It's been a while since I've rambled. But today I got to thinking about the upcoming elections. Every time there is an important election - I get a knot in my stomach. I think about what if the conservatives lose control of the Congress -- the thought of us going backwards to the way things were eight years ago is not a pretty thing. Some of you might not care, but there is a defensiveness in me about this.
Eight years (and a few more) ago, I was introduced to a side of politics that was new to me. We met some friends who were close friends with our former Republican Congressman Steve Stockman. We went to several meetings the Congressman had here in Beaumont and came away with a respect for that man and his beliefs. It was hard watching him lose the next election and then start on the roller coaster to get Ted Poe elected.
We tried to get involved with our local Republican Party but can't get a lot of information about meetings, etc. And don't really have the time to add anything else to our lives. But it did open our eyes a lot to the importance of at least voting. One vote might not mean much - but then again, I don't want my vote to be the one needed that wasn't cast.
What difference does it make? It seems like very little in the grand scheme of things. But with our grandkids' future at stake, it is important that, with this war in Iraq, the immigration problems, the gasoline reserves, the decision-making people in places of power be as wise as we can possibly get. If no conservatives vote, then we'll get non-conservatives to make all the decisions. They will un-do a lot of what President Bush has done and backwards we will go.
I hope it doesn't happen. I pray it doesn't happen. But it takes people to vote to make sure it doesn't happen.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Kirk Cameron's Mystery Goo
Mystery Goo - By Kirk Cameron
Chelsea and the kids and I had been out to dinner. I returned home and was walking down the hall toward my bedroom, when I almost stepped in it. I looked further down the hall and saw another small pile of "don't step in that". How many more might there be? I found more on the kitchen stove. Another one on the top of the living room chair. Like Sherlock Holmes, I searched for clues and followed the trail and found more on my bedroom rug. I turned toward my daughter's bedroom and noticed things were a little more disheveled than usual. As I tiptoed into a dimly lit bathroom, I found lotions, papers, and other various things strewn all over the floor with more mystery goo in both sinks. Whoever the intruder was, I was closing in on him.
I flipped on the lights. Suddenly, from behind me, I heard a sheepish "Braaaaaaaaaak, brak, brak, brak..." I turned around. It was "Whitey"- one of our pet chickens! She sat perched upon the edge of the tub, blinking her eyes as she adjusted to the bright lights, and had an incredulous look on her face, almost as if she was saying, "What?! Why are you looking at me like that? You're the one who left the door open and forgot to tell me the dog was in the house!! How do you think I've felt hiding in bathroom for the last five hours?!" I laughed, picked her up, and carried her out to the rest of the family, and demonstrated my macho, manliness by declaring that Dad had "solved the mystery once again, and the Cameron family could safely return to their rooms."
I know what happened. Whitey, not content to peck and scratch in the backyard with the other chickens, ventured up to the house, saw an open door, and made her bold move. She entered the forbidden territory. No sooner were her feet in the door when a savage beast (our dog Sadie) lunged at her with teeth barred! Fearing for her life, she let out a squawk and flew to the top of the stove! Then to the chair, down the hall, into my bedroom, into the bathroom, up on the sinks, kicking everything off the counters, trying to find a safe place from the vicious enemy. (Obviously, the reason she left so many piles of converted grass and bugs in my house was because she literally had them scared out of her as she fled for her life.)
There are times, as a Christian, I've felt a lot like Whitey. I'm often discontent with the typical Christian lifestyle and instead look for an adventurous life lived on the edge of faith. Specifically, I want to step out of my comfort zone to seek and save the lost. So I rub shoulders with sinners. I see an open door to share the gospel, and I make my move. "So what do you think happens to you when you die?" I ask.
Every time I do this, I enter forbidden territory--the enemy's domain. All of a sudden, out of nowhere I'm attacked by the savage beast of fear. It lunges at me, and I panic! In my mind, I squawk and struggle not to fly away. I try to reposition with another question like "Would you consider yourself to be a good person?" But the fear doesn't let up. Like an unrelenting hound, fear has even sent me running into the bathroom to pray. I pray for courage. I pray that God would soften the heart of the one to whom I'm speaking. And I thank God for my own salvation, determining to be a true and faithful witness for my Lord.
In case you are wondering, Whitey is doing just fine. In fact, I think she's even bolder now because of the experience. I have no doubt that she will enter the forbidden territory again, because it's in her very nature to do so.
As a Christian, you have been given a new nature. You desire to enter enemy territory and sharing your faith, but perhaps in the past you have allowed fear to keep you from even getting your foot in the door. Take a lesson from my pet Whitey and just go for it. Make a bold move and fight the good fight of faith for the sake of the lost. Put it all on the line for someone you love. God is with you. You may feel like a chicken, but the experience will make you bolder in the end.
