Hand me that Screwdriver, Please

I've been one of those "fix-it" guys all my life. My Dad taught me all kinds of things, so I know a little bit about enough things to make me dangerous.

When I was young, we built giant kites, go carts, fixed light switches and plumbing pipes, etc. I loved trying to figure a problem out and then fixing it (unlike my brother, who couldn't be bothered to pull his nose out of his current science fiction book to care. NEVER ask him to fix anything! lol).

However, I must admit, that when it comes to fixing things, I might be just a little bit lazy. I mean, when I'm working on a particular thing, but don't have the right tool at hand, I'm more likely to make do with some tool not designed for the task, than to go get the one I SHOULD use. As you might know, this is not good, because the old adage is: "The right tool for the right task." Uh, sure. But whoever said that wasn't as creative as I am! {do I hear a Tim the Toolman Taylor's "arr, arr, arr?"}

So I can't tell you how many times I've used a screwdriver as a hammer (my screwdriver handle proves it). Or a screwdriver as a pair of pliers (it CAN be done!). Actually, I can use a screwdriver for just about ANY task. Of course, I also can't tell you how many new screwdrivers I have had to buy because of my "creativity!"

Truth be told, I DO realize how important it is to use the right tool for the task at hand (maybe I learned the hard way, but I DID learn). All you get when you use a tool for the wrong task is a broken tool (well, maybe a serious cut on your hand as well). I'm sure my readers are quite bright, so I know you get it-

How foolish it is to use a tool for anything other than what it was created for.

Vicky Beeching sings these words to God:

We were created to worship Your Name . . .
Worshiping other things destroys our liberty.

As I was listening to these words yesterday while headed to church, it dawned on me how foolish it is to not use our lives to do what we were created for. And yet, how many broken lives do we come across all because this is exactly what we try to do? Just like I break my screwdrivers by using them for something other than what they were created for, we break our lives when we don't regularly praise and worship God.

If we use our lives for the purpose we were created, we are freed from the brokenness we try so hard to deal with in our own way. Some use drugs, intoxicants, sex, food, etc, but these things NEVER fulfill us nor fix what is broken within. It takes using ourselves for the purpose our creator made us for in the first place.

But as we praise You we are freed . . .
This is what we were meant to do.

Now I only buy the best screwdrivers- Craftsman. Their guarantee is that if you manage to break one of their tools, Sears will replace the old broken one for a brand spankin' new one (Sears and I have this relationship kinda like a fat guy and a Chinese buffet).

Here's the cool part of this post- God has an even better guarantee than Sears! When we realize our lives are beyond our own repair, all we have to do is bring them in repentance to Jesus. He is the Master Craftsman who will instantly give us a new one for the old one- no questions asked.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
the old has gone, the new has come! - 2 Corinthians 5:17

And God never pretends he's closed like Sears when they see me coming. I like that! Arr, arr arr!

Just the Black Notes . . . Amazing!

This is an absolutely amazing video clip!

Click the title or here to be redirected to the blog it was posted on.

The Oil Spill (Part 2)

We're 1 day short of a week since our oil spill incident. It's quite a story already, but it's not over yet. In fact, we discovered Tuesday (after they bored 20 test holes through our basement cement floor) that there are 4 "hot spots" in the soil beneath our house. In other words . . . oil did reach the dirt beneath the floor so they will be jack-hammering up at least 4 sections of our basement to remove all contaminated dirt! Maybe it's a prophetic sign of a Holy Spirit explosion on the way that will ruin every vessel in RI for God...

The Father Bothers!

As I wait for the second cleaning company to come to our house and continue the work to remove the oil smell (more on all that later), I'm sitting at my office desk praying and listening to Lincoln Brewster (his music is so awesome!). I don't know how many times I've heard these words before, but today, they went down deep:

"Thank you Father,
I'm glad that you bother
To love a man like me."

I'm glad that you bother. Wow. I get it; what he's trying to say. God doesn't HAVE to bother with our lives and all we put him through. But he DOES!

Along the lines of Paul's "worst sinner of them all," when we see the truth of who we really are against who God really is . . . there is no comparison. Why should God (I mean, GOD, after all) pay any attention to us at all?

Psalm 8 voices this same thought with these words:

"Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?" - The Message

We will probably never grasp the why of God's attention to us, but really all we have to do is trust it's true. God cares deeply for us. So much that he deals with all the bother we put him through.

So this morning, as I marvel at God's presence in my little office- all focused on me- all I can say is "Thank you Father, I'm glad that you bother with me."

Ha! Now Lincoln's singing "You alone are worthy to be praised!" How perfect is that?

PS: I wish you could experience what God is doing in me right now! It's incredible!

Oil Spill Takes on New Meaning

Today was a good day. Some hard work- nothing "bad" or tough, but at 4 PM I was ready to head home for an evening to just crash. I had a bit of a headache and I was tired. Saturday was looking good!

