Consuming Fire---"Ouch that hurts"

     Our God is a consuming fire Heb 12: 27-29----- 27- Now this indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a Kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably      
with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.
     I don"t consider myself a theologian, far from it, but when God shakes up your little world, something deep  inside of you needs to be released.  This is a big step to write about what I feel and articulate my feelings in a way where other people can relate and the glory of God may be spread to my one or two readers of this Blog.
     Before I came up to North Dakota from Salt Lake I had a stable job driving bus, 40 hours, I could have worked another 10 years, retire and so goes the comfortable life! God, in His infinite wisdom,  had a different plan of action for me and of course, Gods' plan is always the harder route to take than your way. Consider that everyone is playing out the Mission Impossible movie of  life, God is the chief of  operations and in prayer He says " If you decide to accept this mission, you can only rely on Me for your comfort and strength, everything you relied on in the past will be shaken to the core. You will be consumed by My Spirit, to be able to learn who I Am, to know My Son Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior who Saved us from certain death because He is the perfect blood sacrifice,(the Lamb who was slain)  who died on the cross to bore our sins and on the third day My Son rose from the dead and is sitting on His throne in Heaven! In this process, you will have forgiveness of sin, Mercy, Grace and all the tools you need to live a righteous life in front of ME! This promise will not self destruct in 5 seconds but I will work on our selfishness so you can think of others more than yourself, I will always be with you, never forsake you, I will carry you in the rough times and in the good times, If you rely on Me for all your needs you will be blessed.                                                                       
       Since that was said, I have been up here in North Dakota in the oil fields, I love the fact I am driving the big rigs and I will be coming back to Salt Lake to see my son and my friends at the end of March. The work is slow but when I do work I like it. I started to get discouraged about the money but that was shot down very quickly by God. He is refining me to rely on Him, to go to Him in prayer to ask Him for wisdom and all the desires of my heart, now how can I get discouraged with my God who cares for me so much that He sent is only Son to die for me. I am Blessed
         Why did I picked Heb 12: 27-29, I was driving down the road and looking at all and the oil wells, on the oil well sites there is a pipe, the pipe is venting off the natural gas which is present with the oil underground. The end of the pipe where the natural gas is coming out, is lite it on fire to burn off the natural gas. I asked my co-worker why they don't use the gas for heating or cooking? His response was very interesting, "the natural gas that comes out of that pipe, they can't use because it not the right kind of gas, it has chemicals that are not good for you, it has a bad smell to it and all around it's good for nothing. That is the reason they burn off the unwanted gasses.
            God is the consuming fire, just like Moses at the burning bush, It was on fire but it wasn't being consumed. It dawn on me when I saw the fire in the oil well, it a perfect representation of a Christian and of our own sin within us.  Deep underground were the oil is, represents our inner being were His Spirit lives within us. The oil is the sin within our bodies that has been there from the time of Adam and Eve and the tree of good and evil, this sin, if not purged from the body weighs us down to the point of death. The Pipe, well of course that is Jesus, when you accept Jesus into your inner being, you are saved from the death by the death that Jesus willingly suffered on the cross, to have forgiveness of your sin and to get your name in the Book of Life. The Pipe or Jesus is the venting to get the sin out of the body ( forgiveness of sin ). Now the natural gas is not the result of too many beans you ate, it is the result of the oil or sin within our bodies from our own fleshly desires and the inherent sin we got from Adam & Eve. The oil,  if in the ground will produce natural  gas, so the gas represents the ugliness, unwanted smell, the no good for you, result of sin in your life.
          The final say on this whole matter is God the consuming fire, When the gases (result) of the oil (sin) in your life has a PIPE( Jesus) to vent off (forgiveness of sin) the unwanted gases (sin) to the surface (known to God) to the consuming fire! God is faithful and will be the match of forgiveness and will clear the air of the wanted and unwanted gas in your life for a deeper more satisfying relationship with the creator, my God and my King.                      JESUS the Lamb of God   
                                                                                                                          Scott  
              

