Yours

Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours.Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now. --St. Teresa of Avila

If you believe this, what are you doing about it?

Teller of Tall Tales

My wife says I am a liar. We disagree with each other on this subject quite regularly. I don’t think I am a liar at all. I am a teller of tall tales. They aren’t lies but stories created for someone’s enjoyment, especially mine, but others are invited to enjoy these stories also. I inherited this gift. I don’t know if I genetically inherited it, or if it was willed to me from my grandfather, but either way it is part of who I am and who I will always be. My grandfather’s stories were wonderful to listen to. Even when I knew that he was telling a tall tale, I would listen and ask questions. My grandmother would make sure that we knew that none of it happened, but that didn’t matter to me. The story, real or not, is what I wanted.

As the years go by I am certain that my stories will grow and hopefully will get better. I hope my children and maybe one day grandchildren will listen to my stories and hang on every word just like I did with my grandfather’s stories. I hope that no matter how fantastical or exaggerated the stories are, they will ask questions knowing that their questions will just cause the stories to grow even more. That will make me smile, just like it made my grandfather smile and I am guessing just like it made the man who passed this gift on to my grandfather smile as well.

I have a reason for bringing this up. It is not just so you will start questioning the truth of what I tell you. I started reading Crazy Love this week by Francis Chan. I loved this quote. It made me smile!

Isn’t it a comfort to worship a God we cannot exaggerate? --Francis Chan

It made me smile because I am a teller of tall tales and an exaggerator by nature. It made me smile because no matter how tall a tale I can tell about God, it will never be an exaggeration. My stories would never be able to exaggerate the Love of God, or the Wrath of God, or the Wonder of God. The tallest tale I could tell about any aspect of God could at best only scratch the surface of the reality of who God is. And that is great news for all of us!

Watch This

I found this video and liked what it had to say. A lot of it is geared towards men, some towards pastors, but if you don't fit either of those categories, it still applies to the church as a whole. Good thoughts about vision for your church and community and passing on the faith that we have to younger generations.

Check It Out

A Good Place to Start

The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4: 17-19

I think this passage is a great reminder of the needs that Jesus met. He just spent 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by Satan and the next thing we see him do is show up the Temple to bring the word. And the word was not “Well done good and faithful Pharisee!” The word was “I am here to help those in need!” Now spiritually speaking we know that is all of us, but Jesus is also talking about meeting physical needs.

Do you want to be used by God, but don’t know what to do? Maybe we should follow Jesus’ example and reach out to those in need. Reach out to the poor, those in prison, the sick, the oppressed, and proclaim the favor of God to all those you can.

The Gospel Can Shake Some Sense Into You

This year has been a significant year for Sarah Grace and me, spiritually speaking. We have been reading challenging books, listening to challenging sermons, and discussing these topics with ourselves and with others. We have been reading the Bible more and praying more. In all of this we have been seeing the spirit of God work in our lives. The Word of God has been revealing changes that we need to make in the way we live. The Spirit of God is showing things He wants us to do with our lives. If I pause to think about it I ask myself “What is going on?” The only answer that I can give is that the Gospel is starting to shake some sense into us. And it is exciting!

Jared Wilson has a post titled Hijacked by the Gospel. I love that title! It really expresses what has started to happen in our lives. Here is a statement from the blog that I liked.

I have been laid hold of. I've been apprehended. I was writing my own life story, and it was a tragedy despite my own best efforts. But my life story got hijacked by the good news. –Jared Wilson

He also includes this quote from Michael Horton’s book The Gospel Driven Life.

"The Gospel is not just a series of facts to which we yield our assent but a dramatic narrative that re-plots our identity." - Michael Horton

Click here to read the full post. Wilson challenges me when I read what he has to say about the Gospel and what it should be doing in our lives.

Amazed

We just finished reading the book of John in our reading of the New Testament and are now on to Acts. It was awesome to read through the 4 gospels over the last month. It is exciting to see the different styles of the 4 authors and how they recorded the events of Jesus’ life. It is also amazing to see all that Jesus did and makes me wonder how people chose not to believe. When we see all that Christ did, it should fill us with a since of awe and wonder. We should be amazed by Him. We should be like Job when God shows up in a whirlwind to confront the questions. Job chapter 38-39 is a barrage of questions hurled at Job which Job could not answer.

