Gentle reminder

James 4:13Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

I had a gentle reminder of this portion of scripture today at work. I was thinking the job I was on may last a long time but found out differently today. Our company will be letting us boilermakers go sometime around the 1st of the year and bring in another boilermaker company to finish the job. The sad part our company has been very pleased with the job we have done the last 10 weeks but we will suffer because the other crafts on the job have not been productive enough. There is a chance we will be able to switch over to the new company but we will have to wait and see who that is first. A gentle reminder that we don't even know what will happen tomorrow much less weeks from now. I am glad my security is not in a company or a job. My security is in the Lord of this universe who is on the throne and in control of all aspects of my life.

Happy Thanksgiving

Was telling a friend at work today about blogging and was reminded that I have neglected my own blog now for several months. I have been busy working these last 10 weeks and am thankful for my job. I have enjoyed getting to know the guys on my job and we have a good time together while getting our jobs done.
Thursday Benita and I will leave for Illinois to spend Thanksgiving (AKA My 56th birthday) with her family. I will play in a 2 day scrabble tournament while I am there and come back on Sunday. She will spend the time with her Dad and Sisters and come back on Tuesday. That reminds me I need to finish up here and buy her a plane ticket for her return trip. Lord Bless

No Posts for 5 months

Yes I have not posted on here for a long time. Guess it is about time to write something.
Work has been very slow and I have not worked much all summer. I did get called for a job here locally but worked only a few days before we were told the outage was going to be pushed back for a week and a half. Out of the twenty or so guys out there only seven were chosen to work until the three week outage would start. They told us we could wait for the job to start or take a layoff. I was one of the few who took the layoff. I knew I was high on the out of work list so I figured I could get called back if nothing else popped up. Well after being offered a job up at st clair I got a call to go to Marathon Oil (about 6 miles from my house)for a job that had been delayed for months. I was one of six that were called and will be working 4-10's for what may be a long time. I have always perferred 40 hour jobs over overtime jobs so this job is an unexpected blessing. Looking forward to entering my new mission field on Monday. I will keep you posted on how it goes.

Golf

As I posted in the past I am taking up the game of golf again. I am (not so patiently) waiting for the weather to get a little warmer and the ground get a little dryer before I start playing. I am also looking into playing in a church league that meets on Mondays nights for nine hole matches. I am really excited about our church golf outing on July 11. Jared and Melisa will be coming up to join us and my dad and brother will be playing too. We will be playing in the challenge cup - a Ryder cup format. It should be a great time and a great opportunity to get new folks out to a church event. If you are interested in seeing what it is all about you can go to go4thecup.com .If your business or church would like to use this format you can contact David Johns at that web site and get more info. FORE!!

Easter Memories

Easter was a big deal to our family when I was a kid. I remember especially getting some new clothes to wear to the special Easter Service we would have at church. This was a big deal because we did not have a lot of money, as my Mom was raising my sister and me basically by her self, so new clothes were not something we got often. When I look back at some of the old pictures they brings back fond memories. Now I am not going out and buying any new clothes for tomorrow but I look forward to dressing up a little more than I usually do on a Sunday and enjoying the day set aside to celebrate the greatest event in the history of the world... the resurrection from the dead of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Good Friday

