WHO FATHERS THE DROPS OF DEW?

DOES THE RAIN HAVE A FATHER?

It is always good to remember the story of Job!  Here was a good dude who got way laid by the arrogance of the fallen angel - Satan!  My interpretation you understand.

Hey God, look at your favorite fair-haired boy, Job!  He thinks he is so good.  Of course he is good, he hasn't had anything happen to him.  Let me have him for a minute and we will see how he is.  God simply said, knowingly, go ahead, but don't kill him.

Its a story about how a man loses everything, his children, his health everything.  He has a lot of those "good friends" who try to help him understand why this has happened to him.  Famous line.  "You must have done something really bad and God is punishing you?"  In the end Job gives us the mirror to look in.   "No matter what happens to me, I will serve the Lord, for the Lord is Lord of my life and heart."  So what does Job 38: 28 have to do with anything.  It struck me that the Lord is now speaking and talking about what all He does.   28:  "Does the rain have a father?  Who fathers the drops of dew."  Have you ever seen dew's formation.  You can feel it if you are sitting outside at night waiting for the fireworks or to see June bugs, and you can see it the next day on the grass, outside furniture and cobwebs.  I love seeing the cobwebs with all that shimmering dew.  Then we need to think how small and delicate and beautiful that is.  He stores up the rain for when we need it, He stores up the lightening, clouds everything is in His power.  Power that big, and that delicate, and that small is TRUE power.  He touches lives, He helps us forgive, He brings the Sun, Water, and storms.
He moves mountains, He restores relationships.  Who father's the drops of dew.  The great I Am, the great Artist. . .our God.  How breathless is that to take in? 

PEEK A BOO!

There is a point on Lakewood Christian School and Church's woods where I would love to have a house.  Not only do you get to peek out at the south end of the lake, it is like a private, secret kind of jut out into the lake.  You would have the east morning sun and the west sundown beauty at night.
It is kind of I see you, but you can't see me.  However, that is only a fantasy.  What it would cost to pipe in, and run a road, and all that realistic stuff, would stagger the imagination.  It is a day, like today, that makes you think of something like this.  Grey and rainy.  Although the sun is trying to play peek a boo with us right now!

Psalm 16: 1  Keep and protect me, O God, for in You I have found refuge, and in You do I put my trust and HIDE myself.

WHAT TO DO WHILE YOU WAIT!!

Do what the spider does, braid and weave your way to peace.  How in the world would I do that?
And, better yet WHY?

Waiting is hard.  Americans are so bad about waiting, even right down to how we handle road rage.
I saw in the paper this week a young man who didn't like how another guy was communicating with him on I-69.  (You know what I mean)  So he followed him onto US 6 and went around him to get him to stop.  Instead the man in the truck hit him spinning the car end over end.  WOW!  Tough example, but we don't even like to wait five minutes for the waitress to come over.  We want God to answer our prayers.  Some of us have waited years for certain people in our life, or events.

Twice today I read from two different devotions about Isaiah 40: 31.  So, I got the message that I need to work on this today and it certainly did bring some interesting ideas.  For example:  what are we to do while we wait?  The spider weaves an intricate braid or strands to make a very tight compartment of safety.  So, how about we spend time in the Word, worshiping, praying, singing, spending time with God we don't usually have.  We ask, seek, knock and then go about our life.  Some definitions write that the word wait - means braided together.  A tight band of material that has no strings attached.  Hmmm!  So, I see that as staying so closely woven to God, braided into His Word, trusting His perfect plan for my life, and of course, trusting His timing.  Ooops! The really hard part.

Isaiah 40: 31 -  But those who wait for the Lord (who expect, look for, and hope in Him)
shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up to the sun; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and and not faint or become tired.

I sat down this week (John 16: 24) and wrote out 14 bold statements.  Four of which have been answered.  So, be busy about your relationship with Him and perfect peace in the time of war can be yours.

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As per a request:   Pictures from a fall walk on 10-11-13

It wasn't as colorful as I thought it would be yesterday - maybe next week.  I have pictures form previous falls where its peaking already.  We have had the reds, but the maples are slow this year.
Have a wonderful Fall day!

SHOW ME THE MONEY!

When I started thinking of the things that speak to me or did this week, I couldn't help but use that phrase.

Most of you will know that that was a phrase used in a Tom Cruise - Cuba Gooding movie.  The whole emphasis was, to perform those words in order to get pumped up and focused on "the issue at hand!" 

This week I was impressed with reading about how God does see all the good and bad things that happen to us in our daily lives.  David was always in God's face about feeling abandoned, or picked on, and forgotten.  He would whine and Nash his teeth, but in the end, turn it over to the high God, and Praise Him anyway.   Isaiah 61: 7 says Instead of your (former) shame you shall have a twofold recompense;  instead of dishonor and reproach (your people) shall rejoice in their portion.  Therefore in their land they shall possess double (what they had forfeited);  everlasting joy shall be theirs.

That is even better then "Show Me the Money!"  It is God promising that no matter what is in front of us, God is always behind us.  He has got all the offenses, all the lies to us, all the hurts, all the everything covered.  He is SHOWING us that He is, of course, the judge and He will take care of it, no matter what it is.  And, once again, our job then.  Focus on giving Him glory and honor in whether you eat or drink, whatever it is, the total glory goes to Him.

I have listened to a lot of hurt people over these last 32 years as a counselor.  The hardest thing they handle is . . ."Look at what this person did to me - they changed my life forever -  I will never get that back!"    I do believe that we do, He does.  God has it covered.  You just keep serving Him.  it is no longer your problem.