Something happened to me on Thursday afternoon as I headed home from work.  The sun was setting behind me.  It was reflecting in the rear-view mirror of my car, blinding me as I was trying to drive.  I tilted my head down so that I could see the road in front of me.  When I did, I felt the warmth of the sun shining on my forehead!  Catch that!?!?  I felt the warmth of the sun in a mirror reflection of the sun!!!  Now that is power.  This doesn’t happen with a candle or a bonfire.  The heat of man-made fires don’t reflect in mirrors, but the heat of God-created fires do.  Just stuck me as interesting.

Today was Grandma’s funeral.  I have such peace because of the hope I have in Jesus that she is with Him.  I am excited for her, that after all these years, she has gotten to see her Maker and Lord.  What a glorious day!

The reality that sh isn’t just down the road a ways for me to visit her is sad, but I can’t remain sad for long.  She lived a long, good life filled with lots of love - deep, genuine, selfless love.  She loved the Lord.  Oh, how I know she loved Him!  She loved her family so deeply.  In pictures, you can see it in her eyes and on her face how much she loved every one of us.  And she loved her friends and her church.  It has been a good day of celebrating her life.  God was glorified in her life and in her death.  Praise Him!

Thought I’d share what the Lord showed me this morning.

You’ve heard it said that sheep follow their Shepherd because they hear and know the voice of their Shepherd (John 10:4).  Well, this morning God enlightened me to the fact that sheep don’t choose their Shepherd.  The Shepherd chooses them.

Really, think about it.  Sheep wandering out in a pasture don’t choose whoever the shepherd is out there watching them, guiding them, protecting them.  A shepherd chooses his flock.  Over time, the sheep get so used to hearing their shepherd’s voice that they don’t follow just any ole guy with a staff; they follow the one they know.

Brother, Sister, follow the voice of the One you know.  He choose you.

For other Scriptures on election, see Romans 9, Ephesians 1, John 6:44-45…and tons of others.

I sat out in the backyard for a while a couple of days ago.  I like these evenings that are dry and not too hot.  I was watching 3 birds flying around waaaaaay, waaaaaay up in the sky.  They didn’t appear to be going anywhere; they were just flying.  No apparent destination.  No apparent agenda, other than flying.  Of course, I pondered the question why are they just flying in circles?  The initial answer, “because they’re birds; they fly.”  Then I thought how incredible it is to do just what God created you to do.  For these birds, it’s flying.  Granted they do lots more than fly, but flying is what they’re known for; that is their specific, unique pupose – flying.  Got me thinking about us humans.  God has created each one of us to do something special and unique, something important that He wants each one of us to specifically do.  For you, it might be various acts of hospitality or compassion for the hurt and fosaken.  For me, it might be teaching or supporting missionaries across the world.  For someone else, it might be leading people in musical worship of God or praying for world-wide revival.  Whatever the case is, can I encourage you to do whatever it is God’s created you to do….today….right where you are.  Even if it seems like you’re flying in circles, you are doing what God created you to do.  Just fly.

I absolutely love the power of prayer and unifying presence of the Holy Spirit.  Have you ever been praying and felt a heavy impression to pray for someone?  How about someone you don’t know?  Sometimes during these times of intercession, it is as though the Holy Spirit links you with the person for which you’re interceding.  It’s like you are there with them in their circumstances – feeling what they’re feeling, joining with them in the pain or suffering.  For me, it is like the Holy Spirit has so impressed their situation in methat I can almost see them.  If He has impressed that upon me so powerful, I can only imagine the receiving party must feel the His presence as well.  Perhaps they get the feeling that they aren’t alone in their struggle.  Oh how I pray that they can feel His presence and sense encouragement and strength from Him.

I’ve been reading through 1 Samuel.  As I read Chapters 16-18, the more humble I see David to be…and the more prideful Saul to be.  In Chapter 16, young David is annointed king by Samuel, the man known for being a man of God.  Yet David never once shows an ounce of pride, envy, or jealousy toward Saul or the kingship.  David went from a great lyre player to armor-bearer to mighty warrior.  The son of the king gave his garments to David, symbolically making him an heir.  David becomes a mighty commander of the more successful army.  Yet he never look at it that way.  David just did the best he could at whatever he did.  He didn’t concern himself wiht others’ opinions or the way he looked to them.  He didnt’ think, “Well, I’m supposed to be king one day so there’s no need for me to be in an army.  I’ll just wait for my time to come.”  He did whater the Lord brough his way to the best of his abilities and with the power of God.  David didn’t let the starry fame of God’s plan blind him from humble obedience.

Saul, on the other hand, couldn’t be any more opposite of David.  Here he is, king, fulfilling what God had called him to do, but it wasn’t enough for him.  Once David started getting attention, Saul became very bitter and prideful.  He hated David for the fame and success that he had.  Does this sound absurd to anyone else?  The king jealous of a commander!  Ridiculous.  Saul had shifted his focus off of his purpose as king.  The desire to guide the people in godliness and protect the nation from enemies was crowded out jealous envy over the attention of one of his own.  Saul had it – the Spirit of God, the kingship, respect from the people.  Then he lost it all.  Scripture says the Spirit of the Lord departed from him and that the Lord sent a harmful spirit upon him.  All because Saul saught fame over God.

