Saturday, November 29, 2008

thankful

I have heard it said before that the longer you are a parent, the more you began to understand God's love.

This has really been true for me the last week or so. Boden's first year and a half of life has been relatively uneventful (thank God). But the last week he has managed to put a couple of nice dents in his face. On Thanksgiving morning he cut his face open when he fell on a pen and I was sick to my stomach over it for quite a while.

I now know for sure that Boden is going to be okay, yet I still hurt for him. When Jesus went to the cross, God knew he was ultimately going to be okay, so it must not have hurt him that much, Yeah Right (or at least that thought had crossed my mind before).

Ask any parent who has watched their child suffer even a little how much it hurts them, even though they know he(s) is going to be okay and you will quickly discover the pain a parent goes through when their children are hurting.

I know this is basic and most have realized this real world comparison for a long time; it has just really hit home with me the last couple of days and renewed my awe, amazement, and thankfulness for the cross and the life that it gives us.

So as we end the "official" thankful season, I must say I am so truly thankful for the life that all who follow Jesus can hold fast to!

Friday, November 28, 2008

some thoughts

Well, for a while there I thought I was going to be good at keeping up with blogging, but the last three weeks have been crazy.

What I started to share a couple of weeks ago and never finished was about unity. I basically spent the month of October meditating on John chapter 17 and the understanding of the unity or oneness that Jesus desires to have with each of us is amazing. We talk a lot about unity in our life. Often it is in regards to family, friends, the church, or even perhaps or fellow employees.

But there is a huge truth to unity I think we often forget. We must first be one with God before we can ever be truly united with our family, friends, or church. That is how He designed it. It is through unity with God that we are able to understand what a true sacrificial life is and the only way we can learn to be a person that can give up enough to truly be united with another person.

In the America we live in today, I know it is truly important for the church to rise up like never before and be a voice for the Lord. And for this to happen we must be one with God.

But that is not all, even when it comes to our families, we must first be unified with God before we can truly be unified in our marriages, relationships with our children/parents, etc. I believe that when we get this, we will truly see men and women of God living at another level.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

no famine here

So check this out, Psalm 37:18-19, God promises that we will have abundance in times of famine and that we will not be ashamed. Now normally we simply think of famine in regards to food...

I'm spending the next week thinking of all the areas in my life where there is a shortage or a famine, or I'm just not living to the level I believe I should and I'm declaring God's promise of abundance in that area and making it a focus and a priority to rid famine from every area of my life.

I think if we all do this, we just may have a greater impact for God and open ourselves up to be used by him in areas we never imagined.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Church get ready

Well, most of the Christian church has been praying for revival. In fact, the LIFE bands and LIFE shirts we have at our church have the prayer that says "God, send revival to America."

Now I'm making this as a somewhat sarcastic comment, but I do believe there could be truth in it.

Millions of Americans have decided to place their hope in a man and not in God. When they find out that the man won't save them or help, God may decide to send revival. People crying out for change through the hope of a man will begin crying out for God with the revelation that He is the only one, the only way!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Change

As I was leaving the rec center after voting this afternoon there was a group of people giving out stickers and buttons that said "I chose change" and had the Obama symbol on them. Now this post has nothing to do with Obama or McCain, it has to do with change. Millions of people voted for or chose "change" today, but I wonder if they have actually taken any steps to "change" themselves.

Unfortunately we are living in a country that contains millions of people who are dissatisfied with the way things are so they want someone to change things, both republicans and democrats, pro-lifer's and pro-choicer's. I think we could really see change if we decided to change ourselves. It is so much easier for us to ask someone else to change or to say we are voting for someone else to change and not actually go forward and do anything ourselves, yet still feel good about ourselves because we voted for the person who wants change...

Real change is real hard. It's not a cool slogan and it's not something that makes everything wonderful.