“Then the Lord said to Job, “Do you still want to argue with the almighty? You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?” Then Job replied to the Lord, “I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I will put my hand over my mouth in silence. I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.” Job 40:1-5

I was reminded of that passage from a book I am currently reading. The book is titled The Divine Commodity by Skye Jethani. In the chapter that he mentions this passage, he is discussing the fact that we have worked so hard at trying to perfect our knowledge of God that we have lost the awe and wonder we should experience when we think of God. He had this to say about it.

With our endless and unqualified words about God, the awe-inspiring Lord that Job encountered in the whirlwind looks today like a tempest in a teacup—a containable, practical, and manageable deity. –Skye Jethani from The Divine Commodity

Now this is not to say that we shouldn’t study the word and try to dig deeper into what God has to say. It means that we need to make sure that we don’t get so wrapped up in our knowledge of God that we forget the mystery of God. So the next time you open up the word, be amazed by it. The next time you look up at the stars or stare out at the ocean be amazed by the one who created it all. Consider your life and where it would be without Him, and Be Amazed!

Sweet as Honey

The voice said to me, “Son of man, eat what I am giving you—eat this scroll! Then go and give its message to the people of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll. “Eat it all,” he said. And when I ate it, it tasted as sweet as honey. Ezekiel 3: 1-3

I have mentioned before the fact that Sarah Grace and I are reading through the New Testament right now. We decided we would start with the New Testament and once we finish that we will move on to the fun stuff like Leviticus. We have been reading together at night before we go to bed. Two weeks ago I read this blog post about a family tradition of reading the bible together after a meal. The post is awesome. Click here to read the post. It is beautifully written as are all of her other posts. Here is a small segment of the post but I really recommend you read the whole post.

It's the way he was raised, the way his parents had been raised back in the homeland. You never leave the table without chewing the Real Bread. Even if there were cows to milk and you had to run, or you were late for prayer meeting at the church, or you had company for dinner. If you sat down to eat, you never left the table without eating Words. –Ann Voskamp

Then last night when I pulled up Jared Wilson’s blog he had posted a video that is titled What is the bible basically about, that comes from a message from Tim Keller. I thought it is another good way to approach the bible as we read it.



I wanted to share these two things and encourage you to spend some time in the Word today. It truly is “as sweet as honey!”

Point of Convergence

This guy rocked my world at Men at the Cross this last weekend. He is awesome! I found this video and wanted to share it.

My Only Hope

The Psalmist in Psalm 119 discusses the hope that he has in God's word and some of the truths about the word. It is filled with beautiful statements. Please take 5-10 minutes to sit down and read through this Psalm.

One of the things that is important about this passage is that the writer is not only praising the promises of God. He does praise God for His promises, but he also praises God about His laws and commands. This is something that I think many Christians have gotten away from. We like the promises of God. We like the hope that we have because of those promises. But we don't treasure the law of God like the author does. At least I don't. Check out this quote from Matt Chandler about this issue.

The law is a shadow of the Kingdom to come. God says in the law, "This is how I have designed things to work. Live in accordance with how I have designed things to work." The Law, although our generation talks about it as it is a dirty word, they don't talk about the law as if its a dirty word in the Old Testament. David Praises it "Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!" Because the law lines us up with how the universe is supposed to work. --Matt Chandler from the Right Now Conference 2009

Here are some of the truths about the word of God that come from Psalm 119.

The Word of God revives us(vs 25)
The Word of God encourages us(vs 28)
The Word of God gives life(vs 37)
The Word of God is a lamp to our feet and a light for our path(vs 105)
The Word of God is our only source of hope(vs 114

Hebrews 4:12 tells us the "Word of God is living and active." But for that to be true in our lives we have to know it. We have to cling to it as the Psalmist does. And we have to cling to all of it, not just the parts that make us feel good.

