This week I received some inspiration from a photo of an 83- year-old woman who looks about half her age. I made a copy of her picture and circulated it among my colleagues, telling them that was me. Not one of them said, "You look great", or something to that effect. Instead, one asked, "That’s you?" Another asked, "When did you take this?" They were letting me know-quite nicely- that I didn’t look anything like the woman in the picture. So eventually I told them, "That’s me in a few months."
Now it takes discipline to achieve that kind of appearance. Discipline to get up early in the morning and exercise, discipline to pass up a second helping of that pie or that ice-cream. In the same way it takes discipline to pray, study the Word or write this blog. Acquiring this discipline comes from God. He can help you get where you want to go, be what you want to be, do what you want to do.
I have to admit I’m not there yet, although I’m trying and I’m praying. I remember when I first started walking, I felt like I was ploughing through ankle-deep mud. I struggled to walk one mile those first few weeks. Then I struggled to walk three days a week, but gradually I worked up to one and a quarter mile, then one and a half and this past week I walked two miles two days and exercised two days. Excuse me while I pat myself on the back..
However, my goal is to exercise at least four days a week. To achieve this, I’ve worked out a plan. If I wake up too late to go walking, I put on my video and do a thirty minute workout, or if I feel like doing neither I’ll do some stretching or weight lifting exercises. They are great for toning and limbering up the body. So pretty soon, I’ll be looking like that 83-year-old woman.
My next test of discipline has to do with my writing. I haven’t been exactly consistent in writing this blog. So I’m going to work on that, plus write at least one page of my new book In the Promised Land each day, submit an article every week and keep on submitting and tweaking Coming out of Egypt until I get it published. With a full time job and a home to look after, this could be a daunting prospect, but "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me" Phillipians 4:13.
Next week I’ll let you know whether I’m succeeding or not.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Monday, July 04, 2005
Happy Fourth of July
I finally got my Bravenet code pasted in to my blog, but guess what, the original had disappeared, the one about fathers, so you may be seeing two of the same with different titles! Let’s you know I’m not yet savvy about this whole blogging business. But I like it. I mean where else can you write about a whole spectrum of topics, from making afghans to politics?
So Happy Fourth, everybody. I trust that while you’re having your second helping of apple pie you stop to reflect on what Independence means to you and to America. What does Independence truly mean? Does it only mean having the ability to govern ourselves? Free from outside control, as the Oxford dictionary tells us? Or does it mean not depending on anyone? America is known as the Land of the free and the home of the brave. But lately we have to ask ourselves who are the free and who are the brave?
When a judge in Alabama loses his job as a result of fighting to keep the Ten Commandments in the courthouse, where is the freedom? When people can get into trouble for giving out tracts or Bibles near a school, where is the freedom? The drug dealers have easier access to the children than we do. When Christian teachers have to refrain from telling their pupils about God for fear of losing their jobs, where is the freedom?
Freedom may be limited, but bravery abounds. We have to be brave to walk the streets at nights, brave to send our children to school, brave to mention the name of Jesus in public. When over thirty six million people live in poverty in this, the richest country on earth, where is the independence? When children are the largest growing number of the nation’s poor, where is the independence? When words like outsourcing and downsizing are common everyday terms, where’s the independence?
I hate to spoil your celebrations, but we need to examine ourselves. The laws of this country were based on the laws of God. We must obey them. In the book of Deuteronomy Chapter 4 verses 5-6 Moses told the children of Israel: "Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgements, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.
Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."
Can other nations now look at us and say we are a wise and understanding people? Hey, go easy on that apple pie. But that’s for another blog.
So Happy Fourth, everybody. I trust that while you’re having your second helping of apple pie you stop to reflect on what Independence means to you and to America. What does Independence truly mean? Does it only mean having the ability to govern ourselves? Free from outside control, as the Oxford dictionary tells us? Or does it mean not depending on anyone? America is known as the Land of the free and the home of the brave. But lately we have to ask ourselves who are the free and who are the brave?
