Makin' Plans

This quote confirms what I’ve been thing nowadays. I’m now in Spring Break and halfway to my graphic arts degree. It is true … Aim high … It gets exciting!

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistence.

– Daniel Hudson Burnham

Better To Light Candles

Better To Light Candles

Merle Shain

It is better to light candles
than to curse the darkness.
It is better to plant seeds
than to accuse the earth.
The world needs all of our power
and love and energy,
and each of us has something that we can give.
The trick is to find it and use it,
to find it and give it away.
So there will always be more.
We can be lights for each other,
and through each other's illumination
we will see the way.
Each of us is a seed,
a silent promise,
and it is always spring.

Have a most blessed evening everyone!~ Tim

Sowing the Greed

This is the kind of stuff that drives me nuts! What does God’s word say about such things?

Off of TBN a few weeks ago ...

“You need to send a thousand dollars. If you cannot send a thousand, send five hundred… if all you have is a nickel, wrap it in tissue and put it in an envelope. If all you have is your clothes, send them.”

“If you want the power, you have to sow the seed”

“We are going together into a spirit of wealth.”

“Last night, you sowed to your ability. Tonight, you sow beyond your ability.”

“I need to give because I need favor. I need it because I need an anointing. I need it because I need power.”

“‘I am giving because I want my daughters to be daughters of Zion.’”

“You have got three days to get that into your mailbox. I am not afraid to say this. I am walking in my authority… if you do not postmark it by the tenth, we will not accept it. God says you have three days to get your thousand-dollar seed in the mail.”

“Give it to me and you will live. Give it to me and you will have more than enough.”“If all you have is $79.36, I double-dare you to empty your bank account. Close your account.” ~ Juanita Bynum

It is saying that when you get blessed you will have to look back and say, “When I gave that thousand dollars, God blessed me” Where does God get any glory, if you have to pay him to bless you? As a Christian, I am ashamed that the idea of “sowing seed” has been used to finance use and abuse of hard earned money to support a lavish lifestyle. This kind of thing comes up all the time in talking to and witnessing to those who do not know Jesus as Lord and savior. It’s really sad how even the unsaved can spot a con before we Christians do!

Tim, ending vent before he really gets worked up ...

The Italian Tomato Garden

From an e-mail...
The Italian Tomato Garden

An Old Italian man lived alone in the country. He wanted to dig his tomato garden, but it was very hard work as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament.

Dear Vincent,

I am feeling pretty badly because it looks like I will not be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I am just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here, my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me.

Love,
Dad


A few days later he received a letter from his son...


Dear Dad,
Do not dig up that garden. That is where I buried the bodies.

Love,
Vinnie


At 4 am the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son...



Dear Dad,

Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That is the best I could do under the circumstances.

Love you,
Vinnie

A Strange Toast Indeed ~ Ruth 4:11-12

Ruth 4:11-12 "... We are witnesses! May the lord make the woman who is now coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, from whom all the nation of Israel descended! ...And may the lord give you descendants by this young woman who will be like our ancestor Perez, the son of Tamar and Jacob."

A strange toast for sure when one looks at it. Did the Elder really want Ruth to be barren like Rachel, or unloved like Leah was? Then in v12, it gets more bizarre, for did the Elder want Ruth to do a Tamar number and disguise Herself as a prostitute and bear a child by her father-in-law? This is like saying, "I was your marriage was messed up so that you can do the good that only comes through hard times." So why would this toast possibly be thought of as good?

There is a big obstacle to relating to God. There seems to be no higher goal really than feeling better now ~ the Bible calls this "the flesh." But the problem is that a lot of the times "Gods best" looks far different from we want it to. Could it be that the Elders prayer is for brokeness, the power to trust God no matter what? We pray often for God to maker things better, I know I do, and then things often stay the same ... then we take things into our own hands... We want things to improve! Fixed! Like now ...!

Its like the Elder told Boaz, "You married a lovely, beautiful woman, and I want the best. But if the unthinkable happens and Ruth turns out to be conniving as Rachel or insecure as Leah, God will still being at work to bring about the good He intended." This is a very freeing thing to ponder! I know for myself that having ones dreams smashed around a bit may be God's best after all. The broken dreams are actually just pieces in a bigger puzzle to help us get to the bigger dreams, not really dreamed up yet. The desire for feeling good now may be a limit on us to really fly later!

