It's a new day and my God's not dead

Today is a difficult day for many and a joyous day for others.  But the sun rose the same as every other day.

Here in Florida, where I'm not even sure if we ever came up with an answer on the presidential race, the weather is glorious and today's sunrise was spectacular. 

I know my friends in the Northeast are not so fortunate.  Our prayers are with you.

No matter the outcome of the election, today I remind my friends, my colleagues and those of you who just stumbled on my faith blog, God is in control and it is a new day.  He is NOT surprised by the outcome.

My God's not dead.  He's surely alive.  ......  I'm lost in Your freedom!

I'm so glad that Joanne Schieble did not get an abortion

If in 1954, you could simply walk up to a Planned Parenthood office and obtain an abortion, the world may not have ever seen a Macintosh or buy an iPhone or an iPad.

That is right, in 1954 Joanne Schieble, an unmarried coed from the University of Wisconsin in Madison got pregnant.  Her parents were not thrilled that the baby's father was a Syrian Muslim.

While she could likely have found a way to abort the baby, she instead chose to move to San Francisco and put the baby up for adoption.  Lucky for him and lucky for us.

The couple who was matched with the baby refused to take him, as they wanted a girl.  So another couple was contacted and they enthusiastically said yes.  One stipulation that the biological mother made was that she wanted the adoptive parents to be college graduates.  She initially refused the second couple, as the wife was a college dropout and the husband hadn't finished college.  They promised to send their son to college, so she signed away her maternal rights.

Well, he went to college alright.  For a whopping semester.  Then he dropped out.

The rest of the story?  His adoptive parents were Paul and Clara Jobs.  And yes, the world was blessed with an initially unwanted baby named Steve.

I for one, as a long time Mac aficionado, cannot image a world that never included Steve Jobs.

I am also an adoptive parent and I can't imagine what we would do today if our son's mother had opted for an abortion.

According to the CDC, abortions in the US peaked around 1990 at roughly 1.4 million. The current number is fairly stable at a little over a million/year.  

I'm wondering what those babies would have invented had they lived?

Choose life.   

Take a stand - The unintended consequence of abortion legislation

We all have choices.  In fact, we are reminded in Deuteronomy 30:19 (NCV) of our free will (aka freedom of choice), which is actually a gift from God.

"Today I ask heaven and earth to be witnesses. I am offering you life or death, blessings or curses. Now, choose life! Then you and your children may live."

One of the most controversial issues of the 2012 Presidential Election is the stand on Abortion and Women's Rights.

I would like to go on record that I am pro-life and I am pro-blessing.    

But I must begin by saying that I personally know more than a dozen women that were sexually abused by fathers, uncles and neighbors, not just once, but repeatedly throughout their young lives.  Others of my friends made bad choices in marriage and found husbands that were just as abusive as those that abused these other women in childhood.   My heart goes out to these friends.  I have watched up close the impact on their lives and what it has taken for each one of them to overcome what has become a part of their life story.  Their courage is amazing and they have healed over time and with lots of prayer and learning about the power of forgiveness, even of their abuser.     

Rape and incest are horribly wrong on so many levels and the pregnancies that stem from them are indeed tragic.  The men that perpetrate this behavior on young women have already chosen death and curses on their own lives and when there is a pregnancy that results, it often ends in physical death (abortion) but more often a tiny piece of the young woman dies.

But this discussion is not about them.

My tale of unintended consequences today is about what happens when we make abortion not only completely accessible, but socially acceptable and an alternative to an unplanned pregnancy, simply for convenience.   A woman's right, if you will.  If she conceives and doesn't want the baby, let her decide what to do with her own body.

This discussion is not about the morality of abortion and when life begins.  I've been pregnant and seen the heartbeat on the ultrasound and I think that issue is fairly well substantiated by science.    

What I want to do here is take that decision down from a mature woman making a decision about an unplanned pregnancy to that of a minor.

• A young girl today can choose at any age to have sex.  Exercising her free will.
• If she gets pregnant, she can choose abortion.  Exercising her free will.

