August 15

Hello bloggers, that is, if I have any bloggers now after such a long absence. May 20 was my last entry. I don't promise to do better, because I am a bit random in my living patterns. I now have some things I want to say and since I have a blog I will write.

I hope you have had a good summer and more importantly that you have sensed the Lord enjoying it with you. Tal and I were blessed to be part of a group helping to rebuild homes after the tornadoes ripped through some unsuspecting parts of our country. I attended a gathering where five Christian leaders working in the Middle Eastern countries had come to share what Christ is doing in the midst of violence and deprivation. I was convicted and have continued to be disturbed by the average American's concepts of what Christ has called us to and our half-hearted deovtion to our Lord. Are we really New Testament saints? Will the sons/daughters of the Kigdom of God be able to stand up when the shaking becomes violent in America?

Do we really want God to show up in visible ways, or would his appearance disrupt our plans and challange our motives? Do we really want to live our lives, even the moments we think are secret, in God's presence? "Walk before me in whole-hearted devotion." Gen. 17:1-2 "Don't lean on your own understanding. In all your WAYS acknowledge me. I will direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

Have you set yourselves to be God's man/woman, to be free of the contamination of the world's ways and dreams and pursuits, so you can be available for Kingdom expression? Do you delight to sing and dance before the Lord in your secret place to his great delight, or is more time spent delighting in the pleasures of television, Netflex, and other activities that tie your emotions to the lusts & fear that drives this troubled, collapsing world system? "Oh God, You are my God. I shall seek You earnestly. My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water." Ps. 63:1

Is affectionate love being directed toward God in my thoughts, all day long? "Pray without ceasing". Do I live in the awareness that God is right here and available and is the most intelligent person I know? And He is for me and not against me. Does the peace of God guard my heart? If not, am I willing to let this world go, so that I can do what Jesus did to enjoy the relationship he enjoyed with the Father and do the things he did in our world, for the same reasons he did them?

Thomas Kelly has put it this way. "This life, this abiding, enduring peace that never fails, this serene power and unhurried conquest, inward conquest over ourselves, outward conquest over the world, is meant to be ours. It is life that is freed from strain and anxiety and hurry; for something of the Cosmic Patience of God becomes ours."