All Things For God's Glory

September, 2016 May, 2015 We've spent the last four years remodeling our house that we moved into in December, 2014.  Part of that renovation was to enclose a screen porch to house a therapy pool so we could do warm water exercise year 'round. At the time of the incident about which this article is being written, we'd been plodding along on the porch for about seven months, since early May, 2015. After removing part of the decking, we came up with the bright idea to dig down about a foot and bury the pool in the ground a bit so it would be lower to climb into. Our kids helped dig the hole, and then we got information online on how to make a platform on which to set the pool. We had the platform all built (no small feat for us amateurs!), struggled to get the pool inside the now enclosed doorway, got the legs all leveled, and were ready to fill it up. We could just feel that warm water and could envision the end of our project. What we didn't know was that ...

I've been meditating on Isaiah 58 for the past few days as I've been lying in a hospital bed, being "rerouted" by the good hand of the Lord. It seems the fasting that the Lord hates is fasting that elevates self (even though we may be saying we are seeking to know the mind of Christ, we may say we are wanting what He wants). Self glory is hideous to God - whatever form it takes. But God clearly states what kind of fast He delights in in verses 5-7 - a fast of humbling our hearts before our Almighty God, and letting the Word of Christ that should be dwelling in us richly pour forth in loving service towards the people around us - not motivated by self-glory, but by God's glory. We are a people who love self and self-glory, and we are so careful in our church circles to not let that self-glory look like self-glory. We are careful to not "smoke or chew or go with those who do"; we are careful to be squeaky clean in our reputations; we are carefu...

Mark 10:17-23   Jesus loved this rich young aristocrat.  But, did Jesus love this man the same as He loves His own kids ?  I would contend that He did not.  God cannot even look upon sin, let alone love it.  And if we truly believe that we are born dead in sin (Col. 2:13), then we must admit that we are dead through and through - heart and body, and that there is nothing else about us to love.  We are actually called the enemy of God in Romans 5:10. This means God is at war with us, and we are at war with Him and His kingdom.  Jesus' love for this man was the love He tells us to have for our enemies, the love He had for the "world" in John 3:16 - meaning it is a love that is a choosing to do good in spite of being despised, rejected, scorned, mistreated, misunderstood, and murdered.  It is a love based upon the grace of God and not upon the recipients' worthiness.  But did Jesus' love for that young man signify his acceptance into God's ...

2 Corinthians 3:18-4:18   " But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory,  just as from the Lord, the Spirit. Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart..."  For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.   But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;  we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;  persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;  always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.   For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the l...

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.  But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.  To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out...I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture...My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand."  John 10:1-3, 9, 27-28 By God's grace, I was privileged to see one of the Father's sheep hear His voice and enter into the sheepfold a few weeks ago!  How I rejoice in the work of the Holy Spirit to draw this dear lady to Himself!  I will call her Mary for the sake of her privacy.   Mary is 70 years old and has had a very hard life.  She is now in the end-stages o...

Gospel Transformation As I think over the past 5 years, I am swept off my feet with amazement for my Savior, Jesus Christ! He is changing me from a person who was completely living life for myself and my dreams and goals, to a person who is, by God's grace, learning to live every day to please my Lord and Loving Master, Jesus Christ! I don't say this proudly - because I had nothing to do with my spiritual heart transplant that occurred five years ago. And there is no perfection in my daily life – I still need the gospel of Jesus Christ every day in battling my sinful self – but there is definitely a changed purpose, and a passion for loving God that I never had prior to that time.  Is Our Suffering Wasted? Five years ago, I was literally at the end of my physical and emotional endurance. I had battled a neurological disease called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) or as it used to be called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) for 10 years. It had developed into a...