This really should have been written before my "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not" post; so if you haven't read either, read this one first and it might help you understand how I got to where I am now.
The Church told us the truth that we cannot earn our way to an eternity with God; that it is by believing in Jesus Christ that we are saved. I understood that truth but still struggled with my obligations to God. Perhaps I was confused by the 'conflicting' teachings that we can't earn salvation, we're little more than slugs saved by grace, and that we owe God everything. That's all true, but it's not everything we need to understand about God's love and grace.
Several years ago I was invited to visit a local church to hear a prophet who was speaking there. Near the end of his message, this prophet pointed to me and said, "God has a word for you." I looked around, hoping he was pointing at someone behind me, but the prophet shook his head and said, "Yes, you in the blue shirt looking around - God has something to say to you." I nodded meekly, steeling myself for a possible rebuke. Lord knows, I deserved to be rebuked...I just didn't want Him to call me out publically. The prophet walked halfway down the aisle and pointed his finger at me and said, "God wants you to know that He has seen all that you have done for Him, but He also wants you to know that it doesn't mean a thing. God is not interested in your service, He wants you to get to know Him as a Father."
I'd never met or heard of this prophet before. Only a handful of people at the church knew me and I know they didn't prep this guy by telling him about what I did back in my own church. That's why I knew it was really God speaking to me through this man. Sometimes people talk through their ass and claim it's God speaking through them, but this guy was right on the money.
For two or three years, I had been a deacon in my church - not through biblical qualifications, but because I was one of the few men who showed up on a regular basis. God used a donkey in the OT, guess He could use an ass who made himself available. Not only was I an usher, but I was a greeter, the janitor, the guy who wrote, printed and folded the weekly bulletins (with some help from my Sunday School class), a Sunday School teacher, I prepared the communion elements, helped paint the church classrooms, and pretty much anything else that needed doing around the church. If the doors were open, I was there; and when they weren't, I had a key to let myself in.
You see, I had been saved back on Father's Day in 1996, and although I knew I was saved by grace, I felt like I owed God something for saving me. Now that I was saved by grace, I felt obligated to compensate God for everything He was doing for me after saving me. After all, He didn't snatch me up at confession, but left me here for a reason, so God must have wanted something from me.
The church, unwittingly, was complicit in my deception. They allowed me to do all those things. After all, if I told them that I was called by God to use my spiritual gifts in administration and helps, then who were they to deny me the right to serve God? Rather, they encouraged me, and when I couldn't perceive God's acceptance and approval of my service, I took their praise as His approval. At one point, I was cleaning the church on a weekly basis and the leadership decided they should pay me for my efforts. I took this as an affirmation that I was on the right path. It wasn't long though before some of the people who used to praise me for cleaning the church for free were complaining about how they weren't getting their money's worth. What used to be a blessing to me turned into a bitter feeling towards those people and I quickly gave up the position as custodian to someone else who needed the money. Then I wondered what I had done to displease God. I never knew if I was doing enough or doing it well enough to merit His approval.
I think it was Micah who said something like, "What can we give to the Lord? Our possessions? Our time and energy? Are those enough?" (I'm paraphrasing here because I'm too lazy to look it up.) "Well what if I gave a dozen rivers of oil; would that be enough? What if I did like Abraham and offered my first-born as compensation for my sins - would that satisfy God?" Micah understood that we can't do enough, nor does God expect us to try.
What God has always wanted is a relationship with those who are created in His image. While I was worrying about keeping Him appeased because Jesus had to suffer and die for my rebellion, God wanted me to treat Him like a Father rather than a task-master. Why is it that we're afraid to get close to Him? Are we afraid He's going to ask us for some hard sacrifice? Maybe we're afraid if we get close He's going to spank us for our sins. Why do we expect Him to be less loving as a parent than we are?
What the prophet said to me didn't change my activities immediately, but the seed was planted. It took a few months before I started letting things go. It took a church split for me to simply quit trying altogether. I don't blame the church for its complicity in my self-deception. There are people like me in every congregation who substitute activity for a personal relationship with Papa. It was the continued support and love of my pastor and his family that helped me see that God has no expectations of me. I'm free to approach Him, and free to shy away. God is gentle.
He's like a kind person who sees a stray puppy and who coaxes it to come get some food, a nice home, and loving care. The puppy, so scrawny you can count every rib, takes a tentative step forwards because it wants what the man has. But if the man makes a move towards the puppy, it shies back because it's been hurt and deceived by man before. The man, though knowing that he offers everything this poor puppy could ever need, also knows that he can't force it to come to him. Either the puppy allows his need to overcome caution, or the puppy chooses to risk the unknown and misses out on something it really wants.
When I truly understood that God's motivation isn't to make my life miserable by demanding everything from me, and that He actually delights in me, then I was able to stop trying to please Him and learn to love Him; and by loving Him I'm able to accomplish more than I ever could trying to compensate Him for all of His grace and mercies in my life. Like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son, God has never loved me less - even when I've taken advantage of Him. His love has been constant and His desire has been for me to know His love and to love Him in return.
Nights In Rodanthe
One of my favorite writers, Nicholas Sparks, has another movie coming from one of his novels: Check it out here. http://nightsinrodanthe.warnerbros.com/
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not....
I grew up in the Church. Some of my earliest memories were of tent revivals where a sweating preacher would yell and scream hellfire and damnation. People clapped and shouted "Amen!" amid a flurry of paper fans, provided to them by the local funeral homes. But even though I don't recall any specific sermons growing up, I do remember that there was a lot of emphasis on keeping the Ten Commandments and warning us to avoid those who broke the Law.
In recent years there has been more teachings on grace and mercy, but for the most part when you turn on a TV, you're still assaulted by a God of holy justice; the same God who committed ethnic cleansing in the Old Testament and Who rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah and Who threatened humans with the fires of Hell if we didn't love this fierce, righteous, unbending, and quick to condemn us, God.
Then we read the New Testament and see a different God, a God of love, peace, mercy and grace. We're left wondering what happened to God between Malachi and Matthew? Did God repent of His ways and get saved? How do we resolve the conflicting Gods of the Old and the New Testaments? If God is truly schizophrenic, which of Him do I wake up to each morning? It's kind of like a child plucking the petals off a daisy while repeating, "He loves me; He loves me not; He loves me; He loves me not.
I got a raise at work: He loves me.
I failed to pay my tithes: He loves me not.
