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Showing posts from October, 2011

Praying for faith.

I had always thought of faith as something I muster out of my own strength. God recently challenged me on this through an RC Sproul podcast. So, I began praying, asking God to give me faith. God's word supports this approach. "Jesus is the author and perfecter of faith." Hebrews 12:2 Jesus said, "Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." John 15:4 So, in this case the fruit of faith does not come from myself alone, but from Jesus who is the vine. This past week,  I prayed daily that God would give me more faith. I noticed a pronounced difference. I had challenges this week... challenges that in the weeks and months past had had derailed my sense of peace. In that loss of peace I even questioned if God was really there. This week seemed different. Storms came up, but I remained at peace that God was with me and that there was nothing to fear. I

Men try to fix.

I've been told this many times... When women have a problem, they want their man to LISTEN!!! to their feelings. But what do us men do? We try and FIX... and... this drives us both crazy! Even though I know this is what my wife wants, I find it VERY difficult to do. Almost impossible! Why wouldn't you want to solve the problem??? Just telling the problem doesn't get rid of the problem, it still exists... Isn't it unloving of me to not try and help? Let's fix this and experienced the freedom of "a problem solved". Several weeks ago, I had something very unusual happen. I had feelings... No, that's not new, but I tried to share them with my wife... THAT is new, or at least rare. What do men usually do? Bury their feelings! I'm guilty of this... and it's not the healthiest way to live. So, in an effort to be more emotionally healthy and connected with my wife I took a new route... I shared. First, I took a walk to sort through everything..

Two Dollars and John 3:16

Three weeks ago I received two pieces of mail on the same day. The first, a request from John 3:16 Mission asking for $1.92. This is a local non-profit organization who put on a Thanksgiving dinner for those who are down and out. The request said simply that for $1.92 they could feed someone a Thanksgiving dinner. I remember getting these in years past and simply discarding it and thinking... "I bet they paid almost a dollar every time they send that out." This year I was jogged out of this line of thinking by the second piece of mail. In the next envelope I received a solicitation to complete a survey. To entice me to fill this survey out, they enclosed two crisp $1 bills. "Hmm... I could just put this two dollars in the John 3:16 envelope and I'm not out any money, and someone gets a meal!" So, that's exactly what I did. Sadly I admit, I felt pretty good about myself.  Tonight, I went through the day's mail. The first envelope... "Hmm... John 3: