Been Awhile, sorry

It's been awhile since I posted anything. I haven't seen any reason to write because my readers have fallen off lately. So I felt I was just writing to myself. Today I looked at the amazing beauty of the clouds. God is amazing in his ability to give us a wondrous creation to look at. I stood in awe today. God is wonderful, and yet many still don't believe. If they would just open their eye's and look at what is in of them they would realize all that is, just didn't happen. It was created.

I am excited that college football kicks off this weekend and the NFL kicks off on the 10 th. Can't believe it's already that time of year. I am from West Virginia so that is who I route for and a little bit for Ohio State and very little for Arkansas. So go WVU!

I have learned a lot this past couple of weeks through some really good books. Some I have read are Through painted desserts, To own a dragon - both written by Donald Miller. Great writer.

Enjoying God, by SJ Hill. Very good book. And another author who's books are dated back in the 80's, but have been reading a book of his called- "Who switched the price tags.' by Tony Campolo. It has been a really good book. So, if you are looking for something to read here's a few.

I started working on the first chapter on a book the other night. It turned out pretty good, but it will be a long time bfore I will ever finish it. A work in progress. I need your prayers. Have a good tuesday,and God bless.

Been Awhile, sorry

Twitter?????

You can follow me now on Twitter through my blog. I don't quite get Twitter. I thought it was like Facebook, but it isn't. I don't think my life is that interesting to follow. So, I guess I will give it a shot. Tweet away!

Our Fear

This is a picture of our cat Shelby. She has it made around here as you can tell by this picture. Her life seems to be so easy. She wakes up in the morning and waits by the back door for us to open it up. She stretches and makes a funny noise and heads right to her food and water. She sleeps a lot and lets us know when she wants to go out and roam. She'll come back and wants our attention by laying on the floor and rolling around. She really is a sweet cat. Very gentle with the kids and especially Macy. Macy is our middle child and is very focused on her tasks at hand. That being annoying her brothers or picking up the cat and carrying her around like a football. She reminds me of the little girl on the movie "Finding Nemo." That girl was rough with all her pets, but Macy is very good with the cat though.

I sometimes am jealous of the cat. I wish Iwas her and didn't have to deal with the problems in life. I'm sure when she goes outside she isn't worrying about other cats saying awful things to her. She doesn't have to listen to other cats talking bad about other cats either. Her only dilemma is not getting hit or being attacked by another cat or animal.

Our lives our different from cats though. We do sometimes have to worry about outside dangers also. But, we have to deal with and listen to all the junk the world and its inhabitants bring about all the time. I have come to realize why Christ said for us not to love the world or anything in it. I

am to the point that I really don't like anything in the world sometimes and I don't tolerate people in the world either. As an adult, you start to see the lies of Satan and man. You don't trust as much as you did when you were little. Every situation you look at it closer. You analyze it more. You don't allow certain people in your circle. Our trust has gone down the tubes as adults. We know more about hurt and sin. Emotions play more in our decisions than they did when we were young.

I have seen how "Fear" plays an important role in our in our country. The recent fight over health care reform is stirring the fears of many. I haven't had much fear about it though. Many are upset about it for many reasons though. The 3 factors I see in all this mess is three factors involving a fear about something. 1) Fear of losing their freedom in this department. There are so many people fearing this admistration is going to take away our freedom. People fearing communism is going to reign in our country. That is just crazy! If people would listen to the President and not listen to all the other crap everybody else is saying, things would make sense. He has clearly stated the reasons and it not communism or socialism.

2) Fear of losing money. Money is our driving force in our country. If we don't have it we will just die. I don't think we would die without having a lot of money. Money only has any value because we give it value. We love having it and fear when we don't. Money is the root of all evil but also the root for fear.

3) Fear of losing our status as a country and as human beings. When we were hit on 9/11 we feared everyone. Everyone who wasn't white or from this country we feared. I did too. But, then God knocked some sense into me and allowed me to quit being afraid. And I did!

So we started our ships and flew our planes over two countries and bombed the snot out of them. One to show our power in the face of fear and second to show them we were mad and scared all at once. Avenging the country instead of the persons involved in doing the awful act did nothing but stir up the hornets nest. So the hornets flew and got mad and started our fear again.

Fear gets us no where in life. Love will get us farther. Yes, it will take longer than just dropping a BOMB. But fear does not help us get to heaven, love does. All over the TV there is fear. We can't get over our fear, because people are constantly driving more fear. How do we get over our fear? It's easy trust God and read his words in the Bible. That is how I have gotten over this fear that the world tries to instill in us. When somebody says to fear something I don't. I pray and look for his answer. I guess you would call it a cat philosophy. But, there are things I do fear though, I just have to work it out. But, don't you see the fear out there in the world? Some of it is just to scare us, when it really is nothing to fear at all. Then there are some things that are legit to fear and I do fear them. And it is stupid to fear, but we do.

