Moments

For this day the tomb was empty---- For this day all things made new---- For this day sins were forgiven---- For this day free from the law of sin and death---- For this day of life eternal with You---- For this day, oh thank you Lord

I Surrender All is the title of a haunting old song. Surrending all - Hard to do. Yet, it seems that the only way to victory in Christ, is through surrender of self.  What a task it is to overcome so much self-sufficiency; so much pride, so much arrogance, it seems we can't surrender because we get in our own way.  It can be hard to surrender if I think that if I just hang on, I might just win this one, all by myself.  Today, I went off to my prayer spot to pray for my sister who is having surgery.   Oh, I had my laundry list, my grocery list and personal wish list,  all ready for God.   I  my online order ready for God to  start shipment.   However, the p eace of the moment and the aggravating chatter of my own prayer thoughts, seemed to suggest that God was saying, "shut up!" And so I did. Releasing myself to the peace of the place and the intimate moment with God, I asked the Holy Spirit to come settle His peace in upon ...

I have been training for an Ironman event but injuries have plagued me. Prayer has been supplemented with heat, ice, stretching but things still hurt. I prayed about this back in November when I started the training. I prayed every time an obstacle came up and God seemed to open up the will to go on. I have sensed God's pleasure in me doing both the training and the eventual event, for His glory. Lately, I have been on the borderline to cashing it all in. The injuries didn't seem to get better. Today though, I felt pretty good. Things didn't hurt quite so much. God do you want me to go on? I will,you know, if that is what you would have me do. God, I prayed, I wish I knew. Do you want me to go on? Just a hint? Any clue? My 61 mile bike ride was great and I had planned to try a run after the ride. Wow, but I felt great - But - The first step of the run brought a fractured feeling of pain upon impact. Each step my hip feel worse. Barely moving forwar...

It was a very tough 15 mile run today. I was tired, very tired right from the beginning. It got worse - worse to the extent I was calling out like Simon Peter when he walked on the water and began sinking: “Lord save me.!” My left shoe was making a scuffing sound, and in the scuffing sound I began to hear the refrain, “Jee- sus, Jee-sus, Jee-sus." On I went, feeling awful but sustained by the sound of the shoe scuffing out the name of Jesus. At two miles I almost turned around but almost hypnotically I followed the Name up the hill to continue on. A song came to mind: “I need thee, oh I need thee. Every hour I need thee…” Oh yes, I needed Him but I needed Him every moment; every step. “I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every step I need Thee. Oh bless me now my Savior. I run for Thee.” Fifteen miles was not in my body this day. I was out of the bounds of my capability but not out of His. At the end of the fifteen mile run, I was thoroughly “poured out like water” b...

There was a time before cell phones. Hard to conceive, I know. Back in those pre-historic times, the engine in my auto just quit on a desolate, dark highway, miles from home. Fortunately, the road was straight, the country flat, and far up the highway, a dim light shone. It was cold, and the icy wind whistling through my clothing made the moments that much more desolate. But, I kept walking to the dim light. There was nothing else to do; nowhere else to go. As I kept on the straight path, over time, patiently plodding forward, the light got a little bigger as I got closer. Finally, after walking well over a mile, I arrived at a fully lighted intersection with a pay phone. In thinking of that event long ago, I thought of the scripture where many disciples left Jesus and He asked the disciples, "Will ye also go away?" And Peter answered, "Lord, to whom else should go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, t...

Have noticed in reading the story of the prodigal son, that the change occurred in the wayword son when he was at his lowest ebb, feeding pigs; trying to keep from starving by eating their food. The scripture says, "he came to himself." From that point his life takes a different direction, a new road, a new perspective on himself, his place in the world and about his father. But, he had to come to himself. To me, that suggests that the capability to be who he could be was in him all the time. He had drifted from who he really was. Sometimes we might drift from the person God sees in us; the person that through Christ we can be; the person we really are; close to our Father's love.