Resolutions or Solutions

Well the Holidays are over and all is done. I can now put the grate back where it belongs over by the fireplace and I can go outside and bring in some of the wood I split this year and start a nice comfy evening fire.  I don't have to worry about blocking Santas' path into my house...or burning his ruby red britches while he's coming down the chimney if he does it too slow.  Everything is Osha approved again. 

 I hope your Christmas was as sweet as Karen and I's.  We had a lovely service and good times with our kids and grandchilren and we have our health.  I hope this is the same with you.

Today everyone is focusing on the upcoming New Years Eve reveling, which is a big part of some peoples' December 31st evening. Another big-time New Years event is the resolution business. That comes from people who want to start over fresh in something or want to make themselves a better person in the upcoming year.  A New Year's resolution is kind of a personal home improvement project.  It's even more like a home construction project because of the similarity of both...think of it....we get half or three quarters of the way through, lose interest and the project sits undone for months. For some people who lose interest, years. 

 Resolutions are a lot like that, we lose interest in months, sometimes days and almost always in sweat.  Yeah, I mean sweat.  If something is to hard, requires a lot of work, a lot of effort, it is usually abandoned pretty fast. 

My proof on that is in the rankings of  America's top five New Year resolutions:
 No.5 is to get a new hobby
#4 is to make more money
 #3 is visit the foks
 #2 is to quit smoking and
#1 is............you take a guess....yeah, lose weight. It seems like everybody on the planet has made or quit this resolution. Thats why it is number one..we keep bringing it up and we keep abandoning it. Over and over we recycle the resolution and over and over we drop it. 
Well that's the way with resolutions.  They go in one year and out the other. What we really need in our lives is not resolutions we need solutions.  And not just solutions we need God's solutions.
This year don't listen to the piping in your mind. Cut the miror talk. Cap the vanity. Ask God what or where you really need to improve. He will give you home improvements that He can help you with.  Improvements that really work and are custom fitted to you. Go ahead....ask....I dare you...

Christmas

All through the Christmas stories we find one beautiful thread, and that is the thread of worship.
The angels worshipped the Savior in the fields outside of Bethlehem, the shepherds were told to go and see the Savior and they were so amazed they went out to tell everyone, the Magi came and gave their gifts in worship.  Even the Star that guide the Magi did what was asked of it to guide our eastern wise men as they traveled.  Latter in life we see the people at the temple praising God when they held the baby or saw the Christ child.  One man said that it would be ok to die now that he had seen the Messiah.  All of these events and many more did one thing to mankind, they caused him to worship God.
Worship is contact with God - it's no wonder why we have so many fights on our way to church! The enemy wants to rob & distract you from Him! Worship is our expression & connection with God & His presence. When God's people come together - He shows up! He inhabits our praise.

When we worship, we establish a throne for the King to come, rule & reign. When we worship, things happen in our lives for His good!! There are times when God is quiet, but He's not left you. There are sovereign times in the silence - God is still moving in your midst.

Worship is just as much for me as it is for Him!! It's not just all talk, it's sharing your heart with your Papa God, Father & Creator. David is an example of what a true-worshipper is. He worshipped with all his heart, spirit and soul. When we come to the Christmas Story, the child in a manger, remember it is not about our gifts to others, it is about our gift of worship to God that is improtant.
Some of this blog was from Pastor Zane Anderson, my sisters Pastor out in Tucson, Az.  I think alot of him and his ministry so I thought it would be good to pass some of his very real words on to you.
Merry Christmas to all of you who have been reading my blog and God richly bless you.

