Archive for November, 2009
Thanksgiving
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
Seeing that this is the week of thanksgiving but not wanting to be corny or regurgitate slogans, sayings or phrases of times gone by, let me just say that I am sure thankful that God had an end game in mind and its execution is in process with its culmination on the horizon.
My hope and prayer for each person reading this, as for myself, is that we would not only acknowledge this to be true but to also participate with Him in seeing it fulfilled.
This past week I have been reading in 1st and 2ndThessalonians and was struck by the different admonitions given by Paul which I believe were done with God’s end game in mind.
What really stands out to me is found in 1st Thessalonians 5 where the apostle reminds us “to be self-controlled, to put on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet”, I just love that because if we just do something as basic as this, think how all of your relationships would be affected.
Think about it, what if each day that you woke up in the morning, you purposefully prayed and asked God to enable you to live a self controlled life? Living this way would not only help eliminate much of the excess that we engage in; whether it be food, consumer goods or entertainment, but also those nagging and besetting sins. Yeah those “things” we engage in when we don’t think anyone notices or cares, yet it is these things or sinful behaviors that we chose to say yes to, to self indulge in because they provide us with some sort of power, release or satisfaction. Unfortunately though this is just a temporary fix and before long we find ourselves back where we started from or worse we discover were actually held hostage.
Ahhh, but thanks be to God that He has an end game and it has been executed for you and for me with the goal to bring us freedom.
Freedom is a powerful word, especially for those who live in bondage to something or to someone.
Our freedom rests in Jesus and the work that was accomplished on the cross and resultantly can produce within us a new life; a life hidden in Christ with God.
Living in this new life then enables us the power to actually live out a self controlled life because we are no longer the one in charge of our life and yet this is where many of us lose it. We fail to accept the fact that conversion means giving up one’s control of life, dying in fact, so that one more powerful can take over and live in and through us to bring about life transformation for the sole purpose of displaying the works and grace of God.
You and I literally become living testimonies or examples of God’s power provided we live lives that are surrendered to him. The desire for this type of life though may not be exactly appealing unless of course you have lived a life in turmoil or bondage and if so, then freedom and its cost is an easy transaction to make.
I know for me life here on earth has purpose and meaning yet only when it is lived out from this perspective for it is from this that I see I have meaning, purpose and self-worth and not just me but all those who believe.
How then shall I live here on earth in the interim? How about allowing faith and love to govern or dictate all of life’s activity and this be fuelled by the hope of salvation which will one day literally take place.
Salvation, one day? Wasn’t that something that already happened with a simple prayer? Yes, for your sin, for the reconciling work that brought you back to God but there is another salvation which I am referring to. This salvation is our home coming, that point in the future when our Father, our One true Loving Father, our Deliverer, our Hope and yes, our Salvation brings us home. Home, that is where I want to be; home with the one who made me free and ultimately will free me from this broken hurt, confused body of flesh. A new body, a new life, a new future; an eternity, that is what I am talking about, an eternity of relationship and intimacy with the One in whose image we are all made.
Until then how shall we live?
We can start with being thankful for all that God has done for us, we can get alone with Him and worship Him for His gift of life. Furthermore, we can choose to live life in pursuit of Him because we know He is pursuing us. Think with me, how cool to be intimate with the Creator, it can be had. We can hear Him speak to us and tell us whose we are and where He first saw us. We can hear His words of pleasure and delight for us and we can hear Him affirm the work in our life.
Let’s live life this way; grateful and thankful for being called and chosen by God for relationship with Him, handpicked, if you will, to accomplish something very unique and special. In fact, we are God’s painting to others, His work which others will admire thereby bringing glory to His name. This can and will happen as long as we surrender our life to Him each and every day.
Join me in this, the World needs it, no, actually I need it first; fill me Lord because I’m empty.
Is it drugs or the Lord?
Saturday, November 14th, 2009
Is it drugs or the Lord?
This seems like a silly question but I have been up since 3am primarily due to the pain killers wearing off. 4 hours is about their maximum for efficiency and yet I was able to sleep for 6 so I shouldn’t complain but in previous nights I could take a couple of more pills and fall back asleep, not tonight.
I guess I love to dream as many nights I do dream and can recall them quite vividly, many though weren’t like last night, last night I dreamed I was on a radio talk show and there were others with me and the show was designed to talk about me, Wells for Life and what was happening in India. I remember things starting to go well, meaning my thoughts were flowing, I was communicating the stories accurately and then maybe it was a caller who moved the focus of conversation from water and saving lives to, “how do I handle meat?” I thought that to be odd, being an individual who has grown up on Texas I declared nothing is really sacred, especially beef; we see a cow we like, we kill it, butcher it and then enjoy seeing it on the grill. There were others in the room apparently from Texas as this response met with enthusiasm.
