Bring the Rain - Mercy Me

Read the words of this song, it is amazing. This is on the newest Mercy Me CD. I highly suggest it!

I can count a million times
People asking me why
I can praise you, with all that I’ve gone through

The question just amazes me
Could circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You

Maybe since my life has changed
Long before these rainy days
It’s never really ever crossed my mind

To turn my back on you O’ Lord
My only shelter from the storm
But instead, I draw closer through these times

So I pray…
Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings you glory
I know there’ll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that’s what it takes to praise you
Jesus bring the rain!

I am yours regardless of
The clouds that may loom above
Because you are much greater than the pain

You who made a way for me
By suffering your destiny
Should tell me, “What’s a little rain”

So I pray…
Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings you glory
I know there’ll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that’s what it takes to praise you
Jesus bring the rain!

Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy,Is the Lord God Almighty, Is the Lord God Almighty

Just a little info - Alan Phillips

Oh great world of Blog … Greetings!

Those who know me know that global missions runs rather freely in my veins. I was the child of missionary parents where I grew up in Perth, Australia. Later in high school when we moved to Oklahoma from the other side of earth, we used to have missionaries come stay in our home quite frequently. Now in my ‘advanced years’ (no need for “Amens”), I have come full circle. Following my college years and then a couple of decades of work in higher education administration and consulting, I now work with a missions ministry called, Missions Resource Network, here in the Dallas metroplex. I also serve on the missions team of the Lake Cities Church, as our church strives to make a difference in people’s lives, both locally and globally.

I grew up going to church three times a week, memorizing scripture, hearing lots of sermons, going to Bible class and VBS, attending Christian College lectureships, and “Gospel Meetings”, and eventually graduating from a Christian University. What I learned most about what Christianity has to offer, however, I observed from my parents and from other selfless ‘soldout’ followers of Christ. As a child and teenager, I watched my parents give of themselves in extraordinary ways. They served others as people had need without partiality for status and without judgment … the physically poor and the spiritually poor. They shared their joy-filled lives (and still do) with anyone and everyone, for they saw (and see) each contact with someone an opportunity to reflect the selfless love of Jesus. By the standards of the world my family didn’t have much, but in reality we had everything!

In reflection I’m reminded that you and I are called to be ‘missionaries’. Self was nailed to a cross. Our identities as Christ-followers are not tied up in our pedigree, where we went to college, where we live, our family makeup, our careers, our portfolios, nor our church affiliation. God’s calling is personal. I pray that in humility I will consider others greater than myself. I pray that His power be at work within me, because I can’t do it alone. I pray that people will not see me, but rather that they see Jesus who lives within me. I pray that as iron sharpens iron, we might sharpen each other in His service. And not because of anything that I’ve done, but rather because of my debt that Jesus paid, I proudly claim to be His missionary!

Alan Phillips - an IronMan

Forever Young - Max Lucado

"Whoever tries to keep his life safe will lose it, and the man who is prepared to lose his life will preserve it."LUKE 17:33 (PHILLIPS)
“There are two ways to view life,” Jesus is saying, “those who protect it or those who pursue it. The wisest are not the ones with the most years in their lives, but the most life in their years.”
What Annie Dillard says about writing in The Writing Life is true about life: “One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, play it, lose it all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.”
There is a rawness and a wonder to life. Pursue it. Hunt for it. Sell out to get it. Don’t listen to the whines of those who have settled for a second-rate life and want you to do the same so they won’t feel guilty. Your goal is not to live long; it’s to live.
Jesus says the options are clear. On one side there is the voice of safety. You can build a fire in the hearth, stay inside, and stay warm and dry and safe. You can’t get hurt if you never get out, right? You can’t be criticized for what you don’t try, right? You can’t fall if you don’t take a stand, right? You can’t lose your balance if you never climb, right? So, don’t try it. Take the safe route.
Or you can hear the voice of adventure—God’s adventure. Instead of building a fire in your hearth, build a fire in your heart. Follow God’s impulses. Adopt the child. Move overseas. Teach the class. Change careers. Run for office. Make a difference. Sure it isn’t safe, but what is?
You think staying inside out of the cold is safe? Jesus disagrees. “Whoever tries to keep his life safe will lose it.” I like the words of General Douglas MacArthur when he was seventy-eight: “Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul.”

