Let me start by saying "Thank You Lord". My God is so AWESOME.
Why do I say that? Well, not very long ago, Pam and I committed to making sure that no matter what, we would make sure our tithes got paid before anything else. In the past, I have had difficulty with this and haven't always done what I was supposed to. In effect, I was robbing God, and because of that I was having financial problems.
Well, this last month has been difficult financially, and I was very worried that I wasn't going to be able to pay the bills. Well, Pam and I have just trusted in God that He would provide for our needs. I can't say that I haven't worried about where we would get the money to get the essentials paid, but I have left my needs at God's feet. He knows our needs and He knows our wants, and as long as we let Him, He will provide for those needs/wants.
So I say "Thank You," to my Jehovah Jireh, my Provider. God came through for Pam and I this week and provided what we needed in order to get our bills paid. He even threw in a little extra to allow Pam and I to get one or two of those things off our want list, after we took care of the necessities.
Even though you may not think that you can afford to pay your tithes because of all the bills you have, I urge you to think twice and trust in God. My God provided for my needs and He wants to provide for yours as well. All you have to do is trust in Him. God won't bless us with more if we can't do what we are supposed to with the little He has given us.
Luke 16:11 says "So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?" Just try to do it for 2 months and see if you are not better off than you were before.
Chris
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Don't Hold It In
How often does it happen to you?
How often does what happen to me?
How often is it that someone does or says something that offends you and you just let it go saying nothing about it?
Well, I don't know about you but for me it happens quite often. I try not to be a confrontational person. I don't like pointing out to people where something they've said or done has bothered me. So, as a consequence of that choice, I do what a lot of people do and just hold it in. But guess what God revealed to me in my devotion this week. Unreleased problems with other people lead to resentment. Which can cause problems in your relationship with that person. It is especially hard when the person that has done something to you is family.
I can discuss it with Pam or she can talk about what happened to her with me, but when it comes to saying something to the other person, we just don't do it. All it does is cause more friction and stress in your relationships.
I came across a link in my devotion this week that discusses releasing resentment, so I am going to post it here: http://www.christianitytoday.com/men/features/2006/jan22.html . Hopefully, this will help some of you as it is helping me.
Have a great week. It is my prayer that something that I write here will be a blessing in your life. If anything touches you or you have a comment, please feel free to leave me a comment.
Chris
How often does what happen to me?
How often is it that someone does or says something that offends you and you just let it go saying nothing about it?
Well, I don't know about you but for me it happens quite often. I try not to be a confrontational person. I don't like pointing out to people where something they've said or done has bothered me. So, as a consequence of that choice, I do what a lot of people do and just hold it in. But guess what God revealed to me in my devotion this week. Unreleased problems with other people lead to resentment. Which can cause problems in your relationship with that person. It is especially hard when the person that has done something to you is family.
I can discuss it with Pam or she can talk about what happened to her with me, but when it comes to saying something to the other person, we just don't do it. All it does is cause more friction and stress in your relationships.
I came across a link in my devotion this week that discusses releasing resentment, so I am going to post it here: http://www.christianitytoday.com/men/features/2006/jan22.html . Hopefully, this will help some of you as it is helping me.
Have a great week. It is my prayer that something that I write here will be a blessing in your life. If anything touches you or you have a comment, please feel free to leave me a comment.
Chris
Thursday, March 13, 2008
One of THOSE Days x 3
Ever had just one of those days where nothing goes right? Well, I have had three of those in a row. It started on Wednesday when I stopped by work (on my day off) to get a shirt, and found out my computer system was down. So, okay the system is down, and therefore, we have to go back to the days of Moses and write manual tickets for all customer transactions until the service technician gets there to fix whatever problem has arisen. So, I go on about my day leaving the store in very capable hands waiting to hear the good news that we are back up and running. I get that call around 5:00 that everything is working again... Yeah we wish. At 5:45 I get a call we went back down again. No technician is going to come back out, so we wait and see what happens on Thursday.
Well, I go in to open the store knowing already that my system is down. Get on the phone with technical support and go through all the steps we did the day before. Unplug this, check that, plug this in to that. Still nothing. I am told they had to schedule someone else to come out and they would call me back within the hour, but I was supposed to know that it could be as late as Saturday night before closing before someone could show up. Well, I get the call back saying that a technician would be there on Friday sometime between 12 and 4. So we continue to write manual tickets.
