Vaction Hiatus

We will be on vacation this coming week. So my blogging will be halted during that time. If anybody really cares. We will be heading to West Virginia to visit family. I will be making a visit to the city of champions. That being of course Pittsburgh, very excited. My favorite city!

So until then may God bless you all and have a safe week.

Our LIving Shepherd

If you think our shepherd is not living. You are greatly mistaken. It's hard for us here to be able to visualize Christ by our side, but he is. We always feel that our living here is for us to do. Many live like they are the only one living their own lives. They feel that every decision is theirs. They feel that nothing or nobody is there to guide them through life. So every bad decision they make, they either blame themselves or somebody else. Their life is empty!

We as Christan's have a shepherd who will lead us if we allow him to. Yet, many of us fail in this also. I know a lot of times I feel it is my own will that will get me out of a bad decision. I bring it upon myself to be the decider of my life. Then I wake up and realize Jesus is right there to give me his guidance for my life. In life I have found that when I give it all to Jesus, things become better and less burdensome. He becomes my shepherd that he longs to be.

We all remember when the magic 8 ball was invented. We all wanted to ask a question or make a request. And then when you turned it upside down a little triangle in blue would show an answer. Many times it was what we wanted, but the answer never really came true. We've all asked the magic 8 ball a question and many of us really thought it would give a real answer, only to find it would never come to be true. There is no magic 8 ball or magic wand to make things the way we want them. Even with having Christ, things don't always become the way we want them. He will give us the answers in his own terms. Some answers may have to be tough for us to handle and a little more patience, prayer and faith on our part may be needed. In Christ he will comfort us until the real answer comes to us. Or he will provide us understanding of why we didn't get the answer we longed for. As Christians we can't be disappointed. We must ask him for understanding and be thankful for whatever solution he provides for us. He knows what he is doing. Any solution should suffice us and we must go to him constantly to be given hope in this world.

As our shepherd he will go after any sheep that is lost from the herd. He will keep us in his fold. He knows when we are lost, yet we sometimes have to let out a distress call or in our terms it would be called a prayer. He will seek us out and make us as complete and comfortable as only he can. Being a Christian is a great thing to me. I am thankful for my parents for laying a Christian foundation throughout my life. I am grateful for the people in my church back home for teaching me word of God. They have given me something to hold onto. I am eternally grateful to them.

I hear and see people every day looking to material things as their primary goal in life to satisfy them. Material things can't and never will be a margin for satisfaction. They are a dead end in life. Christ is a long road to travel. Offering wonderful things along the way, that will give us understanding and honest truth. Christ is the true highway to true life and love. Please travel the road to Christ in life and you will come to complete understanding and satisfaction in life. Because he is life. You won't need to take anything with you on the trip. Just a willing and open heart to fill with his unending gifts to a great life. I would leave your magic 8 ball at home you won't need it, true answers are included as part of the trip.

Peace Be Still

Mark 4: 39-40 Jesus stood up and commanded the wind and said to the waves, "Peace! Be Still!" Then the wind stopped, and it became completely calm. Jesus said to his followers, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?"

This passage says a lot about the power of Christ. I can't imagine being in that boat and not having any fear. That is exactly what the disciples felt that night also. Freaking out about what to do and about what was occurring. It's hard to have faith when the boat in our life is rocking. Everybody is feeling their own personal boat rocking and feeling like it is going to sink. Where is our faith during these tough times in our lives?

It seems to shrink when the waves of life are slapping us back and forth. In my life I have noticed that my faith may not increase but has toughened up though. As we continue in daily life, there is always something bad that is going to happen. It seems the more we face, our belief increases and we become tougher in our faith from wavering. Christ is continually saying, "Peace Be Still!" Our lives become stronger as we approach the throne of God in prayer. Let the peace of Christ come to you. Allow him to come into our lives and become our solution for all of life's junk. We have to let him come into our hearts, he can't solve our problems unless we allow him in.

Jesus, is known as "The Great Physician." These days doctors don't make house calls, we have to go see them and we have to tell them our problems. Then they can give a solution to our problem. Same with Christ, yet he already knows what is ailing us, we still need to go to him in prayer and allow him to examine our lives and allow him to come in and give us a solution to our problem.

