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!

My God is Mighty to Save!