Reminder

Hey Everyone, Just a reminder that tommorrow May 4th is the National Day of Prayer (You can pray with us in Canada too Hillary...). There is a place on the website that lists all the events by state. If you can't make one of the events, pray at home. Call a friend and pray for a time. Write a prayer for your blog. Whatever you can think of. Just pray. If there was ever a time that we needed prayer as a nation, it is now. Let me know what you did. Post a comment here.

What? No Charleton Heston?

ABC has created a new Ten Commandments. It is showing tommorrow on ABC at 9pm EST. It seems like a remake of the original.

It has always been a family tradition for us to watch the original ten commandments after Easter dinner. I knew many of the lines and would recite them in my Charleton Heston voice..."let my people go Pharoh..."

But did you know that there are several bloopers in the movie? Here's a link of mistakes in the first movie. Who would have thunk? Never noticed them before. I'll be looking out for them...

Wade in the Water...

We had a wonderful day in church today. 6 people got baptized. 3 of them were believers who had never been baptized before and the other 3 were new believers in Jesus! I always get teary at baptisms but this time I was so elated! These people had decided to follow Jesus and their lives really show it.

I remember my baptism as a teenager. I was fortunate to be baptized in Lake George in May. For any of you unfamiliar with Lake George, the ice doesn't completely melt until July (exageration)! It was cold. Really cold. The coldest water I have ever been in. As the brother put me under I remember my breath being taken away. It was as if I died. And as he brought me out of the water I inhaled as if I had ascended from 100 feet below. It was like a baby's first breath.

I have realized over the years that the picture the Lord gave me in that frigid baptism is one of the reality of my life in Christ. I died with him and just as he was resurrected to new life, so was I (Romans 6). I was born again. Baptism united me with him in a real way. The Old Ed was left at the bottom of Lake George. The new Ed lives on through Jesus.

24 years later I'm moving forward. Jesus is all to me. Sometimes it takes the baptism of another to remind me of all that my HERO has accomplished for me. Thanks Lord!

Jump Off...

I looked at the cliff in front of me. The clear blue sky formed the horizon and off in the distance I could see the ocean. “Jump off,” I heard the voice say. “Foolishness,” I thought. I would never survive the jump and I had no plans to kill myself. I chalked it up to a million and one things why I would have heard such a command. “Jump off,” the voice repeated. There was something compelling about the voice, something assuring yet what a crazy idea. “Why would I want to do that,” I thought. But then something changed in me. I believed this voice. I don’t know why, but I did.
I took a deep breath, walked backwards for a few steps and then charged at the cliff. As I jumped off I closed my eyes, expecting to hit the hard earth so far below. I did hit something, but it wasn’t hard. It was like landing on a big warm pillow. I opened my eyes to see that I was standing on the top of a huge hot air balloon. Not in the gondola, on the top. I hadn’t seen the balloon from the cliff. Who would have expected a balloon, there, at that time.
We were floating towards the sea by a swift wind that blew us along. I couldn’t see who was operating the balloon. Maybe it was the voice. Eventually we traveled so far out to see I could no longer see land. “Jump off,” the voice said again. This time there was nothing except the green hue of the sea below me. What would save me now if I jumped? But even faster that the last time, I ran off the balloon. I fell and fell for what seemed to be minutes. I watched the sea rise to meet me. Then at the last second, inches away from the water and my uncertain death, a giant eagle swept down and grabbed me with its talons. As it flew it stayed close to the water, so close that a felt the mist of the waves against my face.
It took me up to a high place. A craggy, brown mountain. It dropped me in a nest that was about 15 or 20 feet from the top. “Go up.” Now I’m no mountain climber, but fresh from my experience I stood up and began to climb. The wind that pushed my balloon was strong against my back. It held me in place as I ascended, almost like a hand that was keeping me from falling.
The top of the mountain was a lush carpet of the greenest grass I had ever seen in my life. I looked out over the mountain range that stood before me. I gasped. Literally my breath was taken away by its beauty. I sat there in the grass just looking. I felt blessed to be able to see what I was seeing. The wind blew against my face.
“How did you get here?” I knew the Voice was asking me to thoughtfully consider what had just happened. I sat there silent, thinking. “ I got here because I jumped off the cliff.” “That’s right,” and then the Voice left.

During Meditation on Proverbs 3:5,6

The Worth of Children

Joe B over at God even loves idiots like me had a post which touched my heart. It reminded me in a vivid way that children are a blessing from the Lord.


Father help me to always remember your blessings and grace given to me in my boys

OUCH!

I found this on the Servant-Leadership Blog. Apparently this was a bunch of employees who finally had it with their boss. . I don't know the story behind this letter, but I bet I could probably write one that wouldn't be too far from the truth.

The environment/system created by the owner/boss did not take the employees seriously and eventually it crashed. Maybe the boss was unapproachable. Or maybe he felt that he didn't need to do anything about the issues which they expressed as important to them. Maybe He didn't know what to do.

In a graphic way, they expressed the very thing that they probably never had the opportunity to do in the work environment.

This was a reminder to me to always be a people person, to look out for others because they are valued human beings like me, not just robots doing a job. I too think this would pay off in the long run, although it may seem to take more work. It's worth it.

I'm Listening Lord

It is amazing how the Lord brings up things that He is trying to teach you all over the place. I was reading through the book Celebration of Discipline. Meditiation was the first discipline described. At the same time I had to read 2 books by the Dalai Lama for school in which he spoke greatly about Buddhist meditation. My previous post on meditation spoke of the difference between the two types of meditation. I understand a little more now of what Foster meant. The whole purpose of Christian meditation is to hear God's voice. It is to open yourself to Him to hear and obey.

Christian Meditation allows you to create a space through imagination, visualizing things as they really are; not as what your eyes/senses tell you. This is so different from the Buddhist view because it is not an altered state of consciousness that you are seeking. You are not seeking to develop yourself through the meditation. You are seeking to be led by the Holy Spirit, allowing him to direct your thoughts and imagination. And in the leading to obey his voice.

I have been meditating on the verses in the book of Proverbs. Seeing in my minds eyes images of what the verse states. In some of the images I am the subject, in others I am watching the another subject of the verse from a close distance. It is amazing the insight that you get by watching. I can't explain how I know, but I do know that He is showing me the things I need to "see." My responsibility is the response to His voice. Yes Lord, I hear you...