TGIF
Every morning it’s the same routine.
Right around 6:AM, Chester wakes up and starts to howl.
Then he wails.
Then he howls some more, followed by some plaintive wailing.
He does so loudly.
This cat has the lung capacity of an opera singer.
Chester howls and wails because he is hungry, he wants fed, and he thinks that today might be the day when I choose not to provide for his needs.
When he really brings the noise, it even affects the sanguine Miss Kitty…who has quietly trusted me for a long time, but the wailing makes her nervous.
Maybe Chester knows something she doesn’t…
So, Miss Kitty looks at me anxiously and starts to cry.
I’m not a morning person…
The routine was broken this morning.
I woke up and Miss Kitty was asleep at my side as always.
Chester was awake too…and purring.
Loudly.
He said a single meow as if saying “good morning” stretched out, and resumed purring.
Loudly.
After months of morning anxiety, Chester knows he’s going to get fed.
He trusts that I’m going to get up and feed him.
Chester has faith and his faith helps Missy to hold on to the faith she has.
Life and mornings just got better here…
Sometimes we think we have to howl and wail to get God to hear us.
Sometimes we think He really doesn’t want to get up and feed us.
Sometimes we think this is the time when God is going to fail us.
Sometimes we try to convince other people of all of the above.
Sometimes, when we do these things, we lie about God to ourselves and others.
He still gets up and feeds us…but the morning is always better when it starts in faith.
Make your own application…
Amen. Amen. Meow… so true.
Thank you, Paige. 🙂
Call me slow…but I just realized you are naming these after Gunsmoke characters 🙂
Can’t wait til Festus shows up.
Josh… you’re slow. 🙂
I’m going for new names for the next cats to avoid “Festus”…
it sounds like Chester may have just moved into the faith
the cat god found the unnamed cat howling in the bushes, gave him a new name and put up with his howling as the ever immutable cat god showed Chester grace until the cat got it …
i am not a cat god, immutably not
there’s always “Doc” 🙂
“Doc” might work… 🙂
Good work Michael! As always
Festus was my favorite. Have you ever had a Dillon?
Thanks, Dusty! 🙂
Another well written TGIF, Michael. And happy is IS TGIF!
Thanks, mk! 🙂
Josh,
No…this was accidental.
Trey called her Miss Kitty when she first showed up and it stuck…he’s never seen Gunsmoke.
It just seemed right though to name the next one after a character from the show…because I have seen Gunsmoke. 🙂
Feeling like the old chester today. Life does not seem to be going in the direction my daughter has been praying for and this mama’s heart is hurting for her. Most days she is like ms kitty, calm and pleasant. But today she is blue.
Dusty,
It is in going through those times that she’ll learn the faithfulness of God.
Not fun to watch,but it will bear long lasting fruit.
Thank you Michael. That helps me a lot, really. Lifting my spirit.
Hoping that did not come across snarky…i ssincerely appreciate your words of wisdom
dusty..you are NEVER snarky!
Amen, Michael…faith is our undergirding…like manna, each and every morning. Thank you!
Dusty,
You never come off snarky…
Linnea…thank you!
I like that linnea….mana from heaven!…we all need that.
Thank you Michael and linnea for the kind words
over the years i’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that, if the devil doesn’t like what you’re doing, he’ll try to take shots at your children…
for dusty:
https://jeannezornesimagesdotcom.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/the-flying-wounded/
Michael, thank you for the reminder. Like others here, my faith has been a little hard to come by lately.
Cats (and children) are often good examples of it.
Thank you john 20:29 i appreciate it a lot
John 20:29…thank you for your #21. The devil is taking shots at my children. Intellectually, I know that to be true, but my heart suffers…
Praying for you linnea…
mew
Hi Michael
I love cats, they make me blow up, but I love them. Used to have six. In some weird way that’s how I feel about you.
Btw, Michael, been going back through old posts of yours. You’re easy to read so that helps. A while ago when P.Smith was disinvited to SPC you said
“Brodersen could end up being a target of this faction.”
Props, good call.
Not budging on my stance on Brian’s view of the whole counsel of God, or his ecumenism, which are big deals for me, but throwing in with CCA or trying to damage a man’s reputation is not something I intended to do.
