Far From Home

God is Good all the Time.

Tonight I volunteer at the Y-Wav which is a youth outreach for kids in Jr High and Sr High. All I can say is that, we truly have a generation totally lost and looking for answers in all the wrong answers.

2 Chron 7:14
If my people , who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
NIV

We by far are the band-aid generation...we make rules and regulations but never treat the root of the problem, we only mask the problem...man's heart.

What's the hardest part about the role you play in your family?

Being the disciplinarian with my son. I always seem to be the bad-butt and come out on the short end of the stick with my son.  

since I last posted a blog but then again, who really cares? :) I been on vacation getting some much needed R&R. I had a great time 95% of the time.

Day 1, flew in to Sacramento, CA then we drove over to San Francisco. I noticed the smog effect about 10 miles out. Drove over the Bay Bridge...very congested even on a Sunday then went to the Golden Gate Bridge Park. We took pictures of the skyline, Alcatraz, and several other things. We eat at Pier 23 Hard Rock Cafe.

The first picture is our moms on vacation. He have several comical pictures of them sleeping.

Second pic is the Bay Bridge

Third, you already should know

4th pic...the old prison. I would love to tour it one day.

5th pic ...Skyline

I would have loved to seen Chinatown but I only saw it from looking down the street.

Since it is late, I will post more later...Good night

Last night's stroms brought the most beautiful rainbow in the sky.

Gen 9:12-16

12 And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."
NIV

Adrienne walked across the platform! She graduate with high honors. She received a standing ovation from everyone in the building. It was a nice ceremony.

Why are you cast down, O my soul? . . . Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him. --Psalm 42:5

The high school commencement speaker was the president of a large corporation. He was chosen for the occasion because of his success. Yet his speech came with a most unusual wish for the graduates.

The speaker told the students sitting before him in their graduation gowns, "If I could have one hope for you as you go out into the world, it would be this: I hope you fail. I hope that you fail at something that is important to you." He went on to say how his own early life had been one failure after another, until he learned to see failure as an effective teacher.

Many of the songs of Israel were born in seasons of failure. Out of desperation came the cry, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God" (Ps. 42:1-2).

Sometimes we are not ready to see the wonder of God's wisdom and strength until we are gasping for breath in the exhaustion of our own strength.

A recurring story of the Bible is that mountains of faith rise from the valleys of failure. Before discovering the high ground we are looking for, we may need to see the failure of the dreams we hold in our hearts and trust instead in the love, wisdom, and guidance of our God. --Mart De Haan

The lessons we learn from our failures
Are lessons that help us succeed,
And if we are wise and we heed them,
Then failure is just what we need. --D. De Haan

Learn from your failures, or you will fail to learn.

OUR DAILY BREAD

Thursday
June 5, 2008

A Graduation Wish

From the Kokomo Tribune Now, I need to deciede whether to go to Adrienne's or back to Grant's who is done with the ceremony part.

The Kokomo High School Class of 2008 will continue its graduation ceremony Friday night.

Dave Barnes, Kokomo-Center School community relations consultant, said the ceremony will resume at the point where the original ceremony was stopped because of inclement weather, at 7:30 p.m. in Memorial Gym.

Principal Harold Canady said the students have earned the recognition after 12 years of hard work.

“We want our graduates to have the opportunity to walk across that stage, receive that handshake and have that photo taken in front of the flags,” he said.

Superintendent Thomas Little Jr. said he’s been told this is the first time Kokomo High School’s graduation has been canceled because of weather.

He said school officials had monitored the weather all day May 30, and had planned to reschedule the ceremony on May 31 if there was an imminent tornado warning. Instead, the ceremony was canceled when a tornado warning was announced shortly after the ceremony started.

Little said school board members directed Canady and himself to reschedule the ceremony Monday. Little commended Canady and the high school staff for their efforts to have another graduation.

“The focus of maintaining the traditions within the Kokomo High School graduation ceremony is valued and important to the history of Kokomo High School,” the superintendent said.

Graduates Lisa Beckwith and Matthew Wesche were among those who had walked across the stage as academic honor graduates, but both believed rescheduling the ceremony was a good decision.

Beckwith said all the graduates deserve to walk.

“I wanted to see all my friends graduate. I had a lot who were very upset,” she said.

She does not know if she will be able to attend Friday, because she’s having surgery on her ankle this week.

Wesche plans to attend the ceremony, even though he’s already crossed the stage.

“I was one of the first who got to go. I felt bad because I got to and [the other graduates] didn’t. I think all the kids deserve it,” he explained.

He said his mother was especially disappointed the ceremony had been canceled, because she teaches in the Kokomo-Center Schools and “she’s seen a lot of them grow up.”

Krista Jarvis said as an only child, it was especially important for her that her parents get to see her receive her diploma.

“I worked really hard in school all those 12 years and I think a lot of students felt cheated and upset,” she said.

Amanda Kasem also was glad the ceremony will be continued and plans to receive her diploma on stage.

“I was disappointed. I was actually pretty angry.”

She worries, though, that a continued ceremony won’t be as meaningful.

“I feel the vibe’s been ruined. I don’t know that it will make a big difference,” she said. “It was an experience I didn’t get to have. It’s better to do it than to sit home and sulk.”

A Paradox About Hearing God

There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God.
Those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it; yet I do not advise you to do it from that motive.
It is not pleasure which we ought to seek in this exercise; but let us do it from a principle of love,
and because God would have us.
BROTHER LAWRENCE, THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD

(from Hearing God © 1984, 1993, 1999 by Dallas Willard. All rights reserved.)

 

The Ongoing Conversation

Today I continue to believe that people are meant to live in an ongoing conversation with God, speaking and being spoken to. Rightly understood I believe that this can be abundantly verified in experience. God's visits to Adam and Eve in the Garden, Enoch's walks with God and the face-to-face conversations between Moses and Jehovah are all commonly regarded as highly exceptional moments in the religious history of humankind. Aside from their obviously unique historical role, however, they are not meant to be exceptional at all. Rather they are examples of the normal human life God intended for us: God's indwelling his people through personal presence and fellowship. Given who we are by basic nature, we live—really live—only through God's regular speaking in our souls and thus "by every word that comes from of the mouth of God"
(from Hearing God © 1984, 1993, 1999 by Dallas Willard. All rights reserved.)