Blank Pages

"If I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.” Job 23:8-9


“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him." Job 13:15

One day while printing a report for work, I noticed a blank page. I thought the printer was malfunctioning until I looked near the bottom of the page to see, “this page intentionally left blank.” After a sigh of relief, a different section of the report began to spout from the printer. Another “page intentionally left blank” preceded another section of the report. The “page intentionally left blank” served as a separator page to let the reader know that a different section was behind it.

There are points in our lives in which we say to our selves, “God, I don’t have a clue as to what you are doing.” Sometimes we say (or think), “This is happening, that is happening, and I am not getting any guidance from You God. What’s going on?” This is a point in life in which God intentionally leaves the page blank. God sometimes remains silent in order for us to trust Him beyond our emotions.

God wants us to trust Him even when we do not feel (we're sos all about feelings, aren't we?)  His presence. He wants us to continue to trust Him even when we feel He is not near. Some are wondering, “Where are you God, do you hear me, have you left me?” Some of us are at a “blank page” point. Be encouraged that God is still near and simply wants us to trust Him because the current page in our life may be intentionally left blank. Trust Him in the “blank pages” of life.
 
Have a blessed week!

Just Keep Planting

Paul Rokich is my hero. When Paul was a boy growing up in Utah, he happened to live near an old copper smelter, and the sulfur dioxide that poured out of the refinery had made a desolate wasteland out of what used to be a beautiful forest.

When a young visitor one day looked at this wasteland and saw that there was nothing living there -- no animals, no trees, no grass, no bushes, no birds...nothing but fourteen thousand acres of black and barren land that even smelled bad -- well, this kid looked at the land and said, "This place is crummy." Paul knocked him down. He felt insulted. But he looked around him and something happened inside him. He made a decision: Paul Rokich vowed that some day he would bring back the life to this land.

Many years later Paul was in the area, and he went to the smelter office. He asked if they had any plans to bring the trees back. The answer was "No." He asked if they would let him try to bring the trees back. Again, the answer was "No." They didn't want him on their land. He realized he needed to be more knowledgeable before anyone would listen to him, so he went to college to study botany.

At the college he met a professor who was an expert in Utah's ecology. Unfortunately, this expert told Paul that the wasteland he wanted to bring back was beyond hope. He was told that his goal was foolish because even if he planted trees, and even if they grew, the wind would only blow the seeds forty feet per year, and that's all you'd get because there weren't any birds or squirrels to spread the seeds, and the seeds from those trees would need another thirty years before they started producing seeds of their own. Therefore, it would take approximately twenty thousand years to revegetate that six-square-mile piece of earth. His teachers told him it would be a waste of his life to try to do it. It just couldn't be done.

So he tried to go on with his life. He got a job operating heavy equipment, got married, and had some kids. But his dream would not die. He kept studying up on the subject, and he kept thinking about it. And then one night he got up and took some action. He did what he could with what he had. This was an important turning point. As Samuel Johnson wrote, "It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote. In the same manner, present opportunities are neglected and attainable good is slighted by minds busied in extensive ranges." Paul stopped busying his mind in extensive ranges and looked at what opportunities for attainable good were right in front of him. Under the cover of darkness, he sneaked out into the wasteland with a backpack full of seedlings and started planting. For seven hours he planted seedlings.

He did it again a week later.

And every week, he made his secret journey into the wasteland and planted trees and shrubs and grass.

But most of it died.

For fifteen years he did this. When a whole valley of his fir seedlings burned to the ground because of a careless sheep-herder, Paul broke down and wept. Then he got up and kept planting.

Freezing winds and blistering heat, landslides and floods and fires destroyed his work time and time again. But he kept planting.

One night he found a highway crew had come and taken tons of dirt for a road grade, and all the plants he had painstakingly planted in that area were gone.

But he just kept planting.

Week after week, year after year he kept at it, against the opinion of the authorities, against the trespassing laws, against the devastation of road crews, against the wind and rain and heat...even against plain common sense. He just kept planting.

Slowly, very slowly, things began to take root. Then gophers appeared. Then rabbits. Then porcupines.

The old copper smelter eventually gave him permission, and later, as times were changing and there was political pressure to clean up the environment, the company actually hired Paul to do what he was already doing, and they provided him with machinery and crews to work with. Progress accelerated.

