Some Food for thought from service today

Here are some of the pastors thoughts from service this morning that really get your brain waves working and get you to realizing what we need to change in our lives. Here you go, chew on these for a while...

• We need to listen and learn, not live and learn
• Heaven shouts when we rejoice through our struggles
• I'm worthless, but with Christ I'm priceless.
• God allows thorns to remain in our lives to keep us humble.
• When you limp in life, you will leap in glory
• God's out to make us just like Jesus, so hold onto your reins and ride with Him

These were just a few morsels, you should've heard the entire sermon. God was powerfully working in this message today, and He had lots to say to me through every Word.

Thanks God for working through your servant and giving each of us just what we needed.

Now allow each of us to learn and to be obedient to what you taught us.

future blogs

OK my dedicated blog reader fans.
I'll be back up to speed in a few more days. I've been sick and just not up to par, so hang in there and I'll start again soon.

Thankful for the Thorns

Exactly what is a "thorn"?

Well according to Webster's dictionary it is something that causes irritation annoyance, a woody plant bearing sharp impeding processes (as briars, prickles or spines) and something that causes distress or irritation, often used in the phrase "a thorn in one's side".

Everyone of us have some kind of thorn in our life, and all thorns need to be dealt with daily.

The best way to deal with these thorns that are pricking us is "to be thankful for them".
Yes I said "be thankful for them".

You are probably saying are you stupid? How can we be thankful for something that hurts us so bad.?

Look at what Paul says to us in 2 Cor. 12:7 "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." Through God's grace we can be strong.

There is a lesson behind every thorn we get pricked with, let's do some soul searching, and Bible searching and find out what we can learn from each prick. God has much to teach us, are we seeking to find out what those lessons are or are we just drowning among the thorns.

Today I can cry that roses have thorns or I can celebrate that thorns have roses.
I'm ready to watch some roses bloom...Yeah

Day 448 Update on Michael....

OK everyone, here is a major update on Michael, he will be going to MUSC and will have surgery tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.

They are going to be putting his intestines back inside, and etc. and getting rid of the colostomy bag he's had since his head-on collision.

Please everyone be in prayer for the doctors and for recovery time, he will be there approx. 10 days.

Who is God?

OK people I'm doing a study and I need to hear from each of you with your answer to this question:

Who is God to you?

We treat God like a vending machine....

Why do we treat God like a vending machine. We walk up to the machine decide in our mind what we want, look at the number of it, put our money in, select the button of "what we want" then the item falls into the bottom for us to stick our hand inside and grab the item and get to eating.

Oh now come on and think about it, we do God the same way.

We use God just like this vending machine, we push the button of this machine expecting to get what we asked for from that slot and we get upset when we don't.

We get up in the morning, want a drive through service time with God, because we have no time to really spend with Him, so we ask for a quick word, we might lift up a quick prayer, we ask God to answer this prayer and that prayer and then we move on our way to work or the next activity that has filled our slot for the day. We want to push a button and expect God to give us what we want just like the machine did.

God does want to give us what we want but He also wants us to seek Him and spend quality time with Him. Even though we might think so, this is NOT Burger King and we can't always have things our way.

Let's stop treating God like a vending machine, or drive through service and spend true time with Him and then we will not only see Him meet our needs but He will sometimes bless us with the wants (the button we pushed).

Update on Michael.....

Ok here is an update from Michael's father-in-law:

We went to MUSC on Monday for Michael's doctor visit.

They are saying that with-in the next 6 weeks they will try to but his belly back together.
This will involve removing the grafted skin, reattaching his large intestine, removing the colostomy bag and pulling his abdomen skin back together.
They say that this surgery is horrible.
Michael has got to be in pretty good shape in order to endure this surgery.
He needs to lose about 15 pounds and try and be fit.
By fit they mean he needs to walk and exercise everyday for they say this surgery will be like fighting Mike Tyson.
We are encouraged by this pending surgery and we are hoping Michael's body will function normally when completed.
The down side to all of that is if it doesn't work out, then he will remain with a body function that won't be normal and could remain on the bags forever.

Now some more disturbing news but possible hope in the eventual outcome.
On Wednesday we went to the orthopedic doctors to look at his right leg. It remains as they say dead from the knee down. The main nerve (sciatic) is destroyed from the knee down. The remaining nerves if they grow back will only cause him extreme pain.
The bones were put back together as best they could but it is determined that they are not healing well.
His right foot is always cold and is useless.
He has to use the wheel chair for it is easier to get around rather than use the walker, even though he tries, but the result with a walker is that he just drags the right leg.
Their conclusions are to amputate the right leg from the knee down.
Trust me many tears were flowing at this news.
Granted, it is not the end of the story here.
With all the new advances in prosthetic devices, I am sure Michael will be far better off if the amputation is to occur.
Obviously Michael is going to seek a second opinion but we feel that the doctors are going to strongly emphasize the amputation.

Keep him in your prayers, there is an even longer road ahead.

I'm back....

OK I'm back from vacation and back on track so time to get busy with my thoughts again. Keep in touch

4-wheelin' trip to Colorado....

We drove a total of 4033 miles in the truck, 77 hours and 49 minutes

but get this we drove a total of 294 miles on the 4 wheeler....and every mile was as good as the first.

Check out these names....

On our trip out west here are some of the names of churches that I saw that are very different than any I've ever seen. Check these out.

• The Drunkard Brethren Church
• The Feed Store Church
• Church Unscripted
• Rock of Restoration
• Rhema Bible Church
• Jesus Project
• Fellowship of Excitement
• Blue Mound Church
• Prairie Friends Church
• Mercy & Grace
• Overcoming Believers Church
• Kodak Church
• New Song Church
• Kings Creek Church
• Faith Church