Man I'm a bad blogger!

If blogging requires writing your thoughts daily than I'm am the worst. I get side tracked and focused on other stuff and simply forget to do it. Not that it's all that important to anyone else, I have found though it can be good for me to get my thoughts out.

So here are some random thoughts. I just had my three youngest kids around for a few weeks and it was wonderful. My youngest are 13, 15 and 17, it's amazing how fast time has gone by and how much they have grown up. Sophie the 17 year old just competed a trip to Nicaragua with a team from my church to an orphanage established by Builder for Children. I was really pleased that she went and love her heart for the poor and especially for children.

Of course as you get older you appreciate that things that really matter more and more, it is especially true for me regarding my children. They have made life worth it and really keep me focused and engaged in the future. Even when things don't work out the way you think they should or as you had wished, they make all the ups and downs worth it.

I have allot of thoughts flowing around these days but will have to get them organized and start writing them out and hopefully some of you will interact with me regarding them.

Trusting and Resting in Jesus

This last Sunday I taught at our church about the 'mind games' we play with ourselves and with others. Within the context of that talk I made the statement, 'The way in is the way on.' I was stating it in the context of staying in touch with our need for dependance and rest in the sufficiency of Christ and His provision. What I am saying is that we began, engaged in a relationship with Christ through faith and the truth is the way on is accomplished through faith as well. Not 'principles', 'keys', 'steps' 'choices', or other methods of growing in or maintaining our relationship with Christ. There is nothing wrong with 'keys', 'principles' et cetera, in and of themselves, but when we begin to rely on them as a means of justification, we are making a subtle shift from relatioinship to religion in my opinion. It seems to me to be deeply entrenched in humon nature to become prideful when we are able to achieve spiritual goals that we or others set up. For instance, we make a commitment to pray every day for 15 minutes and read the Bible for 30 minutes daily. Is that a bad thing? Of course not, who is going to come against prayer or Bible reading? The problem comes when we conclude that we are 'more spiritual' than someone else or feel like this somehow gains up a closer standing with God. It's not wrong to do good things, what's wrong is to draw the wrong conclusion and becoming judgmental towards others who don't meet the standards thay you have set for yourself.