“Brilliant post Don, absolutely brilliant!” Yeah I know. Here’s the deal. I started Bible college in 2000 because no other school would accept me. One semester into it, I wanted to be a pastor/teacher/student of the Bible. My life has been a working towards that goal. Every job I have had was a step towards that goal, not a place of ministry. Sure I shared the gospel with people I worked with, but it wasn’t ministry to me. My life has been the pursuit of vocational ministry and until recently, that was my calling. Well, I say calling but it was actually my idol. You see, anything we put as ultimate other than God is idolatry. I sacrificed my family at the altar of vocational ministry. I sacrificed my jobs at the altar of vocational ministry.

In Genesis 22:2 God calls Abraham to climb a mountain and sacrifice his love. His son that he had waited for. God promised that he would raise up a nation from his offspring Isaac, and then asked Abraham to kill him.

God is calling me to go hiking with my idol vocational ministry and kill it. This year I’m going hiking.

Here is the hard part.

He might not provide a ram in the bushes.

Sometimes it is easy to act when we see a picture in the Bible already. We hear preachers ask us if we are willing to give up that which we love the most and we always say yes. We might nod in the affirmative as we hear the Word preached, but it is only because we know how the story ends…Abraham didn’t end up having to do it. There was a ram in the bushes.

Some of you need to go hiking with me. Pray about it. You might not find a ram.

Malachi 3:6For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 7From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say how shall we return? 8Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say how have we robbed you? In your tithes and contributions. 9You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 11I will rebuke the devourer for you, so it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts. 12Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts.  (ESV)

Can we take this passage to be directed at us? Is this for Israel and not Don Coldwell? Does this mean if we give, we get? This book was more than likely written during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah and we can bring a few things to the table as a result of this.

1 – This would have been written for the nation of Israel. Vs 9 states that the ‘whole nation’ is robbing God. The nation is coming back from exile and they have been robbing God for years and probably a while even here since we read that Ezra leads a revival when they get bogged down. The assumption is that the blessings would be national as opposed to individual.

2 – He isn’t talking about the US but is He speaking to the Church? If the Church is the new Israel then it is a bit of a different answer than if not. Hard-line dispensationalists would more than likely say that we are not ‘new Israel’ so therefore we can not claim any part of this passage. Our good friends who are a bit more reformed might look at us as the ‘new Israel’  so we need to take a quick peek which brings me to …

3 – I wonder why there were specific provisions for the poor if God is going to give us back more than what we give Him? If He is going to bless them to the point of having ‘no more need’ then why would there still be need? Is Malachi leading us to the new covenant of Jesus? It sure does point to Him but it is clearly OT in function.

In Luke 21 a woman is praised for her giving of her two copper coins. Her last two. We don’t get to see the next week of her life. Did she get a check placed under her door for the exact cost of the electric bill as s many stories would suggest? Did she end up dying of starvation for giving here only money to the church?

Is the tithe right or wrong? No.

Is this a promise that if I give to God, He’ll give me more? No.

In the end I think that the trite sayings that “You can’t out-give God” and “God’s shovel will always be bigger than yours” don’t end up doing people any good.

If we see what God has done for us every day and we can see and teach people to understand the gospel in a way that shows that we are already sitting in God’s shovel; we will then be able to give in a way that will not cause God to bless us but will allow us to see all the ways in which He already has.

How’s that for my 100th post?

-Cheers

Today is our sweet daughter Sophia’s 9th birthday. Sophia (who’s given name is Richarmie) still lives in Haiti with her brother Djemson. As my previous posts have talked about, we are in the process of adopting these two children who watched their house fall on their parents in the recent earthquake. These two children have been on my mind a lot recently as we stagger through the year-end holidays. I pray that this is the last birthday she will spend in Haiti. I pray that we will be ready for her when she comes. I pray that I am the father that the Father has called me to be to all 5 of my children in the specific ways that they need me to be. I also pray that the money that we need to complete the first half of this adoption would be here soon.

With that I would like to offer  a plea. In honor of Sophia’s 9th birthday would you consider donating to our adoption fund? Even $10 can go a long way to bringing them home to their forever family. Maybe you can do more. Maybe you know of someone who has a passion for adoption and would enjoy giving as well even without knowing us.

If you are indeed interested in giving, you can send a gift to SIS, 254 Long Plains Rd, Buxton, ME 04093. Please make gifts payable to ‘Haiti Children’ fund. You can also use Paypal through my wife Laurie’s website http://www.peanutbutterandfluff.blogspot.com/ Feel free if that works better for you.

Please also pray for:

• The health of Sophia and Djemson
• The paperwork in Haiti that takes quite a bit of time
• The court system that is flooded with adoption requests
• Our hearts as we wish we could be with them but are unable to travel like we would wish
• The funding for this adoption – we have been blessed so far and look to be amazed at how God provides next

What does this mean for me? How many times has she heard me apologize to her after acting selfishly toward her? How many times has she heard me pray for our family? How many times has she heard me tell L that I love her? How many time has she heard so many of the things that will teach her more about the Gospel than any of the different versions of Daniel and the lions den. What she hears from my mouth regarding God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Church, the Gospel…all these things matter much more than buying her the newest kids Bible, or sending her off to Bible class, or even when she gets older – shipping her off to Youth Group. We sometimes think in terms that would label this as baby steps but in actuality they are the very steps that will be with you for your entire life. If you ever get to a point that you do not need to do this, you have actually retarded your understanding as opposed to strengthened your understanding. Live the Gospel in front of your children.

