A recent post that I was reading – Blacksheep Blog - got me to thinking about something. Mr. Blacksheep did a great job of sharing his confusion about holding the ball versus fumbling (which if you know anything about football, you know this is not a good thing) and letting God pick up the ball and do His work of getting the touchdown. This is where my problem comes in. A simple, yet profound saying that was popular a number of years ago – Let Go, and Let God – causes me to wonder if I should step out of the way, put down the ball, or something else, and let God do His thing. Or on the other hand, the parable of the talents that Jesus uses in Matthew 25:14-30 would indicate that we are to do our work and God will do His. While I would agree with Mr. Blacksheep when it comes to the things that we cannot do, I would also say that we are to use the talents (pun intended) that God has given us!
So what is the answer? Let Go, and let God or God helps those who help themselves? Let me know what you think.
And congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Blacksheep on the new chapter in their life. (See their website if you would like to know more.)
While it is not the best picture, it is the best picture that we have that shows Daniel’s determination in going in for the shot! Over the last 10 weeks, Upward basketball at Fox River Church in Waukesha has been a weekly part of life; going to practice on Tuesdays and the game on Saturday. One thing that makes Upward unique among basketball programs is that halfway through the practices, all teams on the court (which is usually 4 teams practicing at the same time), sit down in their respective corners and do a devotional. Since the program is open to anyone – not just Fox River kids-churched and unchurched kids alike get a taste of the gospel as well as have to learn a Bible verse.
The season went well for the Pumas! They started off strong and only got better. At this age, it can sometimes be difficult to work together as a team. However, the Pumas coach stressed teamwork at practice and it paid off in their team “winning” most of their games. However, since points are not kept, it was hard to tell at some games.
The celebration for the end of the season is this Friday. It will be a party that will include publicly recognizing the players and coaches, an illusionist, and snacks. Unfortunately, this may be the last year that we can do Upward 
If we are not here next year in person, we will be here in spirit.
How many of you struggle with addiction to drugs, alcohol, or pornography? How many struggle with watching too much TV or surfing the web? If you are one of my three faithful readers, I hope you have not had the opportunity to struggle with any of these problems and neither have I. What I did struggle with last week is a lack of faith. Now I am not talking about a complete loss of faith in God because we are not in SE Asia yet, but a more simple struggle with knowing how faithful God truly is.
Let me explain. Over the last few weeks, our ministry partner development (i.e., support raising) seems to have stalled. God was providing new monthly partners, but then, that seemed to stop. I began to question our philosophy of support raising, which is to share the vision of what God is doing in SE Asia and then let the Holy Spirit do what He does best and get out of the way. When that didn’t seem to work, I modified that philosophy. The first follow-up call did not go so well as I was not being myself. Shortly after I hung up the phone, I confessed my lack of faith to God and asked His forgiveness. What He did with that confession is within 24 hours He provided a substantial gift to the ministry through someone I had just met and only spoke briefly about the ministry. He then had two people that had previously committed to being montly partners tell us that they would start giving monthly immediately!
My faith in God’s sovereignty was totally rejuvenated over these incidents. Now, when I feel that my faith is lacking, I simply have to think about what God already did or just sit back and watch what He will do! Thank you, God.
This last weekend at Meadowbrook Church in Wauwatosa, there was a float-a-boat contest. This contest is from 3 and 4 year olds to 5th graders. There is judging for creativity and then each of the children get to race against others in their age group by blowing thier boats down a 10 foot gutter filled with water.
Our Noah entered the boat pictured at the left. He worked so hard at being creative as his desire was to win the prize for the most creative in his age group. Though he did not take first place in head-to-head, he did take first place in the creativity. I have to admit that I am somewhat biased, but personally, I think that his boat was the most creative of any of the entrants.
After all of the fun and games with the kid contestants, the dads had a chance to race against each other using their child’s boat. Just for bragging rights, I had the most hot air!
The Most Creative Entry
Champions
Notice the Double Overtime!
Getting back to the final game, the first three quarters went toward the Saints and at the start of the fourth quarter they were up by 10 points. The fourth quarter was what you would call a nightmare. The other team scored 11 points to our 1!!!! Which left it tied at the end of regulation time. The first overtime period also ended in a tie. It wasn’t until the second overtime period that the Saints got their act together and won by 4. Good job, Saints! (Maybe in my third career I could be a sports writer.)
This question popped into my head this evening as I sit in a coffee shop sipping a Mocha while reading blog’s. What will our kids be thinking when they get to be our age? Will they be sipping some Chai tea or some other concoction? What do you think?
-Mrs. Ends
Many years ago, as I was preparing to embark on my faith journey, some said to me that I should choose a life verse from the Bible. If you don’t know what that is, it is a verse that characterizes your life or brings your life into clear focus. Though I’ve had a few of these verses in the past, none of them characterized my whole life as much as the verse from which the title of the blog and our newsletter comes from, Acts 1:8. It says, “8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Until recently, I thought that this verse was the only verse that talked about taking the message of the love of Jesus to the ends of the earth. However, a friend pointed out that he had always thought that the title of the blog and newsletter came from Acts 13:47. It turns out that this verse indeed does talk about taking salvation to the ends of the earth. And not only is this phrase used here, it is used more than a dozen times throughout Scripture. The other times that this phrase is used is found in the Old Testament in Job, Psalms, Isaiah (which, by the way, is where it comes from at Acts 13:47), and several other books. So, if you ever have the chance of seeing our newsletter, Acts 1:8 is my latest life verse and probably will always be my life verse. Do you have a life verse? Please leave a comment as to why you chose your life verse.
If you read one of the last posts, you would be familiar with the book review that I did on Jerry Bridge’s book, “Respectable Sins.” He says that respectable sins are those sins that we tolerate in our life because they are not as bad as the greater sins of society – murder, adultery, theft, etc. But, he explains, and we should all know, that sin is sin no matter what. Which leads me to the topic for today, impatience.
Have you ever honked your horn at the car sitting in front of you at the stop light as soon as the light turned green? Have you every raised your voice to your children because they did not move fast enough after you told them to do something? How about when you and your spouse are getting ready to go out for the evening and they are changing their clothes for the third time? Have you ever glared at someone in line in front of you when they are not moving fast enough? The situation that I am dealing with is that I feel that God has called us to ministry in Papua, and now he is telling us to wait as the support raising process is going slower than I would like it to go.
Though it is easier to deal with the situations that were formerly described by going to 1 Corinthians 13:4a, where it says that love is patient, it can be more difficult to deal with the latter situation. We feel that God is urging us either through His Word or another believer to do something for Him, and then He tells us to wait patiently. While I understand that this builds my faith, my tendency is to say “When is this going to happen, Lord?”
When I do see impatience in my life, I need to ask forgiveness from those I am being impatient toward and from God. May God grant you patience (and grant it immediately ).
Though this morning was not as cold as the last few mornings, I still needed the motivation to stoke up the old Franklin stove in our family room. What I usually do is simply huddle under a very warm blanket for a while as I do my reading for the morning. Unfortunately, this does not help the rest of the room get warm. What this reminded me of is my relationship to God and how it impacts those around me, namely my wife and kids.
Let me explain. If I try to cover my inadequacies with the stuff of life-material things, TV programs/movies, books-I can get out of sync in my relationships with those around me. However, if I stoke up the embers in my relationship to God by being in His Word and prayer, those around me our “warmed” by this experience. So, I have to ask myself and you can to, am I stoking the embers regularly or are they dying out?
