Having Done All, Stand. Eph 6:13

God sent me some encouragement Monday. I was talking to some of my colleagues (A and B) and one of them, B,  cursed. A looked at me, then at B and said "No way Mark said that."  B reluctantly admitted it was him, not me who said it.

What's encouraging about that is I have been sitting next to A for a long time. And I didn't use to hold back my tongue a few years ago. My job frustrates me and I am a heart on my sleeve person, so it's pretty obvious when I am upset. I'm not proud of it or excusing it...just being honest. Then the Holy Spirit told me that I needed to clean up my act at work if I thought I was going to proclaim the Gospel to anyone. So, I pray a lot about it and God is certainly helping me...and it's showing to the people around me. I'm not nearly as grumpy as I once was. Some have recently dared to say that I'm not grouchy.  :)

In addition, A is a very smart, critical thinker. He doesn't believe in salvation and talking to him about the Bible or Jesus just gets an argument going...and he's a real good arguer. We once had an discussion that didn't go well for me. We don't talk about it any more and neither of us is upset with the other. I have seen others who were unprepared speak to him too and it's not pretty.

Having A say that yesterday was amazing to me. I have always thought that once you blew your witness, there's really no going back. Might as well move and get a new job. But that's not true. It may take a long time, but living your faith and walk with Christ out in the open will have an impact on people.

No longer can I say that "You are a walking testimony" is any kind of cliche. It is absolutely true! I don't say anything to A, but he knows, has seen, that something has changed in me. We, as Christians, are indeed a work in progress. Don't think you can never go back once you've stumbled. God, not you, draws people to Him in His time. Just keep living your faith. If you stumble, even if you wallow for a while in the mire of sin, get back up and continue walking with Jesus.

You just don't know who's watching.

p.s. my comment to A was that he should see me when I am around my kids....not always pretty. Praying about that too.

p.p.s. should work on that with my neighbor too. Long way to go there.

Thanks for visiting.

My wife and I have been fighting a bit more recently. It's a drag considering a few weeks ago I remarked to her that we were in one of the best places our marriage had ever been. What happened? Most of it has to do with my vacation from work. I took that last two weeks of December off as I do most years. With all that time off, I managed to hardly read my Bible at all. Quite the opposite of what I think should happen.

When I have a break coming up, I always envision myself taking a day to fast and being able to study for an hour a day in addition to my morning devotions - that would be a lot for me unless I am teaching, which requires at least that. However, the reality seems to be that neither of those things happens. In fact, my devotions go right out the window. Or maybe I should say they go into the alarm clock? The only time it's quiet in our house is early in the morning. Three boys...nuf said. I get up early every day for work so that I can have a little time. Why is it that I can't get out of bed when I don't work?

Driving home from work the other day, I said that to Kelli. I was listening to a prophecy conference teaching about Israel and all that God has done for that nation. Such as making them a nation after 100s (1000s?) of  years of being scattered across the globe. And re-establishing the Hebrew language after it was effectively dead. Those two things can't be said of any other land or language in the history of Mankind. And the same way that God has a plan for Israel, He chose me from the foundation of the world. And I can't get out of bed to spend time with Him?

Part of the reason we were doing so well before was were coming out of a pretty significant trial. So, I was reading a lot and listening to every bible study I could get my ears on. And God revealed a lot of inner garbage to me. It was good to get that out, though it's a struggle to keep it out. Humility is tough. For me it's trying to balance self-awareness and self-righteousness.

There's a great line from a needtobreathe song that goes, "just because I'm wrong, doesn't make you right." I think understanding what that means is good for me. I might think someone did something wrong, but that doesn't give me the right to react any way I want. And just because I behaved poorly, don't you think maybe you had something to do with that?

My relationship to my wife is supposed to be like Christ's relationship to the Church. Mankind did everything wrong yet Jesus came and died for us. It doesn't matter if I think my wife did something wrong (and the definition of that can be loose in my mind sometimes), it's my responsibility to love her by dying to myself and treating her with respect. That same philosophy extends to our relationships to other people...not just husband/wife. Jesus said that the second most important commandment was to love others as yourself. Treating others with love means dying to yourself - putting them first. As I have said before, I don't think that means you're a doormat and you just let people do whatever they want. If you see a brother or sister in Christ behaving badly or in a way that doesn't honor Christ or will do them harm, it's your responsibility to correct them. But there is a loving way to do that which doesn't include condemnation or putting yourself on a pedestal.

Kelli and I are working through this time. I think we're both going through a similar sort of thing...not enough time in God's word. Maybe we need to work on a way to spell one another from the kids so we both get time...we'll be praying about that.

Well, I've gone on long enough...

Thanks for visiting.

I have never done a "Not Me" posting. It's pretty much sarcasm, so it shouldn't be too hard to pick up.

Today is Christmas day. A relaxing kind of day filled with gifts and family and fun. So, I did NOT spend an hour with the doors and windows open clearing the house of smoke from something my beautiful wife did NOT do. If she did, you could read about it here. But she most certainly did not.
I did NOT have to turn off the heat, get out the fans and blow cold air through the house. I did not have to take the oven apart to scrape off burnt monkey bread juice.
Nope. It was a perfectly relaxing day with smiles and good times.

Thanks for visiting.

