To quote Isaiah...

"Here am I; send me."

Prayer Request

Hey,

This is  a short prayer request and hopefully I will be able to write more later.  Last weekend Charity and I had the privilege to visit Satanta KS to candidate for Youth/ Associate and Childrens Pastor.  Neither one of us felt led to stay and take the position by Saturday.  Sunday morning Spirit moved and led me to rewrite the sermon I had prepared and speak without notes or outlines.  This is unusual for me as I have a teacher mentality and need something to go on.  Needless to say we feel led to serve there.  We both feel called to this position and may take it.  We want to be assured by God that it is the right move and would love to have your prayers.  We need them. 

I will write more on this later this week (time permitting) and we appreciate your prayers. 

Thank you and with love,

Jay and Charity

Touching my Heart at this moment...

"Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved"                                                                                                                                                            Romans 10:13

"The heart of an effective Christian witness is devotion to Jesus Christ.  THis devotion finds its greatest expression in prayer.  It is kept alive through the continual practice of prayer."                                                                       -William Krutza-

"Prayer finally comes to mean not to express an opinion, but to feel a presence."                                                 -a teenager in group-

"He knows not God who knows not to pray.  He has never studied God who has not had his intellect broadened, strengthened, clarified and uplifted by prayer."                                                                                                      -a prayer warrior friend-

"Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, it is laying hold of God's willingness."                                                -Archbishop of Dublin, Richard Trench-

"There are moments when, whatever the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees."                                         -VIctor Hugo-

"Prayer is vital.  It is the pathway to tranquility and strength of the soul.  A man's prayers are the measure of his Christianity, understanding of spiritual matters, and experience of God.  To fail in prayer is to fail in all else.  Prayer is the place of testing and conflict; for prayer challenges all doubt' all disillusionment, all material, and cardinal preoccupation."                                                                                                                                                    -E.M. Blaiklock-

"There cannot be any touching of the Master without the Master knowing it.  When need touches Him, it makes a demand upon His ability to meet that need;and prayer is the way in which we touch Him."                                  -a wise preacher-

In prayer you align yourself to the purpose and power of God and He is able to do things through you that He could not do otherwise...for this is an open universe. where some things are left open. contingent upon our doing them.  If we do no do them, they will never be done.  So God has left certain things open to prayer--things which will never be done except as we pray."                                                                                                                  -Dr. E. STanley Jones-

"Prayer is doing business with God, and is every bit as practical as any earthly transaction."                                   -Virginia Whitman-

"The pilgrim who walks through the world that is not his final home needs all the help he can get."                         -Harold Lindsell-

"(Prayer) is going into the presence of the Father and Jesus in an executive meeting, laying our needs before them and making our requisitions known."                                                                                                                      -E.W. Kenyon-

"I like to think of prayer as a conversation between two friends who love and understand each other.  Prayer is the key that opens the door to a whole new world--a world lived in active, conscience presence of the living God.  It becomes the foundation of everything we do.  Jesus Christ died on the cross to make this communication possible."                                                                                                                                                             -Hope MacDonald-

"The work of praying is prerequisite to all other work in the kingdom of God, for the simple reason that it is by prayer that we couple the powers of Heaven to our helplessness, the powers which can turn water into wine and remove mountains in our own lives and the lives of others, the powers which can awaken those who sleep in sin and raise up the dead, the power which can capture strongholds and make the impossible possible."                     -O. Hallesby-

"If we think that prayer is something we do only in dignified ceremonies or desperate emergencies, we have missed its value.  we treat prayer as though it were the spice of life but the Bible prescribes it as a vital staple in our diet...But God sees prayer as the breath of spiritual life."                                                                                 -David Hubbard-

I need to pray more...

The same but different.

Interesting to be back at MACU.  It is quite different as I cannot just go to my room after class so I sit here in the library and write for awhile.  I see many new faces and many remembered faces.  I stop in the hall in order to greet old friends and make new ones.  I AM OLD. 

