The First ...

This picture I took with my laptop's web cam. I was at TBI in the library working on my Doctoral Thesis. I will be spending a lot of time in that very spot over the next three years.

There can only be one first day. Of the first day of a school year there can only be one. Of the first day on a new job there can only be one. Of the first day of creation there can only be one. But of the first day of the rest of your life there can be many. Every day is the first day when it comes to the rest of your life. What a wonderful thought that is to me. It does not matter what the past may have been today starts a fresh new day and how I spend this the first day of the rest of my life will be up to me and the Lord of my life. It is early in the morning as I write this blog and I am so full of optimism that the rest of my life, of which this is the first day, is going to be lived for God and for others and not wasted on selfish things.

I will be preaching at the nursing home this morning. I worked on a new sermon for them last night and am anxious to share it with them. Each sermon I preach is the first sermon of all the sermons I will preach for the rest of my life.

Tomorrow night we will be going down to visit with Faith M.B.C. of Hewitt. It will be good to have Bible study with them and we always enjoy singing the old songs out of the Heavenly Highway Hymnal. Of the times we will meet with them in the future, tomorrow night will be the first.

We will not be running the bus this Wednesday night to pick up kids for our mid-week Bible School. We will be having a staff meeting to go over what changes we may need to make in the program. It also gives the staff a break from their hard and stressful work. We are dealing with kids that know nothing about church or even God and many of these are from broken and disfunctional homes. Their behavior is often not what it should be and we have to really pay close attention to discipline. We have had to tell a couple of them that they could not ride the bus anymore because they just will not behave. It is sad to have to do that for these are the ones who need the love of Christ most. I am thinking about going to visit their homes and meet what ever adult is there in charge of them. Maybe they will be willing to help us help their child. This will be the first staff meeting this year.

When you consider that today is the first day of the rest of your life you must also consider that this may be the last day of your life. Everyday should be lived with optimisim and hope for we do not know if it is the first or the last day of our lives. Get the most out of every day and know that eternity awaits you when this life is over. Where will you spend the first day in eternity? God bless you.

Woo

Woo: to seek the favor, affection or love of someone. When Janie and I were courting we spent a lot of time wooing. Our wooing was successful and we got married. Wooing does not stop after you say "I do." A successful marriage requires daily wooing. (1Cor 7:3) Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The best relationship between husband and wife comes when they both woo the Lord. That is to say they both seek His favor and affection. The secret to wooing my wife is for me to do those things which woo the Lord. In turn when my wife does those things that seek God's favor and affection, she gets mine as well. As we woo the Lord we woo each other. There is a secret then to having a successful marriage. Woo the Lord and let the object of your marital wooing be someone who is also wooing the Lord.

My father-in-law (pictured above) has started chemo therapy. We took this picture so we would have a before and after picture of his hair. He has a good attitude and that goes along way when your fighting cancer.

We had a good time at my daughters surprise birthday party. The food was real good and the fellowship was even better. The grand kids wanted to ride with us the two hours it would take to get back home but as an act of wooing I said no to their request. The picture here is of Sarah opening her presents. God bless you.

Out of Kilter

The past several days have been out of kilter mostly due to Ike. We have our oldest daughter and her family staying with us while they wait for the lights to come back on at their home in Liberty county. We have been blessed to help them out and they are anxious to get back home. I try to stay to my schedule as much as possible and stay focused on my work. It is fun to have the grand kids at the house and to enjoy a moment here and there with them. I would enjoy it more if I did not have responsibilities and work to get done. When I have work that must be done I don't seem to be able to relax until it is finished. I have completed "from the Pastor" for the bulletin and the sermon for next Sunday is ready to go. I have some data base programing to do before November arrives. I am not ready for Wednesday night yet nor Sunday night. With these things looming I will not relax until they are done. We will have our regular services Wednesday night but the following Wednesday we will have a staff meeting and will not run the bus to pick up kids. This will give the workers a break and give us a chance to discuss changes that need to be made in our program. I am going to try to feed the workers and their families at the staff meeting to reward them for their efforts. I must get back to work. The picture is of the three older grand kids that are staying with us, Joshua, Hannah, Ruth. God bless you.

