A Four-fold Franciscan Blessing

http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&global=1&q=Franciscan#/d1k7zl8

I haven’t seen this prayer for years and I had to share it! That fourth stanza is something else isn’t it? May you all be blessed to do what others say couldn’t be done!

A Four-fold Franciscan Blessing

May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you really CAN make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God's grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.

And the blessing of God the Supreme Majesty and our Creator,

Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word who is our brother and Saviour,

and the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Guide,

be with you and remain with you, this day and forevermore.

AMEN

Be Ye Perfect!

Jesus says "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). What is that supposed to mean? Like, that's impossible, right?

In fact there are a number of contradictions in this section of the Bible, part of the Sermon on the Mount ... until you look further. For instance, Jesus speaks of loving your enemies. I've always thought that to be contradiction because if you love someone they are no longer your enemy, but of course, He is saying that although you may love them, they still don't love you. The enemy bit is pretty much in their court not ours.

Further along He says that when we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, we do it "in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven". So does that mean that if I don't love my enemies, I can't be a child of God anymore? No, I don't think that's what He's trying to get across. What He is saying is that God loved me when I was His enemy, and so if I am a true child of God, then I'll behave in the same way. I am to be my Father's Son. I am to see things the way God sees things. When I do that I am doing all that God calls me to do.

But then Jesus goes on to say something absolutely off the wall to me. Or at least at first glance it is ... Lord, you go on to say "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect". That's going too far! I'M NOT PERFECT, Lord. You know that I fall short of this. So what are you trying to say? Your standard is way too high for me!

But then when you think about it, God couldn't have very well said to me, "Just do your best, and I'll accept that." A perfect God doesn't give me an imperfect standard to live by. God wouldn't lower His standards to accommodate us would He?

I guess when I love my enemies, then I participate in something that is part of God's perfect character. I do something perfect in His strength, but I still don't get to that kind of standard in the everyday part of my life. I still get it wrong at times.

Its time to look at how Matthew uses the word "perfect" in this passage. "perfection" in the original Greek has the idea of "complete." In other words"capable of doing everything that God calls us to do"

Colossians 2:10 (NLT) says "So you also are complete (or "perfect") through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority."

"Perfect" (teleios from télos = goal, purpose) means "one who has accomplished the intended goal (telos)." If something accomplishes what it is designed to do, it is said to be perfect (teleios). A child is imperfect in the sense that they have not yet grown to full maturity. So telios is often translated as "mature". When something is fully developed then it is said to be perfect. So Telios has the idea of "being complete."

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT) says, "For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.:"

When I trust in what Jesus did for me on the Cross, then I am complete. God sees me as righteous, ie in right relationship with Him, as perfect and complete, as forgiven of all my sins. Instead of seeing me, He sees what Jesus did for me, and so I stand before Him AS PERFECT.

That doesn't mean I'm going to be perfect in my everyday relationships. I'm never going to be perfect in that way. I get it wrong all the time. But as the Lord works through me, I live out the kind of life He wants me to live. I am complete. I am doing all that God has called me to do, and in that sense it is PERFECT and I live in a way that is holy and acceptable to God. It is a journey of perfection that we are taking.

Philippians 3:12-16 (NLT) explains it further,

"I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. But we must hold on to the progress we have already made."

Jesus is our perfect standard for life and faith, and as I live it out then I display glimpses of the perfection of God in my life. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NLT) says, "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work." The Kings James Version says "That the man of God may be PERFECT, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."

"YOU THINK YOU'RE SO PERFECT!" Well, as a matter of fact, we are ... In Christ.

There are people who do not want us to be free. They don't want us to be free before God, accepted just as we are by his grace. They don't want us to be free to express our faith originally and creatively in the world. They want to control us; they want to use us for their own purposes. They themselves refuse to live arduously and openly in faith, but huddle together with a few others and try to get a sense of approval by insisting that all look alike, talk alike and act alike, thus validating one another's worth. They try to enlarge their numbers only on the condition that new members act and talk and behave the way they do. These people infiltrate communities of faith "to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus" and not infrequently find ways to control, restrict and reduce the lives of free Christians. Without being aware of it, we become anxious about what others will say about us, obsessively concerned about what others think we should do. We no longer live the good news but anxiously try to memorize and recite the script that someone else has assigned to us. In such a event we may be secure, but we will not be free. We may survive as a religious community, but we will not experience what it means to be human, alive in love and faith, expansive in hope. Conforming and self-congratulatory behavior is not free. But Paul "did not yield in submission even for a moment, that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you." Every free person who benefits from Paul's courage will continue vigilant in the resistance movement he formed.

