Staying Alive

The movie 'Saturday Night Fever' came out over 30 years ago. It's hard to believe it's been that long. I still remember all my friends learning to disco. What a sad memory. I can't dance, so I didn't even try to 'do the hustle'.

The PG version of this movie was on TV recently, so I recorded it. I hadn't seen it in decades, so I thought it would be safe to watch it without the profanity and sex. After I watched it, I was depressed. I remembered it being about dancing, mostly, but I was wrong. It showed the sad, disturbing lives of teenagers, growing up in a big city, with mixed up values, and no real role models. The main characters life, revolved mostly around dancing, and wanting to get away from his horrible life. I saw this movie about 3 times in one week. Back then, I was blown away by this thing, apparently. No wonder my life was so messed up. I looked up to something like this.

Anyway, it's been over 30 years since it came out, and we are no better off today, than we were then. Our big cities, and lately our smaller towns, are breeding grounds for all kinds of criminals, gangs, drug dealers, prostitutes, and their ilk. It's really sad that we haven't been able to pinpoint the reason for this behavior. Our government is so busy coming up with new 'programs', and throwing money at our problems, that they are missing the solution. They are so concerned about being 'politically correct', and 'tolerant', and not offending anyone, that our children, our futures, have been forgotten.

The bottom line, of course, is that we all need Jesus as our Lord and Savior. He is the only One that can change the self-destructive patterns in our lives. He is the only One that can take us off that well-worn path that leads to Hell, and put our feet on the beautiful, well-lit path that leads to Heaven. With Him, all things are possible. If He hadn't been taken out of our schools, our courtrooms, our libraries, our government, who knows where we would be as a nation today. We could have been so much more. So sad.

"Oh Victory, in Jesus, my Savior, forever; He sought me, and He bought me, with His redeeming blood." Thank you Jesus. Amen.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Life is funny. When you live long enough, you start noticing things. I was out mowing my yard, and pulling weeds, (pulling them since my weed eater string kept locking up on me), when the thought hit me. 'How many times have I pulled these sames weeds, along this same fence?' The futility of it all just struck me as odd, and funny. I have spent the last 28 years at this house, taking care of my yard, pulling weeds, painting the house, etc. But just wait until I've been in the ground for a week or so, and those same weeds will be a foot high, mocking me to my grave. In the back of my mind, I think 'what's the use?'. Yes, of course I want my yard to look nice. I want my neighborhood to look nice, at least my little part of it. But what's the use, really?

We may say that we 'own' our house, or whatever, but we never really 'own' anything here on this earth. We are merely caretakers, until the next guy comes along. I know people who spend untold hours out in their yards, and/or gardens, pulling weeds, and making such a fuss over every little thing, as if that were their whole lives. I have news for them. IT'S NOT!!!

Lately, my saying has been 'Life's too short'. Life is simply too short to waste it on trivial, futile little things that don't matter. Not really. For example, my house needs to be painted this year. I have the paint, I have the ladder, the brushes, everything I need. But, if it doesn't get painted THIS year, I suppose it'll get painted next year. No big deal. I might not even be around next year to paint it anyway. I guess that will be for the next guy to do.

It may sound like I'm lazy, or nonchalant, but I'm not. I just woke up this morning, thinking about my life, and where God has brought me, from where I was. I could have made so many different decisions here and there, but didn't. And now, here I am. I have worried and fretted about every little decision I have ever made, and I'm exactly where God wanted me to be anyway. I don't have the life I had BECAUSE I worried, but in SPITE of my worrying.

Life will go on, or it won't. I will have enough money to retire on, or I won't. I will wake up tomorrow morning and enjoy my Saturday, or, again, I won't. I have a wonderful, beautiful wife, and two great boys. God has given me all that I have, not because I deserved it, or I worked hard enough for it. I have what I have because of God's grace. Sure, I have to do certain things along the way. That's part of it, isn't it? But God tells me not to worry about ANYTHING. He's got it under control. From now on, I live. I breathe. I laugh, play, work, whatever. But I will not worry. At least, I will try not to.

Now, you must excuse me. I am going to go take my shower, and go out and enjoy the rest of my day. I think I will go take some pictures, somewhere. I guess. I don't really know. I'm playing it by ear today.

God is great. All the time.

