My sheep listen to my voice

Dear Lord; Happy Monday Father!  To begin with Lord, I want to thank You for another lovely weekend with my family and friends.  I was able to get caught up on quite a bit of housework, did a little cooking, had fun time with the kids and even went out on a great date night with Shannon.  All in all, a productive and relaxing couple of days away from work.  Thank You so much for that much-needed respite!

This morning Father, I was thinking about all the different ways You and I communicate.  Throughout my journey to You, I’ve found that the more “in-tune” I become with Your Presence, the more ways I see and hear Your Guidance in my everyday life.  I’ve come to rely on Your Voice more and more, and love finding Your influence in the world around me during the course of the day.

So today, I thought I’d run down some of the places and ways I find Your Messages to me each day.  Lets see…

• Through reading and hearing Your Word; Whether it’s hearing verses quoted on the Christian Radio stations I listen to, reading passages in my Bible or finding quotes while searching the Internet, Your Book brings such amazing Guidance for all facets of my life.
• Through Christian Music; Music gets into our soul in ways that not many other things can.  The Godly messages and themes present in Christian Music help keep me focused, uplifted and energized over the course of my day.
• By reading and interacting with Christian Devotional Blogs and their authors; The blogs I read each day and the wonderful people I’ve met by doing so are an amazing resource and Blessing for me Lord.  They give me perspective, encouragement and an online fellowship that has been invaluable in my walk with You.
• Through Prayer; Along with our conversations on this blog Father, prayer is my lifeline to You.  Whether silent or verbal, much of the guidance and direction I receive from You over the course of the day comes from our “prayer connection”.
• By the words and actions of others; As I’ve written to you so often Lord, I see Your Love and Influence in the actions of others.  We’re surrounded by miracles every day, and the closer I walk to Christ’s footsteps the more obvious those wonders become to me.

Obviously Father, this isn’t a complete list by any means but these examples are what first came to my mind as I thought about our talks.  I love the deepening connection You and I are forming, and I crave for it to expand more each day.

Your Son phrased it perfectly when he said :

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” – John 10:27-29

Heavenly Father, thank You so much for Your Loving Presence and Guidance in my life.  The more I open myself to You, the fuller and more complete my life becomes.  Amen.

~Phather Phil

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Dear Lord; This morning Father, I want to share a story with You; A very powerful story that brought both my wife and I to tears last night.

It was a long day yesterday Lord.  Between the ice storm which led to school delays and then closings, and a number of other typical daily stresses, Shannon and I both came home a bit worn down.  Grabbing the mail on the way in the house, Shannon spotted a hand-addressed envelope from the kids’ school.  She opened it up, and inside was a letter written to us by one of the office staff regarding Jonathan.  She quietly read the letter, laid it down and started to cry.

The letter was a personal note from one of the school administrative staff detailing a conversation she’d had with Jonathan the previous Friday.  Apparently, Jonathan was assisting with shuttling some computer equipment between his classroom and the office, and helping with putting it away.  At some point during this process, he started talking to one of the ladies in the office and asked her if she was familiar with a man called Jesus Christ.  While surprised, she replied that yes, she was very familiar with Jesus.  He then went on to tell her all about his disease (Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis), his surgeries, treatments and chemotherapy as an infant, and how he’d gotten through all those trials and was doing very well now.  She told him how wonderful he looked and that she was glad everything was doing so well, at which time he then left to go back to class.

What Jonathan didn’t know however, was that her husband had been battling two forms of serious cancers for many years, and that it was only through the grace of Christ that he was still alive.  Along with that, she indicated there were others within earshot going through similar trials who also took interest in his story.  She wrote that Jonathan’s unprompted testimony was exactly what she and others needed at that moment, and she was sure he was meant to be there to deliver Your message.  Her faith had been renewed, by the witness and encouragement of our little boy.

When I came home shortly thereafter and read the letter, there were tears in my eyes as well.

I talked to Jonathan later that evening about the conversation that prompted the letter (of course, not revealing what she’d written to me), and asked him : “What made you ask her if she knew Jesus?”.  He answered that he really didn’t know, and honestly didn’t remember what led up to it; It just came to him at the time.