I was walking into work earlier this week reflecting on why I am where I am. I work for a big company and do a rather complicated job. Most new hires make quite a bit more money than I do because I worked into my job instead of going to college and getting a degree. I'm still working on the degree when I can, but it doesn't fit my life right now. My children are young and that only happens once, so I am going to enjoy them. When I was in school, all I did was work and study. It was a lot of stress on my family. It's not worth it.
Now, I am not boo-hooing my station. Sometimes I do, but that's getting to be less and less. Mostly I get upset with coworkers complaining about their boat needing repair or that they have to buy another car because the high performance vehicle isn't good in the winter and the only one they can find in the color they like is $40k. I just tell them to stop blubbering or trade jobs with me...no one ever seems to want to do that. On the other hand, I LOVE what I do. It's terribly interesting and challenging. I've had the entry level jobs here too. They can be very dull. No thinking required and that makes for a long day. But sometimes I wonder why I haven't progressed further.
So, as I was walking in thinking about this I thought of 1 Tim. 6:6 "But godliness with contentment is great gain."
Yeah, ok. How to be content?
1 Tim 4:8 "...but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."
and
Matt 6:33 "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things will be added unto you."

A few words on the kingdom of God. Many times in the new testament - I came up with several dozen in e-sword - the phase "kingdom of God" is used. It's used to describe Heaven, of course. But it's also used to describe Jesus Himself. See Matt. 12:28,  Matt 21:43, Mark 1:14. There are a lot more. It's this usage that I think the Holy Spirit was directing me to that morning.

In order to find contentedness, I need to seek after Jesus and live the life He has commanded me to live in Matt 22:38-39. While doing those things, I will become more like Jesus and see this world for what it is - temporary. And also full of opportunity to share Christ's love. I will also begin to look forward to "that which is to come." With a view of the world through Jesus' eyes and looking forward to Heaven, I can see how one could be content. Sounds so simple, huh?

I'm not going to kid myself on that. I've been saved a long time and I don't have it together often enough. I don't spend much time thinking about Heaven. After the memorial I went to this week, it seems I need to have that more in the front of my mind.

I'm also not much of an evangelist. I like reading, studying and teaching the Bible and I don't have a problem defending my faith. I just don't tend to go up to perfect strangers and start sharing Jesus with them like I've seen some people do. I'm shy when it comes to that. But if I can look at people through Jesus' eyes, I will see how lost they are. Isn't their eternity more important than my shyness? God help me to be bold.

Eyes on the prize - eternity with Jesus. Run the Race which has been set before you.




Thanks for visiting.

Last night I went to a memorial for someone I never met, that I recall anyway. My wife knew her though. After hearing everyone recount memories of Honey - evidently the perfect nickname -  I consider it my loss that I never got to know her. This was a woman who absolutely lived the Bible. Mother to 8 kids, grandmother to 11, not including all those unrelated to her who had the privilege of calling her Nanny. She actually felt sorry for anyone who didn't have a big family to love.
What I took away from the memorial is that Honey believed that togetherness was everything and Love could overcome any troubles or issues to preserve that togetherness. Hebrews 10:24-25 encourages us to be together and to encourage each other in love and to love. No matter what was going on, if Honey had her family around her to love, she would say, "I had the best."
She was also an example of courage. She lived fearlessly with cancer holding on to Joshua 1:9. She understood and applied the fact that this is a commandment from God to be courageous because God is with you wherever you go.

I wish I could say I experienced first hand the love this woman spread. I will say that just seeing the hundreds of people who came to the service makes me want to live that kind of life. To have that kind of impact. I pray that God would write the verses Honey lived by and the songs that she loved to sing on my heart. That I might leave one-tenth the legacy Honey has.

Heaven has gained a wonderful treasure and this world has lost some of its shine with the passing of Honey.

Thanks for visiting.

 My wife and I have been struggling lately financially. In the midst of it, God has been saying to us, "Well, you don't tithe faithfully. How can I bless what you don't give?" So, we've committed that we will give as God directs (not according to what's left over.) And we've been amazingly blessed. 2 weeks ago, we found out that we qualify for heating assistance. With what was provided there, we probably won't have to pay for heat this winter. We came home from church last week to a Christmas tree and some bags of food on our patio. And I was saying to Kelli that God is really blessing us with all these things. "It's not always a miraculous check in the mail that you can't explain. God provides in amazing ways." And I really believe that. But yesterday was ridiculous. We were getting ready to go shopping. We looked ahead at our bills, etc to see what the budget would be (we need an official budget to be formulated while I'm on vacation). We included our tithe, which was painful, but pretty safe. So, as Kelli is putting the numbers into Quicken, I said put in $xxx, which was more than I had said the first time. She kinda looked funny at me and I said, please put it in. She did.
So, we go shopping, and the membership we thought we had to renew wasn't expired, saving us some money. Plus, we didn't spend near as much as I figured we would. I thought, "See, God's blessing us." I had nooo idea what was coming. Kelli was reading a bed-time story to the kids and I went to get the mail. In the mail was an envelope with no return address. Looked like a Christmas card at first glance. Inside the envelope was a short note and a check for $xxx, the exact amount God told me to tell Kelli to put in for the tithe! I just laughed. I didn't know what else to do...except pray and thank God. I gave the letter and check to Kelli to look at, without saying anything...she was equally stunned.
I don't know how God does these things. I've also never been one to test Him on it. I'm a chicken and I am somewhat controlling.

I know this post seems obsessed with money. Don't be distracted. It's about God's faithfulness and His amazing love for His children. I'm not boo-hooing my financial situation. It is what it is and some of it is my fault. But more than that, I think God knows that this is where some of His kids need to be in order to be reliant on Him. In much the same way He didn't heal the apostle Paul. He told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for thee."

I've heard it said many times that the wallet is often the last thing a person surrenders to God. And that a person's faith can be measured by their checkbook. In many ways, that is really true. My family is holding on to God because all of our efforts to make things work have failed. We really need Him and that's where He wants us, and it's becoming the place I want to be. I believe He may keep us here until the lesson is well and truly learned.

Please learn from us and take special note of Solomon in Ecclesiastes. He had everything and it was worthless to him because God wasn't in it.

GOD NEVER FAILS!

Thanks for visiting.