Cup A Joe

GOOD TIMES!!

 

   The next 9-10 days are busy, exciting times for we Smith’s. Tonight our Home Group starts a new series using material from Andy Stanley’s Church, NorthPoint. They are located in Atlanta and Andy is the son of Charles Stanley, famous Pastor of First Baptist Church Atlanta. Charles became Pastor there in 1972 and, if I am not mistaken, succeeded a Pastor named Dr. Roy O. McClain who was the Pastor of First Baptist Church of Orangeburg for 3 years back in the early to mid 50’s and then moved on to Atlanta. When McClain retired, he moved back to Orangeburg and lived on a small farm right down the street from where the wife of my very good friend, Weldon Burns, grew up. Her name is Michelle and she is lifelong friends with Cheryl. Someone please correct me if I don’t have my facts 100% correct but in the mean time, let’s all sing:

 

 

It’s a small world after all,  it’s a small world after all…..

 

 

  Terrific! You all have tremendous singing voices!!

 

 

 

   The course is 6 weeks long and Cheryl and I have studied the first two weeks and it is terrific material. I think our group will love it. It involves a subject matter that I have lately had hammered into me on many different fronts but only because I am stupid, stubborn and apparently proud of it: I can’t and don’t think like God. My thoughts are naturally NOWHERE NEAR the thoughts God wants me to have. BUT WAIT!!:

 

 

Proverbs 3:5-6- Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

 

  Then, this weekend the fam and I will eat breakfast at our favorite mom and pop joint early Saturday morning, then hit the yard sales and then go to either Greenville for the afternoon or maybe Atlanta for the night and then go watch one of the Stanley’s preach the next morning. Haven’t decided yet.

  Next week is a week we have looked forward to for awhile. Tuesday night Membership class at Newspring Anderson but then Thursday night we will be at the Newspring Greenville Satellite campus to volunteer for their first ever Membership class. They don’t even have their first service until July 13^th. That will be very exciting.

 

  Then Saturday is the Big Concert and fireworks show I have been talking to all of you about for months. You that haven’t committed, you need to come up or down or over.
So far, there will be between 35-45 in our group and we shall make a joyful noise or two.

Psalm 100 (ESV)-

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!

Serve the LORD with gladness!

Come into His presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, He is God!

 

  

Bizzow Wizzow

  

  Dad popped in yesterday and took the whole fam out to dinner at Sullivan's here in Anderson. Shrimp and Grits and She Crab soup for me, thanks.  Delizzle.....A brief word and explanation about the Izzle language; I have studied many languages over the years and the izzle language is..... a.... delight. It was begun in the early '90's by the Honorable Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr. also known as Snoop Doggy Dogg, Esq.  In addition to the Izzle Languizzle, Mr. Dogg has contributed many other wonderful things to our American Culture. Consider:

Just to get you caught up in amazement, we puffin' on Cubans so it might be dangerous. But when it isn't, you can sit izzon bizzack and let the Bizzow Wizzow ride the trizzack, ha ha. How ya' feelin'? I'm up to dealin', ridin' like a villan, Makin' a killin', thrillin' the crowd wit my new hairdo...Who you be? You know who I be, I'm the DoggFather. (lyrics from the song DoggFather.)

 OH YES!! What exquisite turn of phrase!...... Word to yo' motha' indeed.

 

   Back to Dad's visit; We had a wonderful time with lots of good conversation. We talked about the blog some and he told me how much he liked it. Always good to get affirmation from Pop. He only had one complaint, I use the word suck (sux, sucked) occasionally to describe situations I deem less than optimum or undesirous and that he understood that to be a bad word. And do you know what my response was? It was, "Yes Daddy. I shan't use that naughty word anymore"... So let that be a lesson to all you kiddies out there. Obey your parents!!  .... Even when your 42 years old, baby.

The ME MONSTER and another AL

 

   I love my wife.

   I love my job.

   I love Pepperoni Pizza from Pepino's. 18 inch please.

