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September 9, 2011

     It started as a routine day at work, business of station duties of things that seem now to be all routine.  One of the things we did that day was to be invited to go to one of the local High schools, there is a tremendous hall in this school, the length of over four football fields.  The school had every single child in attendance that day line the hall, and asked if we the first responders would walk down the middle of that line.  The uproars, claps and cheers filled the hall, not sure if they were clapping for us or just joyous that they weren't in class at that moment, but it made for an interesting moment in an otherwise routine day.  Later that afternoon my wife got ahold of me at the station, and asked if anyone had called me, I told her that I had been busy and asked what was going on.  My grandmother has been in a bad way for some time, so it was no surprise to get such a call, I have been expecting it.  Hospice has declared that this may be the final day in my grandmothers life, she has taken a serious turn for the worse.  I won't get into the lengthy details about how I was able to get someone to releive me and let me go spend a moment with her, but it was tedious and left me feeling very disappointed in the morality of certain people.  But I finally got someone to come in and I was able to spend about an hour with her that night.  Habit kicked in and I checked her vitals and was able to determine that if the end came, it would not be soon.  My prayer that night was that I get to be there in the final moments, not sure why, but I felt a pull to be there, but in the same prayer I told God that it would be ok if he called her home peacefully in the night, as it is His will.

September 10, 2011

     I grabbed a nasty cup of FF coffee, gave the morning report, and out the door I went.  When I got there my uncle was up reading the paper, my aunt was resting, and my mom and dad were in the room with my grandmother.  Habit kicked in again, I checked her vitals, and could see that she had vastly deteriorated during the night, limited radial pulse, corotid pulse was weak and not as strong as the night before, and her breathing was very shallow.  I spent alot of thought and effort in trying to relay to my parents this information, my thought was that they knew what I was telling them, maybe they did, and were just in a state of disbeleif, as much as this old gal had been through, it was even hard for me to believe that this could be the end.  My father and I set up decent coffee for the day, nothing against my aunt and uncle, but what they consider coffee I call muddy water that tastes like feet, yes, I am a coffee snob.  Over about an hour, I kept checking her pulses, her breathing slowed to about five a minute extrememly shallow, agonal breaths.  Then I noticed that her radial pulses were absent, again, relaying this info in the hopes that what I was telling them would be understood.  Then it happened, about about 8:24 in the morning my aunt had gotten up and come in the room, behind her was my uncle, and their little dog, who suddenly began to bark.  I put my hand on my grandmothers chest and realized that the breathing had stopped.  There was some chatter in the room, but having experience in the arena, I spoke firmly and directly, to be silent, to be still, and to say goodbye, she was leaving us.  My hand on my grandmothers chest could still feel the slight heartbeat, and I felt it slowly ebb away, as if she was walking away.  In that moment I envisioned a glorious homecoming, with cheers and applause, a rekindling of two people that had not seen each other in over fifty years.  You see, my grandfather died when my mother was very young, and my grandmother never remarried, so this passing was a glorious time when what God made one so many years ago could be reunited.  I walked around the bed so that I could look at my grandmother in the face, I made the sign of three crossed on her forehead, and gently kissed those crosses.  My father had pulled out a sheet of paper with a final prayer that he had written for her, I knelt on the floor beside him, and we read it together.  In my mind, I was staring at the beautiful blue sky that blessed that day, and I thanked my God for giving me such a day, and I asked him kindly if he would take care of that great lady, whom I am proud to say I am akin to.  And in that moment for the first time in my life I felt the presence of my grandfather, whom I will only meet in Heaven, his name is James, and what I felt in that moment, was his pride in me, and his overjoy with being with her once again.




For my Family

Turn up the Radio!!!!!!!!!

Today I am going back to my roots, back to the good ole Myspace days of telling a story and placing a moral at the end of it.  I have to admit, though, this story is not mine, and was not my idea.  There is a guy who goes to my church, he knows me and I am ashamed to admit that I have no idea what his name is, but he stopped me before I could go into church and gave me this story, at which time, I told him I was going to steal it.  Which begs me to ask one question, if I tell you I am taking it, is it stealing?.....

     Most of us have a job where there is some light traveling involved, I myself even in the janitorial arts have found myself of the road from time to time.  So we all can relate to this experience.  When you are driving down the road, there are few of us who do not listen to the radio, whether it be some good ole driving rock n roll music, to like my wife listens to, talk radio, she thinks like an elderly woman sometimes, I don't get it, but love her anyway.  But we all have the dial, showing my age here, tuned into one station or another.  What happens as we go down the road, what happens to the station?  We begin to lose it, we have to re-tune and find another station.  What about when you are coming home, no matter how far away you go, at some point, you have to come home?  We all share the experience of getting the radio station back, its fuzzy at first, doesn't quite come in clearly, but you can hear it, and the closer you get to home, the clearer it becomes.

Moral-     So here is the obvious conclusion that I have come up with.  We have those times in our lives where even as Christians we tend to walk away from our faith, we tend to walk away from what God wants us to be.  We think we have it all figured out, like we can do all of this ourselves.  Like when we are driving, God in the form of the Holy Spirit is always our driving music in our lives, whether we be rocknrollers, country, jazz, or talk radioers.  God is always pulling our hearts in the direction we need to be in to fulfill His plan.  But as we get further away from God, the message He is delivering to us becomes fuzzy and unclear.  We seek other avenues of entertainment, to satiate the hole in our hearts that we created when we walked away from God.  But no matter how far we go, we always feel the pull towards home, we always are given the opportunity to go back to God.  The closer we get to Home, the more we can hear God in our hearts again, a little fuzzy at first, but it is there.  We have to remember that it is we who have left the Father, he is always there for us.  Proof of this, when returning home from your travels, and in that moment that you begin to pick up the frequency you call home again, and it doesn't quite sound clear.  Try stopping for a moment, and being still, and realize that if you just sit still for a moment, the words come in very clearly.

     We serve a God who never wants us to leave, but always seems to welcome us back when we are ready to come Home.  Be still, and know that He is God.

Sing with me, 'that's why I'm Eeeeeeaaaasaaaaayyyyy, I'm easy like Sunday Morning!'

     So please don't get on to me about there being a lack of postings here, inspiration is not like perspiration, I don't just drip with this stuff just because I am hot.  I always feel that if I sit and force myself to come up with something spiritual and clever it will seem petty and forced, but enough about that.....
    
     There are times in our lives where we look upon ourselves and wonder how some have it so easy and some have it so difficult.  I myself asked the question at a forum at our church, how am I supposed to placate the naysayers when asked the biggest little question in life, why?  If there is a God above why is there suffering, why isn't there peace, why does he let little children be abused and die?  In religious circles we always can appease ourselves with, because it is the will of the Lord.  But for someone who does not know God or has a weakened Faith, this answer not only does not satisfy, it insults.  The answer I got in front of a large group of church goers was,  I dunno, its the will of the Lord, which is about as satisfying as a glass of water when you are hungry.

     So, in much thought and conversation about this subject, I have come to one conlcusion about the Why of the matter, and it is simple, I dunno.  But what I did come up with was this, and let me share it with you......

     There is  a scene in the chic flick A league of their own when Dotty is going to return home with her husband home from the war.  When the coach, Tom Hanks, asks her why she is quitting her explanation is that, 'it just got too hard'.  That is when he utters a classic line that I have based my life off of, he says, ' it's supposed to be hard, if it wasn't hard everyone would do it.........it's the Hard.....that makes it great'. 

     So is life supposed to be easy, look at the natural world, do you think the wild animals feel like life is easy.  And look at it this way, when you take a wild animal and place it in a zoo and give them the easy life, do they look happy?  So when we look at those supposed folks who have the easy life, look at them as if they are animals in a cage, are they really happy, or just on display for all to see? 

