Thanksgiving Week 2008

To all of our Friends who are following this blog!

Well, I missed my dateline by two days. In my last blog I said, "I will be adding to this blog Monday, November 24th." "My bad," as the kids would say.

My prayer today is that as you catch up with us you really, truly, enjoy a very fulfilling Thanksgiving with your family and your friends. Thanksgivings have always been a very important part of our lives. In fact Judy reminded me that this is the first Thanksgiving she can remember, in our married lives, that she has not prepared the feast! We will be joining our son in law Jody and daughter Carolyn and their family for Thanksgiving and Carolyn will be fixing the meal! So Judy is "amazingly thankful!"

This morning I read the Old Testament books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The story of the miraculous return of Israel back to Jerusalem from Babylonian captivity is an incredible display of the gracious hand of the Lord. Throughout the two books the spirit and the display of Thanksgiving to God is manifest over and again. Ezra was thankful. Nehemiah was thankful. The people were thankful. The "thankfulness" of the people was displayed in the reading of the Law of Moses, with singing, with choirs, with tears, with instruments, with praise so loud that people could hear it from afar.

The thankfulness expressed through the two books was essentially around these blessings:

• Thankfulness for the Babylonian Kings who released the captive Jews from Babylon and with blessings and money and protection to rebuild the temple and the walls of the city of Jerusalem sent them back to that ancient city. This act by the Babylonians was a miracle from God!
• Joy and thankfulness in the actual rebuilding of the temple.
• Joy and thankfulness in the actual rebuilding of the gates and walls of the city.
• Joy and thankfulness in the opportunity to offer sacrifices again.
• Joy and thankfulness in the reading of the Law of Moses.
• Joy and thankfulness in the results of repentance.
• Joy and thankfulness to be a nation once again.

All of this "joy and thankfulness" was expressed, essentially, in the face of opposition and difficulty. It was then that I (GJ) began to sense and see what the Lord was saying to me...in this current generation...2008!

Everything in our lives right now is not easy nor clearly defined. There are all sorts of "rumblings" not only in America, (economic, politically, culturally) but also in the nations of the world. Pull up any "news website" and immediately you read of the distress, the posturing, the threats, and yes, the fear, that is all boiling just below the surface of humanity in this "global neighborhood." Truly, our days are not much different, in many respects, from the days of Ezra and Nehemiah!

There were those times in both of the books that Ezra and Nehemiah called a "time out" and sought out God's heart and then gave thanks to God. And they did these acts of thankful worship in the midst of the unknown and of fear. But once refreshed with "thankful worship," they moved forward with confidence and with trust in the God they knew, they worshiped and they loved.

Read the ten chapters of Ezra and the thirteen chapters of Nehemiah. Discover for yourself the gift and spirit of thanksgiving in the midst of your adversity. Rediscover trust in the God of the Universe in your specific situation. Be blessed by the fact that God is still on His Throne- in the economy, in politics and in culture, and that He has not left you nor abandoned you.

Join the Ancients as you walk and live through "the rebuilding of your life and the reconstruction of the protective wall of God around your life and the lives of those you love this Thanksgiving 2008."

"With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord: He is good; his love to Israel endures forever." Ezra 3:11 (NIV)

With Thanksgiving Prayers and Thankful Hearts,

Graydon and Judy

The MOST current thinking as of 11.19.08

To One and All,

As you can see we put some pictures up Sunday evening the 16th of November, but no new news! So what's that all about? Let me bring you all up to date. (Enjoy the pictures!)

First, Judy and I are doing well and we are thoroughly enjoying all the expressions of an Alaskan winter- cold, snow, wind, ice, shorter days, clear blue skies with bright sun...but without any warmth, gray skies with NO sun, scraping ice off of car windshields, but as of yet no northern lights!

Second, we continue to be able to support our grandchildren in their various activities. We have attended basketball games in crowded grade school gyms as well as two, four hour gymnastic meets. And we have thoroughly enjoyed it all! Most of all we have been blessed by the expressions of, "Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for coming to my meet or basketball game, or whatever!"

Third, we have been able to connect with many of our Alaskan friends. We have been praying, "Lord, may we meet up with those people we need to meet up with..." and that has really been the case. And we have loved what He has done by surprising us.

Fourth, we have been able to reconnect with the land. Comparing Alaska to Southern California is like comparing apples to bananas: they each are so different but you enjoy them both! Alaska has it's own raw beauty and we have been captured by that "northern beauty" once again.

And finally, we have been able to maintain our self imposed schedule of reading, praying, thinking, listening and talking about "this next chapter in our lives!" Let me give you our most current thinking.

