August 2007 - Posts
From the National Weather Service, there is a sever storm warning in Blount county. A Tornado is about to touch down. Run and hide to all you rebels who are foolish enough to face this storm. The storm is predicted to touch down at about 7pm eastern time in the Alcoa area. Don't get in it's way. You can watch it, but don't cross it's path.
Go Tornadoes!
Last night was our usual Wednsday night worship service for Preteens(5th and 6th graders). I left work a little early just like I always do thinking that everything was business as usual. I love Elevate, it's a time to love on some kids and give them God's word, simple and straightforward. The hope being to be able to take Jesus to school with them. By 6:15 which is when we start, I was not ready for what happened. 101, that's right, 101 poeple in this small modular building. 24 of which were my *** Elevate team and the rest were kids. 77 5th and 6th graders. One word for that. Crazy. It had to be a fire hazard of some sort. People standing in the back of the room while we worshipped and learned from God's word. God is good to bless me with the responsibility to help them see that Jesus really loves them....for them. Pray that God would convict any *** that doesn't know him into a faith relationship with Jesus and that God would bless my and my teams efforts to love some kids to Jesus.
Okay, if you haven't played a Wii from Nintendo yet, do so ASAP. Never in my life have I been into a game system so much that it's all I think about doing with my spare time, which is not much. I still don't, but I could see where it could get addictive. I had money to spend in my *** budget, a line item just sitting there doing nothing. All other projects, activities, and material have been bought and paid for. So, I bit the bullet and bought a Wii for the kids to play with. Let's just say they love me now, a lot. Ha! Just kiddin. Anyway, I applaud Nintendo on making an interactive game system that the whole family can get into. They have Wii sports, fun games, and educational games that keep the ole brain sharp too! It's crazy fun, and something that up to 4 people can do at a time. I like to bowl, play tennis, golf, box, and play baseball. All of which are quite a workout. It's much like the real game where you use timing and have a keen perseption of the sport or activity your playing. Very realistic. Very fun, and it's something the whole family can do. And the price, not bad for all the fun you can have together as a family. $250. This is for the system, some sample sports games, and one controller with numchucks(don't ask). The extra controllers are $30 and the extra numchucks are $20. It's a motion activated game using your controler which you strap to your wrist and I caught one of my 6th grade boys sitting down trying to play and I jokingly told him that real men...Wii standing up! It's an interactive, get off your rear kind of system, get ready to be addicted!
1 Corinthians 10:13 reminds us that when the devil comes knocking at our door, we should say, "Lord, would you mind gettin that?" We're no match for the devil. He's pretty powerful, but he's certainly is not as powerful as God. But we don't want to tangle with him. We want to stand behind God's protection.
In spite of the devil's power and his messed up agenda, he must first ask permission when it comes to God's children, because of the hedge of protection that God has placed around us.
God knows what you are ready for. And He won't give you more than you can handle.
Last night I got the rare opportunity to have dinner with my pastor. This is rare because of the size of our church, and it's not everyday that he requests to have dinner with just you and your wife. Although he is extremely busy, he just wanted to sit down and have a meal with us and tell us that he loves us and wanted to find out what was going on in our lives. This may not seem like a big deal to most, but you must understand that this man is only one of three in my life that truly live in the presense of God. Bro. Hollie walks with God....all the time. He's the kind of christian I strive to be. He's very Billy Grahamesque to me. It was like having dinner with Moses. You find yourself nervous at first, but then relaxed because he is so kind, humble, and genuinely interested in what is going on with you. And oddly enough, the whole time it seemed like there was a glow about him. You tend to gravitate toward him, so did everyone else in the restaurant, it's because he lives and walks like Jesus.
One of my favorite times during the week is on Wednsday nights @ 9. After I've hung out with my kids I get to go to "The Walk." The Walk is a contemporary worship service targeted for college students and young adults. Well, I still feel young, I guess that's why I love to go. Check out the new website that has been launched by our church for The Walk. www.insidethewalk.org Check it out!
Acts 4:13- "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized they had been with Jesus."
We can often tell where people have been just by looking at them. For instance, if someone walked by wearing a wet swimming suit and sand-covered sandals, we would think that person had just come from the beach. We could see the telltale signs.
