Glory ye in his name.....

Psalm 105:1-3 "O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him:talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord."

When Terra and Zechariah are gone visiting her family in Michigan I have a little extra time to sit around and ponder things. Sometimes the pondering s are serious. Such as ways I can improve being a husband and dad. Other times times it is not quite so serious and earth shaking. However, their have been times I have just sit back and that about God's providential dealings in my life and when I do this I am dumbfounded by God's goodness and it reminds me that I have nothing in and of myself to glory in. Let me illustrate, I was born and raised in Somerset, KY. My life goals and ambitions were to be a football Coach and a state trooper in the mountains of KY (and I also entertained the idea of being a professional wrestler. My name would have been the "Ravishing Redneck" perhaps we will talk about this at another time). Now here I am 20 years later starting Churches, married to a lady from Michigan with the most handsome son in the world (at least I think so:-). It amazes me how God providentially works all the details out to get us exactly where we are today. If you had told me when I was growing up that I would be a preacher, married to a girl that was in 7th grade when I graduated and she was from Michigan I would have laughed. That was not my plans, I had my life all figured out. I was going to Coach Football in the mountains and be a state trooper and I was going to marry me a mountain woman. Thank God my plans did not happen!!!!

I would have never met Terra and had Zechariah. I would have never traveled outside of the state of KY and seen the marvelous works of God's creation. More importantly I would not be in God's will for my life serving him and proclaiming to a lost and dying world their need of salvation.

What about you? Have you considered God's providence in your life? I would encourage you to just sit back and glory in God's providential mercy!!!!!!!

And the fall was great thereof:-)

Yesterday my parents did something that I never imagined they would do. Don't get me wrong my parents are not exactly adventurous people. My mom and dad will take a trip maybe once perhaps twice a year to a place like Branson or the Blue ridge Mountains. They are decent, hard working people that have never needed nor wanted lots of stuff. Of course if you know how they were raised then you understand what I am talking about.(I digress, back to the point). Yesterday my mom bought a Wii. They played ours at Christmas and loved it, they enjoyed the bowling, the tennis, the baseball but, I think they enjoyed watching the grandkids play it as much as anything. Ever since they have talked about getting one. Yesterday they quit talking and bought one. Terra and I went over she hooked it up. Dad and Zech played a game of tennis (Zech smoked him but, Dad ain't bad for 66:-) and then Dad and I bowled.

Dad was a beast, moving around and using that Wii remote expertly to throw strikes and spares. The only thing that made me nervous was mom and dad had put down hardwood floors and he was barefoot. He was stepping like he was throwing down a lane and I got so nervous thinking dad was going to slip and break a leg (thankfully he did not). Halfway through the game I was doing good and feeling pretty cocky when I forgot that I was in my socked feet. I stepped and I slung it with all my might and BAMMMM!!!!! CRASHHH!!!! BANG!!!!!! I fell to the floor!!!! Let me tell you, it hurt!!!! Thank God I did not break a bone or damage mom and dads house in anyway but it taught me a valuable lesson.

1) Do not play Wii on hardwood in socked/bare feet.

2) Do not be so worried about what every one else is doing that you forget to take care of your own business.

3) Proverbs 16:18 "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty Spirit before a fall." Do not get lifted up in pride over anything you are doing (even a Wii bowling game) cause you might get brought down harder and faster than you ever thought:-)

Coon Hunting without a light.....

Psalm 119:105 "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." In my late teens I had a friend who loved to coon hunt and sometimes I would go with him. The first time I went with Steve I forgot a flashlight and he only had the one. So instead of going back to the house to get another light we traipsed into the woods with only one. If you have never been coon hunting it is a real experience. You take your dogs let them loose in the woods and then you listen for them to bark trail (they are chasing a coon) and then bark tree (when they get the coon up a tree). Keep in mind this is after dark in the woods where you can't see your hand in front of your face most of the time. So off we go using the one light. Now Steve did pretty good but, try as I might I tripped and stumbled my way through the woods. After that I decided from then on I needed to bring my own light. Because I need light shone on where I was walking rather than where Steve was walking.

Lets apply this to our spiritual lives. How often do we walk through the dangerous perils of this world without the light of God's word shining on our path? How often do we try to use the light given to our spouses and friends and think the light they have on their path is sufficient to get me through. Then when we sprain our ankles or stub our toes we wonder what went wrong? What went wrong is we are not taking the light of God's Word and having it to illuminate our path and show where snares of Satan are laid to trip us up. Lord I ask that you would I would ever be mindful of your guidance. Help me to seek your face and to follow the light you placed on my path in this world. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Follow me......