As soon as I walked in the door, I intended to call the oil company to come look at our furnace. It was leaking some water and our hot water in the house wasn't quite up to snuff lately. Little did I know, I would be calling the oil company, but not to look at my furnace.

As I pulled out my keys at the front door, I noticed a bit of a smell. "Oil," I thought and, sure enough, when I opened the door it hit me hard! Whoa! BIG time oil smell right in the front foyer! So I headed down to the basement to look at the furnace.

When I turned the corner into the laundry room, I almost slipped and fell. The floor was covered in a layer of black, slippery oil. Thinking the furnace could be the problem, I inched my way carefully over to look, but as I neared the big machine, I noticed there was no oil on that part of the floor. So back to the other side of the room, where it looked deeper.

As I slide my feet through the slippery muck, I looked around the room and saw that oil had been soaking into everything it could reach from the floor- apparently for some time. Rugs were soaked black, boxes on the floor were a shiny black instead of the usual dull brown. Then I noticed the brand spanking new oil tank (less than a month old) was covered in a light film of oil and the depth meter was missing. Later I found it in pieces around the area, because it had been blown off the oil tank. Apparently, the oil company over filled our tank and the pressure, blew the gauge off and oil spewed to the ceiling rafters and all around that side of the room! Somewhere around 10 gallons were now soaked into our sheet-rock walls, woodwork, carpets, ceiling beams, boxes, 2 mattresses and box springs and a bedroom dresser.

All kinds of things were damaged beyond use including my son's entire summer wardrobe of pants and shorts in his closet. All our instruments were dry (whew!), but we ended up having to throw out a lot of things that could not be salvaged.

As I stood there in the middle of our new disaster, I was dumbfounded. If it had been water, I would have known what to do, but oil? Where in the world should I start? Several phone calls and a few hours later, we finally got someone in to begin the cleanup process. He just left, but the house still reeks! There's a LOT more to do. Looks like it's going to be days (weeks?) before we get things settled again. And we're going to have to replace floor tiles, carpeting, some furniture, some walls . . . oh man!

Well, after the initial shock wore off, both Debbie and I began taking it all a little easier. I mean, you gotta just roll with these kind of punches- there's nothing else you can do. One day it will all be a "can you top THIS one?" story we can tell!

It's a good thing we know God's in control. Without that certain knowledge that he knows it all and nothing comes our way without him first approving it and giving us the strength to deal with it, we'd be lost for sure.

But we're not lost and he IS in control. Hallelujah!

Living by Truth

Special thanks to Stephanie Lines for prophetically giving this verse to me back in July when we had just moved to Rhode Island. It has become my theme here and I constantly go back to it for a reminder of God's truth in any situation.

It is my desire to live by truth and live in it's light. I want everything I do to be examined by the light; out in the open, not hidden away and whispered in the shadows. That way it will be clearly seen that anything I accomplish has not been done in my own strength- rather God's working through me.

This is not always the easy path, but it is the right path . . . always.

I praise God for his abundant grace in even the toughest situations the enemy thrusts us into! May we all be faithful to his call and stand strong in that grace.

Bad Guys and Good Friends

This is the scripture God led me to tonight. When you finish reading it (please actually read it- don't just bleep over it or breeze through it like we so often do because it's scripture we know), you'll have some clue as to how my day went.

What you won't know without me telling you, is how encouraging God's Word was to me at a time when I really needed it. AND how encouraging a good friend's listening ear can be when you need to just unload (you know who you are- thanx).

