Or this one

I really like this

But on the other hand I really like this
I dunno - I like 'em both.
Oh! And by the way - One year ago today - I accepted the Lord as my Savior... It could be Your turn.

I thought this was very interesting...

Click this link
I think the woman is making a very good point.

Corn in the garden

Hey,
I was just out back taking the corn plants out of the garden, when I got this flash. This applies to us as Christians. I remember back when the corn was growing and so alive and so wonderful, I would marvel at it every day - Praise the Lord for His blessings in the abundance of this wonderful crop. Well the plants finished their cycle and faded and I just finished taking them out. I thought what lesson about the Lord does this teach me?
We - when we first believe are like that stalk of corn - bursting from the ground with great energy and promise, so alive in our new lives that we can hardly contain it. We grow and mature and then reach a point where we come to an end - the gardener comes back and sees that we are not producing anything and takes us out. Think on that.
As Christians we should never let our fruit stop coming - we need to always grow, always produce fruit for the Lord. He is a faithful and wonderful gardener!
Many times throughout the Bible the garden/vineyard/fruit bearing tree analogy is used - and for a good reason. We are either on fire for the Lord or we are not - Revelation 3:15, 16 "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot, I could wish you were either cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth"

We - and by we I include myself - need to stay on fire for the Lord! Let us not be lukewarm to Him! Stay strong and green and growing in His love and the life He has given each of us. Be bountiful in His service. Obey His commands, and have life everlasting. Amen!

Hey

I know - long time no post - *blech* to you my friend ;)
This is my blog - not yours - you post when you want to on Your blog - I post when I want to on mine, fair enough?
There, that being said, I had a wonderful evening - started innocently enough, was given a PC to troubleshoot by a friend (Win 98 BTW... EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!) OK, anyway, needed to get a PS2 mouse, so I went to work to borrow one. As I went to leave, I got to my car and remembered it was Wednesday night, prayer service night. My good friend and mentor Everett works an odd shift (1 -9:30PM) and so has not been able to attend those meetings at the church. I was moved to go back in and the two of us (with the Lord as well) held our own prayer and remembrance service. What a wonderful opportunity for the two of us to testify and praise the Lord! Amen - Selah! (Pause and reflect...)

One of the tings I testified about was - as Christians we are to bring our sins to the cross, to lay them at the feet of Jesus. Well that - my friends - is a lot easier said than done - I testified that it was like we take our luggage to Him just to show it off. "Look Lord, Louis Vittan - or American Tourister!" And we take it away with us. We don't leave it, we might open it up, rummage through it, but we don't leave it. It's OURS! Darn it, we suffered for it! It's by Gosh ours...
Thing is, is ain't. Thing is He suffered for it. Thing is He died for it. Thing is He was born again to TAKE IT AWAY FROM US!!! Pride... Ignorance... What do we deserve this Grace and Faith for anyway? If we can't trust Him enough to take our sins and make us whole. Short answer, we don't deserve it. We are in no way worthy of it, that's the beauty of it, "For God so loved the world; He sent His only begotten Son, that who ever believes in Him shall not die..."
For God so loved the world, He loves you, He loves me, His Son - through whom all of creation was made and is held together - came here and died for us and then on the third day rose from the dead! That we might receive His gift of Grace and through Grace, Faith, and through that Faith - Salvation.
When I was being baptized - for real - into the body of Christ, I was asked for a testimony of God's love. All I remember saying was; My God, the creator of all things, came to Earth and died for my sins - I cannot picture "I Love You" being said a better way, Amen - Selah!

So there.
I am blogged out.
I do pray that the Lord lifts up His face to you, that you realize He has Never turned His face from you, that His hand is Always on you, His peace is right there with you. Open the door to your heart, invite Him in, accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, confess your sins to Him and be forgiven. I pray that His will be done throughout the world, in all things in His time. I pray that He give us all the wisdom to see it, know it, and act upon it - all to glorify His name.
Suggested reading: Proverbs (The whole book, but chapter 9 really); John 3:16-18; Acts 4:8-15

Stuff

'Ya know, I was just thinking - I have talked and witnessed to folk who tell me - and I have even said it - "Oh God doesn't exist" or "God hates me" or "I don't believe in God" or words to that effect - well think about this. You are you, human and don't believe in anything but you - someone you do love and care about - could even be a stranger, someone you have never seen before - is getting mugged or raped or whatever - treated badly - do you call 911? Do you care? What do you think God would do? Would He call 911? You bet He did. Meet Jesus, God's answer to 911.
Tell me He don't care, tell me He hates you, tell me He don't exist.