Intentional

Gal 4:4
4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, (KJV)
One of the ways we know God and can understand Him is in the way we see Him work.  How God does things helps us know how we can or should do things. God not only had good intentions but he acted intentionally. We can see this in Genesis where He put the world together in a planned order.  We can also see it in His plan of Salvation for mankind.  God did everything intentionally, on purpose, with a plan.  No one was ever more intentional than our Savior. Jesus knew exactly why he came to earth and that His mission of love was to reach a lost and dying world that was separated from God. He was never sidetracked, purposeless or confused about his mission.  We would say today that Jesus was very 'focused.'
The scripture above says that God sent His son 'in the fulness of time'  He was not sent to soon and He didn't come to late, he came at just the right time.  It was intentional, for the purpose of making it possible for us and God to have meaningful relationships together. Gods love was for healing all of us of a sickness called sin.  If God was intentional so he could build and make relationships with us then we should be intentional also. The highest goal we can have this side of heaven is to have a love like Jesus love.
This Holiday Season could be a real good time to intentionally begin the process of healing a relationship gone sour.  It could be a good time to reach out to someone you would like to get to know.  This Christmas may be a good time to call, write, stop in, or email, a certain someone and strike up some love. Shalom.

Names

God’s heart is for us to know Him. God shows us who He is through His nature and His character. One of the ways we determine the nature of God is in His names found in the Old Testament that describe His nature. The reason this is important is because it tells you what He’s like and what He does.

• In Exodus 15:26 we find God is Jehovah Rapha; the Lord our Healer. This scripture unveils to me one of the expressions of His nature. It is His very nature to heal us. That’s why I don’t believe that healing stopped at the end of the New Testament because The New Testament hasn’t stopped.
• Jehovah Nissi means the Lord is our banner. He’s our covering; He’s our refuge; He’s our guard. The word banner was always used in the context of warfare and battle so that tells me God will go with me into the battle. I don’t have to fight the adversary alone.
• Jehovah Shalom: the Lord is my peace; He’s the One that brings me peace and comfort.
• Jehovah Rah: the Lord is my Shepherd; He guides and directs.
• Jehovah Jireh: The Lord is my provider. In these hard economic times I need to remember to do everything I can do. But the bottom line is, God promised to provide for me.
• Jehovah Shammah: The Lord is with us; the Lord is present.
• El Shaddai: The all sufficient One.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Luke 2:4-5 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the lineage of David:) (KJV)

In terms of history, Bethlehem is a pretty busy place. Not mentioning all the times it played a role in times past, I would like to focus on three important times history put its cursor on this little town south of Jerusalem.

The trip that Joseph and Mary took to bring forth the Christ child is really the third “all-important trip” made to Bethlehem.

The first great journey starts hundreds of years before that in the book of Ruth (a quick read consisting of only four chapters).  A man named Elimelech leaves Bethlehem with his wife Naomi, because there is no bread there. [Basically what it means to you and I today is that he was unable to find a good job... you know, ‘no bread’.] After Elimelech relocates, he finds nothing but misery and struggle and he and his two sons pass away leaving Naomi with two daughters-in law. Naomi and Ruth stay together and go back to Bethlehem.  Now this is important because Ruth, through a couple turns in life, marries a man named Boaz. They have a son who has another funny-named kid that everyone will laugh at in school, named Obed.  This funny-named man, Obed, has a son whose name is Jesse, who becomes the father of a really special guy who finally has a real name (David) that you can make a reservation with at a nice restaurant.

This takes us to the second great journey to Bethlehem - when Samuel the prophet goes there. This is, by the way, more really great reading (See 1 Sam. 16). Anyway, God has removed His divine anointing from Saul, the king of Israel, because of his sinful ways. God sends Samuel to the house of Obed’s son, Jesse, to ultimately anoint his little ruddy son David to be the King.  Where did all this happen?  You got it, in Bethlehem! God promises that through David, the Messiah would come.
So that brings us to the Third great Journey to this little town of Bethlehem. That is when Joseph, who can trace his birth line to David, is told by an angel to take a virgin named Mary to be his wife.  And just like life for most of us, that is when all the problems start.  You know after the ring. So to get to the conclusion of this story they have to go to Bethlehem since Joseph is of the linage (ancestry) of David. He takes his very pregnant wife with him. Getting to Bethlehem would fulfill the prophecies concerning the birth of the Christ.  So in Bethlehem when our Savior was born to Mary and Joseph, it finishes what was begun with Ruth and Naomi

