Heroes #2

I would like to continue sharing about my Heroes. I have realized that everyone in my life is a hero is some sort of fashion. I’ve learned that even though some people are ugly and not fun to be around, once you get to know them, there is a small part that we can learn from. I believe that most people want to be good in their lives, but lack guidance and/or encouragement.

Again no particular order.

Michele J. My wife. She loves me for me. She accepts me for who I am and still loves me. She allows me to be who I want to be and supports me. She has become an inspiration to me lately because everything she has gone through in the last several months, she continues to push forward. She continues to want to improve her way of life. She is an excellent mother and wife, even if she doesn’t think so. I love her more everyday.

Jacque J. My step-mom. She takes very good of my father. She loves my son with all of her heart. She even accepts me like family. She has a big heart and loves my Dad very much. I am thankful that my Dad has someone like Jacque. She is always trying to spoil my son. It drives me crazy with some things that she does for Brandon, but she does it with all her heart. She also does it to tease me too, which just goes to show how much she cares for me and Michele. And no I didn’t mean that sarcastically. I was being serious. Her way of showing affection is by teasing. It’s fun & harmless teasing.

Brandon. My son. He loves life. He is full of energy and loves the outdoors. I love watching him grow. Its amazing to see him change every day. He has friends and cares about them and wants to spend time with them. He loves God. Even when I think the little devil inside of him peeks through, he always seems to let his light show right after it. He really is an awesome kid. I am so lucky to have a special child as him in my life. Brandon just keeps surprising me with his interests and hobbies. I am proud to call him my son.

I know I have more heroes, but I am tired and ready to pass out for bed. Today was a very busy day at work. They offered overtime, but I declined again. I haven’t been feeling very good lately and the thought of working over or taking 1/2 hour lunches, I think would make me more tired. I am excited that I have this Saturday off from work. I get to watch Brandon play ball again. I hope I can remember to take my camera with me. He then has a party afterwards at Mr Gatti’s Pizza.

Thanks for reading.
God Bless you all.
In Christ’s Love,
WLBC-Webmaster
Learning Everyday!

Heroes

Todd mentioned that we all have heroes. That made me start thinking of people I look up to. Even though one of my heroes is Jesus, I wanted to mention some heroes I see at church on a regular basis and why they are my heroes.

My hero basis is someone who continues to do the right thing, who does what others won’t do, and does it with all their heart. As I name off some of my heroes, I don’t want anyone to think that I have placed anyone above Jesus. These people have shown me strength in different areas. Some of them show strength in their faith and their relationship with Christ. Anyways, I think you get the point.

These are not in any particular order.

My Dad. He has gone through so many health obstacles and keeps on going. He has shown me that even though things may slow us down, it does not stop us. He has shown so much strength during so much. The man has lost both legs, has a heart condition, diabetes, blind in the left eye and other things. That seems like a lot for any one person to go through. He just continues to live and be an example of strength in my life.

Todd H. Todd is the pastor at WLBC. He continues to push and lead. I know he is not perfect. It’s actually nice to see someone come out strong through different obstacles in daily living. This last week especially, with all that happened at the beginning of last week. WOW. He is creative in leading. He continues to show his walk with Christ. You can see the relationship grow with in him. It’s amazing to watch anyone walk with Christ. They teach us how to get to the next step. Kind of like a ranking system. As a leader he always appears to be ahead of the group so we know where to go. I thank God for sending Todd to lead. Todd also is a great father and husband. I only wish to be a small fraction of what he does. I know that with time, and a closer walk with Christ that will come. In the mean time, Todd is an inspiration to that part of my life. Todd is just a simple guy who loves his family and God.

Jeff J. Jeff is funny. He is a lot like me in many ways. He reminds me of the things I do. He reminds me of the way I talk or present myself to others. Some times I try too hard and wind up leaving out the important stuff. I am learning how to present myself differently. Jeff also has an amazing love for Christ. You can see him also deal with daily temptations and obstacles and he relies on Christ for strength. He is so great with kids. He wears his heart on his sleeve and it shows.

My Mom. I miss my Mom. She passed away back in September of 1995. She was a woman of God. She loved Jesus more than life itself. She never stopped loving God. You could see that God was her strength. Even when she was crippled with her legs, she found ways of helping in church and working for God. She was great at typing and bookwork. She stayed at the same place of employment until her health kept her from it. She was married to one man all of her life. She was a good servant to her family. She planned the reunion for our family every year. She knew birthdays, anniversaries, and would keep everyone updated. She was also very good at balancing the check book and keeping the finances in order. She knew how to save every penny she could. When she passed she passed on a small but sufficient nest egg. She knew how to pray. She knew how to Love everyone unconditionally. She knew how to love until the end. Even during her last days, she continued to never doubt her faith in Jesus. She knew where she was going.

Sam R. What can I say about Sam? He is always busy with activities with his family and always seems to have a good ear. He is a good father and husband. He really knows how to listen. He is laid back and just seems at peace with everything around him. It’s almost like nothing could frazzle him. He seems to be the one who is always praying. You can tell he prays with expectations and that prayers are answered before they are asked. He kinda has like a prayer heart on his sleeve. Sam is almost like another father figure in my life. He has been where I have been or knows where I am coming from. He always seems to know the right thing to say.

