Rest Not Wrest

I was reminded of a verse tonight while posting a comment at a friend’s site-
“7 Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.
8 Cease from anger and forsake wrath;
Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.”
Psalm 37:7-8

Resting in the Lord is hard to do when we feel that we must DO something. Think of Sarai convincing Abram that they should go the route of surrogacy to gain an heir. God wasn’t working fast enough for them. We know how well that turned out.
God is not obligated to bless every endeavor that occurs to us. A wise man once said, “Work is a form of nervousness.”
God is the judge of our works, the paltry piffle we accomplish during our lives. Be ready to share the Gospel as the Lord leads. But don’t strive, and don’t fret; those are signs that you’re going on your own strengths and abilities rather than trusting God to bring the increase. As the verse above says, “Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.”
There was once a successful ministry when fell into error because they got so busy “working for God that they forgot about God”. They were going 24/7/365, beaming the Gospel on satellite around the globe, leading prayer conferences, printing Bibles, sending missionaries…and it all fell apart.
Another ministry which is still limping along, striving and fretting, has moved from the Gospel message to a message of “Don’t trust your Government.” All in the name of Christ. I think that that ministry is also doomed to fail.
Here’s the simple: Trust God, Pray and remain malleable, allowing God to mold you as He sees fit. He’ll let you know when He’s done perfecting you. After you’re perfected, you won’t be fretting anyway, so why not give it up now?

Judas Missed The Singing

Judas missed the singing
He didn’t have a part in the song.
While he was out betraying
Christ and His eleven
Were Praising God
Praising God in a song.

But Judas with his evil heart
Never had a place~
Never sang a note~
Would never, no never
To Christ belong.

Christ and His eleven
Were twelve strong voices
Praising God
Praising God with a song!

But Judas missed the singing
Will never add a note~
Will never find a place~
Will never ever join us in our song.

(refrain)
Christ and His eleven
Were twelve strong voices
Praising God
Praising God with a song!

But Judas missed the singing
Will never add a note~
Will never find a place~
Will never ever join us in our song!

Peanut Butter Baked Potato

How foolish is the concept of "Discovery".
It's as if the world doesn't become real for any of us until we have experienced it.
"I found this little coffee shop down on Bay Street-you have to try their Mocha!"
"I never knew how dirty a country ________ was until I visited-trash all over the place."

Every momentous and mimentous "Discovery" in our lives God has seen from the beginning of His Creation. While we are basing our lives on our own extremely limited experiences, God, if He chose to, could tell us the number of pebbles sitting in a pool of liquid on a mountaintop on Alpha Centauri. Of course, He would use the name He gave Alpha Centauri, not the man made moniker.
Rather than trust in my own abilities (which, along with life itself are gifts from God) strengths and weaknesses (more gifts), I trust in the God Who created me, created us.
Who do we look to in this world for Wisdom? Wizened old heads passing on their life experiences.
And they could be wrong-dead wrong.
Instead, 'discover' for yourself the wisdom of God, found in His Word. The deeper you look, the more you ask of the Holy Spirit to illuminate the scriptures, the humbler you should become. Which brings you to the greatest discovery of all : That God loves you, and has a place for you in His Creation.

"Topeka!"

Find the Differences!

This one's not too hard, I promise. Study these two pictures and find the four cleverly
hidden differences. If you find them all, use them in alphabetical order to complete
this sentence:
"_____ _____ __ and ___"
Good luck, friends!

Oil

Well, this has been an interesting few days. I don’t want to write about my conflict with Rand, but I also don’t want to just go merrily along, pretending that there is no conflict, or that it hasn’t affected me.
I feel sad for Rand, but the sadness is tempered by the knowledge that God does not leave us where we were or where we are- though we may not see the progress, the Holy Spirit is working to conform us to the image of Christ, all of us who are called by God. And sometimes that means rubbing the rust off our halos. Meaning that we can get proud about the silliest things, and God knows that our correct attitude is humility, bowing down before Him. God has humbled me every time I get a big head, and He does the same for each of us.
The Gospel message is that God loves us enough to send His own son to die in our place, to be the only acceptable sacrifice for our sins.
We are called to share the Gospel, however God gives opportunity, in season and out. If we are indeed led by God, as the Bible makes evident on every page, we are to edify, build up the body of Christ by encouraging each other, lifting each other up in prayer…and by correcting a brother who seems to be getting off track.
Which brings us back to the current conflict. It does not edify the body of Christ for one believer to scorn, disparage, insult the efforts of other believers, to judge those efforts as lacking in comparison to our own.
That’s just pride talking, and pride is sin.
What I asked Rand to do was to humble himself before God, repent of his pride, and I feel that is going to happen, not because Rand is a good guy (which he is), but because God will not be thwarted in any work, including the conforming of us to the image of Christ.
The immediate response is, “Doug, aren’t YOU guilty of judging Rand’s works?” and the answer is yes.
Absolutely. But with one major difference-I was willing to just let it go, let Rand do his thing, but God wouldn’t let me. God nudged me to confront Rand on this. And I did so, knowing that the response from Rand would be that I was attacking him, instead of trying to help.
Peter had kind words for Paul, even after being confronted by him-may God continue to work in each of our lives to His Glory.

Modern Day Rapunzel

Modern Day Rapunzel
In your
Isolated tower-when will they
No longer be enough? Your
High window view, and
Wishes that remain only wishes?

Something keeps you kicking away the ladders
Of the ones who’ve tried to rescue you-
(Certain that they couldn’t be sincere?)
As for me, I’ll stand here off and away
And let the sweet wind carry
My message to your ear.

If I would
And you would
Trust to love
We might relax enough to allow ourselves
To learn how to care.
Life is too grand a gift to be spent
Herded into a box, as you must admit
That you are, there.
You must
Let down your hair
Let down your hair
To breath free air.

Ginger and Fred

Fred and Ginger should have always been “Ginger and Fred” as Ladies first should be the rule. Here is a photo from their first movie together, “Flying Down To Rio” in which they had second billing after Gene Raymond (I’m sorry, but….who?) and Dolores Del Rio. It may have had plot holes you could fly an airplane through, but it holds up well, and has great charm, all thanks to Ginger and Fred. Dolores was beautiful, but couldn’t emote, and Gene Raymond, try as he might, never could make any impression-he hardly shows up in his own film.
Merian C. Cooper, the producer had quite a busy 1933-among the 29 (!) movies he produced that year (according to IMDB.com) the standouts were “King Kong”, “Morning Glory”-Katharine Hepburn’s first Oscar winning performance, and “Flying Down To Rio”.
Ginger Rogers was magnificent, and she well deserved every accolade presented her.
Fred could do it all, with sort of an off hand charm and pleasantness, but without Ginger he would only have been a memorable specialty dancer. The dancing was wonderful, but ticket buyers in the 30’s and 40’s (and DVD buyers in 2007) wanted to see them together, falling in love on the screen.
Ginger in her autobiography makes casual mention of the five or so husbands she collected over the years, and glosses over troubled times as if they were no big deal, that’s life and all of that. All of our idols have feet of clay. But I appreciate Ginger and Fred, and all the fun and entertainment they have brought into the world.