Spring Is Here

Spring is here. I love this time of the year. It's a time of awakening for the trees, flowers, grass. The birds sing outside my window, squirrels scamper about the yard, rabbits are playing in the early morning, and if you're fortunate you may catch a few deer playing tag in the field. All of these things seem to bring forth new energy and life from people as well. Neighbors working in their yards, cookouts, picnics, softball games, children playing in the yards. All creation seems to rejoice in the renewal of life this time of the year.

This is a quite a contract from the cold, dismal winter days when everyone stays inside and no one is visible to others except for their needed trips to the store and to work or school. But, now it is spring. Everywhere you go there will be others crowding to do as much as they can while the weather is so beautiful.

As I've already said, I love this time of the year. Not just for the reasons I listed above. There are other reasons as well. It reminds me that God gave me new life as well. Just as the birds and the squirrels I love watching so much this time of the year, it is the best opportunity I have as well to let the joy of salvation show for all who are out and about. It gives more opportunity for conversations to enable me to tell others what Christ has done for me.

Just as the rabbits, birds and squirrels that are so showing their joy for this time of renewal, we too as believers in Christ should show the joy he has given us. We should shine as bright as we can. Just as the trees and flowers show the difference the change in the season has made to them, we should be able to show the difference Christ has made in our lives evident to all at their first glance.

Christian Rights

I want to know your thoughts about the new amendment being introduced to congress this week on the Hate Crime law. If it is true that now you can be prosecuted for simply preaching the gospel, in a non-violent manner, and receive a charge of conspiracy to commit a hate crime, we are all in danger of the prosecution of up to 5 years. Any pastor, Sunday school teacher, Bible study teacher, or street preaching about sin could be targeted under this amendment. I urge everyone to contact your representatives and the White House concerning this amendment and let them know you do not want this amendment to pass. We only have a few days before the vote. Will you raise your voice or stay silent?

I have difficulty understanding why there is no amendment to declare hate crimes against Christians when we are targeted as a group as well. Maybe we should push congress for such an amendment for our protection.

Faith or Experience?

I had a conversation earlier today trying to explain what faith is. It was difficult. Any discussion on this subject is welcome. I was basically asked the question, "It is hard for me to depend God will fix the problems in my life. He hasn't shown me anything so far to show me the way out of my situation. How can I have faith when I haven't seen answers to my prayers? I pray everyday for answers." The problems in this instance are financial difficulties in case you were wondering.

The only response I could think of was, faith is the substance of things hoped for and not of things seen. If you see the solutions to problems, it is not faith in God, but rather experience. Even when we experience something we have trouble believing and trusting in it. The Israelites saw (experienced) God's miracles of being freed, the parting of the Red Sea, the cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night, manna being provided for food and so on. Eventhough they saw (experienced) all these things they still turned away from God and built idols to worship, griped, grumbled, and complained. That's what human's do.

Faith is more than experiencing something. It is hard to explain to others what faith is. Most of us go to bed everynight not thinking about or worrying that when we get up the next morning if the sun will rise. It is just a given to most of us. Yes we experience it over and over again. I don't believe this confidence in the sun to rise is faith however. I believe that we have confidence in the sun rising daily because we are involved with what it brings. We wait for the sun to rise to start our day. We set our clocks by it. We schedule activities by it such as going to the pool for a swim, working in our yard, or simple things like visiting others at times. We wouldn't want to show up at someone's house at 3:00 am and explain we were there to visit at that time because we didn't know if the sun were coming up at it's regular time or not.

I believe if we invest our time around God's word in such a way as we do other things, such as the sun rising and setting, and become involved with what God tells us in the Bible, and schedule ourselves around God's Word, we will have more confidence in what it says and in the process increase our faith. We have to practice, make a conscious decision to live how it says we should live, and discipline ourselves to obey God. We schedule and obey so many things. We schedule time for rest, for play, for television shows, for dinner, for vacations, for doctor appointments. We obey our work schedules, school schedules, sports rules, etc. How can it be that we struggle with scheduling time with God and obeying him?

We must get to the point where we believe God has a purpose for everything that happens to us and to be content with the situations we are in... to be able to trust in him... without having to wonder or worry if he will answer us. We must have faith that he will, without doubting, no matter what. We must believe that his plan is perfect, no matter what our circumstances.

Honor God in all that you do. In your time, in your committment, in your words, in your life both public and private, and in your actions. God is faithful. It is not possible for God to have a faulty plan for your life. You may not see it. It may not be what you would rather have. But his perfect plan is there for you. If you believe, trust and obey him, he will not let you down. He is always with you.

Again, I encourage you to leave your comments as to what faith is to you.

Back To The Basics

Everyone is nervous. Some are frightened.

What am I takling about?

The economy, the world, crime, foreclosures, big companies failing, job layoffs, no work for small businesses, disobedient children, uconcerned spouses, children being aborted, wives being killed, drive by shooting, strings of arson fires, mudslides, earthquakes, bombing, attacks on Israel, fighting in Gaza, children taken over by drugs, adults taken over by alcohol and drugs, people being cheated out of their investments, deaths being faked. There is more but you get the idea.