I think we should live like the cat. Don't have any fear and know someone is going to be there take care of our needs. She does and lives like a queen. If we would trust God and have great faith in him, things wouldn't be so scary. I saw a sign at a church that read, "Faith can see what eyes can't." That is so true! Can you imagine how much better we could see the world if we looked through the glasses of faith. We could see through all the lies and fears of the world. We could see what God sees. WOW! How easy is that?

Missing The True Meaning Of Being A Follower Of Christ

Lately I have been reading the writings of Donald Miller. He is the author of the book, "Blue Like Jazz." So far I have finished two of his books, and I have seen his point clearly. Our world is strapping us down and forcing us to swallow it's way of thinking. Through politics, advertising, Television and even the way we think as Christians. We are really missing the point of serving and loving The Son of God.

Many Christians have tried over the years to bring God in our government. Like falling to things like The Republican party as the Christian party. Trust me that party is far from a Christian party. Many fell for the crap that people made us to believe about Bush and his Christian party. It fell way short of Jesus and his teachings. Yet many are so hard headed into believing stuff like this, it just blows me away. Neither party is worth calling the Christian party. Those representatives are just out for their own good. So they thought they could use the term Christian to get elected. I never believed it one bit. I really feel God is not in the business of politics at all. Jesus wasn't! God wants a faithful relationship with us not a political party.

All of us over the years have had troubles with judging others. I have trouble with doing such an ugly thing. When I feel I am going to judge someone now I say to myself, "They are a child of God, and You have no right to judge." Because I am no one special. So why do I do I need to say anything against them. I often say, "They are more special than I am, But we are all Special in God's sight." It's hard, but we can all quit doing it.

The world constantly beats us down, with the ads of beauty. You never see anybody on ads that are somewhat ugly. In the TV world everybody is beautiful. That's why it is fictional, yet we fall for it. In God's world all humans are beautiful. He looks from the inside out, He sees what we can't see. We could easily see it if we looked the way he did. Miller told of a story about a church that used beauty to represent its youth group. This church hassled and recruited the most beautiful people they could to join the youth group. So all the jocks and cheerleaders and all the popular people joined this group. They figured if beauty would come and all the rest would follow suit, because the group was pretty and people desire beauty over ugly and nerdy.

So the youth group had games they played and competitions among the different groups within the youth group. As a team would win the trophy the crowd would cheer as the handsome jocks won it every year. But one year a group of less pretty people won it, and as they went to get the trophy the crowd wasn't so cheerful. Because the most popular didn't win. That just irritated me as I read that. Ignorant people!!!!!!!!!!! He also was told a story about a church that was rather large and had a huge TV following. He knew of an usher that worked the services. He said they would tell him to seat the rather good looking people toward the front in case the camera panned over that direction viewers would see the beautiful people. Crazy!!!!!!!!

Doesn't Christ teach us to sit at the back not to sit at the front where all the hypocrites sit so everybody can give them the praise they want. I don't like the spotlight at all. I shy away from it. I'm not saying I am the most humble person in the world, but I don't like the attention. Our world continually shows us that we need to be noticed. It puffs our pride to own the best of things, to have the best job or have the best looking at our side. When you read the 53 chapter in Isaiah it states that Jesus was probably not the best looking of people. That people would shy away from him. Another sign of humbleness of God. While many looked for Christ to roll down from heaven in a throne of glory, it shocked them to see that he didn't. Christ came in the most humble manner and left in the most surprising of all. Dying for others instead of saving himself.

God wants us to a humble people. To be content with what we are and what we have. Live within our means not our dreams. I will never be a Michael Jordan or a Tiger Woods, yet I have the most precious gift of all. An eternal contract of love sponsored by the loving creator himself.

Live as a humble person and live forever. Less of self and more of others and Christ.

A Crazy Way To Wake Up

I went to bed last night about 12:30. I sat up and finished reading the book by C S Lewis titled "The Great Divorce." It was about 1:30 am when I finished the book, so I turned out the lights and fell asleep. I was sleeping in Brayden's bed and Cayden was asleep on the floor beside me. I was sound asleep, I mean I was in deep sleep. Comatosed in sleep. I know I was dreaming something, but have no clue what it was about. Whatever it was I was peacefully dreaming it.

At 3:40 am Shannon came busting through the door yelling, "Get up!!!!!" Boy, did I! Without any haste, I sprang up as if a drill Sargent was in my face yelling at the top of his lungs at me. She said, "My mom called and said we need to take cover because a tornado was close by or heading in our direction!" I woke from a peaceful dream to a scene out of Wizard of Oz. Wind was blowing, thunder was rolling and cracking and the Sirens were going off.

