The Time We Have Left...

Today, my wife found out that one of her partners at work died late last night after a long battle with cancer. This came as a total shock and surprise to her and her other remaining partners even though they all knew this day would come. He had retired back in 2006 to devote some time to getting better and working from home and from all accounts they'd heard recently, he was doing pretty well.

My wife had talked to him a few weeks ago and she said that although he sounded tired, he came off in pretty good spirits. From what I gathered from Jennifer's other 2 partners, they echoed the same thing.

Yet, at noon today, Jennifer called me and in a tearful voice told me the tragic news.

This horrible news came just one day after we got an email relaying a message that one of Kaitlyn's friend's father had passed away suddenly in Cincinnati Thursday night.

Network and cable news shows reported yesterday evening of the senseless shooting in Kansas City at a local shopping mall and all of us remember what happened at Virginia Tech a few weeks ago.

A question...

What will you do with your life with the time you have left? There is never any guarantee that any of us will wake up tomorrow, alive and full of energy, or that we'll even make it to 5pm today. With that realization suddenly thrust upon me in such a powerful way, I have been snapped back into reality...the REAL reality...that life stops for no one.

Death happens to us all eventually.

It affects us all differently too. For me, after the initial shock of getting the horrible news about each of these circumstances, I have come to understand one thing:

I can no longer be silent of sharing God's love with others.

I have too many friends and family that I think about daily who I'm not sure if they know about Christ. I don't know how many of these people that died in the last 3 weeks knew that they had eternal life through Jesus. I have no idea who had trusted their lives to Him and were following His will for them.

There's no way to ever know.

There's no way to even know if what I may say or how I act around others will lead them toward engaging in a personal relationship with Christ but I cannot worry about if I feel "embarrassed" or if I might "offend" someone.

Time is marching on and there are still so many people who need to know that:

-JESUS CHRIST CAME TO DIE FOR YOUR SINS.
-HE CAME TO DO THIS BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU.
-NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER DONE COULD EVER MAKE HIM LOVE YOU ANY LESS THAN HE DOES RIGHT NOW.
-HE IS WAITING, KNOCKING AT THE DOOR TO YOUR HEART, WANTING TO SHOW YOU HOW MUCH HE LOVES YOU.

Please, trust in the Lord today and allow Him to come into your life.

I had intended to share some of these things with my wife's fellow partner but I allowed my own "stuff" to cloud my priorities and take up my time so that I never took the time to share with him how Christ loved him and wanted to spend eternity with him. I know that we had shared CD's of my pastor's sermons and talked a few times (albeit briefly) about the book of Revelation and the Second Coming but we never got around to getting into anything deeper...like his own personal relationship with God.

I don't know how many people that I know personally will read this but I have an incredible burden on my heart for you all right now. This isn't a time for me to feel some ridiculous bit of guilt and have a personal pity party. It's a time for me to pray for this man's family & friends...that God will grant them peace and comfort in this time of grief. It's a time to pray that God will send healing to them all as they mourn the loss of this one. It's a time to pray for a special touch of protection and comfort for the 2 young children he leaves behind as well as his wife.

It's also a time when all of us who claim to be believers in Jesus Christ and claim Him as Lord of our lives get off the sidelines and do as He commanded us...

to go into all the world and make men disciples of Him.

The time that I happen to have left on this side of Heaven I want to be sure that I am doing all I can for His kingdom. I want to know that I'm reaching out to anyone within my realm of influence that they might not only see Christ living in me but that they also may come into an intimate relationship with Him.

I pray that God will be with each and every one of you this very day and that today will be the day when you come to know Him as Lord & Savior.

I'll leave you today with the lyrics to one of Mark Schultz's songs called "Time That Is Left." I think it summarizes all that I'm trying to say today.

What will you do with the time that's left
Will you live it all with no regret?
Will they say that you loved till your final breath?
What will you do with the time that's left?

Oh, Hallelujah!
Oh, Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Amen

What will you do with the time that's past?
Oh and all the pain that seems to last?
Can you give it to Jesus and not look back?
What will you do with the time that's past?

Oh, Hallelujah!
Oh, Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Amen

What will He say when your time has come?
When He takes you into His arms of love?
With tears in His eyes will He say well done?
What will He say when your time has come?

Oh, Hallelujah!
Oh, Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
(Lord be present in all my ways,
help me follow You all my days oh Father God)
Amen

What will you do with the time that's left?
Will you live it all with no regret
Will they say that you loved till your final breath?
What will you do with the time?

Watching The World Go By

This morning, I had an idea of something I wanted to write about but after some time alone with the Lord and reading our Pastor's blog reflecting on the recent tragedies at Virginia Tech, I decided to just sit back and watch the people around me here at the coffee shop.

How many of these people are believers?

How many of these people know who Jesus is and maybe even more importantly, how many of them have never heard who He is?

