Ok, so it's been awhile since my last post. You know, I always have good intentions to post at least once a week, but it rarely seems to work. The problem is that I get so busy working on the web sight and doing things for my church I attend that I;m always too tired to take the time to post here. So I've decided to try an experiment. Normally I only use my blog to keep you up to date on what's happening in my life personally and I am going to continue with that. But I have decided that I will also start including a little mini lesson in each blog. It won't be a full blown sermon, but just a little life application. Hopefully, by making it a part of my actual ministry it will keep me reminded to take time to do it.
Beautiful Becky is flying high these days. She is now in her last week of training in her new job. Yes, she is once again among the employed!!!
Just call me Joe is still spending mosy of his time working and playing video games. I'm really worried that he says his x-box is going out and most of the games he plays are on it.
Enfuriating Emmy is going crazier this week. She's taking her pretest today and tomorrow for graduation. If she passes with high enough scores then she takes the final tests next week. Once she passes those she will be a high school graduate 6 months early. Go Emmy!!!
I've been going to my doctor lately. He's added several new meds plus putting me on oxygen. I have to be on it at least 10 hours a day so far and will probably wind up 24 hours. My restless leg syndrome is finally under control so I don't look like I'm having seizures. Now if I could just get rid of the pain from the fybromtalgia. This month I get to work with the eye specialists to hopefully get to keep my drivers licensee another year.
I was listening to the radio the other day and heard a story that really impressed me. I wish I had been listening better, but what I did hear really hit me. It was talking The story was about a young teen who seemed to have a problem with getting home before dark. Apparently part of the problem was the fact that he wore sunglasses at all times. On this day though he had promised his mother that we would be home before dark. He remained outside until just as it looked to him that it was about to bcome dark and then he ducked inside. He was very proud of himself for keeping his promise and couldn't understand why his mom was yelling at him for letting him down. Finally he removed his sunglasses and saw that it was already full dark. He just couldn't tell because he was so used to the dark due to the shades. Our spiritual life can sometimes mirror this. We think that we are doing so well because we aren't doing any major sinning. We are so proud that we haven't killed anyone layely,but we overlook the small things. It's surprising how many times I get told that crtain things are wrong and the person telling me uses the book of Leviticus to make their point. And considering the usual topics I have to admit that they are right. But these same people have no idea what other laws are in this book that they are breaking themselves. How many of us have eaten catfish? Netter read what God says about it. Ever talked back to your I hope you like decatitation. You see we tend to overlook the small things and after awhil don't see them at all. I'll tell you what I won't point out all the laws God gives that yo overlook if you'll remember that Jesus for bids us to judge others.
God bless
P
Monday, November 1, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Walk the talk
Blessings my dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus;
Well, it's definitaly been a busy week and I for one am feeling it.
Monday was spent putting together the last toutches for this week's lesson for the Bible study we have going on FaceBook. Right now we have 192 members and growing each week. You can find it in the Bible study section on the G.L.O.V.E. website but if you are able I really reccomend doing it on FB where you can get others comments. You can find it under G.L.O.V.E. Bible study in groups or just send a friend request to me by searching Tom Towles (there are about 6 of us listed so look for the picture of me speaking with a mic). Once I get you on my friends list I'll send you an invitation for the group.
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent writing my sermon for the website for this Sunday.
Thursday and Friday went to working on our Friday night family fun festivals. This was supposed to be the last one but our pastor asked me to do one more in October although we will be moving it to a Saturday afternoon. This was our second year for this and has I feel been great. Once again we have gained new people arrending our church and even more who are now aware of us. I want to thank all the people who helped out noting especially those who came from Betheny and Mt. Ollivet United Methodist churches here in Wichita.
Today started with setting up a drink and snack section for the Bishop's Bike challenge. There were 3 groups going 18, 50 and 100 miles. O was totally humbles sitting there helping pour drinks when this sweet lady who is 88 years old rode up.
After that I spent the day putting together the musuc and power point for tomorrow's service. I am really looking forward to this week as Beautiful Becky is preaching. Her topic is :Living Sacrifices" so it should be wonderful.
If you have never volunteered in a retirement home to preach or do a Bible study you don't know what you are missing. But I admit that there have been times wgen I have wondered if I really made a difference in their lives. After all, whar could I really offer to these people who had lived so much more than I. Dis what I did really matter or did they even remember me when I left? Last night I got my answe. I have this one sweetheart of a lady who has over time become one of my favorites. I've even gone just to visit her at times even though I knew that she would just spend the time telling me the same 3 or 4 stories over and over. With a memory like that I was sure she never remembered me, but then she did celebrate her 100th birthday last May. You know, having spent a long wonderful life married to a pastor she gad 2 gouls left in life that she rtells me every time I see her. She wants to live to be 110 which is the time God set for man and she has always said she wants to go out still praising God. She has told me over and over that you can't just talk the talk, but that you have to walk the talk which means praising Him constantly. WellI now kmow that she did remember me because my name was on the list of people she wanted called when she passed on yesterday. She may have missed the mark by 10 years but she made it with flying colors where her praise was concerned. Miss Dorothy you will never know how much you have affected the one who was there to offer help to you. You gave me so much more than you ever took. For you dear lady I will continue to walk the talk each day.
God bless you all,
Pasor Tom
Well, it's definitaly been a busy week and I for one am feeling it.
Monday was spent putting together the last toutches for this week's lesson for the Bible study we have going on FaceBook. Right now we have 192 members and growing each week. You can find it in the Bible study section on the G.L.O.V.E. website but if you are able I really reccomend doing it on FB where you can get others comments. You can find it under G.L.O.V.E. Bible study in groups or just send a friend request to me by searching Tom Towles (there are about 6 of us listed so look for the picture of me speaking with a mic). Once I get you on my friends list I'll send you an invitation for the group.
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent writing my sermon for the website for this Sunday.
Thursday and Friday went to working on our Friday night family fun festivals. This was supposed to be the last one but our pastor asked me to do one more in October although we will be moving it to a Saturday afternoon. This was our second year for this and has I feel been great. Once again we have gained new people arrending our church and even more who are now aware of us. I want to thank all the people who helped out noting especially those who came from Betheny and Mt. Ollivet United Methodist churches here in Wichita.
Today started with setting up a drink and snack section for the Bishop's Bike challenge. There were 3 groups going 18, 50 and 100 miles. O was totally humbles sitting there helping pour drinks when this sweet lady who is 88 years old rode up.
After that I spent the day putting together the musuc and power point for tomorrow's service. I am really looking forward to this week as Beautiful Becky is preaching. Her topic is :Living Sacrifices" so it should be wonderful.
If you have never volunteered in a retirement home to preach or do a Bible study you don't know what you are missing. But I admit that there have been times wgen I have wondered if I really made a difference in their lives. After all, whar could I really offer to these people who had lived so much more than I. Dis what I did really matter or did they even remember me when I left? Last night I got my answe. I have this one sweetheart of a lady who has over time become one of my favorites. I've even gone just to visit her at times even though I knew that she would just spend the time telling me the same 3 or 4 stories over and over. With a memory like that I was sure she never remembered me, but then she did celebrate her 100th birthday last May. You know, having spent a long wonderful life married to a pastor she gad 2 gouls left in life that she rtells me every time I see her. She wants to live to be 110 which is the time God set for man and she has always said she wants to go out still praising God. She has told me over and over that you can't just talk the talk, but that you have to walk the talk which means praising Him constantly. WellI now kmow that she did remember me because my name was on the list of people she wanted called when she passed on yesterday. She may have missed the mark by 10 years but she made it with flying colors where her praise was concerned. Miss Dorothy you will never know how much you have affected the one who was there to offer help to you. You gave me so much more than you ever took. For you dear lady I will continue to walk the talk each day.
God bless you all,
Pasor Tom
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Blessings to all of my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus;
Ok, so it hasn't quite been 6 months since my last post here. Hopefully you have been reading my weekly messages on our website and are still familiar with some of the things I have been up to. I have been very busy over the last months, but I decided tonight that it's time to start writing my blogs again as well and rededicate them to use in spreading the Great News.
The church I am a member of here received a new pastor last July and I have been working hard with him ever since. This is his first appointment, but his father is also a Methodist pastor with a church in Salina Ks. so he has a lot of wonderful ideas for improvement and is trying to implement as many of them as possible in order to serve as many as we can in as many ways as we can. He has turned the English part of our worship music over to me (we are a bi-lingual congregation) which I love as I know how music can reach so many emotionally and I'm blessed in the fact that like me he is a fan of modern Christian rock, so it's a labor of love. I also put together the power points to show during each service. I started out by just getting free slides online and inserting the text, but have now graduated to making my own on Microsoft Paint. Now each slide has our church name at the top, pictures on the left and our theme for the week on the bottom. Right now we are taking part in the rethink church program (www.rethinkchurch.org) so that will be the theme throughout this month. Also I did the planning and organizing for our annual Family Fun Festival which takes place each Friday evening during September. It really is a great way to let the community know about your church. Last years event saw 3 new families come into our congregation as a direct result and 4 children of one of therm baptized. I am also starting a Methodist men's group which will meet on the 3rd Saturday of each month and working to put together both adult and kids Sunday school classes. Plus I am researching different things we can do to raise funds so that we can pay for all of these new things. And if it sounds like I am doing it all trust me, Pastor Walter has several others working just as hard as I including my wife Beautiful Becky. He eve talked my son Just Call Me Joe into coming to church and running the new sound system when we get it and he had quit attending church after some bad experiences at our last church. Praise God my whole family is now back worshiping Him where we belong.
I have been hard at work on our ministry website and Facebook. We now have 184 members in our Facebook Bible study group. This week made lesson 19 in a series I have planned to go for 43 weeks unless I need to add something in the end. Right now we are looking into prophesy using the book of Daniel. I have also been working just as hard to get up new materials on the website as well as redoing all of the old pages to match our current format. It's a lot of work, but we just won our first award for it. Admittedly it's only second place not first, but to me it still means that we are reaching people with God's Gospel and that's what it's all about.
Well, I do have many more things to talk about but I think that this is enough for now. I promise that my next post will be no more than a week away.
In parting I would like to offer this prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father, we ask you to bless all of us here in our church without walls as we seek to know You better and spread Your word. We ask that you watch over, protect and guide us so that by imulating You we can help to bring even one person even one step closer to accepting You and the eternal salvation you offer through Your precious son Jesus the Christ, Amen
God bless each of you.
