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Gary's musings

Gary's musings

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The Church needs more peole who can act....	Sep 18, 2008 5:20 pm 400 Views
Did your mind just go to Hollywood when you read that? Where people "pretend" to be someone they're not? Where they are just playing a role? Actors really get into the role they are playing, not just by studying the character, but by actually "living" the role. For example, someone playing the part of a street person, will actually go and live on the streets, just to get into character. Or if they are playing a cop, they will ride along with a cop on his patrol, hang with the cops afterwords, etc etc. Yes, you will find those kinds of people in our churches, people who are just playing a role. But I'm not talking about acting vs reality, but rather acting vs re-acting. My younger years were marked with extreme anger. It wasn't always visible, sometimes it was just sitting there underneath the surface, boiling, ready to explode on some unsuspecting person. I carried that anger well into my marriage. However, one day after hearing many discussions on the choices we make and the resulting consequences, REALITY struck me....I HAD A CHOICE to live in anger or be free from it. During all those years, I tried everything I could think of to get free.....nothing worked. On that day, I made this commitment to myself: I will be a safe person to be around." No matter what happens, you always be able to predict what my action (NOT REACTION) will be. I didn't want to simply "manage" my anger, I wanted control of it....and I got it in one day!! It has been an amazing 10 years of being free from anger. I choose for you to be safe in my presence.
	5 Comments

Does God really harden hearts???	Sep 16, 2008 2:11 am 462 Views
Exodus 7:3 - But I will harden Pharaoh's heart....." Does this mean that God woke up to a bad Monday (remember that a day is like 1000 for the Lord...that could be one long Monday!), and simply decided to take it out on Pharaoh?? And does it mean that one day, God might arbitrarily decide to harden YOUR heart too?? Are you really safe from this kind of God?? What about your free will?? So here I jump in with the question I have haunted God with my whole Christian life: WHY?? Why this, why that, why did you...??? Why? Well, part of my answer starts in Exodus 14:4, "And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD." So God hardened Pharaoh's heart to receive glory and be recognized as The Lord. But now I see another potential reason as I read Deut 2:30-31, "But Sihon King of Heshbon refused to let us pass through. For the Lord your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to give him into your hands, as He now has done. The Lord said to me, 'See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his country over to you. Now begin to conquer and possess his land.'" And then again in Josh 6:1-2, "Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. The the Lord said to Joshua, 'See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.'" There is one word in both texts that caught my attention, the word "see." Both times the Lord is drawing our attention to something that was impossible, and seemingly stating that it was the "impossibleness" of the situation that was the proof that He would do what He said He would do. Sihon was stubborn, and Jericho was impenetrable. What I have concluded from this is that the Lord wants both sides,the stubborn, impossible one, and US to know that when God releases the impossible to our reach, that we BOTH know that it was God who did the releasing. This whole argument whether true or not, assumes that God was arbitrary in the matter. But is even that true? Let me throw you a curve and ask a simple question: If you put a lump of clay, and a pat of butter in the sun, what happens to the clay? and what happens to the butter? Doesn't the same sun harden the clay while softening the butter? I think the question begs to be asked if it is not the sun, but rather the condition of the substance the sun is shining on, that determines whether the substance hardens or melts?? Is it the condition of our own hearts that determines the outcome of God bouncing around in our closets? I pray that when the sower sows seed on MY ground that He finds it fertile and ready to receive seed and be productive.
	6 Comments

Which is the right way?	Sep 15, 2008 1:17 am Mood: Aware, 465 Views
Proverbs 14:12 - There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. John was being a typical 12 year old as he walked along the railroad tracks, lost in deep thought. Without giving any thought about which set of the parallel tracks he walked, he chose the first he came to. He was only slightly able to maintain his balance as he walked one foot in front of the other on one of the rails. He wasn't doing anything inherently wrong, it was not illegal to walk the rails, but just in time he looked up to see a locomotive bearing down on him. He instinctively jumped onto the other set of tracks beside him, unaware that at that same moment another locomotive was bearing down on him from the back. He jumped to his death. It seemed right for him to make that choice which too, was not inherently wrong, but lead to his death. This begs the question: what choices have you and I made that were not wrong in themselves, but ultimately proved we should have made a wiser choice? It seemed right at the time. There are right and wrong ways to do things. When I took a navigation course, the instructor told us that captains will line up at least 2 landmarks while coming into port, preferably 3. In our course of life we have 3: The Bible, our conscious, and the Holy Spirit, all to aid in guiding us. Actually we have a 4th: godly friends God gave them to us, so let's use them. When you make a choice, make sure it is the right one because some choices have unavoidable consequences.
	11 Comments

oooooops, almost forgot...	Sep 12, 2008 4:03 pm 479 Views
...the check I received from the government???....is the first of 3 more to come for the same amount!!! PTL Thanks again Rhonda!!! I owe you some ebucks
	4 Comments

