Stay attentive to God.

Have you heard the Master's voice recently?

Life is a daring adventure!

Climb on into it and enjoy the ride!!

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier.

The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want. Margaret Young

Are you living a crazy busy lifestyle?

Why?

There is an old saying about a fight between a husband and wife - there are three sides to every argument: his, hers, and the Truth.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Lenten check-up

I've given up sweets for Lent in the hopes of increasing spiritual attentiveness.

I have become attuned to the many guile's of temptation. Once while going to the cupboard to get the kids some medicine, I came face to face with black licorice - one of my favorite treats. I hadn't been looking for temptation, yet it found me very suddenly & unexpectedly.

Another day while I was helping at the Junior High Open House I wandered into the Foods class where they had freshly baked cookies. I picked one up and had a bite before I even realized the cookie was off limits. As I passed it onto a friend who wasn't abstaining from sweets there was another insight - not all temptations are always wrong for every person.

Yesterday at lunch my youngest son gave me a cookie he had bought me at a school bake sale to benefit Japan. Again I had a bite before I realized my Lent commitment. Forbidden fruit pops up at the most unexpected times!

After one bite I was repelled by the sweetness. I was able to tell my son that having given up sweets (mostly!) they no longer seemed to satisfy me like they once did.

God can satisfy us in ways we never thought possible.

Take some time to pray through your experiences this Lenten season.

Share what you are learning with someone else.

Are you a knower or a learner?

Die to the need to be right all the time.

Don't argue with me on this one.

What are you watching and listening to these days?!

Romans 12:1-2
With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.

Does shopping really need to be a way of life?

This was found written by a Marine at the US military facility in Ramadi, Iraq.

What if for Lent we gave up going to the Mall for anything other than absolutely necessary items, such as food or medication?

It's just a thought...

Whoops!

Proverbs 14:21
The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.

ASK

Matthew 7
"Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn't a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn't think of such a thing. You're at least decent to your own children. So don't you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?"

be attentive

1 Thessalonians 5
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

BE ATTENTIVE

Psalm 46:10
Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.

What race are you running?

Hebrews 12
In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through—all that bloodshed! So don't feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?

My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline,
but don't be crushed by it either.
It's the child he loves that he disciplines;
the child he embraces, he also corrects.

God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God's holy best. At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

So don't sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!

Stay focused...

Lent is a season of spiritual attentiveness. If you are fasting, stay the course. Let this time teach you...

Hebrews 12
Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

Are you running low on the bread of Life?

John 6
"When Jesus looked out and saw that a large crowd had arrived, he said to Philip, "Where can we buy bread to feed these people?"...

"When the people had eaten their fill, he said to his disciples, "Gather the leftovers so nothing is wasted." They went to work and filled twelve large baskets with leftovers from the five barley loaves...

When they found him back across the sea, they said, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"

Jesus answered, "You've come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs—and for free."

"Don't waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. He and what he does are guaranteed by God the Father to last."...

Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever. I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don't really believe me. Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don't let go. I came down from heaven not to follow my own whim but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me...

"I'm telling you the most solemn and sober truth now: Whoever believes in me has real life, eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died. But now here is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread will not die, ever. I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self."

Couch potato

Yes, there is a new word called, 'sofalizing' - being social using the internet while sitting on your couch.

It's not really hospitality, and you're not really 'connected', and while the proverbial 'lights are on' no one is really at home, in the sense of inhabiting the neighbourhood with the fullness of your presence and not being distracted.

No matter how plugged-in we get, I can’t hug my laptop. Lets just get on with being church in our own neighbourhoods. Becky Garrison

Velcro Community instead of Teflon.

During this season of Lent why not reach out and embrace the opportunities that tie us closer to our neighbours and flee from those which slide us past each other?

Psalm 24

Of David. A psalm.

The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
for he founded it on the seas
and established it on the waters.

Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD?
Who may stand in his holy place?
The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not trust in an idol
or swear by a false god.

They will receive blessing from the LORD
and vindication from God their Savior.
Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, God of Jacob.

Lift up your heads, you gates;
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
the LORD mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, you gates;
lift them up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is he, this King of glory?
The LORD Almighty—
he is the King of glory.

Unlimited Vision

Imagine what God can do in your neighbourhood.

Ephesians 3:20
God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Nobody told me there would be days like this...

Even junkyard dogs have bad days.

This is part of our growth process. God is permitting and maybe even causing it.

Press in to the Father.

Fasting without prayer is just going hungry...

God be the light in my eyes.
God be the love in my voice.
God be the gentleness in my steps.
God be the compassion in my touch.
God be the word on my lips.
God be the strength for my spirit.
God be the ground under my feet. Rachel Hackenberg

Are you on your way to becoming a living Bible?

Its easy to forget that instead of just reading it every day, we ought to live by what we're learning from it.

It’s not an adventure until something goes wrong.

James 1:2-18
Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves. Don't think you're going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don't ever count on it. You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that's a picture of the "prosperous life." At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.

Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.

Don't let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, "God is trying to trip me up." God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one's way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.

So, my very dear friends, don't get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.

On this one I am a, 'Luther'an.

Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise. The gift of language combined with the gift of song was given to man that he should proclaim the Word of God through music. Martin Luther

Getting scared or worrying is not a healthy long-term strategy for life.

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13
May God our Father himself and our Master Jesus clear the road to you! And may the Master pour on the love so it fills your lives and splashes over on everyone around you, just as it does from us to you. May you be infused with strength and purity, filled with confidence in the presence of God our Father when our Master Jesus arrives with all his followers.

Don't despair

Proverbs 13:12
Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

For whom the Bell tolls...

You ARE More!

Wise words from some young men.

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

Unique, One-of-a-kind, Loved-by-God

Now go tell someone else! (that they are amazing!)

a year from now you may wish you had started today.

How are those New Year's resolution's holding up?