Lights

After our short trip down to Oregon this weekend, it was time for us to put the lights on the house. We started a little late today because Josh had to work until 3pm. It gets dark about 5pm or so which is a huge change from those long summer days of having light outside until about 10 o'clock at night. After replacing a few blown fuses and running a couple of power lines to handle the number of strands we had run, we finally finished. The lights look great!

We went in the house to have supper. After supper, my daughter Rebecca ran outside to inspect the job and see the pretty lights. After about 2 minutes, Becca came back and was very irritated. "I wanted to put up pink lights", she said. We just laughed and said that maybe next year we would put up multi-colored lights. This is definitely the last year we can use these clear lights - they have served their purpose.

I told my daughter that although God is the light of the world, it does not necessarily mean you will like the color of the light. God has a plan for each one of us and we may or may not like what that plan is - it is what it is.

As I am sitting here tonight thinking about that discussion (and smiling), I extended the analogy to everything that gone on the past several months with my family. There were many days that walked outside and was not happy with the color of the lights, but it is all part of God's plan. God has decorated all houses with a certain color of lights (His plan for us) and its up to us to find out how to get out of the house and see what color they are.

While we were out putting up the lights, one of the neighbors walked by with his children and said "We are enjoying the fruits of your labor, we really like your lights". So even though it may not have been the lights that Becca would have chosen to put on the house, somebody thought they were just right. God has a reason for everything that happens to us in life and whether we like it or not, we must accept it. Maybe next time we see the lights, they will be perfect - only God knows.....

You Can

I thought this was really cool.

My rock...

I went in to the Church today as part of my normal weekly opportunity to serve God. I set up all of the materials and such for the weekly Sunday Children's Ministry. Today was a little bit different. I have a couple of friends there that set up a prayer meeting with me for about an hour while I was there. Aurora and Elizabeth got together with me and we chatted for a bit about the all the things we needed to pray for, we read some scripture, and began to pray.

As one part of our prayer, I prayed in repentance for the anger I felt when dealing with the issues surrounding my family down in San Diego. It is so important to understand that we as Christians are to stand our ground against the enemy, covered in the blood of the lamb, and allow God to engage them. I read Psalm 18 several times this evening. The entire Psalm is inspiring and clearly demonstrates God's greatness in the deliverance of David from his mortal enemies. As we walk with God and turn away from sin, we will be blessed. "The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanliness of my hands in his sight" Ps 18:24 NIV. I can honestly stand before God at any time and know that my hands are clean - this brings me a lot of peace. When the enemy begins for close in on me, I will take refuge in my God. As my faith continues to strengthen, the enemy will continue to attempt to wound me but his arrows will be absorbed by the shield of righteousness that covers me and those arrows will not hurt me. "The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge." Ps 18:2 NIV. This is now my life verse at this time in my life.

I can not begin to tell you how awesome it is to have people around me, like Aurora and Elizabeth, that provide so much encouragement and strength - what a blessing. For the past couple of weeks I have been filled with a lot of anxiety and stress with everything going on. Today at this very moment, I feel a peace that is very refreshing. I love Jesus!

The Advent Conspiracy

I grabbed this off of adventconspiracy.org...... amazing :) Very simple for us all to make a difference in the world! Blessings.

Football

As our normal Sunday ritual, my son and I try to watch as much football as we can fit in to a Sunday. I was watching a game today where a running back got absolutely creamed by the safety. I mean, this was a BIG hit. Immediately following the play, the running back stood up and gave the safety a firm "bonk" on the shoulder pads and nodded at him. I could only think that he said something like this, "that was a good hit" - without adding the "but I am still here" comment - I just add that in because I think it sounds cool.