~Eugene Peterson

Yesterday & Tomorrow ~ A quote to ponder ...

"There are two days in every week about which we should not worry, two days which should be kept from fear and apprehension. One of these days is yesterday with it's mistakes and cares, it's aches and pains, it's faults and blunders. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control. All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday. We can not undo a single act we performed; we can not erase a single word we said. Yesterday is gone! The other day we should not worry about is tomorrow. With it's possible adversities, it's burdens, it's large promise... Tomorrow is beyond our immediate control. Tomorrow's sun will rise either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds, but it will rise. Until it does, we have no stake in tomorrow, for it is as yet unborn. That leaves only one day, Today. Any man or woman by the grace of God, can fight the battles of just one day. It is only when you and I add the burdens of those two other eternities; yesterday and tomorrow that we break down. It is not the experience of today that drives man mad; it is the remorse or bitterness for something that happened yesterday and the dread of what tomorrow may bring. Let us, therefore, Journey but One Day At A Time."

K. Rogerson

Some Ignatius for a Sunday ...

Pray unceasingly for the rest of men...Meet their angry outbursts with your own gentleness, their boastfulness with your humility, their revilings with your prayers, their error with your constancy in the faith and their harshness with your meekness.

- Ignatius of Antioch

Epistle to the Ephesians

Bread and Water

COMMONEST THINGS BLESSED

‘Ye shall serve the LORD your God,and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water.’-Exodus 23:25

WHAT a promise is this! To serve God is in itself a high delight. But what an added privilege to have the blessing of the Lord resting upon us in all things! Our commonest things become blessed when we ourselves are consecrated to the Lord. Our Lord Jesus took bread and blessed it; behold, we also eat of blessed bread. Jesus blessed water and made it wine: the water which we drink is far better to us than any of the wine with which men make merry; every drop has a benediction in it. The divine blessing is on the man of God in everything, and it shall abide with him at every time.

What if we have only bread and water! Yet it is blessed bread and water. Bread and water we shall have. That is implied, for it must be there for God to bless it. ‘Thy bread shall be given thee, and thy waters shall be sure.’ With God at our table, we not only ask a blessing, but we have one. It is not only at the altar but at the table that He blesses us. He serves those well who serve Him well. This table-blessing is not of debt, but of grace. Indeed, there is a treble grace; He grants us grace to serve Him, by His grace feeds us with bread, and then in His grace blesses it.

-C.H. Spurgeon ~ Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith, Daily Entry

Have a blessed day everyone!

invisable, unbelievable and impossible!

"Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible."

~Corrie Ten Boom

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 ...

Tim, The Messy Christian

Some thoughts that have been on my mind for awhile now that I would like to share with you this evening ........ If I was going to write a book, this would be the title--Tim, the Messy Christian. It's amazing to me that so many believers pretend to have it all together--all sorted out and tied up in a pretty bow. So many put on a happy face for Sunday morning and they talk the usual Christianese...all the while hiding from what they're really feeling or wishing they could say or tell someone about. What I'm curious about is why do so many messy Christians pretend to be all put-together? I wish I had happy thoughts about church and how it helps people. Right now I have trouble with it. I've seen some really great Churches too but I've seen so many times that the church shuns the messy people--they're just not really welcome. Jesus said, "Love one another as I have loved you." How many people did Jesus shun or turn away? How many people didn't feel good enough to be near Him or not welcome around Him? NONE. Jesus surrounded Himself with a rather motley crew of guys (and women too) who were basically nobody's by the worlds standards. These men, He would later call His disciples. Jesus welcomed tax collectors and prostitutes--those shunned by the world but important to Him. He welcomed children, whose presence was seen as a bother or burden--even to His disciples. To me, Jesus' mandate to love as He loved is clear. We need to follow His lead and love the messy people.

