Taking the stone away

At the magnificent miracle of the raising of the dead man Lazarus, (John 11:39) Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Before the great and mighty miracle was to take place, Jesus needed someone to move the stone guarding the tomb away.

It is interesting to me that the Savior who has the power to raise a man from the dead has to have someone move a stone away from the grave.  I'm sure that if Jesus wanted to, He could have spoken the words and that stone would have been cleared out of there. Later in the chapter he tells Lazarus to "come forth". Then He asks the men around him to ‘loosen him and let him go'.  The disciples didn't only take away the stone, but they also unwrapped Lazarus.

It's apparent to me that God is showing us that we play a very important role with Him.  I doubt that there's a man alive on this earth who has ever been converted without the Lord using us "human instruments" in some way to help Him get the job done.

God could easily convert men without us; but that's not His way, He actually wants to use us, to involve us in the work He does. 
Like the tomb, though, there's another stone that must be rolled away before any great work of God can be brought about. That's the stone of indifference. There are a lot of Christians out there who just don’t care.  DON'T BE ONE OF THEM!!  Let Jesus involve you.

The flashlight

I mean it, sometimes it takes more activity to accomplish a simple job than a job should take.  This week I wanted to change the oil in the car.  It was a bad idea right from the start.  First, I couldn't even find the filter.....is there anyone out there with a Chevy Cavelier who knows what I am talking about?  I looked all around the engine, then on top of the engine and finally under the engine till I finally found the thing only visable from underneath the car.  It was totally unreachable by hand. The devil himself must have engineered the place for that oil filter. Anyway, I get under the car and then realize I can't see, so now I need a flashlight.  I got up from underneath the car to go get a flashlight and, of course, the batteries were dead, bringing to mind the little ditti that says, "a flashlight is a great place to store dead batteries". I cannot change the oil filter if I don't have new batteries so I start checking every drawer in the house for two 'C' batteries and am pathetically reduced to stealing the batteries from one of the Grandkids toys to make the stupid light come on. Finally getting my act together, I get back under the car to unscrew the filter and find out that I can't get it out without a special tool.  Thank goodness I put the Jeep out on the street before I jacked the car up to do this oil change.  I head over to Auto Zone and the man at the counter gives me a special wrench just for my car. I go back home, get underneath the car and find out that it doesn't fit the existing filter that is now on the car.  Why me Lord! Why Me! I finally took the car to Radford's and left it with Bill. 
There really is a good lesson to this sorry episode......well, beside the fact that I know I'm no mechanic.  My point is that after all the work it took to get that flashlight working, it still only helped me to see. It did nothing to get the job done.  It only solves a vision problem, it does not fix what is broken. As I thought on this (and the steam and humiliation subsided) I found a spiritual truth in it for me.  The other day when I was reading my Bible, I came to Rom 7:7, "The law is not sinful, but it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, "Do not covet." (NLT)
  There are places in the Bible that also help me to see; things like the 10 commandments, the Beatitudes, parts of the book of Galatians and so on, they are there to help me see.  When I read certain portions of the Bible it tells me not to do some things.  We call those things sin.  The Bible tells us not to do them.  If God doesn't tell us what is proper behavior we would never know how we are to act. When I agree that I'm to act in a certain way and I don't, I experience guilt. It's because of the guilt that I realize the great forgiveness of God.  It is the heavy guilt that calls my attention (shines the light), Helps me to see the wonderful grace of God.  The guilt becomes my flashlight it doesn't fix the problem.....it only shows me that I have one. The solution is for us to ask the "guilt-remover", Savior, Healer, God of Mercy, Jesus Christ, to come and "fix the problem". Ahhhh..........

Faith

We just came back from a ‘STM’ this weekend. A ‘STM’ is a short-term mission trip. This one is near Morgantown, WV. It's a great place to work for the Lord outside of our normal Christian area of influence.

I am so grateful that we have this place to minister at.  We can go out for a day and do work for the Lord and still be home in time to work around their house.  We have seen our teens attend every single trip that we have gone on and most of them have contributed on a very productive level. 

  For most Christians it is sometimes difficult to find a place to exercise our ‘faith works’.  We have our church but nothing else.  We find ourselves comfortable inside the four walls and that's our entire sphere of influence.  Short-term missions helps all of us get outside these walls and into the streets where the power of God works in ways unseen in the sanctuary.

