Living Life Notes

New Stuff Coming Soon!!!

skynorm — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:41:28 +0000

Exciting news!!! I’ve been working on updating this site and I’ve almost finished all the necessary upgrades and things and will be adding new posts… SOON!!! I am so-o-o-o-o-o pleased that the hard part is over and to be able to tell you, Thanks for stopping by… I’m glad you did!

See ya soon…

Rusty

‘Tis A Few Nights Before Christmas…

skynorm — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:50:22 +0000

MERRY

CHRISTMAS!!!

Click Play below to watch this video CHRISTMAS CARD… from Us to You…

(If you are on dial-up, Please be patient… It should start in 3-4 minutes.)

CLICK HERE for Link to YouTUBE

(for viewing on iPhones and others)

Words by Rusty Norman

All video and picture media by Rusty Norman

Music – “My Piano” by Mike Stewart– Two Buck Themes (re-edited by Rusty)

Rusty Norman

Living Life Notes – The Problem with “Bus-y-ness”

skynorm — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:01:55 +0000

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(This article is from the soon available eBook (LifeNotes Beginnings – An Emphasis On Prayer -by Rusty Norman)

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Have you ever had a problem with a word? I guess what I really mean is, have you ever thought you knew what a word meant, then you find that what you thought it meant and what it really means are worlds apart.

No, I don’t suppose you have. But, boy, I sure have!!!

I remember carrying a certain meaning for a word around with me for, (yes, I hate to admit it), several years. You say, “How can you think that a word means something other than what it really means for such a long period of time?” Well, if you’ve got more than a couple of minutes, I’ll try to explain.

Once upon a time . . . No, seriously; I won’t tell you the word just yet, but, I will fill you in on some of the background information.

I heard the word, or a derivation of the word, one day while listening to a conversation. Now, I thought I really had some semblance of intelligence, so, even though I did not recognize the word, I thought about it, the context in which it was used and came to conclusion of what it meant rather quickly. (Did I say conclusion or delusion?) Anyway, I thought I had pretty well figured out what it meant, so I inserted that meaning in the blank and it became the meaning of that word for me. I didn’t bother to look it up, because my brilliant mind, with its great powers of deduction and reasoning, had already told me what I needed to know. The reason I actually did not look it up was because I was too busy, at the time, and I, in my foolish pride, didn’t want to let people know that my vocabulary was so small. (Now remember, I had that ‘semblance of intelligence’ I had to uphold.)

In reality, I really did think I had a handle on the meaning of that particular word. It all sounded so logical to me. The meaning I carried around with me, and assigned to that word for such a long period of time, was totally false. Are you ready for the word now?

Okay, here it is . . . “profundity.”

That’s really not such an overwhelming word, is it? (Just wait till you hear the definition my wonderful mind convinced me it meant.) Are you ready for this? “Foolishness, or lightheartedness” (and several other words that seemed to fit quite nicely at the time); Why, it even rhymed with ‘levity’. Now, before you get your dictionary, let me tell you what it really means. It means, “profound or intellectually deep” and several other lofty words we won’t mention. (I know some of you are obviously laughing at me rather loudly at this point, aren’t you?)

When you stop and think about it, they are kind of interchangeable aren’t they? (it all depends on your point of view, I guess.) Profundity? Levity? Well, at least they end with the same three letters. (Yes, I really did think that’s what it meant, OK????)

The same holds true for other situations, too. When you are too busy to read the word (the Bible) regularly you may begin to read and think about what you’re reading with previous (or preconceived) understanding. You read much too fast and ‘think’ you understand. And then you ‘think’ you know what the word says and, before long, what you ‘think’ it says takes precedence over what it really says.

I recently had this happen to me when I was studying for writing one of these articles. I kept thinking of scriptures while I was writing and didn’t bother to look them up, I just went ahead and used them and was very excited at all the things I ‘thought’ I had in the word to back me up. Then, as I began to read what I had written and checking my statements for truthfulness along with the quotes I had used from the word, I found I had misquoted some and combined some that should never have been combined. Needless to say, I had to do a complete rewrite of the whole thing and it ended up in the trash can anyway. It was a total misconception and did not represent truthfully the scriptures at all.

I am convinced that the same thing happens to us in our prayer life. We go to prayer and we begin praying from our previous understanding. Either we pray without understanding or from a shallow understanding of what God wants to accomplish and that keeps us from being effective. Our faith for what we are praying about is not in the word of God, but, only in what we think is in the word and in what could be our false understanding of our God and His character.

In our prayer times, the one thing we need to keep clearly in view before us is our God is able to do exceedingly abundant above that which we can think or ask. Our failure many times is not our lack of prayer, but we think too small when we pray. We don’t consider the eternal enough. We’re too busy to wait for God to answer our prayers, so we try to help Him out. We “ask amiss” as the book of James says. We try to fit our prayer time into an already too busy schedule, almost saying to God, “Here are my requests. See what you can do about them by 4 o’clock today. Oh, and by the way, thank you very much, God.”

The real problem with “busy-ness” is, we’re too busy to spend the time that it takes to accomplish what needs to be accomplished. You can’t always expect great results from rushed or hurried attempts (although there are times that brevity is very effective).

Look at the people who build up their bodies by lifting weights or through physical exercise. Do you think their physical appearance changed through only a little effort and a rushed time of training? Think again! In the same way, our spiritual muscles will never grow until we take the time to develop them. We can’t rush our prayer times and ‘fit’ them into our “busy-ness” and we can’t afford to approach them with false understandings and shallowness. We must be effective and to be effective we must ‘know’ the difference between our “busy-ness” and our “business…”

See you next time . . . Rusty

Rusty Norman

Just(?) Pray …

skynorm — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:18:02 +0000

I just couldn’t go any further. The thought had stopped me dead in my tracks. What had I just said? My mind was frozen and focused on the last statement I had made. What does it mean?. . . And . . . why did that catch my attention? It was just a statement . . . wasn’t it???