   And. I love you. Whoever you might be. (except for you. You know who you are.)

  The English language allows the use of the same word, Love, to convey my positve feelings toward all these things but obviously my feelings of love towards my wife are a little different than my feelings towards Pizza. Now sometimes when my wife pecks me on the cheek, she leaves lipstick and sometimes when I have locked in desperate battle with an 18" Pepino's, at the end there are large smears of tomato paste on my cheek but still; it's not the same.

  (Side note to Pepino's: I really...REALLY miss you.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Alexander the Great was possibly the Greatest King Warrior this world has ever seen. They say he was very good looking. I don't know. Looks like he had a kinda funky nose. Nostrizzle? Anyhoo, many Bible scholars think he is the subject of this prophecy passage in Daniel as "The Goat". Sure seems that way. This passage was written at least 300 years before Alexander's birth (born 356 BC). Another example of history being HIS-STORY and the future being under HIS control.

   I wonder what Alexander was thinking as he plotted and planned and possessed and plundered most of the known planet at the time. What were His thoughts: Me, mine, I will, I, I, I, myself, me great for me mee, I'm great, mine I I I am me MEMMEEEEE, MEEE, MMEEEEEEEEE!!

  Beware the ME MONSTER. I should know. I have one that lives inside of me. So do you. I imagine Alex's was quite beastly.

  What was really going on? I think God was just preparing to write the New Testament, which would be written some 400 years later in the wonderfully descriptive and precise language of Alexander; The Greek language. The Greeks of the generation before Alexander were the Greeks of Plato, Socrates and Aristotle. In fact, Aristotle was one of Alexander's teachers. There favorite past time was to debate on the meaning of life and the meaning of the words that describe that life. Love often came up I am sure as love often comes up now in our hearts and minds and discussions. Part of tearing the concept of love apart for better understanding was the "invention" of a new word for a certain kind of brotherly, loyal, and strong friendship. That word was Philia and Aristotle came up with that one. So now, instead of me saying "I Love you, whoever you might be" like I did above and making you nervous about just what I might mean by that I can say "I philia you." Now you can say, "Oh. Joe just considers me a good friend. Philia right back at ya' dawg." See how that works? Now you know precisely what I meant and there's no weirdness between you and me.

 

  This is at least a three part series on love. Tune in Monday for part 2 as we talk about the Greek word for another type of love, EROS. That's right. Bet that one sounds familiar.

  Oh. And be sure to click on the ME MONSTER link, 3rd paragraph up. That guy is hilarious!! My favorite Comic and clean.

   Have a great weekend!!

 

 

 

Photos and......SURPRISES!!!

New Photo Album. Click here or go down on the right per usual. An added treat and somewhat of an experiment, click on links below for a surprise:

Surprise #1

Surprise #2

Surprise #3

Surprise #4

   Now as I said, this is an experiment but just think of how great this will be for Grandmas, Grandpas and Aunts and Uncles during sporting and school events. Pretty cool huh?

Need some feedback. Video quality will improve. At bottom right of actual video you can blow up to full screen.

Photos 3

   New photos up. For real this time. There is even a picture of Cheryl, a very rare event. You can click here or go down on the right side and click on Botanical Garden in Photo Albums. Be sure and click on each individual photo for a larger picture and a description.

The mouths of babes

   Shared last Monday that Cheryl and I were going to try to start taking better care of ourselves physically. As part of our accountability in this area we have shared this with you and with our Home Group (these folks are brutal accountability partners). Also said we would give weekly updates so:

   I lost 6 pounds this first week. Cheryl has lost 2. That puts me at a svelte 242. I think my life long dream of being a ballerina is back in the realm of the doable.