This last week while I was reading through a passage that I have read before, the Spirit of God showed me what was meant by this familiar passage. It was like a light was turned on. I thought "How in the world did I not realize this is what that passage was about?" It is amazing when God reveals to you something from His word. No matter how big or how small the message is, the fact that our God, opens our eyes to the truths in His word, is awesome.

Does your life need to be revived? Do you need encouragement? Do you need to know what direction God wants you to go? Do you need the hope that can come only from God? Then there is only one thing to do.

Open up His word!

(note: The painting used at the top of this post is titled Still Life of Bible. It was painted by Vincent Van Gogh)

Prayer by Saint Patrick

I came across this prayer on the website/blog of Eric Sandras. Sandras is the author of Plastic Jesus and two other books. This is a prayer from Saint Patrick from during the 4th or 5th century. As you read it, meditate on what each statement is asking and recognize your need for each of these items in your life.

May the strength of God pilot us.
May the power of God, preserve us.
May the wisdom of God, instruct us.
May the hand of God protect us.
May the way of God direct us.
May the shield of God defend us
May the host of God guard us against the snares of evil and the temptations of the world.
May Christ be with us.
Christ before us.
Christ in us.
Christ over us.
May Thy salvation, O Lord, be always ours this day and forevermore.
--Saint Patrick

Thorny Ground

Last night while reading in Luke I read the parable of the four soils. Here is Jesus' words explaining the parable:

"This is the meaning of the story: The seed is God's Message." The seed that fell on the hard path represents those who hear the message, but then the Devil comes and steals it away and prevents them from believing and being saved. The rocky soil represents those who hear the message with joy. But like young plants in such soil, their roots don't go very deep. They believe for a while, but they wilt when the hot winds of testing blow. The thorny ground represents those who hear and accept the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity. But the good soil represents honest, good-hearted people who hear God's message, cling to it and steadily produce a huge harvest." Luke 8: 11-15

When I read the passage the Thorny ground really stuck out to me. It just seems like so many believers fall into this category. Especially American believers. And don't take this as a finger pointing post about how everyone else has it wrong and I have it right. I fully admit that I have been in this category for extended periods of time.

Let's take a look at verse 14. Those in thorny ground hear and accept. They believe what they have heard to be true. Then something happens. They start worrying about things in this life. They start focusing on money and on enjoyable things. When I read the that I get the image of most Americans whether they are believers or not. The truth is crowded out by worry, desire of money, and the desire to have a good time. I think this is a problem even in many people's lives even in the believers who are in church each Sunday. Do you see this in churches? More importantly do you see it in your life? Is your life filled more with worry or consumed with the American Dream? Are you constantly seeking bigger and better pleasures in life? Are you stuck because of those things and unable to spiritually mature? If so maybe we need to ask ourselves if Jesus was talking about us when he told about the thorny ground.

Now let's take a look at verse 15. This is where we need to be. Good soil represents honest and good-hearted people who hear God's word and cling to its truths. All of the truths, not half of the truths. They cling to both the good news and to the commands. His way becomes their way of life and good works are constantly producing a spiritual harvest.

God, I pray my life will always represent the good soil in this passage, and always for your glory.

Do Something If You Can

I wonder how much of God's work has been interrupted by doubt. Now of course I know that God is supreme and can do whatever He chooses to bring glory to himself even if people doubt. We see stories in the New Testament where people doubt but Jesus still performs the miracle to bring glory to the father. But Jesus does say how if we have faith, we could move the mountains. So if we believe the word of God, why don't we move the mountains that our in our lives and in others lives? We don't move mountains for one reason: Doubt.

Jesus says to the disciples on several occasions that they need to stop doubting. Doubt has been an epidemic since Christ started his ministry. Some of his family doubted who he was, some of his disciples doubted His abilities. What is really crazy is when his disciples doubt the abilities of Christ after they have already seen him take care of a problem before. Example: Jesus feeds five thousand with 5 loaves and 2 fish and it is amazing. Just a little while later there is a crowd of four thousand and the disciples say "How are we supposed to find enough food for them here in the wilderness?" I don't know why Jesus didn't say "Ok guys, pack it up. You can go home."

