You know you . . .

My wife, Connie, and I went to Barnes & Noble after work Monday to enjoy a cup of coffee and conversation. Ordering coffee used to mean asking for coffee, black or with sugar and cream. Not any more - thank you very much Starbucks. I always order a Latte, skim milk, extra hot - 180 degrees and most of the time a tall. Sometimes a grande. My wife usually gets some weird coffee, pumpkin pie spice with whipped cream on top or a peppermint latte or chai late without water. Since all coffee or tea is made mostly of water I haven't figured out this last one but the folks at Barnes know what she is talking about. I don't try to figure it out - I just pay for it.

Last night as we sat at our table I noticed a book - You Know You Reached Mid-Life When. It was a very funny book. "You know you have reached Mid-Life when all your baby pictures are in black and white." "You know you have reached mid life when you spend 6 months researching to spend $29.95 on the best coffee maker." The book actually said toaster but Connie and I have been researching the Internet for about 6 month to decide which coffee maker we should buy so I substituted coffee maker to make it more relevant to us.

I found the book hilarious but then again that's where I am in life. So on the way home I thought of a new book title. "You know it's the Christmas season when . . . " Here is your chance. Send me your comments.

NO SATISFACTION!

After Black Friday, the big shopping day immediately following Thanksgiving and facing Cyber Monday, ceremonial kick-off of internet online purchasing, maybe a word about contentment is in line. Here are few things for us to reflect on.

1. Contentment doesn’t come from what I have but WHO I HAVE IN MY HEART.

Matthew 6:33 NLT Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.
Hebrews 13:5 ESV Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

2. Contentment doesn’t come from what I have but it is the product of HOW I THINK.

People think if they have certain things they will be content. In reality that only leads to an ever lengthening list of things necessary to help me be content.
1 Timothy 6:9-10 ESV But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

3. Contentment doesn’t come from getting stuff it is something LEARNED.

Philippians 4:11 MSG Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances.

Paul Yancy wrote in ‘Prayer; Does It Make Any Difference?’ about a person who was a spiritual seeker. This person stopped his busy ‘acquiring stuff’ life to spend a few days in a monastery. The monk that welcomed him said, “I hope your stay is a blessed one.” As the monk showed him to his cell, a very, very simple living quarters he said. “If you need anything let me know and I we’ll teach you how to live without it.”

4. Contentment does not come from physical comfort but from SPIRITUAL COMFORT know as PEACE.

Hebrews 13:5-6 ESV Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." 6 So we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"

To be at peace is to not be afraid. Not to be afraid of what someone could do to me. Not to be afraid that someone will take what I have. Not to be afraid that someone has something I do not have. To be content is to be at peace with your surroundings. To be content is not, not working to improve but it is to not be at war with your surroundings.

I know a man who is not rich by most standards and actually is fighting a few physical aliments. He works hard to help improve on the life his family has, continues to believe God for healing as he does what he can to easy the aliment and speed his recovery and yet he is content – he is at peace. He is not at war, he is at peace. He is content.

At this holiday season with the message of peace on earth I pray that you find the gift of contentment. It is differently one that keeps on giving.

Luke 2:14 NLT "Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased."

Moments of Time

My wife, Connie, has numerous hobbies one of which is taking pictures. Whenever we travel someplace she always carries her camera and starts taking pictures. In fact she looks for places for us to go so she can take pictures. From dead leaves to hay bails, ducks to sunsets there she will be snapping away.

The digital camera is a wonderful thing and has made such a hobby for my wife possible. No developing charges. Funny thing, there are many young folks that never had to take a roll of film to be developed. Times change fast!

Connie has the ability to see a neat picture in some funny things. Some I see and think are very cool and some I don't. But you know the ability to see images and beauty in something is like the old saying goes "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder." Marcel Proust, a french novelist, essayist and critic, once wrote, "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."


I guess that is what makes it interesting for me to go around with my wife. I never know what she is going to view as something of value. From prints in sand to railings on a cabin porch, there she is adding pictures to her collection.