 God understood the comfy-coziness of our faith inside the church.  He knew that we would find it easier to exercise our faith inside our comfort zone than to have to believe and trust outside our walls. Listen to what He says in James 2:14-18:

14 Dear brothers and sisters, what's the use of saying you have faith if you don't prove it by your actions? That kind of faith can't save anyone. 15     Suppose you see a brother or sister who needs food or clothing, 16 and you say, "Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat well"-- but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? 17 So you see, it isn't enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn't show itself by good deeds is no faith at all-- it is dead and useless. 18 Now someone may argue, "Some people have faith; others have good deeds." I say, "I can't see your faith if you don't have good deeds, but I will show you my faith through my good deeds."  (NLT)

I want to thank the Lord for all of you in the body of Christ, and to those at "The SUB"  that work in our Homeless Ministry and those of you who help in the Storehouse of God operations and  those ministering in the Crisis Response Support Team, those involved with the Fire Department…or those who visit those in the Hospital or Nursing Homes..Let all of us at the ‘SUB’ be a people that shows their love through faith by our deeds.  God Bless.

Sand Castle memories

  Elijah and Steve are digging in the sand together for the better part of a couple hours. Deep trenches and well engineered water routes were factored into the construction plans for their father and son sand castle. Up out of the plain old sandy beach a royal homestead was being made. After hours of work it was time to close out the project so off they went to get some shells to put in the main towers and wa-la it was complete!  As we stood back, someone asked, 'How do you get into it, there's no gate, door or entrance'. Before you knew it, there was a little gate with a roadway to it.

  We all celebrated their castle! It had everything a castle could have & the job was done; smiles, imagination, father-son bonding, and new construction..it truly was a pleasant site on the plain, flat ordinary beach. We made a "Kodak moment" and took pictures, hugged and finally got Steve to get off the castle and get ready to join us playing football....BUT - as we all stood there still looking at it, the first wave came up to the end of the new road, within seconds the second wave came within inches of the new gate, then came a huge wave that almost swept the whole castle away......need I say more? 

  The next day we came down to swim and you couldn't even tell that any father or son had played there the day before...you would never think that some wonderful family memories were ever fashioned on that spot.  It was too bad, all we had were some pictures and, for those of us without a camera.....just the memory.  Three waves were all it took, just three waves and it was gone....If you look at that section of the beach today there's nothing. But thank you Kodak because the camera captured the castle, the shells, Elijah and Steve and all of us watching. It has the memories, even though the waves mercilessly erased the art form.

   In Isaiah 43:26 it says 'Put Me in remembrance; let us contend together; state your case (NKJ)'

God is telling us here to 'remind Him', (not like He ever forgets or anything like that) but to just remind Him of the things that through His Word, the Bible, He has promised us.  Life gets like the beach to us and the waves of everyday work, worry, problems, struggle and activities kinda have a way of washing away our little castle of security or comfort.  Maybe some of you have seen your health castle being washed away. Someone else may have their peace castle bowled over by bully waves, or your job has been flattened. That's when it's a good time to sit down with your Bible, look up some of God's wonderful promises and remind Him what His Word says....His Word to you!!!

NO PARKING!!

Today's blog is the story of one man's patience-shattering experiences in finding a parking place. It was so bad it was almost comical.

The first time, I headed into Irwin to an appointment (well, yes, I was running late) but to my delight there was a parking place just near - so very near- to where I needed to go.  I pulled up to position myself to park, and what to my disgusted wondering eyes did I see, but a big bright red cone staring at me! Head down, hands firmly grasping the wheel (well more like wanting to rip the wheel off the car) I moved on, finally ending up 4.25678 million miles away...honest!!

Later in the day, I was doing some work and thought I would stop by and say "hello" to someone. I pulled in only to see an "Insurance Agency Customer Parking Only" sign. If that isn't enough, the sign told me that if I dare park there and can't prove that I'm a customer in good standing, they will tow my car away and I will have to pay the costs...I swear I'll never buy their insurance! They have no compassion for a poor guy trying to drop his anchor so he can visit someone.

It only got worse from there. Karen asked me to pick up something at Target, so up the rows I head, looking for a close parking place. I spot one just ahead, but there was a car in front of me and I figured he would take it. He doesn't!! I'm thinking this is my lucky day and I pull happily in - only to see a "Parking for Expectant Mothers" sign. Now I'm looking in the Jeep for a volleyball. None to be found! I have to pull out...and just where do I end up?? Down at Eat'n'Park!!  Well, now that I'm here, I'll grab a cup of Joe and a piece of pie, read some stuff and head home. I turn the corner and head for a nice little space left just for me. Life is good. I get the truck nicely stuffed between the lines, check the position of the car, hit the key, get out, press auto lock, put my keys in my pocket and look over only to see a "Take Out Customers Only" sign sternly and faithfully guarding the site.

