man's relationship with God

I highly recommend this booklet for Believers who'd like a basic refreshing primer and to unbelievers who are curious but don't want to get into "the conversation".  This wonderful work by Donald G. Barnhouse lays out man's relationship with God and the path to salvation through Jesus in a manner easy for anyone to grasp; 43 pages, $1.50.

101 Difficult Questions Answered

sometimes i need a 2x4 to the head

My family loves to joke about my propensity for cracking my skull on car doors, shelves, walls and basically anything I approach from below or besides, suggesting even the permanent wearing of protective head gear.   In the searing pain of the moment immediately following one of these skull crackers I don't find the comments amusing, but I do understand their merriment is stimulated by their concern for my well being and by the scary site of me clutching my head and groaning, crying, cursing in agony.

This time it seems, I have cracked my head one time too many.

For several weeks I have been suffering an intermittent tenderness of my scalp on the left side of my skull, sometimes relatively mild, sometimes throbbing, often not at all.  The last week or so, however, the pain has been unrelenting, throbbing and frequently blinding in its intensity. Stubborn person that I am, I finally gave in to the reality that the pain was stronger than my will and set off to see my doctor.

He says that I have  damaged the C20 nerve from just one of these skull crackers, that the damage is permanent and that my two choices are to live with it, or have a shot that will kill the nerve, leaving me with an uncertain level of "buzzing" or "tingling" on that side of my head.

I am sitting here now, with an ice pack on my head, held in place by a  colorfull knit tobogan hat, attempting to dull the pain which has kept me up most of the night.

I have one of two roads to take, medical care or God's touch.

I have reflected tonight on how at earlier times in my life my faith was strong enough that I called on God to heal me, expecting Him to act, and He frequently did just that.  I have seen God  heal me, heal my family and heal many others.  It works today as it did in "Bible Times", no difference.

I have prayed about this but I sense that the strength of my faith is in need of a workout, a toning up, a renewal so to speak.

Brothers and Sisters, I covet your prayers.  Not only prayers for a release from the pain of this injury, yea, even the injury itself, but for the continuing prayers that God's will pervades and prevails in my life, His will be done and mine diminished.

Pray for my lovely wife and my beautiful daughters.

I'll do the same for you.

May God keep you well.

Mark 9:20-24  They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he {began} rolling around and foaming {at the mouth.}  And He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood.  "It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!"  And Jesus said to him, " 'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes."  Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, "I do believe; help my unbelief."

Rom 4:19-22 Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.   Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.

don't blame God

Author unknown

Whose Fault Is It?

A preacher and an atheist barber were once walking through the city slums. Said the atheist barber to the preacher: "This is why I cannot believe in a God of love. If God was as kind as you say, He would not permit all this poverty, disease, and squalor. He would not allow these poor bums to be addicted to dope and other character-destroying habits. No, I cannot believe in a God who permits these things."

The minister was silent until they met a man who was especially unkempt and filthy. His hair was hanging down his neck and he had a half-inch of stubble on his face. Said the minister, "You cannot be a very good barber or you would not permit a man like that to continue living in this neighborhood without a haircut or a shave."

Indignantly the barber answered: "Why blame me for that man's condition. I cannot help it that he is like that. He has never come in my shop; I could fix him up and make him look like a gentleman!"

Giving the barber a penetrating look, the minister said: "Then do not blame God for allowing these people to continue in their evil ways, when He is constantly inviting them to come and be saved. The reason these people are slaves to sin and evil habits is that they refuse the One who died to save and deliver them."

feed the right one

author unknown

 One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between 2 "wolves" inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

choose

Our God, our Creator, our Father in heaven is mindful of the trials and perils, the hope and glory of life in this world and while He does not neglect our selfishness or our selflessness, our catering to the flesh or our sacrifice of the flesh, our ignorance of Him or our devotion to Him, He continues to offer His hand to us and calls us to Him.  As we hear Him remind Solomon, on the occassion of the completion of the temple, He offers us choice.

2 Chronicles 7:11-22

"Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king's palace, and successfully completed all that he had planned on doing in the house of the LORD and in his palace.

