I don’t always know what I am going to do. I think to myself I do this or thing. What is the best way to write a blog? What if people don’t like what I write? It is like Hamlet said, “To be or not to be, that is the question. Am I going to write about myself or do I choose another topic? I have always heard people say, publish or perish. I guess it is true. If I am not out there, no one can read it. But I don’t want to put anything stupid on the page. I want to make my work make sense. I can remember as a younger man, people looking at me side-ways because I didn’t make sense. What I said or wrote was disconnected from people in the world. It may have had to do with the dyslexia I had. It took a long time to work it out in me. I know that is why I went to college and studied communication. All through life I have had many experiences that has led me to writing. I started writing in college. I took an English course on the meaning of words. We broke the word apart and saw its meaning and where it came from. Also I took a business course on letter writing. To be able to convince people to purchase anything. Learning vocabulary and how to use the words effectively was the end result. I am a word meister of as they say in the vulgar or common language. I like the 50 cent words but don’t always have room for them. I have always tried to be concise with my blog. Information doesn’t have to be wordy. Look what Lincoln did at the Gettysburg address. He say in 267 words what the orator said in 4 hours. So I think about what I am going to say. Then I write it down so it makes sense and hope that it relates to people in this world. I am not Shakespeare, but this is a soliloquy.
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It means to paint a picture with the proper words. Putting on the page words peculiar to your posting. There have been people who want to post a blog and aren’t quite sure what to do. I get comments from all the world. People are people. The only difference between me and them is here and there. I am here. They are there. I was talking to my brother about people who believe they are more special than anyone else. It is unfortunately prevalent in religious circles. And it isn’t predominately in Christianity. It is a religious spirit and is pervasive all over the world. So when you want to write a post, think about who you are and where you are going. You may be the leading expert on anything, but you don’t have to exude it. I use questions to get people positively involved in my blogs. It get them to think. Not only about the blog, but themselves. I have done my job if people project a positive attitude about the world they live in. It has nothing to do with age, race, color or creed. It has to do with you being able to think for yourself. I look at the day’s news, the time of year or what the people I know are talking about. Each proposal I put forth each day is unique to itself. So perhaps today it will be about you or maybe it is about me. When you propose a post to put forth on your blog site, take time and ponder who you are and what is going on in this preposterous world. Then laugh and write so people can laugh with you. You look at the pitiful world, you have to laugh or you will cry at their antics. So propose a post and put it properly in order with preposterous words that everyone can understand. Alliteration. The Powerful P’s.
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Tomorrow the promise of the future for us. What will happen tomorrow? Who will I become? Will I even recognize that person? Do you know that we are not even guarantied tomorrow? The only thing that God guaranties for us is now. Today is the day and now is the time for salvation. So our tomorrows are based upon the good graces of God. All the best laid plans of mice and men aren’t worth a pile of beans without God in our lives. So what are supposed to do? How are we going to live or survive this world? Man wants what he wants. The heart of man will strive to create something for himself. Even though it will not last past our lifetime. Man will continually strive to build or make for his glory. When you look at the grand scheme of it all, what man can do is no more than a joke. God didn’t design us to be alone. God’s plan is for us to be part of His plan. He designed us to accomplish His plan on this earth. The bible says that there is nothing new under the sun. What was shall be again. Why isn’t there something new? Why can’t we have original thought? God didn’t design us to be frustrated. God wanted us to live our lives in peace and harmony on this earth. He wanted us to enjoy the life His gave us. It is man because of sin, who thinks that he is god and can do anything. When Adam and Eve sinned against God, their eyes were opened and they saw that they could walk away from God. And man has been doing just that ever since. Tomorrow is guaranteed when we join with God and His plan for us. All you have to do is ask God for help. And He will answer you.
