HAPPY NEW YEAR! January 1, 2006

I hope everyone has had a good one thus far. Doyle and I were home bodies last night and brought the New Year in quietly.

My Mom left for home this morning. I enjoyed her being hear. She said she had a wonderful time. I sure hope so. I felt like I was a grump most of the time but it wasn’t her. Just where I am right now I think.

 Yesterday was full. I got up and went to the church to help set up to feed a family for lunch after a funeral. One of our members was diagnosed with liver cancer a few months ago. She died two days after Christmas. A real bummer. We were all praying and believing for her healing. I know she is healed now but I know a few of us were really believing God for a miracle. Her oldest is expecting her first grandchild next month. I am thankful she made it through Christmas. She had gotten real sick and almost died a week before. The funeral was yesterday so our church had lunch for them. After I did my part I went to the scrapbook store to crop. I was struggling a little bit with feeling guilty for not staying to help serve lunch and clean up. Originally the funeral was supposed to be on Friday but some of the family had to come from Illinois and couldn’t be here that soon so they moved the funeral back one day. I had been looking forward to cropping all week. My friend Kelly was manning the store for Cat who had a wedding to go to. Kelly and I were the only ones cropping. That was kind of fun to have the whole crop area to ourselves. Unfortunately, I didn’t get very much done. Only two pages. As usual I had a hard time getting started. My Mom came and just visited with us while we cropped. We closed up shop at 4pm.

Came home and just “hung out”. We were supposed to go back to the church around 7:15 to help take down Christmas decorations. So we all pile in Doyle’s truck and head to the church. The youth were having a New Year’s Eve Bash and there was a parking lot full of teenagers skate boarding in front of the church. We go inside and discover the decorations were already down. Guess there were enough people there from the lunch that they went ahead and took everything down. We pile back in the truck and Mom offers to buy supper if we say where we want to eat. Well, the only restaurants open were either Mexican or Italian. I wanted Italian so headed for my friend Nancy’s restaurant. We get close and can tell they are swamped. We got close enough to tell there were people standing in line waiting to be seated. We decide to just go home. I fixed macaroni and cheese (homemade with velveeta cheese and milk), polish sausage, English peas, salad and hot rolls. Pretty good even if I say so myself! We watched TV for the rest of the evening.

After Doyle had bought me and himself new computers he mentioned to me he would like to give his old computer to my friend Kelly and her husband. Their finances are really tight. They were planning to take money from their tax refund and try to get a new computer. It was very much God that we give them the computer. They were so blessed by it. We had them over for lunch today after church so they could take it home. We had a really good visit. It was kind of funny that they had it in their minds to invite us over for dinner when we asked them!

Well, Mineral Wells, has been hit hard by a grass fire today. Just south of our local Municipal airport.  It started just west of our airport. The wind is blowing  15 to 32 MPH with 12% humidity and 82 for the high! So this fire traveled fast and burned very hot. We have lost some homes and other structures but don’t know the extinct yet of the damage. We made the Fort Worth news. Fireworks were banned from our area and yet when Doyle and I went to bed last night we heard lots of fireworks going off. People are idiots or have no respect for authority or other people. All it takes is a spark to create a massive fire! I ask that you would pray for the state of Texas for rain. A heavy saturating rain! Already many acres have been burned and many country people have lost hay that was stored to feed livestock this winter!

I finished reading “The God Chasers” this morning. This is a very challenging book. It stirs something in you if you hunger for more than you’ve already experienced or are tired of church the way you know it. I may go back and read again. I know I definitely want to spend some time meditating on certain things that I have underlined or highlighted that touched me when I read them. Here are some excerpts that caught my attention this morning.

          God wants us to press in for His secret things. He loves to honor the prayers of persistent pursuers like Moses, but He will actually stop our attempts to build monuments to partial and incomplete revelations of His glory – especially ones that we never paid for with our prayers and death on the altar of brokenness. We like things to come quickly easily and cheaply – microwave revival. God knows that such things never produce godly character in us.

           “The more I die, the closer God gets.” I don’t know how much of God you know or have, but He will reveal more of Himself to you if you are willing to die to yourself.

          Are you avoiding death (not literal death, what we want) and running from the altar of sacrifice that God has placed before you? (Don’t worry, it is true of all of us.” The greatest blessing doesn’t come from God’s hand; it comes from His face in intimate relationship. You find the true source of all power when you finally see Him and know Him in His glory.

          Your flesh holds back the glory of God. The God of Moses is willing to reveal Himself to you today, but it is not going to be a “cheap” blessing. You’re going to have to lay down and die, and the more you die, the closer He can come.

          You need to forget about the opinions and expectations of those around you. You need to lay aside every idea of what the “normal religious protocol” may be. God isn’t looking for religious people; He’s looking for people who are hot after His heart. He wants people who want Him, who want the Blesser more than the blessings.

          Will we dare to draw close to His glory?

          We can take the risk of something dying in us as we dare to draw close to His glory, or we can turn and run back to our traditions of men and the safety of religious legalism and man-operated church services.

Salvation is a free gift, but God’s glory will cost us everything. He wants us to press in and live in His perpetual habitation of glory. He wants us to be so saturated with His presence and glory that we carry His presence with us everywhere we go in this life.

          Father, I don’t just want the blessings; I want You. We want You to come close. Touch my eyes. Touch my heart and ears. Change me Lord. I am tired of the way I am. I understand that if I can change, then my city and nation can change. (This is a prayer in the book that I personalize as that is the cry of my heart.)

May 2006 be a year of new beginnings for you and your families.