Look at the stars

7 But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
Isaiah 50:7

Last night I was sitting outside enjoying the cool evening that was a real treat for Richmond in August. I grew up where cool evenings were very common and you could see a plentitude of stars. Yet where I am in Richmond I couldn't even see one star; partly due to the cloudy skies of the day, but this made me think about the times that from where we are we really can't see God working. Or there are times we are so stuck in our sin that we cannot see God's grace. We look and try to seek it out but something keeps us stuck in our pitiful state, yet praise God that he is a graceful God who takes pity on poor sinners and moves to a place that the clouds of sin and lights of this world no longer block out the glories of himself. We know that our God is faithful, we have the history of God working and saving men to be a testimony for his faithfulnesses. The question is will you and I seek the Lord's help in moving us from our spot of spiritual lukewarm light into glory of a life that is in constant view of his grace? Will we be like Isaiah and make our faces like flint, because our Lord is faithful, that his home is in heaven and he does all that he pleases? We can stand strong because our foundation is not ourselves but on the finished work of Christ.

1 Month

At the end of the month I will be here for 30ish days. I realize that I don't miss my large house. Cleaning takes a couple sweeps with a broom and I'm pretty much done. I'm on vacation from the school I work at and I have gotten to be home more. Pray that I don't waste my time here and seek out time with our Father and would long to be with him.

Following one's own advice

The other day my girlfriend and I were talking about kitchen accidents, and I shared the story about cooking bacon with no shirt on. Needless to say it was not a good experience. Well this morning before church I got the great idea that I wanted to eat bacon after my morning walk. Well I was also in the middle of getting ready for church. I did get a shirt yet. So I did not learn from my past experience with shirtless bacon. This time with a very small kitchen I didn't have anywhere to hide. Sometimes I question myself concerning my sense.

Proverbs 26:11
As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly

2 Corin 7:10 ¹⁰For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

I maybe been rather foolish in my culinary adventure this morning but also my grief was that of the world. It hurt me but not a spiritual concern just one of the world like a cut knee or a bloody nose.

If my sin causes the same reaction as bacon burns then I am in trouble.

Holy spirit help me!

In short my plumbing now is usable. The sink war is at a conditional cease fire. The conditions are as follows:
1. The pipe leading into the facet will only drip a little.
2. I will put cleaning supplies around it so I can't see it.
3. The facet will work properly and I can live with hot running water.

The shame of improper water. The hardship of the woman at the well that Jesus treated as a perso, when the rest of the world treated her as an object. The confusing part of people is that we treat people as objects and objects as people. We disregard hurting humans for stuff. Jesus found his substance that day at the well, by treating her like a person.

Though in his humanitarian treatment of her, he wasn't afraid to tell her how it was. We cannot confuse gentleness and lying. In our treatment of others we cannot forget their greatest need. That of salvation.

So how does this relate to a sink? Well when you treat a house problem with more concern then anything else then I believe my affections are in the wrong place. Because really a slight leak is only a slight problem; does it need to be fixed yes; should control you? No so much, so the earthly problems are not so demanding when your water comes from heaven.

Stinkin Sink

Growing up I found it odd that when I heard people yell at inanimate objects. I haven't really understood it completely, but I am starting to understand.

Things

I find it truly horrifying that my heart tries to find hope and security in the most frail pieces of property. I was feeling low because of the sink not working and acting rather moody about it and RV not coming together like it I would of liked it too (again my lazy mind and thinking everything in life should be easy). At the time though I didn't know that the RV was the reason why I was feeling the way that I did. I only knew I hated the way I felt, but I came home and it all changed. My roommate had went and fixed everything on my to do list. He sealed all the place that needed sealing, he put new filters in the A/C; everything! I felt joyful again, I was happy:). The only thing is, that this showed me something very scary about my heart. That my joy was dependent on the state of my house; when it was in disorder with a lot work to be done it weighted on my soul because I had put my joy and hope in it. The RV had became my mobile deity complete with leaky pipes. Pathetic polytheistic heart of mine, making gods out wood and metal. Where I went wrong was that I allowed this unhallowed object take place of the true hallowed as my source of joy and grief. That instead of being joyful in my salvation and grieving over my sin; I was mourning over a sink and joyful in an A/C filter.

