Another Saturday and what a beautiful day...

     Last Sunday we took a northern Michigan sleigh ride with some other families from the church.  It was might chilly across the fields but in the woods it was just right.  The week has gotten prettier everyday with a new coating of snow almost every morning.  Today Steph and I took out the snowmobile for a ride around our country roads to pick up the mail and gather up our next episode of the Waltons - season 3 episode 1 - as we work our way through the 7 seasons of this great show.  We have had a couple quiet Saturdays to refuel and keep each other company.

     A radical change of lifestyle comes with some questions.  I don't know how many times I have someone comment to me about my shopping cart purchases at the grocery store.  It happened just the other day.  "Are you one of those vegetarians?"  And so I go into as much of the story as I can.  This man had diabetes and was making the switch.  He has lost 50 lbs. and was off all medications for that condition.  He had a lot of questions about going further in the transformation.  I got to encourage him and also let him know how much it helped me to hear another who made a radical eating change to help with a radical medical condition.  Just before we parted he asked, "So you don't even eat eggs?"  "No" was my response and he said he was going to have to think hard on that one.  I hope to see him again soon.

     I got to do the closing prayer at the Right to Life rally in our town along with the walk to City Hall.  I am thankful that I got to say a few words along with that prayer.  God put together some powerful messages through the speakers and it was great to see how I got the opportunity to be in the clean up position.  No credit to me.  I was praying like crazy for the words that God would give to end it with direction and depth to our commitment to life that is in the image of God.  I read a lot and I am thankful for this quote that I was able to read at the rally from "The Explicit Gospel" by Matt Chandler.

"God knows everything.  He knows everything at the macro level.  He knows the temperature at which certain stars burn.  He knows the orbital lines of planets.  He knows every mountain in every mountain range on this planet and others.  He knows the depths of every ocean.  He knows it all at the macro level.

But He also knows it all at the micro level.  He knows every atom and every molecule.  He knows their positions, their locations, their functions.  He sees and governs every instance of mitosis, which, in case you've been out of school for a while, is one cell becoming two cells.  We have a God who knows everything at the macro level, but He also knows everything at the micro level.

In addition to the exhaustive depth of His knowledge is the exhaustive breadth of His knowledge.  God is aware of every event that has ever occurred and will ever occur, and He knows completely how each event affects other events that create still more events that roll into other events and so on and so forth ad infinitum.  From the velocity of every butterfly's flapping wings at every second to the exact amount of magma to the microgram flowing out of every volcano above and under sea level, He spans it all simultaneously and precisely.  If a tree falls in the woods when nobody's there, does it make a sound?  I don't know.  But God does."

     The more I know about God, the more I know why I stand for life.  It is more than a human being even at conception but someone that God will put together in His image.  It is another picture of God to the world and I will cherish that just I cherish that each image to the very end of life.  

     Tomorrow we go into Matthew 16 for another teaching from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  "Watch and beware" are His words to His disciples.  It made me think of what I would add to the list He made.  Here's my list to share tomorrow.

1.  Beware of those who don't put Jesus front and center in theology and practice in the church.

2.  Beware of those who tie money blessing to the obedience of giving.

3.  Beware of those who downplay sin as just a bad choice or an "opps" sorry about that.

4.  Beware of those who base the quality of church based on the show or how it makes one feel.

5.  Beware of those who stress "at least I have Jesus on the bench ready."

     So tomorrow should be a good practical teaching day.

Adam