New Car

My in-law's got a new car. It is a mini van and they are going to have a wheel chair lift installed so that we can take my mother-in-law's electric scooter along when they need to go places. The picture is one I took with my cell phone from the back seat of the van when we went for a test drive. We took the van to 2 different cemeteries and drove around each of them. They seemed pleased with the way it drove. The other picture is of a cabinet that my mother-in-law bought and Janie and I put it together. It came out good. We got through with it about 9:30 Friday night and then headed back to Hillsboro.

We spent part of today at the church where Janie practiced the songs for Sunday and I worked on the Sunday School lesson. We had to run down to Waco and pick up some ink for our printer so Janie could print out Jason's monthly report. She has it ready to print and it will go out in the mail next week.

I am looking forward to the services tomorrow. I will be preaching from Psalm 32 on the subject of "God's Forgiveness." I am headed for bed now and will get up at 6:00 in the morning for prayer and meditation. I walked about half as much as usual today but I did get caught up on my Bible readings. I made it to Psalm 118 and am still on pace to finish the Bible three times this year. God bless you.

Prospectus

I was able to get another 500 words added to my prospectus today. I lack about 1500 more and I will have met the quota of 5000 words. I finished the sermon for Sunday. It is taken from Psalm 32 "God's Forgiveness." I went for a 2 mile walk this afternoon, it was a balmy 80 degrees outside, cloudy and windy. I love winters in Texas. The lowest temperature we have seen this winter is 21 and the highest was about 84. We went out to eat for supper this evening and went to visit with Janie's uncle who is in a rehab hospital over in Tyler. He was not at the regular hospital though his name was still on the door. The nurses station informed us that he had been dismissed and gave us directions as to how to get to the rehab hospital. We visited about an hour with him and returned to Henderson. I will take my father-in-law to the doctor's office in the morning. They will be running a couple of tests on him and while I am with him Janie will take her mother to the beauty shop. We plan to head home tomorrow afternoon. Janie has finished her orders and is helping her mother with some financial things (Pictured). I am headed for bed because we will have to leave early in the morning. God bless you.

Quick note

This is just a quick note to say that my plans have changed. I will not take today off but will take off tomorrow. Janie could use some help tomorrow with her parents so I am going to take that as my day off. I am at the library in Henderson and will do some research for my doctoral thesis. I am going to finish up Sunday's sermon first and then get to work on the Song of Songs. We will be back in Hillsboro tomorrow evening and I plan to spend Saturday at the office. The picture is of my youngest grandchild, Jonathan, sitting in the driver's seat of our church bus. God bless you.

Pleasant Distractions

Some distractions are good. When those distractions are grand kids they are grand. I have not blogged for a few days because my grandchildren have been to see us. They will be leaving today and I am at the office getting some work done. The picture is of my grandson, Joshua, cutting up a limb in our backyard. He is 10 years old and he handled that power saw like he had 10 years of experience; I was amazed and very proud. I have a meeting here in a few minutes with a man who is going to coordinate our new church directory. We have not made a church directory since 2003. The church voted to do one and today's meeting will set that in motion. I just finished "From the Pastor" and am working on the sermon for Sunday. I need to email our music director the subject of the sermon so he can pick out the songs for Sunday. We will be in Henderson Thursday and Friday. Janie's dad has several doctor's appointments, tests, and treatments. Both days will be really long and hard on her for they start early and stay late over in Tyler. I will take my day off to get some work done on the Clark place. I have taken to calling it the Clark place for it belongs to Janie and me even though for the last 6 years others have lived there. It cost us just a few hundred dollars in taxes to own and keep the 7 1/2 acres and two houses I call the Clark place. We rented it out one time back in the late 70's to a couple who made a mess of the place. We were living in Houston at the time. Since that time we have allowed family only to live on the place and we do not charge them rent for they are family. Well I better get back to work. God bless you.

Prayer Request Welcomed

This picture is of the house my grandfather, Andrew Nutt, built back in the early 1950's. We spent many happy hours playing in the barn yard behind this house. The place has changed a lot since I was a kid. I took the picture just a couple of weeks ago. I have a picture of the barn also and will post it on a future blog. It has begun to fall down and looks to be in very bad shape.

