My cat loves to sit in the kitchen window facing the backyard. She watches for anything that moves, especially birds and squirrels. Calli is a beautiful orange calico cat. She has one ear that is bent over. She is healthy and has learn many things from us. She knows how to open doors. We found her as a kitten, starving and abused. It took a long time for her to trust us. We also have a small dog named Olivia. She rules the house. No animals can come into the house without her permission. We brought Calli to Olivia. She took one look at the kitten and began cleaning Calli like she was one of her puppies. Calli began to follow Olivia wherever she went. Olivia became her mother. They play hard sometimes. Olivia has taught Calli how to hunt and ponce on prey. Olivia is afraid of the lightning and thunder. She begins to shake uncontrollable. Calli sits beside Olivia and calms her down. They have become a surety for each other. What kind of surety do we have in this world? Who is looking out for us in this world? Where would we go to calm our fears? Jesus became our surety through His death and resurrection. All we have to do it to go to Him and ask for forgiveness.

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One of the hardest things in my life was and is owning up to my mistakes. I like to think that I am a reasonable and bright man. But it isn’t always the case. I make mistakes like everyone else. I have made some I will never talk about. God only knows what they are. This makes me a human being. I am not perfect. This makes me nervous just talking about it. But I had to see my flaws before I could go anywhere with God. It isn’t fun. It is a pain in the rear. God accepts us just as we are. Afterwards, He begins to work on us to change. When His light shines on our lives, it reveals what is there. I had things tucked away so no one could see it, including me. As God shined His light on my heart, things became visible. And I cried a lot. This is what I was supposed to do. God only worked on one thing at time. So I wouldn’t be over powered by the process. What is happening is am being turned into the image and likeness of God. A process of which is not over. Until I stand before God in heaven, the process will continue in my life. Thank God. As it says in the bible in Romans 6:4 “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

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It seems so far away from us, but in all actually it is right there. Crossing that threshold is one of the greatest steps you will ever make. Eternity is a place that every human will go to. Now where you go in eternity is strictly up to us. The choices we make on earth will decide where we will live in eternity. It is funny that so many people believe that there is a hell or hades, but not heaven. Or that heaven is their version of hell. We are immortal beings and will never die. This is true, but our physical body will die, but not our spirit. Our spirit is who we are, our mind, will and intellect. That will live forever. And people are gambling on their future home because they don’t want to listen to God. The bible says that we are gods, little g. It is because we have a free will and know the difference between right and wrong. We can choose what we will and do accordingly. But the only holdback to that is we have no power the change anything. We can do things, but can’t change it back if it goes wrong. How many things have gone wrong in our lives that we can’t change? Then we live with regrets or sorrow. Eternity is a permanent situation. Once we reach that point there is no changing the outcome. The shame of it is that once we make wrong choices the easier it becomes. It is called the spiral of death. And we rush headlong into death. There is only one way to change your eternity and that is through the good graces of God. He alone has the power to change our lives. And all we have to do is ask Him to help us. Reach out today and ask for deliverance. God isn’t willing that any should perish, but remember that everyone has the right to choose what they do.

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Sheep are many things. They provide wool, milk and meat. To some people they are there livelihood. In Australia there are vast herds of sheep. One of their exports to the world is wool. A sheep is dumb before its shearers. It doesn’t make a sound will it is being sheared. If a sheep sees something good to eat, it will go after it. Even if the food is in thorn bushes. The shepherd has a staff with a crook or hook on the end to pull sheep out of thorn bushes. You see sheep aren’t very smart. They have to be lead to water and food. But the sheep know their shepherd. They know the shepherd’s voice and follow. This is because the shepherd lives with them. The shepherd will protect them at all cost. Depending on the size of the herd, the shepherd will have 3 to 4 dogs with him to protect and guide the herd. It’s funny that Jesus used this parable to teach the disciples about what He saw when He began His ministry. Jesus referred to Israel as a lost herd of sheep that had no shepherd. He actually called His church sheep because they hear Jesus’ voice and follow. When the wolf came in the herd scatters. And unfortunately the church is scattered all over the place. And they aren’t listening to the shepherd. Jesus also said that He is the door to the sheepfold and no one enters in but by Him. The sheepfold is heaven, a safe place for all that belong to God. Jesus also said the My sheep hear My voice and will not follow anyone else. How will you enter into heaven if you don’t hear His voice or follow after Him?

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In our physical world, there are four dimensions. They are height, depth, width and time. The last one is combined with space to form the spacetime continuum. That is a mouthful. But what is being said is that time has substance. Just like a rock or a brick. We are given by our Creator a certain amount of time, no more and no less. So we have control over our time. We can do what we want with our time. No one else can use it or have it without our consent. No one can take it from us. God gave it to us to use wisely. Then can you tell me why we waste our time trying to replace God with things? One woman told me that she loved a certain football team, that when she went to games she would have a religious experience. Some people love to shop until they drop. Some people love making money. Some people love animals. You can pick a subject or object and you will find people who love it with devotion. I was such a wreck when I came to God. That afterwards, I didn’t want to pursue anything but God. I still don’t. Everything comes to me. If I have a need, the need is met. When I first started with God, I gave my car to a needy family. God sees to it that I am never without transportation. What I am talking about is when we stand before God, will He say, I never knew you, depart from Me or will He says enter into My joy?

