February 25, 2007

Psalm 86~ You Have Helped Me In My Need

Leleiwe Beach Park South Hilo Hawaii.

Psalm 86

A Prayer of David.

Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.


Preserve my life, for I am godly;
save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God.


Be gracious to me, O Lord,
for to you do I cry all the day.


Gladden the soul of your servant,
for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.


For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.


Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer;
listen to my plea for grace.


In the day of my trouble I call upon you,
for you answer me.



There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,
nor are there any works like yours.


All the nations you have made shall come
and worship before you, O Lord,
and shall glorify your name.


For you are great and do wondrous things;
you alone are God.


Teach me your way, O Lord,
that I may walk in your truth;
unite my heart to fear your name.


I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
and I will glorify your name forever.


For great is your steadfast love toward me;
you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.



O God, insolent men have risen up against me;
a band of ruthless men seek my life,
and they do not set you before them.


But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.


Turn to me and be gracious to me;
give your strength to your servant,
and save the son of your maidservant.


Show me a sign of your favor,
that those who hate me may see and be put to shame
because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

Labels: Hawaii, scripture

February 24, 2007

Breaking The Back of Winter

Blooming Dogwoods Honey Creek State Park Grove OK

2-23-2007

We have gone from freezing to blissful here in the Ozarks. I never thought that I would say that air temperatures in the 50's would feel "blissful" but the sun is warm and all is right with the world...It looks like we will be getting another blast of winter, but without the freezing we have been experienced recently. I am sort of looking forward to the thunder and lightning that is being predicted.

I took this photo this time last spring. It is still too early for dogwood to be in bloom. Many of these trees were destroyed in the ice storm of a month ago, The Oklahoma border lands were really hard hit. Towns between Fort Smith and Tulsa were robbed of their trees by the ice, tops and limbs snapped off, piles and piles of debris everywhere. I wonder how the summer will be with out the family oak in the front yard. So many were beyond repair, split right down the center.

Woody and I saw this as we took a driving trip to Tulsa two Saturday's ago. this was unplanned so we didn't do much more than have a meal and return a different way. I slept in the car and somehow that was good, usually I mind if I miss one thing, but the barren landscape depressed me so, I wanted to shut it out.

I am fighting the demons that beset me at the end of last year. I know that part of this is cyclical, part of it is my account at work leaving and getting the news that I am going back to the same horrid job I had before, worse because I am in the talent pool and so can be called upon to do the work no one wants to do, and should I stay here for long, will be rendered ineligible for the annual bonuses that account assignees get. Its a rotten deal. I have a final interview today for a position and two more next week, we shall see how things go. Its a test of my faith, God gave me this wonderful situation these past few months I can count on Him to do the right thing for me

2-24-2007

Woody started his new job at the old car lot, and propitiously it has rained like crazy with thunder and lighting. We had planned to go someplace today but I was asked if I could fill in for a sick person at work today so I said yes, they asked nicely and it will allow me to request next Friday off to go on retreat a little early as a birthday bonus...

Woody wanted to celebrate his last day of freedom by taking me to the movies and to dinner after work, sort of a date night. We went to a new resturant that opened in our new Mall, Mimi's. We had them in California but this was a whole step above those we knew. Very good, we both had fish and it was great.

Another reason we went out was the opening of the film "Amazing Grace". A historical work rather than a religious one it was very good and I recommend it to everyone Christian or not because it deals with the idea that one man can face down tyranny and succeed. Would to God we would see a William Wilberforce in our day, for there are so many evils in our world the could use a champion like that...

In a trailer advertisment for the film that we have seen but many of my peers have NOT seen, because of the politics of the 90 second clip, showed the irons of the slave ships, some of the horrible images of the West Indies plantaion abuse of slaves, as Wilberforce is debating in Parliment, and the chilling caption that ran under the music included the statement "This is the story of the abolition of the trading of enslaved Africans by Great Britian, a effort spearheaded by the tireless work of Willian Wilberforce.... (long pause) Slavery did not end however ..there are as many African slaves in the world today as there were in 1790..."

We do nothing about Africa as a nation. Darfur is not even a blip on the political map... but remember that shocking statement, there are as many African slaves in the world as there were in 1790. I intend to research that myself, but somehow I believe it...

I loved the film. I loved the way it dipicted Regency England, and how they handled the whole subject. But for the want of not making the movie Titanically long, they left out a few details that I missed but non history buffs wouldnt miss. Kids can see this. The images of slavery are brief and hinted at more than overtly shown and it would be a great way to introduce the subject, and why we must defend human dignity for all even those different from ourselves.

I have some new projects going and will tell you more about them as time goes on.