Lets talk Snow (Pt2 of 2)

I mentioned there were two things about the snow from last winter that I enjoyed.  The First being the depth of all the white stuff. The second thing about the heavy accumulation  was how much I forgot was under the snow.  Our yard was so beautiful with all that fluff, that it made me forget that I left the big ugly red oil container and the greasy dirty blue funnel that I use to change oil out along the stone wall near the strawberry patch. For two months they were lost to the snow cover....I couldn’t find it anywhere.....I was just warming up to the idea that one of the guys borrowed them and didn’t bring them back, you know the excuse, it really works if you want to blame shift. The deep snow also helped me forget how unsightly the Clematis looks when it is out of season, just a bunch of brown stringy runners and leaves...Hey can you remember how awful the Hostas’s can look when the frost finally knocks those huge leaves to the ground, thank you Mr. Snow man. I couldn’t remember where a really kool, handsomely painted Rooster that we put out in the flower bed among the white Alyssum was until the snow finally melted down and we found our kroner in a million colorful pieces.   When the snow finally did leave us I found a lot of things that were buried and ruined, from the weight of the snow. 

Winter snows can bury a lot of things in our yards and gardens and the snows of life can cover us with a blanket of struggles and sorrows as well. Sometimes we have seasons of struggles where the weight and harshness of life seem to overwhelm us. But if we can learn to trust God we will see that out of those troubles comes a special grace that will build our faith as beautifully as the purplish smiles of the crocuses patch welcomes us after the hard winter storms.

I want to close on this note found in 2 Cor. 12:9 it says that "My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness." So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may work through me.  (NLT

Lets Talk Snow

Let’s Talk Snow (Pt#1 of 2)

Some people may think it is early but once you get up to or past Thanksgiving the possibility of snow becomes a very real factor to be considered in your daily planning. I know that I am in the minority when I say this, but I really enjoyed this past winter.  So many years we have had to endure the dreadful brown, soaked, worn out earth look from January to April.  Last winter it seemed everyday was filled with snow, shoveling and coming precipitation.  By the end of February I will admit I was tired and pretty set on the hopes of spring and at least a nine month break from the white stuff.  Still, the winter of twenty-ten went fast for me because there was so much to do and often so much to do in a short period of time.

Two things stand out about all of last year’s accumulation: First, the depth of the snow. Karen and I could watch the snow form a pristine white top-hat on our BBQ grill just outside the family room door.  It really was an historic winter for me.  I can’t remember a winter when the snow made so many visits and like an uncaring guest stayed so long....I will remember the depth of the 2010 winter forever.

I doubt any body wants a repeat of last year’s blizzard like conditions. But I must confess I would love to have it.

I always liked the deep snows even if they were a lot of work.  Oh yea a disclaimer may be due on the subject, “The author of this article only speaks for himself and in no way represents the opinion of this communication engine or the snow shoveling public. He does understand the road bound public wants the white stuff only for Christmas and he respects that view.”  

But the deep snow really gets me going.

It says about God in Rom 8:38-39,

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  What a promise that scripture is to be to all of us.  Nothing can separate a Child of God from His love. On top of that there will never be a time when those who don’t know or even care to know the Lord will not be able to reach out to him for his love if they so chose.  That is a guaranteed provision necessary for all of us, ‘the love of our God.’

Now that is deep!

Awkward and a Facebook Fast challenge

No other love risked more awkwardness than Christ’s. 

?Can you imagine God becoming man? ?How awkward is that?  Not only must it have been awkward for God to put on human flesh, but think how awkward it must have been for Him throughout his life.

·   I wonder what He felt when He went to His dad’s funeral knowing He  had raised others from the dead. 

·   I often wonder what He felt or thought when He went to the Synagogue and listened to the Rabbi’s trying to "explain the Bible".......you know....the One He wrote.

·   How did He feel when He became a victim of the very people that He created... talk about awkward.

·   How awkward it must have been to be teaching love to a society that was built on brutality.

