Light Bearers

I'm reading a book called "Birthright: Christian, Do you know who you really are?" by David Needham. I highly recommend it to anyone who seeks a better understanding of the Christian's relationship with his/her Lord.

In the family of Christ, it is sadly true that many amazing phrases no longer carry the impact rightly due them. Key among these, in my opinion, is the prhase "Born Again". We say it so often that we no longer stop to stand in awe of what that truly means. An alternate wording that may catch our minds attention a little better is "Regeneration." They both describe the same event in a Christian's life, but the term "Regeneration" has a way of making you stop and go "hmmmm".

This is what my mind stopped to do - to mull over the implications, ramifications & indescribable beauty of what it means to truly be regenerated by Christ.

Quoting Needham from his Birthright book:

"For it is God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," who has shone
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be
made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from
us." (2 Cor 4:6-7).

One of the earliest writers on this passage, Chrysostom, the Golden Mouth
(AD 400), contrasted this passage with that moment in creation when God brought
light into existence:

"Indeed he said, 'let it be and it was:' but now he said nothing, but
himself became Light to us. For he said not, 'hath also now commanded,' but
'hath' himself 'shined.' . . . For seeing he had spoken many and great
things of the unspeakable glory, lest any should say, 'And how, enjoying so
great a glory remain we in a mortal body?' he saith, that this very thing is
indeed the chiefest marvel and a very great example of the power of God, that an earthen vessel hath been enabled to bear so great a brightness and to keep so high a treasure. And therefore as admiring this, he said, 'that the
exceeding greatness of the power may be of God and not of ourselves.'"

God did not say, "Lets some light shine into David," No! "God himself
has shined in our hearts"! We are not only "children of the light," but we
are the people in whom God dwells as the light. Not a fading light as with
Moses, but a glory that transforms us "into the same image from one degree of
glory to another" (2 Corinthians 3:13-18).

All emphasis mine.

Did you see it? Did it grab you by the shoulders and shake you? If it didn't, then you missed something totally amazing and shocking and nearly unbelievable.

All too often, we who know Christ go on and live as if Christ is WITH us rather than IN us. There is a huge difference between the two. I still haven't got it completely but I feel as if I'm on the edge of a cliff. On the one hand, I believe I'm bound by the laws of gravity and stepping over the edge will, naturally, lead only to death. On the other hand, I've just been told by God Himself that He has made me different from the rest of the world and that, if I would just step off the edge, I would find I could FLY!

To grasp, even only at its basest level, the concept of God Himself residing in me - granting me the power to do ANYthing He desires - is thrilling and terrifying all at once.

To bring this (reluctantly) down to earth - to day-t0-day living is humbling, challenging, terrifying, encouraging, emboldening, and so much more that I cannot fully express. God calls us to be holy - to yield the members of our body to righteousness - to live in the freedom from sin that He died to give us, and He has "given us all things pertaining to life and godliness." See that? ALL things - we have EVERY thing we need to LIVE and to live GODLY - to live in constant and consistent obedience to Him.

I dunno about you, but I've gotta soak in that for a bit. I'll come back later to hit on the dichotomy this reality presents.

The BIG News! :-)

I have recently started my own business!!!!

I am extremely excited about this since I've always wanted to run my own business. The Lord has brought circumstances into my life and the lives of my family that have made additional income really necessary - more than a raise at work could satisfy. This venture will allow me to financially maximize my time investment and provide me with the flexibility of working from home on my own schedule.

The name of my company is "Pure-N-Fresh" - I already have the DBA and I've filed for a re-sellers permit. Primarily I'll be retailing, though there's opportunities to bring others into the business if they find it's something they'd be interested in.

I’ll be working with a 20 year old top notch company by the name of EcoQuest International that’s leading the market in environmental products for home and business. I am officially an independent business owner! (See me grin!!) EcoQuest is a great company. They're all about “Healthy Living Technologies”. Their mission is: “To enhance and improve the quality of living indoors by providing products which bring safety, convenience, and beauty into the spaces where people spend their lives and to provide a real life-changing opportunity for anyone willing to work.”

EcoQuest manufactures and markets air purification systems for residential and light commercial applications as well as numerous other "healthy living" products including dust mite resistant bedding and whole-food nutritional products. Please feel free to take a look at my EcoQuest website (http://www.ecoquestintl.com/pure-n-fresh) to learn more. In fact, I'd love to have your feedback on the site design & content!

