grandfather, Adam. Things like "Man, he wrecked it for everybody", "He just HAD to have that one thing that was forbidden to him"... and, as a woman, my personal favorite: "At least it took The Prince of Darkness to deceive Eve, all it took was a girl to deceive Adam" (ARGHHHH!)
Hmmm... where do I start? Okay, how about this:
God made Eve for Adam. When God gave Eve to her husband, I'm sure it was with the same exhortation that any father gives to any man who he entrusts his daughter to: "Love her." "Take care of her." "Protect her at all costs." I'm sure that that was Adams every intention, and rightly so.
Okay. Jump with me now to a present day example. A guy is head over heels in love with his girlfriend. Whe he picks her up for a date, her father, who the guy loves intensely and fears immensely, says' "Have fun, kids! You have the whole night to yourselves and you can do whatever you want, just please, promise me that you won't go into that trashy biker-bar in the city. Under no circumstances are you ever to go in there. It's dangerous and deadly in there." And they agree... for 2 reasons: 1) They love and trust the father, and 2) they don't want to die in a biker bar...or anywhere, for that matter. So off they go.
So they get downtown, and while he's putting some change in the parking meter, he looks up - and what does he see but his girlfriend waving at him from inside the biker bar!
Does he leave, because he promised the father he'd never go in there? Or, does he follow his beloved into the biker bar because he promised to protect her, risking the wrath of the father? My guess, is that any man worth being called a man would protect his beloved, even if it meant following her into danger, without counting the cost of the danger to himself.
Back to the Genesis scene...
So they're in The Garden, and while Adam is naming some animals or picking some grapes, he looks up - and what does he see but Eve waving at him with a mouthfull of apple!
Does he rebuke and abandon her because he promiced the father he'd never eat the fruit? Or, does he follow her into judgement, not able to bear the idea of her being banished alone, because he promised to protect her?
Read the story again, in Genesis. Adam NEVER said that Eve tricked him or coerced him. Popular legend had led us to beleive that that's what's written, but it's just not in there. He never blamed Eve. He answered God's question, simply and to the point: Eve ate the fruit, and so when she gave it to me, I ate it too. Sounded pretty matter- of-fact. As though it seemed to him to be the only thing he COULD do, given the circumstances.
Before you get all in a tizzy about me making Adam's sin sound almost noble, listen to this:
Jesus is called the second Adam. That just as sin entered into the world by one man and through his actions all are separated from God, then also by one man, Jesus, righteousness entered in and through His action (on the cross) all men who are in Him are reconciled to God. (The Juliet Paraphrased Version :)
So Adam, when seeing Eve in a state that caused God to forbid her to ever see His face again, followed her into sin, and received the harshest judgement from God. From those actions, all people were born into seperation from God.
And Jesus, when seeing all of us in a state that caused God to forbid us to ever see His face, He followed US into sin...(The Bible said that He BECAME sin ) and received judgement in our place ("My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?")
That for the joy set before Him, for the love of His bride, He willingly came with the very purpose to separate himself from the father long enough to ransom us. He followed us into the biker bar. He ate the fruit. He bacame sin. Yet because He IS THE RESSURECTION, because of His act, all who are in Him are born into fellowship with God.
What Adam couldn't do, Jesus accomplished. Behold, what manner of love...
So think twice the next time you dis Adam. He might not have been such a bad guy after all...
Just a thought,
Love in Jesus,
Juliet
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Subject: MEN
Dear Friends,
It is important for men to remember that as women grow older it becomes harder for them to maintain the same quality of housekeeping as they did when they were younger. When men notice this, they should try not to yell. Let me relate how I handle the situation. When I got laid off from my consulting job and took "early retirement" in January, it became necessary for Nancy to get a full-time job, both for extra income and for health benefits that we need.
She was a trained medical transcriptionist when we met twenty-eight years ago and was fortunate to land a job at a local transcription house. It was shortly after she started working at this job that I noticed that she was beginning to show her age.
I usually get home from fishing or hunting about the same time she gets home from work. Although she knows how hungry I am, she almost always says that she has to rest for half an hour or so before she starts supper. I try not to yell at her when this happens. Instead, I tell her to take her time. I understand that she is not as young as she used to be. I just tell her to wake me when she finally does get supper on the table. She used to wash and dry the dishes as soon as we finished eating. It is now not unusual for them to sit on the table for several hours after supper. I do what I can by reminding her several times each evening that they aren't cleaning themselves. I know she appreciates this, as it does seem to help her get them done before she goes to bed. Our washer and dryer are in the basement. When she was younger, Nancy used to be able to go up and down the stairs all day and not get tired. Now that she is older she seems to get tired so much more quickly. Sometimes she says she just can't make another trip down those steps. I don't make a big issue of this. As long as she finishes up the laundry the next evening I am willing to overlook it. Not only that, but unless I need something ironed to wear to the Monday lodge meeting or to Wednesday's or Saturday's poker club or to Tuesday's or Thursday's bowling or something like that, I will tell her to wait until the next evening to do the ironing. This gives her a little more time to do some of those odds and ends things like shampooing the dog, vacuuming or dusting.
Also, if I have had a really good day fishing, this allows her to gut and scale the fish at a more leisurely pace.
Nancy is starting to complain a little occasionally. Not often, mind you, but just enough for me to notice. For example, she will say that it is difficult for her to find time to pay the monthly bills during her lunch hour. In spite of her complaining, I continue to try to offer encouragement. I tell her to stretch it out over two or even three days. That way she won't have to rush so much. I also remind her that missing lunch completely now and then wouldn't hurt her any, if you know what I mean.
When doing simple jobs she seems to think she needs more rest periods than she used to have to take. A couple of weeks ago she said she had to take a break when she was only half finished mowing the yard. I over look comments like these because I realize it's just age talking. In fact, I try not to embarrass her when she needs these little extra rest breaks. I tell her to fix herself a nice, big, cold glass of freshly squeezed lemonade and just sit for a while. I tell her that as long as she is making one for herself, she may as well make one for me and take her break by the hammock so she can talk with me until I fall asleep. I could go on and on, but I think you know where I'm coming from. I know that I probably look like a saint in the way I support Nancy on a daily basis. I'm not saying that the ability to show this much consideration is easy. Many men will find it difficult.
Some will find it impossible. No one knows better than I do how frustrating women can become as they get older. My purpose in writing this is simply to suggest that you make the effort. I realize that achieving the exemplary level of showing consideration I have attained is out of reach for the average man.
However, guys, even if you just yell at your wife a little less often because of this article, I will consider that writing it was worthwhile.
BOB
P.S. Bob's funeral was on Saturday, June 15th. Judy was acquitted Monday, June 17th.
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Subject: Wooing the Lover of Our Soul
Just a few thoughts on the Body of Christ:
God, through the Bible, tells us that we are the body of Christ. We've heard that all our Christian life, and maybe even before then - if we were raised in a "religious" family. "What a beautiful analogy."
"What a poetic interpretation."
"What a pretty image."
Right?
Wrong!!
Call me crazy, but I'm sure it's not any of the above. I'm sure it has nothing to do with analogy or poetry. I'm sure that it has everything to do with this:
WE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST. We are Christ's body. The body of Jesus. The hands, the mouth, and the feet of the Nazarene. For 2000 years and counting.
Right here and now.
Now, before I'm labeled as some off the wall granola new-age lady with a crystal up her nose and a dress made of wheat, listen:
"For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and be joined unto his wife, and the two shall be ONE FLESH. This is a great mystery: but I SPEAK CONCERNING CHRIST AND THE CHURCH." (Eph. 5:30-32)
How? Beats me.
But I DO know that when a person becomes born again, he becomes a new creation.
And I DO know that we are, even now, seated in heavenly places with Jesus.
And I DO know that when a man and woman marry, there is a new life created, not just a "him" and a "her", but a "One-ness" on a spiritual level that we can't see.
God messes with time and space and physics because He is beyond all that stuff. And because He has said it over and over again in scripture, I KNOW that we are the Body of Christ. A "one-ness" on a spiritual level that we can't see.
