Cup A Joe

WAITRESS!!!!!

  WHERE'S MY CUP A JOE!?!?

 

  Seriously. What kind of service is this and who do we here at Cup A Joe think we are? Depriving you of your tri-weekly--ish servings of Joe. I know some of you Cup A Joe groupies are suicidal at this point.  Good gosh man (or woman). It's not worth it!! Don't do it!! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!! So without further crapola, let's get back to it before somebody does something stupid. 

  Alot has happened in the last three weeks. I have started a new job. That's right. That thing I told you a little while back that was a major change in my life that I was praying hard about and said I wasn't going to do unless I felt God had answered. Well I believe he did so we have made the change. It was difficult because I left some people that I had grown to love, respect and admire a great deal. I was happy to work there for the next 20 years if that was the way it worked out. However, the people I have gone to work for I have also grown to love, respect and admire. How's that you say? How can you have those feelings for someone you've worked with for only a week. Well that's just it. I got to know the man I now work for (and his wonderful wife) the last two years or so as members of our Home Group. Chuck and Jan are their names. Chuck and I have been nonchalantly(sp?) chatting about the possibility of me working for him for several months and it finally got serious. So this week was my first week and it was a very good one. It is nice that Chuck and I already knew each other and we were absolutely sure that we wanted to do this. There was no pressure as we had time to talk out potential problems and how I could help. This first week there was none of the usual nervousness when you begin a new job with people. Do you know that nervousness? Instead, I was able to hit the ground running and starting to learn Chuck's business (from Chuck) and having him plug me into areas that he thinks will free him up to do the important things for the business that only he can do (instead of getting bogged down in things that someone like me can do). It's gonna take some time and alot of training from Chuck but I think it is gonna be a very good fit. Oh. And here is where I work. Go ahead and take a look around.

    Another thing that happened that has effected the number of posts lately is that between jobs, the entire staff here at Cup A Joe took a min- vacation down to Fernandina Beach, FLA to visit my sweet Mom. This picture is taken from the Marina at Fernandina. Beautiful, relaxing and much needed vacation until:

 Saturday morning I was struck down by what I would later learn was a kidney stone. But at the time I thought an alien was trying to come out of my tummy by way of my belly button. I will not try to describe the pain I felt because it cannot be described, only experienced. Therefore, only those of you who have had a Kidney stone understand what I went through. Everything about the experience was horrible except that my prayer life was greatly improved.  I finally passed the little booger at 3:20 this morning. That's him next to Abe:

 

Sorry for the blurry...uuhhh..ness. Obviously, I am feeling like a little less than manly this morning when I consider what that tiny thing did to me. Cheryl took a picture of me when I was in deepest agony:

  I may have been hallucinating but I thought I saw Cheryl smurking at me once and I thought I heard her say something about "9 pounds 14 ounces". Anyhooser. Maybe not. Pain does funny things... Just kidding. She was a real trooper. Got me to the hospital and took very good care of me. Drove the entire seven hours home the next day. I love that woman. Obviously didn't get to do everything we wanted to do. We wanted to try to meet up with an old friend living in the area who is a Cup A Joe reader. Sorry old friend. Might be back again around Christmas.

  Another excuse is that preseason football practice has started again and Joseph is starting his first football season:

 

 

So far, the kid is a beast. Seriously, he is a tackling machine. That thing he is holding below is the left femur of one of the poor kids he tackled earlier that day. OOOoohhh the humanity !! Look at the twisted smile and the wild eyes. Linebacker eyes. Ming the Merciless. Sick'em!

 

 Kudo's to brother Taylor for the many hours he has and is still spending training Joseph. He is unique in his special love for his siblings. A truly great older brother.

   So those are my excuses. Some lame. Some legit. But I am back settled and will be back to atleast two write-ups per week. Love to you all!!

Blizzard of Oz

  

   One more thing about the last post which was a two parter about the Bible stating we should hate our precious family members. I narrowed it down to hating husbands because Cheryl and I have so many that we care a great deal about that the husband is a weak or non existant spiritual leader of the home and because I, at times, have been far less than the leader and example I should be and Cheryl has had to focus on her own relationship and ask God to change something about me. Ouch. Serious.

