More Updates

Well I am very happy to report better news today!  The past week was SO much better.  I thank you for those of you who lifted up prayers for me.  It was almost like a switch got thrown and things just started clicking again.  I stayed faithful to my food tracking / calorie burning chart and according to it I lost somewhere between 1 - 2 pounds so there was progress again!

But honestly better news is that yesterday I saw God work in a mighty way.  I don't feel comfortable sharing the specifics right now but suffice it to say that God's Word came alive yesterday.  We hear often times that "everything happens for a reason" but I would submit to you that saying things like that takes away from God's glory and in fact is not always true.  I know we say things like that because we are trying to comfort people and let them know that God will be there for them, but what we are actually doing is telling them that God made it happen.

Case and point.  I had a friend several years ago who father was killed in a car accident.  She couldn't understand why.  Why him?  He wasn't a bad guy, he had his problems like all the rest of us, but why him?  Well if you didn't know the rest of the story a good, comforting Christian might attempt to say something like "I don't know, but rest assured everything happens for a reason...God will provide."  Now it's true that God will provide if the grieving person leans on Him, but the first part of that statement make it sound like God made it happen because he had some greater, mysterious reason behind it.

The fact is that it happened because her dad was driving drunk and he hit someone. Period.  He killed himself in that car crash because he made a mistake.  Not because God had some greater plan behind it.  That borders on saying that God made him sin, so that he would drive drunk, so that he could die, so that God's plan could be fulfilled later.

Is that the God we offer people?  Is that the God we know as Christians?

Romans 8:28 says this “28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

What does this promise us?  It promises that God works through things, not causes things.  It also promises that comfort only to those that love him, not to just anyone that won't give him the time of day so there is incentive for the unbeliever to turn to God.  It is a bold promise we can make in the face of adversity rather than simply falling back on cliche's like "everything happens for a reason"

Yesterday was one of those moments for me.  Something terrible happend in the beginning of the day and I felt powerless to do much about it.  Someone I knew made some bad choices and they were paying some heavy consequences for those choices.  Now it wasn't happening for some great, cosmic, reason.  These bad things were happening because they made bad choices.

I lifted it up to God and simply asked that help us through the day in dealing with the situation.  He did more than that.  He worked through it to not only help us see it through, but he made lemonade out of lemons!  Great good came from it.  Greater good than I could have possibly seen.  So am I going to cheapen it or rob from God's glory by saying that it all happend because God was making it happen all along?  OR am I going to priase God for staying true to His Word and working through it for good because there were people that loved him involved?

I choose to praise him for staying true to His Word.  It was proof positive of his providence.  There was no mystery behind it.  God has said He would do it in times like that all along.  When bad choices were made, consequences followed but right there with them was God's grace and mercy as well!

Currently Reading Every Young Man's Battle: Strategies for Victory in the Real World of Sexual Temptation By Stephen Arterburn, Fred Stoeker see related

DAY 100

Man it has been a roller coaster lately in my life.  Some days I'm riding high, full of positive outlooks and the next day I'm totally flying down a slope of depression.  I am happy to report that despite the low-lows, I continue to reach for the high-highs.  I appreciate your prayers and support and words of encouragement.  I wish I was better at updating but alas this war I find myself on is taking the majority of my time and energy.

As for updates however I can tell you that my journey has hit day 100.  It started off strong which was good but if you have been reading my other site (W.O.W.) or if you are a follower of my story in Heartbeat the Magazine (www.heartbeatthemagazine.com) you will have noticed that the last month or so has not been good.  I did not and hopefully will not give up and God has been very good to me these last couple of days especially.  I have received words of encouragement from sources I did not expect and I have finally created a tracking system that is both easy to use and motivating because I have created fomulas that actually show me how much weight I am losing per day (.39 pounds just yesterday!) (in theory). 

So basically I just want to say thank you to all of you who are praying for me.  God is still very active and taht is the one thing I need you all to know, especially if you are struggling with faith, or doubting whether or not God can actually help you.  

I knew that every day of my journey would not be a good one.  I knew that losing weight was going to be tough.  I think I was caught off guard by how well things were going, but when things got hard (as they are now) God is still here.  He never moved.  So please continue to pray that I will have patience and will power.  That I will stop listening to the negative things that I sometimes tell myself and that I will trust God to get me through this.  All the while know that I am praying the same thing for you.

More updates soon (I hope)

God Bless! 
JEFF

Poking my head out

I haven't seen any headlines in the news or heard any complaints in the gossip chain dealing with my lack of posts lately, but I just know that the country is in disarray because it is so "Jeff deficient".  So without further adieu here is the all new episode you have all been waiting for.....

I find myself under the gun again in college.  I have a 20 page paper due on Monday (that's right this coming Monday) and I haven't even started it yet!

We bought a dog, but it is too little to bring home yet (only 2 weeks old), it's a Corgie (sp?).  I don't know my wife loves them, I thought it was cute and my 5 year old is spoiled and loves puppies so you can do the math.

Still looking into starting a Bible discussion or church discussion group in the city where I work (as opposed to the city in which I live).  I have found at least one place that I can hold it and I seem to have a pretty good group of interested people (that as of yet are not card carrying Christians) that want to talk all things God.  My church conference does not have a church in that area, so I am looking into possibly even planting a church there.

Journey wise I am still doing very well.  I am on day 65 today and would very much like to know if any of you are still doing the day thing.  I know when I first announced it some of you tried it but I don't know how it worked out for you.  So far the journey has been almost all good as far as eating and exercise are concerned, but has had a few days where my spirit was challenged quite heavily.  Some days I have battled anger, depression, and frustration.  All days so far however God has been good to me and quite patient with me.  He is growing me inward while reducing me outward. 

Family wise things are good and what little scares we have had seemed to be under control so far, so praise God!

Church wise, some of you have asked about my pastor so here is that update too.  He is doing much better at least from what I can tell.  I admit I have not speciffically talked to him about his feelings of anger and forgiveness yet.  However judging by his sermons he is in a better spirit.  His last sermon (concerning adultery) was serious yet almost playful.  That description might confuse you.  He dealt with the seriousness of the issue and taught the Scripture meanings quite well but you could see how with every mention of something sexual (be it lustful thoughts, lustful influences, temptations, and of course the actual word "sex") Most of the women in the congregation were giggling and blushing.  I don't know how to describe it except that it was done very tastfully, yet down to earth enough to be open and (brutally) honest.  I guess you had to be there to enjoy it...lol

Health wise, my cold is gone (did I ever mention on here that I even had a cold?...lol)  It might have only been in my journals, I don't know.  That is another reason I don't write on here all that often.  I journal every day and most of the time that is after a long day of work, so to be honest I don't want to blog anymore...lol  (You can however read my updates in the W.O.W. tag in my subscription list if you are interested)

I kept myself young the other day by flying a kite.  Have you done that in a while?  $3 - $7 at any K-mart or the like will get you ten years off your age at least, double that if you take your young child, nephew, niece, or grandchild along.  (No age reductions for cousins though...lol)

Ummm I don't know anything else so I'm just gonna stop........................................................................now

It's me finally

OK I realize I haven't updated in forever and I have barely made any rounds at all to any of your sites lately but trust me it was a hard week. 2 deaths, 2 ER visits , 2 parent conferences (not with teachers, the ones where the biological parents and the step-parents all meet to discuss a common subject) Sick as a dog the last few days, one test that is 25% of my grade in Church History class and then oh yeah work too.  UGH

Now there is good news.  I was neither of the deaths nor the recipient of the ER visits (one was my Grandma next door and the other was my step-son), the parent conference I am not at liberty to share anything but there are still some major concerns we are dealing with, the cold isn't going away but it sure has crushed my appetite!  And the test I'm sure I aced.

I also have exciting news!  I officially fit into a smaller size of pants!  They are still tight, so I am not a "true" size smaller yet, but I was able to wear them with comfort all day, they were just tight around the belly area but not unbearable tight.

I also have exciting news 2.0!  My 5 year old lost his second tooth (collective awwwwww please)  He has made 4 dollars so far (2 for each tooth) now I ask you - what the heck is going on here?  I remember getting a 50 cent piece and thought I was cool!  Christmas is already going up now the tooth fairy?  I think what is happening is that we are justifying our lieing to kids about these fictional gift givers by paying them off!  Sweet, sweet, rationalization

I am also in a bit of mourning because my beloved Steelers let Joey Porter go.  If you don't know who that is and why that would make me sad let me paint a picture for some of you

For all of you fellow weight strugglers imagine you have just found the one and only double chocolate fudge cake that was totally carb free, calorie free, fat free, sugar free and it had better taste than the original ever would.  And then it gets knocked out of your hands and eaten by a bunch of those people that eat all day and never gain an ounce.  It felt like that

For all of you readers it's like getting to the last chapter of the best suspense book you have ever read and finding out it's gone...it felt like that

For you smokers its like watching the price of cigarettes triple in price and then seeing your state enact a law that outlaws smoking in all public places and then finding out that cigarettes aren't really all that bad for you anyway...it felt like that

I hope that helped some of you.

Talk again someday!

Small update

Just to give a very brief update for all of you who have inquired or have been wanting to inquire.  The service yesterday went pretty well in my opinion even though I only had a couple days to prepare for it.  Knowing how much your prayers meant to my pastor (and believe me he seemed very touched) I went ahead and preached on the power and need of intercessory prayer and did my best to urge our church to really enter into some heavy intercessory prayer on my pastor's behalf this week.

When I stopped by afterwards at his house to let him know how things went and to see how things were on his end, he was leaning towards taking another Sunday off however this morning when I woke up there apparently has been a change in plans and now he is looking at preaching this Sunday. 

I have to give credit to the power of prayer again for him and I can't express in words my gratitude to all of you for taking the time to include him this week in your prayers and also a double thank you to those who took even more time to actually post their prayers here.  That was going above and beyond what I could have ever hoped or asked and believe me again when I say that your words meant a lot to him and to me.

It will be rough I am sure for him, seeing how the services are this week and the funeral is in another city so there is a lot of travel and such but I know that getting back into the swing of things is the best thing for him.  The longer he is away, the longer he dwells on things he shouldn't be dwelling on.  I also believe just being around his church family will do him a great deal of good too.

God bless you all once again for going to war for him, the battle is not over but a decisive victory is in hand!

Much love to all

Jeff