I feel like the coach of a football team. When the Sunday game is over they start working immediately on the next Sunday's game. As soon as our services are over and I have turned out the lights and locked the doors to the building its off we go to get the weeks work done. It will be a busy week as usual. Monday will be spent getting ready for next Sunday. I will start to work on the sermon for Sunday morning right after my prayer time and my daily Bible reading. I have to go to the post office and mail some packages all of which are church related. I need to get "From the Pastor" done by tomorrow for next Sunday's bulletin. Tuesday will find me spending some time with my grand kids and then Tuesday night I will be preaching in Waco. Wednesday I will get ready for the staff meeting and mid week services. Thursday is my day off and I hope to go for a hike. Friday is thesis day and then Saturday will find me working on the Sunday School lesson and the Sunday night sermon. That is how I expect my week to go but as is often the case all these plans will be shot.

We had very good services today and our attendance was up at both services. Our new song director is doing a splendid job. The special music we had today was outstanding. Those of you who read this blog are in my prayers. If you will leave me a comment containing your name, city, state, country, and prayer request; I will add you to my prayer list and mention you to God by name. Rest assured that I will not publish your prayer request comment. I monitor all comments made on this blog and only publish the ones I deem appropriate. God bless you.

Memories

My youngest daughter came over for a visit this evening. We went out to eat and returned home where my daughter came across some home movies and we spent the rest of the evening watching them. These movies were taken 15 years ago and it is amazing how people change in just 15 years. We watched a video of my ordination service and enjoyed again my father-in-law's sermon. I am going to copy this video to DVD to preserve it. It is the only video of him preaching, as far as we know. It also shows my father presenting me with the Bible. Before they left my daughter went through a box in the garage that had some dishes in it that we were going to get rid of. It contained a blue metal cup that I used back when I was 8 years old. She could not believe that I was going to get rid of it. She took it with her to preserve the memory. We had a really good time and are looking forward to seeing our other daughter Tuesday next week.

My brother's were suppose to go hiking together today and I hope that all went well. I plan to call them tomorrow and see how it went. I am looking forward to the services tomorrow. I love to teach and preach the Word of God. The picture is of a room that I and my brother Ralph (left) will never forget, the events in this room will abide in our memories for a long time. God bless you.

1974

In 1974 I needed to go to a dentist and so Janie made me an appointment with Dr. Hurt. He is still my dentist today. I took this picture today of Janie standing between Dr. Hurt and his assistant of 26 years. He has in one of his rooms a ceramic figure of a dentist holding a tooth with a pair of pliers. I have always liked Dr. Hurt even though many times he has scolded me like I was a step child over my lack of dental prudence. One of the things that has been amazing to me is the lack of change in this dentist's office. They have never had a computer in the office. He still has the same couch in the waiting room that was there in the 60's. There is something comforting about things remaining the same. I can remember my grandparents house and how things seemed to always be the same every time I went there. The furniture and house were always just like I left them. There have been tremendous changes in the past 35 years. It is comforting to return every six months to an oasis, a place that is just like I left it in 1974.

In Malachi 3:6 you will find these words "For I am the LORD, I change not..." God never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. There is great comfort when you know that God is always the same. Men may fail you, men may change, but God will not. He loves us and always has. He is right where you left Him when the cares of this world have taken you away. God bless you.

Fritos

Janie likes Fritos. The picture is of her enjoying some Fritos at her mothers house. After we first married I use to bring Janie a small bag of peanuts from the vending machine where I worked and when she would finish eating them I would feel bad because they were so few and they did not last long because she enjoyed them so much. I did not feel that way on this occasion because it was a large bag of chips.

I played electrician and plumber today. Got the plugs powered up for my brother's washing machine and dryer and installed a new valve in the shower. I had to crawl into the attic to fix a loose connection to get the dryer plug to work. My brother helped me to load the lawn mower into my pickup truck. I am going to take it back to Hillsboro. Visited with my mother this evening and she is doing very well. She has been painting the bed room and the living room for my brother. She was enjoying some hot chocolate.