As I was gathering my next thoughts an image flashed in my mind, that of a little girl, the next question posed to me was something along the lines of why “water” after all it is really pretty accessible, sure difficulty and inconvenience many be involved but it is obtainable. Hearing the question but thinking about this image in my brain I had to choose carefully my response.
You see the image was of a little girl I would guess to be about 4 or 5, wearing a pull over cotton dress with thin straps, dress was dirty, most likely it hadn’t been cleaned in days and was probably one of her few clothes she had, her face was expressionless in that she wasn’t smiling or sad but yet her face said it all. She was standing near what I assumed to be her house which was nothing more than a 1 room thatched hut. Her face like her dress was dirty and disheveled and she was looking at me like many poor kids do when I am traveling in India; it’s an expression that you don’t easily forget.
What are they saying? I can only imagine what they are thinking. I know what I am thinking and it is varied, right now I am thinking how painful it is to type; too slow to peck with my right hand and pretty painful to use my fingers in my casted arm as there is a pain shooting up my wrist and radiating all around my hand which I find odd as the surgery was to repair my ruptured bicep tendon which isn’t near my wrist but somehow all these things are connected and despite 2 more pills for pain, it still hurts, sorry for the regression, where was I?
Thoughts. Yes, my thoughts about this young girl, they are varied and sometimes compassionate but in the dream, the image was the girl triggered a wave of emotion in me and so my answer to the caller about “why water” was done with her in mind. Unfortunately I don’t remember everything I said to the caller but it boiled down for me the crux of “why” not just for water but for everything that I do.
The “why” is tied to that little girl whom I don’t think I have ever met but who I see constantly.
Who does she represent? I think you know the answer, at least I hope you do but if you don’t, here it is – she is us, she is everything that is this world; broken, hurt, dirty, poor. She is in need of help. Her needs are many, they are vast and I am just one guy who shows up with no bag filled with medicines or tricks, you can say that I show up with nothing really to offer other than a prayer and a hope for a better tomorrow. Sue I do bring other things to the table so to speak but in all honesty me compared to the magnitude of the problem is a little overwhelming to say the least and forces me to honestly assess the fact that I can’t do much on my own.
What next?
What I do best and maybe all any of us can do and that is to approach, smile, extend a hand, and look into their eyes and begin to care.
Love really does go as long way. Love also really is a great motivator for action, after all it is what spurned God to leave the comfort of Heaven and come to earth. It was Love that motivated Jesus to embrace the Cross, it was God’s love that brought Jesus back from the grave and it is this same love that can literally address the root of all that is wrong with this little girl.
Love then becomes the reason “why” I engage in water and why any of us or better stated why all of us who call ourselves Christ followers should engage this little girl.
I try to close with this….
I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:50-58)
Ok, so now comes my closing; we all have something to do, we are all laboring with God, or at least we should be as this is what He has commanded us to do (remember the Great Commission and the Great Commandment?), so let’s labor in love knowing that offering anything less is like offering a warm coke on a really hot day; it just doesn’t work.
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
Check out wellsforlife on You Tube and on Flickr for the latest pictures and videos.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wellsforlife/ link for Flickr
a Cow
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
I am going to keep this simple for 1 reason; I am typing with just 1 hand. When the surgeon told me that I could drive and even type after my operation, I was ecstatic. Best of everything I thought; sympathy over a surgery, still get to drive, access emails, cruise the web and produce videos and slideshows highlighting the trip, all good, right?.
What he failed to explain to me was the “how” in typing. I awoke to a cast on my left arm, an elbow fixed at a 45 degree angle and fingers that don’t do a lot of anything except get puffy.
All I have is thus 1 good arm and for this I am keeping things short. (Not to mention I am still on meds and focusing can be challenging at times.)
Let’s jump in… life for my new acquaintance Pavarti is now much better. We were able to raise $500 shortly after posting the request on twitter, facebook and the Wells for Life website, a huge thank you to those who gave!
Resultantly, a good cow was picked out for her, I received a crash course in cow purchasing over Skype last week and so now I know what was picked out for her was quality and see for yourself. Doesn’t this cow look good?!
I know that in addition to income this animal will produce some other things for which Pavarti will get accustomed to pretty quickly, (better her than me and is just 1 reason why we don’t own a pet….clean up is a dirty business) anyway just looking at the cow and at Pavarti makes me smile because I can see on her face peace and joy, the result of God’s activity in her life.
Thank you Lord for using us to touch her and may her cow produce an abundance of milk for the daily sustenance she needs, amen.
Videos from the trip
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
Here are some links to You Tube videos from the most recent India trip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXiCN987qJE - Tribal area in the mountains
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DxVqRGcwG8 - Grant and Trent Kennedy water project in the dark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3eHBVsn3yM - Eva Marie Koch Girls School in Trichy