Conversations with Ray Martinez

We are starting a series about the meaning of stories in the bible.  This particular story is about how Elisha caused a lost ax head in the Jordan river to float.  His prophet friend that lost the ax head while working, prayed to Elisha to help him find it...he was distressed because they were poor and he borrowed the ax.  We are learning about casting and what Elisha did to retrieve the ax.  Remember, prayer is not a monologue, but it is a dialogue with God.  Elisha was a teacher of his students, but he was a doer as well.  He demonstrated leadership.

Some people refer to Psalms 91 as the soldier's prayer. We learn from this chapter about 12 things that God will do for us, and 7 tasks that God wants us to do.  It's important that we recognize Him as our place of refuge, our guide, and that He has sent angels to watch over us.  There is a lot to learn today.

Mr. Warner was my metal shop and mechanical drawing teacher at Lincoln Jr. High back in the 60's.  He was a stern man that taught me some life skills and I know he liked me as a student.  Sometimes it took a slap on the leg with a short stick to get a person to pay attention and learn fast!  He was a great mentor and a REAL man that taught us Respect, Encouragement, Attitude, and Listening skills. I miss him.

We can easily be discouraged when someone asks us if we are holy?  This holiness centers around at what we work at doing.  Here are the take-a-ways in today's podcast!

. Be holy (accept Christ)…living a holy life (work at it.)

. Live in peace, and work at it!

. Look after each other

. Keep people from falling short of the grace of God

. Watch out that you don’t become susceptible to the poisons of this world, and then pass it along to others like a virus.

When we worship God, we have to employ our heart (spirit), soul (voice of reasoning), and our mind (conscience).  God created them all for a purpose.  We will talk about this in our podcast and why our attitude is so important.  Our attitude involves the heart, soul, and mind...it's our life sown and woven together to make us whole.

What a rememberable day for The Latino Community, and Tom Flores.  It's about time he was inducted to the Hall of Fame for the NFL.  Tom is a friend of mine and we met when he came to Fort Collins to speak at CSU.  More importantly, he spoke to the kids at Juan Fullana elementary school first.  I was his security person for the two days that he was here.  What a personable man of integrity, compassion, and calm.  We salute you, Tom Flores!  I've enjoyed staying in touch with him over these many years.

Today we are learning about God's mystery.  We will talk about 7 of them: The mystery of God, his will, of Christ, of the kingdom of God, of the gospel, of faith, and of godliness. Some of us worry about our past and if God can use you.  God uses our past to build our future.  Now that's a mystery in itself.  God has chosen us, and you won't know if you were chosen unless you believe in Him.  I think it's better to know than to calculate a guess, risking everything.