Janie and I will be going to the dentist in the morning. I hope to get a picture of our dentist, Dr. Hurt. I first went to him back in 1974 and he has been my dentist ever since. For the past 34 years we have gone to him every six months to have our teeth cleaned. We took our children to him until they graduated high school. With his permission I well post his picture on this blog. When we moved to Hillsboro his assistant thought we would find another dentist. I assured her that I would find a new dentist the day after either his death or his retirement.

I have not done my Bible readings today so will try to get that done before I go to bed. I did not walk today so will double up tomorrow. God bless you.

Foolishness

Janie and I picked up 42 kids on the bus tonight and they seemed full of energy. A few of them gave us some problems during class and on the bus ride home and we are evaluating what we can do about that. The Bible says that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child and that is certainly true. We will have a staff meeting next Wednesday night to discuss the changes we need to make. The picture is of me laying on the floor of the bus bolting a seat to the wall of the bus this morning.

I finished the puzzle tonight as you can see from the picture. For my day off I will drive over to Henderson so that Janie can take her mother to the doctor. We have a dentist appointment early Friday morning and after that we will return home. God bless you.

Answered prayer

I had at least 2 prayers answered today. One was answered almost instantly and the second 12 hours later. I should not have been so amazed by this but I was. I spent about an hour and a half in prayer this morning when I first arrived at my office. I was so excited by the answer to my prayer that I called Janie and asked her to come to my office so I could tell her about it. It is an amazing story that I may share with you some time on this blog. I attended a lunch meeting with five other pastors in town and the sponsor of this meeting is going to put our picture in the local paper. I enjoyed visiting with them. They asked about the progress of my doctoral work and were curious about why I had chosen the Song of Solomon. I shared with them what I call "the big question" about the Song of Songs and it seem to spark their interest. I did not answer "the big question" for them so they will have to wait until I publish the book. We went down to Waco this evening and met with the Faith church there at a nursing home. It was a good service and sweet fellowship. Tomorrow morning Janie and I will bolt down the four seats on the bus that have just been recovered and then spend the rest of the day getting ready for the mid week Bible school. I will be teaching the adult class from Philippians chapter four. It is a chapter that I was required to memorize when I was in seminary.

I got to talk to my sister who lives near Vail, Colorado. The picture is one I took with Skype. We really enjoyed talking to her. I hope we can do this at least once a week. I took other pictures of her with a funny hat on and holding a toy monkey but thought she might not want that picture on the world wide web. The other picture is of me standing in front of the building where the defenders of the Alamo made their last stand. The fighting inside this building was mostly hand to hand and very violent. The men that died here bought time for Sam Houston and his army.

God bless you.

4 to go

Only 4 seats to go on the bus not counting the driver's seat. It has been a big project and the couple who are working on the seats have worked hard and done a great job. They look so nice and I am told they are very comfortable. We still need 4 more workers for our mid week Bible school and I am praying hard that the Lord will lead 4 people to step up to help. We will run the bus this Wednesday night. Tomorrow will be a busy day for me. I have a ton of work to do and so will get up early and stay up late. The services went well this morning at the nursing home. Removing the next seat on the bus went smoothly and putting the new ones back in went well except I have not bolted them down yet, a task I will take care of tomorrow afternoon.

I put a few more pieces of the puzzle together today while I listened to the news. I walked for an hour but have not done my Bible reading for the day. I will read a few chapters before calling it a day. The pictures above are, of course, the before and after pictures of the bus. The pictures below show the progress of the puzzle. God bless you.

Vacations over

We had a great day in Elkhart today. Janie's parents got all dressed up and seem to have had a good time. The picture is of Janie and her parents eating at the restaurant that our daughter and son-in-law took us to after church services. Our son-in-law preached a great sermon about Abraham's journey, we really enjoyed it. The second picture is of my daughter and her mother-in-law standing out in front of the their church building.

Well vacation is over and its back to work. Lots to do this week. I will preach at the nursing home in the morning, then head over to the church to take out another bus seat, then down to Waco to deliver it and pick up 3 finished ones, back to Hillsboro to install the seats then work on my studies. Tuesday I will work at the office all day unless I have to make a trip down to Waco to be there for one of our church members who is having some tests run. I will call in the morning and get the details and determine whether or not I need to be there. Tuesday evening we will head back down to Waco for a Bible study with the Faith Baptist Church. Wednesday we plan to run the bus and have our regular mid week Bible school services. I am going to pick out a sermon before I head for bed tonight and get it ready to go for in the morning. It is good to be home. God bless you.