My wife and I just started reading through the New Testament recently. We came to this passage and I thought, "This is our problem!" By "our problem", I mean the churches problem.

"How long has this been happening?" Jesus asked the boy's father. He replied, "Since he was very small. The evil spirit often makes him fall into he fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us. Do something if you can." "What do you mean 'If I can!?" Jesus asked. "Anything is possible if a person believes." The father instantly replied, "I do believe, but help me not to doubt!" --Mark 9: 21-24

Did this guy seriously just have this conversation with Jesus? "Do something if you can" and "I believe but help me not doubt." He just told Jesus, The Son of God, God himself, "Do something if you can." Why didn't Jesus say "Dude! I was there in the beginning. I was involved with making all of creation. Just ask my disciples what they have seen me do in the last year. And in a couple of days when they finish telling you about half the stories, come back and see me."

Of course this guy isn't the only person with this problem. I feel like this mind set is running rampant in the church today. We believe in the Power of God. We have heard the stories of His awesome power, probably even seen His power in our own lives, but we still doubt. We take our prayers to God with a heart of "Do something if you can." We believe but we still have doubts. What kind of faith is that?

I want us all to be encouraged to believe God without doubt. Mark 6: 1-6 shares a tragic story that I don't want to happen to any of us. Jesus goes to his hometown and the people don't believe. Verses 5 & 6 say "And because of their unbelief, he couldn't do any mighty miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief." Don't let Christ look at your life and say, "I can't do anything here because they won't believe!"

Just Believe!

Open up

A while back I posted on my blog: They Will Know We Are Christians by our...T-Shirts One of the points of it being that we needed to use our words. We need to tell people about Jesus. We can't just be good and expect people to understand the gospel and accept Christ. We have to open up our mouths and share the Good News.

Jared Wilson posted this video of John Piper titled Telling People the Gospel from a Heart of Love and a Life of Service. Piper is awesome! Watch what he has to say about the importance of words and actions.



One of the reasons this really caught my attention was our joining with Compassion United to feed the homeless in our area. It is easy to cook some food and show up serve it with a smile. But if that is all that we do all we have given them a full stomach, which is temporary, with out meeting any spiritual needs, which is eternal.

Forget the "Yeah, But..."

I finished reading Radical by David Platt a couple of weeks ago, and now I have listened to over half of the Radical sermon series that Platt did at his church(Thank You Jeff & Jessica!) Let me start with WOW!!! I highly recommend both the book and the sermons. As far as listening to the sermons you can listen to them or watch them online, or you can download them from ITunes for free and put them on your ipod.

Radical challenges us to consider the true implications of claiming to be a Christian while looking at some of the tough passages in the New Testament. The one thing that I would recommend while reading and listening to the sermons is that you fight the urge to say "Yeah, but..." Many believers have gotten to a comfortable spot, myself included, and we don't want to consider how some of these passages apply to us. We try to say, "Yeah, but Jesus didn't really mean it that way." Or we say "Yeah, but Jesus didn't say that to all followers just to some." And we assume that these verses don't really apply to us for one reason or another.

If you can avoid the urge to dismiss the verses, you are likely to be challenged to examine your life in a way that you never have before. It will also challenge you to examine the gospel in ways that you never have before.

If you have read the book or listened to the sermons, please share your thoughts and experiences connected with it. I can't express enough how God is using these sermons and this book to open my eyes to what He is calling me to.

God, I pray that you give us strength to fight the urge to downplay your words and instructions for our lives. Change our hearts so we can see the ways we are disobeying your instructions. Forgive our disobedience and guide us into a life dedicated to bringing you Glory. I ask this in the name of Jesus.

Moment-by-Moment Obedience

“This is my son whom I love, with him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” Matthew 17:5

For the past 10-15 years(off and on), I have pondered, prayed about, even distressed over this one question. What is God’s plan for my life? Throughout all of this time I have come up to several solutions that I felt He might possibly be leading me to. Many of them have been dismissed entirely, while some of them I have merely shelved to wait for God’s go-ahead nod. Surely any day now a bright light is going to come from heaven on my road to Magnolia journey and God will reveal himself and his answers to me. The problem with this is that I am spending so much time thinking about the future that I am dismissing the most important part of the plan. That part of the plan that I am missing is the “Now” part.