From He Still Moves StonesCopyright 1995, Max Lucado

Thought for the Day - Gary Williams

"Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love." (1 Corinthians 16:13-14)

Paul can say a lot in a few words.

Gary Williams - an IronMan

From Cary Chisholm

Hey IronMen. Sorry I haven’t been around much, but I’m now doing my rotations for medical school, so unfortunately my schedule is awful. Before I share my thoughts, I just want to ask for prayers for Leann and me. We are not having problems, and I would like to keep it that way while I’m spending so much time at the hospital. The only way to do that is with God’s help during this time (and even not during this time of course).

So this last Saturday I had my first patient die. Well, he wasn’t my patient, but I was on call that night so he was mine by default. About six in the morning my pager went off and woke me up in the call room. I slipped on my shoes (no socks or tying the laces…dying people don’t like to wait for those things) and ran down the hall with the other 4 people on call. We are the code team on our on-call nights, so when a code blue is called, we all get paged. As we arrived on the 13th floor, the nurses had already started CPR and the man’s family was in the hall. Ahmad and I rotated doing chest compressions while our residents ran the code. We got a heart rhythm back briefly after about 20 minutes of CPR, but we lost it again when we tried to move his bed down the hall to go to the ICU. After another 10 minutes of CPR, the man’s family wanted us to stop, because they realized that their husband/father was gone. 30 total minutes of CPR, 2 or 3 episodes of shocking him, and using 2 crash carts of medicine weren’t enough to bring this guy back. Granted, he wasn’t expected to live much longer anyway. He was already in kidney failure and just had heart bypass surgery. In spite of those things, using the best technology and latest research guidelines weren’t enough. Our best effort wasn’t enough. It was just his time to go.

Then there are those crazy stories on the news. You know, where a guy dies because he somehow manages to drive his car into a second story apartment (true story). People get struck by lightening when there are no rain clouds. Young athletes die while playing basketball during a high school or college game. People get attacked by sharks in fresh water. People who smoke, drink, and do drugs sometimes manage to live into very old age without being sick, while those of us who take care of ourselves sometimes die young or live into old age in terrible health. The fact is, sometimes, it’s just our time to go. Our entrance into the next life is not controlled by us: Nothing we can do can help us. Exercise, eating right, taking the right vitamins, going to the doctor regularly, not drinking and driving, avoiding drugs…they can’t keep you alive when God has called you home. I guess what I’m trying to say is that we have only a limited time here on earth.

What is on my heart this week is that each of us take time each day to value and love our wives, children, parents, and friends, because none of us knows when God will call us home. For me, it entails spending the first 2-3 hours of each day with Leann when I get home from the hospital before I study. Even though I am losing a lot of study time by doing so, God has blessed me in my schooling, I believe, in part because I have kept my wife as a priority over school. Even though sometimes we feel that giving up extra time each day to spend with our families may hurt us in other areas, God will bless your prioritizing, and He will bless those activities that you give up. For some it’s studying, for others it’s work that they bring home from the office, for others it’s TV or movies or sports, and for others it’s (fill in the blank). The point is, we all are busy. We all have other things to do when we get home. Sometimes we all want a break away from wives and kids. Just don’t move them down on your priority list. Make sure that each night as you go to bed, you have no doubt that you did everything you could that day to let your family know you love them. You never know when you will not have another day to do so.

Cary Chisholm - an IronMan

Rewards - Stacey Pearson

Matt 6:1 "Be careful not to do your "acts of righteousness" before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven."
Matt 6:4 "then your Father, who sees what is done in secret. will reward you."

Where is my heart? Is my heart and motive pure?