Graves

We spent a good part of this day walking cemeteries. I marked each one on my GPS so we could find them again. We found a couple of grave sites for which Janie had been looking a long time. It was kind of like finding missing pieces of a puzzle. We took Janie's mother and Janie's uncle (they are sitting in the car seen in the picture) with us and spent 3 hours looking for graves.

We went out to eat this evening and ran into our daughter and son-in-law there. They had already finished and moved over to our table and visited with us while we ate. We are looking forward to hearing him preach tomorrow. Janie's parents plan to go with us and spend the day attending both services. I will be preaching the evening service.

We are watching a chick flick with Janie's parents while I am blogging. It is a good way to spend a Saturday night. God bless you.

Gary Texas

My mother was born and raised in Gary, Texas. I went over to her house to do some work but we chose not to work but to visit. I took her out to eat and while we were eating I told her that I would like to go over to Gary to look around for I had not been there in a long time. She suggested that we go and so off we went. We went to the church where she was saved and baptized. The cemetery there is the resting place for her mother's people and some of her father's people. The picture is of my mother standing next to the tomb stone of her great grandmother. This great grandmother is the one remembered for pouring boiling water on my grandfather's dog. The second picture is of a bridge where my mother spun her car around and ended up cross ways one dark night. All five of us kids were in the car and she was really shook up. The bridge back then was wooden and very narrow with no guard rails. I remember this event but did not understand the seriousness of it at the time. This happened in 1961 when I was 8 years old. All in all it has been a good day and I am looking forward to spending the day sight seeing with my wife tomorrow. Janie and I just returned from a 1 hour walk along a quite country road. It was a good way to end a day. God bless you.

Friday the 13th

I am not superstitious so without fear I go to work inside an electrical panel. I will be careful but not more than usual. Janie is headed for Tyler with her mother and we will meet back here this afternoon and go for a long walk.

I will blog some more this evening but for now here is another pictured taken in Carlsbad Caverns. God bless you.

Vacation from Vacation

We have been home today kind of taking a vacation from vacation. Went to the post office to pick up the churches mail and get that delivered to the church. There was a lot of mail. We washed the car and washed some clothes. We are headed to Henderson here in a bit and will be staying with Janie's parents through Satruday night. Sunday morning we will be in Elkhart and will return to Hillsboro Sunday night. While waiting for the clothes to wash I put a few more pieces of the puzzle together and listened to some news. I plan to work on the house in Henderson doing some electrical work there. Saturday we may visit some cemeteries and take a few pictures. Monday I will be preaching at the nursing home and will drive down to Waco to get the finished bus seats and get them installed. These activities will take up the whole day. Tuesday I have a pastors appreciation luncheon to attend and will spend the rest of the day in the office. The first picture is of me at the natural entrance to Carlsbad Caverns. The second picture if of two giant towers inside the Caverns. Both were taken with my cell phone. I was amazed they came out as good as they did. God bless you.

Alamo

Today I got to see the Alamo for the first time. It is amazing that the defenders of the Alamo knew that they would not survive but chose to stay and fight. I am glad I got to see this special place. My wife had seen it when she was a child and it was not as she had remembered. Earlier in the day we saw the Cave Without a Name. The tour guide took our picture. We were the only ones taking the tour. Three children under the age of 11 were the first to explore this cave back in the 1930's. As a kid I would have loved to have had such a place in my backyard.

We went shopping at the outlet mall in San Marcos and ate at the Cracker Barrel there. We are back at home in Hillsboro for the night and will head over to Henderson some time tomorrow. I am looking forward to hearing my son-in-law preach Sunday morning.

Cave Walking

We walked 4 1/2 miles underground today at Carlsbad Caverns. This first picture is of the natural entrance. It was about 60 degrees outside when we entered the cave and it was 56 in the cave. They would not allow us to walk back out of the cave due to the fact that they have to rescue 3 to 4 people a month who just can't physically take the whole 3 1/4 mile walk. This second picture is of the entrance from about 100 feet down in the cave. King David hid out in the cave when he was fleeing from Saul. Caves make good shelter for the temperature is constant though the humidity is rather high. We plan to see in the morning the cave with no name just north west of San Antonio, Texas. The afternoon will be spent at the Alamo, a site I have longed to see ever since I moved back to Texas. God bless you.