Are those who know Him ready to go meet Him if their call home suddenly came? What about those who don't know Christ on a personal level? Do they know what eternity holds for them and does that concern them?

An eternity spent apart from Christ and His ever-present love?

Pastor Floyd has brought up some poignant points to consider today. Life is never guaranteed for any of us and how suddenly it can begin or end is not up to us. With that being the case, how are we going to choose to live our lives? Are we willing to go share the love of Jesus with others today? What about just starting to reach out to that one person God has put upon your heart this morning? It doesn't have to be hitting them over the head with your 25 lb bible and condemn them to hell.

Quite the contrary.

Why not invite them out for a cup of coffee or just give them a phone call to see how they are. One of the incredible things Christ modeled for each of us was how He looked past each and every one of our faults and saw our needs, meeting us at that point of our most vulnerable state and showering us with a love that can't be contained, measured or faked.

He loved us and still loves us with a passion that transends the literal boundaries of time & space, a love that knows no end, a love that will go on forever. It was this passion, this love for each of us, that brought Him to earth to die for each of our sins. It is this same love that people are so desperate for even though they may not know it.

A cup of coffee or a simple phone call can become the first glimpse many people may see of this wonderful love of Christ. His presence lives in each of us who know Him and the Bible talks about how we are a scent to those around us. 2 Corninthians talks about how we can be a scent of death to those who don't know God but we are also a scent of life & hope to those who've been called by His name.

"For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among thsoe who are perishing. To some we are a scent of death leading to death, but to others, a scent of life, leading to life." (2 Cor. 2:15-16 HCSB)

I'm wondering right now as I smell the aroma of fresh bread & pastries here at Panera how people perceive my "scent". Do I reflect and give off the aroma of the God of all creation who loves them unconditionally or do I flat out stink? Am I wallowing around in self-pity, depression, despair, gossip, negativity and pessimism, which causes the scent of life to become rank and confusing?

I recently had my own "come to Jesus" meeting with the Lord and repented as well as asked for forgiveness of many of these stenches I just mentioned. Too often, I get barraged by my own stuff and my own agendas, losing focus and purpose from the One who has called me to do His will. Needless to say, I wound up feeling disconnected, discouraged and adrift in this crazy ocean of life.

Yet, STILL...through His mercy and grace, He scooped me up in His loving arms and reassured me that He is STILL on the throne and will be for all eternity. He reminded me that as much as He has done for the birds, how much more will He provide for me? He spoke to me through scripture and song that no matter what life throws at me, He has promised in His word He will never leave nor forsake me.

As refreshing and comforting as it is for me to realize, BELIEVE and trust in this, there is still the issue of doing what He has called us all to do...

to make disciples of all men. Or, to put it the way a favorite song of Jacob's goes...

"I catch 'em, God cleans 'em."

You see, the promises and assurances God Almighty has shared with me are not specific only to me. No, they are available to each and everyone of us.

It's up to us all to share these promises and this love with everyone around us.

John 3:16 reminds us yet again, as it did this morning through the voice of my precious 4 year old boy, that God loved us so much He sent His only Son to die for us and that whoever believes in Him will live forever and never die.

God is talking to you right now. You just never know how He's going to speak.

Who knows? Perhaps today is the day when God speaks through you to grab that one person's attention that lives just up the street, on the other end of the phone or even there in the coffee shop.

Share His love today.

Razorfest 2007

While it was a cold day to be seeking autographs from Razorback players & coaches, Jake & I went out to take part in Razorfest 2007 early this morning. We got about 20-30 players and all the football coaches' autographs plus a few good pics.

Look at Jake, smiling like a cheshire cat. That kid's too smart for his own good. LOL


I had the chance to get a picture with head coach Houston Nutt as well as his autograph on a football I bought for Jake. Later on in the afternoon, former Dallas Cowboy head coach and former Razorback player Jimmy Johnson joined current Arkansas AD Frank Broyles on a sheltered set for a little impromptu Q & A. They really seemed like they were enjoying reliving old times as well as looking ahead into the future in the next chapter of Razorback football.

I'm hoping that next year the temps are more like 70-80 and I'll be able to snag a few more autographs & pics of some of these Razorback greats. Now though, all I'm trying to do is thaw out completely and get over this tingling on my skin that says "hey knucklehead...it's a little cold out there today, don't you think?"

The New Pups

Well, if you read my last blog and wondered if I'd abandoned all sanity & gotten the puppy, you were only half informed of our decision.

We didn't just get one puppy...we got 2.

What were we thinking? LOL

Kaitlyn had really been hounding us to get a dog and so Thursday night, we began looking and that's when we found the picture of the puppy listed on my previous blog. However, when it came time to go see and get the puppy, the owner never called me back so I took that as a sign that she had another prospective buyer. Fine...perhaps it wasn't meant to be that we get a dog.