I got into this business cautiously - praying for wisdom about making the investment and testing the equipment in my own home first. I was pretty impressed with the quality! Our “space certified” Fresh Air purifier by EcoQuest is absolutely unique in the industry. It employs the same technology used to scrub the air in NASA spacecraft. After only 72 hours of using one of the Fresh Air purifiers, I noticed: A significant decrease in airborne particles floating around my apartment; A significant decrease in the amount of static electricity (for the first time since I got him, I can pet my long-haired cat without getting shocked!); and even with two cats in a little one-bedroom apartment, my home smells fresh and clean. I was genuinely impressed by the results after only a few days.

The big test for my purifier came last weekend when I was gone for four days and came home to a full litter box and some bananas that should've been eaten before I left. Having left the purifier on the lowest settings, I was sure I would open the door to an overwhelmingly nasty "rotten banana / gross litter box" odor. Amazingly, I was wrong!

I could use your help and support in two ways:
1. Please pray for me that I will use wisdom, discretion and good time management as I start up this business. I really want to honor God with this venture.
2. I am looking for a few people to test the technology for me, so that I can put together some testimonials regarding the experiences with the products. The company provides numerous testimonials, but I'd like something from folks I've actually met. If you know of anyone that has any of the following issues, please send them my way:

• Breathing problems – allergies, asthma, sleep problems, snoring
• Pet odor problems in the home
• Mold or mildew problems
• Home/office air quality issues

I will provide an air purifier for a 3-5 day period of time. All I ask in return is honest feedback.

Thank you in advance for helping. I can be reached at pure-n-fresh@hotmail.com

I'm Back :-)

Wow! More than 2 months since I've been here. Life has kept me running and I'm afraid Blogging hasn't been on the top of my "to do" list.

Anywho, sitting here on hold with Time Warner . . . 3rd time I've called about the same stupid, simple issue - just want to set up the VM that comes with my phone service . . . The first time I called they said they had to transfer my call to "level 3" - after an hour on hold for "level 3" (whateve the heck that is), I had to leave, so hung up. Second time I called (last night), after a good 45 min or so on hold, actually talked to a "level 3" tech. He said he was getting an error message he didn't understand and would have to talk to his supervisor to get this figured out and would then call me back. . . which he never did. So here I am yet again . . . on hold for the infamously impossible to get ahold of "level 3" . . . . ughh.

There's all kinds of news to catch up on, but I don't want this to be a book so, in brief:

My brother Dan & his family are happily settling in to ministry in Arizona - not really looking forward to the heat of the summer, but content that they are where God wants them for the time being :-)

Mom & Dad have been through some tough times lately. Dad has been out of work since August - seems nobody out there is smart enough to realize what a great asset he'd be to any company. Either that or the Lord has closed their eyes to his value in order to allow this time of testing. Either way, there's a lot of employers out there missing out on a good thing :-P. The financial challenges they're facing have really helped us all to see who really loves them - and it's been a blessing to see folks around them stepping up to the challenge and lending a hand when they can :-)

Since he's evidently got the down time decided for him, dad elected to have some long-overdue surgery on his feet. He had the first one done a week or so ago and the next one will be done when he's able to walk on the first. They elongated his achilles tendon (I think that's what it is anyway - the muscle on the bottom of the foot that gives you the nice "arch" - his was terrible) and broke his toes to re-structure them. He's had problems with his feet all his life - I really hope this does the trick for him.

Mom's started leading a Bible Study group again :-) This is a huge blessing to me - teaching the Word of God is what my mom does best and I'm so glad to see her back in the position of mentor.

They are both trying to decide whether to follow Dan to AZ or find a way to survive where they're at.

Their situation has driven me to start a new venture which I'll post about next :-) Aside from that, things are pretty status-quo. Discipling is on hold for a little bit - my "disciplee", Bonnie, is taking some college classes and will be preparing to move in the next month or so and my new venture needs some intense personal attention. We'll still hold each other accountable to daily stuffs (reading, prayer, etc.) but we won't be meeting regularly for a while.

That's it for the basic catch up - the really BIG news will come in the next post :-)