The Price of the Vision

I read something today out of Oswald Chambers' My Utmost For His Highest that made me stop in my tracks and re-read:

My vision of God is dependent upon the condition of my character. My character determines whether or not truth can even be revealed to me. Before I can say, 'I saw the Lord,' there must be something in my character that conforms to the likeness of God. Until I am born again and really begin to see the kingdom of God, I only see from the perspective of my own biases. What I need is God's surgical procedure - His use of external circumstances to bring about internal purification.
Your priorities must be God first, God second, and God third, until your life is continually face to face with God and no one else is taken into account whatsoever. Your prayer will then be, 'In all the world there is no one but You, dear God; there is no one but You.'"

May my character be such that I can discern what God desires, so that I can be the husband, father, son, brother, friend, minister, student, professor, package handler, and neighbor that God created me to be. What's best for all those I come in contact with is for me to be so connected to Christ that it is His voice I hear and His voice I follow, not my own ambitions or desires, but His.

Theology and a Three-Year-Old Part 3

A couple of nights ago, Grant and I were taking the garbage out to the curb, and then starting the sprinkler system. As we were watching the sprinklers, Grant noticed that the wind was blowing some of the water against his window, "like when it rains." He then asked why God makes the wind. Before I could answer, Grant said, "I think God has a really huge fan that blows the wind and goes round and round. And the rain comes from his sprinkler system." He could be right.



On another note, Grant and I won a July 4th contest at my sister-in-law's house for "most original dessert." As we were trying to decide what to make, Grant mentioned that an air conditioner cake would be cool. So we decided to make one. We went to the store and bought two bundt cakes, white icing, black icing, and a small fan. After we stacked the two cakes, we ran the fan cord down the middle of the cake and out the bottom, fitting the fan into the top of the cake. We then mixed a little black icing into the white to get gray(I remember my art classes!) and spread icing around the cake. We then took the black icing to make vents and wrote "Grant Air USA" on the top. When the fan was plugged and running, it was perfect. We added a caption "What's More American than Air Conditioning?" So with this father-son masterpiece, we won "Most Original." Best of all, Grant thought I was the coolest dad in the world because I helped him make an air conditioner cake.