But here is where the unintended consequences come in.  She cannot control the heartache that can occur when abortion becomes a part of her life story.  And since her privacy is protected under health care reform, her parents may not even know in order to be able to be of support during the recovery process.  And even if the abortion is "done well", she can't choose the physical implications, which may include not being able to have a child later when she is in a loving marriage.  

Yes, we have the freedom to choose.  Even God is pro-choice, or he would have made us all robots, doing his bidding, day after day.  But he gave us a choice.  If we choose death, we suffer the resulting curses.  If we choose life, we are blessed.  

If you are a parent, particularly one of a teen girl (or boy), think the unintended consequences of a pro-abortion culture through carefully.  

I encourage you to vote for a President that chooses life and morality.

Vote your conscience, but please vote.  

  

Freedom of Choice and Unintended Consequences of Unbridled Spending

I am convinced that there is no more important election than the one that is just 7 days away.

While I have seen some bloggers say that blogging on the topics of politics and religion are dangerous, here I choose to fly in the face of both recommendations (iconoclast that I am) and make it clear where I personally stand.

Joshua 24:15 says "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord".  

Recorded history begins with Adam and Eve living in paradise.  We call it the Garden of Eden, but it wasn't just physical paradise - beautiful, with unlimited, yummy provision. Their paradise was being in relationship with God.

Here's the interesting thing.  The situation with the apple and Eve choosing to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was not an accident.  God is the author of freedom of choice regulation.  Yes.  Christians call it "free will".  But what he did not give us is freedom of consequences.

My son is 12 years old and he has freedom of choice to stay out and play in the neighborhood after dark when we've asked him to come in as dusk sets in.   Our rules are in place to keep him safe, not to make his life miserable.

When he chooses to stay out late, the consequence is that we are not happy and invariably, one of the things that he loves (iPAD, Wii, TV, computer or all four) are taken away for some period of time, depending on the severity of his offense and of course his attitude along the way.

Losing privilege is the unintended consequence of my son's choice.

There are some major issues at stake in this election and there are unintended consequences that are out of our control if we do not take a stand.

Today I want to talk about Unbridled Government Spending.

No matter how laudable the various programs are that the government wants to support, we simply can't keep spending more than we make as a nation.

You can't do it at home for any length of time and not eventually suffer the consequences of bankruptcy.  You can't do it as a business and stay in business.

Government is no different.  Leverage is leverage and plain and simply, if you borrow, you are ultimately beholden to whomever you borrow from.

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 30 Oct 2012 at 04:17:03 PM GMT is:

$16,212,402,629,650.59

The estimated population of the United States is 313,779,933
so each citizen's share of this debt is $51,668.05.

We have bailed out major institutions in our country and we have tried stimulating the economy.

We have borrowed a frightening amount from China and the deficit is growing daily at a rate of $3.88 billion, now in excess of $16 trillion dollars.  The unintended consequences of continuing the policies of the Obama administration could be becoming the United States of China.

This is no different than the bank repossessing your house when you can't pay the mortgage.  It is just on a much grander scale.

While I realize that this is a bit outrageous to think about, just watch this video and think about what you can do to keep this from becoming a reality.

                   http://defeatingthedebt.com/index_submit.html

We can't live on promises from someone who made the promises four years ago and took us multiple trillions in the wrong direction.



The unintended consequence of making promises, even promises about good things, and not delivering is out of Obama's control.

Choose this day, whom you will serve.  Vote your conscience and vote for the future of our children.

Not ready to leave, but "ready to go"

In the space of the last two weeks, I've had to say goodbye to two friends/colleagues from the travel industry, Glenn Martin (49) and Mike Pusateri (53). 

Clearly both were way too young to leave this world and while neither was ready to leave their families, their friends, their companies/careers, I am comforted to know that both were "ready to go".

While being ready to leave and ready to go sound the same, I invite you to think about taking a trip and then we'll talk about this thing called life - and what we know as death.

In the travel analogy, when getting ready to go, first you think about what you will need for the trip.  You may have to make a trip to the drug store to get some last minute items, or apply for a visa for international travel (which may entail finding your passport if it has been awhile since you traveled).  
Some of you do this way ahead of time, and others (like me), throw everything in the suitcase at the last minute. 

