Young, drunk and stupid…

Still on vacation in the Bahamas (and still haven’t checked in on work – woo hoo!). We are realizing that we have outgrown the party scene. Some background – Even though we could afford to go someplace upscale, in an effort to be good stewards of what God has given us, we shopped around for a great deal for a vacation package. Jill found a “cruise and stay” package with 2-nights cruise and 4 nights resort stay in the Bahamas for only $260 per person. Amazing price right? Only problem is that there are a lot of other people who found the same deal – many of them young “adults” who could only afford this. This becomes a problem in that, for some reason, they do not know how to conduct themselves in public.

I can’t believe the number of obnoxiously drunk people there are stumbling around in the evenings. I try to not be judgmental but there is clearly but there is definitely a relationship between money and “class”. Of course this led to some good “can you believe when we…” stories. Seeing these people then reviewing our own stories helps me understand a little better what God’s grace means.

Somehow, God loved me when I was unlovable and undeserving. He waited patiently for me to “see the light” and welcomed me with open arms. My prayer today is that I will have the same patience and grace for those young, drunk and stupid people around me.

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Vacation thoughts…

I’m currently on vacation in the Bahamas and realizing how hard it is to really leave work behind. This is bothering me a lot because it shows how ingrained work has become in my identity.

I’ve been working a VERY demanding project for the last 3-4 months. The kind that takes 12-15 hours a day almost every day. The project reached a milestone on Friday, 6/25 which created an opportunity for a brief break. The days leading up to Friday were filled with anticipation. Looking for a break and thoughts of putting everything behind for a week. Now that I’m there, I keep getting tempted to just “check-in” and see how things are going.

more later…

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Happy Birthday!

Day before yesterday marked my 7th “spiritual” birthday – 7 years since I finally recognized Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. I had trouble sleeping last night, and since today is the National Day of Prayer I spent a couple of hours thinking about how different my “new” self is from my old self. I’ve heard people scoffing and making derisive comments about those “born again” but it really is true. My prayer today is that my new life will lead people to desire to know the one true God.

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Obey God…

Some quotes I saw recently struck a note…

A. W. Tozer said, “The word of God was not given to us to make us intelligent sinners, but obedient and authentic saints.”

Thomas Carlisle wrote, “Conviction, be it ever so excellent, is worthless until it converts itself into conduct.”

It is not enough just to know what’s right. Our lives are made up of choices – those forks in the road where we decide to choose God’s way or our own. And as Moses said to the children of Israel, the choice is really not between right and wrong but between life and death (see Deuteronomy 30:15-16Open Link in New Window). The prophet Amos said it very succinctly: “Seek the LORD that you may live” (Amos 5:6Open Link in New Window). Truly, the only sure path to life is found in obedience to God and His Word.

So…

  • When you don’t feel like loving your spouse or a difficult person, obey God.
  • When you’re tempted to steal or to compromise your integrity, obey God.
  • When your boss asks you to do something you shouldn’t, obey God.
  • When your lusts and passions are telling you to give in, obey God.
  • When you’re tired and feel like quitting, obey God.
  • When the easiest thing to do is nothing, obey God.
  • When you feel like being lazy, obey God

Whatever choice you may be facing, obey God . . . and live!

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Heart Healthy

God spoke to me Sunday night….

Now before anyone calls the men in white coats, please consider that I think God speaks to us all the time – we just don’t take the time to listen. God usually speaks to me through music or a combination of music and dreams (probably because that is the only time I slow my mind down enough to hear Him.

Anyway, back on topic. Seems like everywhere I look now-days I see something about “heart healthy” habits. It may be nutrition, may be exercise or lifestyle choices but we seem to have an ongoing obsession with being “heart healthy”. This past weekend God had me thinking about being “heart healthy” from His point of view.

I was talking with someone and the conversation briefly turned to a comment about someone viewed as being “two-faced” and a back-stabber. I just passed it over and didn’t dwell on it until early the next morning I had a dream. In the dream I was seeing something kind of like one of those old commercials about smoking. In the scene, someone was showing me a shriveled, dried up, blackened and hard mass with a caption “your heart when looking through the eyes of man”. The scene then shifted to a bright, plump and pink mass radiating warmth – here the caption was “your heart when looking through the eyes of God”.

I think it was clear that God was sending a message to me that I need to be very careful how I look at other people – to remember that every single person is created by Him for a specific person; that everyone is useful and loved even when they aren’t being very lovable. This attitude really promotes a healthy heart.

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What’s really important…

Ever find yourself fretting about some little detail or worrying about something you should have done or might have done. I know I do. Jon over at Stuff Christian Like had a profoiund statement in his post today (recall that today is serious Wednesday)…

We don’t serve a confusing God who makes us climb mountaintops or tunnel through the crust of the earth to figure out scraps of what matters most. He comes right out with it. In Matthew 22Open Link in New Window, a Pharisee asks Jesus what the greatest commandment is. Here is what Jesus says:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

When feeling overwhelmed just take a minute and think about this: The Creator of the universe loves you so much that He died to pay the price you never can, in order to provide for a personal relationship with Him. Wow!

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Remembering who I was…

Satan’s greatest tool is discouragement. Whether in work, in marriage, in parenthood or in service of the Lord; he constantly tries to tell us we aren’t adequate. Of course this distracts us from God’s message “I will always love you”.

One of my favorite lyricists is Dawn Michele of Fireflight. Her songs never fail to reveal a misinterpretation of God’s truth that I am holding on to. In “What I’ve Overcome” Dawn reminds me that I am listening to the lies of the evil one instead of the truth of the living God.

If only You come see me yesterday
Who I used to be before I changed

I’m not what I have done
I’m what I’ve overcome

There is so much truth here and need to allow the spirit to remind me of it. When I’m feeling discouraged and that I don’t have enough to give – taking a minute to look back to who I was before Christ got hold of me provides that so important jump-start.

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… Your Rod and Your staff, they comfort me…

Psalm 23Open Link in New Window is one of the best known books of the Bible. Even non-believers tend to know something about it. I thought I knew this verse well but I had something something jump out at me this morning…

Verse 4 says “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”

I tend to create mental images that help me visualize the point that God is making in a verse and this verse had always left me thinking of Jesus out in front of me, wielding his staff in one hand and rod in the other, something like a Ninja. Jesus was my bodyguard, clearing the way and beating back all the baddies trying to accost me.

As I read this morning though I got a visual of how a Sheppard uses his rod and staff for correction. He will “Hook” or “tap” a wayward sheep to keep them from straying into real danger. I realized that God is telling me that I will find comfort and protection through obedience, through following His ways. There are many people who aren’t into “religion” because they feel that it is just a bunch of rules designed to control people. It is pretty easy to lose sight that God’s “rules” aren’t there to restrict our freedom – rather to keep me from harms way.

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Be a Pencil

Sometimes you get one of those “send to all your friends” emails that just connects.

The photo below is a sculpture made from pencils. Note the creativity but more importantly, note the five points following.

Lessons from a pencil

  1. What you do will always leave a mark.
  2. You can always correct the mistakes you make.
  3. What is important is what is inside of you.
  4. In life , you will undergo painful sharpenings, which will make you a better person.
  5. To be the best pencil, you must allow yourself to be held and guided by the hand that holds you.
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Five Balls

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them — work, family, health, friends, and spirit, and you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls — family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same.

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