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Thursday, January 29, 2009

January 29, 2009

Good Morning,
I pray that the day is finding you well.

My car was iced over this morning. I am fortunate enough to live in a place where I can turn my car on with the heat going and then go back inside and wait until the car warms enough to melt the ice. I know I should just scrap the ice off but…

As I was getting ready to come to the “Y,” and waiting for the car to warm, I turned on a morning show.

Not my usual routine.

They were talking about a salmonella outbreak and that we should throw out all foodstuffs with peanuts used in them. Evidently this is a huge outbreak, one that according to the reporter that the FDA was still trying to get their hands around.

The manufacturing plant has been shutdown; over 300 people are now out of work. 8 people have died and many more are very sick.

Apparently the plant continued to ship product even though the product tested positive (This is from the reporter).

This got me to thinking.

I don’t know anyone at the plant. But I am sure they all aren’t serial killers, or sociopaths. No, I will bet that these people are just like you and me. They are people trying their best to provide for their families. They are people that want to do a good job and take pride in their work. If they are like us at all they have T.V.’s and radios. They hear the news about unemployment. They have been personally touched by someone who has lost their job. They are probably running a little scared.

I am sure that they did not really think anyone would get sick, even though people knew.

This got me to thinking again.

All of our jobs are important. If what we do is not important work than why do we do what we do? If we make excuses for doing other than our best someone will, not might, will be negatively impacted. They my not get sick but their life will not be better if we let something pass.

As a Christian am I allowing things to pass that I shouldn’t?

God is a funny God.

Yesterday I talked about justification and sanctification. Later I was in our daily devotional and this is what Oswald had to say:



Is the Word of God tremendously penetrating and sharp in me as I hand it on to you, or does my life betray the things I profess to teach? I may teach sanctification and yet exhibit the spirit of Satan, the very spirit that persecutes Jesus Christ…All I do should be based on a perfect ones with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly. This will mean that others may use me, go around me, or completely ignore me, but if I will submit to it for His sake, I will prevent Jesus Christ from being persecuted.[1]
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, (Uhrichsville: Barbour Publishing, 1935), January 28.


My prayer is that I do not slack as a Christian, that I do not let things “not of God” slide by me (this is an internal slip). My prayer is that I do not exhibit the spirit of Satan, the very spirit that persecutes Jesus Christ.

Blessings,
[1]Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, (Uhrichsville: Barbour Publishing, 1935), January 28.

January 28

Good Morning,
I pray that the day is finding you well.

CLC is coming May 15th.

CLC, Christian Leadership Conference, is held annually at Camp Collins that is located near Gresham Oregon. It is a wonderful event and a time when everyone can come together and fellowship.

I am part of a team that is putting CLC together.

We were looking for a theme when someone said, “Let your Life Speak.” Everyone thought that it would be a good theme and with the breakout sessions focusing on the core values of Love, Respect, Honesty, Responsibility, and Service. It began to come together nicely.

I mention this for two reasons.
If you are in the area or can be in the area for this event we would love to have you. Please let me know.
2. The theme got me to thinking.

“Let your Life Speak”

George Fox once said, “I am not so concerned about the time and the date of your conversion I will see your baptism being worked out in your everyday life.” Basically what George was saying was, “Don’t tell me about it, show me.”

We churchy people like to use words like “justification,” and “sanctification.”

Justification is whether or not you are “justified with Christ,” whether or not you are “saved.” This is, as much as us churchy people would like to have this be a corporate thing, a personal knowledge with Christ. Only the individual can say whether or not they are saved in Christ. No one else can make that determination for them.

As Jonathan Edwards notes:
Men may have the knowledge of their own conversion: the knowledge that other men have it is uncertain, because no man can look into the heart of another and see the workings of grace there.[1]
· Stoddard’s Nature of Saving Conversion
Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections, (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2004), 110.

Sanctification is the level of Christ-like-ness one is achieving. The outpouring of Christ from the individual, as much as we would like this to be measured by ourselves, is actually measured corporately.
Simply put, justification is something you only know in your heart and sanctification is something that others see in you.

“Let your Life Speak.”

Do our words match our actions?

Are we in unity or in conflict with are very being, ourselves?

As I continue to think about my thought life, I must continue to think:
We have shown our ignorance of Him in the very way we determine to serve Him. We serve Jesus in a spirit that is not His, we hurt Him by our advocacy for Him, we push His claims in the spirit of the devil…Have I been persecuting Jesus by a zealous determination to serve Him in my own way?[2]
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, (Uhrichsville: Barbour Publishing, 1935), January 29.

My prayer is that everyone would be able to attend CLC May 15, 2009. That we would be given the ability to come together and search what it means to be justified, helping those that are still searching. So we can come together and converse about what sanctification is and how our core values fit squarely into this, most of all so we can come together and rejoice in the Lord.

What is our mission?

What is our vision?

What is our purpose?

Why are we here?
[1]Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections, (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2004), 110.
[2]Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, (Uhrichsville: Barbour Publishing, 1935), January 29.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

I have been thinking a lot lately about what it is that I think about.

It seems that our culture is in such a hurry, and we have become so task minded that we are always thinking ahead. We are never truly present to any one given task, when we are doing a previous task we are thinking about the task that we are now doing. Now that task that we are currently doing we no longer give it our full attention but are already looking forward at what our next task shall be and how to accomplish it!

So I have been thinking a lot lately about just what it is that I am thinking about.

I find that unless I am intentional in my thought life, I will go through life asleep. Asleep to the very thing that I endeavor to pay attention to.

I happened on this during my time this morning in, The Celtic Daily Prayer:
What is it that I spend most of my time thinking about? Am I careless in my relationship with God? Do I neglect to spend time cultivating this relationship? Do I treasure it? Do I set as much value on it as He has on me?[1]
Northumbria Community, Celtic Daily Prayer, (San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishing Company, 2002), 604.

What is it that I spend most of my time thinking about?

Am I being careless in my relationship with God?

Am I neglecting Him?

How much value do I place on my relationship with Him?

Something to think about.
[1]Northumbria Community, Celtic Daily Prayer, (San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishing Company, 2002), 604.