?Have you ever thought of how much asphalt there is in North Huntingdon (or wherever you call home) that we are not allowed to park our tired, road-weary Goodyears on?  Go to the Hospital and it says, "Emergency Vehicle Only". Stop at the township office and it says, "Commish Pal Move It". One spot in town, this kills me... someone with a nasty streak in them put a sign up that says, "No Parking between 8 and 5PM". That's so cruel. Why would I ever need that spot other than those hours?? I think they should be sho...never mind!

I even stopped at my own loving, caring nutritionist's office to pick up the vitamins that keep my little engine going, and when I pull in next to the door, what do I see but a "No Parking Bio Waste Pick Up" sign...GEEZ!~!

Hey, all kidding aside, there really are a lot of places that for courtesy, practicality, or good reason, we can't park. It is the same way in our Christian life.  Think over your upcoming day...maybe there are some places you DON'T NEED to stop by and park in. If you're moving into the space of jealousy, anger, bitterness, impatience, sneaky, spite, etc...back out and don't park there!!

Get It Done!.....002

Eccl 10:7, “I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.” (KJV)
Do you have the haunting notion that you should paint a picture, make a butterfly collection or do that certain thing that’s always on your mind? Do you wish you would just take a walk or a bike ride?..build the deck furniture, make a tree house with your grandson or doll house for your daughter? (You add the next one because only you know what it is.) You’ve been busy with so many things, unfortunately, not satisfying things.
If you put it into perspective using the above Scripture verse, your talent, your notion, that haunting desire is walking in the dust; and your unnecessary time wasters are riding on the horse.
Let’s think of it in terms of people...you got caught up in an office fray and just because you opened your “big” mouth, you’re at odds with someone and you don’t even want to be. Well, friendship and goodness is pulling the horse, and misunderstanding, gossip, maybe even manipulation and old-fashioned-stinky-office-politics is riding on the horse. I’ll do another one for you...Do you know someone who needs your call, visit, help or companionship? You know they do, but you’re too preoccupied with lesser stuff and it robs the time you would use to bless them. You experience the uneasiness every night about 10:00 pm when you try to relax, but you feel guilty because you didn’t do it again today either.....Well peace, service, love, ministry, contentment, inner satisfaction they are all walking in the dust. Something has displaced the quality virtues with lesser notions. The lesser values are enjoying a ride while quality virtues are walking in the dust and dirt.

Maybe it’s time, today, right now, don’t wait, to get on your computer and schedule that “notion” in, get your appointment book out and leave Thursday, 4:30pm open or make Tuesday, 6:30pm available. You probably need to take your cursor and scroll down your calendar and point at all those “time and goodness wasters” and press delete.

Forget the gym, do the notion and have peace…

How does God c u?

Judges 6:12 The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, "Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!"  (NLT)
Have you ever heard the voice from heaven?  Elijah heard the voice from heaven in his cave while hiding. Jesus heard the voice from heaven when He was baptised, and those that travelled with Paul heard a voice from heaven but they couldn't see what Paul was seeing...Did you ever wonder what that voice would sound like if it was talking to you or have you ever wished that God would speak to you...Well He does speak to us and He does it in many ways. One way is through His written Word...Here in Judges God is speaking to me...I love what it's saying to me and I love how it speaks to me.
Gideon was hiding in a wine press trying to get some food from some wheat he was able to gather....hungry, hiding like a coward, totally alone, God finds him and through an Angel God speaks to him and says, "Mighty Hero, the LORD is with you'....
The Angel addressed Gideon as a 'Mighty Hero,' God saw Gideon not as he was (a coward hiding in a wine press scratching out a meager ration of some leftover wheat)He saw him as the hero he was going to make out of him.  Did you get that, not what he was but what God was going to make of him....Victorious and a Hero. You have to have a battle to have a victory.. and you have to win to be the Hero!  Gideon couldn't see any of this but God could. This tells me that God has a position of blessing for me and he will move me to it and it tells me that God sees me totally different then how I'm viewed by others or seen by myself.  
 When you read the Word, God will speak to you with promises like he did to Gideon. He will make your tomorrow a Victory and he will make you in your part of the world his 'Hero'.
God bless ya dear one. If this ministers or witnesses to you just say 'Amen.'