The verse above comes from the passage when Jesus went through the transfiguration on the mountain. I have heard and read this passage numerous times. The other night as I was reading through Matthew the part that stuck out the most of this passage was “Listen to Him!”

This is the plan God has for my life. He is showing me Jesus and His plan is that I will listen to what Jesus has to say and I will follow those words. I may try to respond to God with, “But what about next year? What about grad school? What about law school? What about Seminary?” His response back might quite possibly be “Quit over complicating things and quit focusing on the future! Listen to Jesus and share Jesus. That’s what I want you to do!”

Oswald Chambers put it this way in My Utmost for His Highest.

“God’s training is for now, not later. His purpose is for the very minute, not for sometime in the future. We have nothing to do with what will follow our obedience and are wrong to concern ourselves with it...However, if we realize that moment-by-moment obedience is the goal, then each moment as it comes is precious.”

Dancing in the Minefields

Beautiful song about Marriage. You can see Andrew Peterson's post about this song and the video here.

Feeling Inadequate

Do you ever feel inadequate to do a task that is before you? I did this week. I had to install a new faucet in our kitchen sink. Our old one had sprung a leak. I am not good at most things that call for the use of tools so we bought a faucet that clearly stated "Easy to Install!" There should have been a disclaimer that stated "Easy to Install (if you are a skilled plumber who has 15 years experience.)

The old faucet came off super easy so I was feeling like this was going to be much easier than I originally thought. Then I got to the directions for the new one. I read step one about 10 times and thought to myself, this makes no sense to me at all. It pretty much went down hill from there. 2 hours later, we finally got our new faucet installed. 2 hours, Easy installation right?

When ever I start a task like this, I get so frustrated before I even get started. I know that I am not going to understand it and I fear that I am going to mess something up so I get worked up. Which probably just makes things even worse. I would seriously rather get someone else to do the job. I know I won't be good at it, so why even try.

Unfortunately I also do this in my faith and I fear many other believers do also. We feel inadequate at certain tasks so it is easy for us to make excuses and look for other people to do our work for us. Each day God can put us to work doing something for the kingdom. Each day Satan is going to try to convince us that we are inadequate for the task. What we have to remember is that God doesn't need people who are able, just people who are willing. When we try to give excuses He says I don't care what you are or are not, because "I AM!"

Have You Settled?

The greatest enemy to the life of faith in God is not sin, but good choices which are not quite good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best. -- Oswald Chambers

While reading My Utmost for his Highest the other day I came across this statement and loved it.

So many people are settling for the good and accepting the good. I am not talking about gifts and blessings from God. I am talking about settling for living a good life when really we should be living a great life. This of course should look much different than the definition the world gives for "a great life." Our great life should be about sacrifice. The kind of selfless sacrifice which always leads people to Jesus.

Have you settled? I know I have. Let us strive for greatness in order to show the glory of God.

Rendering to Caesar What Belongs to God

I have been thinking about this subject for over a month now and finally decided to post it. I guess my thoughts center around this question. Does there get to be a point where our patriotism to our country gets in the way of our service to Christ. Our country is constantly wrapped in heated political debates and Christians are quite often found right in the middle of them. There is this sense that patriotism and our faith go hand in hand and any God fearing American Christian should fight to restore something from days old when in reality I think this allows us to be distracted from what we really should be doing.

Jared Wilson had a post a while back that was about prayer and the right to pray publicly. You can read the entire post HERE. I really liked these words.

"I just wish Christians wouldn't put so much passion into prayer being recognized by the government. I think we can actually harm our witness by constantly crying about our rights and trying to throw our rapidly diminishing weight around. The Church isn't growing in China b/c the government recognizes it and gives it freedom to do whatever it wants."

Dustin told me that on Wilson's twitter account he made a statement along the lines of: "The gospel doesn't need the government." Those two statements really made me think. It seems like Christians fight desperately for their rights to pray, profess Christ, or live out their faith but they spend much less time actually doing any of these things. What good is it for us to have the right to share the gospel if we aren't going to actually share it?