I met someone I want to spend the rest of my life with: He loves me.
The doctors have given up on chemo and radiation to fight my daughter's cancer: He loves me not.
I spend most of the day wondering whether I'm in God's good graces, or whether I'm a breath away from waking up in Hell. With this concept of God, I'm more like the slovenly steward who hid the talent the Master gave him in fear of losing even that and displeasing the Master. If the only reason I’m even responding to Him is to serve my own self-interest and escape Hell, am I really loving Him or myself?
Having grown up with that kind of theology, it's no wonder that churches are still preaching judgment over love. We're told that God judged America on 9/11, or that He judged New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina. I think that most Christians are like me, having learned in churches that focused more on obeying God than on loving Him. Most of us, truth be told, turned to God out of a fear of Hell than out of love for Him. I mean, how can you love someone you can't trust? How can you trust a God who demands that you love Him while dangling you over a fiery pit, and threatens to drop you unless you say what He wants you to say? Didn't Jesus Himself say that the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, your soul and all your strength? It seems the church's response has been that the fear of God is equivalent to loving Him.
It’s no wonder that Christians are turning so many away from God at a time when the world needs Him more than ever. They don’t want one more drop of God’s life other than the minimum required to escape Hell. How do we reconcile that God with Jesus who loved us enough to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, and forgive murderers, thieves and prostitutes?
Wayne Jacobsen observes that, “We live in a day when millions have made a commitment to Christ and yet so few lives are really transformed by His power. It has been said of this generation that our Christianity is a mile wide but only an inch deep. People claim to know God but show no transformation in their daily lives. We challenge them as hypocrites and attempt to badger them into more righteous lifestyles, but in the end most believers end up as much a part of the world’s ways as their nonbelieving neighbors.”
Recently I picked up a book that's opened my eyes to God's love. I've mentioned it on another post here: "The Shack" by William P Young. If you go to the author's blog, you'll see testimony after testimony about how this book has positively impacted people's lives. It has done the same with me. I now have an inkling of understanding this Father that Jesus presented in the Gospels.
In The Shack, Mack suggests to Sarayu (the Holy Spirit) that he has tried to keep the Law and lead as good a life as possible. Sarayu’s response was, “How’s that working for you?”
I think now that I have a better grasp on how God can love me in spite of my sins and failures. Before Jesus came, we could only see God’s actions and assume He was moved by motivations similar to our own. Jesus presented God as a loving Father, One who is willing to allow His children to sin in order to show them how destructive sin can be. Jesus’ message was not to come to God or you’ll burn in Hell; His message was that God’s kingdom has come near and you can become a participant in it.
Jacobsen goes on to say, “He allows us the consequences of sin, not because He delights in our anguish, but so we can see its devastating effect and run to the only one in the universe who can set us free from them. His wrath against sin was not His rejection of us in anger, but only a reflection of the depth of love that cannot look away unconcerned as sin destroys us. There is no one that God does not love with all that He is. His love reaches beyond every sin and failure, hoping that at some moment they will come to know just how loved they are.”
So here I am, on the cusp of a new revelation of God. Finally understanding that God is not conflicted, but that He has always wanted a personal relationship with me based on love and trust; I feel that it is time to cast off the old cloak of shame and put on this new cloak of belonging to God. Rather than ask you to counsel and save me from some new false doctrine, I ask you to do what Sarayu did when you see me revert to my old religious ways: Say, “How’s that working for you?” With the new life-partner God brought into my life (my fianc'e, Pamela), I look forward to the future and our journey in loving God more.
In recent years there has been more teachings on grace and mercy, but for the most part when you turn on a TV, you're still assaulted by a God of holy justice; the same God who committed ethnic cleansing in the Old Testament and Who rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah and Who threatened humans with the fires of Hell if we didn't love this fierce, righteous, unbending, and quick to condemn us, God.
Then we read the New Testament and see a different God, a God of love, peace, mercy and grace. We're left wondering what happened to God between Malachi and Matthew? Did God repent of His ways and get saved? How do we resolve the conflicting Gods of the Old and the New Testaments? If God is truly schizophrenic, which of Him do I wake up to each morning? It's kind of like a child plucking the petals off a daisy while repeating, "He loves me; He loves me not; He loves me; He loves me not.
I got a raise at work: He loves me.
I failed to pay my tithes: He loves me not.
I met someone I want to spend the rest of my life with: He loves me.
The doctors have given up on chemo and radiation to fight my daughter's cancer: He loves me not.
I spend most of the day wondering whether I'm in God's good graces, or whether I'm a breath away from waking up in Hell. With this concept of God, I'm more like the slovenly steward who hid the talent the Master gave him in fear of losing even that and displeasing the Master. If the only reason I’m even responding to Him is to serve my own self-interest and escape Hell, am I really loving Him or myself?
Having grown up with that kind of theology, it's no wonder that churches are still preaching judgment over love. We're told that God judged America on 9/11, or that He judged New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina. I think that most Christians are like me, having learned in churches that focused more on obeying God than on loving Him. Most of us, truth be told, turned to God out of a fear of Hell than out of love for Him. I mean, how can you love someone you can't trust? How can you trust a God who demands that you love Him while dangling you over a fiery pit, and threatens to drop you unless you say what He wants you to say? Didn't Jesus Himself say that the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, your soul and all your strength? It seems the church's response has been that the fear of God is equivalent to loving Him.
It’s no wonder that Christians are turning so many away from God at a time when the world needs Him more than ever. They don’t want one more drop of God’s life other than the minimum required to escape Hell. How do we reconcile that God with Jesus who loved us enough to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, and forgive murderers, thieves and prostitutes?
Wayne Jacobsen observes that, “We live in a day when millions have made a commitment to Christ and yet so few lives are really transformed by His power. It has been said of this generation that our Christianity is a mile wide but only an inch deep. People claim to know God but show no transformation in their daily lives. We challenge them as hypocrites and attempt to badger them into more righteous lifestyles, but in the end most believers end up as much a part of the world’s ways as their nonbelieving neighbors.”
Recently I picked up a book that's opened my eyes to God's love. I've mentioned it on another post here: "The Shack" by William P Young. If you go to the author's blog, you'll see testimony after testimony about how this book has positively impacted people's lives. It has done the same with me. I now have an inkling of understanding this Father that Jesus presented in the Gospels.