Just A Small Gripe

I just have one small gripe tonight. I get up early every morning and drive twenty-some miles to Rushville, where I work. I am still pretty groggy when I'm driving, so I need all the help I can get. I love, well, love may be too strong a word, but like very much, my cruise control. I get to a comfortable speed, click it on, and my feet get to rest all the way there. BUT, it never fails, that I get behind somebody who is either not in a hurry, or is not SMART enough to know how to work the cruise control. Almost every car has one now. I know it's a trivial little complaint, but it's just one of those things that really gripes me after awhile.

I'm done whining now. Oh yea, one more thing. PLEASE USE YOUR CRUISE CONTROL!!! I said please. Thank you very much.

Toy Story 3 (A Movie Date)

I went to see Toy Story 3 with my wife yesterday. The movie was absolutely fantastic. The theater we saw it in, was not. Our local theater has been here for quite some time. It has been bought and sold alot lately. It's hard to make any money in a small town, especially when you only charge like 4 or 5 dollars for a ticket, when everybody else is charging 9 dollars. The newest owners of the theater are charging 7 dollars a ticket, which is still cheaper than the other places, in other cities. I hadn't been to our local theater in years, so I had forgotten what it was like. I was told they had fixed the sound system, and made it more of a surround sound. Right.

When we went, they only had one speaker working up front. It sounded like one of those old AM radios we carried around, about 40 years ago. Also, as if that wasn't good enough, the air conditioning was not working. So, here we were, in a theater with about 150 kids either crying, or screaming, with not cool air, and a speaker that you had to strain to hear. And, we were obviously not going to see the 3D version of this movie. Wow! What a night.

Once I got used to all the downgrading, the movie was great. The story was good, and easy to follow. They used all the characters very well. There was no bad language, maybe an innuendo or two, not bad. I laughed through most of the movie, and cried at the end. It was better than most real-life movies that are out. Even though I was sweating when it was over, I still waited for all the credits to roll, just in case there was something at the end. There wasn't.

I don't mean to sound overly critical, it really wasn't a horrible night. I just don't think I will be going back to that theater anytime soon. If I want to see another movie, I'll either wait for the Blu-Ray, or drive to Muncie and pay 9 dollars for air conditioning, and cool sound. Oh yeah, and stadium seating. Did I mention they were giving away FREE POPCORN? It was stale. Oh well.

Change

I have had several changes in my life lately. Changes in the way I feel, the way I see certain things, the way I think, those sort of changes. One big change was when God led us away from our home church of 12 1/2 years. We were comfortable there. We love the church, and all the people in it. But something started happening about a year ago. I had a vision while sitting in church, listening to a sermon. I was listening to the preaching, when suddenly, I was somewhere else. I could hear what was going on around me, but I was aware of other things going on in front of me. To make a long story short, I felt God was showing me that in a matter of time, I was to go. After that, things started becoming very clear. I still TRIED to ignore the vision. I didn't want to hear the message God had for me.

Later in the year, in November, Carolyn had her surgery, and two weeks later, I had my surgery. I was off work for a week with Carolyn, and then I was off work for six weeks for my surgery. This gave me LOTS of time to sit and think. I wasn't allowed to do much else. In those couple of months, God changed me dramatically. I could see that He was doing things, changing things, in my and Carolyn's lives. I had been the choir director at our church for a few years, and loved doing it. I had also done the nursing home ministry for our church for about ten years, and loved it. I started feeling God leading me to quit the choir director position, and stop two of the nursing homes we were doing. These were big changes for me. Again, I was comfortable doing these things. I felt called by God to do them. But now, He was pulling me back. I was ready, but I didn't want to disappoint our church family. I had to make a choice. Make the church happy, or God. I had to choose God.

By the middle of March, we knew we were going to be leaving our church, but we didn't know where we were going. We felt like Abraham and Sarah. It was scary, but exciting. We didn't know how to tell our church we were leaving. So, as I do about EVERYTHING, I prayed and prayed and prayed. Again, long story short, we decided to just tell them, and go. It didn't go so well. Nobody understood what we were doing. They thought we were making a big mistake, and wanted us to stay. We did too, but we knew we couldn't. Easter Sunday was our last Sunday at our church, and we haven't looked back.

We have been at our new church for about two months, and LOVE it. We are exactly where we are supposed to be. The point of this post, is to show that when God makes a change in your life, you can fight it, or go where He tells you to go. Give in, and let God lead you. He knows far more than we do, where we belong. He knows where He can use you, more than you do. Change is good, when God is doing the changing. How great is our God. Amen.

