An Advertisement for Christians...

I saw an add for "Christian Debt Services" on line the other day. I didn't go to the web site, and I can't find it again so I can't give you all the info on exactly what they offer, but I simply want to say that as I glanced over at the ad, my mind thought I was looking at an ad for "Doubt Services."

I think THAT would be far more useful to Christians, don't you think?

Lake prayer

I am headed to the lake today. Some friends and some relatives are coming along, and yes, even the dog. But we have tried to get out there three other times this summer, even going so far as to get the boat out of the warehouse, dust it off, gas it up and have it sitting in front of the house "on the hook" waiting patiently to get wet. And we even had various friends who spent the night on our various couches so they could go with us - only to not go.

What happened to keep us dry? A webcam.

Yes, the lake we go to is called "Castaic," which is apparently "Windy beyond all use" in some alien tongue. And it does get a bit windy sometimes. So much so that if we get a couple of hours on the lake from sunup to about eight we are happy. If we get to enjoy the lake till noon we count it as amazing. But it is the closest large lake to home, and when it's good, it's REAL good. So we try and try.

And the webcam? Well, they have set up a web site with an automated weather station with wind speed and direction, and a webcam - so I can get up and see the lake right from here. We can then make the decision whether or not to make the one-hour drive, or just go put the boat away. And mope. The picture above is fresh off the webcam. OK - so the sun isn't up and you can't see a thing, but I have sandwiches to make and iceboxes to pack, so check back here later if you want to see how it turns out.

Today? Looks good. Funny - I was just thinking the other day that I have asked God for a webcam into my future. I have never used those exact words until right now, but that's pretty much what I want when I ask Him for help in deciding my future plans. I say, "Which way should I go here, Father?"

But I may very well only be offering two choices -

So - today I take the Spiritual Webcam offline. Lord - I'll go where you tell me. No, I'm not going to offer you two or three choices of things I want to do, or directions I want to go. I will open the field to all you have. Anything. Oh, and as long as I'm praying, can we have a nice day at the lake today?
Thanks Lord,

Amen.

New things. It's time.

I am sitting in my office. The phone is not ringing. People are not walking in. The place is a ghost town. Hope has sold a few spas lately, but we are still not covering expenses. I am getting more and more sure that it is time to give up. Quit. I'm not a quitter, generally. But I think it may be the time to look into something else.

Now - just so you know - at the exact instant I typed the above, the phone rang, and somebody was asking for directions. They came about three minutes later, and bought a new cover for their Hot Tub, a $425 (plus tax) sale. That's a nice bonus! But it still doesn't pay the rent. It would pay the rent on a storage facility, or smaller place, but I really do think God is trying to show us it's time. Time to move on.

Add to that the fact that I was listening to a sermon by my former pastor (Dr. Tony Cervero) and he said, "there are times we may think it's all over. But it's never over until God SAYS it's over."

So - is that what you are saying God? You started plenty of people over in the Bible. Moses - and NO I'm not trying for any comparisons here - blew it big time. He spent 40 years in the desert as a result, but God used him in a huge way.

Dear God:
I am ready to start over again, if that is your will. Direct me, free me from the things which would hold me in place, and let me know if it is truly time. I'm yours, and I trust you.

Amen.

The favor of God

We have enjoyed the favor of God, my family and I. I love that phrase, "the favor of God," because for most of us it means some certain level of comfort, money, security, and things like that. But what if God decides that He needs to help us develop character? Or that we need to drop a few possessions along the way so that we may more fully focus on Him, on others, or on a Holy lifestyle? What if we simply are bogged down by a love of money and things, or what if our security (faith) begins to be derived from our income or our bank account instead of God himself?

These are all good questions - don't you think?

Exodus 32:11
But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. "O LORD," he said, "why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

I'm back

Well - I went to Weight Watchers today for the first time in months. Months!! Wow - how could so much time pass so very quickly? Well, it did. And that's not all that happened quickly - I have gained weight.

I found a long time ago that I need a very simple recipe for losing weight: watch what I eat, and exercise daily. So simple. Yet, I slowly tapered off of watching what I was eating, and my exercise slowly dropped from little to none.

But -

I'm back. I walked this morning. Then I went and weighed in. And I am about to go over my tracking program to be sure all my favorite foods are correctly listed so I know how many points I am consuming with each and every morsel. And - I hope I'll get to post a weight loss amount next Monday, a week from today.

A tale of two charts

I have many friends. And of those many friends, I have many who are struggling with the down economy. And of those, two come to mind this morning. I pray for my own business all the time, and I have to admit that I pray less for my friends. I want to change that, so I'm going to take some steps to put together a list, or program reminders onto my phone or something like that. I have done this in the past successfully, but one by one all the systems expired or got set aside.

It's amazing to me to watch trends. I am on a weight-loss odyssey, and keeping a chart of my weight shows me if I am trending up, or down. Down is better. I keep a chart of my walking, and it shows at a glance if I am walking more, less, or a good faithful amount, and how often. Those two charts have an amazing ability to coincide with each other. A mathematician would say they have an "inverse or negative relationship."

As I walk less, I lose less weight. Technically, a chart (I have one, which will not be posted here at this time...) would show my walking graph descending, and my weight graph ascending.

Funny how I can so clearly see the relationship, and yet there are days, even weeks when I just can't conjure up the strength of will to do what needs to be done to reverse the trend.

Same with prayer and spiritual growth.

Deep emotion vs. depression

I had an epiphany last night. The setting: Hope invited me to watch a movie together, and we don't do that often these days, so I gladly said yes. That means that we chose one title from the over 300 DVD we have on the shelf, and when Hope chooses the title, we generally end up watching a 'chick flick.' OK - so be it. She chose the tear-jerking winner of the century, "PS I Love You."

I had not seen this flick in a year or so - call me lucky guys - so I let myself get into it. And sure enough, it began to move my emotions. I was saddened - and to distract me, I began to look around the room. There on the shelf were the cremated remains of my parents. Hmm. I might have chosen a happier thing to dwell upon, but just at that point in the movie they present the Urn containing the cremains of one of the lead characters. It was fashioned after his guitar case, and it shows up in scene after scene from that point on in the movie. And it dawned on me that I still have my mom's remains sitting in a plastic container from the cremation people. Sort of a brown Tupperware box as it were. I have a nice wooden box for Dad - he worked with wood all his life and I think he would like the fact that it looks like a book sitting on the shelf - but I have wanted to get a matching unit for mom.

So picture the scene - if I look at the movie and tune in to it, I get sad. If I look around the room, I get sad. If I try to lighten the mood by making jokes or funny little statements about anything at all, Hope gives me one of those big sighs which also tends to create a certain type of sadness in me. So to busy my mind in a happier place, I pull out my iPhone and start checking my Ebay items. And what is the first thing I go to look at? Cremation urns. I had to search under several headings, but I finally found a matching box for Mom. Wow - I was getting deep now.

I was so utterly down at that point! And that is the point at which I had the epiphany: emotions can provide us with a rich, deep pallet of color upon which God can have a free hand to paint pain, sorrow, joy, regret, more joy, remembrance, but they do not have to be the backdrop to despair or depression. I can enjoy a sad movie or a deep emotional trip down memory lane and not have it be the open door to depression. God can use every one of our emotions, even anger I'm sure, and if we allow Him to sanctify it, we can watch as He uses it for our good - and perhaps the good of the people around us! Go God!

I was lifted - but the odd thing is: I never left the deep emotional place I was in. Its not as if joy suddenly sprang eternal in my soul. I just had a warm, deep, God moment sitting there in our family room with my wife by my side and the dog at my feet.

Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm.

I am on a trip. Reading trip. Through the Bible in a year - using a plan from the good folks at:

BibleGateway.com

I have been reading in the book of Job for some time now, and it can be agonizing to read the interactions between Job and his 'friends.'

But it really gets rolling when God begins to speak. Wow - I love the imagery that is used. God basically leaves no room for response - His opening question would silence most of us: ""Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?"

We have all had to use versions of this approach in our conversations with each other, but of course, we have to soften it a bit if we expect the conversation to continue... God gets to lay it out cold like that. And if God came along and asked that question, directed at you or me, what would be our response?

God has a history of not pulling punches. Even when the communication is non-verbal. For example, think of what God was saying when He sent Jesus to die on the cross. It can be boiled down to this:
"You are cut off from me because of your sins. But I want you badly enough that I will pay the biggest price ever paid to bring you back to me."

So many people tune out at any suggestion that they are less than perfect, and here is God, basically typing in all caps, that we are sinners. Wow - what an old-fashioned word that is. But it's power cannot be denied: we are dead without God. Lifeless. Cut off. Separated, useless, worthless to all but Him. And yet the value He places in us drove Him to offer a sacrifice which none of us could ever come close to offering.

Thanks Father God, for caring, loving, and buying us back.

Milk vs. Meat

ACTS 15
"23b To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia: Greetings. 24We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 25So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— 26men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. 28It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell."

There is a distinct difference between the Old Testament and the New - and it is very well illustrated by this passage, among others.

Here we see the reaction that Gentiles have when they are asked to become Jewish: to make their religion an all-encompassing lifestyle, rather than just a part of their life. And they panic.

If you look at the teachings which the elders sent to this church, they are not that demanding: don't eat certain food items, don't eat blood, and avoid sexual immorality. I would propose that this would be a MAJOR change for a lot of people today: even a lot of elected officials...

Just thinking...

Wow - it's a gray day on the coast! I looked out this morning, I even let the dog out and watched as she stepped around puddles, but I didn't really realize that it had actually rained a little until I saw a post about it on Facebook.

Makes me think - where do I get my information about the world around me? There are two worlds I live in: the physical, which is falling apart I'm afraid. But I also live in the spiritual: connected to God by a relationship with Jesus Christ.

I guess I had better be sure which one has pre-eminence. If I am sad because my business is doing so poorly, but not bothered by the people around me who have no hope for eternity, I may be letting the wrong world be my focus.

Makes me think...

Wow

Acts 13:44On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.

46Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: "We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. 47For this is what the Lord has commanded us:
" 'I have made you[f] a light for the Gentiles,
that you[g] may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'[h]"

48When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.

I have nothing to add to this. Lord - don't let me become cast aside: do not let me reject your message. I know I can do that by my life, even if my words differ from my actions. Amen.

New things

Acts 11
Peter Explains His Actions

1The apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3and said, "You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them."

I posted a blog about this situation the other day, but in my daily reading I came back to the same narrative, or actually the followup narrative wherein Peter explains himself.

I find it most interesting that Peter even HAD to explain himself - but he did, and he did a good job of it: the men who began by criticizing him ended up convinced that God was doing a new thing.

How often do we look at something that God is doing in our life, our society, or even our church and begin by criticizing? We may even have some reason to do so - but God is about new things. You and I were made new when we set Christ as Lord in our lives - you would think we would be more geared up for new things.

Well - grow in God, and watch for Him to do new things around you -
And IN you.

Camp Coffee

My mom taught me how to make camp coffee when I was a child. No, I didn't DRINK coffee as a child, but my parents did and they pretty much had it every morning of every day of my life as I was growing up.

One time we were on one of the many camping trips we took, and we discovered that the coffee pot was not with us. We had a larger, enameled, old "coffee pot" which we used to heat water for washing up and such, but the pot with the little percolating basket was back at home. So Mom filled the pot we had with fresh water, tossed the coffee grounds right into the water and set the pot in the camp fire. As it came to a boil she tossed in some eggshells to help the grounds settle, or to take the edge off the bitterness, or some such thing. I only remember that the adults all said later that it was a fine cup of "Arbuckle."

It's amazing to me that there is no real way to pass this down to my kids. They don't drink coffee - at least not the kind you get for less than $5 from Starbucks, Peets, or Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. They also have only been camping a handful of times, mostly with scouting troops or other crowds of people.

So how do I pass this memory - which fills me with warmth and joy - on to my kids? I guess I don't. Telling them about how Mama made that pot of coffee could be nothing more than a recipe to them. It could be about the tannins, and pH of the water, and the fact that some folks add a whole egg to the larger pots to settle the grounds, or any of a hundred other details. But it will not contain the smokey smell of the campfire, the snap of the firewood as it burned, the buzz of the other campsites around us as the day was getting started and people were lighting fires, waking slumbering kids, flipping back the flap on the front of the Coleman tents, as the sunlight was filtering at a crazy low angle through the tall trees along the shore of the river campground. THAT is what surrounds this memory for me, but the pot of camp coffee forms the core. Amazing.

I guess we should all go camping together, and let them experience it for themselves. But, of course, that would only give them memories of their own which could be very different than mine. But their memories, hopefully, would be more dear to them that way.

So it is. We rise or fall as a nation based on our ability to pass things on to the next generation. Things like selfless vs. selfish. Things like opening doors for strangers. Helping others, giving time and money to those in need, working hard, serving God.

I think I have done my best - I hope I still have time now to pass on some of the more fringe stuff - the 'stuff of like' which surrounds my memories.

This 'getting old' stuff, It's not for babies, is it!