Prayer Request - Pass It On

God heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars ; He gives names to all of them. Great is our Lord and abundant in strength ; His understanding is infinite .
Psalm 147:3-5

Prayer Request

I have not posted for quite some time now but feel compelled to do so at this time. Most folks would not post a prayer request, but I think this is one worth posting. Please pray for Victor Rodriguez. He is a former student of mine who graduated from Victory Christian School (Carmichael, CA) in 2006. My middle son and Victor were classmates until we moved in 2004. They remain friends today.

Victor was one of the good guys in school. He had a good, easy-going personality. He wanted to do right, and I remember his great love for baseball. I write in the past tense only because that’s what I knew him to be back then. My understanding is that he hasn’t changed much over the years. Good for you, Victor.

Victor married Crystal Andrews recently and headed to the Bahamas for their honeymoon. On June 16th (the 12th day of their marriage and the last day of the trip), the couple went parasailing. Tragically, the harness broke and the couple fell 40-50’. Victor awoke in ICU to the news that his bride had not survived the fall.

I know that God is good all the time; all the time God is good, but the human tragedy still breaks my heart. Victor has rough days ahead. Pray for the families and for Victor’s continued physical, emotional, and spiritual recovery. Please send this post to your family and friends.

Thanks for reading and praying.
MM

http://www.tribune242.com/06172011_EP-GB-parasailing_news_pg1

 Grace Walk: What You've Always Wanted in the Christian Life
Finishing Strong: Going the Distance for Your Family

Born without a father?

On June 19, 2011, a young girl will experience her first Father’s Day without her dad. On June 7, eleven days before, this girl came into the world just hours after her father left it.

I remember my first Father’s Day without my dad. It was as hard as I imagined it would be, about 3 ½ months after he died. I was away from home on vacation, and in the teen group at the church I visited, the leader asked for all of us who “have a godly dad at your home” to raise our hands (why he did this, I do not know, but I could tell he regretted it after three of eight kids didn't respond). With two other visitors, I sat there wondering if I qualified because technically, my godly dad wasn't in my home.

This young girl in NY probably won’t have to worry about explaining things to people for a while. She won’t have to deal with the shock of death when she's a child, or the realization that life is really hard before she’s old enough to understand how to deal with it.

In some ways, I envy her ignorance and inexperience in life. It’s easy for us to wish things had never happened, to wish we had never had to experience something and feel the pain so many people around us haven’t known. It’s easy to believe that life would be so much better if we didn't have the burden of grief to carry with us. If only, like her, we were blissfully ignorant to how deeply painful loss is. Sometimes I wonder, maybe it wouldn't be so hard not to have a father if I hadn't had one and lost him.

But I know that this girl in NY will grow up and feel just the opposite. With absolutely no memories of her dad, she will spend a lot of time wishing he were there, wondering what life could have been. She will believe that, if her dad had to die, she would be willing to endure any kind of grief later in life if only she had a few more years with him.

And that is where she will envy a person like me, who had fourteen more years of Father’s Days' with a father than she will ever have. While I’m jealous that she won’t have to know the pain of having and losing a father, she will wish she had a father to lose in the first place.

Isn't this how we spend our emotional energy sometimes? Whether it's about a job, a friend, a relationship, or something as great as death, how much time do we waste wondering what could have happened, thinking our lives could be better, wondering if God got something wrong.

Coauthoring with God

I wouldn’t say I’m a control freak; but I do like to know where I’m going and how I am getting there. That’s not necessarily a bad thing either. It’s great to have a goal and game plan! As the saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” You probably do the same thing, right?

You may love carrying around your day planner or checking items off that seemingly endless checklist. But do you have a life planner? It’s probably an unwritten story of how your life is supposed to go. You may have it rather detailed down to the house number and street you plan on living at when you retire, or the when and how you will meet that special someone that you have pictured perfectly ever since you realized that boys and girls do NOT have cooties.