It seems as though when I was growing up the coutry was striving, growing, content. There were struggles yes. But when I look at the comparison of today it doesn't seem to compare to the turmoil our country is facing now.

Forgive me if I insult you by not being politically correct, but it doesn't seem to me that being politically correct has help any of the situations we are facing today. Everyone wants their own way. Everyone wants things to change to suit their own agenda. Everyone wants everything to be accepted. The only thing that happens when these things occur is that nothing works, nothing is accepted, and complete and utter confusion comes about. This is what I feel has happened to our country. I believe there will be a day when my comments will seem of extreme insignificance to others when compared to the offense they will feel in the future.

When I was growing up we learned Bible verses in school, we had a clear definition of what was right and wrong. When I finished my work for one subject while waiting for others to finish, I sat and looked at the Ten Commandments posted on the classroom wall and thought about what they meant. It never bothered me that I should not kill, steal, covent. It never bothered me that I should love my bother as myself or that I should love God with all my heart. Honestly I always thought that if being told not to steal, cheat or covent did offend someone they had a real problem to begin with.

Some may think that I am just romanticizing past days. No. This is fact. History, when I was in school was the basics of this country was founded on God. Our fight to be able to worship God without interference from others. And it wasn't that so long ago. Another fact. Now we can't even mention God eventhough we carry around currency with God written on every piece of it in our pockets. We spend this same currency with God written on it to acquire everything else that we worship.

How did we get away from the beliefs this country was based on? An even more important question is, how do we get back to those principles and beliefs? It is obvious that the beliefs now held are not working. It is time to get back to the basics and our pledge for our country. It was not just a poem written down as something to be said for the lack of anything else to be said. It is in all honesty our country's pledge to God. To be one nation, under God, indivisible. Under God... to be under his authority and rule......indivisible.... unable to be divided from his authority and rule. If we do not stand up to our promice to God things will only get worse. This is our country's pledge. It is yours?

A New Year!

It's a new year, 2009. We don't really make resolutions for the new year. But, this year seems to be different. God seems to be moving us in a different direction. Work has come to a stand still for us being that we are self employed. We don't know what is in plan for us. So this year we can only wait on God to give us direction as to what he will provide for us for income. We will be patient in our waiting, depend on him for courage while we are waiting, and constantly pray for the answer from him as to what to do.

This can make you anxious. But we know that God is in control. He has promised not to leave us or forsake us. He promises if we keep praying and asking he will answer. The answer may not be what we would prefer but we know God wants us to be confident in what he has planned for us. He wants us to be content in every situation. He wants us to keep serving him and to let our lives be a light that points others to him ... even (especially) when we are waiting on him. This is our plan for the new year.

Also, we can wait with anticipation with excitement. To see what the creator of all that has been created, especially for us in our individual life leaves us humble. He is so wonderful and we are not. I am thankful that he cares so much for us that he promises we can depend on him. I am even more thankful that he is faithful to his promises.

Much More than Amazing

God's grace is much more than amazing to me.

A couple of months ago I was told I had multiple ovarian cysts. The largest being 3+ cm. Anything over 2 cm is considered to be high risk for cancer or at the very least for surgery to remove the cyst. I prayed constantly for God to remove the cyst and to let them resolve as well as asking others to do the same.

The morning of the test, I prayed one final time for healing from God. As I lay on my bed after finishing my prayer just before drifting back off to sleep, I felt a calming sensation through the middle part of my body. I knew it was God answering my prayer. I woke up a couple of hours later and left for my test.

After a few days I reseived my results back and talked to the nurse at the doctor's office on the same day. The test results showed that all of the cysts including the larger one were completely gone.

My limited wisdom doesn't allow me to fully understand the possibilities of God's grace. I know I am undeserving of the grace he shows yet he continues to hear prayers and answers them. I praise God and am thankful to God for all that he does.

Helping Others

Each day when I am out driving to do errands I see more and more people holding signs that read, "Homeless. Please help." There are more faces associated with those signs than ever before. The look on their faces are different than before. There is a visible look of hopelessness on some of their faces than ever before. There is a look of longing and searching on their faces than ever before. This has given me a different feel for Christmas this year.

Could the look of longing and searching on faces today be the same look of longing and searching that were on faces that first Christmas? What do we do this Christmas season in response to this look? How do we show Christ through us to all the worried, to the hopeless, to the homeless? How can I as one person do much at all?

There is so much pain, so much suffering. I do not have the wisdom to have the answers. I do not have the resources as one person to provide all these needs. This realization can be overwhelming and discouraging.

But I do have is the power of prayer to ask God to show me what to do, where to begin and show me step by step what he would have me do. I have the power of God to give me courage to make some small difference to some. I have the power in his Word to share with others.

God sent his only begotten Son to us to give us salvation. He showed himself to others through Christ. It is time for us to let God be shown through us to others as well. Buy someone a meal, give someone a tract and share the gospel while they eat that meal. Show compassion. Give a sincere smile and pray with those who need help. Let them know someone cares enough to pray everyday to the only one who can provide their needs.

Please join me in these ways in your own life to do what God would have you to do for these people. If we all use the power of prayer, the power of God, and the power of his Word to help others this Christmas season, we will all make some small differences, but they will add up to be a significant difference.