Sad Day :-(

Lots of tears last night (as Shannon said goodbye) and today as we had to say good bye. Good byes are not fun especially when they involve a distance of 3000 miles. The kids are on their way back home to California. It was great to have the girls around for a week. I will miss them terribly. TJ of course is more than a son-in-law and I will miss him as a friend. I am happy for them as they have a great place to grow in the Lord. It's a great team working together, That's important for them right now.

I am so proud of both of my girls Shannon and Leah. In proverbs it says, "A wise child brings joy to a father." Both of my girls have brought great joy to our lives. I am thankful for that today.

Your Words

As I was reading this morning I was struck with the fact of how powerful our words are.

Everything we speak has some type of impact.

We have a choice to lift up or tear down.

We can encourage or discourage.

In Numbers 13 the 12 spies come back to give their report. You know the story well I'm sure. In short Caleb and Joshua said to go for it. They were ready and positive that God was with them and that they would have victory.

The other 10 however didn't.

31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored.

Notice that the bad report spread. Negatives have a tendency to do that. The positive message of Joshua and Caleb did not spread.

It was a huge turning point that caused many to never enter the promised land.

Guard your words carefully. Take care to not be the one who spreads negatives.

Be a a Joshua or a Caleb.

Let faith arise in your heart today.

With God all things are possible!

Indoctrination

Indoctrination
From Wikipedia


Indoctrination is the process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a professional methodology. It is often distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned. As such it is used pejoratively. Instruction in the basic principles of science, in particular, can not properly be called indoctrination, in the sense that the fundamental principals of science call for critical self-evaluation and skeptical scrutiny of one's own ideas.

Not really sure what all that means but there are some big words there for you to google and find out what they mean. Sounded cool.

Anyway we have the boys in training. They of course will choose the drink of winners! That is of course Starbucks!

We had them repeat this phrase over and over

Starbucks is good.Duncan Donuts or Tim Hortons is bad!
(just kidding of course - we didn't say Duncan Donuts!)

It is hard to believe that we are sitting outside by the pool typing this. At the same time I'm reading an email from my mom telling me about the snow coming down in Windsor. How sad :-(

We did enjoy a nice evening with van der Kooys. First we walked down and watched the sun set. It was one of those perfect ones where the sun just melts into the ocean.
I am sure I will never get tired of that even after almost 10 years here.

Gotta love paradise for sure!

I shot these with my phone. It's not the greatest camera (forgot my actual digital camera)

Matthew van der Kooy

Shannon and Nathaniel

Caleb van der Kooy

I Didn't Ask For This

This was a great read so I just copied and pasted it. Steven Furtick is one of the blogs that I read. Just thought this was worth reposting for you.

"We talk a lot about discovering your purpose.
But most of the time in Scripture, people’s purpose discovered them.
When God places His hand on you to accomplish great things through you, part of you will feel like: “Hey, I didn’t ask for all this!”
If you’re the parent of a strong willed child, a decision maker in a struggling company, or a youth pastor with little budget and no support, no doubt you’ve felt the frustration:
“I didn’t ask for this!”

Mary didn’t ask for a full-term teenage pregnancy.
Noah didn’t ask for a 102,000 square foot, 43,000 ton building project upon which the preservation of the human race depended.
Moses didn’t ask for the responsibility of leading a fledgling nation of couple million ingrates through the wilderness.

God doesn’t ask your permission to fulfill His purpose through you.
You don’t get a vote, much less veto power.
You may as well give a gracious acceptance speech, and get on with it…"

Are You Driving God Crazy ?

Waiting on an answer from God can at times get very frustrating.

Come on be honest.

Take off your super spiritual hat.

You know that you have questioned God.

Everyone does it.

Why did this happen?

What do I do about this?

When is the answer coming??????

We are by nature very impatient people.

God on the other hand has a plan. It just happens to be the only perfect plan. And our problems arise when He chooses not to share it with us. But that's just how it works. We have to learn to walk by faith. Faith is just another way to say we trust God with everything.

Do you trust God?

Do you trust Him with everything?

It's all or nothing. There is no in between ground. You need to let go of things and let God have it.

There is a danger that we stop bringing important things to God. We may not give up on them but we push them off to the side. Kinda outta site, outta mind.

