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

Perspective

WOW!
That was my thought as I watched the sun come this morning over the hillside looking down on the Lake of the Ozarks. I have been blessed the last couple of days to be there with my friend Norm, fishing. He owns a cabin and a boat there that we spent our time on catching white bass. Notice I didn't say fishing for, but catching! There is a difference, and it was great!
Last night, as we catching them, God gave us a really special moment. To the one side of us, about 100 feet away, there were 3 deer grazing. Off to our left, there appears a bald eagle, circling for a catch himself. He drops from the sky, not more than 40 or 50 feet from us; but comes away empty taloned, and then flies directly overhead of us, not more than 20 feet off the ground. At that moment, the biggest catch of the day struck my line. All this while the sun is beginning to set in the west. It was too awesome for words! Minutes later we decide to head in for the night, with the nearly full moon shimmering across the lake ahead of us. I am not sure it gets any better than that!

But I had to pause and put it into perspective for myself. You see, the day, as great as it was, was quite cool and windy. We fished with parkas and gloves on most of the day. As we headed in, I pulled my hood down tight and bent my head to keep the bite of the wind off my face. On most days I'm pretty sure I would whined a bit about the cold and wind, even if just to myself, and yet I thought the day was spectacular. The reason is that the day before, it rained all day and was even more windy and colder than yesterday. That made yesterday seem so much more bearable and reminded me that so much is determined by perspective.

Therefore, decide today, this morning, or better yet the night before just what kind of a day you're going to have; and then watch for God to bless it!

PJ

Yes And No

The other day I wrote about how I must choose the attitude of my everyday life, no matter the circumstances. I know that is true. But what about when we are overcome with fear? Is it the same? Can overcoming our fears be as simple as the choices we make? I think that answer to that is both yes and no.

I have spent a lot of my adult life dealing with my childhood fears, struggling at times not to give in; even to the point of having to endure panic attacks. Will a simple decision on my part to not be afraid or to not allow those fears to rule me win the battle? So far, I would have to say for me the answer has been no. In and of myself, I haven't been able to do it.

But when I take the time to realize just where those fears stem from. That they are not from God, but from actions of myself or others under the influence of the enemy of my soul. That inside my heart reigns the King of kings and the Lord of lords that has already defeated that lying rascal. That Jesus has told me again and again that He is for me and not against me, and that He has made available to me all the power of heaven. That in Christ, I can do all things. Then at that moment, when I take the time to consider what is really truly true and truth; I can overcome those fears, and the answer is yes. But it's not me doing it; it is Jesus in me that enables me to make the right choice.
And what is available in Christ Jesus to me, is available to you as well.

PJ

This Idea Called Prayer

We who believe in God, believe in prayer; but have you ever just listened to someone pray? I mean truly listen, because most of the time we really are off thinking about something else, or what we're going to pray, thoughts like, "Is God hearing this?". Better yet, tape record yourself praying sometime and then ask yourself, "If you were God, would you be listening to this?" When we pray, I truly believe we spend way too much of our time telling God what it is exactly He is to do for us, when, and how. You have to admit, that is sort of arrogant of us, isn't it. Or maybe it's just a testimony of our own self-centeredness.
Take some time to read what was going on in Jerusalem those 10 days leading up to Pentecost (Acts 2). They, being the disciples, were before God in fasting and prayer. Not telling God what He ought to do, because not a one of them woke up on Pentecost morning thinking to themselves, 'Today I think I'll speak in a foreign language to some folks who are far from God so they can understand how awesome Jesus is and be saved.' Peter wasn't ready with any 3 point sermon on why they needed Jesus. And they weren't making plans on how to disciple 3000 people to be ready to go home and share about Jesus in the next couple of days. Nope, they were spending those 10 days fasting and praying that God would show up in their lives and reveal to them what He wanted them to do next!
Could it be that is what we are missing in our prayer times? An earnest seeking of God to come and reveal to us Himself, His purpose, and His ways. I believe maybe it is. So give it a try and let me know what happens. Spend 10 days fasting and seeking God's ways and see if Pentecost doesn't happen for you like it did back then!
PJ