Psalm 37 (The Message)
A David psalm

Don't bother your head with braggarts
or wish you could succeed like the wicked.
2 In no time they'll shrivel like grass clippings
and wilt like cut flowers in the sun.
3 Get insurance with God and do a good deed,
settle down and stick to your last.
4 Keep company with God,
get in on the best.
5 Open up before God, keep nothing back;
he'll do whatever needs to be done:
6 He'll validate your life in the clear light of day
and stamp you with approval at high noon.
7 Quiet down before God,
be prayerful before him.
Don't bother with those who climb the ladder,
who elbow their way to the top.
8 Bridle your anger, trash your wrath,
cool your pipes—it only makes things worse.
9 Before long the crooks will be bankrupt;
God-investors will soon own the store.
10 Before you know it, the wicked will have had it;
you'll stare at his once famous place and—nothing!
11 Down-to-earth people will move in and take over,
relishing a huge bonanza.
12 Bad guys have it in for the good guys,
obsessed with doing them in.
13 But God isn't losing any sleep;
to him they're a joke with no punch line.
14 Bullies brandish their swords,
pull back on their bows with a flourish.
They're out to beat up on the harmless,
or mug that nice man out walking his dog.
15 A banana peel lands them flat on their faces—
slapstick figures in a moral circus.
16 Less is more and more is less.
One righteous will outclass fifty wicked,
17 For the wicked are moral weaklings
but the righteous are God-strong.
18 God keeps track of the decent folk;
what they do won't soon be forgotten.
19 In hard times, they'll hold their heads high;
when the shelves are bare, they'll be full.
20 God-despisers have had it;
God's enemies are finished—
Stripped bare like vineyards at harvest time,
vanished like smoke in thin air.
21 Wicked borrows and never returns;
Righteous gives and gives.
22 Generous gets it all in the end;
Stingy is cut off at the pass.
23 Stalwart walks in step with God;
his path blazed by God, he's happy.
24 If he stumbles, he's not down for long;
God has a grip on his hand.
25 I once was young, now I'm a graybeard—
not once have I seen an abandoned believer,
or his kids out roaming the streets.
26 Every day he's out giving and lending,
his children making him proud.
27 Turn your back on evil,
work for the good and don't quit.
28 God loves this kind of thing,
never turns away from his friends.
Live this way and you've got it made,
but bad eggs will be tossed out.
29 The good get planted on good land
and put down healthy roots.
30 Righteous chews on wisdom like a dog on a bone,
rolls virtue around on his tongue.
31 His heart pumps God's Word like blood through his veins;
his feet are as sure as a cat's.
32 Wicked sets a watch for Righteous,
he's out for the kill.
33 God, alert, is also on watch—
Wicked won't hurt a hair of his head.
34 Wait passionately for God,
don't leave the path.
He'll give you your place in the sun
while you watch the wicked lose it.
35 I saw Wicked bloated like a toad,
croaking pretentious nonsense.
36 The next time I looked there was nothing—
a punctured bladder, vapid and limp.
37 Keep your eye on the healthy soul,
scrutinize the straight life;
There's a future in strenuous wholeness.
38 But the willful will soon be discarded;
insolent souls are on a dead-end street.
39 The spacious, free life is from God,
it's also protected and safe.
40 God-strengthened, we're delivered from evil—
when we run to him, he saves us.

Waiting on God

I'm reading the book "Waiting on God" by Andrew Murray. Immediately as I started to read, I was drawn into the depths of what it means to wait on God. I don't think I'll figure it all out any time soon!

I have a sneaking suspicion that in today's world, we have no clue what it means to wait. This is, after all, the day of instant gratification. "Wait?" What's that?

Wait is an interesting word. The more you think about it, the more meaning seeps to the surface to explore. Since I'm trying to grasp as much as I can on waiting, I began exploring the word. As I looked into the good ol' American Heritage Dictionary, I found this:

- - - - - -
wait
1a. To remain or rest in expectation. b. To tarry until another catches up.
2. To remain or be in readiness.
3. To remain temporarily neglected, unattended to, or postponed.
4. To work as a waiter or waitress.

1. To remain or stay in expectation of; await.
2. Informal. To delay (a meal or an event); postpone.
3. To be a waiter or waitress at.

1. The act of waiting or the time spent waiting.
2. Chiefly British. a. One of a group of musicians employed, usually by a city, to play in parades or public ceremonies. b. One of a group of musicians or carolers who perform in the streets at Christmastime.

wait on or wait upon.
1. To serve the needs of; be in attendance on.
2. To make a formal call on; visit.
3. To follow as a result; depend on.
4. To await. wait out. To delay until the termination of.

wait up.
1. To postpone going to bed in anticipation of something or someone.
2. Informal. To stop or pause so that another can catch up.
- - - - - -

There's a lot in there to work on (maybe even the British musicians part)! But here's what comes to mind first:

We tend to think of spiritual things as most important; other things less so (it seems we're back to the "sacred/secular" debate). Now I don't want anyone to think I'm saying spiritual matters are not important- I just wonder if God doesn't see the difference. To God, all things are important.

But because of our anxiousness to get what we want and move on, we take little joy in the little things. Or the time it takes to get to our desired goal(s). It seems to me that the time waiting on God to lead you to do something (you're dying to do NOW), is hugely important in the overall scheme of things.

My brother speaks of the meandering puppy who, once free from his leash, flits about from this place to that. No worries- just going where the "wind" and his steps take him. He's not concerned about being late for his next meeting, what he's going to accomplish in life, or what his next appointment will be.

Could we ever wait on God with that frame of mind?

Remember, God is more concerned with WHO you are than WHAT you do (Wednesday, August 09, 2006 A Spiritual Equation and Saturday, August 12, 2006 More on BE Over DO).

Wouldn't it be something to go sit alone with God and not take any agendas with you? No requests, no words except, "God, I'm here for you. Just to be with you and wait for/on you. It's your time."

I challenge you to try it.

Oh and click on the picture above, scroll down the page a bit and find an interesting new device called the "waiting light." Maybe we'll find a version of this popping up in Christian book stores soon- the "Waiting on God" light.