Alive And Well 5/17/2015

Good Morning.

This is running late today. Last night was a long one. It was the first time in many years that I had to pull an "all nighter" at the hospital. Our project went almost perfect but this old body needs some Cinnamon Sugar Biscotti Coffee in a hurry and three Advil. I am not as good as I once was!

Song of Solomon 2:11-12              
For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

We have many flowering trees, shrubs and fruit trees that each spring have gifted us with what I call "blossom time". It is a time that I look forward to every year. It signals that winter is gone and that we  have a crop to look forward to. The property smells of lilacs. It is a pleasure to open our bedroom window. A lilac bush was planted right near my head. I go to sleep with a beautiful aroma and wake up with the same. It only lasts about a week and then I start watching for fruit on the other trees. I know January 1st is always the start of the New Year for the world. But this time of the year is my New Year. This small retreat seems to put the world on hold for a week and reminds me that even through all the calamity going on in the world I can see God at work in my own back yard and rest my soul with a cup of coffee, taking in the view and sweet aroma. My wife says that she thinks I hide in the back yard. Well. I do. I look at the trees and lilacs and remember being younger, planting those with my daughter and Rene and then waiting for them to bloom. So when I see the blossoms they always take my heart right to the planting team and I pause to say thank you for my family. I look to the apple trees and say thank you for the upcoming fruit and the family that helps us harvest each year.

So much to be thankful for and I never left our property!

Have a great morning. I did.

Marty

Plugged Gutters 5/16/2015

Good Morning,

Happy Saturday to you. I hope your weekend finds you doing something you like. I like starting my day with a cup of Door County Raspberry Butter Crunch Coffee and that is just what I did.

John 13:34-35   
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Thursday night I was watching a pretty heavy rain pelt our home and yard. The view from our kitchen window told me a story I did not want to hear. I saw the rain spilling over the gutter along the North side of the garage. This told me that spring debris from our white birch tree had blown off of the tree and had plugged the flow of water from the roof, through the gutter and into the downspout.
Left plugged, the gutter would eventually cause a roof leak.

Last night I dragged out the ladder and proceeded to start my chore. The gutter as I expected was plugged with debris. But something more seemed to be holding the water from flowing, something a little more stubborn than tree debris. I finally reached the end where the gutter attaches to the downspout, and there it was. And old beehive must have blown from the tree or off of the house and made it's way to the gutter. No way was water going to flow through that woven mess.  Once I removed the hive the water and all the smaller debris flushed away right down the storm drain.

Our ability to love others can often seem like a plugged gutter. Something very stubborn blocks our path. Pride often gets in the way. "They don't deserve my efforts." Anger is one culprit that plugs the heart. "They hurt me so why should I love them?"

Friends, a heart that does not have love flowing from it for others is like a plugged gutter. Eventually the blockage causes damage. The damage to the heart is that it learns to close down to love easier with each experience that doesn't go just exactly the way we want it to. Pretty soon we find faults with everyone except ourselves. That leads to a pretty lonely existence.

So perform your own heart surgery and clear the blockage in your hearts. Ask God to show you how to lose your pride, forgive if needed and move on to a heart that overflows with love for others. A hearts beats best when it beats for others.

Have a great day!

Marty

Men, Love Your Wives 5/15/2015

      Good Morning Friends,

Friday arrived in a hurry this week. Where did the time go? My Door County Peanut Butter Crunch Coffee is hot and ready to go. Time to leave for work in a few minutes.

I was talking to a young man this week who is contemplating marriage with a nice young lady. I asked him this question. "How should you love your wife". He gave me an answer that left me less than impressed.

"I would love her through leading the family and her. I would let her assist me when needed as I plan on having her be a stay at home mother to raise our kids." So I asked him what his thoughts were as to how she should love him. That reply left me speechless for about thirty seconds. "She would be submissive to my leadership, raise our children and home school them. Our house would be clean and kept and meals wouldn't need to be perfect but at least they should be balanced."

I then asked him what he thought about the following passage.
Ephesians 5:25English Standard Version (ESV)
²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

Again he replied, "Christ loves the church and leads it. And the church in turn follows."

