This morning from 1:30 to 3:30 (yes, I’m insane) I purged the condo of all extraneous stuff I’m not using, then organized the cupboards and put a bag of stuff in the garage – yet another bag of stuff.

My next project is boxing up what’s in the garage that already in boxes (but needs to be, in order to move) so that all my stuff will be 99.9% ready to roll, except for clothes and furniture I’m still using.

I will get some boxes this weekend and start the process. I’ll go slow and just invest a few hours each weekend until I’m satisfied everything is documented in boxes and that I can get to what I need in case I don’t sell quickly…

Don’t ask me why I’m so eager – it isn’t springtime so my energy level should not be this spunky – and in fact it isn’t, at all, except in the realm of a potential move. I reckon it’s because we have been talking about moving for so long that I want to make myself move-ready for when it actually happens! I know it’s going to happen – I just don’t know when! That way it will be easy for me and I can then help Jackie get ready for her move, instead of us both scrambling to get it done in separate parts of Tacoma.

I will be donating stuff that hasn’t been used in a blue moon. I’ start this weekend as I have time and energy. That will free up space so I can work strategically. I have a bike and a glass dinner table and six chairs to donate, the bike to Goodwill and the table and chairs to Maple Creek -- if I can get Jackie to come by so I can use her SUV to transport the table and chairs. These donations will free up space in the garage so I can move and box and stack… Great plan!

Jackie and I are going to start looking at ramblers this weekend, ones that are convertible into two residences. We have three possibilities to look at already within our price range and distance-from-work parameters. Looking this soon is putting the cart before the horse -- until I sell the condo we don’t have enough money to put down on anything else -- but God willing, we will find the right home and a buyer for my place at about the same time. I have faith that God is working the plan in His perfect timing! It’s so much more relaxing to know this, to the very core of my being!

This faith walk is just amazing! I don’t think I’d have this level of faith if I hadn’t been exposed to Alan Meenan’s Word Is Out course (which I’ll be finishing up in the next few weekends via CD; get on board at www.wordisout.org) for the past six years. Once you understand the Bible and the way things work in God’s economy and kingdom, it’s quite easy to develop your faith and walk it out so God can prove to you that your reliance upon Him is all He ever wanted from His children. I’m totally confident that whatever happens, whenever it happens, will be orchestrated by an eternal, divine Father who loves us without limit.

But possessing faith and walking in it doesn’t mean we won’t be exposed to trials, tribulations, and tragedies – as all are part of a scheme Lucifer has brought into the world during his long campaign to convince us that God is limited, weak, absent, or impotent. God is going to clean house – I believe before my normal lifetime is over - but not before He’s certain He has gathered everyone to His bosom who is even remotely considering coming to Him. He wants everyone to make it into His kingdom, after all. He’s not exclusionary in the least.

People exclude themselves by failing to learn (over a course of years and serious study, not a cursory reading) what’s in the Bible and coming to an honest, intelligent conclusion based on what is there. Again, I urge you all to read LEARN THE BIBLE IN 24 HOURS by Chuck Missler, as a starter book or as a follow-up book to Bible studies you have enjoyed – because Missler connects all the dots and makes it very clear that the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, are the word of God and that they fit together as one whole… and that Jesus is the way to heaven. You don’t have to be a Christian (are you aware that "religion" means "return to bondage" – I don’t think Jesus is a Christian, he remains a Jew) to get to heaven, but you do have to have an intelligent, fond, binding relationship with Jesus and to what he did for you on the cross to open the way for you to get back into God’s kingdom. Anyone can have a relationship with him. But you have to ask – Jesus is not a gate crasher.

This reminds me of a horrible experience I had at the Puyallup Fair last month. As I was leaving, there were two lunatic, self-appointed "evangelists" standing outside the Fair holding large handmade signs and shouting at the tops of their lungs that Jesus would damn everyone to hell who did not believe in him. (So much for the gospel, which means "good news"!)

I wanted to melt and run underneath a shoe, and I wanted to go up to them and tell them, "Brothers, you aren’t a positive reflection of our Savior, behaving the way you are. Jesus used love, logic, healing and invitation, and still does. He doesn’t use a battering ram. Please return home and pray about what kind of message you want people to receive about our savior. I don’t think the one you are portraying is accurate. You’re scaring people. Look at them – many of them are Christians, as I am, but all are walking out of their way to avoid you. People flocked to Jesus. Something is wrong here with your message. Please go home and pray about it."

Of course I did no such thing. I, too, took a wide berth around these two offensive people and have regretted it ever since.

I probably would’ve received an ovation from the Christians in the crowd… and a sense of wonder from the rest… had I spoken what was in my heart to these errant evangelists. I heard a security guard already on his walkie-talkie making arrangements to have the miscreants removed, and so considered the matter well in hand.

But I wonder what would have happened had I stook up for Jesus against Jesus freaks who don’t have a clue about how to shepherd the lost into the kingdom. All I know for sure is THAT WASN’T IT!

Again: People exclude themselves by failing to learn (over a course of years and serious study, not a cursory reading) what’s inside the Bible and coming to an honest, intelligent conclusion based on what is there.

It’s 66 love letters from a God who loves us without limit and wants us to return it to Him with equal devotion, with no competition from the other "idols" in our lives: work, family, celebrities, cars, whatever we spend more time thinking about than Him.

Fair enough exchange for the God who made the universe and our lives possible, wouldn’t you say?