Shabbat flowers! Flopped for a nap, i look up & there are the flowers toni gave me. Dont they look nice, even from this angle?
Flowers fade and die quickly, and our lives are but a breath, but each brief life may be a container for something of God. These flowers spent who knows how long growing and then being processed and packaged and chosen and purchased and repackaged. Once received they rode with me to work and sat on my desk then back out to the car for a drive to detroit then waterford then finally fenton where they will spend the next few days on my windowsill before they are thrown away.
A meaningless existence, short, without value? no! They contain God's beauty not only in visual glory but even more in love expressed received & enjoyed. And now they also teach us a little about the value of appreciating the temporary and fragile NOW, for in THIS moment He speaks and it is with THIS breath i praise Him even as i close my eyes for a sweet sabbath-afternoon nap. C u 2mro Echo!

Still my heart will say
Blessed be Your Name!

May your joy and peace be found in the Lord. He is your light...may He be your Sabbath rest. May He find you content to lie down with Him in His pasture, secure and at perfect peace as your mind is fixed on Him!

Shabbat shalom Echo!

Darkness is light to You, YHWH. Instead of straining our eyes to see something--ANYTHING--we close them for a bit. We lay our head on Your chest, gaining rest and strength from the sound of Your heartbeat.
Gnite Echo. His heart is expansive toward you and you are loved.

"...hidden in Christ..."
It is what it is. Some days you are ok just going incognito.

May it be His glory to conceal us, and our glory to reveal Him to others!

Shabbat shalom!

Communication

Lately, I've been thinking about how we communicate. Two hundred years ago, if you moved far away from your family, all you had were handwritten letters. Today, we can call, text, e-mail, blog, send letters, and probably a few other things I haven't thought of. But for all the ways we have to communicate, the face-to-face conversations can be the hardest.

"Hi, how are you?"
"Good, how are you?"
"Good."

Do you even think about your response before you just say "good"? I admit that I don't - this is more like exchanging pleasantries than anything else. What is the point of this exchange? I admit that when people ask, even if there IS something worth saying, I probably won't respond with anything other than "good", and I don't really expect anyone else to do so either. Is it because we don't care, or don't think others care? I'm not sure...I haven't really thought of the psychology behind it. :)

We spend so much time and money communicating, but our most basic exchanges fail completely! For some of us, we'll never actually 'communicate' more than knowing that we're both "good" every week. It's all too easy to do the same with God, maybe even easier since we don't run into Him at the water cooler or have to stand awkwardly next to Him in an elevator. It can be so easy to fall into routines and a lack of true communication with each other and with God. We need to keep it fresh and keep communicating. After all, what's a body that doesn't know if the foot is hurting or broken, or can't feel the hand sitting on the burner?

So I'm challenging you to think about your communication skills. Consider how you start your conversations with people - are you *honestly* good? Do you actually want to know how the other person is? Go deeper! You don't have to share your life story, but maybe say why you're good, or bad, or excellent! We are so fortunate to have such a diverse body, which only means that we should have that much more to share.

Go forth and communicate!

Dry Enough For Ya?

"...behold, they say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.'" Ezek 37:11

"Reproach has broken my heart and I am so sick. And I looked for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. " Ps 69:20

Yep, I'm a-hearing ya, brother Dave...

Ahh, but it's at this point that He can do something...

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise." Ps 51:17

Broken and contrite hearts, we offer to You, O God!

"Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice, And be gracious to me and answer me." Ps 27:7

About three months ago, I heard something while in the Spirit:
"It's going to get very dry here."

Well, you may look around and say, that's silly, we've had buckets and buckets of rain lately!

Look instead into the eyes of your brothers and sisters. Do you see living water, or lives pressed and squeezed dry?

Where does our Help come from?

God, O God, we cry out to You with our voices...

"Breathe on these slain!" Ezek 37:9

Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z

It's been a looooong week! (I know you're all nodding) Thank the Lord it's Sabbath! Take a load off and rest. The Shepherd's got your back, it's all good. He knows His little sheep are tuckered out. Shabbat Shalom fellow flock members of ECF!

...He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul...

Good Sabbath ECF

May you each rest in His presence as you cast aside all the business and worries of this week. He's waiting, go, take rest and comfort in Him and in this set apart holy time. Shabbat Shalom ECF.

Persevering...

From Amy this morning:

...Jeff is feeling better and more encouraged, they are due to arrive in Baton Rouge in the next few hours. They have talked to several tree companies to try to get hooked up and each company has told them to come there because there is plenty of work. One company told them that they had received 279 calls from people just yesterday! So they are hopeful that they will be busy! He did get your text, and I explained your email and they all loved it and said thanks for the words of encouragement!

Perseverance

Here's a little email trail regarding one of our echoes and his trip south to help with hurricane recovery efforts...

9/3 from Rochelle:

Hey church! Jeff is headed south today to try to find work in the areas affected by Hurricane Gustav. Please be praying for him and his family... and in the spirit of spurring one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24), I'd like to challenge all of us to consider ways we can help support Amy and kids while Jeff is gone!! GET CREATIVE! I look forward to hearing from you soon...Love Rochelle

[So far, several have responded, and offers of help have included shopping, watching kids, cooking for potluck, dinners, visiting, cleaning... ]

9/3 from Cheryl:

Can Amy make any suggestions for us?

9/4 from Amy:

Hi everyone! Thanks again for all your willingness to come hang out and help me! I truly appreciate it! Even more so than that, Jeff and the guys need prayer! They left yesterday afternoon thinking that they would make it there by this morning and all that could go wrong has gone wrong! So, I told him to keep pressing on and into God and maybe just maybe if they persevere, God has something (like lots of work and money) in store for them when they get there! When I spoke with him last night for the last time around 11:30, they had only gotten to the south corner of Michigan… :( Something broke on the truck they had to stop and fix, Ventura (driving the dump truck behind them) got lost 1/2 hour or more out of the way, they blew up the air mattress at a gas station and as soon as they laid it in the back of the van, something was on the floor of the van that popped it! Needless to say they were very discouraged. This morning I talked to him again around 7 and they were on the road again from sleeping for a few hours sitting up in the trucks but they still had not made it very far…only into Indiana. His words were, " I don't know what's going on, it's like we can't get any where. It is literally taking forever!" You know those moments when you feel like you are doing what God wants you to do and then Satan does everything in his power to persuade you to give up… I think that is what they were feeling! So prayers would be great! And if you get a word for them or if you would like to send a text of encouragement that would be wonderful.
Thanks again to all of you! Amy

9/4 from Rochelle:

Wow I just got off the phone with Pastor Manny, who shared a word with me for Echo. "Perseverance" Hah! I texted it to Jeff... more is at stake than even the provision for your family... Jeff is pouring out of nothing (think Elisha and the widow's oil) so that God may be glorified in the midst of many who are in darkness. "Go Jeff!"

9/4 from Amy:

Love it love it love it! God is so good! that is a great word for all of us! You are right more is at stake than just working and getting paid! Thanks!

9/4 from Rochelle:

oh isn't that funny... i just realized i said "those who are in darkness" 1000's are literally in darkness because the power is out!

9/4 text from Jeff:

Rochelle, amy just told me how sweet our church is. I thank you all, it made me and amy cry when she told me. we prayed god would provide money for tim to be able to take care of his bills. the man he has been working for doubled tims normal draw which took care of his need. he also gave him a hat. do you see what it says?

(if you can't see it, it says "ECHO"!!!)

Happy "back to work" day!