Hello 2022!

January 2022

It is true that every conversation begins with a greeting!

It might be Hello, Hi, G’day or your own particular favorite opener.

January is the opening greeting to a new decade. I recall being in a conference in the early 2000’s and the focus was on setting goals for 2020. To me it was like flinging darts at a dart board while wearing a blind fold. The alliterative 2020 carried its own elusive mystery.

And here we are on the verge, the very doorstep of that mysterious year. It is so important that we all engage in the conversation from the very beginning. Introduce yourself. Share your hopes and dreams and fears with this compendium of time. Declare the secret desires of your heart. Put it out there. If you are brave you might even select the month of this exciting year on which to hang your dream.

Before you succumb to the overwhelm and pull the bedclothes over your head let me remind you that you don’t walk into this year on your own. God sent his own Holy Spirit to walk it with you. He is also known as the Comforter, Guide, Teacher, and ever present representative of the whole Godhead.

The beginning of each New Year requires the customary new resolutions that everyone knows will be overlooked or forgotten by the end of January. Yet somehow the beginning of a new decade compels a more diligent review.

Right now is the time to grab a coffee or favorite tea and find your journal and your favorite nook and open yourself to those dreams within. Those God given dreams are beacons directing you to your purpose in life. When God created you he gifted you with unique skills, capacities and mindset that will open the door to the person He saw at the beginning of time. As you consider the next twelve months and the nine years that follow, listen to that still small voice inside that is the voice of the Holy Spirit guiding you.

As you set your course remember these important facts.

1. You are made in the image of God and as the author of your faith and designer of your being He is ready to share His best ideas and hopes and directions with you to bring you hope and peace.

2. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to verses or passages of God’s Word that will be strategic in your life this year. Matthew 7:7 instructs us to “Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.” James 1:5 in the Amplified translation declares

“If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God Who gives to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him.” James goes on to say that we must be confident that God will direct us and if we are doubtful or hesitant then we will not find what we are looking for. Decide to be resolute in your decisions and actions this year.

3. Open your eyes and ears to your community of family and friends to identify conversations you can contribute to or questions you can answer or needs you can satisfy. Be a giver of life and love this year. Let your light of love and interest and care light your path and you will be surprised how far your life can penetrate with God’s love and life.

David and Cherie Rodway

Who stole my life?

Best of 2020

Our experience with COVID-19 continues to shave the edges of our life. There are very few nations in the world that have not been visited by this invisible aggressor with it's deadly and unpredictable invasion of life. We are well acquainted with the social distancing and washing our hands and limiting our ventures outside the home. We know WHAT to do but we DON'T know how long this season will last; we DON'T know what our world will look like when the restrictions are gone; we DON'T know who will still be in our lives; or what we will still be able to incorporate back into our schedule.  Plans have crumbled, hopes have been shelved and our schedules have been rewritten so many times we can't recognize the minimal entries on the page.

In the pause before we resume our lives have you thought about writing down the things that you had to let go from you full and busy life prior to COVID-19?

Rather than jumping back to the old regime why not assess what you have written in your list and extract only those things that build your life and not burden it and separate you from what you value such as family friends.

Time is such a mercurial essence.  It slips away from us without us noticing, or it weighs on us if we are waiting or anticipating an event.  I remember my father setting me down and adding up all the minutes available to me every day or week.  Discounting time to sleep and eat - it is amazing how many minutes are given to us each week. We should regard them as we value money.  How do we spend this valuable resource? One thing is true, a minute unused is a minute lost. Times gives no second chances.

Working from home and staying out of restaurants and recreation places has not only reduced the gas bill but has added hours to many of our days.  Time to connect with family members and time to do some of those hobbies that have been put in the cupboard. I hear of families playing board games again and so much incidental training by general conversations. 

I am hoping you take good advantage of this time.  Before the pause button is released you can make some very important rearrangements in your life pursuits.  Ecclesiastes 3 starts with that familiar series of statements - "Time to  ..". Be confident in your list of "Time to" before the tyranny of time responsibilities clouds your judgment.

David and Cherie Rodway

Was It Murder? or, A Life Given?

April 2020

In last month's blog we looked at the fact that change and the unexpected can sometimes arrive without warning and put our life into a spin. Little did we know March 1 that our life would be so disrupted before March had barely reached the halfway point. The main month of Lent became a time of not giving up something but giving over our freedoms and schedules to an unseen force - COVID-19.  Furthermore, the change brought with it those terrible twins - Fear and Despair.  It is one thing to go from one day to another or one season to another but one set of the normal routine to total disruption and total change controlled by an unknown force is the perfect set up for overwhelm.

This is the month of Easter.  We are days from Palm Sunday and Holy Week and the solemn days of Good Friday and Easter Saturday culminating with the victorious Day of Resurrection. Jesus identifies with our feelings when he is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Bible tells us that he 'sweat drops of blood', That is intense apprehension and anxiety. He prayed to His Father "If it is possible let this Cup pass from me, nevertheless, not my will but your will be done."  It was always the determination of Satan to bring down the Kingdom of God and Reign of Jesus. Remember how he tested Jesus in the Wilderness after Jesus had spent 40 days without food in preparation for his time of ministry.  When that didn't succeed Satan used the jealousy of the Religious leaders and greed of one of his disciples to carry out the death of the Son of God.  To the eye of the outsider it could look like Satan finally won the war.  But look again. The Cross loomed as the Final Scene.  The thoughts of betrayal and greed sown in the heart of Judas and the angry opposition of the Pharisees fueled by fear of competition and loss of the authority of fear they had spent decades perfecting were meant to overcome the good with evil. To the untrained eye it looked like Satan had perpetrated the murder of all time.

But we know a different Truth. His life was not taken from Him but Peter in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost clearly set the record straight.

Acts 2:21-24 records it this way:

21 It will be that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved from the punishment of sin. 22 Jewish men, listen to what I have to say! You knew Jesus of the town of Nazareth by the powerful works He did. God worked through Jesus while He was with you. You all know this. 23 Jesus was handed over to sinful men. God knew this and planned for it to happen. You had sinful men take Him and nail Him to a cross. 24 But God raised Him up. He allowed Him to be set free from the pain of death. Death could not hold its power over Him."

This was not murder - this was the Gift of God and the Supreme submission of Jesus to the will of His Father.  John 3:16 declares that God so loved this world that He gave us His only Son so that whoever would believe on Him would be saved. 

An Irish friend I knew had this amazing saying - Everything is going wrong just right! When we allow God to rule in our life and circumstances the wrongs turn out to be the stepping stones to the best outcome our eyes could not see.  Satan had a momentary sense of achievement until Easter Saturday. Jesus was not lying in the tomb resting. He was down in the depths of Hell itself warring with Satan and wresting the Keys of Death and Hell from Satan's control and Ephesians 4:8-10 states that Jesus then led captivity  captive triumphing over him (Satan).

The "It is Finished" on the Cross was sealed with the Resurrection of the Victorious Risen Christ and our future was secured for all Eternity.

Do not Fear! Do not be dismayed with what the natural world is telling you. Look unto the victorious Jesus - in His hands He holds the Keys. He was the willing One who gave His Life and He is the Victorious Savior who welcomes all that will believe.

David and Cherie Rodway