You spoke through him Father, and to him it seemed perfectly natural and reasonable at the time.  May we all be that open to Your Voice Lord, and not be afraid to share it with others.

Thank You Father.  This touched me in a way that only You can.  Please bring Your Healing and Comfort to those going through these trials, and let us all be as effective and powerful a witness to Your Grace as the words of a child were that day.  Amen.

~Phather Phil

And My Focus Word is…

Dear Lord; Good morning Father.  Today Lord, I want to follow up on a discussion we had earlier this week where we talked about finding my “One Word Focus” for this year.  You and I have been “chatting” a lot about this over the last few days, and my mind’s been flooded with so many words describing parts of myself that I know could use work.  Throughout all those deliberations and prayers however, I keep hearing one word in the midst of it all :

Accept.

Ok, message received… “Accept” it is.  I’ll admit, it’s not quite along the lines of what I had originally conceived when I started down this path but I’ll Accept Your Guidance :-).

So this morning, I started contemplating what the word Accept means in relation to my life, and the more I thought about it the bigger the scope grew.  There are so many things that I currently Accept (and possibly shouldn’t), and so many more that I need to work on.  For example, as we discussed yesterday I need to work on the fact that my nature is to try and fix everyone’s problems, when obviously that’s not a realistic perspective.

I need to Accept that I’m not in control and that I can’t fix everything.

Wow… So, I’m starting to understand why you put this word in my heart Lord.  I guess there are more things in my life that I haven’t fully Accepted than I had originally thought.  This is a truly powerful word, and I thank You for seeding me with it.

Heavenly Father, thank You so much for instilling this focus in my heart and mind.  As I contemplate and pray about this direction over the coming year, please lead me to recognize and Accept all Your Truths and proceed with them in Your Love.  Amen.

~Phather Phil

Boys to Men

Dear Lord; Good morning Father!  To start off today, I’d like to thank You for the emotional “purging” You helped me with yesterday.  Sometimes, the hidden feelings that quietly eat at our spirits are the hardest to control, and it feels absolutely wonderful to have laid that one down.  Every negative I can shed brings me that much closer to You.

As You know, for Christmas I got both my boys new Children’s Bibles.  These are lovely books Lord, which tell Your story and give Your Word to them in a way that they’re excited to read each night.  Most evenings I’ve been reading with Aidan, but he’s also taken to reading some of it on his own and has just been devouring the stories.  We’re almost completely through Genesis, and both my boys are amazed and filled with wonder at Your Power and Love for Your Children.  I’ve been thrilled to see them so enthralled with learning about You, and I pray it continues to interest and excite them.  Jonathan has taken to reading our daily conversations as well, and it warms my heart that he wants to know You so much more.  I so want to raise these boys to be God-Loving, compassionate and righteous men.

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” – Proverbs 22:6

Heavenly Father, please help me continue to bring Your Loving Presence into my childrens’ lives.  Fill them with the Holy Spirit, and make Your Heavenly Light shine through them so all may see Your Influence.  I pray that You grant me the wisdom, the strength and the resolve to help them be the men I know they can be.  Amen.

~Phather Phil

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot…

Dear Lord; First off Father, I want to follow up on our conversation yesterday.  Last evening, I went to the local mall to pick up a couple of odds-and-ends.  I was pleasantly surprised to see a significantly better perspective from the shoppers and vendors.  I got smiles, Lord… Lots of them.  And when I wished people there a Merry and Blessed Christmas, I got happy faces and well-wishes in return.  Thank You for allowing me to witness those signs of Your Joy.  It helped my spirits immensely.

Today Lord, my heart is already yearning towards the next couple of days.  Work still holds many stresses for me, money is still extremely short and Shannon and I are still recovering from the bug that hit us last weekend, but the Light of the Blessed Event to come is overwhelming all of that.  I’m very much looking forward to spending quite a bit of “quality time” with You over the next couple of days, and helping spread the Love and Hope the Birth of Your Son brought to us all.  Please help me be an effective emissary of Your Word, and to bring Christ’s Message to as many others as possible.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

Amen.  ~Phather Phil