Pastor Tom
Ok, so it hasn't quite been 6 months since my last post here. Hopefully you have been reading my weekly messages on our website and are still familiar with some of the things I have been up to. I have been very busy over the last months, but I decided tonight that it's time to start writing my blogs again as well and rededicate them to use in spreading the Great News.
The church I am a member of here received a new pastor last July and I have been working hard with him ever since. This is his first appointment, but his father is also a Methodist pastor with a church in Salina Ks. so he has a lot of wonderful ideas for improvement and is trying to implement as many of them as possible in order to serve as many as we can in as many ways as we can. He has turned the English part of our worship music over to me (we are a bi-lingual congregation) which I love as I know how music can reach so many emotionally and I'm blessed in the fact that like me he is a fan of modern Christian rock, so it's a labor of love. I also put together the power points to show during each service. I started out by just getting free slides online and inserting the text, but have now graduated to making my own on Microsoft Paint. Now each slide has our church name at the top, pictures on the left and our theme for the week on the bottom. Right now we are taking part in the rethink church program (www.rethinkchurch.org) so that will be the theme throughout this month. Also I did the planning and organizing for our annual Family Fun Festival which takes place each Friday evening during September. It really is a great way to let the community know about your church. Last years event saw 3 new families come into our congregation as a direct result and 4 children of one of therm baptized. I am also starting a Methodist men's group which will meet on the 3rd Saturday of each month and working to put together both adult and kids Sunday school classes. Plus I am researching different things we can do to raise funds so that we can pay for all of these new things. And if it sounds like I am doing it all trust me, Pastor Walter has several others working just as hard as I including my wife Beautiful Becky. He eve talked my son Just Call Me Joe into coming to church and running the new sound system when we get it and he had quit attending church after some bad experiences at our last church. Praise God my whole family is now back worshiping Him where we belong.
I have been hard at work on our ministry website and Facebook. We now have 184 members in our Facebook Bible study group. This week made lesson 19 in a series I have planned to go for 43 weeks unless I need to add something in the end. Right now we are looking into prophesy using the book of Daniel. I have also been working just as hard to get up new materials on the website as well as redoing all of the old pages to match our current format. It's a lot of work, but we just won our first award for it. Admittedly it's only second place not first, but to me it still means that we are reaching people with God's Gospel and that's what it's all about.
Well, I do have many more things to talk about but I think that this is enough for now. I promise that my next post will be no more than a week away.
In parting I would like to offer this prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father, we ask you to bless all of us here in our church without walls as we seek to know You better and spread Your word. We ask that you watch over, protect and guide us so that by imulating You we can help to bring even one person even one step closer to accepting You and the eternal salvation you offer through Your precious son Jesus the Christ, Amen
God bless each of you.
Pastor Tom
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Friends or groupies
Blessings my dear brothers & sisters
I want to talk to you today about our Abba Yahweh.
It seems to me that too many of us want God in our lives, but we want Him to come to us. We aren’t even willing to meet Him halfway. No, too many of us seem to be what I call “come and get me People.”
Now please understand that these are often some of the most wonderful people you’ll ever meet. I mean some of them would literally give you the clothes off their back. But when it comes to God, well they love Him and are willing to listen about Him, but they just don’t have the time to go to Bible study or Sunday School or to take part in any events. My Wife Beautiful Becky, our own dear Mollie and her husband Craig are examples of what I call a someone else. I won’t go into what a someone else is here because you can read the obituary of someone at the end of this post.
But I think that Holy Week is the perfect example of the difference between most Christians or Christ’s groupies and the somebody elses of Christ’s friends.
On Easter Sunday families flock to the church who, you may never see the rest if the year. They all line up to take part in the pageantry and tell ypu quite proudly how much they love Jesus.
I have one friend, he’s a great guy and very devoted to Christ. In fact he’ll be the first one to stand up and tell you that you are going to burn in hell if you don’t have Jesus as your personal savior. Now before you laugh you need to know that he has said the same thing to his own mother. And the true measure is that he makes sure you understand that this includes him as much as any. He even facilitates a Sunday School class. But as much as I admire him for these things I am so glad that they never schedule kids sports for Easter. Because if one of his grandkids is playing in a game he will be missing that day.
It’s not that he doesn’t love God. He’s told me many times that his greatest ambition in life is to give up his life for Christ. And I truly believe him.
So while everyone loves the pageantry of Easter, most are more than willing to let someone else do all the work to set it up. Which is why we see so very few people who want to be anywgere bear the church during the time leading up to Easter.
We avoid Lent and Holy Week because it isn’t a happy and uplifting time—but to be honest, neither is most of life. Sometimes we come to church all scrubbed up, dressed nicely, with smiles on our faces, and when people ask how we are, we reply that everything is fine and we even boast how wonderful things are—but it is all a lie. Life is not always uplifting, or wonderful, or pleasant, or joyous—but we have been taught the lie that for spiritual people like us, it must be so. So we become play actors, hypocrites—telling ourselves that by lying, we are having faith, and that if we lie enough, the bad things will fade away, like a dream upon awakening.
But in this we miss the whole point of the incarnation! God became flesh in Jesus Christ. Jesus faced temptation, He suffered hunger and thirst, He suffered the agony of crucifixion. Jesus our God did not face these things so that we would be exempt from them, He faced these things so that we would have dignity in them.
We think ourselves so modern and enlightened when we read of lepers walking through crowds, crying out “Unclean, unclean!” so that others could avoid touching them and thus protect themselves from ritual impurity. We tell ourselves we would do no such thing, but we do the same thing! When a person in our society becomes sad, or depressed, or out of sorts—our modern form of social leprosy—they cry out, “I want to be alone, I want to be alone.” In truth, they want company, but they tell people to go away to avoid rejection and to make it easier to restore relationships when they are feeling chipper again. We laugh when we remember the days when people dressed up for church and stayed home when their attire wasn’t fancy enough, but we stupidly do the same thing with our emotions. We stay away when our emotions aren’t presentable.
Let me tell you about two very good friends of mine. They are both very wonderful men who love the Lord and serve him to the very best of their ability and they both love to help others. They are so similar it can be scarry and yet they are so different.
They are both named Al.
Their last names both start with R.
I have attended church whith both of them in United Methodist churches.
They have both offered me friendship even when I did not ask them for it.
They are both retired pastors from the U.M. denomination.
They both spend extra time still helping in the church on a volunteer basis.
One is an ordained minister or elder.
The other is a licensed local pastor.
They have both worked in large churches and small.
They both had been senior pastors and they both have worked under other pastors.
They both know that I am bipolar.
One advises me to keep it a secret. He says that people will not understand and that they will not accept me if they know.
The other advises me to let people see how I and worked through these problems and yet Christ can still work through me.
They both know about my past, that for most of my life I had been a very poor excuse for a Christian. They both know that I am an alcoholic even though I have not drank for years and that I had used many illegal drugs in the past and even that I have once spent time in prison.
One of them tells me to be careful not to let anyone know about my past. He advises me that not only will it make me look worse to the people I’m trying to help but that it could stop my wife from being ordained by the united Methodist denomination.
The other would advise many to use my past to show other people that if Jesus Christ could reach me then he can reach them as well. He tells me that if the board of ordaining Elders would refuse some one ordination on those grounds that he would prefer not to work under them anyhow.
One tells me that at times such as holy week that I should simply set back, enjoy the pageantry and be glad that our savior is risen.
The other tells me that I should try to take part in as much of the pageantry as I can so that I could help show others that Christ is indeed risen.
I love both of these men dearly and consider them both to be great friends. But, due to my bipolar problem I admit that I am often sad even at the happiest of times. So as black friend Al right, or is it my friend Al who is right? I don’t want to cause trouble and yet…
Yet when Jesus came in the flesh and dwelt among us, and suffered hunger and thirst and heat and cold and betrayal and loneliness, and finally also pain and agony and death upon the cross, He gave dignity to His little ones who suffer. He gave dignity to us! Everyone avoids a sad person, except Jesus Himself who is much acquainted with sorrow. Jesus was the only person who gave the demoniac of the Gadarenes his dignity, the only one who could exorcise him. Jesus faced the man who lived in a cemetery, naked and screaming all day and night and calmed his spirit and healed his soul. How can you think that this same Jesus would be repelled by your pessimism or your cynicism or your sadness or your grief? How could a man who seeks the company of demoniacs be repelled by you?
The people of this world believe in the power of positive thinking and in happiness, and in believing these things, they are very shrewd. For people of this world have only the present moment, and if they are unhappy in it, they have lost something. But we who are Christians can endure unhappiness and sadness and loneliness and backstabbing and betrayal and friendlessness and poverty and hunger and thirst; we can face mourning and grief and even death, because Jesus faced all those things. As Christians, we know that Jesus’ suffering was His way to glory, and his Crucifixion was the door to His Resurrection. We know that He ascended on high and sits, alive and well, at the right hand of His Father, where He rules over all things. We can face our own crucifixions in life, because we know that we will share in His Resurrection on the Last Day!
So I think that no matter what my mood may be, whether by depression makes me sad or my mania makes me ecstatic, that I will follow the advice that tells me that my job is to be a true friend to my Lord Jesus Christ.
On Palm Sunday, there were crowds who cheered Jesus as the King, but where were all those fair-weather friends when Jesus prayed in agony on Gethsemane, and where were they when He hung upon the cross?
Therefore, let us show that we as Christians are not just Jesus’ groupies, we are His friends. Let us be bold to join Him, fasting in the wilderness for forty days during Lent; let us be bold to pray with Him in the garden on Maundy Thursday, let us fearlessly stand at the foot of His cross on Good Friday, so that we may witness His Resurrection and His Ascension, and join in His triumphant reign. And on that Last Day, when Jesus brushes away the groupies, let us be among His true friends, whom He welcomes into His glory.
And one last note about friendship, thank you Al and thank you Al.
Someone's passing creates a vacancy that will be difficult to fill.
Else has been with us for many years and for every one of those years,
Someone did far more than a normal person's share of the work.
Whenever there was a job to do, a class to teach, or a meeting to attend,
one name was on everyone's list,
"Let Someone Else do it." Whenever leadership was mentioned, this wonderful person
was looked to for inspiration as well as results; "Someone Else can work with that group."
It was common knowledge that Someone Else was among the most liberal givers in our church.
Whenever there was a financial need, everyone just assumed Someone Else would make up the difference.
Someone Else was a wonderful person; sometimes appearing superhuman.
Were the truth known, everybody expected too much of Someone Else.
Now Someone Else is gone! We wonder what we are going to do.
Someone Else left a wonderful example to follow, but who is going to follow it?
Who is going to do the things Someone Else did?