So I have mentioned a few of my heroes and why. I learn from each of them every time I get to see, hear, or talk with them. I am so thankful God has placed me where I am today. God has surrounded me with his Warriors and Saints. I know that my heroes are also very humble and don’t categorize themselves in any such fashion as I just did. I just hope they realize that they are affecting others in their daily lives and that what they do, does matter and does make a difference. Even if it is only one person listening or paying attention. I hope they also know how much I appreciate them.

I have other heroes in my life and I will share some more later this week. I have many more. God has brought me to a place in my life where He is showing me His work in others and what I can learn from each of them. Like I said yesterday. God has me in training mode. I can’t wait to learn more.

God Bless you and your families.
In Christ’s Love
WLBC-Webmaster
Learning Everyday!

Last Week

It’s been a week since my last post. A lot has happened but it never seemed like it was enough to write about. Even though I didn’t feel like it was worth anything to maybe someone else, everything that happened in the last week meant something to me.

It’s almost impossible to write about everything that happened but here are a few highlights.

I was reading Todd’s blog on Tuesday and read some disturbing news that happened to him and his family that day. It wasn’t anything life threatening, but if you were in their shoes how would any of us reacted in this case. Every thing that could have gone wrong that day did. From sick children, to kids getting in dog poo, to getting a migrane, a presentation that would not save and had to be redone 3 times, one of the kids almost passing out on stage (because they were feeling ill and over heating), to a bloody nose, to the presentation that had been done 3 times not working when needed, and to top it all off the vehicle broken into and all of the electronics that were left in the van that also had priceless memories on them. They just didn’t lose stuff but memories on 2 cameras and movies and work on a laptop.

As you can see everything that would have gone wrong, did. But in all of that the family kept going through the day. They just let each thing pass behind them and moved on. I kept thinking to myself, am I strong enough to pull out a day like that? They were all in good spirits about it all. I don’t know that if that happened to me that I would have stayed that calm. It really goes to show you that how close you are to God the stronger you are when “Life Happens”.

As I evaluated my relationship with God, as I often do, I kept thinking about their day. How would have I responded throughout the day and how would I have responded the next morning to find all of the electronics missing with the precious memories from special events. I am sure I would have been saying to myself, that’s what I get for disobeying God. But, Todd and his family took it as a compliment. A compliment? Ok maybe not completely like a compliment but an encouragement that God had a hold of their life and it was a spiritual warfare going on that day. God kept a hold of them and helped them through the day while the devil kept trying to throw obstacles in front of them. Even after the day was over, the devil took one more shot by stealing their electronics. In the end God still prevailed and their faith was even stronger because of it. Now if you ask them, I am not sure what they would say but God used them as a testimony for other, including me. What I saw and heard was that all in all God is triumphant over all evil. That we Can do ALL things through Christ, who gives us strength. Phillipians 4:13.

I guess this is one of the main reasons I continue going to church, even tho some days I don’t feel like I have enough strength to move. It’s families like Todd’s and others at the church that continue to show me how their Faith and continued desire to follow Christ pulls each of them and us through anything and everything. Good and bad.

Served opened my eyes to ways to serve others. It has been an amazing week. I have actually thought about stepping out of my comfort zone instead of putting on the blinders. I know it’s not a complete turn around, but God also didn’t make the world in one day either. It also seems that I pray alot for others more lately too. I don’t necessarily get on my knees and take hours to do it, but someone will come to mind and I just say a quick prayer for each person I think about. It’s really cool to just tell God that I love these people and for God to help them where they need it most. I have prayed a lot for some co-workers and friends of mine this week. One of my co-workers had a death in the family and I know how that pain feels. It’s one of the worst feelings any one of us will ever go through. I kept thinking that if they Knew Christ they could celebrate instead of mourning. They would be able to celebrate that they were no long in pain and with God, and would one day get to see them again.

I also have been saying prayers for a family that is dear to me and my family. I don’t know how to help them and I know that they have to learn to let God do His thing, instead of them trying to do it all and letting God help a little. I know that if they would only get back into the swing of things at church, they would be closer to God. I just keep praying that the strength of God will work through them and guide them where they need to be in life. I just hope that I can continue to share what God is doing in my life and if they really start letting go they could really begin to live as God wants them to live.

I don’t remember ever feeling like loving people like this before. I don’t ever remember in my life, feeling like someone else is in control of my life and believing it. God has done so many things in my life. He continues to show me HE is REAL! He continues to take away my doubts and fears. He continues to bless me and my family. He continues being the One constant thing in my life. It’s awesome to know that I and you all have some one to lean on and trust that they will always be there. Even when our families and friends fail us, we have God as our constant.

God really worked some kind of miracle this week for my and my family in the finance department. We had over spent on the checking account and waiting for a check to clear. The check still had not cleared the bank and my pay check went in before all the late fees would have hit. Praise God for letting a business hold our check a couple days more. Now that it is memorial day weekend, I expect that check will clear next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Something else funny happened, ok maybe not funny but interesting to say the least. I had a run in with a bill this week. I told them I would pay on Friday when I got paid, now usually I tell collectors that I will and never do, and actually called on Friday and paid the bill. That itself is amazing. Now, I have to ask for forgiveness. I was dealing with a very large company, and their call center I think was in another country. The agents on the phone had horrible grammar and a very odd accent and I would have to ask the same question more than 2 times to get them to understand what I was asking. It was very frustrating. It was also frustrating that no one could give me any information about what the heck was going on or who they were. It was very frustrating not being able to verify anything that was documented or said. Finally, I was able to verify what the amount was and when I was going to pay it. I know I said some harsh things and questioned the integrity of the company. I spent probably about an hour and a half just trying to make arrangement and adjustments for a $22 bill. Yeah, a $22 bill. I think the point of all the conversations it was the principle and the integrity of what was right and wrong. No I should not have said some of the things I said, but I will say this, in the past, I would have tore them up worse than I did this time. So I guess that’s part of “Growing Up” and becoming more mature and also letting God keep me at bay during it. Don’t get me wrong here, I don’t condone what I did, but I did see the changes from my past behavior to this even. I am recognizing the change and growth. That’s another thing that I God has taught me, not to dwell on the negative things and to learn from our mistakes, move on and focus on the good that was in it.

