This past weekend, I and Cindy had the pleasure of watching little Lauren while Kyle and Jamie walked in the Avon Walk in Chicago. Jamie is still nursing so we met up with her every once in awhile for her feedings. It was some great grandparent time!

Here are some pics and a short video clip or three on the weekend! It was fun!

Faithful Wounds

I know a very long time since my last post and sorry about that. I still continue to do my daily devotions and wanted to share this one from this morning.

"Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." - Proverbs 27:6

Jesus was quick to chastise His disciplies when they failed to believe Him. Jesus loved His friends too much to condone or comfort them in their sin.

It is possible to be too gentle with your friends. When a friend is under deep conviction by the Holy Spirit, do you try to give comfort? Don't ever try to ease the discomfort of someone whom the Holy Spirit is making uncomfortable! Be careful not to communicate to your friends that you find their lack of faith acceptable. You are not acting in true friendship of you condone disobedience or even if you look the other way. Kisses ar far more pleasant than wounds, yet they can be even more devastating if they lull your friend into being comfortable with sin.

In our attempt to appease our friends and our reluctance to share a word from God, we can actually cause great harm. If we see our friends in danger and do not warn them, God will hold us accountable for our silence (Ezek. 33:6). Are you a friend of such integrity that you would risk wounding your friends in order to deter them from their sin? Can you love your friend enough to care? Are you willing to risk everything for that friend?

Some very difficult questions to ponder, would you?

An Exchanged Life

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I have by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. - Gal. 2:20.

The Christian life is an exchanged life; Jesus' life for your life. When Christ takes control, your life takes on dimensions you would never have known apart from Him. When you are weak, then Christ demonstrates His strength in your life (2 Cor. 12:9-10). When you face situations that are beyond your comprehension, you have only to ask, and the infinite wisdom of God is available to you (James 1:5). When you are faced with humanly impossible situations, God does the impossible to love, God expresses His unconditional love through you (1 John 4:7). When you are at a loss as to what you should pray for someone, the Spirit will guide you in your prayer life (Rom. 8:16). When Christ takes up residence in the life of a believer, "all the fullness of God" is available to that person (Eph. 3:19).

It is marvelously freeing to know that God controls your life and knows what it can become. Rather than constantly worrying about what you will face, your great challenge is to continually release every area of your life to God's control. The temptation will be to try to do by yourself what only God can do. Our assignment is to "abide in the vine" and to allow God to do in and through us what only He can do (John 15:5). Only God can be God. Allow Him to live out His divine life through you. He is the only One who can. Think about it, where are you?

Air Travel in the USA

Although this is a young industry, I am saying for the record, it is serious trouble. I have had the pleasure of traveling by air recently, and the delays and cancellations are growing at a record pace.

If we as citizens of the USA, could have dumped as many dollars into the high speed rail system we would have been FAR better off. Today we have over bloated, expensive and outdated system.

Many will say that air travel is the best and safest today. Perhaps they are right, and as Americans we have chosen to have time over customer service. We should have listened to our European ancestors on this one and scrape the air industry except for overseas and dump that stimulus money into high speed electric rail trains!

One other point, I dare any terriost to take over a train, BIG DEAL~!

Venting over, but will come out if we don't get on at 6:46 to ATL!

Good News Ministry

Why we Worry?

Do not be anxious about your life. - Matthew 6:25

Why do we worry? Because we don't believe. We're not really convinced the same Jesus who can keep a sparrow in the air knows where our lost luggage is, or how we'll pay that car repair bill. Or if we believe He can deliver us through our difficulties, we doubt if He will. We let satan sow seeds of doubt in our minds about God's love and care for us. Have you ever done this, I know that I have?

The great antidote to anxiety is to come to God in prayer about EVERYTHING! "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7). Nothing's too big for Him to handle or too small to escape his attention. Paul said we're to come to God "with thanksgiving." We should thank Him for His past faithfulness in delivering us from troubles. We should thank Him for the fact that He's in control of every circumstance of our lives and that nothing can touch us that He doesn't allow. We should thank Him that in His infinite wisdom He's able to work in this circumstance for our good. We can thank Him that He won't allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13).

The promised result is not deliverance, but the peace of God. One of the reasons we don't find this peace is that all too often we won't settle for anything other than deliverance from the trouble. But God, through Paul, promises us peace, a peace that is unexplainable. It will guard our hearts and minds against anxiety to which you and I are so prone. So when you become overwhelmed today, draw on prayer and believe that God can and will carry you.

Faith of the Shepherds

Lately, I have been reading a daily devotion from Martin Luther - Here is the one from Dec 24th, enjoy. It is amazing that a man that lived hundreds of years ago, can write about issues that we are still dealing with today!

"When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." Luke 2:15

If these shepherds hadn't believed the angels, they wouldn't have gone to Bethlehem. Neither would they have done any of what is recorded in Luke. But when unbelievers say, "Yes, I would have certainly believe the message if an angel from heaven announced it to me," they don't know what they are saying. For whoever doesn't receive the Word on its account will never receive it no matter who preaches it - even if all the angels come and preach it to them. Moreover, those who believe the message on account of the one preaching it aren't believing the Word. Neither do they believe in God through the Word. Instead, they believe in the preacher. As a result, their faith doesn't endure.

But those who believe in Word overlook the one who is preaching it. They don't honor the Word because of the person. On the contrary, they honor the person because of the Word. They never place the person higher than the Word. If the preacher is ruined, falls from faith, or begins preaching a different message, the believers would rather let go of the preacher than give up the Word. They would stick with the Word regardless of the person involved or the situation.

This is the true difference between genuine and human faith. Human faith is always attached to the person. It believes, trusts, and honors the Word because of the one who speaks it. On the other hand, genuine faith clings to the Word, which is God himself. Genuine faith believes, trusts, and honors the Word because of what it is, not who said it. Faith so strongly senses that the Word is true that no one can tear it away - not even the same preacher who first brought it.