I've in the past pretended for a long time...but longed for a place where I can be me and come with all my issues--big and small--to a place that draws out healing and life and the Spirit of the Living God in one another. I don't want to be a part of a 'shiny' church, I want to be part of a community that is real and raw and life-giving. I'm not a cynic--I long for revival and life in the church and I believe it is possible, in fact in places it is happening. But it is possible only if we're willing to confront our weaknesses and stop pretending to be all put-together. We have to acknowledge that we are messy believers who don't have it all figured out, and we have to have that modeled from the leadership of our churches. Brokenness and humility and weakness are not signs of a bad Christian or a bad leader, they're signs of a real Christian--a real leader. So what are we afraid of? I don't know about you, but I'm drawn to the idea of messy Christians openly acknowledging their messiness and their need for their Savior. That's me, as best I can describe myself: a messy Christian who is daily in desperate need of and in love with his Savior.

Life According to Wile E. Coyote

When I was a child, I used to sit for hours and watch Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show. In fact I have a couple DVD's now for the 'kids'! lol Of course I was always curious about why Wile E. Coyote kept trying to catch the Road Runner when he always failed. And of course I always wanted him to get that annoying bird! And I think I may have an answer of why he kept at it ... We live in a plan "B" world!

Plan "A" is what we want; what WE plan; our goals; our desires. Plan "A" is all about us, like the coyote was all about getting the Road Runner. We stress and obsess over our plans, giving not much regard for plan "B" possibilities. Plan "B" is what God's reality is for our lives. True, plan "B" can be painful and it can be unpleasant, but we were never guaranteed an easy ride through this life. Jesus tells us that we WILL have troubles, but don't worry ... He has given us exactly what we need to overcome the trials and troubles.

Now that I'm older I know that sometimes Plan "B" requires that we learn a lesson, sometimes it's just a matter of getting our eyes off of our wants. I also find the greatest joys I have had include (David Crowder Quote) "A Beautiful Collision". That's the point in which God's will for my life and my hearts truest desire collide. God's plan for my life has turned out WAY better than the measly plans I thought up! We worry and stress too much! But we are commanded in Scripture to turn all our anxieties over to God and let Him worry for us (1 Peter 5:6-7). I'm all in favor of "letting go and let God" because I manage to botch things up every time without even trying!

So the moral of this story? Want less stress? Turn it over to God and TURN LOOSE, you're going to need both hands for this adventure ride! Have a great day everyone! Tim

A Beautiful Collision/David Crowder

The breaking makes a sound I never knew

Could be so beautiful and loud

Fury filled and we collide

So courageous until now, fumbling and scared

So afraid You'll find me out

Alone here with my doubt

Here it comes, a beautiful collision

Is happening now

There seems no end to where You begin and

There I am now

You and I collide

Something circling inside

Spaciously you fly, infinite and wide

Like the moon and sky, collide

Here it comes now

Miracles

I like this quote ....

A miracle is not the breaking of the laws of the fallen world.It is the re-establishment of the laws of the kingdom. -Sourozh

Your C-Factor

This quiz was sent to me from a staunch Calvinist friend of mine and I figured I would give it a shot ... How Calvinist are you?

http://www.trouw.nl/religie-filosofie/nieuws/article2050113.ece

I scored a 56%

Apparently ... I'm not so staunch ....

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

God of Thunder

I was going to write on some positive thing about God, being a Christian or whatever but I'm not in the mood...lol

God is a God of love, as we all know, but there are other attributes as well. God can also get really ticked off! In Numbers 13-14 God was really torqued at the Israelites because of their unbelief and even threatened to destroy them. Then an amazing thing happened as God "changed His mind" after listening to an appeal of mercy from Moses. This is interesting as does God need mortals like Moses to reason with Him and hold Him to His promises? God obviously CAN be hurt by the people He loves.

What I get from this and other parts of the Bible, especially the Psalms and the Prophets, that He wants to engage our minds AND emotions. He wants us to feel fear, alarm at whats around us, the tension of our will against His. He wants us to sense when things are wrong, and wants us to ask and ask again until we find out where that wrong is. Much of God does seems to have the goal of shocking us to our senses. To get to that awareness where we become eventually contrite and humble before Him (repentance) and with others.