In The Shack, Mack suggests to Sarayu (the Holy Spirit) that he has tried to keep the Law and lead as good a life as possible. Sarayu’s response was, “How’s that working for you?”
I think now that I have a better grasp on how God can love me in spite of my sins and failures. Before Jesus came, we could only see God’s actions and assume He was moved by motivations similar to our own. Jesus presented God as a loving Father, One who is willing to allow His children to sin in order to show them how destructive sin can be. Jesus’ message was not to come to God or you’ll burn in Hell; His message was that God’s kingdom has come near and you can become a participant in it.
Jacobsen goes on to say, “He allows us the consequences of sin, not because He delights in our anguish, but so we can see its devastating effect and run to the only one in the universe who can set us free from them. His wrath against sin was not His rejection of us in anger, but only a reflection of the depth of love that cannot look away unconcerned as sin destroys us. There is no one that God does not love with all that He is. His love reaches beyond every sin and failure, hoping that at some moment they will come to know just how loved they are.”
So here I am, on the cusp of a new revelation of God. Finally understanding that God is not conflicted, but that He has always wanted a personal relationship with me based on love and trust; I feel that it is time to cast off the old cloak of shame and put on this new cloak of belonging to God. Rather than ask you to counsel and save me from some new false doctrine, I ask you to do what Sarayu did when you see me revert to my old religious ways: Say, “How’s that working for you?” With the new life-partner God brought into my life (my fianc'e, Pamela), I look forward to the future and our journey in loving God more.
A Rainy Day at the Beach
Are you ready?
Did it hurt?
Did you feel anything?
Well, did you at least get wet?
Did you do anything yet?
Do you want me to open your legs?
I don’t think they’re supposed to bend that way.
Are you going to eat that?
Would you like some butter on that?
I’m so full.
Thanks for coming.
It was wonderful dear.
Is there an ‘off’ button on this thing?
.
,
.
,
,
And now that you've all blushed, here's the rest of the story:
On Thursday night, Pam and I went to The Lucky Fisherman seafood restaurant, located at Oak Island, NC for dinner. A quick storm came up just as we arrived, with a little hail mixed in, so I dropped Pam off at the door so she wouldn't get too wet. I asked her before she exited the car, "Are you ready?" Pam nodded and dashed up the steps to the restaurant's covered porch. I parked the car and ran through the rain to join her on the 'porch' where other diners waited for seating. I inquired about whether she'd gotten too wet or if she'd been struck by the hail, "Did it hurt?", referring to the hail. She said no, so I asked if she'd even felt the hail, "Did you feel anything?" Again Pam said no. It was pouring down as I dropped her off at the door so I asked her, "Well, did you at least get wet?" I was wiping water from my face and arms. Of course, I'd run from the parking lot, so I'd been exposed to the rain more than she had.
We had taken a seat on the bench outside the restaurant and we noticed some patrons arriving after us going up to a stand beside the door and signing in. I'd assumed that Pam had signed us in and she assumed I had. She looked at the sign-in sheet and back at me and asked, "Did you do anything yet?" I said, "Nope, sorry." and got up to sign us in. We waited about a half hour before they called our name and seated us in a nice quiet corner of the restaurant. We both ordered the "All-U-Can-Eat Crab Legs from the buffet.
Pam had never had crab legs before so I asked her if she'd like for me to show her how to crack the crab legs, "Do you want me to open your (crab) legs?" She nodded and I proceeded to crack the legs and use a kife to extract the meat. After watching me crack open a couple of legs, Pam decided to give it a try. At first she bent the legs sideways as though to break them in half. It required a twisting/pulling motion the way she was doing it, so I said, "I don't think they're supposed to bend that way." In no time she'd perfected the art of breaking open the crab legs and was enjoying them right out of the shell. I pointed to the container of melted butter and asked, "Would you like some butter on that?" Pam dipped a little of the crab into the butter and tasted it, and she smiled.
We made two trips each to the buffet, not counting the trips for crab legs and the dessert. By the time we were done, we were stuffed. "I'm so full" Pam said. The dinner was very nice; the food was great and the company was better. I leaned over and gave her a kiss and said, "Thank you for coming." Pam responded with "It was wonderful dear." And indeed it was a very nice dinner - our first date at the beach. It was a week of firsts: Pam's first trip on an airplane, the first time she'd visited North Carolina, the first time she'd met my pastor and friends at church, the first time she'd seen the ocean, her first engagement ring, which I presented to her the last day we were at the beach.
Upon leaving the restaurant, it was still raining, though much less than when we'd arrived. We jogged to the car and I started the engine. The air conditioner was on the maximum setting and as soon as the cold air assaulted our wet bodies, we began to shiver. I was driving a rental and was unfamiliar with the controls. It took me awhile to find the a/c button, and in the process, I asked "Is there an 'off' button on this thing?!" Pam found it first and turned the a/c off. We drove off, passing a theater on the way back to the condo, so we decided to draw out our date as long as possible by taking in "Get Smart" at the cinema. Although we were full from a great dinner, I still bought popcorn, a large soda and some Skittles for the movie. It was a very nice date on a rainy day at the beach.
Now I understand how someone could assume that two people in love, on vacation at the beach, might make the above statements while engaged in something more erotic than dinner and a movie, but that would be none of your business if we did or didn't say those things behind closed doors.
Did it hurt?
Did you feel anything?
Well, did you at least get wet?
Did you do anything yet?
Do you want me to open your legs?
I don’t think they’re supposed to bend that way.
Are you going to eat that?
Would you like some butter on that?
I’m so full.
Thanks for coming.
It was wonderful dear.
Is there an ‘off’ button on this thing?
.
,
.
,
,
And now that you've all blushed, here's the rest of the story:
On Thursday night, Pam and I went to The Lucky Fisherman seafood restaurant, located at Oak Island, NC for dinner. A quick storm came up just as we arrived, with a little hail mixed in, so I dropped Pam off at the door so she wouldn't get too wet. I asked her before she exited the car, "Are you ready?" Pam nodded and dashed up the steps to the restaurant's covered porch. I parked the car and ran through the rain to join her on the 'porch' where other diners waited for seating. I inquired about whether she'd gotten too wet or if she'd been struck by the hail, "Did it hurt?", referring to the hail. She said no, so I asked if she'd even felt the hail, "Did you feel anything?" Again Pam said no. It was pouring down as I dropped her off at the door so I asked her, "Well, did you at least get wet?" I was wiping water from my face and arms. Of course, I'd run from the parking lot, so I'd been exposed to the rain more than she had.