When a judge in Alabama loses his job as a result of fighting to keep the Ten Commandments in the courthouse, where is the freedom? When people can get into trouble for giving out tracts or Bibles near a school, where is the freedom? The drug dealers have easier access to the children than we do. When Christian teachers have to refrain from telling their pupils about God for fear of losing their jobs, where is the freedom?
Freedom may be limited, but bravery abounds. We have to be brave to walk the streets at nights, brave to send our children to school, brave to mention the name of Jesus in public. When over thirty six million people live in poverty in this, the richest country on earth, where is the independence? When children are the largest growing number of the nation’s poor, where is the independence? When words like outsourcing and downsizing are common everyday terms, where’s the independence?
I hate to spoil your celebrations, but we need to examine ourselves. The laws of this country were based on the laws of God. We must obey them. In the book of Deuteronomy Chapter 4 verses 5-6 Moses told the children of Israel: "Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgements, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.
Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."
Can other nations now look at us and say we are a wise and understanding people? Hey, go easy on that apple pie. But that’s for another blog.
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Fathers In Action
I trust that all you fathers had a wonderful Father’s day with your loved ones. For the past few weeks I have been writing about mothers of the Bible, so now with Fathers’ day behind us, I think it would be remiss of me if I didn’t mention something about fathers and their place in our lives.
Fathers are tough, or most of them are, but they, too, need the guidance and strength that can come only from their Heavenly Father. A father who thinks he is too much of a man to pray or go to church is depriving himself -and his family- of one of the greatest benefits, which is, godly counsel. In Psalm 63:1, David said, " ... early will I seek thee: my soul longeth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;"
David knew the benefits of seeking God’s face regularly not only for counsel, but for comfort. Because even big, rugged men need to be comforted. When the storms of life come against you, as they did for David many times, you need comfort. You may try to mask your feelings with a macho outlook, but inside you hurt just as women do.
Abraham, called by God to be the "father of many nations", also knew the benefits of staying close to God. So much so, that he was called a "friend" of God. And the Lord said, "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgement; ..."( Genesis 18:19).
Such was the confidence that God had in Abraham. And He can have that same confidence in fathers of today if they would seek His face the way Abraham did. But not only did Abraham seek God, he obeyed him in everything, even to the point of taking his only son Isaac to sacrifice him, as the Lord had commanded.
Our society today is in dire need of godly fathers. In many homes the fathers are missing, and in some they are missing in action. Many juvenile offenders come from homes like these. What type of father are you? Are you missing or missing in action? Ask God to bring you back so you can fulfill your divine destiny as the head of the home. If every father would begin to do this we will see a turnaround in our nation and in the world. How about it?
Fathers are tough, or most of them are, but they, too, need the guidance and strength that can come only from their Heavenly Father. A father who thinks he is too much of a man to pray or go to church is depriving himself -and his family- of one of the greatest benefits, which is, godly counsel. In Psalm 63:1, David said, " ... early will I seek thee: my soul longeth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;"
David knew the benefits of seeking God’s face regularly not only for counsel, but for comfort. Because even big, rugged men need to be comforted. When the storms of life come against you, as they did for David many times, you need comfort. You may try to mask your feelings with a macho outlook, but inside you hurt just as women do.
Abraham, called by God to be the "father of many nations", also knew the benefits of staying close to God. So much so, that he was called a "friend" of God. And the Lord said, "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgement; ..."( Genesis 18:19).
Such was the confidence that God had in Abraham. And He can have that same confidence in fathers of today if they would seek His face the way Abraham did. But not only did Abraham seek God, he obeyed him in everything, even to the point of taking his only son Isaac to sacrifice him, as the Lord had commanded.
Our society today is in dire need of godly fathers. In many homes the fathers are missing, and in some they are missing in action. Many juvenile offenders come from homes like these. What type of father are you? Are you missing or missing in action? Ask God to bring you back so you can fulfill your divine destiny as the head of the home. If every father would begin to do this we will see a turnaround in our nation and in the world. How about it?
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