I also have been doing a lot of thinking about where God is taking me in my journey of life. I know He has something awesome planned. I don’t know what yet, but I am learning patience. I have learned that in the the Bible, it took Paul (aka Saul) 12 years to start preaching. From the time of Saul’s encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus to the first Preaching of the Gospel. He studied God’s word. He learned to overcome fears. He also learned the Word well enough that any time he was persecuted he was still able to teach in prisons and become an inspiration to the new churches at that time. God doesn’t say, ok you are mine now and then push us out into the world without training. It took Paul 12 years to train. It took Jesus 30 years to prepare for his Greatness. Noah was 600 years old when built the ark. Moses wandered the dessert for years before his greatness. All the great men and women in the Bible didn’t just one day choose to follow God and then the next day show up with and ark, or part the Red Sea. They all trained. They all learned God’s word and God taught them first before heading out into historical greatness.What makes us think we can do in a week, month or just a year. Our hearts, minds and souls are in constant training mode with God when we let Him teach us. I am thankful that I am learning more and more everyday.

God continues to WOW me and Amaze me with his love and kindness. God continues to challenge my way of thinking and challenge me to Trust Him more. He continues to allow me to learn different types of emotions and pain to learn how to deal with things better the next time. I had an instance about 11 days ago, I had questions because I was confused about something, normally I would have not said anything, but I didn’t. I went to my brother in Christ and asked for clarification. I am so happy that I did otherwise I would have made myself miserable for weeks about it. I can see that God is changing me everyday. Little by little.

I am so glad I have chosen to be on God’s team. I am so thankful that he allows me to Serve and Praise Him. He is the Almighty, Everlasting, Counselor, Creator, and Father of ALL.

Thanks for catching up with me. I will try to get some entries in sooner instead of waiting for a week to write. Thank you for reading.

God Bless you and your Family
In Christ’s Everlasting Love
WLBC-Webmaster
Learning Everyday!

You've Been Served

You’ve been Served. That was the motto for today at WLBC. We went out to the community and pumped gas, wrangled carts, picked up parking lots, picked up trash along the streets, washed windows, went to hospitals, went to the Ronald McDonald house and visited people who can’t get out. It looked like there was about 200+ there today. It was pretty awesome that everyone showed up. After last Sunday’s announcement, I was scared it would be very few. God has a way of making things happen.

God is serving WLBC as we served others. He continues to bless us as a church and as individuals within the church. In all my years of growing up and going to church, this is the first time I have experienced God work in these ways. God is not just another word, phrase or someone’s name. God is everything. And Everything belongs to Him. We were put on this earth to SERVE others as Christ did so many years ago.

Here is the Business card that we handed to people as we “SERVED” them.

Washing of the feet. John 13: 4-12

(4)so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. (5)After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

(6)He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

(7)Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

(8)”No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

(9)”Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

(10)Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” (11)For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

(12)When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them.

Jesus Explains how to Serve Him through Servicing others. Matthew 25:35-40

(35)For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, (36)I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

(37)”Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? (38)When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? (39)When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

(40)”The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Jesus served his disciples so that they may be a part of Him. Through servicing others, Jesus paved the way that we should all live by. Being Humble and Serving others. Every time you help someone else out of Christ’s Love, you are serving the Master and Creator of our massive Universe.

Keep Serving - God Bless! - Love you guys.

As always thank you for reading

In Christ’s Love
WLBC-Webmaster
“Learning Everyday!”

M-n-M's

HA HA…
I love the MnM characters. They are funny. Oh and tasty too. I hope you enjoy the MnM movies as much as I did and I also took the wallpapers they offer online and made a slide show of them. ENJOY!

Served

Have you ever wandered if a church or organization stopped talking about how to make the world better and actually did it. Well that’s what our church is doing. Todd has decided to take our church to the streets. We will be doing all kinds of different things to make our community, city, state, country and world just a little better. The church doors will be LOCKED! NO ENTRANCE! Not even for potty breaks. Oh my! We are meeting in the parking lot and then heading out. We will be cleaning up parks, sitting with those who are not able to get out, cooking at the Ronald McDonald house, taking food to ICU and surgery waiting rooms, cleaning windshields on cars, putting up carts at Wal-Mart, and so much more. Can you imagine 150+ people from one organization going out and doing these things. We all talk about making the world a better place, Todd basically said, let’s put our money where our mouth is, shut up and get busy. Ok so he didn’t really say that, but basically that is what it boils down to.

I really believe God is moving Todd in a direction like no other. I really believe God has put Todd in front of us for a Revolution that has just begun. If this is only the beginning, I can’t wait to see what happens next. I have heard so many talking about this event, how excited they are and how ready they are to do this.