Okay, maybe I should back up a little bit.

It all came about one day while I was praying. It was a day like any other day. There was absolutely nothing unusual about it . . . just another day. If anything, it was a bit more hectic than usual. Nothing to be upset about and not a whole lot I could do to change the way it was going, but, I had finally reached a point where I could take a break.

I sat at the table and read a little and began to think on the things going on in the world. I was a little overwhelmed with some of those thoughts and decided to go to my favorite place of prayer. I guess you could say it was, ‘just one of those days’. I began to pray about whatever came to mind. For a while my mind was jumping from one thought to another and then I settled into one of those special times you mostly only hear about. I was praying for the needs of friends and acquaintances and it seemed that there would be no shortage of needs entering my mind, and no doubt there would be answers to those things I was praying for.

I began to pray for certain needs that were on my own heart. I had some friends that had some very urgent needs and really needed an answer or some encouragement soon. I brought up several more concerns I was familiar with, and then, (I remember it very vividly), I was praying for the upcoming services. While praying, I mentioned how God might call some of us to minister in special ways to those that would be coming to the altars and be anointed and prayed for. He might call some of us to lay hands on someone and they be healed by His mighty power to heal and our obedience to the Holy Spirit’s urging. He may ask of us to give sacrificially of our finances. He very well could call on some of us to do great things for the kingdom and then — are you ready for this? — He may call on some of us to ‘just pray.’

Did you catch that?!? I said, “You may call on some of us to, ‘just pray’.

It was as though I had just been hit by a brick. I almost felt like my heart had stopped. ‘JUST pray?’… I couldn’t believe what had come out of my mouth and I had said it in passing … JUST pray.

Has that ever happened to you? You’re going along, doing something and, WHAMO!! the Holy Spirit stops you dead in your tracks and demands your attention. It was like He was saying to me, “Is that all it means to you? WAIT A MINUTE! Hold on, back up!” The interruption had definitely grabbed my attention.

I’ve been thinking on that subject a lot lately. It sometimes seems to me, prayer is one of the hardest things to get the American Christian to do, at least on a consistent basis. I don’t know whether it is because we have so filled our lives with so many things to do, or just because we are slowly becoming as “cold-hearted” as the rest of the world thinks we are.

Think about it for minute. Of course we pray when we face a struggle or severe need in our life. It is no trouble getting us to pray when someone close to us is in dire need. In fact, we are more than willing to pray when someone asks us to support them with prayer when they have pressing needs on their own hearts. The most bothersome thing I notice about our prayer lives, (or may be it is just mine), is that we pray without vision. WE JUST DON’T REALIZE HOW IMPORTANT OUR PRAYERS ARE, nor do we realize, WHAT AN IMPACT OUR PRAYERS CAN MAKE.

When we are overwhelmed for the moment, we pray with fervency. It is much harder for us to pray with fervency and a vision, and do it on a regular basis, to make a difference in our city, county, state, country or world. For some reason, we seem to need to see immediate results for us to continue to pray for something specific on a regular basis.

If you think what I’m saying isn’t true, then try this as a test. Commit to only one half hour a day, (for thirty days), set aside for prayer. Be specific about a time and keep it. Go one step further. Make up a prayer schedule ahead of time and stay true to it. Pray for someone or something or someplace with specific results in mind. See how you feel about it after a few days and try to evaluate your effectiveness and persistence.

Now I realize some may say, “But, I already do that!” (Wonderful!) Others may say, “I pray when I feel like it and when I am moved to pray.” (That’s great!!) But, consider this; how many of us pray on a regular basis for someone or someplace that we are not familiar with just because the Holy Spirit has laid that task on us? Do we pray as if that person or place would not be helped if we did not pray? You see, that kind of prayer – prayer with a vision, committed prayer, or offensive prayer (as opposed to defensive prayer if you will) – requires discipline and determination. Discipline takes commitment and effort.

All too often, we’re too busy to pray or we’re not praying because we just don’t know what to pray for. Let’s let the Holy Spirit expand us and our vision for prayer. Let’s become more disciplined in our prayer lives to pray on a regular basis and to actually pray with a fervent intensity for those things.

I am absolutely convinced there is no higher calling for us. There are some things not all of us are called to do, but prayer isn’t one of them. We are admonished by the word to pray for one another and to pray fervently. The word also tells us to pray in all things.

We can change the world. We can break down strongholds that prevent people from hearing the truth that will set them free. We can pray for God to supernaturally intervene in lives throughout the world. It will take effort, consistency and determination on our part, but, we can do more than “JUST pray!”

Parting Thoughts:

I have to ask this question of myself and you. Is our prayer a vision, or is our vision PRAYER? We can all do more than JUST pray. We can PRAY!!! (Let’s do it with fervency.)

See Ya Next Time . . .

Rusty

Rusty Norman Blog – Rusty Norman – LivingLifenotes.com

Welcome to Living Life Notes

skynorm — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:07:26 +0000

Welcome to Living Life Notes. WE are just getting started on this particular part of the journey, so, keep on coming back and I promise, it will not be a waste of your time.

This just happens to be the first of many pages … believe me when I tell you … there is much, much more to come. Today, this is it … Just to let you know we are here.

Tomorrow, who knows there could already be a book ready for you to read.

I will definitely be here waiting for your return….

Rusty Norman

Rusty Norman – Living Life Notes