Get Out Of Dirt Free

I made this card for my Mother-in-law for Christmas. She's a sweetheart and I/we wanted to do something a little more than a wrapped present. She's had a rough time for a while now, and she has been sweet through it all.

Anyway, Merry Christmas, all!!

In Jesus' Name

I am a Christian. That means that I believe in the hope of: meaning, purpose, compassion, forgiveness, redemption, reconciliation, Heaven, understanding, and so much more all in the person of Jesus Christ.

That also means that I represent Him in EVERYTHING I do -- Not just the good things. It means that when I say I am a Christian, that I am saying "Look at me. This is what Christ is like."

When I was a child I thought that "In Jesus' Name" was just how you ended your prayers. Now I know that it is how you are supposed to live your life and that I have to remember what that really means.

I am SO GRATEFUL that God's grace is sufficient. I'll just keep trying. My life, in Jesus' name, Amen.

Adonai

I actually wrote this as a song, but since I don't know how to write music, I'm just going to write the words.

Adonai

I hear the thunder of the marching of the soldiers of the LORD

With worship as their battle cry and the Word of God their sword

They are marching into battle with raised hands and bended knee

The world will see God’s glory as they shout in victory. . .

Adonai

Adonai

Awesome God and Our Creator

Righteous Lord and Vindicator

Adonai

Adonai

Oh the enemy must flee

When he hears God’s people cry

Adonai . . .

The Enemy has set up camp in the land God’s called our own

Proclaiming his false sovereignty; he wants to kill us heart and soul

But his plans and his devices will pass away in ash and dust

When the saints of God wake up and call the Name of Whom they trust. . .

Adonai

Adonai

Awesome God and Our Creator

Righteous Lord and Vindicator

Adonai

Adonai

Shout His name, all you creation!

Sing His praise in jubilation!

Adonai

Adonai

Awesome God and Our Creator

Righteous Lord and Vindicator

Adonai

Adonai

The enemy must flee

When he hears God’s people cry

Adonai

Just when I thought I had it done. . . .

Well, I spent the last year or so working on all of the "to do" lists on our house. Fixing things, adding things, removing things, putting them back in a different place. . . and I just got it all done. And we just moved again. Now I have a whole new list of things to "fix". Oh well. It beats being bored, I think. . . . Can't remember.

Oh, check out my wife's latest blog. We have even more going on. The Big Adventure

"Where Is Curly Mommy?"

I have mentioned before on Curly Mommy's Blog how much I respect her. I have been impressed with how real and honest she is in her testimonies and experiences. What I did not realize is that I have come to expect and even rely on her input on my blogs. I have heard that she has had computer troubles and for this reason she has not been blogging. Meanwhile, I have been waiting for her opinion on my latest blog. I have gotten comments in person from my wife and that is great, but I somehow feel like my blog is not complete until I know what Curly Mommy thinks. It's weird, but it's like I named her a "real person" on blogs and now I don't feel like I am unless she thinks so. ( not really. . . :). . . it's kind of like when you walk through the same door over and over and over again for years and every time you do, you raise your arm and slap the top of the door jam. . . and then someone raises the door jam a foot higher and when you go through, you swing to slap it and it's not there and you stumble forward wondering what just happened. . . it's kind of like that. . .only without the door or the slapping and stumbling and stuff.. . . . . . . Ok, my wife says that I'm rambling and that Curly Mommy just needs to come back.)

Come back, Curly Mommy.

