GREEK

It is raining and cold here today. I talked to a lady in Iowa today and told her about our 41 deg temperature and she said it was 12 degrees there. That made me thankful I live in Texas. We do need the rain here. The lakes and ponds are all way below normal levels. The farmers have planted their corn and it needed a good rain. We will not run the bus tonight due to the rain.

I do have an exciting text for this evenings service. We will be in the 2nd chapter of 2nd Thessalonians. Check out verse 6 and 7 in the King James Version. The word "withholdeth" of verse 6 is the same word as "letteth" in verse 7. The picture is of these 2 verses in the language in which it was originally written, Greek. I have highlighted in red the two words that are the same and it means literally "to keep down." All translations of the Bible into English lose some meaning and depth. It is good to be able to read the original to gain the best understanding of the text.

We will head for Henderson tonight and will get to see our grand kids for they will be in for a visit. We return to Hillsboro tomorrow night. God bless you.

Tarentaise

I have officiated at many funerals and frequently have problems pronouncing odd names listed in the obituary. Today was unique. I was unsure how to pronounce the name of a cow. That's right the name of a cow. The man we buried raised a rare type of cattle called Tarentaise (pictured). This breed of cow is from the country of France. This man may have been the only cattleman in Texas who had full blood registered Tarentaise cows.

It was a warm day today but that is about to change. It was 84 here today and by in the morning it is suppose to drop down to 44. It is a wonder that we are not all sick wearing summer clothes one day and winter clothes the next. We need the rain for we have not had any significant rain fall in a long time.

I hope to get the bus back tomorrow and am hopeful that the rain will be gone by tomorrow evening. It does not look like that is going to be the case according to the forecast. We will head over to Henderson tomorrow night so Janie can take her parents to Tyler. We will return on Thursday so we can get up early and head for a surgery in Dallas on Friday. Janie is considering a plan to have me teach her Ladies Bible Study for the next several weeks. She wants me to teach from the book of Revelation. I will need a day or 2 to get ready for such a study but I admit it would be one I enjoy. God bless you.

Sanitary Sewer

Sanitary Sewer seems like an oxymoron. I walked to the church to do some work at my office and on my way there I saw a sewer cover that had these words cast boldly "Sanitary Sewer." The term is one used of any sewage removal system. Sinful Saints also seems like an oxymoron. They are saints because they have been cleansed of their sins by the blood of Jesus Christ. They are sinners because they live in the flesh. Saved people, saints, truly are sinners saved by the grace of God.

The bibliography is finished as of today. It contains over 80 books that I will site in my doctoral thesis. The goal is to turn in the prospectus by the end of April.

I have a funeral service tomorrow and hopefully the bus will be finished and ready to be picked up. "From the Pastor" is on my schedule for this evening and I plan to return to the book of John this Sunday. Wednesday night we will be going over 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 and Sunday night I plan to preach on the subject of church discipline. The picture is of my son-in-law leading the singing at the church he pastors in Elkhart, Texas. God bless you.

My day

My day, great. Services, well attended. Fellowship, sweet. Food, really good.

I was greeted in the parking lot of the church this morning by a man asking for help. It seems he had an argument with his wife and while he was passed out in a drunken state she took off in the car and left him stranded without any shoes and no wallet. One of our deacons took care of him getting him to a bus station. Having our church building right off a major interstate Highway brings to our door a lot of people wanting help. Many of these people by their own testimony never attend church but when they need help that is the first place they go. In the six years I have pastored I have lost count of the number of people we have helped. Out of all of these we have received only one thank you note.

Tomorrow I will be preaching at the nursing home and then will take the bus to have its brakes repaired. Between the brakes and the weather forecast it is looking like we may not run the bus Wednesday. The picture is of me and my youngest grandson, Jonathan, taken just a couple of weeks ago. Judging from this picture I think we favor. God bless you.

