A Sunday Morning Prayer

Good Morning God,

Are my ways pleasing to you? Am I doing the things you want me to do, or am I only seeking my self satisfaction? Am I truly leaning on you and learning from you?

I would have to say, "No".

Father please show me your way as I go through out this day. Show me the wonders of your hand that I seem to miss on a daily basis. Lead me as I want to lead others and guide me to walk the correct path today. Gently correct me and push me in the right direction.

Lord, you know I want to please you, you know that is a desire of my heart. You also know that I fail so many times, when I do things my way. Continue to show me in your Word the life that you have waiting for me, but also show me the life that I need to be living today.

Show me and guide me to be the Husband and Father I should be. Help me be the leader that you have called me to be in so many different aspects of my life. I know I'm not getting it right but I am confident that with Your help I can not fail, fall - yes - but fail - no. Help me connect on a deeper level with my wife and children, and with the friends you have put in my life.

Most importantly Lord, help me to go deeper into You. Help me to trust you more fully.

Now Lord, as I get ready to take on today, as I get ready to go to work, please take care of my family. Hold them in your hands and protect them. Show them through your church and the Pastor the life they should be living. Help them to see You in a new and exciting way, so that they also will live a life that is pleasing to You.

Keep me safe as I travel to and from work, and may I be productive in all that I do. May I live today the life you have for me, and may my life be an example of who You are. Thank you Father for loving me and for all the blessing you have given me.

Thank You Jesus for dying on the cross and setting me free. Thank you for lifting this burden from my back.

All these things I pray, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, Amen.

A wife's love

I was sitting in a meeting this morning when I got this thought. I should blog about my wife. So since I haven't blogged in quite some time this is where I will begin.

No it's not her Birthday, Mother's Day is long past, and really I'm not trying to get bonus points. Besides that, she probably won't even know that I wrote this blog, she doesn't get on the computer that much and she's not into the blog scene. So that being put out there, I am writing this purely for just wanting to publicly love my wife.

I tell my wife that she is “A most Excellent Wife”. And she really is. What makes her so excellent is just the ordinary things that she does. She cooks and cleans and goes to work. She takes care of me, what else could I ask for.

She is an excellent cook. Her lasagna is the best, and chocolate chips cookies, WOW, nobody can touch them in taste or quality they are the best. She makes the best blueberry pancakes, and I don't like pancakes at all. She can grill steak and chicken and pork, and home made mashed potatoes to die for. She even comes up with some of her own creations (I think) and it's a fabulous food. Trust me, I never leave the table hungry, most of the the time I'm over full, then I need a long walk.

A long walk is something that we have been doing more of together, and I do mean long. They are great times when we just share with each other how our day has been going, or ideas about lots of things. We talk about our kids and the hopes and dreams we have for them, one is in college and the other will be a senior in high school this year. We talk about problems in our relationship and how we can work together to make our marriage even stronger. We talk about our faith and where we see God in our lives.

My wife's faith is very important to me. She is a believer in God and that Jesus died on the cross for her and the whole world. She is my helper in leading our small group studies. She also helps me see things that I would overlook in my own Spiritual life. She reads her Bible on a daily basis and prays the same. She is a lover of God first and me second and that's the way I want it to be.

Speaking of being a lover, she is awesome. Now get your mind out of the gutter. She loves me and calls me her “lover”. For me, I need that. I need to know that my wife loves me unconditionally, and I know that she does, trust me I've done some stupid things during our twenty plus years of marriage. She loves me for who I am, and who I am becoming. And she is my lover, the only one I want to spend the rest of my life with. Our love continues to grow each and every day, and our life together continues to be better every day, because of that love.

My wife is NOT a spender, and for this I am grateful. She is very conscious about spending our money. She helps to decide just about every purchase and helps me remember the better part of spending money. Like the other week, I felt I needed a new car, specifically a Mustang. We spent an entire day looking at Mustangs, we even drove one for about an hour. Had the price been right we may have bought it. But she reminded me that we want a new house first and while the Mustang would be cool, it would delay us in buying a new home. So I sit without the Mustang, but knowing that we made the right choice. Without her I would have the new Mustang and no money for a new home.