Brian Brodersen, If you ever read this, I sincerely apologize if I came off as personally attacking you beyond your scope of ministry, which admittedly I know only from third or fourth party perspective. I tried not to do that, but a few, others here including Michael think I have. That was, not my intention so please forgive me. I disagree as to the word I might be fed when I attend your church, if you indeed intend to implement the things you mentioned at NWPC. But if God has placed you there then all my opinions garner not a mouse fart’s worth of consideration. I hope he has placed you there. I am praying that you will reconsider the whole counsel of God.
My personal CC is the hub of the most stability I have ever known, even though we disagree often. When the ground shifts like it has in CC, or what I perceive it to have shifted, I get protective of what I know. What I know is old school CC. The ground may not have shifted in my 13 years in the CC denom at all. I probably just uncovered and/or tripped on some ugly facts.
I am accountable to God, Brian, and my brothers and sisters for libeling a brother, but seriously I did not intend to.
Probably doesn’t amount to a hill of beans any ol way.
Thx for listening
reading Jerod’s post i am reminded again of how much i hate to see denominations try to dominate the Faith… a good fellowship of Believers, God fearing leadership of the flock (maybe this is Erunner’s quest – the other thread) is a treasure … why can’t we be followers of Christ and let labels take their place way down the list? … so much harm in the form of disrupting our focus has been done by folk who think they are the best or only way to truth and the light… Jerod is blessed with a good fellowship, praying we all might be
yes organization = good, but kingdom (small ‘k’) = bad … at least in my not so humble opinion
umm…
reading my #28 – let me be clear that i am talking within the context of born-again (sorry) followers of the only Savior and Lord, Jesus the Christ… not advocating for all paths lead to God… well, they do eventually, but you don’t want to arrive there naked – Jesus is our covering on that day
just saying… it’s 15 degrees outside and i don’t want to go out and face a couple chores this a.m. – don’t want to die in a horse paddock 🙂
Jerod,
I”ve been detailing and predicting this split since 2013.
CC pastors lined up on these pages to tell me I was full of crap.
There has a very short line to apologize to me for that and an even shorter line thanking me for the information I’ve brought them with consistency.
I thank you for your words to Brodersen…that shows more character than the pastors who continue to try to ruin him, not for doctrinal purity but for power and influence.
Again, thank you for demonstrating godly character.
Thank you Michael. I just have to say though…
I really do know how to use commas . The swype app is very sensitive.
” what i know is old school CC.”
Couldn’t help but wonder if that was before Chuck decided that evangelism was no longer his calling and that his new call was equipping the saints.
Around 1972 was when i first detected a major shift a CCCM.
His alter calls on Monday nights stopped.
The healings no longer took place.
The after glows became just more teaching mode places.
And the local growth started to slow down.
Years later Michael uncovered a pastors conference document where Chuck admitted the unannounced shift in his thinking way back when,
CCCM then became just a Bible teaching school, a shadow of it’s former self.
This prepared the way for the Vineyard to come into existenc, when John Wimber asked Chuck, “When do we do the stuff?”
He was referring to the book of Acts and the recorded events of the Holy Spirit and His interaction with God’s people.
Chuck in typical form said, “If your not happy here perhaps you should go and start your own church.”
He did.
Surfer 51
1972?? I wasn’t even an itch
He did and then what happened?
I have only been going to Calvary Chapel since 2004, almost 13 years. I’m a freshman compared to most everybody here. Jesus Culture and Hillsong weren’t heard every service (why in heaven do we have to start of with a Happy Jesus rock concert every Sunday?) When I started at my local CC there was a heavy emphasis on one to one evangelism in town, which turned to crowd evangelism, which is now no real focus on evangelism in town. In fact the mission statement changed to bringing, equipping, training and sending – basically bring the lost to church, rather than the other way around. Well, sometimes there is some in town tract handouts and invitations, but it usually is spearheaded by a layman, is spotty, and only a one or two day thing. It’s a bummer, cause I wonder what would happen in my town if we made a concerted effort to evangelize every hooker, pimp, and dealer in our town. By we I mean myself included.
John 20 29
I have questioned my pastor as to why, with everything going on, we are still affiliated. I wonder if it has a lot to do with missionaries we support?