  I just wanted to clear one thing up ladies. You are not abandoning your husbands if you leave them spiritually in this way. If you truly put God first and pursue Him in every way, irregardless of what your husband or anybody else thinks about it, you will begin to love hubby correctly and better than you ever did in your own strength. And I mean love him better in every way. You will begin to have feelings and thoughts about him you never experienced as you begin to see him through God's eyes. This is experience talking. KEEP GOD FIRST. LOVE BETTER. But be militant in protecting you relationship to Christ above all.

  Here is a very timely Quote from Oswald today:

If when God said "Go," you stayed because you were so concerned about your people at home, you robbed them of the teaching and preaching of Jesus Christ Himself.

  I have been reading Oz for 14 years now and yesterday's devotion (July 31st) is one I remember from the very first time I read it. The idea has become a cornerstone of my thinking about myself and others as I have shared the idea with others over the years. It always comes up when I am stagnant or want more responsibilty and revelation from God (but ain't gettin' it). It is also very timely and I will share a few lines so you can get the gist, baby:

Not only must our relationship to God be right, but the external expression of that relationship must be right. Ultimately God will let nothing escape, every detail is under His scrutiny. In numberless ways God will bring us back to the same point over and over again. He never tires of bringing us to the one point until we learn the lesson, because He is producing the finished product.... and again and again, with the most persistent patience, God has brought us back to the one particular point;  God is trying to impress upon us the one thing that is not entirely right.... Whatever it is, God will point it out with persistence until we are entirely His.

What is your "same point" that you seem to always come back to (but never get past)? You know you got one (atleast). You are robbing yourself and possibly others of great joy.

Love Stinks...............Yeah Yeah

  Whooaa Nelly. Hold on a minute. You said hate my husband?! Great googly goo goo my good man. Have your senses left thee? What about:

Matthew 5:43-44- You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Matthew 22:36-40- "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.

Luke 14:26- "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

  So I am supposed to love my ENEMIES AND NEIGHBORS and HATE my wife and kids. Now ofcourse for rednecks like me, sometimes my enemies, neighbors and family are the same person but anyhoo..

  Uhh.. One of the voices in my head just asked me what kinda daggone redneck says anyhoo. That's a very good question, voice inside my head. Maybe the redneck in my head also has voices in HIS head. Maybe the redneck in my head wears pink overalls. Huh...ever think about that?

 ANYHOO!!

  One thing to remember; A friend named Tant once taught me a very important lesson about difficult to understand passages of scripture and it was that the best commentary on the Bible is ...the Bible. So with that in mind, doesn't the following verse shed some light on Luke 14:26 (Jesus said dem bof yo):

Matthew 10:37-39- Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

   If you really hated your spouse, what would you do? Leave him? Go find another? Well that is what you need to do in the Spiritual Realm. Leave him so to speak. Live with him but leave him with Jesus and you go on about the business of putting God in the right place in your life. I promise he won't be alone. You need to get out of the way and let Jesus at him.

   And go find another...that is commit to another as most important....Jesus. The church is His bride and He wants you to be a part of it. Jesus no longer calls groups of people. He doesn't call couples. He calls you. Even if your husband is the finest Christian who ever lived, you will still stand alone before Christ. Are you letting hubby be an excuse? Do you subconsciously want hubby to be an excuse? He's not one. Pray for him and then get out of the way. As I have said many times on this site, when you start praying hard for someone, it is usually gonna get ugly and worse before it gets better and pretty but Jesus is in the people breaking and rebuilding business and business is good.

  As I've said, you should love Jesus so much more than anyone or anything else and be so willing and quick to obey Him at the expense of any and all earthly relationships that it may feel like hate to others at times. If Hate, Human Love and God's Love were in a race, God's Love would be so far out front that if he looked back at Hate and Human Love, they would appear to be in a dead heat or they would appear to be the same. So you can see how Jesus would say love me more than anyone else and then later hate them if you want to love me correctly. It's all the same. There is no list. There is only Jesus. Love Him and let Him handle those on your list. Ladies, make the commitment to Jesus and everything that means (if you don't know call or e-mail Cheryl). Put your hubbies on your prayer list but commit the rest of your lives to Jesus and stay on that path and don't turn around to look what he is doing or how he's reacting. Your big girls. You can handle it. And Jesus is a big God, He can handle him.

