Littlest One has a Birthday

Happy 11th to a very cheerful child!

Granny-Harlin Birthday Braids in process.

Todd’s Update

“…stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
 
When Colleen and I and the kids struck out across the continent, across a language barrier, and across part of the Atlantic five years ago, we had to bite into the meat of the verse above. I remember my last look back at our home town as we pulled onto the freeway headed north, and we waved goodbye. This took some boldness, and it took soundness of mind.
 
This evening, a long day behind me, I sit beneath a Texas live oak, and I am thanking the Lord that He has given me a sound mind regarding the weeks ahead.
 
When we left Turlock, we left behind a lot. We have written already about these things: we still miss what we released: our closely-knit community, our labrador dogs, our gardens, our pool, our own home, our little half-acre in the California countryside. Yet God had stirred gifts in us, and the use of these abilities for His purpose and glory far-outweighed the pull of friends, dogs, cats, the home, and the predictable paycheck.
 
We are still in Texas, and our hearts, at one level, are longing for the ‘home’ of California and the West Coast. Yet God has stirred me and has given me a spirit of gratitude, confidence, and firmness of mind relative to the near future. In His wisdom He has not given us blessing to move on to the west (i.e. the freedom to move forward with all financial obligations met). He has given me a significant load of ministry work in this region, and perhaps this is the reason He wants us here.

 In addition, I continue to come alongside believers by phone, by letter, by email, and by appointment. I am working on ’tentmaking’ opportunities in the area, as we do not know how long we will be here.  Please pray for wisdom as I divide up my time.
 
For those of you in the west, Lord-willing we will see you soon; when we do, we will have the full confidence that we are where God has ordained us to be.
 
We continue to hear stories of great economic difficulty, and our hearts stand with you who are hurting. We thank all who have helped the ministry this summer. Our gratitude to you is deep and wide.
 
Stirred for the risen Christ alone,
Todd  
 

Monday

Back to studies.  School for the boys starts at 6:30 and ends at dinner time.  School for the girls starts at 9 and ends at dinner time. 

Todd is wrapping up administrative board work, and taking care of a crisis (long-distance)  in one of the summer circuit churches.

I am writing material for the French believers in Quebec/France.

Sunday

Sunday, as people began to arrive (there are just three of us in our row, as the older children were in the balcony tuning instruments and setting up for the service)

In the balcony:

Rain Arrives in Texas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Rain arrived late last week. We watched it fall, heard it on the metal roof, stood in its path.

Within hours, puddles formed pools.  Low bridges covered with debris and swiftly flowing water that completely closed roads.  

Pray for spiritual rain that opens pathways and clears cluttered hearts.

From Todd

A couple of days ago we were at a prayer meeting of families in a home. A precious little girl prayed for those who are fighting forest fires in California. Her compassion for unknown people two thousand miles away touched me. Also a subject of prayer was the drought here in Texas. Texans are going through the driest period in their state’s recorded history. Everywhere in the Lone Star state, Christians are beseeching God for rain.
 
 We too are praying for rain, but rain of a different sort.  We had not planned to be here this long. We are facing  an immense amount of ministry work;  between local opportunities and the ongoing distance-ministry, I’ve enough to fill 30-hour days! But busyness can be a distraction. A busy minister wrote of the pastorate,
 
“Our days and weeks are filled with engagements, our years filled with plans and projects…We simply go along with the many ‘musts’ and ‘oughts’ that have been handed on to us, and we live with them as if they were authentic translations of the Gospel of our Lord.”
 
Further reflecting upon this theme, he writes, 
 
“Our society is not a community radiant with the love of Christ, but a dangerous network of domination and manipulation in which we can easily become entangled and lose our soul. The basic question is whether we ministers of Jesus Christ have not already been so deeply molded by the seductive powers of our dark world that we have become blind to our own and other peoples’ fatal state and have lost the power to swim for our lives.”
 
His conclusion/solution?
 
Prayer.  He writes that the minister of the Gospel [that’d be all of us, in one form or another] should begin each day with this: spend one hour in adoration of the Lord, and flee from anything you know to be wrong.
 
And this is the only path of true discipleship: die daily to self. Each day, we either walk in the secular self, heeding its distractions, desires, and sham substitutes for authentic Christ-life, or we take our false self, with all its props, leading it to the grave, where we lie down again to be renewed in the life of Jesus’ righteousness, clothed in His marvelous white garments, our eyes wiped free of sleep and opened to comprehend the realities of the spirit around us.
 
Our prayer for spiritual rain has much to do with seeking God’s will for our path. Our hearts are set upon getting ‘home’ to California for a Fall/Winter home mission assignment, yet God has not yet provided the go-ahead for this journey. We wait in dry, yet beautiful Texas, warmed by believers here, content to fill our days to overflowing with local work, and longing for God’s blessing to send us west.
 
We pray daily for God to make His will known, both the means and the timing of when we are to go.
 
And in the meantime, we will work, and we will trust that Christ is transforming our undeserving hearts by His grace, that we may not just be busy, but may be walking in the genuine light of Christ.

Asking God to Cleanse the Intent of our Hearts

This campsite has no building in which to study, gather, make music, read, and so one parent and a bevy of diligent students drives 10 miles to the public library, where there are books (!), quiet places, and cool air.  The library opens at 9, which means that studying from 6 to 8 has to happen somewhere else.  A kind soul at the Java Ranch decided to open his doors earlier than usual, exclusively for the students-on-their-way-to-California, so three sons and a parent are out and about before breakfast.  All this on the road time lends itself to great discussions over breakfast, as the traveling students digest what they have been reading, and the Scriptures they have been perusing in the dark before dawn.  Breakfast conversation this morning centred on Saul and the removal of the Holy Spirit when Saul disobeyed God. 

And so now, 3 hours after breakfast, I am still thinking about the Holy Spirit.  I opened a Tozer book on the subject, (Tozer: Mystery of the Holy Spirit) –a book that I had never read before– and was struck by this opening prayer:

Lord, I would trust Thee completely; I would be altogether Thine; I would exalt Thee above all. I desire that I may feel no sense of possessing anything outside of Thee. I want constantly to be aware of thy overshadowing Presence and to hear Thy speaking Voice. I long to live in restful sincerity of heart. I want to live so fully in the Spirit that all my thought may be as sweet incense ascending to Thee and every part of my life may be an act of worship. Therefore I pray in the word of Thy great servant of old, “I beseech Thee so for to cleanse the intent of mine heart with the unspeakable gift of Thy grace, that I may perfectly love Thee and worthily praise Thee.” And all this I confidently believe Thou wilt grant me through the merits of Jesus Christ Thy Son. Amen.

A Better Picture

Still looking for a face-front photo of the birthday boy, something without a parka around it. This photo is better than the last one.  I’ll keep looking. 

From the pen of the eldest

These lines, from a letter written by one of the boys to a friend of his, and which I include here with his permission:

“This summer has been an even greater test of faith than last summer, as the Lord has substituted His wisdom for our plans. In the moment, it can be hard to live by faith, but in the end, God’s plans bring infinitely more blessing than our own designs.”

Thankful for the Promise of God

What does it mean if a rainbow ends in bikes (even blurry bikes)? 

Every time I see a rainbow, I think of God’s promise to never leave us, nor forsake us.  We’ve seen a number of rainbows this summer, and often (if not always) at a point when we’ve been looking for God’s direction. He is faithful indeed to lead our every footstep.

Isaiah 26:3  “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.”