When you are asked to help this year, remember -- we can't depend on Someone Else anymore.
Author is Unknown
I want to talk to you today about our Abba Yahweh.
It seems to me that too many of us want God in our lives, but we want Him to come to us. We aren’t even willing to meet Him halfway. No, too many of us seem to be what I call “come and get me People.”
Now please understand that these are often some of the most wonderful people you’ll ever meet. I mean some of them would literally give you the clothes off their back. But when it comes to God, well they love Him and are willing to listen about Him, but they just don’t have the time to go to Bible study or Sunday School or to take part in any events. My Wife Beautiful Becky, our own dear Mollie and her husband Craig are examples of what I call a someone else. I won’t go into what a someone else is here because you can read the obituary of someone at the end of this post.
But I think that Holy Week is the perfect example of the difference between most Christians or Christ’s groupies and the somebody elses of Christ’s friends.
On Easter Sunday families flock to the church who, you may never see the rest if the year. They all line up to take part in the pageantry and tell ypu quite proudly how much they love Jesus.
I have one friend, he’s a great guy and very devoted to Christ. In fact he’ll be the first one to stand up and tell you that you are going to burn in hell if you don’t have Jesus as your personal savior. Now before you laugh you need to know that he has said the same thing to his own mother. And the true measure is that he makes sure you understand that this includes him as much as any. He even facilitates a Sunday School class. But as much as I admire him for these things I am so glad that they never schedule kids sports for Easter. Because if one of his grandkids is playing in a game he will be missing that day.
It’s not that he doesn’t love God. He’s told me many times that his greatest ambition in life is to give up his life for Christ. And I truly believe him.
So while everyone loves the pageantry of Easter, most are more than willing to let someone else do all the work to set it up. Which is why we see so very few people who want to be anywgere bear the church during the time leading up to Easter.
We avoid Lent and Holy Week because it isn’t a happy and uplifting time—but to be honest, neither is most of life. Sometimes we come to church all scrubbed up, dressed nicely, with smiles on our faces, and when people ask how we are, we reply that everything is fine and we even boast how wonderful things are—but it is all a lie. Life is not always uplifting, or wonderful, or pleasant, or joyous—but we have been taught the lie that for spiritual people like us, it must be so. So we become play actors, hypocrites—telling ourselves that by lying, we are having faith, and that if we lie enough, the bad things will fade away, like a dream upon awakening.
But in this we miss the whole point of the incarnation! God became flesh in Jesus Christ. Jesus faced temptation, He suffered hunger and thirst, He suffered the agony of crucifixion. Jesus our God did not face these things so that we would be exempt from them, He faced these things so that we would have dignity in them.
We think ourselves so modern and enlightened when we read of lepers walking through crowds, crying out “Unclean, unclean!” so that others could avoid touching them and thus protect themselves from ritual impurity. We tell ourselves we would do no such thing, but we do the same thing! When a person in our society becomes sad, or depressed, or out of sorts—our modern form of social leprosy—they cry out, “I want to be alone, I want to be alone.” In truth, they want company, but they tell people to go away to avoid rejection and to make it easier to restore relationships when they are feeling chipper again. We laugh when we remember the days when people dressed up for church and stayed home when their attire wasn’t fancy enough, but we stupidly do the same thing with our emotions. We stay away when our emotions aren’t presentable.
Let me tell you about two very good friends of mine. They are both very wonderful men who love the Lord and serve him to the very best of their ability and they both love to help others. They are so similar it can be scarry and yet they are so different.
They are both named Al.
Their last names both start with R.
I have attended church whith both of them in United Methodist churches.
They have both offered me friendship even when I did not ask them for it.
They are both retired pastors from the U.M. denomination.
They both spend extra time still helping in the church on a volunteer basis.
One is an ordained minister or elder.
The other is a licensed local pastor.
They have both worked in large churches and small.
They both had been senior pastors and they both have worked under other pastors.
They both know that I am bipolar.
One advises me to keep it a secret. He says that people will not understand and that they will not accept me if they know.
The other advises me to let people see how I and worked through these problems and yet Christ can still work through me.
They both know about my past, that for most of my life I had been a very poor excuse for a Christian. They both know that I am an alcoholic even though I have not drank for years and that I had used many illegal drugs in the past and even that I have once spent time in prison.
One of them tells me to be careful not to let anyone know about my past. He advises me that not only will it make me look worse to the people I’m trying to help but that it could stop my wife from being ordained by the united Methodist denomination.
The other would advise many to use my past to show other people that if Jesus Christ could reach me then he can reach them as well. He tells me that if the board of ordaining Elders would refuse some one ordination on those grounds that he would prefer not to work under them anyhow.
One tells me that at times such as holy week that I should simply set back, enjoy the pageantry and be glad that our savior is risen.
The other tells me that I should try to take part in as much of the pageantry as I can so that I could help show others that Christ is indeed risen.
I love both of these men dearly and consider them both to be great friends. But, due to my bipolar problem I admit that I am often sad even at the happiest of times. So as black friend Al right, or is it my friend Al who is right? I don’t want to cause trouble and yet…
Yet when Jesus came in the flesh and dwelt among us, and suffered hunger and thirst and heat and cold and betrayal and loneliness, and finally also pain and agony and death upon the cross, He gave dignity to His little ones who suffer. He gave dignity to us! Everyone avoids a sad person, except Jesus Himself who is much acquainted with sorrow. Jesus was the only person who gave the demoniac of the Gadarenes his dignity, the only one who could exorcise him. Jesus faced the man who lived in a cemetery, naked and screaming all day and night and calmed his spirit and healed his soul. How can you think that this same Jesus would be repelled by your pessimism or your cynicism or your sadness or your grief? How could a man who seeks the company of demoniacs be repelled by you?
The people of this world believe in the power of positive thinking and in happiness, and in believing these things, they are very shrewd. For people of this world have only the present moment, and if they are unhappy in it, they have lost something. But we who are Christians can endure unhappiness and sadness and loneliness and backstabbing and betrayal and friendlessness and poverty and hunger and thirst; we can face mourning and grief and even death, because Jesus faced all those things. As Christians, we know that Jesus’ suffering was His way to glory, and his Crucifixion was the door to His Resurrection. We know that He ascended on high and sits, alive and well, at the right hand of His Father, where He rules over all things. We can face our own crucifixions in life, because we know that we will share in His Resurrection on the Last Day!
So I think that no matter what my mood may be, whether by depression makes me sad or my mania makes me ecstatic, that I will follow the advice that tells me that my job is to be a true friend to my Lord Jesus Christ.
On Palm Sunday, there were crowds who cheered Jesus as the King, but where were all those fair-weather friends when Jesus prayed in agony on Gethsemane, and where were they when He hung upon the cross?
Therefore, let us show that we as Christians are not just Jesus’ groupies, we are His friends. Let us be bold to join Him, fasting in the wilderness for forty days during Lent; let us be bold to pray with Him in the garden on Maundy Thursday, let us fearlessly stand at the foot of His cross on Good Friday, so that we may witness His Resurrection and His Ascension, and join in His triumphant reign. And on that Last Day, when Jesus brushes away the groupies, let us be among His true friends, whom He welcomes into His glory.
And one last note about friendship, thank you Al and thank you Al.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Obituary
Our church was saddened to learn this week of the death of one of our most valued members, Someone Else. Someone's passing creates a vacancy that will be difficult to fill.
Else has been with us for many years and for every one of those years,
Someone did far more than a normal person's share of the work.
Whenever there was a job to do, a class to teach, or a meeting to attend,
one name was on everyone's list,
"Let Someone Else do it." Whenever leadership was mentioned, this wonderful person
was looked to for inspiration as well as results; "Someone Else can work with that group."
It was common knowledge that Someone Else was among the most liberal givers in our church.
Whenever there was a financial need, everyone just assumed Someone Else would make up the difference.
Someone Else was a wonderful person; sometimes appearing superhuman.
Were the truth known, everybody expected too much of Someone Else.
Now Someone Else is gone! We wonder what we are going to do.
Someone Else left a wonderful example to follow, but who is going to follow it?
Who is going to do the things Someone Else did?
When you are asked to help this year, remember -- we can't depend on Someone Else anymore.
Author is Unknown
Monday, March 29, 2010
Stuff
Oh my dear brothers and sisters how I do love you. I pray that you can feel half the love from me that I feel from our glorious Father Yahweh.
"Man is neither angel nor brute, and the unfortunate thing is that he who would act the angel acts the brute." Blaise Pascal
"By aspiring to a similitude in goodness or love, neither man nor angel ever transgressed, or shall transgress." Sir Francis Bacon: Advance of Learning, Bk, II
"When I pray miracles happen; when I stop they don't." Mother Teresa
Don't worry I do have things to post.
"Who... has ever seen an idea?... Who has ever seen love?... Who has ever seen faith?... The real things in the world are the invisible spiritual realities. Is it so difficult, then, to believe in God?" Charles Templeton: Harper & Row, Publishers inc.
"I hold that the Christian religion is the best yet promulgated, but do not thence infer that it is not susceptible to improvement; nor do I wish to confound it's doctrines with it's founder, and to worship one of my fellow beings." Amos Bronson Alcott, Diary
"It is possible to give without loving, but impossible to love without giving." Richard Braunstein
I'm setting the scene.
"To the reverent scientist..... the simplest features of the world about us are in themselves so awe-inspiring that there seems to be no need to seek new and greater miracles of God's care. Carl Wallace Miller
"For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh." New Testament, Ephesians 5:31
"God help the man who won't marrt until he finds the perfect woman, and God help him still more if he finds her." Benjamin Tillet
Ok so that one was just for fun..... I think.
"A pleasing preacher is too often an appeasing preacher." Universalist Leader
"Most people are akin to the old theologian who said he was entirely open to conviction, but would like to see anybody who could convince him." The Link
"There is no greater pride than in seeking to humiliate ourselves beyond measure! And sometimes
there is no greater humility than to attempt great works for God!" Abbe de Saint-Cyran
"Beware of despairing about yourself; you are commanded to put your trust in God and not in yourself." St. Augustine
Ok, so the answer is no......
What's the question?
Question: "Hey Tom did someone hit you upside the head with 10 gallons of quotes?
Nope, but now I have one for you.
Besides the fact that they are all great quotes what do they have in common?
Give up? Good, I'd be worried if you could put it all together that fast without being in my head. You see as different as all of these subjects are they are all things that I have had to deal with personally in the last two weeks.
