The Covering

The site been chosen (us)…the foundation is in, the walls are up, the door and window openings are cut out. Now is time to think about the roof. The roof of a log house has two functions. First is to keep the inside dry; second to protect the logs from the elements with an extended overhang, or covering. God’s Holy Spirit is given to each one of us at birth. It sits in our very core like a seed sits in the ground, waiting for just the right time when it breaks free. The young shoot struggles to the surface where it can find fresh air, sunlight, and nourishment to grow. There is an accuser. All he wants to do is pile on more dirt, more darkness, more rain than we need, to drown our spirit. His main goal is to stop you from being all that God has called you to be. You could be a young person looking for direction as you try to find your way, or a young couple learning to raise a family. Maybe you’re a grandparent reflecting on a life that has past. Wherever you are on this journey, you still need to break free. We still need to push upwards as we grow. There is a covering when we are in God’s will. There’s joy,
contentment, laughter, song, dance and even tears. There’s also a peace that passes all understanding. As I struggle in my spirit with the roof, and how it relates to this house, I can see how I still need to grow. My prayer and hope for you as you read some of my thoughts is that I have encouraged you to go deeper and grow. Phil 4 :6-8 6 Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. 7 Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. 8 Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious - the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. (The Message)

Design

A need to fit… Log homes are designed in such a way that allows for settling and shrinking of the logs. Because of the high moisture content in each log, allowances have to be made over doors and windows with gaps. These gaps allow the logs to settle and not crush the doors or windows. As the years go by in a log home, the logs learn to find their fit. It’s been said that you can hear the logs pop and crack as the moisture evaporates.
Overtime, as the logs settle and find their fit, the home becomes a much tighter and stronger structure. During construction, metal threaded braces which support the building are placed in critical locations. It’s the owner s responsibility to adjust these supporting rods as needed.
We are designed with a need to fit in somewhere. It could be on a sports team, a career path or profession, or even a church. There is something that is added to each one of us that we need friendship and acceptance.
To put it another way, All We Need Is Love. Have you ever noticed the confidence you see in newlyweds? There’s nothing they can’t do, they’re in Love. Or an athlete in top form in the game he loves. There’s an assurance that he could conquer any opponent. Love is such a small word, but it’s the greatest gift you will ever get. There’s the love between a parent and a child, the love two people have for each other, or the love in your heart for a cause. Love to each one of us may seem different, but I don’t think it is. Love in a way is surrender to whatever we give our heart to. It should come as no surprise that Christ’s Spirit is standing at the door, the door to your heart. He is knocking. He is waiting. He is waiting for your will to surrender. To open up and let him in. All we have to do is believe.

His Plan

Going Deeper…When a builder starts to build a structure, the measurements are easy to find, because he is looking at the overall floorplan. How many doors and windows the structure will have, how high the walls are going to be. It's not until he starts to add stairs, and cabinets, and inside moldings, does he have to look deeper into the blueprint to find these smaller measurements. This is where the intimacy part comes-Going Deeper.
God knows my heart. He knew me before I was born. We are saved by grace and not by works, and we will not be made complete till we are in Heaven. I have found through the years the more I look for these small measurements, look deeper into His plan, the more I have come to realize, how wide and long, how deep and high is his love for me.

Ephesians 3, 14:21 When I think of the wisdom and scope of God's plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. 17 And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. 20 Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. 21 May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen

Whats around the corner?

Lessons Learned …When I started construction I never dreamt that it was going to turn into a lesson about the spirit and not the building. Spending time building has taught me so much about faith. There were many times I wanted to quit, but each time I wanted to quit I felt that the Holy Spirit had something to teach me. I was taught about prayer, how God longs for us to spend time with him and talk to him. I was taught about patience and rebuilding, when I had to take the log walls apart many times. I was reminded many times of Bible verses that somehow seemed to fit and come to mind when I was at different stages of construction. Somehow there was something in side of me, a need to keep moving forward, that what I was working on had value, and as the construction nears completion, to finishing well. I’ve come to realize that God, the Father of the universe, longs to be in whatever we are in, you could be a skateboarder, a cabinetmaker, a youth worker, a housewife and mother, or even a Grandad with a big dream. We are not clones, we all are different, with different gifts. We are all part of the same body with the same Holy Spirit living in us. Each one of us is at a different stage of construction that doesn’t make us less or more of a building, it just means that we are a work in progress. I jokingly commented to my daughter one day, “ It’s taken me a lifetime to get to this point.” Whatever stage of construction you are at, that’s the stage where you are meant to be. There are some stages that just seem to take longer. You might even have to redo a section that doesn’t feel just right. Are you proud of what you have made, what you have become? This old house of mine with all its mistakes, with all its flaws and shortcomings needs Christ to make me whole. He cleans me as white as snow, sets my spirit free to dance, to worship, to give to love. Somehow all of this means nothing if my own family can’t see a faith in me that’s real.

Isaiah 1 18:19 "Come now, let us argue this out," says the LORD. "No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can remove it. I can make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you as white as wool. 19 If you will only obey me and let me help you, then you will have plenty to eat.

Clean up

Expectations…Today I need to meet with the master builder, have a cup of coffee, and go the over project. It feels like it’s been a while since we sat down and examined the house. There’s still a lot of work to do on the house as it nearing completion and I can visualize the finished job. Even though things are looking good I am feeling a need to keep pressing on, not to be content, that this has been a good thing, and time well spent. Sometimes when I have a project I am working on I tend to do several things all at once: hammering, sawing, gluing, and painting. Not to mention the clutter that comes from the pieces of logs and saw dust. Clutter in your life can be anything that wants to confuse you; steal something of innocence that is in your spirit with lies. Clutter in your life can be time you give to the wrong project, and in doing so we lose something very special. Today I feel grateful that I can spend the time cleaning up and reexamining this house. When we clean up the job site we get a fresh start, a new outlook on the days work ahead of us. Sometimes there is a real temptation to plough ahead, and in doing so, build walls in the wrong place, or close off doors that were meant to be open and for our good.
Lamentations 3:21-26 (NLT) 21 Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: 22 The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. 23 Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day. 24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!" 25 The LORD is wonderfully good to those who wait for him and seek him. 26 So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the LORD.

Ps 149:3 Praise his name with dancing,accompanied by tambourine and harp

Blessings all around… Have you ever been blessed or have you ever blessed someone? What a nice feeling. This past weekend I was given 6 tickets for a Gospel Blues Festival. So this seemed like a good time to take some time off from working on the log house, listen to some worship music of a different style, and spend some time with friends. The sun was out, the corn on the cob was free, the butter was flowing, as we took in a day of blues music with Local musician Jim Byrnes and a harmonica legend Darrell Mansfield. Nothing like a day away to give you a new outlook on any project you night be working on. We all need to get away sometimes, recharge our batteries, maybe even change our attitudes.