Okay, here is the good news. We signed a lease on a new rental house last Thursday! And here is the bad news, we are moving out of the house this week! We are calling all our friends to help us this Saturday make our move. If you are available, please come by our present house 3933 W. Gelding Dr. at 9am. We will begin loading cars, trucks, and vans and work a continuous caravan from Gelding to our new home on Hatcher which is about three miles away.
If you can join us for the day please add a comment to this post or text or call me and let me know you will be helping out. If you have a vehicle we can use also, let me know.
When the disciples found themselves out on the sea and the storm hit, they all worked as hard as they could together to row to shore. They were a band of brothers who cared for each other. Brenda and I have found that we have a great group of friends who also help us out in stormy times. We are greatly blessed by God with a band of brothers and sisters who have prayed and supported us through thick and thin. I thank God for all of you!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Closed Doors
As I have written in a previous blog, I recently have taught the youth group at my church about how God communicates with us. One of those ways is through circumstances. God opens and closes doors to give us indications of what His will is in a person's life. The most obvious example from Scripture is when Paul is prevented from going into Northern Turkey during his second missionary journey. Instead God opened the door to go to Europe by giving Paul a vision of a man from Macedonia.
In this water walking experience that my family is going through we have had to look for a new home to live in. Our landlady called us in February and told us that she needed to move back into her home. So we have been looking for a cheaper rental home. It needs to be cheaper because we are not sure what our income is going to be in the future. A cheap good home for rent is very hard to find. We want a home that hasn't also allowed roaches to be tenants, and big enough for our children to live in the house instead of in the back yard!
In the past month we have found 4 homes that fit our criteria. Each time we approached the rental agents we were told that the house had just been rented out to someone else. Over twenty homes looked at, 4 homes were possibilities and 4 slammed doors!
It is interesting that Jesus also experience the same thing. Matthew 14 starts out with the story of the beheading of John the Baptist, then tells of the feeding of the 5,000, and then the walking on water event. Jesus hears about His cousin John being violently executed and tries to go to a solitary place to be alone with His disciples. But instead He is met by a crowd of 5,000 hungry people! Slammed door on solitude. He then sends the disciples across the lake and stays behind to dismiss the croud and get some alone time. He is able to have some alone time but sees His disciples in trouble on the lake and must go help them. Slammed door. He then gets to the other side and according to the Gospel of John, the crowd finds Him again! Slam! Slam! Slam!
But it was after this event that Peter reassures Jesus that the chosen disciples are with Him and are not going anywhere! John 6:68,69 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” Jesus has had a number of closed doors to solitude and instead is rewarded by God with promises of companionship.
Walking on Water means trusting God when doors are slammed that there is something better right around the corner. I am looking forward to the mansion He has picked out for us!!
In this water walking experience that my family is going through we have had to look for a new home to live in. Our landlady called us in February and told us that she needed to move back into her home. So we have been looking for a cheaper rental home. It needs to be cheaper because we are not sure what our income is going to be in the future. A cheap good home for rent is very hard to find. We want a home that hasn't also allowed roaches to be tenants, and big enough for our children to live in the house instead of in the back yard!
In the past month we have found 4 homes that fit our criteria. Each time we approached the rental agents we were told that the house had just been rented out to someone else. Over twenty homes looked at, 4 homes were possibilities and 4 slammed doors!
It is interesting that Jesus also experience the same thing. Matthew 14 starts out with the story of the beheading of John the Baptist, then tells of the feeding of the 5,000, and then the walking on water event. Jesus hears about His cousin John being violently executed and tries to go to a solitary place to be alone with His disciples. But instead He is met by a crowd of 5,000 hungry people! Slammed door on solitude. He then sends the disciples across the lake and stays behind to dismiss the croud and get some alone time. He is able to have some alone time but sees His disciples in trouble on the lake and must go help them. Slammed door. He then gets to the other side and according to the Gospel of John, the crowd finds Him again! Slam! Slam! Slam!
But it was after this event that Peter reassures Jesus that the chosen disciples are with Him and are not going anywhere! John 6:68,69 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” Jesus has had a number of closed doors to solitude and instead is rewarded by God with promises of companionship.
Walking on Water means trusting God when doors are slammed that there is something better right around the corner. I am looking forward to the mansion He has picked out for us!!
Friday, April 1, 2011
Delighting in God
Last Sunday night Gene Zigler reminded me that we are to delight ourselves in the Lord at all times. The stress of no job and needing to find a new rental home had in the past few weeks caused me to focus on the waves rather than on Jesus. My delight was not in the Lord. In fact I was not delighting in much of anything. But Gene's words were an encouragement to me. And so I began to think about HIM more often.
This past Tuesday, Brenda and I were suppossed to go look for more rental homes. But we had a few small jobs to do first. My job was to reinstall Norton 360 on all three computers at home. This should have taken an hour at the most to do. It took 5 hours!!! Caleb's computer was so bad that I had to restart it over 20 times. Finally the work was done and the day was over. And we had not been able to go out looking for homes. So at the end of the day I posted this update on Facebook:
This past Tuesday, Brenda and I were suppossed to go look for more rental homes. But we had a few small jobs to do first. My job was to reinstall Norton 360 on all three computers at home. This should have taken an hour at the most to do. It took 5 hours!!! Caleb's computer was so bad that I had to restart it over 20 times. Finally the work was done and the day was over. And we had not been able to go out looking for homes. So at the end of the day I posted this update on Facebook:
I was able to realize that the day was frustrating but still remind myself that God is good. I tried to delight a bit!
On Wednesday I got a call from a good friend of mine who is a former youth pastor. He now runs his own business that helps youth ministries run big event trips and missions and outreaches. It is called Eventsource Ministries and can be found here. Kenny May is a great guy and when I told him that I was looking for work he put his mind in high gear. His call on Wednesday was to ask if I wanted a part-time job with a company that he also works for called Sundance which delivers lost baggage to customers of Southwest Airlines. So I said I would love to have a job and he called his boss and based on Kenny's recommendation I was given the job!
Then on Wednesday night I spoke to the youth about how God still speaks to us today. Primarily He uses Scripture and it is the only authoritative way that we can be sure God is speaking. But God also speaks through wise counselors and circumstances and to our spirit in meditation and contemplation. We then spent 10 minutes in contemplation. I asked the youth to think about this verse:
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
We had a great time of just thinking and contemplating what these commands mean. I found myself delighting in God all the more! On Thursday morning I woke up early but didn't get out of bed. Instead I lay there and thought about how much God loves me and I desire His presence with me. Later that day I rode along with Kenny as he taught me how to do the new job.
Today I spoke with the owner of Sundance and set up a face to face with him tomorrow at 1pm to go over details of the new job. We also checked Craigs List again for rental homes and we may have found our new place! Amazing how things are falling into place and it all started with a reminder to delight myself in the Lord. How does the rest of that verse go?
A couple of blogs ago I wrote how I envision Peter being emboldened by Jesus' offer to have the disciples enter the miraculous by telling them to feed the five thousand. They wouldn't, but saw the great opportunity they missed. Peter saw another opportunity as Jesus came walking on the water towards him. He asked to be invited into the miracle and Jesus said, "Come." I bet as Peter stepped out of the boat he was delighting himself in the Lord.
What do you think? How do you delight in the Lord? Can we choose to delight in Him even when things around us are not so delightful?
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