     From a biblical standpoint lets look at our Lord and Saviour.  When Jesus opted to die for us, did he do it right away, before you answer that, look at it like this.  When he was chastised, could he not have died right then and there?  Why didn't he?  There are people who die in fights from just one punch, yet he was beaten repeatedly, to the point of death, and he did not die.  He was then made to carry his ultimate torture device to the place of his demise, far away.  After being beaten, do you think that was an easy walk for Him?  How many of us would have just fell to the ground and died before we could get there.  Let us remember that Jesus spent most of His time during his Gospel period running for His life, this after growing up poor in a poor country.

     At any given time and at any given place Jesus Christ who was God in the flesh the two in one who became three in one, could have at any time, made His life very easy, couldn't He?  But he didn't, why, because if it was easy everyone would do it, and its the hard that makes Him Great.  JT




We live lives trying very hard not to rock the boat, during His life Jesus slept during the storms, and not only rocked the boat, he got out of the boat all together.

I am posting this unedited and as I typed it

Promise Keeper

I had made a reference in the earlier installment called Moses talking about the Jews that I would explain how Joshua met Jesus Christ, so here it is, a promise is a promise...

First let me explain what started this revelation within my spirit.  I am a person who is a 'wear sandals and flip flop kind of guy', as much as I love the winter time it is difficult because in an effort to keep all ten toes, I have to put on shoes.  I was browsing through the ole bible one day, which I highly recommend you do in your spare time.  To help you with that endeavor, and you may think me crazy, because I thought it was crazy when it was mentioned to me, but put a bible in each of your bathrooms, that way you absolutely have no excuse for not spending at least ten minutes a day with the word of God.  But when I was browsing through it one thing caught my attention.  I was looking in Exodus when Moses climbed the mountain and talked with God.  Most theologians will tell you that man himself cannot possibly handle the voice of God, not a living man, so for God to be talking to Moses, Moses had to be actually talking to Jesus Christ, God in the flesh.  What struck me was this, the first thing that was said, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.  It seemed like an unusual request, and it seemed unusual that that was the first thing said, so unusual that I could not forget it.  In the back of most bibles there is a reference section, so like any curious Christian I referenced the word sandal in my copy of NIV.  It referred me to the book of Joshua 5:15 and it says,

13Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

14“Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord^d have for his servant?”

15The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

What I learned from this passage is that a soldier of God's army with sword drawn is guess who, thats right, Jesus Christ.  Most people reference the nice happy Jesus from the first coming, but most don't realize that he was nice because he was preaching the gospel, setting the groundwork, and died on the cross for us.  But in the second coming as we read in Matthew 10:34, Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. But it is also in Revelations, 11I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. 12His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”^a He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:king of kings and lord of lords. Or in lamens terms, Jesus with a sword.

So what does any of this mean, let me tell you what it has meant to me.  It means just this what I read in Matthew, 19“Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” So if we pray together, or congregate in church together in prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, doesn't that mean He is among us?  And if He is among us, what is the first and sometimes the only thing the Lord our God requests from us within his presence. 

So I did it, when I am in church or in my bible study group I remove my shoes.  I have done this for a couple of years now.  At first, there were sneers, jeers, and many who had the efrontery to ask me why I wasn't wearing shoes.  I would look at them with a smile on my face and ask in reply, Why ARE you wearing shoe?  Now there were some who genuinely came up and wanted to know why I have chosen to remove my shoes in church, feeling that there must be a religious purpose for it, and I would share my shoeless testimony with them.  Most upon hearing the testimony would remove their shoes as well.  The biggest difference in them and me is this, removing your shoes is not seasonal, it is annual.  Now the Lord our God does not bear fools, so don't go barefoot outside in an artic environment, wear your warm and fuzzies into the church, but once on Holy ground, remove thy sandals from thy feet, for the place that you are standing is Holy.  Don't believe me, read your bible.

Awww it can't hurt that bad, so shut up!!!!

What is suffering to you?  Suffering is defined as this

1. To feel pain or distress; sustain loss, injury, harm, or punishment.

2. To tolerate or endure evil, injury, pain, or death.

3. To appear at a disadvantage

 

So what is it to you?  For some, it is having cancer, for others it is watching our loved ones die of cancer.  One of the few things that everyone on this earth has in common is suffering.  No man nor woman will make it from birth to their death without suffering in some fashion.  So knowing this, why is it, at a time when we are suffering, do we feel all alone?  Why is it that we wrap ourselves up in our suffering blanket and actually seek comfort in our solice?  Are you the only one in the world who has not had a child, or are you the only one in the world who has had a child die, or maybe you are the only one who has ever had a heart attack?  No, this is foolish.  But it does not take away from the reality of our loneliness within our suffering.  There are exceptions to the sufferers of this world, there are some who no matter how ill or how crippled they become they always have a smile for you, as if they are in on some big secret the rest of us are not privileged to know.  If a child is born with a terminal disease and is in pain most of his or her childhood because of that disease, and pain is all they have ever known, do you think that child is aware that they are suffering, or do you see them still with the urge to play, and live.

 

The real bitter pill about suffering is this, no matter how big or how little the suffering we all must face, there is no answer as to why we must go through it.  In the book of Job, it was never fully explained to him why he was made to suffer, and Job only gets everything back in the Disney version of the story, in the old text he never gets his family or his wealth back.  There is little comfort, but then again, there is, in the statement that we are all part of a bigger plan, and that sometimes accepting Jesus and the blessings we were promised means we will be blessed with suffering and pain.  The long short of it is this, someone, somewhere in this world will learn and become closer to God because of your pain, if not you.  Your faith or someone you may have never met or will ever know will get closer to Christ in your suffering.

 

Because the reality is this, we are all closer to God and Jesus because of His suffering.  Lets look at it a little closer.  Jesus always knew his fate, he accepted it, I am not sure he looked forward to it, but he knew it was coming.  He was beaten, chastised, spit upon, nailed to a cross by his hands and feet, and was hung until he died.  In all biblical text, in all versions of the bible, and in all languages, it never refers to what Jesus did for us as suffering, it was we that labeled it that.  Here is what I learned from this, just as Jesus knew he was born to suffer in order for us to receive His Glory, so must we suffer even just a little to achieve that Glory, the ends justify the means.  And after all is said and done, after all is written about you, will you look back upon your life no matter what you go through, and not want to do it all over again if it means just one more person can go to Heaven because of you.  Because we can all go to Heaven because of Him.

What am I to do with these People? - Moses talking to God about the Jews

     We went to a Men's Retreat this weekend.  Despite my being sick I went on faith with the hopes that the weekend would not be the end of me, but help to invigorate my spirit.  It is a yearly event and we can usually get about twenty or thirty of the guys to go, its quite an experience in a very beautiful setting.  This year we were plagued by foul weather, but I believed it was the will of God to keep us inside talking to each other instead of separating and doing our outdoor activities, simply put, God wanted us to be fisher's of men, not so much fisher's of fish.  Our days were split up between meals and free time with lectures throughout the day.  Our Pastor gave one of the lectures on Moses and the book of Exodus.  I give the credit for this bloggable to him because it was his idea and I am simply expanding on that idea, and here it is....

