Ethiopian Food…MMMMMMMMMM

Ethiopian food is messy! Our experience eating Ethiopian food on Friday made for an interesting date night. We decided to celebrate the completion of our adoption paperwork by going out for Ethiopian food - a delicious way to finish the last fives months of our paperchase. This was our first experience of many to come and we both enjoyed it (We highly recommend Queen of Sheba on MLK in Portland!). Below you will see a picture of the dishes we ordered. They bring all the food ordered out on one plate and you use the pancake looking bread (injera) to scoop up the food and eat it. Ethiopian meals are eaten without utensils. Injera is made in large circles and placed on the bottom of a large tray. Various stews are spooned on top in small mounds. To eat, pieces are torn off of extra injera and used to scoop up the food. Injera is made from a fermented sourdough batter. In this way, it has a slightly tangy flavor and a light and airy texture. It is traditionally made from a grain called teff, a staple in Ethiopia.

Jeremy was cleaning his hands after every bite while Megan just dove right in and ate like a pro. We had a great evening while enjoying a new experience together and talking about the next steps in our adoption process.

You might be asking what the next steps are :) Our paperwork is currently in Virginia and we be reviewed by Emily (our family coordinator) and two others from her office this week. They will then ship the documents to Ethiopia on Friday November 19th! Once accepted, our names will be put on the list of adoptive parents. We will be notified when we are the next on the list and then we will receive a referral. A referral is a picture and medical information of the child that God has chosen for us. Please be praying for patience during this process and preparation as we expect it to take at least 6 months. We feel so blessed to be on this journey together and to have such great support from our family and friends.

Something to think about

Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.
James 1:27

Wow. Kind of takes the air out of you for a moment, right? God is serious about us needing to care for the vulnerable populations. To be obedient we need to be looking after orphans and widows. Don’t get us wrong….we do not think that everyone should feel obligated to adopt. Adoption is just one of the many ways that we can care for those who can’t care for themselves. My sister and brother-in-law support a child overseas by giving financially to a reputable organization. Our church has set-up a partnership with an orphanage in India to make it easy for members to support children with specific needs. The money sent to the orphanage pays for meals, school supplies, medical care, housing and clothes. Along with the partnership in India, our church has also partnered with OWT (Orphans and Widows of Tanzania). These are just a few examples of ways that we can respond to the above passage.

As for us, we feel God has put adoption in our life as an answer to this call in James. Will we stop there? No way!! We continue to watch for opportunities that arise to help those around us and we will make international missions a priority for our family.

Ultimately we all have to deal with how we are answering the call that God has put on our lives. In working in the hospital I meet many widows, some have family who care for them but many do not. Do you have an elderly neighbor that needs some repairs done on their house or just wants a friend to chat with over a cup of tea?

We would love to hear the ways you are responding to the needs of orphans and widows…

What’s in a name?

Many people have already asked us what we plan on naming our child. To us, it is more complicated than just picking a name out of a book. Through the adoption process we will be taking this boy/girl out of their home country and everything they have ever known. What will they have left? Because of this we hope to keep at least part of their original name intact. We might make some changes or only keep parts of the name because it may be difficult to pronounce for English speakers. Interestingly enough, we found out that when you participate in an international adoption the US government names the child for us upon our re-entry in the country! Initially their name will be their original first name and then the father’s first name will be the child’s middle name and then the family’s last name. That sounds confusing….our child’s name will be _____ Jeremy Logue. And this is the same for both boys and girls! Fortunately there will be an opportunity to legally change the child’s name to whatever we have selected :)


ADOPTION UPDATES:

We had a fabulous garage sale! Thanks to everyone who made generous donations. After we spit the profits with our brother and sister-in-law (who are also pursuing adoption) we got to apply $1,000 to our adoption!

We recently submitted our paperwork to the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services. Next the USCIS will schedule a biometrics appointment for us to go to Salem to have our fingerprints and photographs taken.

We are hopefully still on target to submit our dossier to Ethiopia by the end of October.

Children are Priceless

Even though we are not parents yet, we understand that children are priceless. The truth is that children are expensive whether through adoption or by the old fashioned way. No parent would ever put a price on their child. There will be people that ask the question, “How much did you pay for your child?” After learning about adoption our answer will forever be, “He/she is priceless.” As many of you already know, it requires a significant amount of funds to finalize an adoption process. No one actually pays for a child (it is illegal!). Of course we will pay an agency, lawyers and travel costs…just like many other parents would pay doctors and hospital bills to have a child. We already know that the cost will be nothing compared to the joy gained from growing our family.