Thanks Rhonda!!!!!	Sep 11, 2008 6:30 pm 457 Views
I jokingly commented on your blog This is just so crazy!!. You must have taken me seriously. Today I got a refund from the Government for almost $300. Thanks girl! I owe you!!!
	4 Comments

This Old House	Sep 9, 2008 3:54 pm Mood: memories, 541 Views
Written by my daughter just before she moved, over this past July long week-end. "Several months ago,my husband tried to warn me that I would be emotional upon leaving the rental house we have lived in for the past 7 1/2 years. I scoffed, saying that I would walk out the door and never look back. As I lay in bed that night, I thought about what he said, and ridiculously began to cry. "When we got married, it made sense for us to live in the dumpy quarters that my husband was already renting. So his roommate got kicked out, and in I came. It was supposed to be a temporary situation: I was to teach while he finished his degree, and then we would buy a place of our own. Well, life never turns out as expected; meanderings along the way included drastic career changes for both of us. He finished the Computer Information Systems degree and started a construction company. I quit teaching to have babies. Every year we thought: this is the year we will buy, and every year something else came up, or we just couldn't do it financially. "From the road our 900 square foot house looks like a drug den. We have mice and dust and mold, a leaky roof, rats in the garage, farmers spraying toxic junk on the raspberry fields behind us, and so few electrical outlets that our house is a maze of extension cords. But the rent is very low and the property is conducive to all of my husband's work paraphernalia. My husband did quite a bit of work to make it more livable, but it is still embarrassing to invite guests over, and we have never lost that grungy feeling. "We have grumbled and complained thousands of times. We have loathed the house. There have been days that we have felt like we were caged birds. "That is why I thought I could just walk away. But the time has finally come, and I am now surrounded by boxes. We have bought a place, more than three times the size of this one, and we move at the end of the week. "Ironically, I am feeling mournful. I actually find myself wanting to hold onto this house, for it holds so many memories. "If you stand on the back porch in the evening, you can witness the most incredible B.C. sunsets. It was there during a beautiful fall sunset that my husband proposed to me. We spent our wedding night and the first days of our marriage here. Our babies were conceived here. I soaked my swollen pregnant body in the tiny bathtub and watched my babies as they rolled around in my belly when I was in water. I brought my babies home from the hospital to this house. "If I look out the front window, I can see the spot on the lawn where my beloved dog, and my then 2 year old son's best friend, Sasha, collapsed and died, I can also see the grove of trees under which she is buried. We spent hours taking walks in the raspberry fields with Sacha. It was what she loved the most. "My husband and I have fought here, we have laughed here, and we started our family here. I have cried buckets full of tears in the house. Every room hold memories "But I think the hardest room for me to leave will be the nursery. The rocking chair sits in the middle of the nursery. I have rocked and nursed my babies for hours and hours in that room. I have stood beside the crib, patting their backs as they fell asleep. And every night before I have gone to bed, I have slipped in quietly to check on them, to cover them with a blanket, to make sure their blankies were close by, and to just watch them sleep., so precious. There have been tough nights in that room, too, when I have spent hours trying to soothe a sick or teething baby. Nights where I have slept on a mattress on the floor, to try to comfort them with my nearness. "I know that the tears will fall as I say goodbye to that room. My children are such a gift. They have stripped away so much of my selfishness and pride. The have taught me so much about love, and patience. "And so, instead of being the house that I thought I would try to forget, it will always be a part of our family history. My husband lived here while we dated so our entire history together began here. It will never lose its importance as our family's first home. We have learned to be more humble, more flexible, more resourceful and less judgmental by living here. Living in a small place brought the best and the worst of us to the surface. Certainly it has force us to deal with issues which would not have arisen had we had more space to get away from each other! "I know that every now and the, we will drive down Columbia Street, and excitedly point out the house to our children, and say 'Look there it is - our very first house! That's where you lived when you were babies! Isn't it cool?'" This is me now. I will never forget that week-end move either. I made the choice to help my daughter move, (even though they had 6 young guys ready to help), rather than spend the weekend at a music festival in the U.S. The results of my choice proved to be unexpected. It was a tough week-end for other reaons. It just happened to be the hottest day of the year, (around 95 degrees) with intense humidity. Oh, and did I mention the mosquitoes???????? arghhhhh.
	10 Comments