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We all look at the past as something cherished. Even if it was the most horrible time in our lives. We all compare our lives now with what we had. It isn’t fair because the past is gone and can’t be changed. No matter how good or bad it was, it will remain the past. The only thing that is real in our lives is change. It can be good for some and bad for others. But it will happen. God designed us that way for our benefit. He wanted us to have the opportunity to be able to improve our lives. Sometimes it looks like what we are doing is just useless. But there is a plan for our lives and it does unfold in our lives. Whether you can see it or not. It is funny to watch people who think that they can stop God or His plan. Yet people think that they are greater than God. They tried even to the point of death to do their thing. You have heard me talk about a death spiral. It is the last effort of someone or something to stop what they put into motion. There is only one person who can stop a death spiral. That is God Himself. God designed this world to the very detail of life. There is no one that knows what to do except God. We are the image and likeness of God. He wanted to share His life with us. Our spirit, who we are, will never die. We are eternal beings. That is where we get the idea and sometimes misguided that this flesh will live forever. This flesh that we wear will return to the earth where it came from. Our spirit will go on to be with God or not. That is the question that every person must answer in this life time. As we say, it is time to pick your choose.
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I was raised in church. I can remember mom and dad getting ready every Sunday morning. Then they would get us ready. I didn’t really understand what was going on. I just watched everybody. I knew that there was more than what people said. I knew that I wanted to learn the truth. So I had to search for it. You ever listen to someone talk and you know that it is the truth. It is because it rings true in your heart. Whether or not it is the popular belief. I have talked to many people. Some believe and some don’t. But I have always found that people want to believe in what is good and right. Once you collect baggage, like a lost love or hurts that you can’t forgive, it is hard to go back. I wanted to believe so badly, but the pain got in the way. Thank God, He didn’t give up on me. When I was 8 years old, I gave my heart to the Lord. But by the time I reach college, I had walked away. God had a plan for me. When I was 28 years old, God called again and I answered. This time God had me to study and build my faith. One day I was stopped at a railroad crossing. I was waiting for the train to go by. God spoke to me and told me to get out of my car. He wanted me to tell everyone stopped that God loved them. I froze and the hand of God lifted off me. I thought I had really messed up. God was teaching me a lesson. This one was a practical lesson. God was going to send me to people to tell them what He said. I learned quickly. People want to believe. It is our job as Christians to give them that chance for life.
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Advent is the observance of 4 to 6 weeks before Christmas. It is observed by Western and Eastern Christians. It is to prepare for the Second Coming of Christ. Depending on where you live, the traditions vary from place to place. The Eastern Christians observe a fast for 6 weeks, while the Western Christians only observe Advent on the 4 Sundays before Christmas. It was started by the 12 apostles to mimic Yom Kippur. If you don’t know what Yom Kippur is, it is the preparation of oneself for the coming of the New Year. This was a time to repent of your sins and to get right with God. So everyone could start right with God in the New Year. This past Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent. Yom Kippur was an ordinance of God. That meant that everyone had to follow God’s commandment to get their lives right. Advent is voluntary. It is the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. With the coming of Jesus and opening heaven to everyone who will believe, it is up to the individual to respond to God’s calling. It is a good tradition and should be followed. Although Christianity isn’t popular in most western cultures, God still hasn’t given up on man. It is funny how when there is a national disaster, people seek God for help. As I see the national news there has been a national disaster almost every week. So why haven’t more people responded to God’s call. What are you waiting for? Does the disaster have to strike your family before you are willing? All you have to do is ask God and He will respond to you.
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The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year. Most retailers make most of their income from sales on that day. As online shopping became popular there began Cyber Monday. It is a big deal for most retailers. They can make most of their income for the year. If sales go bad, some retailers don’t make it to January 1st. As I looked at the financial news, they estimated that the sales were down about 10 to 15%. It is understandable why people don’t have money. The unemployment rate is up again. In our area of the country, it is about 7% of the population or about 175,000 people. I worked in retail for many years. I worked in a big box store. Over the years I watched people come and out. It is not strange at what I saw. 2 or 3 weeks before Thanksgiving, people began shopping for it. Generally people were in a good mood and smiled. After Thanksgiving, the mood of the people switched. In the 1st week after about half the people smiled. Into the 2nd week about 1/4th of the people smiled. In the last 2 weeks before Christmas, people were fussing and fighting with their family and other people shopping. In the last week before Christmas, people were downright nasty. They didn’t want anyone to say anything to them. All of this was about money or the lack thereof. When our kids were little, we bought gifts for all of them spending a lot of money. As they got older, my wife and I and the kids started drawing names out of a hat and buying gifts for that individual. Gift giving was started in honor of God’s gift to us, Jesus. It is not an end to itself. We have to keep in mind that there is only one reason for this season, God’s gift, Jesus.
