Is life a game?

Decision making between teams (i.e. groups at a place of employment) tend to have a push pull relationship. One group's decisions are based on the other group's decisions; therefore, each group attempts to influence the other group. Strife and contention are readily available if not properly managed in most environments such as this. In a society built on an economy allowing each individual to rise above the peers, this becomes a great game.

The challenge for a Christian in this environment is to not be so caught up in the game to ignore or neglect the commands of God and the fruit which comes from living "in Christ". It is easy to become manipulative or contentious striving to win, but we are called to be loving while working as to the Lord and not to men (Eph 6:7). What work does God call us to? We are called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and soul (Mt 22:38), and to love our neighbor as ourself (Mt 22:39).

Where is the contention and strife in this statment? We often talk about balancing our desire to win with our desire to serve God. On the contrary, God calls us to do both 100%. Maybe our definition of winning is a little off. In truth, we should give 100% of our effort in daily activities while striving in each of those activities to display our love for God.

Drive by love to please God for His glory and satisfaction. That's the life I desire. May the Holy Spirit so change me to be this.

My Sinablity to Worship

Our sin keeps us from worshiping God as we should.  We refuse to exalt Him recognizing Him as the giver of all things.  We deny this in ourselves thinking that our trifle prayers before meals suffice to bring proper praise to the creator of everything we know to exist.  I’m writing today to admit my guilt in failing to truly be thankful to God.  

I pray the Spirit will give me greater thankfulness for God’s work in my life and that this thankfulness will affect me.  I want it to permeate my entire being and effect change within my thinking and acting.  I want the base of my framework for life to be filled with recognition that although I work for a living, my ability to work, the objects I work upon, and the people I work with and for all come from God and are sustained by God.  It’s an awesome realization that has not fully taken control of me.  If it had, I wouldn’t have to plan time for prayer.  I wouldn’t day dream during my prayers.  I wouldn’t lose focus when praying with others.  

Yes, sin keeps me from worshipping God as I should, but the Spirit sustains me enabling me to worship God in my weakness.  Come Holy Spirit and dwell within me and enable me to live in Christ.

My Wife's pregnant

The due date is April 27, and Kate (our daughter) will be 16 months old at that time. Children are indeed a blessing from God for many reasons, humility being one of them. Peggy is experiencing "morning" sickness all day long, and with a 9 month old crawling around, it is difficult, but Peggy is awesome. Her only complaint is that she feels like she isn't going enough around the house. Yea, I want to laugh at that too. She can't keep breakfast, lunch, or dinner down, and she's worried about ironing and cooking. One of the many reasons I love her!

Children are indeed a blessing from God. Someone told me the other day that those that can have children should have several of them. I agree, and hope God continues to bless us in this way. My hope is that we don't ever complain about blessing...

Have you been to my wife's website?

www.burpsandbibs.com

She's selling baby burp cloths and bibs. Very cute and great for baby shower gifts!

Let me know what you think.

My new toy

Testing out my new download of Blogger for MS Word, which is available here. I can now post my blogs directly from Microsoft word. I might actually blog more often now!