Cold as Ice

I spent my day off in Henderson. We went to Wal-Mart to get a few things for Janie's parents and then she took her mother to the beauty shop. While they were there I went over to my mother's house to check on her. After 5 days there is still no electricity. There was water pressure at our house which means we don't have any water leaks. I cleaned out the freezer and the refrigerator and picked up some of the limbs in the yard. Janie and her mother stopped by to see the yard but I had already picked up most all of the big limbs that were down. Two trees fell down on the old tractor shed and it is in even worse shape than it was. We returned to my in-laws and had supper with them. After supper I undertook the task of defrosting their freezer. It needed it real bad and so with my mother-in-law's supervision and instruction I tore into the task. It took a little over an hour to get the job done. My hands were as cold as ice.

Tomorrow I plan to work on my doctoral thesis and to get the sermon ready for the funeral I will preach on Saturday. We will leave about 4:00 pm Friday for Timpson, Texas where the family will gather for visitation. The funeral is at 11:00 Saturday and afterward we will head for Hillsboro.

Wednesday night went really well. We had 53 kids and my grand kids got to ride the bus. They were warned that it would be loud but they wanted the experience. Afterward they said they did not want to do that again. It was not as loud as normal because my son-in-law and daughter were aboard to make them behave, somewhat. We finished the bus round about 9:15 pm and headed for Henderson about 10:30 pm. We got to bed about 2:30 AM and got up about 9:00. It has been a long day and I am ready to call it a day. The picture is of my children one cold Texas day many winters ago. God bless you.

Leak

Our shower has developed a leak and I believe it is coming from a crack in a seam of the tiles that line the shower. We noticed just 2 days ago that the carpet was wet along the edge of the wall in the room next to the shower. I examined the tiles and saw the crack right at the spot where the carpet was wet. I have purchased some stuff to fix it and it takes 3 days to dry. I will apply this on Wednesday and by Saturday it should be all fixed. Our daughter and her family are still at our house. They have not gotten the ok to return to their home yet and don't expect to until this Friday. We believe that their home is ok there according to one of their church members. They will have lost everything in their freezer but that is better than loosing their lives. My mother has been without electricity for 3 days and was without water for 2 days. She has been overwhelmed by her grandchildren who have brought her lots to eat and drink. My father-in-law's house was damaged by the storm. A limb knocked the weather head and electric lines off the house. These have been repaired now and they are waiting for their electricity to be turned back on. Janie and I plan to go over and spend Thursday and Friday in Henderson. I will try to clean up our old home place and fix some things damaged by the wind at my mother's house. Friday Janie will take her dad to his first Chemo treatment. Pray for him. While she is there I will be at TBI working on my prospectus.

I am planning to preach from the book of Acts again this Sunday. Our attendance has increased the past few Sundays and that is always good news. We had 79 Sunday. My Son-in-law preached Sunday night and his sermon was good.

I am planning to spend my vacation next year hiking with my brother in California. I would like to hike a week with him and then see some sights on our way back home. I want to see Hoover dam, Grand Canyon, and Carlsbad Caverns. All of this is uncertain for I never know what God's plans may be for my vacation. Tomorrow night Janie and I will have Bible study with Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Hewitt. We always look forward to our visit there. The picture is of 2 of our grandsons playing in the tube at the parsonage. God bless you.

Ike

Well Ike drove my son-in-law and daughter away from their home to seek refuge at our house. It has been good to have them here for I have enjoyed spending some time with the grandkids. They will be here through Saturday and then return home. This changed our plans to go to Henderson so I plan to spend the morning at the church working on things there and probably most of the afternoon as well. I miss having my car and hope it will be ready by this time next week.

Wednesday night went very well. We had 25 kids the first Wednesday night and this time we had 45. It is a good ministry and I am so proud of the people who volunteered to work with these kids. The bus seats survived the first night of use with out any problem. Looks like the duct tape is going to hold its own. Of course I did encourage the kids to take care of the seats. Time will tell if they are obedient to my wishes.

Well it is late and must get some sleep. Tomorrow and Saturday I plan to get quite a bit of work done. I took a walk with my daughter today and that was fun. She stayed up with me quite well. I am determined to walk every day to keep in shape for my up coming hike in November with my grandson and the one in April with my brother. The picture is of my daughter and her husband about the time they married. God bless you.

New Computer

Well my new laptop computer has arrived and you would think that I would be so excited. It has been a long and tedious process getting all my files transfered and all my software installed. It will be weeks before I will know if I have everthing I need off the old computer. My first attempt to update baptistville.org did not go well. It took the site down and I had to go back to the old computer to get it back up and running. I will work on that problem later. The new computer is much faster and it has greater security. It has a finger print scanner which lets you by pass typing in your password. I like that feature. It also has a regular keyboard with a numeric keypad on the right side. The keyboard is back lit so you can see it at night. That will come in handy when traveling in the car at night. All in all it will be good to have this new computer and though I dreaded Vista I am growing to like it. It has a built in camera with very high resolution. I expect some problems to crop up in the weeks to come and I will deal with them as they do. I will keep my old computer for a while just in case.

