God scares me

JEREMIAH 13:14
And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together,” says the Lord. “I will not pity nor spare nor have mercy, but will destroy them.”

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Just been reading the Old Testament again. God in His righteous anger, is a terrible and awesome presence. Think about the above verse - we've seen ruthless military operations where there isn't any mercy, but God in His righteous anger lumps whole families together. That's just heavy. BUT, I find it encouraging because what I should have been accountable to, in my sin and failure God was no-holds bar on our Savior.

Jesus died in our stead that we might have life. NO MATTER where we come from, or what we've done: there is mercy with God under the cross.

Our God is TRULY an awesome God.

http://www.rachelrathburn.blogspot.com

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Check the above blog, of a friend, and great meditator on God's things. Rachel, is moving to Chile, and I thought to myself : that is faith. Throwing caution to the wind on a comfortable life in San Luis Obispo and going to serve little children in a country where no sane educated woman should be going - unless you're reckless by Grace.

Who says life has to be boring?

Recently Franklin Covey.com had a quote that went something like this: "Success is not the measure of accomplishments and awards, but it is the ability of self-mastery." In the case of my friend Rachel, it's God's hold on you.

I'll be reading your blog Rachel!

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Democracy of Death

There isn't any equal rights in this life. We all don't have the same talent, the same education, or the same opportunity. But we all do have the SAME amount of time.

We also like to control time, and in the process - we waste it by saying, "I'll get to that tomorrow, or do that tomorrow." There is certainly something within us to distort, or lie to ourselves that we are IN CONTROL. We're not. When time passes, we face the most democratic stroke of humanity: death.

Death doesn't care if you're rich, or poor. Black or white. Republican or Democratic. If you say 'tomatoe' as with 'to-maa-tow' or 'to-may-toe' death will touch you regardless. Death is democratic. Nothing like death to stare you in the face and make you wonder what this life is about. All of sudden, your priorities are not so important.

For one Swedish woman, at her memorial, it was a high-noon stare down.

Death, you have no claim upon me.

Death blinked. Another soul slipped through the hands of death and right into the presence of Christ. Yes, the memorial service that I was at - this lady had all these hymns she wanted us to sing. Songs about victory, songs about a beautiful place called heaven, and this wonderful place where dreams are no longer broken or taken away because God is there.

Death blinked, because Christ 'stared' him down at the high noon showdown.

It wasn't even a contest.

I take comfort in that - I will be smacking on Swedish meatballs and pickled herring with a remarkable lady who had the faith, and courage to pass that on to my future wife.

Thanks be to God...there is hope beyond the grave.

Save a place for me V, we'll smack on meatballs and herring.

The Brevity and Preciousness of Life

July 16, 2006 -

Several moments of life transpired today.

• Michele's brother's daughter was baptized today
• One of her cousins had a baby shower today
• Genevie, Michele's grandmother died today suddenly

It was a shock, like any other - no one expected Michele's grandmother to pass away, but now with my Michele grieving alone, and wanting some time alone, I write sobered by today's events. We were suppose to go to Michele's niece's baptism, instead we spend the day in vigil, and comforting family members.

I was at the hospital, and the immediate family was there. I firmly believe in being proactive with a patient in bed, and started to tell Michele's grandmother stories that made her laugh. Then I remembered her grandmother use to sing the old hymns, and started to sing a few, and among them, HOW GREAT THOU ART, and MY JESUS I LOVED THEE. In moments of seeing tears running down from Michele's father's eyes broken by the failing health of her mother, I turned once more to my faith, my songs and Christ Himself. And in the process, of that singing, I couldn't help but think that morning, this is how you want to send someone before the Lord. I was the lone singer, but I was there for a reason, and the only thing I could do was tell stories, and engage Genevie's heart and mind.

Later that afternoon, Genevie passed away suddenly. I was asked by the family to comfort Genevie's husband. I arrived at the resting home, and tried my best. I interviewed Dale about how they met, and how their relationship was. It was good, I had a time to remind him of the verse that Christ holds the keys of death. In God's grace I was able to see the preciousness of Christ and the fact I could share Him during this difficult time.

