Have you ever felt like God was stretching you in all directions? There are so many new experiences that are happening to me. I am meeting a lot of new people, and some that I have known for a while but are now just getting to know on a more personal basis. I am in a teaching position at church, which hasn't happened in many a year due to family busyness. I am now in a women's Bible study and that is a new one also. I have been needing this kind of stretch for a while now.
I homeschool the kids, and help Jim in our business to some extent, but was feeling like I wasn't being challenged personally.
Well, watch out what you pray for. I have met people lately that have challenged many of my set beliefs and standards. Not that I have changed my stance from the interchange of beliefs but I have been challenged again and again to not judge others.
I am on two new forums and there are always subjects that I have taken for granted. One young man recently questioned the purpose of prayer. In that thread another young man stated that he felt like he was missing something because he never felt like God answered his prayers. He was just going through the motions and didn't understand when others talked about a more personal answer to their prayer. I have taken prayer so much for granted that to think about how to explain how personal God wants to be, was a good mental exercise for me.
If you are complacent in your walk... ask God to stretch you. Even if you have a steady walk, asking God to push you past your comfort zone gives you perspectives on people that you never had before. I am learning how to look past the fronts that people put up. I am being able to see more deep into lives than I have in a long while. I am being pushed to pray for people in such a active, dynamic way that it overwhelms me at times.
What an awesome privilege to see the world... the church as God sees it. In all of its imperfectness but with a love that is definitely not mine own.

Me *julie* at  # 12:35 AM

Isn't this a great quote from Rick? Astronomy is one of those sciences, for me anyway, where you can see God coloring outside the lines.
Me *julie* at  # 11:50 PM

Time Management

"Imagine that there is a bank which credits your account each morning with 86,400 units. Carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course! Well, everyone has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as a lost, whatever of this amount you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft.
Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the records of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against "tomorrow". You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in service to God, to demonstrating love to our brothers, and in continuing in your growth to spiritual adulthood. The clock is running. Make the most of today?
"Time management is doing things in a manner that gets all the work done with the minimum of hassles." (Ricki Jeffery, General Manager of Direct Edge.)

Me *julie* at  # 8:39 AM

I found a new blog today... it was lighthearted. I will be interested to read more of it.

I went to a blog through Sam's yesterday and I liked this blog too. It gave me a good laugh!

Some people just have a flare for writing.

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Me *julie* at  # 9:12 PM

Proverbs 17:17 - The friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

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Proverbs 27:17 - Iron is sharpened by iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
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Friends..
Some random thoughts I've been having on this issue. To have a friend is a secure feeling. To know someone cares unconditionally. I have a good friend that I hardly see anymore but there is nothing that would shock either of us. We have been through 10 years of life-pains and we accept each other totally. If I had to choose a quality that other's could see I think that's it. That they could know I am a unconditional friend. That kind of friend is hard work though. It takes going through the pain of life and still saying "I'm with ya!". It takes seeing them in all sorts of situations and whether you agree with how they dealt with it or not, you still say "I'm with ya!".
I think that's the only way you can make it in a marriage. I think that's the only way you can stand behind your kids. I know that not all families have that in their relationships and I experienced it to a point in that I never could have a 'friendship' with my parents. I'm glad I can say my daughter is my friend. I know we would say "I'm with ya!" about anything and that's a great thing.
Befriending someone takes work... work in time..work in building trust..work in accepting them on their terms... Sometimes I think 'online' friends are easier just because it doesn't take as much work. You can 'talk' when it's convenient for you... you can ignore them... you can walk away from a conversation and do something else for awhile and then come back. Many things that you would not be able to get away with in person, seems easy to get away with online. But online friends are valid too. I like my small circle of 'blog friends' that I have met. Some I feel like I 'know' better than others. But I also know that the unconditional friendship is harder to develop online... That trust factor of "are you really as real as your blog seems to be?" I do like having online friends but real-life friends are important, even if you don't see them, to keep your feet on the ground.