I got a comment on my youtube video. In the video I have a picture of a Bible. The comment said "I like to take a Bible when I hike, it makes a good firestarter." I replied to this comment that the Bible is THE guide to keep one out of THE FIRE." I feel sorry for those who choose to reject Jesus Christ. They are blind and don't know the danger they face. Jesus loves us all and wants everyone to come to the knowledge of the truth. I pray for these people that they will repent before it is too late.

The bus is back at the church, the car is on its way to being repaired, Ike is about to hit Texas, Janie's dad is about to take chemo, the letters to the churches of MBA of Texas need to be ready to mail next week, and I have found a great text for Sunday morning's sermon. Life is good and it is challenging. The picture is of Janie and her dad on our wedding day almost 35 years ago. God bless you.

Misprison

Misprison is a neglect or violation of official duty by one in office. I hold the office of a bishop. That is king James language for a pastor. I do not want to be guilty of misprison. So off to work I go. I will go to the nursing home first thing this morning and visit the shut-ins there. I will go after that to pick up the church bus and bring it back to the church, it has been in the shop. Next is a visit to one who is gravely ill in the hospital and then one who is shut in at home due to illness. Next I need to make 2 wheel chair ramps for someone in need of them. Study for my time with the kids on Wednesday night and make a round of the bus route to make sure I don't leave any kids behind who want to come to Bible school.

My laptop computer has been giving me some trouble lately. The internal WIFI no longer works, the battery last only about 1 hour now versus the 3 hours it use to last. It locks up from time to time and the hard drive is 75 percent full. I have ordered a new one and it is due to arrive today. It will be a big job to get all of my software and files transfered and I dread that task. It is a great tool for Bible study and spreading the word of God. It allows me the freedom to work while traveling which makes me a good steward of the time God gives to me.

I plan another trip to Henderson on Thursday, my day off, to get some work done there and then on Friday to go to TBI to work on my Doctoral Thesis. Tuesday is Sunday Morning Sermon day and I will probably return to the book of John. I plan to visit with some of the people who visited our services on Sunday. Our attendance was WAY UP this Sunday.

The picture is of me, avoiding misprison, maning the booth for our missionary to France at a missions conference earlier this year. God bless you.

School

I believe that working on my doctoral thesis for the next 2 to 3 years will be the last of my formal education. While I have begun this last leg of fomal education my great niece is just begining hers. I went to grandparents day with Emma and had a great time. It is good to see this young one begin her educational journey. Her Kindergarten class is nothing like my first grade class back in 1959. Things have changed radically. There was a yard stick that had been painted green, yellow, and red hanging on the wall of her class room. This stick had clothes pins clipped to it each of which bore the name of one of the children in the class. One of the boys was rebuked for misbehaving in the lunch room. The teacher said he had made a bad choice and asked him what would have been a better choice. He responded to her satisfaction then she told him to move his clothes pin down which he did moving it from the green area to the yellow. My first grade teacher, Mrs. Hart, would have taken the stick down from the wall and whipped me with it. I then would know that I had made a bad choice indeed. "Spare the rod, spoil the child" boy those were the days. In about 20 years she will catch up to me in time spent in school. Lets see I have 12 years of public school, 5 years of secular college, 9 years of seminary for a total of 26 years. I am 55 years old so that is about half of my life in school. Don't tell Emma that. It might discourage her.

I will be preaching on the subject of "The Suffering of Chirst" in the morning. It is time to observe the Lord's Supper and I plan to preach on this subject every Lord's Supper Sunday. This will prepare those who will return Sunday night for the observance and those who will not be returning for the evening service will have been reminded of Chirst's suffering which is the purpose of the Lord's Supper observance.

My car is in the shop and will not be ready until late next week if then. I sure do miss it. I went to Henderson in the truck and the gas mileage was abysmal (hopelessly bad or severe). We carried the lawn mower and mowed the yard at the old home place it is looking a whole lot better. I used my tractor to push the burned out pile in the back yard into a little neater pile. There is still much to do inside and out but a few hours spent on this each time we go to Henderson will get us slowly to where we want the place to be. The wasps are bad in the back yard and have stung my mother twice. I will spray them next week Lord willing. Headed for bed now and will rise early to meditate on the things of God to prepare myself for worship. Sunday morning at 6:00 is my favorite hour of prayer. God bless you.

