A Season For Everything

I don't know what it looks like in Alaska right now, but I'm sure to find out next week. For now, Daniel and I found this priceless place over the weekend in the Fourth of July Canyon, right here in New Mexico. Nothing could have made the scenic view feel more Fall-ish except perhaps a misplaced pumpkin balanced on the fence post or something.

The death of a Maple leaf gives birth to a new season with a burst of pinkish-red color mixed with yellow stars that carpet the ground. There's something about an afternoon chill combined with fall foliage that creates aliveness and a sense of new beginnings.

We walked a short path and took a ton of pictures, stopped and talked to people and watched them set up camp for the night. Dogs barked, children played, campfires roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Sections of sun speckled the ground but offered little warmth. It was a perfect day.

Without warning, the wind picked up so hard that it gusted up every square inch of stray leaf. They swirled in the air until the hail beat them back to the ground. Branches snapped, campfires sizzled and family's bundled in their vehicles for protection. Daniel and I drove away with the storm chasing us back to town.

When we got home, it was clearly evident that our yard had been ransacked by the same force that invaded the Fourth of July Canyon. A story I read many years ago was written by a woman from the pre-refrigeration era. Her husband had arrived home to the farm, fresh after a tonsillectomy. He started spitting up blood. After a couple of coughs, he was hemorrhaging. It was in the early Fall and she didn't have any ice to apply to the affected area. People from that era would preserve ice and snow from the Winter-time by packing it in cartons filled with sawdust. But it wouldn't keep a full year.All she had was prayer. She asked God to save her husband. Without warning, the wind picked up and large chunks of ice fell to the Earth. The wife gathered the ice and packed the hailstones around her husband's neck. The bleeding stopped.

When you have storms like that, they can take on an entire different meaning. They no longer rain on our parades, inconvenience us from doing something we wanted to do. They were put there on purpose and for a reason.

To everything there is a season,

a time for every purpose under the sun.

a time to be born and a time to die;

a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

a time to kill and a time to heal ...

a time to weep and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn and a time to dance ...

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to lose and a time to seek;

a time to rend and a time to sew;

a time to keep silent and a time to speak;

a time to love and a time to hate;

a time for war and a time for peace.

ecclesiastes 3:1-8

What The World Needs Now

Gasoline prices are skyrocketing, foreclosures are on the rise, the threat of banks closing is near, and now they are talking about rationing food. Add to that the Iraq war. Things are forever changing. We live in a fallen world where many people respond to all the changes with anxiety, despair or perhaps just find someone to blame for all the trials and difficult times.

Revelations, the last book in the Bible, is scary to read. It appears to me that the whole world is going to be having a massive seizure. Maybe we are having several small ones right now. In Chapter 16, there is a terrifying passage that makes you wonder where the love of God is. But this is a statement of prophetic history given to us in advance.

The Apostle Paul lived in the day and time where most people on the earth were slaves.Most of their time was spent trying to make a living-- just to exist. A much different picture of the reality of life back then than the picture above displays. The picture above was actually taken in New York city on the side of the Chapel that Stood across from Ground Zero.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans about living in and through difficult times. There are four truths to be found concerning all our circumstances of daily living found in Romans, Chapters 7 & 8.

• God controls our circumstances Romans 8:28 For we know that within all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose. If you don't believe that then you are the only one in control of your circumstances -- How is it working for you? There is no such thing as absolute free will, it would be unsafe to be alive if there was. No matter what is going on in your life, some- body is in control.
• God will meet our needs: Romans 8:31--" What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us." We as believers have the privilege to live on a higher level. Our God knows our needs before we ask Him. He will freely give us all things that fit His purpose for our lives.
• God is with us : Romans 8:38-39--For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels or demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. He is with me, He is with us. We operate on a basis of feeling and because we don't always feel his presence, it has nothing to do with his presence. The cross covered the gap over 2000 years ago. He sealed us. You can go nowhere to hide from God.
• God loves us with eternal love Romans 8:35: Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing we could ever do or say could ever match the knowledge of knowing that God's loves us eternally-- even when our conduct is out of control.

People, events, and governments are out of control for the most part. Look at the differences in the countries and how much the disaster they experience, actually parallels with the amount of Bible that country chooses to allow. Even in our own country, many people have chosen a path that is so far removed from God that they reject their own family members without remorse. More and more we are reaping the consequences of our own deliberate rebellion.But what about those of us who choose to take a stand despite the persecution as the Apostle Paul?

John 14: Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.