     There is a little story with what could be considered a big impact in the book of Exodus.  This particular story is about the Israelites fighting the Amelikites, lets call them the big A's versus the little J's.(Exodus 17:8-16)  The big A's had a large army, and should have easily defeated the little J's.  But there was one thing that the little J's had on their side, the Big G.  The indepth story of Exodus is that the Jew's were freed from slavery by the adopted prince of the Pharoah, Moses, who took them to the promised land, where they waffled about what they wanted to do at every turn.  They wandered around the desert for forty years, waffling, until the army of Amalek came upon them.  These were a large people, who greatly outnumbered the jews.  It truly is a great underdog story, because the big A's should have wiped up the dessert with these people.  But before the battle began, Moses said to Joseph, who would eventually be the one who took the jews to the promised land, and who actually met Jesus, thats right, Jesus, more on that in another blog, 'Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites.  Tomorrow I will stand on top of a hill with the staff of God in my hands.'  Joshua did as he was commanded, but Moses was a great leader, he was taught leadership by the Pharoah's of Egypt after all, he was a Prince for a while.  Moses went atop the hill to watch the battle and hold high the staff of God, the same staff that broke the stone and made water, the same staff that turned into a serpent in front of Pharoah, the very same staff that parted the Red Sea.  But Moses was an old man, he was about eighty at the time, so being wise, he took Aaron and Hur with him atop the hill.  Everytime that Moses grew weary and lowered the staff the big A's would start winning, and when he held it high, the little J's would win.  So Aaron and Hur seeing Moses grow tired placed a rock under him so he could sit, and they held his hands up on either side until sunset.  By doing this Joshua was able to defeat the much larger army.  So what does all this mean in modern terms, how can we relate to this......

     Moral-  Pastor John used this message to tie in with the male aspect of how we need each other, how we need to support one another.  You see, in life and in all things, we cannot accomplish anything alone.  God never intended Man to be alone, he first gave him a woman, we see how that worked out, settle down ladies.  But God has always intended His people to be relational, to be in community.  You see, we all strive to live a life like Jesus, but Christ being God is an unobtainable goal, we should strive to be more like Moses, just a very smart man.  Moses was not perfect, he was alot like us in some ways, flawed, and in no way wanted to accept the things God wanted him to do, ring a bell with any of you.  But being a smart man Moses learned that the will of God is more powerful than our own will, and indeed our own strength.  But not if we remain in community with one another, we can hold each other up, rest up, and in community, could hold that staff up high as long as we wanted to if it was the will of God.  In community is the only time we can fully accomplish the will of the Lord.  We must be willing like Moses was to realize that we cannot handle a task like holding up a stick all day by ourselves, and that sometimes in our lives, even the simplest of chores may require us to humble ourselves to ask for help.  But here is our ultimate flaw.  How many of us want to be Aaron or Hur?  It is not within the true male spirit to sit atop a hill and watch the battle from afar holding up an old mans arms, WE WANT TO BE THE WARRIORS, we want to be Joshua.  That will be the hardest part of this lesson, we can't all be Joshua, we can't all be the warriors, even though God filled us with a warriors spirit.  Sometimes we can't be the lead actor on the stage, we must accept that we are the guy who pulls the chord to let the curtain up and down.  What this really means is, not only do we need to be able to ask for help from our brothers, but we must be willing to be helpers too.  How many of us can say we are always there for or Christian brothers 24/7?  The harsh reality is, we are seldom there enough for our wife and kids, let alone or church family.  We are far too involved in our own things, and in those things, doing it by ourselves.  Learning to be accountable and learning to accept help from others is the only way we can ever win any of these life battles.  How long will you stand and hold that staff until you are so tired you can no longer do so?  A battle can never be won when fought by one.  How long will you wander in the dessert, waffling about?  I write these things to lift your spirits, who among you will even admit to reading it, I have a community of anonymous, I am not Moses, I am Aaron or Hur, who are you?

The Only Thing We have to Fear is........Fear of that zombie hidden in our closet that wants to kill us at night while we sleep alone in an empty house!!!

Fear.  That's it.  Fear

Fear is defined as an aversion to a person, place, activity, event, or object that causes emotional distress and often avoidance behavior.


     Ok, so what is it.  In the purest of viewpoints it is what drives our everyday lives.  It dictates our schedules, our relationships, and even our love itself.  Fear can put us in such a state that we cannot function otherwise without first considering our fear.  It is amazing sometimes that we can even function at all with each other based on our collections of fears in our communities.  Fear is what makes you lock your doors, hide your money, keep your kids indoors, limit driving, limit interactions with others, and even limit the love we have for others.  

     And lets look at that a little closer.  We limit our feelings towards our fellow men and women based on our fears, whatever they may be.  If we limit our feelings towards them, do we not also limit our feelings towards God himself.  Are we the type of people that say I Love God completely, knowing full well that we do not mean it, knowing that our all knowing Lord knows we don't mean it completely.  So if that is true, why do we even say it, are we afraid of what anyone would think of us if we said that yes I limit my feelings toward Christ based on my fear.  Truth is, no one would ever say that, and sadder is the truth that most of us feel like this.  Imagine when you walk into a social setting, church for example, and someone asks 'how are you?', what is usually your response.  You lie, you and I always lie.  What are we afraid of?  How is it that we are less afraid of the judgment of the Lord than we are the judgment of our brothers and sisters.  Why do we care so much what other people seem to think of us, and so little about what our God thinks of us, shouldn't it be the other way around?  

     Are you afraid of snakes?  Why?  Are you afraid of heights?  Why?  Are you afraid of cats? Why?  Are you afraid of society?  WHY?  

     Here is the ultimate conclusion in my eyes.  Let me see if this can help you with your everyday fear.  It 'IS' the fear of the Lord that drives all of our other fears.  It is the fear of death itself that is the foundation of all our other fears, no matter how big or little they are.  It is ultimately our fear of dying and facing the judgment of God, and God alone.  So considering that, do these other fears even exist?  Your faith in fear is not unlike your faith in the foundation of your governments monetary system.  Money is just paper, you trust your government, and that trust puts a value on the money itself.  A one hundred dollar bill is just a piece of cotton with the numbers 100 printed on them, it has no value, it has no meaning except the value you place on it, if you believe it, it is so.  The same can be assumed of our fear.  We place all of our emphasis on our fears.  We let our fears tell us what we can and cannot do, where we can and cannot go, every aspect of our lives is based on whether or not we have the courage to do it.  So if we place a value on our fear, doesn't it become that much greater, do we not empower it with qualities it does not have?  If we were to put a whole bunch of counterfeit bills in the world would that not devalue money itself, you would not know what was real or fake, the system would collapse.  Can't we do that with our fear, realize that fear is an emotion, it is not real, it has no value.  You feel happy, you feel sad, and you feel afraid.  Why do we live lives based on the negative aspects of our emotions, should not the want and desire to be happy be what dictates our schedule?  But it isn't.  We are a collection of addictions and fears.  

     And here is the final thought.  We claim to be Christians.  We claim to love our God and believe in his son Jesus Christ.  We believe in the trinity and the resurrection do we not?  If we truly believe that, if that is the life we are trying to achieve, what is there to be afraid of anyway?

 

I am not freakin Lion

     This is one that has been roaming around the empty skull for quite a while trying to find a proper moral.  Due to recent events it got me to thinking about it.

     Have you ever watched Animal Planet or Discovery and watched a pride of lions.  It is a very interesting social system.  From whether the pride is ruled by one male or by three teaming together, all the work is done by the female lions, all the males really do is make sure no other males come into the territory.  But specifically, have you ever watched lions at a kill.  Most channels will not show you the horror of a lion kill.  The brutality is too aweful to watch sometimes, the fact that the animal is basically still alive when the lions begin to consume it, how they go after the high nutrient items in the body first, namely the organs, horrifically the first thing consumed is the sexual organs.  But I am not here to gross you out with this, what I am trying to do is give you the appropriate visual.  Imagine a group of lions at a kill, what is it they usually do, not even really usually, it is like this at every kill.  They fight.  The scratch, bite, claw, and do everything you can imagine to hurt each other so that the best portions of the kill can go into their stomachs.  The weaker and smaller lions have to wait in the outskirts because it is not uncommon to be killed themselves if they try to interfere.  The icing on the cake is if the males that rule the pride come along, they will kill any female or young that even attempts to keep him from taking the entire meal for himself.  How can we relate such a gruesome spectacle of nature into our everyday lives, like this...