Labels: Scenic Arkansas, weather

February 21, 2007

An Ash Wednsday Prayer

Sunset over the Ozarks Holiday Island Arkansas

A Prayer Of Confession

O,God change us
until it doen't hurt anymore
Take us to a secret place where,
untouched by the enemy
we might absorb
the solace of your words,
spoken to all:
"If God be for us,
Who can stand against us?"

Our hearts are weary,
bombarded by the criticism
of the cynical people and
the pressures to perform
as well as the state
of the world around us
Too often
We have allowed
such trivial things
to overwelm us


Release us,
nourish our souls
with Your songs of hope
and love
Take us, remake us
within the essence
of your Spirit
freely breathed out upon us

May the renewal that
the fresh wind of Your Spirit
provide enable us
to accomplish
all that You desire
that all honor
glory and praise be Yours

Labels: Poem, Prayers

February 18, 2007

Third John Three~ Imitate Good

The Greens of Bella Vista Highlands Bella Vista Ar

3 John 1-15

The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.

Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.

For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers* came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth.

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are,

who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.

For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles.

Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority.

So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.

Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.

Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.

I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink.

I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.

Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, every one of them.

Labels: Bella Vista, scripture

February 14, 2007

God's Burning Love

Fire from the center of the Earth
A "toe" of Pahoehoe (smooth) lava reaching out to the sea HVO Photo


I have come to love the worship leader/ Missionary-intercessor, Ritchy Clark. His Podcast "Radiant Worship" is 10 minutes of "lo-fi" spontaneous prophetic praise and worship. His voice is not smooth perfection, it is more like Sting and The Police doing worship, but I love its intense honesty, and lyrically the songs are haunting, unpolished prose poetry, filled with powerful images.

Please pray for Richy and his wife Jessica, who is trying to hang on to her baby girl, who is trying to be born three months early. They lost twin sons three years ago in a premature birthing, so this is a continued tragedy for them.

For this "Love Day" I want to get beyond what is expected and touch on a different passion. The love of God for us, and how it can be as consuming as any romance. This is a loose and somewhat shortened transcription of his podcast 126 The Fire of Your Love


Burn me God
With the fire of Your love
I want to feel
Only Your holy love

Consume me God
With the fire of Your Love
Burn me
With the Fire of Heaven

Holy Fire
I am waiting here...


I am waiting here, for this fire
I am staying here, for this fire
I am praying here, for for Your fire
...of Your love

I want to be changed,
by the fire
rearranged
by the fire of your love
Renamed
by the fire
Reclaimed
by the fire of your love

Rain down the Fire
till Im unrecognized
Rain down the fire
till I am purified
Rain down on me
till all men can see
Rain down
till all men are free

Rain down the fire
the fire of Your love...


In my bones
In my soul
Let the Fire take control
In our homes
Throughout the land
Lift us up with Your right hand
In the churches and the schools
make Your holy law the rule
Rule every action in our days
for You alone are worthy
of our praise!

You are worthy Lord
So worthy
of our praise!

Send it down
Send down the fire of your love
on the humble ones
on the broken ones
on the desprate ones
on the little ones
daughters and sons
Your children...

Send the fire
The fire of Your love

Richy Clark 2007

Labels: Hawaii, Poem, Praise and Worship

February 13, 2007

More Hours In My Day

You haven't seen much of these two recently. Here are Mak and Nani snuggled up in my chair in front of the fire. They are fat and happy, living large in Arkansas...but they have one complaint..."Who put da world in da kine deep freeze? Is too cold for us tropical kine kitties!"

I have been busy this past Two weeks, not more so than normal but more than I thought that I would be under the circumstances. There have been a lot of crisis moments but all in all I feel pretty good about some of the outcomes of the events of the week.

First of all I want to give credit for the title of todays post. Many years ago, I found myself stuggling to balance my life with work, ailing parents, and ministry at church all requiring huge amounts of time. So I went to a seminar called "More Hours In My Day" by the wonderful Emilie Barnes. I dont know if she is still traveleing, as she has had cancer and well its hard as you get older to travel all over the place doing seminars, but she is, to me, a kinder, gentler Martha Stewart, with family first rather than style first.

Anyway that title came into my head as I was thinking about this post. A lot of my blogging time was spent saving my old posts and preparing to migrate to Blogger 2.0. All of the gloom and doom on different bulletin boards warned me to expect the worst, but like Y2K, all noise no substance.

The biggest news is that Woody got sacked from the Toyota dealership due to poor sales. Our weather continues to be dismal and of course that means low sales. He was being recruited by the dealership in Fayetteville, a "Auto Mall" so he can sell all different sort of cars and not just one brand. We will know this week if he got the position, now if the freezing rain will stop he will go out and hit up a few places closer to home (his drive will be about 40 miles one way)

I have a turn in my job as well. I have been working a desk that requires barely a touch more than babysitting, for the last three months. That little respite is going to come to an end, as the account is leaving "thisplace" and going to handle its own freight. I will be going to the "floater pool". The only thing I dont like about that is a somewhat nomadic situation, but I may stay with with my former team ( I sit near them now) and just help out. I will miss being the master of my own ship. I always knew that it would be short lived.