I agreed but then went on to explain that Christ loves the church, but the church is us. People are the church. Jesus died out of love for the people who He came to save. He was the ultimate Servant. A husband who loves his wife is a strong leader, a hard worker, a tender hearted man, who has learned to serve his wife and family. To be a loving husband one needs to also be a servant. Jesus came to serve not be served. Men we need to be the first out of bed and the last one to sleep. It isn't just mom's job to assist with homework. Any guy can fry some eggs and make pancakes once in awhile. This young man had the wrong idea about loving his bride.

I advised this young fella to hold off on marriage until he could see his wife as more than a servant to him.

We'll see what happens.

Have a great day.

Marty

Train Wrecks, Riots, Shootings And Earthquakes. 5/14/2015

Good Morning,

My day will run long into this evening. My coffee this morning is Door County Highlander Grog. Groggy seems to be the word I would use to describe my mind today.

I went on a bicycle ride last night in our neighborhood. In the distance I could hear a dog barking, geese honking and kids playing. People were walking and I stopped my ride long enough to chat with my neighbor and find out how her husband was feeling. He has been quite ill. When I returned home I watched our dog Gibbs run around the yard chasing the small birds who seemed to be teasing him by landing in his space. The apple blossoms are in bloom and the lilacs are giving off a sweet aroma. All seems well in my neighborhood. But miles away a train has crashed killing many people, a gun man shot and killed a young lady today only an hour from our house. Baltimore just finished living through tension that caused rioting and lawlessness. Nepal just suffered another earthquake. I have a friend who has family in Nepal. He hasn't heard from them in a long time.

Weekly a good friend of mine emails a few of us and asks us to send her our prayer requests. Of course personal requests are made. But this week I am just going to tell her that besides all the personal requests that will be sent to her, just watch the news  and pray for the world. If ever there was need for a country, a city, and a world to be in prayer it is now.

We need to ask God to intervene in the violence and lack of peace. Seems simple, not really. We need to be obedient to His laws and statutes. I believe that we are seeing that God loves us so much that He is allowing us to experience the things we would not take a stand against. If we condone evil it is a choice we made and He has told us that He would turn us over to our desires.
I have copied a short passage from the Bible found in Romans 1. I would highly suggest that all of us read the entire chapter of Romans 1.

Romans 1:28-32

²⁸ Because those people refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God, he has given them over to corrupted minds, so that they do the things that they should not do. ²⁹ They are filled with all kinds of wickedness, evil, greed, and vice; they are full of jealousy, murder, fighting, deceit, and malice. They gossip ³⁰ and speak evil of one another; they are hateful to God, insolent,^[b] proud, and boastful; they think of more ways to do evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no conscience; they do not keep their promises, and they show no kindness or pity for others. ³² They know that God's law says that people who live in this way deserve death. Yet, not only do they continue to do these very things, but they even approve of others who do them.

God bless, and make you think through this one.
Marty

Rag Doll. I Love You Just The Way You Are. 5/13/2015

Good Morning,

Before the thought escapes me, I want to let you know that you are loved. This morning started with a cold blast of Northern air coming through the door as I let our dog outside. That cold air just made my Door County Raspberry Butter Crunch Coffee taste even better.

I like all kinds of music. To say my taste in music is set on just on one genre would be totally incorrect. I will admit that it might be only one song or two that appeals to me in any certain style, but for the most part I can find a few songs in most styles that I will enjoy listening to. I do love traditional Gospel hymns and Country Gospel. I however, have a sweet tooth for the old Doo Wop music.

Last night while returning home from church I tuned my car stereo to Pandora and listened to some Doo Wop Oldies. The song Rag Doll by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons was played. The song tells the story about a rich boy who could not state his love for a poor girl. The people in town called her "Rag Doll". The boy sang "I love you just the way you are".

This song got me to thinking about God's love for me. I wish I was taller. God loves me as I am. I wish I had hair again. God loves me as I am. I wish I was younger. God knows I am older, but loves me as I am.  I really have nothing to give God. He doesn't care. Whatever I have He gave to me.
It made me think. I am a "Rag Doll". But I am a rag doll made by God, loved by God, Earth is not my home, and I am passing through on my way home to live with the King of Kings.

Psalm 139:13-16

¹³ You created every part of me;
    you put me together in my mother's womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because you are to be feared;
    all you do is strange and wonderful.
    I know it with all my heart.
¹⁵ When my bones were being formed,
    carefully put together in my mother's womb,
when I was growing there in secret,
    you knew that I was there—
¹⁶     you saw me before I was born.
The days allotted to me
    had all been recorded in your book,    before any of them ever began.