So, I got up and got dressed and we headed out the door to go down to our safety room. We have to go outside to get to the room below us. As we headed out the door Macy had a blanket over her head I was holding Cayden and Shannon had the Storm Station in her hand. The lightning was so intense and the rain was just whipping around our heads. It was quite frightening. I kind of enjoyed it though. I was shaking not because of the possibility of a tornado hitting our house, but because of being awakened in such a Hellish way. I told her after it was over I have never been awakened like that ever. I still am laughing about it. I thought somebody had broke into the house the way she came storming into the room.

I didn't get back to sleep until 5:30 am and didn't wake up until 10:30. I do remember seeing the storm map up on the screen before I went to bed. I think I will pay attention for now on.

The Amish

One of our trips while we were in West Virginia was the Amish country in Ohio. I have always had an interest in this culture. It seems to be a simple life they lead. They don't allow anything in their lives that is technologically advanced. No electricity, cars, Internet, television etc... They plow their land by hand and horses. Everything they do is old fashioned. It would be a tough life for any of us to live. Yet, they seem to do it very well.

Their children seem very behaved and seem to have no trouble living like they do. Some Amish have indoor plumbing and some don't. We toured a house that was very old fashioned. It had plumbing but no mirrors. They had a baby doll laying on one of the beds. I have one pictured above. None of their dolls have faces. The reason is they do not believe in graven images. My wife asked me why. Probably they feel that if they had mirrors or if their dolls looked like Barbie they would maybe become self absorbed by their image. They would not be living the life they are taught by worrying about what they looked like. I can see that. They believe that thinking of self is an evil that doesn't serve their family or their community needs. So, I wonder. Do they not no what they look like? I know they can't not no what they look like. There are many things that cause a reflection. Glass windows, looking into a stream of a river. They have to know. They don't have cameras and really don't like for people to take their pictures. Strange!

So, one thing that bothers me about the Amish is that they don't pay taxes. That kind of irritates me. Another thing that bothers me about them is their "Shunning." Once their children becomes a certain age they have the right to go out and experience the world. Anything goes. Drinking, sex, parties and anything that goes against their religion. But, the part of this that is not right is the shunning. If the child decides not to return to the Amish community to live, they shun them. They are forgotten entirely by their family and the entire Amish community. I mean complete abandonment. It's like moving into the witness protection program in our community. No contact with anybody. No forgiveness!

To me that defeats the whole life style they try to live. In Christianity, that is the base of God's love for us. We must forgive others like he forgave us through his Son Jesus. So if the Amish don't forgive a person who decides to choose the world instead of their life style is not following the life God has laid out for us. That bothers me.

But, I sometimes wish I could live a life without modern advances. I don't really want to go to that extreme though. They do say most children that leave and get a taste of this evil world normally come back. I guess the shunning does work in some ways. It is an interesting way of life. I like it because it allows me to see how things were back in time. I will choose this way of life any day, I'm not big on plowing my own fields or not being able to watch Sports. I think I will follow the route I'm on right now.

It Was Good To Go Home

I was in great need to go home to West Virginia. It had been a year and a half since I have seen or stepped foot on WV soil. I had a longing to be home. I really miss all my family and friends there. One of my main goals was to go to Pittsburgh and raid the Steeler store. I just bought a couple of things there though.

We did make it there and got to tour the Steelers stadium, which was awesome! But, I really needed to go home and see the people I have loved and grown up with. I really missed everybody up there. I don't know anybody in that town anymore. The only people I know are those who attend church with me there. They are the ones I really miss, especially my family. I feel I miss out on a lot with them.

So, I was glad to see them and talk to them.

When I grew up in Wheeling, WV. I always thought why anybody would spend their vacation there. Now I know. It's home and always will be for me.

As we arrived back in Arkansas. The first thing I noticed was the southern draw. I escaped it at least for a week. It was kind of good to hear it again. It's amazing the differences between the North and the South. Where we live, it's a very Christian town. So, there is a lot of good going on down here. A lot of church going people here mixed in with a lot of non church goers. Where in the North there's not a huge Christian environment. I sometimes wonder why? People here seem to be a little more kinder where in the North people are nice but don't have a great ability for personal communication. People here in the South will wave as they pass by you. Where up North you don't see that. It's weird!

I've noticed also, that it's hard to build a close friendship with people here in the South. They seem timid. Yet, in the north I've always had close personal friends. I guess they're not as timid. Again, weird?

Words that differ form the two regions. People in the south say "How y'all doing?" Northern people in my area say, "How yun's doin?" I prefer "Yun's" over "Y'all" any day. Southern people say, "Ya doing alright?" Northerners say, "How ya doin?" When I first arrived in the south back in 1994 someone asked me if I was doing alright? I was confused. I thought they thought something was wrong with me. Then I realized I was in Bizzaro's world and they meant something else. The south is strange to me this very day. I love the North and always will. "Yankee for life!"

I am very happy I was able to go north for my vacation though. This week I will be writing about my vacation and some things I have noticed about the north. I hope you will read it. To those back home it was nice to see you all again. You will always have a special place in my heart. Know that you are missed and loved. May God bless us all!