Our storms here in Arkansas are very dangerous a lot of times. Sometimes they contain tornadoes, which I am not a huge fan of. The many times we have had to go to the basement because of the sirens going off. Meaning a tornado has touchdown somewhere close to us. Our nerves are rattled and we are very fearful of what may happen. I sometimes wonder as I recall the many times we have faced such a situation. What it would be like for Jesus to stand and knock on my door and hold up his hand and say "Peace Be Still!" It would be amazing, to see something like that just become calm.

He can do the same thing with us. Calming storms in our lives and our world is what he is about. We must believe and remain faithful and we shall overcome with the power of Christ. Amazing!!!

Finally! Crocs Are Dead!

The company that brought these things into the shoe market are in debt. The "Croc's" are going to be history! God, has answered my prayers all day and he finally has answered this prayer of mine. I didn't actually ask a prayer for these things, but he says he knows all our thoughts and this one just happened to be one. When the medical field started wearing these things I just thought that was nasty.

Then every redneck wore them religiously, it ticked me off. There is a customer that comes in that wears a pair of these and she is a redneck. They are four times the size of her feet. It just irritates me when she comes in, plus she is very mean too. I just want to buy her some shoes that fit and don't look like she has walked through a sludge pond. I'm mean, but I just don't like these things and I'm glad they are on their way out.

Life; How Do You Balance It All Out?

How do you maintain sanity? Everything lately has just been coming at me like a freight train. I'm trying to figure out how to juggle it all. Family, work, the house and finding time to go to church. I work for Lowe's and they have really of late kept me from attending church. I hate it and I hate them. But I am not a quitter, I will stay in the game.

Even now while I am trying to write this Cayden my youngest is crying and wanting to sit on my lap. So I am writing with a three year old right now in my lap. Very difficult! But I am adjusting to it.

I pray to our Lord all the time and ask Him to please give me an answer to all this caous. Yet, there is still no answer. But I will be patient with him because he has been very patient with me.

The other night when I came home from work I was very stressed out. I couldn't get myself to calm down. So I finally ask God for some assistance and immediately I became calm and forgot about all the crap at work. It was useless to allow myself to be worried about work and everything else in life . When the only thing that mattered was my walk with him. That's all that matters. So I have decided to stick it out and I'm going to try something new. I'm going to write a book. Don't know when, I do know what is going to be about. I pray I can do this and that God will write through me. That's what he has been doing through me the past couple of years on this blog. I really feel he will do this through me in another way. Nothing I have written has been through my own accord. It has been God all along.

I have been feeling this pressure for quite some time to write a book about arrogance in our world. So now I need to figure where he will begin in me to write something. I might start next week and I might not start till I am 60 years old, but I will write this book some how.

As I read about the night the disciples were in the rocking boat it makes me feel comfortable that Jesus had all things under control. The boat was swaying and tossing about. The disciples were totally freaking out with great fear. Then we read that Jesus was asleep and thought nothing of the great storm. He was more alarmed at his followers and their lack of faith. He said with great might "Peace Be Still." And it was. Christ has it all under control. He knows all about this Earth all to well. He came as a human being to feel our pain and to take away our pain. We all need to go to him and ask him to come into our lives. And he will say "Peace Be Still." And it will be!

Who Is To Be Blamed For Our Sin?

I don't know what or who you blame bad things or painful situations on. But I usually took the blame or fault upon myself. I often thought who else would I blame? I made the decision and I always felt it was my fault. So now as I grow older and maybe a little more wise in my life. I feel the blame is all Satan's.

I know we have a brain and if our lives are laid upon the foundation of Christ. Should we still blame ourselves for the stupid decisions we make? I really feel we should take some of the blame, yet Satan is at his best when we are weak. He can slide in at just the right time.

Someone said one time in Bible class that Satan strikes right when things are going good for us. When Satan sees us at our most spiritual point in our lives, he's poised and ready to strike. That is so true. Really he strikes at any time. But for him to see us at our closest to God, he despises it. He wants nothing Godly to come out of our lives. He wants us to be his victim.