This is where mercy is found. Grace received does enable grace to be given... It doesn't seem to be a matter of being nice to a God who could fry you in an instant but being very real with Him. Its not appeasement per say but struggle that gets us to the place of intimacy... (Kinda reminds me of the story of Jacob.) Our God is also the God of Thunder ... and not just this cheesy, wishy washy, always positive wimp type of god...

Just some thoughts

sets of sheep

Just wanted to share with you these three verses, which I imagine most of us have heard bunches of times...

"Let me ask you this. What would you do if you had a hundred sheep and one of them wandered off? Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go look for the one that had wandered away? I am sure that finding it would make you happier than leaving the ninety-nine that never wandered off. That's how it is with your Father in heaven. He doesn't want any of these little ones to be lost.-Matthew 18:12-14 CEV

I've taken this to mean we are all precious in His sight. But here is an interesting take I heard recently that shown some new light on the verses for me. If a person ever collects a set of anything, be it postage stamps, baseball cards, Burger King "Lord of the Rings" figures or whatever, its the last one that really matters. The one which completes the set is "THE ONE"! Without it, the collection is flawed. An interesting take huh? He loves each one of us so, that with any one of us missing, the collection is flawed... Have a great day!

pitching His tent

This morning I've been thinking about holiness and holy living. What kicked this off was this familiar verse is 1 Peter v. 16 "Ye shall be holy; for I am holy." Therefore our goal in life is not happiness, health or any of these things (these are the things added "unto you") but holiness.

Unfortunately I have been less-than-holy so many times! Sheeeeesh! From childhood I have associated holiness with this long string of do's and don'ts. But seeing holiness as rule keeping really causes some major problems and really limits what Biblical holiness is. OK, the "rules" more likely than not are Biblically based there is this big tendency to obey rules instead of God. And this concern for the letter of the law which cause us to lose its spirit. Then comes this attitude that we can be holy through our own efforts in spite of the fact Paul said that there can be no holiness apart from the Holy Spirit, and its grace that causes us to even want to be holy! Then there are those whose pious efforts at rule keeping, and are even good at it publicly at least. These are the ones who like to point fingers at others, gossip ect. I've been the one who has had the fingers pointed at me and on many occasions. Then it dawned on me "Thank God I'm everything I never wanted to be," you know what I mean? Its obvious I can never live up to it and am totally dependent on grace. I can never make it on following the rules. Rule keeping leads to self righteousness anyways which is the very opposite of true holiness! Its hard to be humble and "esteem our brothers (and sisters) above ourselves" when we are doing it on our own.

This may be a Tim tangent but I think it fits. From Exodus to Revelation we have this imagery of God "pitching His tent" among His people. A truly awesome thought when you think about it for any length of time. In Exodus 29:44-45 "...I will dwell among the Israelites." In John 1:14 "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." And taken to its conclusion, John when describing the new heaven and new earth in Revelation 21:3 "...He shall dwell among them,..." Each time the word "dwell" means to "pitch a tent" in the original language. Now we are getting to what holiness is. God pitching His tent; first in the tabernacle, then in Christ and Christ in us, and then in our future life... At its base holiness means wholeness. One cannot be whole without a relationship with their Creator. It is living in Gods presence .. He has pitched His tent among us.

These are strange verses maybe to quote on this subject from Zechariah 14:20-21. This is a picture of the millennial reign of God. "On that day "Holy to the Lord" will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lords house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. Every pot in Jerusalem and Judea will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and pans and cook in them." Say what?!

Heres what I think its getting at; When God is at the center of your life, then every moment, every commonplace object of your existence is touched by His presence. Visibly true some future day, spiritually true now. There is this talk of "victory" in the Christian life which I think is kinda skewed. It seems to mean how God will conquer sin for us and is self centered. Sin is not simply the wrong we do to others and/or ourselves. All sin is a root rebellion or offense to God Himself. Its all about Jesus, what we can do to please Him, not what He can do for us. Personal victories may come but is the result, not the object. I'll conclude with Jesus' parable of the vine and its branches. (John 15:1-8) Holiness is walking with our creator completing us to be what we are supposed to be. In this passage Jesus explained that we do not PRODUCE fruit through our own efforts but BEAR fruit only by abiding in Him and letting Him work through us. Another thing that comes out of this passage is that what we are called to do or be is IMPOSSIBLE! "Apart from me you can do nothing." To grow in holiness is to grow closer to Jesus, knowing Him more clearly, practicing His presence in even the littlest of things, loving Him more, obeying Him more... Even when we seemingly screw up our lives repeatedly, He cleans up and we are back into holiness with our first step of obedience.

