Just wanted to say hi and see if anyone was still out there that might read this.  I started this blog because a friend talked me into it and actually enjoyed the writing and the discussions that it prompted for about a year.  During that year I was sitting at home, doing nothing but getting fat, old and weak due to a lack of work.  Cabinets are hard to sell during this current economic situation.  This is what actually led to a major decision I made, also prompted by friends and my wife.  I enrolled in the University of Alabama at Birmingham as a pre-nursing major at the age of forty-nine.  Then my life changed drastically.

I had to quit teaching Sunday school and a Wednesday night adult class at my church.  I ultimately did not even have much time to attend church.  I also decided to check out some other denominations when I could, not looking for anything in particular, just wanting to see if any of the things I had read about in my studies for classes were true or false.  I also attempted to get as far as possible in my freshman year of college to free up my summer to try to find some work, completing 37 credit hours in these two semesters.  My wife and I have to rely on God more and more as the financial resources are finally gone.  We have seen some awesome signs of Christ in some of those we know and love during the past few months.  Thank God for his people.

We have had some personal tragedies during the past few months that have also affected our lives in ways that we could have never foreseen.  One occurrence in particular is life-changing and will never be over until we enter eternity.  Again, some of Gods children have been there for us and I believe they always will be.  I am thankful for the concern, the support and the prayers of these saints every day.

I want to write some more this summer if I have some time.  I need work though, so that will be my priority.  I start my second year of college in August if the money to pay our bills is available.  This post is short and rambling and is really just an attempt to re-enter the waters.  It is also a simple thank you to all that read this and know of our plight and continue to pray for us.  We covet these prayers. We know that God is here, even if he does not seem to be at times.  We need you, we need God, and we

Love you all

Tags: blog, Christ, Discussion, Eternity, friend, God, Love, Personal, personal tragedies, Prayer, School, university of alabama at birmingham, Work, Writing

I have never had many people that I considered friends.  As a very self centered man that really did not like people I found it hard to ever grow really close to anyone.  For the last seven years, as I have grown in Christ, I have also come to realize that I very much need people in my life.  I need friends and I especially need close friends.

We all need someone that will truly love and care for us as we really are.  I am blessed to have at least one such friend in my life.  John Snyder is that friend and today is his birthday.  Happy birthday John and I hope it is a great one.  I love you.

But I want some feedback about friends and friendship today.  I hope it goes better than last week.

What qualities do you believe make a close friend?

How important is friendship in your life?

What do you expect out of a friend?

Comment in any way you like concerning friendship.  I am anxious to read your thoughts.

Love you all

Tags: birthday, Christ, friend, Friendship, Love, town hall, Tuesday

The greatest calling on the life of any Christian is to become more and more like Christ.  This necessitates something called growth.  Spiritual growth.  We toss around words and concepts such as discipleship, maturity, and Christ likeness so easily yet I find that when I discuss or read about most Christians I find very little of any of these.

Pastors on forums constantly berating and deriding other pastors, leaders showing a lack of discernment that astonishes me when it comes to the delivery and interpretation of the Word of God, and the sheep sitting in the pews just bleating out “feed me, feed me,” are just a few of the observations that have led me to this conclusion.

Let’s discuss spiritual growth.

Is there a way to measure spiritual growth?

If so, what specific things can we look for in a Christian to determine if they are growing?

Do you think this is being judgmental?

Love you all

Tags: Christ, Christians, Discernment, Discipleship, Interpretation, Judgment, maturity, pastors, spirit, town hall, Tuesday, word of god

I don’t like animals in my house.  Pets are just not something I care for at all.  It was not always like this though.  For a period of about five years, starting about twenty years ago, I experimented with all kinds of pets.  Like almost everything I do, I went way overboard.  At one time I ended up with a dog, two cats, a rabbit, two snakes, two iguanas, five turtles, a newt, four geckos, and two aquariums.  Oh yeah, my wife and I also had six kids.

I was out of my mind.  I admit to the insanity that I was going through at that time in my life.

The aquariums were the most fun and the remembrance of setting up these miniature landscapes is what led me to write this.  The turtles, snakes, iguanas and fish allowed me to be creative in building and establishing the habitats that I designed.  It wasn’t as much about the animals as it was those mini creations that I found fascinating.

I learned something about fish, especially goldfish.  The aquariums led to outdoor creations called water gardens.  I have built four of those over the years.  We lived without an abundance of financial resources, as you might imagine, so I looked for ways to do things on the cheap.  I found that I could go to Wal-Mart and buy “feeder” goldfish for about a dime in those days.  So I would pick up about twenty and put them in one of my little ten gallon worlds and see what happened.  These goldfish were not very hardy since they were only bred as food, but some would surprise me and live a while.  But they never got very big.

When I constructed my first water garden I did the same thing.  I stocked it with about forty of those little fish.  It was early spring.  By the end of that summer, one of the goldfish that had started out about an inch and a half long had grown to at least eight inches.  The kids and I called it Moby Dick.  Moby froze that winter and I looked in sadness sometimes at him locked in a block of ice.  But the next spring, when he thawed, that fish was still alive and grew another couple of inches before it just disappeared.  Probably eaten by a bird, I guessed.

Jesus implied that we are like fish when He called the disciples to follow Him and become fishers of men.  The thing that has gone through my mind as I have pondered this brings me to another conclusion about our growth as the church, the people of God.  As our focus has become so inward instead of outward we are becoming like those goldfish that are locked in an aquarium.

The reason Moby grew so big was because of his surroundings.  When you put fish, especially goldfish in a small environment they stay small.  By putting them in a larger one like my water garden they are free to grow like they are meant to.  As Christ followers, we are to be fishers of men also.  We are to go out into the great big world and grow large as we are fed by the Spirit of God and our mission.  But a lot of us are locked into our own aquariums, our church buildings, our programs, our ministries to those in the aquarium with us, and we have stunted our growth.

Let’s get out into the wild, deep waters of the world and become really big fish.  We might become big enough to be used by God to even swallow up reluctant men of God and erring prophets like Jonah.  And like that first freeze showed me concerning Moby, nothing can stop us.

And one more thing; let’s pray that our leaders become more than just aquarium keepers.

Love you all

Tags: aquariums, Christ, christ followers, Church, Creation, fun, geckos, God, goldfish, insanity, little fish, mission, spirit, wal mart, water garden, world