One of my Favorite Websites

One of my favorite websites is http://www.heartlight.org/. Each day when I boot my computer for the first time I get prompted to download a new desktop picture and scripture verse. Each day in my mailbox I have an email titled, "Praying with Paul" where the authors take a passage from one of Paul's writings and personalizes it into a prayer. Here's today's from Romans 6:12-18:

Dear Father, Master of my life,


Help me to yield myself to you as one who has been brought from death to life. Help me yield my members to you as instruments of righteousness.

Let not sin reign in my body, making me obey its passions. Let sin have no dominion over me, since I am not under law but grace.


I praise you, God, that whereas I was once a slave of sin, I became obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which I have committed. Thank you for setting me free from sin that

I might become a slave of righteousness.

In the name of Jesus I thank you for your wonderful grace and all your gifts.


Amen.



I wish I could say I pray these every day, but I shouldn't be lying in my own blog.

They also offer prayer guides, one of them is called Embracing God's Dream.

Delight in His Presence
Rest in His Grace
Expect His Guidance
Apply His Word to our lives
Minister with His Love

The website has a lot of other neat things that can encourage you. I think everything is free, but they do ask people to donate.

Dogs, socks, and old friends

What does a dog, a sock, and an old friend have in common? No, they don't all stink! Actually, the dog and the sock are related and the old friend is a completely different thought.

But first, the story of the dog and the sock, which please keep in mind the story I'm about to tell you is indeed true.

Last Thursday night, our next door neighbor came over to our house in quite a tizzy. You see her rather large dog, JJ, had swallowed one of her little girl's socks. (Her daughter who is about 2 years old, is the cutest baby in the world - next to mine of course). Jen had called the animal hospital and explained what had happened. They told her that she needed to get the dog to throw up and the best way to do that was to give him hydrogen peroxide. So she was at our door to see if we had any she could borrow. Amazingly enough we actually had some. A few minutes later she returned the bottle of hydrogen peroxide and reported it worked! We didn't ask how she got the hydrogen peroxide down JJ. Just visualizing tiny Jen (who is this petite Asian girl) pouring anything down JJ, who is part lab and part moose, is hysterical!

As we were leaving for worship team practice, she was getting towels from the garage to clean up the mess. Which answered the question did where did she give him the hydrogen peroxide.

This past Saturday I got to catch up with an old friend from my college days. I hadn't seen him since the 2006 band tour to Colorado Springs. He's one of those friends that you can pick up with right where you left off the last time you were together. I was saddened to learn what he's been through the past year and a half. However, his story and his attitude toward what has happened showed me that God is faithful in every situation.

Happy New Year!

Here it is January 4th 2008 and I haven't made any New Year's Resolutions! Can you believe it?

Why is it that when a new year rolls around we think that we're going to loose 50 pounds or stop smoking or fill in the blank with your favorite.


Many of us make grand and glorious new year's resolutions and by the middle of February we've forgotten them or at the very least we're ignoring them. Why? Why do we do that to ourselves.

We think a new year we can start over, why don't we (or at least me, maybe you've figured it out) realize that each day is a new day, a new start. We can start each day fresh because we have a God who loves us and has compassion on us.

From Lamentation 3 starting with verse 21: Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.

So my new years resolution, is to remember that every day is a new day and I need to live it to the fullest and not get down when I blow it. Tomorrow is a new day and great is His faithfulness.