good.......trade..........

We sold our sporty Mazda 3 and bought "The Dash". "The Dash" is a golf cart. The cover of the cart extends past the back seat and looks like Dashell Robert Parr's hair (a.k.a. Dash of the Incredibles). We think it was a "good......trade......." (remember the trade between Dances with Wolves and Wind in His Hair? ) None of the campers know what we're talking about when we say, "good........trade.........". And actually, none of the campers have even heard of Dances with Wolves. Are we really that old? I guess so! Anyway, once again God has provided and we are so thankful for "The Dash".

Dead varmits and weeding

This is kind of a truth re-visited, but yesterday God gave me two really appropriate illustrations of this truth. Let's just say that somewhere in your basement a dead varmint (mouse or piny squirrel) lies decomposing. The process is in the very early stages and the smell is permeating the house. What if we wake up every morning and spray the whole interior of the house with lemony-fresh air freshener? For a while it may smell better, but the lemony particles can only do so much and the stench of the varmint returns. The smell is sickening and cannot be ignored. The only solution is to find the culprit and remove it from the premises.
Sometimes when we're weeding the numerous flower beds around our home, the kids have a hard time removing the root of the weed they're pulling. Sometimes just the leaves come off, the stem snaps and the root is left there just waiting until we walk away to start growing again. For a day (or two if we're lucky), the flower bed looks great! But a cosmetic improvement just scratches the surface; we needed to go much deeper and rip out the root and all it's nasty tentacles.
So are we asking Jesus to forgive our sins (to be represented by the smell of the varmint and the leaves/stem of the weed) or are we asking Him to remove our sinful nature (like removing the dead rodent or ripping out the root)? It would be absurd to assign medications to a person based on their symptoms alone when the doctors know full well that cancer is the cause. Kill the cancer. Remove the varmint. Rip out the root.

There go the Amalekites

"Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised." (Romans 4:20-21) I can't say that I was like unwavering Abraham, but from the time God assured us that we were to purchase this home, we have fallen back on His promise to wipe out the Amalekites. The Amalekites were a people group that was occupying the land of Canaan that the Lord had promised to His people. The Amalekites seemed too much to the Israelites and they doubted God's promise to give them the land. However there were two that were confident in the Lord: Joshua and Caleb. They knew if the Lord was moving them out that He would remove all obstacles. The Lord made it very clear to us that, in our story, the "Amalekites" signified the debt we would owe on this property. Three years ago we knew that He was moving us out and that we were to "go up and take possession of the land" and that He would wipe out the "Amalekites". Today He has fulfilled His promise; we closed on the sale of our house this morning. We have been strengthened in our faith and we want to give Him the Glory. His yes is His yes.