The Bible tells us there was something about Peter and John, something about the way they lived and the things they said, that were telltale signs to unbelievers that they had been with Jesus. One day on their way to pray in the temple, they met a crippled man. He asked them for money, but Peter told him, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk" (Acts 3:6). It was a dramatic, awesome miracle.
The religious leaders didn't like this. They thought they had already dealt with this problem when they eliminated that man from Nazareth known as Jesus. But now His followers were popping up everywhere. So they called Peter and John to appear before them. Acts 4:13 tells us that they were amazed because there were signs that they had been with Jesus. It was unmistakeable.
If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? You may put Christian stickers on your car. Perhaps you have three or four Bibles in your home. Your wardrobe might include several T-shirts with Christian slogans on them. But what about your behavior? Would there be enough evidence to prove that you have been with Jesus? What about the change? What about the difference?
Apparently, these words spoken by Mr. Newt Gingrich are creating quite a stir amoung the media and the entire country.
NEWT GINGRICH: The third thing I want to talk about very briefly is the genuine danger of terrorism, in particular terrorists using weapons of mass destruction and weapons of mass murder, nuclear and biological weapons. And I want to suggest to you that right now we should be impaneling people to look seriously at a level of supervision that we would never dream of if it weren't for the scale of threat.
Let me give you two examples. When the British this summer arrested people who were planning to blow up ten airliners in one day, they arrested a couple who were going to use their six month old baby in order to hide the bomb as baby milk.
Now, if I come to you tonight and say that there are people on the planet who hate you, and they are 15-25 year old males who are willing to die as long as they get to kill you, I've simply described the warrior culture which has been true historically for 6 or 7 thousand years.
But, if I come to you and say that there is a couple that hates you so much that they will kill their six month old baby in order to kill you, I am describing a level of ferocity, and a level of savagery beyond anything we have tried to deal with.
And, what is truly frightening about the British experience is they are arresting British citizens, born in Britain, speaking English, who went to British schools, live in British housing, and have good jobs.
This is a serious long term war, and it will inevitably lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place in the country, that will lead us to learn how to close down every website that is dangerous, and it will lead us to a very severe approach to people who advocate the killing of Americans and advocate the use of nuclear or biological weapons.
And, my prediction to you is that either before we lose a city, or if we are truly stupid, after we lose a city, we will adopt rules of engagement that use every technology we can find to break up their capacity to use the Internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after people who want to kill us to stop them from recruiting people before they get to reach out and convince young people to destroy their lives while destroying us.
This is a serious problem that will lead to a serious debate about the first amendment, but I think that the national security threat of losing an American city to a nuclear weapon, or losing several million Americans to a biological attack is so real that we need to proactively, now, develop the appropriate rules of engagement.
And, I further think that we should propose a Geneva convention for fighting terrorism which makes very clear that those who would fight outside the rules of law, those who would use weapons of mass destruction, and those who would target civilians are in fact subject to a totally different set of rules that allow us to protect civilization by defeating barbarism before it gains so much strength that it is truly horrendous.
This is a sober topic, but I think it is a topic we need a national dialogue about, and we need to get ahead of the curve rather than wait until actually we literary lose a city which could literally happen within the next decade if we are unfortunate. So
(APPLAUSE)
This is a very sober description of the Islamic terrorist threat we are faced with. We are NOW at war with a culture that wants, not to take over our land, but to KILL us.
This is one of the funniest things I've seen and heard in a while. It's almost worth memorizing and trying at the next wedding you go to. There is one bad word, caution!
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1759620
I assume that BJ and Joe are out blazing the campaign trail....any other thoughts to the mysterious drop off the face of the earth of our dynamic duo?
For those of you who thought Joe Napalm was NOT a true baller, guess again. Check it out, the originator of some mad handles! The Naypalm!
http://www.jumpusa.com/naypalm.htm
If you have a relationship with Christ, then the truth that He could come back at any time should impact the way you live. The Bible says, "And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure" (1 John 3:3). In other words, if you really are a Christian and you believe Christ is coming back again, you will want to want to be a more godly person. You will want to live a life that is pleasing to God. You will want to avoid things that would be wrong or sinful, and you will be growing more like Him. Are you ready and waiting?