Let Your Inside, Start Reflecting Out!!!!

    THE SCRIPTURE FOR THE WEEK:  Matthew 18:3   he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

LET YOUR INSIDE WORLD REFLECT TO THE OUTSIDE AND YOU WILL BE AMAZED BY THE BEAUTY

     Well this week began with the word FRUSTRATION.  I felt frustrated because I was feeling overwhelmed.  When I get overwhelmed then I feel like I cannot think straight and when I can't think straight I don't feel like I can get anything done.  The reason the frustration started was because I felt  like I am being led by God, but getting nowhere.  I feel in my heart that I am supposed to be promoting my books, The O's Odyssey To China and A Daily Journal From an Ordinary Christian Man.  On top of that I am working hard to be a good husband, father, teacher and take care of our home.  I have a list of projects that seem insurmountable.  They are not your simple projects like fixing light bulbs, but multi-day projects, such as  replacing a hot water heater and building a retaining wall.  The list goes on and on.

PREPARING FOR CHRIST'S ARRIVAL

     So I told my wife that I needed to go for a run and begin having a serious discussion with God.  During my run we had our initial conversation.  I then returned and sat in my sauna where God and I really get down to business.  The reading for that day talked about change and how we need to trust God when we are doing his work and be patient.  Along with the scripture I was reading a commentary about how we think. The topic for the day was about how if we want to change things on the outside that we need to look on the inside first.  So, as you can imagine the scripture for the day and the topic in my book hit me like a brick between the eyes.
    The topic of my discussion with God reminded me of an analogy that I had heard over the years, either during a bible study or a message from a minister or priest.  The analogy described our hearts as a house.  In our house we have lots of rooms.  When we invite Christ into our house we need to clean every room in the house.  We cannot have anything left in rooms or closets.  It must be clean for him.  Periodically we will start to store things in a closet to hide, but we need to make sure that we keep cleaning it out.  Sometimes we need to ask Christ to help us get the junk out, but the beautiful thing is that he is more than willing to help.
    With that being said, I started cleaning house and it is amazing how much clarity I began to have.  I wrote down how I was feeling and prayed in detail what I was concerned about.  Christ helped me to put my thoughts in order and I was able to create a list of priorities.  I was amazed that after creating my list how I felt much better and didn't feel like I was alone or overwhelmed.
    The point of my book was that if you want the outside be outstanding, then it has to be a reflection of the inside.  START THIS VERY MOMENT MAKING THE OUTSIDE WORLD REFLECT YOUR INSIDE!!!!!!!

"Bonus Blog - THANK YOU means a lot!!!!"

   1 Chronicles 16:34 

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

    his love endures forever.

Hoping for a White Christmas

    This time of year we all receive gifts.  Some gifts are things that we are not sure why we are getting.  Others are so extraordinary that they leave us speechless.

   One particular gift my brothers and I received is a perfect example of the kind of gift that you get that makes you go "HMMMMMM?".  When I was about 10 years old, my grandmother, (God Bless Her Soul) sent me and my brothers the same square gift that was heavy.  Now my brothers and I used to judge gifts by their weight.  In our brief experience as kids we had determined that a heavy gift was a good gift.  So you can imagine that when we had our grandmothers gift in our hands we thought we had struck gold.  But, to our surprise and shock when we ripped the paper off we held in our hands a three pack of AQUA VELVA aftershave.  Now, remember I was 10 years old, which made my two brothers eight and seven.  We looked to our mom and dad for help and just got a shrug.  My mom then said, "We can put it away for a later date, when you will need it."  At that point we tossed the aftershave aside and began looking for something else under the tree.  Later, when we talked with grandma we were very gracious and thanked her for thinking of us.

My best Christmas gift

    On the other hand, there are gifts that you get that leave you speechless.  I have had a couple of them throughout my life, but nothing like this year.  This year, I got the gift of my wife getting through her brain surgery and recovering well.  This is the best gift I have ever received.  Three weeks ago, I had the worst day of my life.We found out that my wife had a tumor the size of a golf ball in her head.  After the initial shock we were told that it was benign, but she was still faced with a very long and dangerous brain surgery.
    The day of her surgery was the longest day of my life.  Nine hours of waiting to hear from the surgeon isn't a piece of cake.  When the surgeon finally called me and said that Cecelia was going to be fine, except for the loss of her hearing in the left ear.  I was overwhelmed with emotion.  As soon as I hung up the phone with the doctor, I immediately took a moment to Thank God.  There wasn't anything else I could say.  It was one of those gifts that you can never repay and is so overwhelming that there is only one thing to do, look God in the proverbial eye and say "Thank You" with as much sincerity as you can muster.
    So, during this season of thanks and praise, let's take a moment to say a heartfelt "THANK YOU" to God for giving us his son.  We can't do or say enough to repay him for his gift, so a sincere THANK YOU is enough.
   Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

No Regrets!!!!

    Since this is my first actual post.  Here are my directions to you.

• Get a Bible.  (I have a small leather one that was a gift from my wife.  I love it.)
• Next get yourself a pen and something to write on. (A nice little journal with blank lines in it is great, or worst case scenario just a pad of paper.) Remember, many of you (especially men) are going to get out of your comfort zone with the writing part.
• Separate your journal or paper into three sections.  The first section is SCRIPTURE CONTEMPLATION.  Now that might sound deep, but it just means to write down what it means to you.  The second section is THOUGHTS ABOUT THE PASSAGE.  This section is your chance to agree, disagree or contemplate similar situations that you may have experienced.  Don't worry if you disagree with my thoughts.  I didn't always agree with Oswald Chambers when I started journaling.  Finally, the third section is for PRAYERS.  This is up to you whether it is a PRAISE, REQUEST or just talking with Jesus.  The important thing is to WRITE IT DOWN!!!!!!
• Next read the scripture
• Then read the monologue.
• Write down your prayers.

My friend and wife, Cecelia

Any questions?  Ok good, now we will begin.

SCRIPTURE PASSAGE:  2 Corinthians 7:10 - Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no REGRET, but worldly sorrow brings death.

    I watched the HOME ALONE MARATHON three times this week.  Now before you go thinking that I am the president of the McCauley Caulkin fan club, this happened because the condo and hospital don't believe in having more channels than network soap operas and AMC.  COME ON, how come they don't carry at least ESPN????? GEEZ!!!!
   Sorry, I digress.  Anyway, The recurring theme that came to my mind while watching was that of REGRET.  At the end of Home Alone the main character expresses REGRET for his behavior and that if his family is returned to him, he would better.
    It got me to thinking about a conversation I had recently with one of my brothers about this topic.  We were talking about a couple of things that have happened in my life.  He asked me if I had any regrets about them.  The things that we talked about were my first marriage and the loss of my parents.  I thought about them carefully for a minute and then gave the following answers.
   FIRST MARRIAGE:  The only regrets that I ever had were; I should have given it to God and listened more closely to my friends.  I also would have liked it to end in a dignified manner.
    In the end, I recognized that there were things in myself that I needed to change that led to my poor decisions.  I also prayed for forgiveness and felt grace for the first time.  I also believe that with God's forgiveness and the changes I made, helped me develop the relationship I have with Cecelia.
  MY PARENTS:  As for my mom I had know regrets after she died.  We had a great relationship up until her death.  My dad and I did not see eye to eye on everything, but in the end he and I had a good relationship.  When I quit blaming him for his mistakes and started being proud of myself instead of looking for his approval, we became closer.  I know that before he died he was proud of what I have accomplished.  He must have had a premonition about his passing, because he made me promise that if anything happened to him that I would not return from China.  If I had not had that type of relationship with him, I would not have been able to honor his request.
   So, I believe that REGRET is something that we chose to live with.  One of the things I learned a long time ago is that if Jesus forgives me, then I need to forgive myself.  Also, the best way to do away with REGRET when we make mistakes is to pray and change our behavior.  Remember the saying, "actions speak louder than words"?  If we focus on doing better than we did before, we will be too busy to think about REGRET!!!!
    NOW GET THOSE JOURNALS AND START WRITING!!!!  LET GO OF THE REGRETS AND LIVE LIFE WELL!!!!

Christ Wants You to Write to Him!!!

Hello My Friends,
    This is the first entry for my new blog. The idea was born from writing in my journal, during my quiet times with the Lord.
    I started about three years ago when I found a journal that included excerpts from Oswald Chambers's, My Utmost For His Highest.  In the book, there were short excerpts from Chambers and scripture verses.  Also included were empty lines to write comments and prayers.  I personally found this to be a refreshing approach to my morning meditations.
   One of the great benefits that I found while writing in my journal was the close relationship I developed with the Lord.  As I spent time writing out the difficulties I was having during the week and my prayer concerns, I found it to be a sort of catharsis.  It allowed me to focus intently on my prayers and also to free my thoughts while talking with Christ.  It has been refreshingly revolutionary to me.
    So, that is the root of this new blog.  Because I feel like my relationship with Christ has grown deep and personal, I wanted to share a similar style with you.
    Now, I am not claiming to be Oswald Chambers or C.S. Lewis.  I am just an Ordinary Christian Man that tries to do my best each day, to Live Life Well.  What I mean by Living Life Well is that St. Francis and Oswald Chambers have challenged me to do my best in every situation.  It doesn't matter if I am chopping wood or dealing with a challenging teenager at work.  I need to represent Christ in both situations through my actions, not my words.  I am not a minister, but I have lived as a practicing Christian for many years.  As well as studying the bible throughout those years, I have tried to live my life according to that book.  I don't know more than anyone else, I am just sharing an experience that was beneficial to me.  It has had such an impact on my life that I wanted to share it with you.
    My goal with this blog is to give you a topic and a scripture to think and write about.  Also, write your prayers down.  You will be amazed that when you look back later to the things you prayed about, how many of them were answered.  I particularly encourage men to write about how they feel.  Women tend to write more than us. Give this a chance and I promise that you will get something valuable from it.
   Tomorrow I will give you my first topic and scripture.