Jeremiah 29:11: For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

Sunday, January 22, 2012

What do you think?

My oldest son Devon facebooked me these two youtubes:

http://youtu.be/1IAhDGYlpqY

http://youtu.be/Ru_tC4fv6FE

He suggested that I first view the first and then the second.

What are your thoughts on these?

Since Devon sent them, added to fact that Devon converted to Catholicism a couple of years ago, makes it apparant that he agrees with the second video.

I love my son more than words can express. I respect the man he's become.

But I can't really agree with the second video. I do not think the rock upon which Christ proclaimed He'd build His church was referring to the local church or religion; I think it was referring to faith in Christ.

If you know me at all you know that I love the local body. I participate faithfully in my local church and raised all three of my sons in church. So I appreciate Devon's love for the church as well. I know that God wants to work through His local body of Belivers in all the locations at which they meet, and I think He ordained the local church to teach and encourage in the faith. But, since the local church and religion are made up of people - it is indeed imperfect at best. Religion and church membership can not make you right with God - only Jesus can!

I'd be very interested in your responses to these two videos.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Gotta love Chuck Norris

As a mother of three sons, one of whom studied Tang Soo Do karate for awhile, I've heard bits and pieces about Chuck Norris through the years. Perhaps what I've heard most are the Chuck Norris one liner macho quips. For some reason my youngest son adores these jokes. You know, the ones that go something like When the boogeyman goes to sleep, he checks the closet for Chuck Norris or Some people wear superman pajamas, but superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas. I'm sure that you've heard them too. I've also watched some of his movies with my sons or husband, it seems that something about him calls out to male psyche. Although my 86-year old mother still faithfully watches re-runs of Chuck Norris' TV series Walker, Texas Ranger; in her estimation, one of the best shows ever made.

But I've never really known anything much about the man. Perhaps that's why, when I was browsing through books to check out from the library and I happened upon his book entitled Against All odds, I decided to check out the CD version.

This weekend, while I've been cooking and cleaning, I've been listening to the book. I was so captivated that I even continued listening one evening after my work was completed. I sat and did my nails while listening, and then just sat and listened.

It's a wonderful book! Perhaps just a bit slow in the beginning with that predictable my life began this way kind of feel. But the book gets better and better as you progress. I also can't say that the transitions in the book are always smooth, but this man's life has just been so incredible that I was mesmerized. He really does have one of those larger than life stories.

He's a hero in a time and place when we desperately need male heroes.

One of the aspects of the book that endeared it to my heart was Norris' honesty. He's an open born again Christian but he, like myself, has failed many times in life. I so appreciated when he was transparent about his failures and called them exactly what they were - sin. I can relate to a Christian who has sinned, because I'm a sinner too. I always have a hard time with the people who have it all together (perhaps that's why I enjoy reading the Old Testament Bible accounts so much, these folks were just like me and really blew it sometimes but God chose to use them anyway!) I also adored hearing about how God in His goodness and grace took even Norris failures and used them, ultimately, for good. Norris shared about what he'd learned in life and about God's goodness, grace, and mercy. I found this book extremely inspiring.

Definitely a worthwhile read.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Praise and soaring with Eagles

Have you ever been super tired? So exhausted that all you longed for was to just crawl into bed and forget the whole world?

I know I have been.

Lately I feel that way by 8PM at night! So weird for me since I've lived most of my life being a night owl. But this job and opening up a whole new operation with another new opening next door in July has me really whipped!

But you know what I've noticed? That sometimes, when I'm super tired and am certain that I have absolutely no energy left and there's nothing left to give, that something can come along to change it all. Maybe an opportunity to go do something really special that I never get to do (like spend time with Devon when he was home, or go to a concert with my old boss), or when I learn that a problem over which I've been trying not to stress (in Christian-ese we call this a "burden") has been solved (Christian-ese: "burden lifted"), or something super encouraging happens. Then all of the sudden my heart is light and my energy is renewed!

Have you ever had that happen?

Reminds me of Proverbs 13:12 (NIV): Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

This morning during my time with God I caught an insight into this rejuvenating, or renewing, experience in a different way.

To put this into context I'll mention that the work weeks have been brutal for me. There have been times during the past few months when I've planned a Friday night outing with John or friends, but have ended up so frazzled and exhausted by Friday night that I've ended up cancelling; so I've stopped planning Friday night activities. Last night found me crashed in bed, sound asleep, by 9:30PM (quite the exciting girl I must say-ha!). But I woke up at 1:30AM and my mind started looking at my upcoming staffing situation at work from every angle, I kept turning it over in my mind trying to make it work; finally I just got up and spent some time on the computer configuring some things and praying.

This morning when I came to my time with God I found myself singing songs of praise and worship. In my head I thought about how I could be singing all those I-need-You songs cuz I do so need Him. But all my heart could sing was worship of His greatness and thankfulness. Then my reading today was in Psalm 103 and the 5th verse (NLT) hit me in a new way: He fills my years with good things and I am made young again like the eagle. What's being described here is just like those rejuvenating experiences that I'm talking about above!

Praising God can have a rejuvinating effect. Praise can be how we receive these becoming "young", or renewed again, experiences that we read about in the Bible ( Isaiah 40:30-31). Just as an eagle is renewed when it allows the jut stream to carry it higher until it soars, as I rally all of my faculties to praise the Lord, I am renewed!

What about you, have you ever experienced God's renewing though Praise?
Blog Widget by LinkWithin