Friday, December 29

Rainbows

The first rainbow was God's promise to Noah to never create such a flood again. God's word is chuck full of "rainbows" for us today:...All things work together for good...to be conformed to the image of His Son...

...I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee...

...My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness...

...And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus...

...But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil...
Have you ever noticed how the vast majority of the promises in the New Testament point to Christ's abilities? And yet we, as humans, have this tendency to think that it's somehow about us and what we can do.

It's not.

It's about Christ and what He can do.

Wednesday, December 27

sun please?

I need the sunshine. I need it. And right now, I miss it...badly.

Friday, December 22

Praise God for His Patience!

Have you ever had one of those experiences where you think you have things under control; you think you have a handle on things, and then something happens to make you realize you don't?

It seems I struggle time and time again with reducing God to a methodology. If I just do 'A', 'B', and 'C', then I'll get a Godly result. I become so focused on doing the "correct thing" that I allow my relationship with Christ to fade into the background. I forget the law of Love. I forget total surrender. I begin to think that I've got it figured out. I think that I have a grip on the situation.

Then time and time again God gently shakes me and says "Wake up. Wake up from this place where you're alienating yourself from our relationship."

It's so easy to get my eyes focused on this horizontal plane of living life. I forget to look up. I forget to focus on the cross and on the empty tomb. I forget that this world is not my home. It doesn't happen overnight. The forgetting is a slow process. And you know what? It usually happens when things are going well for me. When the decisions I make are turning out "good" for me.

And then when it all implodes, that's when I see myself for what I am. That's when I begin to grasp my size compared to the Almighty God of the Universe, and I am humbled. Once again I come crawling back, and once again I feel His love, forgiveness, hope, and tenderness all over again. And I am thankful.

All praise be to the one who saw fit to come and take the form of wretched man in order to communicate to them His love and compassion!

Wednesday, December 20

Who Will Rescue Me?

Ever feel like this? I do...a lot actually.

Thankfully Paul gives us the answer in verse 25 (highlighted).

14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
--Romans 7: 14-24 (NIV)

Lord forgive us for when we think we can stand on our own.
I can take a few tears now and then and just let em out,
I'm not afraid to cry every once in awhile,

Monday, December 18

I can take the rain on the roof of this empty house,
That don't bother me,..

Friday, December 15

Wow...that's a lot of calcs

This week in Switzerland, the BMW Sauber F1 team introduced the world to Albert2, the know-it-all bag of silicon parts it hopes will give it an edge on the tarmac next season. No ordinary pile of sand, this. Albert2 is on the Top-500 list of most powerful supercomputers as Europe's fastest machine. Sporting processors from Intel, with whom the team has a sponsorship deal, Albert2 will take the place of a second wind tunnel -- which teams without supercomputers have been building -- calculating computational fluid dynamics (COMPFLUDY) problems (on its 10 trillion hands) for aerodynamics development. Under the hood, Albert2 has 256 nodes with two Intel Xeon 5160 dual-core processors each, with main memory is 2,048 GB, and maximum computing power of 12,288 gigaflops -- or 12,288,000,000,000 floating-point arithmetic operations per second. BMW says that's like everyone in Munich multiplying two eight-digit numbers every three-and-a-half seconds for an entire year. In other news, BMW-Sauber has laid off the entire population of Munich. – Mike Spinelli

Thursday, December 14

Be the Change

You must BE the change you want to see in the world:

I got this in an email today. It was definitely thought provoking for me, so I thought I'd share. It's a good reminder that it's about relationship.The following might be what Christ would like us to understand about His birthday.

Dear children,
It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season. Maybe you've forgotten that I wasn't actually born during this time of the year and that it was some of your predecessors who decided to celebrate My birthday on what was actually a time of pagan festival, although I do appreciate being remembered anytime.

How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of your own. I don't care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth just, GET ALONG AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER. Now, having said that let Me go on.

If it bothers you that the town in which you live doesn't allow a scene depicting My birth, then just get rid of a couple of Santas and snowmen and put in a small Nativity scene on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that there wouldn't be any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be many of them all around town.

Stop worrying about the fact that people are calling the tree a holiday tree, instead of a Christmas tree. It was I who made all trees. You can and may remember Me anytime you see any tree. Decorate a grape vine if you wish: I actually spoke of that one in a teaching explaining who I am in relation to you and what each of our tasks were. If you have forgotten that one, look up John 15:1-8.

If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth here is my wish list.
1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away from home. They are terribly afraid and lonely this time of year. I know, they tell Me all the time.

2. Visit someone in a nursing home. You don't have to know them personally. They just need to know that someone cares about them.

3. Instead of writing George complaining about the wording on the cards his staff sent out this year, why don't you write and tell him that you'll be praying for him and his family this year. Then follow up. It will be nice hearing from you again.

4. Instead of giving your children a lot of gifts you can't afford and they don't need, spend time with them. Tell them the story of My birth, and why I came to live with you down here. Hold them in your arms and remind them that I love them.

5. Pick someone that has hurt you in the past and forgive him or her.

6. Did you know that someone in your town will attempt to take their own life this season because they feel so alone and hopeless? Since you don't know who that person is, try giving everyone you meet a warm smile it could make the difference. Also, you might consider supporting the local hot-line, they talk with people like that every day.

7. Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren't allowed to wish you a "Merry Christmas" that doesn't keep you from wishing them one. Then stop shopping there on Sunday. If the store didn't make so much money on that day they'd close and let their employees spend the day at home with their families.

8. If you really want to make a difference, support a missionary, especially one who takes My love and Good News to those who have never heard My name. You may already know someone like that.

9. Here's a good one. There are individuals and whole families in your town who not only will have no "Christmas" tree, but neither will they have any presents to give or receive. If you don't know them (and I suspect you don't) buy some food and a few gifts and give them to the Marines, the Salvation Army or some other charity which believes in Me and they will make the delivery for you.

10. Finally if you want to make a statement about your belief in and loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Don't do things in secret that you wouldn't do in My presence. Let people know by your actions that you are one of mine.

P.S. Don't forget: I am God and can take care of Myself. Just love Me and do what I have told you to do. I'll take care of all the rest. Check out the list above and get to work; time is short. I'll help you, but the ball is now in your court. And do have a most blessed Christmas with all those whom you love and remember,

I love you.

Author: Unknown