Sorry for the long-time-no-post. Moving will do that to you.
So yesterday I spent a day burning a brush pile. A big, old one. I, being a responsible person, watched the fire all day, making sure it didn't get out of control or light up the neighbor's yard.
I had a lot of time to stand and think. Two things went through my mind. The first of them was all those survival shows. Second was all those places in the Bible where God chose to represent Himself with fire. Those things combined into some interesting thoughts. So here are some ways how God is like fire.
Fire is powerful. Some might even say dangerous. And God, well "He's not tame, but He's good." (C.S. Lewis) God has terrible destructive power, which is not to be underestimated, just like a fire, or it will consume you.
We depend on fire for nearly everything. Those survival shows (even Survivor) talk about how fire is life. Cooking, clean water (boiling), warmth, protection, even transportation. Yet it's something we take completely for granted (until it isn't there). In the same way, we depend on God for everything, yet we take Him for granted as well.
Fire is very fickle. Fire is tough to get going. I started the brush fire in five places, and only one of them worked. Some of them were too wet. I needed wind (but not too much). I needed fuel. I had to babysit it all day, or it wouldn't work. Ok, God isn't like that. But our relationship with Him is. It is tough, like most relationships. If we let it, sin, laziness, or even busyness will take us away from God. It will put out that fire before we have a chance. We have to work hard at it, or it simply won't work.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Equality?
Our nation took another step away from freedom in the name of tolerance. The Supreme Court said that states had no ability to define marriage. Gay marriage is now ok.
Here's the problem. The Federal Government doesn't issue marriage liscences. Marriage is 100% a state issue. I know. I've performed weddings in four states.
This is just one more case of the liberals in Washington stripping away our rights, especially the first amendment. This isn't equality. In truth, in everything that is right, the government should recognize "civil unions" for hetero or homo. Marriage should be left where it started, in the church, ordained by God.
Here's the problem. The Federal Government doesn't issue marriage liscences. Marriage is 100% a state issue. I know. I've performed weddings in four states.
This is just one more case of the liberals in Washington stripping away our rights, especially the first amendment. This isn't equality. In truth, in everything that is right, the government should recognize "civil unions" for hetero or homo. Marriage should be left where it started, in the church, ordained by God.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Enemy of the State?
So... our country seems to have some trouble lately. With Fort Hood shootings, Sandyhook Elementary, the Boston bombings, we are under attack. There are nearly regular shootings by the mentally unstable and attacks by terrorists.
Yet, our government seems to be confused as to who the enemies of our nation are. The State Department went after our dead ambassador. The DOJ went after the media. The IRS went after conservatives. The NSA is going after everyone.
This, for some reason, is surprising. I don't know why. They've been doing it for years. We knew they were doing it. There's a movie called "Enemy of the State" staring Gene Hackman, John Voit, and Will Smith. We're living it. Political opponents are enemies, while people trying to kill us must be our victims.
That said, if you're asking me is this Snowden or whatever his name is is a hero for leaking, my answer is no. If he thought he was being brave and doing the right thing, he wouldn't have run away. He would have stood in public and taken the consequences. That's the difference between standing for a conviction and just being a turd.
In the mean time, our nation's leaders need to learn the difference between our friends and our enemies. The IRS did this political bullying because Obama has created a culture of corruption and favoritism. He's McCarthyism and Nixon all rolled in one, and no one cares. It's really sad.
Yet, our government seems to be confused as to who the enemies of our nation are. The State Department went after our dead ambassador. The DOJ went after the media. The IRS went after conservatives. The NSA is going after everyone.
This, for some reason, is surprising. I don't know why. They've been doing it for years. We knew they were doing it. There's a movie called "Enemy of the State" staring Gene Hackman, John Voit, and Will Smith. We're living it. Political opponents are enemies, while people trying to kill us must be our victims.
That said, if you're asking me is this Snowden or whatever his name is is a hero for leaking, my answer is no. If he thought he was being brave and doing the right thing, he wouldn't have run away. He would have stood in public and taken the consequences. That's the difference between standing for a conviction and just being a turd.
In the mean time, our nation's leaders need to learn the difference between our friends and our enemies. The IRS did this political bullying because Obama has created a culture of corruption and favoritism. He's McCarthyism and Nixon all rolled in one, and no one cares. It's really sad.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
ObamaCare hits home
I hate to say "I told you so." Especially when it's bad. But I told you ObamaCare sucks. It destroys jobs.