The picture above really gets me. It makes me feel relief. To know that Jesus has become human to do what we couldn't, makes me rejoice. It makes me put the blame at the foot of the cross, and Christ erases it all. WOW!

I try not to judge anybody. Including myself. There are a few people I am thinking about right now. I see there selfishness destroying others around them. Dividing a family! It kills me and I am in great division right now. Who is to blame? Satan is a major factor right now, but I also believe another person is to blame for dividing up the family. It angers me, yet I don't know nothing else but to pray about the situation. This person needs to "bow" up and become the person they should be and put their selfishness aside and rid their life of Satan. I do blame Satan for this whole situation and hope the party responsible repents and does what they need to do, people are hurt and God can heal all involved. Let's get the world and Satan out of our lives and focus on the real reason we are here. Serving God, Christ, the Holy Spirit and serving others. That is our reason for being here. Not to party and live life to the fullest, but to serve a higher power!

Michael Jackson?????

I wasn't going to write about Michael Jackson, but how can you not. I grew up listening to him most of my life. He was larger than life then. Thriller came out when I was in 5th grade. Everybody was singing it. I remember people wearing the diamond studded glove on one hand and others wearing the red jacket that he wore in the video. I never wore any of that junk. I thought it was stupid, but I do remember learning how to "Moon Walk" though. I was so excited when I finally figured out how to do it. Now I think it's dumb, but back then it was the cool thing to do.

I'm not going to rake the poor guy over the coals, like everybody has over the years. I don't know if he molested any children or not. That is for God to judge. I feel we should not judge anybody for their actions. Our actions are of equal value in the sight of God. I don't tolerate the actions of those that do such things to children, but if God sees my sins as equal as theirs. Then all I can do is forgive them. Ok, Enough of that!

I don't know why MJ acted the way he did. But I believe the price of being famous will make you freakish. Always trying to fit in to the eyes that are on you is tough. That's why you should never push your children into the life of being famous. It will mess them up bad! I think we should all push our children into the light of Christ and show them the value of being a servant. We're teaching our children in the wrong ways sometimes, me included. I don't want my children to be star struck by these people that are a bad influence. I don't think there is any value in famous people and their lives, including sports figures. The real heroes are in the Bible and in your church.

So Michael rest in peace and may we not remember him by the negative things, but for the entertainment you brought us over the years.

Jesus, The Fountain Of Life

John 4:13-14 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty. The water I give will become a spring of water gushing up inside of that person, giving eternal life."

I took this picture at a restaurant in Heber Springs on Father's day. I never thought it would take as good as it did. Little did I know it would make a blog. But I think it has a lot of meaning, after you read this verse it does.

The setting of this passage is Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman at the well. He surprises the woman by him just talking to her. She was a Samaritan and he was Jew. Since they were not to talk to each other because of their beliefs. But it shows that Jesus is for all. For all, who are thirsting for something more than this planet and its hollow ways. Jesus asks for her a drink, and she is surprised by the question from him. Yet, she is surprised by all his knowledge of her life and how many husbands she has had over the years. As Jesus tells who he is, she is astounded and runs back into town and tells everyone about her little chat with the Christ. Wouldn't you? I would've never left his side. I would have been asking more questions.

Jesus the water of life and for life. I remember last week when it was so humid and hot and I had to work out in it. I just couldn't wait to get home and feel the cool air of our house. I couldn't wait to get something cool and refreshing to quench my thirst. When I did it was great!!!!! But the next day I was right out there again feeling the same way. Thirsty and hot. It was 118 degrees in the sun for 10 days straight. It was awful, but I took it on and cooled off as much as I could. Yet it didn't last very long, as I returned back into the heat again I felt the need again.

With Jesus it will last for all eternity. He will quench our thirst we search for. Our satisfaction is guaranteed in him always. While we are here on Earth we will face troubles. Even becoming or being a Christian doesn't keep us from troubles in life. We will suffer just like those who don't wear the name of Christ. But us having Christ in our lives will make it easier to deal with our troubles in life. Instead of trying to solve them for ourselves we can pray them away to him. Life is easier when Christ "The Fountain of life" is flowing through us. Accept Christ in your life and drink deeply- it will never run out!