     Moral- We most commonly see this in the workplace, but it can be applied to any social setting where there is a hierarchy involved.  We encounter people in our jobs who behave just like the lions, the will do anything they can to get ahead.  That promotion, that raise, the better office, the company car, the best office location, there is nothing they will not do to achieve these things.  These are the people who are all about the here and now, the brass ring.  They want what they think is the good life, and they want it when they are young.  The enemy among us convinces us that these are the things that we want in life, and we are actually looked at in society as failures if we do kick and scratch like a bunch of lions at the kill.  Often times it even seems as if the people that we work for look for the lions when it comes to promotion time, they want that aggressiveness, killers mean profits, profits satisfy the here and now for them.  So what are we to do as the meek and mild turn the other cheek Christians, is this the life God wants for us, is this who He wants us to be?  How is a humble Christian supposed to get ahead in this world?  The answer- we can't.  I wish that I had a better answer for you, but the reality is, we can't get ahead unless we become a lion.  Clearly, from scripture we know that this is not the life Christ had in mind for us, it is not the life He wants us to lead.  "You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers (Matt. 24:9).  I highly recommend reading in Matthew 20 the parable of the vineyard workers.  Do not be jealous that sometimes the world is kind to those we don't think are worthy of it, Jesus said 'So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.' (Matt 20:16)  There is no comfort is the bloggable, it is not written to give you that warm fuzzy feeling, its the truth.  We have to live lives not seeking the things that society claim as valuable, but seek those things that God deems valuable, and God will give us what we need.  The harder you strive to swim against the current of the river you will find the more you either stay in place and go nowhere, or, you will eventually see that you are moving backwards.  God wants us to swim with the current, His current, and when we do, we find that there is little effort actually involved in order to get where He wants us to be.  No amount of amassing wealth or posessions of this earth will we be able to take with us.  At your funeral they will not read your bank statement.  Your wealth is in the Kingdom of Heaven, your reward is there for your faithful service.  Try to imagine this, every strike that Jesus took for you will be the bad times you will have in your life, and like Him, we must sometimes endure pain to achieve glory.  No one talks about how many promotions you got in your Eulogy.  No one really cares how much money you will leave behind either, and the one's that do, are lion through their teeth.  JT

Giving up is for Quitters

     It is that time of year again folks.  Fat Tuesday followed immediately by the sobering and hungover Ash Wednesday.  In many religions across the globe most Christian beings will observe a time of Lent.  The meaning of Lent is quite simple, you give up something that you really like or enjoy for forty days and nights.  The cheaters quit something that they seldom do, because our Lord loves it when we take the easy road.  But the true meaning of this time is to reflect on what Jesus did in the desert.  Before He went forth with the Gospel Jesus spent forty day and nights in the desert to be tempted by the devil.  I cannot imagine all that the devil did during that time, but I am sure it was quite vivid and would take a Saviour to not eat or drink and resist the enemy for that long of a time.  We as simple humans find it difficult to give up coffee for that amount of time.  The beauty of Lent is that at the end of it most, I said most, people go back to the habit they gave up.  They have grown accustomed to not having it in their lives and realize they don't need it anymore.  The harsh reality is that it only takes half of the time of Lent to completely break a habit. 

     Then there are the two schools of thought on sharing about Lent.  I am not one to say which is right or wrong, but from the way I explain it you will surmise my point of view.  There are those who enter the time of Lent in secret, not letting anyone know what it is they are giving up.  The theory is, Jesus was alone, and so must we suffer alone.  They follow the scripture of Matthew 6 very closely, But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.  Then there are the others, the ones who tell you what they are giving up.  These are the ones who need you to know they are suffering for Christ, and just how much they are suffering, as if a public flogging will earn them a better place.  I for one am one of those people who choose to suffer alone as Jesus did, it should be apparent that it is the season of Lent, and it should also be apparent that if you are a Christian then you are observing the season and have therefore given something up.  As Christians, we must pray for the ones who give up big for God, and even pray for the ones who publicly give up for God.

     So here is the big question, will I tell you what I am giving up for Lent?  Of course I will.  Without being a hypocrite as well.  You see, I have already practiced my season, it is over for me.  Me, I gave up church, for forty days, and forty nights.  But for me the result is different, I have found that I still need church, I still need that sense of community and companionship.  I broke the habit of being involved in my church community.  But unlike smoking or drinking coffee, I have actually found that it is the only habit you can have, that is more addictive than drugs, and no one considers me a failure because I could not break that habit.  In fact, upon my return, it was quite a homecoming.  Like our Saviour, during your time of reflection and loss, pray earnestly to the Father to protect you from the enemy, he will be there, and he hates you, because nothing angers the enemy quite like the strength you achieve from fasting.  Jesus did it, and so shall we, what will you give up for the Father?

p.s.- if you don't make it, or if you feel a moment of weakness, ask yourself this, whom do you serve?  Have faith, a coke zero is nothing but pure poison anyway.




    

The Hawk and the Dove

†     This is a true story about what happened at work many years ago.  It was around six or seven o'clock in the evening.  I was upstairs on the computer diligently studying for my LT exam that I took, I passed by the way, when the call came out over the intercom to come to the kitchen so we could decide about supper.  As I walked out onto the catwalk from the day-room I looked down and there at my feet was a dove.  There were feathers all over the place.  Now keep in mind that birds of all type come into our large bay at headquarters, so this was not an uncommon sight.  I wondered what happened to it, it was laying there on its back surrounded by its own feathers.  I figured that he had gotten in as many birds do and flew into the wall to its doom.  As I looked a little closer I could see that it was still breathing, well I'll be, its still alive.  While I was looking at him, or her to be politically correct, I heard a ruckus down in the bay.  We have a six door bay, three in the front and three in the back, only one of the doors was down.  At this door was an very large hawk, banging itself onto the door trying to get out.  I realized that this hawk had chased this dove into our bay, and what happened from there I will leave to your imagination, but you know the result as I have already told you.  So I step over the injured dove and immediately go downstairs to tell the rest of the crew that there is a hawk in the bay,as they would not want to miss something so cool.  One of the guys, lets call him Waterhead, because that is what we call him, went over to the door and opened it releasing the trapped hawk.  The closer he got to him the larger the bird looked, he was enormous, I believe he was a red shoulder hawk, a very beautiful bird of prey.  So we meander upstairs for me to show them the injured dove.  I am funny about birds so one of the other guys, lets call him Rookie, picked the bird up.  Now instead of twisting his neck and putting him in the trash I directed Rookie outside to see if the dove would sit in a tree, having not know the extent of its injuries.  Well,he wouldn't stay in the tree, so he set him on the ground.  We waited patiently by the bird having a meaningless conversation, probably about the exam we would be taking in two days, which I passed by the way, waiting on something to occur with this bird.  After about fifteen minutes the little dove stood up, bobbed his head, and took off flying doing that whistle that mourning doves do when they fly.  In that moment we felt really good about what we had done.  We agreed that if the hawk had gotten him that that is natures way, but it didn't, so we gave this bird another chance at life, maybe a little wiser from his, or her, experience.

Moral-  We are the dove, the hawk is the devilish sin that is always stalking us.  It can get close to us but it doesn't quite catch us.  And because we run away from sin and do whatever it takes to live a good clean life, God gives us another chance at life, a little wiser from our experience.  Everyday of your life God offers a lesson to be learned, here ends yours.    JT

The story of Twitch

This was an actual event that took place a couple of years ago, it was about this time of year....

