And so today, I choose again - I Believe.

I know that sounds kinda strange so let me explain. Many of you reading this blog may know that it was 2 years ago this summer that I resigned the church I had planted & was pastoring. Several things contributed to this decision, including the fact that I was really burned out & mainly, God spoke. (Hearing His voice & knowing His desire is a topic for another blog on another day.)

And for 2 years I have prayed, waited, looked, and trusted God to provide a new church for me & my family. And for 2 years . . . NOTHING! We've talked to several churches during this time, but nothing that we sensed God's leadership to embrace. It has been a difficult time, to say the least. This time of waiting has really stretched our faith - more than ever before. I mean, like nothing else ever has. I mean, we have struggled greatly. Did I mention this season has stretched us? Perhaps a truer description is that it has deepened our faith. This time of waiting & facing disappointment time & time again has really called our faith to the forefront. Will we trust God? Does He really have a place for us? Are we kidding ourselves?

But just this week, I have decided again to trust & wait. I was reminded of Philippians 4 where Christ Followers are encouraged to pray instead of worrying. And then we are told this:

Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.

And so I will fill my mind on those kinds of thoughts - true, noble, gracious, beautiful thoughts. My faith is a choice. My faith is a focus of my thoughts on God and His plans for me. I know that the future holds moments for me when I will want to be discouraged. It has been a back-&-forth battle for 2 years now. When I am tempted to get discouraged, I need to refuse to entertain discouragement & choose to entertain encouragement. Because somewhere God has a church for my family & me where we can serve Him & them with joy.

And so we choose to wait - w/ a focus on the future God has in store for us. An opportunity to clearly & creatively communicate the Gospel.

Glad About Gas Prices

Hank Leukart, a Seattle travel writer, pays about four times more for gasoline today than he did nine years ago. But "I love high gas prices," he wrote in a blog last year. In the long run, "high gas prices have so many good repercussions that the temporary loss of expendable income seems worth it."

Such views aren't limited to drivers. Across the American landscape, a sprinkling of economists, authors, bloggers and pundits are making the case that there's a silver lining to high gasoline prices. Instead of pain at the pump, they see payoffs: less traffic, fewer accidents, reduced air pollution, better efficiency, more reliance on renewable fuels and less dependence on foreign oil.

"People use vehicles less or buy smaller, more efficient cars the longer prices stay high," says Ian Parry, an economist at Resources for the Future, a Washington think tank. "They put greater demand on manufacturers to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles, which, in turn, cuts oil use and reduces greenhouse-gas emissions."

Well I've got to tell you that I do not love high gas prices. In fact, I have been quite angry when I consider all the money I am spending on fuel these days. I put in 8 gallons of gas yesterday. It cost me about $32 and just a few years ago, it would have cost me about $8. And yet on the other hand, I can see what these guys are saying. Perhaps our saving grace in all of this is that higher costs will end up saving our nation.

But my question today is on the spiritual level. (Surprising isn't it?) I wonder . . . . . . . . . Where is God in all of this? What is His plan for America? Is the mortgage crisis, the rising unemployment rates, the increasing fuel prices, and the bank closings a part of God's desire to bring Americans to Himself? Are we on the verge of a great revival? Are our prayers being answered? If God's greatest competitor is money (See Matthew 6:24), and the real American idol has been the dollar, then it would seem so. All of these failures & losses could be exactly that - An invitation from God to repent. Like the prodigal son in Luke 15, Christians in America seem to be at the point of looking for a job with a local farmer. But if you remember the story, that is not when the son went back home. He had another step to go before he came to his senses. So perhaps we are just a step away from a great spiritual awakening. Let's pray we are.

From: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20070611/ai_n19291889

The end of the internet is nigh!

Can it be true?

The problem is that the world is running out of internet addresses according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). More than 85% of the available addresses have already been allocated and the OECD predicts we will have run out completely by early 2011. These aren’t the normal web addresses you type into your browser’s window, and which were recently freed up by Icann (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the body responsible for allocating domain names, to allow thousands of new internet domains ending in, for instance, .london or .xxx.

Imagine that. Mankind has invented something else that is temporary, finite, and has fatal errors. I think that most of us, including myself, never really thought about the limits of the internet, but here we have a newstory telling us that just like we need to cut back on oil consumption, we need to cut back on our internet.

It's another glaring example of how mankind is not God. We can't wear that mantle & our efforts to do so lead us to certain demise. In fact, it seems that the more we try to control (or manipulate) our world, the more our finite-ness surfaces.

But honestly can we do without the internet? I appreciate the musings of the article's author - Mark Harris: "Maybe at a philosophical level it’ll be a good thing if the internet packs up. We will all be able to shut down our computers and forget the 24/7 economy. I read recently that Stone Age man, with all his hunting and gathering and other chores, still worked only 22 hours a week."

Go to: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article4271879.ece

for the complete story.