The First Blue Bonnets

I walked over to the church this morning and noticed that the flowers are in bloom. I took this picture in our yard of some Blue Bonnets. Janie remarked "Does this mean we can't mow?" You see Blue Bonnets are the state flower of Texas. I made several phone calls today and worked on the sermon for Sunday. Janie picked me up for lunch. I was craving some Mexican food and found out why when we got there. It turned out that the Lord needed us to be at that restaurant. I love to watch as the Lord works out my day for me.

Tomorrow I will try to mow the yard and work on my Thesis. Friday "the 9" will be here, or as our daughter, Sarah, said "the 9.5." We are looking forward to that. God bless you.

Take a closer look

We had a good Bible study today. We did not cover much of the material that was on the schedule but we did have a good discussion. It seems a TV evangelist made a statement which was rather bold and gave a scripture for proof. His statement was false. The text he gave for proof did not support his statement at all. I have been teaching the church that I pastor to always take a closer look before agreeing with what somebody says about the scriptures. Everyone needs to get and use the tools of proper exegesis. I know that is a big word so look it up. Keep scripture in context, know who is speaking to whom and about what. Know when it was written and why and by whom it was written. Make sure the results harmonize with the rest of scripture. Check the translation of the text to assure that it is accurate. These tools will help you to know the truth and be able to identify false doctrines.

Janie and I went down to Lorena for services there. We had a good time of singing and Bible study. We always enjoy our time there. Tomorrow I will rise early and get to work on the sermon for Sunday and the Thesis. Thursday I will work on the Thesis again and that evening attend a Christian event at our local high school. Friday all nine of our grandkids will be at our house and we are looking forward to that. The picture is of Janie practicing while some of the grandkids lend a hand. God bless you.

Goose Bumps

I preached at the nursing home today. There was a crowd of about 40. Janie played the piano and I led the singing. The people at the nursing home seemed real glad to see Janie. Here lately she has not gone with me to the nursing home due to work. I worked on the bulletin and got that done. I finished the last episode of Tribman today. I plan to write the novel "Tribman" after I finish my doctoral thesis.
I worked on the sermon for Sunday and have decided upon Hosea 13:14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. The last phrase of this verse gives me goose bumps. I challenge you to look into what this verse is saying and what it means.

I took a walk today while Janie was at curves. I got in about 2 miles and read eight chapters in the Bible finishing the book of Ezekiel. All in all it was a productive day. I am going to spend the rest of this evening working on the sermon for Sunday. The picture is of me taken by Jason at Tyler State Park. God bless you.

Rasmussen

We had a great day today. Our attendance at church was almost double what it was last Sunday. We are expecting a big crowd for Easter Sunday. Our daughter and son-in-law came over Saturday night and stayed for our services this morning. We enjoyed their visit. A lady in our church wanted to give away some clothes and we are going to take them to TBI. Our daughter tried some of the dresses on and found about 10 that she liked so she took them home and seemed glad to get them. We went to Pizza Hut for lunch and some of our church members were there. When we got home I received a call from Rasmussen and took part in a survey on politics. I was more than glad to give my answers and noticed that my answers were always either the smallest number or the largest, never in the middle. I wonder if that makes me an extremist? I don't think of myself that way. I will try to catch the news to see if they report on the results of the survey.

I had a dream last night that was strange. It was about the young man, Clint, who was burned almost a year ago. In my dream he died and we buried him and several days later we dug him back up to move him to another grave and he came alive and he looked the way he did before he was burned. We took him to the hospital and the doctor's were all amazed that he had risen from the dead. The only thing I can come up with as to why I had this dream is that I have been working on the Easter sermon and had been praying for Clint. When I woke up from the dream I was feeling such joy over his being alive and without any of his current afflictions. This dream made me look forward to my own Resurrection one day. There will be two resurrections so be sure that you are going to be a part of the first one. Leave me your email me if you want to know how.

We had good services tonight. I had mentioned in my sermon this morning the book of Habakkuk so I preached from that book tonight. The sermon was about true faith in God and was taken from the last 3 verses of that book. After church I had an unusual supper (pictured above) made up of raw vegetables. It sure was good. I have loaded the dishwasher and blogged so I will now head for bed. Tomorrow morning I preach at the nursing home and Tuesday night I preach in Lorena. I will work on the Easter sermon tomorrow afternoon. Janie and I are hoping that we might get to see Elijah this week. The picture is of Janie holding him. God bless you.

Father and Son Hike

Thursday we drove over to Tyler where Janie and I met Jason and my father-in-law at the cancer center. Janie stayed with her dad and Jason and I went Henderson. I bought some tires but they could not put them on the car since I had left the lug nut key at our house in Hillsboro. We had them put the tires in the trunk and I will have them mounted later. We went on over to my in-law's house and unloaded Janie's luggage. We worked together on my mother-law's motorized chair and got it fixed. After that Janie arrived with her dad in tow. Both doctor's gave him a good report. He will not have to take Chemo again, at least for now.