Not So Little

This man is a Husband, Father, Brother and Granddad.

 

He is the son of a wonderful, beautiful woman and a man who did 3 tours of Vietnam as a Green Beret and helicopter pilot.

 

He has been serving our country since 1981 and now is a Colonel in the United States Army. He is Commander of the 504^th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade based in Fort Hood, Texas.

 

He is my cousin, Colonel Robert P. Walters, or as I knew him growing up; Little Bob. Yes. 6 foot 3’ish and 200 pound…uh....ish, Little Bob. To understand that, you would’ve had to know Big Bob.

 

 

  Two memories of Bob stick out for me and both turned out to be lessons learned. The first:

 

   I was probably about six years old and playing in the sand at my family’s lake house. We were down there with little Bob and his family: My uncle Bob (his dad), my Aunt Bobbie (his mom) and his sisters (my cousins) Robin and Joy were all there, visiting, if memory serves, from Fort Bragg. I remember seeing cousin Bob and his dad in a boat, preparing to go fishing. Bob was 10 or so at the time. I remember being a little worried that they were getting ready to go fishing without me. I ran to my dad so that he could reassure me that that would never…could never.. happen. But instead he told me that indeed, that was EXACTLY what was going to happen. “But why can’t I go dad?” My dad then began to explain to me about a place called Vietnam, and war and how Bob’s dad had been their for a long time and the only reason he was here was because he was on vacation (leave) and would be going back soon and Little Bob didn’t get to see his daddy as much as I got to see mine, so “Why don’t we let them spend a little time together.”

 

“Well so what dad. I still want to go fishing.”

 

   I’m not sure how exact my quotes are except for my dad explaining to me that it was proper and right to let them be together and there was something very special and valuable about their time together. I think then is when I began to understand that some folks were different and that not everyone was as lucky as I was. Sacrifice.

 

   Story #2 is shameful but I tell it for the good I think it did me. In the first Gulf War I was glued to my Television set every night just like you were. My mom told me that Little Bob was over there so I decided to write him a really Gung Ho, macho man, lets kick some Iraq @%*&^  letter filled with “F” bombs and numerous (extremely numerous) other vulgarities. Too many Vietnam movies I guess. My intention was to encourage someone who I thought I knew from days gone by but little did I know that that guy didn’t exist anymore. I WILL NEVER forget the feeling I got when I opened his return letter and began to read. Shame and embarrassment washed over me. I was by myself but I felt watched. I could feel myself blush hard. His return letter was the most gracious and humble thing I believe I’d ever read. It was pretty much a thank you for the letter, a description of the kind of men he served with and then a plea that I would seriously pray that God would protect his men. I cannot overstate the effect this had on me. Truly ashamed of my letter. Amazed at the change for the good in Bob but most of all an awareness of what a good man Bob had become compared to me. It is said that a person’s salvation is like a spider web, with many parts and experiences contributing to the whole. I committed my self to the Lord about 3 years after this letter and it definitely played a small part in that.  Shame can be a good thing…..

 

 

 ....Cause look what I get to do, 17 years after that horrible, wonderful letter.

 

   Bob is taking his men back over to Iraq in a few weeks and in fact, he himself just returned from Iraq on kind of a pre-planning mission before they all go. His wonderful wife Nancy has asked friends and family to pray for him and his men and I am asking you to do the same. Right now please. And for those of you who have prayer lists please add him, his men and his family to that list.

 

Following is the Psalm that Nancy has claimed in past times when Bob has been in Iraq:

 

Psalm 91

 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."

 Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence.

 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,

 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.

 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

 You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.

 If you make the Most High your dwelling— even the LORD, who is my refuge-

 then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.

 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;

 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

 You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

 "Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

 He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.

 With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."

