...The Journey...: May 2007

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Pooped from 12 days with her Grandparents!

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Thirsty: God, I Want to Know You

Philippians 3:7-10

What will pursing intimacy with God cost me?

There are many things that I put before God - not necessarily intentionally, but as human nature collides with the Holy Spirit living in me, I find that my flesh is weaker than I ever thought. I have noticed this over the last few months and have contributed it to different circumstances - but lets call it what it is - excuses. There is no excuse. Passion is the degree of difficulty we are willing to endure to reach the goal (Riter) and I have found that my tolerance for passion is very low. I have always felt this about myself and I have always yearned for more passion, but where is it to be found? The degree of difficulty that comes with pursuing Christ is great. It entails great sacrifice. When I list the number of sacrifices needed, many of them sound petty and I am sure that many of them come from being and American, but again there is no room for excuse. Pursuing Christ will cost me time - one of the most precious commodities. I have to divert my time from pleasing my sinful nature (and nature in general as not all time-passing events are sinful - I guess I should say human nature) to pursuing Christ through spending time in His Word and in prayer - allowing the Holy Spirit to overflow and overcome my human nature. Relationships are also a great cost in pursuing Christ. Not always breaking relationships, but more prioritizing them - which again comes back to time (management). Will I ever master the pursuit of intimacy with God? It is a life-long struggle, but I know it can be done as my grandfather so wonderfully illustrated with his life.

Is an intimate friendship with God worth the price?

How can a Christian say no to this? It is amazing to see all the things that God has done not only in my life but in the lives of others - some of which I am close to and some that I have never met. But most importantly that He gave His life for us - how can we ever say that the level of difficulty that is needed to pursue Christ is greater than the difficulty He had on His journey to the Cross? Of course it is worth the price - the question is are we willing to pay the price?

Personally identify three or four major enemies of intimacy with God.

My relationship with John
The amount of discipline I apply to my life
Time management skills
Laziness

Who can I share these with, asking for their accountability in this journey?

John
Melaine
Mom
Dad
Susie

How does the gift of Christ's righteousness Paul talks about in Philippians 3:9 impact my pursuit of knowing God?

The feeling of relief comes to mind - to know that I am not held to the standard of the law, but that because Christ died on the Cross to fulfill the law and cover me with His own righteousness - this takes a load off my shoulders! So many times I have failed, and so many times I can find comfort in knowing that because I have truly believed and fully have faith, God sees Christ in me and sees no fault or sin instead of shame and defeat. Knowing this frees me to be able to overcome my human nature and all the failures that come with it and to press on in pursuit of knowing God.

Why am I often more willing to pay a high price for Earthly fulfillment than for intimacy with God?

My first instinct to answer this question is that the pursuit of God is too hard or the price outweighs and price I would pay for Earthly fulfillment, but I cannot be honest with this answer - I believe it only offers another excuse. I honestly do believe that Earthly fulfillment does not always carry a very high price - especially living in America - and I am not sure if the price is getting higher or lower. However, I think think the most common reason for replacing God with Earthly fulfillment is that people more readily see and understand Earthly fulfillment's. With God, there seems to be such a large unknown - a black hole - but fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) this is only a perception! The honest truth is that God reveals His mystery to you as you seek Him - so there is absolute fulfillment in Christ. No, it isn't (always) easy. No, it isn't (always) quick. But it is ALWAYS revealed. I know that the pursuit can be hard and labor intensive - and I think the hardest part can just be the waiting on God - but I know that the rewards are greater.

The "cost of discipleship," though it may take all we have, is small when compared to the lot of those who don't accept Christ's invitation to be a part of His company in the way of life.

(Dallas Willard)

Lost your marbles... I mean Skittles.

Police search for missing Skittles 12:15 PM CDT

01:58 PM CDT on Monday, May 14, 2007
From Staff Reports

A 22-year-old man has been accused of stealing a tractor trailer containing $250,000 worth of Skittles candy.

Officers responded to a call about 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the 5100 block of South Lamar Street in Dallas, according to a police report. When police arrived, they found a man removing the tires off a truck. The suspect told police he had paid another man $500 for the truck's tires and rims.

The truck, owned by Frozen Food Express of Lancaster, was valued at $85,000, and the trailer was valued at $30,000, according to the police report. The truck was to have contained a total of 28 pallets of Skittles, but seven were missing, Dallas police Senior Cpl. Donna Hernandez said.

Alan Chavez was arrested on an accusation of theft over $200,000, she said.

Police were still trying to locate the missing candy.

(DallasMorningNews.com - click the blog title for the link)

Sunday, May 13, 2007

A Stormy Sunday

From a Sunday afternoon nap:

It wasa stormy afternoon. The winds were fierce and the rain poured down. I have never been in a hurricane, but the weather probably resembed it. John and I were at his parents house and when the weather had let up, John and I decided to go check it out. Down the road, there was a river and we decided to go see what it looked like. It was raging!

There were these big boats on it like a cross between a house boat and a ski boat that people would travel on. John had the crazy idea of getting on one of the boats not thinking it would be un-docked (I dont know the nautical term for that) and would continue on it's journey... and Iapperently didnt have any sense either - so we go on. Well, it started again on it's journey and the first thing we thought was "How are we going to get back home? We have to work in the morning!"

We held on for dear life as the boat battled the raging rapids. The river ran parallel to the highway and somehow our boat had gotten on a boat-trailer behind a truck and now we traveled down the highway. I guess the driver saw an exit to get back to the river so he took it. Up ahead I could see railroad tracks and a train blaze by - but it didnt look like we were slowing down to turn with the road. "HOLD ON!!" We zoomed over the two sets of railroad tracks just as the train had left. Whew! That was a close one. Then I saw it. A huge side-bank and we were headed right for it. I guess the truck had turned, but he was going so fast that the boat continued toward the side-bank; and up we went! We didnt make it - we crahed. Right at the intersection of the highway we were on and Highway 16 (whereever that is!).

Safe at last. It wasnt before we were off the phone with John's parents to come get us that there was a replacement boat for the other passengers (on a boat trailer) and they were on thier way again. As we watched it get back into traffic (busy traffic), we saw the trailer start to swerve which caused a big semi swerve and the semi's trailer hit the pylon of the overpass. Then we saw the boat trailer fly off the road and crash. All we could think of was God's provision for getting us off the boat before the big crash!

I never said my dreams would make sense!

In the beginning...

This is what Paisley's hair looked like before I got the great idea to shave her. I had her shaved last summer and was so afraid of how her hair would grow back, but since it did fine, I thought shaving her again this summer was a good idea. The bad idea was doing it myself! =)