This has been a good weekend. The weather had something to do with it but not everything. Funny, last weekend here in central Alabama people were all bundled up and building snowmen. This weekend we were in short sleeves watching base ball practices. Only in Alabama!
For the most part I missed the snow last weekend, well almost missed it. We arrived home on "snow day" late afternoon from an overnight trip to Mississippi. Upon brining our car to a full stop in the garage with speed that I have only seen my wife move at while shoping she exited the car, took a straight path to the patio at the back of our home (shaded from the sun) where she found what she was looking and hoping for: enough snow to make a snow man. It was a tiny snow man for sure. However, Denise manage to locate snow, build the minature "Frosty", take his picture and post him on FB all within the time it took me to unload the luggage and other travel necessities from the car; 10 minutes tops. She amazes me...really. I know, it was a small tiny snow man...but she posed him after making him so she could get just the right shot for FB!
Anyway, as I was saying, this has been a good weekend. There was the home group meeting that took place Friday night. Family! That is the only way to describe the setting. We ate and had fellowship together, we worshiped our Lord, and we encouraged each other with genuine words and deeds that went with us from that place. It was special as always. We look forward to getting together again soon. Family! It is the only way to describe it.
Then Saturday morning some of us gathered at the soon to be home of one of our home group family to lend a hand in the move. The joyful and thankful look on the face of our friend as the task for that morning was completed spoke thanks enough. Meanwhile while we rested we had fellowship, laughing, talking, planning future gatherings. Family! It is the only way to describe it.
This morning, we gathered at Fullness once again to fellowship with and celebrate the Great Redeemer. Family! Together we sang songs, and spiritual hymns and received the Word of God from Mark Colvin who did an ecellent job! During this time we greeted each other with hugs, conversations, and laughter. We wept for joy too and at times danced and clapped our hands with more laughter and great joy as we were together. Family! it is the only way to describe what we have at Fullness Christian Fellowship!
It was a great weekend indeed! I can not wait until the next get together of this Family!
R
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Out of the Ordinary
Daily routines are good. I acknowledge this somewhere inside of me. Perhaps it is from my military training. No, maybe from my parents? Perhaps it is from the years of school...naw! It must be innate. Why else would I recognize the benefit and even cherish my rock solid unshakable daily routine? For example,(you have liberty to make your own life application here) each week day I start by waking, showering, dressing, fixing a (point friendly) lunch, packing the car with me, my lunch and my wife and off to work we go to be stopped just a few hundred feet from my driveway by the daily school bus! BTW, the bus driver must be on the same internal clock as me as evidenced by the fact that no matter the variances in the hour of my departure, which in truth can only be a few minutes + or - any morning given to how ridged I am in my routine, she picks up the same kids who stand waiting at the same spot (most days) on the sidewalk of the same side of the street to file into the bus in the same order and take the same seat as they are off to school where they continue a daily routine of classes….wow! Bus moving on, I continue my daily 22 minute drive (most days) to my office where I continue the ordinary routines of my work day! Double wow!!
If you have not already pick up on the interchangeableness of “routine” and “habit” it is certainly not from the lack of a good effort on my part.
I say (at least somewhere inside of me) “Enough already!” Give me the life of a non-conformist!”
Laughable, to say the least, that this comes from my mouth! Those of you who know me well enough are shaking heads and clucking tongues.
I, as do you most likely, love…no demand… a daily dose of routine! Structured scheduled fixes of regularity that comes from staying in the safe zone of habits!
In our routines and our habits we do not have to think or process we just…function! And thanks to those habitual routines, pretty darn well too!
So, is our predictability our fortune? The mundane our salvation? What would happen if for one day you and I broke out of the ordinary of our lives, crossing over the threshold of our fear, stepping into the realm of faith? Most of us live more near that threshold than we would care to admit - hearing the call to step over our fear and out of the ordinary.