Prospectus Begun

I am in the library at TBI today (See the picture) working on the 5000 word prospectus for my doctoral thesis. I have to turn in this 5000 word document by the end of the school year. I completed the title page and the rough outline of the prospectus. This outline took up the bulk of my time today because a lot of thought has to go into it. I listed the things I needed to cover in the prospectus and then arranged them into a logical order. I have to include a list of the sources I plan to site and have started that list. It has to contain 80 sources and that presents a problem for I am having difficulty finding that many. I currently have 38 which is almost half of what I need. If you know of any books on the subject of the Song of Songs or the Song of Solomon please email me the name of the book and its author, I would appreciate it very much.

I am about to head over to my great niece's school to be a substitute grandfather. I will eat lunch with her and most likely see her room and meet her teacher. I am looking forward to it.

We made good progress on cleaning up our house in Henderson. We worked all afternoon and the yard is begining to take shape. Janie has made good progress on the inside of the house, which I am glad to leave in her capable hands. I should have taken before and after pictures of our work on the old home place but since I did not get the before I will have to settle for after only. God bless you.

Wednesday Night Kick Off

We kick off our Mid-Week Bible School tonight. The bus had to have some brake work done, we found out today when we tried to get it inspected. It will not be ready until Friday. We will run the van around and it holds 12 and our truck will hold 5 more. If need be we will make 2 runs and I expect will will have to make 2 runs. Our opening assembly will be used for orientation of the students which means we will explain the rules and the consequences of breaking them. I will be preaching to the Adults from Hosea 14 tonight. I am excited about this good work. You can see in the picture of the bus the colorful duct tape we used to fix the seats.

I have a church member in the hospital in Dallas and I wish I could be up there with them. I just do not think I need to miss the services tonight. It is impossible to be in 2 places at once. I am going to go now and clean out the truck and get it ready for the kids. I do not know what I will be doing tomorrow. I will probably go over to Henderson for my day off and then return Friday afternoon. I am suppose to stand in for my brother who lives in California. His granddaughter goes to school in Henderson and it is grandparent day Friday. His granddaughter Emma and I are buddies. She would rather have her grandpa but I was honored when she requested her mother to ask me to be there. I will work on my thesis at TBI on Friday morning and then after lunch with Emma we will return to Hillsboro. I may have to go strait to Dallas depending on how my church member there makes out at the doctor's on Thursday. The picture of my car's front end does not look that bad all that you see in this picture has to be replaced and what does not show is the large plastic cover from underneath that I had to take off because it was draging the ground. They say it is going to cost about $1,500 to repair. It will not be finished until the end of next week. God bless you.

No Problems

We are just about to arrive at Moss Hill and we have run into very little rain. The traffic has been no problem and best of all we have not hit any animals. We are about 20 minutes from our destination and it looks like we are going to arrive safely. We averaged 52.2 miles per gallon. We are bringing them 1/2 a trunk full of groceries and goodies for the grandkids, we are grandparents after all. I believe this picture is of Janie and Jonathan. God bless you.

Safety

We think it safest to drive down to Moss Hill this afternoon. We will hopefully beat some of the returning traffic this way. We will spend the night at our daughter's and return to Hillsboro Tuesday Morning. We may have to drive through some rain but the weather and traffic coming back should not be bad at all. Tuesday afternoon we will put our car in the shop to have the plastic parts replaced. I have removed the plastic shield that was hanging down and draging the ground. Its purpose is 2 fold. It cuts down on wind resistance which inhances fuel efficiency and it keeps the motor compartment cleaner. I do not believe that it will harm the car in any way to make this trip without this plastic shield. We will be safe and hopefully will not hit any more animals. I still have not taken pictures of the car but will try to before taking it to the shop tomorrow.

I am about half way through with the sermon for Sunday and have already studied my text for Wednesday night. This means I am ahead of schedule for the week. The bus should be inspected by tomorrow and Wednesday morning I will make a dry run in my car to make sure I have the bus route down. I am so looking forward to Wednesday night, it is going to be exciting to share the Gospel with the kids. If it rains we will not run the bus but will have a meeting of the staff instead. The services went very well at the nursing home and the funeral did as well. The picture is of Janie in the kitchen at the parsonage. God bless you.