In the process of seeking ways to raise funds for our adoption, Megan came across Just Love Coffee Roasters. You can read more about the company on their website: www.justlovecoffee.com. The owners have a heart for the people of Ethiopia (sparked by their own adoption journey) and a knowledge of coffee. They combined those two passions and started a business. By setting up an online store we can support the hard working people in Ethiopia and also provide a simple way to raise funds for our adoption. Just Love Coffee makes a small donation to our adoption with each purchase from our online store. Click the image on the right side of the blog to get to our coffee site. We are so thankful for your generous love and support! Please continue to pray that God will prepare our hearts as we take each step closer to our child.

Paperwork, Paperwork and More Paperwork

The process for international adoption has been interesting - so far just full of paperwork. The beginning phase of the adoption process has been given the nickname “paperwork pregnancy”. Just so you know…it is a lot of work. When we first got the information from America World, we thought “this doesn’t look too bad”. It seemed simple looking at the required documents on the computer. Here are a few examples of the paperwork needed:

• Birth & marriage certificates - has to be issued within the last 5 years
• Fingerprinting – this was done at the police station
• Physical Exam - This has to be notarized which means bringing a certified person with you to the doctor’s office (Thanks Clint!)
• Criminal background checks
• Letters from your employer
• Letters of reference
• Financial statements
• Etc. Etc. Etc.

Slowly but surely we have been gathering all the necessary documents. The hard part is keeping it all straight. Because one person needs some documents, another person needs other documents and then some of those have to be combined. Confused yet? We sure were. For a few days we had all the documents lying on the kitchen counter in different piles. Every once in a while we would rearrange the documents, make a new pile and start another checklist. We finally decided, after talking with our social worker, that we should just complete each form and then email it her and our family coordinator with America World. So we fill it out, scan it and email it to both of them. Then they tell us what else we still have left to get to them and what we need to keep for our Dossier.

Definition: Dossier dos•si•er (dŏsˈē-āˌ, dôˈsē-āˌ)
A collection of papers giving detailed information about a particular person or subject. (from http://www.yourdictionary.com)

Our definition of dossier is: tell us everything about you plus some more information that you don’t even know about yourself yet. This has all been an interesting process and has brought up some great questions about what kind of parents we will be. We have already had some good discussion about parenting styles, discipline and how we can foster bonding/attachment with our child. Of coarse we still have a lot to learn!

Update: We have just completed our second meeting with our social worker. She will now work on typing up our home study while we complete dossier paperwork. We are hoping to be done and ready to send it all to immigration by beginning of October. Thank you for continued prayers!

A New Journey: international adoption

Over the past year or so we have been considering starting our family. Through many different joys and trials we believe that the Lord has led us to the point where we are beginning the process for international adoption. This is something that we have felt would eventually happen – we talked about this topic before we were even married! Since we both have had the privilege of traveling to several other countries we have seen and been touched by the incredible number of children who live as orphans in this world. It may surprise you that we are choosing to adopt our first child (it did us too!) but we know that God has great things in store as we follow His leading.

Over the past 6 years Megan has been to Africa twice and Jeremy has been once. We are both excited to be going again to Tanzania in three weeks. Those beautiful children have captured our hearts. When we decided to start the adoption process it was obvious to us that we would pursue a child from the land that we both have grown to love. On March 17th, 2010 we were accepted to the America World Adoption Agency. We will be adopting from Ethiopia.

Why Ethiopia? Why not!?!

There are many reasons why we chose Ethiopia. To name a few:

1. We meet the country requirements. Each country sets its own requirements for adopting couples. For example: net worth, length of marriage, and how old you are, etc.

2. Young children and infants are available. Since it is our first child we wanted to be able to experience as much of those first stages of life as possible.

3. The time it takes to process an adoption is shorter than most countries allowing us to bring home a younger child. Also, our stay in Ethiopia is only 7-10 days many countries require 2-6 weeks.

4. The children are well cared for in Ethiopian orphanages and are given thorough medical exams. America World only adopts through orphanages that make certain that the children are actually orphans – thus preventing child trafficking.

5. There are an estimated 5 million orphans in Ethiopia. Most often Ethiopian children become orphans because their parents have died or they cannot afford to care for them. These children are in desperate need of families!


So our hope is that this blog will serve in two ways….we want to keep a written record of this incredible journey and we want to include our friends and family in this process. This will allow those of you who live in other parts of the nation and world an opportunity to be a part of this crazy adventure. Thank you for those of you that have already poured out encouragement and love! We are so grateful.

Crazy Love by Francis Chan- Chapter 8 "Profile of the Obsessed"

The first thing that Chan does in this chapter is define the word obsessed. To be honest I have never really thought much about what this word means. Most of the time I equate it to somebody who is crazy about something. This was the definition Chan gave at the start of the chapter - Obsessed: To have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic. Based on that definition of obsessed, I’m not sure I have ever really been obsessed. Well maybe I have….during high school wrestling, I was probably obsessed with winning. When I was preparing for a match all my focus and energy went into the thought of winning. Thinking back on those few hours before a wrestling match, my focus slowly got more and more defined as I got closer to the match. Rarely would you find me sitting 30 minutes before a wrestling match. I would pace back and forth thinking about what I would do on the mat. I guess that is what I would call obsessed in my life. The honest truth is that I have never thought of my relationship with Christ to be something that I’m obsessed about. But that is because I thought being obsessed was a bad thing. After reading this chapter I want to be obsessed. Here is how the chapter went…Chan would give a characteristic of an obsessed person, talk about it and then give a phrase that described that characteristic in one or two sentences. The way I read this chapter was that each of these are ways we can be obsessed. Chan listed 12 different characteristics that an obsessed person could have. They are: lovers, risk takers, friends of all, crazy ones, the humble, server, giver, sojourners, the engrossed, unguarded ones, the rooted, the dedicated and sacrificers. It would take me forever to write out even just the phrase for each of these things listed. I wanted to pick a couple that really got my attention and spoke into my life. These two things really made me think about my relationship with Christ and the way they are explained help change my perspective.

Lovers

"People who are obsessed with Jesus give freely and openly, without censure. Obsessed people love those who hate them and who can never love them back."

I read the word lover and I go straight to the marriage relationship between a husband and a wife. That is what lover has always meant to me in my life. I was a little confused when he used this term to explain a way a person can be obsessed. Read Luke 6:32-36. This is the definition of what it means to love someone. Jesus is the ultimate lover. The reason I say that is because He loves us even with all our dirt. He loves us so much He gave His life. We can’t pay Him back.

Unguarded Ones

"People who are obsessed are raw with God; they do not attempt to mask the ugliness of their sins or their failures. Obsessed people don’t put it on for God; He is their safe place, where they can be at peace."

We as humans are rarely, if ever, honest with each other about everything. Most of the time we are scared about what people will think of us if we tell them the truth about ourselves. We carry this same attitude to our time with God. What I often forget is that God knows everything I have done. So even if I don’t say anything He knows it. But you know, I think there is still tension between us and God if we don’t tell Him everything. He wants us to be unguarded and willing to tell him everything we are happy about, struggling with or have messed up.
Those were just two of the 12 things Chan talked about in this amazing chapter. It was so much information that it is probably something you should go back and read again and again. Chan ended the chapter with a great short paragraph that really spoke to what we need to do with all these characteristics.

"While these descriptions combined don’t necessarily answer the question of what it looks like to be wholly surrendered to God, they represent important pieces of the puzzle. Hopefully you are beginning to imagine and pray about what this looks like in your own life."

Crazy Love by Francis Chan- Chapter 7 "Your Best Life…Later"

“By now you’ve probably realized that you have a distinct choice to make: just let life happen, which is tantamount to serving God your leftovers, or actively run toward Christ.”

Francis Chan started chapter 7 with this little statement. Megan and I sometimes have trouble making choices. It can take us up to 30 minutes to decide where we would like to go out to eat. Choosing something that simple should not be a difficult task. To be honest, I have never really thought about my relationship with Christ in the way Chan described. I really have to ask the question, am I serving God my leftover by just letting life happen? It is so very easy for us to fall into the trap of just living the life and trying to be good enough. Well I don’t feel called to live good enough, I feel called to something else. There are two things I know will happen during this calling. God will change not only my life but the life of others around me. And I will fail more often then I would hope, but that is the great thing about God’s grace. Chan then moves into talking about those in Hebrews 11. By faith each person took this action because God was working in life. My desire is that I will chose to actively run toward Christ and allow him to work through me.

“Having faith often means doing what others see as crazy. Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.”

If this statement doesn’t challenge you in some way then you are either living this life already or you are giving God your leftovers in your relationship with Him. I can tell you that I fail at living this life more often then not. I don’t believe there is one way to live this life. God has a plan for each of us, so we will each live this out in different ways. I’m trying to think of a way my life didn’t make sense to an unbeliever. The thing coming to mind is going to Africa to work with churches. People understand why I go and realize it is a nice thing to do. But what unbelievers don’t understand is why I would give up my vacation time for such a trip. People also don’t understand why I put so much time and effort into teaching students about having a relationship with Christ (I sometimes wonder that myself!). The relationship I have with Christ drives me to do these things. Honestly I don’t always have time to do the things I want to do, such as watch TV or hang out with friends. I also don’t always have the time to get the things done around the house that I need to do. For example, I have been telling Megan since we moved in that I would touch up the paint around the house…and we moved over 5 months ago. Living for God means making choices about how we use the time that we have been given. Sometimes it means that we have to choose to make a sacrifice. I’m going to end this post with a statement from the book. This statement is something I would like to think about for a while.

"Christians today like to play it safe..But if we truly desire to please God, we cannot live that way. We have to do things that cost us during our life on earth but will be more than worth it in eternity"

Post your thoughts. God Bless.

Crazy Love by Francis Chan- Chapter 6 "When You’re in Love"

We all have an opinion about what the word ‘love’ really means. It could be so many things, from “I love my shirt” to “I love you”. But the crazy thing is what we do when we are “in love”. Let’s do something fun. If you are willing…post a comment to this post about something crazy you did because you were in love. I asked Megan the question, what is something crazy I did because I was in love? She came up with two things. First while I was in Colorado visiting my family for Christmas, I spent hours talking to her online instead of hanging out with family at night. Then the first summer we were dating, I went to five weddings with her. Four of them were for people I didn’t know, one of those I had to sit by myself because Megan was part of the wedding party. In this chapter, Chan is talking about how love is part of our relationship with Jesus our Savior. Chan says,

Is loving God—and, by extension loving people—what you are about?

Galatians 5:6 says, The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. This verse really makes me think about my faith. Does the faith I live out express itself through love? Often times I would say it doesn’t and that I need to work on that part of my relationship with Christ. I want people to see my faith through my acts of love. That may be the hardest thing to live up to, but that is part of being a Christ-follower. For people to see our faith through love, we need to grow more in love with God. The best way to do this is through prayer and listening to Him. Chan made a comment about the cycle we can enter with praying for more love.

Our prayers for more love result in love, which naturally causes us to pray more, which results in more love…

We have always been told this and it is much easier said than done. The more we fall in love with God the more we will love others. In the end a question comes to mind, what is something crazy I have done because I was in love with God?
Father, Help me to be more in love with you. Give me the desire to long after you in all the parts of my life. I want people to see my faith in you through my love for them. You are an amazing God that you would love us so much yet we struggle to love you. I want to love you more. Amen.

Crazy Love by Francis Chan- Chapter 5 "Serving Leftovers to a Holy God"

As I see it, a lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron; there’s no such thing. To put it plainly, churchgoers who are “lukewarm” are not Christians. We will not see them in heaven.

Wow…I read that a few times just to make sure I was reading it correctly. That is a really hard pill to swallow. To be honest with you, after reading chapter 4, I thought I might fit in the lukewarm Christian category. Now I read this and Chan has got me scared. He goes on to quote Revelation 3:15-18 (go check it out) as his reason for making this statement. Reading that part of scripture made me agree with Chan’s statement. Thinking about the churches I have been part of and the people I have seen in those churches. It really makes me nervous about the attitude we as a church body have. Are we settling to be lukewarm? If we are, does that mean we are settling for hell? I know those questions blow my mind too. I just can’t imagine that Christ-followers in general could be okay settling for that standard.
Luke 14:33 says “Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” These words are in red, in a red letter bible, for those who don’t know that means that Jesus was saying them. Are we willing to give up EVERYTHING? My prayer is that I would be willing to live this out for my relationship with Christ. God has called us to a higher standard than we have set for ourselves. Let’s reach for that standard.

I do not want true believers to doubt their salvation as they read this book. In the midst of our failed attempts at loving Jesus, His grace covers us. I’m not saying that when you mess up, it means you were never really a genuine Christian in the first place. If that were true, no one would be able follow Christ.

From scripture, Chan used Lamentations 3 and 2 Corinthians 12:9 to back up this statement. I’m so glad that he uses scripture to back up his points because that is what we should be doing with everything. These two views really can make a person not really know where they stand. In the end you need to answer to God about what you have done with what He has given you. As true Christ-followers we need to be willing to answer the call of God on our lives. These are the hardest steps for anyone to take. Chan ended the chapter really well and the questions he asked are what I will leave you with now.

