It all started this morning when I went to use the mouse on my computer and it was doing crazy things, my first thoughts was "my computer has a virus." I happen to pick up the mouse in desperation to get it to work correctly and realized that there was a “mustard-seed size" of paper wedge by the sensor that causes a "distraction" to the mouse, causing a malfunction. I chuckled as I thought how easy it is for us to imagine the worse, even with our computer. Once I removed the tiny piece of paper the mouse worked properly.
People get up every morning of the week thinking the worse. Being very transparent this morning just a few days ago I got up feeling down. This is somewhat not my nature. Why was I feeling down? I really don't know. Maybe a chemical imbalance; maybe some medicine I took the night before to relieve me of some aches and pains; or maybe simply an attack of Satan. I really don't know why but I know how I felt. Facing reality I prayed through out the day for God's strength.
At the end of the day it occurred to me that I had weathered through the storm. There was a sense of peace that came over me as I realized that I had made it through the storm and "this house" still stands. I penned these words in my bible that evening: Thank you God for your grace and mercy that followed me today. I made it another day and my faith in you is stronger than the day before.
I am sure there will be another day that Satan will try my faith but thanks be to God who gives me unmerited favor and his mercies are new every morning!
"It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." Lamentations 3: 22 & 23
Friday, May 20, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
IT'S JUST A HABIT!
The word "habit" means, "pattern of behavior or customary practice". In my opinion it is very closely associated to the word "addiction." Habits are something that all of us have. One unknown author wrote, "Habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out of." Another writer stated that "The second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half."
In reading and studying 2 Peter 1 recently I was reminded to take a look at my habits. The first thing I had to do was to come to realization and admit that I have habits. The second thing I had to admit is that some of my habits are annoying to others. And third I had to confess that some of the habits I have, I have had most of my life! (Habits like pouting when we don't get our way! The difference is that when I was a child, I didn't care who saw me pout and in fact wanted people to notice that I was pouting. Now that I am an adult I try to pout only when no one is looking, and I no longer call it pouting but just call it "being in a bad mood.”)
Bad habits like "saying goodbye on the phone to someone first" when they are the one that called. Or bad habits like "not looking up when I am walking" and almost having three head-on “walking collisions” recently. Bad habits like “checking facebook” way too often are one of those habits that I have added to my collection of habits in the second-half of my life. "I am sure of this one thing" (as the Apostle Paul would say) that these are not the only bad habits I have but I didn't want to hang out too much of my laundry in this blog. However, all of these are things I need to work on.
Not all of my habits are bad. Simple habits like saying "yes sir" and "no sir". Habits like saying "thank you" every time the waiter or waitress refills my glass of tea at the local restaurant (which may be quite often). Habits like "holding the door open for the person that may be following me into a building, even if they are several steps away." Some habits are as simple as getting out of bed in the morning time. These habits I hope that I will always have. Then there are more serious habits I have, and continue to work on like reading my bible daily and spending time in prayer and meditation on a daily basis.
Then there are things (or habits) that I need to add:
"Because you have these blessings, do your best to add these things to your lives: to your faith, add goodness; and to your goodness; add knowledge; and to your knowledge, add self-control; and to your self-control, add patience; and to your patience, add service for God; and to your service for God, add kindness for your brothers and sisters in Christ; and to this kindness, add love. If all these things are in you and are growing, they will help you to be useful and productive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:5-7 NCV
What habits do you need to get rid of and which habits do you need to keep? Is there change that needs to happen in your life? Howard Hendricks, in his book Teaching to Change Lives challenges his readers to "write down somewhere...your answer to this question: How have you changed...be very specific. You say you're growing. Okay...how?"
What about you? How you change lately? Are there old habits that need to be broken and new habits that need to be added?
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Godly Mothers and Wives
Pastor Tim has been using Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest this year as his morning devotional guide. He has made reference to it in his postings as well as sermons. It is the most powerful devotional guide I have found and is now in print in over 40 languages.
Doing a little research, I found that it was first published in 1927 and has been in print ever since; over 70 years. But, since Chambers died in 1917 how could he have written a book that was published 10 years later? Who actually wrote it and the more than 30 titles that bear his name?
The answer: his Godly wife.