GOD changes everything / Reclaiming my Heart Chapter 2

                                                             Chapter 2 


         I truly thought after I came back from Haiti last year, God had showed me where my Heart was at, I totally accepted I will be down in Haiti or the like in the next 5 years. I came back from Haiti in October 2011 with a love of the people of Haiti and the country that I had a hard time coming back and becoming a bus driver lol! One thing I found out about myself in Haiti, God can use you in a mighty way if you get yourself out of your comfy zone, plainly said, it's all your external and internal mechanisms you build around you to make you feel safe and secure. You go to a third world country, the safety net is no where to be found,  for me, to find out all my so called safety nets were built around my heart to protect my heart from feelings I didn't want, or like to feel, like loneliness, homelessness or spiritual deadness. The only real  comfort I had in Haiti was knowing when all my safety nets were demolished and I was falling, there was no where to land EXCEPT in the arms of Jesus.  
            In November, I was looking at my 3 week vacation, I knew I was going to Haiti, I made arrangements to go to northern Haiti, I was so excited but I had some reservations, I could only go once a year, I was devastated! Thanksgiving was right the corner and  I didn't feel thankful. I was praying about what to do about going to Haiti more, it was a painful season of doubting which God took the doubting away very quickly because Thanksgiving came, Marilyn's family came into town for the week. Reg (Marilyn's son in law) told me about trucking up in North Dakota oil fields, how you work two weeks and off two weeks. Right away my ears perked up and I was convinced that was answer to prayer, so I prayed even more and felt very comfortable ( there's that word again) getting my class A and QUITTING my bus job of 12 years and benefits to go work up in the oil fields of ND so I can have 2 weeks off a month to go to Haiti and spend some time with me son Aaron. Prayers ANSWERED!!!!!!!!  So here I sit in a little trailer in New Town, North Dakota, the work is unpredictable, in the last week, 2 times I stayed up for more than 30 hours straight, you work enough hours in 2 weeks than others job you work in a month. I can say with confidants God has placed me in this situation to grow me for the mission field, a stranger in a strange land.  I know I can be content anywhere, because I have fallen in the safety net of Christ! When you stir up the pot of comfortism, you never know what God might have in store for you but you will have blessings to the 10th degree. Trust me, I am living out the blessings. I can't wait for Chapter 3!!!  Thanks for your Prayers everyone! 

no more Mr Bus Driver

This is my front yard view

Yes, Ice fishing

This is a"frac" site
The cylinders are holding Oil

Cool Farm

Big town of New Town

Bridge over the river Kwai
It's actually a big lake with a even a bigger Indian name   

Home is were the the heart is at

        

The hospital feeding program

       I just want to say thank you everyone from the deepest reaches of my reclaimed heart, for giving me donations from the car wash and just the generous people from Lifeline, this is what YOU did for the people at the hospital and the people that made the food. The whole day was awesome, I went over to Georgettes' moms house and got to see the inter workings of the huge task in front of them, to make enough food for 250 people. In fact, all of them had smiles on their faces and enjoying each others company, knowing in their heart they were doing something special today. They would set aside some food for people around the neighborhood who was less fortunate
       They had so much food that they had to make it was pretty impressive, 3 large pots of rice and beans, tub of casserole salad, carrots, beets and  of course, chicken. They spread out a tarp and went to work on making the meals, it was a well oiled  machine, the Styrofoam containers where getting filled like clockwork, everyone had a station.
       Time to get the show on the road, the kids in the neighborhood helped loading all the dinners in the back of the truck, drinks in the cooler and we were off, speeding down the main drag of Jacmel, heading towards the hospital. In the back of us were the people from Georgettes church to pray for the people who needed prayer, got prayed for.

          The hospital was in sight, we got let in the gate, drove up to the hospital and the people from the church started to pray for the sick and injured, we started to bring the food in to everyone who was family or friend it didn't matter. We start handing out the food to who wanted it, whoever needed a meal( it was awesome). So we handed out all the meals, time to go home, The last thing Georgette said to me was, "I wish this feeding program could be more consistent". Off we went in the heat of the day, enjoying what we did for the LORD. Mother Theresa said " if you cant feed a hundred feed one, so we fed 250 people that would not have eaten today. Thank you Lord Jesus for this day!!!!!!!!!!

Georgette is hard at work

Georgettes Dad and her son

Three pots of rice and beans

Georgettes Mother

A whole lot of cooking

Not today Tom

The Meal

All the meals

The well oiled machine

Mike in the truck cooling down

Georgette needs a break

Haitian style sawmill.......unbelieveable

I am sorry about not blogging the internet is terrible in haiti 

      I woke up Thursday, had my cup of joe and at about 8:00 a.m a interesting noise came from the neighbors next door ( usually I never hear anything on that property except the annoying Haitian dog that barks for an hour right before I go to bed) And that is why it was interesting, it sounded like a hand saw, So I was at the table and looked next door, this Haitian guy was standing on a tree that was cut down. The log was suspended 15 ft up in the air, one side tied to a large standing tree the other side was held up by a network of sticks and logs shoved up against the bottom of the log.

They had an old time two man saw, just MAN power, on guy on top of the log and one on bottom, this human sawmill looked like very hard work ( its not for the faint of heart, not a light workout at Golds gym) . As I sat at the table sipping at my coffee, this sawing motion went on and on without stopping. At 10:00 still sawing, so I decided to put my video camera on this Haitian sawmill, ( this log was 20 ft long and about 40 in in diameter, They cut the log in 1” thick pieces, about 10 cuts). I put the camera on and started to time them, from start to finish one cut, one plank of wood 40 minutes. They had to cut almost to the end of the board and stopped, then started a new cut. I left at 11:00 and got back to the house at 4:00 and they were still working on the log, no breaks, It was unbelievable.

The only thing I can say is EVERYTHING in Haiti is MANual, it's like a setting back in the 1800's when everything was hand made without power tools. I give the Haitians credit they do know how to get the job done ( I know I would not last 30 minutes doing what they did!) I got up today they started doing the same thing today, Doing the Haitian sawmill, will not be the job I will have when I come down her long term! Scott

The tale of the nurses and drug runner Part 1

      Last week, I called Megan Haug, She is the co-founder of the  Leve Project, in Cayes Jacmel, about 10-15 miles from Jacmel http://www.facebook.com/leveproject. In our conversation, she mentioned she had 4 nurses coming down from Franklin, Tenn, which is outside of Nashville, So I offered whatever I had to assist her and the team, mostly my camera lens. So it came to be, I was made the Official Photographic Consultant, OPC for short, OK, I just made that up! I was picked to be the photographer, because I had a better camera then everyone else combined, plus I didn't know anything about nursing.
     On Monday morning, I drove out to the Bamboo club in Cayes Jacmel, Megan meet me there and followed her down a long dirt road until we stopped by a house and on the side of the house was a white Army wall tent that was donated by USAID . So everyone( Leigh, Kay, Lisa, Bronwen, Bronwens mother) started hiking up the Jungle until there was the first plateau, with a unfinished church and the house of the leader of the community, their front doors where facing each other. When we got to the church, we started to unpack all the suitcases, filled with medical supplies, medications and whatever else was donate for the trip, at the same time, people in the village started to come and gather around the church.
      A little side note, these villages are interesting, instead of roads connecting the community together, they have footpaths or trails that lead off in different directions. When you walk on these paths sooner or later you will come to your next door neighbor, uncle Larrys house or the bread lady, this is real community. It reminds me of the 1800's, were they had their plot of land and everyone in the family did whatever it took to provide subsistence for them and help out their neighbor whenever they can.
      The first day went great, they saw 40 people, nothing to serious, I had the best job of taking pictures of these sweet people, the kids were the best, I think I was the best entertainment than going to a movie on saturday night. I would take their picture, then run over to me, making sure I would show them the picture I took,  usually they would laugh and ask to take another, then the whole process would start all over again.So we had PB&J for lunch, than headed back to work and we worked until 3:00. We would be back in the morning at 9:00 am

Megan from the Leve project 

climbing up to the clinic

The church

The smile only a dentist would love

A hard day

my favorite picture

 I have been know to get the meds out for the ladies, that why the drug runner........You thought......I was....an actual drug runner!