It was one of those great weeks. I was commenting to everyone before church who dared to ask how my week had been, my reply was ' it has been a fantastic week'. I have gained the reputation at church as one of those people who answers the question 'how are you?' with very honest answers. If you didn't want to know you shouldn't have asked, right. Because of what happened later that day, I still cannot recall what the sermon was about. But I remember, because it happens alot, I got a case of the Jimmy legs towards the end and began to move around the church. I have this quiet little corner beside the sound guy where I am out of the way and usually go unnoticed. As I stood there, an overwhelming need to begin to cry came over me. I fell to my knee's and asked God who I was supposed to be crying for. Usually at that point, I can look around the church and see someone in need of prayer or just someone who needs a loving hand placed on them. But this time, there was no one. The service ended and we were all glad handing like we usually do, telling each other to have a good week and what not. Thats when a girl from the pre-k room grabs my attention and motions to me, she is in a state of panic. My first thought was someone was in trouble and I needed to go help, I usually rip open my shirt exposing the giant S and prance off singing 'here I come to save the day', figuratively of course. The girl grabbed me by the arm and said 'she is having a seizure'. So I start formulating my game plan on what to do, I have done that before a thousand times over. When I enter the pre-k room I look down and see a small child on the floor flat on her back, no one else is in the room except the pastor, his mom, me, and the girl who brought me. I looked a little closer and recognized the little dress the little girl was wearing, I knew it becaue I had put it on her, it was Cameron. That is when God took over, I did not panic, my thoughts were not my own, I became like a robot. I layed down on the floor beside her, I gently turned her on her side, her tongue had rolled back and she was choking on her spit. She was having a full blown seizure, head to toe. I placed my chest on her legs to keep them still, put my hand under her head so she would stop banging the floor. I don't blame those already in the room for not doing anything, they had no idea what to do. The girl who came and got me confessed that she came to me because it was my child, she had no idea I am an EMT. I kept my voice down and asked for an ambulance, and this is what impresses me the most. The ladies of our church when called to action respond in a second, because it wasn't but a second later that I heard cell phone buttons being pushed to 911. After about a minute Cameron stopped seizing, and began to come to. I said aloud that I need something for her to throw up in and in half a second there was a garbage can lid right there, which she immediately filled. I said very quietly that I need something to wipe her mouth and face off with, and in half a second I had wet paper towels in my hand. I asked if someone in the church could see to my other two children, you see, Heateher came to the early service and was already back at work. That is when they told me that that was already taken care of, by those blessed beautiful church women. I asked if someone could please notify my wife, and was told that someone was already on the way to get her. Once the ambulance got there I was relieved to see the two guys get off of it, I knew both of them. I gave a brief patient report to the paramedic, he quickly told me to scoop her up and lets go. Cameron at this point was what we call post-ictal, that is the state of confusion after a seizure, what was bad was she kept passing out. Here is where it got tough on me. We get in the ambulance and I sit down on the stretcher, I have Cameron in my lap laying on her back on my chest. I tell the paramedic fully what I had seen and done and do whatever I can to help him get an IV and all the other equipment on her, all the while trying to keep her awake, she was what we call, unresponsive. Not completely, she would respond sometimes to verbal and all times to painful stimuli. We get going down the road, the paramedic calls the hospital and gives a report, and thats when it happened. I looked down at my youngest, and from the position I was in, all I saw was the 'pretty' purple bow that I had placed in her ponytail that morning. She just had to have that pretty little bow to go with her pretty purple polka-dotted dress. I looked down at my baby and saw the pretty outfit that she had on, that I had helped her put on, and realized that here my pretty little baby was laying lifeless in my arms. I prayed, I cryed, I still cry when I think about it. That was the moment that God told me that I had done all I can do for her, and that He would handle it from there on. We got to the hospital and when the Dr's realized I was an EMT and 'should' listen to me I gave her to them and started making phone calls. It turned out to be a long day. She stayed in the post-ictal state for more than three hours. So Heather and I spent all that time trying to coax Cameron back to life. Heather knew that something wasn't right, she said she could tell by the way I was acting that this wasn't normal. Some folks from the church came down and we made a circle around her and prayed, and prayed and prayed. Suddenly, my little girl looks up, realized that she is holding a crayon that I had placed in her lifeless hand, and began to color. She colored Belle from Beauty and the Beast. We played UNO with her, and not long after that, we were taking her home. It was determined that the seizure was caused by a fever, not just a high grade fever, but a fever that kept going up and down, which is why no one knew she was even sick.

Since that day I have gotten a lot of praise from those who witnessed what I did. I remind them that no matter what they saw, or how they think it went, do not praise me, give all the glory to God. Because he was with us that day. You see, I remember very vividly that when I carried my child out to the ambulance, there were many gathered around. Most never knew I was carrying my own child. But what I heard from several voices as I walked past was, thank God James has her. I said quietly to myself as I say it to you all now, No, Just Thank God.


Her drawing of Belle still hangs on my refirgerator to this day. JT

Midnight at the Oasis

There once was a man who found himself in the desert. He looked upon the baron openness of the endless sea of sand. He saw the rolling dunes that have taken their shape from years of blowing sand. The little ripples within them that make them look like waves of water flowing to the horizon. No matter where the man looked, all he saw was the vast open desert around him, how was he to survive. In his pocket, he found a bag full of seeds, he had no idea how the seeds got there, but there they were. The man found a flat patch within the rolling dunes and he put his seeds into the ground. He could have eaten the seeds, and satisfied his hunger for the day, but what about tomorrow, or the next day, how could he survive? Would eating that bag of seeds all in one sitting give him the energy to make it out of the desert, he did not know, so he did what was in his heart and he planted them. It took some time, but eventually, it rained, not a lot, but just enough. The man awoke one morning to find that the seeds had started to grow. Before he knew it, he had enough food to last him a long time, and from that crop, came more seeds, to plant again and again. It wasn't long that the man realized, he no longer wanted to escape the desert, he was quite content living there. It did not rain often, but it did rain enough to keep him from being thirsty, and his crops were bountiful enough to keep him fed. All he had to do, was make one decision, eat the seeds, or plant them. What would you have done?



Moral- The vast desert is our lives. Sometimes we muddle through life and find ourselves in a place where we feel very empty and alone. We look upon our lives and think of them as endless sea's of dispair, where we cannot find an oasis. We want all our needs to be satisfied for us. When we feel alone, we blame God, we ask, if there was a God why would he put me in this desert, why doesn't he give me an oasis. The fact is, he didn't put us in the desert, we put ourselves there, we seldom credit God when things go good for us, but boy do we blame him when times are bad. We are given a choice, you can satisfy your earthly needs right here and now, live for the moment, or for the day. But in reality, how long will that feeling last, how long before we are hungry again, and we think back to that bag of seeds that we ate greedily in one sitting. The other choice is seeking God, and accepting Christ in our hearts. By being wise, and doing what we know is right, we take Gods word and we give it to others. We accept the word of the Lord and then we plant that seed into someone else. It is our task as good Christians to witness and spread the word. God will provide the water, trust in the Lord, and the seed that you have planted will grow and bear good fruit, and within that fruit, is more seeds. Before you know it, you are standing in a forest, it is no longer the empty desert you once thought it was. If you do not think this can happen, just wait. If you are reading this, it is because I too was once in a desert. But I followed the word of the Lord. I started planting seeds. If you have read this blog or any before it, a seed has been planted in you. It is not up to me or you when God will provide the water, just trust that someday it will rain. The water that pours on you is your baptism. And when you get to a point where you are planting seeds to feed others, you realize, as I have, the life that you save, is your own. JT





*A sign I read at a church- A hypocrite is not himself on Sunday's*

Is that........hair gel?