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Today on the news was the shootings in Dallas. 5 policemen are dead and many wounded and the shootings in Baton Rouge. People are angry about whatever. Everybody is pointing the finger at everybody else. I want you to do something for me. Point your finger at something. Then look at your hand. There is one finger pointing at something and 4 fingers are pointing directly at you. It doesn’t start with someone else. It always starts with you. What are you going to do? Where is your anger going to take you? I have been so angry that I cursed God. I know what it is to have raging anger. And the only person I hurt consistently was me. Anger will eventually kill you. It has no use in anything we do. And it carries with it a great amount of pain. A pain that doesn’t subside very easily. So what are going to do? I know what I did and I would do it all over again. I had to get forgiveness for my sins before the anger and the pain subsided. This is the only place I found in some 40 years of my journey. I didn’t want to give up, but I just couldn’t stand the pain anymore. My life had to change and it did. People would ask what happened to me. Because they saw the difference in me. I know it takes courage to confess that you are wrong. But if you do, life will change as you know it. It will become better than you can expect. And all you have to do is ask God to forgive you and ask Him into your life. And the anger in your life will fade away. So what are you going to do?

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It is the title of a song written by Keith Green 40 years ago. He saw something that was going to happen to the Church. It is funny that I just wrote a series of blogs about this very subject. The series was called the Glitch. I was watching Trinity Broadcasting Network. The host was interviewing a retired pastor in London and he was talking about the same thing. He was using the parable of the 10 virgins. Some friends of mine from Peru wrote and performed a song about the same subject. It was called in English, where is your 1^st love? They wrote that song almost 20 years ago. What I am saying is that if you don’t know Jesus and Him crucified, you will not recognize Him when He returns. When Jesus returns He will gather the Church to Himself. It also says that when He returns people will hide themselves from Him. Because they will recognize the sin in their lives. What can you do about this? God has always been there waiting for you. God wants everyone to make it into heaven. That is why the gospel has been preached for 6000 years. It is so man can understand that he is separated from God and can come to Him. God isn’t willing the any person should be lost. God loves every human being on this earth. And the Church has gone to sleep in the middle of everything. This time in history Jesus talked about it. He called it the beginning of sorrows. There is nothing sadder than a person realizing that they are forever separated from God. Where there is no hope of ever coming out it. God isn’t willing that any should perish and has provided the way back to Him. His name is Jesus.

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Vacation is about over. I loved driving around the hill country of Texas. We will check out to the hotel tomorrow and leave for home. My wife wants to see another attraction then we will leave. We had supper on the river walk. There was a nice breeze and the temperature wasn’t so bad. San Antonio has been over 100 degrees each day. The rain has been going up north to Fort Worth and Dallas. They have had terrible flooding. As long as I can remember I have been in a hurry. Never really taking time to enjoy what I have had in front of me. I always seem to want new and bigger. I could take a project spend 2 years on it and walk away. It is a shame because I have had some good projects. I have written since I was young. I would make up stories and develop them into tales. I have always enjoyed that. The way I tell a story developed over time. I would never reveal the punch line openly. I would wait until people put the story together. Then they would see the punch line clearly. I always wanted people to think and figure it out. Of course, not all people are even interested in the story. But if you write it they will come. That’s a joke. I have collected a vast amount of knowledge. I put it to use in writing this blog. Sometimes it is just too much knowledge. I always find how this knowledge fits together. I would find bits and pieces and then they just fit. I found a saying that Jean Lafitte would say often. Then I found that Jim Bowie would say it also. With what I know about Lafitte and Bowie, I think that Bowie worked on one of Lafitte’s ships. In other words, Jim Bowie was a privateer also. I’ll be headed home tomorrow and now what do I do next?

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It is an idiom. The saying is, you are going to hell in a handbasket. It means that a person is rushing into a situation that is detrimental to their health and wellbeing. I know that people in this country are angry about a lot of things. One is the federal government. I agree that the entire congress and senate, judicial and executive personal should be gotten rid of. I was discussing the situation with a person I had just met and he agreed. The people that are in office don’t care for the American people. And the job of elected officials are to see about the needs of the American people. And not for their own gain or purpose. What happen in England was the same thing. The European Union didn’t care what happened the British people. So the British people voted to leave the European Union. Their vote was against their national government. The English Parliament is now reorganizing. Of course this is against the one global government and economy. For years, little by little, America has pushed toward the one world government. It was never a big move. It was always just a little at a time. Now China owns most of our debt. Japan owns Hawaii. Our national debt, the one that this current administration said that was George Bush’s debt, has been quadrupled in size. Spending hasn’t ended. Medicare was solvent 8 years ago. Now it is bankrupt. All the money was diverted to the general fund to spend more money. Ulysses S. Grant was a better president and he stayed drunk in office for 4 years. Now is the time for all good people to stand up and be counted as Americans.

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Everyone remembers the past with fond memories. Things that happened when you were a child or even as an adult. You can see them as clear as if they just happened. But they are just memories. My wife and I went on a vacation today. Our children are grown and we wanted to do something together. We get so little time together that we strengthen the bond between us again. As we drove to San Antonio, Texas, we kept remembering things we did with the kids and before we were married. I lived in San Antonio so many years ago. I won’t tell you how long ago. We walked on the River Walk near the Alamo. I just couldn’t believe how many young people were walking around. And how many babies they had. San Antonio as usual is hot. The weathermen predicted it would be over 100 degrees for the next few days. That means hot as hell. But the skies were clear and blue. I was very surprised how green the countryside was driving into San Antonio, Texas has had a drought for the past 5 years. But this year has been record rainfall. But there is a record amount of people visiting here. There has been so much development in town, I hardly recognized it. Since I lived here San Antonio has doubled in size. But I have always found that the people act like this is a small town. Everybody knows everybody. As long as I have visited San Antonio, I have enjoyed it. My wife and I will be here for the next few days. For this is the day the Lord has made and I will be glad and rejoice in it.

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