Broken hearts and the breath of God

I was in church today and during worship practice, one of the piano players was messing with some chords and it reminded me of a song that starts off: "I hear the voice of one calling, I hear the voice of one calling: Prepare ye, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. . ." I suddenly felt the Holy Spirit's presence and began to pray in my heart. I asked God to come into this place (the church) and to comfort the hearts and minds and spirits of the people gathered in His name. And as I prayed, I saw in my mind's eye a picture of a heart that had cracks in it.
So I asked God to heal the broke hearts of His people. But He responded: "I let them be broken." Before I could think that through, He said:"Watch and see what I can do with a broken heart." And as I watched, I saw the breath of God flow toward the heart and enter into the cracks of the heart. I expected to see the cracks mend and for the heart to be healed, but that's not what happened. The cracks began to glow and more cracks began to appear. The heart began to pulse and shake and light started pouring out of the cracks as they grew wider and wider until the pieces of what I now recognized as a shell around the heart began to snap and fall off revealing what at first looked like a raw and exposed heart underneath. Then, when the shell had completely fallen off, I saw that the heart was pumping and had a slight glow and it was growing. Then I heard God speak again: "When people get hurt they guard themselves so that it won't happen again, but they don't realize that the wounds that they receive are not sores to be 'healed', but openings for my breath of life to enter and bring life and growth. Instead they build a shell around their hearts so that they won't be hurt and also stop My opportunities to live through them and show them how limitless I can be in them. Every new wound is an opportunity to receive My presence and My life on a level greater than they knew before."

It was then that I realized the when Jesus said to turn the other cheek, it wasn't about being "walked all over", it was about us letting God touch a person from our cheek to their hand and God filling us with His love and compassion and allowing us to live in a reality not possible without His touch.

"Christianity Defined . . .(sort of)"

Christianity: A system of beliefs whereby one
kneels in order to reach higher, does less to accomplish more, Surrenders to be victorious, and dies to live.

This all seems rather confusing until you realize that-

On Earth, gold is a precious metal and very valuable;

In Heaven, it's pavement.

"Unlimited"

I'm a limited creation
So it's hard for me to see,
How a God that is so wonderful
Could love a wretch like me.

I seem to find the end of me
When I try to understand
How He can measure eternity
And comfort me with the same hand.

Though I'm limited in methods
I'm as grateful as I can
That the God Who set the standard
Lived it out here as a man.

He lived His life as mortal man
As limited as me
But with the Holy Spirit
Where no "limited" can be.

So since He lived and died and
Then He rose and lived again
His Holy Spirit lives in me
And my mind is in a spin

I'm a limited creation
So my mind cannot contain
The symphonies and melodies
That dance inside my brain.

I know now, though I'm limited
On my own my outlook's grim
I've been made a new creation:
I'm Unlimited in Him.

"All Alone . . . With You"

I get lost in the day to day worries and cares
Wrapped up in confusion and strife,
All at once I'm discouraged in my mind's disrepair
I lost control of the things in my life.

My reality's based on the things I can see
And I'm bent by its hold of my view
In my effort to struggle I forget to be
An example of what Christ would do.

The devil attacks me and beats me with shame
And tells me I'm worthless and foul,
Reminds me of failures and of God's sure disdain;
He rants 'till my heart wants to howl.

But I remember a time when truth spoken in love
Set my heart free from guilt, shame, and loss
And I tell the devil, "It's not about me,
But Christ and what He did at the cross!"

So I fall to my knees so my spirit can soar,
And find peace in the Redemption-based view.
Though I'm surrounded by all of the cares there before

It doesn't matter:


I'm here all alone and with You.


Grace Like Rain

"Smiley Boy -- Revisited"

Here he is again. He did this because I blew at his hand. . . .

'nuff said.

"Gone With the Wind"

I just finished watching "Gone With the Wind" with Crickey. This is the first time that I have seen it. I spent most of my life (so far) trying to avoid watching it, mostly because it was "a classic and I should go see it." However, when Crickey asked me to watch it, I had to come to the conclusion that I had no better reason to avoid it than I always had. So, I'm back where I started: "I just finished watching "Gone With the Wind" with Crickey. "

I have to say that, while the movie was not as bad as I expected, I wonder why it is considered to be a classic. This is not a criticism, merely a curiosity. The acting was good and the cinematography far better than I expected, but the story seemed to start in the middle of something and end in the middle of something. You follow the life of a woman who is clueless to the point of the ruin of several of her friends and alienates everybody so that when you finally think that she gets the point, no one in the story will buy it. AND that's where they end it. Four hours to get "Tomorrow is another day. . . . da, da, dum. . . fade to sunset scene with woman silhouetted in the breeze and leave the suckers hanging."