A while back I was at a school function where they started out with having the crowd say the pledges. Everyone was reciting the pledge to the American flag and we were all sounding like a bunch of robots as we recited this memorized pledge of devotion to our flag and country and then we get to "one nation..." and over the entire crowd one man's voice bellows above all others, "UNDER GOD!!!!!!" It was a guttural yell that sounded like it came from someone who was about to go into hand to hand combat with the devil himself. I am sure that man walked out of that assembly with his chest swollen with pride that day. He had made a stand for God in front of all people. The irony of course is that we are not one nation under God and we haven't ever been. Even in times when Americans may have been more spiritual than they are now this has never been a country of only Christians. The second irony comes the fact that we were pledging our devotion to a flag and country who supports and will continue to support things that are disgusting to our God.

Yes there are plenty of individuals in this country who do honor God, but I don't believe our government or our nation as a whole does (even when a Republican is in office.) My pledge of devotion should solely be given to God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe I can do that while still being proud of my country and thankful for the people who have made this country what it is.

"A man may have to die for our country:
but no man must, in any exclusive sense, live for his country.
He who surrenders himself without reservation
to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class
is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things,
most emphatically belongs to God: himself." -- C.S. Lewis

Past Is Not Present

Do you have anything that happened in the past that you still struggle with shame and guilt for what you did or didn't do? I do. There are days where I find myself really struggling with actions from the past. I can't believe that I actually did or said some of these things. I feel ashamed, disgusted, and not worthy of love and grace.

One of the big things that I struggle with are things that I said and did to people in college. Not only are these things that can't be taken back, but they are also things that I don't even remember the names of the people that I said them to. The people I might possibly remember names of, I have no idea where they are because that life is so far away from me now. So I have to deal with the fact that I can never say I am sorry for what I have said or done to so many people.

I am thankful that I am no longer the person I used to be. I am thankful for God changing who I am. I have asked God's forgiveness for my former life and I know He has fully granted it. So why do I still struggle with these things?

Maybe I struggle with the past for two reasons.

1. I have not fully forgiven myself for what I have done.
2. Satan uses that to distract me from where I need to be.

I don't know if anyone deals with this like I do. If so I want to share a few words with you. The other day I started reading a book titled, The Book of the Dun Cow, by Walter Wangerin Jr. It is a beautiful story of good vs. evil. In one of the early chapters was this statement that made me think of this post.

If you haven't forgiven yourself for something, or the next time Satan tries to distract you from the present by using the mistakes of the past, I want you to remind yourself and Satan of this truth.

"Past is past. Past is not present. Did is not do. Was is not is" --Walter Wangerin Jr.

Thought this was cool!

I saw this video the other day at a workshop and I thought it was cool. They have several others. You can go to the fun theory website or you can go to youtube and search fun theory.

Maybe there should be a joy theory that addresses serving God.

Free Music Download

Today on the Rabbit Room, Andrew Osenga posted a link to some free music downloads on his site. I went to it and downloaded them. I have only listened to two of the 5 songs but they were pretty good. Thought I would pass on the link in case you wanted to get some new tunes, that are free! Click on the link below and it will take you to his site where he explains the songs and gives the link to download them.

http://andrewosenga.squarespace.com/free/

A Real Life Good Samaritan

"Its a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day in the neighborhood, would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won't you be...my neighbor?"

I have told this to a few people so far and I think they were a little shocked, possibly wanted to laugh a little. Which is fine. I wouldn't have expected any other response. It makes me laugh a little. The other day on The Rabbit Room Blog, Jason Gray wrote a post about Mr. Rogers. When I saw how long the post was and that it was about Mr. Rogers, I almost didn't finish it. But I decided to stick with it and I am so glad that I did. The post talks about Mr. Rogers' faith which guided him and his show, and it talks about the impact he had on those around him and those around the world.

I didn't know that Mr. Rogers was a devout Christian. At the end of Gray's post he has included two videos and in one Fred Rogers says "Why in the world couldn't we use this thing called television for the broadcasting of grace through the land?" That is why he wanted to start the show. To broadcast grace. He wanted to give the message that he cared about people no matter who they were or what they were like.

