Well, It is Saturday Night and I have not written for the last four days because Life has been so busy and dynamic. I don't even know where to begin. I wanted to give my old employer enough time to consider me thoroughly without pushing them too much so I spent Wednesday Just cleaning up some things around the house. On Thursday, I sent an email to my old employer stating exactly how I felt about the situation and that I was firmly committed to working with them for as long as I can. I received a phone call about 30 minutes later with an offer. It seams that they could not wait to get me involved either as they were working very hard on getting things in place to bring me on all Day Wednesday. I accepted the offer and they asked that I not start until a week from Monday. Friday the called again with a customer problem, a customer they knew that I knew well and asked if I could start Next Wednesday. I accepted, but now what?
We have a house in Bluffton and now we need to move to Dayton. School starts next week and our kids are not going to want to change schools. We need to move fast. What are we going to do with our house in Bluffton? Where are we going to live in Dayton? First, we started leveraging our resources to come up with a solution for our Bluffton Property. We ended up finding a post on a local website for a couple searching for a home to rent in Bluffton. We contacted them and a day later we had an agreement that they will rent our property in less than 24 hours of knowing we would have to move to Dayton. We still had a line item in our mortgage to cover with our lender as we were not to sublease the property less than occupying it for 1 year and it has only been 2 months. I contacted the Bank and they had no problem keeping the loan the same and allowing us to proceed. Isn't this incredible? God is Great!
What about Dayton? We knew that we really liked the Oakwood area in Dayton. This mature upscale community provided all the amenities that can be enjoyed in the city while at the same time providing a small town atmosphere that you can trust your kids to hang out in. We searched high and low for an economically and logistic solution, but could not come up with one. Every house for Sale would push us to financial limits and the ones available for rent really did not accommodate what we wanted. We went to our hotel and started researching properties again and we found a property in Beavercreek about 15 minutes out of town that caught our eye. It is in a country setting and was something that did not fit the profile we set out for at all. We also discovered another rental property in Oakwood and wanted to check it out. We left to get supper and then did a drive by on the Oakwood property just to find out that it had already been taken. I was ready to throw in the towel and give up for the night and check out a new mall near by.
My wife thought different, She said that we need to check out Bellbrook because her parents thought that was a nice location. I had not considered it and thought it was a lost cause, but I decided to play along and we did so. A thought that crossed my head when I was driving to Bellbrook was I will not find our house until I find our Church. Bellbrook was a bust, but I decided to go look for the other house in Beavercreek. While we were driving around in the country, I turned and looked behind me out of the blue and between two wood areas, a Church caught my eye. First Baptist Church was the name and we drove through and saw that they had services at 9:30 and 11:00 and said that we should try this church in the middle of no where out. We then proceeded to look for the BeaverCreek property and traveled a good 5 miles finding it. After we found it, we drove a little further and found out that it was within a mile of the church that we saw. I immediately praised God for his Goodness. I won't get to see the house or even commit to renting it until tomorrow night, but I saw God's hand working here. I am not going to doubt him one bit, I am going to go to the church we found in the morning and then wait for the call from the landlord of the house near by it later that afternoon knowing that God's hand is working here. I don't know exactly what he has in store for me but I am getting more and more excited every moment.
After we found the property we explored the area a little bit and found that the mall that we wanted to check out was absolutely incredible and less than 10 minutes away from the house we looked at. God is Great! I can't wait to write about my experience tomorrow!
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Monday morning, my wife sent out a note to our Sunday School Class in Tennessee. They are the most wonderful Prayer warriors that anyone could ask for. Someone must went right to praying because things started looking much better. About half way through the day I decided to call my former employer. They were very forward in asking me if "I needed a job" and "When can you start". That is a huge boost in the arm for someone that has just been terminated from employment. We agreed to meet for lunch the following day to discuss this further.
Tuesday, I met with some of the leadership of my former employer and they wanted to hire me on the spot, but of course there are other people that have to sign off on this idea as well and they also wanted to make sure that this was a move that I wanted to make. Well I must say that I felt very much at home when I toured the facility that I once called home. Many familiar faces were there and greeted me very warmly. It was one of the most encouraging sites I have seen since I had been terminated.
When I first got the opportunity to Move to Dayton, three and a half years ago it seamed like a God Send for our family that was struggling to keep our daughter in good training as she is a very talented swimmer. We would have never considered moving to Tennessee if we had not moved to Dayton as I would have most likely ended up working at a local office near Bluffton. If I would have never moved to Tennessee, I would have never met the wonderful people that I did including many of the members of our Church. When we moved back to Bluffton it was primarily that we wanted to be back around family. After being here a couple of months, we have found that being an hour away from family is not much different than being in the same town. We would have never moved to Dayton, then Tennessee, then Dayton unless all the cards were played exactly as they have been. I know that we are not moving back to Dayton yet, but it is certainly interesting seeing God work in our lives. I can feel his direction and I am excited to see what he has in store for us in Dayton. God is Great, all the time, all the time God is Great! I am not going to question what happens next, I only know that it is in His divine plan that all can happen and that he is in control. I just hope I am smart enough to recognize where he is working and join in!
