theologer

"Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus." Acts 8:35

"Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching." - 1 Timothy 4:13

Last night I made a note to myself on what to write this morning. It was supposed to say something about the significance of scripture. How once I heard a quote something along the lines of "we read all kinds of books ABOUT the Bible, but we're so unwilling to actually read THE Bible."

I find this to be pretty true. And was going to express my disgust in myself and my willingness to look anywhere but the word of God for answers to most things. I probably spend more time looking for direct answers to questions on Yahoo Answers and Wikipedia than I have my whole life in the Word of God. This is sad.

However, when I was unable to go asleep last night because my lovely daughter decided she would rather scream, I spent a good amount of time in a rocking chair. Then another quote came to mind. One of my leaders in ministry said whenever he is under spiritual attack, or even gets sick, he will go on the offensive big time. That is, he starts to pray his brains out for his leadership and those in ministry around him. Anything he can think of he prays fervently for. That way the enemy knows if attacks this man, he'll receive a serious onslaught in return.

I don't know how well that works in real life but I'm going to go for it. And I realized my struggle to be proficient in the word has led to something of a breakdown of my personal relationship with the Lord. I prayed last night in a way I haven't prayed in FAR too long. I'm going on the offensive. I want to be a warrior forcefully advancing the kingdom through my prayer.

Every night I'm up with my daughter, I'm gonna pray myself sick. I don't know if that will lead directly to her being able sleep better, or even that I should hope it would, but at least I'll be useful for something. Who knows, maybe the Lord will keep my daughter up as I'll become more fruitful in my prayer life.

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." - Ephesians 6:1
"Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord." - Colossians 3:20

I come from a pretty spectacular family in that I genuinely respect my parents and aspire to be quite like my father. I know that few can say this. As I get older I definitely think my parents are weirder and weirder, which is either because I'm getting older and more aware of their idiosyncrasies, or they genuinely are getting weirder.

But one thing I've noticed is just how much harder this is with one's in-laws. I am in the midst of an in-law family reunion, and in my house right now there is:

My wife,
My wife's brother
My wife's sister in law
My wife's other sister in law
My wife's mother
My wife's grandmother
Two nieces
One nephew
And my daughter.

If you'll notice thats 8 women and 3 men (including me). I grew up in a male dominated home and when the estrogen outnumbers the testosterone I don't really know how to cope.

Basically, I'm just arguing that today finally, I can relate to many of you who come from difficult families and are trying to honor your parents/families. This family isn't difficult at all. In fact I really enjoy many of them. But no matter how well you get along with in-laws, their still in-laws, and ten of them is too many.

I'm just taking comfort in the fact that my wife has to go to a family reunion with my family in about 3 weeks and she will be put through the same torture.

I have to assume when Paul said, "No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments." - 1 Timothy 5:23, the reason for the stomach pain and frequent ailments was family.