A quote to live by!
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Follow God, instead, to where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Archive for November, 2007
For that which I am Thankful
It is easy for me to forget all the blessings in my life when I am in the myopic state of mind and only focus on the things that are plaguing me and not those things which are blessing me. So many blessings occur and I do not take the time to recognize it. Here are a few things I am thankful for.
Raindrops on roses and….(O.K. I am not that lame)
1) Friends I have made via this blog. I have had great encounters with writers and other blog friends this last year via The High Calling Blogs and others.
2) Family. It has been a hard year on Amy and me in the health department, but here in Colorado Springs there are great Doctors, some of the nationally renowned for treating the condition (s) Amy has.
3) A job at a ministry that is really having a great impact for the kingdom. I wake up and go to work in the morning knowing that I have an impact in the life of a child.
4) Freedom to write what I want as I want to. So many countries do not have the freedoms we so easily enjoy here. I know that seems a little trite, but it is very true. I have been in countries where saying the word Christian gets you arrested, if you are lucky.
Of course there are so many others. I could take up my whole blog space just writing things to be thankful for. Colossians 3:15 says “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” I am thankful for the peace that comes in knowing that I am a child of the king.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and family. May it be a restful
and fruitful time off.
Logan and the Calf!
Take a moment and listen to this. Take a few more moments and reflect on it. Truly from the mouth of babes. Working with children and raising my own son has taught me to NEVER underestimate a child. This is just confirmation of that. Listen and be blessed! Courtesy of the creative and beautiful soul Kristen behind the blog Lattes and Rainy Days.
My Psalm of Praise
My God, My God, how awesome is your name.
You are eternal and your way never fails me; Your passion
is for me and for your people.
My God, My God, I will sing you praise. I will shout your name
from the rooftops. I will tell your people of your goodness and mercy
and justice. I will tell of your great faithfulness unto all generations.
My God, My God, your name is like honey on my lips;
I will forever dwell in your presence. I will forever
partake in your Glory.
-Selah
Take 10 for Charity
As many of my faithful readers know, a fellow pilgrim in the blogsphere name Charity Singleton is battling cancer. Many of her friends and aquaintances around the blogdom (is that a word?) have been chipping in to try and help her emotionally and spiritually. Now of course we are called to do that, but we are to minister to one another in a practical and real way when we can. We may sit behind our computers and not know Charity face to face, but we can reach out to her in a tangible and real way. Here is what I am suggesting.
1) Take 10 minutes of your day to be in prayer for Charity and for those who are like her fighting this good fight every day. Pray for her battle armor to be strong, her ax to stay sharp and her mental disposition to stay on the sunny side through all this.
2) Write a check for 10 dollars and send it to:
The Charity Singleton Fund at Forum Credit Union. The account # is 2010792. Donations can be mailed to PO Box 50738, Indianapolis, IN 46250-0738. Questions can be directed to Forum at 800.382.5414.
Some of us might be able to give a little more, some of us a lot more. Please consider doing what the Lord lays on your heart. Charity does a lot of freelance writing, photography and painting. She does not have a disability policy we are aware of and she is in need of our practical support.
3) Write a blogpost that links back to this one, or write one of your own with the same information and link it back to this one. This is not a shameless ploy for me to get more web traffic, it is a deep felt cry from my heart and soul for a sister in need.
Just some quick math for those who think 10 dollars is not all that much. I recieve about 2000 unique visits a month to my blog. I do not spend a ton of time advertising my blog, and I know others of you do. Some of you get a lot more traffic. Lets assume that all the people who do this represent a total of 20000 blog hits a month and one percent of those who read your blog respond. That is 200 people. 200 people times 10 dollars is 2000 dollars. Not a bad start and that probably covers most of one month of expenses for her. (I do not claim to know her expenses, just averaging here)
Please prayerfully consider doing this. And then doing it again a few times as you can. Charity is in Chemo and Radiation for the next few months. She needs our love and support.
Albert Mohler
“The Christian faith is tied to words. To be a Christian is to bear a responsibility to communicate and to communicate in a way that bears witness to the truth of what we believe.”
Indirectly quoted from a recent speech at Godblogcon.
Vocational Ministry
So many times I have heard a friend or a fellow Christian say “that is not my calling” (including me at different times) when it comes to secular work. The logic goes something like this, “I am called by God, working in ministry is God’s work and therefore I must work in a ministry in order to minister to God.” The good news is that God calls His children not just to work in a traditional ministry, He calls His children to work in all different places and circumstances.
In western society we are conditioned by Greek thinking still today. Many of our social attitudes and views are conditioned by influential thinkers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Greeks valued the life of the mind and not the day to day work. They believed it was for slaves and those who were uncultured. We still model that social attitude today in viewing our work as a means to an end and not a vital place to minister in our daily walk.
In contrast to Greek thought the view of Hebrews were much more holistic. The Hebrew word for work is Avodah which also means worship. The word is completely interchangeable in Hebrew writing. Work and worship were one and the same. Whether or not a Hebrew was working, was at home, or was in the Synagogue they were involved in avodah. Next time I find myself saying I want to go “do ministry” I need to do a gut check and realize that I already am, in all that I do.
I love that studying the Life of Paul can be so challenging, but so rewarding. It is easy to forget that Paul was an awesome spokesman for Christ and responsible for the development of the church AND he worked as a tentmaker to pay his bills. When he had to rely on the church for support it was usually when he was on long journeys or he was raising money for the care of the widow and the orphan.
Next time you look at your job and your heart starts to ask the tough questions, not the least of which is “what is my motivation?” Remember what the Hebrews did, they viewed their vocation as a ministry. Now go out and be the best at what you do and do it all for the glory of God. God does not care if you are scooping poop, writing novels, teaching, preaching, singing or flipping burgers. He just wants you to do it with an attitude of worship and praise. God will grant the increase in His timing.
Tolerance as a virtue!
I recently sat through a job interview (not at CI mind you) and they made me read and agree to their company vision statement before they would inteview me. At the first chance they were able to the inserted the word tolerant. Often times it is paired with the word diverse and employee focused. I absolutely agree with being tolerant, but in todays culture the word tolerant now is equated with accepting. I have to tolerate (read accept) your decisions and beliefs that are contrary to my own.
As Christians we are to be the most tolerant people on earth, and we are. We are ruled by the premise of love thy neighbor. Unfortunately there are people out there like Fred Phelps who use the gospel for their own agenda. All through the 2000 years since Jesus walked the earth people have seen the power that comes with the gospel and used it for their own contrived end.
One definition of the word tolerant is showing respect for the rights or opinions or practices of others. Christians show respect to other beliefs and practices, but we do not condone them. If we allowed them to move along blindly we would not be tolerant at all, we would be hating our neighbor.
As Christians being tolerant means being able to look a person in the eye, talk to them and love them unconditionally. We must realize that all life is Imago Dei, created in the image of God. When we see each person as a unique and loveable individual our hearts will change. That is the kind of tolerance that I espouse. I will not let our creed or our difference of opinion define our relationship to the point that I can not see the love of God at work in your life.
