The boundaries of my family’s habitation have been painfully expanded!We’re now 10 minutes away from my dad while he’s undergoing treatment. Our front room is still full of boxes, but some sense of normalcy has been re-established.Thank you for your prayers for my father’s healing.He’s in excellent spirits and seems to be responding well to treatment. Further, I’m paraphrasing the neuro-oncologist, but she says “if she can get it in remission, she can likely keep it in remission…” which is astounding news!Glioblastoma Mulitforme has a median survival time of about 13 months.. but she’s had patients make 6 years and longer.God is good!On the coffee front – some amazing news:The roasts have been perfected, the labels have been ordered, and...
The following was quite a helpful thought to me a few weeks ago, when I didn't want to obey the Lord. I was harsh toward my wife, and I simply didn't want to apologize. I felt I was right, and I was a little bitter - in my flesh I felt perfectly vindicated... Yet:"Seek no place before God or man except that of servant. That is your work - your one purpose and prayer. Humiliation is the only ladder to honor in God's kingdom. Just as water seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds the creature abased and empty, His glory and power will flow in to exalt and bless... He that humbles himself, shall be exalted."-- Andrew Murray, "Humility"I knew...
Does Christ love me... or just the reflection of Himself He sees in me?We Calvinists are often accused of being a curmudgeonly, joyless bunch... and some of us are... I think it's often because of how we think God looks at us.How do you think God looks at you? Is it with the sighing forbearance and resentment of an angry, frustrated father?My wife and I've talked about this through the years.."Does God even like me?"And for quite a while, I couldn't even give her an answer I truly believed, because I wasn't really even sure myself.How does God love us as a people?I don't remember exactly where in John I had the obvious epiphany, but it was the simple idea...
You don't have to like it... you just have to do it.Sound familiar?It is the secret to many successes.Often, it's the key to diligence and perseverance... you just keep going... believing that you will see the kindness of the Lord in the land of the living. When your heart aches, the pain threatens to swallow you... we simply don't quit.There is an anchor behind veil of heaven HOLDING YOU FAST. He's working in you both to will and to do... so do!There are times in life where it simply might be smarter to quit. The world may wonder why you're hanging in there. What's in it for you? The heartache, the doubt, the pain caused you by others, the bitterness......
Okay... so I may be paraphrasing that verse... but there could be some application here. Walk with me...The actual verse says, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’Leviticus 17:11Now that's a crazy concept to think about. Blood is a physical thing. Your soul is a spiritual thing (at least, it doesn't count as 'matter' in the scientific sense). Those things should be like oil and water - they shouldn't mix. How could they?But God says they do.He has a physical thing making atonement for a spiritual condition... Now this is...