The post shares a few excerpts from a book titled I'm Proud of You which was written by Tim Madigan. The book chronicles the friendship that he developed with Fred Rogers and shares details the faith that Rogers displayed in his life. It gives several examples of how selfless Mr. Rogers was and how he put others and their needs first. But one of these really stuck with me.

Tim writes of how Rogers demonstrated this the first time they spoke:
“Do you know what the most important thing in the world is to me right now?”
“No,” I said.
“Talking to Mr. Tim Madigan on the telephone.”

He could have been thinking about a million other things from his own family, to his show, to any of the problems that might have been going on in his life, but Rogers didn't do that. He took the back seat and put a stranger on the phone before all else. And from the people who ever met him, they will tell you that is the way that he was everyday, with every person that he encountered.

I will admit it to all of the readers here like I admitted to a few of the people that I told about this post in the Rabbit Room. When I finished reading this post, I cried. I wondered if the post had just caught me at an emotional or vulnerable moment and that is all it was, so I read it again before I started typing up this post. I cried again. I think I cried for two reasons. It is emotionally moving to see someone love people wherever they are, exactly as they are, with no exceptions. Rogers had been so shaped by the love of Christ that he did all that he could do to love everyone with that same love. But the second reason I cried is because I know that I don't even come close to that kind of love. Family? Yes! Friends? Yes! But there are people that I encounter everyday that I dismiss for countless reasons. I am too tired or too busy or find them just a little bit too different for me to invest in. And that is a tragedy.

I pray for new eyes and the ability to put all others first, so that God can have the glory.

I hope you will go over to the Rabbit Room and read the full post and watch the two short videos. It may take 10 minutes of your time, but it is a beautiful reminder of the life calling we have all been given and an example of someone who fulfilled that calling.

Click Here to go read the full post by Jason Gray titled: "I'm Proud of You" - My New Hero.

Let me!

It is amazing how independent a two year old can be. "I can do it! Let me do it!" Gideon is more and more convinced that he can do almost anything. And I know that as he gets older, that he will continue to become more independent, which is what every parent wants for their children.

Once in a while though Gideon still needs us as much as always. The other night, he came out from his room and climbed up in my lap. He just wanted to be held. After a few minutes he went over and climbed up in Gracie's lap and laid his head on her shoulder. She sang him a song and then whispered to me, I think he is asleep. Sure enough he was. In his busy little world where he wants to do everything and he is so independent he is still comforted and reassured by us. So much so that when he allows himself to accept it, he will be so at peace that he will drift off to his dreams in almost no time. We both smiled as Gracie walked down the hall carrying his exhausted body to bed.

I wonder how much of that is a reflection of how we are with God. As we grow and mature, we become more independent. And God loves to watch us as we grow and it makes him proud. But I wonder how much God smiles the times that no matter how independent we feel, we still just climb up in his arms and listen to his beautiful and sweet song of love that he sings to us. Maybe we should do this more often. And breath that sigh of relief that comes when you are overwhelmed with love and peace.

You Want Me To Do What?

The answer is surrender. Surrender my will to God's will. Not just part of my life, but all of my life. Last night when we were reading My Utmost for his Highest, I found this thought very challenging.

If we have received the Spirit of God, He will squeeze right through our lives, as if to ask, "Now where do I come into this relationship, this vacation you have planned, or these new books you want to read?"  And he always presses the point until we learn to make Him our first consideration.  Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion. --Owsald Chambers

When I thought about the above statement I had to ask myself 'How much of my life have I surrendered to God?' When I think about God I put him in the big picture of things, but there are lots of day to day things that I don't purposefully place God in the center of. And really that is where God wants to be.

So the next time we start something, whether it be a round of golf, feeding our children, cleaning our houses, or talking with our neighbors, let us think about how God fits into that situation. Let the Spirit remind us that we are called to surrender everything to Him. I will leave you with one more statement from Oswald Chambers' on this topic.

"The greatest word of Jesus to His disciples is abandon." --from My Utmost for His Highest