His love teaches us that we will also have to risk awkwardness in our relationships with others. Sometimes a relationship will require a major overhaul or more personal attention.  It may need propped up with a pinch of love, or maintained with a splash of encouragement, it may need forgiveness received or pardon given.  The virtues that are needed in life situations can make you feel very awkward.  There is a risk when we step out like that. Every relational breakthrough that I have ever had in my life included the risk of awkwardness to bring about the desired results. Awkward comes in many ways, bashful, uncomfortable, unsure, risking looking silly, having to take the first step and apologize, etc.

Risking awkwardness isn’t something you can do on Facebook or Twitter. You can’t bring healing over the internet, or put your hand on someone's shoulder through email. You can be an acquaintance, but not a true blue friend, that comes from personal face-to-face relationships.  You can’t have ‘through thick or thin loyalty', twittering. It is not possible to abate loneliness on a social network through electronic mail.

To create relationships that are built on love, and to have a 'Love That Lasts’ you have to be personal, be there, not be a number, not an e-address.

Today I am going to ask you to take my ‘LOVE THAT LASTS CHALLENGE’ and participate in a "Facebook Fast". [Don't do Facebook? It also applies to computer/TV/Sports overload/Anything time stealing. 

I’m not bashing Facebook.  I use it, I blog once a week, I email and I text frequently. Social media is great so long as it doesn’t become a substitute for really connecting in a deep and personal way with people. 

In fact, I want to spread the 'Facebook Fast' to all my facebook friends.

One day a week I would like you to fast from chatting or gaming on facebook (or any of the above mentioned "time stealers") to get face to face with a friend, spouse, a someone or a loved one.  It may be having coffee or lunch with them, sitting down and writing a letter, card or making a personal call;  maybe its someone hurting and just waiting for someone - you -  to strike up a friendship with them. 

Take the time that you are abstaining during your 'facebook fast' and put a real live person in its place.......?Starting today and ending on Thursday, January 5th, would you join the 'LOVE THAT  LASTS, FACEBOOK CHALLENGE', with all of us here at The SUB. Let's start a relational revolution!

loving

  We've been talking about love the past three Sundays at ‘The SUB’ and, what can I say, I know that some of you are in some very tough patches.  I just want to remind you that when you start to reach out, or start loving, or re-energize yourself to continue loving someone, and see very little results... it is discouraging and sometimes very hard to take.

   One of the things I love to do is to garden...just seem to be wired that way...I like to grow stuff.  Anyway, there's a plant called the Chinese bamboo. It's really emblematic of the way things sometimes go with us.  To grow this thing, you plant the cutting in the ground,  water it, fertilize it, but you see no growth... nothing for the first year. Then you do the same the second year and so on and so forth for sometimes as long as 6 yrs.  Think about it.  You do all that work and put forth a tremendous effort and you see nothing for five or six years, even tho all this time you're weeding, watering, fertilizing and protecting it.  Finally, somewhere around the fifth or sixth year, "Bam"....it sprouts.  The World Book Encyclopedia records that in a single six week period this Chinese Bamboo plant can grow as high as ninety feet and that it can grow three feet in a single twenty-four hour period. It seems incredible that a plant that lies dormant for that many years can suddenly explode with that kind of growth.

   That's the way it is when we start to reach out. Sometimes the results will be slow, but God has you there to be His hands and heart and to be an Ambassador of Himself. As you reach out and love, the Holy Spirit will give you strength to see you through your assignment.

  Focus on fulfilling the purposes of your love.  Don’t be deterred or distracted.  Keep watering, fertilizing, cultivating, weeding and pruning. God will take your love and place it where He wants it, at the rate He wants for those you are reaching out too.

