Forgiveness

Forgiveness is the willingness to give up ones right for justice, revenge, or retribution of any wrong done.

Prayer for the day
Lord, Give me joy in the task you have laid out for me to do today.

Finding God's Will

FINDING GOD’S WILL

For the person that wishes to obey God and find his purpose, knowing God’s will is central to life’s pilgrimage. How does one find out what God’s will is for him or herself?

The first task in finding God’s will is to live in his will as far as you know and can. This means living according to the basic principles that God has laid out for us. Jesus answered the question of the Young rich lawyer as he asked ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus asked him if he kept the commandments. The basic principles of right wrong do not go away. The person who actively and intentionally seeks to disobey God’s law is living outside of God’s will. They are not listening to God. Jacob is again an example of one who lived so much out of gods will that he found God only in the desert when he was not distracted by his material stuff, his family, or anything else. He found himself alone with God. To find God’s will you often need to find yourself alone with God. Or to be at “the end of your rope” or “hit bottom” and God finds you.

Most of us who are regular church going types of Christians know the basics of God will. We do Gods will in being honest treating others. It really is a help in finding God’s will to do as much of it as you know trusting God to inspire you with the next step in his will. I use the word inspire thinking of the Holy Spirit of God.

The question is then “What is his specific plan and will for my life?” It is an important subject witnessed by the success of such material as The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. To trust that God has a will for you is indeed an act of faith. You may not find out his will until you are in the middle of the task or calling. Moses was in God will long before he saw the burning bush. Paul was training all his life to do God’s will though he was in direct rebellion and persecution of the church. The point of this is that God may be busy working in your life before you recognize it. Many of the persons in the scripture made serious mistakes and committed serious sins against God’s will, but God is undeterred in moving forward his purposes.

God’s will is often in the journey and the process of life as well as the goal.

The Holy Spirit will direct and show his will to those who seek it.

Paintings

The paintings in the photo are not all mine. Just the two floral painting to my right.

Praise unto the Lord

I cam across a really uncompromising web site of believe music. http://www.nocompromisemusic.org/

FAITH

FAITH

One cannot talk about the wilderness without thinking about faith. The Children of Israel had a failure of faith. That failure caused them to stay in the wilderness for another forty years so that none of the original group was able to enter the Promised Land. What is the point of faith? With out suffering there would be no need for faith. If everything made sense we believe we would have no need for faith.

We often want to make sense of suffering. It is the existential “Why am I going through this?” We are deluded in thinking that to know why our suffering would in some manner ease. We look for meaning in the suffering of ourselves or loved ones. That is the “Why?” An accident that kills a family or a 9/11 which is a national tragedy demonstrates to us our mortality. When innocent person is killed or dies with a painful illness we want to make sense of that suffering. Suffering seems meaningless to us in that we want our lives to have value meaning and purpose. Therefore we seek to find meaning suffering and death as well as life. In grief then one most often ask God or the Preacher or their own heart “Why did this happen?”

All of our logical and rational thinking never quite satisfies to answer such existential questions. The crying out “Oh why?” is not a rational question but a heart felt pray like (and often really a prayer) utterance that calls for a different sort of answer. No set of facts, enough information, theoretical propositions, or degrees of knowledge, or great ideas can answer to the “why’ of pain and suffering. It is the Job moment of saying “I wish I had never been I born?” Job 3:1-3.

It is in faith that we find the answers to the really great “Whys” of life... Jesus said to the disciples in the fishing boat after he had stilled the storm. “Where is your faith?”

Hebrew 11:1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. The Scripture tells the way to accept Jesus is through faith. That is because again the rational understanding as important as it is not able to understand what is beyond understanding. It is through faith that we accept and understand Jesus. It is through faith that we can find meaning in the incomprehensible such as suffering.

Wilderness II

WILDERNESS II

There are times when one never leaves the wilderness. The children of Israel were in the wilderness wondering for forty years with Moses. None of them were allowed to enter the Promised Land. They had been delivered form Egyptian bondage. They saw God work in really powerful miracles. They crossed the Red Sea on dry land and were delivered from the “hand of Pharaoh”. Just a few months after they were delivered from Egypt they were at the south end of the area of the Promised Land. Twelve spies were sent in to the land to recon the territory. Only Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, gave a favorable report the other ten told about how hard the task would be and that the enemy was to great. In the end however their faith failed and they were condemned to stay in the wilderness. Forty years later their children were allowed to go into the land. The entire original group died in the wilderness.

