Root of bitterness

9/27/10 Monday

Hebrews 12:14 Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God ; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled

I was up at 3:30 this morning, wide awake with the latest issues on my mind. Top of the list is the broken relationship with Steve and Janie and their apparent unwillingness to work on fixing it. Stopped at their house yesterday in an attempt to see them but they apparently weren’t home, so I left my business card. Now I know that I have a history of blunt honesty about my feelings and thoughts and that often causes problems in relationships. Unfortunately it seems that Steve and Janie interpreted every scripture I posted on the blog, and my written thoughts on them, as personal attacks on them. In truth some were inspired by what I saw in their lives but most were just what I was studying at the time. My blog is a journal of what I see, observe, and experience on a daily basis and in fact what I post is not everything we think or see. But I get mad, I get disappointed, and I write about it. Now I wonder what they have to say to others about the whole situation. There is a serious lack of trust in me now when it comes to those two and this shouldn’t be. To the best of my knowledge I’ve said nothing that wasn’t the absolute truth but will gladly, and quickly, acknowledge any mistakes I’ve made. So I’ll keep praying and keep pushing to open a door of conversation.

I pick up Ron and Paula from the airport later this morning. Ricardo was to come at 1:00 to continue working on our bathroom but I called and left a message to put that off till after they leave on the first. In the realm of things they are more important than a new bathroom. I was going to tear down the wall but will put that off too because that would open up the bathroom to everything, including whatever hides under the house, so it can wait.

Ron started the Cubit Foundation and ministers around the world, able to get into countries that are closed off to Christian missionaries due to his work as an archeologist. They built a factory in Haiti that makes water filters for individuals and homes. These are distributed, free I think, to the population to enable them to have safe drinking water. They build something like 80 churches in South America and distribute food, in what’s called “Bags of Hope” to widows and orphans in Muslim dominated countries. I could go on but won’t Google Cubit Foundation and you can read up on it.

We don’t have any money to give, were down to our last $20.00 till some money miraculously showed up through the generous help of a Facebook friend, but we have something more valuable than money, personal time, to give. So that we will give gladly. But the time I spend with Ron, and Paula, refreshes me greatly. In this world of halfway and lukewarm Christianity it is always a blessing to find otherwise. Now please don’t take this wrong, we know many good Christians who practice what they preach in this area. I guess I seen so many who are so sensitive to what I say that they take offense and feel it’s a personal attack when I wasn’t thinking of them at all. You know where you stand with God so if you know you have room for improvement don’t get mad at me. I have room for improvement and for that matter don’t know of anyone who doesn’t. Being a Christian is a constant striving against sin, a constant battle against that which we know is wrong. We have an enemy who is the master of deceit and who is ever ready to lead us down a wrong road, using our weaknesses against us. Pride is the most dangerous of those weaknesses and one that is inheritently hard to recognize in oneself because it blinds your eyes to the truth in front of you. Lust, anger, all that other stuff is easy to recognize but pride is much tougher to see.

I’ve got to get going soon. There is so much to do that must be neglected for a time. We had lots of rain and usually that means I have things to do to take advantage of it. Midnight, the puppy someone dropped off last week, is fitting in well. I need to work on training him. At least he doesn’t go wandering like Ben and Gretchen did and is always here in the morning, sleeping at night like he should. We worry about him and I rush out whenever I hear barking to make sure he’s ok. The money we received is to get him fixed and shots but we will put gas in the truck with part of it because we must. Won’t be much, just enough to get us by till Cherie gets paid on the first.