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Battle with the Worms

Sorry this is so late today.  Busy morning after the great radio show last night.

Those big nasty horn-worms have invaded my tomato plants.  Yes, the eat everything in sight.  I have already purged 7 or 8 and found the evidence of another one this morning.  So I will be spending the next few days tracking this guy down.

This is so much like our spiritual lives. Sometimes we get those bad habits, or continual sins eat away at our ability to produce fruit.  We need to continually use the power of the spirit to remove those sins from our lives – to remove those big nasty worms that disguise themselves as an important part of our lives, but led to destruction if we leave them alone.

So take a look today at your lives and see if you you need to cut off and destroy some worms.

 13Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. 14Do everything in love. 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 (New International Version)

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On The Radio

Over the last few weeks I have been writing a lot about taking risks.  Mostly about other people taking risks, and stepping out of their comfort zone.  It’s so much more comfortable to talk about others who are not.  That’s all changing today.  Tonight, I am taking this writing party to the air waves.  I am been asked to be a guest on a radio show about parenting.  Now, I know that I have been giving my jaw muscles quite a lot of training over the last few years as I spend almost all day talking into the phone on conference calls, but for some reason these seems so different.  Plus the subject is parenting – a subject I don’t claim to be an expert in, more like a fly by the seat of your pants learner.   I really hope that the poor grammar that shows up in my writing does not make it to the airwaves!

I find myself a little excited about the challenge.  It’s a chance for personal growth and an opportunity to reach out and impact other people – hopefully in a positive way! However, I am really anxious about leaving my comfort zone.  So here is a little encouragement from Paul, that should help us all make it through the day.

1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Philippians 2:1-3 (New International Version)

13I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13 (New International Version)

And I hope that you are all encouraged and motivated to step out in some way today as well!

Be Salty

If you want to listen, which I don’t really don’t know why I am telling you, nor why you would want to, the show is Jed’s Chewin’ the Chat on 102.3FM from 7-8pm.  Also, you may be able to stream it at wgow.com

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Sick of Sweating!

I am not usually one to complain, but this heat is finally getting to me.  It’s not really the heat, its the humidity.  No, its not that is just that I am so tired of being covered with sweat – I mean soaking sweat, every time I walk outside.   On Saturday I was searching for a tool in my garage and when I was finished I had to change shirts.  And this was just standing and looking through some tool boxes.  ( I know that is pretty gross).  And I am usually not much of a sweater, not at all like the guy in my small group, apparently he sweats rivers.

And the thirst.  I can’t drink enough.  Its pretty amazing that my weight is actually staying close to the same, as on Saturday at my nephew’s birthday party I felt like I sweated out 10 pounds.  There was not enough sweet tea in the joint to keep me hydrated.  What a blessing it is to have such a great clean water system that makes it so easy to hydrate during the hot summer months like this.  Even when I am the most uncomfortable, I can still head inside and get a nice cold glass of water and I usually have a shirt that I can change into.  That’s so nice that it almost makes you think you can handle anything.  However, even with that blessing there is still a water that is better.  Its the water that your spirit thirsts for, and unlike the water we drink, it can really quench your thirst.  Listen to this exchange at the Jacob’s well.

Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”

13Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:6-14 (New International Version)

Wow, what a great promise.  The contentment of having no thirst – mean I think means no sweating!  That’s a great peaceful promise.  A constant source of spiritual refreshment.  A well to to eternal life.  That seems the right place to be.  And then look what Jesus says later in John.

35Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.  John 6:35

Its by belief you can get that living water, and you can be constantly refreshed.  That’s something to consider on this extra hot August days.  Is your spirit thirsty?

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Straight Day

Here in America where we use the middle endian date format, today is a straight.  Well, a small straight, 8-9-10.  Just to go with that fun calendar theme, that doesn’t happen very often, I decided to just gamble a little with my verse of the day. So I headed over to the 8th book of the New Testament, the 9th chapter and the 10 verse to see what I would fine.  ( I know pretty risky right!)
And look what I found there:

10Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness 2 Corinthians 9:10 (New International Version)

The message looked pretty interested, so it was probably worth stepping back for some context:

8-11God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it,

He throws caution to the winds,
giving to the needy in reckless abandon.
His right-living, right-giving ways
never run out, never wear out.
This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God. (2 Corinthians 9:10, The Message)

Wow, God is promising that he will give to you in abundance grace and mercy, that you will ready to serve and give to others.  It’s a great promise, and provides a great deal of strength to tackle anything that is in front of you.

Take the gamble today, and give away what you have been given.  Watch how it will grow!

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Hidden Treasures

Last night I was scrambling to finish up all the items on my “spousal” classroom readiness checklist. ( for all of you who are not the spouse of a teacher, this is all the items that you are blessed with the chance to help prepare for the new school year)  I convinced Amy to head out to Lowes with me to pick out exactly what she wanted me to put as a veneer on the back of her new school desk.

Big Mistake.

Don’t you love how your wives “save” you money? So we left with a buggy full, but nothing that was on our list!   But seriously, it was so fun to watch how excited she was getting as she uncovered storage options, area rugs, and little people chairs for her classroom.  Her excitement about “how cute” it was going to make her room turned what was to be a very business like trip to the hardware store into a great memory.  Maybe I need to take her to Lowes with me more often.  It definitely makes it more fun then the normal drudgery.

And of course, I can tied anything to our daily life.  I am already dreading the trip to Lowes(work) that I have to make today – hours of business like discussions.  What we have to be careful to keep in check in walking right past the simple items that make the whole day worthwhile.  They are there.  So don’t be so focused so much on the plain old brown piece of paneling, that you walk right by the watermelon umbrella. (kid sized of course!)

24 This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it. Ps 118:24