Saturday, October 30, 2010

Applebees


We stopped in to Applebees the other night for dinner and met a nice waiter named Kevin. When our food showed up, Stephanie told him we were about to pray for our food and asked him if he had anything he wanted us to pray about.

He had had a kidney transplant 2 years ago and was wanting prayer for continued healing.

I asked if he knew Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He did.

Pray for Kevin, for continued health.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

August in Ashtabula


In August Stephanie and I had the privilege of going to North Dakota. I worked in Ashtabula and we stayed in Jamestown.


Jamestown is home to a buffalo refuge and we saw some beautiful white buffalo. Stephanie loves wildlife.
While staying in one of the hotels, my wife met one of the maids and talked to her about the Lord. Like many people, she thought everything between her and the man upstairs was fine.
Pray that God would open her eyes that it is important for all of us to be sure that we are fine with the One with whom we must give an account.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Ephesians 2:17

Recently, my wife Stephanie and I were able to go to Colorado to visit family for the weekend. It was a great time to visit with some of our children and also our 10 grandchildren, three of whom are newborn triplet girls who are here as a result of a miracle of God.

While there, Stephanie had a chance to talk to a young family member about God. She, as a child, has been introduced to spiritism through television and friends. Stephanie had the opportunity to talk to her about the reality of spiritism, and the dangers of it. The young girl re-dedicated her life to Christ, but still doesn't fully understand the danger. Please pray for her that God would help her understand, and that He would also protect her, and strengthen her to stay away from this kind of thing.

I also met a couple of guys on the streets. The first one is named Todd.

Todd was born in Florida in the '40's. His father left his mother when he was only 6 months old.
His stepfather was extremely abusive. Todd's dreams when he was a child was to be either a marine biologist or a hockey player. He left home at 17.

He went through a failed marriage and has 1 son and 1 daughter.

Todd has been on the streets off and on for the past 10 years, and has a problem with alchohol.
He gave his life to Christ this last summer, but the baggage from his past is still there. It takes time to grow. He is also grieving over the loss of a girlfriend to suicide last summer.

Pray that God would help Todd to discover his new identity in Christ and deliver him from the bondage of alchohol and the bondage of the past.

I'm confident that the Lord has a bright future for this man.

The second man I met was Robbie.

Robbie is a Gulf War Veteran. He has an apartment, but is one step away from the streets. He is mad at God because he also lost a girlfriend to suicide recently.

He has never given his life to Christ. I explained to him the "Ticket to Heaven" at the bottom of the blog. He understood what he must do, but is not willing to do it at this time. He's mad at God.

Please pray for him that God would continue to extend grace and mercy to Robbie, and that Robbie would not wait too long to respond.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Tradition vs. Truth

My wife and I have been in northeastern Kansas for the last 3 weeks and are really enjoying it.

Last week I got into a conversation with a man from Houston, Texas. He is hispanic and has a very close family. Whenever he is home, they always make sure to attend church together.

Religious tradition for him has never brought him peace. The peace that we can know by being confident that God is not angry with us. How many there are that spend their whole lives trying to appease God, and are never confident that they have done so.

Concerning the Law, I explained that obedience to the Law was never intended to make God happy with us. The Law is holy, righteous and good, but it was intended to lead us to the cross of Christ. The Law is a mirror that shows us what and who we are, and that we need help.

In order to be accepted by God, we have to be just as perfect as He is. And we're not. We can see that. From as far back as we can remember in our lives, we can see where we have fallen short. And to strive for that perfection now, still leaves our past to be dealt with, because God has always been perfect. He never grew into what and who He is, He has always been the same: perfect.

Hopefully, the Law will take us to Jesus. He is perfect and at the cross dealt with our imperfection. He paid the penalty for that and offers to cloth us in His perfection. Whoever doesn't trust in his own work to appease God and instead trusts God who justifies us through what Jesus did at the cross will find the peace they have been looking for: that God will no longer be angry with us.

Religious tradition teaches us that we must do something to appease God. God tells us that He has done for us what we cannot do. To have peace with God is accomplished through the cross, not our own efforts.

The man I talked to will have to grapple with these two things: what he has learned from tradition, and what God says. I pray that he will clearly see the difference and choose the truth.