Once the suitcase is packed, if it is a business trip, you may also need to clear your desk, give some instructions to those that you are leaving behind and get your briefcase ready.   Whether a business trip or a personal one, you may also throw a book or a neck pillow in a bag and perhaps even some snacks. 

You may have packed and gotten everything that you need for the trip, but you are not ready to say goodbye and actually get the trip underway.  Think about how many times you have turned to a friend or a loved one at the airport and said "I'm not ready to leave yet!".   The thing that makes it easier is that you generally know that you are coming back, so there is still time to do, share, be, enjoy, etc.

Getting Ready to Go

In this thing that we call death, getting ready to go is actually a pretty simple thing.  You may think it is akin to packing and there are all kinds of dos and don'ts and prerequisites.  Nope.  That is what the "church" may have told you.  But here is what God's Word says. 

Even if you don't go to church, most are familiar with John 3:16, quoted here from The Message Bible, extending to John 3:18. 

 ^16-18"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

If you have never acknowledged this truth, just close your eyes right now and thank your Maker for what he did in acquitting you.  You can't earn it.  You can't be good enough for it.  It is a gift and it is free. 

Then get ahold of a Message Bible (way easier to read than many other translations), either at your local Walmart, on Amazon or even on your iPad or iPhone (my favorite is YouVersion.com, which allows you to look at other versions as well).  Get to know Him first by reading about Him. 

Start with what he says about you and your life.   Psalm 139 is where that can be found. 

Then, to build on that little mustard seed of faith that is sprouting in you (whether you can see it or not), find some others that are on a faith journey.  You'll be amazed at how many people you know actually have already been on this particular journey.  Church is clearly a place to start, but if they have a long list of do's and don'ts and you don't hear about love and grace when you go, search for another one.

Here is a link to messages from my Pastor, Dan Dunn of Real Life Church in Tampa.  You'll definitely learn about grace here. 

That's it.  He does the rest of the work in you, from the inside out.  Should your time come, you are ready.

Being Ready to Leave

"When you were born, you were crying & everyone else smiling. Live your life so at the end, you're the one smiling & everyone else crying."

Now being ready to leave in life is quite a different thing. 

Start by living, loving and laughing and most importantly re-prioritizing.  

I will leave you with a story about priorities from James Patterson.

Imagine that life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The five balls are: family, friends, health, integrity, and work. And you are keeping all of them in the air.

But one day you finally come to understand that "work" is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.

The other four---family, friends, health, and integrity---are made of glass. And if you drop them, they will crack, chip, or shatter.

Once you truly understand the lesson of the five balls, you will be ready to life your life in such a way that while you may not be ready to say goodbye, you will have lived life to the fullest, appreciated those around you and you will have left a legacy to those that you will someday leave behind.

The good news is that if you are "ready to go",  it is so much easier to also be "ready to leave", because you know that you will one day be reunited with those that are left behind.

Are you ready to go?

 

Saving "Grace" to Drive Away Cancer-Michael Satterfield 07/13 by Uncommon Giving | Blog Talk Radio

Saving "Grace" to Drive Away Cancer-Michael Satterfield 07/13 by Uncommon Giving | Blog Talk Radio

Love Michael Satterfield's story about how giving is "baked" into the DNA of his company.

The Word is Out - If you ABIDE in Him, He will ABIDE in you

We just completed another amazing Tres Dias weekend in Tampa Bay (#28).   Melissa Buzetto and I were blessed to sit at the Table of Ruth, sharing in the spiritual journey of six women that were hand-picked by God himself to share the weekend with us.  

 

The theme of the weekend was to abide in Him and He will abide in you.  This comes from John 15.  I love how the Message Bible reads on this topic - make your home in Him and He will live in you.  Whichever version of the Bible you prefer, the bottom line is LOVE.

John 15 The Vine and the Branches

 ^1-3 "I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn't bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken.  ⁴"Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me.
 ^5-8"I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.
 ^9-10"I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done—kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love.
 ^11-15"I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father.
 ¹⁶"You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.
 ¹⁷"But remember the root command: Love one another.

Mary Did You Know

A Girl's Guide to Life by Katie Meier

Are you parenting a teenage girl?  Before I begin by offering my condolences, I will remind myself that I am just a few years away from being in your shoes.  So I will offer something much more substantial that you will hopefully return in a few short years.

