Flying Solo

*** The words to "Leavin' On a Jet Plane" echoing in the back of my mind. ***

My oldest daughter (17 y.o., nearly 18) got on an airplane yesterday evening to go visit her brother in Oklahoma. She is on spring break (2 weeks) and she and my wife decided about 6 weeks ago at my son's suggestion that it might be a cool experience for her to get a preview of what college is like.
So they my wife and daughter split the cost and bought my little girl an airplane ticket to OK City. ... and last night she left ... She got there safe and everything. That is good.

It's hitting me now. I know part of it is preparation for this fall when she goes off to college, which I'm trying to be ready for, but I'm not ready for... don't have the grace for it yet...
This papa's heart is left feeling a little sad that the time has flown by like it has and that my babies are flying the nest. It's what we work for, getting them ready to fly solo, and then all of a sudden the time has sneaked up on you and it's there.

I know it will be a good time for her and for her brother, and that it will be a good time for my wife and youngest and me; and I know that my girl will be back in a week and that it will be all back to "normal" for a while yet. But in the meantime there's that song echoing through the back of my mind, because one day not too far off it is going to be longer than a week...

Thank God for the grace He gives me today is that which I need for today.

Awesome Worship

Wednesday evenings, before we have prayer at our house, we have a practice time for our church's worship team (aka praise band). It's spring break time and almost everybody is out of town. Almost everybody but my wife and I and the lady who is our worship leader (some churches designate the person in this position a worship pastor). Well last night it was just the three of us. My wife joined us for our worship practice which turned into less practice and more worship which was pretty awesome. And our prayer time turned out to be just the three of us as well.
What a wonderful blessing the time was. Not that other times haven't been, but this was a really cool time or prayer and worship. We weren't constrained by the time because "everybody" was going to be showing up at 7. We were just able to flow with the leading of the Holy Spirit. Of course that is what we always want to be able to do, it's just that it works out better sometimes than others. Our God is so good!

I am always grateful to God for the the richness of the blessings that He pours out on us. My Father always knows what I need and when I need it. He pours out refreshing waters (spiritual refreshing) for us to drink of. The bible says those waters pour forth from His throne.

So I just want to take a moment and express my thanks to my God for the blessing of knowing Him. For all the things He allows us to walk through, because He uses both the good and the bad for His glory.

I praise Him because He alone is worthy of praise.

Do You Love Me?

“Do you love me?”
This is a question that Jesus asked Peter. It was not a rhetorical question. It had a specific purpose behind it, as did all the things Jesus spoke. Jesus was expecting an answer from Peter, but it required Peter to look inside himself to really see if the answer was true. True, meaning not what Peter understood love to be, but true based on what Jesus had taught Peter that love meant.
So while Peter answered, “Yes, Lord I love You.” Jesus knew that what Peter answered was not the answer to the question asked, so He asked the question again, “Peter, do you love me?”
Peter answered again.
Jesus asked a third time, “Peter, do you love me?”

Jesus was not asking Peter to answer about having emotional love. Jesus was asking a deeper question requiring an answer that pierced to the depths of Peter’s soul.

Now, my question to you... Do you love me?

Those of you reading this that do not know me may be thinking, “how can I love you, I don’t even know you?”

Some of you reading this may think, “I’ve known you a long time, you know I love you.”

If you are answer either way or even another way, I ask you to consider what it really means to love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a is the answer.

I know I still have much to learn about how to love as Christ does. My love is still so superficial in so many ways; still filtered through my human experience and so prone to my fleshly, non-spirit lead ways of thinking. Thanks be to God that He is patient to continue to show me and teach me His way, in His perfect time, to bring me to His perfection... all in due time.
Be not anxious, oh my soul for that which God will bring to pass in His merciful perfected timing.

I wrote most of this post a couple weeks ago. Reading a 'The Ark' postings by Mike Duran in his blog (referred by Ame) brought this back to me. It is really about the body of Christ learning to be what God intended: Imperfect people learning how to love other imperfect people with and through the perfect example of love Jesus exemplified.

In the Dentist's Chair

I went to the dentist today for a cleaning. Now I don't know if you've noticed (you probably have), but it is not the most conducive place to have a conversation. You have somebody with sharp instruments poking and scraping your teeth and gums, cleaning away plaque, then polishing, and so on.

Now the young lady who is my hygenist (I'll call her D) is a very nice and also a talkative sort, which is not a problem. The difficulty for me is when the "conversation" includes questions. Deep questions that need to be answered. Questions that the obvious answer to is Jesus Christ and His Words of life. Like most of us, this lady has had her share of hurts. She has also had difficultly in the relationship (male/female) arena. I know this from past cleaning "conversations."
It started out by D simply commenting that my teeth and gums looked good. I replied during a pause in cleaning actions that it is amazing how that is more prone to happen when we are not experiencing high levels of stress in our personal life. D's reply was that high stress happens with marriage, divorce, and death... which led to more interesting discussion. D started talking about how she would have a difficult time getting married because it is so difficult to be sure that the person would be the same after marriage and be willing to stick it out through tough times and so on. I agreed with her that it can certainly be tough at times. D then asked me, "You go to church right?" After my affirmative replay, she then proceeded to ask me questions about what I thought about some scriptures having to do with marriage. I was careful to try to answer faithfully to what the Word says, not what I think about what it says. I was also thinking about the blogs I've read at The Covering by some who are probably far more qualified people to answer this than I, but this was the divine appointment that God had called me to.