(Pardon the segue, but just a note here: in scripture, seven is the number of completion. God does things in sevens all the time. Ever wonder why Jesus' ministry was only three and a half years long? Could it be that it's because his body, his bride, his Church [read:US] is finishing the other half of it? One flesh. A help meet for Him. The very flesh and bones of Him. Oooooo....)
His hands touching the leper 2000 years ago, and His hands touching the AIDS patient today. Now, think about this:
The Bible says that if anyone says that he loves God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar and the love of God is not in him.
Why? Poetry? No.
Because the Church IS the Body of Christ. How well we treat our brothers and sisters IS how well we treat Jesus.
How much we love each other IS how much we love our Lord.
If we are hard and hateful to a brother, we are hard and hateful to Jesus... because our brother is flesh of Jesus' flesh and bone of Jesus' bone.
We are preparing ourselves for a wedding. Our wedding to our Savior.
Seems to me, that if I were about to marry a man, I would woo him and be tender and gentle and giving and kind and lay myself down for him and put him first and always before my own interests.
I would let him know I love him.
If he was hungry, I'd feed him.
If he was naked, I'd clothe him.
If he was in prison, I'd visit him
and if he was lost and destitute, I'd take him in. And if I didn't - I'm sure he'd wonder if I really loved him at all. I'm sure he'd wonder if I should even be his bride at all...
All those things are what Jesus requires us to do. He's preparing for a wedding, too. To us.
So be gentle with each other. Be kind and patient and giving. Feed each other, clothe each other, visit each other and take each other in.
In doing so you will be soothing the body of your beloved. In doing so, you will be wooing the Lover of your soul.
As always, Your servant in Jesus,
Juliet
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Christmas Carol
The night was lonely, the night was holy the lady was a little girl.
A little scared, she held her husband's hand and she wondered how she can
bring this child into the world.
She had no bed for him to sleep on,
had no strength to help her keep on anymore, the only thing she knew was
what would be His name.
And the baby came.
She had only rags to dress him in
she held Him to her breast and then
she looked deep into His eyes.
He was just an hour old
yet it seemed His story had been told
a hundred million years ago
Oh, He looked so wise.
He looked so wise - she stood above Him
He looked so wise - Oh, how she loved Him She didn't know why, but she missed him
already. She closed her eyes.
The lady cried.
The night was so dark He couldn't really focus on anything, not anything at all
not the shepherds and kings around Him
not the flaming star above Him
but He could feel his mamma love Him
and he could hear his daddy's voice...
He made the choice that He would come here. He made a choice. there was no time for fear anymore. The love he felt so deep
was the love He would die for.
The baby slept. And the lady cried.
And the husband felt so honored to be chosen as the child's guide.
And above the tiny barn,
above the burning Christmas star,
the Father of this sleeping King
had joy in His breaking heart...
because He knew His Son would be back,
because He knew His Son would bring back all His people who had wandered
They would come back one by one
by the blood of his Son
by the life of the Chosen One,
In the victory of His child
The Father smiled.
:)
Always,
Juliet
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Subject: one day closer...
One Day Closer To Home (or, Happy Birthday, Juliet)
Little Miss Mary Mack
all dressed up in black
like a child, singing dirges in the rain you know, she's found a hero
who has saved her very soul
still she's hoping He'll explain
to her why she sits all alone with her tears and her poetry book all alone with her tears and her poetry book.
He always would romance her, though He didn't always answer the primal prayers she'd pray in her room she'd ask Him for a reason for the bitter, scorching seasons and beg Him for a rescue soon
while she sits all alone, at home with silence much deader than stone all alone, home in silence much deader than stone.
He said "Lady, hold on. Lady, it will alright. and if you get too scared, you just hold on real tight. Hold on real
tight,
cause this world is filled with other peoples choices you just, just can't control
Yeah, it's gotten out of hand
your tears are cause you understand, you understand. Lady, lay it down, lay it away, lay it unro Me. Lady, you will groan, but every day you do (every day you do) you're one day close to Home."
Little Miss Mary Mack laid down her left hand from her pen and raised it, raised it high against the sky and with her right hand wiped away
the sorrow from her eye
and hid it inside her heart.
And she lifted her voice
though the sound didn't make any noise,
her new voice, though the sound didn't make any noise.
And she said "Hero, I'm holding on.
Hero, please just don't let go.
Sometimes I get so scared, I think I'll blow away like dust, just blow away.
But I know it's not too long
before I'm done with this very sad and silent song. And each day that you bless me
with breath that does carress me
is a day of yearning that's behind me
a yearning that reminds me
that I'm one day closer to home
one day closer to home
one day closer to home."
-JMS 1996
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Subject: more juliet lyrics...
Here is a song I wrote around '96
____________________________________
Don't be Afraid
Don't be afraid when the water surrounds us Don't be afraid when we walk through the flame Don't be afraid when our own tears engulf us when we loose our bearings, don't be afraid.
We have a friend who is closer than a brother We have a hero with a brave and true heart We have a defender with the passion of a lover Who will not walk away, who will not break our hearts.
All of our tears He has kept in a bottle And all of our burdens He has as His own, and He loves us with a love that will cause Him to conquor anything that befalls us, we are never alone.
Don't be afraid, for our Lord is a warrior a fierce and a gentle knight on a steed, He will fight for His bride's life and for His bride's honor He will never forsake us, He's all that we need.
He will establish our every desire
He will fulfill all our dreams when we're old He will stand with us when he turns up the fire to refine us and make us shine brighter than gold.
And I sing this song as a tender love letter as a sonnet for my sisters and my brothers who hear, we do not serve a God who will fail us
Don't be afraid, our redemption is near.
We do not serve a God who will fail us,
don't be afraid, our redemption is near.
Don't be afraid, He is here.
______________________________
Always,
Juliet
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Title. Here I am, I
Understand, and I can
See our promised land. It's
Beautiful, and tucked
Away, a starlit
Night, a sun kissed
Day...
On time and late, both near and
Far, but only, always, where you are.
Moments such as these, my love - do
Yearn for places far above my
Helpless, hapless, words that can
Extol such a tender, gentle man.
Always present, always true, always bright and
Right and new, and always seeking only you. I give my
Tarnished heart to you.
______________________________________________ Juliet
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Subject: A woman with an issue...
Hi everyone.
Well, this is my first post of 2003, and I was sitting here thinking about what to share. My family has been out, visiting for the hollidays (they're still here, as a matter of fact - watching "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" even as we speak). Now, I don't know if it's because of their visit, or because of the new year or because I'm just naturally pensive to a fault, but I've been particularly introspective lately.
I've been thinking about my childhood, my past, the things I've done and have failed to do... I've been thinking about the amazing grace that God had continually shed on my life, how He has remained faithful even when I was faithless. Sometimes it all makes me laugh inspite of myself...and sometimes it just reduces me to tears.
I was thinking about the story where Jesus healed the woman with the issue of blood. She was bleeding for at least 12 years (one gospel says 12, another says 18 years...)She spent all she had on doctors, but no one could cure her. She heard about Jesus, and fought through the crowd to reach Him. She was the one who touched the hem of His garment and ministered to His heart with her great faith. She got her healing, too.
Anyway, this is what I was thinking about: Back in the old days when all this was happening, women - when it
was their "time of the month" - were called unclean and were sent outside of the town until the time that their uncleanliness was done. (On a side note, my husband thinks that God did that as a favor to their husbands, although I think it was more of a gift to the women. Probably it was neither, but it makes for intresting coffee- conversation :) Anyway, as I was saying...)
So, this woman began her time of blood, and because she was unclean, she left her home and went outside the town for her purification. And she waited. And she waited. And in 12 years,it never came. And because it never came, she could never go home. She could never touch or be touched. She was indefinately unclean. Indefinately banished. I'd never thought of that before.
Imagine what desperation must have apprehended her, to cause her to run through a crowd, among the people that she was forbidden to touch, forbidden to be among... imagine what she must have thought of herself, to have been unlean with an "issue" for all those years. What faith! Really, what faith she must have had to risk breaking the law to be healed by He who is the fulfillment of the Law.