This has really made me think; where does my hope come from? From time to time my pagan heart revisits me and stays for a day or two, but because my Father loves me he shows me my error and lovingly corrects me. So my hope continues in the Lord; not because I am able, but because He is.

war with myself

so for the past week i have been fighting a leaking sink. Hence why i haven't been on lately. This project has taken all of the semi free time of the life I have. Rightfully so since indoor plumbing is a legal right of every American isn't it? Well it isn't yet it is rather nice to have along with it being hot as well. Yet for a lot of people clean water is not available, let alone indoor plumbing with hot water. So my social justice plug today is from Westminster Pres. They are auctioning rain barrels as a fund raiser for clean water in Hati. You can contact them and place a bid by going to their website wpcrichmond.org

On to what I've learned:

Sometimes things are hard. I know what a novel idea; life has hardship. For me though most of what I've had to do in life has came and went with ease, but the fight, the war I wage against my evil desires has not came and went. What am I to do lay down and stop trying? Just like have with my plumbing problem if i quit on that then this simple life is lost. Without water the Rv is nothing more than a primitive shack with electricity and A/C. Without fighting this war with my old nature, I'm left with a hollow and not very enjoyable shell of Christianity.

We are left with a choice; do we fight out our war? or do we settle for a shack?

Hot / Cold

Who knew that hot water was so nice? Well after a week of cold showers a hot one is very amiable.

Now this is the beauty of the written word, that I can spin this experience anyway I want to. Have you noticed that there are not any pictures of the bathroom? A convenient lapse of my photographic lens.

In favor of keeping favor, I haven't written about my cold showers, and that human nature, we make things seem better then they really are. Maybe I should check myself on that?

Small hole:Big problem

So remember when we first started working on ELDO, and we fixed all the water damage, and we "fixed" the leaks in the roof? Well we got a lot of rain, and it rained relentlessly, and the way the roof is designed, the rain water is to flow towards the back, and on off the roof. In theory this works pretty well. So we sealed around the air conditioner, the sky light and thought "surely we have fixed any leaks!" Well I was sitting the RV the other night and I saw water dripping from one of the cabinets, I thought "well this is bad"

So I placed a towel inside the cabinet to soak up the water and waited for the "almost, but not quite entirely unlike" a hurricane like rain to stop so I could look on the roof. To my dismay I found, complete with waves, a lake forming on my roof. This showed that our sealing around the major leak prone areas could literally hold water . I looked about and found an eye bolt, not a new apple product, a piece of hardware that someone thought would go very well on the roof of a hundred year old motor home. So this was making for a very good drain for my roof top pool, right into my living roof, kitchen, and dining room. Needless to say I removed the bolt and filed the hole with sealant.

During this adventure I thought that a move to Arizona or Kuwait seemed like a very good option. Highly unrealistic but it would solve my leaking roof, no rain, no leak, no problem. Hardship reveals the weakness of everything. As people we do not know how weak we really are until we are tested. Yet if we do not go through hardship we will not know that the whole of ourselves is broken ,not just one little part, that with our him we can do nothing, as he said, and Jesus didn't lie.

Even small houses feel big; when they are just what you need.

Last night I got a chance to sit and enjoy the calm of this abnormal home that I now truly am calling home. As I was sitting there I looked around, and it seemed so big. The space just seemed to be more than enough. I moved from a 2200 square foot house, into a 300(if that) square foot rv, yet I had never been so satisfied with the space that God had given me to rest in.

So when you're satisfied in what you have life truly has a different feeling, I guess satisfaction is the word i'm looking for.

Trailer Trash

This magnet on our fridge was a gift from the family that let us keep the RV in their back yard for so long while we were fixing it up. Like this magnet we maybe trailer trash but we are clean trailer trash.

Love Jesus; Hate Sin, Matt

The moved in kitchen

Love Jesus; Hate Sin, Matt

Love Jesus; Hate Sin, Matt

Love Jesus; Hate Sin, Matt

We Made It!

We made it!
Love Jesus; Hate Sin, Matt

Moved In!

I just slept in it last night at the park. My neck hurts from leaning forward because I pushed up against the wall last night while I was sleeping. My clothes are packed in tight around the driver-side door, Ryan's stuff is by the passenger, everything is still pretty disorganized so give me a day or two and I hope to be settled in.

Like everything in life, for this to work God must complete the task.

Special thanks to the Kidder's for letting us park the Eldo at their house for over a month, and being so good to us. They really exemplified Christlike hospitality and generosity. by letting us keep our Eldo there.