Again, I know what this sounds like, but I'm really not trying to crack on the movie. I just don't get why it got so popular. My only guess is that when it came out, the populace, as a whole, was less cynical and that most people felt that everything would work out in that "tomorrow" to come.

Hmph, maybe what I should be asking is why don't I?

Oh, well.

"Smiley Boy"

I have a baby boy, "Smiley Boy." He's a miracle baby.

When my wife was at 24 weeks, she began showing signs of a condition called "preeclampsia." This is a condition that is only found in pregnant women and is only "curable" by delivering the baby. The early stages aren't too bad, but as it progresses, it becomes increasingly more dangerous for both the mother and the child. So, on Feb. 14, my wife was admitted to the hospital. (Quite a Valentine's Day, Huh?) We were very fortunate that we had a doctor that was willing to wait and see how long we could continue the pregnancy before it was too dangerous for them. At that stage, every day counted. The Hospital the she was in was an hour away from where we lived and two hours from where I worked. I took a bunch of time off so that I could be there as much as I could, but there is only so much that a husband can do in this kind of situation. After the first couple of days, I went back to work and came back for the weekends. Our church family was amazing. My Pastor's wife and several others came and stayed with her for the time when her mother couldn't be there. People I worked with (Teen Challenge) were amazing too. I got so much support from everyone. They each came from different churches and took the prayer requests back to their church families. Parents of my students (ranging from all over the U.S.) also took the prayer requests home. Before a week was out, we had people praying for us in nearly a dozen states in probably as many denominations.

So I worked during the day and would call my wife, "Crickey", each night to see how she was and to pray with her. On the weekends, I would go to be with her and keep her company. Hold her hand during tests and sit with her while she slept. One of the problems with preeclampsia is that the body doesn't process water correctly. Crickey had gained more than 50 pounds in water alone in a period of about 3 weeks. Towards the end of it, she had so much water retention that she had a lot of difficulty breathing. Between that and the nearly hourly test that they had to run to monitor her and the baby, sleep was a rare and fleeting thing. Throughout the whole thing Crickey was amazing. Every nurse that came in heard how God was faithful and how we were so honored that God would trust us to represent Him in an experience like this. We honestly never worried about the outcome of it all. We completely trusted God in whatever He chose to do. A lot of people say that they don't think that they could have done it, but what it really comes down to is this: Neither could we. We didn't have the strength to get through this until we were in it and that only by the grace of God.

Well, two weeks past and the doctor finally said that we couldn't wait any more. They were scheduling a C-Section for the next day. I had mixed feelings on this.. On the one hand I knew that every day that we waited was a better chance for our son, but on the other hand, I wanted my wife to be free of this.

"Smiley Boy" was born on Feb. 28. 1 lb. 7 oz. 12 1/2 inches long. At 26 weeks into the pregnancy.

I went in with Crickey for the surgery. I sat at the head of the table holding her hand and talking with her as they administered the epidural. there was a big blue cloth hung in front of us, just under Crickey's chin, that separated us from the doctor's. When they made the incision, they had to remove 2 liters of water before they could even proceed. The doctors said that the procedure was going very well; they were able to lift the baby out head first without complication. They wrapped him up and showed him to us. His little face was the size of a silver dollar.

There are so many things that can go wrong with a "Preemie" baby. Heart problems, brain defects, lung damage, eye dysfunctions, undeveloped or misplaced organs. . . . "Smiley Boy" only had to be put on a respirator and kept in an incubator. No other problems.

Even so, he was in the hospital neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for 3 months.

He was finally able to come home without the need for oxygen stuff at home. However, because he had a ventilator for so long, he had to be fed through a tube that was surgically placed so that the food was given directly to his stomach. We were told that, in time, he would learn to eat normally, but because he didn't start that way, we would have to train him to let his instincts kick in and take food by mouth.

It has been almost a year now, and I was sitting in here watching him finish another bottle of formula and play in his "pack and play." This child smiles more than any baby I've ever seen.
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