My mom just found out yesterday (Monday) that she has a difficult decision. She can either have Health Insurance, or a job. That's right. Because Obama's regulations, my mother's insurance has skyrocketed. The school that she works for is voting Thursday to get rid of insurance for the teacher's aides. She's been at that job for 27 years, and has been told she either has to retire before the vote on Thursday, or she has to go without insurance, knowing that she can't afford ObamaCare, which she is required by law to have.
That's right. She has just entered government enforced poverty. She either can have insurance or an income. Her thought is she might be able to get an income, but she absolutely cannot get insurance. So she has to leave a job which she loves to afford health insurance.
And she's not the only one effected. Other aides that were hired after a certain date are not only losing their insurance, but also their hours. Since ObamaCare not requires employers to provide insurance for those who have more than 30 hours, and companies still can't afford to provide benefits, then not only do these people not have insurance, but have less income. That's what happens when idiot politicians like Obama and Pelosi who have never held a real job or done anything in real life make decisions for the rest of the country. They had excellent intentions, but reality is simply different. The road to hell, and national poverty, is paved with good intentions.
My mom just found out yesterday (Monday) that she has a difficult decision. She can either have Health Insurance, or a job. That's right. Because Obama's regulations, my mother's insurance has skyrocketed. The school that she works for is voting Thursday to get rid of insurance for the teacher's aides. She's been at that job for 27 years, and has been told she either has to retire before the vote on Thursday, or she has to go without insurance, knowing that she can't afford ObamaCare, which she is required by law to have.
That's right. She has just entered government enforced poverty. She either can have insurance or an income. Her thought is she might be able to get an income, but she absolutely cannot get insurance. So she has to leave a job which she loves to afford health insurance.
And she's not the only one effected. Other aides that were hired after a certain date are not only losing their insurance, but also their hours. Since ObamaCare not requires employers to provide insurance for those who have more than 30 hours, and companies still can't afford to provide benefits, then not only do these people not have insurance, but have less income. That's what happens when idiot politicians like Obama and Pelosi who have never held a real job or done anything in real life make decisions for the rest of the country. They had excellent intentions, but reality is simply different. The road to hell, and national poverty, is paved with good intentions.
Cleveland hostages
On the news this morning I heard about three women that were kidnapped by a psycho, locked in his basement, and used as his own personal sex slaves. We are horrified, but this happens EVERYDAY. Ten year old girls are taken from their homes and sold as sex slaves everyday. Many are even smuggled into this country as cargo. For more information and how to help, talk a look at www.ijm.org
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Confessions
I hate me sometimes. I know people say that, but I mean it. And today is one of those days.
I walked into work this morning and found a post-it note on the floor. I'd written it to myself as a reminder that a close friend of mine was having surgery this morning. I'd promised to go to the hospital and have prayer with her this morning (even though she tried to talk me out of going). Still, I'd given my word, and broken it. My word is all I have. I've got nothing else. No talents or skills that the world cares about. I'm pretty well mediocre and anything I am good at.
Then, to make up for it, I snapped at a friend. I'm mad at me, and so I took it out on him (I will be apologizing next time I talk to him).
"Big deal. Nobody's perfect." Right? I hate that. It is a big deal. I want to be perfect. No one is harder on me than me. I'm better than I used to me. I used to hate me all the time, and everything about me. I've finally become more comfortable with me, but I still hate me some of the time, like today.
I've also not had a regular devotional time since November. I'm talking twice a week on a good week. I work for God, for crying out loud, and I can't motivate myself to turn off the TV in the morning and give him fifteen minutes of my day. I pray for a living, and don't pray for me.
I hate meeting new people, especially dating, because I'm supposed to talk about me and I have nothing to say. "I like teaching people about the Bible and was raised in a family where passing gas was a sport." That's about all I got.
I've not done well at keeping up with this blog lately. And that makes me feel guilty.
I hate it when people compliment me, because I feel like it's a lie. It feels like a slap in the face because I know they aren't true.
I hate it when people run me down. I've been run down most of my life. I hate it because I don't need to be told things that I already know.
I don't like spending time with people because I feel like I'm constantly being watched and secretly think that everyone has expectations of me that I'm not meeting. This was especially true of the girl that I dated for a year back when I was in college. She had this image of what I should be and when I didn't match that image, she knew right where to stick in a spear to hurt me the worst.
