Bear With Us

 
One of the ladies sent this out this evening to her husband and I. It's alright, ya know, the feelings of wanting to be a bear in another life. Her "born again" heart allowed her to do this in fun. She knows she isn't coming back as a bear! We don't know for certain what we shall be other than will shall be like our Savior, Christ.
I can understand the humor, and the irony. We might all like to be something other than what we are. The truth is, though, that God created me to be exactly who I am, for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. It almost sounds like I'm married to myself, doesn't it? In a way we are! When the three distinctly separate parts of us(body, mind, & spirit)come together as one whole being we are truly one as God has created us to be. I wish I understood all the details that must accompany our transition from parts to whole, but I can share this much. For some of us it is essential that we bond with another whole person to become one as God created us to be. When we do find that individual, life becomes a great place to live! My wife and I watched the news together this evening. That rarely happens, but it was the story of Christopher Reeves and his bride and their love that caught our corporate attention. It was good to share thoughts after the news, and it's good to share life. I pray you have that coming together in wholeness, personally, and with your significant other. In Christ's Love, Preacher. 

Celebrating Time!

The title does not really tell you much, does it? Today has been the first in a long time where I have been given the opportunity to do maintenance. A closet rod my wife has been needing, a couple of 'puters that had to be cleaned up, a lot of sweaters to be put away(maybe)until the next snowfall(I may be staying up late to see what the weather brings, as if that is going to change it), and a meal prepared that goes by nobody's book but mine. In otherwords, I'm very relaxed being this busy. Six weeks of praise music picked for the services, and a new arrangement sitting in the studio even as I tap this out. I pray there are more days like this. The picture up there ^ is of the earrings I'd like to get my wife for our anniversary this summer. They fit her to a T! Have you ever wondered about that fitting to a 'T' thing people say? For me it comes from my image of the cross that is carried inside. Faith in my Savior fits me to a T! God only knows why I think this way, but I do, and that's okay. We all think about faith differently, I suppose. Not everyone has to be out in the streets or the aisles of the local Super Store to carry out their mission in life. Here's another one for you, "If I had my Druthers!" What on earth is a druther? Maybe a cross(no pun intended)between rather and something else? I don't know, and that's okay, too! I pray life is going well for you. I'm doing better, and as the weather warms and we get closer to being back on two wheels full time all of life will have come back around to being the way I'd like it to be. God willing, and the crick don't rise! In Christ's Love, Preacher.

I Wonder...If I ...

Just a quick check in to see how I'm doing. God bless, Preacher.An what on earth did this do?

TheRadicalReality

TheRadicalReality
Just happened on your blog. Interesting to say the least. A bit hard for me to read(if I could adjust backgrounds or colors it might help)maybe that's just age, too! I'm bookmarking this one. I pray you never hunger or thirst again. In Christ's Love, Preacher.
www.wintersunsets.blogspot.com

Happy Birthday Kyra!

What a beautiful young lady! She's learning so rapidly that there are times it's hard to contain her enthusiasm. Why would we want to do that? That's one of the really cool things that go with living out here on the Great American Desert, you've got a little more time to understand life than some places I've lived. Take any major city with a population in excess of the millions and life takes on a sinister perspective. I haven't heard of anyone getting thrown out of school for praying lately, nor have I heard parental complaints concerning our "Pledge of Allegiance" to the flag. A new law just passed making abortion illegal, and the worst drug problem in our high schools is alcohol. What a world! I suppose I've grown more naive with the years, but we don't seem to have the multitude of difficulties rearing children as other parts of the world. We live, more or less, at peace with creation. God wants that for our lives. He loves us so much and wishes only the best for us. Now if we could come to grips with the needs of folks that are lacking in Godly influence in their lives perhaps South Dakota would become a haven for all of the disillusioned people in our world. Nah, our population will probably never exceed a million, and we probably won't ever make the national news as often now that Tom Daschle is no longer in office, but we will maintain a really high level of moral fibre in our citizens. These truly are the "salt of the earth" types that you have heard or read about. Vehicles are quite often seen running with no one behind the wheel at shopping centers. If you look closely walking in to the big places about 1 in every 10 cars have the keys in the ignition and the doors aren't locked. Neither are the homes always locked. My wife insists that we should never leave our home unlocked, and I agree that is a good habit to get into. I guess it urks me sometimes to go around looking under mats to find the spare key. Then there is always the possibility that someone is watching me to see which mat we keep it under. There's that paranoid streak again! I think if I had never lived anywhere else I would be completely oblivious to the dangers of our world that seem to flood every television news program. Tonight I thank God we are where we are in His world. It's still cold, and there may be more snow for the weekend, but for the most part it's pretty much the same as everywhere else, only better! In Christ's Love, Preacher.

What A Weekend!

 
No, I didn't get like this picture might indicate! There is a great deal of understanding that comes with looking into the picture and imagining who came up with the thought. Have you ever felt like one more complaint or problem could just make you explode? I guess There were a few moments yesterday(The checkout girl at the gas station was not doing well)when I came across someone having a worse day than me. "Why didn't you say you didn't get gas?" That was her response to the purchase of a Coke on ice for my honey. When I got back to the house my wife said, "Where were you, we looked all over?" A few minutes later I answered the phone with my usual, "Hey! You got the Preacher." What came next was totally laughable, "Where have you been? I've been trying to reach you all day!" Those precious moments between the severity of our response and the attitude that we engender in others has got to be measurable in milliseconds. For myself it is somewhat likened to a coin toss(it has to do with a perpetually guilty conscience). Do I return fire with fire or try to put out the flames? God, I'm sure, would prefer that we really attempt to curb our own feelings in situations like this. I try to think about it from the other person's point of view, and fail miserably. The one thing that helps to keep me in line is considering the depth and number of apologies that will be necessary if I lose my temper. I suppose I don't always do a very good job, but I have noticed that the frequent need for apologies to others has lessened as I've gotten older. It doesn't mean that the temptation isn't there, but it does save a lot of time over the course of a week to not have to go back and make amends with folks that probably meant no harm themselves. What was it the man said about words being like bullets fired from a weapon? Something about just as hard to take back! God bless, Preacher. 

Highly Acclaimed(Self Mostly)Critic

Lately prayer seems to have taken an extraordinary amount of my time. I guess I shouldn't complain, after all, the time really isn't mine, anyway. It's the time with which God has blessed my life! I think about the truth you see in the picture. The whole essence of God having known each of us before we were "knit together in our mother's womb." I wrote about this a short time ago, but a new perspective has arisen. A young man, age 20, recently(last Sunday)baptised, has presented some astounding numbers. Out here on the Great American Desert, South Dakota, 4,000 babies were terminated this past year by abortion. It seems some of the newest adult generation are beginning to understand the influence of faith in a world that appears to have a misunderstanding of what life truly is! They are part of the Campus Crusade crowd that are headed for Florida for spring break, 34 of them at last count.
I'm going to begin including them in my prayers tonight, and will continue until their return(even after that for those that I know personally)because they are going to determine the direction of American thinking for the next 50 years. Here we are just starting(spiritually)to recover from the misnomers of the 50's, and life has come about 180 degrees. I celebrate with our youth their new found faith in our Creator. I think we had this same feeling in mind as we neared the eve of Vietnam. Unfortunately most of the young men like this one were called away to die instead of fighting to save lives. Is it not strange how events and circumstances have an impact on an entire generation of people. But then that should not come as a complete surprise to those who have read the Bible. Was it not Moses that took God's people on a 40 year walk to get to know their God? In Christ's Love, Preacher.