December 23rd

It's been a few days since I've put an entry on the blog. During the interim, Noah has been doing fairly well. He's been active doing what little chaps do: sleeping, eating, pooping... He has had some issues with grunting around during the night. He seems to develop gas that requires him to cry and cut up for quite a while, usually from about 22:00 until...let's say 03:30. That has made springing out of bed at 05:30 to head to work a bit difficult. Thankfully, I've got the next week off and that will be great.

Noah is growing. He's probably up to about 5 lbs 12 oz or more by now. He had his first visit with his doctor on Tuesday. Her name is Dr. Robinson. That apparently went well. He saw the ophthalmologist on Thursday and things were normal there. He had an early intervention person come to the house Friday and talk with Miss. This guy has more people checking up on him than anyone I know. He's doing great.

We have been hopeful to find someone to stay with Noah during the day while Missy works. We had a potential person from Grace Chapel, but she may decide not to do it. We will wait and see. We will keep praying that the Lord provides someone to take care of the little guy during that time.

Missy is doing pretty well. She was ill early in the week and has recovered from that. She seems to be the healthy one now.

I acquired a virus this past week, most likely from Anna, that has been a bit detrimental. I began to feel my voice being affected on Thursday and by Friday I was quite concerned about losing it. Yesterday morning when I awoke, I feared I was going to lose my voice. Last night our praise band had the Christmas concerts and I was slated to do a speaking part, a solo, and several harmony parts. God apparently wasn't too interested in my harmonies. The first concert I did the speaking part and solo, but lip synced about 75% of the rest. Before the second concert, I was quite certain that there would be no way that I could do the solo. I was really having difficulty talking, let alone singing. I prayed that God would give me the ability to do the monologue and the solo. He did just that. I hardly sang anything for the rest of the concert. I was thankful for God's grace to do what I did. I was disheartened about the other parts that I didn't get to sing because the harmonies were really fun to sing and sounded great. Phil was able to carry the load in my stead and did a great job.

Sometimes we are so sure that what we are doing is what God must want us to do. It is simply obvious that it is what He would have for us. Then something happens and we are made to face the fact that it wasn't His intention at all. I had practiced those parts for two and a half months. It would make no sense to not be able to sing them...would it? After all, I was singing for God, wasn't I? Maybe there was some pride in my heart that needed to be extracted. Check...done. Maybe my focus needed to be reset. Check again...done. In that moment as I sat there before the second concert knowing that there was no way I could do it, I was reminded of 2 Corinthians 12:9 where Paul, in speaking of his thorn in the flesh details God's response to his requests for removal of that weakness. There Paul says, "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."

Is that what we do? Do we boast in our weaknesses? Do we kneel at the foot of the cross and relish our weakness because it exalts the grace of the Almighty? In my weakness I am completely incapable of boasting. There is no good in any work I have done. Isaiah 64:6 verifies that.

All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

It is at that point where we realize that even in our best efforts and desires, we are all miserably "short of the glory of God." In that instant, in that realization, God's grace is manifested in our lives and we get a sense of what it is He has done for us. Only in our realization of our weakness, even though we might to others seem strong, do we see the strength and power of the grace God has poured out on us. In light of that, we should fully embrace our weaknesses. In doing so, we glorify the Lord and become more like Him.

In Galatians 6:14, Paul writes "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." To follow wholeheartedly, unabashedly after the Lord Jesus Christ means to give up ourselves and anything good that we think we are or have. It is to pour ourselves out at the foot of the cross and accept that in our best moment we are frail.

I am reminded of the old hymn "Nothing But The Blood of Jesus." The third verse says "Nothing can for sin atone, nothing but the blood of Jesus; naught of good that I have done, nothing but the blood of Jesus." For a number of years whenever someone has intended to esteem me, I have tried to reply simply with "naught of good that I have done." That's my way of trying to direct it to God. The best I can do is screw something up.

Last night was another in a long line of lessons that the Lord is working out in me. How great is His love and grace that He does not give up on me!

Thanks for checking on Noah and Missy

Please pray for the following:
Ebrahim's walk with the Lord
Noah, and his big sister Anna, that they would come to know the Lord at a young age
God's continued working in the lives of our friends and family
Opportunities to be salt and light to others
Someone to take care of Noah when Missy returns to work

Please thank God for (at least) the following:
His love, grace, faithfulness, and provision
His strengthening of our family
His working in the lives of all those who have played such an important part in Noah's life already: those who have and continue to pray for him
My mom's continued recovery of her eyesight
Noah being home

"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."
Galatians 6:14