When I went to work with my dad, he used to run me down the whole time I was with him, then come home and tell my mother that I worked really hard and he was proud of me. That's probably why I hate compliments today. That was my relationship with my dad. I loved the him that was around other people, but hated the occasionally abusive him that was at home (he used to lose his temper and hit me when he was mad at anything).
I feel like no one really knows me. I don't really think that I want them to.
I don't want to get married because to me, a wife is one more person with expectations that I will let down. Diddo with kids.
Like many men, the reason pornography is a temptation for me is because it is a woman who offers herself to me sexually without demanding anything from me. And that is why I won't have Internet at home (that and I'm cheap).
I hate it when people try to cheer me up, because I feel like they only do it because they have to.
Sometimes I wish I could become a hermit so that I'm only letting down me and God.
I feel like a hypocrite. I hated preaching a sermon on a series from the Beatitudes because it was on having a pure heart and I felt like a fraud for preaching it. Same with teaching on having a devo time while mine ranks somewhere with the Titanic right now.
I feel like right now that God is trying to tell me that He loves me, that His power is made perfect in my weakness, and I really don't want to hear it. In fact I'd rather not talk to anyone right now.
I've often used my intellect to keep people at bay with facts.
I sometimes (like today) consider quiting at my church, because I feel like the church would be better off if they hired someone more competent than me. I've thought that for years. There were times I almost quit. The only things that have stopped me is: 1) I'm stubborn. 2) I feel like God wants me here. 3) I'm not good enough at anything to do anything else, nor is there anything else I want to do.
My boss said something to me before (years ago) about being too insecure. Now I'm insecure about being insecure, and feel guilty for feeling guilty.
I hate making decisions, and the smaller and more inconsequential, the more it's crippling to me.
I want to be something better than myself, but I don't know how or what.
I read books about warriors because I feel like a coward and a failure. That why I like knights and swords.
I beat myself up for typos.
My life's motivations are love for God, guilt, and fear of failure. One of those three is the reason behind almost everything I do.
That's enough feeling sorry for myself right now. I have work to do.
I walked into work this morning and found a post-it note on the floor. I'd written it to myself as a reminder that a close friend of mine was having surgery this morning. I'd promised to go to the hospital and have prayer with her this morning (even though she tried to talk me out of going). Still, I'd given my word, and broken it. My word is all I have. I've got nothing else. No talents or skills that the world cares about. I'm pretty well mediocre and anything I am good at.
Then, to make up for it, I snapped at a friend. I'm mad at me, and so I took it out on him (I will be apologizing next time I talk to him).
"Big deal. Nobody's perfect." Right? I hate that. It is a big deal. I want to be perfect. No one is harder on me than me. I'm better than I used to me. I used to hate me all the time, and everything about me. I've finally become more comfortable with me, but I still hate me some of the time, like today.
I've also not had a regular devotional time since November. I'm talking twice a week on a good week. I work for God, for crying out loud, and I can't motivate myself to turn off the TV in the morning and give him fifteen minutes of my day. I pray for a living, and don't pray for me.
I hate meeting new people, especially dating, because I'm supposed to talk about me and I have nothing to say. "I like teaching people about the Bible and was raised in a family where passing gas was a sport." That's about all I got.
I've not done well at keeping up with this blog lately. And that makes me feel guilty.
I hate it when people compliment me, because I feel like it's a lie. It feels like a slap in the face because I know they aren't true.
I hate it when people run me down. I've been run down most of my life. I hate it because I don't need to be told things that I already know.
I don't like spending time with people because I feel like I'm constantly being watched and secretly think that everyone has expectations of me that I'm not meeting. This was especially true of the girl that I dated for a year back when I was in college. She had this image of what I should be and when I didn't match that image, she knew right where to stick in a spear to hurt me the worst.
When I went to work with my dad, he used to run me down the whole time I was with him, then come home and tell my mother that I worked really hard and he was proud of me. That's probably why I hate compliments today. That was my relationship with my dad. I loved the him that was around other people, but hated the occasionally abusive him that was at home (he used to lose his temper and hit me when he was mad at anything).
I feel like no one really knows me. I don't really think that I want them to.
I don't want to get married because to me, a wife is one more person with expectations that I will let down. Diddo with kids.