Water On The Hands

Elisha was described as the one who poured water on the hands of Elijah. Elijah was a great prophet indeed and Elisha would end up with a double portion of his spirit. But in 2 Kings 3:11 Elisha was not known as a great prophet he was recognized more for the fact that He had been the servant of Elijah. In the eyes of the King and his servants Elisha was important and significant because of his servile relationship with the great prophet Elisha. Friday I went over to Bro. Davis' house and when I entered the first words I said to Sis. Davis were "I am here to pour water on the hands." Bro. Davis put me to work right away. We moved a pile of firewood, removed an electrical wire from the ground and disconnected it from the breaker box, went to the store and got an ink cartridge for his printer and installed it, and did some work on his computer. It was a great day and the whole time we worked we talked about such things as the Song of Solomon, The rich young ruler, saved by the blood, nursing homes, and strange noises in his house. At one point we were talking about Ezekiel chapter one that describes the scene that Ezekiel saw of God on His throne. Bro. Davis paused and said to me "I don't want to rub it in but it looks like I am going to get to see the Lord before you do." The picture above is one I took of him at Wal-Mart where we bought the ink and some paper for his printer. I plan to spend 2 Fridays a month with Bro. Davis and though he says that is a great blessing to him the real blessing, like with Elisha's double portion, is mine.

I did manage to go for a short walk while over in Henderson. As you can see from the picture I was casting a very long shadow while on my walk. The weather was great about 80 degrees. Janie and I help her mother fill out their income tax. It was actually fun. Janie filled the form in on the computer while I added up the numbers and her mother handed me the 1099's and such that we needed. I kept picking on her about first one thing then another kind of teasing with her and Janie kept saying "Hey that's my mother your picking on so cut it out." We got it done and off in the mail. We returned to Hillsboro Friday night and I went ahead and pushed the clocks forward an hour so we lost our sleep last night instead of tonight.

On Thursday I went over to my brother's to work on the house and I helped him install a ceiling fan and a florescent light fixture. He got the hang of it and when I returned several hours later to fix a problem with the light switch I discovered he had installed the light fixture on the front porch while I was gone. He was proud of himself and I was proud of him. They seem to like their new home really well and mother sure likes having them so close. I took this picture of my mother while I was there. We needed to borrow some light bulbs from her so Steve and I went down to her house for a short visit. She made it clear she wanted him to replace her spare bulbs and he assured her that he would.

Well I had better get to work on the Sunday School lesson for tomorrow. We are going to have a fellowship luncheon right after our morning services tomorrow and I need to help Janie plan what we are going to fix to take. I am thinking about cooking a brisket, we'll see. God bless you.

Schubert

I was not familiar with the works of Franz Schubert until today. I went to get my hair cut and the lady who cuts my hair baby sits her granddaughter who is 2 years old. She is a sweet girl and she had a toy piano which played music. I noticed 4 pictures of 4 composers and you could press them and hear some of their music. I recognized each composition except Schubert's. I was not familiar with his music. It caused me to google him and check out his music. We went by the church afterward and installed 2 bus seats. We are home now getting ready for tonight's Bible school. We will pick up the kids and try out our new schedule.

I feel much better today and have gotten my prospectus back from my oldest daughter. She painted it up real good, highlighting my mistakes and poor wording. She did a real good job working it over. I had to concur with all of her suggested changes. I have not gotten them all corrected yet but hope to get them done by this evening. After the proof reading and correct process is over all I will have left to do is complete the bibliography then bind and turn it in. Once accepted I will pay my tuition fee and then get after the real work.

The sermon I have prepared for Sunday is going to entitled "Saved by the Blood of the Crucified one." Its main purpose will be to express the importance of salvation. I am excited about this sermon because there is no doubt that it is the one God wants me to preach. It came to me as I was reading through the Bible that men's lives are full of vanity and only one thing really matters. Our relationship with God is the most important factor in life. I am praying that God will cause those who need to hear this message to tune in or show up for the services.

