Blessings

May this Thanksgiving holiday be your best ever! Share lots of stories and laughter and love and food. Drive very carefully, if you must drive; and avoid what the business world now calls 'Black Friday' if at all possible. May the Lord bless you and keep you, may his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone.

PJ

Faith is Risky

Faith has never been about eliminating risk; in order to be safe and secure from all alarm. At least not the faith I read about in the Bible. In fact, it's quite possible that at the very heart of righteousness is the willingness to take a risk. That righteousness has less to do with ' not doing anything wrong' and more to do with 'doing things right'! It's using our God-given gifts to their God-given potential, and that requires risk! Maybe the churches view of santification is too sanitized, and it's view of Christianity is too civilized. Maybe we need to reconsider what made our spiritual ancestors so heroic. (answer: they all took great risk for God's kingdom) God never ever promised a risk-free exitence. There's and old aphorism: "No one ever bet too much on a winning horse." The only regrets any of us will ever had at the end of our lives will be that we didn't seek God more or seek God sooner. Whenever I've been with anyone who is nearing the end of their days on this earth, that's what is on their heart and mind; that's what they regret the most. Don't let that be you. Get out there, take a risk, storm the gates of Hell with a squirt, gun if necessary; but live like the kingdom of God warrior He created you to be!
PJ

Don't Forget to Give Thanks

I read a story recently of a man whose wife left him, leaving him totally devastated, doubting God, and robbed of joy. He decided to go to breakfast at a local diner; which wasn't helping. Lot's of people, all keeping to themselves. So he sat alone in his misery, stirring his coffee.
At a window booth was a young mom and her little girl, and after being served their food the little girl asked in a rather loud voice, "Mommy, why don't we say our prayers here?"
The waitress heard her and went over to her and said, 'Honey, We pray here. Will you say the prayer for us?" Then turning to the crowd of folks eating she called out, "Bow your heads, this little ones is going to pray." Amazingly, 1 by 1, heads went down, and the noise of eating ceased.
"Go ahead, hon." With head little head bowed, and her hands tightly folded, and her eyes squinted shut, she prayed this simple prayer, "God is great, God is good, and we thank him for our food. Amen."
It was like a veil lifted in the diner. People smiles & began to talk with one another, "We ought do that every morning." was repeated more than once. Our friend found his whole attitude and frame of mind had changed because of the little girls simple, but heartfelt prayer. He quietly began to thank God for what he did have & he stopped focusing on what he didn't. A smile crept across his face & he started to be thankful again. As he did, his on dark veil of despair was lifted from his heart.
This Thanksgiving, be sure to take some time to remember all the blessings God has directed your way; especially the blessing of Christ, the forgiveness if sin through Christ, and everlasting life in Christ. And as you remember, give Him your heartfelt thanks. Happy Thanksgiving.
PJ

God on the Edge

Eze. 36:26, "I will give you a new heart, and put my spirit into you..."

A while back I sent out an e-mail complaining about the new $1 coin, encouraging my church not to accept it because the Treasury had chosen to leave 'In God We Trust' off of it. I was quickly corrected, that the coin does indeed have those faith affirming words on it. Apparently, they exist on the edge of the coin, although I have yet to see one. I thought, how appropriate for America today. Every area of our culture and society is attempting to push God to the edge. As I country and nation, I wonder if we truly believe we even need God; except of course in times of national emergency. Other than that, I fear we rather like having God relegated to the edge of our daily lives.
The problem I see with that is that He is still God, and He will never take that position in life. He is the originator and sustainer of all life and love; it all revolves around Him, whether we recognize Him or not. He is and always will be the center of life and love. And I believe when we attempt to move Him the edge of our lives; what we really do is move our ourselves to the edge of His.
PJ

Toilet Tag

If you read my wife's blog at all, which you should because it is so good, (you can find it at http://carolemorden.blogspot.com/) you know that she just had a birthday and we are both in our mid-fifties. Now being mid-50's isn't so bad, most of the time; it does have its moments though where you wonder 'Why?' For instance, I used to go to bed and be asleep in seconds, and then not hardly stir until the alarm went off; at which time I would joyfully jump out of bed, fully rested and ready for another great day! (Truly!! My family will attest to authenticity of that statement.) Now, I go to bed and have to read or watch a little TV until I feel I can go to sleep. Then I will wake several times a night to play 'toilet tag' with Carole. If you're our age or older, you know exactly what I mean. You wake up for one of two reasons. Either you have to go to the bathroom, and the bladder pressure woke you; or your spouse had to go, and their going woke you up, and now your realize, 'Wait a minute, now I have to go too.' or you decide as long as you are awake, you might as well go. We call it 'toilet tag', and absolutely marvel at the rare occasions when it doesn't happen and we sleep through the night! And because we play this silly game in the middle of the night, I no longer awake quite as joyful, nor jump out of my bed, nor am I ready for another day. What I am truly ready for is a little more sleep, knowing full well it isn't going to happen, no matter how long I would lay there. So while being in our mid-50's is OK, it has its downside as well. We have just decided to make the best of it, smile and tell one another as we tumble out of bed and shuffle across the floor to the bathroom, 'Tag, you're it.' Now are you not glad you took the time to read this. Tell me you didn't smile too. Blessings to you.
PJ

Fractured Relationships - Hmmmm

I recently attended a conference dealing with church health, and since relationships is really what church is all about, one of the speakers spoke about the 1st relationships that ever existed and what happened to them. Of course I'm referring to the Genesis account in the Bible. God created Adam & Eve and had this cool relationship with them where He would meet with them and walk & talk with them every morning and evening. Life at that point must of been awesome! Then in chapter 3, sin enters and the relationships begin to fracture, one after the other.

When God shows up for the evening walk and looking for them, where are Adam & Eve? Hiding, because now they are afraid. That's the first relationship that's fractured, the one they had with God until the moment they sinned.
God wants to know why they are hiding, and Adam says it's because they are naked. Until they sinned they were just fine with their nakedness; now they are ashamed of it. That's the 2nd relationship that was shattered; their self-esteem and how they saw themselves, their significance.
When God questions Adam, who does Adam blame? Eve. Who does Eve blame? 'The devil made me do it!' The 3rd relationship now fractured.
As a result of their actions, God now has to make them leave the Garden of Eden, fracturing their relationship with the earth; and man has had to toil to survive by the sweat of his brow ever since.

Did you notice the order in which these fractured relationships took place? 1st, God & man - then man & his self-image - next husband and wife - finally man and his environment. Now here's the notion; what if this order of fractured relationships never changes? We spend vast amounts of time, money, and energy trying to correct our broken relationships with our spouses and others who are significant in our lives; when it's quite possible that doing so is only 'putting a band-aid' on the real issue, which is our fractured relationship with God and our own self-image. I have to admit, it's got me thinking.

PJ