I must admit that over the course of my years, I've had uncountable "issues" myself. I have been unclean, I have been untouchable and untouched, and I have felt banished from those who were my home. Sometimes I still feel echoes of all that in my heart. June had asked, last week, what our new year's resolutions are. I have been thinking about that too. And now, tonight, everything seems to come together...
It is my resolution to seek after Jesus with the same fervency that the woman in that story did. I want to loose all my dignity for the sake of seeking out the healer, who will set me free from all the "issues", all the "blood" lost in battles that I have fought that were not mine to win. I want to cast aside the conventional, the acceptable, and the comfortable in exchange for the radical reformation that can only come by counteracting the crowd and touching Jesus.
That is the faith that I want. THAT is how I want to touch my Lord.
Happy New Year! I love you guys...
Your servant in Jesus,
Juliet
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Date: Sun, Jan 5, 2003,
Subject: foul sinners / fallen saints
Hey all...
For the past 6 or 7 years, I've been on the worship team at my church. Tonight there was practice, and we learned a couple of new songs. I wanted to share a piece of one with you, and then do my usual stream-of-consciousness ranting for a while. Hope you don't mind. :)
It's from "Your Love is Deep" (by S.Bussey, D.Collins and J.Smith c.2001 Integrity's Hosanna Music):
"Your love is deeper than my view of grace Higher than this worldly place,
Longer than the road I travel
Wider than the gap you filled."
Lately (well, always actually, but lately especially) the tenderness of Jesus has been blowing my mind. The immensity of His passion for me (and all of us) and His grace towards me (and all of us) has been leaving me wide eyed and speechless.
His love is deeper than my view of grace.
I have lost count of all the times when, even as a Christian, I willingly, purposefully and happily walked in things that broke Jesus' heart. And each time, when I finally came to myself (like the prodigal son) and realized the nothing-but-shattering that I accomplished through my selfishness and willfulness - each time, I was sure that I was beyond the blood. That God had finally just about had enough and that He surely, would leave me to die in my own voluntary blindness... Yet every time, He saw me from far off, and ran to me. Everytime, He killed the fatted calf and held me in His arms.
There is nowhere we can go that He doesn't seek after us. No matter how far we travel away, His love reaches farther.
No matter how wide of a gap we put between ourselves and our God, His love is wider. The fountian of His blood flows from everlasting to everlasting, and just when we think that there can be no things more vile than the things we have done, it is then that His redemption reaches us.
Dear ones, if the blood of Jesus can not cleanse our deepest depravity, if it can not wash away the stench of the most foul sinner or the most fallen saint, than it is powerless to do anything at all, and Jesus died for nothing...
But we know that that is not the case. We know that we are the beloved of the One who conquored not only Death, but the death in us. He conquored not only Hell, but Hell's power over us.
And no matter where we go, He is continually calling us to His side.
Don't be afraid of the things that surround you. And don't think that you could ever be anywhere that God's grace is too small.
I love you guys!
In Jesus,
Juliet
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Copyright 2002-2012 Juliet Mancini Tross
All Rights Reserved.
"Hero's Love Song" "Hero's Love Song"
Once upon a time
a Hero made a choice
that because He was the Word
He would become a human voice.
And with that voice He called
His beloved so she'd hear,
"come near, my love
come near."
At first she couldn't hear Him
for she was so far away,
but the Hero did persue her
longing for her night and day
untill the passion and the power
and the fierceness that is love
Pierced straight through the Hero,
broke his body, drew His blood.
Now everytime she takes the cup
and drinks the crimson wine
and every night at evening's end
when she sits down to dine
she's reminded of her Hero
and the words He speaks through time,
"Be mine, my love,
be mine."
(And I, John, saw the Holy City, The New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven like a bride prepared for her Husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people and God Himself will be with them, and be their God")
("And the Spirit and the Bride say "Come!")
The Spirit and the Bride say "Come!"
The Spirit and the Bride say "Come!"
The Spirit and the Bride say "Come!"
Be Mine! (Come near) Be mine (come near) Be mine, my love!
Come near! (Be mine!) Come Near (be mine!) Come near my love!
Oh, my Love, my darling, I hunger for your touch...
(Be mine. The Spirit and the Bride say "Come!")
- JM Stephens C.2012 All rights reserved
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EASY BANANA CREAM PIE
1 pkg. vanilla wafers
1 pkg. vanilla pudding (not instant)
2 bananas, sliced
Whipped cream
Line a glass pie pan with vanilla wafers.
Make the pudding, following package directions. Pour half of the pudding over the cookies, then put a layer of sliced bananas on top. Cover with the rest of the pudding, and top with whipped cream. Refrigerate for 4 or 5 hours, then serve.
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Food History
Whipped Cream
When was whipped cream invented?
Note: This article is purely my own speculation on the subject.
I have never seen any reference to when people began whipping cream. However, there are several clues from the physical properties of cream and its ability to 'whip' (increase in volume).
1. Unpasteurized, unhomogenized cream whips much easier then pasteurized or pasteurized & homogenized cream.
2. Cream must be below 50 degrees to whip, at 50 or above it churns into butter rather than whips.
3. The whipping action must be just that - moving a whisk back and forth churns the cream, rather than whipping it and increasing its volume.
Possibilities:
- someone trying to make butter in a hurry ends up with partially whipped cream (raw cream whips easier).
- someone on horseback is carrying a half full container of cream and riding fast - which partially whips the cream.
As you can see from these examples, the properties of cream that enable it to be whipped to increase its volume probably mean it was discovered accidentally many times by many different people.
Someone (or several different people in different areas and times) finally realized what caused it and started to do it on purpose. It must have happened in winter (cream whips easier when cold). Which gives a high probability it happened in northern Europe.
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Subject: wedding song...
Done. The meat and cheese platters, the macaroni salad, and the song. Here's the song. The verses are for Shaun and Merigen.
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I Want to Walk You Home
verse 1: A young boy glances with a shine in his eye
and notices a young girl as she walks by,
"Isn't she pretty? Isn't she fine?
isn't she sweet, I'm gonna make her mine. isn't she sweet, I'm gonna make her my own one day soon, I'm gonna walk her home."
Chorus: Home is where the heart is
and my heart is with you
and with you is where I want to be
my whole life through.
And yes, this life may not be long
but darling, it is wide
and I want to walk across it
with you right by my side.
Verse 2: The girl glanced back. One glance was enough,
He was a little bit tender, a little bit tough
and what she saw was a diamond in the rough
she saw that gritty, shining stuff.
And she couldn't forget what she was shown. "one day soon, I'm gonna walk that boy home."
Verse 3: The sparkle of the diamond and the sparkle of the sea were no match for the sparkle in his eyes as he reached into his pocket and got down on his knee and said, "Lovely lady, will you marry me? You're the truest love that I've ever known, Take my hand, I want to walk you home."
Chorus: Home is where the heart is
and my heart is with you
and with you is where I want to be
my whole life through.
And yes, this life may not be long
but darling, it is wide
and I want to walk across it
with you right by my side.
Verse 4: So the bride walked the aisle on he Daddy's arm, on her daddy's heart and in her Daddy's warmth and he walked her to the altar and he walked her to the man who was waiting for her and he gave the groom her hand he said "love her and protect her. Never let her be alone." but he could tell by their eyes,
that they would walk eachother home.
("Isn't she pretty? Isn't she fine?")
( What she saw was a diamomd in the rough.) ("You're the truest love that I've ever known.")
And we can tell by their eyes that they'll walk eachother home.
Home is where the heart is
and my heart is with you...
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Title. Subject: MOTIVATIONAL QUOTE
"Do do is to be" - Kant
"Do be is to do" - Socrates
"Do be do be do" - Sinatra
(just another quote!!! )
-me
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Subject: in awe...
Hey, listen:
"Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all libererality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. For the administration of this service (armsoflovefellowship) not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God, while, through the proof of this ministry (armsoflovefellowship), they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ and for your
liberal sharing with them and all men, and by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you.
Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"
(2 Cor 9:10-15)
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Subject: for nj people
Made me smile till I was homesick!!!
:) Love, Juliet
YOU'RE FROM JERSEY IF:
- You don't think of fruit when people mention "The Oranges".
- You know that it's called Great Adventure,not Six Flags.
- A good, quick breakfast is a hard roll with butter.
- You've known the way to Seaside Heights since you were seven.
- You've eaten at a Diner,when you were stoned or drunk, at 3 am
- You remember that the "Two Guys" were from Harrison.
- You know that the state isn't one big oil refinery.
- At least three people in your family still love Bruce
Springsteen, and you know the town Jon Bon Jovi is from.
- You know what a "jug handle" is.
- You know that WaWa is a convenience store.
- You know that the state isn't all farmland.
- You know that there are no "beaches" in New Jersey -there's
"The Shore". And you don't go "to the shore", you go "down the
Shore". And when you are there, you're not "at the shore", you are "down the Shore".
- Even your school cafeteria made good Italian subs. And it's a\
"sub" - not a submarine sandwich or worse yet, a hoagy, a hero, or a grinder.
- You remember the song from the Palisades Parkcommercials.
- You know how to properly negotiate a Circle.
- You knew that the last sentence had to do with driving.
- You know that this is the only "New..." state that doesn't
require "New" to identify it.(like try...Mexico,York,Hampshire
doesn't work, does it?)
- You only go to New York City for day trips,and you call it "The City".
- You know that a "White Castle" is the name of BOTH a fast food chain AND a fast food sandwich.
- You consider putting mayo on a corned beef sandwich a sacrilege.
- You don't think "What exit" is very funny.
- You know that the first "strip shopping center" in the country
was on Route 22.
- You know that people from the 609 area code are "a little different".
- You know that no respectable New Jerseyan goes to Princeton - that'sfor out-of-staters.
- The Jets-Giants game has started fights at your school or local bar
- You live within 20 minutes of at least three different malls
- You refer to all highways and interstates by their numbers.
- Every year, you had a least one kid in your class named Tony.
- You know the location of every clip shown in the Sopranos opening credits.
- You've gotten on the wrong highway trying to get out of the mall.
- You know that people from North Jersey go to Seaside Heights,
and people from Central Jersey go to Belmar and people from South Jersey go to Wildwood. It can be no other way.
- You were not raised in New Jersey. You were raised in either
North Jersey, Central Jersey or South Jersey.
- You don't consider Newark or Camden to actually be part of the
state.
- You remember the stores Korvette's, Two Guys, Rickel's, Channel, Bamberger's and Orbach's.
- You've had a Boardwalk cheese steak and vinegar fries.
- You start planning for Memorial Day weekend in February. - And finally... - You've NEVER, NEVER pumped your own gas.
______________________________________________
Beyond: The Bride Beyond the churches, beyond the Bible studies, beyond the sweet worship on Sunday mornings and beyond the intense prayer on Tuesday nights, there is a place just outside our field of view where our One and Only waits...
He waits for us to be done with all the righteous busy-ness of our lives and with all the fillers that occupy us, no matter how noble... He waits for us to be done posting on Christian sites, to be done telling our friends and family all about Him, He waits for us to be done feeding the hungry and clothing the poor, He waits, proud of our commitment to Him, but longing still...
He waits for those times when we come home from the events of our day - or when we awaken from the events of our dreams. When all is still and silent, He waits for us in our solitude. And when we respond, when we meet Him there, it is then that we are truly the Bride.
When He can inhabit us, when our very flesh can become His home, when we can be voulnerable and honest and bare before His searching eyes, it is then that we are what we are called to be. His Beloved. His Own. His own, who whispers in His ear "I love you" a thousand times. His own, who listens intently and hangs on His every word like a love song that lingers. His own, who recognises the very scent of Him, and follows...
That's what we are called to. We are called to be His own. He longs to be our One and Only. And ALL the church services, and ALL the Bible study, and ALL the ministry in the world - although it may make us friends of the Bridegroom - is NOT what makes us the Bride.
Intimacy with Jesus is what makes us the Bride.
Just another thought...
Love in Jesus,
Juliet
______________________________________________
Date: Sat, Jan 18, 2003
Subject: here it is...
...the poem you couldn't find.
All I Only Ever Wanted
All I only ever wanted,
all I only ever need,
is to be born, untorn, untaunted
into (and from) eternal seed.
Into (and from) the mercy seat
So safe in Grace and deep in Love,
my heart, so soft and silent beats
awaits the labor and the blood.
Birth me, Lord, with might from Heaven!
With a mighty push out from my flesh!
And let me ride upon the water
from your womb of righteousness.
You will be my rest and drink,
Your Beauty will be all I cry,
You'll be my cradle and my dreams,
My soft and silent lullabye...
So birth me, Lord, into your Mansion,
into the place where holy seed
bursts into light and Light unending...
is all I only ever need.
c.2012 Juliet Mancini Tross
All Rights Reserved
______________________________________________
Title. Where's the Mother????? Where's the Mother?
Have you noticed anything fishy about the inspection teams who have arrived
in Iraq? They're all men! How in the name of the United Nations does anyone expect men to find Saddam's stash? We all know that men have a blind spot when it comes to finding things. For crying' out loud!
Men can't find the dirty clothes hamper.
Men can't find the jar of jelly until it falls out of the cupboard and splatters on the floor...and these are the people we have sent into Iraq to search for hidden weapons of mass destruction?
I keep wondering why groups of mothers weren't sent in. Mothers can sniff out secrets quicker than a drug dog can find a gram of dope. Mothers can find gin bottles that dads have stashed in the attic beneath the rafters. They can sniff out a diary two rooms and one floor away.
They can tell when the lid of a cookie jar has been disturbed and notice when a quarter inch slice has been shaved off a chocolate cake.
A mother can smell alcohol on your breath before you get your key in the front door and can smell cigarette smoke from a block away. By examining laundry, a mother knows more about their kids than Sherlock Holmes. And if a mother wants an answer to a question, she can read an offender's eyes quicker than a homicide detective.
So...considering the value a mother could bring to an inspection team, why are we sending a bunch of old men who will rely on electronic equipment to scout out hidden threat ? My mother would walk in with a wooden soup spoon in one hand, grab Saddam by the ear, give it a good twist and snap, "Young man, do you have any weapons of mass destruction?"
And God help him if he tried to lie to her.
She'd march him down the street to some secret bunker and shove his nose into a nuclear bomb and say, "Uh, huh, and what do you call this, mister?"
Whap! Thump! Whap! Whap! Whap! And she'd lay some stripes across his bare bottom with that soup spoon, then march him home in front of all the people of Baghdad. He'd not only come clean and apologize for lying about it; he'd cut every lawn in Baghdad for free for the whole darn summer.
Inspectors? My foot!! You want the job done? Call my mother!
______________________________________________
Subject: I've always loved this song... ______________________________________________
If a picture paints a thousand words,
Then why can't I paint you?
The words will never show
The you I've come to know.
If a face could launch a thousand ships, Then where am I to go?
There's no one home but you,
You're all that's left, me too.
And when my love for life is running dry, You'll come and pour yourself on me.
If a man could be two places at one time I'd be with you,
Tomorrow and today,
Beside you all the way.
If the world should stop revolving
Spinning slowly down to die,
I'd spend the end with you,
And when the world was through,
Then one by one,
The stars would all go out,
Then you and I,
Would simply fly away
______________________________________________
Subject: The Dual Fire
"Therefore, since we are recieving a kingdom that can not be shaken, let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably, with reverance and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." (Heb 12:28-29)
Our God IS a consuming fire. In the lives of those who have vowed to live for Him, He will stop at nothing to make us into the image of Jesus Christ. We've all heard of the Refiner's Fire,(and those of us who have felt it, can not forget it) how God, like a goldsmith refining gold, turns up the heat beneith his treasure so that all the dross, all the imputity and any triviality will rise to the top and be skimmed off. And he repeats the process over and over, turning the heat higher and higher untill the moment when he can see his reflection in the gold, and thus be sure that it has been truly purified.
