I was reading in Ecclesiastes today....I realized that this is some really cool wisdom.... just accepting where I am in life and enjoying it! What are my options? Discontent, coveteousness, etc... Some cool wisdom in just enjoying where God has me and what He has given... I know that, what's wrong with me?


NLT
18 Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life.19 And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God.20 God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past.

here's a funny side note....my One Year Chronological Bible has the phrase "a good glass of wine" after the "eat, drink"

Last night Tim and I were at the bookstore for part of our date and I picked up several books to skim through...as I love to do when we go. One of the books was "I Want to Live These Days With You: A Year of Daily Devotions "
by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I think God directed me to it, because one of the entries has encouraged me so much....I have to paraphrase and give you what I gathered from what I read...but here goes :)

It was talking about how God has given us day and night. We have all day to seek and go after God. We either seek God or other things or idols, but at the end of the day, if we have failed to seek God and have sought other things, well, the next morning is a new beginning to start fresh! How cool....I really needed a fresh start today...Yesterday I was seeking wrong things and giving in to VERY WRONG emotions! .... So praise God for a new day! For a fresh beginning!

I think this is my favorite CS Lewis quote (well, one of them, i just can't pick a favorite.... )


"And now, what does it all matter? It matters more than anything else in the world. The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us: or (putting it the other way round) each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance. There is no other way to the happiness for which we were made. Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection. If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prizes which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?"

from Mere Christianity "A Good Infection"

Ok...conference, but first ;)

The idolatry series in the post below, was talking about the phrase "if I was the only person in the world, Christ would have still died, even if it was just for me"....I have been troubled by this phrase, for a long time, because that is so "ME" centered, not about Christ dying, but about how worthy or loved I am....well.... C J Mahaney was saying, (he may have gotten this from someone else...you'll have to listen to the series so you can correct me ;).... that that only means that the sins that I have committed are SO GRIEVOUS that Jesus would have to still die for my sins (even if I were the only sinner) so that I could have right standing with God! That makes me rejoice.... Because that is the gospel.... That is about God and that puts me in the right mindset to worship God and rejoice over what Jesus did for me, instead of using it as a 'self-esteem booster'.
(this is a long post ....feel free to not read it all ;)

Conference... we left with our friends at approximately 8:30 am on thursday morning and arrived about 12 hours later in Bala Cynwyd , Pa. We settled in and got up the next morning to a specialized Muslim focus. We were in the few who arrived early to be able to do this part, the rest of the group arrived later for the 7pm start. We were very enlightened by the Muslim focus. a man that was there shared his story of conversion and the repercussions of that. Tim and I really enjoyed that casualness of the Muslim focus and the Q & A. We were able to have lunch with this man who was converted out of Islam. That was very enjoyable as well and the conversation with him was informative and we were able to get to know him, just a bit more.

That evening we started the actual 'Next Step' conference Friday nite...we were already exhausted by than and the conference was just beginning ;) :)..... to make a long story shorter, we heard several missionaries tell their stories, we were all assigned mentors to help us 'see' where we are at in the process, and worship. We also had lots of opportunities to eat with and hear casual stories from the mentors. It was an emotional time of self searching and digging. I LOVED the people there and felt no pressure from them, but internal pressure to know the answers to my 'next steps'.... the end of the conference we all shared ( I suppose there were about 23 'students' ) our 'next steps'. I am not sure where God has us in this process, but I feel like He is teaching me to depend on Him for that....but our mentors helped us to see that our next steps should be .... 1. Gather a group of people to help us in the process. 2. Go on a short term mission trip. 3. Spend more time in discussion about it. So that's it in a nutshell! :)

WOW...... where to begin....I will tell you all stuff about a conference we just returned from....BUT FIRST


Sovereign Grace Ministries has Made all there resources available for FREE!!! (in the last few weeks or so)....this one is ROCKING MY WORLD!!!! Life changing (I hope and Pray)....I listened to the 2nd 2 parts today, on the way to and from getting my boys....

here they are:
http://www.sovereigngracestore.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=A1040-01-51

http://www.sovereigngracestore.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=A1040-02-51

http://www.sovereigngracestore.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=A1040-03-51

I know this would take some time.... there are 3 parts...but YOU MUST HEAR THEM!!!!!!! smiles.....I know 'caps' means I am yelling, but I am not yelling at you, I am just soooo excited about them ;)

One of the comments to the 'thumb' issue (see previous posts) included this link:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ukcV-xtU3hc

.... Excellent, excellent.... that is soooo what I was trying to say, or to be more honest.... What Tim was trying to tell me when we talked about this issue :)....I tried to say 'we' talked about it, but really, my wise husband was telling me that :)

Thanks for the link Chuck--I had seen this before...it is sooo powerful and such a great reminder to me!!