Early Morning

I went to bed about 9:00 last night and got up about 2:30 this morning. I could not sleep so thought I would get up and read a while. I read 23 chapters in the Bible and then worked on my doctoral thesis. I am now at almost 3000 words which is 60% done. I believe that God may drive sleep from your eyes sometimes so that you can do His work. I almost regret being on vacation. I want to get back to my office and get some work done. It is hard to enjoy vacation when your heart is not in it. I felt Sunday that it would be good to get away on vacation and took that to mean that God was in it. I am not so sure this morning.

The picture is of a wedding I officiated a while back at our church. The couple are members of our church. I have not a wedding yet this year. I also have not baptized anyone in a very long time. I am in prayer that this will be a busy year for baptisms and weddings but not funerals. God bless you.

Arrived

We arrived at Carlsbad about 8:15 this evening. Had a good drive most of the way. Stopped at a Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and top off the tank. Janie worked most of the way while I was driving today. Even worked while I shopped in Wal-mart. Saw a beautiful sunset. Going to catch up on my Bible readings and head for bed.

"...Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." I can't seem to get this verse out of my mind so will write it here and perhaps like a song stuck in ones mind taught to another it will depart. God bless you.

The Holy Spirit

I got up early this morning and went into the living room as is my custom. I could not rid myself of the feeling that the sermon I had prepared earlier in the week was not the one I needed to preach. So I turned to the scripture that I could not get off of my mind and prepared to preach the message God was laying on my heart. The services went very well though our attendance was very low. I have committed to being more attentive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. I prayed more this day than any day in the past year. I have been reading the Bible more this year and am on target to complete my reading through the Bible for the first time by the end of April.

Well we are on vacation this week and though we will not be working we will not take a vacation from Bible reading, blogging, and prayer. I will post pictures of our adventures so stay tuned. The picture is of our children (with the hats on) at Disney Land in California in 1985. God bless you.

No Place Like Home

There is no place like Home. We have arrived back home in Hillsboro after traveling several hundred miles. The ordination service went well and it turned out that I was not only suppose to question the candidate but was also to preach the sermon. I thoroughly enjoyed preaching the sermon. I had not been at that pulpit for over 6 years. Gum Spring Missionary Baptist Church now has 2 very fine deacons.

After the service we went over to my mother's house for a short visit (I took this picture with my cell phone today). My 2 brothers are making good progress on the house. They have gotten a lot done. My mother has been working constantly on the yard. Her father was always a hard worker and loved to clear land and clean fence rows. My mother reminds me of him and she certainly has his gift for it. She has worked slowly but surely and the yard is really looking good. I frankly am amazed at what she has done.

I have prayed more this day than usual. I like it and plan to keep it up. Prayer is power thing. Those of you who read my blog on regular basis are in my prayers. I prayed today for the welfare of my Uncle and Aunts in New England. I have prayed that the Lord will allow me to make a trip up there to see them again. I have such fond memories of each of them and their children. I really would like to see them again. I am planning a trip to New England in June of 2010.

The sermon for Sunday includes John 20:23. Here is a preview of what I will be preaching Sunday.

