Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego

Today was the last Sunday I will have to fill in for my father and teach the Sunday night English service.

We covered Daniel 3 about the firey furnace. I'm not sure the 5 people that were there got the impact of the story, but I did, and was blessed. The three Jewish men believed that God was strong enough to save them, but they had decided to be faithful even if He chose not to.

I would never give God an ultimatum. (I'll serve you IF you keep giving me this and that.) But I began to wonder how many times I've turned away from Him, or simply allowed myself to drift away, when things seemed to be just too hard.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all be like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and remain steadfast in our faith and service regarless of the consequences, or the difficulty involved.

And the Wind Ceased

I was very upset, today. Ever since I went live with the Pray for Japan website, my internet business has gone sharply downhill. I went from an average 66% profit, to a 32% average daily loss! What's more, on that same day, I stopped recieving most of my e-mails. People said they were recieving undeliverable messages.

I knew I should have my devotions, but I was just too upset. I prayed earnestly about the problem, and went about my daily tasks, stopping every few minutes to spend more time on the internet trying to solve the problem. One of my business associates noted that this was probably an attack of the devil because I started the Pray for Japan site. Indeed. It sure looks like it.

I have this obscure little out of print book by Amy Charmichael called Edges of His Ways I've been reading for my devotions. Toward late afternoon I finally pulled myself together and sat down to read. The reading for the day ended like this:

Am I weak, almost beginning to sink; burdened perhaps by my own troubles, perhaps by the troubles of others; blown about by stormy winds? When Peter saw the wind boisterous, as one does on such occasions "Immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"

"And the wind ceased."

I lost money again today, but that's ok. God will provide for me in His way and time, not mine. He is definitely faithful.

The Plums are Blooming

Here's where I'll post less formal and more personal chatter. Feel free to comment.

The plum blossoms are in full bloom here, about 2 weeks earlier than usual. It really seems strange. I went skiing (for the first time in my life. Whee!) in the first part of this month, and now in the third week, we are wearing shirtsleeves.

I've made some amazing discoveries about setting and achieving goals lately. I've always tried to do a zillion things at once, and never felt like I had succeeded at any of them. I'm beginning to realize that I need to focus on one project at a time, achieve a higher level that I ever had before, and then switch and focus on something else.

It really does work. That's how I was finally able to get the Pray for Japan web page up! I don't have all the pages done, but that's ok, because I know I will finish those the next time this project comes around.

I learned this concept from a free internet course called Simpleology. It really has helped me keep what is important in perspective. The lessons only take about 15 min. a day, and are fun and easy to do. Try it out.