You breathe don't you?, your heart beats doesn't it? The sun rises in the morning.
Look outside yourself for just a second - I know it gets scary out there, but try it - You'll see a big, bright, wonderful God waiting to welcome you home. Wanting to forgive you, willing to wash away all your sins, just to take you home.

Doesn't exist... Yea, right.

If you are one of those who say that - shut up for a minute - turn off your mp3 player, TV, whatever it is that keeps you occupied and listen to your heart. You can be forgiven! YOU can be forgiven. Listen and believe.

Hello

Not really much today, but I did want to post something - just to stay in the habit.
Been talking and learning more and more about the Good News - spending time in His Word, wonderful, truly wonderful.

The lesson Everett and I are working on right now is 1 John - to be honest, I didn't think I'd like John's writings, but now that I am studying them more closely, I think I do. In his gospel, he comes across - to me - kind of dry and a bit heavy handed. But in his epistle - totally different. Very open and descriptive, really brings the love of Christ and the love of The Father home to me. Also he describes the Holy Spirit in a way I can understand - this from a Huge fan of Paul :)

In 1 John - he writes about the fellowship of Christians - fellowship between them and God - as well as the fellowship between Christians and the importance of it. Short version - It's Really Important! But it's easy to do. Reading and talking about the Word are the best ways to fellowship with Him, and when we, as Christians, read and discuss the Word between us, we all grow in His faith, we all learn the many ways to bring Him the glory, we all learn the ways to follow His commandments (and also just exactly what they are - Hint: 1 John 2 -1:29) In other words - we learn how to have an open and honest communication with our God and Saviour, and at the same time we learn how to have a loving and honest communication with each other.
Cool beans :)

Well there 'ya go - just thought I'd drop by and say - what I thought would be nothing - but when I get started talking about the Lord - I just can't say enough :)

Peace and here's Hoping (inside reference - subject for another discussion) for your faith to grow in the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ - and if you don't know Him - Then I really Hope you do soon - John 3-16 - "For God so loved the world, He sent His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not die, but have everlasting life." Just listen to your heart, Listen to the quiet voice "You can be forgiven" Doesn't matter where you are, what you are doing, simply close your eyes and admit you are a sinner and ask Jesus to forgive you - He will. He loves you.

See you again soon ;)

Joy and happiness

A request from one of my support crew - here ya go Jewle.
*But first - I wanted to throw this in - I know - I missed adding the "He made the boxes" reference, and... The other is another lesson ;)*

One day I was having fellowship with my good friend and teacher Everett, and in the scripture we were studying were the words happiness and a short time later the word Joy. Written just like that, happiness then Joy. Everett stopped us for a moment and asked me, "what is the difference between happiness and Joy?" His eyes smiling, because he knew, and knew it would be a good lesson for me, I thought about it and said I didn't know. Everett said "happiness happens by happenstance - Joy is grace from the Father." He went on, "It's easy to be happy with the Lord when everything is going good, but how do you have Joy? By praising Him when things aren't so good, that's when we really NEED to praise Him. That is His glory, that is His sacrifice through praise."

About a week later I got to find out just what he was talking about - trying to replace the brakes on my car - and the pads were the wrong size and I couldn't exchange them, cd-burner on my new laptop going out, the car insurance company taking everything I had in my bank account and leaving me overdrawn. All Joyful events, I was mindful of the Lord and truly praised Him at each turn. Joy.

It's easy to praise when you are getting all you want, but are you a fair weather friend?

The Perfect Gardener

The Perfect Gardener

I never really realized this truth until just a bit ago; The Lord is The Perfect Gardener.

The Word of God – the Holy Bible – begins in the Garden (Genesis 1:29-31).

How many times through the Word are fruits and harvests mentioned? I haven’t counted, but I know it is a lot – I was shown this when I planted my first garden after being saved.

I built the boxes, brought in the good soil, prepared everything then put the seeds into the ground. Watered and trusted in the Lord. The corn came up corn, the tomatoes – tomatoes, everything as it was supposed to be. All I did was water the garden – God did all the work.

People are just like that as far as God is concerned, He preps the soil (a heart where He can find a home), He plants the seed (the Word of His Son, Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made), then He waters it (the lessons from His word and the Fellowship between us and God and the fellowship between us and fellow Christians) Then His crop grows and becomes what He planted, loving, caring and gentle believers in His word; children whom He loves.

Yep, I may have planted the seed, but God grows the garden.

Here is part one of something I am working on...

Sacrifice :
How to save the World
A study of Christ and the gift of Faith

How do you save an entire planet and its entire population from a certain death?
What methods would you employ? Drastic ones? Seemingly impossible ones? Anything at all?
Yes, I think we all would. Anything at all to save the maximum number would be acceptable to us, I think.