Are you willing to say to God that He can have whatever he wants? Do you believe that wholehearted commitment to Him is more important than any other thing or person in your life? Do you know that nothing you do in this life will ever matter, unless it is about loving God and loving the people He has made?

Crazy Love by Francis Chan- Chapter 4 "Profile of the Lukewarm"

When I was in the 3rd grade I had an experience I will never forget. I don’t remember exactly how things got to this point but here is what happened. While my friends and I were talking, another guy came running over yelling my name. I turned around to see this other kid that didn’t like me. He came closer and stopped just in front of me. At that point everything seemed to slow down. I watched as his right foot began to swing toward me. When I noticed he had boots on, I knew this was going to hurt. I think we all know what happened at this point. But in case you need it said, he kicked me below the belt. I fell to the ground and started crying. (I was in 3rd grade, yes I cried.)
Well I just finished chapter 4 of Crazy Love and guess what…I was about on the ground crying again. Chan really took off the gloves and put to print some things that many Christ followers don’t want to hear. The chapter is all about exactly the title. Chan creates a list of possible ways Christ followers can be lukewarm. The thing that I love about each point he makes is that he backs it up with scripture, which is probably whatt made it all hurt so bad as I read through the chapter. For space and copyright issues I can’t type out every point that Chan makes, just another reason to pick the book up and read it yourself. I want to share two that spoke directly into my life.

Lukewarm people rarely share their faith with their neighbors, coworkers, or friends. They do not want to be rejected, nor do they want to make people uncomfortable by talking about private issues like religion. (Read Matt. 10:32-33)

Ummmmm….does anymore need to be said? That hurts. I have always known that we are supposed to share our faith. But the question I ask myself is why don’t I share it? If I believe what scripture has to say and that Christ did come to die for my sins, then shouldn’t I want to share that with everyone? Go back and click on the scripture link and read the verse. That will give you another gut check that makes it sink in even deeper. Lord, help me to be bold in my faith and willing and able to share my faith with friends, neighbors, coworkers and family.

Lukewarm people are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slave to the god of control. This focus on safe living keeps them from sacrificing and risking for God. (Read 1 Tim. 6:17-18)

I almost had to stop reading this chapter at this point. It was getting so hard to read that I felt like putting the book down and coming back later, or skipping the rest of the chapter. What came to mind for me was when I played sports. I would risk everything to get a win whether it was football, baseball or wrestling. God has called us to sacrifice and risk things not for this world but for His eternal kingdom. I want to be known as a risk taker for the Kingdom of God. In the end the best thing we can all hear is “well done my good and faithful servant” from God.
This was two of the profiles of the lukewarm from Crazy Love. Go get the book and read the others laid out across 14 pages. It will make you realize some area that you might be living a lukewarm faith. The best part about finishing the chapter….we get a chance to grow. I don’t want to me lukewarm in my faith. I want to be on FIRE. Does that mean everything is perfect and that I’m not going to sin…..NO. My prayer is that God will help me grow and develop into the godly man, willing to risk, sacrifice and share my faith with everyone around me.

Crazy Love by Francis Chan- Chapter 3 "Crazy Love"

Wow, I just finished the third chapter of Crazy Love and I’m not really sure where to go with this post. The chapter was only ten pages long and it seems like that would be easy to write about. Well I think there was a reason the book was named after this chapter. It was very challenging and deep. I think what I will do is talk about a couple quotes from the book that really spoke to me.

Most of us, to some degree, have a difficult time understanding, believing, or accepting God’s absolute and unlimited love for us. The reasons we don’t receive, trust, or see His love vary from one person to the next, but we all miss out because of it.

Thinking about what my reasons might be for not receiving God’s amazing love is so hard and challenging in itself. There have been many things that have impacted the way I respond to God. One of the most clear in my mind is the way fellow Christians have treated me and my family. It is hard to say the Church in general has impacted my relationship with Christ but it is true. It has only been in the past few years that I have been able to realize that the Church is not God. The other thing about the Church that I always have to remind myself of: it is made of fallen people just like me. My prayer this week is going to be asking for help in receiving, trusting, and seeing God’s love in my life.

…when we love God. We naturally run to Him- frequently and zealously.

