My house was one of the houses that was flooded out in south Louisiana. We got into the house for the first time yesterday. It has been a week under water. There is a big pile of furniture in the front yard. All destroyed. It is hard not to get angry and discouraged. I worked all my life to provide for my family and myself. And now I have to start over again. I just want to sit and cry for a while. But my life isn’t over. My family isn’t hurt. And there are things to do. I didn’t want to go to the house yesterday. I was afraid of what I was going to find. And when I went and found it. My family and friends gathered around me and the family. All the young men pulled all the things out of the house. My earthly treasures were saved. Just about everything is out of the house. The insurance adjuster is coming today. What he says will determine what will happen next. I don’t know what to expect. But I know that I will live on. I still have my van to unload. Then we are at it again. We should finish emptying the house today. Then we set up the fans and dehumidifiers. If I weren’t a Christian, I know that I would be discouraged about everything. And would be asking why me. My life is about living for Jesus, no matter what. And even if it kills me. You see I gave my life years ago. And for all practical purposes, God directs my life. It is the only way to live. I have had purpose and direction all my life. And life has gone up and down like everyone else. But I know that: Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (KJV).

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Today we begin in earnest cleaning out my flooded house. I am not looking forward to this. It is going to be a real pain. I’m thankful that only about 4-5 inches of water got into the house, but still it destroyed a lot of things. I have treasures from my great grandmother, grandmother and mother. Again putting it into prospective they are only things. But things that I wanted to hand down to my children. My children have responded with enthusiasm and a sense of urgency. And several nieces and nephews and my brother will be there with us. As so often is the case, you don’t know what people will do until adversity comes. I always wanted God to explain to me why it takes adversity to get people off of dead center. But I am grateful that they are responding. It is stressful enough just having a flooded house. So many people in southwest Louisiana were forced out of their homes by the water. If you don’t know we had rains of biblical proportions. We have had so much rain that 70,000 people were forced out of their homes. That is a good size city. As heart-breaking as it is, I am thankful to God that very few people have died. And that God is still in control of this world no matter what we think. I will still give Him honor and glory for who He is. Ecclesiastes 3:1,10 “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: ….I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.” (KJV).

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Louisiana has just experienced its first non-hurricane hurricane. Normally a hurricane will blow through with Gail-force winds and plenty of rain. Well the past week has seen the most unusual storm. People are calling it the storm of the century. A hurricane formed right on top of Louisiana. It stayed for a week. It was being feed by waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Normally Louisiana gets about 6 inches of rain in August. So far it is 60 inches of rain. 21 inches of rain fell in Baton Rouge and Lafayette in 2 days. My home didn’t get flooded out during the rain. But after the rain stopped and the water began flowing to the Gulf, it started backing up. I am staying with my son in another city. It has been a week that I am out of my house. And hopefully if the water recedes, I have lined up a small army of people to begin cleaning up. I am all excited about what I am going to find. My walls are sheet rock. All of the carpet in the house is going to be torn up and thrown away. It takes a life time to collect things and only a week to destroy them. You stop and wonder why it happens to me. As a Christian, I always expected the God would protect me against tragedy. And for the most part he has done that. You look at the church in the first century. They were persecuted and killed, run out of towns or stoned to death. Yet during that time, the church was the strongest it has ever been. Don’t think for one moment that people aren’t looking at you. After all those times you professed Jesus during the good times, people want to see if it is true in your life. And the best place to see God in your life is during adversity.

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Over the years I don’t think that I ever heard any preacher talk about Ananias and Sapphira. It is interesting because it comes down to what a church really is. Everything in life revolves around people. The church is no different from the world, which is unfortunate. The church is to be an example to the world of how God works in man’s life. If you read the history of most denominations, they started with a bang. People prayed and asked to start something special. When God answer their prayers, it started a movement. Churches sprang up everywhere. The gospel was being preached and people were being saved and healed. God was moving like He wanted to. Then man had to control this movement so it didn’t get out of hand. The more man controlled the less God moves. Until God wasn’t there anymore and man controlled the church. This is how and why we have so many dead churches. I have been in 2 revivals so far. The first one lasted 5 years. And how it ended when the pastor and assistant pastor fought over the church. They split the church and God left. The second one lasted 6 months. It started with a bang and the people were amazed at what happened. Then they got bored with God’s wonders. They stopped coming and God left. Ananias and Sapphira were members of the church in Jerusalem. People were giving large amounts of money to the church. Ananias and Sapphira wanted to get in on this glory. Ananias and Sapphira agreed to sell a piece of property and give part of the proceeds to the church. They lied to Peter about how much money they sold the property for. They gave only part to the church. Peter asked Ananias again if this was the whole amount. He said yes and died on the spot. Sapphira come in later and did the same thing. She died in front of Peter. They lied to the Holy Spirit. God knows what is in your heart before you even speak it. The bible says great fear came upon the church. And many separated themselves from the church.

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Have you ever had the feeling of immortality? There was a song that came out a few years ago named “Ten feet tall and bullet proof”. People still have that feeling of immortality because it is partially true. There is a part of us that is immortal, but it isn’t our body. Our body is made of the dust of the earth. The only problem with that is the sin of Adam and Eve. Because they sinned against God, He cursed the earth. The earth is cursed and our body is made from the earth. Well you see the problem. But our spirit is immortal. God made us in His image and likeness. And that part of us will live forever. Man is made up of three parts, body, soul and spirit. Our body is the dust of the earth. Our soul is the life of God in us. Our spirit is our mind, will and intellect. Our spirit is who we are. That is what is going to go to heaven or hell. My brother died last year. Just before he died, he asked me if it would hurt to die. I told him that dying was like walking into another room. The pain in life is on this side with our body made of dust. I told him that when Jesus came to get him, he would go to sleep and wake up on the other side. Once the bond of God’s life is broken, our body will die and our spirit will separate. Then our spirit will go to the appropriate place. This is the mechanics of life.

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I have always been optimistic about many things. I have believed that things will work out because I believe and trust. Somethings haven’t worked and I know why. Many things in our lives must be believed. What you believe is what you do in your life. Believing can be both ways. You can believe it will get better or it wouldn’t. If you believe it wouldn’t, I’ll guaranty that it won’t. We don’t have the power to change a lot of things in our lives. But what we do have is the power to speak something into existence. You see it says in the bible that life and death are in the power of the tongue. What we say is as important as what we do. In fact speaking it comes before doing it. And before we can speak it, we have to believe it. There are so many self-help books out there. I even saw a self-help book for dummies. So if you want things to change then you need to begin changing you circumstances. If you are in bad company, change your friends. Don’t ever expect things to change if you keep doing the same thing over and over again. I have heard people say they don’t have time to do anything different. Your time belongs to you and what you do is up to you. It takes courage to change. If you will become willing to do what you need, then you can believe that it will happen. Then when belief comes, then comes a change. Then when change comes, you will see that you can do it. Optimism is believing that you can change into what you see in your heart. So then believe.

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So what was made so simple that man could understand? Why is the US experiencing horrendous weather? The majority of scientist will say it is Global Warming. That is only a symptom. It isn’t a root cause for the troubles in this country. Global Warming was written about 4000 years ago by a reputable authority. So finally the scientist have caught on. But that isn’t the reason. Man has fought against the reason for all of their existence. And it seems there is no letup in sight. There is only one outcome for this coming battle. Man will lose and die. If you would like to read about, there is a commentary written over 2000 years ago. It is very graphic and full of details. The battle is called Armageddon. It will be fought in the Valley of Jezreel near the old city of Megiddo. It says that 200 million men on one side will fight in the battle. And they will all be killed. It also says in the commentary that the blood from the soldiers will be 6 feet deep. The Victor will go on to Jerusalem. This is where He will reign for a 1000 years. When He begins His reign, there will be peace on this earth for the 1^st time. You know what is sad is that man has known this for over 2000 years. And just about nothing has changed.

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It is funny how it rains in one place and not in another. California is experiencing a drought. And in California, most of the vegetables and nuts are grown for the US. In Texas, they are still suffering through drought. Texas is beef country. The Mid-West has been experiencing storms, tornados and hurricane force winds. Then winter just ended with its storms of snow and ice. The Lower Mississippi Valley has received an abundance of rain. I had to cut my grass in between rain drops. It seems there is a pattern to this strange weather. Where the rain and wind aren’t needed, they get it. And where it is needed, they don’t get it. Of course, all of this is going to be blamed on Global Warming and the changing weather patterns. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. There is only one person who controls the weather, only one. And that person doesn’t live on this earth. Only man lives on this planet. So by the process of elimination guess who it is. You want the short version or the long version? It is so simple, it is scary. It was made simple so man could understand.

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How many people do you know including yourself, that struggle to achieve what they believe is their station in life? They want the biggest and best there is to offer in life. When I first started walking with God, He told me that I needed to be content. The bible puts it this way. It says that godliness with contentment is great gain. I had never been content with my life. I was focused on my needs. God wanted me to stop looking at my life and to start looking at the lives of ours and to see their needs. No matter what station in life they have, people are basically the same. Everyone has the same needs. In 1983, it was the Year of the Bible in the United States. Gallop poll took a surrey in the US, to see what people wanted most in life. Not only were they surprised by the answer, but amazed at the three basic needs in life. The poll showed that people wanted love, joy and peace most in their lives. You would think that it would be food, clothing and shelter. The needs of man are divided just like we are into parts. The part that is of the world, the dust of the earth, calls us to food, clothing and shelter. The part of us that is the image and likeness of God, call us to love, joy and peace. Therein is man’s struggle. Whether we will walk with God or to go the way of the world. The bible says, come to me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. God has made provision for all of us. And He sealed the deal with the death and resurrection of Jesus. By the way, Love, Joy and Peace are the first three gifts of the Holy Spirit that God gives freely to man. Look around and listen to see the needs of people.

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I went to supper at a local restaurant. When I was checking out, there was a young mother with her seven year old son ahead of me. They checked out picked up their food and headed to the door. I finished checking out and headed to the same door. The young boy opened the door for his mother. He saw me walking right behind them and held the door for me. There were two doors to exit and he held the door for me again. I thanked him and he replied. I know his mother taught him manners. But she taught him something even more than that. She taught him to be gracious. Most people think of being gracious as something from the Old South that has died off. People flock to south Louisiana because of the friendliness of the French people. Hospitality was practiced in the Old South. But it is still practiced today. Seeing the need in another person’s life and doing something about is hospitality. It is a form of graciousness. I hold doors open for anyone. It doesn’t make a difference who they are. If there is a need, then it needs to be done. The bible puts it very plainly, Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

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