Creativity

I just finished a little, very little, landscape project. It is so neat to see it completed. As a matter of fact, I hadn't finished it until just a few minutes ago, but this morning at the first signs of light, I was out on the deck looking at it. It looked "very good," and I was pleased with it.

What is it about completing something that gives us satisfaction? Especially when it turns out well. There is a bit of creativity that God built into each one of us. When I was a kid in school, the teacher gave us an art project to do. I could picture in my head so clearly what I wanted it to turn out to be. But, when I got done with it I was so disappointed in the way it turned out. It didn't look anything like I pictured it. I found out then just how little creativity God did put in me.

But, we all have some. I had a devotional read to me the other day while on a hospital visit. It went something like this. "Find the channel of creativity within your soul. No one has been made without it. Be aware that someone you count on will choke it with indifference, despise it with rebellion, ignore it with foolishness or twist it with bitterness. But, know that Jesus stands ready to help any man or woman that who comes to him!" Don't put your hope in the men and women around you. Put your hope in Jesus! Think about it!

Where Have You Been?

Wow! Has it been that long since I wrote on my blog? I guess it has. I've kind of had my mind occupied lately with a lot of things. Since I last wrote, I have been to Haiti and back and now I am seriously considering going back to Peru in a couple of months. Hopefully, somewhere in between I can squeeze in a much needed vacation. We have already put if off once when I went to Haiti.

So what's up with you since I last wrote? Beside going to Haiti, I have fought something in my lungs since we got back. I realized today that it has been six weeks and I am tired of it. Also, since Haiti, I have lost nearly 20 pounds, and that is a good thing. I have preached five sermons, taught at least a dozen Bible studies, been in probably half dozen 6:00 AM prayer times on Friday mornings and what seems like a couple hundred meetings. I am sure there weren't that many meetings, but it sure seems like it sometimes.

I am going to Grandparents Weekend at Taylor University on April 29th-May 1st, to spend the weekend with my first college granddaughter. Grandma and Grandpa Turner and Spickler are traveling together to make this weekend special for Ashley!

I have a 45 year class reunion coming up in June. Just found out today that friends from Florida are coming home that weekend to Winnebago. I have had fun renewing some old high school friendships on Facebook in recent weeks just since the announcement of the class reunion came out. I hope many of them will be able to make it back to Macomb at the end of June for the reunion.

I'm going to call it a day for this blog! Maybe more tomorrow, or next month, which ever works best. Have a great day, and don't stay away so long from here out!

Looking ahead!

We're Off!

In horse racing, the comentator calls when the gates open, "They're off!" It means the race begins. I'm serving notice today that at New Life Bible Church, "We're off!" The writer of Hebrews writes in Hebrews 12:1, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." The race we run in 2010 will be one that will change our lives forever, if we throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.

We just finished doing a spiritual inventory as we close out 2009 and begin 2010! In that inventory we all have found our weak points and our strong points. Let's begin to focus on the strong points (perseverance) and throw off the weak points (sin) that hinder our spiritual walk with Jesus!

Jesus is coming back soon! Maybe sooner than any of us give him credit for! Are you ready or are you dabbling around is sin you know you should have no part of? Throw if off and run the race. Think about it!