I even found that perfect wife. Oh, she may not be perfect to you, but I'll take her. In fact I did take her as my completion as God intended 21 years ago the 15th of April. And it scared me almost to death when I thought I might lose her last Monday night when I took her into the emergency room and discovered that she had been running a blood sugar of over 1,100. You know I've seen people go into diabetic comas at 5 and 600. And we are talking about a woman whose mother lost 3 toes on her left foot, her right leg just below the knee, her eyesight, her kidney functions and finally her life at the age of only 55 years old. So imagine how hard I've been praying over this. You see she gets out of the hospital tomorrow morning, but that's only the beginning of the problems we face with this.
Before I go any further I want to warn those who don't know that I suffer from a serious sleep disorder. So my sleep schedule is that I did not sleep at all for 3 weeks until last Sunday night when I slept roughly 4 hours. Oh, this last week? Well, count up how many hours in a week then subtract from 3:00 last Monday morning which is about when I woke up and you'll know how long I've been awake this time. So I hope that you will understand if my thoughts get disjointed and jump around at times. I'm used to living this way and will get to where I want but there may be some strange turns along the way.
Now back to Beautiful Becky. The reason that she got so out of control with her blood sugar is quite simply that I don't get enough money on disability and both she and my son are currently unemployed. So I'm trying to support a family of 4 on just over $1,000 a month. Now I'm not complaining as much as you think. Actually I consider myself lucky. You see Beautiful Becky's grandmother owns the house we live in. About 5 years ago it was decided that she would have to go into a retirement home and she decided to offer to let us live here rent free if we take care of the upkeep for her. So that helps a lot right there. As long as she stays living we have a place to stay and then it goes to Medicare for paying her retirement home once she went through her savings. But I'd give it to them today if it would prolong her life since she is the only family Becky has left other than a brother she hasn't seen since 1998.
And we own a nice 1993 Ford Taurus to get to where we need. I tell people that car is a true gift from God and I mean just that. You see we had a new starter put on our last car before this by a auto garage. Now before my body broke down on me I would have simply changed it myself but you do what you have to. So that evening we drove across town to meet with some of Beautiful Becky's classmates for dinnier before they went to class across the street. When we got there and shut the car off I noticed that it was smoking, but without thinking I just assumed that with the way my luck had been going at that time that the radiator was low and it was overheating. So I mentioned it to Beautiful Becky and asked her to remind me to fill it when we came out and it had had time to cool down enough. When we got inside we found that only part of our friends had arived so we had seats in the lobby while we waited. After about 5 minutes or so I looked up and out of the window to see black smoke pouring from under the hood of our car. You might know that as with all resteraunts they did have a fire extinguisher they let me use. And someone had a sense of humor that day because I aimed it, pulled the pin, pressed the lever and stood there realising I had an empty extinguisher in my hands. We did call 911 and the stood there watching the flames grow while we waited. By the time they were able to get the fire out it had done so much damage that the inspector while he did agree that it was probably a faulty starter said that there was no way to tell for sure. We did have insurance, but only liability and without proof there was no way to hold the garage at fault.Bar-b-que Dodge Dart anyone?
But you know we never had a problem getting anywhere after that and that's all owed to the fact that God has blessed us with some of the best friends ever. And while they made sure that we had rides we talked to another friend whose dad fixes up used cars and asked him to keep an eye out for one we could afford. Beautiful Becky was working as office manager in our church at the time so we didn't expect it to take too long. And about a month later we were setting in Sunday service when they anounced to us that we would receive our new car the next day. Without our knowing it our friend had located our car and went to our church and told them that he would pay half if they would raise the rest and the rest is history.
So thanks to God and all of these wonderful people He has put in our lives we do have this great car. The only problem is that it does take money for gas, insurance and upkeep so we're back to that nasty subject of money again.
I want to take a minute and plug an add for our good frind Mollie. If you read her blog here at G.L.O.V.E. (and if you don't shame on you. You don't know how much you are missing) then you already know, but being the children lover that she is Mollie has once again put together the annual Easter Egg Hunt for Christ Community United Methodist Church here in Wichita. It will be held at the church at 2130 S. Webb this Saturday April 3rd from 1 to 4 pm. Everything is open to the public and free of charge, so if you live in this area please comm and if not please pray for a successful event.
Anyhow, I supose I should be proud and tell you that things get tight, but I manage to make what I have stretch and get by. The problem is that I lost whatever pride I might have ever had at the age of 15 when I was living under a bridge and when I could on top of a park building in the middle of winter. So I'll be honest and tell you that more months than not lately dear Mollie has saved us with food from her church pantry plus even though she thinks I don't know it groceries she buys herself. You see she's too modest to admit it, but I happen to know that this angel of a woman looks for sales when she shops for her family and gets extra just so she can help other people out. No, she and her husband are not rich, they just care for others that much.
So, now I know that you are asking if we are that broke why we don't take Beautiful Becky to a free clinic. I admit that there are several here in town including one that rents space in our own church. But the simple truth is that unlike larger cities free clinics in Wichita are never free and they can refuse to treat you.
The good news is that the people in the hospital talked with one of them and got them to agree to see her at a reduced rate. The bad news is that even reduced we still have to come up with the money for the medicine and 2 types of insulin plus all of the supplies. Plus she's now on a special diet again and it's not something she can ignore anymore.
So I'll do the only thing I know to do and trust God to take care of us. I may have to give up some of my own meds to afford hers until things get better.
I guess I should be like a lot of my friends and count on all of the great socialist medical care from the new law the President signed last week. Or the one that got publicized anyhow since he did sign another one. But I have several problems with this new law myself. Please understand that these are my own oppinions and not those of G.L.O.V.E. or it's Admin Council. My first problem is that if Socialized medicine is so great then how come everyone in countries that have it and can afford the cost come to the U.S. for treatment? You see care there may be free, but the wait for care typically runs into months or even years. I know that we all complain about the high cost of medical care, but it attracts the best doctors in the world to practice here, although I prefer that they practice in school and know how to do the job when they treat me.
Do you realize that the bill never was passed by the House of Represetatives. It did pass the Senate vote, but was voted down in the house. So what they did was to draw up what they termed a fix-it bill to go through the House. But in this new bill where most people would never notice a clause was inserted stating that passage of it would be deemed to be passage of the original Senate bill. That meant that the President could then ignore the fix-it bill and sign the other one into effect leaving him free to use the line item veto to take anything out of the fix-it bill before he signs it with no fanfare.
Did you know that the law is unconstitutional due to the fact that it makes changes in social security? Our own national laws state that no changes can be made to social security as a part of another bill but must be dealt with on their own. Several states have already filed lawsuits, but I don't have much hope of the Supreme Court overturning the law with it already in effect. The only other way would be to repeal it which would first take a 2 thirds vote in both branches of Congress then two thirds of the states would have to ratify it. Good luck.
Did you know that this law takes tax money to pay for abortions. Now I admit that I am not pro life or pro abortion because as a man I feel I have no right to tell any woman what she can do, but I do have a problem with the taxpayers paying for them. Instead of taking our money to make it easy for women to get abortions why can't we use it to make it easier for others to adopt the children? As many orphans as we have most people who adopt go outside the country because it is cheaper and with less red tape.
Kansas Rep. Todd Moran tried to get small rural Hospitals exempted from budget cuts in the new law. A Rep from Texas tried to get a tax cut for child care of parents making less than $50,000 added. There is a list of over 30 such ammendments were tried to be added by various republican Rep.s All were voted down because to add them would force the bill to back through the Senate and back again.
This new law will in no way make medical care free. What it does in reality is to make it illegal not to buy insurance. I admit that the government will be able to undersell private insurance, but with unemployment hovering at 10% and congress not voting to extend benefits this time how many out there will still be unable to afford it besides myself?
The good news in all of this is that it will finally creat those new jobs the President has been promising. It's predicted that they will have to hire 60,000 new employees at the I.R.S. to collect the new taxes I mean fines from those who don't have insurance.
Ok, I won't beat a dead horse, but I do have to wonder one thing. If they can force people to buy their medical coverage against their will and most people don't even realize what is happening how hard would it be if the right person got into power to have people lining up for new tatoos? No, I don't mean our current President, but he won't be in office forever.
I have decided that I will be posting a sermon for Maundy Thursday. I will be talking about love, but not directly about Christ's love. I'm reserving that topic for Easter Sunday. Also I am working on one for Black Friday that deals with the duel nature's of Jesus. Thanks to my friend Paul I have a new perspective on it.
Please don't forget our Resurrection Vigil. It will run from Thursday morning through Sunday. For more details on it please check the front page of the website. I must admit that I am disapointed in the response so far. I have no way if any of you are inviting friends though I pray you will, but I personally invited over 800 people on Face Book. The last time I checked there were not quite 30 who said they will take part, right at 50 who said maybe and 300 who said no. Now I'm not taking this personally but I admit that I am dismayed. All we are asking is that at any time you can during these 4 days that you pray for a resurrection of Christianity. That's it. Like I said I'm not going to take it personally and I'm not giving up, but I did think I was a better motivator than that. Especially since a good amount of the no's have come from friends I have attended church with and thought were more devout than this. But I'll bet God makes use of those who take part anyhow.
My daughter came home today. She spent the weekend in Tulsa with her youth group at Acquire The Fire. I want to thank those of you who helped her to go this year. She came back so full of the Holy Spirit that she has applied for a year internship traveling with them to do work like set up and take down an working as an usher and selling things etc. She wants it so bad she's willing to go to college for the year in Texas and she hates Texas.
Well, It's now 1:00 in the morning so I supose I should get this posted. I have a lot more I could say, but I have a lot more work I need to do.
God bless you my brothers and sisters with blessings you don't expect.
Pastor Tom
"Man is neither angel nor brute, and the unfortunate thing is that he who would act the angel acts the brute." Blaise Pascal
"By aspiring to a similitude in goodness or love, neither man nor angel ever transgressed, or shall transgress." Sir Francis Bacon: Advance of Learning, Bk, II
"When I pray miracles happen; when I stop they don't." Mother Teresa
Don't worry I do have things to post.
"Who... has ever seen an idea?... Who has ever seen love?... Who has ever seen faith?... The real things in the world are the invisible spiritual realities. Is it so difficult, then, to believe in God?" Charles Templeton: Harper & Row, Publishers inc.
"I hold that the Christian religion is the best yet promulgated, but do not thence infer that it is not susceptible to improvement; nor do I wish to confound it's doctrines with it's founder, and to worship one of my fellow beings." Amos Bronson Alcott, Diary
"It is possible to give without loving, but impossible to love without giving." Richard Braunstein
I'm setting the scene.
