For We Are Travelers in a Foreign Land

Whew, we just came off our 3 day weekend. It was great. We had all of our daughter's grandmas over for dinner, homemade ice cream, and fireworks for the 4th. It was fun. My Granny and my wife's Grandma have opposite personalities. Mine is quiet and reserved, "country quiet." My wife's is talkative and excited about life. But they both love Jesus and are the sweetest women. We shot off something called "The Big One"? I think. It shot up into the air and then exploded and made really pretty lights. Everyone was shooting off fireworks and so it sounded ominous when we walked around in the dark outside. It rained earlier in the day and it would have rained out the fireworks had it not stopped. That would have been the second 4th in a row that would have gotten rained out.

My wife and I keep talking about the sex trade going on. Especially right here in OKC. It's just shocking something that terrible happens right here. I want to see restoration of those girls in their Father. We need our Father so bad. Only he can provide healing for sins like that. We've been talking about how we need our Father's wisdom. I read through parts of Ecclesiastes this weekend and I have these moments in life where I get it with that book. More so than usual. I love Ecclesiastes. A lot of people don't like it, or interpret it to their own fancy, but they miss the point of the book when they do. My wife and I are an interesting bunch. We both have incredible relationships with God, but we relate to Jesus very differently. God is my Lover. And God is my wife's Father. In reality he's both of those things to us in relationship of course because the Father and the Son are one. But primarily when we relate to Jesus, we relate to him on two different relational planes. So I asked our Father a couple days ago, make me need you. Boy did he. What happened was I started to have a lack of rest in me. I couldn't rest! I couldn't look at my weekly work at the office or school and say, I did good. Now, I'll rest. Fail. One of the greatest joys I have is to sit down and talk about life with God. I needed it with the Father. He is so wise, he is the beginning of wisdom. And so we talked about Ecclesiastes. And I realized how badly I needed my Father because I need to know how to live life here. I need to know how to be like his Son. And I need my Daddy to teach me that. I need to know my Father is a Warrior and will save those little girls and bring them to his house one day where the former things will not be remembered (Is 65). Where they will play and have fun not be afraid of anything. Who has anything to be afraid of when God is our Father? Like Gandalf screaming as he charges down into the valley in Lord of the Rings leading the armies of Gondor as they obliterate the evil orcs, so I need to know my wise Father will fight for me, for us, for freedom, for liberating the world into the kingdom of his Son, and obliterating Satan and his angels. I need to hear him tell me, I want you to marry my Son. And have him throw us our wedding party. I need to sit over coffee with him on a porch and just talk and listen to him for hours and hours. I need my Father. We all need our Father. And by being covered in Jesus Christ's blood, we have relationship with our Father. And no longer have to be afraid of intimacy with the Son, with the Father, and with the Holy Spirit.

I wonder what kind of engagement party our Father will throw for us in preparing for our wedding to Jesus? Will it be outdoors? With candles and music and dancing and great food? Will the beach be just over our shoulders and the stars overhead? Our Father is crazy about us and no one wants us to marry his Son more than he. What will his expression be when we finally kiss the son? What will his face look like when he is about to leave with us to go fight and make war on evil earth? What words will he say to us when we sit on the back porch at nighttime with the fireflies and stars everywhere and we have nothing to do but just be with him?

We have a perfect Father in our Lord Jesus Christ. I can't wait until he returns and we are with him and our Beloved Jesus.