Tuesday, December 11

Reflection....

My wife used to tell me that she thought I was the most handsomest guy on the planet and she'd follow that up with "But you don't realize that, do you?" Amongst alot of things I have been taught, discerned, and have been blapped on the head with over the years is that.....I am operating on someone else's ticket.....

At least, that was what I told myself, excusing myself from the responsibility of pursuing God as He has pursued me throughout the years. I oft make the remark that my life has been unlike the footprints in the sand poem and more like.....two footprints side by side and then a big hole where I have fallen. The other set of footprints stop and then you can see the evidence that I've gotten back up and the two sets continue.......Pretty much, God would let me fall, get back up, and we'd move on.....there never seemed to be a set of one footprints where I was carried.

But God spoke words of encouragement and lent a helping hand when I would try to struggle back to my feet.....He was always there, never leaving me.

Through times of sleeping under aquaducts and begging for food.....to times of struggling to pay the rent and keep food on the table, I have been blessed. Not by some gifting of everything I needed but by the gifting of needing everything I have had.

That hug from a daughter who knows how to tug the heart, to the son who wants to emulate his father.....From the gift daughter who shows care for her new siblings to a wife who struggles and is learning to struggle well.....I have been blessed.

From friends who have stood in the gap with prayer to wise counsel from wisen Elders who have walked the path before me........From men who are willing to tell me who's I am to the Father showing me who's I am.....I have been blessed.

There are moments throughout the day, when blessings are flowing and I don't see them, so distant or so seemingly insignificant they seem......but they're there. And they've brought me this far.

Christmas to me isn't so much a celebration of Christ's birth but a time for reflection of what started on the day we celebrate in December......a path of a journey that brought the world redemption.....and a man, who was God, who was willing to follow that path to His own death.....

I am thankful for this time, that I can see in the imagery of history and the reflection of the Word, a starting point to a journey beyond our comprehension....from birth to death, and on to life.........

And I am thankful for the blessings of being able to see that starting point in my own life.......from birth to death to be reborn in spiritual life, a source of my Father's joy and love....

I only pray to serve Him as well as He served us.......

Our future lies within our hands.....

“Our foolish pride comes from this world, and so do our selfish desires and our desire to have everything we see. None of this comes from the Father.”
(1John 2:16 CEV)


Too often today, the focus of anyone is more at the humanistic level rather than developing their spiritual dimensions and that is why the Churches grow MEGA and more impersonal in helping its members reach out into the very congregation that they serve and the community that is burdened with the traffic and other inconveniences.

We ask ourselves what is happening to our world as children grab weapons and head into schools, Malls, and Churches with nothing more than destruction on their minds. We watch in horror at the carnage that is sweeping across our American landscape and point the finger at anything but ourselves. But, we are to blame.

We have allowed our government to declare human life is invaluable, creating a big establishment to gain monetary value in the actual killing of our future. We have taught our children that they can do anything they want to do, despite the realization that they cannot do everything they want to do and then leave them to wallow in the demise of their own failures. We don’t teach them truth, but allow them to hear lies and wonder why we are attacked in the halls of our schools or our churches.

We have created a generation of millennials, who have no sense of value, of community, or of responsibility. We have created the destruction of our species, far beyond any climate change or doomsday machine.

Instead of showing a generation coming of age how to fear and love their God, we have shown them that they can think of themselves as gods. And it is that realization that they do not have the power of a god that makes the few seek out ways to obtain the power they had been promised.

“You should teach them God’s laws and show them what they must do to live right.” Exodus 18:20 CEV.

Instead of raising our children in the ways of the Creator, we have divorced ourselves from active involvement in our children’s lives and have allowed those who don’t share our faith to teach them. We have not followed Biblical standards and expect a different result that what we have gotten.

Is all lost? Are we at such odds with creation and the Creator that we might as well give in to our sinful desires and just let the world go "to h*** in a hand basket?" Should we bother with the foolish attempt to walk when we’ve shot ourselves in the foot by abandoning our children to the street?

No, we just have to return to the basics…and

“Teach them to your children. Talk about them all the time--whether you're at home or walking along the road or going to bed at night, or getting up in the morning.” Deuteronomy 11:19 CEV

All it takes is an investment of our time to...

Teach our children well.......