Where is God in this?

I know that many of you have seen or heard this before, but for those of you who have not I pass it on for your thoughts. Stan DeKoven sent it to me and again it got me thinking.

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary, Sunday, 12/18/05.
Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife. Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. If this is what it means to be no longer young, it's not so bad. Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away. I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to. In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke, it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking. Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show, and Jane Clayson asked her, "How could God let something like this Happen?" (regarding Hurricane Katrina). Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?" In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK. Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped, and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK. Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW." Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to Hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace. Are you laughing? Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us. If you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

Free Will

What an incredible thing God has given us in free will and choice. We can choose to walk how ever we like, God will never force our hand. Imagine if you will for a minute the incredible thing that is. The God of Heaven and earth creator of man's first breath, allows us free choice. I find that amazing, if I was inventing/creating man he would do what he was jolly well told. (Aren't you lucky I'm not). But there is a reason in my mind why God does this, and that is that he believes in us. He loves us and really does trust us. Yes we will mess up and He knows that, and yet He still loves and trusts us to make our own decisions and plans.

Life leads us on a merry ride at times and the choices we make have consequences on this life that we are living, hence the reason that choices are so important. And part of the reason God allows us to make our own choices, He knows that life will draw us around to where we should be, and that the choices we make wether good or bad, will teach us.

Our choice is to learn! Or go around the mountain again.

I don't know about you but I can see a few of my footprints in front of me from time to time. Our job is to support one another in the decision making process and help those who want to grow and learn. I am still learning in a big way, how about you?

Things you don't learn in school

This advice was offered by BILL GATES in a speech to a group of high school students. His topic was: Things You Don’t Learn in School.
RULE 1: Life is not fair… get used to it.
RULE 2: The world won’t care about your self esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
RULE 3: You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year, right out of high school. You won’t be a vice president with a car phone, until you earn both.
RULE 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss.
RULE 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for flipping burgers: they called it opportunity.
RULE 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault. So don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
RULE 7: Before you were born, your parents were not as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents’ generation, try cleaning up your own bedroom.
RULE 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as many chances as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
RULE 9: Life is not divided into terms. You don’t get summers off, and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.
RULE 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs

Enjoying the journey

The great architect Frank Lloyd Wright was fond of an incident that may have seemed insignificant at the time, but had a profound influence on the restof his life. When he was 9, he went walking across a snow-covered field with his reserved, no- nonsense uncle. As the two of them reached the far end of the field, his uncle stopped him. He pointed out his own tracks in the snow, straight and true as an arrow's flight, and then young Frank's tracks meandering all over the field. "Notice how your tracks wander aimlessly from the fence to the cattle to the woods and back again," his uncle said. "And see how my tracks aim directly to my goal. There is an important lesson in that." Years later the world-famous architect liked to tell how the experience had contributed to his philosophy in life. "I determined right then," he'd say with a twinkle in his eye, "not to miss the things in life, that my uncle had missed." Frank Wright saw in those tracks what his uncle could not: It is easy to let the demands of life keep us from the joys of living. We all recognize that any goal in life worth achieving demands a great deal of our energy. If you are a doctor you must spend vast hours alone and in Uni studying the human body. The life of your patient demands it. If you are a teacher you must live in the library researching and preparing for your lecture. The mind of your student demands it. If you are a carpenter you must patiently measure the building before you drive the first nail. The strength of the structure depends on it. If you are a mother you must sacrifice your life for another. Your children require it. We could not live if we did not set goals and work to fulfill them. No sane person would argue otherwise. But here's what young Wright discovered at the tender age of 9, and what some don't learn until 59: The objective in life is not the goal but the journey on the way to the goal. One time the whole city had gathered around where Jesus was, pressing in to see Him. The demands on him were piling up. He cured many, cast out demons, and taught constantly. When he left in the morning early to pray, they went searching for him. And when they found him they said, "What are you doing, everyone is searching for you?" Our lives can be that way with the demands of work, family, life, illness etc. How do we enjoy the journey when everyone and everything is searching for you, wanting a piece of you, and demanding your time? We can do it by remembering....
1. Hard Work Is Required.
2. Not To Let Others Define Our Goal.
3. Enjoy the ride
4. Remembering to Pray!

Well those are my thoughts, Pastor Rob.

"At the heart of the Christian message is God Himself waiting for his redeemed
children to push in to conscious awareness of his presence."
A.W.Tozer.

Manifesting the Life of Christ

Well this is our first meeting , so to speak.

Not sure what you are expecting from all this but it is my intention to just throw the thoughts that I have into cyber space and try as best as I can to encourage "You the Body of Christ". Now not everything may fit your theology, or mine but I hope the things I say will promote you to think outside the box and see God from a newer light and a fresher point of view. Occasionally I may post a funny thought or even a web page or picture.

For me, and I have no doubt for you also, life can seem to have its ups and downs. Our challenge is to find consistency in our reactions to these challenges. If we looked at the fruit of the Spirit we would see a constancy in their outworking. If we are going to manifest the life of Christ, consistency is a key to our life and victory. Making a decision is one of the best things we can do in times of trouble, let me encourage you with this verse;
"Trust God, my friends, and always tell him each one of your concerns. God is our place of safety". (Psalm 62:8)