Why does she need to hear this from me? I am her father. This comes with great responsibility as well as the opportunity for great blessing. If you can’t remember the last time you apologized either IN FRONT of your child or TO your child; consider that a reason to go do it right now.

Being a parent is not able being perfect, it’s about sharing God’s grace in your life with your children.

This week L had a seizure. It is nothing she had ever experienced before and it happened (once again) in front of the children while I was not with her/them. She knew something was happening and tried to text me but her fingers and her brain could not communicate enough and as she handed the phone to my oldest, she slipped out of her chair and into a seizure. I had absolutely no control over that yet God is still great.

These are the times that make us react in such a way that make us say,”God must be getting us ready for something big!” Well, what if that was the something big? What if your whole life was in preparation for tragedy? What if all you went through culminated in you being made weak?

All my life I have believed that God was preparing us for something and this was/is our way of having us feel important. This thought preys on our desire to self-glorify. “God is going to use me for something big!” we tell ourselves and each other. We must be something special we tell each other. So what did L’s time in the hospital get us ready for…a seizure? Is that what the BIG thing was?

What if I never do anything at all that is big?

Then to God be the glory as it is all His!

The process of adoption is mind-blowing. We are watching many people get everything together much faster than we have been able to. It is definitely a test of our faith as we watch the time tick away with no steps being taken.

With a new ojb comes a completely new schedule which should allow more updates. Although I do not think that people are flocking to this site, I do enjoy getting some thoughts out there.

I started my new job with AAA as an insurance salesman. I am close to being considered a tenured agent in property and casualty and I throw up in my mouth a little every time I think about it. My dad is doing well with his cancer and my wife is still a miracle. It has been a challenge with so much happening in my life at such a fast pace, I am finding it hard to get used to normal. Well, it happened, something big. 

As a result of Laurie’s aneurysm, we have been told that it is not safe for her to carry another child. Since we both were/are interested in more children we had to turn to other methods. We were presented with an opportunity to adopt two children out of Haiti and things fell into place in less than a 24 hour period. Something big did happen and so far there HAS been coffee.

To think about everything that has happened in 2010 is overwhelming but it doesn’t seem to look as big as what is coming. 5 children. Two that don’t speak english. I hope to update more as God reveals Himself to me in this process and I learn more and more about who He is. The Gospel has been more real to me now than in years past and I thank Him for His grace and mercy. Not too much to say her other than wow. I look forward to continuing this and picking up the pace a bit. There is a lot going on and I would love feedback as I chronicle this process of the Gospel changing my life through adoption.

-orevwa

I feel as if there is something just around the corner. Something big is about to explode and change the way I see things. That seems odd considering the past few months that our family has been through. I wonder if that was a physical foreshadowing of a spiritual renewal. I wonder if God has planned something so big in my life that an aneurysm seems tame compared to it. Most of the intensity of the situation has died down. Laurie is doing well, she is still missing part of her skull, but all in all things are going well. Our outlook has changed greatly as we see and live new definitions of the words need and desire. I see the need for quality over quantity. I see the need for living our lives in a way that is constant with our beliefs. This seems rather obvious but it has hit me in areas of life that aren’t preached about in the circles I run in.

Should our view of Scripture affect our clothes, our food, our ‘stuff’? I say yes. I say that God does indeed care about everything we do. Where am I going with this? I honestly don’t know…after lying in bed for an hour wondering why I can’t sleep, I came down to write. This is what came out. Not sure what to make of it but I know that I have been praying that God would grant me wisdom as I continue to try to honor Him with every penny I spend and with every word I speak and with every breath I take…and every move I make…and every claim I sta…sorry.

Something big is going to happen. I hope there’s coffee.

-Cheers.

It is one thing to go over the finer points of a decision when you have the major decision-making ability in that situation: buying a car, renting/buying a house, taking a job…pretty straight forward stuff. What if you aren’t in the driver’s seat however? Without getting into a lot of details, it seems as though some things are happening in Laurie and my life that are changing the way we think about our time here on earth. Obviously the biggest challenge to our comfort was Laurie’s aneurysm. This was never placed on a pro/con list. I am pretty certain that the cons would have outweighed the pros and we would have taken door #2. Isn’t it funny how we try to make our pro/con list for things that we have no control over.

James 4:13-17 says: Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”-yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this and that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

I had a long conversation with God the other day about everything I thought would give Him glory. I was giving Him my pro/con list as if I was unsure if He had forgotten anything. Really? I am trying to convince God that such-and-such would be good for everyone including Him? How often do you do that same thing? How often do you lay out a good argument for something to happen when it isn’t even close to being in your hands? I know that there is a responsibility to be prudent when we do have a say…but ultimatey it is all the same. We go to God not with a pre-planned offering of what are lives could be; we go to Him with an offering of what our lives are and then He does with it what He may.

Lord, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit in me. I look forward to what God has in store for us in the coming years. Everything has been taken care of up until this point…why would it change now?

-Cheers