We had taken a seat on the bench outside the restaurant and we noticed some patrons arriving after us going up to a stand beside the door and signing in. I'd assumed that Pam had signed us in and she assumed I had. She looked at the sign-in sheet and back at me and asked, "Did you do anything yet?" I said, "Nope, sorry." and got up to sign us in. We waited about a half hour before they called our name and seated us in a nice quiet corner of the restaurant. We both ordered the "All-U-Can-Eat Crab Legs from the buffet.
Pam had never had crab legs before so I asked her if she'd like for me to show her how to crack the crab legs, "Do you want me to open your (crab) legs?" She nodded and I proceeded to crack the legs and use a kife to extract the meat. After watching me crack open a couple of legs, Pam decided to give it a try. At first she bent the legs sideways as though to break them in half. It required a twisting/pulling motion the way she was doing it, so I said, "I don't think they're supposed to bend that way." In no time she'd perfected the art of breaking open the crab legs and was enjoying them right out of the shell. I pointed to the container of melted butter and asked, "Would you like some butter on that?" Pam dipped a little of the crab into the butter and tasted it, and she smiled.
We made two trips each to the buffet, not counting the trips for crab legs and the dessert. By the time we were done, we were stuffed. "I'm so full" Pam said. The dinner was very nice; the food was great and the company was better. I leaned over and gave her a kiss and said, "Thank you for coming." Pam responded with "It was wonderful dear." And indeed it was a very nice dinner - our first date at the beach. It was a week of firsts: Pam's first trip on an airplane, the first time she'd visited North Carolina, the first time she'd met my pastor and friends at church, the first time she'd seen the ocean, her first engagement ring, which I presented to her the last day we were at the beach.
Upon leaving the restaurant, it was still raining, though much less than when we'd arrived. We jogged to the car and I started the engine. The air conditioner was on the maximum setting and as soon as the cold air assaulted our wet bodies, we began to shiver. I was driving a rental and was unfamiliar with the controls. It took me awhile to find the a/c button, and in the process, I asked "Is there an 'off' button on this thing?!" Pam found it first and turned the a/c off. We drove off, passing a theater on the way back to the condo, so we decided to draw out our date as long as possible by taking in "Get Smart" at the cinema. Although we were full from a great dinner, I still bought popcorn, a large soda and some Skittles for the movie. It was a very nice date on a rainy day at the beach.
Now I understand how someone could assume that two people in love, on vacation at the beach, might make the above statements while engaged in something more erotic than dinner and a movie, but that would be none of your business if we did or didn't say those things behind closed doors.
A High Concept Movie Personality Test
If my life were a high-concept movie, it would be Jaws 2 (1978) meets Total Recall (1990).
Take the What Is Your High-Concept Movie? quiz.
Personally, I enjoyed the original Jaws, the original Rocky, the original Rambo. I don't know how your name relates to a movie. I plugged in my fiance's name and hers came back "American Pie" meets "The Nutty Professor". I plugged in my pastor's name and he came back "Hitch" meets "Silence of the Lambs". My new grandson came back "The Little Mermaid" meets "Total Recall". What do I have to do to get "The Notebook" meets "Somewhere In Time"?
I'm Also a Talent!
I'm a Talent!
You're a risk-taker, and you follow your passions. You're determined to take on the world and succeed on your own terms. Whether in the arts, science, engineering, business, or politics, you fearlessly express your own vision of the world. You're not afraid of a fight, and you're not afraid to bet your future on your own abilities. If you find a job boring or stifling, you're already preparing your resume. You believe in doing what you love, and you're not willing to settle for an ordinary life.
Talent: 62%
Lifer: 38%
Mandarin: 31%
Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.
I'm just average. At least I see myself like half the people see themselves. There's comfort in our misery:). Actually, this test tells us what we'd like to be, not how we really are.
I'm a Lotus Elise!....
I'm a Lotus Elise!
You believe in maximum performance and minimum baggage. You like to travel light and fast, hit the corners hard, and dance like there's no tomorrow.
"Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.
I thought I'd be a Hummer. Bummer.
Josh
My grandson Josh learned this from his young aunt who brought it home from school recently. Enjoy
Your Headline - Read All About It!
A great post by my favorite author. Hope is a smouldering ember of faith.
http://jmprattcom.blogspot.com/2008/06/your-headline-read-all-about-it.html
Review of The Shack by William P Young
A novel that is creating a lot of excitement, especially among Christians, "The Shack" by William P. Young provides probably some of the most powerful pictures of God that I have ever experienced. The Shack has been compared to Pilgrim's Progress by Eugene Peterson - author of 'The Message' Bible, but I think that it has the potential to be every bit as powerful as Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ". In fact, I'd love to see Mel do the movie exactly as it has been written. We all thought we understood the story of the Crucifixion from the Bible until we saw the movie; putting The Shack on the big screen would bring God from some distant dimension in space directly into our circumstances.
No doubt there are those in the ministry who would criticize, even demonize the book, claiming that it focuses on God's love and ignores His justice. It's not true. Some claim that Jesus says in The Shack that many roads lead to God - and neither is that true. You have to read the context to properly understand the statements the characters make. Christians take scripture out of context all the time to justify their positions.
I have started re-reading The Shack, this time highlighting passages that speak to me where I am in my spiritual journey. If nothing else, I have developed a better understanding of God's love and can better understand the answer to the question, "Where is God when it hurts?" Of all the books written to explain how God is relevant in our generation, The Shack does the best job.
Because we're all at different stages on our spiritual journey, I won't ruin the story for you here. Read the book and come back and tell us what you think. It's a winner in my book! I will say that this is a work of fiction; it was written for the author's children. Each reader must decide for themselves. For me, I felt like God was speaking to me directly.
(If Mel does the movie, he should star as Mackinzie. Morgan Freeman did a wonderful job as God in Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty, so he should play Papa.)
No doubt there are those in the ministry who would criticize, even demonize the book, claiming that it focuses on God's love and ignores His justice. It's not true. Some claim that Jesus says in The Shack that many roads lead to God - and neither is that true. You have to read the context to properly understand the statements the characters make. Christians take scripture out of context all the time to justify their positions.