We are (not will be but ARE) a Holy Nation 1 Peter 2:9...

"us"or "them"

Lately the word "tolerance" has come up rather often and I have a comment or two on it. The word seems to have changed in meaning over the past few years, or so it seems. Real tolerance is respecting the rights of others to hold opinions even when we believe those opinions to be wrong. (Respect being a key word here.) Real tolerance means respecting all viewpoints and is a Christian virtue. It is not silencing all debate but allowing for all opinions. The problem seems to come in when we try to do the job better than the Holy Spirit. Its the Holy Spirits job to convict of sin not ours. Our job is to get the Word out there and to live it. Starting with those closest to us and working outward. God promises His word will not return void...we need to stand on that. Its not our job to argue it, its His to convict.

There seems to be a new view of tolerance defining it as moral neutrality-refusing to judge any behavior as right or wrong. Values are not morally neutral, something that should be obvious really. For example they still occasionally burn widows on the husbands funeral pyre in India, something most of us I'm sure do not consider humane to say the least...

An aside ... but one reason I think that Christians get "intolerant" is because the real action of our faith goes virtually unnoticed it seems by those around us. We want action and we want it right now! It seems that the "enemy" is making big gains all over the place. But I think it is time for us to back off our super power zoom lens and go to the wide angle to get the big picture. The reality is the Kingdom of God is written on our hearts not the headlines in the news. Lets face it, if the Creator of the heavens and the earth is "embarrassed" by what goes on in the news, its because He allows it. He really is in control!

When Christians act according to our faith, the result is a goodness the world at large knows little about. All over the place Christians build schools, orphanages, hospitals, rescue children thrown out to die, helped the poor, visited the prisons, the list goes on and on. We seem to forget that the New Testament was written around the most corrupt and morally loose time in Roman History, yet a small group of people powered by the Spirit, toppled an empire! The power structure was totally against them for sure. The evidence from history is clear. Despite all of our human faults Christianity has made the world and the people in it far better than the world would be without it. With God on our side, who can be against us? When we really really believe this, there really is no need to get so excited by this or that. We just keep on keeping on, one act at a time in His presence. Its not about "us"or "them." Its all about Jesus...

Camping With Elijah

Good afternoon! A thought on 1Kings 19:9-14. Elijah, had said so often that he had “been very jealous for the Lord of Hosts.” A fiery intense man for sure, one I can’t wait to meet in heaven. (Can you imagine going camping with Elijah…but I digress…) Yet for all that, there is something very profound that the great prophet does not understand, prompting God to teach him a lesson:

“And He said: ‘Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord.’ And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.”

When vigilantism, thunder and zeal have done their best, the “still small voice” will, in the end, prove far more effective. Just a thought …

Tim, who has been camping of late ….

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!

Junkyard Theology

I met with God in a junkyard yesterday. This weekend I took an adventure with my son Ben to a junkyard. Looking for parts for his baby Ford Explorer of course! lol But I think I saw some shadows of God there as well. I saw Him first in a sticker in my foot. I was searching for a jack that someone had left out there so that we could use it, and as I bent down to pick off the sticker - I found the jack. Oh, thank You Lord!

And then again later on, as I gazed about - sitting atop what once was a screaming hot red firebird, the wind was blowing and I was just generally feeling God's love. I wondered: how many of us belong in a junkyard? And how many times do people look us over: needing or wanting just one part of us or another? Yet God pulls us out of the yard; all the parts we have with us. And He cleans us up, takes out the bad parts - replaces them with shiny new ones. After all the major repairs are made, He gives us a beautiful glossy paint job. If we mess up and ask for forgiveness, He runs us through the car wash.

So today, I'm thanking God for pulling me out of the junkyard and making me into what is becoming beautiful car! Or in my son's case ... A beautiful red Ford Explorer ...Abba, my prayer today is that You would remind me when I need routine maintenance. I love You, and all I want is to serve You and bring You glory! Keep me renewed, Lord Jesus!

Amen.