Love People and Use Things

I'm reading Managing God's Money, by Randy Alcorn. He writes a chapter about materialism. Randy says, "God created us to love people and use things, but materialists love things and use people."

Materialism is the norm in our society. When we aren't materialistic we are counter cultural if you will. But if what Randy Alcorn says is true, then what an amazing message we could send to our society. We could love them............love them more than stuff.............love them like Jesus loves them. We would be different - but we would actually attract people and draw them to God. We would also be living the way we were created to live.

Randy Alcorn has another chapter of his book where he talks about getting the materialism out of our families. He has some good ideas...........but I'm interested in yours. How do you fight materialism in your family? How do you love people and use things?

Walk in a Manner Worthy of the Lord

Colossians 1: 9-10

These are the verses I'm pondering today. Read them. Ponder with me.

If I am filled with the knowledge of God's will, I will:

• walk in a manner worthy of the Lord


• Please God


• bear fruit in good works


• Increase in the knowledge of God, which will help me:

• 
  
  walk in a manner worthy of the Lord


• 
  
  Please God


• 
  
  bear fruit in good works


• 
  
  increase in the knowledge of God, which will help me..............

and on and on.................that's my role in life............to increase in my knowledge of God - get to know Him better and better. If only I would stay focused on that. I tend to wander away.

I'm going to keep pondering these verses. It's almost Thanksgiving and these verses remind me what I'm thankful for..........

• a loving God who wants a relationship with me and forgives me for not pursuing Him constantly with a red hot passion.


• a loving God who wants to love me


• a loving God who has blessed me with a wonderful family, friends, and who cares for my needs


• a loving God who gave His Son to die for my sins

I want to know you better.........I want to live constantly in a way that pleases you................I want to bear good fruit with my life.

from the first day..........

Philippians 1:3-6
I thank my god in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

This weekend Clear Creek Community Church will open another campus in the Clear Lake area. We have been preparing and ordering stuff for the past few weeks. As all the preparations were under way....... I read these verses. I thought about the people who will be a part of this campus from the first day...........oh the stories they will have to share! It makes my heart skip a beat to think about the people who will come to this campus and hear about God's love for the first time. The families that will come to this campus to worship together for the first time. The kids that will experience God in PeeWeeVille or Creek Kids for the first time.

And the volunteers that will be there t0 serve and to soak in all these stories from the first day! God is so good to us to allow us to be a part of his perfect plan - to allow us the privilege of serving in His ministries. To allow us to minister to families and share God's love with them.

I will be there the first day. It will be fun, hectic, exciting, hard, and glorious all at the same time! I'm so thankful that God is blessing me in that way!

So if you live in the Clear Lake area - join us! If you are going to attend the Clear Lake campus - bring some friends and neighbors - and get ready for the ride of your life as you are there from the first day.

Perfection

PeeWee School started today! WooHoo!! It was a great day. It was the beginning of new relationships and learnings. It was a great day! It was also fairly quiet - which is a big marker of how great a year it will be!

The beginning of PeeWee School reminds me of new things like this new year. And yet the lessons on Sunday for preschoolers and Elementary kids are about the Ten Commandments which are really old.................In some ways I just want to throw away the old and just concentrate on new. But I am learning so much as I think about and study the Ten Commandments.

• I am learning about how great God is! God is perfect at each commandment. Each commandment shows me God's character. He is the one God. He is valuable and worthy of praise and worship. He can protect me so I can rest. He is my greatest authority and worthy of honor. He is the Creator of life. He is faithful. He is wise and knows how to give us what we need. He does not lie.



• I am seeing more and more clearly what a sinner I am. I can't keep any of these commandments - perfectly.



• I am praising God for His rescue plan that rescues me - a sinner deserving death. I am thanking God for giving His perfect son as a sacrifice for me.

I hope you will contemplate these learnings as you help your child understand God's perfect laws and His most perfect rescue plan.

I went to Alaska last week.

Last week I was cruising around Alaska.............totally amazed by God's creation. Everything was so big and majestic: mountains, glaciers, whales. They say everything in Texas is big - I think everything in Alaska is bigger. I felt so small.

God's grace seemed even more real to me in Alaska. Just thinking about how a God that can create such a masterpiece......why would He even care about me. And definitely why would He send His son to die for me. God can create perfection.........He chooses to save the imperfect - ME. I felt small - but very loved.

God who sees me as small as I am in this big beautiful world. He loves me and saves me.

I had a wonderful vacation. It was a great place to go - I recommend it highly. It was also a very worshipful place for me. Thank you God for creating the beauty I saw and thank you for saving me - and for wanting to use even me.

Last week I was cruising around Alaska........... and awestruck again by God.

What makes you beautiful?

This week in PeeWees and Creek Kids your child talked about being beautiful.

PeeWees learned that saying good and beautiful things makes you beautiful on the inside. We talked about saying things that point people to God - those are beautiful things. (Proverbs 21:23)

Creek Kids learned that outward beauty is temporary............inner beauty is everlasting. (Proverbs 31:30)

I was watching TV last night and they were showing all of these celebrities that had plastic surgery. They showed the before and after pictures - all of them looked better before the surgery to me. It made me think about all the hundreds of thousands of dollars that are spent to make people look beautiful.

Real beauty doesn't cost a dime, but it does take work:

• Choosing to say the right thing



• Choosing to do the right thing



• Choosing to act like Christ



• Choosing to be Jesus to someone

Doesn't cost a dime..............just takes making the right choice.

Get your BIG PICTURE STORYBIBLE and Read Along

You are invited on an adventure with me............... Let's all read the BIG PICTURE STORY BIBLE in the month of May. I will be blogging and tweeting about learnings along the way. It is an amazing book. It will be a great lead in for your family to have God conversations every night. We will read 1 section per night - we will finish on May 26. During May, the lessons in PeeWeeVille will be taken from that day's reading. It is going to be a great adventure! Please join us! You can buy the book at any bookstore, or we have limited quantities at a great price in PeeWeeVille. Get your book today and don't miss out!!

Pray first

Colosians 4:2-6
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison - that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

As I was reading this passage today I was reminded:

• to pray for people. Especially people far from God. Pray that they hear and understand the mystery of the gospel
• to be wise with my time.
• to let my speech be gracious.

If I would pray first.................I will be using my time wisely..............and .............I'll speak graciously. Sounds easy enough.

I want kids and parents and friends and co-workers to hear God when I speak and not me. I don't want to waste their time with my foolish words............I just want to speak the gospel.

Thats my prayer........................

I am blessed............

I turned 50 this month! Crazy! I don't feel old - but that sounds really old!!

I turned 50 this month - and I am blessed........

• God loves me
• I'm married to a wonderful man
• I have 4 great children
• I get to do what I love to do at work every day

And the list goes on and on.......... But today as I was reading and praying, I realized that my greatest gift/blessing is something I take for granted.............Jesus died for my sins. How amazing is that and yet I don't ponder it daily and thank Him daily and share that blessing with others daily. I take it for granted.

How weird..........I'm a sinner in need of a savior, and yet I take for granted that I have a savior in God's only son...........

Romans 1:16 - For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.