Power in Weakness

I took a little walk by a high school campus today.  Clearly Autumn has come; the golden brown colors are crowning the trees once again, and a cool afternoon breeze has finally replaced the bearing heat of the Visalia summers. I prayed a bit as I walked.  Sometimes I do that.  I wasn't loudly praising God, or interceding for the nations; just letting my thoughts drift towards heaven...listening.  Looking.  Waiting.  A thought dropped into my spirit, and it seemed to be from above:  "Marriage will end in heaven, but children last forever."  I pondered the truth of it.  Jesus was clear that the institution of marriage was a temporal one and would cease in the age to come.  We would become "like angels" in that sense (Matthew 22:30).  But once a child is conceived in the womb, he or she becomes a living spirit with an eternal destiny.  Mysteriously, then, a temporary arrangement sets the stage to bring forth an everlasting h...

I came back from a trip to Israel over a month ago and it's been a whirlwind of change ever since.  The discipleship school at which I work is out for the "summer."  It's our off season, or as my housemate Billy wittily dubbed it, the "O.S."  I think we are currently in the 8th or 9th week of the O.S. My job is different.  I substitute teach when I can, and I teach drum lessons on Thursdays, which could be seen as less "spiritual" than standing in front of students every day teaching the Bible and engaging in worship.  There have been changes in my relationships. Changes in housemates - there are six of us left over from the school year now, with the soon and anticipated arrival of Matt Crum.   And the Lyme symptoms have also gotten worse.  Again.  But one thing remains the same, and that is my chief goal and ambition of life: to connect with Jesus Christ at the heart level each and every day of my life; through sickness and health, victor...