Today begins extra early as I have to be at the airport by 5:00 am heading to Montana for the 3 days with the school district. When I got up I couldn’t see lights out the kitchen window only to find it was snowing rather heavily. My first thought was to pray it left quickly but almost as immediately I wanted to praise God for we are in short supply of winter snow. God simply reminds me that my trust is to be fully in Him, not in the road conditions. He will always prepare the pathway where He wants His work to take place.
My early morning started with me coming into the kitchen to find my coffee brewed and all over the counter and floor. When I set it last night I hadn’t pushed the carafe fully into place so it simply let the coffee run around it and onto everything else. It’s cleaned now and I’ve had my two cups, but I had to do some quick “surrenderings” in order to keep my mind and emotions in place!
Today has some obstacles in it which I know about, but have little if any influence. I have given them to the One who does have full control if others will allow. He Alone is always the right answer to our issues at hand.
When I saw the coffee pot’s mess earlier I quickly thought this would be a picture of my day’s outcome. However, after having my devotional time with God I can see that a little mess can be simply that–a little mess. The work of this day is to be done with my obedience to God’s Leading. When this got squared away within me my inner self became peaceful. Boy, our God is GOOD!
It is a new day and the start of a new week. I had this repeated dream during the night regarding a couple of Easter songs which I’ve sung many times in years gone by. As I began my devotions the words of It Is Finished, 4th verse were singing in my head: “Yet in my heart, the battle still rages. Not all prisoners of war had come home. They were battles of my own making. I didn’t know that the war had been won.” It goes on to verse 5, “Then I heard that the King of the ages, had fought all the battles for me. And victory was mine for the asking, and now, Praise His Name–I am Free!”
I went to see my prayer warrior yesterday afternoon when the grandsons had gone home. I was taking her a picture of the men in our step study so she could be praying for each of them and knew their faces while she prayed. The time turned into a wonderful opportunity for praising God and her reminding me once again of who I am to God. Everyone needs a Lois in their lives and I’m so grateful for her being God’s gift to me.
It is amazing what one learns about himself when you begin to commit to fully opening yourself to God. I’ve never wanted to see myself as selfish. I always compared myself to my dad so it was easy to “not be selfish”. However, now that I’ve moved beyond this to seeing Jesus as my barometer, I am nothing but selfish.
When Spring begins to arrive all I want to do is spend my time out in the yard getting everything ready for another season. I no longer want to be going to schools, even though I love doing this in the winter giving purpose to those days. I want to stay focused on what “I want”. God is teaching me to listen to Him more and more about the use of my time and does it honor Him? There is no better time than right now for this lesson. Everything seems to be a priority and God wants me to start by asking Him to keep Him as my first and only priority. The others are blessings as He gives time for them. It is a new way of seeing each day’s purpose.
Yesterday ended getting the gardening done I wanted to complete and today continues the work. The only difference is that there are now 3 grandsons instead of one! We had fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy for supper–everyone’s favorite. There wasn’t even a remnant left for today. Three grandsons do eat!
There is something about being home and not in schools for which Satan wants to turn into a playground for his reminders of who I thought I was in the past. When I have time on my hands, he wants to use it for these purposes. God, on the other hand, has given me rich tools this year to fight these attacks. The devotional I’m using and reading The Passion together each morning allows me to be reminded each day of the depth of God’s love for me–each one of us. I’ve never had a devotional so well done in this arena.
I realize, stepping into this area of lay counseling, does open a door I need to leave open. This is the one of my personal identity with God and man. The more I realize just how much God has done to equip me for this new area, the more I rejoice in HIs Faithfulness, His Love, His Strength and HIs Redemption. How much I want to stay awake to these throughout each day. What a Savior we have!
Today is one of those blessed days when I get to stay home and GARDEN! It is the day for transplanting the little tomatoes and peppers into the 3″ pots until they are ready to be transplanted into their garden home for this season (mid-May). There are few things I enjoy as much as these moments. Afterwards, I’ll start on trimming the berries (raspberries and blackberries)! What makes it even more fun is one of my grandsons asked to spend last night so we could be together today and tonight. Of course that made grandpa very happy! He even seemed glad he gets to help with the gardening moment today.
There are some important things to get done this morning, then the rest of the day he and I can have together. How GOOD GOD IS!
Yesterday I wrote about the stinging statement made to me. By yesterday morning I was able to let the sting go knowing it seemed to be something motivated by Satan’s evil intent to stop this work to begin the lay counseling program at church. I felt “bad” that someone felt this way, but I knew better than to submit to it. Today Jesus shed the final Light on this topic as I read His Word in Mark 10:29-30. It says: “‘Listen to my words.’ Jesus said. ‘Anyone who leaves his home behind and chooses me over children, parents, family and possessions, all for the sake of the gospel, it will come back to him a hundred times as much in this lifetime–homes, family, mothers, brothers, sisters, children, possessions–along with persecutions. And in the age to come, he will inherit eternal life.'” I knew in reading this it was Christ’s message for me.
Sometimes (all the time) I just sit back and be amazed at the way God makes Himself clear. At this point in time all I know is that I’m to do this. How it will come about is all an area of trust. But, I know that TRUST is more solid than any cement slab man makes for God’s Kingdom is never dependent upon man’s efforts–it starts with man’s surrender.
Early in my day yesterday I was accused of being selfish and needing to control–(no, this wasn’t by my wife!). It stung a good deal thinking someone actually felt this way. It was trying to take its toll on the day’s work. I had a consultant working with me at the school for the day and I was needing to be very focused. By last night when we had our step study lesson on HOPE I was able to let it go somewhat. This morning however, as I had begun to journal, I wrote that it stung hearing this from the person who sent the text. It was then that the reminder came to my mind–“I was never understood by the very people I came to seek and save–my own people.” It was then that I was able to let it go. I thought, “good grief, how did I momentarily forget this?”
So often we are classified as good when we do just what the world around us wants. It is not easy somedays to walk a different path, but in the end, it will always be the right thing to do. To God be the GLORY!
Every year on this day I have a little celebration in my heart that winter is over and spring has come. It’s only the first day of spring for me knowing the actual one is later in the month, but this month holds the day so I start rejoicing today!
As I continue to address the idea of doing lay counseling I find many steps which need to be taken. Simply completing the application for acceptance into the classes is no small matter. But, this morning something hit me which I had to step back and ponder a moment. In the world of educational consulting which I’ve done now for 15 years, I’ve used my educational background as my resources. Stepping into this new area will mean using my entire life. Educational consulting is safe–I’ve been called a success here by man. This new territory is one where God is called the success and I become a messenger of this. I’ve heard the voices within me calling me failure, weakness, sadness, regret and disappointment, and yet God wants to use it so others can find the LIGHT which changes this message into FREEDOM! I don’t carry a torch of light from man’s world, but a torch of LIGHT from GOD’s KINGDOM. It’s a little overwhelming at the moment, but I’m trusting God for He is the only One where I want to place my trust.
Well, the meeting with the men from Mending the Soul took place and it was such a blessing. Only 3 of the men ended up coming, but, I leave these things to God. The ones present truly had a meaningful conversation. It quickly became obvious that God has maintained His work in the lives of the ones present. They are likewise continuing their work to heal listening and obeying God. The “work” that man needs to do looks like talking about their past to “those they trust”. That group of trusted people has grown significantly too. The one gentleman who had never opened up before the class and has a horrific childhood story, is now allowing others to use his story to help others struggling from their own past. The emotional energy which had engulfed him, paralyzed him into silence, is now turning into energy to help others. I just smile as I write this knowing how much truth there is in this from my own past and so many others.
Earnie Lewis 