The Arrogant Man

Isaiah 2:17 says "And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. " Man is an arrogant fool. We think we can conquer all. We have tried to rule the sky and God lets one volcano on the backside of nowhere create a multi-billion dollar hole in the international air lines pocket. We think we can rule the sea but on a average routine day an oil platform explodes and sinks into the sea leaving a oil mess that still cannot be contained or cleaned, leaving yet again a multi-million dollar question for BP as to what to do. We think we rule the land, but in reality one series of earthquakes in Haiti leaves 1000's dead, missing, or wounded and we still harden our hearts to God and His Word. The only thing we can do is humble yourself lest God does it for us. We all should quit lying to ourselves

For the record in Rev. 5:12 in Heaven it isn't about "we" but "He". "Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." He is the focus - not our crowns we toss, or our works/rewards, or even our efforts for the kingdom mentioned - it is about Him period. I'm glad, personally I'm sick of the "look what i did" mentality. The church isn't thriving because of you or your prayer life - but rather because He gave himself for the church. It was doing well before we got here and will be just fine after we are gone. We are the creation not creator. He alone should and shall be exalted in that day - Amen and Amen

A God Called Man

It is a blessing to be called of God Almighty to preach the Gospel, and Christ Crucified. It is a sad day we are living in when men never mention conviction, burdens lifted, or peace when surrendering to His will. We are in a day of some deciding to go into the occupation of clergy. Some want to see if it works out - then they compromise, deceive to keep the paychecks rolling in, and lead a people into a ditch - both being blind and all.

I got a call on the phone today around 8:15 or so, and heard through tears on the other end a voice that relayed HE had been unable to sleep, was now able - had been under a burden, and now it was rolled away - had the weight of the world lifted off of HIM after surrendering to preach with a God sent calling and burden - and I say AMEN to a newly God called man.

I was in a WCU dorm room listening to some tapes of Maze Jackson, and singing when God came into the room with conviction greater than that of when I was lost. I knew what He wanted and their between my bed and garbage can surrendered to His will to Preach the Word. I remember making sure my heritage was true by settling for myself the truth of Bible Versions, Baptist traditions, etc. I am without apology a KJV man, a Baptist to most extents, a Blood bought, born again Christian. That was a great night for me, I relive most weeks in my head.

I would desire all prayers for Him and ME as I would never want to give unsound advice or council. Lord help me with the responsibility of aiding your man as he embarks on a new, exciting, God filled and blessed life. God hedge Him and use Him for thy Honor and Glory all in Jesus precious name.

Mike Moore gave me the greatest advice of any man at that 19 year old age, "Preach what God gives you to preach, and then make a bee-line for Calvary". Amen and Amen

Ritalin -Propaganda for Laziness

Which drugs are bad! Who gives who the right to say which drugs are good and others bad? Statistics now show 9 million young k-5 boys are now on Ritalin in America. A drug never used before 1980, and given to children diagnosed with A-D-D (also created in 1980). Remember it is a "male" drug. Personally I believe it is a result of lazy teachers. Those who are their supposedly to help children are to lazy to find a way to teach a 5,6,7 year old boys who refuse to sit still for six hours a day in lecture. NEWS FLASH - boys are not created by God to sit for six hours a day.

Basically instead of teachers taking time to "teach", and finding a way to get through to these children. Boys are hands on not seats down. Those to whom they say - he is disrupting the class, or he is to slow to learn, they diagnose them as A-D-D and place them on drugs the rest of their life. Yes these trusted ladies are destroying more lives than helping = To few are their to help children but are their for the money. NEWS FLASH - some children are more of a challenge than others, and the rewards for helping them are far greater to. I can count on 1 hand the teachers that actually cared about me enough to take me aside and show me they wanted to help in my areas of struggle. Thank you Mrs. Dockery for your heart of a true teacher. She was one of few I ever met. My English is still awful but you did at least try. If your a teacher I challenge you to go the extra mile and try and help these boys instead of seeing them as a problem or hindrance. If that is the way you view them then You Mame are the problem and hindrance.

Another reason boy are so fidgety is discipline has left the school house completely. Nothing like a good paddling to make a boy sit and sulk for a class or two. But don't get me on that or I may say something I'll regret.

I know a boy whom the school wanted to drug with Ritalin because of a A-D-D problem who was years beyond his class mates. They said his failing grades were a result of a mind unable to keep up in class yet while the other children were still learning to ride a bicycle he knew how to take one apart and reassemble it again. AGAIN I believe a lazy teacher should have been fired instead of placing a child on a mind-altering drug and creating a dope addict for the rest of their life. We now know Ritalin is addictive and putting a child on it for several years then taking it away will lead over 89% of them to seek out drugs of a illegal nature the rest of their lives. Being only a 30 year old drug the side effects are still unknown. I have kin folk through marriage that were on it and now are not, but raid family med. drawers stealing whatever drugs they can to fill the teacher made void.

Second Chance Ranch is a boys home that specializes in boys on Ritalin. It is a working christian farm. Boys arise early to gather eggs, milk cows, and then slop pigs all before breakfast. They then go to the woods with the mule and log trees to the sawmill where they stack lumber the rest of the day. With teaching then added in ever few hours as they rest from work, they learn more in two days than your child does in a week of sit down lectures on the same subjects. No drugs were allowed and no problems of attention deficit found. The boys named the sawmill Ritalin, because it took away their nervous energy. Why? Because boys are made by their creator to long for the outdoors. The energy was put their by God himself to help young boys to be a blessing to their family in planting, harvesting, mowing, carrying wood, and so on. Boys were never made to play dress up, have tea parties, or iron clothes inside.