I have started re-reading The Shack, this time highlighting passages that speak to me where I am in my spiritual journey. If nothing else, I have developed a better understanding of God's love and can better understand the answer to the question, "Where is God when it hurts?" Of all the books written to explain how God is relevant in our generation, The Shack does the best job.
Because we're all at different stages on our spiritual journey, I won't ruin the story for you here. Read the book and come back and tell us what you think. It's a winner in my book! I will say that this is a work of fiction; it was written for the author's children. Each reader must decide for themselves. For me, I felt like God was speaking to me directly.
(If Mel does the movie, he should star as Mackinzie. Morgan Freeman did a wonderful job as God in Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty, so he should play Papa.)
Update on Sea Tree
Recently I purchased a laptop computer so that I could work on the novel on my lunch hours. I've been reading Steven's King's "On Writing" which is encouraging because the stumbling blocks I'm experiencing are normal for him - and he's certainly a success at writing and selling novels.
I've pretty much decided that Sea Tree is going to be a series. There are too many characters that I want to develop to put them all in one novel. The first book in the series will center around three main characters and how they find their way to Sea Tree. I'm taking the title for the first installment from this blog: Journey To Sea Tree.
As you may or may not know, Sea Tree is the product of a dream I had a few years ago. Life got in the way of turning this dream into my first novel. As with anything, if we wait until everything is perfect before starting something, we'll never get anything done. The first 50 pages of Sea Tree were lost when my hard drive crashed, so I started over and am back up to almost that many pages of very rough draft.
What kind of story is Sea Tree? I'm really not sure - and that's been one of the stumbling blocks in writing the novel. I don't want it to be something that is of interest to a narrow market, such as only Christians, or only fantasy fans. In my mind, it's a fantasy romance/action tale. The story deals with good and evil and with relationships. If it's done well Sea Tree should be a success, but it needs a lot of work. I will not be allowing anyone to read the first draft; and my second draft will probably only be read by my fiance and my daughter - two people whom I know will be gentle and not shatter my fragile ego. By the third draft I'll ask a few friends and authors to critique the book before trying to find an editor and publisher.
Time-wise, we're looking at another year to finish the first draft. I've got a lot going on with a wedding or two between now and the end of the year. The important thing is that I'm back working on the novel and every day I discover something new about the characters. It is fun discovering how these people ended up in my dream. The challenge will be to write how the dream ends, because I woke up before it was finished. It might be hard to believe in certain parts, but isn't that how our dreams are?
I've pretty much decided that Sea Tree is going to be a series. There are too many characters that I want to develop to put them all in one novel. The first book in the series will center around three main characters and how they find their way to Sea Tree. I'm taking the title for the first installment from this blog: Journey To Sea Tree.
As you may or may not know, Sea Tree is the product of a dream I had a few years ago. Life got in the way of turning this dream into my first novel. As with anything, if we wait until everything is perfect before starting something, we'll never get anything done. The first 50 pages of Sea Tree were lost when my hard drive crashed, so I started over and am back up to almost that many pages of very rough draft.
What kind of story is Sea Tree? I'm really not sure - and that's been one of the stumbling blocks in writing the novel. I don't want it to be something that is of interest to a narrow market, such as only Christians, or only fantasy fans. In my mind, it's a fantasy romance/action tale. The story deals with good and evil and with relationships. If it's done well Sea Tree should be a success, but it needs a lot of work. I will not be allowing anyone to read the first draft; and my second draft will probably only be read by my fiance and my daughter - two people whom I know will be gentle and not shatter my fragile ego. By the third draft I'll ask a few friends and authors to critique the book before trying to find an editor and publisher.
Time-wise, we're looking at another year to finish the first draft. I've got a lot going on with a wedding or two between now and the end of the year. The important thing is that I'm back working on the novel and every day I discover something new about the characters. It is fun discovering how these people ended up in my dream. The challenge will be to write how the dream ends, because I woke up before it was finished. It might be hard to believe in certain parts, but isn't that how our dreams are?
By the way - don't you love the paintings on the right? They are done by Rod Chase. You really need to see them in person to fully appreciate them. Hope he doesn't mind that I'm decorating my blog with his art. I'll let him sell Sea Tree on his website and keep the profit:).
Forwarded Emails
I got this one today. You might have seen it:
"DID YOU KNOW THESE FACTS?I SURE DIDN'T TILL NOW
Death is certain but the Bible speaks about untimely death!
Make a personal reflection about this..... Very interesting, read until the end.....
It is written in the Bible (Galatians 6:7):
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: For whatsoever a man sow, That shall he also reap."
Here are some men and women Who mocked God :
John Lennon (Singer):
Some years before, during his interview with an American Magazine, he said: "Christianity will end, it will disappear. I do not have to argue about That. I am certain. Jesus was ok, but his subjects were too simple, today we are more famous than Him" (1966).
Lennon, after saying that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, was shot six times.
Tancredo Neves (President of Brazil ):
During the Presidential campaign, he said if he got 500,000 votes from his party, not even God would remove him from Presidency.
Sure he got the votes, but he got sick a day before being made President, then he died.
Cazuza (Bi-sexual Brazilian composer, singer and poet):
During A show in Canecio ( Rio de Janeiro ),
While smoking his cigarette, he puffed out some smoke into the air and said:"God, that's for you."
He died at the age of 32 of LUNG CANCER in a horrible manner.
The man who built the Titanic [no name provided and I don't have time to look him up]
After the construction of Titanic, a reporter asked him how safe the Titanic would be. With an ironic tone he said: "Not even God can sink it"
The result: I think you all know what happened to the Titanic
Marilyn Monroe (Actress)
She was visited by Billy Graham during a presentation of a show. He said the Spirit of God had sent him to preach to her. After hearing what the Preacher had to say, she said: "I don't need your Jesus".
A week later, she was found dead in her apartment
Bon Scott (Singer)
The ex-vocalist of the AC/DC. On one of his 1979 songs he sang: "Don't stop me; I'm going down all the way, down the highway to hell".
On the 19th of February 1980, Bon Scott was found dead, he had been choked by his own vomit.
Campinas (IN 2005)
In Campinas , Brazil a group of friends, drunk, went to pick up a friend..... The mother accompanied her to the car and was so worried about the drunkenness of her friends and she said to the daughter holding her hand, who was already seated in the car: "My Daughter, Go With God And May He Protect You." She responded: "Only If He (God) Travels In The Trunk, Cause Inside Here.....It's Already Full "
Hours later, news came by that they had been involved in a fatal accident, everyone had died, The car could not be recognized what type of car it had been, but surprisingly, the trunk was intact. The police said there was no way the trunk could have remained intact. To their surprise, inside the trunk was a crate of eggs, none was broken
Christine Hewitt (Jamaican Journalist and entertainer) Said the Bible (Word of God) was the worst book ever written. In June 2006 she was found burnt beyond recognition in her motor vehicle.
