You Never Know Who is Watching!

I received a text message earlier this week from my niece, asking me a question I didn't see coming. It was an awesome question and one that I was very eager to answer.

Let me set the stage for you. The back story if you will.

My niece is a starting varsity pitcher for our local high school girls softball team. She is very good and very  talented! She told me a little while ago that when she pitches she recites a Bible verse before every pitch. How awesome is that! A high school softball player reciting a Bible verse while pitching in a game. I was blown away!

So now for the question. She texted me and told me that for the last two years she had been reciting the same verse, and now she wanted a new one. One that had to deal with strength. She wanted to know if I knew of one. Wow! I was beside my self. Of course I knew of some. I emailed her two or three of them and I gave her my favorite one. Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

I texted her this past Wednesday to see which one if any she had decided to use, and which one had she used in the past. She told me that for the last two years she had been using John 3:16, but she wanted one more relevant to her situation. She told me that she has them all written down on a piece of paper and puts them in her back pocket while she is playing. The one that she recites is the one from Philippians. AWESOME!! I am moved beyond belief that she reached out to me for scripture verses. That just goes to show...Live and act like Jesus at all times. You never know who is watching you.
God bless my niece!

South Carolina

My mom called me last Wednesday to see if I would be interested in going on a road trip with her and my brother to South Carolina to see my nephew play baseball. He plays college baseball at North Greenville University, in Greenville, South Carolina. I told her to give me the details and I would let her know.

They planned on leaving Thursday night, driving all the way through. And then leaving on Saturday night, driving all the way through. I thought about it and decided to go. How often to I ever get alone time with both my mom and brother? Never! So my brother picked me up and then we went to meet my mom. We headed out about 8:00 Thursday night. The trip down was about twelve hours.

We watched his game on Friday, which they won by the way. We went out to dinner and then walked downtown Greenville. If you have never been, you need to go. That place is awesome! The only good night sleep we got was on Friday night. We spent the night in a hotel. We got up on Saturday and watched two more of their games, which they won also. A three game sweep. Awesome. My brother who lives in Virginia came down and meet us all on Saturday also. Praise the Lord. We all went out to dinner with my nephew and his girlfriend. We headed for home about 10:40 pm. We arrived home at 11:00 am. So all in all, twenty four and a half hours of driving. Three baseball games. A real good sunburn. Lots of laughs and fellowship with my family! PRICELESS!! I thank GOD for these times! They don't come around very often, so when they do, I cherish them. Cherish every moment you have with your family, you never know when it might be the last. God bless my family! Every single one of them.

What Get's You Through?

As some of you may or may not know, I started a new job on February 6, 2012. I am working at The Suter Company as an assembler. I work on an assembly line and it moves VERY fast. The job is very labor intensive. I don't know if it's because I have been off for over a year and a half and I am not used to it. Or if it really is that intense. We work ten hours a day for four days. With an occasional Friday mixed in when neccesary.

I worked a different line this week than I usually do. I worked with a much younger guy and he asked me this question. "What get's you through?" "Everybody has something to get them through the day, what's your thing?" I thought for a moment and then replied "dude, I pray all day." He didn't believe me. He could not believe that someone would pray all day at a job.

I pray that God will give me the strength to do the job. I pray that He will make me fast and accurate (which hasn't worked out so well as of yet.) I pray that He'll give me the ability and the wisdom to do the job.

Then I give thanks. Thank You God for giving me the strength. Thank You for my back holding up. Thank You for my arms and legs to be able to withstand the beating they take throughout  the long day! Thank Your for giving me a job! Thank You for healing my body everynight, so that when I wake up I don't feel as sore as when I went to bed! Lord I thank You and praise You for every single thing that You do for me while I am at work.

All Praise and Glory to God forever and ever!! AMEN!!

Coming To An End!

My volunteer time at my local hospital came to an end today. Not because I wanted it to, but because I have been offered a full time job. I will be working full time Monday thru Friday. It is kind of bitter sweet for me. Praise the Lord that I have a full time job for the first time in over twenty months. I am very sad to be leaving the hospital. It had been very rewarding to me in so many ways. I have no doubt that God had me there for a reason. To shine His light among the many visitors and patients that I came in contact with. Hopefully I was a blessing to someone else. I tried my best to work hard for Jesus. Spread the Gospel, and talk about Him with others. Praise the Lord that I was able to talk about Him in public at a public place. I am not ashamed of the Gospel.

Matthew 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (ESV)

My favorite part of volunteering there was taking the cardio-rehab patients up to the rehab center. What a joyful, fun bunch of people. They were like a family. It's only fitting that my final act as a volunteer, was to take a wheel chair up to rehab and give a patient a ride down.

I worked with the best group of people. The way that we all got along was incredible. From the older volunteers all the way down to the younger ones. Our diverse backgrounds didn't hinder our performance at all. We all got along famously. I am going to miss the people there. The camaraderie. Sharing our stories. Getting to know one another.

Colossians 3:23 Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people

Clearing Your Temple!