Today was an unusual good Friday for me as I did not have to work. Our church does not have a good Friday service so I thought I would attend one at a church in the area that I have never been to before. I like to do this every once in a while as it reminds me what it is like for the people who walk into one of our church meetings for the first time. The service I went to today was a reminder of how thankful I am for our church which has been labeled by us as a guest sensitive church. What does that mean? That means we are expecting to have guests every time we open our doors (although it does not happen every time) and that some of these guests may have never walked into a church before. Because of that we want to give each person a warm welcome and let them know we are gald they have chosen to visit with us on that day. The church I visited today, based on my one and only visit, is not guest sensitive.
The service started out with two men taking turns reading the scripture about the death of Jesus Christ. After this was over they played a short video of the portrayal of the death of Jesus Christ with more scriptures shown on the screen. After this was over one of the men told about how now they were going to do something that had become a tradition over the years at their church. That was OK, but then when he said they were going to dismiss a few people at a time to go out into the hall then into another room I have to admit I starting feeling a little uncomfortable. At this point 4 of the 30 or so people that were there got up exited out the back. I could tell they were uncomfortable about this too. I thought about leaving but I was curious about what was going on. Well after about 10 minutes of waiting my turn to go, of course I was being a good Baptist and sitting in the back,I was told I could proceed to the door out the side of the church and into the hallway. Now I was a little concerned because when these people left nobody came back into the service so I assumed the service was over after this tradition was completed. I walked out into the hallway and there were several people in line waiting to go into another room. The man at the door then explained what was happening. He was going to give us a small nail with a piece of paper taped to it. Then he told us that when we went into the room we could write our name onto the piece of paper and then use one of the hammers there to drive the nail into the wooden cross. This we were told would represent how our sins were nailed to the cross when Christ died upon it some 2000 years ago. Well I put my first name of the paper and did what they told us to do, walked out the door and got into my car. As I was sitting in my car an older man nodded his head toward me to acknowledge me as a guest to their service. Sorry to say that was the only greeting I received the whole time there so then I nodded back to him started my car and drove away.
And churches wonder why people do not return to their church once they visit? I hate to make a judgement on only one visit to a church but it reminds me of the old saying... "You only have one time to make a good first impression" and this church fell very short of doing that for me. I am looking forward to our church service on Easter and I will do my best to make any new folks we might have there on Easter Sunday as welcome as I possibly can. And what is so exciting to think about is there will be many other people like me doing the same thing. Also I am comforted to know that our Pastor will make a clear presentation of the great Gospel Message that this lost and dying world needs to so dearly hear and respond to in saving faith. I hope you go to church on Sunday, and that the church you attend does the same as ours will do.

CHRIST has risen... CHRIST has risen indeed!!

He is the One who has saved us and forgave us

I listened to a local Christian Radio for several weeks while driving each morning to work. During that time I heard a very simple song that has kind of stuck in my mind. Today for some reason I kept singing it over and over again to myself. So tonight I looked it up on YOUTUBE and thought I would post it here. This is not the type of song we would do at our church but nevertheless it is a good reminder to me of what our great God has done for us, and is doing for us, and will do for us some day. He is the one and only REMEDEY every person in this world needs! Hope the song blesses you as it has me these last few weeks. Lord Bless.

Remedy

TRUST ME!

I had an unusual experience at work last week. While I was working my mind was wandering in several different directions. Now that is not unusual. The theme of all the wanderings were not unusual either, the recent changes in our economy and how these were going to affect me and my family. Now in the past I have not been one to spend much time worrying about the future, but I have never experienced a time like we live in now. Some of my thoughts revolved around the dire picture of my Boilermaker work projections for the upcoming year. My plan is to work another 3 years and retire when I am 58. But if there is not any work my mind started thinking about my options and the possibility of maybe retiring now and look for work in another field. Then I heard two words in my mind that kept repeating themselves over and over. The words were TRUST ME, TRUST ME, TRUST ME. Now I have never heard God speak in an audible voice and this was not what happened here as I think back on it. I do think though that God was comuticating to me in my Spirit in a way to encourage me to do what I have done in the past and need to continue to do. That being to Trust Him in every phase of my life. I am God's and He has saved me from the wrath of hell and has promised me a home in heaven some day. But I also need to trust Him in my everyday living more than my back account or lack of it, more than my job or lack of it, or anything else I would tend to put my trust in over Almighty God. I do not know what tomorrow holds but I do know who holds tomorrow, and I am confident He will take care of me and my family today, tomorrow, next week , next year and throughout all eternity. I just need to TRUST HIM!!

This is crazy!!

I did not know this!

Speeches like last night disturb me

I watched the speech last night that President Obama gave in front of our leading government officials and to the entire nation and was not comforted by it one bit. I really disdain these types of speeches even when the giver of the speech is a conservative like myself. Now don't misunderstand what I am about to say. I am thankful I was born in American and am still proud when I stand to honor our country every time our national anthem is sung. But speeches like last night in that type of forum reminds me how arrogant and prideful we often are as a country. It also reminds me how hypocritical we are as we hide the real truths about ourselves and replace them with false deceptive ideas.
I believe one of the things that has made our country great in the past is the theological believes that our nation was founded upon. But today many have traded their trust in a living and Almighty God to a government that cannot deliver what they promise. Even the conservative response to the president's speech last night stated that we should not put our faith in the government, then when on to say we need to put our faith in the people of the United States. Neither of these two groups can deliver what we need.
What do we need? We do not need what we deserve, because with all the greed, corruption, and ungodliness in our nation, what we deserve is judgement. And judgement may be what God is bringing to our nation in the way of this so called economic downturn. I heard a preacher say once that "If God does not judge America for her sins as a nation then He will need to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah for how He judged them." No we do not need to ask God for justice we need to ask Him for mercy and grace. We need to humble ourselves as individuals and as a nation and ask God to reveal our sins to us then repent and seek forgiveness from Him. The Bible says "God resisted the proud but giveth grace to the humble." God also says in His word that "If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves,and pray and seek My face , and turn from their wicked ways , then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land"
It saddens me how so many people want to do everything they can to take God out of every area of our nation yet our leaders have the gall to state at the end of every important speech "May God Bless America!" What hypocrisy !!
I believe in a Sovereign God who is in complete control of everything that goes on in our nation and the world. Today I am even more confident in Him as I see the very things that the Word of God has predicted about the last days come to past. We have major problems in our nation and world that will not be solved until God sets up His own kingdom on this earth. I am going to continue to trust Him as He is the only one powerful enough to solve all these problems. I hope that is who your faith is in as well. Lord Bless!