"To the reverent scientist..... the simplest features of the world about us are in themselves so awe-inspiring that there seems to be no need to seek new and greater miracles of God's care. Carl Wallace Miller
"For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh." New Testament, Ephesians 5:31
"God help the man who won't marrt until he finds the perfect woman, and God help him still more if he finds her." Benjamin Tillet
Ok so that one was just for fun..... I think.
"A pleasing preacher is too often an appeasing preacher." Universalist Leader
"Most people are akin to the old theologian who said he was entirely open to conviction, but would like to see anybody who could convince him." The Link
"There is no greater pride than in seeking to humiliate ourselves beyond measure! And sometimes
there is no greater humility than to attempt great works for God!" Abbe de Saint-Cyran
"Beware of despairing about yourself; you are commanded to put your trust in God and not in yourself." St. Augustine
Ok, so the answer is no......
What's the question?
Question: "Hey Tom did someone hit you upside the head with 10 gallons of quotes?
Nope, but now I have one for you.
Besides the fact that they are all great quotes what do they have in common?
Give up? Good, I'd be worried if you could put it all together that fast without being in my head. You see as different as all of these subjects are they are all things that I have had to deal with personally in the last two weeks.
I even found that perfect wife. Oh, she may not be perfect to you, but I'll take her. In fact I did take her as my completion as God intended 21 years ago the 15th of April. And it scared me almost to death when I thought I might lose her last Monday night when I took her into the emergency room and discovered that she had been running a blood sugar of over 1,100. You know I've seen people go into diabetic comas at 5 and 600. And we are talking about a woman whose mother lost 3 toes on her left foot, her right leg just below the knee, her eyesight, her kidney functions and finally her life at the age of only 55 years old. So imagine how hard I've been praying over this. You see she gets out of the hospital tomorrow morning, but that's only the beginning of the problems we face with this.
Before I go any further I want to warn those who don't know that I suffer from a serious sleep disorder. So my sleep schedule is that I did not sleep at all for 3 weeks until last Sunday night when I slept roughly 4 hours. Oh, this last week? Well, count up how many hours in a week then subtract from 3:00 last Monday morning which is about when I woke up and you'll know how long I've been awake this time. So I hope that you will understand if my thoughts get disjointed and jump around at times. I'm used to living this way and will get to where I want but there may be some strange turns along the way.
Now back to Beautiful Becky. The reason that she got so out of control with her blood sugar is quite simply that I don't get enough money on disability and both she and my son are currently unemployed. So I'm trying to support a family of 4 on just over $1,000 a month. Now I'm not complaining as much as you think. Actually I consider myself lucky. You see Beautiful Becky's grandmother owns the house we live in. About 5 years ago it was decided that she would have to go into a retirement home and she decided to offer to let us live here rent free if we take care of the upkeep for her. So that helps a lot right there. As long as she stays living we have a place to stay and then it goes to Medicare for paying her retirement home once she went through her savings. But I'd give it to them today if it would prolong her life since she is the only family Becky has left other than a brother she hasn't seen since 1998.
And we own a nice 1993 Ford Taurus to get to where we need. I tell people that car is a true gift from God and I mean just that. You see we had a new starter put on our last car before this by a auto garage. Now before my body broke down on me I would have simply changed it myself but you do what you have to. So that evening we drove across town to meet with some of Beautiful Becky's classmates for dinnier before they went to class across the street. When we got there and shut the car off I noticed that it was smoking, but without thinking I just assumed that with the way my luck had been going at that time that the radiator was low and it was overheating. So I mentioned it to Beautiful Becky and asked her to remind me to fill it when we came out and it had had time to cool down enough. When we got inside we found that only part of our friends had arived so we had seats in the lobby while we waited. After about 5 minutes or so I looked up and out of the window to see black smoke pouring from under the hood of our car. You might know that as with all resteraunts they did have a fire extinguisher they let me use. And someone had a sense of humor that day because I aimed it, pulled the pin, pressed the lever and stood there realising I had an empty extinguisher in my hands. We did call 911 and the stood there watching the flames grow while we waited. By the time they were able to get the fire out it had done so much damage that the inspector while he did agree that it was probably a faulty starter said that there was no way to tell for sure. We did have insurance, but only liability and without proof there was no way to hold the garage at fault.Bar-b-que Dodge Dart anyone?
But you know we never had a problem getting anywhere after that and that's all owed to the fact that God has blessed us with some of the best friends ever. And while they made sure that we had rides we talked to another friend whose dad fixes up used cars and asked him to keep an eye out for one we could afford. Beautiful Becky was working as office manager in our church at the time so we didn't expect it to take too long. And about a month later we were setting in Sunday service when they anounced to us that we would receive our new car the next day. Without our knowing it our friend had located our car and went to our church and told them that he would pay half if they would raise the rest and the rest is history.
So thanks to God and all of these wonderful people He has put in our lives we do have this great car. The only problem is that it does take money for gas, insurance and upkeep so we're back to that nasty subject of money again.
I want to take a minute and plug an add for our good frind Mollie. If you read her blog here at G.L.O.V.E. (and if you don't shame on you. You don't know how much you are missing) then you already know, but being the children lover that she is Mollie has once again put together the annual Easter Egg Hunt for Christ Community United Methodist Church here in Wichita. It will be held at the church at 2130 S. Webb this Saturday April 3rd from 1 to 4 pm. Everything is open to the public and free of charge, so if you live in this area please comm and if not please pray for a successful event.
Anyhow, I supose I should be proud and tell you that things get tight, but I manage to make what I have stretch and get by. The problem is that I lost whatever pride I might have ever had at the age of 15 when I was living under a bridge and when I could on top of a park building in the middle of winter. So I'll be honest and tell you that more months than not lately dear Mollie has saved us with food from her church pantry plus even though she thinks I don't know it groceries she buys herself. You see she's too modest to admit it, but I happen to know that this angel of a woman looks for sales when she shops for her family and gets extra just so she can help other people out. No, she and her husband are not rich, they just care for others that much.
So, now I know that you are asking if we are that broke why we don't take Beautiful Becky to a free clinic. I admit that there are several here in town including one that rents space in our own church. But the simple truth is that unlike larger cities free clinics in Wichita are never free and they can refuse to treat you.
The good news is that the people in the hospital talked with one of them and got them to agree to see her at a reduced rate. The bad news is that even reduced we still have to come up with the money for the medicine and 2 types of insulin plus all of the supplies. Plus she's now on a special diet again and it's not something she can ignore anymore.
So I'll do the only thing I know to do and trust God to take care of us. I may have to give up some of my own meds to afford hers until things get better.
I guess I should be like a lot of my friends and count on all of the great socialist medical care from the new law the President signed last week. Or the one that got publicized anyhow since he did sign another one. But I have several problems with this new law myself. Please understand that these are my own oppinions and not those of G.L.O.V.E. or it's Admin Council. My first problem is that if Socialized medicine is so great then how come everyone in countries that have it and can afford the cost come to the U.S. for treatment? You see care there may be free, but the wait for care typically runs into months or even years. I know that we all complain about the high cost of medical care, but it attracts the best doctors in the world to practice here, although I prefer that they practice in school and know how to do the job when they treat me.
Do you realize that the bill never was passed by the House of Represetatives. It did pass the Senate vote, but was voted down in the house. So what they did was to draw up what they termed a fix-it bill to go through the House. But in this new bill where most people would never notice a clause was inserted stating that passage of it would be deemed to be passage of the original Senate bill. That meant that the President could then ignore the fix-it bill and sign the other one into effect leaving him free to use the line item veto to take anything out of the fix-it bill before he signs it with no fanfare.
Did you know that the law is unconstitutional due to the fact that it makes changes in social security? Our own national laws state that no changes can be made to social security as a part of another bill but must be dealt with on their own. Several states have already filed lawsuits, but I don't have much hope of the Supreme Court overturning the law with it already in effect. The only other way would be to repeal it which would first take a 2 thirds vote in both branches of Congress then two thirds of the states would have to ratify it. Good luck.
Did you know that this law takes tax money to pay for abortions. Now I admit that I am not pro life or pro abortion because as a man I feel I have no right to tell any woman what she can do, but I do have a problem with the taxpayers paying for them. Instead of taking our money to make it easy for women to get abortions why can't we use it to make it easier for others to adopt the children? As many orphans as we have most people who adopt go outside the country because it is cheaper and with less red tape.
Kansas Rep. Todd Moran tried to get small rural Hospitals exempted from budget cuts in the new law. A Rep from Texas tried to get a tax cut for child care of parents making less than $50,000 added. There is a list of over 30 such ammendments were tried to be added by various republican Rep.s All were voted down because to add them would force the bill to back through the Senate and back again.
This new law will in no way make medical care free. What it does in reality is to make it illegal not to buy insurance. I admit that the government will be able to undersell private insurance, but with unemployment hovering at 10% and congress not voting to extend benefits this time how many out there will still be unable to afford it besides myself?
The good news in all of this is that it will finally creat those new jobs the President has been promising. It's predicted that they will have to hire 60,000 new employees at the I.R.S. to collect the new taxes I mean fines from those who don't have insurance.
Ok, I won't beat a dead horse, but I do have to wonder one thing. If they can force people to buy their medical coverage against their will and most people don't even realize what is happening how hard would it be if the right person got into power to have people lining up for new tatoos? No, I don't mean our current President, but he won't be in office forever.
I have decided that I will be posting a sermon for Maundy Thursday. I will be talking about love, but not directly about Christ's love. I'm reserving that topic for Easter Sunday. Also I am working on one for Black Friday that deals with the duel nature's of Jesus. Thanks to my friend Paul I have a new perspective on it.
Please don't forget our Resurrection Vigil. It will run from Thursday morning through Sunday. For more details on it please check the front page of the website. I must admit that I am disapointed in the response so far. I have no way if any of you are inviting friends though I pray you will, but I personally invited over 800 people on Face Book. The last time I checked there were not quite 30 who said they will take part, right at 50 who said maybe and 300 who said no. Now I'm not taking this personally but I admit that I am dismayed. All we are asking is that at any time you can during these 4 days that you pray for a resurrection of Christianity. That's it. Like I said I'm not going to take it personally and I'm not giving up, but I did think I was a better motivator than that. Especially since a good amount of the no's have come from friends I have attended church with and thought were more devout than this. But I'll bet God makes use of those who take part anyhow.
My daughter came home today. She spent the weekend in Tulsa with her youth group at Acquire The Fire. I want to thank those of you who helped her to go this year. She came back so full of the Holy Spirit that she has applied for a year internship traveling with them to do work like set up and take down an working as an usher and selling things etc. She wants it so bad she's willing to go to college for the year in Texas and she hates Texas.
