Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Rare Treat

This past Sunday we had a great service at church. Really every Sunday is great, but this one had an added bonus. Our pastor interviewed Rev. Clarence Jett. I think he said he was 94 years old!! The interview was about how to grow in your faith, live out your faith and share your faith.
Sadly this kind of wisdom from simply living life is hard to find in today's contemporary church.
So as someone embarking on the second half of this life (hopefully!), it was encouraging and inspiring to hear the wisdom of Rev. Jett.

My take away from him: God is there, all the time, no matter what. Simple, yet so profound for the busy life and world I tend to live in. Weed out the noise and listen for the still, small voice of God. He is there.

You can listen to the whole interview, Still Standing, Part 3 "Know", here.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Monday mornings

Monday's are hard for me. Monday mornings are disastrous! This morning I put coffee in my son's cereal. I guess we all know that milk is warm, dark colored and sitting on the counter!
Then when I totally thought of returning to bed, I put the kids in the car to take them to school. Unfortunately, I drove right past the street leading to the school and was headed to Curves to work out! I realized they were still with me at the next intersection. They never made a peep.
Crazy kids.....crazier mother!

Stay tuned, Tuesday has got to be better.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

The Day After

Today was an odd day for me. I'm beginning to think for many of my friends and family too. All day either in conversation or e-mails there was a sense of dismay, disbelief and sometimes distrust. Mostly the feelings were around the presidential election outcome. Although I woke up today trying to let myself go into this abyss over all things political, I decided not to go there!

As I spent some time with God, my devotional led me to Peter's story of being tested in Luke 22. In verse 31, Jesus lets Peter know that he's about to be tested by Satan. The good news is in the next verse where Jesus also lets Peter know that He's prayed for him and that He believes Peter will be faithful. Jesus says, "And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." Jesus could have said if, but He didn't. Peter belongs to Jesus and He knows Peter's heart for him. And because I belong to Jesus, He knows me, He prays for me and He believes in me. That changed my outlook for today and off I went. God's word has a way of doing that if we let it.

Unfortunately not everyone I talked to or heard from had read Peter's story this morning! There are serious concerns about our future, the economy and the wars. So as I thought about all this more throughout today, several verses came to mind. Hopefully these will encourage you to remember that God was God yesterday and He is God today and He will be God tomorrow.

Psalm 42:5a "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God."NIV

Isaiah 55:8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord."NIV

Hebrews 13:8 "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."NIV