Life Goes On

I have a page on Facebook that I go to every now and then. Nobody ever writes on my wall, I just go there to see what everybody is saying to each other. I can catch up on things, without having to carry on a conversation. I have noticed that some very bored, sneaky people are hacking into members accounts, and using their identities, sending messages to unsuspecting friends. Most people will put up with this, and just keep adding more 'friends', not caring about the hacking. They probably think it's relatively harmless.

I was on my page tonight, and just decided to unload some of my 'friends'. I started out with 106 friends, and when I was done, I had 57 left. Out of those 57, I probably ever talk to about 5 of them. The rest, I just use to catch up on friends and family. Sad. Some people live on Facebook, playing all the silly games, tending to their 'farms', and such. I have heard of some people setting an alarm, just so they could get up and water their plants. Wow.

I am letting go of this present world, a little at a time. There will come a day, very soon, that most of my stuff will be taken away anyway. The things of this world will burn up, with a fervent heat, so says the Bible. And I believe it. I can't take it with me, so I will give away what I can, and use up what's left. When I leave this world, whether by death, or the rapture, I expect that I won't have much down here with my name on it.

When Jesus walked this earth, He didn't own anything. He said 'the foxes have holes, and the birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head'. He knew the importance of distancing oneself from the trappings of this present world. We can get too comfortable with our stuff, and make it a part of our identity. When we love some material thing so much, that we can't let go of it, then we have forgotten our purpose for being here. We are not here to gather as much stuff as we can get our hands on. We are here to gather souls for God's Kingdom.

Love people, not things. Pastor Larry Delon always said, don't love anything, that can't love you back. Amen.

Sudden Healing

At this time last week, I was in severe pain, and had been for about two weeks. I had a pulled muscle in my shoulder, back pain, and pain in my other shoulder. From the time I got up in the morning, and until I went to bed at night, I was in pain. I couldn't get it to go away, no matter what I took or did. I had been praying every day for God to heal me of this pain, according to His perfect will. I knew He could heal me, and I knew He heard my prayers, but He just hadn't healed me yet.

Last Thursday night, I went to bed as usual, hurting as usual. The next morning, when I got out of bed, I noticed something very unusual. I didn't hurt anymore. At all. Nowhere. I thought, 'well, it'll start hurting again in a few minutes', but it never did. It still hasn't. I don't know why God decided to wait so long to heal me, and I don't know why He decided to COMPLETELY heal me either. When I was asking Him for healing, I was asking that He put all my muscles, bones, and nerves back where they belong, so that I wouldn't hurt. I thought He might make me feel better, but I wasn't expecting such a complete healing. That makes me feel bad. I pray, and pray, for God to heal me, but I don't REALLY expect Him to all the way. I guess it has a little to do with guilt, or not feeling worthy enough for Him to do it right. After all, it's just me. I'm nobody. But what I forget, is He sent His only begotten Son to die a cruel, shameful death on a wooden cross, to pay for MY sins. MINE!!! (and everybody else's too). He loves me THAT much!!!

So, when I pray for anything now, I am going to fully expect His best. His perfect will. He knows what is best for me. I don't. He's God. I'm not. I want to brag on God every chance I get. He is SO worth it. God is good, ALL the time.

The Foolishness Of God

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. - 1 Corinthians 2:12-14

The scripture above says that a non-believer cannot understand the spiritual things of God, because they seem foolish to him. He cannot possible understand the things of God, because he does not have the Holy Spirit in him.

As a conservative Christian, my mind can't comprehend how a perverted, evil man, can look at a sweet little girl, or boy, and only see them with a deviate sense of affection. Equally, that spiritually, and mentally, disturbed man, can't understand how I can continue to follow, and believe in, a God that I can't even see. This is just one worldly example of the same scripture. When I was saved, the old natural man was put to death, and the new man was born. I no longer had the same mind I once had. I now can see and understand the things of God more clearly. I 'hear' the voice of God, and 'feel' the Spirit of God, and 'see' God in everything around me. I have tried to explain this to non-Christians, but they cannot comprehend what I am saying.

Here is another real world example of this scripture. In today's paper, a column written by Cokie and Steve Roberts, is discussing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in our military. That policy says that if you are a homosexual serving in the military, you cannot openly practice your lifestyle, or you will be discharged from service. They are saying that the policy needs to be repealed, because today, "we are a far more open and tolerant country. The House and Senate have both passed bills that would eliminate the policy, but it still faces a rocky legislative road." The problem is, "a small but vocal chorus of Christian conservatives continues to oppose any change in the current law, and they are strongly supported by some orthodox military chaplains who believe homosexuality is a sin." According to the Roberts', Christian conservatives have a right to their opinion, but they don't have a right to impose their narrow-minded view of homosexuality on the rest of the country."