Gertrude (Hobbs) Chambers, nicknamed “Biddy” by her husband, suddenly became a widow and single mother of a four year old at the age of 33, when Oswald Chambers died unexpectedly while serving as a YMCA chaplain in Egypt during WW I. When Oswald died, he had published one book.
Oswald and Biddy had one daughter, Kathleen who remembers her mother as a loving mother with a gift for hospitality. But God had uniquely prepared Biddy for what became her life’s work; transcribing her husband’s sermons into books. She did this for most of the rest of her life.
Biddy was a sickly young girl, and had studied shorthand from a book. By the time she was old enough to work, she could take dictation at 250 words a minute; faster than most of can talk, particularly those of us from the south. Little did she know that God was preparing her for her life’s work.
Oswald and Biddy had both felt called to ministry. They founded the Bible Training College to fulfill that call. They operated the college, and ministered to a large number of students until Oswald left to minister to soldiers in Egypt. That school touched innumerable lives during its short existence, sending many to the mission field.
For most of their seven years of marriage, during lectures in his bible school as well as sermons in England and Egypt, Biddy was there, taking verbatim notes of his every word. I don’t find any record of either of them saying why she took these notes, but there is no doubt that God had a hand in it.
After Oswald’s death, Biddy returned to England with her daughter. She operated what amounted to a boarding house to ministerial students. In addition to being a mother to her daughter, she spent countless hours poring through her notes of his sermons, turning them in to the books we think of as Oswald Chambers’ books. Over the next 40+ years, she remained in the background as many around the world continue to read what she wrote down and edited. Without her, Oswald Chambers’ timeless words would probably not be known. Without her we would have never read a single page of My Utmost for His Highest.
I thought that this Mother’s Day would be a good time for this story, not just for her, but to honor all of the Godly mothers and wives around us, who do all the “behind the scenes” work in our homes, our churches, and our lives.
God Bless You! God Bless You All!
Happy Mother’s Day!
This is a guest post by Bill Davis, who occasionally guest posts here. You can see his blog at http://chickenroadwisdom.blogspot.com/
Doing a little research, I found that it was first published in 1927 and has been in print ever since; over 70 years. But, since Chambers died in 1917 how could he have written a book that was published 10 years later? Who actually wrote it and the more than 30 titles that bear his name?
The answer: his Godly wife.
Gertrude (Hobbs) Chambers, nicknamed “Biddy” by her husband, suddenly became a widow and single mother of a four year old at the age of 33, when Oswald Chambers died unexpectedly while serving as a YMCA chaplain in Egypt during WW I. When Oswald died, he had published one book.
Oswald and Biddy had one daughter, Kathleen who remembers her mother as a loving mother with a gift for hospitality. But God had uniquely prepared Biddy for what became her life’s work; transcribing her husband’s sermons into books. She did this for most of the rest of her life.
Biddy was a sickly young girl, and had studied shorthand from a book. By the time she was old enough to work, she could take dictation at 250 words a minute; faster than most of can talk, particularly those of us from the south. Little did she know that God was preparing her for her life’s work.
Oswald and Biddy had both felt called to ministry. They founded the Bible Training College to fulfill that call. They operated the college, and ministered to a large number of students until Oswald left to minister to soldiers in Egypt. That school touched innumerable lives during its short existence, sending many to the mission field.
For most of their seven years of marriage, during lectures in his bible school as well as sermons in England and Egypt, Biddy was there, taking verbatim notes of his every word. I don’t find any record of either of them saying why she took these notes, but there is no doubt that God had a hand in it.
After Oswald’s death, Biddy returned to England with her daughter. She operated what amounted to a boarding house to ministerial students. In addition to being a mother to her daughter, she spent countless hours poring through her notes of his sermons, turning them in to the books we think of as Oswald Chambers’ books. Over the next 40+ years, she remained in the background as many around the world continue to read what she wrote down and edited. Without her, Oswald Chambers’ timeless words would probably not be known. Without her we would have never read a single page of My Utmost for His Highest.
I thought that this Mother’s Day would be a good time for this story, not just for her, but to honor all of the Godly mothers and wives around us, who do all the “behind the scenes” work in our homes, our churches, and our lives.
God Bless You! God Bless You All!
Happy Mother’s Day!
This is a guest post by Bill Davis, who occasionally guest posts here. You can see his blog at http://chickenroadwisdom.blogspot.com/
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