May 25, 2012

The coming of the Comforter that Jesus promised is a major event in the life of the church of Jesus Christ.  One would think that this would be more widely known than it seems to be in our day.  People often talk about the Holy Spirit, give credit for things, even call on the Holy Spirit to interceede…but we often forget Jesus’ part in all of that as our guide in life, the one who teaches us, reminds us, and offers peace when we don’t feel so peaceful.

We seem to forget that the Holy Spirit is “God with us” not a magical presence that jumps at our beckon call.  The Holy Spirit is the presence of Jesus in our day to day life.  Jesus promised to be with his people in Matthew 28 and as it turns out (we learn from the story of Pentecost in the Book of Acts) it is through the Holy Spirit that Jesus is with us.

Using the early disciples as an example and then countless people ever since, it is the presence of Jesus who changes us from what we were to what we can be…Jesus does that for us in the person of the Holy Spirit.

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, how has the breath of God changed our life since the presence of God’s Spirit came into our life?  What are the onging changes?  What has yet to be changed?

Peace

 Jim

My chair and a few things

Just some pictures from life these last few days…

Just finished this replica Windsor Chair.

February 24, 2012

Doing a little picture editing…will post some afterwhile.

Have a good day.

Jim

February 13, 2012

Brain dead today…hopefully I’ll feel like blogging tomorrow.

Peace

Jim

February 5, 2012

HAPPY DAY !

Peace

Jim

January 23, 2012

My devotions this morning, and everything else I’ve read today, sent my mind scampering all over the place as I thought about God and God’s ability not to be grasped and pulled down to my lofty ideas of who God is.

That may sound a little strange but not really.  Just as God refused to be confined in the mind of thinkers in Biblical days, God still refuses to be confined in the minds of thinkers today.  And we thinkers often, usually unknowingly, try to pin God down to how we understand him.  In all reality pinning God down to our thinking is a lesson in futility.

Anyway, as my mind was running all over the place, as my mind was trying to capture God’s presence…in the quiet of the morning what came to my mind were words of the Psalmist whose mind was pretty much in the same place mine was this morning:

“Be still and know that I am God…”
Psalm 46:10

Ever feel reprimanded by God?

There are times when the highest views of God are brought down to the simplicity of God.  Since most of our God encounters are found in everyday life, God seems to suggest that we look for him there.

Peace

Jim

January 18, 2012

 

Each morning I sit in the coffee shop and look out the window. It is a narrow window and the only view is about 18” wide and about 5 feet high. I look out that window and the view of the world that I have is parts of two trees, give or take a limb or two from the side, and a telephone pole with a few cars driving by.

I’ve often wondered if that was my only view of the world…what would I think? I mean, if all that we knew existed was what was just outside the window life would somehow revolve around the limited view we had and we would base all of our living around that limited view…interesting…

I think Christianity is the same way.  If our field of spiritual vision never sees or learns anything new, never grows… we might at well be looking out a window.  And that means that we would never engage the world, never offer a drink to the thirsty, never help a traveler along the road.  And that means that we would only ever catch a glimpse of Jesus from time to time if he happened to cross between window frame to window frame.

Something to think about…

Jim

on the subject of blessings

I just read these words and thought I’d share them with you.

“Our blessings are for the sake of blessing others.  They are not primarily for our personal consumption. There is nothing that we have that is not pure gift.”

As I sit here, I’m thinking about how I share my blessings with others.

As we humans are in this constant journey of hope and grace, it is never too late to begin blessing others again.  I say this because sometimes we get comfortable.  We have enough and are content – forgetting that a good portion of those around us need to be blessed by us.  With our time, our company, our money, our companionship and conversation, our muscle power, our food.  The list goes on.

I have witnessed recently what happens when people make a habit out of sharing their blessings with others.  It is a beautiful, seemingly simple thing to those who share the blessing.  It is a miracle to those who receive.

Share a blessing with someone today.  You won’t regret it.

Much love,

Malinda

October 28, 2011

I was studying the concept of forgiveness and came across this quote:

“Holding resentment is like eating poison and waiting for the other person to keel over.”

That is one of those statements that we read, laugh at, even understand…but many continue to do exactly the same thing.  And I think – from my own experience – the reason we continue to harbor resentment comes from a superficial, shallow definition of forgiveness.  Forgiveness is not simply letting go of our injustice, forgiveness is understanding that forgiving is completing a circuit between us and God.

Unless we understand that forgiveness is not just about me, my feelings, my hurt, even my happiness…we find all sorts of reasons not to forgive citing the injustice we’ve felt as unforgivable.  But as Zahnd said in his book, if we find one instance where forgiveness is not possible, we have found the loophole around any Christian forgiveness at all.

Something to think about…

Jim

October 12, 2011

 

Yesterday was a loooong day.  Piper was born at 1:50 and we finally got to see her about 7:30.  All that time was spent in the waiting room.  It was a long day.  But we did get to hold Piper for a while before we headed for the hotel.

 

The wait

The baby

Worth the wait.