The Roberts' also say that "most Americans know and like openly gay people in their schools, their workplaces, their neighborhoods, and their own families." I personally, know very few people who are tolerant of openly active homosexuals, flaunting their lifestyles in front of them.

Of course, homosexuality is just one area where believers, and non-believers disagree. When sin issues, such as homosexuality, abortion, gambling, adultery, and the like, are discussed in an open forum, the line is usually drawn right down the middle of both camps. It is all because of what God says in His word. The natural man cannot comprehend the things of the Spirit. The things of God are foolishness to the unbeliever.

The Apostle Paul says in the same chapter of 1 Corinthians, that our "faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." He also wrote, "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God."

In closing, we need to be sensitive to the concerns of non-believers, while at the same time, always trying to lead them into a relationship with Jesus Christ. The only cure for the darkness of this world, is the Light of Christ.

Don't Conform, But Transform

For some reason, God has had this scripture stuck in my head for about the last week. It is Romans 12:1-2, which reads, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

Now, I don't do this often, but I happened to read this same scripture in The Message translation, and here's how they interpret it: "So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."

The website, www.truthortradition.com , has some interesting things to say about this. Rather than try to put it into my own words, I will copy it verbatim. Here is part of what they say: This verse has great truth buried within it. For one thing, the words “conformed to this world” are one Greek word, suschematizo, which means, “to form according to a pattern or mold.” Furthermore, the word “world” is not kosmos, the created world, but rather aion, or “age.” Why is that important for us to know? The word aion does not just mean “age” in the sense that it is a finite period of time. The linguist Richard Trench gives a good idea of its meaning.

“Aion came to mean all that exists in the world under conditions of time.... Aion includes all the thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, impulses, and aspirations present in the world at any given time, which may be impossible to accurately define but which still constitute a real and effective power—the moral or immoral atmosphere we breathe.”

Christians must face the fact that the Devil has created an “atmosphere” in this world that is ungodly, and which leads people away from God and into sin. That “atmosphere” of ungodliness is as real as the country-western atmosphere in a country-western bar, or the Asian atmosphere in an oriental restaurant. Furthermore, the Devil’s intent in creating an ungodly atmosphere is to have people conform to it just as if they were conforming to a mold. That is why God tells us that we must not be conformed to the pattern, the mold, of the world.

As Christians, we must become spiritual meteorologists. We must become sensitive to the spiritual atmosphere around us, and able to recognize how we are being influenced, and whether that influence is godly or ungodly. The spiritual atmosphere we live in influences almost everything we think or do. For example, how do we speak to each other? Caustically and sarcastically, like the people in the television comedies speak to each other, or do our words convey love, encouragement, and compassion? Do we dress to impress (often sexually), or do we dress with a view to letting the Christ in us shine through our lives? Do we go into debt to have a car that will “Wow” our neighbors and make us feel powerful, or are we concerned about “Wowing” the Lord Jesus Christ? What is important to us? Is it things that have a firm root in Scripture, such as helping and blessing others, or is it isolating ourselves for hours at a time watching television or playing video games, in the end contributing nothing meaningful to ourselves or our society?

If we do not become spiritual meteorologists, we will be led, usually without even realizing it, into a life of ungodliness, sorrow, and pain. We must become aware of the atmospheric mold the Devil is trying to squeeze us into, and then have enough love for God and ourselves that we refuse to live in the ungodly lifestyle he lays before us daily, but instead recognize who we are in Christ and what we can do for ourselves and our society, and then get about doing it.

I know this was a long blog, but it seems very important to post it at this time. I pray that God puts these words in front of the one that needs them. Be a light in the darkness. Make a difference. Be different. Revive us, O Lord!!!

Wisdom (or lack of it)

I work with a guy who thinks he is right about EVERYTHING! When he starts talking, I want to just scream and run away. Either that, or politely ignore him. Aside from these two options, the only choice I have is to stand and listen, and politely scream in my mind, where he can't hear it. Also, if you have an opinion, and he disagrees, he gets really snooty. Or smart-alecky, whichever.

