My Blog is an obedience thing. Like my habit of writing out the Bible.
In this case I can send you things, Jeff, in this way. And what about Waldo up there? I’ll just send you a text with Waldo there, and you’ll know to come and see what I’ve placed here for you.
I was going to put your own picture here on this page, maybe I still can! Please send me a photo of you. One of you and Ruth, if you’d like!
This page is private in the sense that a person has to know the URL to access it. It’s not on a menu anywhere.
When looking for that photo I ran across this>
Minister’s Minute: He will build his church – Jeff Germo
Your final question brought something I wrote many years ago for a church newsletter at Christmas
So over and over again I have been doing what I want.
Here is that quote I spoke of from Augustine.
The word <should> as soon as I hear it being used either from the voice within, or from the mouth of others… it’s the first sign that I will not be doing it LOL.
Like when I went to the store just now. I drove to the store! Because I wanted to. Maybe I would have bumped into you regardless, but that’s how it happened, and I don’t regret that!
As we were speaking… the Holy Spirit was there with us! I know because he brings the tears, and the unction to speak. Thank you for sharing Acts 1:8 with me. It flows into what’s already been on my heart these past few days, as you might have noticed.
I think in pictures, my daughter has helped to clarify this for me, take a gander.
The picture I have is of you and I. We are standing at a table, and there’s a partially assembled puzzle there. Pieces lay all around, but there the image drops away… we don’t have that picture on the box to use for clues! But we are, each of us the clues! As we seek agreement, which is distinct from collusion. Seeking agreement is listening to our own hearts with others, to hear and confirm what God is saying to us. My wife has helped me in this effort. We are governed by one another’s strengths, not by be another’s weakness. She has an absolute rule against SHOULD. But when we first got together, she was an embryo in the faith. She said to me, “I’ve always wanted to go to church, but haven’t had anyone to go with.” That answered my prayer about her and I. I’d been asking God about dating an unbeliever. Because at the time she was not one who would call herself a Christian. There’s the doctrine of the elect coming to mind. Those who were foreknown, chosen by God. It’s a freaky doctrine if I think that I am the one trying to figure out who’s saved or not saved, chosen or damned. It’s not so much so if I let go of ambition.
I’m struggling to make myself clear you. Your scripture, and the rhema about it brought other scriptures to my mind, with which I have been meditating on.
Like your mention of evangelicals and legalism. See below for “make it your ambition to have no ambition” JB Phillips just plops that down !
3-8 God’s plan is to make you holy, and that entails first of all a clean cut with sexual immorality. Every one of you should learn to control his body, keeping it pure and treating it with respect, and never regarding it as an instrument for self-gratification, as do pagans with no knowledge of God. You cannot break this rule without in some way cheating your fellow-men. And you must remember that God will punish all who do offend in this matter, and we have warned you how we have seen this work out in our experience of life. The calling of God is not to impurity but to the most thorough purity, and anyone who makes light of the matter is not making light of man’s ruling but of God’s command. It is not for nothing that the Spirit God gives us is called the Holy Spirit.
9-10 Next, as regards brotherly love, you don’t need any written instructions. God himself is teaching you to love each other, and you are already extending your love to all the Macedonians. Yet we urge you to have more and more of this love, and to make it your ambition to have no ambition!
11-12 Be busy with your own affairs and do your work yourselves. The result will be a reputation for honesty in the world outside and an honourable independence.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-12 JB Phillips
Bonhoeffer talks about this brotherly love in “Life Together”
The freedom I’m experiencing lately is here being defined in my heart.
I get it! The “saved by works” is idolatry because it comes from me being in the equation of
Plan + action = outcome
But look at John 15, Psalm 37:4…
Hebrews 5:11
I’m looking forward to getting together with you. There will be a blank mind coming to see you, with this on my heart:
11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
Romans 1:11-12 ESV
Today, June 30, 2025, you mentioned something. That we only speak when we are called to the witness stand. We are not the ones in control of the court proceedings. We have been called to give our testimony, to answer the questions of the defence attorney.
Revelation 12:11?
On Sunday our pastor spoke about “the heavenly places. That comes to mind.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 once again also.
The glory of God, felt by those I come into contact with, and they 1 Peter 3:15 ask me… it’s giving a reason for the hope that I have.
Running Down Vimy 