Just some thoughts ... Tim

Going For It!!!

Good afternoon!

"If you worry about the weather and don't plant seeds, you won't harvest a crop. No one can explain how a baby breathes before it is born. So how can anyone explain what God does? After all He created everything. Plant your seeds early in the morning and keep working in the field until dark. Who knows? Your work might pay off, and your seeds may produce."
-Ecclesiastes 11:4-6 CEV

Yes, I'm in Ecclesiastes again... These verses are all so rural but they have a lot to say which is backed up elsewhere in the Bible. The bottom line is you never get to harvest what you never have the nerve to plant! I think what Solomon is saying here is get off the recliner and out of the house, say "Hi" to the girl at the market, take that class, in short get out, take risks and do something! He reminds the person who is unwilling to take risks "How can anyone explain what God does?" We live in a world in which there is no sure thing other that the Lords plans will take place. Therefore, those of us waiting for that "sure thing" may be waiting a very long, long time. How can anything be harvested if its not planted? We better be sowing and reaping when we can and keep at it, trusting God for the results. In other words go for it!

Elisha's Bones

Another interesting little passage I've come across in recent days ...

2 Kings 13:20-21

"And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year.

And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band [of men]; and they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet."

Apparently they were burying the body of their dead friend and a bunch of bandits appeared. So they tossed the body in Elisha's grave and took off. But then ... the body the body touched Elisha's bones, sprang to life, and one must assume fled from the bandits with his friends! Could you imagine??? He must have escaped as Rabbi's later on claim that he went on to have a large number of children.

What a story! A dead prophet of God has more resurrection power than a live prophet of someone else.This metaphor is in the New Testament as well.

Luke 9:24

"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it."

John 12:24

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."

And Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:11-12

"For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

So then death worketh in us, but life in you."

The paradox everywhere in the Bible is that death springs from life. So those of us who put up with all sorts of things like humiliation, loss, the critical spirit of those around us, no credit for what we do ... Paul calls it "being given over to death." This dying also can bring life to others. Jesus was maligned and misunderstood for sure, but most would say, even nonChristians that he lived the most attractive life ever. Its in our dying that His beauty grows in us, light and salt in the world. Life from death ... Everything to the good ...

Tim, in an obscure passage mood ...

Stay Busy!

I came across these verses a couple of days ago during my lunchbreak at work ...

"If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done. Be sure to stay busy and plant a variety of crops, for you never know which will grow - perhaps they all will." Ecclesiastes 11:4, 6.

There are a lot of references in the Bible to sowing, planting and reaping. I think that sometimes as Christians we mistake the "waiting on God" thing to mean not to do anything unless there is a clear sign. However there is a clear sign that we should be sowing ... and often! To find a job, partner, end to conflict, ministry takes a lot of sowing into. Even things like reconciliation needs to be planted, watered ect. I like what it says in that verse, "Stay busy." Something thats hard to do when our heart is involved or things are looking impossible.

Just felt like sharing that verse with you all. Have a blessed day!

Spread Love

A quote to end the day ...

Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor. ... Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.

~Mother Teresa

Have a blessed evening and weekend everyone!

Winter Promises

A short poem I can REALLY identify with this time of year ...

Winter Promises

Tomatoes rosy as perfect baby's buttocks,

eggplants glossy as waxed fenders,

purple neon flawless glistening peppers,

pole beans fecund and fast growing as Jack's Viagra-sped stalk,

big as truck tire zinnias that mildew will never wilt,

roses weighing down a bush never touched by black spot,

brave little fruit trees shouldering up their spotless ornaments of glass fruit:

I lie on the couch under a blanket of seed catalogs ordering far too much.

Sleet slides down the windows,

a wind edged with ice knifes through every crack.

Lie to me, sweet garden-mongers:

I want to believe every promise,

to trust in five pound tomatoes and dahlias

brighter than the sun that was eaten by frost last week.

-- Marge Piercy