Well, It's now 1:00 in the morning so I supose I should get this posted. I have a lot more I could say, but I have a lot more work I need to do.
God bless you my brothers and sisters with blessings you don't expect.
Pastor Tom
Friday, March 12, 2010
What are we getting from our Bibles?
Blessings brothers and sisters,
Normally right now I would be working on my sermon for Sunday. But since it has been so long since my last post I thought now might be a good time to catch up with you some. I will try to proofread, but please excuse any typos as I had eye surgery on my left eye again this week. Unfortunately they still have no idea what the form of ocular dystrophy I have is but they are going ahead and treating the glaucoma.
I hope that you like the new changes happening on G.L.O.V.E. lately. I need to talk with the admin council but after trying all of the fancy stuff I am hoping we can decide to go with the new look of the latest pages. Basically we wilol keep the church and banner at the top with the links going down the left side. The main content of the page goes to the right of the links with the daily readings, upper room etc. at the bottom. Each section will have it's own simple color.
I hope that you are welcoming our 3 new bloggers as well. All 3 come from different backgrounds and have a lot to offer you. Please let them know what you like and even dislike on their blogs. Remember that as with all of us they are doing this out of love since we certainly don't have any money to offer. So be sure to leave your questions and comments for them on their blogs so they know you are reading and appreciating them. And don't forget us old-timers either. We love to hear what you like about us and if you don't like it then please go away... no, no that was my poor attempt at humor. Actually if you disagree with something I say then I need to know that more than if you agree. And as always, if It can't be found in the Bible don't accept it. The only truth is God's truth.
Which brings me to my topic here. I would hope that we all own at least one Bible. I'm lucky enough to have several. If by some chance you don't have one I urge you to get one as soon as possible and use it to check what people tell you about Christianity. Unfortunately while the Bible is God's litteral word, there are people out there who will twist it and omit sections in order to convince you that it says things it doesn't. Jesus the Christ Himself warned against this and tells us to be on guard for it. But if we don't learn the Bible itself so that we don't fall prey to the deceiver.
Today I ran into two examples today that I think we all need to be aware of.
The first was a married woman looking for a better explination of what Jesus meant when He talked about the giving of odds and not letting your right hand know what your left hand is doing. Now I think we can all agree that what our Lord was talking about in this is that when we do good we are to do it quietly and not look for applause from others or that will be our reward and we will have no right to expect any in paradise. Unfortunately her husband seems to quote it at her as saying that he should not divulge everything to her considering their married life. I did explain that while the left and right hands are part of the same body they are still seperate and explained that all through the Bible it tells us that marriage joins man and woman into one. There was more but that was the basics.
The other example hits Christianity in its basics. Now I will be the first to admit that I do not believe in rekigous tolerance. I don't mean denominations here but religion itself. I mean that I believe that following Christ is the only way to Paradise and I am betting my eternity on it. Jesus said plainly that He is the only way and if that is true which I beliebe with every fiber of my sou; then there can be no other. Which tells me that it is my duty to give this truth to everyone I can without compromise. But today I heard from someone I have always considered to be a good Christian as well as a smart man that all Muslims are terrorists and that we should force all people everywhere to accept Christ or wipe them out. Brothers and sisters I believe that Jesus Himself would weep at these words. The God I follow is a God of love. Yes, there were times when He commanded His people to conquer others by force. This is not that time. Yes, there were times when He commanded that His people take no prisoners. But that was not because He feared that those conquered would refuse Him but because He knew that His own people would let themselves be corrupted if they kept them among them. But Jesus the Christ showed us a new way. He never said to go out into the ends of the Earth and kill anyone who won't accept me. No, He said you will be my wittnesses unto the ends of the Earth. He never said ;ove your neighbor and hate everyone else. He didn't even say love your neighbor and your enemy. No, instead He simply said love your neighbor and love your enemy even more so that they will see my love in you.
My dear brothers and sisters pray for those who do not know Christ persona;;y so that they might find Him while there is time for we were warned that none of us can know how long is left. And tomorrow, if you happen upon a non-believer tell them that you love them because Jesus fills yor heart with Hisa Holy Spirit and that you wish the same for them.
In His Holy Name, Amen
Pastor Tom
Sr. Pastor
G.L.O.V.E. Ministries
Normally right now I would be working on my sermon for Sunday. But since it has been so long since my last post I thought now might be a good time to catch up with you some. I will try to proofread, but please excuse any typos as I had eye surgery on my left eye again this week. Unfortunately they still have no idea what the form of ocular dystrophy I have is but they are going ahead and treating the glaucoma.
I hope that you like the new changes happening on G.L.O.V.E. lately. I need to talk with the admin council but after trying all of the fancy stuff I am hoping we can decide to go with the new look of the latest pages. Basically we wilol keep the church and banner at the top with the links going down the left side. The main content of the page goes to the right of the links with the daily readings, upper room etc. at the bottom. Each section will have it's own simple color.
I hope that you are welcoming our 3 new bloggers as well. All 3 come from different backgrounds and have a lot to offer you. Please let them know what you like and even dislike on their blogs. Remember that as with all of us they are doing this out of love since we certainly don't have any money to offer. So be sure to leave your questions and comments for them on their blogs so they know you are reading and appreciating them. And don't forget us old-timers either. We love to hear what you like about us and if you don't like it then please go away... no, no that was my poor attempt at humor. Actually if you disagree with something I say then I need to know that more than if you agree. And as always, if It can't be found in the Bible don't accept it. The only truth is God's truth.
Which brings me to my topic here. I would hope that we all own at least one Bible. I'm lucky enough to have several. If by some chance you don't have one I urge you to get one as soon as possible and use it to check what people tell you about Christianity. Unfortunately while the Bible is God's litteral word, there are people out there who will twist it and omit sections in order to convince you that it says things it doesn't. Jesus the Christ Himself warned against this and tells us to be on guard for it. But if we don't learn the Bible itself so that we don't fall prey to the deceiver.
Today I ran into two examples today that I think we all need to be aware of.
The first was a married woman looking for a better explination of what Jesus meant when He talked about the giving of odds and not letting your right hand know what your left hand is doing. Now I think we can all agree that what our Lord was talking about in this is that when we do good we are to do it quietly and not look for applause from others or that will be our reward and we will have no right to expect any in paradise. Unfortunately her husband seems to quote it at her as saying that he should not divulge everything to her considering their married life. I did explain that while the left and right hands are part of the same body they are still seperate and explained that all through the Bible it tells us that marriage joins man and woman into one. There was more but that was the basics.
The other example hits Christianity in its basics. Now I will be the first to admit that I do not believe in rekigous tolerance. I don't mean denominations here but religion itself. I mean that I believe that following Christ is the only way to Paradise and I am betting my eternity on it. Jesus said plainly that He is the only way and if that is true which I beliebe with every fiber of my sou; then there can be no other. Which tells me that it is my duty to give this truth to everyone I can without compromise. But today I heard from someone I have always considered to be a good Christian as well as a smart man that all Muslims are terrorists and that we should force all people everywhere to accept Christ or wipe them out. Brothers and sisters I believe that Jesus Himself would weep at these words. The God I follow is a God of love. Yes, there were times when He commanded His people to conquer others by force. This is not that time. Yes, there were times when He commanded that His people take no prisoners. But that was not because He feared that those conquered would refuse Him but because He knew that His own people would let themselves be corrupted if they kept them among them. But Jesus the Christ showed us a new way. He never said to go out into the ends of the Earth and kill anyone who won't accept me. No, He said you will be my wittnesses unto the ends of the Earth. He never said ;ove your neighbor and hate everyone else. He didn't even say love your neighbor and your enemy. No, instead He simply said love your neighbor and love your enemy even more so that they will see my love in you.
My dear brothers and sisters pray for those who do not know Christ persona;;y so that they might find Him while there is time for we were warned that none of us can know how long is left. And tomorrow, if you happen upon a non-believer tell them that you love them because Jesus fills yor heart with Hisa Holy Spirit and that you wish the same for them.
In His Holy Name, Amen
Pastor Tom
Sr. Pastor
G.L.O.V.E. Ministries
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
OUTRAGE
Ok, so as usual my phone and internet were off from the first to the third because my provider won't change the date of payment due and Social Security won't let me have my disability on the first of the month like anyone on normal retirement. Glad that's off my chest at least because as you know I normally try to stay away from politics when I'm speaking of religion. But the thing is that I am a poor man I admit. The last time I filled out papers for Soc. Sec. they rated me at 125% below poverty level. To be honest that doesn't really bother me. Of coarse I would love to have more money. Who wouldn't? But I had to come to grips with the fact long ago that this is my lot in life, but that there are other more important ways I can help others. But two things that do upset me about politics is when they assume that we are all stupid and when they try to do things that will hurt Christianity. Today they seem to be trying both. Now I freely admit that most of my studies have been in either the field of psychology or that of Biblical studies and application. But I have had enough business training to know that 2+2 will never equal eleven. Last July when the fiscal year started the state of Kansas said that they did not have enough money to meet the budget. So they held off on things like the school budget, (got to have our priorities strait and we see where our kids education falls in,) until they could find a way to fix the problem which they actually did. How, you ask? They simply decided to borrow it. But who to borrow from? Who might have an extra $400,000,000 lying around? And the answer was obviously --- themselves! Yep, they simply borrowed it against future expected income. Yes, I have studied enough accounting and investments to know what happens if you or I try this kind of bookkeeping with a business but this is the government so apparently it's ok. But that was last July and the only reason I mention it is because of the news today. I didn't see where either article was really explained in the news but when you take out the fancy talk here is what you are left with for actual content. 1) The city of Wichita announced that it may raise the sales tax in order to finance an undisclosed loan to investors in order for them to build a mega hotel with the money to be paid back over 2 decades which is 20 years to you and I. Now this is all bad enough to me in this economy, but a spokesperson actually explained that it wasn't really costing the taxpayers anything because it's just a loan will be repayed in 20 years. Okay, then I say we just let them save their payments for 20 years and build it then instead of raising our taxes. I think this one was plotted for the "Are you smarter than a fifth grader?" losers. 2.) The state of Kansas announced today that it is looking at running out of monry before they tun out of fiscal yeat. (deja vu anyone) Actually at the rate it's going we are projected to be roughly $400,000,000 dollars short. (I know I've seen that number somewhere before) But the official did say that they have come up with 2 new ideas for raising money that they plan to try ang get through ths state legislature. No, they aren't going to ask Wichita for a loan. Actually they want to srart charging sales tax on lottery tickets to start with. I don't really care about this, but I do remember that when the lottery was made legal in Kansas we were promised that that would raise more income for the state than we could ever spend. But what really bothers me is that they also want to start making churches which are non-profits pay sales tax. Now maybe I'm too touchy, but I notice that they are only listing legally registered churches. The wording will not include temples, or covens, or mosques or anything else other than churches. And what religion owns over 90% of churches in Kansas? I'll leave that up to you to figutr out but if it doesn/t contain thr name Christ you guessed wrong. So while I am not allowed to endorse any politician I am begging you that if you live in Kansas go to www.kansas.gov and look up every state official and remind them that there will be an election next November and that you will remember how they vote on this issue because it is an unfair attack on Christianity.