Scary, huh?
God has promised us that He will refine us, that His fire will purify us and make us a reflection of Him. Things in our life are amputated, circumstances that we face devistate our pride until we can barely bear the weight of it. I'm sure we all know what it's like to be in a place where all we can do is cry out to God to please take the cup FROM us or take the cup FOR us. We've all been there. And we have all survived.
How? Listen:
John the Baptist proclaimed: "Indeed, I baptise you with water unto repentance; but He that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."
(Matt 3:11)
God is merciful, abounding in grace and compassionate. He knew what He requires in the hearts and lives of those who are called by His name. He knew that they would face His purifying fire on their lives, so He made a way... he sent the fire of His Spirit into their hearts so they could endure it.
Gods fire without would break us were it not for God's fire within.
It is the fire of the Spirit of God within us that cries out for more - for more of His presence, for more of His discipline.
It is the fire within us that causes us to recieve the firey trials with gladness, because we KNOW that all of it will only bring us closer to the character of the Lover of our Soul.
And in mercy, He brings the fire without as well. If all He gave us was the burning desire to have fellowship with Him, but no means by which to be conformed into His likeness, then all we would be would be wretched people, aching in the frustration; longing for home, but without the road to get there.
And so we are given a dual fire.
A fire that kills us
and
A fire that fills us.
A fire that turns us back into the ashes from which the first Adam came and
A fire that was breathed into us as we were made into a new creation.
I pray that we all seek the dual fire.
I pray we all shine forth as gold.
I love you guys!
Juliet
______________________________________________
Subject: Is there a devil?
Hi everybody!
This was forwarded to me, and got me to thinking. (ut-oh!) If you dig deep enough below the surface of the world's "a la carte" theology where so many are convinced that they have to option of believing whatever "feels right" to them - If you dig deep enough into the world of relative truth and tolerance, you will ultimately find the deciever. The father of lies. Old Slewfoot.
In a world where people who are not Christians believe in the ressurrection, and people who are Christians, don't believe in God - it is obvious that there is a definate,violent,spiritual war going on for the souls of men. God seeks to redeem and set free and the enemy seeks to blind and confuse.
Listen to this:
______________________________________________
Is There a Devil?
By Cathryn Conroy, CompuServe News Editor
Look to your left. Look to your right. Chances are both people you see believe in the devil and hell. We are a nation of believers. A Harris Poll surveyed 2,201 American adults about their religious beliefs and found out some fascinating information. While most Christians--not surprisingly--believe in God, the survival of the soul after death, miracles, heaven, the Virgin birth, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, more than half of all adults also believe in ghosts. About a third believe in astrology. And more than a quarter believe they were reincarnated from other people who walked on this Earth generations ago.
This is what your friends and neighbors believe in:
God: 90 percent
Miracles: 89 percent
Survival of the soul after death: 84 percent
Resurrection of Christ: 80 percent
Virgin birth: 77 percent
Devil: 68 percent
Hell: 69 percent
Ghosts: 51 percent
Astrology: 31 percent
Reincarnation: 27 percent
Where will you go after you die?
Expect to go to heaven: 63 percent
Expect to go to hell: 1 percent
Expect to go to purgatory: 6 percent
Expect to go someplace else: 11 percent
Don't have a clue: 18 percent
Here are some fun facts from The Harris Poll:
--Not all people who call themselves Christians actually hold conventional Christian beliefs. For example, 1 percent of Christians do not believe in God and 8 percent do not believe in the survival of the soul after death.
--More than a quarter of those who say they are not Christian do believe in the resurrection of Christ and the Virgin birth.
______________________________________________
Things that make you go "Hmmmm"?
Love in Jesus,
Juliet
______________________________________________
Subject: Challenging the box
Hi Guys!
Listen to this:
"If anyone has material posessions, and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."
1Jn3:17
and this:
"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help you?' He will reply 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me'." (Matt25:44-45)
and this too:
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after widos and orphans in their distress and to keep onesself from being polluted by the world." (Jas1:27)
What if...
What if we are NOT called to gather as many into ourselves as we can fit into our building, but to go out among the lost and be Jesus on the highways and by-ways?
What if the "gathering of ourselves together" has nothing to do with sound systems, padded pews and bulletins?
What if every person in your church was involved in ministry outside the church walls and the coming together was to worship and give praise reports of the things that God has done through each of the people in your fellowship while they wewe NOT in church?
What if there is NO SUCH THING as a layman? What if God has called ALL OF US to be ministers of the Gospel?
What if, every time we saw a vagrant, everytime we saw the person infront of us in the grocery store line, every time we saw someone standing at the exit ramp holding a "will work for food" sign and everytime we see someone at the side of the road getting hauled away in a police car, we looked hard enough to see the nail prints in their hands and feet and recognise them as Jesus.
What if we are called beyond our comfort zone? (Because we are!)
God has been speaking to my heart lately... no, Screaming to my heart lately, that His people are stewards of those who He desires to be His people. Which is everyone.
The lost and broken are His first priority. If they weren't, then He never would have become man and endured death on the cross.
And since we are His Body, and we are inhabited by His Spirit, then the lost and the broken should our first priority too.
Call me crazy, but hear me out...
Here's a challenge that I'd like each of you to take to your fellowships and suggest that they implement:
Instead of showing our God how much we love Him by showing up at Church 4 times a week, maybe we should consider showing up at the prisons, at the AIDS wards, at the orphanages and at the convalescent homes, and just BE Jesus, like He commanded us to do. And then meet together on a Sunday morning to testify of all the He has done.
Unconventional steps? Yeah.
Required steps? You've read the scriptures I started with. You tell Me.
______________________________________________
Title. It's a Wednesday night and you are at a church prayer meeting
when
somebody runs in from the parking lot and says, "Turn on a radio,
turn on a
radio."
And while the church listens to a little transistor radio with a
microphone stuck up to it, the announcement is made: "Two women are lying in
a Long Island hospital dying from the mystery flu."
Within hours it seems, this thing just sweeps across the country.
People
are working around the clock trying to find an antidote. Nothing is
working.
California, Oregon, Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts. It's as though
it's just
sweeping in from the borders. And then, all of a sudden the news
comes out.
The code has been broken. A cure can be found. A vaccine can be made.
It's
going to take the blood of somebody who hasn't been infected, and so,
sure
enough, all through the Midwest, through all those channels of
emergency
broadcasting, everyone is ! asked to do one simple thing: Go to your
downtown
hospital and have your blood type taken.
"That's all we ask of you.
When you
hear the sirens go off in your neighborhood, please make your way
quickly,
quietly, and safely to the hospitals."
Sure enough, when you and your family get down there late on that
Friday
night, there is a long line, and they've got nurses and doctors
coming out
and pricking fingers and taking blood and putting labels on it. Your
wife and
your kids are out there, and they take your blood type and they
say, "Wait
here in the parking lot and if we call your name, you can be
dismissed and go
home." You stand around, scared, with your neighbors, wondering what
in the
world is going on and if this is the end of the world. Suddenly
a young man comes running out of the hospital screaming. He's yelling
a name
and waving a clipboard. "What?" He yells it again! And your son tugs
on your
jacket and says, "Daddy, that's me."
Before you know it, they have
grabbed
your boy. "Wait a minute. Hold on!" And they say, "It's okay, his
blood is
clean. His blood is pure. We want to make sure he doesn't have the
disease.
We think he has got the right type."
Five tense minutes later, out come the doctors and nurses, crying
and
hugging one another-some are even laughing. It's the first time you
have seen
anybody laugh in a week, and an old doctor walks up to you and
says, "Thank
you, sir. Your son's blood type is perfect.
It's clean, it is pure,
and we
can make the vaccine." As the word begins to spread all across that
parking
lot full of folks, people are screaming and praying and laughing and
crying.
But then the gray-haired doctor pulls you and you wife aside and
says, "May we see you for moment?"
We didn't realize that the donor would be a minor and we need ...
we need
you to sign a consent form." You begin to sign and then you see that
the
number of pints of blood to be taken is empty. "H-how many pints?"