We will head over to Henderson tonight after services. Janie will be taking her dad for blood work and I will work with my brother on the Clark place. I am going to get some serious walking in also and will spend Friday with Bro. Davis. The picture is of my oldest grandson, Joshua, on our last hike. I am looking forward to hiking with him again here in a couple of weeks. God bless you.

Sick

I have been sick today. I got up feeling poorly this morning and thought it to be allergies so I took some medicine which made me sleepy. I went to the office and worked for an hour or so and then came home and took a short nap. I did not feel any better so I took some different medication and now that it is almost time for bed I feel much better. This picture was one I took of the last service I attended at the nursing home. We did not have services yesterday because they have quarantined the nursing home due to a flu out break.

I am planning to hike with my grandson during spring break. If the weather is good we will do an overnight hike along Turkey creek. I will post pictures on this blog afterward so stay tuned. Our spring break starts March 16th and while Janie enjoys the other grand kids at their home I will enjoy being with my grandson on the trail. We will hike half a day Monday and then all day Tuesday should be a lot of fun.

I had planned to finish my prospectus today but just felt to bad to work on it. I will try again tomorrow and hopefully finish it up. I want to take it with me to let Bro. Davis read it over and get his input. I will email it to my daughters and let them proof read it for me. They will just love that. I should email it to my sister Peggy and let her proof it also for she has had to do a doctoral dissertation and would know the pit falls. The prospectus needs to be well ordered and terse (pithy). It needs to express enthusiasm for the subject and I believe it does that quite well. God bless you.

5000

I prayed a year or so ago that the stock market go down to 5000. It looks as though my prayer is being answered. My reason for praying such a thing was based on the empty pews that are so abundant in every church of every religion. Talking to the pastors in our town I found that all of them have had a decline in attendance. My prayer was that since God had given us prosperity and what He got in exchange was a people forsaking worship services He should give us poverty and perhaps that would return people to the pews. Every human being ought to be thankful to God and ought to pause at least one day a week to worship and thank God for His blessings. The quality of the American way of life is directly connected to the quality of our relationship to God.

I walked for an hour today and have caught up on my Bible readings. We took another bus seat out today and after spending about three hours at the hospital with some of our church members I took that seat and exchanged it for one that was finished. We have just 2 seats left on the bus that have not been removed. I expect that by the end of this month the bus seats will be all done. We have changed our schedule for our mid-week Bible school. We start at 6:45 now and will stop giving the kids refreshments. They are active enough without adding sugar to the mix so I think this was a good move. I am looking forward to spending Thursday with my mentor and father in the ministry the man I call my pastor. I consider it a part of my on going education and training to spend time with Bro. Davis. Friday will be my day off and I will help my older brother with some electrical work at the Clark house. My brother has moved in now and I know that mother is glad to have him living on the property.

I have some work to get done before I can retire for the day so I must leave off blogging for now. I will spend the day at the office studying tomorrow and hope to get my prospectus ready for proof reading next week. The picture is of our church auditorium on Wednesday night just before the services started. We got to the church earlier than usual and we took pictures of the kids so we could put a name with a face when we pray for them. God bless you.

Eucharist

Eucharist is another word for the Lord's Supper. It is taken from the Greek verb which means to give thanks. It is what Jesus did before He gave the cup to His disciples. The Lord's Supper is certainly an observance that makes one thankful. We observed the Lord's Supper in our evening services tonight and though it is sobering to think about the suffering of Christ it does make me thankful that He died for me. This picture is one I took at our church and used it for the cover page of my masters thesis on the Lord's supper.

Tomorrow we will not have our services at the nursing home due to a quarantine there. I will instead get some work done at the office and will be going down to Waco where one of our church members is going to have surgery. I will carry another bus seat with me and bring back the one that is finished. We only have three more seats to go and that project will be finished. We will run the bus this Wednesday night.