You don’t think so? Allow me to name a few people who had the routine of their day interrupted and out of that interruption chose to cross over their fear and live life out of the ordinary: There was Mary, the mother of Jesus. There was Joseph, Mary’s husband. There was Jesus. There was John, Peter and the other disciples called by Christ Jesus. There was Paul (who was Saul). There was Luke. There was Timothy. There was Mary Magdalene. There was Ananias of Acts 9 who by the internal prompting of the Holy Spirit went to pray for Saul, who up until a few days prior had persecuted even ordered the execution of people just like Ananias. These are only to name a few. There are many others I could name but only one stands out for this day!
So much so that I must name and salute that person … YOU!
If you have not already pick up on the interchangeableness of “routine” and “habit” it is certainly not from the lack of a good effort on my part.
I say (at least somewhere inside of me) “Enough already!” Give me the life of a non-conformist!”
Laughable, to say the least, that this comes from my mouth! Those of you who know me well enough are shaking heads and clucking tongues.
I, as do you most likely, love…no demand… a daily dose of routine! Structured scheduled fixes of regularity that comes from staying in the safe zone of habits!
In our routines and our habits we do not have to think or process we just…function! And thanks to those habitual routines, pretty darn well too!
So, is our predictability our fortune? The mundane our salvation? What would happen if for one day you and I broke out of the ordinary of our lives, crossing over the threshold of our fear, stepping into the realm of faith? Most of us live more near that threshold than we would care to admit - hearing the call to step over our fear and out of the ordinary.
You don’t think so? Allow me to name a few people who had the routine of their day interrupted and out of that interruption chose to cross over their fear and live life out of the ordinary: There was Mary, the mother of Jesus. There was Joseph, Mary’s husband. There was Jesus. There was John, Peter and the other disciples called by Christ Jesus. There was Paul (who was Saul). There was Luke. There was Timothy. There was Mary Magdalene. There was Ananias of Acts 9 who by the internal prompting of the Holy Spirit went to pray for Saul, who up until a few days prior had persecuted even ordered the execution of people just like Ananias. These are only to name a few. There are many others I could name but only one stands out for this day!
So much so that I must name and salute that person … YOU!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Captured
"For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand [anywhere else]; I would rather be a doorkeeper and stand at the threshold in the house of my God than to dwell [at ease] in the tents of wickedness." Amplified Bible
After reading Psalms 84:10 sometime back I was taken by the expression of words, more accurately, captured by the picture painted there. A man who had made a choice!
I chewed on this thought a bit. My thinking went something like this: He made the choice upon his being allowed to glimpse God's dwelling place. The place must have been some kind of showy.
Then it hit me! It was not so much the place even though it was certainly excellent (think about it a "house" compared to a "tent"?)!
No, what caused the choice by that man was not the WHAT but the WHO.
When getting an obstruction free glimpse of God (that would be Jesus being lifted up) the choice becomes clearer and the line that divides what is holy and what is not is no longer gray but very bold and easy to notice. Absolutely the choice cost but the cost is worth it!
My point? Well here it is. This is what a Psalms 84:10 doorkeeper does: helps another get a closer more unobstructed view of the Most Holy God. How? By lifting up Jesus the only door by which man my enter into the dwelling place of the Most Holy God and invites "whosoever" will approach His courts and house to not hesitate but go on in where a more intimate relationship with God will occur.
After reading Psalms 84:10 sometime back I was taken by the expression of words, more accurately, captured by the picture painted there. A man who had made a choice!
I chewed on this thought a bit. My thinking went something like this: He made the choice upon his being allowed to glimpse God's dwelling place. The place must have been some kind of showy.
Then it hit me! It was not so much the place even though it was certainly excellent (think about it a "house" compared to a "tent"?)!
No, what caused the choice by that man was not the WHAT but the WHO.
When getting an obstruction free glimpse of God (that would be Jesus being lifted up) the choice becomes clearer and the line that divides what is holy and what is not is no longer gray but very bold and easy to notice. Absolutely the choice cost but the cost is worth it!
My point? Well here it is. This is what a Psalms 84:10 doorkeeper does: helps another get a closer more unobstructed view of the Most Holy God. How? By lifting up Jesus the only door by which man my enter into the dwelling place of the Most Holy God and invites "whosoever" will approach His courts and house to not hesitate but go on in where a more intimate relationship with God will occur.
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