In Luke 18 we are told the parable of the persistent woman.
In verse 4 - 8 it says;

The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself,I don't fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I'm going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!Then the Lord said, "Learn a lesson from this unjust judge.Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don't you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?

She got her answer because she didn't give up.

We need a little bit of that sometimes ourselves. Maybe you don't need that but I'll be honest and say that I do. So today I pray that God will help me to be persistent with those requests that really matter. I definitely want answers!

It's time to drive God crazy with prayer!

I didn't blog much this past week. I got sick on Monday night and had very little energy at all. To compound matters Shannon and Ryan went to Vegas for a computer conference and we had the boys each night during the week.



Then I picked Leah and the girls up Friday morning in Tampa at 12:40 am. Needless to say I have been very occupied since then.

The cold is still here after a week. It is just hanging on. I am looking forward to being able to breath again.

I have sung the following 3 songs a bazillion times

1. Twinkle Twinkle
2. The Itsy Bitsy Spider
3. The ABC's

Oh and I can now sing the theme song to "Wonderpets".

Did you know that Ming Ming was a talking little chicken and she hung out with a turtle and a gerbil? Neither did I before this week began.

Wouldn't trade it for the world.

Super Sunday

We had a great Sunday.

We stopped by the side of the road on the way home and watched the space shuttle launch.

That was after two morning services and then four hours out boating on the gulf.

Here's the highlights of our afternoon in video form.

There is a section where I fell in the water. I was very fortunate that I didn't get hurt. I was on the front waiting to tie us up and as I stepped Steve put the boat in reverse to avoid hitting another boat. Suddenly the dock I was stepping on wasn't there and down I went. Fortunately my shoulder took the brunt of the blow from the dock and the next thing I knew I was hanging on with both hands. Very funny now looking back.



Saturday March 15th Boating from Tracey Flanagan on Vimeo.

Keep The Fire Burning

As I was reading through my daily Bible reading in Leviticus (the book that seems to never end) a simple thought hit me. Moses was commanding them to bring clear oil for the lamps to be kept burning. In verse 4 of chapter 24 it says;
"The lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the Lord must be tended continually."

Those candles were to never go out. They needed pure oil to burn at their best. It was important enough that we have it recorded for us.

I was thinking about our fire that burns for Him. The passion that we have for Christ.

Do we tend it continually?

Do we bring clear oil that it will burn intensely?

Sometimes we get bogged down in "LIFE". It becomes all that consumes us.

I began to think where my focus is today. Am I working to keep the fire burning in my soul? Have I taken it for granted and gotten caught up in doing "LIFE"?

My prayer today is to take time to be passionate for Him. Lord let me not crowd You out or push You aside with just stuff. Let me not bring my 2nd best to You Lord but let it be the best I have to offer You. Amen.

Not Perfect, Just Forgiven

How incredible is grace?

To be forgiven over and over and over again.

It doesn't make sense.

But that's just what God does for us.

In Psalm 130 it says:

3 If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins,

O Lord, who could stand?

4 But with you there is forgiveness;

therefore you are feared.

7 O Israel, put your hope in the Lord,

for with the Lord is unfailing love

and with him is full redemption.

God's love never fails.

With Him is full redemption.

Live in that joy today knowing that He has forgiven you completely.

Saturday In the Pool

Another fantastic day here in paradise. Sunny and 80's. What more could you ask for! Anyway Shannon & Ryan came over today and we enjoyed the sun and water. Topped it off with a BBQ. Here's a video of the day.




Saturday With the van der Kooys' from Tracey Flanagan on Vimeo.

Another Day

Today is a new day to make a difference in the world.

What are you doing with what God has given you today?

I was thinking about that thought this morning.

How many of us will go through today without giving God a thought?

How much will we miss because we are busy doing life?

Are we too busy?

Maybe our focus is off?

What is our focus?

Isn't it all about Him?

That's what we say when we give "The Answer".

Time to think about the things that really matter for eternity.

God what do you have for me today? I am open and available. Please use me.

Amen.

Stretched

Do you ever feel stretched beyond what you can bear?

Maybe you feel like this cartoon.

I'm there.