Day Nine

Today is day nine of my diet. I have gone low carb no sugar with out much problem.until today. No I did not blow it yet! It is just that today is the first day where I have been craving some of my favorite junk food snacks or an order of fries with a dollar sweet tea to wash them down. I have just got through eating a great salad Benita made and I am feeling satisfied right now. This diet came about after our trip to Florida. No we did not really over do it there just finally realized how miserable I felt carrying around the extra weight I have put on recently. Also pictures like the one I posted at the right was a motivating factor to get back where I was a few short years ago. One other factor is my impending return to work next week. I will be working a lot of overtime and driving another 3 hours a day and I realized I needed to be in better shape to complete the 8 week job I will be on. So day nine is about over and I hopee day 10 goes back to how the first 8 went. We will see.

No NOT ANOTHER SNOW STORM!

The forecast for here tomorrow is snow in the morning .. snowing all day ...with 3 to 6 inches expected! I have heard many Michiganders say this is the worst winter they can remember and I tend to agree with them. So much for Al Gore' Global Warming THEORY! The other thing that has made this winter so bad is the flu that is ravishing the members of our church. So many of our church members have had it and sometimes they have had it more than once. March is only a week away and that is a welcome thought. Although we still get some snow during that month at least we know that it is all coming to an end soon. LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW!!!!

Florida and Fireproof

We are in day 5 of our stay in Florida and still looking for that warm up we know is coming. Hopefully today will be the first day we can get rid of our sweatshirts. The cool weather of course does not bother us much as we are not beach people and we are really down here to see our family more than trying to escape from the frozen tundra in Michigan. We are glad to hear that it is warming up at home today to a balmy 48 degrees or so. We of course would not be disappointed if all the snow is melted by the time we come home on Friday.
Last night we all watched the movie Fireproof that Benita bought before we left. We enjoyed the spiritual emphasis to the movie and would recommend it to others to watch. Here is a link if you would like to learn more about it.

http://www.christiancinema.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2154&s_kwcid=fireproof%20movie|2419054046&gclid=CIjF1cPAypgCFQZeswod4Vws1g

Shutting Detroit Down

Coming out of Retirement

I have decided to come out of my voluntary retirement from the game of golf. I used to play a lot of golf and enjoyed it, even though I have never been very good at it. I played several years about every weekend with the same three people, My Step Dad Ed, my Uncle Jim and a friend from work, Don. I not only enjoyed the game, but the friendly rivalry we all had with each other. We all were competitive but not to the place where winning or losing was the most important thing. I always enjoyed seeing my opponents make good shots even if it meant me losing a game or two and they did too.
A few years ago Uncle Jim moved to Florida and our weekly games ended At that point I had already started losing some interest in the game as my new passion, competitive scrabble, took up most of my spare weekend time. Now I am not coming out of retirement because I am giving up scrabble! As a matter of fact, I still enjoy playing in scrabble tournaments. You might be surprised to learn why I am going to start playing golf again. It is the result of a book my Pastor gave me to read over the holidays. Now he not only gave this book to me but gave a copy to our entire leadership team. The book is Humility True Greatness by C.J. Mahananey. It is a small little book that I read through rather quickly, but a book I plan on reading many more times in the days to come. Now you ask, "What does this book and golf have in common?" I am glad you asked. Toward the end of this very practical book the author suggests a good way to help lessen pride in our lives and to encourage us to practice humility. Yes, you guessed it... play golf. If you have ever played the game you well know it is one of, if not the most humbling game a person can ever play. Looking back on my retirement from golf I realize now part of the reason I quite playing was... yes you guessed it again, my pride. So I am going to get back one of my two sets of clubs I let my brother and son use, clean them up and get ready to get humbled. I will let you know how it goes. FORE!