 

Bob and his grandson. Yes Grandson. If he looks like a grandpappy that could kick your butt it's because  he is one:

 

 

Bob's family:

Best Cup A Joe Post Ever

          

by: TAYLOR Smith

 

 

   This past week I went on a ten or eleven hour trip down to Panama City, Florida

with my Church’s youth group. This was the second time I have been on this trip. Now one big difference this year was that there was one trip with just Middle Schoolers, and one trip with just High Schoolers. The Middle School kids went last week and the High School kids are in the middle of there trip as we speak.

            Now, this year the games were a lot better. But, there was one game in particular that was just crazy, nasty, weird, and disturbing. It was a relay race; but not your everyday relay. In this race we had to grab a straw that was about ½ centimeter in diameter. Then we had to run about 20 yards to a bucket filled with this-

Yeah that is a mixture of pickles, pickle juice, cheetos, and Vienna Sausages; and it had been sitting there for a while. So the cheetos were soaked in pickle juice all soggy and just sick. Some of you probably just threw up a little bit so I will stop describing it.  Anyway, we had to grab as big of a handful as we could and put in to our mouth. Then run back to our team leader who had a jar not to big but big enough. Then, if you thought that was nasty then listen to this. Once we got to our leader we had to chew up the slop to were it was chewed up good enough to were we could spit it through the straw into the jar. Yeah, I think one or two kids threw up; one of the leaders got thrown up on then bent down and threw up himself. It was nasty; I gagged when I tasted it.

            Now a typical day at the camp is this. At about 7:30 we get up eat breakfast and head to the beach to do our daily devotionals. Then we go to breakout, this is a new feature to the Gauntlet. Breakout is when we go into the hotel theatre and sing a few songs led by two of the church’s high schoolers who are very talented. Then we here a speaker for about 15 to 20 minutes. Now, we had three sessions. Lee Mcderment (New Spring Worship Leader) spoke at one and Brad Cooper (Youth Pastor) spoke at the other two. One of Brad’s was on a video that we watched on the bus ride back. We did not have one Thursday morning, instead we had a baptism and sang a few songs but I’ll get to that later.

            Now after breakout we went to play games until about 11: 30 or 12: 00. At 12: 00 everyday we had lunch, the food was very good. Then at about 1: 30 we had another game until about 3: 30. At 3: 30 we had free time were we could go to any of the six pools, go to the beach, go play games on the beach like football or ultimate Frisbee, or we could just go take a nap in the nap in the room but we had to have a leader to get to the room. At about 5: 00 we went up to our rooms to get ready for dinner and worship. Dinner was at 6: 00. We loaded the buses for the local high school auditorium that we had worship in at about 7: 15. We started worship at about 7: 45 or 8: 00.

 

            At worship we sang about 3 or 4 songs sung by Lee Mcderment or Daniel Harper (Youth Worship Leader and son of Gary Harper who was George Roger's QB at USC). They are both very talented singers and musicians. Then we got to hear a message by in my opinion the best speaker in the country. This Speaker was Perry Noble the Senior Pastor of Newspring.  He is an amazing communicator to kids, teens, and adults on just about any topic. Now at the end of every message there were 2 invitations. One was very simple; Perry said straight up if there was anyone in the room who wanted to receive Christ to raise there hand and they would be led in a prayer individually by an adult. Now the second invitation was different every night. The first night it was just one.  The next special invitation was if you want to physically, emotionally, and spiritually worship God then go to the front and get on your face before God and just worship him with all you have at that one moment. 

 

  Wait that’s not all!

 

          Yeah!!! That is a lot of commitments. 

           

 

 

 But the second invitation on the third night was if you wanted to be completely sold out to God and throw everything else aside and to go get on your knees on the floor and show that you meant it. And the last night, which was Perry’s best sermon maybe ever. He talked about how in our schools and in the community we can’t stand up for Jesus by ourselves, that we will get sucked into the crowd if it is just one person. So the invitation was if you know that you want to stand up for Christ and not get sucked into the crowd then to get with a group of 3 or more people and just pray that we would keep each other accountable and have each other’s backs at school or just somewhere out in public.

