O: Just as God has created all, we all look to him for everything we need. We all, as in the animal kingdom. And God provides.
A: As my wife and I talked yesterday about God providing for us as it pertains to an upcoming family expense, this passage screams that man has forgotten how to trust God. We put so much time and effort into doing for ourselves, that we have forgotten to let God provide. While God certainly doesn't want lazy Christians sitting around waiting for a handout, what He does want is for us to do for each other and let Him do for us.
P: Father, for all that You've done and all that You continue to do, thank You. Help me to trust in You to provide and to direct more of my energies into doing for others.
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This shouldn't be such a tough question, really, but here's what makes it tough: most Pro-life candidates will tell you that they are against abortion. Period. End of story. While at the same time, Pro-choice candidates don't seem to understand just where they really stand.
In this example, Senator Barack Obama -- a Pro-choicer -- doesn't believe that life begins at conception, but does believe that fatherhood doesn't end at conception. Meaning that being a father is more than biologically fathering a baby or impregnating a woman. Being a father means actually being a father to a child.
You can't have it both ways, though. Either that little fertilized egg is a living baby, making the sperm donor a father, or that sperm donor is not a father if you believe that life doesn't begin at conception. If fatherhood begins at conception, then so does life.
As I continue through Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas series of books, I have recently finished reading the second of the series, Forever Odd. While I found Odd Thomas (click here for my review) to be quite enjoyable, I found Forever Odd to be very difficult to put down. It was a fast paced book that kept the action coming, page after page. While we continue to learn more about "Dean Koontz's most likeable character," he continues to learn more about himself.
While a great deal of book one in the series is devoted to the development of characters and setting, by book two we are already familiar with Odd Thomas, Chief Porter, Ozzie, and the town of Pico Mundo, and Koontz can spend a significantly greater amount of time working on developing the plot of his story.
I found myself up many late nights, digging deeper and deeper into the story, finding it more and more difficult to put the book down. Many of those nights I fell asleep with my nose in the book long before I decided that it was time to put the book down and go to sleep.
Perhaps one of the best parts of Forever Odd is the hook at the ending that makes you anxious to dive into the third installment, Brother Odd, which is just what I've done.
No spoilers here, sorry. Just grab the book and start a thoroughly enjoyable read.
The following post was actually written on 6/25/08, but withheld from posting until 6/26/08 for reasons made clear in the Bible.
Today is the day to fast and pray for the Global Food Crisis. If you're reading this early enough, you may still have time to join the fast. If you've already had breakfast, it might be too late to start fasting, but it isn't too late to join in the prayer.
When I first saw this event, I felt compelled to join in the fasting and prayer. I started praying last night before sleeping. Praying for God to support me in the fast, as it can be difficult for those of us who are used to three square meals a day and more to actually go for a day without food. Difficult for us, though so many people in the world do it every day without a choice.
It was an unusual night of sleeping for me. I actually dreamed this whole day through last night, from beginning to end, to the point that the day was just coming to an end in my dreams while my son was waking me up. Of course, as is usual with my dreams, I can't remember the details of the day I dreamed. But I did wake several times throughout the night and felt called to pray more.
Have you ever felt so moved by God that you woke up in the middle of the night and felt that you just had to pray for something? Yeah, it was kind of like that.
My toughest task today, I think, will be to keep myself busy enough to keep my mind off of food. Seems like that might be kind of hard to do, forgetting about food and hunger so I can fast, when I'm supposed to be praying about hunger all day long. Right? But if it was an easy thing to do, it seems like it might lose some meaning.
So why do we pray and fast? Because Jesus taught us that certain kinds of demons are combated only through prayer and fasting. By fasting, we give up a worldly need -- food, in this case -- to bring our minds and our spirits more in tune with our prayers as we talk to God. By purging the body of the gluttony of our daily lives, we free our mind and spirit of some of the distraction that separates us from God. That's what it means to me, at least.
So for one day we fast and pray for a solution for the world's hungry. It almost seems insignificant, compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars that is spend on our current Presidential campaign. That could sure buy lots of food for the world's hungry. Thankfully, there is nothing at all insignificant about the power of prayer.
UPDATE:
So at 5:37 pm I broke the fast. I tried, and while I could probably try to make excuses, I'll admit that I just gave in to temptation. I don't know how they do it, sometimes going for days without any real food to eat. They will definitely remain in my prayers.
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As I continue through Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas series of books, I have recently finished reading the second of the series, Forever Odd. While I found Odd Thomas (
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