I'm wondering why and then suddenly it hits me.

The world's action plan:

1 shoot self in foot
2 limp and complain all the way to the finish line.
3 spread this action plan to any others whenever possible.

I hereby veto this action plan.

Thank you Jesus!

Young men growing up

So several things amaze me about kids.

One, they don't need much to excel. They need good shelter, food, a bit of nurture and a little discipline. The things seem to provide the necessary soil for growth. Children do well in many environments where supposedly healthy adults would fall down and maybe not get back up.

Foster children go through wondering every day whether they will ever be part of a loading family. Worse than that children who live with one parent have the same questions. It is forgotten often that children can smell the same death that anyone else can smell on those that are perishing.

Without understanding it many people, children included have to experience those smells every day not understanding why what appears to be alive smells like death.

I feel for the children. For the adults, they should know better and are without excuse.

The children amaze me and go on after the hit so much better than adults. That is what I was just saying.

Then here's the rub. Maybe, just maybe the real pain that strikes an adult so hard that they can't hardly get up and give it another shot is not the smell of death or the hurt of recent circumstances but the reafforestation that they knew, that they should've or could've known if only.

Oh boy, if only...

Maybe we need to come to God like that. lord, I don't need a lot and I'll thrive. I'll continue in you if you shelter me, nurture me and feed me a little. I'll need a little discipline but I'll keep on going even after three hard his. I'll do and be my best and leave the rest up to you.

Children are awesome. Now it's true I've seen the worst in children as well. But then again it's easy to become confused with the standards adults are setting. Also there the smell and no explanation...
Good help us be better care givers and representatives of you as we teach and lead the next generations and the remnants of the past generations that didn't get it when they might have, in Jesus' name, amen.

Fwd: Fatigue doesn't stop the victorious

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Fatigue doesn't stop the victorious
From: Pastor Dan <afamilyofgod@bex.net>
To: Sms Blog <go@blogger.com>
CC:

When a person gets tired they need to rest. This isn't technically stopping. It's more like preparing to go on. I guess it's a point of view thing but if your effort is as much about going forward as it is about where you've been and recovery then you have the possibility of victory when Victory lies before you. So then it's in attitude and agenda.
If you can simply make your time spent resting productive for kingdom advance you win.

It's like those pumps for kids balloons that blow on the movement in or out. Either way they are sucking in air and sending it where it needs to go to get the job done and the balloon just keeps getting better and better bigger and bigger.

I know the victorious get up and get back to work fast. They get up more often and they learn from their mistakes and claim victory from the jaws of defeat when someone else would just give in. While these things are true I think it must not be forgotten that the truly victorious are victorious in that their time spent recovering is by no means wasted time. It is spent winning and preparing to win some more.

If you want to battle the victorious you will find that they never quit prematurely. They start again when you are not ready and they rest to win and even win while resting. It doesn't make any sense really. It takes a miracle and it's a miracle that God does every day. Start over fresh in Christ and have the victory.

Pastor Dan

Thoughts

I lay me down after a long day. Today was the Lord's day. Every day is but today was as much as any because it was Sunday and the day of the week upon which we celebrate his resurrection. We worshipped in the name of Christ. we served in the name of Christ and we celebrated in the name of Christ. we know that we are a people with the power to do his work upon the earth and that even our enemies the world, Satan, and our selfish nature can not hold us back.
The house was not empty. There were a number of servants gathered there. We could always hope for more and there were even a few who are on the fringe and reluctant to be sold out for Him.
It's always an encouragement for me when there are some of those present as it sort of marks the footsteps of the Lord as he is at work changing mankind from the inside out. Perhaps someone was profoundly affected though none said so.
Technology struggled. We had a hard time doing some of the simple things that we have done well before. This partly because we are meeting in a sister church building and not a building that is prepared for our use and our methods.
We managed to record the service though I have not inspected the quality of the video recording yet. We use to do this every week. Once upon a time the recordings were on vhs. I remember a runty, pimply Josh Mitchell setting up every week and making sure the camera ran and recorded onto a vcr the entire service and he almost never missed. He grew up, the air force was hard on him. He's back with u now but he is changed. He is a servant of the Lord but now works full time and has trouble finding the disposable time to do all the things he might for God. That seems to be the state of affairs for a lot of God's servants. In some cases it is worse than others and a few cases the conflict is manufactured to be an excuse from service.

Roans 15 reminded us that God's people must find and utilize a surplus of grace. With a few other points of I think of value it took us an hour plus to hear these truths clearly. i'm resting wondering whether some heard or not. It is not my place to say or to worry. It's in the Lord's hands but I am passionate to see others grow.
The annual meeting is this week and so waiting on the contractors and on those who might donate on the heat estimate is going to be particularly hard and in at least one sense easier. I'll be distracted. That will make it easier. However, I wonder whether there will be any movement if i don't push for it which makes the situation seem hopeless as I am going to be busy and I think maybe Friday will come and little will be accomplished.. Lord, please pull this together.
I am concerned for a few of my flock that seem to miss the fact that all of what we are trying to do is rooted in the Love of Christ his blood shed for us. They have a great discipline and seek to serve him sometimes more faithfully than anyone else but somehow they just miss the love part. The actions speak love until something gets in a strike and the next things you know the reaction seems to be more anger than anything else. That's not love and the end of that road is not grace.
Help me God. Help us all. Help us stand firm to make our community and the kingdom better than ever. We can work for something so much bigger than ourselves and accomplish something that others will never even think to try. I know God is hard at work and I just don't want anyone to miss it.

Pastor Dan Stevenson
newheightsfellowshipchuch.org
faacebook.com/newheightstoledo