Lord of the Ringless

We are His workmanship

My brother spoke to the kids at Juvenile Hall about washing cars this weekend.

In the same way a young man details his car and knows every crevice of that vehicle and proceeds to immaculately clean it and polish the coat, so God knows every detail of our being. He is in-tune to keeping us tuned-up and tuned-in. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which He has already ordained for us to do…this year!

He washes us with the Word and renews us daily encouraging us so we can thrive and encourage and bless others.

Each day we can receive His washing and cleansing from our past sins and old ways for brand new experiences and living a life holy and wholly good honoring, blessing and glorifying our Creator…the One we were made to take after!

We were created to serve Him forever with the angels as proclaimed in Revelations 22:9. The angel said to John, "I am a fellow servant with you and all who keep the Words of the Book…then he ended ....Worship God.”

What a privilege to serve God alongside those invisible helpers and to Worship God with them also.

2 marriages; 2 communication mo's

Communication in Marriages

Should we talk about this thing, this annoyance, this action or attitude…or let it go? There are always times in a relationship we weigh and pray how we should handle it.

One married friend said she was always shooting for “Balance in a relationship. You don’t want to sweep everything under the carpet but you don’t want to have conflict a lot either. You want to avoid too much of either one.” She explained a situation that had occurred where he was gently confronting her and she wanted to toss it off.
“When my husband felt hurt recently, I wanted to ignore it. But then I looked at his face and I knew he picked an emotion to express and it was hard for him. I needed to affirm him so I didn’t throw it off. I gave him a hug and I told him I loved and respected him. He saw what had happened as a real problem, so I validated it for him.”

I heard a lady being interviewed on the radio about her second marriage. Bonnie Keen shared on successful communication in her marriage.
“We also have set time of conversation
Brent calls them our “hour of power”
Every Sunday we check in with each other “to see how we’re doing and to discuss anything that may be wrong.”
That has been a great tool for keeping our lines of communication open

Birds and Breezes

"What are your thoughts for starting the New Year?" A friend recently asked.
I usually have a word or thought to center on—usually hands down—it’s “listening.” Listening not only to what people are saying, and paying attention, but also hearing God.

Today was an example of confirmation, a reinforcement that God is truly inspiring us to start a new branch of one of our ministries at church. Today we begin sharing the vision and start sign ups.
Leaving the juvenile detention center with my guitar in hand and preparing to head over to singles at church—a breeze hit my face. Wind and the Holy Spirit are synonymous to me because Jesus used wind to describe the presence of the Spirit. At the same time the wind stirred, I glanced up as one lone white bird soared over the building and disappeared. It reminded me of the presence of God—when the dove appeared in the sky above Jesus after John baptized him. It may seem random but to me they are small significant occurrences. It is God saying “go” toward what He’s put on our hearts..

The above was journaled two weeks ago. Today we have 29 of 31 sign ups for a prayer ministry and networking as of Thursday with a bigger ministry we had no idea existed until this week.
It’s another example how God speaks to each of us in ways we hear Him…ways that may say nothing to another believer. He knows what each of us respond to…and hear. For this personal divine guidance, we are forever grateful.

There will always be birds and breezes, but God takes common occurrences and moves them together in uncommon ways…that get our attention and confirm His direction. He creates the inner working and maps the outworking of any success we encounter in life’s journey. God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform…He rides above the storm and moves beyond our borders. Amazing and humbling to have God in our daily world communicating with us, His creation. It is the greatest privilege we have in life.

Don't Be That Girl by Dr.Travis Stork

Tonite, Dr Phil’s guest was an ER Physician and author of a new single’s book for women about finding Mr.Right. It’s called Don’t Be that Girl by Dr Travis Stork.
Female single guests represented the categories of different women to date... according to his new book.

Some of his groupings are:
Drama girl (guess what she’s like?.), Lost girl (loses self in relationships), Bitter girl (guess again?), Yes girl (anything you want…just to get along), Sharp girl (lives for and talks about nothing but work) and Agenda girl (always thinking marriage… on the lookout)

I liked Travis’s comments about:

The agenda woman:
It’s okay if a woman wants to get married. That’s not the problem but…
“Can you get to know me without an agenda?”
( he doesn’t want to be compared to the list and feel like she’s on the make for marriage)

“We (men) want to feel like we made you want to get married.”

Men stick around to find out why a woman is interesting and engaging.