Many more important people have forgotten that there is no other name that was given so much authority as the name of Jesus. Many have died, but only Jesus died and rose again, and he is still alive.
"Jesus"
PS: If it was a joke, you would have sent it to everyone. So are you going to have courage to send this?. I have done my part, Jesus said "If you are embarrassed about me, I will also be embarrassed about you before my father."
You are my 8 in 8 seconds. I am not breaking this. No way!"
OK, I cleaned up the spacing but left the grammar and punctuation alone. My point is that I get these forwarded emails every day from people who love Jesus but who think that they're not serving Him if they don't forward these emails to everyone on their list - whether the facts have been checked out or not. Forget about whether these people did or said what they are purported to say. I'm focusing on the contradictions in an email such as this: God is an angry God and Christians need to be angry at the world too.
If I have to spend all this time condemning the world, I don't have time to do anything else. Sure, the world is a mess; but who's standards are we judging the world by? As evidenced in this case, we're judging the world through man's interpretation of scripture rather than God's view of the state of mankind. That sounds so much like the Pharisees in scripture; more worried about offending God than getting to know Him.
It's easy to condemn the drunk who drives the wrong way on the inner Beltline and runs head-on into another vehicle, killing three innocent people. If we know that the man was Hispanic and did not have a driver's license, he's double damned. We don't stop at condemning the drunken driver, we condemn the border guards who let him slip through. We condemn the government for not enforcing illegal immigration laws; the police for not apprehending him before he killed someone; the man's father for not loving him or beating him enough. We can go all the way back to Adam and blame him for causing all the troubles we have on Earth. And while we're at it, we can blame God for not stopping that man from getting behind the wheel or for not moving the innocent vehicle out of the way in time. There's plenty of blame to go around.
But have we stopped to consider how God sees this mess of a world? Has anything changed since the time of Adam's fall? Can we really comprehend how God can justify sending His Son to suffer and die on our behalf? Can we comprehend how God loves that drunken driver as much as He does the people who were killed? We certainly don't. Perhaps our problem is that we want a God who is made in our image; one who judges and condemns words, thoughts and deeds that offend us.
What if Jesus really meant it when He said, "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved"? What if instead of a judging God we have a redeeming God? What if we spent as much time focussed on loving people as we do condemning them and let God worry about whether they deserve to be punished for their sins or not? We certainly don't need to accept sin in our lives, but rather than focus on our failures and the sins of others, we focus instead on showing and telling people how much God loves them? How about an email that simply says, "Jesus wants me to tell you that He loves you - and so do I!"
"DID YOU KNOW THESE FACTS?I SURE DIDN'T TILL NOW
Death is certain but the Bible speaks about untimely death!
Make a personal reflection about this..... Very interesting, read until the end.....
It is written in the Bible (Galatians 6:7):
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: For whatsoever a man sow, That shall he also reap."
Here are some men and women Who mocked God :
John Lennon (Singer):
Some years before, during his interview with an American Magazine, he said: "Christianity will end, it will disappear. I do not have to argue about That. I am certain. Jesus was ok, but his subjects were too simple, today we are more famous than Him" (1966).
Lennon, after saying that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, was shot six times.
Tancredo Neves (President of Brazil ):
During the Presidential campaign, he said if he got 500,000 votes from his party, not even God would remove him from Presidency.
Sure he got the votes, but he got sick a day before being made President, then he died.
Cazuza (Bi-sexual Brazilian composer, singer and poet):
During A show in Canecio ( Rio de Janeiro ),
While smoking his cigarette, he puffed out some smoke into the air and said:"God, that's for you."
He died at the age of 32 of LUNG CANCER in a horrible manner.
The man who built the Titanic [no name provided and I don't have time to look him up]
After the construction of Titanic, a reporter asked him how safe the Titanic would be. With an ironic tone he said: "Not even God can sink it"
The result: I think you all know what happened to the Titanic
Marilyn Monroe (Actress)
She was visited by Billy Graham during a presentation of a show. He said the Spirit of God had sent him to preach to her. After hearing what the Preacher had to say, she said: "I don't need your Jesus".
A week later, she was found dead in her apartment
Bon Scott (Singer)
The ex-vocalist of the AC/DC. On one of his 1979 songs he sang: "Don't stop me; I'm going down all the way, down the highway to hell".
On the 19th of February 1980, Bon Scott was found dead, he had been choked by his own vomit.
Campinas (IN 2005)
In Campinas , Brazil a group of friends, drunk, went to pick up a friend..... The mother accompanied her to the car and was so worried about the drunkenness of her friends and she said to the daughter holding her hand, who was already seated in the car: "My Daughter, Go With God And May He Protect You." She responded: "Only If He (God) Travels In The Trunk, Cause Inside Here.....It's Already Full "
Hours later, news came by that they had been involved in a fatal accident, everyone had died, The car could not be recognized what type of car it had been, but surprisingly, the trunk was intact. The police said there was no way the trunk could have remained intact. To their surprise, inside the trunk was a crate of eggs, none was broken
Christine Hewitt (Jamaican Journalist and entertainer) Said the Bible (Word of God) was the worst book ever written. In June 2006 she was found burnt beyond recognition in her motor vehicle.
Many more important people have forgotten that there is no other name that was given so much authority as the name of Jesus. Many have died, but only Jesus died and rose again, and he is still alive.
"Jesus"
PS: If it was a joke, you would have sent it to everyone. So are you going to have courage to send this?. I have done my part, Jesus said "If you are embarrassed about me, I will also be embarrassed about you before my father."
You are my 8 in 8 seconds. I am not breaking this. No way!"
OK, I cleaned up the spacing but left the grammar and punctuation alone. My point is that I get these forwarded emails every day from people who love Jesus but who think that they're not serving Him if they don't forward these emails to everyone on their list - whether the facts have been checked out or not. Forget about whether these people did or said what they are purported to say. I'm focusing on the contradictions in an email such as this: God is an angry God and Christians need to be angry at the world too.