Laying here getting ready for bed and thinking about that play, I thought about the spiritual battle that exists for me today. It feels like I am getting hit left and right. Here we stand as warriors in the Christian faith with Jesus Christ calling all the plays. Our steadfast and everpresent Quarterback. We line up against a defensive team that is in training 24/7 to keep us from achieving anything worth while. We continue to run plays and sometimes we gain a few yards and sometimes we get pushed back a little bit. Whats important is that everytime we get hit, we stand back up and give a firm "bonk" on the shoulderpads of the enemy and say "that was good hit, but I am still here". When the game is over, we can only hope that the quarterback looks at the players (warriors) and says "well done"........

Lots to Pray about

Lots of things to pray for this day......

One of the Elders in our church (http://www.occ.org/) is in a hospital in Thailand. He has a blockage in one of the valves in his heart and two blood clots in his arm. He is over there doing God's work and the enemy has attacked him for it. His name is Jeff and he is a really great guy. Jeff is involved in an organization called ipursuit ( http://www.ipursuit.org/ ) - Jeff needs your prayers for a supernatural recovery and safe travel home.

When I attended the Wednesday service this week, I was really surprised at the statistics associated with the tithes given. A study was done and the results were astounding. The church has gone through some really tough times over the past year and there has been a lot of changes made as a result. The church survives based on the tithes that the congregation provides. Given the importance of spiritual health and the fact that the church absolutely rocks, I pray that the folks that call our church their home will step up and tithe properly.

I have been struggling in this job market trying to find work. Its a difficult thing to let go knowing that God will provide in these very scary times. My wife and I talk about it all the time. A year ago, I was on cloud 9 with my business running in full swing and making a really good living. Now, I am doing everything I can to strengthen my faith and let God guide me through these rough waters. I know there is a calling somewhere in here for me to better serve God - I just wish He would reveal that to me like right now! I pray that God continues to give me (and my wife) the strength to continue to have faith that He is in control and will soon reveal his plan.

I have been praying quite a bit about my family down in San Diego and am sure that the enemy and his army of demons is still circling. I pray that they will all be able to see that the enemy is influencing their thoughts. The enemy is not at all happy with how my faith has strengthened and the steps I have taken to be a better warrior. Although I have not heard much at all from anybody in my family down there, I know the enemy is hard at work there. The fact that they are not communicating with me is a telling sign that the enemy is there. I will continue to be strong and not allow this turn of events to wound me. Jesus Christ lives within me and continues to protect me from the enemy. I am so lucky :)

Remember...... we are at WAR.

Pray.... and Vote

For those of you that might be interested in hearing a christian view on politics, the message at my church this past weekend was titled Politics...and Jesus. You can check it out at the following link: http://www.occfamily.org/resources/downloads/online2.asp

Pray...... and Vote :) Thats what I will be doing tomorrow.

Christmas

Christmas is going to be a little different this year at the Gilliam house. Tammy and I spoke to kids yesterday and will be buying less gifts for them this year and taking the money we would have spent on gifts and donating it to AIDS/HIV research. Our Church is sponsoring a program this year to allow folks like us to help people that are less fortunate than we are. We have also decided that instead of buying and sending gifts to family and friends this year, that we will make some cards by hand and put a note inside saying that we made a donation in thier name to this same cause. We know that our humble contirbution to this cause will make a difference in the lives of many. The worship pastor for our church posted the below video on YouTube... Enjoy. My hope is that this video will inspire you to do something different this year and make the world a little bit better yourself. Blessings to you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ux2TAOEMiA

A New Room

We decided about a month ago to create a "football" room for my son, Bobby. With grandma coming to live here and all the change that was occuring in the house, we decided to make it somewhat exciting for Bobby. As we began to choose colors and put together multiple accents for his new room, the excitement came through big. He chose the Chargers as the main theme of course along with some Seahawks and Patriots stuff. We picked up a "FatHead" on eBay of LT and put that up this weekend - one word, AWESOME. It is life size and looks really cool. It just so happens that the light in his room compliments the placement of LT (i.e. shadows and such). We are just about done with the room and it looks really cool. The smile on Bobby's face when he walks in there makes it all worth it! What a blessing to be able to create such warmth in the hearts of our young ones. I am looking forward to getting done with the rest of the house now :) It will be nice to get back to normal.