One young 27 year old said she felt a lot of pressure to be married by her young twenties. (I was surprised to hear that in this day and age) Travis’s comment was “It’s unfortunate society places pressure on women to be married by a certain time.”

“There’s a difference between setting a goal and stalking someone you meet early on, Dr. Phil stated.“The first person you have to get along with is you. A bit of you has to decide I’m Ok. I’m interesting, intelligent and acceptable. If you accept yourself someone will recognize it and accept it.”

On the lost person:
Travis said, “If I don’t know a woman very well but she doesn’t like herself…why should I? You have to be comfortable with who I am…believe in yourself.” He added as a side:“We’ve all been insecure, desperate, career oriented, dramatic.”
January 7, 2008 Dr Phil show

My Gift

“Your singleness is a gift. You can serve God better and not be distracted,” a well-meaning married woman said in yet another food line over the holidays. I have to admit, I’ve been told this countless times by married people (often serving in ministry) and some singles. What they are telling me is accept your singleness as a gift and don't wish for marriage. Not that I wish all the time, half the time or quarter of the time. But, at different times it has been any one of those percentages, period.

I thank God for life. Life is a gift, married or single.

We hear many messages climbing the single ladder, about what we should or shouldn’t want or feel from people around us. I just let the comments glide like water off a duck’s back at this point. It’s both wonderful to be content and to be hoping for a Godly relationship someday with someone who feels the same.

Sometimes people see we are provided for. We have a good life. We have friends—even male friends—and although we would like a mate and those prayers are winging in, they think we are unhappy with the wait or the way God is providing for our needs right now. Rather we must assure ourselves and others we are not unhappy with life or God by expressing a desire that seems long-awaited.

When our own waxing-waning feelings start we can vacillate and even talk ourselves out of asking God for a mate because we can feel tired maintaining everything as it is without complicating life by having a relationship. But relationships should be a help. Should. That’s why God said help-mate, not hamper-mate. The trouble is so many of us have been in relationships that were a lot of work (giving out too much with little in return) we are really waning from the possibility of supporting another person! And we don’t mean just encouragement!

How will we have time to be in a relationship? We have been single so long we forget that relationships can give us more time— but it’s shared time…cooking together, shopping together, doing and going together! Love is like jello—there’s always room!

Just because we don’t see the landing space for the Manna-drop… God does. He sees from above. We don’t have to negate our feelings because we can’t see how we would have time in our present schedules. People make room when it comes.

We will find things to bump for the relationship. Often we can get very busy for lack of a relationship too. It’s okay to drop back on over commitments and make time for developing a relationship or interests that could lead to one! Often people dont' meet eachother at the best time in their schedules, or the places normally frequented! Maybe it’s time to take that step of courage into a strange environment today!

Together we’ll keep our eyes open and our hearts responsive. Love is all around us… all the time!

Facing Monday, Moods and Managers

“Everyone in the office is so agitated...we never know what she is going to do next.” I listened to a women Saturday and then heard 2 more accounts of difficult bosses. It’s hard to get up on Monday and go into a workplace that is reeling or apprehensive from a manager’s moods and bombshells.
Since loving people is what Jesus spoke of second only to God; for sure that is always the hardest part.

Hard to work with bosses are difficult to please, serve or work with ...due to the human condition and cracks in the foundation of wholeness that haven’t been set right. Just like my neighbors found out their drainage was clogged when the storms hit and their patio cracked, we learn about our manager’s personal fixer-uppers (and our own) when the winds are howling through our workplace.

Dr. Henry Cloud discusses the human condition of self-centeredness as poison in love relationships, but it transfers to any environment in life . All require human understanding and relating-- especially when we are praying to love those around us, an impossible boss, is a dynamic ongoing dilemma.

”Many people think of selfish people as being difficult. But
"self-centeredness" comes closer to the real description of what a
truly selfish person is. What it means is that someone basically
experiences life mostly in terms of him or herself. Someone has said,
"To interpret any event only in terms of how it affects oneself is to
live on the doorstep of Hell." And that is true.

When one is self-centered, he guarantees the failure of love, for love
is an attachment between two people, and the self-centered person
denies the reality of the "other." He only sees others as extensions
of himself. They exist to make him happy, serve his needs, regulate
his feelings or drives in life. And whey they fail to do that by
having an existence of their own, he has some sort of negative
reaction, such as anger, withdrawal of love, controlling behavior or
rejection. This orientation to another person being more of an object
for self-gratification than a person makes a true attachment
impossible. Love requires two people, not one person and an "object."

The antidote for our resentment when we feel like a cogpiece at work and managers are rude or driving without recognizing human needs or limits is to pray. Pray the manager matures. Pray they experience love and truth and blessing in their life God’s way…maybe through their employees, you! Working out of damaged or warped expectations creates ill will everywhere. Stand in the truth of reason and what is real, speaking in a gentle manner-- even if they are cantankerous.

WE stay true north with Jesus, no matter which way their moods fluctuate or people around us. Live truly, deal truly, act truly in His strong love, resisting the push of the current to our own human course of least resistance, not yielding to resentment, grudging, griping—takes the Spirit of God…who lives within us.

Standing on God’s Word helps: Colossians 3:22-24... “obey our earthly masters in everything and do it not only when their eye is on you to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do , work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord and not for men…it is the Lord Christ you are serving.” The angel’s words to John in Revelations 22:9 are another wonderful reminder of who we are: “I am a fellow servant with you…and all who keep the words of this book ….worship God.”

Three New Year Women

Three women, three thoughts on stepping into a New Year as singles...

In a banquet line at church, plus:
“I’m so happy; this time last New Year I had a relationship and I’m really glad to be single again this year. I feel like the whole world is open before me”
Gal next to her shook her head. “I was in church this morning and I’m so glad I was with someone. I never want to be single again.”
“It’s so much better this year than last …my life was so crazy last year’s holiday in that relationship…I’m looking forward to meeting someone in the New Year and having a healthy relationship.”

We all come into the New Year with different degrees of work we have invested in trying to build or building relationships this past year. We enter the door labeled 08’ with often waxing-waning feelings. How long we knock and how hard, where and when we knock in order to meet a life partner this year will vary. How much risk, money or energy we are willing or able to invest may be from nil to extravagant.

Some singles will alter nothing in their lifestyle: just wait and pray. Some will spend money and try from the comfort of the internet. Others will pursue gathering with familiar groups and getting to know the people there in a deeper manner and potential spark. Others are checking out activities in distant places willing to make the drive, flight, or cruise and walk into unfamiliar circumstances hoping for new hearts,faces and… possibilities.
Whatever state we walk through the dating door of 2008, let’s keep including God, our Heavenly Father in all our new meetings and adventures to come:

Joyce Landorf -Heatherly writes in “Monday through Saturday”(p.38)
“Real Christians have learned that prayers laced with healthy faith are not presumptuous, audacious, or arrogant…Instead they are based on love of the Father, needs of our own humanity, and a willingness to accept God’s timetable.”

New Year 2008 Always with God

“Before they call I will answer, while they are still speaking I will hear,” (Isaiah 65:24)

The most important thing I cling to entering the New Year this morning is that God hears our prayers and that He is our God.

“How precious to me are your thoughts O God! How vast the sum of them! Were I to count them they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake I am still with you.” (Psalm 139:17,18)
What hope do we have in this life without the presence of our God?

Each day we open our eyes and He is with us…determining our days…giving us thoughts and ideas for the day, immediate needs and short-term goals, and bringing to mind people we know maybe to pray for, maybe to call, get together with or help in some way.

“I just called your aunt in Germany,” Dad phoned cheerfully this morning. “She got the kiwi fruit I bagged up and sent her on December 24th. She was so happy that she didn’t have to go to the store in the cold and buy some!” Just two weeks ago stuffing Christmas fruit bags in his country kitchen I had mentioned years before on a visit to Frankfurt I’d discovered Auntie has a kiwi for breakfast every day. “I’ll send her a bag,” he had decided. Today it counts.

The other day one of my good friends drove 400 miles for a brief goodbye to someone who was part of our singles hiking-camping group ten years ago-who will be entering heaven any day. He is my age.

“Have a glorious life,” he said to her and her husband upon leaving the hospital room.

A glorious life comes with the presence of God which is why the Psalmist said “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in his temple.( Psalm 27:4)

His brief statement says so much. In the brevity of life as we are daily reminded by the news at home and in Iraq, by our family’s and friend’s losses, we gain hope and purpose by worshipping our Creator first. Our souls awaken with the dawn and we are ready for the new day to begin and now a new Year.

We enter the New Year 2008 embracing the tested, tried and true tenets of our faith as defined by Jesus our Savior: Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

PS- I just learned an hour ago...our brother crossed through the Pearly Gates this morning...and as the firecrackers start now at midnite I know He is in the midst of angel's worshipping.