If I have to spend all this time condemning the world, I don't have time to do anything else. Sure, the world is a mess; but who's standards are we judging the world by? As evidenced in this case, we're judging the world through man's interpretation of scripture rather than God's view of the state of mankind. That sounds so much like the Pharisees in scripture; more worried about offending God than getting to know Him.
It's easy to condemn the drunk who drives the wrong way on the inner Beltline and runs head-on into another vehicle, killing three innocent people. If we know that the man was Hispanic and did not have a driver's license, he's double damned. We don't stop at condemning the drunken driver, we condemn the border guards who let him slip through. We condemn the government for not enforcing illegal immigration laws; the police for not apprehending him before he killed someone; the man's father for not loving him or beating him enough. We can go all the way back to Adam and blame him for causing all the troubles we have on Earth. And while we're at it, we can blame God for not stopping that man from getting behind the wheel or for not moving the innocent vehicle out of the way in time. There's plenty of blame to go around.
But have we stopped to consider how God sees this mess of a world? Has anything changed since the time of Adam's fall? Can we really comprehend how God can justify sending His Son to suffer and die on our behalf? Can we comprehend how God loves that drunken driver as much as He does the people who were killed? We certainly don't. Perhaps our problem is that we want a God who is made in our image; one who judges and condemns words, thoughts and deeds that offend us.
What if Jesus really meant it when He said, "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved"? What if instead of a judging God we have a redeeming God? What if we spent as much time focussed on loving people as we do condemning them and let God worry about whether they deserve to be punished for their sins or not? We certainly don't need to accept sin in our lives, but rather than focus on our failures and the sins of others, we focus instead on showing and telling people how much God loves them? How about an email that simply says, "Jesus wants me to tell you that He loves you - and so do I!"
How Many Days Have I Lived?
There's a neat calculator on my Google home page that tells me that I've been alive for 20,703 days. That's 20,703 sunrises and 20,702 sunsets as it's still mid-afternoon when I write this on May 27th, 2008. I suspect that there are about twice that number of bowel movements. Sorry if that's TMI. I'm just one of those guys who likes statistics.
The same calculator tells me that, based on a biblical standard of 3 and a half-score years, I've only got about 4,865 days to go; barring anything stupid that I might do to shorten those days. Less than 5,000 days...less than a quarter of my life remaining.
Today I received in the mail a book titled "One Month To Live: 30 Days to a No-Regrets Life" by Terry and Chris Shook. It's one of about ten books I'm reading simultaneously. It seems the older I get, the more urgent life becomes. I can't remember much of what I've done or didn't do in almost 21,000 days of existence; but there's a need to accomplish something in the time I've got left. Maybe that feeling we get as we age is just God's way of letting us know we've not yet fulfilled our purpose. I certainly hope that I will finish this life accomplishing more than 'living from one tragedy to another', as Jerry Falwell once observed as the meaning of life. And I suspect that God has a different view than Jerry did. As much as I embarrass and frustrate Him, I know that He finds joy in the way I've grown older. For 20,703 days He's supplied my every need, answered countless prayers, withheld His wrath countless times, and given me new dreams to replace those I let slip away.
I am presently on a high plateau in my life. I'm engaged, in love (the love came first), I have renewed hope for the future: it's just a more positive outlook than I had a year ago. Unfortunately, those 4,865 remaining days seems awful short now. How do I cram into those days everything I want to accomplish and still be the husband, the father, the employee, the friend, and the author that I want to be?
In The Shack, written by William P Young, Jesus tells the character that man lives mostly in the past; and when we do think about the future, there's usually fear involved because of our experiences in our past. But God is not a past tense or future tense God; He is a God of Now, a living, relevant, life altering God who wants to spend time with us in the Present. Jesus told the man in The Shack that His desire was not for the man to be like Jesus, but for Him to live through the man.
Before I die, in the 4,865 days more or less that I have remaining, I want to walk on water with Jesus. I want to talk to Him from a mountain top. I want the Holy Spirit to lift me up and let me fly wherever the wind takes me. In my dreams I often am able to fly; that would be cool to get to the place where I'm living in the present and that God is living through me. Perhaps eternity is really living in the Present with, not the presence of, Christ.
The same calculator tells me that, based on a biblical standard of 3 and a half-score years, I've only got about 4,865 days to go; barring anything stupid that I might do to shorten those days. Less than 5,000 days...less than a quarter of my life remaining.
Today I received in the mail a book titled "One Month To Live: 30 Days to a No-Regrets Life" by Terry and Chris Shook. It's one of about ten books I'm reading simultaneously. It seems the older I get, the more urgent life becomes. I can't remember much of what I've done or didn't do in almost 21,000 days of existence; but there's a need to accomplish something in the time I've got left. Maybe that feeling we get as we age is just God's way of letting us know we've not yet fulfilled our purpose. I certainly hope that I will finish this life accomplishing more than 'living from one tragedy to another', as Jerry Falwell once observed as the meaning of life. And I suspect that God has a different view than Jerry did. As much as I embarrass and frustrate Him, I know that He finds joy in the way I've grown older. For 20,703 days He's supplied my every need, answered countless prayers, withheld His wrath countless times, and given me new dreams to replace those I let slip away.
I am presently on a high plateau in my life. I'm engaged, in love (the love came first), I have renewed hope for the future: it's just a more positive outlook than I had a year ago. Unfortunately, those 4,865 remaining days seems awful short now. How do I cram into those days everything I want to accomplish and still be the husband, the father, the employee, the friend, and the author that I want to be?
In The Shack, written by William P Young, Jesus tells the character that man lives mostly in the past; and when we do think about the future, there's usually fear involved because of our experiences in our past. But God is not a past tense or future tense God; He is a God of Now, a living, relevant, life altering God who wants to spend time with us in the Present. Jesus told the man in The Shack that His desire was not for the man to be like Jesus, but for Him to live through the man.
Before I die, in the 4,865 days more or less that I have remaining, I want to walk on water with Jesus. I want to talk to Him from a mountain top. I want the Holy Spirit to lift me up and let me fly wherever the wind takes me. In my dreams I often am able to fly; that would be cool to get to the place where I'm living in the present and that God is living through me. Perhaps eternity is really living in the Present with, not the presence of, Christ.
