Posts Tagged ‘obedience’

So, have you ever been lost? I mean flat out, turned around, no clue, GPS wouldn’t help lost.

I remember driving from Great Bend, Ks, to some secluded mountain park in Colorado that I couldn’t get you to today if you paid me a million dollars. I was an early grade schooler with the family at an annual family reunion.

At some point in the afternoon the kids were getting hungry and restless, but dinner was still a couple hours away. That’s when my step dad and uncle decided to take the kiddos on a little mountain hike.

You know, something just long enough to distract the kids and be back in time for the big ol’ potluck.

It was fun at first, and as a kiddo, I wasn’t keeping track of time, but even a mildly ADD child like myself could tell we’d been out there too long.

So, I started paying attention to some details before I made the discovery:

Step dad and uncle kept having us rest while they stepped aside for a ‘whispered’ argument
Uncle took off his T-shirt and started tearing strips off and tying them to trees
The look of terror on their faces when we kept finding those pieces of his shirt

It all lead to my conclusive discovery: there was no denying it, we were lost!

The Man I Should Be

Posted: 12th July 2010 by Addis Andy in Bible Stuff
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The man I should be

This is my prayer response to Psalm 15. Hit me like a hammer…

Psalm 15:1 Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?

Lord, I really want to be a man who is close to You. I don’t want to visit You on weekends, or keep in touch with You throughout the day. I want to ‘dwell’ with You. To walk with You, and run with You, to serve You with a passion up close and personal. To live on Your holy hill would be to finally arrive. Lord, may my eulogy include these words… “He dwelled with God.”

Where is your hiding place? Wherever it is, is it safe? Is it really a place of refuge?

As believers, we are allowed to have safe places for difficult times, but we need to make sure they are really the refuge that God intends for our protection and safety.

This quick study of Psalm 11 reminds us of where we need to go when we need a hiding place.

I love expressions. You know, the things people say so that they can drop just the right cliché at the right time and appear wise.

We’ve all got them. Some we read from a book, others came through generational transmission (from your parents, that is), and still others found their way into the storehouse of our collective memory via the world’s greatest resource of miscellaneous knowledge… email forwards.

Here are a few you might recognize:

If you can’t beat them, join them. This works pretty well until you’re talking about the IRS. They’re really not looking for recruits.
Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile. Actually, this one works for the IRS, too. No further comment (Just kidding IRS guys, I don’t mind paying taxes to be a part of this great country… please don’t audit me).
Give them enough rope to hang themselves. To me, this one is just a little too morbid comment on, and it just doesn’t make sense. Isn’t a shorter rope better for hanging. Not that I ever want to find out!

Cleaning out the muck and mire of our lives, we need to remove the junk that flowed into, but never flowed out of our lives.

It’s a process called confession that comes with a promise from God: He is faithful, He will forgive, He will heal.

Don’t miss out on the incredible Christian discipline called confession. It’s how we get degunkified!

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Feeling a little withered?

Posted: 11th December 2009 by Addis Andy in Bible Stuff
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This holiday season or any season that we find ourself drained, it’s important to try and find God’s answer to our days.

Let’s turn to the first Psalm and see what God’s answer is for a life that thrives!

If I have to go on one more extended hunt for the TV remote, I am gonna lose it!

Seriously, if I come into the living room one more time and that remote is not in the little basket where all the remotes go, even the ones that control things we’re pretty sure we don’t own anymore, I am going to ground everyone in the family.

Even Kathy.

OK… I’m not that stupid, but it seriously does tick me off.

I have watched my boys argue, fight, whine and wrestle for the remote. Usually, I can understand why they want to score that prize, but sometimes they really throw me for a loop.

Sometimes they will battle and steal the remote in the midst of a program only to… do nothing.

No channel change.
No volume change.
No menu guide check to see what we’re watching, when its over or what else is on.
They just pry it out of the others hand, and hold it! What good is that?

After musing this puzzle on several occasions it finally hit me: “They don’t want the remote, they just want to be in control.”

For those who are not geographically aware of this bloggers location, the following statement won’t mean much:

It’s State Fair time!

Living three blocks from the fairgrounds is a good or bad thing depending upon what you think of the fair.

The Addis from high atop the Weenie Wheel.
The Addis from high atop the Weenie Wheel.

I get most of my fair jollies just sitting on the front porch. Watching the parade of happy people walking to the fair early in the day as they park somewhere beyond my house.

And, then, I am blessed with the occasional treasure of seeing the exact same people coming back later that night… transformed.

Tired, broke, sun burnt or freezing (it’s Kansas, you know) and almost always “less happy.”

This people watching is a little thing I have learned to enjoy in the last seven years of living here in Hutch. I do it every year as I listen to the concerts from the comfort of my porch swing.

You know what else doesn’t change? The Fair!

That’s amazing to me.

Dealing with conflict.

Everyone deals with it, but the question is how do you deal. There are constructive and destructive ways to deal with almost anything including conflict, criticism and stupidity.

Hmm… that last descriptor is less from my Bible Study and more from the movie I just caught last night: GI JOE.

I so loved it. I was 11 again.

If one of the JOEs ran into conflict they’d blow it up, punch it in the face, or just kill it.

And, as machismo and testosterone driven as that is (and, oh so appealing for so many situations), I don’t think it’s the answer for the Christ follower in conflict.

Exactly 15 days after brain surgery… it’s time to blog. Thanks God for answered prayers, His love and compassion and my faith community’s support.

I decided to write this blog for three reasons:

Many people have been asking for an update on the physical well-being of this blogger
God has given me some new insight into a familiar passage through this experience, and personally I feel that being productive is healing
My medical authorities have given me permission to write despite the fact that I am well inside the “DO NOT WORK” time parameters, or more simply put Kathy said it was OK