And that
is when the old doctor's smile fades and he says, " We had no idea it
would
be a little child. We weren't prepared. We need it all."
"But-but...You don't understand."
"We are talking about the world here.
Please sign. We need it
all!"
"But can't you give him a transfusion?"
"If we had clean blood we would."
Can you sign? Would you sign?
In numb silence, you do. Then they say, "Would you like to have a
moment
with him before we begin?"
Can you walk back? Can you walk back to that room where he sits
on a
table saying, "Daddy? Mommy? What's going on?"
Can you take his hands and say, "Son, your mommy and I love you,
and we
would never ever let anything happen to you that didn't just have to
be. Do
you understand that?"
And when that old doctor comes back in and says, "I'm sorry,
we've-got to
get started. People all over the world are dying.
Can you leave? Can you walk out while he is saying, "Dad? Mom?
Dad? "Why,
why
have you forsaken me?"
And then next week, when they have the ceremony to honor your
son, and
some
folks sleep through it, and some folks don't even come because they
go to the
lake, or to the beach, or some have to go shopping, or some don't
want to
take off from work and some folks come with a pretentious smile and
just
pretend to care. Would you want to jump up and say, "MY SON DIED FOR
YOU!
DON'T YOU CARE?"
Is that what GOD wants to say? "MY SON DIED FOR YOU. DON'T YOU
KNOW
HOW MUCH I CARE?"
Father, seeing it from your eyes breaks our hearts. Maybe now we
can
begin to comprehend the great Love you have for us."
You can now spread the gospel... or delete it. If you are not
ashamed
of God or what he has done for you, pass this on, PLEASE spread the
word. So,
take a few moments to forward this.
It is not a dirge
This thing within me
It is not in blackness
Like I'd once perceived.
And out it grows
into oppositeness,
Into something I had only
Seen in dreams -
The shroud fell,
The shell cracked
And the bird emerged
Free
Not a raven
Not a vulture
But an eagle, a dove
An innocent yellow feathered puppet
With crossed and trusting eyes.
It is not a dirge
This passion within me
There is no death in
The ink that I offer here.
For so many years
I searched for a tragedy
To write it all effectively.
To be a kindred spirit
To my suicidal sisters,
But
Wrong is not a pleasant thing
To be. But no
It is not a dirge
This thing within me.
It is an easter.
JMS 3.88
The rain seems
Right today
As clouds
Make my heart dark
As fog makes my
Skin flinch
At the thought of
This morning's massacre.
A carnival
Where no ride is taken
Where dares are
Forsaken for a safer tent.
You have left your sent
On me though,
That this rain cannot
Wash away.
JMS 88
HER NAME WAS SEASHELL
AND SHE FLEW
AND IN HER HANDS ARE SILVER AND
IN HER EYES WERE TEARS SHE
LIVED IN A HOUSE ON A STREET IN A TOWN (IN A
STATE) IN A COUNTRY ON A CONTINENT ON THE EARTH IN A GALIXY
IN A UNIVERSE THAT nobody SAW
nobody FLEW.
CAME UPON A PIPER AND BECAME A PIPER
CAME UPON A KING AND BECAME A KING
CAME UPON CHILDREN AND BECAME A CHILD ... UPON
THE SEA AND BECAME A
WAVE SHE WAS
OH
WAVE SHE WAS AND HER NAME IS SEASHELL
AND SHE IS FLUTE AND SHE IS PIPER AND SHE
IS ORANGE AND SHE IS ARES
AND SHE IS A UNIVERSE THAT nobody SAW
AND IN HER HANDS WAS SILVER.
JMS 81 for suzanne n.
Easter Sunday Roll away the stone
Here I stand - alone
Wanting. Waiting for the dead to rise.
I can see the treasure hidden
Deep in the folds of linen
And I can see the tomb's abyss in your eyes.
A rumble? What could be there?
Is it possible that I hear
A muffled heartbeat still, from beneath your
Sweet disguise?
I step a little closer now
And you retreat to silence, how
Am I to find the patience?
I wait for the dead to rise.
JMS 4.20.87 12:42am For John
Ten minutes left
O let me glorify
Why am I so heavy?
Why is me so down
To the outer parts of the
Concrete to the
Fullest extent of the law
I am still in bondage
As were my answers
As were my questions
As will be
So watch out
For you may be also.
Ten minutes left
Fall through the dark space
Lit only by your need and
The silver stars
Take it all down and
Raise them all higher
If there is only one thing that
Has my certainty it is this
I AM not alone
Wipe away my tears, O truest love
And turn me to a silver glowing
White in your space
Let me not turn back again
Because
For all I know
There may be only
Ten minutes left.
JMS 78
Subject: Adam's bad rap
I'm not saying that this is set in stone, but after alot of thought, it makes more sense of what happened than any other explanation ever has. Tell me what you think.
Over the past couple of decades, I've heard lots of trash talked about our great, great, great, great, great, great (and so on, but you get the idea) grandfather, Adam. Things like "Man, he wrecked it for everybody", "He just HAD to have that one thing that was forbidden to him"... and, as a woman, my personal favorite: "At least it took The Prince of Darkness to deceive Eve, all it took was a girl to deceive Adam" (ARGHHHH!)
Hmmm... where do I start? Okay, how about this:
God made Eve for Adam. When God gave Eve to her husband, I'm sure it was with the same exhortation that any father gives to any man who he entrusts his daughter to: "Love her." "Take care of her." "Protect her at all costs." I'm sure that that was Adams every intention, and rightly so.
Okay. Jump with me now to a present day example. A guy is head over heels in love with his girlfriend. Whe he picks her up for a date, her father, who the guy loves intensely and fears immensely, says' "Have fun, kids! You have the whole night to yourselves and you can do whatever you want, just please, promise me that you won't go into that trashy biker-bar in the city. Under no circumstances are you ever to go in there. It's dangerous and deadly in there." And they agree... for 2 reasons: 1) They love and trust the father, and 2) they don't want to die in a biker bar...or anywhere, for that matter. So off they go.
So they get downtown, and while he's putting some change in the parking meter, he looks up - and what does he see but his girlfriend waving at him from inside the biker bar!
Does he leave, because he promised the father he'd never go in there? Or, does he follow his beloved into the biker bar because he promised to protect her, risking the wrath of the father? My guess, is that any man worth being called a man would protect his beloved, even if it meant following her into danger, without counting the cost of the danger to himself.
Back to the Genesis scene...
So they're in The Garden, and while Adam is naming some animals or picking some grapes, he looks up - and what does he see but Eve waving at him with a mouthfull of apple!
Does he rebuke and abandon her because he promiced the father he'd never eat the fruit? Or, does he follow her into judgement, not able to bear the idea of her being banished alone, because he promised to protect her?
Read the story again, in Genesis. Adam NEVER said that Eve tricked him or coerced him. Popular legend had led us to beleive that that's what's written, but it's just not in there. He never blamed Eve. He answered God's question, simply and to the point: Eve ate the fruit, and so when she gave it to me, I ate it too. Sounded pretty matter- of-fact. As though it seemed to him to be the only thing he COULD do, given the circumstances.
Before you get all in a tizzy about me making Adam's sin sound almost noble, listen to this:
Jesus is called the second Adam. That just as sin entered into the world by one man and through his actions all are separated from God, then also by one man, Jesus, righteousness entered in and through His action (on the cross) all men who are in Him are reconciled to God. (The Juliet Paraphrased Version :)
So Adam, when seeing Eve in a state that caused God to forbid her to ever see His face again, followed her into sin, and received the harshest judgement from God. From those actions, all people were born into seperation from God.
And Jesus, when seeing all of us in a state that caused God to forbid us to ever see His face, He followed US into sin...(The Bible said that He BECAME sin ) and received judgement in our place ("My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?")
That for the joy set before Him, for the love of His bride, He willingly came with the very purpose to separate himself from the father long enough to ransom us. He followed us into the biker bar. He ate the fruit. He bacame sin. Yet because He IS THE RESSURECTION, because of His act, all who are in Him are born into fellowship with God.