Now the place is fourteen thousand acres of trees and grass and bushes, rich with elk and eagles, and Paul Rokich has received almost every environmental award Utah has.

He says, "I thought that if I got this started, when I was dead and gone people would come and see it. I never thought I'd live to see it myself!"

It took him until his hair turned white, but he managed to keep that impossible vow he made to himself as a child.

What was it you wanted to do that you thought was impossible? Paul's story sure gives a perspective on things, doesn't it?

The way you get something accomplished in this world is to just keep planting. Just keep working. Just keep plugging away at it one day at a time for a long time, no matter who criticizes you, no matter how long it takes, no matter how many times you fall.

Get back up again. And just keep planting.

Just keep planting.

Have a great weekend, and remember ... just keep planting!!!

Good News

A number of you know I lived in Japan for several years, and I love the Japanese culture (the food, too).  Some years ago, I read a book in which the premise was that God has spoken the message of the gospel into every culture. Just think ... the good news is available to everyone in every culture. This is pretty profound stuff.


For example, Japanese is a language where pictograms are used to represent words. The Japanese word for "holy" is a pictogram with three symbols representing "ear", "mouth", and "king". The word "holy" in Japanese literally means "putting your ear next to the mouth of the king".

When I first read that, I thought, "Wow!" Being holy isn't about cutting or not cutting your hair in a certain way, wearing particular kinds of clothes, or performing various rituals. Being holy is simply a matter of listening to God. I could see that God truly does speak the good news into the Japanese culture. But that isn't all.

The Japanese word for "king" is composed of three parallel lines. The top line represents heaven, the bottom line represents earth, and there is a middle line representing man. Then a vertical line is drawn from the top line to the bottom line, cutting right through the middle line. The result is an image of a cross. But wait, it gets better. The literal translation of the word "king" is, "a man suspended between heaven and earth."

We have a King by the name of Jesus, a man suspended between heaven and earth for the sins of the world, who has left the message of Good News for all men to read and understand. That is the really good news!
 
Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Doubters

It had been three long and difficult days when Thomas' friends came to him with the farfetched story that they had been to the tomb where Jesus had been buried, and it was empty. "His body is gone!" He would not believe it.

"I don't care if you call me "Doubting Thomas" for the rest of my life, or until the end of time for that matter, unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."

His friends may have spent the next week trying to convince him that the tomb really was empty. Thomas may have spent the week trying to make sense of everything that had happened, or supposedly had happened. Then, Jesus came and stood among them and spoke directly to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." (John 20:27)

I have no way of proving it, but in my imagination I can see Thomas falling down on his knees in front of Jesus, and with tears rolling down his face when he said, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28)

Although we give Thomas a hard time, he's not so different than you and me, is he?

Be blessed this and every day!

God Expects You to Use Table Manners!

You undoubtedly felt awkward and maybe even slightly confused the first time you had to learn which fork to use. But with that knowledge you can enter any dining experience with confidence. The same is true when you dine at God's table. At first it seems difficult. But learning the right manners makes it possible for you to be in any situation and please the Father.



1.  You Have to do Your Own Chewing.

Too many Christians expect God to take out a spoon and dish up the blessing for them. He is supposed to place it in our mouths, work our jaws to chew it up, and help us swallow it. We want God to do everything.

The fact is that you have responsibility in God's sovereign world.

2.  Accept the Seating

God has a place for you - in Him - that far outweighs anything the pleasures of this life have to offer. The fleshly, carnal attitudes of your world will be a constant source of contention in this life. But God calls you to sit in His kingdom, not in the world. The enemy will try to convince you to take a lesser seat, that those serving God have more time, money, or talent than you. He wants you to measure flesh against flesh. Don't listen to him. Sit in the seat of inheritance that God has waiting for you


3.  Finish the Meal
John 3:16 tells us, God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. Some believe that because God has already come and died for the sins of the world, they don't have to do anything else. However, it's important to finish the phrase regarding man's responsibility: whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. You must come to Him in order to receive the forgiveness that He purchased for you.

4.  Read the Menu

You must spend time reading what God has prepared. Read your Bible, meditate on the Word. It will give you strength and illumination according to God's plan for your life. It will keep you on course and remind you of your responsibilities in order to fulfill the plan of God.

5.  Count the Fruit

If you are not willing to bear fruit for Him, then He is not obligated to answer your requests, even if you ask things in His name. Jesus declares, Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away (John 6:37). The Holy Spirit inspires us to go to Jesus and do what He asks of us. His sovereignty makes the first move toward us, but because He gave us free will, we must move toward Him as well.