Here comes Friday. 10:00 passes, 11:00 passes, 12:00 passes.....5:00 gets here still no technician, and no phone call. 5:10 "Sorry I am running late, I should be there in 1/2 an hour or so". 6:50 in walks the technician and does his thing. Guess what? He couldn't do anything for the problem. The problem is with the _ew _T&_'s equipment. (You fill in blanks). So one of their technicians will have to come back out, but when will they be there? Sometime on Monday at the earliest. So we will go all weekend doing things the old fashioned way.
So in all of this, I haven't had the best of days. But what does God want me to learn through all of this? Patience is the first thing that came to mind. But as I sit and think about how bad I think I have had it this week, I am reminded of those who have had it so much worse. So I have to write transactions out the old fashioned way, is it causing me any pain? No. I am reminded as Easter is approaching of how Jesus was persecuted, beaten, and crucified on an old rugged cross. The reason He died was to forgive me and everyone else in the world for the sins that we commit every day.
Jesus suffered and died for me. So why can't I undergo a few days of trouble? I can, I have, I will again in the future. All I know is this. Nothing I have had to go through this week can compare to what my Lord, Jesus Christ suffered through for me and you.
Chris
Well, I go in to open the store knowing already that my system is down. Get on the phone with technical support and go through all the steps we did the day before. Unplug this, check that, plug this in to that. Still nothing. I am told they had to schedule someone else to come out and they would call me back within the hour, but I was supposed to know that it could be as late as Saturday night before closing before someone could show up. Well, I get the call back saying that a technician would be there on Friday sometime between 12 and 4. So we continue to write manual tickets.
Here comes Friday. 10:00 passes, 11:00 passes, 12:00 passes.....5:00 gets here still no technician, and no phone call. 5:10 "Sorry I am running late, I should be there in 1/2 an hour or so". 6:50 in walks the technician and does his thing. Guess what? He couldn't do anything for the problem. The problem is with the _ew _T&_'s equipment. (You fill in blanks). So one of their technicians will have to come back out, but when will they be there? Sometime on Monday at the earliest. So we will go all weekend doing things the old fashioned way.
So in all of this, I haven't had the best of days. But what does God want me to learn through all of this? Patience is the first thing that came to mind. But as I sit and think about how bad I think I have had it this week, I am reminded of those who have had it so much worse. So I have to write transactions out the old fashioned way, is it causing me any pain? No. I am reminded as Easter is approaching of how Jesus was persecuted, beaten, and crucified on an old rugged cross. The reason He died was to forgive me and everyone else in the world for the sins that we commit every day.
Jesus suffered and died for me. So why can't I undergo a few days of trouble? I can, I have, I will again in the future. All I know is this. Nothing I have had to go through this week can compare to what my Lord, Jesus Christ suffered through for me and you.
Chris
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Writer's Block - God's Call - Procrastination?
So, I guess I have writer's block today. There are so many different things going through my head that I am having difficulty focusing on just one thing to talk about. I guess that my biggest issue right now is God's call on my life (and Pam's), and trying to fathom if we are doing what He wants us to do right now.
In Sunday School class this week, we discussed Genesis chapters 15-17 where God has made a covenant with Abram and Sarai promising them that their descendants will become a great nation. Well for those of you who don't know they had two strikes against them. First, they were both way past child bearing age. Second, Sarai was barren, unable to have children. So how would God create a great nation from them? Well, like many of us do, they decided to take the matter into their own hands instead of waiting on God to fulfill His promise in His timing. Abram had a child with Hagar, Sarai's maid servant. This opened up a whole new set of problems, that I am not going to go into. Email me if you want to know more about them.
So back to God's call for Pam and I. Well, back in 1999, Pam and I volunteered to work at a Summer Camp for Ronnie Owens (a Christian Evangelist). It was at this time that Pam received God's call to become a Christian Counselor, and I felt the call to become a Minister of Music. Well, here it is almost 9 years later that Pam has just started taking classes to become a Christian Counselor. Why has it taken so long? Well, I would say that it was because I didn't have the faith to step out and move my family to Virginia where Pam wanted to go to school. I had a good job teaching Music, we had a nice home, and I just couldn't make myself let go of it all.
Well, 8 years later, God got tired of me procrastinating and allowed a situation to occur that forced me out of my nice comfortable job, moved us from South GA to Atlanta, just a little bit closer to Virginia, and put us in a position where we were ready to listen to Him. So Pam has started her education. I am in the process of enrolling in order to complete mine. But I said all of that to really get to this thought about life and God's call/promises to His people.
Why do people always think that everyone always tries to hurry God up, by taking things into their own hands, in order to fulfill a promise that God made to them? Don't people realize that we can also slow God's timing for things down by dragging our feet, because we just don't have the faith? Well, I am tired of being the breaks on what God wants to do in my families life. So from here on out I am going to let go and let GOD do His thing.
Chris
In Sunday School class this week, we discussed Genesis chapters 15-17 where God has made a covenant with Abram and Sarai promising them that their descendants will become a great nation. Well for those of you who don't know they had two strikes against them. First, they were both way past child bearing age. Second, Sarai was barren, unable to have children. So how would God create a great nation from them? Well, like many of us do, they decided to take the matter into their own hands instead of waiting on God to fulfill His promise in His timing. Abram had a child with Hagar, Sarai's maid servant. This opened up a whole new set of problems, that I am not going to go into. Email me if you want to know more about them.
So back to God's call for Pam and I. Well, back in 1999, Pam and I volunteered to work at a Summer Camp for Ronnie Owens (a Christian Evangelist). It was at this time that Pam received God's call to become a Christian Counselor, and I felt the call to become a Minister of Music. Well, here it is almost 9 years later that Pam has just started taking classes to become a Christian Counselor. Why has it taken so long? Well, I would say that it was because I didn't have the faith to step out and move my family to Virginia where Pam wanted to go to school. I had a good job teaching Music, we had a nice home, and I just couldn't make myself let go of it all.
Well, 8 years later, God got tired of me procrastinating and allowed a situation to occur that forced me out of my nice comfortable job, moved us from South GA to Atlanta, just a little bit closer to Virginia, and put us in a position where we were ready to listen to Him. So Pam has started her education. I am in the process of enrolling in order to complete mine. But I said all of that to really get to this thought about life and God's call/promises to His people.
Why do people always think that everyone always tries to hurry God up, by taking things into their own hands, in order to fulfill a promise that God made to them? Don't people realize that we can also slow God's timing for things down by dragging our feet, because we just don't have the faith? Well, I am tired of being the breaks on what God wants to do in my families life. So from here on out I am going to let go and let GOD do His thing.
Chris
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Making New Friends
Pam and I have been members at First Baptist Church Woodstock for just over a year now and only knew a handful of people. (For those of you who know the church, you know we have over 7000 people attend every Sunday.) We joined the FBCW Choir in January, but knew that we still needed to become more involved. We decided that we needed to get plugged in to a Sunday School class. One of the guys in the choir (Lantz) told me about this amazing class that he and his wife (Amy) attended.
Well, we started attending this class that meets at 8:10 every Sunday morning. WAY too early for me to start with. However, after forcing myself to get up and go, I knew that was exactly where I needed to be. We have been attending now for a month and joined the class officially last week.
Since walking into the room on that first Sunday morning, everyone has made us feel so welcome. We had a scavenger hunt this last Friday night, that we enjoyed so much. Maybe we can get Kelli to post some of the pictures on her blog, or send some to me so I can post them here.
One final thought for any of you who may read this that don't attend church somewhere, we would love to invite you to FBCW. You can get information about the church at FBCW.org, or just email me and I will be happy to get back with you.
If you happen to attend FBCW already and don't have a Sunday School class, come visit the EARNEST Sunday School class at 8:10 in Room 220 of the B building.
God Bless.
Chris
Well, we started attending this class that meets at 8:10 every Sunday morning. WAY too early for me to start with. However, after forcing myself to get up and go, I knew that was exactly where I needed to be. We have been attending now for a month and joined the class officially last week.
Since walking into the room on that first Sunday morning, everyone has made us feel so welcome. We had a scavenger hunt this last Friday night, that we enjoyed so much. Maybe we can get Kelli to post some of the pictures on her blog, or send some to me so I can post them here.
One final thought for any of you who may read this that don't attend church somewhere, we would love to invite you to FBCW. You can get information about the church at FBCW.org, or just email me and I will be happy to get back with you.
If you happen to attend FBCW already and don't have a Sunday School class, come visit the EARNEST Sunday School class at 8:10 in Room 220 of the B building.
God Bless.
Chris
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