Well how would it be if you were God, you saw the death awaiting your creation and wanted to save as many as you could, what would you do, what would you sacrifice to do it?

One word – propitiation – You know, I was a pagan since I was 13 – 36 years I worshiped and followed false idols – turned my face away from God, turned my heart away from salvation, always thinking “I am the captain of my own life, my course goes where I tell it to” Bull…

You want to know where you go setting “your own course”? You die and that’s all, that’s it, fini , done, washed up, through, out of there, dead, bye-bye, so long now. Dead – that clear enough?

Let me get back to that word - propitiation – Sounds like a good word – sounds powerful, like it means something. Propitiation - kind of hard to say - propitiation -
It is a powerful word, and it has great impact on us and our relationship with the Lord and each other. Propitiation, well then you ask (and rightly so) what the heck does it mean?

I found this definition on the internet of all places, I just Googled it; here is what I found;
“This means the turning away of wrath by an offering. It is similar to expiation but expiation does not carry the nuances involving wrath. For the Christian the propitiation was the shed blood of Jesus on the cross. It turned away the wrath of God so that He could pass "over the sins previously committed" (Rom. 3:25). It was the Father who sent the Son to be the propitiation (1 John 4:10) for all (1 John 2:2).”

Take a moment and let that sink in – “It was the Father who sent the Son to be the propitiation for all” His blood – the blood of Jesus Christ, the living Son of God, who was there with the Father from before the beginning of creation (John 1:1-2), through whom All Creation was made (John 1:3), was sent by His Father (Matthew 1:18-23), to earth, born human, lived spotless, judged sinless (Luke 23:4), crucified (John 19:16-25), died (Mark 15:33-39), buried (Luke 23:50-54) and RAISED FROM THE DEAD!(Luke 24:1-12) All to wash away our sins, to make us right with God, to make us acceptable to Him to forgive. I don’t know about you, but when I think about that, it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and tears come to my eyes.

Memorial Day - May 28, 2007

Well hello,
Thanks for dropping by - sorry I wasn't here to welcome you personally, but I hope you enjoy this blog anyway.

A bit about me - I came to the Lord November 7, 2006 after a long and serious case of the bite me's. When the Lord and I got together - WOW! - all I can say is, beautiful. If you have not experienced that joy yourself - You do not know what your are missing. I'm 49, be 50 this September (9/7/57) I am about 5' 8" (depends on how hard gravity is at the time ;) ) I have red hair, but it's fading fast, being replaced with some sort of skin toned fleshy stuff, I don't know what's up with that.

I enjoy good music, and by good music I mean most anything uplifting (no rap!! or top 40 junk!)
I really enjoy reading the Bible - so much good stuff in there - I enjoy talking with friends about Christ - I enjoy cooking (I am the bomb cook - my daughter and my waste line will attest to that) I enjoy gardening and being out with my "babies" in the early morning or in the early evening. I work for the local county government in the IT department as desktop support, have been there for almost 9 years - I love what I do, and if I say so myself, I'm pretty darn good at it.

In my life I have been blessed with some of the most wonderful people who call me friend and who I am delighted to call the same. At the top of that list are two - well now, three - names - Jesus, Everett and Jewle. My support and repair crew. I love all of you so very much, I don't think words alone can say it.

I am a single parent - have been for a long time - Raised three children, Kira (hey pooter ;) ), Amber (she who rebels - love you hon) and Sean (what is up with that mohawk? But I love you too). I am a grand dad X2 thank you Kira for a wonderful addition to my life - Dawn and Annika, wonderful. My kids are 24, 20 and 17 as I write this.

So there you go. You now know more about me than you want, I know nothing about you.

See the comment area? Change that, please?

Sigh...

Ever had a good idea? Then have it blow up in your face and take parts of your flesh and scalp and your left eyeball out? Well, me either... ( and you're sick if you liked that ;) )

But I did try and fix an annoying - and it was just a little thing really, a few users had to click "accept" when they were accessing an very important and highly accessed application - popup.

*sigh*

almost 300 users - now they can't access the application, I have NO idea what broke, undoing what I did doesn't fix it, shouting at the application, does not fix it, pleading with the application does not fix it. Praying is all I have left - and I have been doing a lot of that.

A good thing is - 50% of the user base is off tomorrow the other half is off the following Monday...
Breathing room! Yes! I likes it!

Just close your eyes and listen

to this

Hey - Check this out

Great Fret work - Awesome

Neat Site

Found this place kind of nice, lots of "how to" info there, in video format. Like it.

I want my Blog back!

Have you seen it?
It wasn't much - but it was all I had.
Now it's gone... Well not really gone (http://b4nldt5a.blogspot.com) but - well *sigh*, starting over is not all that fun.