Fred’s greatest pleasure was spending time with me. Mine on the other hand was the fact that Fred wanted to be my friend. As He does with most things that are significant in my life, God used this to illustrate my relationship with Him. “Picture yourself as me”, He said. “Now picture Fred as someone who wants nothing more than to spend time with you”. “You take great pleasure in the fact that this animal (Fred was a cat) is never happier than when he is able to get close to you. When you lay down at night, he comes and lies at your side. When you come home he is there to meet you at the door. And when you call him he comes to you”. (Fred was more like a dog.) “Nothing gives me greater joy than when you want to spend time with me, or that you answer me and listen when I call your name.”
Fred was thankful; I can’t remember a time when he didn’t come over and rub on my calf and rap his tail around my leg (he had a long tail) before he would eat.
Fred waited on me; He would always sit and wait by the bathroom door while I brushed my teeth before going to bed.
Fred trusted me; When Fred became ill with kidney failure and we had to give him medication, he didn’t run away or scratch, he didn’t even bite! He didn’t take the medication either. But he never ran out of the room and after all his squirming around he would come back and sit by me.
Eventually we had to put Fred to sleep. A lot of people don’t understand the pain of going through something like this until they have had there own cat or dog. But it is especially painful when you have an animal with a unique personality that chose to be your friend.
In my relationship with God, in many ways, I want to be more like Fred.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
What good can I say
What good can I say about life that God hasn’t already told me?
What profound thought or truth could proceed from my mouth that was not already rehearsed in the mind of God? With every passing generation God has shown His goodness and mercy, His loving intervention in the affairs of people. And with every passing generation people have tried to take credit for it.
What profound thought or truth could proceed from my mouth that was not already rehearsed in the mind of God? With every passing generation God has shown His goodness and mercy, His loving intervention in the affairs of people. And with every passing generation people have tried to take credit for it.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Looking for the keys
4.8.05
I was getting ready to take the kids to gym (I used to work with challenged teens) and I could not find the keys to the van. I spent a minute or so rummaging through my pockets to locate them and became agitated at the fact that I could not find them. I finally looked up and noticed that my partner was standing there all the time with the keys in her hand trying to get my attention to give them to me. But I was so focused on finding them myself that I didn’t think to ask for help or even see if she had them.
A few hours later God impressed upon me the fact that I get so focused on myself for what I need, that I’m unaware that He is there with the answer or the means to teach me how to get farther down the road in allowing Him to live through me and express His love to others. So many times God allows us to get to the point where we tire of trying deal with a situation ourselves and finely look up to see that He has been there the whole time with His hand extended ready to give us the key to open the next door we are to walk through.
4b No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:4-6 (New International Version)
I was getting ready to take the kids to gym (I used to work with challenged teens) and I could not find the keys to the van. I spent a minute or so rummaging through my pockets to locate them and became agitated at the fact that I could not find them. I finally looked up and noticed that my partner was standing there all the time with the keys in her hand trying to get my attention to give them to me. But I was so focused on finding them myself that I didn’t think to ask for help or even see if she had them.
A few hours later God impressed upon me the fact that I get so focused on myself for what I need, that I’m unaware that He is there with the answer or the means to teach me how to get farther down the road in allowing Him to live through me and express His love to others. So many times God allows us to get to the point where we tire of trying deal with a situation ourselves and finely look up to see that He has been there the whole time with His hand extended ready to give us the key to open the next door we are to walk through.
4b No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:4-6 (New International Version)
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Surrender
When you are rendered helpless, brought to a place physically and emotionally where you have no choice but to look into the face of love and surrender. You are then embraced by a love that is so gentle and so powerful, so complete that it penetrates and mingles with your spirit, and the very breath of life that is causing you to live and move.
I was in the emergency room at Chester County Hospital waiting to get the results of my cat scan. Long story short, I needed my appendix removed or it was curtains! My wife and two friends of ours were there (one being our Pastor). My Pastor was standing to my right, I was looking around my room and when I looked up at him his eyes appeared to have turned this luminous shade of green (his eyes are blue). Like the color you see when looking at an aerial photo of a tropical Island.