Me *julie* at  # 4:45 PM

We are doing a study on "The Hard Sayings of Jesus". This is one of the passages we looked at this last Sunday. Matthew 7:1-5
Matthew 7

1 "Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Amazing that this is what God has been having me work on these last few months. And some in the room still didn't get it. They gave the 'flip side' like I would have been prone to do before. That we are called to judge those in the church and not those outside. That if we allow sin to go on we are doing a disservice to those people. But those are all focusing on the other person, not on ones own heart. Those 'judgment' ideas are focusing on the 'action' of the other person instead of evaluating the condition of one's own heart or of loving that person to God.
No, I haven't gotten soft on sin.. No, I haven't gotten liberal in my views. But I do feel like I have had to grow some lately in seeing people more through God's eyes. In seeing their potential and not the current position. In seeing that my ''small" sins were just as much a reason that Jesus had to die as those done by other who I used to feel I had to 'save'. I am learning to step out of the Counselors shoes and let Him do the convicting. I am learning that God has eternity to grow us up and I don't have to rush His time frame. I am learning that gentle persuasion is stronger than forceful corrections.
Like the story of the argument between the wind and the sun. They both said they were strong enough to make a young man take off his coat. They made a challenge to see who would win. The wind went first. He blew as hard and cold and he could. But the man only pulled his coat tighter around himself and put his head down into the wind. Then the sun went. He gently shined down and warm the man up. The man straightened up and as the sun grew warmer, he took off his coat. (moral: gentle persuasion is more forceful than harsh attacks)
I want others to see that my focus is in keeping right before God... not on whether they are or not. I want God's aroma in me to be what brings others to repent.. not my convictions of their actions. I want to develop relationships first so that if God leads me to speak into someones life, they first know that I care and their lives are most important to me rather than their actions. I want to be a safe harbor for others to learn to love God through and around. Conviction and repentance is so very important that I don't want to mess it up. I want to get it right myself first and then walk beside the others, helping them to do it too.
That's my heart....
Me *julie* at  # 2:06 AM

I wish...
* I didn't have win98 on this computer...
* I didn't have a compaq computer...
* that since I have win98 and this computer that it would be faster than a snail in mud.

~excuse my small whining for the day...I'm going to go get some cheese to go with it~
Me *julie* at  # 12:44 AM

I have been hearing this on the radio lately and we have sung it in church lately. What an awesome thought this is to me. Can you imagine any other king in any country that would be punished much less die for one of his subjects? Especially for the down and out ones? What an amazing God we have. It's so easy to see some that may walk a rougher road than I do and think I've made a good thing of my life... But when I stop to compare myself with the One who matters..I fail miserably. And then I remember that He died for everything I've done.. Amazing Love

Amazing Love (You Are My King)
I'm forgiven because You were forsaken
I'm accepted, You were condemned
I'm alive and well, Your spirit is within me
Because You died and rose again


Amazing love, how can it be
That You, My King, would die for me?
Amazing love, I know it's true
It's my joy to honor You
In all I do, I honor You


I'm forgiven because You were forsaken
I'm accepted, You were condemned
I'm alive and well, Your spirit is within me
Because You died and rose again


Amazing love, how can it be
That You, My King, would die for me?
Amazing love, I know it's true
It's my joy to honor You
In all I do, I honor You


You are My King
You are My King
Jesus, You are My King


Amazing love, how can it be
That You, My King, would die for me?
Amazing love, I know it's true
It's my joy to honor You
In all I do, I honor You


-Phillips Craig and Dean

Me *julie* at  # 8:03 PM

We just watched Pearl Harbor again. There were 3000 people, mostly military, killed during that attack. The whole country came together to fight in that war. There were at least 3000 killed in the World Trade Center attack, mostly civilians. And for a time the whole country/world came together to fight that war. The biggest difference in the two situations makes the difference in how many are still in this war. Pearl Harbor had a specific enemy...A specific country to make war on. The terrorist attack was done by enemies operating in and through various countries, some of which are hard to pinpoint. There is no one specific enemy. Instead of a specific tumor that the doctor can remove... It is a bone cancer that is attacking all over but with no easy way to eradicate it. Instead of a straight forward removal operation, it is taking a complete 'radiation' approach. Many are backing out of the war because they don't like the pain war causes, especially when they can't see what the results will be. In the same way that some would choose not to undergo chemotherapy because it would make life unbearable for a time and they would rather 'feel' healthy and not worry about tomorrow (which is their personal choice), some feel that the uncertain results of this war aren't worth the 'nausea' that it creates in the process (which is also their personal choice). It just seems right to me to try and get rid of the cancer however I can. If I don't get rid of it I know it will kill me... The cure may kill me too, but at least I have a chance that it may make my future better.
Me *julie* at  # 10:53 AM