On another subject… Earlier this week, I let things get out of control in my head. I let my thoughts go to the worse scenario there was. You know when you get that “Constructive Criticism”. Well that’s what I got at first, but really didn’t understand what was going on. Normally in these types of cases, I just let things fester and build up and never say anything. Not this time! I went and asked for more clarification. Even though, I was thinking positive and negative thoughts, the negative thoughts were winning at that moment. I am glad I asked. I really did make a mountain out of a mole hill. The person I talked to explained to me what the vision was. Now that I understand, I started moving forward. I have a new focus on the task at hand and know better now where to go with it.

I know was vague in to what happened and who it involved, but the point I am trying to make is… (1) Don’t make mountains out of mole hills (2) Go to the person or persons involved and get clarification (3) Don’t be scared to ask for clarification, miscommunication happens all the time (4) Even though it’s harder to do the right thing, in the long run, things work out for the better, AND (5) If the criticism is coming from someone you care about, and you know they care about you, then even if the words don’t come out right, rely on the fact that they love you and would not give you advice if they feel you didn’t need it.

Sorry for not writing the last couple of days, I have not felt very well lately and have just not had the strength to talk about things lately. It was exhausting just getting through each day.

As always, thanks for reading.
In Christ’s Love
WLBC-Webmaster
Learning Everyday!

I Lied

Sorry, I thought I was gonna take the night off from writing, but I decided to write anyways. I lied. Sorry, at the time I had not planned on making an entry for today.

OH my what a day. Mother’s day! Woke up late this morning for church. But we did manage to finally get there. We also had to stop and pick up breakfast for Sunday School on our way. Ok, so Sunday School’s message was about Paul writing to the Corinthian church again. He was explaining how he put his life on the line for what he believed. He believed in the resurrection of Christ. He was teaching the Good News and was constantly persecuted by many because of his teachings. He had been put in jail, beaten, gone hungry for days, come close to death several times, and pushed away by many. He went through all of this to make sure the Good News was being told. Paul was challenging the Corinthians to evaluate their beliefs. If Christ didn’t rise on the 3rd day then all of Paul’s suffering was for nothing. He wanted the Corinthians to remember the first time they heard the Good News and re-commit to their beliefs.

Sunday morning Worship. Todd started a series called “SERVED” last week and this week continued. He showed us that we as Christians need to be serving others. To reach the lost we need to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give drink and food to those who are thirsty, and to give of ourselves to meet the needs of others. Christ commanded us to do so. Christ wants us to be more like Him.

Matthew 25:35-36

•35• For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, •36• I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Anyways…. To come alive in our community we will be heading out into the community next Sunday, May 18. There will be no Sunday School or Morning Worship. Our Pastors and administration team have gathered information about places that need our attention in our community. We will be heading out to those places at 9am next Sunday. It will be an Interesting Day. I am already nervous, but I think that it will make a huge impact, not just on our lives, on the lives of the people we meet that day. In order to become more like Christ we must start doing the things Christ did. We must start learning and developing those habits that portray the Love of Christ in our lives.

We should all pray that this will impact everyones’ lives who are serving and being “SERVED”

In Christ’s Love
WLBC-Webmaster
Learning Everyday!

No Entry

Exhausting Day….

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day. Normally I would force myself to stay up and write something but tonight I am going to turn in early.

I hope you all have a great Happy Mother’s Day.

See you all on Monday 5-12-08.

In Christ’s Love
WLBC-Webmaster
Learning Everyday!

Poster

I was thinking of something interesting to say, and well still haven’t thought of anything yet. I was checking out some other blogs and everyone’s entries seem to be a lot shorter than mine. I imagine the more I write the better I will become at conveying what I want to say with a few paragraphs. Oh well, in the mean time, I will just keep writing what my heart, mind and soul want to say.

Tomorrow is the Block Party “EXPECT MORE” 2008 at WLBC. We’ll have booths, games, food, music, basketball, rummage sale, and a whole bunch more stuff going on. It’s an awesome day for all of us as a church to get together and make this day happen. It’s awesome to see all of us working together. My wife is in charge of Angel Food Ministries and I helped her make a poster for the event.

Anyways that is how I spent most of my night tonight helping Michele with this poster. I think it turned out really well.

Thanks always for reading.
In Christ’s Love,
WLBC-Webmaster
Learning Everyday!

The Best Man

Here are the lyrics to “The Best Man” by 33 Miles that was used in a video for WLBC’s Graduates 2007. It’s an awesome song.

:::VERSE 1:::
I have always dreamed
To be that superhero
To fly right in and somehow save the day
And I have always wanted
To be more than I could be
But see the fall and somehow lose my way

But the day your love stepped in
Was the day my life began

:::CHORUS:::
Cause you make me shine
You make me soar
You make me everything I never was
But so much more

You give me strength
You let me stand
And I don’t have to move a mountain but I know I can
Cause you make me the best man

:::VERSE 2:::
Even through my weakness
You know who I am
And you give me amazing grace
That I don’t understand
And there are no words that could ever describe
The glory of, the beauty of you in my life

Because you gave your love to me
I’m the best that I can be

:::BRIDGE:::
I will never be the same
Cause you have changed everything
From the man I was
To the man that’s standing by your side

I was really moved by the lyrics. The melody of this song was always awesome as well, but I never looked at the lyrics until tonight. I am glad I did.
First Verse….
I have always dreamed // To be that superhero // To fly right in and somehow save the day // And I have always wanted // To be more than I could be // But see the fall and somehow lose my way // But the day your love stepped in // Was the day my life began

This First verse… When we growing up we were unstoppable, not much scared us. We always wanted to be the best and save the world like Superman, Batman, Spiderman, or some other hero. And it’s true with God we would fall and come short. But when GOD came in. When HE came in my life was changed. He gives us a NEW beginning with HIM. If we allow him to show us the was we can never fail. God never forsakes us.