   God may allow you to labor for years with little visible results.  Don’t be discouraged! Underneath the surface things are happening that you can’t see.  Roots are growing down and out, repairing, and convicting, for what is ahead.  Even when you may not see the wisdom of what God is doing, you must trust God. Learn to live with the assurance that He knows what he is doing and that His love for this person runs deep.  Remember Proverbs 19:21:”Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

Garbage

Standing on the deck and looking down on my driveway, I see a beautiful neighborhood, a lovely gigantic pine and an oak tree filled with acorns. What a site!  It's from these lovely trees that our beautiful feathered friends from our community fly into and eat their munchies during the winter months. What a sight they are against the foliage and later the snow (eww - enough of that for now!)  Anyway, while admiring those little critters I look down at the driveway and see a huge mess of "stuff".  Deciding to investigate closer, I went down the steps and saw all the shells from the bird feeders. This junk is everywhere - and lots of it!! -sunflower shells and all kinds of leftover millet.  Those little birds are eating all the goodies and leaving me the waste.  Every couple of weeks I have to clean what the rain and wind won't wash away - which is 90% of it.  My little chickadee is cute but not very tidy, the sparrows are downright messy. At least the blue Jays take the seeds up into the trees.  I guess they figure leaving the garbage after dinner for me to clean up isn't too much to do considering the entertainment they provide. That's a bunch of garbage too, but from a birdies' perspective, I guess.
I turned my computer on to figure out how to make a squirrel feeder and I have to sit through fifty advertisements about how to find available singles, cheap car insurance rates or the newest political poll about Obamanomics. Geez just get me the details about the feeder will ya & cut out the garbage....sorry. When its a computer, its spam. The phone rings and its some guy speaking in broken English I can't understand named Lopiano, who's in Pakistan doing a survey about plastic recyclables for a company in Monroeville...it's another nuisance call...and...of course...more garbage.  I think garbage is filling the earth...its everywhere and in every shape and form...you can't even listen to the neighbering kids because some of them rattle off expletives in multiples so fast they can't even stop to breathe. It is a shame that there is nothing but garbage coming out of their mouths. If you turn your TV on, the word garbage is now a synonym for ABC, SPIKE, WE, NBC,CBS,FOX, ESPN, etc,etc,etc. The TV is entertainment garbage. Some of it is pure fiction so you can expect it to be trash and should end up in the "sin bin" but what about the politicians... they are dead serious about what they are saying and it is still garbage. What a shame. Much of what they promise ends up in the waste dump too and these people are trying to be serious.
It makes me think of Isaiah 57:20  'But the wicked are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up refuse and mud' (NAU)
Let's bring this to us... In a world full of garbage, as Christians, we should be the real deal. The virtue of God should be exhibited in us......let's remove the garbage and......... "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Matt 5:16 (NKJ)

Taking the stone away

At the magnificent miracle of the raising of the dead man Lazarus, (John 11:39) Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Before the great and mighty miracle was to take place, Jesus needed someone to move the stone guarding the tomb away.

It is interesting to me that the Savior who has the power to raise a man from the dead has to have someone move a stone away from the grave.  I'm sure that if Jesus wanted to, He could have spoken the words and that stone would have been cleared out of there. Later in the chapter he tells Lazarus to "come forth". Then He asks the men around him to ‘loosen him and let him go'.  The disciples didn't only take away the stone, but they also unwrapped Lazarus.

It's apparent to me that God is showing us that we play a very important role with Him.  I doubt that there's a man alive on this earth who has ever been converted without the Lord using us "human instruments" in some way to help Him get the job done.

God could easily convert men without us; but that's not His way, He actually wants to use us, to involve us in the work He does. 
Like the tomb, though, there's another stone that must be rolled away before any great work of God can be brought about. That's the stone of indifference. There are a lot of Christians out there who just don’t care.  DON'T BE ONE OF THEM!!  Let Jesus involve you.