Friday, January 29, 2010
First of all I want to welcome another new member to our staff here at G.L.O.V.E. Our friend Peggy has agreed to give her time and work to help share God's love. I know that she is not soing it for the accolades, (although it certainly isn't the pay sinse we didn't even offer her peanuts) but totally out of her love for our Lord.
This will probably be my last post until Monday as I have been asked by my home church to attend classes tomorrow on leasership and evengelism and Sunday is always busy.
In His service always,Tom
This will probably be my last post until Monday as I have been asked by my home church to attend classes tomorrow on leasership and evengelism and Sunday is always busy.
In His service always,Tom
ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A SUNDAY SCHOOLER --- THEY DID IT FORST pt.3
21. Who was the first king of Israel?
22. Who were the first foriegn missionaries?
23. Who was the first sheppherdess?
24. Who was the first single man to be exiled?
.
25. Who was the first judge of Israel?
26. Who was the desciple chosen by Jesus?
27. Who wore the first bridal veil?
28. Who told the first lie?
29. Who was the first priest mentioned in scripture?
30. Who wore the first ring?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANSWERS TO pt. 2
11.Jeremiah's scroll sent to King Jehoiakim, was burnt piece by piece as it was being read to the King. (Jeremiah 36:21-23)
12. Absolom led an attempt to overthrow his father David. (2 Samuel 15 - 18)
13. Esther whose real name was Hadassah (Esrher 2:7)
14. Cain (Genesis 4:17)
15. Nimrod (Genesis 10:9)
16. Cain (Genesis 4:8)
17. Ruth
18. Abraham (Genesis 4:8)
19. Cana (John 2:1-11)
20. The river turns to bllod. (Exodus 7:14-24)
22. Who were the first foriegn missionaries?
23. Who was the first sheppherdess?
24. Who was the first single man to be exiled?
.
25. Who was the first judge of Israel?
26. Who was the desciple chosen by Jesus?
27. Who wore the first bridal veil?
28. Who told the first lie?
29. Who was the first priest mentioned in scripture?
30. Who wore the first ring?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANSWERS TO pt. 2
11.Jeremiah's scroll sent to King Jehoiakim, was burnt piece by piece as it was being read to the King. (Jeremiah 36:21-23)
12. Absolom led an attempt to overthrow his father David. (2 Samuel 15 - 18)
13. Esther whose real name was Hadassah (Esrher 2:7)
14. Cain (Genesis 4:17)
15. Nimrod (Genesis 10:9)
16. Cain (Genesis 4:8)
17. Ruth
18. Abraham (Genesis 4:8)
19. Cana (John 2:1-11)
20. The river turns to bllod. (Exodus 7:14-24)
Thursday, January 28, 2010
ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A SUNDAY SCHOOLER --- THEY DID IT FIRST pt. 2
11. What was the first instance of a book burning?
12. What was the first millitary coup in Iseael?
13. Who used the first pseudonym?
14. Who built the first city?
15. Who was the first hunter?
16. Who was the first murderer?
17. What is the first book of the Bible named after a woman?
18. Who is the first prophet named in the Binle?
19. Where did Jesus work His first miricle?
20. What was the first ov the ten plagues of Egypt?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANSWERS TO pt. 1:
1. Pharaoh at the time Joseph wae in Egypt (Genesis 40:20)
2. The one at the court of Perdian ruler Ahasuerus; the winner was Esther. (Esther 2)
3. Steven (Acts 5:7-8:2)
4. The dream of Abimelech in which he was told to return Sarah to Abraham. (Genesis 20:3-8)
5. The war of the kings of the north, led by Chedorlaomer, king of Elam. (Genesis 14)
6. Noah, who planted a vinyars after leaving the ark. (Genesis 9:21)
7. In the temple at Jeruealing fundssamem, it was a chest, ordered by King Joash, who had a hole bored in the lid to keep priests from stealing funds. (2 Kings 12)
8. Eutychus, who dazed off and fell out of a window during Paul's sermon. (Acts 20:9)
9. "Be fruitfull and multiply" (Genesis 1:28)
10. Abeaham bought the cave of Machpelah as a tomb for Sarah. (Genesis 23:3-20)
12. What was the first millitary coup in Iseael?
13. Who used the first pseudonym?
14. Who built the first city?
15. Who was the first hunter?
16. Who was the first murderer?
17. What is the first book of the Bible named after a woman?
18. Who is the first prophet named in the Binle?
19. Where did Jesus work His first miricle?
20. What was the first ov the ten plagues of Egypt?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANSWERS TO pt. 1:
1. Pharaoh at the time Joseph wae in Egypt (Genesis 40:20)
2. The one at the court of Perdian ruler Ahasuerus; the winner was Esther. (Esther 2)
3. Steven (Acts 5:7-8:2)
4. The dream of Abimelech in which he was told to return Sarah to Abraham. (Genesis 20:3-8)
5. The war of the kings of the north, led by Chedorlaomer, king of Elam. (Genesis 14)
6. Noah, who planted a vinyars after leaving the ark. (Genesis 9:21)
7. In the temple at Jeruealing fundssamem, it was a chest, ordered by King Joash, who had a hole bored in the lid to keep priests from stealing funds. (2 Kings 12)
8. Eutychus, who dazed off and fell out of a window during Paul's sermon. (Acts 20:9)
9. "Be fruitfull and multiply" (Genesis 1:28)
10. Abeaham bought the cave of Machpelah as a tomb for Sarah. (Genesis 23:3-20)
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Changes and Challaenges
First we want to welcome our newest member on the staff here at G.L.O.V.E. Chuck. After reading some of hes work we believe that Chuck will fit in here nicely and has the knowledge and devotion to spread theword of God in ways that will complement our work here for the Lord Jesus. Please use the link to Chuck's Views on the website to see what he has to offer us.
The Prayer Wall is now up on the website. Please take time to check it and offer your prayers. I've been adding new names daily so please check often.
We've started practice for our Lenten Challenge. The detailes are on the main page of the web site and we hope that you will all help us to reach our goal with it.
We are now making our presence and that of our Savior known on Facebook. We currently have four different groups there. You should be abl to find them all by searching in groups for G.L.O.V.E. or we have links on the website.
We are looking for new people to volunteer to write blogs for the site. If you are interested contact me at rev_tom_glove@yahoo.com and let me know. Also if you don't care to write a blog but have materiels you wish to share on the website we are always interested. We will give you full credit as author and you keep the copyright.
Starting next month we should be ready to put up the Weekly Messages on video as well as text for those who prefer to watch them.
I think that that is all for now. May the love of God bless you and everything you do.
The Prayer Wall is now up on the website. Please take time to check it and offer your prayers. I've been adding new names daily so please check often.
We've started practice for our Lenten Challenge. The detailes are on the main page of the web site and we hope that you will all help us to reach our goal with it.
We are now making our presence and that of our Savior known on Facebook. We currently have four different groups there. You should be abl to find them all by searching in groups for G.L.O.V.E. or we have links on the website.
We are looking for new people to volunteer to write blogs for the site. If you are interested contact me at rev_tom_glove@yahoo.com and let me know. Also if you don't care to write a blog but have materiels you wish to share on the website we are always interested. We will give you full credit as author and you keep the copyright.
Starting next month we should be ready to put up the Weekly Messages on video as well as text for those who prefer to watch them.
I think that that is all for now. May the love of God bless you and everything you do.
ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A SUNDAY SCHOOLER --- THEY DID IT FIRST
1. What king had the first birthday party in the Bible?
2. Where was the first beauty contest in the Bible and who won?
3. Who was the first Christian martyr?
4. What is the first dream mentioned in the Bible?
5. What is the first war mentioned in the Bible?
6. Who was the first drunk?
7. Where was the first piggy bank?
8. Who was the first person to fall asleep during a sermon?
9. What is the first commandment in the Bible?
10. What is the first purchase of land in the Bible?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Answeres to Laughers and Dancers pt. 3
21. Those who weep? (Luke 6:12)
22. Ecclesiates? (3:4)
23. Proverbs (14:13)
24. Children (Luke 7:32)
25. The priests of Baal (1 Kings 18:26)
26. David's wife, Michal (1 Chronicles 5:29)
27. The timbrel, or tamborine (Exodus 15:20; Judges 11:34; Job 21:12; Psalm 150:4)
28. Lamentations (5:15)
29. The children of the wicked. (Job 21:7-12)
30. Isaac (Genesis 21:3-6)
2. Where was the first beauty contest in the Bible and who won?
3. Who was the first Christian martyr?
4. What is the first dream mentioned in the Bible?
5. What is the first war mentioned in the Bible?
6. Who was the first drunk?
7. Where was the first piggy bank?
8. Who was the first person to fall asleep during a sermon?
9. What is the first commandment in the Bible?
10. What is the first purchase of land in the Bible?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Answeres to Laughers and Dancers pt. 3