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It is simple question. How much do people love you? You parents loved you enough to raise you. You know that it is estimated that parents will spend over $250,000 in one child’s lifetime. A quarter of a million dollars on 1 child’s life. By any gauge that is still a lot of money. But how much do people around you love you? Would any die for you? Would any lie for you? Would any protect you? Are your friends and family here today and gone tomorrow? You might find 1 or 2 people in your lifetime that would actually die for you. You are blessed if you have those people in your life. If you find a wife who believes in you that much, you are truly a blessed man. That is something to be protected and cared for. In my life, I could never find a person who was willing to be that close to me. One reason was I wasn’t that loveable. But still I looked and looked. Until 1 day I found a person who had loved me just because I was me. The relationship turned my life around. I was just so angry about not being loved that it made me unlovable. As I began to walk with this person, my angry began to fade away and love in my heart began to blossom. What it did was awake the love in heart not only for Him but for people. I began to care about people and what has happen to them. Of course, I am talking about Jesus. As I walk with Him, I prayed and prayed. As God changed people’s lives for the better. And all the time God was changing me.
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The blind leading the blind, you have seen it more than you want to recognize it. There are people who can’t see anything because all they want is what they want. Everything else is just irrelevant. I feel sorry for those people. They have no grasp of what is really happening in the world. Sometimes these people can be very dangerous. Because they get to a point where the only way they can achieve their goals is to destroy everyone else. And they will burn the world down just to get their way. You would think that only in this century do we have these kind of people. The Apostle Paul ran into these characters in the first century. Hate starts when a person is afraid or disgruntled or is jealous of another person. When it takes root, it becomes bitterness. Do did you know that hate causes cancer? So does anger. It is a spiritual condition that moves into the physical realm. We are spiritual beings that can bring things from the next world into our own. Unfortunately people don’t take that into consideration when they hate people. The Apostle Paul talk about this very condition and how to deal with people who live in their own reality. He said that you can’t fight them with their weapons. You have to fight them with truth, God’s truth. How can we fight ideas or people in this world with God’s truth? God said if you want to change a situation, then pray. What you need to do is ask God to change the situation, then believe and stand. Standing in the knowledge that God has heard you and is answering your prayer. What happens when you do that? The world changes. It is time to do the will of God and change the world.
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It seems that I am always talking about what man is doing on this earth. It is because man is always trying to burn this world down. I have never seen so many people try so hard to destroy everything that exist. Shall I delineate? Let us take the last 50 years. In the 1960’s, there was the counterrevolution, the Vietnam War and the Israeli war. The Israeli war went into the 1970’s. So did the Vietnam War. Then there was the plane hijackings. The bombing of embassy’s. Let’s see, oh yeh, Grenada, Panama, the Cubans in South America, Desert Storm, the Iraq war and of course the Afghanistan war. Let’s not forget the war in Syria. You may look at the world and think, why even try. They are all going to hell in hand basket. Well God sees it differently. In 1967, the Israeli’s took Jerusalem back. It was over 2000 years since the Jews owned Jerusalem. What did God do? He began to have revivals all over the world. The baptism of the Holy Spirit began to be prolific. Everyone who wanted could be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Missionaries went to every country. In the 1980’s, the United States had in 1983 the year of the Bible. Not since the times of Jesus, had a nation declared such a year. The GNP increased over a 100% in the United States. Churches began to fill up and enjoy peaceful times. When Elijah was running from Jezebel for his life. He said to God that there is no one serving God that they had all gone astray. God told Elijah that there were 7000 people in Israel that remained faithful to God. So even though you don’t see God working in your life or ours, don’t believe it. God is there before you even get there and He won’t leave until His job is done.
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