The flashlight

I mean it, sometimes it takes more activity to accomplish a simple job than a job should take.  This week I wanted to change the oil in the car.  It was a bad idea right from the start.  First, I couldn't even find the filter.....is there anyone out there with a Chevy Cavelier who knows what I am talking about?  I looked all around the engine, then on top of the engine and finally under the engine till I finally found the thing only visable from underneath the car.  It was totally unreachable by hand. The devil himself must have engineered the place for that oil filter. Anyway, I get under the car and then realize I can't see, so now I need a flashlight.  I got up from underneath the car to go get a flashlight and, of course, the batteries were dead, bringing to mind the little ditti that says, "a flashlight is a great place to store dead batteries". I cannot change the oil filter if I don't have new batteries so I start checking every drawer in the house for two 'C' batteries and am pathetically reduced to stealing the batteries from one of the Grandkids toys to make the stupid light come on. Finally getting my act together, I get back under the car to unscrew the filter and find out that I can't get it out without a special tool.  Thank goodness I put the Jeep out on the street before I jacked the car up to do this oil change.  I head over to Auto Zone and the man at the counter gives me a special wrench just for my car. I go back home, get underneath the car and find out that it doesn't fit the existing filter that is now on the car.  Why me Lord! Why Me! I finally took the car to Radford's and left it with Bill. 
There really is a good lesson to this sorry episode......well, beside the fact that I know I'm no mechanic.  My point is that after all the work it took to get that flashlight working, it still only helped me to see. It did nothing to get the job done.  It only solves a vision problem, it does not fix what is broken. As I thought on this (and the steam and humiliation subsided) I found a spiritual truth in it for me.  The other day when I was reading my Bible, I came to Rom 7:7, "The law is not sinful, but it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, "Do not covet." (NLT)
  There are places in the Bible that also help me to see; things like the 10 commandments, the Beatitudes, parts of the book of Galatians and so on, they are there to help me see.  When I read certain portions of the Bible it tells me not to do some things.  We call those things sin.  The Bible tells us not to do them.  If God doesn't tell us what is proper behavior we would never know how we are to act. When I agree that I'm to act in a certain way and I don't, I experience guilt. It's because of the guilt that I realize the great forgiveness of God.  It is the heavy guilt that calls my attention (shines the light), Helps me to see the wonderful grace of God.  The guilt becomes my flashlight it doesn't fix the problem.....it only shows me that I have one. The solution is for us to ask the "guilt-remover", Savior, Healer, God of Mercy, Jesus Christ, to come and "fix the problem". Ahhhh..........

Faith

We just came back from a ‘STM’ this weekend. A ‘STM’ is a short-term mission trip. This one is near Morgantown, WV. It's a great place to work for the Lord outside of our normal Christian area of influence.

I am so grateful that we have this place to minister at.  We can go out for a day and do work for the Lord and still be home in time to work around their house.  We have seen our teens attend every single trip that we have gone on and most of them have contributed on a very productive level. 

  For most Christians it is sometimes difficult to find a place to exercise our ‘faith works’.  We have our church but nothing else.  We find ourselves comfortable inside the four walls and that's our entire sphere of influence.  Short-term missions helps all of us get outside these walls and into the streets where the power of God works in ways unseen in the sanctuary.

 God understood the comfy-coziness of our faith inside the church.  He knew that we would find it easier to exercise our faith inside our comfort zone than to have to believe and trust outside our walls. Listen to what He says in James 2:14-18:

14 Dear brothers and sisters, what's the use of saying you have faith if you don't prove it by your actions? That kind of faith can't save anyone. 15     Suppose you see a brother or sister who needs food or clothing, 16 and you say, "Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat well"-- but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? 17 So you see, it isn't enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn't show itself by good deeds is no faith at all-- it is dead and useless. 18 Now someone may argue, "Some people have faith; others have good deeds." I say, "I can't see your faith if you don't have good deeds, but I will show you my faith through my good deeds."  (NLT)

I want to thank the Lord for all of you in the body of Christ, and to those at "The SUB"  that work in our Homeless Ministry and those of you who help in the Storehouse of God operations and  those ministering in the Crisis Response Support Team, those involved with the Fire Department…or those who visit those in the Hospital or Nursing Homes..Let all of us at the ‘SUB’ be a people that shows their love through faith by our deeds.  God Bless.

Sand Castle memories

  Elijah and Steve are digging in the sand together for the better part of a couple hours. Deep trenches and well engineered water routes were factored into the construction plans for their father and son sand castle. Up out of the plain old sandy beach a royal homestead was being made. After hours of work it was time to close out the project so off they went to get some shells to put in the main towers and wa-la it was complete!  As we stood back, someone asked, 'How do you get into it, there's no gate, door or entrance'. Before you knew it, there was a little gate with a roadway to it.