What Adam couldn't do, Jesus accomplished. Behold, what manner of love...
So think twice the next time you dis Adam. He might not have been such a bad guy after all...
Just a thought,
Love in Jesus,
Juliet
______________________________________________
Subject: MEN
Dear Friends,
It is important for men to remember that as women grow older it becomes harder for them to maintain the same quality of housekeeping as they did when they were younger. When men notice this, they should try not to yell. Let me relate how I handle the situation. When I got laid off from my consulting job and took "early retirement" in January, it became necessary for Nancy to get a full-time job, both for extra income and for health benefits that we need.
She was a trained medical transcriptionist when we met twenty-eight years ago and was fortunate to land a job at a local transcription house. It was shortly after she started working at this job that I noticed that she was beginning to show her age.
I usually get home from fishing or hunting about the same time she gets home from work. Although she knows how hungry I am, she almost always says that she has to rest for half an hour or so before she starts supper. I try not to yell at her when this happens. Instead, I tell her to take her time. I understand that she is not as young as she used to be. I just tell her to wake me when she finally does get supper on the table. She used to wash and dry the dishes as soon as we finished eating. It is now not unusual for them to sit on the table for several hours after supper. I do what I can by reminding her several times each evening that they aren't cleaning themselves. I know she appreciates this, as it does seem to help her get them done before she goes to bed. Our washer and dryer are in the basement. When she was younger, Nancy used to be able to go up and down the stairs all day and not get tired. Now that she is older she seems to get tired so much more quickly. Sometimes she says she just can't make another trip down those steps. I don't make a big issue of this. As long as she finishes up the laundry the next evening I am willing to overlook it. Not only that, but unless I need something ironed to wear to the Monday lodge meeting or to Wednesday's or Saturday's poker club or to Tuesday's or Thursday's bowling or something like that, I will tell her to wait until the next evening to do the ironing. This gives her a little more time to do some of those odds and ends things like shampooing the dog, vacuuming or dusting.
Also, if I have had a really good day fishing, this allows her to gut and scale the fish at a more leisurely pace.
Nancy is starting to complain a little occasionally. Not often, mind you, but just enough for me to notice. For example, she will say that it is difficult for her to find time to pay the monthly bills during her lunch hour. In spite of her complaining, I continue to try to offer encouragement. I tell her to stretch it out over two or even three days. That way she won't have to rush so much. I also remind her that missing lunch completely now and then wouldn't hurt her any, if you know what I mean.
When doing simple jobs she seems to think she needs more rest periods than she used to have to take. A couple of weeks ago she said she had to take a break when she was only half finished mowing the yard. I over look comments like these because I realize it's just age talking. In fact, I try not to embarrass her when she needs these little extra rest breaks. I tell her to fix herself a nice, big, cold glass of freshly squeezed lemonade and just sit for a while. I tell her that as long as she is making one for herself, she may as well make one for me and take her break by the hammock so she can talk with me until I fall asleep. I could go on and on, but I think you know where I'm coming from. I know that I probably look like a saint in the way I support Nancy on a daily basis. I'm not saying that the ability to show this much consideration is easy. Many men will find it difficult.
Some will find it impossible. No one knows better than I do how frustrating women can become as they get older. My purpose in writing this is simply to suggest that you make the effort. I realize that achieving the exemplary level of showing consideration I have attained is out of reach for the average man.
However, guys, even if you just yell at your wife a little less often because of this article, I will consider that writing it was worthwhile.
BOB
P.S. Bob's funeral was on Saturday, June 15th. Judy was acquitted Monday, June 17th.
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Subject: Wooing the Lover of Our Soul
Just a few thoughts on the Body of Christ:
God, through the Bible, tells us that we are the body of Christ. We've heard that all our Christian life, and maybe even before then - if we were raised in a "religious" family. "What a beautiful analogy."
"What a poetic interpretation."
"What a pretty image."
Right?
Wrong!!
Call me crazy, but I'm sure it's not any of the above. I'm sure it has nothing to do with analogy or poetry. I'm sure that it has everything to do with this:
WE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST. We are Christ's body. The body of Jesus. The hands, the mouth, and the feet of the Nazarene. For 2000 years and counting.
Right here and now.
Now, before I'm labeled as some off the wall granola new-age lady with a crystal up her nose and a dress made of wheat, listen:
"For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and be joined unto his wife, and the two shall be ONE FLESH. This is a great mystery: but I SPEAK CONCERNING CHRIST AND THE CHURCH." (Eph. 5:30-32)
How? Beats me.
But I DO know that when a person becomes born again, he becomes a new creation.
And I DO know that we are, even now, seated in heavenly places with Jesus.
And I DO know that when a man and woman marry, there is a new life created, not just a "him" and a "her", but a "One-ness" on a spiritual level that we can't see.
God messes with time and space and physics because He is beyond all that stuff. And because He has said it over and over again in scripture, I KNOW that we are the Body of Christ. A "one-ness" on a spiritual level that we can't see.
(Pardon the segue, but just a note here: in scripture, seven is the number of completion. God does things in sevens all the time. Ever wonder why Jesus' ministry was only three and a half years long? Could it be that it's because his body, his bride, his Church [read:US] is finishing the other half of it? One flesh. A help meet for Him. The very flesh and bones of Him. Oooooo....)
His hands touching the leper 2000 years ago, and His hands touching the AIDS patient today. Now, think about this:
The Bible says that if anyone says that he loves God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar and the love of God is not in him.
Why? Poetry? No.
Because the Church IS the Body of Christ. How well we treat our brothers and sisters IS how well we treat Jesus.
How much we love each other IS how much we love our Lord.
If we are hard and hateful to a brother, we are hard and hateful to Jesus... because our brother is flesh of Jesus' flesh and bone of Jesus' bone.
We are preparing ourselves for a wedding. Our wedding to our Savior.
Seems to me, that if I were about to marry a man, I would woo him and be tender and gentle and giving and kind and lay myself down for him and put him first and always before my own interests.
I would let him know I love him.
If he was hungry, I'd feed him.
If he was naked, I'd clothe him.
If he was in prison, I'd visit him
and if he was lost and destitute, I'd take him in. And if I didn't - I'm sure he'd wonder if I really loved him at all. I'm sure he'd wonder if I should even be his bride at all...
All those things are what Jesus requires us to do. He's preparing for a wedding, too. To us.
So be gentle with each other. Be kind and patient and giving. Feed each other, clothe each other, visit each other and take each other in.
In doing so you will be soothing the body of your beloved. In doing so, you will be wooing the Lover of your soul.
As always, Your servant in Jesus,
Juliet
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Christmas Carol
The night was lonely, the night was holy the lady was a little girl.
A little scared, she held her husband's hand and she wondered how she can
bring this child into the world.
She had no bed for him to sleep on,
had no strength to help her keep on anymore, the only thing she knew was
what would be His name.
And the baby came.
She had only rags to dress him in
she held Him to her breast and then
she looked deep into His eyes.
He was just an hour old
yet it seemed His story had been told
a hundred million years ago
Oh, He looked so wise.
He looked so wise - she stood above Him
He looked so wise - Oh, how she loved Him She didn't know why, but she missed him
already. She closed her eyes.
The lady cried.
The night was so dark He couldn't really focus on anything, not anything at all
not the shepherds and kings around Him
not the flaming star above Him
but He could feel his mamma love Him
and he could hear his daddy's voice...
He made the choice that He would come here. He made a choice. there was no time for fear anymore. The love he felt so deep
was the love He would die for.
The baby slept. And the lady cried.
And the husband felt so honored to be chosen as the child's guide.
And above the tiny barn,
above the burning Christmas star,
the Father of this sleeping King
had joy in His breaking heart...
because He knew His Son would be back,
because He knew His Son would bring back all His people who had wandered
They would come back one by one
by the blood of his Son
by the life of the Chosen One,
In the victory of His child
The Father smiled.
:)
Always,
Juliet
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Subject: one day closer...