However, as we kept looking on the internet, we found a picture of 2 twin dogs. They were just up the road from us in Washburn MO at a shelter there and we thought we'd go up on Saturday to look at them.

When I called them Saturday morning to see when we could come up, the owner of the shelter said the 2 dogs in question had just left in a van with a bunch of other pups to go to Springfield MO to be adopted out at the Petsmart there. I asked him to call his driver and Petsmart to hold the dogs for us and that we'd be driving 2+ hours to get them. I hopped in the Sequoia and stopped by to pick up Jennifer & the kids, who were at Kaitlyn's cheerleading practice. After what seemed like forever, we finally made it to the Petsmart there in Springfield and lo & behold...there were our 2 puppies.

We'd decided to name Kate's puppy "Bo" and Jake's puppy "Max".

Sidenote: my sister Angela is pregnant and was going to name her baby Bo but then decided she liked Brady instead. I chided her about her affinity for Days of Our Lives and asked if the next child would be named Stefano. Now, however, my other sister Kim just laughingly told me there is not only a "Bo" on DOOL but a "Max" as well. Now who's the one with egg on his face? LOL

We signed the papers to get the dogs adopted officially and started the drive home. Lucky for us, they slept almost the whole way back except for 2 quick potty breaks at a rest stop. The first night was a bit rough, with a lot of whining and yipping. I'm sure it was due to being in a strange location for the first time and in the laundry room no less. It was pretty cold outside and I didn't want to chance them in the garage. So, after they'd woken me up 2-3 times, I thought I'd turn on the dryer to calm them down.

Hey...it's supposed to work for babies. Why not dogs?

Success!! They went right to sleep and I got 2 loads of laundry done that night. Bonus for me.

Bo & Max are starting to really adapt here and love playing outside in the backyard. I've gotten the fence repaired and boarded up in places to prevent them from crawling out so I'm not nearly as nervous of leaving them outside during the day. The kids are ecstatic to get home and play with them too and now that all this rain has left NWA, I'm hoping things will dry out so all 4 our our kids don't show up wet & muddy.

Still...even though things are starting to settle down again, I'm still having a bit of buyer's remorse...wondering if getting these dogs was the right thing to do. Hopefully after a good nap and a better night's sleep tonight, my outlook will change.

However, looking at the mongels, I have to admit...

they ARE pretty cute.

Am I Seriously Thinking About This???

Someone tell me I'm not nuts for considering this...

My kids are REALLY laying it on thick...

All Is Well

Yesterday, we observed communion at church and it was an incredible service! What a reminder it was (and was it ever needed!) that told us yet again of how Christ came to this earth to die for our sins and that through His sacrifice, we can be saved. The service was filled with a literal sense that the Holy Spirit was indeed there among us. From the songs that were sung and the prayers that were uttered in submission to the brief message on what the sacrements represent and how we as believers can take refuge in the peace that comes in knowing Christ personally and intimately, it was just incredible.

The service was ended in an unusual fashion with our worship minister's wife singing a song called "All Is Well" by Point of Grace.

I was literally speechless as I heard the notes and even more powerful lyrics come from her voice. The message of the song was sung as if someone was reassuring us that now that the Son of God had come to earth and was there, laying quietly in a manger, God's wonderful plan of salvation for us all was now about to be realized.

As I sat there in the dimly lit sanctuary, listening to these words, I became caught up in that moment, imagining Christ not only there on that quiet night over 2000 years ago laying in a manger but I also saw Him as the risen Lord & Savior, waiting for me with His arms open wide, welcoming me and all sinners to His side. I saw Him, smiling, inviting, loving...full of compassion and mercy...eager to show Himself to all of His children.

It was during this time of just being silent and seeing the Lord that I once again realized how I had allowed myself to let my priorities and stuff...what I wanted to do and how I wanted to live...I'd let all that cloud my vision and focus. I prayed that Christ would not only forgive me for not considering Him first in all things but that He would take away the influences, distractions and areas of my life that take me away from His will.

As I write this today, I'm listening to this very song on my iPod here in Panera and I'm confessing to you...

I'm having a diffucult time not breaking out in tears as I write all this down. The thrill of knowing that Jesus came to save me, forgive me and die for me as well as realizing He did all of this because of His eternal love for me fills me with an almost burst-out-loud joy!

Perhaps it's time to do as the Crabb Family sings about and "stand up & give God some praise!!"

O Lord, I give you my sacrifce of praise today knowing that indeed, all IS well for you are my God and my salvation, my hope and refuge and because of YOUR sacrifice for me, I now belong to You.

May God bless you today whomever may be reading this and may He reveal Himself to you this moment. Seek Him and He will be found.

Psalm 62:8 says...

"Trust in Him at all times, you people;
pour out your hearts before Him.
God is our refuge." (HCSB)

Have an incredible week!!