            He also gave a baptism invitation for the next morning. That morning was an amazing experience. 105 people got baptized that morning right there in the Gulf of Mexico

  Now all week during the games we had about 15 or 20 people watching us from these balconies. But during that baptism we had at least 40 or 50 complete strangers watching us and cheering us on. The two high schoolers led two worship songs on the beach, and by then there were at least 70 people watching us cheering us on and even raising there hands and singing.

 

            The last night random women came up to me and my friends Andrew, Lee, Deon, and Michael. She asked if we were from the church group. We said yes, she just wanted to tell us that she loved what we were doing and loved seeing all the kid’s life’s change because of one decision. She said she watched us all week with the games, the baptism, and the worship. She also told us how well – behaved we were and how we did a good job of representing Jesus. It was good to hear that from someone outside of the church.

            Now, there was one low point to the week. As my Dad already said there was a guy that I got to come to the Gauntlet. Well my close friend Andrew Marchbanks and I were really hoping and praying that he would except Christ and get baptized during the week but it didn’t happen. It was pretty depressing but he still has time to make the decision. Other than that it was one of the best weeks of my life.

 

more of my photos will be coming soon

Don't Hate Me 'Cause I'm Beautiful.

May lose a few of you today. 

 Ozzie (Oswald Chambers) is absolutely brutal today. I'll lift a few lines to share with you:

The Spirit of God in the process of sanctification will strip me until I am nothing but "myself," that is the place of death. Am I willing to be "myself," and nothing more - no friends, no father, no brother, no self-interest - simply ready for death? That is the condition of sanctification. No wonder Jesus said: "I came not to send peace, but a sword." This is where the battle comes, and where so many of us faint. We refuse to be identified with the death of Jesus on this point. "But it is so stern," we say; "He cannot wish me to do that." Our Lord is stern; and He does wish us to do that. Am I willing to reduce myself simply to "me," determinedly to strip myself of all my friends think of me, of all I think of myself, and to hand that simple naked self over to God? Immediately I am, He will sanctify me wholly, and my life will be free from earnestness in connection with every thing but God… Sanctification is not something Jesus Christ puts into me: it is Himself in me. (1 Cor. 1:30.)

 He is explaining the following passage of scripture:

Luke 14:26 (ESV)- If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brother and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

  That is a difficult one but in honor of that verse I am writing the following letter to all my friends and family, both immediate and extended:

Dear Wonderful family and friends,

   I hate you all with a purple passion.

Hugs and kisses,

Your friend, Joe

  Truth is brutal. Jesus can be brutal. We don't get that and it's TRAGIC. TRAGIC!! TRAGIC!! Now the truth of Luke 14:26 is that if I learn to hate the way Jesus is teaching me here, I will love much better. That may involve me setting up boundaries. That may involve me not accepting certain things or being around certain things but you are "being loved" whether you like it or not. In fact, part of what Jesus means here is that if He owns me, then those who don't have an understanding of that may feel that I hate them. You know; You may feel like you've been dropped like a bad habit because Jesus is suddenly first with someone you love (and because maybe you are a bad habit) but it's not personal. It's just business. I have been purchased with blood and suffering and it means more to me than you do. Brutal.

  Maybe I can explain it better with THE LIST. You know "the list". There are several lists. The Marine Corps has one: God, Family, Corps, Country.... Yay God!! He's #1!! He's #1!!

  And alot of Pastor's have lists that usually look like this: Jesus, Wife, Children, Church. ..Yay God!! He's #1 in both polls this year. Must have a really good ball club.

But be careful. It's great you put God #1 on some list you live by but the truth is:

THERE IS NO LIST!!

  There is only Jesus. DON"T WORRY!! He know's the other priorities in your life that you have given a number to. But if we will, "hand that simple naked self over to God" we will find we don't need a list. He takes care of it all. Your wife is not #2, she is Jesus. Your Church is not #3, she is Jesus. Even the least of these  (maybe #9 or #10 on your list).... is Jesus

  This whole thing is getting long so there will have to be a part 2. I know I said I may lose a few of you but I shouldn't have lost you yet. I'll try to lose you better in part 2 and here's how (so's you can prepare yoself).

