To Shop or not to shop?

I got up early this morning and went over to the church for our men's Bible study. But, there was no one there. Everyone either blew it off or they canceled it without telling me. Or, they told me and I forgot--that's been known to happen! Either way, I got some necessary work done today that needed to be done before noon and I am pleased with that.

Today is supposed to be the biggest shopping day of the year, a day known as "black Friday." It almost sounds ominous if you don't know what it means. But, I don't think I am going to show up for "black Friday" either. Life in the realm of shopping will just have to go on without my participation.

We had a great Thanksgiving day yesterday with most of the family around. We ate too much, but had a lot of fun doing it. I have several things around the house that I need to get done today--eat more turkey, take a nap, spend some time reading my Bible, catch up with a book that I have been reading all year, etc. Nothing strenuous. Just a day to relax and catch up.

God bless you all and my prayer for you is to have a great day.

Ouch! My back, my knee, my foot!

Okay! Getting old isn't for sissies. I will admit that. Friday morning I threw my back out at church again. I stood up on a chair and fixed a sign that had fallen down by one corner. When I got down off the chair, my back went out. This isn't the first time, but I sure hope it is the last time. I have been to the doctor (back) Friday morning, (back)Saturday morning, in the emergency room on (back)Sunday and back to the doctor(knee) today. He has scheduled me to see a (back) specialist tomorrow and I have an appointment with the (foot) doctor on Thursday. Something is really wrong with this picture!

One doctor doesn't put me on any medication. The next puts me on three different kinds of medication and the one today took me off two of the three. He didn't like the fact that I have slept 40 of the last 48 hours. Does sound like something might be a little amiss!

I truly think that they are beating all around the proverbial bush! Hopefully the specialist tomorrow will get to the source of the problem. Anyhow, pray for me as I face the days ahead. This has not been pleasant for me, althought Glenda has said she kind of likes me sleeping all the time! I suspicion that she just gets more time to use the remote on the TV and doesn't want to give it up!!

Dumb Fish!

Glenda and I went fishing the other day. We live on a lake and it is real easy to walk out our back door and down to the lake. I had bought some worms just in case there was another day or two of great weather before winter sets in. The day we went fishing was absolutely beautiful.

We sat beside the lake and Glenda fished and I drowned worms. We were both using the same bait and in the same location and dealing with the same weather conditions. She was catching one fish after another and I wasn't even getting a nibble. It really didn't make any difference to me because the weather was so incredible and the company even better, that I could have sat there for quite some time.

After a long while, Glenda let the secret out of the bag. After she had caught her tenth or so fish, half of them swallowing the hook, she said in exasperation, "Dumb fish!" I looked at her in amazement that she would say such a thing and then came up with this answer. I said, "No wonder I am not catching anything. I've been fishing for the smart ones all along." Changing my strategy to begin to fish for the dumb ones didn't help a bit. I got out fished that day by a woman!

That's okay. She is a great woman and a gift from God for me. She deserves her moments of glory, even if she is catching "dumb fish!"

I'm Working Here!

For the last couple of nights I got some bad news just about the time I was getting ready for bed. I hate when that happens because I then toss and turn all night and get up in the morning feeling like I was run over by a steam roller.

Last night, I went to bed and was sleeping like a baby when all of a sudden I herd the chirp of another smoke detector( my carbon monoxide detector did the same thing less than a month ago). It got real persistent real quick and I got up to shut it off. Of course it wasn't easy to get to, nor was it any easier to deal with. I had to stand on a chair, climb up on a buffet, dismantle the detector to get it down from the wall, and then figure out in the dark how to unplug the connection from the back. All this at 2:00 AM. After I got it unplugged and down, it chirped again. I took the battery out of it and it chirped again. Finally, I took it to the garage, set it on a work bench and shut the door. By that time I was pretty much awake.

I went to the computer and checked out my Facebook account. I found one of the young men in the church on line, asked him what he was doing up at 2:00 AM and waited for a response. Here comes the response that every pastor lives for. He said, "I'm working on my sermon for youth group and having a hard time finding the verses I want to use." We worked together for about a half hour and I helped him chase down what he was looking for. What a neat way to spend quality time with a young man in your church at 2:00 AM in the morning. Think about it!

Still Thinking About The Glory Of God!

Yesterday I wrote about what it means to be in the glory of God. I have been thinking about that for two days now. This morning, Glenda and I left early for a doctors appointment in Chicago at Northwestern Hospital. It was a check up thing for her and everything is going well.

While I was waiting for her, I began to think about God's glory. I then remembered a paper I wrote about God's glory in Bible college. Jesus speaks a lot about glorifying the Father in the book of John. In my paper, I remember that Jesus sent glory to God from his actions and then received glory back from God in return. God is in the business to bless his children, members of His eternal family. We show our favor (done through obedience, love and devotion) toward Him and He returns it back to us.

Someone recently told me that we don't have to work at anything when it comes to God. He loves us just the way we are. Ephesians 2:10 says, "We are created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared for us in advance." It is by doing the work God sets before us that we glorify Him. What did you do lately to glorify God? Think about it!

Glory In His Holy Name

Yesterday, at church, Pastor Tim asked the question, "What does it mean to glory in His Holy Name?" I sat there and listened to the question and thought as several others answered the question around me. I have spent the last 24 hours thinking about this and thought I would write about it today.

First of all, we are in His holy name when we ask Jesus to be our Lord and Savior. It is at that point that we join the family of God. Just as Glenda Westbrook took on my last name when she married me, we take on the name of Jesus Christ and become a part of the family of the Most High God!

Next, let's look at what "glory" means. The "glory of God" is His magnificance, His abundance, His righteousness, His justice and His reward. As Christians, we are invited by Him to come into His glory or His favor in our everyday living. We struggle with this because we are now living in an inperfect world, with Satan doing all he can do to keep us from experiencing God's true glory. We know in God's kingdom, there will be no more death, no more hurt and pain, no more sorrow, no more inperfection at all. We will live in perfect peace and perfect love because of the eternal reward that we have received. Today, we see glimpses of what God intends for His kingdom as we receive His glory. As we receive His favor at particular moments in our life, we recognize them as moments of glory. We know those moments will never end in His kingdom once Jesus comes again.

Live to please the Lord. It opens doors for tremendous blessings in our lives and for us to live in the glory of the Lord. Think about it!

Ughghghghgh!

I opened a file yesterday morning and it bit me! It had a virus in it and took out my computer. We have been working for two days now trying to clean it up with an anti-virus program. Right now I am working on Glenda's computer and it is awkward. At least I can get connected to the world again.

I do not like being out of touch. Not being on the internet has about driven me crazy. I found myself sitting in my desk chair watching the little file folder pictures going under a magnifying glass one by one. This anti-virus program has run for nearly 20 hours now and found a dozen or more high rick or severe viruses. I don't know how long it will be before we get my connection reestablished.

All this makes me wonder how many people that I deal with everyday are not connected with God. There are all sorts of sins in thier lives that mess everything up. They need to run a virus scan on their living. The best one that I can recomend is Jesus! He cleans everything up and get's us connected with God again quick. Been feeling a little sluggish lately. Having a hard time getting on-line and connecting with God. Go to Jesus! He will fix your problems! Think about it!