  We all celebrated their castle! It had everything a castle could have & the job was done; smiles, imagination, father-son bonding, and new construction..it truly was a pleasant site on the plain, flat ordinary beach. We made a "Kodak moment" and took pictures, hugged and finally got Steve to get off the castle and get ready to join us playing football....BUT - as we all stood there still looking at it, the first wave came up to the end of the new road, within seconds the second wave came within inches of the new gate, then came a huge wave that almost swept the whole castle away......need I say more? 

  The next day we came down to swim and you couldn't even tell that any father or son had played there the day before...you would never think that some wonderful family memories were ever fashioned on that spot.  It was too bad, all we had were some pictures and, for those of us without a camera.....just the memory.  Three waves were all it took, just three waves and it was gone....If you look at that section of the beach today there's nothing. But thank you Kodak because the camera captured the castle, the shells, Elijah and Steve and all of us watching. It has the memories, even though the waves mercilessly erased the art form.

   In Isaiah 43:26 it says 'Put Me in remembrance; let us contend together; state your case (NKJ)'

God is telling us here to 'remind Him', (not like He ever forgets or anything like that) but to just remind Him of the things that through His Word, the Bible, He has promised us.  Life gets like the beach to us and the waves of everyday work, worry, problems, struggle and activities kinda have a way of washing away our little castle of security or comfort.  Maybe some of you have seen your health castle being washed away. Someone else may have their peace castle bowled over by bully waves, or your job has been flattened. That's when it's a good time to sit down with your Bible, look up some of God's wonderful promises and remind Him what His Word says....His Word to you!!!

NO PARKING!!

Today's blog is the story of one man's patience-shattering experiences in finding a parking place. It was so bad it was almost comical.

The first time, I headed into Irwin to an appointment (well, yes, I was running late) but to my delight there was a parking place just near - so very near- to where I needed to go.  I pulled up to position myself to park, and what to my disgusted wondering eyes did I see, but a big bright red cone staring at me! Head down, hands firmly grasping the wheel (well more like wanting to rip the wheel off the car) I moved on, finally ending up 4.25678 million miles away...honest!!

Later in the day, I was doing some work and thought I would stop by and say "hello" to someone. I pulled in only to see an "Insurance Agency Customer Parking Only" sign. If that isn't enough, the sign told me that if I dare park there and can't prove that I'm a customer in good standing, they will tow my car away and I will have to pay the costs...I swear I'll never buy their insurance! They have no compassion for a poor guy trying to drop his anchor so he can visit someone.

It only got worse from there. Karen asked me to pick up something at Target, so up the rows I head, looking for a close parking place. I spot one just ahead, but there was a car in front of me and I figured he would take it. He doesn't!! I'm thinking this is my lucky day and I pull happily in - only to see a "Parking for Expectant Mothers" sign. Now I'm looking in the Jeep for a volleyball. None to be found! I have to pull out...and just where do I end up?? Down at Eat'n'Park!!  Well, now that I'm here, I'll grab a cup of Joe and a piece of pie, read some stuff and head home. I turn the corner and head for a nice little space left just for me. Life is good. I get the truck nicely stuffed between the lines, check the position of the car, hit the key, get out, press auto lock, put my keys in my pocket and look over only to see a "Take Out Customers Only" sign sternly and faithfully guarding the site.

?Have you ever thought of how much asphalt there is in North Huntingdon (or wherever you call home) that we are not allowed to park our tired, road-weary Goodyears on?  Go to the Hospital and it says, "Emergency Vehicle Only". Stop at the township office and it says, "Commish Pal Move It". One spot in town, this kills me... someone with a nasty streak in them put a sign up that says, "No Parking between 8 and 5PM". That's so cruel. Why would I ever need that spot other than those hours?? I think they should be sho...never mind!

