Monthly Archives: September 2017

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Too Full of Joy to Die

How to LIVE! When You Are Dying

Meet Jim!  He should have been dead 3 times by now.  He has been battling Pancreatic Cancer for 2 plus years.  Yep, He’s been given the death sentence from doctors and lab tests.  But,…..an even more powerful event is going on with Jim.  He’s been given a life sentence by God,……. a life sentence filled with JOY and PEACE.

Jim truly lives each minute of every day by seeking joy while here on this Earth.  I’ve honestly come to realize that Jim is seeking joy, but joy is seeking Jim wherever he goes.

Several years ago,I asked him what changed in his life when he was given the “dreaded news” of Cancer.  My particular question was, “Did you start praying”?  Did you start praying HARDER???”  He told me that since he was already a praying man, that nothing really changed, he just planned on keeping on praying as he has always done.  Wow, a man walking with God through thick and thin.

Something else from Jim.  “When you lose your future you no longer dwell on the past, that leaves only the present. ” (That’s deep thinking for me and you, but it’s deep living for Jim.

He’s explained to me that since his life “is over” he devotes his time and energy to restore, to renew, to rebuild others.  He gets such a deep sense of joy from living like this. What a way of truly living your life.  I’d of never thought of living that way.  Living your life helping others,……. just like Jesus would do.  Oh, wait, that’s called living like a Christian.

And this subject of DEATH.  I deal with it like every body else in the good ole USA.  I never think about it, …..act as if it will never happen to me.

Jim explained it to me this way.  Dan, (insert your name here _______), dying for me will be like this.  I’ll cross a bridge on my journey that I’ve not crossed before.  YOU CAN’T CROSS IT WITH ME!  Not just yet anyways.  Crossing this bridge will seem like a big step for you.  But for me it’s just a  continuing of my journey.

Jim is a strong believer in Christ.  He tells me he doesn’t intend to live like he is dying.  That’s so obvious Jim, my friend.  You inspire others more than you will ever know.

Hey!  You folks out there reading this.  Do you want to talk with Jim yourself?  Are you dying from a dreaded disease?  Are you running out of time because of something this world has thrown at you and into your life?  I’ll give you Jim’s phone number.  He can restore the joy into your life just by talking and sharing with you.  He seriously doesn’t have the time.  But what time God gives him, he turns around and gives to others.

I’m glad God placed Jim in my path on my Christian journey.  I’m fighting things of this world that try to steal my joy.  Big things like a flat tire, delays, spilling my coffee, a deer hitting my truck.  These things are stealing my joy.   I feel like such a pansy.  Instead of whining about losing my joy, maybe, like Jim, I should be growing it more!!

Jim is fighting, no battling, no Jim is LIVING his life in a way that his JOY is increased each day.  LIVE ON JIM!!!   You inspire me as well as all around you.

You have not only have you brought joy into my life.  God Himself has been pleased by you.  Your Heavenly Father is pleased with His child named Jim.  You give Him joy by how you live.  Well done!!

John 11:25  Jesus said…… he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live…

We will meet you again on the other side.  The journey will continue…….

 

See Ya!  Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher (filled with joy)

 

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I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

You Are Not To Be Alone In This Christian Journey

It’s My log house!  But I need help from my friends to complete it.  I’ve built it, but I needed help with the construction up high, (since I’m scared of heights).

I also needed help with the tedious, hard to fit, most precise pieces of this puzzle that I call a log home.  I’m not good with exact measurements.  “Eyeball” measurements are what I use.  Make it close enough and that’s good enough.  If I’m building this house and make a measurement and it’s within a half inch of what it’s supposed to be, then “nailer tailer”.  That means it’s close enough, so to me it’s good enough!!

But not my friends from the construction crew.  Nope,….. Stuart, Chris, Rip, and Scott want the best for my log house.  They want the best for me!!!

Being within a half inch may be “good enough” for me, but it’s totally unacceptable to these guys.  Get this.  They will saw, cut, measure, move, pry, measure, shimmy, adjust, measure, and then measure again until it’s within an eighth of an inch!  That’s the space between these to lines. (II) In a house measured in feet, they won’t stop until what they are constructing measures to within 1/8 of an inch of being exact, of being perfect.

They are my friends.  I’ll admit I couldn’t do this without them.  They can see things that I wasn’t looking for or even that I myself wasn’t even aware of in my own log house.

They are able to make My log home even better than what I myself could be doing.  Why are they doing this?  Like I’ve said, they are my friends.  They want what’s best for me.

Well, that’s great and all.  But it’s my house, and honestly I grow tired of waiting.  I grow impatient.  I grow “antsy” because it’s taking too much time.  I grow restless, I grow annoyed.  But I grow,…….hmmm I grow to be more exact and perfected.

Don’t get me wrong, this log house is full of crooked logs, bent, scarred, and full of (Character/flaws).  But with the help of my friends, it’s being “perfected”.  Kinda like how our lives as Christians are being perfected.  You and I are all full of scars,we are crooked,we have flaws (or character) and yet, God is “perfecting” us each day.  Lots of times, it’s with the help of our friends.

Hey, I know, you and I don’t enjoy having other people tell us what to do.  We certainly don’t like people telling us how to live our lives.  I’ll confess. I’m at the top of that list.  But I’m not talking about people in general.  Not the know- it-alls, the busybodies, the do-it-my-way people.  What I’m talking about are the true friends.  Friends who care about you, who want the best for you.  Friends whether they realize it or not,………..that are being used by God to “make you a little more exact and perfect”.

James 1:4 and let steadfastness have its full effect,that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Proverbs 19:20  Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise.  Many are the plans in a persons heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

Is my log house perfect?  N0 way!!  But with the help from my friends, it has become more exact and more close to perfect.

Is my life perfect?  No way!!  But with the help from my friends, It is growing to become more exact and more close to what God wants me to be.

This coming week, I’ll be at a men’s retreat with a bunch of guys who are my friends.  The Noble Heart is an online group of guys who help each other with their God given calling.  They help each other continue on this Christian journey, they offer support, they pray.  They are true friends.

Is your life perfect?  Aw c’mon no way right?  Do you allow your friends and family to offer help and advice on how to live your life?

Maybe, just maybe one of those “good for nothing” friends is actually being used by God to make an improvement in your life.  Maybe just maybe one of those family members may be God’s way of getting through your thick skull so that you can be made better, more exact, even more perfected.

Think about it.  You belong to God.  He wants the best for Himself.  He will perfect you and make you more exact to what He wants you to be.  In spite of ALL your flaws, He is in the being made perfect and whole business.  Don’t rob your friends and family of the opportunity of letting God use them to speak some words of advice to you.

It’s your house, I mean it’s your life.  You must decide who,what, when to listen to.  Your friends just may be how God chooses to GROW you.

“Lord, I thank you for my friends.  Help me to know and understand when You may be speaking thru them to get to me.  Help me become more exact and “perfect” to what you’ve created me to be.  Help me to truly care for others so that You may use me to speak to another.  Amen.”

See Ya!  Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher