Frank Viola Podcast live

Frank Viola Podcast:
Q & A on New Book "From Eternity to Here"
Tuesday, April 7, 2009 at 8:00pm
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The audio podcast will air live on April 7th at 8pm EST.
But you can hear it afterwards.

The hour when my ship comes in.

Song Lyrics

Discerning, Deciding and Doing God's Will

http://www.johnankerberg.org/Articles/practical-christianity/PC1104W1.htm

 I came upon this and thought you should read it 

Butterfly - with apologies to Seven Day Jesus

You see me, it's not me, it's something underneath my skin. I wanna tear it all away, and show the beauty that's within. Begin to come unglued and throw away the older me. Just give it time and then you'll see. I wanna really be a butterfly, flying in the sky, with you, today. I wanna really lose this old cocoon. I wanna do it soon, and fly away, away. So tired of always crawlin up the tree to fall back down again. This lonely place where I began, it's not the place I'm gonna end up. So before you sum up all the missing pieces in my head, there's so much further I can get. Your wind is underneath my wing, it carries me away. It's you, my Jesus that makes me sing. When I'm on my way, I change a little every day. You take what's old and make it new so I can be with you, and fly away, away....

See Video here

He that hath ears, let him hear

My husband and I were having a conversation today. Let me correct that--we were TRYING to have a conversation today. Most of my contribution was, 'What?" and, "Honey, you've got to speak up, I can't hear you!"

You see, I'm hard of hearing. I have been since birth. Coping was always okay, sort of, because I depended on my parents for my life. Although there was a lot of frustration from me and my folks, at least I knew I had a roof over my head, food in my stomach, and clothes on my back. 

Doc has said that my hearing would decline even more over the years. I didn't realize that time would be so soon, though. I find myself growing anxious over the future. What future is there for a hard of hearing woman, who doesn't have any skills that doesn't require hearing? 

This is where the rubber meets the road. Before this, I could talk a good talk about having my dependency on God. Did I, though? Or was my dependency in my ability and my husband's ability to make a paycheck? I scanned the internet for stories of deaf/hard of hearing people getting jobs. Most of what I found were the deaf/hard of hearing sharing their horror stories of being discriminated against. I'm ashamed to admit this, but I think my 'dependency on God" might've been not true. As long as I had some thread of hope to hold on to--and the hope was in my local connections, my ability; my, my, my something, I could claim to not be anxious, and claim a trust in God, like any good little Christian should. 

But what about now? What about the fact that soon I might have to give up teaching in a public school, because I'm not what the students need? The students need to know that their teacher will hear them gasping for breath when an asthma attack breaks out. Their teacher will need to hear when the class bully is secretly terrorizing the timid child that rarely speaks. So, any administration in their right mind would let me go. I wouldn't blame them. 

So, do I really trust God, now? Now that I don't have any secret contacts to draw from--I have totally exhausted all of my human strengths... now do I trust God? What about you? Have you ever been on your last leg, no thread of hope anywhere, and have had no choice but to depend on God? Jesus walked step by step in dependency. He had no earthly job, although as a young boy we infer that he helped Joseph with carpentry. His very food he ate, the shoes on his feet, the place to bed down for the night--he depended on God for every bit of His livelihood. Can I? Can you? 

That's one of the many wonderful things about God. He knows our faith falters--some more than others (mine!), but that doesn't worry Him. As God, He is able to grow us as we need growing, and He teaches us through concrete lessons, that He DOES care about our every being, no matter what. Our earth suits will continue to dry up and shrivel away due to illnesses, age or accident; but our spirits belong to God. In the end, we'll know that everything was worth it. 

What are you going through? Are you having a 'rubber meets the road' type situation facing you, now? Has God showed you in times past that He indeed can be trusted? Do you know for sure that He loves you, no matter what? God has a habit of showing us little things to remind us of His love for us. 

He loves you :-)

Blessings

Lisa

 

I'm anxious, I'm anxious not, I'm anxious, I'm anxious not... I'm anxious...

This morning's message was an eye opener. It came from the book of Philippians, where Paul was talking about being encouraging, not arguing, and what have you. He's encouraging us to be like minded. This doesn't mean we're clones of each other, but rather, have all come to understand the Gospel from God's P.O.V, not our own. Therefore, we'll be like minded in our understanding. Towards the end of chpt 2, he's telling the folks that he really needs to send Epaphroditus back to them, so they'd be blessed, and he himself would be less anxious. Now, how does that compare to Philippians 4, where it tells us to be anxious for nothing, but in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, we're to make our requests known to God. So, on one hand, Paul is saying "....by doing this I hope to be less anxious"... and then a few paragraphs later, he's saying, "Be not anxious for anything". I suspect that Paul knew good and well what it's like to be anxious. Don't we all? Is it something weird to be anxious? No..perfectly normal. Perfectly NOT desirable, but normal. There are going to come times when we're going to 'wonder' about what the future holds--our jobs...families...finances; and even not in a big picture but 'little' things like, "Will I get to the phone company before it closes to pay the bill?" "Am I going to run out of gas before I find a gas station?" little ordinary things that beset us. Those are the things Paul is helping us through. 

Paul wasn't preaching only to 'us' in that verse--he was also giving himself some encouragement. When we turn our eyes upon Jesus, then the things of this world, will grow strangely dim--in the light of his glory and grace!

Anxious? Welcome to humanity. Want to NOT be anxious? With prayer and thanksgiving, let it be known to God. 

Have a great week!

Lisa

Let it go...

There's a verse in Matthew that states: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me. for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:28-29). 

You know..I remember reading this so many times, trying to conjure up the rest spoken about. It didn't quite make sense to me back then--I mean, who's got time to rest? Shouldn't we be busy about the Lord's work? Shouldn't we feed the hungry, nurse the sick, comfort the broken hearted... etc. The list never seemed to end. Of course, in order to be a 'good Christian" one would desire to do all the above, right? After all, they are a noble thing indeed!

I finally decided that what that meant was---come to him now and He'd give me rest later like when I died and went to heaven. Surely that was it... if everyone was 'resting', nothing would ever get done!

It was a great relief, when eventually, God taught me that no, it wasn't that we were going to be sitting around eating bon-bons all day. What it means, is, that WEno longer have to conjure up the desire to do, or worry about the consequences if we don't. You see, as a child of God, we have the joy of not stressing out over things. Let's think about this--if God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, does it make sense that He would leave the fate of someone ready to receive His offer of life in the hands of me? No way! I don't have to do anything. However---I do make myself available. If he cho