Funkyjimmer's Blog

Wednesday, April 23, 2003

It is official! We will minister at Countryside Christian Fellowship! The vote was 98.3% in favor--62 votes cast; 61 in favor, one against. We'll begin sometime the first part of May. I am struggling with exactly when to begin--May 11th or 18th. The church and Karon want me to begin ASAP! -- Like May 11th at the latest. But I have set a goal that I want to reach before beginning to minister at Countryside. It is a personal goal I have shared only with God and my Prayer Partner. By May 11th I would almost have reached it--would be able to reach it before May 18th. But to wait until May 18th means I would have to make some awkward explanations that at this point I am not willing to make. My Prayer Partner, Joel, said he would preach on May 11th. So I don't have that as an excuse! So I struggle and pray that God will show me the way or make a way in this matter. Or maybe I should pray that I would wake up and recognize the way He has already made!!

In the meantime, satan continues to engage me in spiritual warfare--mostly working on me in the areas of purity and prayer life. I long for my prayer life to get back to where it was a couple of months ago. I pray, but not as intense or as easily as I once did. Satan seems to enter into my prayer times and I allow my mind to wander and I suffer from lack of concentration. If anyone reads this and wants to pray with me about this, go ahead! My Prayer Partner is praying for me about these areas and I can see battles won and victory is being achieved through the grace ad power of God--not through any of my effort. But I'm still on the journey!

May 12th -- the day of the "dreaded" colonoscopy -- draws closer! The day after the colonoscopy, a Treadmill Test to test the old heart, then I leave for Evansville, Indiana, that afternoon to work there the next day. But a lot will happen before that. May 6th, Karon has an MRI on her right knee that has been very painful and debilitating for some time. We'll learn from the doctor that same morning what the MRI reveals and the recommended course of treatment.

My Blog is not set up to receive comments like some are. But if anyone reads this (which I doubt!!) they can email me with comments at either jimdewing@yahoo.com or jewing@indy.rr.com. Any thoughts, comments, prayer requests, praises, etc., would be welcome, considered, and answered by me.

Gotta close this and head for bed. Good night all!!

Jim

posted by jim 12:02 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, April 02, 2003

God is dealing with me. I am grateful because to ignore God and thus to be ignored by God is probably the closest thing to spiritual death in this life. I understand spiritual death to be eternal separation from God. I certainly don't want that for eternity and it is bad enough when, through my pride, neglect, or whatever, I let separation come between God and me in this life. But it DOES happen!

But not right now in my life, thank God. As I said, God is dealing with me and it isn't always pleasant! He is dealing with my prideful nature and prideful attitudes. He is also dealing with me in the area of my willful lustful sin of impurity. Ouch! Spiritual Surgery often hurts, but just as physical surgery is necessary to save a life, spiritual surgery is necessary to save a soul.

Through some parallels between physical and spiritual situations I am learning spiritual truths. God is showing me that I should be more concerned about the sin that grows in my life than the cancer that possibly is growing there. (We won't know about that until the awful, dreaded Colonoscopy May 12th.) But we know there is sin. John says, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8). "If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives." (1 John 1:10)

I am grateful to my wife, Karon, and to my faithful prayer and accountability partner, Joel, for their place in helping me to "grow up in the Lord!" I don't know what I'd do without either one of them!! They are the two most precious people to me in this life!!

I KNOW there is the Cancer of Sin in my life, I don't have to wait for any tests to reveal that. God through His Word as revealed the sin nature and some of the specific sins in my life. But He has also given me freely of His Grace and His Salvation through His Son, Jesus, the Christ. So as I draw close to Him, God deals with the sin of pride and lustful temptations in my life. We'll wait for the results of further tests to see about any physcial cancer that might be growing and deal with that at that time.

God is apparently granting an opportunity to minister for Him in a special way at Countryside Christian Fellowship. We'll know for sure when the church votes April 13th. It seems Satan doesn't want that because he is waging spritual warfare. But, "The Battle Belongs To The Lord"!!

More than enough for tonight. Gotta head for bed!!

Jim

posted by jim 11:46 PM 0 comments