My goal to be working for myself is inching closer to reality. I have managed to repay all of my debts, including my van, so I shall be personally debt free by my self set deadline, Divine Mercy Sunday April 15. I have also been trying to "fast" from descretionary spending. This was to be my Lenten Pledge, but I have been trying to live this way since New Years. Woody is sort of going along, saying he will refrain from excess spending, so that we can start to really save for future projects. Like insulating the room I want to use as a studio. The glassed in screen room has stayed above freezing, but is still too cold for us or the kitties to hang out in. I need to install floor insulation and roof insulation as well as a heat and air unit.

And lastly, church is starting up its preparations for a contemporary service. This is not Kum-By-Yah and coffee, but a radical shift, in both the music and teaching. Im very excited to be a part of this and so glad that things have worked out so we could share in this awakening in this church. Stay tuned.

Labels: Cats, Woody, working

February 12, 2007

The Mouse Story~ A Big Mahalo (thank you) To You All

Ginger lei, a vitual "aloha" gift to all of my blogging friends!

February 11, 2007

Colossians 1~ In Christ, Preeminence

Sunrise Dahlia Descanso Gardens



Colossians 1

Greeting
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
To the saints and faithful brothers,(and sisters) in Christ at Colossae:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,7just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks* to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The Preeminence of Christ

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Paul's Ministry to the Church

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Labels: flowers, scripture

February 04, 2007

Psalm 117- The Lord's Faithfulness Endures Forever

Bathers at Kamaole III Beach Maui

Psalm 117- The Lord's Faithfulness Endures Forever

Praise the Lord, all nations!
Extol him, all peoples!
For great is his steadfast love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord!

Labels: Hawaii, scripture

February 02, 2007

The White Season

Enrobed in Ice

1-31-2007

I am home early, a 30 minute drive took me two and a half hours. I was traveling up Highway 540 at a decent but not too speedy clip when I realized that I was accerating and didnt have my foot on the gas. Red lights ahead and I knew I wasnt going to stop. I had lots of space in front and behind, as I tried to brake and the van began to rotate. I pulled a 360 and ended up in the slow lane face front and rolling slowly. I nearly peed my pants...As the truckers that had been way behind me pulled up next to me a few minutes later, I got a two thumbs up and a "great driving, that was black ice we were on...".

But I got home in the dime sized dryish falling snow... It has been falling now for four hours and will be drifting in the light wind that is blowing. All around are still many fallen trees pulled up by the roots they seem, naked foundation's showing...If this turns to ice we will have even more trees pulled up like carrots by their tops.

Woody was already home, He no sooner got to the car lot than they shooed him out to go home. I did see one poor slob out on the lot showing a car in 20 degree plus windchill and pumulling snow. Not me, Give the warm place by the fire.


2-02-2007

Back at work today. I worked from home yesterday, as we werent plowed until later in the afternoon. Yesterday was gloomy and cold, today is brilliant and colder yet. Too cold for me to go walking in my fairly light clothes. I saw a groundhog (I kid you not) out along the side of the road, the sun was shining, so it six more weeks of winter for us in the Ozarks. I am thrilled I love the snow, and maybe one day I will learn to drive in it!

Woody went into the carlot and they did actually have some traffic but its still very slow. There is a lot of talk of layoffs. Funny though the people that he was working for last year, Hendren All American are interested in hiring him back should he want to work for them. With a two mile commute, sure he's interested. Also a lot of the creepy people that gave him a hard time are gone so its nice that he might have something on the back burner should he get sacked.

Tis the season of change in the transportation business, people are moving to new accounts and new jobs. We have three people leaving this week off our team. One is going to a new account, one is leaving to go to work for the Walmart Home Office in their Transportation divison, and another is following a fellow team mate that left before Christmas to teach English in South Korea. I am envious of this last young man and his friend (and his friend's girlfriend too that I believe went along...) such an adventure. And I am sitting here.. Ho hum...

I did finally go out for a walk. The wind was blowing the temperature down to the single digits, and the ground was crunchy and slippery, but it was beautiful. One of my co-workers has a disabled son in the new state run day care accross the way from "thisplace". I saw the kids out for five minutes of snow time. That is about all they can take but they were loving every second of it. I wish I could have taken a photo, but in these days of sick child predators, I didnt want to upset anyone... I found myself affected by their abandon, I need to find that part of myself again.

Labels: weather