Annie

My little dog, Annie, is getting old. Not an astounding statement, just the truth. To those of you who don't care about animals, you will not understand my feelings. Deana looked at Annie the other day and made the statement, "she's been a good friend". I don't want you to take this wrong because we are not expecting Annie to die right now but she can't do the things she used to do and her joints and muscles hurt her a lot. I have to say after reading that last statement it sounds like me. Annie has been a good friend! I was listening to the radio this morning and the talkshow host read a list of differences between your wife and your dog. The last one on the list was lock your wife and dog in a closet and leave them there for four hours and see which one will be glad to see you when you let them out. This is probably not a good test! His point is that your dog will always be glad to see you. I think that is why so many people have adopted their pets as one of the family, they are looking for unconditional love. Unfortunately, most of us do not love unconditionally. Our love comes with a to-do-list! If you will do "this" then I'll love you. Aren't you glad that God loves us so much even if we don't love Him!

Thoughts on Easter

I've tried to write several different times today but none of them seem right. I think I will just tell you about some of the things that happened yesterday. As most of you know yesterday we celebrated the resurection of Jesus Christ! This is the highlight of the year for those of us who believe in this miracle. Nothing sets our God apart from other gods as much as His Resurrection! I never grow tired of telling others about Jesus!
We were blessed to have Josh and his fiance with us in church and also for lunch at our house. Josh's fiance Katie has a little girl, Alaina, who just turned two. Someone told me the other day that I had better be careful she would wrap me around her finger and I think that has already happened. It has been awhile since Deana and I have hid Easter eggs around the house but we had a good time hiding them for Alaina.
We finished our day by watching Josh baptize a young lady who had asked Jesus into her heart. It was truly exciting to see the family of God increase and also to see our family increase.
I hope you had a great day too!

Life not Death

HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY!
We don't usually associate death with a time of celebration but every year at Easter it should be. I don't enjoy thinking about the price Jesus paid for our sins but I will be eternally grateful that He did! I've watched the movie " The Passion of the Christ" at least 4 times since it came out a few years ago. I still cannot stand to watch the scene where Jesus is beaten unmercifully and to imagine that He did it for me and you. I was talking to a lady the other day and she was telling me all of her aches and pains and I began to tell her what Jesus had did so that she could be healed. Peter tells us in his writings: "who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness- by whose stripes you were healed." I think sometimes we have forgotten what Jesus actually did for us. This Easter season I hope you will take the time to thank Him (Jesus) for what He did for you and receive the gift of salvation, healing and life!

Rats

This week Josh and I had the great honor of cleaning out the storage building behind his house. Let me tell you, this was an eye opening experience. As we stepped into the building the first thing that hit you in the face was the terrible smell. It seems that over the winter a family of mice decided they liked the nice house that was there for the taking. But as we went in further we found snake skins from snakes that had followed the mice into the building. If you know anything about me, you know snakes are my least favorite of God's creation. We began taking everything out of the shed- piece by piece- until we had everything out. If you can picture us with a hoe in one hand and picking up the boxes with the other. I just dared that box to move! We were finally able to reclaim our building. Isn't it funny how fast things can get out of sorts in our lives with just a little neglect. We may think about doing a good cleaning in the buildings of our life. We may even look at a particular part of our live each day and have good intentions to check on it or clean it up. All it takes is a little neglect for parts of our lives to fall apart. Make sure you don't neglect your spiritual life and allow the rats to get in!

What's next?

I was sitting here in my office thinking about all the things that have happened these past few weeks and I was just asking God, "what next?" I wasn't meaning it in a bad way, just a question, what's next? I know that my wants are not always His wants for me. I may want to run away sometimes and like a ostrich just stick my head in the sand and pretend no one can see me. When I do that it just means my butt has a big bullseye on it and I will probably get shot. So what do we do? In the Bible I don't know how many times the characters asked God, what's next? In most of the cases we see God just waiting for them to realize they needed Him. There is not a magic formula or magic saying that brings everything into focus. In Moses' case, he spent 40 years in the wilderness until God came a knocking and gave him his mission. I'm not very good at waiting, or you? I want the answer to my prayer when I say "Amen" if not before! I'm like the man who prayed for patience and he told God, "I want it NOW!!! I don't know if this makes any sense but I guess I'm learning to wait on God. Still not very patient!