21. Those who weep? (Luke 6:12)
22. Ecclesiates? (3:4)
23. Proverbs (14:13)
24. Children (Luke 7:32)
25. The priests of Baal (1 Kings 18:26)
26. David's wife, Michal (1 Chronicles 5:29)
27. The timbrel, or tamborine (Exodus 15:20; Judges 11:34; Job 21:12; Psalm 150:4)
28. Lamentations (5:15)
29. The children of the wicked. (Job 21:7-12)
30. Isaac (Genesis 21:3-6)
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
AARE YOU SMARTER THAN A SUNDAY SCHOOLER --- LAUGHERS AND DANCERS pt.3
21. Who, in the Beatitudes, does Jesus promise Laughter to?
22. What Book says that laughter is foolish?
23. What book says that even jn laughter the heartis sorrowful?
24. Who did Jesus speak of Dancing in the streets?
25. Who danced around the alter of their false god?
26. Whose wife despised him for dancing in the streets?
27. WHat instrument is usually associated with dance in the Bible?
28. What book says, "Our dance is turned into mourning"?
29. According to Job, whose children dance around and make music?
30. What Old Testament character's name means ?laughter"?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANSWERS TO pt. 2
11. The women of Israel (1 Samuel 18:6-7)
12. Psalms 2:4; 37:13; 59:8)
13. James (4:9)
14. Sarah (Genesis 21:6)
15. Bildad (Job 8:21)
16. Bringing the captives back to Jerusalem. (Psalm 126:2)
17. Abraham (Genises 17:17)
18. The Amalekites (1 Samuel 30:16-18)
19. The Golden Calf made by Aaron. (Exodus 32:19)
20. Ecclesiates (2:2)
22. What Book says that laughter is foolish?
23. What book says that even jn laughter the heartis sorrowful?
24. Who did Jesus speak of Dancing in the streets?
25. Who danced around the alter of their false god?
26. Whose wife despised him for dancing in the streets?
27. WHat instrument is usually associated with dance in the Bible?
28. What book says, "Our dance is turned into mourning"?
29. According to Job, whose children dance around and make music?
30. What Old Testament character's name means ?laughter"?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANSWERS TO pt. 2
11. The women of Israel (1 Samuel 18:6-7)
12. Psalms 2:4; 37:13; 59:8)
13. James (4:9)
14. Sarah (Genesis 21:6)
15. Bildad (Job 8:21)
16. Bringing the captives back to Jerusalem. (Psalm 126:2)
17. Abraham (Genises 17:17)
18. The Amalekites (1 Samuel 30:16-18)
19. The Golden Calf made by Aaron. (Exodus 32:19)
20. Ecclesiates (2:2)
Monday, January 25, 2010
Are you smarter than a Sunday schooler --- Laughers and Dancers pt. 2
11. Who came out dancing after David killed Goliath?
12. What is the only Book of the Bible to mention God laughing?
13. What epistle tells Christians to turn their laughter into mourning?
14. What old woman said, "God hath made me to laugh so that all who hear it will laugh with me?"
15. Who told Job that God would certainly fill a righteous man with laughter?
16.According to Psalm 126, what caused laughter among the Jews?
17. What old man laughed at God's promise that he would father a child in his old age?
18. What group of people were busy dancing and partying when David caught up with thim?
19. What graven image did the Isrealites dance in front of?
20. What book sas there is a time to weep and a time to laugh?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANswers to part 1.
1. The daughter of Herodias. (Matthew 14:6-8)
2. The father of the prodigal son. (Luke 15:25)
3. Sanballat, Tobiah, nd Geshem (Nehemiah 2:19)
4. David (2 Samuel 6:14)
5. Sarah (Gen. 18:10-12)
6. Jesus (Matthew 9:23-24)
7. Miriam Exodus 15:20)
8. Jepthah's(Judges 11:34)
9. Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 30:5,10)
10. Benjamin (Judges 21:20,23)
12. What is the only Book of the Bible to mention God laughing?
13. What epistle tells Christians to turn their laughter into mourning?
14. What old woman said, "God hath made me to laugh so that all who hear it will laugh with me?"
15. Who told Job that God would certainly fill a righteous man with laughter?
16.According to Psalm 126, what caused laughter among the Jews?
17. What old man laughed at God's promise that he would father a child in his old age?
18. What group of people were busy dancing and partying when David caught up with thim?
19. What graven image did the Isrealites dance in front of?
20. What book sas there is a time to weep and a time to laugh?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANswers to part 1.
1. The daughter of Herodias. (Matthew 14:6-8)
2. The father of the prodigal son. (Luke 15:25)
3. Sanballat, Tobiah, nd Geshem (Nehemiah 2:19)
4. David (2 Samuel 6:14)
5. Sarah (Gen. 18:10-12)
6. Jesus (Matthew 9:23-24)
7. Miriam Exodus 15:20)
8. Jepthah's(Judges 11:34)
9. Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 30:5,10)
10. Benjamin (Judges 21:20,23)
Saturday, January 23, 2010
ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A SUNDAY SCHOOLER - LAUGHERS AND DANCERS
1. Who's entrancing dance proved fatal for John the Baptist?
2. Who held a feast with dancing when his son returned?
3. Who laughed at Nehemiah's plans to rebuild Jerusalem?
4. Who danced with all his might when the ark of the covenant was brought to Jerusalem?
5. Who laughed when she heard she would bear a son i n her old age?
6. Who was snickered at for claiming that a dead girl was only asleep?
7. What prophetess led the women of Israel in a victory dance?
8. Whose ill-fated daughter came out dancing after his victory over thr Ammonites?
9. Who had his decree for a Passover celebration laughed at by Israel?
10. What tribe took wives from among the dancers at Shiloh?
2. Who held a feast with dancing when his son returned?
3. Who laughed at Nehemiah's plans to rebuild Jerusalem?
4. Who danced with all his might when the ark of the covenant was brought to Jerusalem?
5. Who laughed when she heard she would bear a son i n her old age?
6. Who was snickered at for claiming that a dead girl was only asleep?
7. What prophetess led the women of Israel in a victory dance?
8. Whose ill-fated daughter came out dancing after his victory over thr Ammonites?
9. Who had his decree for a Passover celebration laughed at by Israel?
10. What tribe took wives from among the dancers at Shiloh?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Naked Truth (ANSWERS)
1. Isaiah (20:3)
2. The prophet Mica (1:8)
3. Saul (1Samuel 19:24)
4. Noah (Genesis (9:21-23)
5. Captives (2Chronicles 28:15)
6. Hosea (2:3,9)
7. Simon Peter (John 21:7)
8. King David (2Samuel 6:20)
9. Gethsemane (Mark 14:51-52)
10. Ezekiel (23:10,29)
Friday, January 22, 2010
Here we go
Blessings brothers and sisters. I apologize for starting this so late but I managed to come down with bronchitis. Also we have moved the Lenten Challenge to next Monday, but we will have it going by then. But for now the big question is.....
Are you smarter than a Sunday Schooler?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Naked Truth:
1. What prophet walked around naked for years?
2. Who went naked as a way of wailing over the fate of Jerusalem?
3. What king of Isreal, struck with the power to prophesy, stripped off all his clothes and lay naked for a whole day and night?
4. What father lay naked and intoxicated in his tent, which so disturbed his sons that they came and covered him?
5. In war, what persons were often humiliated by being stripped naked?
6. What prophet threatened to take away the flax that covered his wife's nakedness?
7. What disiple, busy at his day's work, was caught naked by Jesus?
8. Who embarrassed his wife by shamelessly exposing himself while dancing naked for joy?
9. Where did a follower of Jesus escape an angry croud by running away naked?
10. What prophet spoke of a woman (merely a symbol) who committed sexual sins while naked?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There you have today's questions. I hope their not too easy. I'll give you the answers and where they are in the Bible tomorrow so you can see how you did.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
LEAVIN IT ALL BEHIND
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter answerd, "We have left everything to
follow You! What then will there be for us?"
(Matthew 19:27)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I look around me and notice the absence of some things. While some luxuries or opportunities have been excluded from nmy world out of preference. Some have been sacrificed so that I could live a life to better serve You and those I love. I am sothankful that I came to know you and the gift of Your grace. At that time, many unneccessary trappings and circumstanses fell away from my life. Now I face each day hoping that I have pared my life down to the bare essentials.
God, You do not leave me wanting for anything. So please give me the courage and insight to leave behind all that I do not need in my life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As said, ths will be the last time for posting this here. Starig tomorrow you will find it instead you will find it on the website in a new sction called lenten chalenge which I hope you will all accept. As for this blog lets just say that I don't plan to let you down. So until the morrow.....
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Today's verse & prayer
SERVING THE GIFTS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Each one should use whatever gift he has received
to serve others, faithfully administrating God's
grace in its various forms.
(1 PETER: 4:10)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I love gifts! I am just not sure which ones I have, Lord. Give me Your understanding of who I am in You. Allow me to see the gifts You have built into my heart and soul so that I can use this day for good. There are moments when I see my strength in action, but I am not always consistent. Help me see the areas in my life that should be developed. Encourage me to let go of those activities or interest that are just taking time away from what You would have me do.
I want to get the most out of this life you have given to me, Lord.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Today's verse & prayer
GIVING OUT OF YOUR LOVE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him
two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do
not turn away from the one who wants to borrow
from you.
(MATTHEW 5:41-42)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I cannot believe how much others expect of me. Today I will face the demands of family, coworkers, and others who need my time. When I answer my door, I know it will be someone who wants something from me. Save me from my first reaction, which is to shut down, or shut that door. Allow me to go above and beyond what people are asking of me. You will give me the strength and ability to do so. I need not worry about my own shortcommings.
Today, I will come to you and ask to borrow the patience, kindness, and love I need to go that extra mile.
(I truly hope that you have been enjoying these posts and that they have been helping you in some way. Unfortunately ll things must end so that others may begin. So, in the interest of progress my posts tomorrow and Sunday will be the last from this book here. Instead you will be able to find them posted on the website in a new section we are setting up for Lent. I will be giving you more details on that before the weekend is over and I pray you will all take part in this new project. But I promise not to leave you hanging here. Be sure to check my blog Monday to see what goodies I have planed for you next.
Praying all His blessings be yours; Tom)
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Daily verse & prayer
RIGHTEOUS WAY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do not repay evil for evil. Be careful to
do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is
possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace
with everyone.
(ROMANS 12:17-18)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cover me, Lord, as I go into my day. Protect me from my own desire to be right or to have my way. When I face someone who is not fair or just, give me the gift of silence or wise words to diffuse the situation. I'll admit, sometimes I would rather prove someone wrong than prove peace is righteous.
Lead my mind to peaceful situations. Give my heart the tenderness it needs to see beyond evil to the needs of the oppressed. And bless me, Lord, with the presence of mind to act in a righteous way that gives others a glimpse of You, the Peacemaker of the soul.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Daily verse & prayer
FULL OF GRACE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Be wise in the way you act toward others; make
the most every opportunity. Let your c0nversa-
tion be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so
that you may know how to answer everyone.
(COLOSSIANS 4:5-6)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Open my ears to the needs of others, Lord. Let today be my chance to really hear what is being said by those around me. Often my personal agenda fills my mind as others express their hearts. Grant me patience, openness, and compassion so I w2ill be eager to understand others needs. Perhaps they will just need to be listened to, maybe they will need comfort, or they might need to know of Your goodness.
After listening, may I speak words that are of You and inteded for that particular person. Never let my own objectives override the conversation You intend.
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