The In-Laws & Older People in General

Okay, so I'm not married, but we all know the stereotypical views of "in-laws." I personally hate them. Right now I have great in-laws (bro-in-law & sis-in-law). We'll see how that ends up working out when I do get married, but for now, I still hate the stereotype.

As you know, I'm reading through the Bible in a year. This morning I read a selection from Exodus 17 & 18 that really impressed me. It had to do with in-laws. Moses, the great leader of the children of Israel, every day was taking on the great task of sitting down while the people brought concerns/arguments/squabbles, whatever. He probably heard silly squabbles over whose basket belonged to who and maybe even judged a few life & death issues.

Then, one day, Father-In-Law Jethro comes along. Ol' Jeb is spending the day with Moses and he, too, has to sit through the boring dragging task of doing the judging. He looks and thinks, this is ridiculous! So, he tells Moses. Now Moses at this point has 2 options.

1) Get offended because the father-in-law is basically saying that he isn't doing a good enough job at judging, interefering with Moses' business, and just being downright mean. He can storm off. He can not speak to the father-in-law. This would prove pointless. Miriam would be upset with him FOREVER, Jethro wouldn't be too happy, and Marge & Sally wouldn't know whose bowl actually belonged to whom once it fell over the property line.

2) Listen to Jethro. Jethro is an older man. Believe it or not, this old guy's got some wisdom. And it's good, too!

Thankfully, Moses takes the high road and listens to old Daddy-Jeb. He sets up a judicial system (the first of its kind probably!). Leaders of 50, 100, 1000, and so on. The hard cases got brought to Moses but the ones over baskets and property lines went to the smaller judges.

I guess my point is, every older person has wisdom. Maybe they can't give you good advice as to what to do, but they can give you advice as to what not to do. Listen to them. See if what they say is worth it. Moses did and look, where it got him!

Stoked...

So, I'm pretty stoked about this- prayer partner for an orphan in this orphanage...

Soon I'll be receiving a picture and a biographical sketch of my little friend. Can't wait!

My Favorite Things

Lee Bezotte, over at www.leebezotte.com, inspired this blog. I've really been looking at life and what's important these past couple of days. I'm still figuring everything out, but it's nice to know the things you love. Here are a few of my favorite things (These, of course, all come 2nd to having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ).




1) Learning about nature- somehow it just reminds me that God really is evident in all of creation.



2) Laughing - I like to laugh. I like making people laugh, hearing people laugh, seeing people laugh. I just like everything there is about laughing.




3) Chick-Fil-A. I think God served Chick-Fil-A as manna to the children of Israel. I could eat there for every meal all the time (except Sundays, of course).



4) Children - I love children. I think they hold such a sweet spot in God's heart. I really believe they are a forgotten people group that God has called us to reach. I think reaching children for the Gospel could save the whole world from a lot of future problems and the church from a lot of inefficient attempts to save a dying humanity.





5) My Small Group - I wish everyone had a small group like mine. We argue, we fight, we disagree, we cry together, we laugh a lot, we get mad at each other, we learn about forgiveness, we pray for each other, we do ministry together, and we genuinely like each other. They have been the reason I've kept it together over the past ten years. I love this group of people, and I hope that everyone has a group of people around them just like it.

143000000

This video has been part of a scripture that has changed my life.

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27)

What are we doing for the 143000000?

Forgiveness

What is the basis of Christianity? Ask people that question and you'll get a bunch of different answers. I have my own personal answer : forgiveness.

I've been reading through the Bible in a year with You Version or whatever the App is on my ipod touch. To be honest with you, I'm a little behind. I'm not fretting, though. I'll catch up or just not worry about it. So what if I read the Bible in a year and 3 days? Who made those rules up anyway?

I read over a story, though, very quickly that I couldn't get away from. It's the story of two brothers: Esau, a hairy older brother who sold his whole birthright for a measly pot of stew and then got angry because he was "cheated" out of his birthright, and Jacob, a liar and trickster who swindled anyone he could come in contact with until he eventually became the victim of someone else's swindling. These brothers had a hate-hate relationship. Esau vowed that after the death of his father he would kill Jacob. Jacob ran away to his Uncle and vowed not to return. This is where God comes in. God tells Jacob, after much (literally) wrestling, to return to his homeland. Knowing that Esau is waiting with baited breath, Jacob devises a plan. He's going to bribe his elder brother with gifts, put others between them, and hide in the background, just in case he's still hot about the whole stealing his birthright and his blessing thing.