I even stopped at my own loving, caring nutritionist's office to pick up the vitamins that keep my little engine going, and when I pull in next to the door, what do I see but a "No Parking Bio Waste Pick Up" sign...GEEZ!~!

Hey, all kidding aside, there really are a lot of places that for courtesy, practicality, or good reason, we can't park. It is the same way in our Christian life.  Think over your upcoming day...maybe there are some places you DON'T NEED to stop by and park in. If you're moving into the space of jealousy, anger, bitterness, impatience, sneaky, spite, etc...back out and don't park there!!

Get It Done!.....002

Eccl 10:7, “I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.” (KJV)
Do you have the haunting notion that you should paint a picture, make a butterfly collection or do that certain thing that’s always on your mind? Do you wish you would just take a walk or a bike ride?..build the deck furniture, make a tree house with your grandson or doll house for your daughter? (You add the next one because only you know what it is.) You’ve been busy with so many things, unfortunately, not satisfying things.
If you put it into perspective using the above Scripture verse, your talent, your notion, that haunting desire is walking in the dust; and your unnecessary time wasters are riding on the horse.
Let’s think of it in terms of people...you got caught up in an office fray and just because you opened your “big” mouth, you’re at odds with someone and you don’t even want to be. Well, friendship and goodness is pulling the horse, and misunderstanding, gossip, maybe even manipulation and old-fashioned-stinky-office-politics is riding on the horse. I’ll do another one for you...Do you know someone who needs your call, visit, help or companionship? You know they do, but you’re too preoccupied with lesser stuff and it robs the time you would use to bless them. You experience the uneasiness every night about 10:00 pm when you try to relax, but you feel guilty because you didn’t do it again today either.....Well peace, service, love, ministry, contentment, inner satisfaction they are all walking in the dust. Something has displaced the quality virtues with lesser notions. The lesser values are enjoying a ride while quality virtues are walking in the dust and dirt.

Maybe it’s time, today, right now, don’t wait, to get on your computer and schedule that “notion” in, get your appointment book out and leave Thursday, 4:30pm open or make Tuesday, 6:30pm available. You probably need to take your cursor and scroll down your calendar and point at all those “time and goodness wasters” and press delete.

Forget the gym, do the notion and have peace…

How does God c u?

Judges 6:12 The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, "Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!"  (NLT)
Have you ever heard the voice from heaven?  Elijah heard the voice from heaven in his cave while hiding. Jesus heard the voice from heaven when He was baptised, and those that travelled with Paul heard a voice from heaven but they couldn't see what Paul was seeing...Did you ever wonder what that voice would sound like if it was talking to you or have you ever wished that God would speak to you...Well He does speak to us and He does it in many ways. One way is through His written Word...Here in Judges God is speaking to me...I love what it's saying to me and I love how it speaks to me.
Gideon was hiding in a wine press trying to get some food from some wheat he was able to gather....hungry, hiding like a coward, totally alone, God finds him and through an Angel God speaks to him and says, "Mighty Hero, the LORD is with you'....
The Angel addressed Gideon as a 'Mighty Hero,' God saw Gideon not as he was (a coward hiding in a wine press scratching out a meager ration of some leftover wheat)He saw him as the hero he was going to make out of him.  Did you get that, not what he was but what God was going to make of him....Victorious and a Hero. You have to have a battle to have a victory.. and you have to win to be the Hero!  Gideon couldn't see any of this but God could. This tells me that God has a position of blessing for me and he will move me to it and it tells me that God sees me totally different then how I'm viewed by others or seen by myself.  
 When you read the Word, God will speak to you with promises like he did to Gideon. He will make your tomorrow a Victory and he will make you in your part of the world his 'Hero'.
God bless ya dear one. If this ministers or witnesses to you just say 'Amen.'

Tuesday, August 24th-My first post

Just setting up my blog and want to see how it goes. Checking the system out and will post something tomorow.
I want to say "hello" welcome to my site. Since this is really, just simple today, tomorrow I'll have something meaningful.
Check in with a "hi" back to me and tell me you stopped by.