Tuesday, I met with some of the leadership of my former employer and they wanted to hire me on the spot, but of course there are other people that have to sign off on this idea as well and they also wanted to make sure that this was a move that I wanted to make. Well I must say that I felt very much at home when I toured the facility that I once called home. Many familiar faces were there and greeted me very warmly. It was one of the most encouraging sites I have seen since I had been terminated.
When I first got the opportunity to Move to Dayton, three and a half years ago it seamed like a God Send for our family that was struggling to keep our daughter in good training as she is a very talented swimmer. We would have never considered moving to Tennessee if we had not moved to Dayton as I would have most likely ended up working at a local office near Bluffton. If I would have never moved to Tennessee, I would have never met the wonderful people that I did including many of the members of our Church. When we moved back to Bluffton it was primarily that we wanted to be back around family. After being here a couple of months, we have found that being an hour away from family is not much different than being in the same town. We would have never moved to Dayton, then Tennessee, then Dayton unless all the cards were played exactly as they have been. I know that we are not moving back to Dayton yet, but it is certainly interesting seeing God work in our lives. I can feel his direction and I am excited to see what he has in store for us in Dayton. God is Great, all the time, all the time God is Great! I am not going to question what happens next, I only know that it is in His divine plan that all can happen and that he is in control. I just hope I am smart enough to recognize where he is working and join in!
Monday, August 13, 2007
Friday was a very disturbing day in my life. For once I felt like all was right with the world and things were headed in a good direction, but what happened Friday will change my life forever. I had a good Job with a good company and was making good money and that I enjoyed. I was on top of the world knowing only that I wanted to find a better way to do things. But Friday all that changed when I went to the Office for some training and left without a job. This took me by surprise, devastated me, and I knew that I was in for an emotional roller coaster. I called my wife to tell her the news and she was equally devastated and could not talk about it. It was a very uncomfortable and disturbing time. I went through more emotions on the way back wanting to blame someone else for my actions and wishing things would go back the way they were while also trying to figure out what I should do next. Saturday I had to tell my Friends and family about what had happened and it was not comfortable. The last thing I told them before this was "Business is Great. There is more opportunity than I can take advantage of." Well, apparently the company that I worked for didn't see it that way.
I continued to try to sort out what the issues were and where this came from and started to discover a trail that I have left over the last year of some projects that were good enough before but are not good enough now. I look at how busy I was and how I was just trying to do the best I possibly could, but that my best was not good enough to get everything asked of me complete. I look at what my boss was doing, not answering phone calls or emails, and wondered if I did less if I would still have my job today. I believe this is the case. I just wish someone would have told me this because at the time, I was trying to please everyone, and ended up pleasing no one.
Sunday came and I didn't even want to go to church because that had been an argument between my wife and I the previous week that I could not bear again. 45 minutes before church, she surprised me and said, let's go, so we got the kids up and went. This was one of the most rewarding times since loosing my job. I appreciated each and every speaker and what they had to say. I was searching for things that would help me in my current situation, what I found was that God is in control and I am not. God has a plan for me and no matter how hard I try to execute my own plan, things will go wrong. You see God is very important to me and I want to be his. I want him to come over me and comfort me, protect me, and teach me what he wants me to learn. I want him to use me in powerful ways that will help others see his truth.
The Speakers at Sunday School were people that had taken recent missions trips to other places around the globe. The first person was a camp counselor in Michigan that worked with some kids from inner city Detroit. I will never forget the scripture that she quoted as it applies to me today.
Freedom in Christ
1 So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.
2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. 4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.
5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.
7 You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? 8 It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. 9 This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough! 10 I am trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever he is, who has been confusing you.
11 Dear brothers and sisters, if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised—as some say I do—why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be offended. 12 I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves.
13 For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. 14 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.
Living by the Spirit’s Power
16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.
19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, division, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. 26 Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.
After hearing this it was apparent to me that I am still struggling with many of these sins one of the greatest being "feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group" What is interesting is most translations simply call this dissension, but the version that was read and the version that I had in my hand defined it much more thoroughly. I, myself have a tendency to let everyone know how they could do things better but rarely demonstrate it myself. I am learning though through hind sight and reading the bible that I must lead by example and serving others which is much more important than being right. God made all of us Unique and we each have our different opinions and methods which should all work together for God's Glory if we follow his commands, the greatest of which is to "Love thy neighbor".
When I went to church, the preacher there told me my favorite story "David & Goliath". He spoke of the Giants that we face in this world. I was saying Amen to what he was preaching until he got to the end, because I thought that my Giant was my job. What I found out is that I have many Giants that I need to deal with including Jealousy and impurity that were keeping me from achieving God's purpose for me. Later on that night I couldn't sleep so I watched a TV Preacher, something that I rarely do, and he also spoke of the Giants that are in our life and he focused harder on Jealousy. At that point, I didn't think that I had a jealousy issue as I have always respected people at all levels, but I was jealous of my boss, of other people that had jobs now, of some of the people that might have complained about me. It wasn't huge or obvious jealousy, just enough to separate me from God. That is all that Satin Wants anyhow.