I just finished reviewing "A Girl's Guide to Life" by Katie Meier, and if your daughter is already "falling in love" routinely, this is a great book for her!  I found it a little advanced for my 12 year old, but know I'll be pulling it out again soon.

Click to order

The book is divided into three parts, Mind, Body and Soul and each chapter has a practical layout with places for your daughter to personalize her own experience in each area.  It also includes "Big Myths and the Real Deal", hitting many tough subjects head-on. 

Katie Meier addresses everything from prejudice and perceptions to sex and sexuality and everything in between.  She ends the book with "Who You'll Choose To Be".  I like the fact that she reinforces that who you are is a choice and that it isn't about what you like to do, but who you really are inside. 

As the sub-title says, this book is the truth on growing up, being true and making your teen years fabulous.  I can only hope that mom and dad benefit from the learning that a teen girl gets from the book and that it will minimize the need for condolences when my 12 year old is ready for this book!

Don't Settle for the Ordinary

This song by Third Day is told from the perspective of Moses and talks about how he couldn't settle for less once he had seen God's glory.  I don't know about you, but I don't want to settle for ordinary things if I can see His presence and His face.  It seems that His presence is even more palpable when things are challenging in my life.  How about you?




 

Kari Jobe - The More I Seek You, The More I Find You

Faithfulness

2Thesselonians 3:3  The Lord is faithful and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.

Faith is believing without seeing.  It is like the sun, that although absent from our vision at night, it always comes up each morning. God is as faithful and as powerful as the sun, penetrating the darkness in our lives.

Faithful is one who doesn't change.  Hebrews 13:5 says He will not leave you or forsake you, let you down or relax His hold on you.  He is faithful. He can't change, any more than the sun can stop shining and the earth can stop its rotation around the sun. 

Faithfulness is a description of the character of faith that truly equates to love.  "I will be faithful and true" is a promise that we make to our spouse when we marry - even on days when we don't like them very much.  Faithfulness is God's very nature.


Unconditional love is faithful.  It strengthens and protects, no matter what. 

Lord, help me to love unconditionally and to be faithful to those around me, strengthening and protecting through what I say and do.

Leadership: Integrity of the Heart

Psalm 78:72  And David shepherded them with integrity of the heart, with skillful hands he led them.

David was hand picked by the Creator Himself to lead God's chosen people.  For decades, God's people had been disobedient, not paying attention to the blessings and mercies of God.  In God's wisdom He gave them a shepherd - who guides errant sheep - and one with integrity of the heart.

Leadership is abut demonstrating integrity of the heart.  This means consistency of actions with intentions.

Lord help me to be consistent in serving you, serving others and serving my family.

He causes the waters to flow - Welcome spring!

Psalm 147:18  He sends forth His word and melts them [ice].  He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow.

We have been in a financial season that seems like hard winter.  Our resources have been frozen, like ice, stolen, unavailable to us.

He sends for His word - prosperity, provision, goodness and melts the situations around us, as we pray for His will in our lives.  His warm winds blow because He causes it to be so and now the waters begin to flow.

Thank you Jehovah Jireh for your Word, the wind and your provision.  Than k you for spring and returning to us what was stolen.  You word [Zechariah 9:12] says that it will be restored two-fold to us.  Thank you Lord that your Word is true.

Find refuge

Psalm 91:4  He will cover you with feathers and under His wings you will find refuge.

LIke an eagle that spreads his wings to provide a covering for the eaglets, so will our Papa God spread His wings for us.  He will cover us and provide a place of peace and safety.

I will sit under the wings of the most High and rest in His covering.  It is not my job to stay dry and keep myself from harm, but it is His will and good pleasure to cover me.

Lord, may I rest in your covering and stop striving to remain dry and stay safe in the midst of the storm.

Chicke Fitzgerald - One who seeks His face

I'm back - Today's topic: It isn't ours

After a long time of not blogging about what is the single most important thing in my life - my faith, I am back. I've been very busy, but know that in order to get proper momentum, reduce friction and to get really focused, I have to come back to my core. That core is the "owner's manual" for my life - the love letters written by my Creator.  In short, I need to slow down before I speed up.