1. Our specific direction is not absolutely clear yet. Once again, we are not anxious about this. We know that in the timing of the Lord it will become obvious what this next chapter will look like.
2. Even though the direction is not "specific" yet, there is a general "drift" towards what we think the Lord might be saying to us.
3. Once again, we are totally aware that "it" might not even look like what we think we might be "drifting" towards right now.
4. The "list" we had a couple of months ago included five possibilities plus a #6 which was "none of the above."
5. We still have that #6 (See #3 above) with adjustments in the original "five" and some others added.

Maybe you are asking yourself (or perhaps "muttering" to yourself) "how can they do this? They need to make up their minds. The seven weeks in Alaska is coming to a close. They HAVE to know something!" Remember what I have said all along: "I would not commit to anything until after January 1, 2009." The time spent here has been so helpful. There are things I (GJ) have learned about myself that I would have never learned nor heard if I had not stopped the train and spent this time being real quiet, real "unbusy," real deliberate in reading the Word- without thinking "how can I develop this passage for my next sermon!" I had been so preoccupied with fixing meals (sermons/lessons/articles) for everyone else for the past 46 years, (which was a good thing) that I had not taken time to consistently sit down at the table and eat well balanced meals for myself (which would be the 'best" thing!) In these past five weeks I have almost read the entire Bible- purely for the joy of hearing from the Lord without any agenda of sermon preparation. I will have read all 66 books before Thanksgiving Day! It has been refreshing, rejuvenating, revealing and very convicting to once again read, see, sense and hear, the heart of God as revealed in His Word!

Here is the most current plan: I will update this blog, Monday, November 24th. We'll see what the Lord has in store for us on that date!

With love and prayers,

Graydon and Judy from Twin Lakes, with an incredible view of Matanuska Peak!

Surprise...we have pictures!

Surprise! We have pictures! A friend (Jackie Evans) showed me how to do this! Simply amazing. So what is this picture all about? This is the view from the front room of the house we are living in for these few weeks we are here in Alaska. In the foreground is the lake, looking over the trees to the Chugach Mountains. Enjoy!

Guess what? Once again I have been duly instructed in how to put pictures in the blog! How modern is that? This is a picture Judy and I took of Mt McKinley just a couple of weeks ago!

Judy and I did a little moving around. We went with our friends, Bub and Bonnie Nelson down on the Kenai Peninsula. Here we are on Cook Inlet looking across to the Alaskan Range.

Just a few days ago we had a fresh snow. We wanted to show you the contrast (between Graydon and the tree -:D)

Election Day 2008

Dear Friends,

What an historic day in the history of the United States of America. I trust you have voted!

Part of my story has been the opportunities I have had to travel world wide. I have been in 44 different countries! In many of the countries I have had to travel anonymously. Citizens of those restrictive countries have not had the right to vote, to be a part of the process of governance. Many of those friends have spoken with me about the privileges we take for granted in the United States. Be sure and vote! You'll be glad you did!

As you know I have been reading the Bible intently. It has been an extraordinary journey. When you systematically read between 26-30 chapters per day, from the different categories of the bible, (Law, History, Poets, Prophets, Gospels, Acts, Pauline Epistles, General Epistles) you begin to catch the heart of God! I know as I have been reading that I ponder afresh the changing unpredictability of humanity in relationship to the Father, and the longsuffering of God Himself as He relates to His created beings- us! What an amazing love affair from God to us. Actually it is one I do not fully comprehend or even pretend to fully understand. But, it is a relationship I desperately desire- not only for myself, but for others also. Consequently, that is essentially what this short "rest period" in Alaska is all about: "Lord, how can we be used to the fullest extent of our present giftedness in the ministry and business of your Kingdom in this next chapter of our lives? How can we come alongside others to help them in their relationship to You?"

A brand new offer for us to consider has landed on the table. Essentially, one of the original five has been removed and then this new one has been added. You are wondering, "OK, where do we stand then?" Give me a little more time and I will be released to discuss the options in more detail. And in all of this we continue to keep "option #6" open, which is, "none of the above!" In the meantime though, we continue to faithfully watch and pray. We consider ourselves so blessed to be able to spend this quality time reading, praying, listening and talking. It has been so good.

We are watching the winter shadows on the mountains change almost daily. As the sun moves further south in it's southerly journey towards December 21st, it casts new shadow arrangements on the unchanging mountains! It is a great picture of the "changing culture" in which we live, in comparison and relationship to the "unchanging nature of an Eternal God!"

We send our love and prayers, not only for you but also for our nation on this historic day!

Graydon and Judy