We were able to go to the zoo yesterday thanks to a great suggestion from Lovely!  We haven't been there for a while and felt it would be good to do that before we left for Japan next week.  I was able to see so many things that blessed me.  I could see God in nature for sure and absolutely in my family.  God has been very good to me!

The days are getting nearer and nearer to our departure and I feel warfare that is so heavy that it's hard not to be anxious on many levels.  The good news is that the blessings of God don't depend on the circumstances that we are going through nor is there any reason why we should not take advantage of this in any way we can.  We are the ones that seperate ourselves from God.  He never seperates Himself from us.  Our human obsession with punishing ourselves and others for wrongs or perceived wrongs makes life much more miserable than God ever intended.  Isaiah 55 mentions some beautiful promises but I want to stress one part of this chapter in particular.  Verse eleven says that where ever God sends His word it prospers and bears 'fruit'.  The power of this scripture actually lies right here because often if people say something nice it quickly fades away.  There's no guarantee with the words people have unless they are in agreement with what God is saying.  I love good words as much as anything else but to have that actually mean enough to last is just as important as what's being said!  I really appreciate this in particular as a missionary because I've known so much adversity when in other countries.  Things can look so bad but this assurance is always there that God keeps His word to us.  I've seen many dangerous places and been where there was no American military to help me...there was nobody to help me but God and He never failed...not even once!  I'm so thankful that the promises of God are so strong!  We have a God who is the strongest and His word to us is equally strong!  Some leaders can talk and say just the right thing...some leaders don't say that much but keep their word but with God we get the best of both worlds!  We serve a great God!  I've never once regretted the decision to become a Christian.  How could we not choose to follow God?

I have been reading Isaiah chapter fifty-three and seeing the example of Jesus Christ spoken even before He came and died for us all.  It is so amazing to me when it speaks of how He came and bore all of our shame and the people around Him felt He was suffering for His own sin when the reality the things He suffered were all for us.  We were the ones who deserved to die for sinning against God yet here He is willing to go through all that He did for our sakes.  I know that the church at large has missed the point of what it really means to be a Christian.  There's so much judgementalism on one side and complete disregard for God and secularism on the other side that I wonder how it will be sraightened out.  The mercy of God is so huge but to realize this we must know Him.  The church at large often seems to not know Him so they feel that they must rely on legalism to keep from doing wrong when the truth is this will never work.  The goodness of God leads men to repentence...and you can only know His goodness when you know Him and this only happens through relationship with Him.  Only a fool thinks that knowing God makes life boring or incomplete.  This life offers millions of distracitons but wallowing in these things and obsessing over the creation rather than knowing the creator is the worst waste of life there could ever be.  I am not a religious person but I am totally consumed by the desire to please God and know His ways.  Hard to believe that some pride themselves on being religious.  There's a difference between religion and relationship with God.  The pharisees of Jesus' time knew the bible better than anyone yet missed out when it came to Jesus...the physical representation of God on this earth...how can this be?  They defined the scripture as they felt comfortable with it...many do this today.  They become 'Christian' but that really means they don't change one bit asside from using the bible to confirm what they felt before they met Jesus in the first place.  A Muslim can be religious...a Buddhist can be religious as can a Hindu or any other follower of the world's religions but only a Christian can know God personally.  This doesn't make you legalistic at all but rather obsessed with Christ who becomes your best friend...not just your god.  I couldn't know the joys of life without Christ.  The bible says the first commandment is to have one God which of course is the trinity...three in one...the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and the next is to love your neighbor as yourself.  Notice the close proximity of these two!  You can't enjoy your fellow man or know love for life at all if you don't know God...why?  Because He is life!  I could never love my kids the way I should without God, I could never love my wife the way I should nor other people because I must know the one who made them all to truly experience what they are all about.  You can't have yourself on the throne, so to speak and expect to love others or life the way you should.  If you worthip yourself you don't care about consequences of what you're doing and don't care who gets hurt...this will catch up with you at some point and when it does you'll likely die old and miserable.  Drink your whole life away and you deal with the consequences of alchoholism...or drug addiction or whatever addiction there is out there.  God's way lets you love and enjoy life to it's fullest without these terrible consequences.  I don't need these things in life to feel alive but I certainly need Christ!