In the Chorus… He makes us soar, makes us everything we NEVER was and so much more. He gives us strength to stand. We can move mountains with our faith in HIM.
HE makes us “THE BEST (WO)MAN” HE makes us the Best. Not our jobs, not our family, not any of our friends. God is the only one who makes us who we are. And if we allow Him to control our lives, there is nothing We cannot do. “I can do all things through Christ Jesus who/which strengthens me” Philipians 4:13

The second verse….
Even through my weakness // You know who I am // And you give me amazing grace // That I don’t understand // And there are no words that could ever describe // The glory of, the beauty of you in my life // Because you gave your love to me // I’m the best that I can be

Even through my weakness, He knows who I am, HE gives me Amazing Grace, ~~ WOW - How awesome is that ~~ I don’t understand it, but its awesome, There are no words that can describe His grace, There are no words to describe the beauty He leaves in us of Him in our lives. Because HE loved us. He loved us soooo much. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 Because HE loved us so much, I can be the Best that I can be.

The Bridge continues….
I will never be the same // Cause you have changed everything // From the man I was // To the man that’s standing by your side

I NOW will never be the same after He has come into my life. HE has changed ME and everything around me to Glorify Him. He changed the man I used to be to the man that is Here today. He transformed me into his Child. I am now His and nothing can ever separate us from Him. He is all Glorious and powerful. He is the almighty, the Ever Lasting Father. The beginning, The end. He is self existent. I don’t know if there is any other person I want worship that My Heavenly Father, who is constantly changing me.

What an awesome God we serve. What an honor to be loved by someone as great as He. No human or superhero can ever do what God does.
Thanks for reading. I hope you will seek out that song and listen to it. It’s pretty awesome.

In Christ’s AMAZING Love
WLBC-Webmaster
Learning Everyday!

Day Off

Today is one of my day’s off from work each week. After 3pm it didn’t feel like it. My son helped me gather the trash together and pack it up in the truck, we then headed over to drop of the rent check, on the way back we dropped off the trash. After getting home, I straightened my wife’s hair, then we started off to church. There was no supper tonight at church, so we stopped by McDonald’s. After we got there, my wife went off with the kids to take water bottles out to parks to advertise the block party coming up this weekend. I headed off to wander around and wound up helping take, furniture, clothing racks, and other things to the gym for the rummage sale. After that it was finally time for choir practice. Then after choir practice we stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few groceries. Finally got home.

I kept hoping as I was getting ready to write, what God showed to me today. Well, with faith he showed me that my wife was able to work through calling a lot of doctors today to get an appointment to get her leg looked at. Her leg has progressively gotten worse over the last 3 weeks or so. Anyways, God showed me today that if I just let him take care of Michele’s doctor and leg, HE would. He also showed me that with patience, things start to happen. I am finally scheduled to sing a solo at church on July, 20 in the evening. After allowing God to work on my heart and waiting patiently and changing my attitude, I was finally put on the list. I was excited. I still am. Thanks Jeff!

This morning I even worked on some settings for this blog. I also setup an RSS feed with feedburner.com. That was kind of fun setting up the RSS feed. Anyways, I guess I got quite a bit done today. I am tired, my legs hurt, my arms hurt and my head hurts.

Physically tiring day, but it felt good to just keep busy and get all of things done today. Tomorrow it’s back to the grind. I know that tomorrow will bring more insights from God. Even if they only seem small, He is always looking out for us and helping us daily.

If we just let God help us each day, He will reveal Himself to us. When we are busy, it’s those small things that remind us God is with us. I also love quiet times, when I can sit back and just listen to God through scripture or in my daily thoughts and prayers.

Keep praying and following. He is always there.
In Christ’s Love
WLBC-Webmaster
Learning Everyday!

Mowing

Mowing is a lot like our relationship with God.
OK so I want to make a point here but I think I am just going to point out the obvious.
Grass = our Lives or how we live
Weeds = Sin
Length of Grass = How we live - are we cut to the right length or are we growing out of control
When it’s time to get our yard back in order after it has grown 3 feet high and full of weeds, we have to work even harder at getting things back in order. If we take small sections of our lives (areas of grass) and mow, we can see how we have improved our lives. We trim next to the house and around bushes, driveways, ect… Cleaning up the yard is hard work sometimes. Once we get our grass back under control, we can then focus on keeping up with the yard. Keeping it cut regularly means discipline. Keeping our lives in check or in order. Even though we can cut the weeds down to size they are still there. Getting rid of weeds can take some work too. Different weeds take different killers and procedures to get rid of them. Sometimes we even kill the grass around the weeds. That is kind of like killing part of our self identity. When that part of the grass becomes dead we must seed it with good seed. Trading sin for good habits. Of course while focusing on the weeds we must continue to keep up with the rest of the yard. Keeping the grass mowed and trimmed so the rest of our lives don’t get out of control. It seems to be easier to tackle small areas of our lives at a time or small areas of our yards at a time. Can you imagine how tired you would be if you cut the tall grass all in one day? Ok maybe if you have a small yard it wouldn’t be to bad but think about the size of your yard compared to how long you have been alive. If you wait until you are 30ish to start trimming your yard. You will have a lot more work than maybe someone 1/2 your age (theoretically). Just follow me on this for now. Lets’ say a 30 year old has 1/4 acre. Now thats quite a bit of mowing to do compared to only 1/8 like a 15 year old would have. The longer we wait to get our lives in check with God the more mowing and weeding will have to be done to achieve righteousness with God.