The basis of my answers was this: There are no guarantees and there are lots of temptations out there, but the bottom line is that it comes down to God gives us the place to make choices. Sometimes we have to make difficult choices that we would rather not have to choose.
When we become disenchanted with the person we've been married to and living with for 20 years, and we start nitpicking things about them, we cause ourselves to "fall out of love" with that person. This is a destructive road and it is the devil's playground. All of a sudden some other person seems so much more attractive, so much more ideal, maybe even more interested in you than your spouse. And the devil feeds this fire all kinds of fuel because he hates marriage. He hates everything that God says is good and he wants to destroy it; he wants to destroy God's people and he has lots of experience doing so.
This is where it comes back to choice. I can choose to tear down, or I can choose to build up. The results of my choice will lead to an end, either good or bad. Loving someone is a choice. There are physical causes responsible for the initial "feeling" that we think of as love when we are enamored/infatuated with someone, but it goes away. Today, a lot of divorces happen because the infatuation fades and the "we're not in love anymore" feeling creeps in.

Real love does not go away. Real love requires work. Real love is based on choosing to put another before yourself; To esteem them, to build them up. God works miraculously in this kind of love.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails;
I Corinthians 13:4-8 NASB

Lord, I pray that the seeds that you allowed me to plant today will find a place in D's heart and that You Holy Spirit will bring life to her through the revelation of Jesus Christ to her heart. She needs you. Thank you Jesus for Your perfect intercession for D.

I am grateful for every opportunity the Lord provides me to be His witness. He has done great things for me. In Him will I rejoice and lift up my voice. In God alone is the Way and the Word of Life. I am so thankful for the forgiveness I have in Jesus Christ. To Him be all glory and honor and power forever and ever.

I Am Convinced

Another song by Brian Doerksen and Brenton Brown...

I am convinced

No force on earth
Can separate us from the love of God

Angels or demons,

This life or death
Won’t separate us from the love of God

So high, so wide, so measureless,
Filling eternity
So strong, so deep, so intimate,
Encircling mystery
That nothing can take Your love from me

Violence or danger,

Hunger or shame
Won’t separate us from the love of God

I am convinced

No force on earth
Can separate us from the love of God

Wow! I love it when somebody captures such a simple profound truth from God's Word. Especially when it gets stuck in your head and you are singing it all day long.
The biggest difficulty (especially for a musician) is to try to relate the power that one can sense from music and songs without the musical accompanyment.

Anyway, what a wonderful assurance we have from our God that He won't ever leave us or forsake us; that He is always present and He is an ever-present help in our times of need.
Now I don't know about you, but I'm always in need of His wonderous touch in my life, healing me, molding me, forming and fashioning me into the perfect vessel that is able to do His will and be His instrument.

You Surround Me

I've been listening to this song lately. It is a fabulous reminder of the love my God has for me and how ever dependent I am on my King for everything.

You surround me
You indwell me
You’re beside me
ever present, always near
You’re the whisper
calling my name gently
Love eternal
reaching to me, jealous for me
I will stay with You forever
arm in arm we’ll walk together
You will never let me go
I can’t live my life without You
my whole will to live is for You
You’ve awakened me to know
I can’t live my life without You
I can’t live my life without You
I can’t live my life without You

written by

Karen Padgett, Daphne Rademaker, Brian Doerksen
(c)2002 Integrity’s Hosanna! Music/ASCAP
CCLI Song No. 3719668

Selah! Pause and consider.

Temporary Lull

My posting has suffered a temporary lull in the last week. Not that I have an agenda that I must publish a lot. I am working on a couple different things to post and these cannot be tossed out carelessly.
The first will be "Do You Love Me?" inspired from the question Jesus asked Peter after the resurrection as recorded in the gospel of John. The second is what will probably be a short series titled "The Eve of Destruction." which will be chronicling bad decisions during a period of my life and a few years ago. The title should provide some insight. The intent is to glorify God. In my weakness and failure God can be magnified. The Word says that God uses ALL things together for His plan to be accomplished. I continually have to remind myself of this because for now, I see as through a glass dimly.

-- God Bless

A Lesser Light by Night

I saw this picture on the NASA POD and just loved it. It is of a Massachusetts lighthouse during the lunar eclipse that recently occurred on the 3rd of March 2007.

It is impossible to ignore the handiwork of God Who created all things for His good pleasure. I remember also that He had us in mind when He created everything so that we might in some part appreciate the splendor of His majestic creation.

The Word tells us that all creation testifies of Him and points to God our Creator; that if we fail to praise Him, even the Rocks will cry out His name.

This picture shows a lighthouse, made by man to help ships navigate in the night. In contrast the reddish moon caused by the lunar eclipse, exemplifies God's unending imagination as we behold the lesser light created to govern the night. What beauty He surrounds us with and we only need to take the moments to pause, see, and appreciate all that He has done.