Our Saturday night service is going great. We haven't seen the numbers that we hoped for but it has been attended well. The band is absolutely amazing. This is by far the most talented group I have ever worked with. There is nothing that they could not play. It really makes it fun.

The flip side of that is Sunday. Sunday suffered immediately with the start of the Saturday service. 3/4 of the worship team chose Saturday night as their main service.

At first glance I hated it. Facing services without many of the key people I had grown accustomed to leaning on.

Suddenly there was no safety net.

It felt like there wasn't even a net.

But that is what growth is all about.

It's about new people stepping up and filling the gap.

It gets easy to rely on the same people. Maybe we needed to get shaken up to allow for some spots for people that would never have come forward.

Well so far so good. A couple of great new singers have emerged. The band for Sunday is beginning to take shape.

Still need that elusive bass player but there are a couple of new people that might be able to fill the role.

Anyway the challenge is on and I for one enjoy a challenge.

Challenges stretch you and make you lean more on God for His wisdom and guidance. Isn't that what it's all about anyway? Learning to lean totally on Him.

Anyway we re continuing to move forward and I look forward to some great things to come.

Learning to lean in Sarasota which is by the way located in paradise.

Missing Family

Well it is good to have Susan home. We are missing our little girls. Thankfully we still have 3 little boys here that will gets lots of time from us. I am going to post a few videos of Susan's trip out to California. This first one is just highlights of McKenna.


McKenna's CA Highlights from Tracey Flanagan on Vimeo.

Surprise

We surprised Susan tonight after service with a party. We had a great time with that The only problem of course is that we just got home and it' now 12:06am. Nothing like 5 hours sleep!



Of course another fabulous cake by the cake mster himself Ron Zammit.



The Hot Tamale herself with her side kick.

Many thanks to Ron and Crystal for opening up their home. Crystal did all the planning which is why it was such a success. Thanks Crystal.

Anyway I wanted to post this new song that the worship did tonight. It's called "Arise" and was written by John Larson from Church of The Highlands in Birmingham Alabama.


Arise from Tracey Flanagan on Vimeo.

This Is The Day !

Finally after 14 days (the longest time we have ever been apart) the love of my life returns tonight. I pick her up from the airport in Tampa at 7:30.

Can't wait.

Couldn't sleep last night thinking about it.

When God gives you a soul mate it is for life. I am ready to be whole again.

Love you Susan and can't wait to see you tonight!

Tough Times

Every day the news is filled with stories of a falling economy. If you focus on what is happening in the world you will lose site of all that is important. Our lives as Christians are not dictated by the circumstances around us.
God's economy is one that will never crash or run dry.

Live the abundant life in Christ and live in the freedom that is there for you.

Here are some scriptures from 2 Corinthians 3 & 4

17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

1 Therefore, since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up.

8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.

18 So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Focus on what is eternal today. Don't get caught up in everything else that is swirling around in the news. God's got your back. Trust Him!

Opposition

I have seen many times in my life where great successes have been preceded by tough times. It's almost as if we have to earn the right to have some success. I know that it's not always that way but there sure have been a lot of times when that's exactly what has happened.

The question for us is this. What will you do when you face opposition?

You have a choice to make.

You can run to safety or you can stand and fight.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 16:8,9

8 In the meantime, I will be staying here at Ephesus until the Festival of Pentecost.
9 There is a wide-open door for a great work here, although many oppose me.

Paul saw a door for opportunity. He went for it even in the face of opposition. Some would look at the same situation and run because of the opposition.

What will you do when faced with these choices in your life?
Will you have the courage to face it and fight?
Or will you simply see the problems and run from it?

If we want to make a difference for the kingdom of God then we have to be in a place spiritually where we are ready to face adversity.
We have to take our stand.

Ephesians 6 says it like this;

13 Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.

Get yourself prepared for the battles that are sure to come and be a difference maker for Christ!

A Constant Fire

As I am reading through the one year bible plan I must admit that Leviticus is very dry. It's basically rules and regulations and plans that God is giving.

But as I was reading this morning I read this passage;

12 The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it.

13 The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.

I was thinking that we need to continually keep the fire burning our hearts. We must be passionate about our relationship with Christ. If it is not a daily and continuous journey then we are in danger of the fire going out.

Pursue Him today. Pursue Him with everything that you have. Keep the fire burning within your heart.