When I doubt my self worth or begin to think that God made a mess when He made me I read Psalm 139. I am assured over and over again that God is always with me. He formed my bones and knew just how long they would last. He knows my homecoming day. If He had a refrigerator my pictures would be on it. It is the same for you also. You are loved and were loved before you knew what love was. His hand was on you in your mother's womb. He visited you there.

Have a great day with blessed assurance from above. You are loved.

Marty

 

Love Lifted Me! 5/12/2015

Good Morning Friends.

I hear the coffee perking away as I write to you. Friends I want to wish you all a day of peace and contentment. My mug will eventually be filled with Door County Cherry Crème Coffee.

Yesterday morning while driving to work I was listening to my favorite morning radio station. It was early and it was during the time that they devote to traditional hymn music that I heard a hymn that I haven't listened to in a very long time.

Love Lifted Me. By James Rowe.

1. I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore,
   Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more,
   But the Master of the sea heard my despairing cry,
   From the waters lifted me, now safe am I.
   
   • Refrain:
     Love lifted me!
     Love lifted me!
     When nothing else could help,
     Love lifted me!
2. All my heart to Him I give, ever to Him I’ll cling,
   In His blessed presence live, ever His praises sing,
   Love so mighty and so true, merits my soul’s best songs,
   Faithful, loving service, too, to Him belongs.
3. Souls in danger, look above, Jesus completely saves,
   He will lift you by His love, out of the angry waves;
   He’s the Master of the sea, billows His will obey,
   He your Savior wants to be, be saved today.

The first verse and the chorus take me back to a time long ago on a night in July when I was the one with the despairing cry. No where to turn, no hope, friends and family tried to help but couldn't. Then it happened. Love lifted me. Jesus was there and extended His hand. That same hand continues to lift me each and every day.

Matthew 11:28-30 Good News Translation (GNT)
²⁸ “Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. ³⁰ For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light.

To me Matthew 11:28-30 are the most important passages in Scripture. Those verses sent from above lifted me.

God bless,
Marty

Climbing The Bluffs In Door County 5/11/2015

Good Morning,

I took a couple days away from writing to all of you so I could spend some family time with my wife Rene and her mother. So as I sip on my cup of Door County Coconut Crush Coffee my mind is still refreshed from having committed this rest and family time to the Lord. When I manage to do that, I always come back inspired and ready for the next small vacation.

2 Corinthians 12:9Good News Translation (GNT)
⁹ But his answer was: “My grace is all you need, for my power is greatest when you are weak.” I am most happy, then, to be proud of my weaknesses, in order to feel the protection of Christ's power over me.

We took three days together and were also able to join two very close friends for a great time in Door County Wisconsin. Door County is a beautiful place nestled on a long peninsula in Northern Wisconsin. It is comprised of many small bays and islands that comprise one of the most amazing spots on Lake Michigan. Each little town caters to tourists with different specialty foods, arts, crafts, coffee and wine. It is very quiet there and most peaceful.

While I was sitting beside the lake shore freezing, (it was very cold) I looked up and noticed the bluffs surrounding the bay that I was in. I saw a man and a lady climbing the bluff. They were struggling in the wind and half way up realized that they were not going to reach the top and proceeded to come down.

My focus then turned to the heavy waves rushing to the shore and then collapsing upon the sand, their journey had ended in futility.

Their are certain bluffs that only God can climb and only God can keep the waves rolling if He wants to. God has designed the plan of eternal salvation through His Son Jesus Christ. His birth, crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection are the plan. Nothing can be added. Nothing can be earned. Nothing can be strived for. You cannot attain eternal life on your own. It is a bluff you cannot climb. It is a wave that you cannot keep rolling. People try, but it is no use. Savior of the world is not found in your job description. God's grace extended through Jesus is enough. Not only is it enough, it is the only way. It's all anyone needs. But it has to be accepted.

Revelation 3:20English Standard Version (ESV)
²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Answer the call. stop relying on being able to climb "Mount I Did It Myself". Like the couple in Door County, you won't make it on your own. Why struggle?

God bless,

Marty