In awe we stare

Words cannot fully describe the divine beauty God has created for our eyes to take in.  The stars, planets, comets, infinity, billions of light years...our minds cannot truly envelope this creation, much less heaven and eternal life.  How could all this have been by accident or to have just happened?  Where did all the parts come from to make this so-called accident?  No, God created it.  One should not look to scientists for judgment on spiritual matters, and one should not look to spiritual people for judgment on the science of God's creation.
Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”   Matthew 22:21

Let me hear from you

I would like to hear stories of people whose faith took them through difficult times and what faith means to them and you.  For sharing our faith is like watering a flower to make it grow. 

To my brothers and sisters in Russia

We may not be brothers and sisters in nation, but we are brothers and sisters in Christ.  Jesus said to love your enemies for it is easy to love your brothers.  He knew, that when we love our enemies, they are no longer our enemies, but brothers and sisters.  Let us spread this love to all the world.  Spread it to those of the Islamic faith, to the Chinese, to whomever we have chosen to hate in the past.  Love will conquer all things and all people.  Let us ban together under God to wrest this world from the hate that pervades it.  The hate that politicians and self-interest groups foment for their personal gain.

But I say to you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which spitefully use you, and persecute you;  Matthew 5:44

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God.   1John 4:7

Amen

This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, "It is through faith that a righteous person has life."   Romans 1:17
I did not ask nor deserve to be anything but dirt under your holy feet O' Lord, but you made me as a king unto this life and into the next.  No action, no prayer can be repayment for what you did on that cross.  Please, Lord, accept my faith as a measure of love and devotion. Let my actions display that faith and love for you.  Let my faith be a light unto the world to glorify your name, not mine. For I see the time coming when You shall rule the world and lead it into peace and love for all mankind.

When you have faith

When you have faith

and the world's weight sits upon your shoulders

When you have faith

no weight is too great for God is helping you hold it up

for who is greater than He who put that weight upon you

When you have faith

and trouble crashes in waves upon you, one after another

When you have faith

no wave is too powerful for God is lifting you above them

for who is greater than He who brought these waves upon you

When you have faith

and everyone has abandoned you

When you have faith

never are you alone for God is right here with you with his arms around you

For who is greater to have as a friend than God who created all things, all times, all places

When you have faith

you can ask that mountain over there to move from here to there 

and it will move.  Saith our Lord Jesus

 

Pay close attention to everyday life...you just might see God at work

One day last fall, I was thinking about the task that lay before me.  I had to sweep up the thousands of leaves that covered the entire patio.  The patio is where I have a lot of conversations with God.  When I am sweeping the patio, I can feel his presence when the leaves are blowing around making it difficult to sweep them into a pile for picking up and He is laughing.  As I come to a point of frustration, He stops the wind and allows me to finish.  Then the wind begins again as suddenly as it had stopped.  This particular day, as I looked lazily at the leaves spread all over, it was a calm day...finally.  All of a sudden a whilrwind hit the patio, and within 5 or six seconds the leaves were in a perfect pile in the middle of the patio, and the wind ceased abruptly and completely.  I knew it was He who was responsible.  The feeling was overpowering.  Keep a close eye on everyday life for God may walk through at any moment. 

Rainy Days

If it wasn't for the rainy days, how would the plants grow?  If it wasn't for the rainy days in our lives, how would we grow.  It is not the good times that improve us and cause us to grow, it is the rainy periods...the dark rainy days that give us God's precious water.  Are we to complain like the Jews coming out of Egypt, or are we to see the rainy days for what they are? 

Spreading the Faith

One of my nephews is a missionary to Egypt and Pakistan.  He needs our prayers for the people he has converted from Islam to Christianity.  Their safety is at issue here.  They are disappearing without a trace.  We can only imagine why.  Pray for God to intervene.  Those people face struggles that the original Christains faced.  We are blessed to have the opportunity to worship without the shadow of death hanging over us.  Yet, we take our faith very lightly in this atmosphere of freedom.  Pray diligently for those new Christians. 

Sunday

What can I add to Sunday, God's day?  I cannot believe how beautiful this day is that he created for us.  If this is the breathtaking beauty of God's backside, what must his face look like?  It is no wonder that He would not let Moses see his face as he passed by when you experience this.  Enjoy your Sunday in worship and admiring what He has given to us.

Let's let God guide us, not just today, but everyday

Today, I will let God guide my hand by opening the bible to the first verse I see.
You, my brothers, were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather, serve one another in love.  The entire law is summed up in a single command:  Love your neighbor as yourself.  If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.   Galatians 5:13-15
How can I add to that, except to say, we spend entirely too much time hating, and too little time loving our friends, much less our enemies, as Jesus commanded us to do.  Serve without grumbling (my wife is a firm believer in that one).  I would like to say one last thing.  If you are a Christian and are making mistakes, I think Jesus would agree with what my Dad told me so many times, "If someone is not making mistakes, they are not doing anything."  We are human.  We have and will make mistakes as we change into Christians, but do not let that turn you away.  He loves us unconditionally.  He knows we are fragile.  