So once we have our grass in order and our lives in order its easier to keep the grass mowed and focus on God. Once all the weeds have been killed and replaced with good seed or grass (good habits) it is easier to just keep the grass mowed. We also know that after all that hard work if we let the grass get too long, weeds start to show up again and we could be right back to where we started before we cleaned up our lives. We learn discipline and we learn how to let God guide us instead of sin. Of course letting the grass grow and the weeds grow requires no work, but think of how ugly your yard will look. If your life is full of sin and never pruned or taken care of, how lovable do you think you will be when you get older? How do you think your relationships with your family and friends will be?

God is our weed killer, lawn mower, gas and trimmer. He gives us all the tools, power, abilities and a User’s Manual (The Bible) to allow us to clean up our yards. He even gives us the desire to search Him out. Once we get started we get to have regular maintenance done. And every now and then we get an oil change. He is always filling us with gas to keep us going. As we get older with God and our lives clean God allows us to get riding lawn mowers that are bigger and better. He upgrades our tools to keep our grass mowed and clean. Sometimes, God even sends his helpers to mow our grass for us.

I don’t know anyone else that will show us how to manage our lives, how to keep our lives in order, how to cut sin out, how to keep our tools in good working order, how to achieve upgrades, and how to live life better for Him.

The next time you mow your lawn, ask yourself if you have weeds that need killing and where some good grass seed can go. Ask yourself if you need to have some maintenance done on your life. Ask to see if it is time for an upgrade or some hire help. If you ask you might just find yourself in a better place than before and closer to Him.

I am working on my yard, are you?

Thanks for reading
In Christ’s Love
WLBC-Webmaster

Found

First I wanna think everyone for reading my blog. I do not expect anyone to put up a comment. I know there are sometimes there really isn’t much to say or to comment on. That’s ok. I have a hard time responding to others myself sometimes. The only thing I want people to get from my blog is just a better understanding of me. I just wanna share my thoughts and daily ventures with anyone who wants to know about them. I wanna use this blog to open up conversations with people. I usually come off as the “Class Clown” or joker and I have so much more to give. It’s easier for me to be funny than serious. It’s easier to keep things on the lighter side of things so feelings and people don’t get hurt. I say the wrong things sometimes and don’t like confrontations. So I figured if I just keep it all light and funny then I won’t ever have to face disappointing someone I love.

Ok after yesterday’s posting, I made some realizations with some things that came across to me today. I thought I would share what started the turn around for my gloomy mood. My mood was basically compiled of several things. (1) Sunday School for 5-4-08 was about sharing my story of Christ and Christ’s Story… it frightened me that I could not come up with a story to tell others about Christ. I felt really lost, like I had invested all this time and effort for something in vain. Like I was trying, but not getting it, type of vain. I was doing it because I loved watching others at church get that relationship. I wanted that relationship, but my attitude for having the relationship was not the right one. (2) Finances, they have been extremely tight and toward the negative side this week. I still haven’t learned to give that to God yet. HA! If I had, that probably would not have affected me. (3) I hadn’t been to church for awhile and felt out of touch with people and disconnected from those relationships I hold dear. (4) I had made some wrong choices last week and was beating myself up for it. (5) I had messed up the online forum I worked so hard on for our Sunday School class. That was just disappointing to me. I tried to be cool and move things around and messed them up more. I was upset that I knew I was going to have to reinvest all that time again, setting it up again for what seems to me to be almost pointless. Pointless,
#1
Our Sunday School has a daily devotions and this is what was emailed to me today…
Cause for Hope
1 Corinthians 15:12-34

Monday – Read (1Corinthians 15:12-19; 1 Peter 3:15)
· The gospel proclaimed to the Corinthians revolved around the crucial facts Paul listed in today’s passage, culminating with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If the resurrection did not occur, then the consequence of that logic is that the Christian faith is useless and their belief in vain.
· It is important for Paul to push people to examine the logic of their beliefs. He desires for believers to have answers and clearly thought out reasons for what they confess they believe.
· If someone walked up to you in the grocery store today and asked you why you believed in Christ, what would your response be? Have you clearly thought out why you believe what you believe? Take today’s passages as a challenge to begin to develop your reasoning for your faith.
That phrase (from daily devotions provided by www.misitrypoint.org), hit home hard. I thought hard about my Faith. Was my faith in vain? NO i quickly thought. And then I felt God just reach down and touch me. I could feel His love consuming me. It was at that moment that I didn’t have to think about my faith that God just reached down and showed his love and mercy to me. At that moment I felt my heart fill with joy again. I was at work so it was somewhat difficult to contain my feelings. I was so overjoyed that tears started to well up. It seems like forever since I have felt that from God himself. I remember feeling that when I first asked God into my life, and asked Him to guide me. Since then I have felt love from people around me. I am sure God has shown his love to me on many other occasions but, it was like the First time again. It was so unbelievably AWESOME!