May it be said at our funerals and written on our tombstones, "Here lays a faithful servant of Jesus Christ, a truly courageous chicken."
[For more information about Kirk Cameron's ministry, go to www.livingwaters.com]
Chelsea and the kids and I had been out to dinner. I returned home and was walking down the hall toward my bedroom, when I almost stepped in it. I looked further down the hall and saw another small pile of "don't step in that". How many more might there be? I found more on the kitchen stove. Another one on the top of the living room chair. Like Sherlock Holmes, I searched for clues and followed the trail and found more on my bedroom rug. I turned toward my daughter's bedroom and noticed things were a little more disheveled than usual. As I tiptoed into a dimly lit bathroom, I found lotions, papers, and other various things strewn all over the floor with more mystery goo in both sinks. Whoever the intruder was, I was closing in on him.
I flipped on the lights. Suddenly, from behind me, I heard a sheepish "Braaaaaaaaaak, brak, brak, brak..." I turned around. It was "Whitey"- one of our pet chickens! She sat perched upon the edge of the tub, blinking her eyes as she adjusted to the bright lights, and had an incredulous look on her face, almost as if she was saying, "What?! Why are you looking at me like that? You're the one who left the door open and forgot to tell me the dog was in the house!! How do you think I've felt hiding in bathroom for the last five hours?!" I laughed, picked her up, and carried her out to the rest of the family, and demonstrated my macho, manliness by declaring that Dad had "solved the mystery once again, and the Cameron family could safely return to their rooms."
I know what happened. Whitey, not content to peck and scratch in the backyard with the other chickens, ventured up to the house, saw an open door, and made her bold move. She entered the forbidden territory. No sooner were her feet in the door when a savage beast (our dog Sadie) lunged at her with teeth barred! Fearing for her life, she let out a squawk and flew to the top of the stove! Then to the chair, down the hall, into my bedroom, into the bathroom, up on the sinks, kicking everything off the counters, trying to find a safe place from the vicious enemy. (Obviously, the reason she left so many piles of converted grass and bugs in my house was because she literally had them scared out of her as she fled for her life.)
There are times, as a Christian, I've felt a lot like Whitey. I'm often discontent with the typical Christian lifestyle and instead look for an adventurous life lived on the edge of faith. Specifically, I want to step out of my comfort zone to seek and save the lost. So I rub shoulders with sinners. I see an open door to share the gospel, and I make my move. "So what do you think happens to you when you die?" I ask.
Every time I do this, I enter forbidden territory--the enemy's domain. All of a sudden, out of nowhere I'm attacked by the savage beast of fear. It lunges at me, and I panic! In my mind, I squawk and struggle not to fly away. I try to reposition with another question like "Would you consider yourself to be a good person?" But the fear doesn't let up. Like an unrelenting hound, fear has even sent me running into the bathroom to pray. I pray for courage. I pray that God would soften the heart of the one to whom I'm speaking. And I thank God for my own salvation, determining to be a true and faithful witness for my Lord.
In case you are wondering, Whitey is doing just fine. In fact, I think she's even bolder now because of the experience. I have no doubt that she will enter the forbidden territory again, because it's in her very nature to do so.
As a Christian, you have been given a new nature. You desire to enter enemy territory and sharing your faith, but perhaps in the past you have allowed fear to keep you from even getting your foot in the door. Take a lesson from my pet Whitey and just go for it. Make a bold move and fight the good fight of faith for the sake of the lost. Put it all on the line for someone you love. God is with you. You may feel like a chicken, but the experience will make you bolder in the end.
May it be said at our funerals and written on our tombstones, "Here lays a faithful servant of Jesus Christ, a truly courageous chicken."
[For more information about Kirk Cameron's ministry, go to www.livingwaters.com]
Monday, October 09, 2006
Blogging and Faith is the Victory #3
I've been reading everyone's blogs today - trying to catch up with everything going on. I finally was able to get all the web addresses. Some very interesting tidbits out there.
I'm still reading Faith is the Victory and remember now why it was life-changing. It was the first book that I read that explained to me that the Promised Land is not heaven and crossing the Jordan River is not death. All those songs we sing are not out of the Scriptures. Pretty scary, huh?
The Promised Land was full of enemies and war. It was full of giants and walled cities. But also filled with milk and honey and the juciest grapes you've ever seen. It was the land that God gave to Abraham for an inheritance for ever. And from Abraham down to Isaac and then on to Jacob and his 12 sons. For ever. They just had to take it back from the enemies. Or, well, let God give it back to them.
