Sunday, April 25, 2010

Marco-------Polo

I have been wrestling with all kinds of things, traveling and traveling again. I look at the blog roll of One128 and there isn't much activity. Is everyone so busy that they don't have time, or did I miss the memo that blogging is no longer something that people do?

If you are all sharing your hearts with others in person- awesome- but we are not made to hold it all in. How can we pray for each other and rejoice with victories if we don't know what's happening in their lives?

How is your soul? I know many are heavy, but there are some who are flying high- please let us help you carry your burden and let us exult our Great God as He works.

"My love"

Morning & Evening,
by Charles H. Spurgeon

"Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away."
--Song of Solomon 2:10

"Listen! I hear the voice of the One I love! He is calling for me! The springtime weather has come, and he calls me to "Rise up" along with it and come away from this world. He is risen, and I am risen in Him. From lower loves, desires, pursuits, and aspirations of this world, I want to rise toward Him.

He calls me by the sweet title of "My love," and thinks of me as beautiful. I must go to Him, getting further and further away from everything selfish, worldly, and sinful-- away from mere outward religion that does not truly know Him or the mystery of the higher life.

I welcome His call for me to "Come away" for what is there to keep me in this wilderness of emptiness and sin? But how can I come away? I live among thorns and can not escape from them as I would like. If it were possible I would get rid of my eyes, and ears, and heart for sin. To come to You, O Lord, is a call to come home from exile, to come to land out of the raging sea, to come to rest after long labor, to come to the goal of all my desires.

But Lord, can a stone rise by itself? No! You must raise me and draw me. Only Your grace can do it. Send Your Holy Spirit to kindle sacred flames of love in my heart, and I will leave life and time behind me and come away.

[M&E]Revised and edited by William C. Neff, ©2003-2009

Oh that my heart would only have eyes for Him, that my only love would be Him, that the weight of sin would be gone and I would fly to Him and rest in purity forever. Until that day, there is a fight for my affections and I will fight, as He gives strength and will to battle.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Please- Love- God

Thinking about- Are working to please God and working because we love Him equal? I believe they are close but are they perfectly equal?

From a thread about always having to be doing spiritual things- I am convicted that I am often pointed in the direction of "Is this really a spiritual thing" vs. "Do I love God more than anything else and am I loving and pleasing Him in all that I do and say?" kind of direction.

Just something I have been pondering/wrestling with.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Birth Defect

We spent part of the day at Children's hospital today- John's consult for future surgeries. Of course John has some birth defects- but as I sit in the waiting room and watch parents come in and out with their children, his seems like it is small compared to some. I find myself trying to figure out what might be the issue, but then does it really matter?

If I switch from physical to spiritual thoughts, we are all born with a spiritual birth defect- a sin nature. As people walk past us on the street some have "defects" that are much more obvious than others. Lives spent in dependence on drugs or alcohol, slaves to one vice or another. I can look at some and think "Their life is sure a mess", but w/o Christ all our lives are a mess. There is no shedding the sin that so easily besets us w/o the power of the Holy Spirit, just as there is no way to repair a cleft lip without surgery.

Back to the physical. It is hard to imagine all the pain and hurt that people have gone through and are going through with all the birth defects-alone- that we just saw today. Born with no arms, legs, holes in hearts, brain issues, seizures, blood problems and the list goes on and on. Why does God allow it- maybe to draw people to Himself, maybe it is a lack of blessing for not following closely to Him- only He knows why.

We must be thankful for things like health, because there is no guarantee it will be there tomorrow. God is good to allow us to live as He does and to provide for us in such amazing ways. What a plan He devised to give up His Son for our rescue from our sin. What a day to look forward to when all our pain is gone and we can worship Him perfectly. Are you ready?

PG update

I didn't post an update for last week and so here you go. After a huge month in March, the traffic seems more quiet this month. We have had decent sales but it seems like many are pretty small projects, compared with last month, and we don't have the volume, thus far, that we enjoyed then. The month is not over yet, but I like it to be really busy, not just sort of busy. He knows what we need and He has always provided so I must trust Him for all things.
Please continue to pray for signed contracts, dollars to come in and His provision of all that we need, even when we don't know what that is yet.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Dippers and Drops

I was watching "Nova" the other night, and while I think that many of their views are WAY off base, there are things I can glean from it that I wouldn't know myself. I am taking the good out of the bad. Like, I don't believe there was a big bang, except if when God created the universe He said- "Bang- look at that!"

Anyway- the Novaians were talking about the stars and galaxies. Picture a clear night in a dimly lit place and you are looking up at the millions of stars. Sometimes there is a "hole" in the stars where we can't see a light in a small space. Because the Hubble telescope is out in space and of course is much more powerful than our naked eye, they are able to see into the black spot and look beyond it. Remember how much of the sky it is taking up. So they look beyond that little hole and find that there are 100,000 GALAXIES just in that little space. Of course it is not a little space when you get closer to it.