I know God gave us free will. He gave us the right to disagree, even, with Him. But just because we have the right, to think He is wrong, that doesn't make us right. He is ALWAYS RIGHT. All He did, was give us the right to be wrong, if we so choose. There are those that think they are ALWAYS RIGHT, no matter what the subject. They have presumed, incorrectly, that because they were smart enough to be right about a few things, then they must be right about EVERYTHING. We need to be wise enough, to realize when we are wrong.

Bill Clinton was once asked in an interview, how he could be FOR abortion, and claim to be a Southern Baptist. His answer was amazing. He asked the interviewer to show him in the Bible, where the word 'abortion' was. In his pursuit of wisdom, he showed his ignorance. The actual word 'abortion' may not be in the Bible, but 'Thou shalt not kill' is. The word 'gambling' is not in the Bible either, but the principles against it are. It's the principle, not the word, that matters. Words change, but God's truth doesn't.

Men can be smug. They can roll their eyes. They can give that pathetic, patronizing look. When you talk about God, and scripture, and Heaven and Hell, they may just ignore you and walk away. But in the end, they can't ignore God. They can't just ignore Him and walk away. He is too great a presence. He is right. All the time. Till the end of time. Judgment is coming, and earthly wisdom won't get you to Heaven. Your own righteousness won't get you there either. Asking God to forgive you of your sins, and asking Him to save you, and accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, is the ONLY WAY to get to Heaven. Don't be so smart that you miss out on eternity with Him.

A Stormy Thursday

Wow!!! What a day for weather. The day started out with fairly good weather on the way to work. That is, until I made it half-way there. The sky started getting darker, and I saw lightning up ahead of me. Then, the rain started. It was crazy. I had my wipers on high, and I had to slow down to about 40 mph just to stay on the road. After I got to work, the power went off in our shop. Unfortunately, it only stayed off for a few minutes. After about another half hour, the rain went away.

The rest of the work day went great. The weather was fine, and bearable. After work, though, was a different story. I stopped off in Dunreith to check out some sales at an antique store. I looked around for about 20 minutes, and found nothing. When I left the store, I was shocked. The sky was a scary, dark grey, and I could hear the thunder rumbling. I texted Carolyn, and she told me to be careful, there was a bad storm in New Castle. Great. Within 5 minutes, I was driving through the worst storm I can remember driving through in quite some time. Everybody was slowed down to a crawl, and some people were pulled off on the side of the road. After some hectic moments, I finally made it into town, and the rain finally subsided. Most of the roads were flooded, and I was told that power lines were down on Rd. 38. I was SO glad to be home. I took my shower and stayed in the rest of the night. Thank You God for Your protection. It could have been so much worse.

Rainy Wednesday

We must really need rain, because it seems like that's all it does anymore. I'm not complaining, mind you, just noticing a trend. I also notice that I have to mow my grass twice as much as usual. This morning, we had a very good rain at about 8am. We were supposed to get a storm later, but nothing yet. Again, not complaining.


Work went okay again today, except for my machines breaking down for about 3 hours. Needless to say, I didn't make my rate for the day. That really bugs me. But there's always tomorrow.


We had choir practice tonight at church, and, as always, we had a blast. The people there are so nice, and funny. The songs are great too. Ken, the choir director, is very good at his job. While we were there tonight, I took a picture of the sanctuary with my phone, not the greatest quality, to show my sister. I'm posting it below. Great things continue to happen at First Baptist. God is truly better to us than we deserve.

Boring Day

Today was kind of a boring day. I had to go back to work this morning, (joy, joy). It was nice being off for three days, even thought it seemed like one and a half. I hurt like an old man when I got up. My body got out of the habit of rising early. It doesn't take very long to get out of the habit, apparently. Work went ok. I was on a grinder today, and went over my rate for the day. I don't know where the energy came from, (well, I do, really), but I'm glad I had it. It made the day go by much faster.

After work, I came straight home and started mowing the yard. It was WAY too hot to mow, but it had to be done, and I didn't see anybody else volunteering to do it. After I got done mowing our yard, I went ahead and mowed the neighbor's yard. It needed it, and I did have the extra gas. After two yards, I was totally exhausted. I thought I was going to pass out. Fortunately, we have the central air conditioning on in the house. I came in and turned it to about 68 degrees. It felt nice. That, and a long shower, made me feel much better.

After supper, Adam and his girlfriend, Kara, brought us both a small Blizzard from Dairy Queen. It was an unexpected surprise. I haven't had Dairy Queen since last year sometime. What a way to end the day. Thank You God for a Wonderful Day.