I was not created without a plan. Every step of my life has been ordered. Psalm 139 outlines that so clearly for me.

The text for today's topic is 1 Chronicles 29:12:12

11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness,
The power and the glory,
The victory and the majesty;
For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours;
Yours is the kingdom, O LORD,
And You are exalted as head over all.

12 Both riches and honor come from You,
And You reign over all.
In Your hand is power and might;
In Your hand it is to make great
And to give strength to all.

David made this final prayer public after amassing hundreds of tons of gold, silver and precious gems and stone for the temple. He acknowledged God as the source, HIS source when he clearly could have touted his own wisdom and strength.

Nothing that I have belongs to me. Not even the banks own our house, our cars or our boat. They all sit in the hands of God. It is in His hands that we are exalted and favored or are bankrupt.

Lord, I sit at your feet, astounded at your mercy and amazed by your grace. Thank you that Jesus died for me, so that I might escape the hands of justice where my sins bring down judgement on me.

You are exalted Lord. Thank you for the Kingdom of heaven that is not visible, but that is in control of my every move and my every venture.

There is power in understanding "whose" you are, even when you think that there is security in "who" you are. David knew that and gave honor where honor was due. He was known as a man after God's own heart.

I am after you Lord God. You are my Jehovah Jirah, my provider.

Chicke Fitzgerald, Tampa, FL

I LOVE AFRICA Event next Thursday in Tampa at Grace Family - Don't miss it

Please join Deb and Mike Gilbert this Thursday at Grace Family Church in Lutz for I LOVE AFRICA. This event is sponsored by One City Ministries.

Social Media twist – Is Jesus Christ following you?

OK, those of us who are seasoned Twitter users know that Jesus is not in fact using Twitter and did not decide today at 538pm to follow me any more than the real Madonna chose this afternoon at 107pm to follow me. Full day on Twitter!

But it does give you pause to sign into your email and see this waiting for you.
Even more impactful is the normal Twitter banter in the confirmation email and how you choose to respond (or worse, ignore).


Hmmmm, so a choice to follow Jesus is as simple as clicking on a hyperlink in the email?

My own choice to follow Jesus was in 1972 before the web was a twinkle in anyone’s eye and not nearly as high tech, but it has been enduring. And fortunately, more than 4 people follow Him.

I wonder too about the implied ease in the Twitter email of rejecting Him and whether anyone would really consider BLOCKING Him, also through clicking on a simple hyperlink?

I don’t know who is behind the Twitter Account dubbed as AskJesusChrist. The location is Jerusalem (but of course). Time will tell if the virtual Jesus answers questions by using God’s Word and parables as Jesus did 2000+ years ago or whether as today’s banter reflected, he will use his own crude dialogue “Hell yes, I exist”.

The real question that this begs is “What would you write differently in your 240 characters if the real Jesus was in fact following you?”

Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Joshua 24:15

The Noticer - The Wayward

Enjoy this peek into the first character of the Noticer, by Andy Andrews.

The Noticer, by Andy Andrews

Every once in awhile, you come across a book so special that you can't help but buy them in quantity to give away to friends and colleagues. The Noticer is one of those books.

Andy Andrews has crafted a story about an enigmatic man named Jones [just Jones] who appears in a beach town and touches a number of lives, in a very unusual way.

Jones uses history and literature and even the Bible to show various people why it is important to notice what is around you and especially to notice those things that others often overlook.

I found myself making a "reading" list as I was reading the book, wanting to take in Jones' wisdom by first hand experience with the characters that he would talk about. I have always loved biographies, but I tend to forget how powerful a force they can be.

Andy's writing style in this allegorical treat is easy and engaging. He pulls you into the lives of his characters and as it says on the fly of the book, gives you through the Noticer "your chance to regroup, take a breath, and begin your life again".

I loved the use of analogy in the story telling throughout the book and the obvious parallel to the Holy Spirit's influence on our lives, planting seed after seed and ensuring that it gets watered along the way, even in unexpected ways.

Bravo Andy Andrews for this masterful and highly impactful work. This isn't just fun reading. It will change lives.