To Bring Him Joy

I am not a huge sci-fi fan in general but I have gotten into some because of watching a few shows with my teenage sons and my 20 something daughters  (sometimes dad gets in on the watching action as well). We pick a show and start at the beginning and watch through as many seasons as are available.  The sci-fi started with Stargate Atlantis but now we are on Dr Who. Many times over the years after we have watched a movie or TV show I have asked my kids who was most like Jesus in that show and then we have a good discussion about it.  Sadly, there are more and more shows that there is no one to be found who is like Jesus at all. But what is amusing to me is when a show that is fairly anti-God, pro-super science accidentally gives a fairly good picture of the gospel! It is funny that things that we accept in our heroes we don't like, even hate about God.   This idea hit me when my youngest son was replaying his favorite narrative from one of the  recent shows ...

 This is something that I just sat down and wrote shortly after my mother in law died.  I felt like God wanted me to write and so I did.  It is just me fairly raw, not at all polished, sharing with God. I hope it helps someone out there.   I am just not sure where to start but I know that I need to be writing so here goes. I have been wondering about my mother in laws death and just why she died in the way the she did. It was so weird. She fought to the end. Screaming and kicking and biting, mocking and glaring, just mean and weird. I don't know if it was the melanoma reaching her brain, the Alzheimers, or the medications that we were giving her to try to relieve the pain and delirium she was having. It was awful. If I hadn't really believed that she was a christian, there are times that I almost thought that she was possessed! Father, this seems useless, just writing for the sake of writing. Lord, only You truly know why she died in the way that she did...

What in the world does this mean? How do you do this? This is a phrase out of Romans 4 speaking of Abraham.  In the Old Testament we read that God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was not far behind him. Abraham and Sarah had long given up on having children, Sarah even laughed at the idea. Abraham said that their bodies were as good as dead.  I think this is what it means when it says "in hope he believed against hope".  All the odds were against them, if you looked at them and their circumstances there really was not any hope for them to have a child.  So why did Abraham have hope why did he "believe against hope".  For that you have to look at the surrounding verses in Romans 4.       "As it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations"--in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not ex...

"So when they had come together, they asked Him, "Lord, at this time are You restoring the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:6-8 ESV When I was reading this earlier this month one of my first reactions to this verse was to feel sorry for Jesus that after all He had been through and taught them, the disciples were still not getting it.  Then I thought, Jesus, why didn't You just tell them no? Why didn't He take the time to explain to them again that His was not an earthly kingdom? Not now? It was not the time for explaining, He ascended in a cloud immediately after this statement. He had already explained numerous times. In fact if you read the previous verses, Luke tells us that Jesus appe...

My mother in law died the day before Easter. She literally fought to the death (not in a good way).  It was heart wrenching to watch and still  hurts to think about it but God taught me some really good things as we walked this path with her and her husband. The following is one of the lessons that I learned and wrote during some of the early stages of us really being involved in their care. I have been learning from the real life pictures that God is giving me in dealing with my mother-in-law and her husband. She has a metastatic malignant melanoma that is at least at a stage 3 of 4, it is an avocado sized lump under her left arm. She sometimes acts as if she doesn't even remember that it is there. We have all agreed that she could not handle any kind of treatment and we don't really know how long God will give her. She probably weighs under 100 by now but insists that she eats when she is hungry. She has Alzheimers at least stage 5 of 7 and she has high blood pressure a...

             " Lord , how long will You forget me? Forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?    How long will I store up anxious concerns  within me, agony in my mind every day? How long will my enemy dominate me?    Consider me and answer, Lord my God. Restore brightness to my eyes;  otherwise, I will sleep in death. My enemy will say, “I have triumphed over him,” and my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.    But I have trusted in Your faithful love;  my heart will rejoice in Your deliverance.    I will sing to the Lord because He has treated me generously. " Psalm 13 HCSB How I identify with this Psalm of David.  So very often I feel as though God is far off or that I am a continual failure.  I have struggled with this downward spiral thing a great deal in my life.  I feel as though Satan has my number on speed dial.  He rea...

 (This is actually something I wrote quite a while ago but felt that I should share it with you.  I hope it is encouraging to you. God is so very faithful.) “And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 One of the areas that I am extremely weak in is time. I just don’t do time! I am not usually aware of it passing by and am quite shocked sometimes when I find out how much of it has passed by! So it is quite funny of God to use me to do something in His perfect timing. This whole story is about weakness and strength, who has it and who doesn’t and what God really considers to be strength. In April or May of 2005 I happened...