Four Year Old Answer to Prayer

Now, all of my kids are good looking (take after their mom), but Joseph has been especially 'cursed' with having these adorable dimples! His name means: Increase or Addition. Joseph was the first-born of Rachel after she had been barren for a while (not that case in our family!)

Joseph being born to Rachel was the answer to many long prayers. Genesis 30:22 says that God remembered her, and hearkend to her. Our Joseph was also an answer to prayer. When he had still not been born, the doctors told us that an ultrasound showed a cyst on his brain. They said, sometimes it goes away, but sometimes it can be the sign of worse stuff. Well, we prayed about it, a lot. I remember going to Men's Prayer Meeting on a Tuesday night, and the men prayed about it. And you know what? That cyst never did show up again. We do serve a great God.

Anyway, now he's 4! No longer in the Dyjak's Sunday School class. And if your name wasn't Sammy, you weren't invited to his birthday party! (inside joke, I guess)

Just a thought

Mighty Arrows

Babylon, the great Empire led by King Nebuchadnezzar, unstoppable in their conquest of the lands in the Mid-East, reigning supreme over even God's chosen people (at God's directive, but that's another issue). This great Babylon, the epitomy of wickedness and sin in the world, was to be destroyed... by arrows.

(Jeremiah 50:9) For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain.

The arrows as those of a mighty expert man. The arrows went out! They went out and did not return in vain!

Ok, since all of you are lost as to where I'm going with this, let me continue :) Last night at Kevin Pestke's ordination service, he mentioned his godly heritage. It reminded me of the passage in Psalm 127.

(Psalms 127:3) Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
(Psalms 127:4) As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
(Psalms 127:5) Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

The Bible says that children of the youth are as arrows in the hand of a mighty man. That's the same description of the arrows used to destroy the great Babylonian Empire. Yet our children, the children of the youth, are supposed to be just as effective. We are to be 'shooting them out.'

I suppose it is more natural for us to build castle walls around our children, great bullwarks that will never be penetrated. We end up protecting our arrows, and we make sure they are nice and cozy. We provide the nicest carrying case for our arrows, with nice velvety lined pillows, to make sure that our arrows don't get damaged. But to shoot them out? No way! They might get scratched!

Children are a heritage of the Lord. They are the Lord's reward to people. The man that has his quiver full of them (like me!) is happy! But, they are not supposed to sit in the quiver only.

The man that has children (again, me!) is supposed to prepare his children to be sent out. Every Christian father in the world has the charge of training up missionaries in his home. There is no exception to that. He is to train them up to be ready to go out. He is to shoot them out, and when they are ready, you will find that: "they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate."

Are your arrows ready to attack the enemies in the gate? If not, are they being prepared for that purpose? To go out and attack the gates of hell? They will not prevail against Christ's church, you know.

The heritage... I have a great heritage, and I want my children to carry on the same heritage. I am newly exhorted to prepare my children to be sent out... May I be that mighty expert man, strengthening my bow, readying my arrows.

Just a thought...

Why Word?

Ok, I have my ideas on this question, but I'd like to hear what all of my faithful (and unfaithful) readers think on the subject.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1

My question is this: Why did God use the word Word there?

John penned the Gospel under the insipration of the Holy Ghost. John wrote it in the Greek language, and the one Greek word that almost everybody knows is this word, logos. That word, logos, carries with it the idea of 'reason' as well as 'word' as it is most accurately and perfectly translated in the King James Bible. We get our word 'logic' from it.

So, when God the Son incarnated, took on human flesh, He was given the title "Word." He could have been given any title, and in fact He was given many titles, but why this one? John thought it important enough (under inspiration) to repeat it in His 1st Epistle.

What does it mean that Jesus, God the Son, is and always was, the Word?

Remember...

Too often we are out looking for the newest thing in the Bible... we like the teachers that show us something from God's word that we had never seen before. But as I was reading in 2 Peter, I realized that Peter kept bringing to remembrance the things that he had said. He could have spent time and time showing them all sorts of new things: telling them things about Jesus; describing stories found in the Gospels; telling of deep meanings to things... But instead he put them in remembrances things like: Lust is the cause of your sins. Once you've taken care of that (by faith), add to that- virtue, etc. The Lord is coming back again. He taught them the fundamentals of Christianity.

I wonder if we spend too much time looking into the hidden, deeper things, and failt to bring to remembrance the basics.

Just a thought...

Foward a Year Ago

Happy 2008, everyone!!

Usually, at this time of the year, people are always looking forward to resolutions they want to make to improve this year. I hope that we all have a desire to improve in our lives - primarily in regards to our spiritual lives, in our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our goals should have us pressing forward this year to being more conformed to the image of Christ than we are right now. A good idea would be to set some tangible goals - such as: I want to read through the whole Bible this year; I want to increase my prayer time from however long it is now, to some greater amount; I want to pass out a certain number of tracts in a week, more than I do now; etc.

Well, those are good goals, and we need to set them. But, today's post is for this purpose... January 2nd, 2007... 365 days ago... where were you? How were you doing spiritually then? Were you reading less than you are now? Were you praying less than you are now? Were you passing out fewer tracts than you are now??? If not... was the year a failure? - depressing thought -

I hope that we can all be encouraged to press forward this year, and to be forward a year ago. Exhort one another daily.

Just a thought...

Book Reading

So, with 2008 upon us, I asked a friend of mine what recommendations he had for books to read next year. I know that he is an avid reader, so I thought his suggestions would be good. Anyway, this is what he replied to me with, and it is worth sharing with others, so I decided to just copy it as my blog post for the day :) I hope it is profitable to all... (this email has been edited from its original format to fit your computer screen).

Andy, your question regarding books is a good one. I fear oftentimes that people have no plan for their reading, and end up not reading anything at all. So, I am glad that you are pursuing this area. Here are my recommendations for you:

Start by deciding on what areas in your life that are either most important to you, you want to grow in or improve upon. Maybe you start with a list like:

Relationship with God/Devotional
Marriage
Prayer
Children
Missions / Evangelism

Obviously judging by how much time you will be able to read will depend on how big the list is. With Institute and other obligations, maybe you shorten the list by combining Marriage and children to one book on the family, etc. Once you think of the areas of like you want to improve on, select a book for each area. For example:

Relationship with God/Devotional – The Mortification of Sin by John Owen
Marriage – His Needs Her Needs by Willard F. Harley Jr.
Prayer – Praying Backwards by Bryan Chapell
Children – What a Daughter Needs from Her Dad by Michael Farris
Missions – Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret or Peace Child by Don Richardson
Evangelism – Seek and to Save by Paul Chappell

This plan also helps me guard against always just reading books from one genre like “missions” and neglecting the other ministries in my life that God has given me stewardship over and wants me to continue to grow in.

Andy, we all know these are important ministries in our lives that we all wish we were better at, however it amazes me that many of us have no plan on improving in these areas. I think if you read a book each year on particular areas of your life you want to improve in, you will be “forward a year ago” in these areas.

Once you do this, if you want recommendations on a particular area, let me know and I will be happy to help you.

Take
care,

Michael

Just a friend's thoughts...

Cursed Alarm Clocks

(Proverbs 27:14) He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.

I think this verse proves without a shadow of a doubt that alarm clocks are of the devil! Loud voice... early in the morning... A CURSE!

If you haven't figured it out yet, I don't like waking up early in the morning. Though, I think Sarah thinks that alarm clocks are more of a curse than I do. But, if alarm clocks are of the devil, and I am still supposed to wake up early, then I've still got a long way to go! I envy those people that wake up early in the morning without alarm clocks ready to meet with God.

Anyway, it is also possible that I am misapplying this verse. Kind of like when you go to take a test, and you tell the teacher (after being sent to the principle's office), but the Bible says, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others."

Just a thought...