I recently shared my blog link with a lot of people that I love again. And I had some very encouraging replies to my email. Here is one of them…

Hey,
Interesting thoughts. The great thing I know about Christ is that once we are His…we are His forever. Just like our children. After they are born (get the similarity) they are ours forever. That helps me get up in the morning when it’s hard. I am His even when I don’t feel like I am His. I am saved even when I don’t “act” or feel saved. I am His no matter what I do. He won’t disown me or kick me out. That’s what I need to know!!!!

What an affirmation that was for me. I just kept thinking DUH!!!! Why didn’t I think of that. But then I remembered that’s why we have brothers and sisters in Christ. To encourage each other and to life each other up. Of course I replied to this person in response to remind them that they are very special people in my life and how much they mean to me and my family.
Here is the second response…

Richard,

I appreciate the fact that you consider me and my wife XXXXX not just as friends but family.
We miss you and your wife and the sense of humor you both bring into our Sunday School and our lives.
We have prayed for your wife and somehow failed to send her a card from class, but I’ve already talked to the teacher about this mistake.
Your courage is always to be admired.
Sincerely,
Your brother in Christ,
(p.s. Superman is Jesus)

I was touched that someone thought I had Courage. I have been told I have a lot of things in my life but Courage was not one of them until now. WOW! It reminded me of how I really affect other people’s lives. It also made me realize that God is doing something in my life. That joyful moment of over joy came back again. Wow! What an amazing God. What an amazing privilege it is to Honor someone that Awesome.

Then my wife told me that someone else read my blog but didn’t know how to reply but mentioned to her that what I had written was “DEEP”. I snickered when she told me. It was funny how most of the people that know me don’t think of me as a “DEEP” kinda person. I am not a deep person up front. I have know all of these people for over 2 1/2 years now and I don’t think that any of them thought I had a deep bone in my body.
Hearing these thoughts and reading these words was such an awesome encouragement today. I wonder how many of us feel like this and never reach out to our brothers and sisters in Christ? Why are we not leaning on each other more? We all have so much to give each other in encouragement and love that sometimes our busy lives get in the way and we just rely on our spouses or closest friends to help us. We have so many brothers and sisters in our family at church and we are really not utilizing them as much as we should. What if? What if we all started reaching out to others that we don’t normally reach out to? What would happen? For real! What would happen?
You think about that. Until Tomorrow. Thanks for Reading.
Love you all so much.
In Christ’s Love
WLBC-Webmaster
Learning Daily!

Writing / Money

Writing blogs daily is little more than I had bargained for. It has become hard to get into the habit. I did read some blogs today that reminded me that I should write everyday and read everyday. Now both I have stuggled with for a very very long time. So reading and writting have always been a weakness.

I kinda messed up some things I had originally did for the Adult Sunday School class forum. I was trying to upgrade it and in the process lost it all. So basically I am back to square one with that project. I tried restoring it and I could not log in. So therefore I just deleted it. I still have all the files I posted and information, but the original setup took about 8 hours. I am not looking forward to have to redo it all over again. However this time, I think I will leave the theme colors alone. I think I spent a whole 3 days the last time just working on the colors. I have realized that it is the content that is more important. Oh well!

I watched a sermon today from Spring Hill Church about money. Spring Hill Church is a very large church, 8000 members. Now I don’t know if all of these people show up every week or what, but anyways, compared to the church I attend its extremely huge. OK so back to the point I wanted to make. The pastor made some very good points when it comes to our money. First, everything we have is on loan or borrowed, the cars, money, house, furniture, ect… We can’t take it when we die and we did not have it when we were born. We come and leave this world with nothing. Everything in our possesion was a gift from God. That’s right, God. God gave us the means and talents to earn what we have. God allowed us to have what we have. So if all of it is God’s then why aren’t some people giving it all to God. We often worship money before God. How do we worship money before God? Easy, do you worry about your financial situation, do always want a little more money, do we compare ourselves to what other people have, do we not allow God to tell us what to do with our money? If you answered “Yes” to any of these, then you could be worshiping money before God. Now I am guilty as the next person. It is hard to give God complete control of your wallet and finances. Money causes a lot of issues with so many people. The leading cause of marital problems is over money. What if we let God have complete control? What would happen? We don’t know. I know that scares me, not knowing. However, if we trully trust God to do what he said he would do, then we have nothing to worry about. Putting faith in God to take control of our finances is the only way we will ever have peace over money.
I know for me, I can’t stand money. I wish money didn’t exist. I have to let God take over. Sometimes I get so close and then I shy away. Why? Trust issues I imagine. I trust God with so many aspects of my life but I have not been able to give up complete control over money. I can only begin to let go of that control when I put God first in everything I do. EVERYTHING!
Thanks for reading.
In Christ’s Love
WLBC-Webmaster