  Cheryl and I know personally several (if not a half dozen) wives who seem to be waiting on their husbands to "make a move" so to speak as far as committing to Christ or doing whatever it is they know Christ wants them to do. Some wives have been waiting for years for their husbands to take up the spiritual leadership of their home as if it will be some kind of excuse when they are nose to nose with Christ (The Lion, not the Lamb). But guess what ladies, they already have. The wrong spirit but he is leading is he not? And you are following, are you not? Spiritual is not another name for God.

  Next post we are going to talk about several things and one is how you can properly hate your Husband. That's right hate. Let me explain later but remember something ladies; you will stand ALONE before Christ... as will your spineless, cowardly husbands.

Ok. Maybe I will lose some of you today.

  

Spray Cheese and Fanny Packs

  

 Twittering. I believe a few posts back I said I would explain Twittering in my next post. Didn't happen so I apologize. I apologize...unreservedly. But now let me make amends.

   A man came home from work one day and said to his wife, "Honey, I think we need to start Twittering!" The wife responded, "My dear, I think we Twitter quite enough already!!" Husband: "No..wait."

  Normally Twitter would be a Googly, a concept I introduced in an earlier post. If I recall, I claimed that I invented Googly but I'm not sure if it was me or Al Gore. Either AL Gore invented Googly and I invented the Internet or vice versa. Either way, these are two Ginormous contributions to mankind; on par with the clapper, spray cheese and fanny packs. But this word Twitter begs for something more. The think tank here at Cup A Joe, we believe, employs some of the greatest minds of our time. Or at least, several Honor roll students. The concept we are unveiling today, we have named WikiWordia, a play on the word Wikipedia which most of you are familiar with as an online encyclopedia. This will be used when I want to give you an exact meaning of a word instead of the many opinions that a Googly might bring you. Todays WikiWordia is ofcourse, Twitter. I have done this first one for you by making the first word of this post a link to Wikipedia and the word Twitter. Twitter is an instant messaging system that can include photos and that is where I was getting my pictures last week from Panama City Beach in practically real time. Several of the leaders Twitter. So there you are. You are now Twitter savvy. Savvy?

  Speaking of Taylor, he came back a little under the weather and in fact wasn't able to go to Church with us yesterday. He missed a great sermon by Perry Noble yesterday entitled, "Can you lose your Salvation?" I feel like I have heard most of the modern, famous pastors and have read sermons of many of the greats from times past and in the last several months, Perry has been as good as I've ever heard. He may not be everyone's cup of tea but one of the things I love about P. is that he is fine with that.

  Taylor has two reports to give this week; one for our faithful readers here at Cup A Joe and another that our Home Group has requested Thursday night. His buddy didn't get saved but many did. Pray for his health and his buddy.

  In a recent post on prayer I told you how I was weak in my prayer life and needed to improve. With anything that the Father shows you needs improvement, it begins with an admission of sin (of ommission in this case), a heartfelt vow to change (repent) and a request for forgiveness (always granted if steps 1 and 2 are sincere sincere sincere sincere). I told you that I had to have an answer on a big decision in my life or I wasn't going to move on it. Well you will never believe what happened; I was outside looking up, when suddenly the clouds parted and a giant hand poked through holding a huge paper airplane. The hand threw the airplane and it sailed down to me. When I unfolded the airplane, it had my specific answers written in perfect cursive.

  Man! Wouldn't that be great! You think we would be more obedient if it worked that way? Or say if He would just write how he wanted us to act on some stone tablets and gave tho..

  Oh wait

  Or maybe if he would write a whole boo....

  Oh wait.

I do believe I got an answer. I'll tell you what it looked and felt like to me in a near future post baby.

WOOF!!

Excuse me? Come again? What was that?

 

 

  That bright "star" on the Horizon is actually the planet Jupiter. This picture was taken from the ancient ruins of a town that was once called Ephesus in present day Turkey. The Apostle Paul once spent 2 years there on one of his missionary journeys. While there he was cast into prison for a short while and is believed to have written 1st Corinthians during his incarceration. Later, he wrote a letter to the church in Ephesus that became a book called Ephesians that is part of a very popular book you may have heard of called THE HOLY BIBLE by Yahweh. Two big thumbs up....I highly recommend it..

I laughed... I cried. I repented and was forgiven.

