Empty Nestin'

It's June........a couple of weeks ago we helped Cameron move into a new apartment in Goose Creek SC on Friday, then the following Monday we moved Jordan back to Chapel Hill. (Oh, my aching back!) Cameron's training as a student at prototype is complete, now he's qualifying as staff for his company. Jordan has begun her studies in the radiological science program at UNC in this summer school session. Pete and I.........well, we're empty nesting.

But as I think about our nest being empty, I think about going to Charleston to visit Cameron, looking forward to visiting Jordan in Chapel Hill and attending Summit Church with her this Sunday, Cameron's upcoming visit back home for his birthday. Rather than our nest being empty, I think it's more like my horizons are expanding. Nothing about my life feels empty! Rather than sitting at home alone, I'm continually having relationship time with somebody - in Chapel Hill, in South Carolina, in our roots-filled Chatham County - reaching out to relatives and friends through my trusty cell phone, instant and text messaging, Facebook, emails. Technology is a wonderful relationship-building tool! Instead of being empty, my life gets fuller and fuller!

And not only is my life full, it's good. Cameron and Jordan were wonderful children........they're even greater young adults. What they are doing with their lives is an amazing process that I'm enjoying being privileged to watch. To see God's work and His plan unfolding is an absolute miracle. "Train up a child in the way he should go......" Watching God work in the life of your child is an awesome gift.

My heart is content.

"I pray that God will fill your heart with dreams, and that faith gives you the courage to dare to do great things. I'm here for you whatever this life brings, so let my love give you roots and help you find your wings."

Forgiven and Loved

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:1)

Why is the therefore there for?

Because "when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross." (Colossians 2:13-14)

Thanks be to God for His mercy and grace.........


Tell me I’m forgiven and loved
‘Cause I hear it from the street corner priests
On how God is love and how man can be clean
But my joy has been on holiday
And my peace has almost passed away
Tell me I’m forgiven and free

O I tried and tried to rectify my hopeless situation
But I bought the lie I still have work to do
Now I’m working nine to five like I can earn my own salvation
But there is no condemnation in You

O whisper to me now that it’s for real
‘Cause in the silence of these walls righteousness lost its appeal
Dirty deeds have done me in
O but that can’t stop the faithful friend
Giving mercy once again as You heal
Here it is I’m feeling it

O He died, He died to rectify my hopeless situation
And His blood commands my guilt to leave
Now on Calvary I stand
Empty pockets, open hands
O there is no condemnation for me

Child, you’re forgiven and loved
Child, you’re forgiven and loved
Child, you’re forgiven
And child, you are loved
Child, you’re forgiven and loved

Hear Jimmy Needham's "Forgiven and Loved" at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0QeT4xI2yA

Giving My All

'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might'.....with all your everything-ness...That's total surrender, giving my all! Deuteronomy 6:5, plus Marty Parks

I've heard You in the thunder,
I've felt You in the rain,
I've met You in the turmoil,
I found You in the pain.
But here in the stillness
When this moment, all is well,
Here I'm prone to wander,
Hear my rebel tale.

Cure my heart of chasing whirlwinds,
Of needing earth to quake,
Of wrestling made-up angels
To keep myself awake.

There's passion in the stillness,
There's fire in the cloud,
There's rest that brings a man to life,
There's a Voice that whispers loud.
Oh, bid my restless wandering heart
To find its pulse in You,
In stillness know that You are God.
In rest, You make me new.

---"In Rest", Travis Cottrell

In Him...........

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross. [Colossians 1:15-20]


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e4zgJXPpI4