We all have these desires (hopefully less detailed!) in us. We think we have the greatest happily-ever-after story lined up for our lives. But how quickly things diverge from our plan. We try to orchestrate it back in to place, but it just doesn’t seem to fit into place. We realize, we are out of control.

"But God": the most powerful words ever used. But God is in control. In fact, He is better than just “in control”. God is a loving, good God that has remarkably beautiful plans for His children who let Him lead. But that’s where the problem lies, isn’t it? We don’t let Him. We are so busy whispering in his ear or maybe even shouting in His face how our life is meant to be. We take the pen from His caring hand and begin to “make a few adjustments” to the story line. We live in fear that our Father either does not have TOTAL control or that He is not good. We buy into Satan’s lies.

My Hope is in You

Psalm 39:1-8

ESV

I said, "I will guard my ways,
   that I may not sin with my tongue;
I will guard my mouth with a muzzle,
   so long as the wicked are in my presence."
I was mute and silent;
   I held my peace to no avail,and my distress grew worse.
 My heart became hot within me.

As I mused, the fire burned;
   then I spoke with my tongue:

 "O LORD, make me know my end

   and what is the measure of my days;

   let me know how fleeting I am!

Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths,

   and my lifetime is as nothing before you.

Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!

                         Selah

 Surely a man goes about as a shadow! 

Surely for nothing they are in turmoil;    

man heaps up wealth without knowing whose it will be in the end!

 "And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?

    My hope is in you.

Deliver me from all my transgressions.

    Do not make me the scorn of the fool!"

Trust and Obey

Sometimes, it can be difficult to trust someone with something that I wish I had control over.  Even if it's someone who is worthy of my trust, it is still hard to accept that I will be without power in the situation. Unfortunately, although God is worthy of my trust (as a mere human) in every aspect and every situation, I often don't give it to Him.  I doubt Him, whether deliberately or not. Ultimately, I am challenging His authority (Isaiah 55:9) and questioning His faithfulness (Deuteronomy 32:4). 


Also, it can be difficult to submit to someone else's control over me.  Obedience can be a hard thing to do, because I don't like to admit that I am subordinate to someone else, therefore acknowledging that they are in a higher position than I.  Again, this is often our attitude toward God, although He is completely worthy of our obeying and honoring Him in His omniscience and omnipotence. 


However, if I stop to think about it, trusting and obeying actually do go hand-in-hand.  Obedience with trust-- It's action in waiting.


I can't truly do one without the other.  God has called us to action (Philippians 2:12-13), to obedience, not to just sit around pray that His work would be done. We  are the ones He uses to accomplish His work!
On the other hand, we can't just go out and do whatever we think needs to be done, either.  We are to prayerfully seek out the Lord's will first, and then to do what He has called us (2 Timothy 1:9) to do, trusting that He will go before us (Deuteronomy 1:30) and give us His power (2 Corinthians 12:9) to accomplish His plan.


If we are consistently and sincerely seeking God's will and obeying what He has revealed to us, how is it that we cannot trust Him with what is yet to be revealed?  If we can trust Him with the unknown, how can we do anything but obey what we know He wants us to do?

Hide Away

Do you ever feel like giving up as a Christian? 

You fail over and over with the same things. Discouragement continues to knock at your heart. Your flesh seems to win more often than not. 

Then you may realize, unlike other earthly things, there isn't an endpoint while we are here on this earth.  Here in this temporary place, you will soon get over a cold and finish that marathon, but Satan won’t give up his attempts of tearing you down.  His strategy may change during your life, but he has the same goal. So, how are we supposed to run this race?

The thing is, we aren’t meant to live the Christian life in our own strength.  God doesn’t want us to go and try to turn the world upside down by ourselves, because we can’t.  We can do nothing apart from Christ.  Once we are saved, He should be our motivation for living and our strength for continuing.  I seem to forget this a lot-- and I’m probably not alone, am I? Jesus tells us this in Matthew 11: 28-30, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.