 Speaking of Ephesians:

Ephesians 2:8-10-(NIV)-For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's work, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

No natural man would or could talk like that. For a man, especially a former Christian killer like Paul, to utter these words he would have to have them implanted into his cranial hard drive. So the creator of the planet and the stars you see in the picture up there, whispered truth into the ears of the murderer.

But not these:

these: Mark 4:9-(NIV)- Then Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

What does that mean? Do you have Jesus ears? If you haven't drastically drastically drastically changed as a result of understanding what He has done, then you don't have "ears to hear".

Anyhoo. Should get a pair. They're free.....to you.

Taylor will be back Friday evening. He will be blogging on his experiences next week on this very site. He has taken many pictures to share with you. If we have ears to hear, I believe he will rock our worlds:

At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure."

 

Don't let this be you:

 

 

 

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What song is it you want to hear?!?! . . . NESSUN DORMA !!!!

Something Beautiful for you today. Click on it. Let's face it, the fat Italian lad could really sing. You need to listen to this with headphones on or at least very loud. Spine tingling... Or am I just weird?

  Don't worry my fellow rednecks, FREE BIRD is still the song I want to hear. All 14 minutes of it, Bubba. By the way, Mr. Van Zant was asking a rhetorical question..... so quiet down. By the way part two; Did you know that when the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane went down, killing some of the band members, the plane had taken off from Greenville, SC. If you didn't know that and you live in the upstate, you need to turn in your Redneck badges immediately. You may think you don't need no stinking badges........but you would be wrong mister.

    Here is some more beautiful stuff. Much, much more beautiful. Do yourself and your relationship with Christ a favor and meditate, pray, or just be quiet and think about what is transacting here. Think about who you can see. Think about who you can't see but you know is there. Reflect on all that... Or Don't.

  Spine tingling... Or am I just weird?

A Hodged Podged Mish Mash of This and That

  It seems that IT IS prayer after all. I am reading several books on prayer and I have been doing a bit of a study on prayer. All that doesn't matter though. I am concentrating a little more on MY PRAYERS and THAT does matter. I am journaling a little more faithfully and writing down prayers. As I go along I'll discuss more changes in my prayer life. Here are some quotes on prayer and other stuff from books I am actually reading:

 

God wants, and must have, all that there is in man in answering his prayers. He must have whole-hearted men through whom to work out his purposes and plans concerning men. God must have men in their entirety. No double minded men need to apply. No vacillating man can be used. No man with a divided allegiance to God, and the world and self, can do the praying that is needed.- E. M. Bounds- The Essentials of Prayer

To be clothed with Humility is to be clothed with a praying garment. Humility is just feeling little because we are little. Humilty is realising our unworthiness because we are unworthy, the feeling and declaring ourselves sinners because we are sinners.....There is no Christ without humility. There is no praying without humility.- E. M. Bounds- The Essentials of Prayer

 

 

If we are all honest, we will admit that most of the time we are not on a truth quest. We are on a happiness quest. Feeling good usually trumps truth...So we make decisions based on what we want, then go on a search for justification....nobody believes our lame excuses or reasons or justifications but after awhile, we deceive ourselves. (we drink our own kool-aid)...Until we are able to unearth and root out our self-deception, it is impossible to break away. Unfortunately, self-deception is a constant problem. "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9) Our hearts are prone to mislead, and there is no permanent cure. It requires constant monitoring and constant checks You can manage it, but you can't cure it.- Andy Stanley from small group study Breakaway

 

 

 

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out where the strong stumbled or how the doer could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is in the arena, his face marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and falls short again and again: There is no effort without error.- Theodore Roosevelt

 

 

 

The only exercise some Christians get is jumping to conclusions and running others down.- J. Vernon McGee

 

 

A woman once came to the great evangelist D.L. Moody, who did evangelistic crusades similar to Billy Graham’s:

She said to him, “Mr. Moody, I don’t like the way you do evangelism!”

Moody’s response to her was, “Well ma’am, let me ask you, how do you do it?”

She replied, “I don’t!”

Moody responded, “Well, I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it!”

 

 

And a picture or two from Panama City: