Drawing Near To A Generous God, Embraced by Grace

OK, so where’ve I been? I told you in my last blog, but that doesn’t explain the silence since I returned. The thing is that life hasn’t stopped whirling around me and, frankly, my head’s spinning.

My daughter’s Master’s graduation was beautiful and we enjoyed renewing contacts with friends in Atlanta, one of my favoritist cities. The adoption awareness seminar in Daytona Beach, FL – sponsored by Embraced by Grace, a Christian adoption agency – went fantasticly well and was catalyst to several adoptions.

Here on the homefront, last week we enjoyed a special banquet at the Spirit of the West Coast with Peter Furler of Newsboys speaking, followed by a wonderful, God-exalting concert by the Newsboys. My husband, son and I had a blast just enjoying the Newsboys' great music, super performance and spiritual inspiration. Helping build houses for poor people in Baja, Mexico, this band lives what they sing and preach. Love 'em. And tomorrow we have Switchfoot, This Holiday Life & a bunch of other bands on Moonlight Beach hosting a surf contest. (Can you understand why I keep harping on So Cal-ers being so spoilt? It's the truth). Too bad Louis won't be there. Yes, Louis left yesterday to minister again in several countries in AFRICA. And I will be in Chicago next week for the Write to Publish conference—a Christian writer’s conference I highly recommend.

Talking of writing, I have an article in this month’s issue of Indeed magazine (Walk through the Bible) called: Expectant Squawking (Drawing Near to a Generous God). This is a great devo mag more meaty than most—a great tool to go deeper with God.

On that note, some great books I recommend are by Chris Tiegreen, Indeed’s editor:
http://homepage.mac.com/ctiegreen/Personal2.html Chris’s writing is refreshingly deep. He doesn’t cater to the feel-gooders who formulate their doctrine based on what keeps them comfy. Chris, like many of my fave authors, knows about suffering and understands its value in our lives. And, whether we like it or not, pain has great value.

Speaking of suffering, this weekend features the Worldwide Weekend of Prayer for Children at Risk (see details at www.viva.org). The idea behind this event is to encourage churches, small groups and individuals to specifically put time aside to pray for the world’s suffering children. There are so many needs out there, it’s not hard to think of children who need our prayers. Sadly, there are still too few churches who implement this event on their premises or who even promote it for small groups. I hope it’s through ignorance and not through indifference. God forbid that we wouldn’t find it important enough to put aside our comfort for a while and give time to intercede for those who cannot speak up for themselves: Prov.31: 8,9.

This brings me back to the title of my article mentioned above: God is indeed generous. He waits to be gracious to us (Isa.30:18). And He waits for us to call on Him on behalf of others.

On that note, yikes, the clock is ticking me off. Must go. I’m hosting a prayer meeting at my home tonight and the house needs cleaning. Don’t want folks sneezing ‘cause of dust in the middle of praying right?

If I don’t blog before I’m back from Chicago, please know I appreciate your visits and especially your prayers for the suffering children of the world.

Janey DeMeo (copyright 31 May, 2007)