    Katie, my nine year old, recently was asked by her teacher to write a short paper about anything she wanted to. The paper only had to be a paragraph. Here is what she wrote:

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GOD by Katie Smith

  God is great and if your are the one reading this right now and you know that in your heart you really don't love, know or trust God you need to find out who he is and how much he loves you. I, Katie Smith, knows, loves and trusts God. If you don't, you go to hell when you die. If you start to trust in God, you will die and go to heaven even though bad things might happen to you. I love God and I am a kid.

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   It just ain't all that complicated.

Fat ain't Phat

    I weigh 248 pounds. Those 248 pounds are spread out over five feet and eleven inches. Fully dressed, I am closer to 300 pounds than I am to 200 pounds(backoff ladies. I am a one woman man). See that picture? I believe I have just polished off a Big Mac, large fries, possibly 6 McNuggets and a Diet Coke. Diet Coke. That's funny.

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   I don't have a genetic disposition towards weight gain. In fact I have a pretty active metabolism. That will be proven again here during the next few weeks. My problem is idolatry of food? My sin is gluttony. I like to eat. My sin is taking for granted the body God gave me. His Temple.

I have lost 50 pounds twice before in my life. I have lost 25 pounds several other times. I did it cause I wanted to feel better and look better or I did it for the people in the picture. Obviously, it didn't take and there was no long term, lifestyle change. This time I am losing weight because it has been impressed upon me that this is serious sin in my life (is there another kind?) and I have asked for forgiveness and repented (can't have one without the other, brother).

   Not going to go into a long sermon about this. This is just the deal for me right now..I am a fat pig  because of my sin...case closed. I am just sharing this with you for prayer and a little accountability and some expertise. Several of you are quite health conscious and several are even health professionals in some capacity. What's up dawgs?

   I know putting this out in public as a confession of sin is risky but here it is. I will be giving weekly updates on weight loss for both Cheryl and I. I won't be giving Cheryl's weight. Are you kidding? I have been married 14 years. But my goal weight is 190 pounds. That is 58 pounds lost and Cheryl is trying to lose about half of that.

   So there it is woodchuck chuckers.

Also, I will be adding pictures of the kids to some of my write-ups and for no apparent reason. The kids just love it and they think, just because it is on the web, they are famous..Like a newspaper photo or something. So click on Photos. You'll make them happy.

Photos 2

New photos are up. You can click here or go down on the right and click on photo album. Be sure and click on each photo for blow up and caption. Hope they bring a giggle or two. Have a great weekend

And now....THE NEWS!!

• BBC News announced that thanks to a mild winter and the virtual elimination of the spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. Footage of Swiss farmers pulling strands of spaghetti from trees has prompted a barrage of calls from people wanting to know how to grow their own spaghetti at home.

• American fast-food chain Taco Bell announced that it has purchased Philadelphia's Liberty Bell, a historic symbol of American independence, from the federal government and will rename it the Taco Liberty Bell....In a related story, the White House announced that the Lincoln Memorial in Washington had also been sold to the Ford Motor Company and will  be renamed the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial after the automotive giant.

• National Public Radio announced today that Bill Clinton was running for president again. His new campaign slogan is, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again."

• In religion News, the state of Alabama has decided to change the value of Pi from 3.14159 to the "Biblical value" of 3.0.

• Burger King is announcing the introduction of the "Left-Handed Whopper," specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. The the new burger includes the same ingredients as the original, but the condiments are rotated 180 degrees.

• And in Astronomy news, noted British astronomer Patrick Moore has announced a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event, in which Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, causing a gravitational alignment that would reduce the Earth's gravity. Moore has reported that if you jump in the air at the exact moment of the planetary alignment, you will experience a floating sensation.

• And finally, Sports; ESPN is reporting that a rookie baseball pitcher who can reportedly throw a ball at 168 miles per hour is set to join the Atlanta Braves. He is said to have mastered his skill -- pitching significantly faster than anyone else has ever managed -- in a Tibetan monastery.

That is all. Goodnight and have a pleasant April Fool's Day.

New Photos

New photos of new house and kids are up. More to follow later today. Click here or go to House and Stuff to the left under Photo Albums.