Just one sentence later Chan goes on to quote Matt. 22:37-38. Chan made a point that I have never really thought about. God never commands us to spend regular daily time with Him. He wants us to follow the command He gave in Matt. 22:37-38. Once we can figure out how to love God with all that we have, then we will have a passion and desire to spend time with Him. I’m amazed how often I will make excuses to not spend time in the Word, listening and talking to God. Chan ends the chapter with a series of questions. One really hit close to home.

Do you love this God who is everything, or do you just love everything He gives you?

Thoughts?

Crazy Love by Francis Chan- Chapter 2 "You Might Not Finish This Chapter"

When I read the title of chapter 2, I had two thoughts. Either I’m not going to finish the chapter because I don’t agree with what he is saying or my life will end before I finish. Well reading this time I was not as shocked as I was the first time I read it, when I realized he was talking about life ending. Francis Chan wrote:

On the average day, we live caught up in ourselves. On the average day, we don’t consider God very much. On the average day, we forget that our life truly is a vapor.

I’m going to be honest about something for just a minute. My name is Jeremy Logue and I’m addicted to making To-Do lists. Currently, I have at least 4 to-do lists; one on my Itouch, one on a notebook in my bag, one on my desk here at home and one on my desk at work. Often times those lists involve things that are months away from being done or have already been completed. So you may be asking, what does this have to do with the chapter? Well, Chan pointed out the fact that often times we are so preoccupied with ourselves we forget about God. The quote above from the book really makes me think about the idea of making lists. Don’t get me wrong, lists are a good way to be organized, but we need to FOCUS our lives on God and ways we can glorify Him. We really don’t know how long we have on this earth (James 4:13-14).

So many of us think and live like the movie of life is all about us.

Read that quote from the book again. I had to read it like four times to realize the complexity and how much information one little sentence could hold. When I continued to read Chan helped explain just how complex it was. I will not go completely into it on here but he laid the ground work to understand just how focused we should be on GOD! Grab the book and read page 43 to understand this concept
more.

What did I take from the chapter as a whole?
I need to learn to rely on God and realize that He is the one in control. Our time here on earth is not about creating a movie for ourselves but playing a role in God’s movie. Also I’m learning that no matter what is going on in my life, I should be working to glorify God. At the end of my life I don’t want to be known for how selfish I lived my life, but for how well I did living my life for Christ (1 Corinthians 3:13-15).

I challenge you to pick up this book (Crazy Love by Fancis Chan) and allow God to speak to you through the words he has given Chan.

Crazy Love by Francis Chan- Chapter 1 "Stop Praying"

So I started reading the book "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan for the second time in the past year. This time around I'm going to write a post about each chapter of the book to help me think about what I'm reading. God really spoke to me through the words that Francis Chan wrote in this book the first time through, so I expect Him to do the same this time.

There was so much information packed into the short chapter of 14 pages. When I first read it, Chan seem to jump back and forth between topics. This second time around I realized it was all related. Stop praying....What? If I had to summarize the chapter in one sentence it would be...God is so amazingly big and unfathomable that we need to stop talking and listen to what He has to say during prayer.

There were two things you talked about that really spoke to me:

Francis Chan wrote:

"There is an epidemic of spiritual amnesia going around, and none of us is immune. No matter how many fascinating details we learn about God's creation, no matter how many pictures we see of His galaxies, and no matter how many sunsets we watch, we still forget."

I forget stuff all the time, you can ask my wife. A perfect example of this happened just recently. A guy at work called me and asked that I do him a favor. Well I hung up the phone and read an email, in that amount of time I forgot to do what he asked. It is so crazy to think that we can actually forget who God really is. He has done so much to show His power and love, not only in creation but by sending His Son to die for our sins. I so often have to remind myself that I need to love God because of who He is and not out of obligation. Now if I can just remember to think of this each time God shows me just how creative He is.

Chan went on to give five characteristics of God that I need to remind myself of on a daily bases. They are listed below:

God is holy. Exodus 3:14
God is eternal. Psalms 102:12,27
God is all-knowing. Hebrews 4:13
God is all-powerful. Colossians 1:16
God is fair and just.

When I first read these things here was my thought..."This is so basic, get into the deeper stuff". Then it hit me as I read them the second time, I don't think about these characteristics of God in my daily life. To be honest, there are times I live my life as if God doesn’t have these characteristics. God is all-knowing and God is all-powerful are the two characteristics of God in this list that I most commonly forget in my daily life. He sees EVERYTHING we do and He is in COMPLETE control. In the end of the first chapter my thoughts go back to the first paragraph. We need to stop praying in the sense of always just talking to God but listen to the holy, eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful, fair and just Lord of our lives.