(23) Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; [and] whose soever [sins] ye retain, they are retained.
This verse might be easily misunderstood. What does Jesus mean by these words and how do they relate to what Jesus is going to send out His disciples to do. First consider what this verse does not mean. Only God can forgive sin. All sin is against God. Only God can forgive the sins of men. In the model prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Men have the power to forgive those that trespass against them. Jesus said if your enemy hunger feed him. Forgiveness is treating someone as though they had not done you wrong. We can treat people that do us wrong with kindness and that is forgiveness. To forgive is not to forget. Jesus commands that we forgive one another and He only commands those things which we can do. It is not possible to erase ones memory. It is possible to treat someone with kindness who has done us wrong. Jesus is not giving the power to remit sins to His disciples. It should not be thought that the church has the power to say who can go to heaven and who can not. The church has no power to save nor does it have the power to take away the salvation of ones soul.
Jesus sends His Church into the world to make disciples. The process of making disciples involves baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It involves teaching them to observe all things commanded by Jesus. Discipleship requires discipline. The disciple must do the biding of his master. If the disciple will not be obedient to his master then he is disciplined. A master might cause the disciple to be expelled until he repents and comes back seeking forgiveness and expressing a commitment to be obedient to the masters commands.
The disciples will preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost. Those that are saved will form groups that agree to work together as an assembly or church of the Lord Jesus Christ. They will, with Christ as their head, be obedient to Him as their Lord and master. Those of their group which are rebellious against the Lord's commands will be disciplined by the group. If the rebellious disciple refuses to repent then his sin is retained by the church and they treat that one as though they were not saved, as though they were not a brother or sister in Christ. They do not company with them nor eat with them. In the sight of Heaven their sin is retained and not remitted or forgiven. This does not mean that they loose their salvation. The soul of the saved is righteous and made clean by the blood of Christ. The soul of the saved cannot sin and thus can never be lost. The body or flesh of a saved person does sin and it will one day die because of sin. The person who yields to the desires of the flesh will be chastened by the Lord. When the wayward one repents and comes seeking forgiveness and reconciliation then the church forgives and restores that one to fellowship again. When they remit that ones' sins then the Lord in Heaven also remits or forgives their sins.
Jesus has given his disciples the power to do His work. They will preach by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. They will discipline by the authority of Jesus Christ. Many lost souls have been and will be saved as a result of the work of the church established by Jesus Christ during His personal ministry here on earth.

On the Road again

This is the view I had for two hours Thursday. I like to get 2 seconds behind a big truck and benefit from his draft. We ended up with 56 miles to the gallon on our 3 1/2 hour drive to Mt. Pleasant. I took a picture of the dash board that shows us averaging 52.6 miles to the gallon. Notice also that we are doing 60 mph in a 70 mph zone and that the temperature was 70 degrees. I love winter weather in Texas.

We had a good mission conference. The speaker preached on effective prayer and it was excellent. Prayer is the weakest part of my christian walk. I am so glad I was able to attend this conference. I have made a commitment to God that I will pray as I should and when I should. I frequently ignore the leadership of the Holy Spirit of God and go my own way. I am determined to stop this practice and start following His lead. Pray for me that God will help me to keep this commitment.

We are in Henderson tonight and I plan to head for bed right after I am through with this blog post. I plan to take a long walk in the morning and then work on my doctoral prospectus. We will head back to Hillsboro right after the ordination service tomorrow. I am fired up for this Sunday's sermon and can't wait to share God's Word with God's people. I love preaching more now than I ever have. God bless you.

42

42 is the name of a game that is played with dominoes. I learned this game when I moved to Texas back in 1973. It is a fun game and though I have not played it in a very long time I do enjoy playing. We had 42 children at church tonight. They were well behaved in class and on the bus. Three of the older ones were sent to my class because they had got off to a bad start in their class. They were very attentive to my teaching and seemed to enjoy it. We need about 4 more workers on Wednesday night and I will make a plea this Sunday.

We plan to remove three bus seats in the morning and take them down to Waco. We need to be back by noon to head for Mt. Pleasant and the missions conference there. The two seats we installed this morning went in real smoothly about as good as any of the have been. We will spend all day Friday at the conference and then all day Saturday in Henderson. Looking forward to the ordaination service Saturday. The sermon for Sunday will be a real eye opener for some as I deal with John 20:23.

We plan to leave on vacation Monday morning. We will be seeing the Alamo and Carlsbad Caverns. I will post pictures on this blog and give you a daily update on our trip. The picture is of our kids on vacation in California the summer of 1985. We went out to visit my brother and this was in the motel we stayed at there. We went to Disney Land and the Grand Canyon. God bless you.

Knickknacks

My wife placed these knickknacks, seen in this photo taken with my cell phone, in our guest bathroom. I go through life often not taking notice of such small things. You could ask me to describe what pictures are hanging on the walls of our guest rooms and I could not do it. I wonder how much beauty there is in this world that I never notice. When I hike I try to take in all the wonders of nature. There are so many small things that add up to make one beautiful world. When I read through the Bible I often come across small things that I had never noticed before.