I stand in awe of One so Holy...

Busy - Busy - Busy

That's what I've been... busy, busy, busy.

I have been taking some time to get to others blogs and do a little reading and hopefully a little encouraging here and there. But haven't taken time to write anything on my own. [Though I nearly wrote an essay on AMExpression's post today.]

I've been trying to figure out if I just haven't had anything to say

or whether the busy, busy has just kept me away

As for last night, we had people from church at our house to pray

But that is something we do on Wednesdays anyway

Okay. Cheesy maybe, but sometimes these goofy things just blurt out.
My little brain will just fall into rhyme time.
I sure wish I could do that when I feel like writing a song, but then it just doesn't seem to work.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

I spent some time today reading through the Boundless posts on the Modesty Survey. What an interesting collection of thoughts regarding the matter. It seems to me that what was lost on a great many of the posters on that site was that this was not to set some set of rules, but merely to help make ladies, especially younger ladies, aware of how their manner of dress can affect others. Some merely considered it an excuse for guys to think about how girls look in different styles of clothing. What a spectrum
Maybe most women, young and not so young, know how wearing tight and/or revealing clothing appeals to the eyes of men. Maybe they don't. The bottom line is, that for those who wish to be careful and considerate, like my daughters, it can provide some good information. For those who wish to flaunt, it is dangerous ammunition.

To the ladies Matthew 18:6 comes to mind.

AME and Chris both made the strong points regarding individual responsibility regarding the matter. Women about how they dress and their responsibility and accountability, men about taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ Jesus, respectively.

This evening my wife and I were discussing the survey, the blog, and the responses. We came to conclusion that for some that read it, it becomes a set of rules or "Thou Shalt NOT" so they will endeavor to not wear this or that. This leads to bondage, which Jesus died to set us free from.

I take away from the whole matter that we each have responsibilites to one another. That we are to honor and show respect so that we don't cause others to stumble. Our responsibility as believers in Jesus Christ is to point the way to Christ and to do all things as unto the Lord which includes our actions and how we present ourselves (dress). The intent is for us to take our eyes off of ourselves and how things affect us and place them on Jesus, who will lead us by His Holy Spirit in how we are to conduct ourselves.

It is before God the Father that we will stand to give account for our words and deeds. As for me, I long to hear the words, "Well done faithful servant."

Bitten by the Snow Bug

We were hearing there was a good snowfall in the mountains on Wednesday. We had a couple inches of snow down on the front range plains. A couple of co-workers suggested it might be good to take off on Thursday and take advantage of all the new snow. While I was tempted, I was initially hesitant because it is not something I would ordinarily do to just take off and go ski. But that was the very impetus that caused me to go ahead and go... that I would not ordinarily do that.

My wife in the last several months has emphasized that we don't know when we may get another opportunity to do some things, and I have had to consider this along with my responsibilities. Early on I had to learn to put responsibility first and what I desired on a back burner, on hold until a more convenient time came along... the problem is that the more opportune, more convenient time sometimes does NOT come along. Now I am very blessed to have a good, pretty well-paying job that I enjoy, but it would seem that there is ALWAYS something pressing and that good time to get away really never comes. So with that in the back of my mind, I decided to go for it and take the day off and go skiing.

The roads up to the ski area were icy and travel was slow, but we arrived in decent time and got up on the slopes. We had agreed if we got split up we would meet up later in the day. The temperature was cold, about 15 degrees at the base, and probably between 0 and 5 degrees higher up on the mountain, but on a day like this one I can usually keep pretty warm if I just stay going. Therein was the difficulty. First run, we lost one of our compatriots. He wasn't lost really, but had to stop numerous times to to adjust his boots. So we waited and waited; probably about 15-20 minutes and he didn't show up. Hesitantly we decided to go on and catch up with him later. Most of the morning seemed to go like this. Hit the lift, ski down and wait for a while for one or the other to show up, repeat the process.

Now like I had stated earlier the day was cold, and it was pretty windy higher up on the mountains, so the waiting caused us to cool down - Way down! - and the wind only made it worse. We got so cold while waiting that we finally decided to hit the lodge for a while to warm up. Now anyone that knows me or has skied with me knows this is not something I will typically do; however it became quite necessary after waiting a long while for one of the guys that got down ahead of the two of us that were usually the first down. He went of on his own (and later admitted that the amount of time he waited probably wasn't all that long). Well, I figure that is just part of skiing with a group, so as the current saying goes, "It's all good."

One of the good things to come out of yesterday's trip is that I have found somebody that I can ski with that is about the same level skier as I am and we can challenge/push each other to keep going, which we did most of the day. Now my son skis well, and he and I have spent the most time skiing together over the last few years. But with him away at college and all too soon off on his own, our skiing time together has gotten pretty slim, so finding a new ski partner is a cool thing.

All in all, it was a pretty good and pretty enjoyable day and I'm glad I went.

And do you know what? Work got along without me for a day, and I still have all the same stuff to do as when I left.

;-D