Well, as you can see with the picture above, their meeting was a little different than Jacob imagined. I can just see the terror in his eyes as they met the love in Esau's. What a moment! Hugs and affection and reconciliation. It really is beautiful.

I was kind of thinking this through, and I just really had a frying pan moment with God. You know, one of those moments where God subtly speaks to you, you have this thought, and it's like DUH! (like somebody hit you with a frying pan). Forgiveness is like the whole basis of Christianity.

So, here's my thinking. God forgives us. He forgives us of all of our sins - our bad things. When we walk in his forgiveness, we are walking in the power of overcoming all the bad habits and sins that we struggle with. But His forgiveness is two-fold. He forgives us and we must forgive others. You can't have one without the other. When we don't forgive others, we can't walk in the freedom from sin. We continue to struggle with those sins. But when we walk, forgiven by Him, and forgiving others, this beautiful freedom comes where we are walking in the power of His freedom from sin and giving it and showing it to others. It really is a beautiful picture.

I know that seems kind of elementary in Christianity. It was just one of those moments where what has been in my head as knowledge for so long sunk into my heart as revelation.

My prayer now is "God, I want to forgive others, so you can forgive me. I want to be free by freeing others." And the amazing thing is, He does.

Loving this life in Him!
~ Sam

A Day off & A Recipe

So, today, most of our county was shut down by impending inclement weather. This had the hopes of snow, and it did snow some early this morning. However, it has just turned into a bunch of ice. I would have taken pictures, however, this morning I woke up with the worst headache I have ever had. I didn't want to eat, open my eyes, anything. I took four sinus medicines and four ibuprofen! Talk about a heavy dose! The headache did ease off after a hot shower with sniffing steam (a great help to anyone with sinus issues). After 11 am, I was able to get up and start working on my to do list.



I know it is past Christmas, but I love this movie, so we watched it today. Jimmy Stewart is my idea of a dream boat. Great movie with a great message.



Tonight for dinner I made this recipe. It's an Asian Chicken & Rice Bake. It was actually really good. Click here for the recipe. I would just suggest cooking it longer than suggested. I served it with stir fry and Oriental Low Mein hard noodles. It was delicious! Next time I will put the stir fry vegetables in the dish. I think they would be an extra bonus! It's weird for me to be recommending a recipe. I am by no means a cook, but I think it's time to learn!

Also, I'm starting school this week! Crazy I know! I'm taking 2 classes that are prerequisites to getting into the MBA program at our local university. I'm pretty nervous about starting school all over again, but I've prayed over this and I really have a peace with it. Wish me the best!

Off to finish more on my to do list...

Work...Music...and Chicken!

So, a couple of things I'm thinking about tonight:

1) My Resolutions for the new year are no longer resolutions - they are now life goals. I tend to get over zealous on those things. J counseled me that I should kind of have these goals and work on them one day, one task at a time. So I'm trying that. For example, today, I came home and made sure that I emptied the dish washer, swept the floors, vacuumed, went through our huge mail pile. I also spent some time de-decorating our kitchen. Christmas is slowly going away - I will miss it - but I'm looking forward to opening up some cluttered space :-).


2) WORK WAS CRAZY TODAY!! I absolutely love my job. Today, though, was just one of those days I wish I could be about 5 different people.


3) One of the things I'm looking forward to at this time of year is bringing back my normal music and movies. Our family goes all Christmas in November and December with music & movies. I haven't updated my ipod yet, but I do have some money from an Itunes Gift card. Any suggestions on Christian music that you like that I may not have? Would love to hear it!


Ooo..another thing - I'm super excited - tomorrow morning I get to try the new Spicy Chicken Biscuit from Chick-Fil-A for free. I'll have to let everyone know how it is! Your experience?