Nehemiah 13:⁷ When I arrived back in Jerusalem, I learned about Eliashib’s evil deed in providing Tobiah with a room in the courtyards of the Temple of God. ⁸ I became very upset and threw all of Tobiah’s belongings out of the room. ⁹ Then I demanded that the rooms be purified, and I brought back the articles for God’s Temple, the grain offerings, and the frankincense. (NLT)

I read this verse in Nehemiah the other day and it got me to thinking. What do I need to clean out of the rooms of my storehouse? My body is God's temple, and I consider my mind as His storehouse. What did I need to clear out to make room for Jesus? All the negative thoughts and doubts obviously had to go. I wanted to start being an upbeat, positive person. Instead of tearing people down, I wanted to encourage them. All the hurts and pain that occupied my thoughts. I still remember things that were said to me back in grade school. Even middle school, that cut me deeply. I needed to remove them to make room for the love of Jesus. It is still a work in process. I don't think that it will ever really be complete until I meet Jesus face to face. Like the song says "there will be a day, no more pain, no more suffering."

2 Corinthians 5:¹⁷ This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!(NLT)

I am trying to shake off, get rid of old things that I used to hang on to. I want to be a new person in Jesus. I want to live for Him and not things of the world. It is hard to let go of worldly things that I have held onto for so many years. Piece by piece, Jesus is knocking these things off of me. Removing things from my mind (storehouse), making me a new creation in Christ. Here I am Jesus, use me. Fill me with more of You and less of me. Praise the LORD!!

Would We Really?

Had a challenge issued last night at church, when taken at face value I did not think that we would have a problem with. Upon deeper thought,

Would we really......

Would we really welcome those that are considered less desirable by society? You know the type, tatoo's all over their bodies. Long hair, unkept beards. Dirty or worn out clothes. Smells of b/o or worse. Would we really wrap our arms around them, embrace them and welcome them in. Would we put our best foot forward and go  up to them and introduce ourselves. Or, would we turn and go a different direction? Avoid them all together? Hmmmmm, interesting, to say the least. I would love to think that our church would welcome them with open arms. Come on in and have a seat. Great the congregation, be friendly with each other. Great to see you, glad that you are here. You are welcome anytime, this is a safe place.

I believe that GOD is working on this very thing with me right now. I never thought that I was that way, until last night. I felt very convicted of what I was like in my past. Even up to the past year or so. I believe that GOD has placed me at the hospital and at the front desk for this very reason. My job at the front desk is to great every single person that comes through that door, no matter what race, size, shape, male, female, three piece suit or holes in their clothes.All are to be greeted the same. I'll have to be honest. This really humbled me. There are people that I greet, that a year ago I would not have given the time of day to. I would have avoided them at all cost. Cross to the other side of the street. Turn around and go a different direction. GOD is teaching me by saying "How is that showing the love of Jesus?" You are supposed to be a Christian, a GODLY man. He showed me that I was being a hypocrite. OUCH!! His work is not completed in me yet, but I am much better off now than a year ago. Praise GOD!

1 John 3:¹⁸ Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. ¹⁹ Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. ²⁰ Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.
 ²¹ Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. ²² And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.
 ²³ And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. ²⁴ Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us. (NLT)

 

2011

I started this blog back in January of 2011 as part of a homework assignment from my ISOM class. I didn't think that I could do it. Me blog? Yeah right. What am I going to write about. Once I started, things just started flowing out of me. Things that have happened to me over the course of my life. Things that God has been doing in me and through me. Now that we are closing in on the end of the year, I am going to take a look back.

This has been an up and down year for me and my family. Had a lot of good stuff happen to us, and some not so good stuff. The year started off  badly with our car breaking down in Nashville on a trip to see my brother and his family in Birmingham. January also saw me start my ISOM class. I had not been in a classroom in over 25 years so I was a little nervous. Did awesoeme in the class getting an "A" on my test.

My Dad passed away on April 1st. The first of many deaths in my circle of friends and family! We lost three people from our church family over the course of the year. A cousin and another friend passed away also.
I went jobless throughout the whole year. Applied to many places, went on a few interviews, and was only offered one job, but they had to take back that job offer because I didn't 'pass' there physical abilities test. So I leaned on God more so than I ever have during this past year. He is my strength. My encourager.

Good things happened as well. I finished my first year of ISOM. I only signed up for four classes orginally, but God extended me to all eight. So I passed all eight with straight "A's". I have been volunteering at our local hospital during this past year. Doing the Lord's work, helping out those less fortunate. Been selected to be on a special team for our church direction. Volunteered for a day at the radio station WBGL. Also was a part of the volunteers that packed food for Feed My Starving Children event here in Sycamore.

Celebrated another year of life. My wife and I celebrated another year of marriage. God has been so good to me and my family. Even when things didn't look good, or in the roughest of times, God was always there for me! He pulls us through our struggles. I have been told that if God brings you to it, He will bring you through it. Amen! So I am looking forward to seeing what 2012 has in store for me and my family! I will shake the dust from 2011 off of my sandals as I leave it behind and get ready to pick up the new year. God has big things in store. I believe. I BELIEVE!! GOD Bless!