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!

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!

Funny Newspaper Article

This is a funny article. You may have to click on the picture to make it bigger to read it. It's worth reading though!

Heaven

I just finished the book "90 minutes in heaven." Really a good read. His description of heaven was pretty much what I thought it might be. Over the past couple of years I have been thinking about the beauty of heaven. The after life is something we can't grasp and really have some descriptions of what it might be like. Yet we can't really get a feel for it though.

Don Piper's description told of a welcoming party waiting for him with great anticipation. He saw people their he knew and received hugs from them and claimed he had never felt such love, ever!

Here is a brief description of his time in heaven.

"In my next moment of awareness, I was standing in heaven. Joy pulsated through me as I looked around. And at that moment I became aware of a large crowd of people. They stood in front of a brilliant, ornate gate. I have no idea how far away they were; such things as distance didn't matter. As the crowd rushed toward me, I didn't see Jesus, but I did see people I had known. As they surged toward me, I knew instantly that all had died during my lifetime. Their presence seemed absolutely natural.

They rushed toward me, and every person was smiling, shouting and praising God. Although no one said so, intuitively I knew they were my celestial welcoming committee. It was as if they had all gathered outside heaven's gate waiting for me."

That is awesome! Think of all the people that have gone before you in death and think about them waiting for you outside of heaven's gate. Smiling and praising God. Smiling, that is something you don't see a whole lot. A smile, a real smile not a fake smile. A smile we will never really know until we reach heaven. A smile of completeness, happiness and pure fulfilled joy! I really have no clue of what that kind of smile is.

People praising God. We praise God every time we worship. We praise Him as much as we can. But earthly praise is nothing compared to Heavenly praise is it? Compete praise to our Lord is what we will be doing when we all get to heaven. He speaks of the music he heard and how wonderful it was. Music we have never heard on Earth.

He states he has never felt such joy and love ever. He was finally where he always longed to be, heaven. I don't know what you believe about this man's journey, but his description seems all to real for me. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident and he was gone for 90 minutes. You will have to read the book to see all that he went through during his recovery. It took him 2 years to finally talk about his journey to heaven. He was afraid to say anything about it, but after he did he helped a lot of people through his story. Nobody knows what God has planned for them. He will eventually show us the way or he already is showing us our Divine path, we just haven't opened up our hearts and our eyes yet to see it. Trust God with all you concerns and needs and He will open a door for you always. He did for Don.

God Is Looking From Above

I found this picture on a friends Facebook page. I thought it was quite awesome. It has a Godly reference to it. I looked at it for awhile and thought is this what our Lord is doing right now. Looking down and watching His world from above.

Three things happened today. Obviously, the passing of Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. I was wondering as I listened to the MJ stuff about his death. I see all kinds of people gathering outside the hospital. People calling the news stations and crying of his death. Kind of crazy! I did like MJ's music but I would never adore any star like many people are right now.

So it made me think of the "King of Kings." How fast did it spread about his dying on the cross? How much jubilation was there when word of his resurrection got out? Was it like this media craze that it happening right now. Probably not! Those things didn't exist then. Word of mouth was the best way then.

Michael Jackson was probably well known because of his ability to do what he did, but he couldn't save us from our sins or even perform miracles. What I am getting at is that Jesus is my hero and will always be. Not any star! So what do you think God is seeing right now? A world that is in disarray! Many feel losing a pop star is more important than praising God.

Then I think about his feelings toward the way we act. Especially this stuff brewing with North Korea. Korea angers me! How will this work out? If anybody intercepts this ship they will send missiles in the direction of that country. North Korea's leader is a heartless person who's soul has been devoured by Satan! So what is God seeing as He oversees this crazy situation? I'm sure He is in control of it all. He has an answer for it all.

As I looked at this picture it just made think of how I would be sitting on the heavenly throne and seeing all that is happening in our world. How tough it would be to be in control of it all. How irritated you would be to see all that is going on. That is why I am here and God is God and can handle it all. It's my responsibility to bring God the praise He deserves. To bring about the best in people and tell them about my Hero. We can be in shock over someone popular dying or in shock over somebody threatening our world. Yet we can't worry about it all. Because God is watching and wanting us to go on with our lives and not forget him and not forget he is watching, hearing, saving, loving and forgiving us all right now. High above or right beside us he is on alert ready to defeat evil and cure our hearts. Praise God! He's done more than anyone has ever done here on Earth. Take him in and feel his love and show him to as many people as we can.

Did you get an email or a text today? How many people did you show it to? How many people did you send it to? Did you hear a joke today ? I did. I shared it with 5 people, I didn't share Christ with that many people today. I'm ashamed of it too! Last question. How many people did you tell about Michael Jackson dying? Me one! Still that is more people than who I shared Christ with. My score is not very good, tomorrow will hopefully be different. I hope! May God be first in our lives and other things last.

What Are Your Visions Of Heaven?

I've just started reading the book, "90 minutes in Heaven." I have been wanting to read for a long time, but I was skeptical. I always believed God doesn't reveal His heaven to anybody. I always thought it won't be seen until we die or until He comes to take us to Him.

I've always had my visions of what Heaven might be like. But they were nowhere near what He has planned for us to see. We just can't fathom such a glorious sight. We can have thoughts though and try our best to see it.

I often think of the pain many have suffered and are suffering right now. To think they will completely healed and have no pain at all. We will feel love like we have never have never felt before. The authors description of his 90 minutes in heaven is to well described to not be real. I just felt this overwhelming relief as he told of his experience. It's almost what I thought it might be and even more. I have no idea if he actually went there or not, but as you continue to read about the accident that false belief in his story really starts to become more real.

His description is so warming. It will make you think twice about what we are missing here on this planet. Love there is something we will never feel here at all. I long for heaven, I don't want to leave here until I accomplish God's work here first and then I will feel ready. God is so real. He is out there among us, don't deny it for one minute.

The author stated he felt so complete that he never worried about anybody back here on Earth, the light was so illuminating that it didn't bother him it just amazed him. The singing was nothing he had ever heard before. He couldn't tell where it was coming from but it just filled him. It was a constant singing of praise to God. I can't even imagine it!

As he entered a welcoming party was there waiting for him of relatives and people who have been an influence in his life. They hugged him and he said he has never felt so much love and their touch was so filling to him. Amazing!

Can you imagine how loving God is? Can you imagine being in his prescence? We know how excitement feels and what it's like to anticipate something good. But we will never feel the excitement here that we will feel when we stand in the light of the Almighty. I can't wait!