Have a great day, a blessed weekend, and don't forget your table manners!

Stormy Weather

Did you know that an eagle knows when a storm is approaching long before it breaks? The eagle will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come. When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages, below the eagle is soaring above it. The eagle does not escape the storm. It simply uses the storm to lift it higher. It rises on the winds that bring the storm.

When the storms of life come upon us - and all of us will experience them - we can rise above them by setting our minds and our belief toward God.

The storms do not have to overcome us. We can allow God's power to lift us above them. God enables us to ride the winds of the storm that bring sickness, tragedy, failure, and disappointment into our lives. We can soar above the storm. You know it is not the burdens of life that weigh us down, it is how we handle them.

"Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on the wings like eagles." (Isaiah 40:31)
 
Soar with the eagles today!!

Standing Strong

Billy Graham tells a story of a boxer who was engaged in a boxing match and was being badly beaten. Battered and bruised, he leaned over the ropes and said to his trainer, "Please throw in the towel! This guy is killing me!" The trainer said, "Oh no, he's not. He's not even hitting you. He hasn't laid a glove on you!" And the boxer looked at him through swollen eyes and said, "Well then, I wish you'd watch that referee - somebody is sure hitting me!"

The danger in Spiritual Warfare is not when you are being beat up. You know you're in a battle when you're battered. You may not know exactly who or where the blows are coming from; but you know you're in a fight. No, the danger in Spiritual Warfare is when the devil is leaving you alone; when you are not having struggles, temptations are few. It's then, when life seems to be going good, that devil has you where he wants you. Either you are spiritually dull and living for the devil's cause or you are being set up for a big fall.


Just ask David ... after years of running from Saul and struggling to form a new nation, it was when things seemed to be good that David saw another man's wife bathing on the roof. In a matter of days, the enemy had David just were he wanted him, knee deep in sin and sliding down quickly.


Never remove your armor. Never let down your guard. We're in a war that will last a lifetime. Stand firm and be ever vigilant and ever ready to fight.


"Finally, let the mighty strength of the Lord make you strong. Put on all the armor that God gives, so you can defend yourself against the devil's tricks. We are not fighting against humans. We are fighting against forces and authorities and against rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual world. So put on all the armor that God gives. Then when that evil day comes, you will be able to defend yourself. And when the battle is over, you will still be standing firm. Be ready! Let the truth be like a belt around your waist, and let God's justice protect you like armor. Your desire to tell the good news about peace should be like shoes on your feet. Let your faith be like a shield, and you will be able to stop all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Let God's saving power be like a helmet, and for a sword use God's message that comes from the Spirit. Never stop praying, especially for others. Always pray by the power of the Spirit. Stay alert and keep praying for God's people." (Eph 6:10-18 CEV)

Have a great day, and remember never, never, ever give up!

Broken

Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” - contrary to what we would expect, brokenness is the pathway to blessing! There are no alternative routes; there are no short-cuts. The very thing we dread and are tempted to resist is actually the means to God’s greatest blessings in our lives.




"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." (Psalm 51:17)

Have a great day!!

Thank You!!!

Dear God:

I want to thank You for what you have already done.

I am not going to wait until I see results or receive rewards,

I am thanking you right now.

I am not going to wait until I feel better or things look better,

I am thanking you right now.

I am not going to wait until people say they are sorry or until they stop talking about me,

I am thanking you right now.

I am not going to wait until the pain in my body disappears,

I am thanking you right now.

I am not going to wait until my financial situation improves,

I am going to thank you right now.

I am not going to wait until the children are asleep and the house is quiet,

I am going to thank you right now.

I am not going to wait until I get promoted at work or until I get the job,

I am going to thank you right now.

I am not going to wait until I understand every experience in my life that has caused me pain or grief,

I am going to thank you right now.

I am not going to wait until the journey gets easier or the challenges are removed.

I am thanking you right now.

I am thanking you because I am alive.

I am thanking you because I made it through the day's difficulties.

I am thanking you because I have walked around the obstacles.

I am thanking you because I have the ability and the opportunity to do more and do better.

I'm thanking you because Father, you haven't given up on me!!!
 
I'm thank you because you are You, and You are awesome!  Be huge in and through me, Father!