Thanksgiving Memories

We didn't have a fancy Thanksgiving, but we did have a wonderful one. Dinner was at MawMaw's house...why MawMaw's you might ask? It's only the smallest house in the family. It's kind of like what draws college kids to try to cram as many people into a phonebooth as possible. Actually, holidays in the Ingram family ONLY happen at MawMaw's house....so it's off to Evadale we go. We had a wonderful dinner. Here's a sampling: baked turkey, fried turkey, ham, Ribs, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, shells n' cheese, dumpling gravy, mexican corn cassarole, and that is just the main course...there were cocktail weenies, cheese dip, ect. for appetizers and way too much to list for dessert. Fortunately, I did very well with portion control and did not stuff myself. Following dinner all the nephews and cousins played outside. I teamed up with Caleb to play my two nephews in a soccer game (glad there were no pictures of that). All the Grandkids and Great-Grandkids play together so well. Here you have Keaton, Caleb, Madison, Jacey, Bryce, Kody, Bailey, Aiden, Kaden, Layne (standing and not so little) holding Brayden, Jestin, and Carsten. With the wide range in ages of Sam's siblings the Grandkids and Great Grandkids are all close in age so far. Can you believe that 6 of the kids here are great grandkids....including Layne who is holding Brayden who is the latest grandson...weird.

Later on we had some friends over to watch some football on the big screen (the video projector on a huge wall makes the game pretty life like), each shrimp cocktail, snacks and some awesome pies. It was a wonderful day to enjoy just being around family and friends. I hope yours was equally as enjoyable.

Removing the Doubt

Today as I was doing a short devotional I realized that I didn't have the current month's STAND FIRM magazine from Lifeway, but I had the October edition. I knew I hadn't read October 20th's daily devotional so I decided to do it today. WOW, what timing....the type of timing that helps strengthen our faith and remove the doubt. Here is what I read.

QUIET FEAR

Dave had been a Christian for decades, but was embarrassed and scared by the waves of doubt that sometimes swept over Iris soul, lie had taught men's groups, youth groups, Sunday School— name the ministry and Dave had probably helped out. Many in his church regarded him as a Bible scholar. He knew the correct answers. But some times late at night, the questions rushed at him with the force of a locomotive. “What if his is all just happy talk? What if humans invented the idea of God because we were so terrified of death? Worse yet, what if there is a God but He is just setting us up?’’
DOUBT DIMINISHED
Swallowing his pride and fear, Dave poured out his doubts to a close brother in Christ. "Join the club," was the reply. The two friends swapped stories of their struggle with doubt, and in the act of verbalizing the doubt and reminding themselves of the truth they knew, the crisis of faith shrunk from a howling wolf to a small but irritating poodle. We all doubt. It is part of the life of Faith. Jude instructs us to have mercy on those who doubt. Don't criticize them, panic over them, or dismiss their fears. Have mercy. Listen. Show grace. Empathize. The rocky path of belief is often strewn with doubts along the way. We should expect that, since an untested faith is really no faith at all.
BOTTOM LINE
Show mercy to the doubters—including yourself!

"Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving." - Frederick Buechner

God's timing for this message was perfect in my life. I have found that when I'm not able to attend worship over a period of a few weeks and my daily Bible study and prayer life is on sabatical, doubt starts to creep in more and more. This also happens when I see world events unfolding that are not God honoring and I stop to question why a sovreign God would allow these things to happen. I find that my "intellectual" side starts to question God. I fall into the same trap that the humanists do in thinking that somehow my opinions and thoughts are somehow more valid than those of God or worse, that I have better ideas than Him. During these times I have to return to two things: Experience and Faith.
Experience tells me that my doubts are unfounded because God has been very real to me. He's given me direction when I needed it, peace when I couldn't find it, healing when doctors were stumped, and protection when my own flesh was trying to drag me to destruction.
Faith tells me that my doubts are unfounded because God is bigger than intellect. The problem with doubt is that we are putting faith in our own understanding instead of the creator of the universe. At one time people thought the earth was flat and the center of the universe. They thought that drilling holes in people's heads would relieve headaches. They believed that we all evolved from pond scum over millions of years....wait...they still believe that....
Ins the midst of the doubts, I turn back to God's Word and the simple truth that "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so, little ones (like me) to Him belong, they (we) are weak but He is strong."

Nine down, many more to come

Last night we ran into an old acquaintance while picking up our kids from Awana. Since we don't see he or his wife very often we asked how his wife was. His response caught us off guard. He said, "I don' t know, we've been divorced a month." He seemed ok with it, but I just can't imagine.

Martin Luther wrote, "There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion, or company than a good marriage."

Samantha and I are blessed to be able to say that we enjoy a good marriage. Today we celebrate our ninth wedding anniversary. We're definitely not the Cleavers or even the Huckstables, but we're also not the Simpsons or Bundys. Somewhere in the middle we're two people with different backgrounds who look at the trivial things in life differently, but who both try to look at the important things in life through Christ's eyes. We have a common bond in Christ that forms the glue that holds us together and causes us to love each other more and more every day. Throw on top of that three absolutley wonderful gifts from God and what more could a person ask for. I am truly blessed beyond what I deserve.

Thank you God your gifts in my life, I'll try harder to be worthy of them and to treat them with the same level of love, grace, and mercy that you have shown me. Amen

Souvenirs from Lubeck, Germany

I really enjoyed my time in Lubeck, Germany last week. It was my first time east over the big pond and I don't think it will be the last. The trip did reinforce what some of my friends had warned me, that much of Europe is entrenched in a Godless culture. While I see America headed down that slippery slope, I'm thankful that the decease of godlessness has not fully set in. As bad as it seems sometimes in our culture, it can always get worse when men are left to their own devices over a long period of time. I this case, we'll call it European History.

I was amazed at the city of Lubeck itself. The history of the city goes back over 1000 years. Many of the structures from the 14th and 15th centuries still stand (amazingly surviving both World Wars). The city is called the "city of the seven steeples" due to the seven massive steeples from 5 cathedrals all located on an "island" in the center of the city. Despite the massive and beautiful architecture, there was very little in the whole country that pointed to God. It was as if both the cathedrals and God were both just a piece of history that were significant at some point in the past, but no longer were relevant in their daily lives.

More disturbing than Lubeck was an evening that we spent being dragged around Hamburg. I say "dragged around" because after approximately 30 seconds I was ready to go back to the hotel and stick my head under a pillow. I think our hosts were mostly interested in getting as much free alcohol as they could while bouncing us from bar to bar and seeing our reaction to their "entertainment" district. Even in the most liberal and sleazy of US cities (LA, Detroit, DC...)the Hamburg entertainment district would be the red light district on the bad side of town. The sex industry has mainstreamed itself right into the commercial culture. On the main street there was sex shop, sex club, sex shop, bakery, sex shop, McDonalds, sex club, sex club, pharmacy (I guess a must have if you have some much promiscuity).... If ever I had a picture of Sodom and Gomorrah, this was it. I thank God that we in America are still prudish enough to care what our children (and adults for that matter) see on the street.

After the hellish night in Hamburg we were able to get some souvenirs from Lubeck the following night. I brought home some German and Swiss chocolates for Sam' and I, some slippers and socks for the girls, and a new game called Make N Break for Caleb which he absolutely loves. We kind of had to fudge on the instructions since they were all in German. For me I brought home a soccer jersey and a sinus infection that is only now starting to fade. More importantly, I brought home lots of memories, some good, some bad, and a new appreciation for a country that may be wondering away from it's roots, but that still in some ways reflects the Christian foundation that it was established on.