My wife. God has given me my hearts desire when it comes to her. I could not ask for more, I know I do sometimes but that is because I am humanly stupid. God knew what I needed before we got married and He continues to show me that He made the right choice for me. I would not be the man I am today if I didn't have the wife I have today.

So, to my wife, if you ever read this: I love you more than you know, and I am so very, very happy that you are mine. I only hope that I give you as much love and satisfaction and you give me.

Love from Your Husband.

Cycle Accident

So I was at my son's tennis match and he won his singles match.  The plan was to take the cycle over to the shop in Ephrata to get new tires.  We wanted to be back before his doubles match.  I left and was riding down the road.  I could feel my phone ringing in my pocket so I waited to find a good place to pull over.  I didn't want to stop alongside the road.

Just beyond Kmart in Ephrata, I pulled into a parking lot.  Only one vehicle was present, a pick up truck.  I pulled off the road and answered my phone which was ringing again.  It was my wife, she was asking where I was.  I told her I was sitting in a parking lot and all the details when all of a sudden I got hit on my left side.  This truck just hit me.

I jumped off the bike as it fell to the ground and he backed over it, my phone went flying.  I started yelling.  This guy hit me straight against the back of his truck as he was backing up.  I don't think he even looked to see if anyone was there.

My bike has a broken hand brake, a broken left back turn signal, a bent foot brake, a broken winshield, scuffs on the muffler, and more.  I am very upset (angry).

The insurance company says it sounds like it was the other guys fault and his insurance should probably take care of it.  I hope so.

Yes, my leg hurts, but I'm more upset that my bike got hurt and broken all because someone didn't pay attention to what he was doing.

Romans 1

Roman 1: 18-23

Paul says God's wrath is against the ungodly.  For they surely have known God's greatness.  He has not hidden it.  Men knew God but did not glorify God, they were not thankful.  They said they were wise but became fools for they changed the image of God into images made by men.

So here is what I see in these 5 verses.

God has revealed himself to us.  There are some that know or have known about God but choose instead to walk the other way.  They know and see all that God has done for them but refuse to give God thanks and honor for what He has given.  They have trusted in themselves and now worship other things such as other people or animals.

God has revealed Himself to us.  "His invisible attributes are clearly seen" (vs 20)

What are His attributes?

First what is an attribute?

Websters dictionary says:

1 - an inherent characteristic

2 - an object closely associated with or belonging to a specific person

3 - a word ascribing a quality

syn- quality

So what does it say about His attributes? (vs 20)

 "His eternal power and Godhead"

So how is His eternal power clearly seen?

-Prove, beyond a shadow of a doudt, tht God did not make the universe.  He made the heavens and the earth and all that is in between.  We could talk about the "Big Bang Theory" but that is a subject for another time.

How does God prove His Godhead or Divine Nature?

First in His Son dying on the cross.  He also led His children, the Israelites out of Egypt.  It's His love for all of us.  We know it and feel it, just some choose to reject it.

So what has happened to those that have rejected God?

Read vs 24-31

God gave them over to all there lusts of heart.  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, even though they knew the truth.  They also knew that in the end they will die to themsleves.  They even approve of others who practice as they do.

Romans (Paul) even talks about that God gave them up to vile passions.  (Have you noticed that vile and evil use the same letters?)  Paul describes this as a woman with a woman, and a man with a man. (Homosexuality)  Yes, it was alive and kicking even 2000 years ago.  But what does Paul say about that? (vs 27) "And receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due."

You can decide for yourself what that means.

Paul continues that what they are dong is wrong and they deserve death.  Yet they continue in their sin.

OK, so what about us?

We know these things that were mentioned in vs 29-31 are wrong and yet we do some of them.  Maybe not all but some and some of us approve of others doing the same things we do.

So do we not deserve the wrath of God?  Don't we deserve His punishment of death?  Read the list again, surely you are on there somewhere.

And this is what Paul is saying in that first chapter of Romans, that all of us are desirving of death.  How then, shall we ever get out of this?

Let's look at chapter 2.