I try to walk in the mornings- it gives me time to think and now that my shoulder is doing better I can move around much better. Often when I am walking it is raining. If you only walk when the weather is nice here, you are not going to walk much. I was thinking the other morning that every single rain drop is placed perfectly by God. If you wear glasses you understand this- even the one that hits the rim of your glasses and then explodes all over your face. That drop could have fallen 1/2" in front of you and hit the ground, but God ordained it to hit your glasses. Every drop that falls where, in our opinion, there is too much rain, every drop that doesn't fall where in our opinion there is not enough rain and every drop that falls where we think it is just right. Every drop is controlled by God.

These are 2 completely different displays of God's power, one with gravity and one without; one is tiny in comparison to the other, but that tiny one is immense compared to us. God controls them all.

If God can create and sustain life on this planet, in a relatively small galaxy, if He can control where each rain drop falls, can He not also handle what might happen today? Does He not completely know what happened yesterday? Can He not renew our strength when necessary? Will He not care for His children and protect them from those who would do harm to them?

If you're struggling today with where God has you, for whatever reason, remember that He controls all things, He promises to use every situation for our good and His glory and He cares personally for each one of His children. I need reminding of this often and often need encouragement- encouragement that only He can give.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

A Must Read

Please read this when you have a couple of minutes to take a deep breath, relax and think about all that this is saying.

I guess I can relate in more ways than one. God is good!

The Easy Life

I was talking to a friend, recently, who told me that they used to live the "easy life". By this they meant- their life was really a mess, they never talked about any of the issues, they knew they should but it was just easier not to say anything and just go on with their life.

They have now come to the conclusion that their life is still a mess, there is still a lot to work on, they want it to change and it will never change if they don't do the hard thing and talk about those hard things.

How are we to love people and irritate them on to love and good deeds if we never say anything? As difficult as it is to hear that we are wrong, we must allow others to be in our lives enough to have the liberty to say something, and then we must be willing to hear it, receive it and understand that it was not easy for them to say the hard thing in the first place.

God created us for relationships; relationships to help us be who He would have us to be. We need to hear the hard things and say the hard things- in love; Gal.6.

Here's a good reminder- for pastors, but we can all take something away- from Tim Challies.

The following is an excerpt from a sermon by Matt Chandler.

"Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. (1 Timothy 4:15)

It seems that if we’re not careful, our faith can retard. What I mean is that Paul tells Timothy here that you are to be ever growing in these things. You are to be ever growing to the point that from year to year your people can notice your growth.

Can I plead with you? It seems to me that I meet a pastor whose heart is on fire for the things of God, and his brain when it comes to doctrine is just non-existent. Then I meet a pastor who has a gigantic head and they have this tiny, shriveled little soul. Some of that’s dispotion. I get that. But Paul is pleading with Timothy to let your growth be evident to all.

I think you should know your Bible a little bit better than you know your football team. I think that’s basic. People say that they’re not a good reader but can give me football statistics. They’re brilliant when it comes to 18-year-olds throwing a ball, but they can’t devote themselves to the Bible.

Paul says to pay attention to yourself and your teaching.

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:16)"

A good reminder to those of us who have followers- including our own children. Can they see the growth in our lives?

Here's another good one to read.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Looking Upward

I have not posted as much as would have liked in the past month or so. I have been wrestling with a few things that have caused my heart to be heavy- ministry would be perfect if it weren't for us imperfect people. I can't share them right now, but I do know that God does work ALL things together for my good and I can trust that these things are no exception.

Isn't it amazing that He can take what seems to be a place where there is no way out, or the outlook is very bleak and turn that into a way to show how truly amazing He is?

Please pray for my own heart to not become cynical.
Please pray for the orphans around the world.
Please continue to pray for PG- sales, guidance and wisdom.
Pray that the Lord would return quickly to gather His Bride to Himself!!!

Friday, April 9, 2010

A Bit Random

In my daily- chronological- Bible reading plan there were a few things that stood out to me today.

1 Sam. 4- The Ark was not going to save the Israelites if God didn't want that to happen.
Chp. 5- the Ark didn't need the Israelites to protect it.
I love that the Philistines were trying to get it and as soon as they took it they realized that they really didn't want it.
Even the Philistines knew that if the cows took it back directly that this was the hand of God.
I laughed when I read about the Ark making their god "bow down" before it. Can you imagine what must have been going through their minds? Finally it just ends up to be a trunk- no arm and no head. And then they want to go back and worship that god? Talk about settling for "second".