Jason and I said our goodbyes and headed for Tyler State Park. We arrived too late to check in so we had to do the after hours check in. We had wanted to stay in our old camping spot but it was taken. We set up camp and cooked supper. We made a chicken casserole with an alcohol stove and my pot. We also made some hamburger helper. Both were very good. We cleaned up and then by flashlight we sat side by side and read and discussed some Bible scriptures. With the temperature in the 50's we climbed into our sleeping bags, called our wives to say good night and then lay there in the light of a half moon and talked about all kinds of things. The conversation waned and we both went off to sleep. I slept a lot better than I had expected to. When I woke up I could identify 5 different birds singing. The birds singing in the early morning is one of my favorite sounds. We got up and I made some instant fake coffee which hit the spot since it was 42 degrees. I ate a pastry for breakfast but Jason did not eat. We left the tent set up to dry while we went for our long hike. We covered about 8 miles getting back to camp around noon. We came across two men in their 60's who were walking bicycles up the hill we were coming down. I think they must have been city dwellers. They asked me what kind of animal was it that had dug up the ground along side of the trail. I told them it was an armadillo. They seemed surprised. I enjoyed hiking with Jason. It was good to get away from things, though one of my church members was taken to the hospital emergency room and I kept her in my prayers and thoughts throughout the day. I will plan to visit her tomorrow. The pictures are some I took while on our hike. God bless you.

Spring is in the Air

My allergies have really been acting up so spring must be in the air. Today I got the bulletin finished and the Sunday School lesson studied. I worked a little on my sermon for Sunday but still have a ways to go on it. Tomorrow morning early we will head for Henderson so Janie can go with her parents to the doctor's offices. I plan to take Friday as my day off and go hiking with my son. We will camp out Thursday night. I will finish the sermon for Sunday on Saturday and also work on my thesis.

Our daughter, Sarah, has five new little baby pigs. She was feeling poorly the other day but said she felt good today. Our daughter, Stacie, is doing well. Elijah is not letting her get much sleep right now. She hopes he will soon get his days and nights straitened out. The picture is of Hannah holding Elijah at the hospital. God bless you.

Pollen Filter In, Thanks to Jason

We had a great ladies Bible study this morning. The usual crowd was there. Jason and Angie took the boys with them to Wal-Mart during the Bible Study. The ladies asked some very interesting questions and I love it when they do. It made for some real good discussion. I washed the car today and went by the post office. I mailed off our income tax and our 2010 census. Jason changed out the pollen filter on our car. It is a task most difficult but he got it done.

Janie and I went down to Lorena for services. They had two visitors in their services and I preached a sermon from Revelation chapter five. I really enjoy preaching the word of God.

Monday is my turn to preach at the nursing home. Tomorrow I plan to walk over to the church and get some study done. I have the bulletin ready for Sunday but not the sermon nor the Sunday School lesson. I should be able to complete both before time for our evening services. Thursday it is off to Henderson and Friday I will take off and take a day hike with my son. I am looking forward to that. The last time we hiked together was in Paris France.

The picture was taken of Jonathan when we stopped to eat on our way to take the grandkids home. God bless you.

Filter

I took my car to have the oil and oil filter changed. They also changed the fuel filter and replaced a burned out head light. Tomorrow I am going to see if I can get Jason to change the pollen filter on the car. I called around and found tires for our car $102.00 each. The front two tires will have to be changed before the car will pass inspection.

I try to filter the things I place on this blog. The first filter is my own view of what things are appropriate for this blog and its being such a public place. The second filter is my wife. When I have doubts about something I am about to publish here I run it through the "Janie" blog filter and if it passes through it arrives here. I had a friend who could have benefited from a second blog filter and based on his experience I use the "Janie" filter liberally.

While I was at the oil change place the man changing my oil asked what I thought about the vote on health care. I filtered my response, keeping it non-confrontational. You who read this blog on a regular basis know that I virtually never talk about politics here. As a pastor I do not want to alienate anyone needlessly. Just being a Christian alienates many people. So I filter my words when asked about divisive subjects.

Jason and I smoked some chicken this afternoon. Angie had been craving smoked chicken, so today was her day. They came out really good and there is enough left over for tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning we have ladies Bible study and tomorrow night we will go down to Lorena for church services there. The picture is of my car at the oil change place today. It was the tenth oil change our car has had. God bless you.

Record Low

We had a record low attendance today at church. Some were out due to spring break. We had good services and I kept them over till 12:10 this morning. I like it when the sermon is over and I stand in the foyer and people come out talking about the text and asking questions about it and making comments. This lets me know they are paying attention and are really thinking about the scriptures. Last Sunday they did the same thing and it was wonderful. They left the building with the scripture on their minds.

Jason and Angie had a good day in Palestine. They will be back here late tonight. Tomorrow I will take the car for repairs and by tomorrow afternoon it should be all fixed up. I need to have it inspected and today one of the headlights burned out. I will get that fixed first thing tomorrow.

Janie and I enjoyed a quite afternoon and even took a short nap. I will have to put in some long hours the next three days to get my work done on time. The car repairs will be a distraction from my usual work but if you are going to drive as many miles as I do you have spend some time and money on your vehicle.

The pictures are of our visit with Elijah in the hospital. God bless you.