† If you go into any pharmacy today or any health and wellness store, the majority of what you find in them is beauty products. These stores carry a wide variety of things for your skin, makeup, hair spray's and gels, hair dye, lotions and all other sorts of anti aging products.

If you think about it for a moment, there are few who read this who haven't used one or all of these products. Even the guy's use hair gels and some of you uses the lotions and the Just for Men products. If you are going to work or going on a date with your spouse or significant other, we try to look our best, don't we? We get all gussied up, that's what we say in the south. We put on perfumes and colognes, deodorants and antiperspirants, and yes, we all do our hair. It is important to us to look our best for our partners, isn't it? Try to imagine how much time you spend in a day just getting ready to present yourself to the world. Statistically speaking, it is said that we spend more time in the bathroom using all of its facilities and prepping ourselves than we do engaging in sex. To me, that's a sad fact of life, because if you think about it, those times when you are getting all gussied up, your kind of hoping it will lead to sex, and you spend more time prepping for sex than actually having it. Now before you stop reading and thinking that I am going all hippy on you, I am not saying that we should not do these things. My point is this, is all that make up, all that deodorant, all that perfume or cologne, and all that hair gel really you? Is that how you really look? Is that how you look when you wake up in the morning?



Moral- One of the things that I have seen most couple's, including my own marriage is scarred or damaged by lust. Lust is an overwhelming emotion that overtakes us. It makes us believe that it is more important than anything else we have in our lives. We crave so strongly the things that we lust after that we are willing to sacrifice the "real" things that we have, including the most important, our relationship with our spouse. I speak mostly for men on this one, but it can pertain to the women too. Lust in our hearts is a powerful addiction. But listen to this, it is an addiction that can never be satiated. It can never be satisfied. The only thing you accomplish in living a lustful life is you wind up wanting more. It is like putting a band-ade on a broken leg. It is because of this never ending hole within us that destroys our relationships. The solution, as I see it, is to find a way to live in love and try your darndest to avoid lust. Lust is not real, it is not who we are, it will never make you happy. Think about happiness in the long term. Is it better to chase down your lust and satisfy it for the moment, or to work on love? Which one do you think will last longer. Love is permanent, it requires maintenance, but if you are in love, you don't have to keep falling in love every week, or every day. But if you live in lust, you will find yourself like a drug addict chasing down that pusher and selling your soul to fulfill that desire. Lust is like hair gel. You can put it in your hair, but it won't last, it will wash out, it is not who your really are. It is hair dye, it will only fade, and who your really are will eventually resurface. Lust is a tool of the enemy. He uses it to keep us from staying in love with our partners. It is the enemies greatest fear for a couple to maintain a loving relationship under God. The love we have for God transcends to the love we have for our mates. The more you love Christ will lead to a greater love for your spouse. Take a good look at yourself, before you think this pertains to someone else, what do you lust after, what is your greatest sinful wish? Has having that sinful desire in your heart ever helped you, or has it taken away everything your really need.

A good example would be what I told someone the other day. Do you think if you ever needed a shoulder to cry on, or a true friend to talk to, could that person be someone you are cheating with? Do they even really care about you? Or do you turn to someone you love? And if that person that you turn to isn't your spouse or significant other, then you have a serious problem. I also told another guy this, the person who you have in your life that is supposed to satisfy your lust should be your spouse. Couples quite frankly should be there to satisfy the needs of each other. And if you do not satisfy those needs, its like depriving someone in the dessert of something to drink, how long will they thirst before they go and get a drink elsewhere?

So ultimately I say this, wash that crap out of your hair, let your hair fall is it would naturally. Get that lust out of your heart, and learn to live in love. Love is the only thing in the world that you cannot touch, taste, hear, or smell, and it is the only thing that is ever truly worth calling real. Because real love lasts forever, just like the Love God has for you. JT

The last thing you say....

This is another one of my all time favorite things that I wrote, the graphic imagery always reminds me of not only my own mortality, but the reality that every day when I awake could be my last...

    As Christians we are obligated to be a forgiving being, and I am amazed at how often we are not, myself included. To bring my point home I told a story to my bible study group, their minds were wandering as people do when they are hearing something very personal that they are not willing to change, so I told them a tale to let them know how serious I was and how much I believed in what I was saying.

I was at work several spring's ago, it was about lunchtime and we were getting ready to sit down and have our meal when the tones went out for a vehicle collision with injuries. It was right up the road so it did not take us long to get there, we had to shut down the road as the two vehicles were completely blocking the two lane road. This particular collision was a head on crash, a bad one. We immediately proceed to the car that is the worst off, my captain who is a paramedic reaches into the vehicle to check on the patient, he turns and looks to me and gives me the look and the shaking of the head that lets me know that there is no helping this woman, and to move on to the next vehicle. The particulars about the wreck are neither here nor there, what is significant is how God was speaking to me during this moment. Once the save-able patient was loaded and the police finished their investigation, they have to be very thorough in a collision that involves a homicide, I looked into the car with the lady who had just been called home. She was dressed for work, and it was obvious to me that she was on a lunch break. I say that because in the middle of the car on the hump was her bag of Taco Bell. Several things about this rang my senses. I could still smell the food that was in the bag, above the smell of the collision. When cars get in a crash, if you have ever been in a collision you can testify to this, there is a particular smell. The smell of antifreeze, airbag dust, and oil make a very peculiar aroma. But above all that was the smell of her lunch. She was going about her day as she normally would, thinking about what she had to do for the rest of the day, not knowing that her day was about to end right then and there. This is where I made the point to the group that most of us will never see our end coming, or our beginning depending on how strong your faith is. This lady never knew she was about to die, she never saw it coming, her demise was quick and painless, a flash of light and then Jesus. The other sense of mine that got tapped was my sight. You see, the bag of food was filled with this lady's blood. She was slumped over the steering wheel right above the bag. God spoke to me in a way that to this day I still see that image. Here was this lady's intent on continuing the rest of her day, and in the same image, the end of the day. The thought that went through my mind then and still to this day was....What was the last thing this person said to the one in this world she loves the most. Do you think she left a petty argument unresolved, bitter at the thought of the argument, or did she tell that person that she loved them. I live my life like this, arguments have to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. The end of the argument must come in the same day the argument took place. I do not want the last thing I say to the one I love be a stupid insult that I will always regret.



Moral- Forgiveness is an obligation amongst Christians. Forgiveness in marriage means that one person must be truly sorry and the other must truly forgive, regardless of the situation or severity of the sin cast against one another. Christ asked God to forgive those who were killing him, in a way to show that he had already forgiven them. Would you be able to do that? We most commonly live in grudges most of our lives. All who read this probably have at least one person on this earth that we hold a grudge against. But if you read Proverbs you will see it is chock a block full of why you should forgive, and that is Old Testament. The New Testament is full of how Christ lived a very forgiving life. An example of that would be Mary Magdalene, Christ never condoned what she did, never said it wasn't wrong, but he was able to forgive her anyway, as it is our duty as children of God. The other point is forgiving those whom you don't care about. Someone you don't know or know that well may severely wrong you, it is still your obligation to forgive that person, and ask God to forgive them as well. The difference with a person who you don't care about and a person you do is there is little chance of reconciliation with a person you don't care about. But if you pray for forgiveness and live that life, you will find that Christ offers your heart peace about how you have been wronged. The choice is ultimately yours, you can live in peace, or suffer with the bitterness that will fill your heart. By praying for forgiveness you find that you are living the Kingdom Life, you are offering your aches and troubles up to God. By living in bitterness you are trying to handle the situation by yourself, and you will find that you cannot find that peace on your own. Remember this, if you find yourself arguing with your loved one an argument that you have already prayed for forgiveness for, or have said you are sorry whichever the case may be, then you are a liar. Because you never truly forgave that person, and are not living in forgiveness, or you were not truly sorry, and feel that you have done no wrong. Arguments that are settled turn into conversations where each side is willing to listen and be heard.