One Day Closer To Home (or, Happy Birthday, Juliet)
Little Miss Mary Mack
all dressed up in black
like a child, singing dirges in the rain you know, she's found a hero
who has saved her very soul
still she's hoping He'll explain
to her why she sits all alone with her tears and her poetry book all alone with her tears and her poetry book.
He always would romance her, though He didn't always answer the primal prayers she'd pray in her room she'd ask Him for a reason for the bitter, scorching seasons and beg Him for a rescue soon
while she sits all alone, at home with silence much deader than stone all alone, home in silence much deader than stone.
He said "Lady, hold on. Lady, it will alright. and if you get too scared, you just hold on real tight. Hold on real
tight,
cause this world is filled with other peoples choices you just, just can't control
Yeah, it's gotten out of hand
your tears are cause you understand, you understand. Lady, lay it down, lay it away, lay it unro Me. Lady, you will groan, but every day you do (every day you do) you're one day close to Home."
Little Miss Mary Mack laid down her left hand from her pen and raised it, raised it high against the sky and with her right hand wiped away
the sorrow from her eye
and hid it inside her heart.
And she lifted her voice
though the sound didn't make any noise,
her new voice, though the sound didn't make any noise.
And she said "Hero, I'm holding on.
Hero, please just don't let go.
Sometimes I get so scared, I think I'll blow away like dust, just blow away.
But I know it's not too long
before I'm done with this very sad and silent song. And each day that you bless me
with breath that does carress me
is a day of yearning that's behind me
a yearning that reminds me
that I'm one day closer to home
one day closer to home
one day closer to home."
-JMS 1996
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Subject: more juliet lyrics...
Here is a song I wrote around '96
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Don't be Afraid
Don't be afraid when the water surrounds us Don't be afraid when we walk through the flame Don't be afraid when our own tears engulf us when we loose our bearings, don't be afraid.
We have a friend who is closer than a brother We have a hero with a brave and true heart We have a defender with the passion of a lover Who will not walk away, who will not break our hearts.
All of our tears He has kept in a bottle And all of our burdens He has as His own, and He loves us with a love that will cause Him to conquor anything that befalls us, we are never alone.
Don't be afraid, for our Lord is a warrior a fierce and a gentle knight on a steed, He will fight for His bride's life and for His bride's honor He will never forsake us, He's all that we need.
He will establish our every desire
He will fulfill all our dreams when we're old He will stand with us when he turns up the fire to refine us and make us shine brighter than gold.
And I sing this song as a tender love letter as a sonnet for my sisters and my brothers who hear, we do not serve a God who will fail us
Don't be afraid, our redemption is near.
We do not serve a God who will fail us,
don't be afraid, our redemption is near.
Don't be afraid, He is here.
______________________________
Always,
Juliet
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Title. Here I am, I
Understand, and I can
See our promised land. It's
Beautiful, and tucked
Away, a starlit
Night, a sun kissed
Day...
On time and late, both near and
Far, but only, always, where you are.
Moments such as these, my love - do
Yearn for places far above my
Helpless, hapless, words that can
Extol such a tender, gentle man.
Always present, always true, always bright and
Right and new, and always seeking only you. I give my
Tarnished heart to you.
______________________________________________ Juliet
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Subject: A woman with an issue...
Hi everyone.
Well, this is my first post of 2003, and I was sitting here thinking about what to share. My family has been out, visiting for the hollidays (they're still here, as a matter of fact - watching "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" even as we speak). Now, I don't know if it's because of their visit, or because of the new year or because I'm just naturally pensive to a fault, but I've been particularly introspective lately.
I've been thinking about my childhood, my past, the things I've done and have failed to do... I've been thinking about the amazing grace that God had continually shed on my life, how He has remained faithful even when I was faithless. Sometimes it all makes me laugh inspite of myself...and sometimes it just reduces me to tears.
I was thinking about the story where Jesus healed the woman with the issue of blood. She was bleeding for at least 12 years (one gospel says 12, another says 18 years...)She spent all she had on doctors, but no one could cure her. She heard about Jesus, and fought through the crowd to reach Him. She was the one who touched the hem of His garment and ministered to His heart with her great faith. She got her healing, too.
Anyway, this is what I was thinking about: Back in the old days when all this was happening, women - when it
was their "time of the month" - were called unclean and were sent outside of the town until the time that their uncleanliness was done. (On a side note, my husband thinks that God did that as a favor to their husbands, although I think it was more of a gift to the women. Probably it was neither, but it makes for intresting coffee- conversation :) Anyway, as I was saying...)
So, this woman began her time of blood, and because she was unclean, she left her home and went outside the town for her purification. And she waited. And she waited. And in 12 years,it never came. And because it never came, she could never go home. She could never touch or be touched. She was indefinately unclean. Indefinately banished. I'd never thought of that before.
Imagine what desperation must have apprehended her, to cause her to run through a crowd, among the people that she was forbidden to touch, forbidden to be among... imagine what she must have thought of herself, to have been unlean with an "issue" for all those years. What faith! Really, what faith she must have had to risk breaking the law to be healed by He who is the fulfillment of the Law.
I must admit that over the course of my years, I've had uncountable "issues" myself. I have been unclean, I have been untouchable and untouched, and I have felt banished from those who were my home. Sometimes I still feel echoes of all that in my heart. June had asked, last week, what our new year's resolutions are. I have been thinking about that too. And now, tonight, everything seems to come together...
It is my resolution to seek after Jesus with the same fervency that the woman in that story did. I want to loose all my dignity for the sake of seeking out the healer, who will set me free from all the "issues", all the "blood" lost in battles that I have fought that were not mine to win. I want to cast aside the conventional, the acceptable, and the comfortable in exchange for the radical reformation that can only come by counteracting the crowd and touching Jesus.
That is the faith that I want. THAT is how I want to touch my Lord.
Happy New Year! I love you guys...
Your servant in Jesus,
Juliet
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Date: Sun, Jan 5, 2003,
Subject: foul sinners / fallen saints
Hey all...
For the past 6 or 7 years, I've been on the worship team at my church. Tonight there was practice, and we learned a couple of new songs. I wanted to share a piece of one with you, and then do my usual stream-of-consciousness ranting for a while. Hope you don't mind. :)
It's from "Your Love is Deep" (by S.Bussey, D.Collins and J.Smith c.2001 Integrity's Hosanna Music):
"Your love is deeper than my view of grace Higher than this worldly place,
Longer than the road I travel
Wider than the gap you filled."
Lately (well, always actually, but lately especially) the tenderness of Jesus has been blowing my mind. The immensity of His passion for me (and all of us) and His grace towards me (and all of us) has been leaving me wide eyed and speechless.
His love is deeper than my view of grace.
I have lost count of all the times when, even as a Christian, I willingly, purposefully and happily walked in things that broke Jesus' heart. And each time, when I finally came to myself (like the prodigal son) and realized the nothing-but-shattering that I accomplished through my selfishness and willfulness - each time, I was sure that I was beyond the blood. That God had finally just about had enough and that He surely, would leave me to die in my own voluntary blindness... Yet every time, He saw me from far off, and ran to me. Everytime, He killed the fatted calf and held me in His arms.
There is nowhere we can go that He doesn't seek after us. No matter how far we travel away, His love reaches farther.
No matter how wide of a gap we put between ourselves and our God, His love is wider. The fountian of His blood flows from everlasting to everlasting, and just when we think that there can be no things more vile than the things we have done, it is then that His redemption reaches us.
Dear ones, if the blood of Jesus can not cleanse our deepest depravity, if it can not wash away the stench of the most foul sinner or the most fallen saint, than it is powerless to do anything at all, and Jesus died for nothing...
But we know that that is not the case. We know that we are the beloved of the One who conquored not only Death, but the death in us. He conquored not only Hell, but Hell's power over us.
And no matter where we go, He is continually calling us to His side.
Don't be afraid of the things that surround you. And don't think that you could ever be anywhere that God's grace is too small.
I love you guys!
In Jesus,
Juliet
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Copyright 2002-2012 Juliet Mancini Tross
All Rights Reserved.