Have you ever played follow the leader? You know how it goes you have a leader and where ever he goes you are supposed to follow him no matter how treacherous (or silly) the terrain. When children play this game it is innocent enough, if they are in the house playing you may travel over a laundry basket, under a bed or on top of a parent. As teens it gets a little more tricky. We follow the trends/fashions of the day, follow each other to the movies, to the mall etc,etc. Really whether we want to admit it or not even as adults we do this. Think not? Come to the great state of KY during basketball season when a UK game is on and tell me that people are not following everything that a group of young people. Go to Tuscaloosa, AL during the fall of the year and tell me those folks are not following someone or a group of someones every Saturday. What about you? Right now you are following someone, something or at the very least an ideal. The question is not are you following but, it should be "Who am I following?" Are you following after the material wealth and gain of the world? Eventually all the material we have will decay and rot away, then what? What about fame and notoriety? Fame is fleeting and people are so fickle that one minute you are the greatest among men and then the next minute you are spat upon and mocked. The only way you can have true happiness and satisfaction is in following after Christ. Do you hear the words of our Lord Saviour calling out to you lost friend? Do you hear him saying, "Come unto me all ye that are burdened and heavy laden and I will give you rest."? Do you hear him calling to you dear saint of God as he says, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." ? My prayer is that not only we hear our Lord and Saviour calling but, that we hearken to his call, what ever that may be on our lives.

My Greatest Adversary!!!!!

Recently I faced my greatest adversary. Now before I tell you about this confrontation let me tell you about some adversaries in the past. I have face down devilish deacons out to undermine the Lord's work, ghoulish grandmas who did not appreciate preaching against their pet sin, backstabbing baptist pastors who spoke lies and vicious gossip, felonious friends who to save themselves threw me under the bus. However none of what I have mentioned compares to the adversary I recently faced. What was this adversary? The adversary of bitterness!!!! I did not realize how bitter I had become but, through the Lord using a good friend (you know who you are:-) The Lord revealed the ugliness of my sin. Notice bitterness is a sin!!!!! Anything that can rob you of your joy and contentment in the things of God is sin. Bitterness will cause us to take our eyes off of God and place them on ourselves. Instead of rejoicing in the goodness of God we will wallow in self pity. Do people mistreat us from time to time? Yes!!!! Does it hurt? ABSOLUTELY!!!!!! However, do we not serve a God that is Holy and Sovereign? Does he not know our needs? Is he not the Great Physician who can heal our wounds? Thank God we can give a resounding YES!!!! YES!!!! YES!!!!! To all these things!!!! His promises are yea and amen!!! I resolve by God's grace not to have the root of bitterness to gain hold in my life again. God give me the ability to forgive those who have hurt me so that I can I have a testimony of love and forgiveness and to glorify your name. In the name of Jesus I pray Amen!!!!!

Happy Father's Day

To all of you dad's HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!! I know today is the official Father's Day but, my son was a bustin' to give me my gifts so I accepted them a day early. You can tell a lot about a relationship between a dad and a son by the gifts they give you. My son got me Star War's games for our gaming system. What can you tell from that? Well first that I am a bit child like myself :-) Also that we spend time together playing these games, and that I am a bit of a nerd and I am okay with that. However, there is something else that I get from that. My son considers me (along with his mom) his best friend. He loves Star Wars and he loves playing those Lego games but more than anything he wants to play with me. It is during these times we laugh, we kid each other and sometimes we get to teach lessons on dealing with disappointing results and not quitting as a result of losing. It is also during these moments that Zechariah will randomly blurt out, "I love you dad." If I never got a gift more than those simple sweet words uttered by my son that would be okay with me. When Terra and I got married we honestly did not think we could have kids. We put it in the Lord's hands and said your will be done. So you can imagine the joy we felt when we found out Terra was pregnant and then when we first heard that wail the flood of emotions we felt!!!! Then with the joy comes the fear when your child awakens at 11:30 at night and screams till 5 in the morning as you take him from hospital to hospital. The pride you feel when he scores the winning run or makes the tackle. Then the overwhelming sense of responsibility you feel when he asks "Daddy, how can I be saved?" i would not trade anything for this relationship of being a daddy. Thank you Lord, for giving me this blessed privilege of being Zechariah's daddy who you gave to Terra and I to raise. I LOVE YOU TOO ZECHARIAH!!!!! WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING!!!!!!