Then the LORD appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. "If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land."2 Chronicles 7:11-22

"Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer {offered} in this place. "For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. "As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, even to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David, saying, 'You shall not lack a man {to be} ruler in Israel.'

"But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot you from My land which I have given you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

"As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, 'Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?' "And they will say, 'Because they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this adversity on them.'""



Choose life, choose hope, choose freedom, choose God.

tis the season to chill

Brothers and Sisters, friends and neighbors, men, women and children of all ages, lend me your ears!

Here we are again at the holiday season (notice I did not say "Christmas Season"), when emotions and feelings run close to the surface for a variety of reasons and we all get just a tad bit carried away with ourselves, each other, our wallets, common sense, life and society in general.

Please remember:

There is no mention of "Christmas" in the bible so let's not make a big "Christian" thing out of it to where we whack unbelievers on the cranium unjustly! If you want to focus on Jesus, praise Him.  If others do not, pray for them, but be nice to them!

Thanksgiving is just a day of eating and football.  If you have made it your ONE day of the year to be thankful to our Mighty God, then I think you missed the boat anyway!

New Years is what it is.

Personally, I think our Lord Jesus, if He considers it at all, must shake His head sadly at our thin skinned distraction away from His purposes for us.

Other than that, may your holidays and time with family be blessed by our loving Lord and may His light of peace shine above you and your home.

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and a very Happy New Years Day to you all!

the title of my book

When I leave this earthly life, will my life have been wisely spent?

I have an hour, a day, a year, five years, ten years, maybe fifteen or twenty years left.  Will I spend my remaining days catering to my flesh, growing within and leaving without?  Or shall I spend this all too precious breath investing in others, growing outward in the spirit, allowing God to harvest from my efforts for Him?  Will I give my life or use it up?

 I reflected tonight on the title of my book.  Will it be "An Insignificant Story of a Usual Man" or will it be "A Life of Substance for a God Who Matters"?

Jesus Christ!

It seems to me, when most people use the exclamation "Oh my God!", that God is the last thing on their mind at that moment.  In like manner, when most people exclaim "Jesus Christ!" or "Jesus!" or "Christ!", I think we can safely assume they are not calling upon the Lord.

Ironically, in an age when so much of the media, the liberals and the "atheists" are so dramactically opposed to the mention of God, and especially Jesus, God's name seems to be proclaimed with greater emphasis by these very people!  I think we can easily surmise that it is not the true believers in Jesus that use His name so ineloquently as a curse or as a proclamation of dismay or despair.

a stand must be devised and taken

As a conservative, I know that we MUST guide the leadership of our party of choice by making them aware of our opinions on the myriad issues that are before us in the public arena.  I am increasingly distressed with the blurring of lines between liberalism and conservatism in the two major parties.  Seeking consensus does not necessitate capitulating values and morality for the sake of compromise; a stand must be devised and taken.

Make you voices heard, make your values known, make their phones ring and their postal boxes overflow.

Clueless Republicans

watch, look, listen

engage in the war

All hoopla aside, I don't think it really matters whether President Obama could, would or should accept or reject the Nobel prize, and it is really not a slur or a kudos on him that he "won" it.  Did he do anything to deserve it?  Not in my opinion, but in the opinion of the Nobel judges he did.  In the overall scope of things, it just doesn't matter to me who gets this prize; someone I like or someone I don't.  It has never mattered to me before and it doesn't matter now. 

Does anything about President Obama matter to me?  Abosolutely.

The President of my country stands against everything I hold dear:  God, family, freedom, morality and justice.  But, at least for the next couple of years, he is my President.   I don't have to like it; I do have to accept it.  Planned initiatives: work that much harder for his opponent in the next election, attend town halls, make lots of phone calls and write many letters making my opinion heard by those who have been elected to represent me.  I suggest you do the same.

By the way, for those among us calling for the Presidents resignation, you want Joe Biden as President?  C'mon, are you kidding me?

For the believers among us, engage in the spiritual war that rages around us.  Engage.