I've had a nice, quiet day of relaxing this Friday. I thought I was going to end up with some work to do, but, after re-figuring my hours for the week I had none left!!
Since the kids were already at the sitter's I decided it was a good day to be here and just relax a bit. This is something I don't get often. Case in point, I even got to dry my hair today. That just doesn't happen anymore.
I thought I was going to get the tires on my car replaced but Wal-Mart doesn't have them in stock anywhere so it's a special order. Just shy of 900 dollars later I'll be able to get them to a local Wal-Mart and get them replaced in probably about 2 weeks. Hopefully my poor tires will hang in there that long.
Why Wal-Mart you ask. Because for 10 bucks a tire you can basically 'insure' them for roadside hazards and get them replaced or patched for free (or prorated cost) at any Wal-Mart in the nation with a tire center. After 43,000 miles in just over a year that's vital. I can't be in Gary/East Chicago or Fort Wayne and have a tire go and have to wait till I can get it to South Bend for a fix. There's no point in that, or pay out the ass for a fix. Wal-Marts are about everywhere and most anymore have tire centers if there's only one Wal-Mart in town.
_________________________
Wedding season starts next week for me. I'm only doing about a third of what I did last year. I just really burned out after doing so many (I think it was something like 10 weddings in 12 weeks) and with all the travel I had last year for work. It just got to be too much, so I think it's something like 6 weddings from now till November.
It's bad enough that I don't have a bazillion photos of the kids but after wedding season I just don't want to pull the monster out of the bag. Now my little camera, sure. But I lost the battery charger and the Circuit City replacement was 80 bucks so I found ones online for more reasonable pricing but ordered the wrong one. So I've since returned them and await the correct ones to be shipped.
Once that happens I'll post some new photos of the darlings. The munchkin is hitting the 2s in a not-so-bad way, although I've heard the 3s suck for girls. The babe is beautiful and smiling and just started rolling over this week. He gets really pissed or scared when he does it, but I think he'll grow to love it.
More pics soon, I promise!!!!!!
_________________________
Our church switches to a new organization as of Aug. 1. Same pastor, different name, different board of directors and different direction.
It's going to be exciting. From my chats with the elders the Antioch Glory Center (Church) is going to be awesome. It's a step forward now that the foundation is laid we can go on further from that foundation and this is a good stepping point.
I was talking to one of the elders about having the sermons and the Wednesday night services posted online and do something like $50 for the year of unlimited downloads for Sundays, $20 for the year for Wednesdays and $60 for unlimited for both. Normally copies of the sermons are $6 a piece. She loved the idea and said they had thought of doing that already. I'll see if I can't convince them to do some kind of podcast during the week as well, either from Pastor Jeff, Prophet Pat or Gary or maybe Pastor Barbara that would be downloadable for free.
There's so much that can be done. It's going to be kickass.
______________________
This little tidbit came to me a few weeks ago at home. It hit me in the shower (which for most people is where all good ideas hit them) and I was able to get to my notebook fast enough to get it down on paper so I wouldn't forget it (I have a bad habit of that). This is something that has come to me before but I lost the thought but I'm glad it came back.
Faith without works is about as useless as a screen door on a submarine--- Screen door by Rich Mullins.
Love this song. It's a capella and catchy and one my dad always loved. But for some reason it hit me and I wondered 'Faith without works - what defines works?'
Listen to most churches and they'll tell you whatever your spiritual gifts are and how you use them are your works. Do mission work, go where your heart tells you.
In honesty that's all fine and good, but it's not right. Oswald Chambers makes a good point when he says that the heart is one of the most corruptible parts of the body and that the heart has to yield to the Holy Spirit. In addition, he also makes a good point that having spiritual gifts are great, but it's not the end all be all that most organizations leave them at.
The truth is that the works as they are include what we are approved by Jesus to do with our lives - no matter how small or big.
What does that mean? Chambers can do a much better job of explaining it than I can and I do suggest everyone fork over the $40 and get his complete works from a bookstore website (don't count on finding it in stores). But in essence - we have to search the Holy Spirit and get confirmation on what we are to do. Sometimes it's in line with our gifts, sometimes not as proof that only God could make it happen and give you the ability to do it as well as you end up doing it. It's not always what our heart wants and the size and complexity of the thing approved for us to do is in accordance with the amount of trust Jesus has in us based on our relationship with him. If we've shown faithful in the small things bigger things will come our way. If not, we may never get past the small things.
Now I've been on that tangent - the other main thing that is what constitutes 'works' is the sacrificing ourselves daily - giving up everything for the glory of God - the living sacrifice - is what the true works are. They are the fundamentals of our faith and without these works of nailing every dream, hope, wish, desire, absolutely everything to the cross and allowing Jesus complete reckless abandon to ourselves and operating in what the Holy Spirit gives us there is no way of having a sustainable faith.
Too often people believe that their works have to be centered around activities they have not first put through the test of the Holy Spirit and see if it is truly the work they are to be doing.
The sad thing is that true work that comes with an alive faith is so different from what people have been taught to do as ' faith's works' that the true work - that of carrying our crosses daily and being the living sacrifices God commands when we come into salvation - that it is almost a type of work not accepted by the bound Body.
Sadly, those few who do understand this are either rejected by their local church or have little support to begin with that the passion and truth they have a comprehension of are easily lost under the pressure of the bound believers.
What would become of the Body if the true work was properly explained and accepted as a fundamental of most local bodies?
It is incredibly easy to tell who is and who doesn't live in this revelation. Again - not necessarily to the fault of the standard believer - they've had no one to teach them. (But why has there been this breakdown? This is the basics of the faith and yet so few know it and even fewer actually operate as often as possible in this way).
When the work fall into the true righteousness - no the self satisfying that many churches tout - then we begin to see what true faith is really like.
But what about those who do not have the true works - what becomes of them in the end? Could it be that all the nice things they do will mean nothing? Is it truly their fault? Perhaps, perhaps not.
If you fail to operate in righteousness then how can what you do outside of it be in order with what God has approved for us to do? Will it pass the tests of fire on the other side of eternity? There is a good chance it won't - a major blow to the many who spent their entire lives living (mostly unknowingly) a lie because those who speak on behalf of God know little (or ignore what they know out of fear of looking like an 'unsuccessful' church).
So does that mean that those operating out of order without the knowledge that they are doing so have any less blessing than those who are in order? (I originally used the work faith instead of blessing but the past few weeks on Sunday we have been covering how all people have the same measure of faith given to them so I'm trying to find a more apt word to get across my point).
That's a tough call. I think fundamentally they don't if their passion is locked on Jesus, but there comes a time when with as much passion as they have it does no good if in all their years of reaching to Jesus they've not understood what the scripture have said - or worse - they have intentionally ignored the revelations given to them by the Holy Spirit.
If the passion is there then God will reward with revelations of truth revealed in a multitude of different ways and though many people.
How long till the bonds are broken? How long till we have the Body back to its glory and the people are returned into the truth? I crave that day.
____________________
OK - so I told the sitter I'd be back around 3 give or take and I still have to run to Sams and get diapers for the munchkin or we're going to have a real issue here soon.
Hope everyone has a really really great weekend. We get to see the abuelos tonight and I know the munchkin is really looking forward to it.
Stay safe and somebody have a good beer (and I stress GOOD beer, none of that cheap shit, please!) for me - the babe is eating too often for me to have much of anything and I still have some of my dad's raspberry wheat homebrew in the fridge and some Heineken at the abuelos. Someday the babe will give me a few more hours between feedings.
Alas. I must run!!!
Chao,
La. Sra.
No comments:
Post a Comment