How BIG is God?
The Bible says He will provide for ALL of our needs...
Will He?
The Bible says He will never leave us nor forsake us...
Is that true?
The Bible says He has a plan for us - one to prosper us...
I dunno - seems a bit "out there" to me.
The Bible says "faith" is believing in things you cannot see...
Yeah, easy for GOD to say!
The Bible says if I commit my way to the Lord He will act on my behalf...
Seems too good to be true, doesn't it?
I think NOW would be a good time to see if any of those Bible truths - or the other bazillion Bible truths that speak of how much God loves me, and cares for me, and is guiding me and directing me - are actually true.
The journey begins - right now!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
RIP169
After about 9 years of great service, our Dodge Caravan finally met his maker - well, sort of... as we were closing in on the 169K mark, "things" began to go wrong... dials stopped working, rear wiper blades gave out - - noises and creeks here and there - - the end was in sight - - or - - money had to be paid out just to keep the thing alive.
So - because we've enjoyed my wife's Ford Escape for a while now, we decided to go find a good used one for me as a replacement for the minivan. One of those wonderful deals jumped out at us and we decided it was time.
Now we have "his and hers" Ford Escapes... hers is a burly "man red" - and mine is a "cute bright blue" -- not sure how that happened, but it gives each of us companionship during the day so there ya go...
No, there WE go!
Vroom!
Monday, March 23, 2009
The Other Side Of The Boat
In some ways, the passage in John 21 is so very simple - almost TOO simple really.
The disciples - skilled fishermen - are out on the sea doing their "job" - trying to catch fish. They are not having much success. In fact, they are catching nothing. They are probably pretty frustrated - they are, after all, SKILLED at this job, right? How hard is it for them to catch fish? Then Jesus - the CARPENTER - makes a suggestion. Hey guys - why not cast that net over onto the OTHER side of the boat?
I can imagine these ruddy fishermen snickering amongst themselves. Pssst - d'you hear what the carpenter said? He told us to cast the next on the other side of the boat. Ha ha ha ha... That is what I would have done. Yeah, um, listen Jesus - thanks for the "tip" 'n all... but, well, I've been doing this for a while - - I think I got this fishing thing down pretty good... at the very least, just to play along, I would have peeked over the edge of the boat to see if I could see signs of any fish before lugging that heavy net all the way over to the other side...
But that is not how the disciples reacted.
They immediately obeyed what Jesus said and tossed the next on to the other side of the boat.
And the funniest thing happened - THEY CAUGHT FISH! Amazing!
In their time of struggle and frustration, they:
> listened
> obeyed
> repead the rewards of listening and obeying
Sometimes we have to cast the net without any evidence of a REASON to cast the net - other than the voice of God telling us to cast the net. That's not easy. We want proof. We want evidence. We want to know before we go - -
But that's cuz we are humans.
These past several months I have been on a journey of net casting - and today, I made the decision to cast the net to the other side of the boat with very little evidence (okay, I do have SOME evidence - cuz God is loving and knows I need it!) to do it. And now, I wait and watch with anticipation as the fish start to wiggle their way to the net...
I can smell the tartar sauce already!
The disciples - skilled fishermen - are out on the sea doing their "job" - trying to catch fish. They are not having much success. In fact, they are catching nothing. They are probably pretty frustrated - they are, after all, SKILLED at this job, right? How hard is it for them to catch fish? Then Jesus - the CARPENTER - makes a suggestion. Hey guys - why not cast that net over onto the OTHER side of the boat?
I can imagine these ruddy fishermen snickering amongst themselves. Pssst - d'you hear what the carpenter said? He told us to cast the next on the other side of the boat. Ha ha ha ha... That is what I would have done. Yeah, um, listen Jesus - thanks for the "tip" 'n all... but, well, I've been doing this for a while - - I think I got this fishing thing down pretty good... at the very least, just to play along, I would have peeked over the edge of the boat to see if I could see signs of any fish before lugging that heavy net all the way over to the other side...
But that is not how the disciples reacted.
They immediately obeyed what Jesus said and tossed the next on to the other side of the boat.
And the funniest thing happened - THEY CAUGHT FISH! Amazing!
In their time of struggle and frustration, they:
> listened
> obeyed
> repead the rewards of listening and obeying
Sometimes we have to cast the net without any evidence of a REASON to cast the net - other than the voice of God telling us to cast the net. That's not easy. We want proof. We want evidence. We want to know before we go - -
But that's cuz we are humans.
These past several months I have been on a journey of net casting - and today, I made the decision to cast the net to the other side of the boat with very little evidence (okay, I do have SOME evidence - cuz God is loving and knows I need it!) to do it. And now, I wait and watch with anticipation as the fish start to wiggle their way to the net...
I can smell the tartar sauce already!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)