jon mark

sooo, today i’m checking my blogs to see what is going on…anne has an interesting post and i just had to check it out!!! here a post that she had a while back was featured today on a blog in australia…and not only on the blog, but on a radio talk show!!!

and not only that…my comment from her post, “that comb-over really does need to go. someone might lose an eye on a windy day! if the church can change…you can too…!“  was quoted in the blog and on the radio!!! i find that funny…and for whatever crazy reason that has made my day…

famous…not really…

but funny!!! and maybe i’ll even share the true story behind the comment…?

sooo, we had a pretty busy weekend and had plenty of things going on…i didn’t touch a computer for over 48 hours…and i survived it!!!

in the midst of what all we had going, i was reminded of a certain passage…as many of you know i enjoy reading blogs each day and seeing what God is doing in the lives of people that i will some day spend all eternity with…the one blog that seems to challenge the depth of my mind and my faith is pastor terry’s blog…and recently he has been going through the book of nehemiah and what we can gain from his leadership…that all being said…

i started just reading back over the book again…i’ve been through several studies on the book and heard numerous messages about it…but something stuck out to me today, like it never has before…that was in the midst of nehemiah’s prayer…

vs. 11 “…O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.“

he wasn’t asking God to put the wall up in a day or keep him from having to do any hard work…he wasn’t asking God to some day to great things in and through his life…he asked God to give him “success today“…

today…

sooo, what about when things get extremely busy in life…we have so many things going on and we seem to meet ourselves coming and going…when we have life all planned out…is this prayer going through our heads…did we take the time to consult God before we got going??? or did we just make the plans and ask God to bless them???

though we do need to plan ahead and be prepared for what may or may not lie ahead…we can not forget that God has things He wants to do in and through our lives today…we need to make sure that we take the time to walk and talk with God today…to see the needs around us today…to live for God today…

nehemiah had just heard of the news and the state of God’s people…the first thing he did was seek God’s face…he didn’t go make the plans and then go to God…he wanted God to be him that very day and work in and through his life that very today…

so what does God have to do in and through our lives…

today…

sooo, today’s post is going to be short and sweet!!!

yesterday i included a verse that is usually taken out of context when it is quoted…so i would like to see if there are any verses coming to mind…where people take and use them for their own purposes…leaving context in the dust…

way out of line…?

sooo, this week molly has been cutting molars…FUN TIMES?!? but yesterday she was finally back to her normal self…after work yesterday i went home and was hanging out with her, waiting on mommy to get home from work…grandma kay was there and molly was showing off as usual…but all of the sudden she was standing up holding the doorknob to the garage and she saw grandma kay…

then she thought maybe she could walk over to her, about six feet away…she kept her hands on the wall and kind of did a shuffle step…walk…slide thing over to her…we were all cheering, including molly, once she made it over to her!!! it won’t be long til she’s off and we won’t be able to keep her still!!!

then later on she decided to get up in the pantry we have and kind of rearrange things a little…she’s never quite satisfied with how we put things on the shelves??? she decided to take the 50 sandwich bags out of their box, one by one…and when mommy tried to put them back…molly would take them out once more…that one we got on dvd!!! she is just growing up so much, so fast…yet in light of it all they’re just small steps…

you know me…i got to thinking about it as we did bath time…so often there are things that i want to obtain or goals that i want to reach, both small and large…and i want to reach those today, yesterday really…but i would settle for today!!! other people all around me are reaching them today…but what i have to do and take the small steps…i have to be faithful in what God has given me to do right here, right now…i have to be a good steward of ALL that God has given me right here, right now…i have to take the small steps…

then hopefully, no matter how far away it may or may not be…i will, like molly, be able to take off and no one will be able to keep me still…

this reminds me of a passage…Jeremiah 29:11 is the verse that is so often quoted…”For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (NIV) but no one ever shares that verse right before it…”This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.” (NIV)

did you catch that…when 70 years are completed…OUCH!!! though we seem to always want things our way and in our timing…sometimes God has some work to do in us…sometimes His timing is a little different than ours…sometimes we need to take…

small steps…

sooo, yesterday was extremely busy and i didn’t get to post anything…but we’re back in business today!!! and i really want to get back to the idea of being either in or of the world…i did get one whole response to that has post, but it had absolutely nothing to do with the post…thanks cathi!!!

this past weekend i had plenty of time to think about this…in fact i was trying to live out what i was thinking, as i was thinking…confused yet??? my whole thought in looking back at the passage is focused on the word “of”…what would it mean exactly to be “of the world”…

so i came up with a list of phrases that use the word “of”…

-cup of coffee

- bag of chips

- bucket of water

- day of remembrance

- coat of many colors

- cup of coffee (did i mention that one already???)

in coming up with this list and sitting there thinking about this list…at starbucks of course…the word “of” brings with it the idea of contents or what something is made from or what something is filled with…

so to me when i read this passage i see Jesus saying that when people are thinking of us…if people were asked to describe us…our contents should not be from the world…we should not be filled with the world or consumed by the world…

and to go back to the whole idea of a cup of coffee…i know, imagine that…but it only stops being a cup of coffee when it is completely empty…not containing any of that wonderful liquid…so we have to be completely empty of the world…

is that possible??? what does that look like??? i’m still thinking about it…just not at starbucks now!!!

there you have it…

in or off…take two