Counselor

In my office at work there is a chair that is used quite regularly, I call it the counseling chair. The people here like to come to me and talk about the problems they are having, work related or not. I have always told them that I am not here to judge anyone, I would just like to be able to help anyone that I can. I would like to think that I am able to give them sound advice or at least something to get them headed in the right direction. Most of us don't realize how lucky we are that we have access to the greatest counselor ever anytime day or night. All we have to do is go to God in prayer and allow Him to guide us and give us the advice that we need to carry on. This is a privelege that most of God's children take no part in. We always want to try and fix things on our own, which can never end in a good way. There are people who are willing to pay some man or woman big money to have them use human knowledge to help with whatever problem instead of seeking out God's will in their life. I would like to leave everyone with a challenge to go to God with all your problems and concerns, because there is not a better counselor that can be found. God Bless.

Back to School

I would like to give all the tired, busy, frustrated and broke parents out there a little congratulations. School will be starting back on Monday and then the race starts all over again for many parents. It appears that both of my children will have extra-curricular activities that will require after school practice and then running to and from various events. I try to think of this as a blessing, but it just seems to get overwhelming at times and I get aggravated at the ridiculous schedules that we have to try and keep up with. These things to me are a blessing because it lets me know that my children are involved and doing things other than watching television and eating junk food. We should always consider our children blessings from God for the simple reason that He gave them to us and trusted us enough to raise them. So for all you parents, try to see all those late nights and endless projects as a blessing. Thought for the day: Spend as much time with your children as you can because they need your love as much as you need theirs. God Bless.

Treasures

As Cristians, we have been taught that we are not to be concened with what we have here but to lay our treasures up in heaven. As humans though, we like to have things that we can see and touch. After a long hard week at work, we like to be able to reward ourselves and we tend to put much effort into getting that reward. Why is it that when it comes to obtaining our eternal rewad that we put little effort into it? As humans it is easy for us to get our priorities out of order and work hard for things that we want here, and put little time into doing God's work. The thing that we must realize is that if we are doing God's work and storing up our treasures then we will have everything we need here. So, let us try and put our priorities where they belong and spend our time here on this earth a little more wisely. God bless.

Finally

I have finally made up my mind as to what I am going to do about my job. I have decided to take the job with the other company which is Cassity Jones. I went and told the people that I have been working for over the last 12 1/2 years and they congratulated me for having come across teh opportunity for improvement. Telling them was hard, but when I got their reaction I knew that I had done what I needed to do. I have been praying about this for a week now, and I believe that God has led me to this decision. Actually, I believe that He is the one that put the opportunity in front of me to begin with. We have to be aware to our surroundings because you never know when God is going to show you something. Have a blessed day.

Work is Good

In the world we live in today, the things that are viewed as normal and right are exactly what the Bible says are wrong. How is it that we have declined so far over such a small amount of time? In my opinion, it is our fault that the world has gone the way it has. That's right, us Christians are at fault and we have to stop blaming the ones that are lost. We must realize that they don't know any better until we tell them. When Jesus ascended to heaven, He told us to go and make disciples of everyone. When we choose not to do this, then we can blame no one but ourselves for the shape of our world today. When it seems that attendance is up in church and the offering is looking good, we often times stop working and that is when real problems start. There should be no plateau when working for God, the work should continue on until we are at home with Him in heaven. We were put here to work, so let's get out there and do what we are supposed to be doing. God Bless.

Good Day

Today has just been one of those good days at work. I have been able to do all the things that I need to and haven't had too much extra dumped in my lap. You know, it is on days like this that we should be thanking God for the hand that He puts on us to guide us day by day. Without His guidance things would never get straightened out or run smooth the way that we like for them to. I have done all of my duties for my job and have even had a little free time to talk with a guy here about church and the work that can be done by one. I do have a couple of things that have been on my mind today and I would like to share them with you now. They are both prayer requests that I have been praying for: 1) A friend of mine's daughter has a kidney stone the size of a softball and she will have to have her kidney removed if they can ever get the infection to go away. Doctors have missed this kidney stone for about a year and now it is threatening the well being of a 15 year old girl. 2) My sister is without a job and school is about to start back up and the chances of her finding a place to teach are getting slimmer every day. You see, my sister has a master's degree in education and her desire is to be an assistant principal, but she would gladly take a teaching job. I just pray that all these things work out so that God's will is done. Please help me in praying for these and remember our country and it's leaders. God Bless.

Long Weekend

You know it never ceases to amaze me how much pain we are willing to put ourselves through to have fun. Thursday evening after we got off work, we went and hauled a load of hay to earn extra money but had to stop because of rain. We went back Friday afternoon and hauled 4 more loads of hay and even though we worked til 9:30 we still liked a little bit being done so my wife said that she would take care of what was left on Saturday since I was to play in a softball tournament. I left my house around 6:45 Saturday morning to head to the fields where we playing and we started our first game at 8:00. I called my wife around 11: to see what she was doing and she said that she was loading hay and her sister was stacking on the trailer. I then told her that if I needed to come out after we finished playing that I would, so she said for me to call her. So, I met her in the field around 12:30 and helped her finish up. When we were done, I told her that I was going to go home and eat some lunch and get a little rest before I went and played the other tournament I was supposed to play. My co-ed softball team decided that we wanted to play in what is called a midnight madness tournament, which is a tournament that starts at 7:00pm and doesn't end until some time the next morning. We ended up playing 6 games before we had lost our second one to get beat out of the tournament at 5:40 Sunday morning. My wife had come and watched us play all night, so me and her both were pretty tired, but we had already decided that no matter how late I played we were not going to miss church. After getting home around 6:30, I took a shower and slept for about an hour and a half before getting up and getting ready for church. We went to church then went back home and rested for the afternoon before evening services. I have come to realize that the human body can take a lot of abuse before completely falling apart. When I woke up this morning at my normal 4:30, I felt as if I had been ran over by a fleet of Greyhound buses and that there wasn't one part of me that didn't hurt. All that being said, I had a blast playing softball and would probably be dumb enough to do it again. You see, I use my time with my team to witness to them through my life and the choices I make in it. We must realize that not all people have the privelege of growing up in a Christian home and have not heard the Gospel and the plan of salvation. We (and I include myself everytime I use this word) can't use "tired" as an excuse not to serve God and do whatever it is He has sent us or called us to do. As Christians, we have the responsibility to live our lives as witnesses. The first time that we do something that is not of God, you can believe that a non-beliver will see you and your witness will be ruined to that person and anyone they tell. Our lives may be the only Bible or sermon some people ever see or hear, so we should do our best to make it a good one. The picture I inserted is of my dream glove, it is a Nokona 12 1/2" baseball glove that is made from kangaroo hide. The reason it is a dream is because on average this glove costs around $175 and the one I paid $35 for seems to work fine. Today's words of wisdom: If it hurts, be thankful that you still have it.

Blessed

I would just like to point out how blessed we are. We get too wrapped up in what we don't have and the negative things in life and we just don't pay attention to all the good that is around us. Seriously, how many of us look at the situations we are involved with and immediatley find the good things? Not very many because we always look at the troubles or the bad things that are going on first so we can start fixing them. Every day that God allows us to get out of bed is a blessing from Him that we should thank Him for especially since this is not guaranteed to us. I believe that if we would start looking for the good in things first, we may see just how blessed we really are. Believe it or not there are good things out there that are happening all around us if we will only look. Today's words of wisdom: Don't count your chickens before they hatch, you may want scrambled eggs instead.

Decisions

As human beings we all have decisions to make in our every day lives that effect what we do and how we do it. Since the beginning of this year, I have watched the company where I have worked for almost 13 years make some pretty tough decisions. During this time I have also had to make some decisions that I did not like, but were necessary. Now, I have a bigger decision to make that could greatly effect my life as I have grown accustomed to it. I have been offered a job at another business that assures me that they are financially stable and in no danger of having to lay off. The problem here is that I have formed relationships, made friends and established a pretty decent reputation in my business, but the new company is offering all the things that my present company had never had to offer. I prayed to God to help me with the final decision when I had to make it, and I believe that He will make it obvious for me if I truly seek His help. The problem most people (myself especially) have when making decisions is that impulse takes over and we go with what sounds good right then. What we should do when is allow God to guide our hearts and lead us to the right choice. This concept is thought of as strange for those who do not believe in God or allow Him to work in their lives, because in our minds we know what is best. A small challenge to all who read this: before making a decision, pray to God and ask for guidance and see if He will answer. Remember, God's answers may not be what you want to hear but they will be what you need to hear. Today's words of wisdom: God gave us two ears, two eyes and one mouth. Maybe we are supposed to observe and listen twice as much as we are to talk. God Bless.

Too Many Irons in the Fire

You have heard and probably used the expression "too many irons in the fire" at least once in your life, well let me tell you I have been living it for the past month. In the last four weeks I have gone on a 7 day cruise (which was amazing), gone to church camp (also amazing), finished out the inside of our 1200 square foot Sunday School building (tiring), taught Vacation Bible School (really amazing) and tried to keep up with everything else that I am supposed to be doing. I have been telling myself that if I can just get through July everything will slow down, but I remember that I have been telling myself that for a number of months now. I believe that most people have their lives packed full of this and that which leaves little time for self. What tends to happen is that we start prioritizing all of our activities and typically as humans we are usually wrong because we will put us first then others. You see, the world that we have grown up in has taught us that we are to look after ourselves first and then everyone else. The problem with this theory is that the Bible teaches us to put the needs of others first and then our needs will be provided. If everyone is concerned with the needs of others, then we sould all be taken care of. Right? Wrong! Even when we try to follow this teaching we still tend to want to pick the others whose needs we are to provide and this, while seeming a good deed is not what was intended. When Christ hung on the cross, He did it for the need of all the people that were alive then, and all the ones that were to come. He did not pick and choose whose life was important to Him, He believed that we all were important. So, the point I am trying to make here is that we should be just as concerned with the needs of a complete stranger as we are the ones of our friends. Today's words of wisdom: Take nothing for granted because tomorrow it could be gone.

Three Salvations

We have just finished up our Vacation Bible School for 2009 at Gum Springs MBC. It is only the second one that has been held at our church in the last 25 years. Last year we believed that God wanted us to have a VBS even though we don't really have that many children in attendance at our church, and we were blessed with 40 children the first night. This year we had put a little strain on ourselves to have VBS since we were trying to finish up our new Sunday School building before we had it. Once again God has shown us that his power is much greater than ours and he gave us the strength of each other to get the building finished in time. Our preacher brought a message on the strength that we can have by working together, and he used the passage where the Israelites were fighting the Amalekites and Joshua and Hur had to help Moses hold his hands up so the Israelites would be victorious. He really used that to describe us! I think his sermon humbled the hearts of all our members and made us realize how great God is. During the week of our VBS, we had three children that accepted the Lord as their Saviour! Praise God! I would like to put their names here so that we can remember them in their new walk with Jesus: Dylan Morgan-age 9, Tre'Nicia Starling-age 9, and A J Hendrix-age 9. You can imagine the way that the teacher (my mother-in-law, Rita Wallace) of the 7-9 year olds felt when she realized what had happened in her class. This news was too good not to share, but I had better get to work now. God Bless.