Promising Vaccine Prevents Alzheimer's in Mice
An article posted in the May issue of Molecular Therapy, the journal of the American Society of Gene Therapy is optimistic they're on the right track towards curing Alzheimers disease. My aunt had Alzheimers: she couldn't remember what she ate or how long ago. She couldn't remember how to button her blouse; but she could remember her wedding day and events from her childhood just as though they were happening right then. Alzheimer's truly is a cruel disease and a cure is needed, however sometimes the way science goes about finding the cure doesn't make a lot of sense; but what do I know - I skipped science in school.
When I see articles such as this one, I have a few questions. First of all, I didn't know mice had Alzheimer's. And if they do, do mice call it by that name, or do they call it something like Mickielucus or Minniejitis or Jerriatrics? My next question would be, "How does one tell if a rat can't remember something? Did they get lost in a maze and just sit down and zone out? As a fiscal conservative, I'm wondering why we're wasting money trying to keep rodents from getting old and forgetting stuff. Do we need them to remember where they hid the cheese or which holes will get them back into my house? I'd rather invest money in exterminating mice, not medicating them.
The article said that the mice who received the vaccine were genetically engineered to express large amounts of amyloid beta protein. So science can't cure Alzheimer's but it can reproduce it; sounds like what Lucifer did when he tried to improve on the Creator's design. Reading deeper into the article, scientists from the University of Rochester Medical Center used a herpes virus stripped of the viral genes to create the vaccine. That's just what I need, to get herpes and not have the pleasure of remembering how I got it.
Give me Dr. Victor Frankenstein. He didn't waste money on lab rats. If he needed to transplant an arm or a leg, he'd go dig one up and sew it on his patient. If he needed a brain, he'd go over to the local community college and whack a professor and shove his brain inside his patient's skull. If his patient had a bad ticker, he'd hook him up to a big ol' defribrilator and zap him with a few million volts. Frankenstein was more concerned with function than with form. His patient could always go to a plastic surgeon once the parts were all in place.
The article says that it will be several years before this vaccine is safe to use on humans. By then science will have discovered even more clues into how our complex bodies perform. Maybe they'll be able to tell me why my feet smell and my nose runs and, miracle of miracles, they'll come up with a blue pill that will make my weenie bigger all the time instead of just four hours - if I'm lucky!
When I see articles such as this one, I have a few questions. First of all, I didn't know mice had Alzheimer's. And if they do, do mice call it by that name, or do they call it something like Mickielucus or Minniejitis or Jerriatrics? My next question would be, "How does one tell if a rat can't remember something? Did they get lost in a maze and just sit down and zone out? As a fiscal conservative, I'm wondering why we're wasting money trying to keep rodents from getting old and forgetting stuff. Do we need them to remember where they hid the cheese or which holes will get them back into my house? I'd rather invest money in exterminating mice, not medicating them.
The article said that the mice who received the vaccine were genetically engineered to express large amounts of amyloid beta protein. So science can't cure Alzheimer's but it can reproduce it; sounds like what Lucifer did when he tried to improve on the Creator's design. Reading deeper into the article, scientists from the University of Rochester Medical Center used a herpes virus stripped of the viral genes to create the vaccine. That's just what I need, to get herpes and not have the pleasure of remembering how I got it.
Give me Dr. Victor Frankenstein. He didn't waste money on lab rats. If he needed to transplant an arm or a leg, he'd go dig one up and sew it on his patient. If he needed a brain, he'd go over to the local community college and whack a professor and shove his brain inside his patient's skull. If his patient had a bad ticker, he'd hook him up to a big ol' defribrilator and zap him with a few million volts. Frankenstein was more concerned with function than with form. His patient could always go to a plastic surgeon once the parts were all in place.
The article says that it will be several years before this vaccine is safe to use on humans. By then science will have discovered even more clues into how our complex bodies perform. Maybe they'll be able to tell me why my feet smell and my nose runs and, miracle of miracles, they'll come up with a blue pill that will make my weenie bigger all the time instead of just four hours - if I'm lucky!
We've Set a Date
My fiance and I have set a date for our wedding. Whoo-hoo! Aren't you just as excited as we are? Actually we're both amazed at all that God has done in the past year or so to bring us together. There have been too many coincidences for us getting to this point to be coincidental. We have goals and dreams like any other couple, but we also have a sense of peace that we're really meant for each other and that there is a purpose and a plan for us as a couple.
Sure, every couple feels this way in the beginning. But this isn't our first time walking down an aisle. For me it's going to be the fourth and fifth times. We're getting married out in Nebraska on November 2nd, and then we're coming to North Carolina to marry a week later. (Jimmy if you're reading this, please book November 9th to marry us).
For those who know us, you can expect us to change; we won't be the same person you know now. We'll be better, because we're going to be much happier together than we've been single. We're going to make decisions not for us as individuals, but as a couple. Where we go, what we do, how we get there - that's something we'll decide together and depend on God to guide us and keep us from getting into trouble.
My daughter and I have been blessed in the past to have been welcomed into the homes of my church family. In the future, Pam and I can invite friends and family into our home so that we can bless you. The changes that are happening may not be apparent right now, but in a year or two you're going to look back and see us in a new light. We feel it happening in us now. Just wanted you to know so you're not surprised. It's a positive change, and we're very excited about our future together.
I write this here because I hope you'll keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We don't need wedding gifts or receptions or parties to mark our official union. All we're asking is that our friends and family be happy for us. God will take care of the rest.
Sure, every couple feels this way in the beginning. But this isn't our first time walking down an aisle. For me it's going to be the fourth and fifth times. We're getting married out in Nebraska on November 2nd, and then we're coming to North Carolina to marry a week later. (Jimmy if you're reading this, please book November 9th to marry us).
For those who know us, you can expect us to change; we won't be the same person you know now. We'll be better, because we're going to be much happier together than we've been single. We're going to make decisions not for us as individuals, but as a couple. Where we go, what we do, how we get there - that's something we'll decide together and depend on God to guide us and keep us from getting into trouble.
My daughter and I have been blessed in the past to have been welcomed into the homes of my church family. In the future, Pam and I can invite friends and family into our home so that we can bless you. The changes that are happening may not be apparent right now, but in a year or two you're going to look back and see us in a new light. We feel it happening in us now. Just wanted you to know so you're not surprised. It's a positive change, and we're very excited about our future together.
I write this here because I hope you'll keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We don't need wedding gifts or receptions or parties to mark our official union. All we're asking is that our friends and family be happy for us. God will take care of the rest.
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