So now I ask you the question God asked me while reading this.  Are you more like Saul or more like David?

In response to the article in today’s Post and Courier titled Health care:  Plan would allow abortions.

“Craft a solution that would accomodated both sides [meaning, is good for all Americans]”?  You know as well as I do that this is impossible.  And as a Christian, I completely disagree with that statement.  I’m sure there is a large portion of our society that abortion does accommodate, so where do we draw the line?  Compromise is not the solution.  In order to define what is right and what is wrong, what should be allowed and what should be illegal, we must seek a source outside of ourselves – namely GOD, the Source of all things good and the one and only Judge of us all.  We should think of ourselves as Christians first, not Americans first.  The Bible repeatedly says that, as children of God (Christians), we are of (in) the Spirit and that we should walk in the Spirit.  (The Book of Romans is a great place to start reading up on this.)  It is extremely difficult to walk in the Spirit as an American.  We have to constantly and intentionally make the decision to walk in the light and not darkness.  To craft or vote on a bill that “accommodates both sides” would result in walking in the non-existent gray area, i.e. in the shadows – also known as darkness. 

Here’s the article

Health care: Plan would allow abortions

Rights dispute could lead to House, Senate votes on issue later this year

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

Associated Press

Thursday, August 6, 2009

WASHINGTON — Health care legislation before Congress would allow a new government-sponsored insurance plan to cover abortions, a decision that would affect millions of women and recast federal policy on the divisive issue.

Federal funds for abortions are restricted to cases involving rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother. Abortion opponents say those restrictions should carry over to any insurance sold through a new marketplace envisioned under the legislation, an exchange where people would choose private coverage or the public plan.

Abortion rights supporters say that would have the effect of denying coverage for abortion to millions of women who now have it through workplace insurance and are expected to join the exchange.

Advocates on both sides are preparing for a renewed battle over abortion, which could jeopardize political support for President Barack Obama’s health care initiative aimed at covering nearly 50 million uninsured and restraining medical costs. The dispute could come to a head with House and Senate floor votes on abortion this fall, a prospect that many lawmakers would like to avoid.

“We want to see people who have no health insurance get it, but this is a sticking point,” said Richard Doerflinger, associate director of anti-abortion activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “We don’t want health care reform to be the vehicle for mandating abortion.” The church can’t accept a public plan that covers abortion, he said.

Donna Crane, policy director for NARAL Pro-Choice America, said abortion opponents “want an abortion ban in private insurance, and that’s not neutrality at all — that’s a radical departure from current law. They want something far more extreme than where I think the American public is.”

A compromise approved by a House committee last week attempted to balance questions of federal funding, personal choice and the conscience rights of clinicians. It would allow the public plan to cover abortion but without using federal funds, only dollars from beneficiary premiums. Likewise, private plans in the new insurance exchange could opt to cover abortion, but no federal subsidies would be used to pay for the procedure.

Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., author of the compromise, said she was trying to craft a solution that would accommodate both sides.

<end of article>

I’ve been struggling a bit lately with purpose at work.  It is not because there’s too much to do; neither is it because there’s not enough to do.  I just haven’t had the desire to do what I need to do.  Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t let anything ’slip’ at work, but I haven’t had the desire to do it either.  It’s been a very frustrating couple of weeks.  I would wake up in the morning and almost dread going to work (although there was no reason to dread it).  I’d come home feeling like I had just ‘failed’…like I really hadn’t earned my paycheck or done anything truly productive.  This lack of desire eventually flowed over into other areas of my life.  I didn’t really have a strong desire to do anything.  I was in a rut, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get out.  Finally, I asked God to give me a fresh desire at work, a sense of purpose that I could not generate myself.  I’m embarrassed to admit that I waited so long to ask Him for help.  Yet, He heard my prayers and responded by giving me what I could not give myself.

When my dad was having open heart surgery, I spent lots of time marveling at the dynamic realm of God’s work.  The whole concept of open heart surgery blew my mind.  They cracked my father’s chest open, stopped his heart.  They disconnected the arteries and veins from his heart.  They hooked those vessels up to a machine that pumped blood through his body while the surgeon worked on his heart.  When the bypasses were complete, the docs hooked my dad’s blood vessels back up, taking him off of the machine.  Then the surgeon shocks my dad’s heart.  I kept thinking, “How presumptuous of any surgeon or patient to think that any man has the power to make a heart beat again!  God is in control of all things, and He gives and takes all life.  Only He can make a heart beat again.“ 

Well, I’ve had similar thoughts with this lack of desire I’ve been feeling.  I tried and tried and tried to change things to in attempts to stimulate purpose again.  But I realized that I don’t have the power to create purpose or desire.  I don’t know why I (we) limit God to working the ‘big’ things.  He is Lord over all things, the things we consider mundane and the extraordinary.  He desires to be involved in all areas of our lives.  If we try to manage an area of our life without Him, it’s just a matter of time before that area loses all signs of life.

Psalm 33:10-12 (ESV)
10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
the plans of his heart to all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!

What more is there to say.  Lord, grant this nation repentance.

My dad is home and doing great!  There is no sign of another stroke or neurological damage nor any signs of kidney failure.  God has healed my father!  Even some of the effects of the stroke he had a couple of weeks ago is gone.  We are continuing to believe God for a full recovery.

Thanks to you all for your prayers.