"A private relationship
of worshiping God is the greatest essential element of spiritual fitness."

Oswald Chambers

"God is not
moved or impressed with our worship until our hearts are moved and impressed by
Him."

Kelly Sparks

"You have
made us for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in You." 

Augustine

It happened again on Monday night, our dog got sprayed by a
skunk and I saw the whole incident from across the yard.  What is sad about the whole thing is that we
have become experts at removing the smell from our dog’s coat. Our expertise
has been cultivated over the last 10 months due to the fact that the dog now
has been sprayed three times.  No we don’t
live out in the country and yes we have a fenced in backyard.  It looks to me like the skunk would have more
sense than to enter a back yard where there is a dog. Then again it looks like the dog would now have sense to stay away from a skunk.

There are three things we have learned through these
incidents: 

1.      Google
is an amazing thing when you need some information fast.

2.      Yes
the recipes for removing the skunk smell from your dog works.  The recipe includes baking soda, hydrogen
peroxide, vinegar and baby shampoo. Just Google ‘dog sprayed by a skunk.’

3.      Placing
bowls of vinegar around your house does absorb the skunk smell from you house.

 Hopefully our expertise on this matter will not be called
into action anytime in the near future. But if it does we are prepared.

Today the new
construction at ClearView topped out. 
The last roof trusses for the chapel were set and it will only be a few
days until the whole project is roofed and the finish work can move on at full
speed.  I was thinking about the whole
project over the last few days and how God has led ClearView through this
whole process. There have been times when we wondered what was going on as we
dealt with rising costs, government requirements and land acquisitions.  Our faith was in God, not in the circumstances
or our own wisdom or talents. God had it and has it under control.

Almost daily I take a
walk through the new building and am amazed at what God is placing in our
hands.  It is not just a building for the
people of ClearView today, but a place, that as ClearView shares Christ, those
people will have a place to worship. Over the last few months my prayers have
changed from “God help us get this building out of the ground; on time and on
budget,” to “God give us wisdom and vision to find the proper uses for this
space. Motivate us to reach out to our community and neighbors sharing Christ,
so that more people will worship You and call You Lord.”

If you have had a chance to look at the video linked on my last post you will see a tour of the new building at ClearView. You will also come to realize how many times I say the word ‘hey.’  My son came home this afternoon and watched the video just to count the ‘heys.’  He counted 17. I am now very aware of how many times I say this word…hopefully the frequency will begin to decline.