Lost

Do you ever feel lost? Lost in the world or in life in general? I know I do sometimes. More so this past weekend.
This weekend, actually this past week, I have felt lost and just gloomy. I am not sure why. For several weeks before this, I felt on top of the world, ok maybe not that great but really good about life in general. There is not any one thing that is really bringing me down this week. I have not been able to really find the cause of it yet. I am hoping I do find it soon though. It has been very difficult to focus on God, Family, Church, finances, and daily routines. I think part of it has to do with my frustration with myself.
The frustration I have with myself, I seem to find myself dealing with on a regular basis. What frustration you might ask. Well let me see…
• Being overweight
•Smoking
•Finances
•Relationship with God
•Relationship with my wife
•Relationship with my son
•Relationships with the rest of my family
•Relationships with friends (or lack of friends)
•Impure thoughts
•Work
I think you get the drift. Basically everything in my life I am questioning myself about. Am I good enough? Why do I continue to struggle with so much sin? Why can’t I get close enough to God. Why does my relationships seem to be slipping away. Why can’t I feel love?
Good Grief, I am praying God will just let me get a grip on things. Or get a grip on me. Everything that is said or done, I analyze it and think the worst or add negativety to it. Oh my what a vicous circle I am in. I just feel like quitting everything sometimes. Not my life though, I still wanna live. Although if i quit everything there isn’t much to my life, is there?
I pray God will just slap this funk out of me or at least show me where my funk is coming from. I hate feeling like this. I just feel worthless and lost. It makes my head spin.
OK so I always wanted to share what is going on in my life and I think I will take this blog and put it under a different category. I don’t think this one counts as “Learning Daily”. Its more like “Daily Processing”. That doesn’t sound overly depressing and shows some optimism.
Well I think that is enough self wallowing for now.
I hope you don’t think less of me now, but pray for me.
Thanks for reading.
In Christ’s Love
WLBC-Webmaster
Processing

Drained

Emotionally Drained…..

I have missed a few days since the last time I wrote. OK 3 days. Monday was emotionally draining at work and when I got home I just vegged out in front of the TV all night. Spent some time with my family and so forth.

Tuesday, My son had a game and we did not get home until late. We also got his pics back for his baseball photos.

He loves to play baseball. H

e does not like getting his picture taken though. Now if you know him like I know him, you can easily tell that his smile is not real. I

n a couple of weeks he is getting braces in his teeth. He is not looking forward to that at all. In the long run he’ll appreciate it but for now its a struggle. In the mean time he just wants to be a stinky boy

, who loves to play hard, live hard, and just be a kid.

Wednesday…. Well it was my day off. I spent most, ok all, of the day working on the church website. I received our monthly newsletter and was posting all the events and also making some graphics. Most of the time was making graphics. Here a couple…..

Anyways, the cookbook cover took the most time. I searched for pictures of food and then cropped them, put them together, then added the text and resized the image several times to get the right dimensions. Anyways, I thought I would share. I made some others but not quite as time consuming.

Thursday… Today… Well, I realized that I had not written in a few days and decided that I needed to make time. So I did. Which is the only reason I am here tonight.

So the point of this blog was to write about things I learn daily. I learned today, that there are some people that I deal with, that I don’t want to help because of their demeanor to me on the phone. Even though I am not supposed to take it personally, they treat me like I cannot help them. They act like they have no faith in me. Which some I don’t blame them. After speaking to several people and nothing getting done, I would too, be untrusting. I like to think of myself as (not better), more mindful ( I guess you would say) than some others. My goal is to take care of every person I come in contact with. But there are some people lately that just don’t listen and they really just want to complain alot. Its extremely hard to help some of these. I feel almost attacked and abused while on the phone. Its very discouraging when I am trying to help them and they just don’t want to let me do my job. I had an elderly gentleman that swore up and down he had a certain phone number. In fact he did at one time but his phone number changed when he moved and no one told him that it had changed. In fact all the contacts that this man had made up to this point, NO ONE told him that he had a different phone number. This guy has had a new phone number now for almost 6 weeks. I really did not get that. How can some of my co-workers continuously just not do their job. Although, he wanted me to do more, I didn’t. I told him he had a new number. He wanted me to get his old number back. At that point, he didn’t want to hear the truth of what it would take or how long it could take to get his number back. He wanted me to call him back but I never did. I had several calls drop today, and usually I will call them back. I didn’t. I don’t know, I guess I am just tired of doing this over and over and over and over again. It sometimes almost feels pointless. I know today was a day of just wrong choices. I just wanted to get through the day and go home most of the day. I guess we all have bad days like this. I am just hard on myself because I expect myself to be better than that. It’s humbling to know I am not perfect and scary.

It is scary to know that I am not perfect because then I have to work harder on myself to be a better person. Not only for my family, coworkers, and friends but God Himself. I am sure tomorrow will be better. Since I have realized that I need to do better, tomorrow I will ask God to help me along the way. I think today I forgot to do that. It’s amazing if we just ask God to help us throughout the day HE does. When we forget, we usually (or at least I do sometimes) get lost through the day and don’t make as many right choices.

I thought it might be interesting for me to focus my attention on one subject at a time and really dive into that subject. Kinda like a Bible Study blog. I was kinda looking over some of my past blogs and realized I had mentioned that I would talk more about it later. One of the subjects was about one of God’s Ten Commandments, "thou shall have no other gods before me". I am not sure what number that would be, but I really want to focus on the Ten Commandments and focus on what God says about them throughout the Bible and give you all some passages and reference. I am praying God will speak to me and guide me in my daily life as I review these Ten Commandments. Jesus mentioned an 11th commandment in the New Testament and I will include that one also. Jesus added to the original Ten. He needed to at the time to make a point. Jesus was a Master at telling stories to get his point across.

I hope you are all doing well. Thanks for reading.

God Bless!

WLBC-Webmaster

Learning Everyday!