I have made significant progress on the jigsaw puzzle as you can tell from the pictures I have posted. I bought my wife a pair of pants from LL Bean and they came in today. They are the female version of the pants I wear when I hike. They are very light weight and cool plus they protect you from the sun. We plan to do some day hiking together.

Tomorrow we will be busy getting ready for our mid-week Bible school and getting ready for the missions conference we will attend on Thursday and Friday. We have 2 seats to install on the bus and I hope they go back in better than the one we worked on today came out. I have the Sunday school lesson ready to go and all I lack now is the sermon for Sunday night and a few finishing touches on the sermon for Sunday morning. I walked 4 miles today and am caught up on my Bible readings. God bless you.

Monday Monday

There was a singing group back in the 60's called "The Mamas and The Papas." They had a hit song named "Monday Monday." The song is a lament of the fact that Monday morning can not give you any guarantee of what will happen Monday evening. My Monday has not turned out as planned. I did get a lot of things done today. I fixed a computer problem, read my daily Bible readings, walked 6 miles, got off to a good start on the sermon for Sunday, got 2 "from the Pastor"'s done, went to the bank, went to the post office, and blogged all today. I hope to finish the day with a few more pieces of the puzzle in place. I talked to both of my brothers today one by email and the other by phone and they are both doing well. My oldest brother is getting ready to paint and install tiles on the floor of the bathroom. Sounds like he is making good progress.

The picture is of my two sisters and my mother taken two years ago. My oldest sister and I were discussing health issues. We both have high blood pressure and are striving to improve our health and get off the pills. It brought this verse to my mind.
(Exodus 15:26) And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I [am] the LORD that healeth thee.
Your Doctor will tell you that you need to eat right and exercise in order to maintain a healthy life and avoid diseases. It is good to follow such advice. Moses recorded God’s advice for a healthy disease free life. Here in this verse God gives to us four things which we should do to have a life without disease.
1. Diligently hearken to God’s voice. God’s voice today is the Bible. Diligently means that you must deliberately and faithfully listen to what the Bible teaches. Read it every day.
2. Do that which is right in His sight. We must act upon what we read in the Bible. When it commands, we obey.
3. Give ear to His commandments. We are to put ourselves into a position where we can hear the commandments of God. Tune your ear to His words. Don’t let God’s words be drowned out by the words of this world. Focus on what God has to say.
4. Keep all His statutes. Not some but all. Don’t pick and choose what part of God’s Law you will keep. Keep the whole law. Keep all His statutes.
When we follow God’s admonition found in this verse He will put none of these diseases upon us. God alone is the one who heals us.
Examples: King Asa was diseased in his feet because he did not obey God. Hezekiah was dieing from a boil because he did not obey God. Herod disobeyed God and was smitten of worms. David suffered great illness after committing adultery and murder. The Philistines were smitten with boils and sores because they disobeyed God. Thousands of Israelites were kill by plague because they did not obey God. Search the scriptures and you shall find many cases were people suffered with disease as a result of not diligently hearkening unto God. God bless you.

Supper Bowl Sunday

We had a really good, might even say a super tasting, bowl of salad for supper tonight. Services went very well and we had a special service tonight. We have a busy week ahead. Monday we will take out another bus seat and make another exchange of seats. We will run the bus Wednesday and then on Thursday we head for Mt. Pleasant, Texas for a missions conference. We will be setting up an information booth (pictured) there for our France mission work. We will be there through Friday and then head for Henderson. I will be helping in a deacon ordination service Saturday afternoon. We will return to Hillsboro Saturday night. All of this will mean I must get three sermons, From the Pastor for the bulletin, and a Sunday School lesson ready by Thursday morning. A tough schedule but I can do it with the Lord's help. I will get started tonight right after I get through with my Bible readings for the day. Saturday I installed a pollen filter in our Jetta. It was very easy to do except that you and to just about stand on your head to under the dash. 2 screws and drop the insulation down then slide the cover off and pull the old filter out. It was a breeze. My son just emailed me a website where I could have gotten those wiper blades for half the price I paid at the dealer. I will definitely shop online next time. God bless you.