TGIF
Fridays can be tough.
Friday is the day when I try to write something from my recent personal experience that might help someone reading make it to next Friday.
It’s the day that I try to bring some form of encouragement to those like myself who are trying to get through life one day, maybe one hour, at a time.
Friday is the day when I try to speak faith to all my failures, and hope to what seems hopeless, desiring that it will help others do the same.
Friday is the day when I replant the flag that says ‘I believe, help my unbelief”.
I rarely know what I’m going to write before I sit down at the computer, but the message comes when I start to write.
Not so today…
I don’t have any mini parables about cats or kids, no clever stories to facilitate faith.
I only have Friday.
In the Christian tradition Friday is the day when Christ was in the grave and so were the hopes and hearts of those who followed Him.
Everything they believed was true about who God was, who they were, and what their future held was slain before their eyes on a Roman cross.
They had given up everything to follow Him and now everything was gone and so was He.
Now, they were lost, alone and utterly defeated.
Except they weren’t.
God wasn’t finished yet.
On this Friday, you may have had your own ideas about who God is, who you are, and what your future holds completely shattered.
You have followed Him right to the end…and it looks like the end because you did.
It’s Friday, my friend.
God isn’t finished yet.
He never is.
Make your own application…
Today indeed sucketh yea verily!
Thank you Michael. Very timely.
Hang on, my friends…knowing that even if you let go, He won’t.
Well Michael,
I thought the little cat theology was your TGIF… so this is an extra bonus. Friday is usually the beginning of my week. It usually means three straight days and nights of working with people in the church family. So Thursday is a day off and Friday is a focused and determined preparation day.
Today we pour into Romans 10. Sunday night we go for John 9 in between some nice gatherings for worship and fellowship. New faces will appear and new friends will be made. Oh and of course lots of thorns and whips to navigate but as you have told us. He bore those making ours light and momentary by compare.
Good Friday to you sir, and to all the PP congregation.
I am rejoicing in Friday , cause hopefully no one will come up to me in the next three odd hours and say we are working tomorrow. I think tomorrow I may start planning out a garden plot.
I love Fridays, the atmosphere at work is usually festive and of course the looking forward to of the weekend with family and friends
Friday, ahhhh Friday…
Frigg’s day, with images of the goddess spinning beautiful and restful clouds…
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/FriggSpinning.jpg
Shabbat eve.
Time for rest at sundown.
Time for celebration and reflection.
Time for friends & family.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabbat
and then there’s P.O.E.T.S day 😉
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POETS_Day
…moderated with 3 links
To do Sabbath correctly, you must stay home and do nothing … otherwise you are making other people break the Sabbath and work.
3 day weekend Fridays are the best!
That should brighten yer day 🙂
I like Friday because it brings us that much closer to Monday! 🙂
No way MLD :
Josh, a youngster like yourself – did your dad tell you about the Mamas & the Papa’s?
I’ve always been sort of a pop music historian.
But yeah, my dad had a huge wicker chest full of LP’s that were the biggest part of my learning 🙂
1966 – the year I met my wife.
Ahh…in that case, here is a long-distance dedication to Mrs. MLD. A great song from 1966. 8 years before I was born, but this song inspired the name of my son:
And that’s it for Jtb radio, folks. Y’all keep it realllll!!!!!
This is a great Friday. Was blessed to perform a wedding at 7am in the pouring rain and it was just God, the couple and me and it was amazing! Going for sushi with my awesome bride for dinner. Will spend most of today studying Romans 8 and then on Sunday headed to a lodge in Grants Pass for 3 days. Yep, this is a great Friday!
Holy crap, really?
“You’re not resting correctly!”
Really?
To do the Sabbath “correctly” you might first suspend judgment, draw near to God as an act of conscious remembrance, then begin that rest thankfully, unto God, and include others who are likeminded, merciful and willing to cut you slack if you don’t do it so “correctly”.
Sheesh. Some people can find fault with a beautiful sunset!
G, not you aren’t resting properly – but if you go out then you make other people work on the sabbath – cops gotta be out to make sure you don’t speed on your way to Jack in the Box where you require someone to be there making your Jumbo Jack.
Josh, I always wanted to be the 5th Top and dance in the background.
I always wanted to be the guy playing bass…so I named my son after him.
So, for a Friday, let’s all play – what was “your song” with your other.
Ours was Walk Away R – by the Left Banke – 1966
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2pnet_walk-away-renee-the-left-banke_music
Walk Away Renee .. my fingers got all choked up just typing it. 🙂
I am sure this has not turned anyone’s head here but Bob Jones of Kansas City prophet fame has passed away. http://www.charismanews.com/us/42794-prophet-bob-jones-passes-away
If you want to work for a jerk, start your own business. “Who’s working late tonight?” “Who’s working this weekend?”
Always the same answer….
What’s the deal airline food?
I don’t mind being that Gentile who steps in to lend a hand on Sabbath.
For me, often, service = rest
peace, out
Another very nice TGIF. One of your best.
Oregon’s Statehood day is today, happy statehood.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=722752627743831
# 25
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRCe5L1imxg&w=420&h=315%5D
Very windy right now on Abbey Road, just saying…
http://www.abbeyroad.com/Crossing
bip- Since we’re goin’ down THAT road- everyone knows it’s windy. Today is sticker day at Levi Strauss. Make your own application
Ahh…guy in the corner, I like your line of thought. Got my Levi bell bottoms on and plucking my bass to sentimental journey. “I gotta take that sentimental journey home.”
Michael wrote,
“You have followed Him right to the end…and it looks like the end because you did.
It’s Friday, my friend.
God isn’t finished yet.”
Thanks.
Chile,
I was praying for you when I wrote it…
MKD @ 25… I devoted music today to classic Motown love songs. Can’t go wrong with any of these! 🙂
https://morethancoping.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/a-motown-love-song-extravaganza-february-14th-2014/
Oops… MLD!!! Case in point.
” Now, they were lost, alone and utterly defeated. Except they weren’t.” Michael if we could each internalize that monumental truth what a thing that would be. That hit home more than anything you’ve written. Thanks.
Thank you, Michael. You understand.
Chile and E…I’m living it so I can teach it.
If it helps, it’s worth it.
Michael – it helps… honest transparency always does.
Carefully constructed facades that are maintained at any cost, or honest transparency. Two entirely opposite styles of ministry. One has dark hidden closets with lost keys and the other has “what you see is what you get” reality.
Me thinks Almighty God uses the soft pliable clay and not the rigid hardened crumbly stuff.
There is always hope to be shaped with an expected end of expected results of much goodness. Michael is oozing with Godliness, bearing the prints of the Master potter all over.
Psalm 30:5
I will Extol You, O Lord
…Sing praise to the LORD, you His godly ones, And give thanks to His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning. Now as for me, I said in my prosperity, “I will never be moved.”…
2 Corinthians 4:17
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
Psalm 126:5
Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.
Hosea 6:2
After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.