I was praying. I was asking. I was pleading, “Lord, could you please help this woman and her sons.”
As I was saying, “God You are all powerful and in charge, and nothing is impossible for You,” I was thinking how can I help? What can I do? How will I fix this?
BONG! A light bulb moment. We are not to come to the throne of the King with doubts, meekly asking for help. We are to come boldly, confident that God and God alone can help. He can make it happen and we have to pray with the confidence that He will. We must push past our doubts to receive the full blessing of His goodness and mercy. Continued »
We are called by God to give the first fruits of our labors. Whether our money or our sons, the message is clear. God wants our best. Not because He needs it, but because our first fruits represent our love for our Heavenly Father.
Do you give your earthly father “seconds?” If he joins you for dinner, do you feed him what was left from the night before? Of course not. Even if your earthly father is not around, your Heavenly Father is always there for you, no matter what. We can never “pay Him back” for the gift of salvation, but we can give the best of what we have.
For us, first fruits represent a sacrifice. But in God’s economy, we are just sending it on ahead. He alone holds on to our most precious possessions until we return.
What better way to show our love than to give our very, very best; our sons? They are, after all, on loan to us from God. We were the selected parents who saw a child grown into a man; a man of compassion, purpose, responsibility, and love for others. A man (or woman) who understood sacrifice. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 15:13
Continued »
On May 13th 2007 my son was killed in Hadithia, Iraq. The last 3 years have been wrought with intermittent periods of loss, longing mixed in with great joy and sometimes great sorrow. I will admit I did not always handle those feelings with grace and I questioned God on more than one occasion. How do you respond in time of need or great misery?
“O Lord, I call to you; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call to you.” Psalm 141:1
In the verse above, King David illustrates one approach. When under duress, he went into the presence of God and called to Him. David had an intimate relationship with God and it was a regular occurrence for him to petition God. Continued »
During an evening walk recently I mentioned to my wife that sometimes I felt like God was putting me in my place, that he was spanking me for being disobedient in the past and scolding me for my lack of wisdom. The subject of my concern was an opportunity, clearly presented to me only because Gods wants me involved in some way, but the final outcome is a big unknown to me and frankly a bit scary.
I was voicing my concern that a few very large roadblocks were still clearly looming, obstacles of my own making that will only be overcome with His help. Lynn was firmly correcting me, with that 30 year of marriage type of love only a life partner can pull off, and telling me God does not scold his children. She said I should continue to pray and ask God for the wisdom and guidance I need. Continued »