This is a question that I must continually ask myself and we should all ask ourselves. It is very tricky for me because I know that in many situations I may have the best intentions, but Satan can sneak in an twist my motives during the situation. Before I know it, I am looking for praise from others. What a battle! This seems so simple, but in the moment I seem vulenerable because I am doing "something good". I must continually check myself and keep my guard up.

What is the reward? How does God reward us? How does God work in our lives?

I am amazed at this thought: God loves us so much that he wants to reward us! Who knows exactly what the reward is, whether it is based on ability to have a relationship with the Creator or it is specifically talking about rewards you will receive in heaven. Either way, that is amazing to me. God's love is so rich and so multifaceted! I am so encourage that he wants to reward us.

With my son, I often tell him to do something and he will ask me, "Why daddy?" I will reply with the traditional, "Because I told you too, just do it." God does not tell us that. He wants us to follow him and live accordingly because he wants to reward us. WOW!

We also know that when we fail, God does not leave us and that just makes it even more amazing!

Just some thoughts for today! IronMen, stay stong and PLD!!!

STP

Traveling Light - Max Lucado

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“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28 NLT).

Rest from the burden of a small god. Why? Because I have found the Lord.
Rest from doing things my way. Why? Because the Lord is my Shepherd.
Rest from endless wants. Why? Because I shall not want.
Rest from weariness. Why? Because he makes me to lie down.
Rest from worry. Why? Because he leads me.
Rest from hopelessness. Why? Because he restores my soul.
Rest from guilt. Why? Because he leads me in the paths of righteousness.
Rest from arrogance. Why? Because of his name’s sake.
Rest from the valley of death. Why? Because he walks me through it.
Rest from the shadow of grief. Why? Because he guides me.
Rest from fear. Why? Because his presence comforts me.
Rest from loneliness. Why? Because he is with me.
Rest from shame. Why? Because he has prepared a place for me in the presence of my enemies.
Rest from my disappointments. Why? Because he anoints me.
Rest from envy. Why? Because my cup overflows.
Rest from doubt. Why? Because he follows me.
Rest from homesickness. Why? Because I will dwell in the house of my Lord forever.

From Traveling LightCopyright 2001, Max Lucado

Two readings for your today!

IronMen, two things for your reading. The web link is to Grant Boone's (a fellow IronMan) regular spot on PGA.com. This article is about Byron Nelson and is a definite must read. The second reading is from an email i received about Rick Warren and i think is worth of reprinting here for your reading.

http://www.pga.com/news/grantmethis/grant_me_this092706.cfm

You will appreciate the new insight Rick Warren has with his wife nowhaving cancer and him having "wealth" from the book sales.
This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren ,"Purpose Driven Life " author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California.
In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said: People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell,life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and Godwants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body--but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal.
God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. Wewere made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn'tgoing to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making yourlife happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life.The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness. This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her atestimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do! with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72. First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Oram I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)? When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better.
God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human beings, not human doings. Happy moments, PRAISE GOD. Difficult moments, SEEK GOD. Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD. Painful moments, TRUST GOD. Every moment, THANK GOD.
FRIENDSHIP IS THE GOLDEN THREAD THAT TIES HEARTS TOGETHER

Lamentations?

In the midst of the 5 chapters of Lamentations, you find some amazing verses of hope:

(The Message)
3:25ff God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,
to the woman who diligently seeks.
It's a good thing to quietly hope,
quietly hope for help from God.
It's a good thing when you're young
to stick it out through the hard times.

When life is heavy and hard to take,
go off by yourself. Enter the silence.
Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions:
Wait for hope to appear.
Don't run from trouble. Take it full-face.
The "worst" is never the worst.

Why? Because the Master won't ever
walk out and fail to return.
If he works severely, he also works tenderly.
His stock piles of loyal love are immense.
He takes no pleasure in making life hard,
in throwing roadblocks in the way.

HOPE this means something to you today! God has had it on my heart for several days now and i wanted to share it with you!

Stay Strong, PLD!
STP