I am weak

People say, "Who are you, that you think you can write about and for the Lord?"  I am weak at times, and do not believe as strongly as I should.  I let others influence me, instead of letting God be my influence.  It is during those times of faltering faith that I revert back to the bible for guidance.  Let this be the tool you use, for it was given to us by God, himself, to give His divine guidance we desperately need in our lives.  We must be influenced by and live by our God who is unseen.  We see his amazing works all around us.  Yet, he is unseen, but not unheard, nor unfelt. I pray that my faith and my actions are working together in my writing. It is because of my faith that I write
You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.
James 2:22

Exodus Musings

     In reading Exodus, I began to think of other exodus' by peoples to this land that God kept hidden and preserved for us from Europeans for so long.  Then, He began sending migrations of outcasts from other societies around the world.  Many of them were religious outcasts such as my mother's side of our family.  They were Quakers.  On my wife's maternal side was a family of missionaries that accompanied the Cherokee Indians on the trail of tears from the east coast to Oklahoma.  That must have been a terrible journey to what appeared to be a God forsaken wilderness.  There are many exodus', but the exodus of the Hebrews was the mother of them all. The exodus of my mother's family from Ohio to Oklahoma for the land run of 1889 must have taken great faith in God that something good awaited them and that He would watch over them.  We seem to love and remember God most at moments of greatest risk.  During the good times, most of us go about the rudimentary motions of worship in a robotic way at best.  If we could take a little more time to praise God and talk with Him during the good times, perhaps we wouldn't waste so much time crying before we turn to Him in the bad times. He might help us make better decisions in the good times, if we gave Him a little more one on one time.  Now, what really are the good times?  The bad times are when we learn the most, find out who really loves us, find out what we are made of, have the biggest adventures, and find out how much faith we really possess. Without faith you will not make it through any exodus, big or small.   
      
      

Do not be afraid to talk about God

The Lord said to him, "Who gave man this mouth?  Who makes him deaf or mute?  Who gives him sight or makes him blind?  Is it not I, the Lord?  Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."  
Exodus 4:11-12

Keep building on your faith

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and being certain of what we do not see.  This is what the ancients were commended for.  Hebrews 11:2

Be Kind

Always be kind, for everyone we meet is fighting a great battle on the inside.   
                                                            Philo of Alexandria

Active or Passive

Is your faith active or passive?  In other words, are you sitting on your faith like a seat cushion to make your life comfortable, or are you using it to help make other lives more comfortable?  If you are blessed with a strong faith, make use of it to help people in need that have not the faith you possess.  Strong faith is a spiritual gift from our Lord.  He did not give it to you just to make you feel good.  He gave this gift to you to be a light in the darkness for those with little or no faith.  Needy people are not necessarily materially poor people.  The needy can be a person with all the material things life has to offer, but they are empty inside, unloved.  You will most likely need to chisel your way through the hard facade they have built around their heart and soul, but God never said it would be easy.  He sent you to them because you have that gift he gave you, and that makes you quite capable of chiseling your way through.  We of faith must work hard to bring the chosen of God to his son, Jesus Christ.  Do not do it for a reward or with a griping attitude, though you will be rewarded with that overpowering warm feeling of doing for others.  Being a good servant is our cup.  Let's not sit on our faith.  Let's share it to glorify our Lord's name.  I am guilty of sitting on my faith at times like most Christians.  Let's do this together.  As we gather with other Christians in fellowship to worship our God on Sunday, let us gather as an army on Monday to conquer the world with the sword of love.  

Reflect Upon This True Story

In my job, I have the opportunity to speak with people all over the United States.  I hear some truly inspiring stories from time to time.  One of the stories is from a lady whose husband had recently died of cancer.  He was being cared for by hospice at home.  It was evident he would pass soon.  While asleep in an adjacent bedroom, she had a dream that our Lord was standing in front of her, and she asked him why she took her husband and not her.  The Lord pointed to her left where stood her husband.  He had a big smile on his face as he said, "it is beautiful here, and you have work to do." She awoke after that.  She ran into the bedroom where her husband was.  The hospice person said he had just passed away.  She cried as she related this to me, but said, "I was not taken because I have work to do.  I spend most days serving a ministry to women who have lost their spouses helping them to cope.  I am sad at losing my very beloved husband, but thrilled with my service in the ministry.  It has softened the blow of losing him by giving me a renewed purpose in life."  Her faith was increased 10 times over by something that most people become angry about or lose faith.  Look for God's purpose in all things.  If you ask for his help, he will never deny it. 

FAITH

Faith

The gift you receive just for the asking

Faith

In You Lord…in You Father

Faith

That carries me through all of this life You have given to me

Faith

That I see and understand Your majestic creation all the better

Faith

In Your Devine Will to always be absolute and good

Faith

To know You will always guide me and have Your arms around me

Faith

That brought me this warm and loving woman for my wife

Faith

That brought us children and grandchildren to multiply and fill the earth to glorify your name

Faith

That Your son, Jesus Christ, through his death on the cross, brought us forgiveness

Faith

That I can move mountains to find Your lost sheep

Faith

That I have eternal life with you