If you expect to be forgiven in the Kingdom of Heaven, you must be willing to forgive. One of the things the Bible teaches us is that you will be judged on your ability to forgive. You can live a selfish life here and now, but in all reality you should treat everyone you know with the same consideration you expect when you reach the Pearly Gates. Remember, your ability to act and live as much like Christ as you can will dictate whether or not you get to meet him in the end. If you woke up this morning then God has granted you another day, but there is no guarantee that you will make it all the way to tomorrow, or even get a tomorrow. So if there are those in this world whom you still have not forgiven, I suggest you start praying, and living a life of forgiveness. If you are living in bitterness, you are not living, and you may never know a happy life until you have prayed for peace. And it truly is a very wonderful life. JT



Mathew 6: 7-13

Mathew 18: 21-35

John 8:1-11

01Peter 3: 8-12

Hey, she was naked and said eat this, what did you expect me to do?

This is an old blog/parable, we shall call them bloggables from now on, that I often go back to and re-read.

† In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth, then came light, the waters, the land, the plants and the trees, then day and night, the creatures of the earth, and finally God made man. God rested on the seventh day and he called it holy. The bible tells us about the garden God planted in the East and he called it Eden, and there he put the man that he had formed. A river flowed from the garden forming into four more rivers. The Lord commanded the man to work and take care of the garden he had given him. There was only one rule God gave to the man: do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If he ate it, he would surely die. The Lord God saw that it was not good for the man to be alone, so he took a rib from the man and gave him a helper, and the man said "this is now the bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, and she shall be called woman." They were both naked and felt no shame.

I have often wondered why God chose to give people free will, as he gave it to the first man and the first woman. He would surely have to know that they would betray his trust; did he anticipate this, was he expecting this? The Bible tells us of a serpent in the garden, and how the serpent was cunning, some versions of the Bible call the serpent crafty. I have heard it said that the serpent was a deceiver, and as I read closely I found this to be true but not as people imagine deception. One day the woman came upon the serpent and engaged him in conversation. The woman was well aware of the rule God had given them, and the serpent knew this rule as well. The most profound thing I discovered while reading Genesis was that the serpent did not lie to the woman but told the truth. He told it in a way that the woman liked hearing it, so that her eyes would be opened and she would know good and evil, like God. He told her that surely she would not die. She saw the food as pleasing to the eye and good food and she took it and ate it, she gave some to her husband and he ate it. Their eyes were opened and they saw that they were naked, covered themselves, and hid from the Lord. God punished them and the serpent for their original sin, the premier of sins, the reason we are all descendants of sinners.

The most intriguing thing I got out of this story was the two types of temptation that there are. The first is the woman, she had to be wooed into temptation. She knew better, knew that she should not do it, thought about it, and did it anyway. How many of us are tempted daily and every now and then fall into the traps of temptation, even though we know better. We live on the premise that our God is a forgiving God so it is all right to sin, just this once. The other type is blindly falling into temptation. It is easiest to fall into this trap. The woman gave the man the food and he ate it. What is easiest about this trap is that we never accept responsibility for this sin, we quickly blame it on something or someone else, that way, we are not liable for the action. The man said to God " the woman you put here with me- she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." The man never accepted his role in defying God. How many of us blindly go into sin, and instead of feeling guilty about our transgressions, we find someone else to blame?

The man and the woman did not die, but were given a life where they would eventually die, but only after the woman suffers through childbirth and has desire only for her husband, who is to rule over her. The man would have to painfully toil the earth to receive his food all the days of his life, only by the sweat of his brow will he eat his food, until he returns as dust to the ground from where he came.

Moral- The lesson that I learned here is to know when I have it good, to know that the Lord is providing for me and my family. I know that temptation will always be around every corner like the serpent in the garden, but as a Christian, I know better. I know that the enemy is always out there, and that sometimes he does not lie to deceive me. Sometimes he tells the truth, and tells it in a way that I want to hear it. The enemies greatest weapon is catering to our egos and our vanity. God knows all our sins of yesterday, and there is nothing we can do to change those sins. The greatest thing that God gave us is that we can choose whether or not we will sin tomorrow. Will you fall to temptation, or stand for God?




I used to not believe a word about Genesis, because I didn't think Phil Collins was a good drummer anyway.

JT & the Giant Peach

This can relate to men or women, because from my experiences, I have seen it done by both genders. Imagine that you are sitting in the middle of a field. Let your imagination place you in whatever type of field you like. It can be summer and green, fall and golden, or it can be flat or rolling hills. But there you sit in the grass, legs crossed, just relaxing. You are feeling alone, you feel that there is one there. You begin to talk to God. You feel a hunger within you. 'God, if you would just give me something to eat, I could be content'. How many times in our lives have me made a prayer just like that one, only a different wish. We believe that if God is real, he will give us something to eat. It is funny how we feel disappointment when nothing is thrown our way. Funny how we sit in an empty field, by ourselves, and wonder why we go on hungry. But take that same situation, and place yourself instead at the base of a peachtree. How long do you think you will sit there before your prayer will be answered. It will only be a matter of time before you ask God to feed you, that a peach will fall into your lap. Is that God, or the laws of physics.


Moral- It is God. The point of that parable is to describe the reality of faith. Most of us, myself included, spend a good portion of our lives waiting for God to prove his existence before we believe in him. We are very quick to ask God for things, yet at the core of our beings still deny him. Put yourself in that situation. Would you thank someone who has not done anything for you, would you pay for services that are never rendered? Why do we draw a line in the sand and tell God that we need him to cross it before we believe. The simple solution is this, it is only when we truly believe, that God begins to reveal himself to us. The main point of the parable is this, we have to have an active faith. You cannot sit in an empty field, grow hungry, and expect God to materialize a peach out of thin air and provide it for you. This world was created with very specific laws, and something cannot be created from nothing. Now before you say, God can create something from nothing, yes, he can, why would he want to, who are you that God has to prove himself to you? In the terms of friendship, would you really care for, do for, and be a friend to someone who won't even look at you? Would you for someone who wouldn't speak to you? Would you for someone who even denied your existence? Why in the world, would you expect God to do that for you? The hunger is you wanting more out of life, the peach is your faith, and the peachtree is the church. How long will you sit in that empty field. JT

Do you smell that?

This blog uses an interesting relationship between our faith walks and garbage dumps. Have you ever been to the dump? It is an interesting area, it is enormous, there is garbage everywhere, it seems disorganized, but there is a method to the garbage madness. But the one thing that you cannot escape when you go to the dump, or even drive by it, is the smell. It is foul. It is years of decay of many different types of items, and the gas that they produce, is methane. Have you ever looked at what they do with all that garbage? The reality is, they bury it. Some is buried so deep you can never get down to it, because they bury it, cover it with dirt, put more garbage on top of it, and cover it with dirt. This is done many times over on the enormous site. Most dumps have gone to ventilation systems, basically where they run pipes up out of the ground to release the methane gas. Some industries have become very clever, and built next to the dumps to use the methane as an energy source. It is free, it is abundant, and it is a green way to eliminate a byproduct of our garbage. But over time, all dumps must close, like here in the county I live in, it is full ,they had to close it. If you drive by, it is amazing that what was once a garbage dump is now green rolling hills, with massive amounts of refuse underneath. Over time, the land will be developed, and yes, there will be a neighborhood on top of what is yesterday's trash. So how does this relate to you and me, lets see if I can put this together...