In times of grief, most people freeze, or attempt words of comfort that appears so trite. People mean well, but grief is so un-natural. I saw for the first time for myself the call of a Christian is to embrace realities of death, and face it to comfort others. You cannot sit there and say nothing. What is our Christian faith if we cannot pour the balm of comfort?

My thoughts of this event: It's so easy to jump on the circus wheel of life and go for a spin, but I saw the brevity and preciousness of life in the hospital room and in the silence tears of aching hearts. That's where life begins because death in his darkness, amplifies the light of life. It strips man of his hope and leaves him facing eternity, and mortality. It reminded me of the preciousness of Christ and His promise: I AM the resurrection and the LIFE. Christ doesn't seem to mean alot when the circus wheel spin, but you see Life in a totally different manner when death comes. It has a cruel way of making reality clear. No shadows or mirages.

Death has a habit of giving pause to the mind and soul.


Thank God for the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.


Prayer requests
• Pray for the comfort and strength of the family
• Pray for Craig, Michele's dad who is the only child and taking this hard
• Pray for the memorial service this Wednesday afternoon

Ultimate Fighting and Wedding Plans

What's with the above pictures? Believe it not, it's from the UFC's welterweight champion Matt Hughes website. Yep, it's the picture that got Matt thinking about his life, and looking at the picture Matt said he knew he was one of the people in the water. I thought it's a good picture of Christians maybe living life as normal, and not realizing people are going to hell on a daily basis. It made me think and raises that thought provoking question, "Who cares?"

Food for thought.

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Well, a few good things. One of them is this link to get some good deals: http://dealmac.com/

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Michele and I went looking for a place with Michele's mom for the wedding. We stopped at a few places and afterwards Michele's mom told me, after I was trying to drum up some design business, "You realize you're not responsible for the wedding costs?". I shrugged my shoulders, "Well, it's not this is my sixth time around." jokingly.

At one point walking out of a beautiful ballroom I looked over to MIchele and whispered, "Seem all kind of surreal doesn't it?".
She nodded.

I'm glad we're doing it early because wedding takes time. Our guest list is approaching 230. My invites are 30 and that's about it. California is a long way to travel for a wedding, but I do know, I want to make it worthwhile for my guests. It's going to be great. We're aiming for good food.

My sister Doris was gracious and generous to send us off to Italy for our honeymoon. Cannot beat that. Much love sis.


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Devotions. Michele and i made a commitment to keep our Sundays open for rest, and recreation. We began a word for word study in the scriptures as a couple. We had a great time...so much fun together we almost missed lunch. My commitment to Michele is to be a spiritual leader. Life ain't going to fly too well if I'm not a bread winner, I owe it to my future wife to care for her spiritually like Christ does.

There's isn't any qualms from God that I need to keep my focus - it's not just about me...it's about another soul that i need to care for. What a joy, responsibilty and privilege.

DOING THINGS BACKWARD

Well, IT HAS been interesting. Life is interesting.

In the time I've been here -

...dropped some money on new furniture, and living expense. Which in the schemes of things is not all that bad. California is sooo much more expensive than Illinois. My rent for a 1200 sq ft apartment is $550.00 and homes are about $150,000 here. Food is relatively inexpensive and so is gas.

...supported Michele after her grandmother was rushed to the emergency. Doctors find a hole in her appendix. That's never good, and the prognosis was bad at first, but for 83, she impressed me. It's really the prayers of soooo many people.

...Michele's parents came over for dinner, and I just sensed there was so much bad news, I decided to make it fun. I asked Michele's dad for permission of their daughter in marriage. Dad gave me a hug...I guess that means it went well. :OP
We asked Michele's ma to plan the wedding. She squealed with delight.

...as a cheer-u up event, we're taking Michele's grandpa out for ring shopping. He use to be a jewel buyer and we thought it would cheer him up since his wife is not there.

...weather has been SLO-like. Not a drop of humidity this week. I am blessed! Michele and I went to the 4th of July fireworks show and let me tell you- everyone and their mama came out. LITERALLY. Awesome show. Made me very thankful for the good old USA!