Well Today is Monday and I get a devotional via email that opened with "Fresh Heart, Fresh Start". That is my sincere prayer and I pray that God will continue to tug at my heart, clean all the junk out of it and make it a suitable space for his will to live inside. Only he can choose to do that and at this time I physically feel God doing that for me. I also pray that I will not fall for the lies and deceit that Satin tricks us all with. Each lie is customized to our own experience and own preferences blinding us from what is really going on. Satin is tricky but very defeatable as we know who wins in the end. God Does. Praise The Lord, He lives today to rescue us from our sinful ways. God is Great all the time, All the time God is great! Amen.
I am going to start looking for ways to bring money into our household today. The company I worked for was generous enough to pay for my departure so I have a small cushion to fall on as I find a new way to make money for my family. I am encouraged that God is still in control and have complete faith that he will provide a new opportunity for me to both minister to my neighbor while keeping my family afloat financially.
I continued to try to sort out what the issues were and where this came from and started to discover a trail that I have left over the last year of some projects that were good enough before but are not good enough now. I look at how busy I was and how I was just trying to do the best I possibly could, but that my best was not good enough to get everything asked of me complete. I look at what my boss was doing, not answering phone calls or emails, and wondered if I did less if I would still have my job today. I believe this is the case. I just wish someone would have told me this because at the time, I was trying to please everyone, and ended up pleasing no one.
Sunday came and I didn't even want to go to church because that had been an argument between my wife and I the previous week that I could not bear again. 45 minutes before church, she surprised me and said, let's go, so we got the kids up and went. This was one of the most rewarding times since loosing my job. I appreciated each and every speaker and what they had to say. I was searching for things that would help me in my current situation, what I found was that God is in control and I am not. God has a plan for me and no matter how hard I try to execute my own plan, things will go wrong. You see God is very important to me and I want to be his. I want him to come over me and comfort me, protect me, and teach me what he wants me to learn. I want him to use me in powerful ways that will help others see his truth.
The Speakers at Sunday School were people that had taken recent missions trips to other places around the globe. The first person was a camp counselor in Michigan that worked with some kids from inner city Detroit. I will never forget the scripture that she quoted as it applies to me today.
Freedom in Christ
1 So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.
2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. 4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.
5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.
7 You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? 8 It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. 9 This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough! 10 I am trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever he is, who has been confusing you.
11 Dear brothers and sisters, if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised—as some say I do—why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be offended. 12 I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves.
13 For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. 14 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.
Living by the Spirit’s Power
16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.
19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, division, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. 26 Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.
After hearing this it was apparent to me that I am still struggling with many of these sins one of the greatest being "feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group" What is interesting is most translations simply call this dissension, but the version that was read and the version that I had in my hand defined it much more thoroughly. I, myself have a tendency to let everyone know how they could do things better but rarely demonstrate it myself. I am learning though through hind sight and reading the bible that I must lead by example and serving others which is much more important than being right. God made all of us Unique and we each have our different opinions and methods which should all work together for God's Glory if we follow his commands, the greatest of which is to "Love thy neighbor".
When I went to church, the preacher there told me my favorite story "David & Goliath". He spoke of the Giants that we face in this world. I was saying Amen to what he was preaching until he got to the end, because I thought that my Giant was my job. What I found out is that I have many Giants that I need to deal with including Jealousy and impurity that were keeping me from achieving God's purpose for me. Later on that night I couldn't sleep so I watched a TV Preacher, something that I rarely do, and he also spoke of the Giants that are in our life and he focused harder on Jealousy. At that point, I didn't think that I had a jealousy issue as I have always respected people at all levels, but I was jealous of my boss, of other people that had jobs now, of some of the people that might have complained about me. It wasn't huge or obvious jealousy, just enough to separate me from God. That is all that Satin Wants anyhow.
Well Today is Monday and I get a devotional via email that opened with "Fresh Heart, Fresh Start". That is my sincere prayer and I pray that God will continue to tug at my heart, clean all the junk out of it and make it a suitable space for his will to live inside. Only he can choose to do that and at this time I physically feel God doing that for me. I also pray that I will not fall for the lies and deceit that Satin tricks us all with. Each lie is customized to our own experience and own preferences blinding us from what is really going on. Satin is tricky but very defeatable as we know who wins in the end. God Does. Praise The Lord, He lives today to rescue us from our sinful ways. God is Great all the time, All the time God is great! Amen.
I am going to start looking for ways to bring money into our household today. The company I worked for was generous enough to pay for my departure so I have a small cushion to fall on as I find a new way to make money for my family. I am encouraged that God is still in control and have complete faith that he will provide a new opportunity for me to both minister to my neighbor while keeping my family afloat financially.
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