Chp 8- Israel wants a king so they can be just like every other nation. Samuel knew this was wrong but he inquired of God and God told him to let the people have what they wanted. This reminds me of America- right now. We have the health care reform bill and maybe it is because we want to be like all the other nations in the world- we, supposedly, are the last major nation w/o this type of health care program. I don't want America to be like the rest of the world.

Interesting reading.

Then something a bit more random. How does John Piper endorse Rick Warren as being Biblical? Piper is giving his time and energy to some people who- in my opinion- should not be getting it; like Driscoll and now Warren. Is Piper paying attention?

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Sanctification

In life, there is always opportunity for sanctification. The opportunities come is many forms and are varied in the vessels that bring them to our doorstep. But what of sanctification and is it really necessary? Can't we get along w/o it?

I guess the first verse that comes to my mind when I here the word sanctification is 1 Thes. 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification:... It's God's will for our lives that we be sanctified- on a continual path to Christ-likeness. Was Jesus' road here on earth paved smooth and in a comfortable seat? Then why would we expect our road to be smooth and should we even want it to be that way?

So what are some areas that God has been allowing sanctification in my own heart this past little while?

The leaders that we are to submit too are not always exactly like we would want them to be. In fact, they are often more like Nero than we think they should be, but they are not Nero, and even if they were, God has called us to pray for them and submit where they are not asking us to sin. We want justice when it comes to someone else, but we want mercy ourselves. Go out of America and then return and you will see that we have it pretty good here. Go away from the church and come back and you will see that we have it pretty good here. Think about a society with no laws and you will appreciate the inconvenience of law enforcement officers.

When friends do things that don't seem to be in line with continued sanctification we want them to get it the first time and move on. Do we? We don't even want to have to tell them they are going the wrong direction, and yet this is part of their sanctification process and ours. We must tell them where they are erring and pray that they accept the admonition. They may accept it and they may not- this doesn't negate our responsibility to go to them and this does then not give us the green light to be cynical that they will respond the same way when we approach them the next time. This also doesn't take away our responsibility to do the right thing when people don't reciprocate. This is hard to do- all of these things.

When we are trying to do the right things- the good thing- and people completely do the wrong thing in return. This is also hard. When we are doing what we believe God has called us to do and others mock, or slander us for our efforts, it's very easy to say "Ok- if you're going to act like that I'm not going to do my part anymore". That's not sanctification. Jesus- our Chief Example- was doing the perfectly right thing and they hung Him on a cross. He knew what was coming and He didn't say, "If you're going to treat me this badly and not appreciate what I am doing for you, then I am not going to do it". Thank-you Jesus for not having that attitude or we would be in a very bad place w/o any way to escape. Our responsibility is to always do what we believe God is calling us to do, no matter how hard it may seem and no matter how completely wrong others are. Our responsibility it to God and He will hold us accountable for our actions, not theirs.

These are just a few examples of things I have been continually challenged with just recently and I am pretty sure that these areas are going to come back again in the future. We must always look to Jesus' example of the way we are to live.

Pranksters Identified

I have been given the path of knowledge to the pranksters and am looking for a punishment that is equal to the infraction.

So the total rolls used on our property was 18 and some Vaseline on car door handles. What the perps didn't know was that our home was to be appraised that same day- "It's always fun until someone gets their eye poked out".

So I am looking for some help from the audience as to what I do to these little miscreants. One suggestions is to have them weed around our house for a month of Saturdays. I want to here your creativity. Ready GO!

Friday, April 2, 2010

Pranksters

I don't like pranks, so I don't generally prank others. I think wasting what God has given us stewardship over is foolish. I really don't like being TP'd and I have taken fingerprints off of the TP all over our yard and I have traced it back to someone's nose, but have not located the nose yet.

I will post pictures of the event later- when it is light. But- all that being said, I did laugh pretty hard when I saw it. I don't want this to be a trend and I actually would like to congratulate someone for making me laugh at a prank. The funny part to me was the saying they put in the lawn- not the TP-ing. "Laminate Rules". Now that is funny!

 
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Thursday, April 1, 2010

Month Update for PG

Well- even though I gave you a preview yesterday, I will finish it off this morning.

God allowed us to have our best sales month since Aug. of 2007. 2007 was an amazing year and Aug. was the biggest month of that year- so nothing to be down about even in that.

What an amazing God we serve- Who give generously to those who don't deserve, supplies more than our needs and is able to show the world that even when things are not what we think they should be, we still must trust His plan.

We are having to hire people to keep up- what an awesome "problem" to have. Thanks for all your prayers and please keep praying.

Pray that we would not get so focused on business that we forget the One Who gives it to us in the first place.