It is, however, great fun to look at them when we get home. It has turned every outing and every trip into a special moment in time for us. We look at the pictures and remember. I can feel the sun and the wind and the cold and the heat and the joy of just being there with her. Amazing things pictures are, instant fix of the past, lived moments pulled forward in time to the present to be visited again.

James 4:14 NASB Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

Moments of time are spent. You can't save them. Time seems to drag on and it also seems to melt away faster than we would like. Yet it never truly goes any faster or slower than it has since God created time. Time is gift that some of us turn into a hardship. Time (your life time) should be lived not endured. Not all moments are great fun. Sickness, loneliness, unemployment, you can make a list. Time is what you make of it. The time it took to take one of the pictures that you see above was less than a second in a day of 86,400 seconds. Yet my wife with a camera has the ability to save that less than a second moment and record it so I can recall it later. I then choose to look at that moment and think, "WHAT A GREAT DAY WE HAD." Even though I know there a few difficult moments in that very same day. I must make a decision to remember the good. I can even train myself to find the good moments.

Deuteronomy 30:19 NLT "Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!

Today, enjoy the moments. Look for the joy contained in each day. The bad pictures my wife takes we choose to just delete. So delete the bad moments if nothing scriptural can be learned from them - file the best moments of the day away to be remembered later and look forward to tomorrow with anticipation for good things yet to come.

Jeremiah 29:11 NLT For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Road TRIP!!!

Thursday my wife and I took a road trip to Siloam Springs, Arkansas. We love road trips. At $2.99 a gallon for gasoline we have taken fewer this year than we would like. With coffee in hand we took off. Along the way my wife took some pictures.

I like the the pictures with the big hay bales. There is an interesting story about our camera and camera batteries but I will just move on. Let it be said that we had to turn around and go back to get these pictures. Why is it that you always think that what you are looking for is just a mile down the road. Ten miles later you finally find it. So it goes with the story of these pictures.

I must say I did feel sorry for vacuum cleaners in Arkansas. They stick OLD and DEAD vacuums up on the fence for everyone to look at. It was like driving up on a mass killing of uprights. I was glad we had no children in the car.

We did run into a VERY colorful character. Colorful for a couple of reasons. One reason was that he was tattooed from the neck down. Not every spot was tattooed but he was definitely working on it. The other reason he was colorful was his language. He knew about Jesus but only from the standpoint that 'Jesus' was a word used when you were upset. He dropped the 'F' bomb like we use the word 'the' in our sentences. I could have gotten upset and OFFENDED. It was a little difficult being around a guy like this. Not because of his tattoos - they didn't bother me. In fact, some of them were a tremendous display of artistic talent. But the language and the things he and his buddy talked about and found funny was actually disgusting. But let me ask you this. WHO IS SUPPOSE TO AFFECT WHO? As followers of Jesus - Jesus is a word I know but as a name for my saviour - we are supposed to affect the world and not be affected by it. As all conversations go between two men he asked me my occupation. When I told him I was a minister on staff at a church his language changed. Not as foul but he dropped the 'D' and 'H' word once in awhile. He did clean up his talk. The other guy just disappeared.

As we talked I found out he loved his wife, his little girl, baseball and being an artist. I zeroed in on raising children and how we as fathers should help them to avoid the mistakes we have made. I didn't make much headway into telling him the gospel message but I did sow every seed I had an opportunity to sow. To me he was hard ground. At least to me he appeared to be.

Jesus said - Mat 5:13 - 14 "You are the salt of the earth; . . . v14 "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. " Matthew 5:16 NKJV Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Well I did my best. I let my light shine and attempted to be salt to season this guy. I must admit, it was not easy. I don't know if I made any impact on this guy or his buddy. The experience did remind me that the world is dark and full of disgusting things (sin)and dying. My job is to be light and salt and let the world hear the gospel message through me. My job is not to hide out in my home or church or Sunday school class where I feel comfortable. Jesus made the greatest impact on people when He was the most uncomfortable. Hanging on the cross is uncomfortable but I rejoice because He did and now I have eternal life.

John 3:16 MSG "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.