Crossing the Jordan River was an act of faith. It wasn't a really wide river but it must have been deep because there was concern about getting across it when Israel (after 40 years) was finally ready to follow Joshua and Caleb. Just like the Red Sea, God opened it up and they walked across on dry land. 12 men stopped in the middle of it to place stones as a memorial as to what God had done for them. When they were across, the waters covered that memorial. (I'd like to swim down there to see if the stones are still there). Then those same men placed 12 stones again to make another memorial so that when their children asked what that memorial stood for, they would tell them how God brought them out of the wilderness and gave them back Abraham's land.
All they had to do was believe and it was theirs. Faith? Believe? How hard can that be?
You tell me.
I'm still reading Faith is the Victory and remember now why it was life-changing. It was the first book that I read that explained to me that the Promised Land is not heaven and crossing the Jordan River is not death. All those songs we sing are not out of the Scriptures. Pretty scary, huh?
The Promised Land was full of enemies and war. It was full of giants and walled cities. But also filled with milk and honey and the juciest grapes you've ever seen. It was the land that God gave to Abraham for an inheritance for ever. And from Abraham down to Isaac and then on to Jacob and his 12 sons. For ever. They just had to take it back from the enemies. Or, well, let God give it back to them.
Crossing the Jordan River was an act of faith. It wasn't a really wide river but it must have been deep because there was concern about getting across it when Israel (after 40 years) was finally ready to follow Joshua and Caleb. Just like the Red Sea, God opened it up and they walked across on dry land. 12 men stopped in the middle of it to place stones as a memorial as to what God had done for them. When they were across, the waters covered that memorial. (I'd like to swim down there to see if the stones are still there). Then those same men placed 12 stones again to make another memorial so that when their children asked what that memorial stood for, they would tell them how God brought them out of the wilderness and gave them back Abraham's land.
All they had to do was believe and it was theirs. Faith? Believe? How hard can that be?
You tell me.
Friday, October 06, 2006
What's So Amazing About......My Testimony?
Hey Allies: This website reminded me of some of the emails I've received from you all about my testimony at your Bible study a couple of weeks ago. I think it would be good and rewarding for you to go to this website and read the article. It's from Christianity Today.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/tcw/2005/003/9.34.html
http://www.christianitytoday.com/tcw/2005/003/9.34.html
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Faith is the Victory - #2
Y'all won't believe this - but someone gave me a copy of "Faith is the Victory." You can't imagine my joy in receiving this book. It is out of print so it is something I will take very good care of and no, I won't loan it out! Thank you so much, whoever gave it to me.
Here's a sample of Chapter 1 - "The Pattern of the Christian's Life"
The pattern of the Chrisian's life is laid down in symbol in the journey of God's people from Egypt to the Promised Land. It is divided into three general phases: (1) From Egypt to Kadesh-barnea, representing a period of education of the believer under the special direction of God. (2) From Kadesh-barnea to the river Jordan, which represents a phase of disciplinary experience in which God deals with the self life. (3) The conquest of Canaan, which represents the life of victory through faith.
This book is concerned with the last phase of this great experience, its application to the church life of God's people and to their lives as individuals.
In this journey the life of the believer is dramatically portrayed. In Paul's letter to the Romans the life of the believer is theologically expounded. The same message is set forth in both. Thus, the apostle in 1 Cor. 10:11 says: "Now these things happened unto them for examples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." Here, and other places in God's Word, we are told that God has recorded in the history of His chosen people, the Israelites, the great truths which we need to guide us and empower us along our pilgrimage here on earth.
The reader would do well to review the account of this great journey, and note how utterly dependent upon God were His people, and how the incidents along the way give that marvelous display of divine grace in behalf of an unworthy people, simply because somebody believed God. Since many others have led us with such great profit along this pathway, and have pointed out with such diligent observation the wonderful truths revealed in this journey of symbolic teaching, we shall content ourselves with a simple restatement of the symbolisms, and press on to where the message begins.
Egypt represents the bondage of sin in which all of us are born. The "passover lamb is a type of Christ our Saviour, the "lamb slain from the foundation of the world." The blood applied to the door posts represents the sinner's trust in Christ to save, while the baptism at the Red Sea depicts the experience actualized in the sinner's heart.
....
...This is the sense in which the Holy Ghost baptizes us into the death and resurrection of Christ. This is not the so-called "baptism of the Holy Ghost," but is rather that baptism spoken of by Paul in Romans 6:3, 4: "Know you not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."
Thus, the child of God, by death, is cut off from the world and pronounced dead to sin. Thus, also, he is raised up from the dead and made alive unto Christ, and is ready now to begin his walk as a believer, a child of God.
......
The events which follow in the next few weeks are full of teaching, but we must leave this to other studies. We should like to repeat that all these events up to Kadesh-barnea were educational and were designed by the Lord Himself to instruct His children in the ways of God, as well as to wean them from the life in Egypt. At Sinai they camp for a while to learn the three great truths which we have indicated in the introduction: (1) that man is utterly sinful. (2) that God is utterly holy. (3) that Jesus is the only Savior. The first two of these great truths are taught through the Ten Commandments; the third is taught through the tabernacle and the offerings.
[end] [for today]
Does this seem dry to you? Studying the O.T. used to seem that way to me until I studied "The Covenant" and several other books (Habakkuk, Daniel) and saw how much those books related to my life. It opened up the N.T. to me in a way that no preaching had ever done. When I read these things, I realize that a large part of my faith has come from seeing how God dealt with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and through them, the entire nation of Israel. They were normal people and God treated them with love and mercy. That's the story of my life - God's love and mercy transforming me from what I am "normally" to being more like Him and His character.
As I begin reading this book again, I hope to share more of this book with you. Since it is out of print, there shouldn't be a problem copying it here. (I'll write the publisher just to be on the safe side!)
Just remember that the victory in our life is not reached by faith. The victory is faith.
(and thanks again, my anonymous friend, for this precious gift)
Here's a sample of Chapter 1 - "The Pattern of the Christian's Life"
The pattern of the Chrisian's life is laid down in symbol in the journey of God's people from Egypt to the Promised Land. It is divided into three general phases: (1) From Egypt to Kadesh-barnea, representing a period of education of the believer under the special direction of God. (2) From Kadesh-barnea to the river Jordan, which represents a phase of disciplinary experience in which God deals with the self life. (3) The conquest of Canaan, which represents the life of victory through faith.
This book is concerned with the last phase of this great experience, its application to the church life of God's people and to their lives as individuals.
In this journey the life of the believer is dramatically portrayed. In Paul's letter to the Romans the life of the believer is theologically expounded. The same message is set forth in both. Thus, the apostle in 1 Cor. 10:11 says: "Now these things happened unto them for examples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." Here, and other places in God's Word, we are told that God has recorded in the history of His chosen people, the Israelites, the great truths which we need to guide us and empower us along our pilgrimage here on earth.
The reader would do well to review the account of this great journey, and note how utterly dependent upon God were His people, and how the incidents along the way give that marvelous display of divine grace in behalf of an unworthy people, simply because somebody believed God. Since many others have led us with such great profit along this pathway, and have pointed out with such diligent observation the wonderful truths revealed in this journey of symbolic teaching, we shall content ourselves with a simple restatement of the symbolisms, and press on to where the message begins.
Egypt represents the bondage of sin in which all of us are born. The "passover lamb is a type of Christ our Saviour, the "lamb slain from the foundation of the world." The blood applied to the door posts represents the sinner's trust in Christ to save, while the baptism at the Red Sea depicts the experience actualized in the sinner's heart.
....
...This is the sense in which the Holy Ghost baptizes us into the death and resurrection of Christ. This is not the so-called "baptism of the Holy Ghost," but is rather that baptism spoken of by Paul in Romans 6:3, 4: "Know you not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."
Thus, the child of God, by death, is cut off from the world and pronounced dead to sin. Thus, also, he is raised up from the dead and made alive unto Christ, and is ready now to begin his walk as a believer, a child of God.
......
The events which follow in the next few weeks are full of teaching, but we must leave this to other studies. We should like to repeat that all these events up to Kadesh-barnea were educational and were designed by the Lord Himself to instruct His children in the ways of God, as well as to wean them from the life in Egypt. At Sinai they camp for a while to learn the three great truths which we have indicated in the introduction: (1) that man is utterly sinful. (2) that God is utterly holy. (3) that Jesus is the only Savior. The first two of these great truths are taught through the Ten Commandments; the third is taught through the tabernacle and the offerings.
[end] [for today]
Does this seem dry to you? Studying the O.T. used to seem that way to me until I studied "The Covenant" and several other books (Habakkuk, Daniel) and saw how much those books related to my life. It opened up the N.T. to me in a way that no preaching had ever done. When I read these things, I realize that a large part of my faith has come from seeing how God dealt with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and through them, the entire nation of Israel. They were normal people and God treated them with love and mercy. That's the story of my life - God's love and mercy transforming me from what I am "normally" to being more like Him and His character.
As I begin reading this book again, I hope to share more of this book with you. Since it is out of print, there shouldn't be a problem copying it here. (I'll write the publisher just to be on the safe side!)
Just remember that the victory in our life is not reached by faith. The victory is faith.
(and thanks again, my anonymous friend, for this precious gift)
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