Shawna and I have this plant on our patio, its in the perfect location, just enough out of sight to slip my mind. About every 2 days I remember this plant and how desperately it needs water. This poor plant has been on the verge of death almost its entire life.

Today as I was about to walk out the door I remembered that I needed to go give the plant wanter. I thought to myself, how accurate a picture for most of our prayer lives?! We know we cant live without prayer, but we go days sometimes weeks until we feel so parched and almost dead. So we offer up enough prayer to make ourselves feel alive and then we start the process over again. Slowly drying up until we feel almost dead again.

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we don't give up." Galatians 6:9
Once I watered the plant, I decided to bring it inside and sit it in a place where I could see it and not forget  about it. How much better our prayers would be if we would take the time to care for for our prayer time and to protect it.

God is so incredibly good to us! Even though at times things can seem to difficult to handle, God comes through.

My eyes are dry
My faith is old
My heart is hard
My prayers are cold
And I know how I ought to be
Alive to You and dead to me

But what can be done
For an old heart like mine
Soften it up
With oil and wine
The oil is You, Your Spirit of love
Please wash me anew
With the wine of Your Blood


-K.G.

Shawna and I are here in Tyler, Texas visiting with Keturah and Shawn. We have had a very wonderful time. I continue to be challenged and encouraged by my older sister. Today was a particularly special day in my life because I got to visit the grave site of Keith Green. Although I never got the chance to meet Keith, I feel like I know him very well. To this day Keith encourages me to seek Jesus alone, to put nothing before simply loving Jesus. As I stood and stared at Keiths tombstone I felt like I had so much to say and thank him for. Inscribed on the stone was John 12:24 "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." . Even as I read I was convicted. God has been speaking to my heart, and today will be remembered. I am so thankful for the revelation of Gods love and the intimacy with God that is possible. I have not and will not till eternity know the full understanding of Gods love for us. But I do know the more I obey, the more he reveals it, the more I love Him and obey and so it continues.

This past weekend, Shawna and I packed our house and moved into a new apartment, went to 4 different church services with in a 24 hour period, enjoyed the holiday with some good friends, and we got a temporary new roommate named Gerry who is preparing to move out.

It has been a pretty awesome, pretty strange few days. Now we are preparing for our 3rd monthly service, June 6th. I'm beginning to get use to the fact the time goes by much quicker than you'd like it to. If I think long and hard it makes a little sense that we are already half way there to launching Freedom Valley Church - Tulsa. But this feeling of warped time and reminiscence still lingers.

We have had such an encouraging time with Gerry. Shawna and I both miss our families, and although we are very glad that we got to spend some much time with Gerry, it can't help but make you look forward to being together with people you love again, and that can be a little painful.

The next "together time" will be July 20-31. Forty-Nine days away. I am so looking forward to that time with family. But God help me to be satisfied, content and focused for your purposes here in Tulsa.

Faithfulness and obedience are the things that God wants from us. When we measure our closeness to God by the things we do for Him we will begin to drift away from Him in our hearts. The key to not drifting away is by measuring your closeness to God by time spent with Him. The greatest gift wen can ever get is the presence of God. Don't measure your relationship with God by what you do, live for the presence of God.

What is loving God? Not to mention loving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. But I wonder if a person other than me were to examine my life, would they find I love some one or something more than God?

I spend more time with my wife, I spend more money on her, and I think about her many times throughout the day. If she and I spend much time apart at all I am constantly thinking about her, calling her or writing her emails. It is painful to be away from her.

Not at all to say a relationship with your wife should suffer, but I do wonder if I truly believe it's okay to merely read my bible for 20 min a day, pray on occasion when it feels right or necessarily, do my salaries worth of work for the church, put 10% of my paycheck back in the offering plate and sometimes go a day or so without any communication with God?

I don't want to put anything in my life above God and loving him. Instead of loving anyone less or doing less of something, how can we love God more?