Like many men, the reason pornography is a temptation for me is because it is a woman who offers herself to me sexually without demanding anything from me. And that is why I won't have Internet at home (that and I'm cheap).
I hate it when people try to cheer me up, because I feel like they only do it because they have to.
Sometimes I wish I could become a hermit so that I'm only letting down me and God.
I feel like a hypocrite. I hated preaching a sermon on a series from the Beatitudes because it was on having a pure heart and I felt like a fraud for preaching it. Same with teaching on having a devo time while mine ranks somewhere with the Titanic right now.
I feel like right now that God is trying to tell me that He loves me, that His power is made perfect in my weakness, and I really don't want to hear it. In fact I'd rather not talk to anyone right now.
I've often used my intellect to keep people at bay with facts.
I sometimes (like today) consider quiting at my church, because I feel like the church would be better off if they hired someone more competent than me. I've thought that for years. There were times I almost quit. The only things that have stopped me is: 1) I'm stubborn. 2) I feel like God wants me here. 3) I'm not good enough at anything to do anything else, nor is there anything else I want to do.
My boss said something to me before (years ago) about being too insecure. Now I'm insecure about being insecure, and feel guilty for feeling guilty.
I hate making decisions, and the smaller and more inconsequential, the more it's crippling to me.
I want to be something better than myself, but I don't know how or what.
I read books about warriors because I feel like a coward and a failure. That why I like knights and swords.
I beat myself up for typos.
My life's motivations are love for God, guilt, and fear of failure. One of those three is the reason behind almost everything I do.
That's enough feeling sorry for myself right now. I have work to do.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Choose life
There is so much happening lately. If you've not followed the trial of Dr. Gosnell, I can't blame you. This is an abortion Dr. that is on trial for multiple counts of murder. Not just of children, but of one woman as well.
Many stories have come out in this trial, but one that set it up to begin with was a woman who came into his office, and heard the heartbeat, and decided she wanted to keep the baby. He said that he wanted to sedate her for further examination, but when she woke up, he had aborted her baby anyway without her consent (so much for "choice"). This guy failed to abort several babies, and after listening to them cry for a few minutes, stuck scissors in the back of their heads.
When asked about all this, he said, "I hope my daughter receives the same treatment that I have given to patients." Really? You hope people stab your daughter to death with scissors? Really? I doubt it.
I thought people like Gosnell believed abortions should be "safe, legal, and rare." Gosnell violated all of the three, hence the murder charges. I know so many people who have struggled to have kids and couldn't. On my dad's side of the family, eleven of my cousins are adopted. When a child in conceived, from that moment, that in a unique DNA code that never existed upon the face of the earth, and people chose to extinguish that. How can it be part of a woman's body when the DNA doesn't match? Why is suicide illegal, but abortion not? If someone kills a woman walking into the abortion clinic, they will be charged with two murders, her, and the baby, but it's not murder when she does it. It makes no sense.
Life is a grand miracle. Choose life. Choose life for the unborn. Choose life for yourself. Choose not to give into hate like the Boston bombers. Choose life.
Many stories have come out in this trial, but one that set it up to begin with was a woman who came into his office, and heard the heartbeat, and decided she wanted to keep the baby. He said that he wanted to sedate her for further examination, but when she woke up, he had aborted her baby anyway without her consent (so much for "choice"). This guy failed to abort several babies, and after listening to them cry for a few minutes, stuck scissors in the back of their heads.
When asked about all this, he said, "I hope my daughter receives the same treatment that I have given to patients." Really? You hope people stab your daughter to death with scissors? Really? I doubt it.
I thought people like Gosnell believed abortions should be "safe, legal, and rare." Gosnell violated all of the three, hence the murder charges. I know so many people who have struggled to have kids and couldn't. On my dad's side of the family, eleven of my cousins are adopted. When a child in conceived, from that moment, that in a unique DNA code that never existed upon the face of the earth, and people chose to extinguish that. How can it be part of a woman's body when the DNA doesn't match? Why is suicide illegal, but abortion not? If someone kills a woman walking into the abortion clinic, they will be charged with two murders, her, and the baby, but it's not murder when she does it. It makes no sense.
Life is a grand miracle. Choose life. Choose life for the unborn. Choose life for yourself. Choose not to give into hate like the Boston bombers. Choose life.
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