The failure of faith and the desire for what is familiar has caused many folks to stay in the wilderness of their lives. It has caused many to fail to follow the will of God. I have seen a lot of individuals who never came out of the wilderness of alcohol or drug use because of fear of feelings, low self worth. There are some wildernesses that seem to have no way out. Wildernesses of illness, financial ruin, often trap people for years with no redemption or deliverance. They never see God in these places and circumstances. They pass the “burning bushes” and never hear the voice of God.

The other side of the coin is that one can be in a promised land and feel they are in a wilderness. The prodigal son was one of those. He had to leave his father’s home and going to the wilderness of self will and pleasure to see that home was a promised land.

I hope you do not become trapped in your wilderness look for the face of God in that place. Where ever you find the face of God is place to begin a true spiritual journey.

WILDERNESS

THE WILDERNESS

The wilderness experience and exile are often the place of meeting God face to face. Many of the great characters in the Bible are at times in the wilderness or in exile. A few are Abraham, Joseph, the nation of Israel, Sampson, David Daniel, Elijah, Paul, Jesus, John the Apostle. You may have a wilderness experience in your live. It could be depression, illness grief, job loss, financial or family relationship problems. The wilderness is the place where you don’t want to be. You didn’t plan to be there. You might wind up in the hospital after an accident. My most recent “wilderness experience” was in November 2006 when I fell from a ladder and broke bones in both ankles. I had been working on a shop garage on the day after Thanksgiving. The ladder I was on shifted and I fell on he concrete foundation. One can find himself in a wilderness exile in a few seconds. Following that was an extended time in wheel chair. There were other medical procedures and surgery for other medical problem. It is hard to see God’s presents in the wilderness, but he is there. I remember my prayers as muted and limited by pain and preoccupation with medical issues. I at one point really wept. Thanks to my wife Deborah I was able to get along and recover. That is another story.

The wilderness exile can have life changing meaning and purpose. Moses was in the wilderness for forty years before he saw the burning bush, but God was there. Moses spent forty years in the wilderness as a shepherd of the flock of his father-in-law so that he could spend the next forty years as shepherd of the flock of God the children of Israel.

Jacob wrestled with God and found a new way by finding god’s purpose for him in the wilderness.

David found refuge in the wilderness exile from the wrath of Saul.

Joseph found that what man meant for evil God meant for good

Jesus fought one of his greatest battles with the devil in the wilderness.

Five thousand people found God’s love and Jesus compassion as he fed them from a little boy’s lunch in the wilderness.

I found that God work through the care of his people as friends from my church build the garage I was working on with me in the wheel chair looking on. These Christian friends built the building in ten hours.

The wilderness can be a place to find God.

COURAGE

COURAGE

Certainly in these last few years we have seen many examples of courage on the field of battle and of families of soldiers waiting for their return. Courage is the overlooking of ones own safety or desires to meet the needs of the other person. Courage is not a feeling but may indeed include various feelings including fear. My brother when he was a commander in the US Army and the Texas state Guard used to tell his soldiers. “Lean into the saddle”. That means press forward. In the Book of Joshua, finds himself alone with God after Moses has died. He now is the leader not just the “executive officer” of this great host of people. God tells him to “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God [is] with thee whithersoever thou goest.” Josh 1:9 What ever the challenges life has laid before you this day find courage in the Lord. Ephesians is the book of how a Christian believe faces the spiritual battles of life.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Eph 6:11Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Eph 6:12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].
Eph 6:13Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Eph 6:14Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Eph 6:15And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Eph 6:16Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Eph 6:17And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Eph 6:18Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

It came to pass

In his gospel Luke often used the phrase “It came to pass”” which is much like our English story telling beginning “Once up on a time”. For us the new year has begun and the 07 holidays have “come to pass” It has been a good time as My wife Deborah and I went to Dallas to spend Christmas with our Daughter and Son-in-Law. They have a wonderful school called “Bridgebuilder Academy” You should look it up. http://www.bridgebuilderacademy.com/

In the Beginning

It is a new year. This is my first blog. I hope to express useful and thoughtful opinions about topics of interest to me. I will certainly include topics of faith and religion, shooting and guns ( an apparent contradiction) science, politics, outdoor stuff, survival, and whatever occurs to me.
You are welcome to make comments, objections and suggestions.