Moral- In our lives, no matter who you are, what gender you are, or what your age, someone has sinned against you. Some of those sins are what we call little sins, although I have spoken before that a sin is a sin is a sin, but they don't affect us much. Little sins are easy to forgive, they are easy for us to get over, and therefore don't affect us much. But all who read this have been sinned against with a major sin. Someone in our lives has wronged us in a very severe way, and left us feeling broken and beaten. We tend to operate our psych's like manager's of a garbage dump. We take those severe wrongs against us, and bury them. We bury them so deep within our ego's that most of us are capable of even forgetting that those sins even exist. But here is the problem. Just like the garbage, these deep seeded wrongs tend to seep out like the methane from the dump. What happens is, the people around us, our loved one's, tend to be the one's that suffer from the smell of our past. To put it much simpler, our significant others tend to have to pay for the mistakes that were made by someone else, we tend to make them carry baggage that they didn't pack. Most of us don't even realize that we are making our partners and family pay for someone else's mistake, we have so cleverly buried those negative emotions that we dont even realize that we are taking it out on our families. The problem with that is, just like the houses that reside on top of old dumps, the filth that lies underneath may make you sick, it seeps into the water we drink, and it is in the air we breath. Our families are not the source of the negativity, so why do we take what is essentially a small thing, and blow it up into world war 3. Have you ever been confronted by your partner or spouse and have no idea why they are so upset, and you think to yourself, boy, talk about overreacting? It is because you are fighting someone else's battle. So what do we do, is there a solution? I think there is. First, just like the people that buy houses on old dumps, they should have researched the area and found out that they are living on garbage. With us, we need to address the most significant moments of our lives, and saddly enough, we are seldom molded from a series of happy moments, we are, however, the people who we are because if the crap that has happened to us. We have to find out what ills we have within us that are unresolved. We have to learn forgiveness, and this is where God comes in. The basis for Christianity is forgiveness. You can make alot of points that faith is this or faith is that, and those points are valid. But it all boils down to our savior on the cross, and his last utterance of words, 'forgive them, for they know not what they do.' It is the obligation of every Christ child to learn forgiveness, to recognize the sins committed against us and find a way to make peace with those ills. With forgiveness, comes trust, we will learn to rely on, and trust our partners or spouses. With that trust, we will have a greater faith, you cannot expand your faith and get closer to God if you cannot trust in God. And with no trust in God, we have no forgiveness for those around us. Like the industry that builds near a dump,we must find a way to take the old garbage in our lives, and use it as learning tools for our future, George Bush said it best when he said, ' ya fool me once, ya can't fool me again.' Thats not actually how it goes. But we must take our pasts,no matter how horrible, and use them as teaching tools for who we become, and the only way it is possible is through forgiveness of those sins. If you expect to be forgiven for your sins, you must show that same forgiveness here on Earth, do not expect more favor from the Lord than you were willing to give, you will be judged on your ability to forgive. I can almost guarantee that there are many who read this, probably all, who think of their spouse when they read it, but this parable pertains to you. Remember that if you want to make things better in your home, the first step is fixing yourself. Find your peace, live in trust, find forgiveness. We are all sinners, there are no sins cast against you that you have not sinned against God. There are no little sins, there are only little minds. JT

Stop Kicking and Learn to Relax

I had an interesting experience this last year that was brought to fruition at bible study some time ago. You see, a couple of summers ago we sent our two littlest to my sister's house for vacation bible school and for swim lessons. My son last year had a terrible time with swimming in deep water, he still had memories of almost drowning the year before, yes, he did almost drown. But this year we were a little wiser, he couldn't come crying to us because we weren't there, and the swim teacher was tough as nails, she just wouldn't let him give up. So needless to say, the boy has become quite the swimmer. Last week we were in Florida on vacation, the kids got to do a lot of swimming, turns out, the boy is part fish. One day it was just me and the boy, the girls had gone shopping or something. So T and I went down to the beach, we had gotten swim goggles from a place down there and I wanted to show him the sheer joy in swimming around in the waves and looking for shells in the water. I took him out to where I was standing about chest deep, so he couldn't reach the bottom at all. I noticed that he was swimming like he was in the swimming pool, he was pulling and kicking like the dickens to stay afloat and swim. I let him do that for a while until I saw that he was growing tired. So I grabbed him and started to show him something. I told my son that we were in salt water, and that all he had to do is relax, settle down, and realize, that all that kicking and paddling was unnecessary. I showed him how he floats in salt water. After that, we both kind of floated down the beach looking for shells, and he found a great conch shell for his mother.

Moral- Our lives can be summed up with what my son showed me last week. Here we are going through life trying our dangdest to make things turn out the way we want them. We spend a great deal of time trying to control our lives and every situation in it. The reality is, we are part of a greater plan, and grand design. No matter how much we try to control it, or how hard we struggle, our lives will turn out exactly as God wants them to. We tend to forget that we have to give our struggles up to the Lord, because no matter how hard we try, we can never handle it on our own. Our part is to relax, to stop struggling, and realize that this whole time we could just be floating down the beach, there is no need to try to keep yourself afloat, you are going to float anyway. The true moral is that if you allow this to happen, you will be amazed at what you might find.

Psalm 107:23-32
Mark 4:35-40
Luke 8:22-25


God never leaves you, he never abandons you, it is we who abandon he, JT

Life is Like Vegetable Soup

Quite literally, faith is like a bowl of vegetable soup.  So lets think about that for a minute, what does it take to make a good soup.  Soup is a very simple meal, with the exception of the one making it.  It is easy to heat up and eat, it only takes a bowl and a spoon.  But if you have ever tried to make soup, you realize how difficult it can be.  That is why I trust in God to be the chef of our faith soup, it would be far to difficult for us as simple humans to accomplish such a daunting task.  But the reality is this, we are not the consumers of the great bowl of soup, life is the consumer, we are the ingredients.  What I mean by that is, each one of us us uniquely different in our own way.  Yes, there are many different types of vegetables, meats, and broths that go into vegetable soup.  For every one type of vegetable there isn't one that is the same, simply put, it is nearly impossible without some outside interference to make to pieces of carrot look exactly the same.  Yet when you put all of these ingredients together, a wonderful medley is the result.  Ultimately what I mean by all this is what I have experienced recently in the church.  From the confusion of certain people who forget they are not the master chef, and they are not the consumer of the final product, that they are just like me, a simple God made ingredient in a big bowl of faith.  Just like there are not two carrots the same, I nor you can be compared to other carrots, we are similar, yet still not the same.  The real point I would like to make is that if you happen to be a green bean in the soup of faith, you cannot expect the carrots or onions to act like a green bean.  It is not within our nature or our creation to be like something we are not.  It is shameful that we encounter green beans in our lives accosting us and treating us as if we have done something wrong simply because we cannot ever be a green bean, we are carrots, and vice versa.  We have to learn that it takes all kinds of people in this world to make faith work, if we were all the same, it would be bean soup, not vegetable soup, and in faith we would be called a cult, not a religion.  We must learn not just tolerance of people who do not know the Father, but also become more tolerant of each other.  We must realize that God has made us all unique for a reason, and that reason is not for us to decide.  In conclusion, God made me the way I am for a reason, and I offer no explanation nor should you expect any reason for the way I am.  The Lord God accepts you for who you are just like he accepts me, and for that reason we must learn to better accept each other, regardless of whether or not we completely agree with what the other is doing or saying.  I am a work in progress just like you, and I will stand before the man just like you, you are not better than me because you are a green bean, so let me just be a carrot, created unique by God, for the betterment of Faith itself.  When they talk of the great feast in Heaven, I am willing to bet the first course is vegetable soup.




If the enemy attacks you, and if he hates you, you must be doing something right.  JT