Noises

I was in a deep and restful sleep one night when all of a sudden I was awakened by the screaming of my wife.  She was sitting up in the bed tugging on my arm and pointing towards the other room.  She was screaming, “Noise!  Noise!  There was a noise in the other room!  Dog is barking!”  I am a deep sleeper mind you, but the look of fear in my wife’s eyes caused me to quickly jump into action.  That’s right, in one motion I levitated and was standing upright in the bed out of the covers.  I ran to the end of the bed, and with cat like reflexes jumped off the bed hitting the floor running.  As I ran to the other room, I realized there was no thief and no eminent danger to us within the house.

The dog’s reason for barking was that coyotes had come by the house.  The dog was on high alert, which caused my wife to sound her alarm, which caused me to go into panic mode.  However, by the time I got to the back door, the coyotes were gone.  It’s mighty difficult to fall back to sleep after an incident like this that gets your heart rate up from 50 to 160 in 2.6 seconds.  There was so much adrenaline pumping I couldn’t fall back to sleep.

1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 (NLT) “For you know quite well that the day of the Lord’s return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night.  When people are saying, ‘Everything is peaceful and secure,’ then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labor pains begin. And there will be no escape.”

 

All too often the noise of this world distracts us from our walk with God.  If you have fallen asleep on the Lord, then pray that he will wake you out of your deep sleep by whatever means possible.  We think we can run and catch up with him later, but that is not how it works.  When he returns, there will be no running and catching up to him.  Like those coyotes, he will be gone.  How is your walk with God?  Are you asleep?  Ask God daily to keep you awake and walking with Him.  Stay on high alert and never fall asleep in your daily walk with the Lord. 

In Christ Alone and continuing in prayer,

Chad

Balanced Living 2014 Promo

Adoption

It doesn’t seem that adoption is as good as giving birth to your own child is what I have heard many times.  I remember talking to a couple about adoption, and they said they would not want to adopt because you never know what you are going to get with adoption.  Hmm, are we really sure what we are going to get with our own biological children either? 

The fear I have always had about adoption is my own ability to love an adopted child the same way as I love my own biological children.  This all changed when my wife and I were faced with an option for adoption that we heavily prayed over.   We felt peace when deciding to move forward with the adoption.  There are no words to fully explain the similar feeling of going to the courthouse for the finalization of the adoption as the feeling of going to the hospital for the birth of our other two children.  We still hear people say things like, “He looks like he belongs to your family.”  Our response is, “It’s because he does belong to us.  He is our child!”  The birth certificate proves it now because it has his new name on it along with our names just like our other two children.

Ephesians 1:5 (NLT) God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

God wanted to, and it gave him great pleasure, to adopt you into his family.  It cost him a great deal to adopt you into his family too; the death of his only Son Jesus.  When you accept Jesus into your life as Savior, you are adopted into his family with great pleasure.  You are a child of God and he loves you.  Now go and face all that this life throws your way.  Know that you are a child of the Most High God, and it brings him great pleasure to call you his child! 

You are loved unconditionally by our heavenly Father.  It was, is, and always will be his great pleasure; and it is our great benefit.  Remember to tell him that you love him too, by the words that you say and the deeds that you do.  Say this from time to time to remind yourself, “I am a child of the king!  God LOVES me!”  What can be greater than God’s love for his children?

In Christ alone and continuing in prayer,
Chad