This love just came pouring through him. The Lord made it clear to me that it was He, Jesus, the High King over Heaven and Earth that had made His presence known. The next moment I realized that nothing mattered to me, there was nothing about my situation that bore the least bit of significance to me. There was no fear. It was the first time in my life when the absence of fear was complete.
Nothing can contain His love. It is complete; it needs no excuse or justification and is abundant beyond measure in every dimension imaginable. Jesus demanded no reaction from me. What I could or could not understand was not important. His presence said everything. I felt a deep and eternal reverence, adoration and worship toward Him that required no act of my will. My spirit just embraced Him and honored Him.
His total covering, His complete love, His absolute unfathomable power was in me, through me, over me and surrounding me. Jesus made sure that I understood that he was in control of all the events of my life. Nothing, not the smallest detail escaped His gaze.
For the first time since I received Jesus as savior (35 years ago) He made himself tangible to me in away I had never before experienced. I was helpless and in deep need and He came and ministered to me. Jesus revealed how completely dependant I am on Him, how nothing that could accomplish His will in my life could work together unless He caused it to.
His Love is enormous, it is all consuming. The struggles I face in my walk with Him, faith or the lack of it, the fears and anxieties that plague my spirit from time to time were all consumed in His love. They all just evaporated.
The greatest struggle we face everyday is surrendering to the love of Jesus and our greatest victories are won in the time of our deepest need. When the strength to carry the fight has dried up and blown away and the only words we have left in the arsenal of our will are the words “Jesus help me” and we surrender to His intervention, and let Him decide what the victory Looks like. This is where the battle is won!
Jesus wanted to do more than just a physical healing in me that day. He wanted to give me something deeper. Something above and beyond all I could ask or think. This was not “a taste of his presence”, it was Jesus He came and pulled back the Vail of my darkened understanding revealing what His righteousness is really like, how real His righteousness is in me and how much He loved me. Jesus showed me where my life is hidden.
I was in the emergency room at Chester County Hospital waiting to get the results of my cat scan. Long story short, I needed my appendix removed or it was curtains! My wife and two friends of ours were there (one being our Pastor). My Pastor was standing to my right, I was looking around my room and when I looked up at him his eyes appeared to have turned this luminous shade of green (his eyes are blue). Like the color you see when looking at an aerial photo of a tropical Island.
This love just came pouring through him. The Lord made it clear to me that it was He, Jesus, the High King over Heaven and Earth that had made His presence known. The next moment I realized that nothing mattered to me, there was nothing about my situation that bore the least bit of significance to me. There was no fear. It was the first time in my life when the absence of fear was complete.
Nothing can contain His love. It is complete; it needs no excuse or justification and is abundant beyond measure in every dimension imaginable. Jesus demanded no reaction from me. What I could or could not understand was not important. His presence said everything. I felt a deep and eternal reverence, adoration and worship toward Him that required no act of my will. My spirit just embraced Him and honored Him.
His total covering, His complete love, His absolute unfathomable power was in me, through me, over me and surrounding me. Jesus made sure that I understood that he was in control of all the events of my life. Nothing, not the smallest detail escaped His gaze.
For the first time since I received Jesus as savior (35 years ago) He made himself tangible to me in away I had never before experienced. I was helpless and in deep need and He came and ministered to me. Jesus revealed how completely dependant I am on Him, how nothing that could accomplish His will in my life could work together unless He caused it to.
His Love is enormous, it is all consuming. The struggles I face in my walk with Him, faith or the lack of it, the fears and anxieties that plague my spirit from time to time were all consumed in His love. They all just evaporated.
The greatest struggle we face everyday is surrendering to the love of Jesus and our greatest victories are won in the time of our deepest need. When the strength to carry the fight has dried up and blown away and the only words we have left in the arsenal of our will are the words “Jesus help me” and we surrender to His intervention, and let Him decide what the victory Looks like. This is where the battle is won!
Jesus wanted to do more than just a physical healing in me that day. He wanted to give me something deeper. Something above and beyond all I could ask or think. This was not “a taste of his presence”, it was Jesus He came and pulled back the Vail of my darkened understanding revealing what His righteousness is really like, how real His righteousness is in me and how much He loved me. Jesus showed me where my life is hidden.
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