Here's where my mind is going lately. Tim and I were talking about the whole 'thumb' issue (...see previous post). Here's the thing....I wonder what i would have posted if i had broken my thumb? Would I still proclaim that God is good?? This has been going around in my mind lately anyway. I think "o, how good God is that I arrived home safely", or " How good God is for keeping my thumb from being broken". BUT isn't God still good and even kind, if I would have broken my thumb, or gotten in a car crash? Isn't God using those 'bad' things for my good and therefore, still being kind and/or good?? Is a parent being a good parent when they spank their kids or a good parent when they never spank or discipline?

This is a 'funny' story.....

Yesterday we went to the store. (the boys have money to spend, I usually don't take them anywmore)

Anyway, we got to walmart and I was waiting for the boys to get out and I had
locked the van and somehow I suddenly found that my thumb was SHUT in the door when Jake shut it! From the very tip to the very end of my thumb where it connects to my hand.... I was like--o man, the van is locked!!!! so Jake is immediately saying, I am sorry mom...I was (calmly, don't know where the calmness came from, 'cept God).... like...it's ok Jake, i just have to get my thumb out ;) :) smiles.... :)

.....so i had to get in my pocket, get the keys and unlock the van to get my thumb out....fortunately, it wasn't hurt that much at all...it was stuck in a little area that seemed to have
some space.....sooo weird, really, but it was sore and had a small piece of skin
torn, but THAT'S IT!! I was so glad, cuz you know how stuff is sometimes numb
when you first hurt it??? :) And i really thot (while it was still in there) that it would be HURT. Andrew was very sympathetic too...i don't even know if travy noticed that much ;) 'cept he said, mom I was afraid you locked you keys in the van, than we would have to go (for help he meant ;)
I teased them afterwards when i knew it was fine, that it was broken....travy
said, you scared me mom ! ;) smiles-- i am so mean ;) smiles

Anyway, jake kept saying he was sorry :( poor guy ...and right before bed, he
said, mom, I am sorry I shut your thumb in the door ;) :) I kept telling him it
was my fault, cuz I had my thumb there (I seriously cannot remember why I would
have had my thumb there??? --so weird!)

So I think that God is trying to tell me something. I really was grateful that He kept me calm...cuz how embarrassing if i were screaming in the Walmart parking lot ;)....but mostly I am thankful that something CRAZY can happen and God is still in control :)....cuz I really felt like He was and not me.... (nice of you to read this far....silly, silly story)

Can't wrap my brain around this quote by CS Lewis from Mere Christianity

"Everyone who believes in God at all believes that He knows what you and I are going to do tomorrow. But if He knows I am going to do so and so, how can I be free to do otherwise? Well, here once again, the difficulty comes from thinking that God is progressing along the Time-line like us: the only difference being that He can see ahead and we cannot. Well, if that were true, if God forsaw our acts, it would be very hard to understand how we could be free not to do them. But suppose God is outside and above the Time-line. In that case, what we call 'tomorrow' is visible to Him in just the same way as what we call 'today'. All the days are 'Now' for Him. He does not remember you doing things yesterday; He simply sees you doing them, because, thuogh you have lost yesterday, He has not. He does not 'foresee' you doing things tomorrow; He simply sees you doing them: because, though tomorrow is not yet there for you, it is for Him. You never supposed that your actions at this moment were any less free because God knows what you are doing . Well, He knows your tomorrow's actions in just the same way--because He is already in tomorrow and can simply watch you. In a sense, He does not know your action till you have done it: but then the moment at which you have done it is already 'Now' for Him."



hmmmmmm still thinking on this :)

CS Lewis said "It is not simply that God has arbitrarily made us such that He is our only good. Rather God is the only good of all creatures: and by necessity, each must find its good in that kind and degree of the fruition of God which is proper to its nature. The kind and degree may vary with the creature's nature. but that there ever could be any other good, is the atheistic dream. George Macdonald, in a passage I cannot now find, represents God as saying to men, 'You must be strong with my strength and blessed with my blessedness, for I have no other to give you .' That is the conclusion of the whole matter. God gives what He has, not what He has not: To be God--to be like God and to share His goodness in creaturely response--to be miserable--these are the only three alternatives. If we will not learn to eat the only food that the universe grows--the only food that any possible universe ever can grow--then we must starve eternally. "

--from The Problem of Pain