Friday, December 31, 2010

Resolutions or Solutions

Well the Holidays are over and all is done. I can now put the grate back where it belongs over by the fireplace and I can go outside and bring in some of the wood I split this year and start a nice comfy evening fire.  I don't have to worry about blocking Santas' path into my house...or burning his ruby red britches while he's coming down the chimney if he does it too slow.  Everything is Osha approved again. 
 I hope your Christmas was as sweet as Karen and I's.  We had a lovely service and good times with our kids and grandchilren and we have our health.  I hope this is the same with you.
Today everyone is focusing on the upcoming New Years Eve reveling, which is a big part of some peoples' December 31st evening. Another big-time New Years event is the resolution business. That comes from people who want to start over fresh in something or want to make themselves a better person in the upcoming year.  A New Year's resolution is kind of a personal home improvement project.  It's even more like a home construction project because of the similarity of both...think of it....we get half or three quarters of the way through, lose interest and the project sits undone for months. For some people who lose interest, years
 Resolutions are a lot like that, we lose interest in months, sometimes days and almost always in sweat.  Yeah, I mean sweat.  If something is to hard, requires a lot of work, a lot of effort, it is usually abandoned pretty fast. 
My proof on that is in the rankings of  America's top five New Year resolutions:
 No.5 is to get a new hobby
#4 is to make more money
 #3 is visit the foks
 #2 is to quit smoking and
#1 is............you take a guess....yeah, lose weight. It seems like everybody on the planet has made or quit this resolution. Thats why it is number one..we keep bringing it up and we keep abandoning it. Over and over we recycle the resolution and over and over we drop it. 
Well that's the way with resolutions.  They go in one year and out the other. What we really need in our lives is not resolutions we need solutions.  And not just solutions we need God's solutions.
This year don't listen to the piping in your mind. Cut the miror talk. Cap the vanity. Ask God what or where you really need to improve. He will give you home improvements that He can help you with.  Improvements that really work and are custom fitted to you. Go ahead....ask....I dare you...

Monday, December 20, 2010

Christmas

All through the Christmas stories we find one beautiful thread, and that is the thread of worship.
The angels worshipped the Savior in the fields outside of Bethlehem, the shepherds were told to go and see the Savior and they were so amazed they went out to tell everyone, the Magi came and gave their gifts in worship.  Even the Star that guide the Magi did what was asked of it to guide our eastern wise men as they traveled.  Latter in life we see the people at the temple praising God when they held the baby or saw the Christ child.  One man said that it would be ok to die now that he had seen the Messiah.  All of these events and many more did one thing to mankind, they caused him to worship God.
Worship is contact with God - it's no wonder why we have so many fights on our way to church! The enemy wants to rob & distract you from Him! Worship is our expression & connection with God & His presence. When God's people come together - He shows up! He inhabits our praise.

When we worship, we establish a throne for the King to come, rule & reign. When we worship, things happen in our lives for His good!! There are times when God is quiet, but He's not left you. There are sovereign times in the silence - God is still moving in your midst.

Worship is just as much for me as it is for Him!! It's not just all talk, it's sharing your heart with your Papa God, Father & Creator. David is an example of what a true-worshipper is. He worshipped with all his heart, spirit and soul. When we come to the Christmas Story, the child in a manger, remember it is not about our gifts to others, it is about our gift of worship to God that is improtant.
Some of this blog was from Pastor Zane Anderson, my sisters Pastor out in Tucson, Az.  I think alot of him and his ministry so I thought it would be good to pass some of his very real words on to you.
Merry Christmas to all of you who have been reading my blog and God richly bless you.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Intentional

Gal 4:4
4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, (KJV)
One of the ways we know God and can understand Him is in the way we see Him work.  How God does things helps us know how we can or should do things. God not only had good intentions but he acted intentionally. We can see this in Genesis where He put the world together in a planned order.  We can also see it in His plan of Salvation for mankind.  God did everything intentionally, on purpose, with a plan.  No one was ever more intentional than our Savior. Jesus knew exactly why he came to earth and that His mission of love was to reach a lost and dying world that was separated from God. He was never sidetracked, purposeless or confused about his mission.  We would say today that Jesus was very 'focused.'
The scripture above says that God sent His son 'in the fulness of time'  He was not sent to soon and He didn't come to late, he came at just the right time.  It was intentional, for the purpose of making it possible for us and God to have meaningful relationships together. Gods love was for healing all of us of a sickness called sin.  If God was intentional so he could build and make relationships with us then we should be intentional also. The highest goal we can have this side of heaven is to have a love like Jesus love.
This Holiday Season could be a real good time to intentionally begin the process of healing a relationship gone sour.  It could be a good time to reach out to someone you would like to get to know.  This Christmas may be a good time to call, write, stop in, or email, a certain someone and strike up some love. Shalom.

Names

God’s heart is for us to know Him. God shows us who He is through His nature and His character. One of the ways we determine the nature of God is in His names found in the Old Testament that describe His nature. The reason this is important is because it tells you what He’s like and what He does.
  • In Exodus 15:26 we find God is Jehovah Rapha; the Lord our Healer. This scripture unveils to me one of the expressions of His nature. It is His very nature to heal us. That’s why I don’t believe that healing stopped at the end of the New Testament because The New Testament hasn’t stopped.
  • Jehovah Nissi means the Lord is our banner. He’s our covering; He’s our refuge; He’s our guard. The word banner was always used in the context of warfare and battle so that tells me God will go with me into the battle. I don’t have to fight the adversary alone.
  • Jehovah Shalom: the Lord is my peace; He’s the One that brings me peace and comfort.
  • Jehovah Rah: the Lord is my Shepherd; He guides and directs.
  • Jehovah Jireh: The Lord is my provider. In these hard economic times I need to remember to do everything I can do. But the bottom line is, God promised to provide for me.
  • Jehovah Shammah: The Lord is with us; the Lord is present.
  • El Shaddai: The all sufficient One.
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Luke 2:4-5 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the lineage of David:) (KJV)
In terms of history, Bethlehem is a pretty busy place. Not mentioning all the times it played a role in times past, I would like to focus on three important times history put its cursor on this little town south of Jerusalem.
The trip that Joseph and Mary took to bring forth the Christ child is really the third “all-important trip” made to Bethlehem.
The first great journey starts hundreds of years before that in the book of Ruth (a quick read consisting of only four chapters).  A man named Elimelech leaves Bethlehem with his wife Naomi, because there is no bread there. [Basically what it means to you and I today is that he was unable to find a good job... you know, ‘no bread’.] After Elimelech relocates, he finds nothing but misery and struggle and he and his two sons pass away leaving Naomi with two daughters-in law. Naomi and Ruth stay together and go back to Bethlehem.  Now this is important because Ruth, through a couple turns in life, marries a man named Boaz. They have a son who has another funny-named kid that everyone will laugh at in school, named Obed.  This funny-named man, Obed, has a son whose name is Jesse, who becomes the father of a really special guy who finally has a real name (David) that you can make a reservation with at a nice restaurant.
This takes us to the second great journey to Bethlehem - when Samuel the prophet goes there. This is, by the way, more really great reading (See 1 Sam. 16). Anyway, God has removed His divine anointing from Saul, the king of Israel, because of his sinful ways. God sends Samuel to the house of Obed’s son, Jesse, to ultimately anoint his little ruddy son David to be the King.  Where did all this happen?  You got it, in Bethlehem! God promises that through David, the Messiah would come.
So that brings us to the Third great Journey to this little town of Bethlehem. That is when Joseph, who can trace his birth line to David, is told by an angel to take a virgin named Mary to be his wife.  And just like life for most of us, that is when all the problems start.  You know after the ring. So to get to the conclusion of this story they
have to go to Bethlehem since Joseph is of the linage (ancestry) of David. He takes his very pregnant wife with him. Getting to Bethlehem would fulfill the prophecies concerning the birth of the Christ.  So in Bethlehem when our Savior was born to Mary and Joseph, it finishes what was begun with Ruth and Naomi

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Lets talk Snow (Pt2 of 2)

I mentioned there were two things about the snow from last winter that I enjoyed.  The First being the depth of all the white stuff. The second thing about the heavy accumulation  was how much I forgot was under the snow.  Our yard was so beautiful with all that fluff, that it made me forget that I left the big ugly red oil container and the greasy dirty blue funnel that I use to change oil out along the stone wall near the strawberry patch. For two months they were lost to the snow cover....I couldn’t find it anywhere.....I was just warming up to the idea that one of the guys borrowed them and didn’t bring them back, you know the excuse, it really works if you want to blame shift. The deep snow also helped me forget how unsightly the Clematis looks when it is out of season, just a bunch of brown stringy runners and leaves...Hey can you remember how awful the Hostas’s can look when the frost finally knocks those huge leaves to the ground, thank you Mr. Snow man. I couldn’t remember where a really kool, handsomely painted Rooster that we put out in the flower bed among the white Alyssum was until the snow finally melted down and we found our kroner in a million colorful pieces.   When the snow finally did leave us I found a lot of things that were buried and ruined, from the weight of the snow. 
Winter snows can bury a lot of things in our yards and gardens and the snows of life can cover us with a blanket of struggles and sorrows as well. Sometimes we have seasons of struggles where the weight and harshness of life seem to overwhelm us. But if we can learn to trust God we will see that out of those troubles comes a special grace that will build our faith as beautifully as the purplish smiles of the crocuses patch welcomes us after the hard winter storms.
I want to close on this note found in 2 Cor. 12:9 it says that "My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness." So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may work through me.  (NLT