Aside from the difference this year I am glad to be back in class.  My first class was Hebrews and General Epistle with DR. Gappa.  I was so ready to stay and listen to him for another hour.  This readiness is not because I enjoy his teaching any more or less than others it is just that I am able to be in class again after being out for so long.  Is it possible to be a lifetime student without paying for it?  Maybe I should become a professor and sit in on other professors classes.  Maybe not. 

   I do miss being able to go back to my dorm room and play Halo with Kevin or Marshall.  I know it sounds silly to those who are still here but it is the way I feel right now...God is reminding me how wonderful it is to have my own place with my wife so I am not missing it too much. 

-Jay-

This one is long but good.

Remember

It is gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket. Many years before, in October, 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea. But there was an unexpected detour which would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life.

Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean... For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. The largest raft was nine by five. The biggest shark...ten feet long. 

But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or destroyed by the salt water. It would take a miracle to sustain them. And a miracle occurred. In Captain Eddie's own words, "Cherry," that was the B- 17 pilot, Captain William Cherry, "read the service that afternoon, and we finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise. There was some talk, but it tapered off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down over my eyes to keep out some of the glare, I dozed off."

Now this is still Captian Rickenbacker talking..."Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don't know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food...if I could catch it." And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. Its intestines were used for bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone sea gull, uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice. You know that Captain Eddie made it.  And now you also know...that he never forgot. Because every Friday evening, about sunset...on a lonely stretch along the eastern Florida seacoast...you could see an old man walking...white-haired, bushy-eyebrowed, slightly bent. His bucket filled with shrimp was to feed the gulls...to remember that one which, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle...like manna in the wilderness. 

sidetrackednessous?

This week has been a tough one.  Charity's aunt passed away last week and it was tough to go through.  She was our Sunday school teacher when we first moved here and lived on the farm so I was able to get to know her pretty well.  I know it was harder on Charity but I have sorrow as well.  God enlightened me to how different a funeral is when the deceased knew God.  Some of the past funerals I have attended were difficult as they did not know the Lord.  I suppose some were also difficult because I did not know God.  I am glad to see the difference in the demeanor of the attendees when they know the deceased is going to heaven.  It is a sad time as well as a rejoicing time for them. 

On a lighter note I have been going through these stages of a wandering mind.  I cant seem to focus on one particular subject.  It has been going on for several months lately and I just figured it was the sum of depression and anxiety.  I now realize it is just me.  I pray for more focus.  It is like reading twenty different books at the same time.  I get one idea and begin to work it out and suddenly another takes over and I feel I need to focus on the next idea.  I know that God is testing me for focus so I hope I am able to persevere. 

An example of previously stated...today I am trying to develop a projector for the church.  Our church is poor so I will have to make the projector instead of buying one.  I know the fundamentals of LCD projectors and can make one for under 300 dollars.  I start drawing out the plans and finding the materials online as I see my guitar sitting in the corner.  I need to practice.  So I pick it up and start.  The phone rings.  I get a call from Charitys aunt Edith asking if I can help her in bailing hay, I oblige.  The bailer breaks down so we fix it.  We continue bailing and I come up with an idea to speed up the bailing process by pulling the bailer directly behind the rake with one tractor.  I come back to the house and remember I need to work on something I promised I would fix for a member of the church so I start.  It is not that I have full days, I just get sidetracked in what I am doing.  This is beginning to have an effect on my Sunday School lessons as well as I go on tangents to the focused material.  Granted the tangent does apply to the topic but sometimes it could be left out.  The members of the class say it is helpful to them but I am sure some are growing weary of it.  I just wish I could focus. 

-Jay-

A weakness of all human beings, " Henry Ford said, "is trying to do too many things at once. That scatters effort and destroys direction. It makes for haste, and haste makes waste. So we do things all the wrong ways possible before we come to the right one. Then we think it is the best way because it works, and it was the only way left that we could see. Every now and then I wake up in the morning headed toward that finality, with a dozen things I want to do. I know I can't do them all at once." When asked what he did about that, Ford replied, "I go out and trot around the house. While I'm running off the excess energy that wants to do too much, my mind clears and I see what can be done and should be done first."