How to become un-rich...	Sep 3, 2008 2:43 am 548 Views
In my devotions I had a rude awakening....again....this time about $$$$$$$. Pr 23:4-5, Do not wear yourself out to get rich.....cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off...." ....only a glance.....and poof!!! Life is so fragile, only what happens in His Kingdom is solid. I have been blessed in the past with a 6 figure annual income, and the past 2 1/2 years, I have had no income. Which, you ask, would I prefer??? To be honest, the past 2 1/2 years have been the most fulfilling of my life. And I have been able to take all the vacations I missed during those years of making a good income. How about the fragility of our health?? I was reminded again how fragile health is. I recently was referred to a specialist. Fortunately for me, my GP didn't tell me why. The specialist told me that 80% of patients referred to him have cancer. I told him I wanted the name of the doctor who referred the other 20%...I WAS GOING TO CHANGE GPs. lol UPDATE: BC somehow didn't print that I am OK. Got a clean bill of healthy from the doctor. This past week I found out that one of our fellow bloggers was told by their doctor, that if they had waited another day to make the doctor visit, the doctor probably could have only given them only 48 hours to live. How many other examples could we think of to illustrate how fragile our lives on earth really are. And how important it is for us to be obedient in these areas to walk under the covering God has provided for us. We've only been given one life, let's live it well!!!
	9 Comments

UPDATED Your vote would be appreciated	Aug 27, 2008 10:15 pm 696 Views
Updated to this: http://bigchurch.com=Gary&last=Thiessen
	12 Comments

Meet my new father in law	Aug 19, 2008 1:07 am 935 Views
What I just realized a few minutes ago, is that in my reading of the O.T., and now in the N.T. I have received a clearer picture of what my Father is like. As I read today in John 17:26 Jesus said, "I have made You known to them...." ONE of the reasons Jesus came to this planet was to bridge the gap in our understanding of God, by revealing Him to us, through Himself. Jesus came to help us in our relationship with our Father. If you read the Gospels in that light, you will gain a new perspective about what Jesus was all about. The reason I say "in law" is because the whole birth, life, cross and resurrection was a legal preceding. God could not just jump in and snatch us out of satan's hands, that would be stealing. God gave Adam control (that is a whole other interesting study) of this planet. Adam gave it away to satan, who then became the rightful owner. The law demanded a price be paid to ransom us. JESUS PAID THAT PRICE....AND THAT PRICE HAD TO BE IN BLOOD.
	20 Comments

How far can you take forgiveness?	Aug 18, 2008 12:22 pm Mood: shocked, 759 Views
Matt 18:21-35 Heeding the admonishing in Proverbs to know the condition of your business, a certain king set out to settle his accounts with his servants. I'm sure that threw them all into a panic. It would be like knowing that the President of the corporation you work for is paying a surprise visit to your branch and everyone is scurrying around trying to clean things up. I'm sure many of you can identify with that, trying to create a false impression for the CEO. I've seen it happen so often, and the truth is, no one is fooling anyone, because the CEO, was once in your place and did the same thing for his CEO. Anyway, back to the story. He finally came to one man who owed him several million dollars (according to the Thompson Chain Bible). He didn't have the money and so the king ordered the man's family be sold to repay the debt. This servant began to plead for his life, promising on his mother's grave that with a little bit of time, he could repay the debt. This broke the king's heart and he not only gave him time, but actually CANCELED THE DEBT, TOTALLY! That same servant went out and found another man who owed HIM several dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and started choking him demanding instant payment. This second man said the same thing the first man had said to the king, "Please be patient, with me and I will repay my debt." But he refuse, and threw the man into jail until he could pay the debt. (question: how could he work to earn money if he was in jail????) When the king heard from the other servants what this man had done, he immediately called the man back, and said, "You wicked and evil servant, I canceled your debt because you begged me to, shouldn't you have done the same as I did to you?" In his anger the king threw the first man into prison until he too, could repay his debt. Now listen to what Jesus says in :35 "This is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." The king rescinded his forgiveness...did you catch that??? And Jesus said that is how your heavenly Father will treat you. I was young in the ministry when I first saw this, so I double checked with my supervisor to make sure I wasn't adding something that wasn't there. He confirmed that my observation was correct. That was very sobering!! Mtt 6:12, 15, "Forgive us our debts in the same manner that we too have forgiven our debtors.......But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." I'm sure this post will generate a lot of debate, but if we take God's Word at face value, I cannot imagine any other conclusion. You may not like it, but God's Word is His Word. Okay now, all I ask is that you play nice!
	10 Comments

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