Quit destroying lives and man up. Turn the tv off and put that boy in the garden. Take a walk in the woods, go on a pic-nick, enjoy the children you have and stop seeing them as a problem - because they are a blessing from the Lord. I address this issue knowing my boy (now 2 years old) will be required to take it in Kinder-garden, because he is all boy, and wide open with life. Yet he can call by name any tool in your garage, and show you how it works. Nothing wrong with his mind, nor his desire to be outside, where every healthy boy longs to be. Homeschooling will be my first choice before any drug to altar his mind and/or destroy his life is given. Amen and Amen!!!

If your a teacher who cares about the money more than the children, you have not enjoyed this read, but if you are one of the chosen few whom teaches and does care, find a way without drugs to help that child. Take a class outside, give them more hands on - yes it will require more time, but the rest and reward much sweeter. Let your class plant a garden and see which ones rise to the occasion. Get the ink off your hands and put some dirt on theirs, it is called Kinder"garden" right? - 9 million lives have already been abused don't be the next "legal" drug dealer at your school.

Nip it, nip it, nip it

I believe it was Barney Fife who made the phrase popular "Nip it in the Bud". But the idea came much earlier. Crude beginnings in scientific Horticulture practiced the phrase at least as early as the 14 Century. In good growing seasons gardeners would have an excess number of blooms, and blossoms. It became necessary to pinch off the majority in order that those which were left could produce large fruit. This would improve the quality of the garden produced, but was devastating to the individual buds. When a bud was nipped off no fruit was produced at that point.

Honestly it seems as though many areas of potential fruit are being nipped off by God himself. Of course what He does is always right, don't get me wrong. All my life I have hosted, preached at and participated in youth meetings, looking for a young harvest. But truth be known, the greatest youth meetings I have ever been in were not scheduled. I have seen God sweep through a service where young people were the overwhelming majority that testified, and worshiped. I have seen God move to save 4, 5, and 6 young persons in a service that was never ordained by man as a youth service. I'm not saying youth meetings are wrong or that VBS is outdated (I believe VBS is the churches greatest mission, at home or abroad). Fact is if God doesn't meet with us in a powerful way, it makes little difference if it's Youth Day, Old-timers Day, Bring a friend Day, Communion service, Revival Day or Campmeeting Day it will profit nothing.

In a nutshell, God chooses sometimes not to overwhelm us with blooms in order to produce something worth having. I am not interested in winning 1,000's and 990 go astray or quit. Give me 10 and 10 years from now still have 10 growing and prospering, and feeding others in the Lords name. We have to much shallowness in the church today and it may be because we have started looking at the big numbers of blossoms and produced weak, anemic fruit with no quality. Preacher don't be afraid of letting that secular crowd walk out - it may just produce a better atmosphere in your church for a stronger quality of fruit. Some sins (whether they like it or leave) you must nip it, nip it, nip it.

Noah's Ark found?

After the flood killed nearly everything on earth, the Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat in present-day Turkey (according to Genesis 8:4). "Web sites are buzzing over claims that remains from Noah’s Ark may have been found on Turkey’s Mt. Ararat. Yeung Wing-Cheung claims he and his research team located the remains of Noah's Ark. The finders are an evangelical group, saying they are '99.9 percent' sure that a wooden structure found on the mountainside was part of a ship that housed the Biblical Noah, his family and a menagerie of creatures during a giant flood 4,800 years ago". I say who cares! If finding an ark on a mountain is what you need to validate your faith then you have no faith to start with. Hebrew 11:1 says "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen". Did you get the "not seen" part? "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God"- If you don't attend Church you have 0 faith. It is not faith if you have to see it to believe it! I'm trusting Him who is invisible. My faith is in one whom my fleshly eyes have never seen, who's blood washed away my sin (didn't see that either), but it happened just the same. How you say? He came to me and spoke in a still small voice to my hearts ear, that truly was as loud as a trumpet spiritually. He gave me the faith I needed to call on Him, and place my trust in Him to save my soul, and He did. Romans 10:9-10 says, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation". What marvelous grace.

Just for the record, I believe any man who is a carpenter and knows the labor involved in cutting, limbing, scaling, moving (logging), debarking, sawing, plaining, hacking it to dry out, re-cutting and building with wood, would never walk away from all that lumber that he has bled and sweated on. Personally I think the ark was torn apart by Noah and his family to build Houses with, and barns, plus chicken coups, etc. I believe it wasn't left to rot, nor abandoned but dismantled and reused. It hasn't been found because their is nothing left to find, for some 4000 years now, Amen! But that is my opinion.

NASA's Wisdom of the Ages

Ever wonder why NASA in their infinite wisdom had to climb down out of a ladder nearly 10 feet instead of walking flat out in the first moon landing? You may want to read this blog to find out why?

On July 16, 1969 Neil Armstrong stepped out on the moon before any other man stating "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind". NASA knew the pod would sink in the lunar dust but not how far. NASA couldn't definitely determine how deep the lunar dust would be so they calculated that the moon would create 1/2" of dust for ever 1000 years of Earths existence. Their total was 10' feet of dust and the earth being 240,000 years old. The ladder and tripods on the module were to reach down 10 feet and sink in the lunar dust, allowing the astronauts to walk out smoothly on flat gound(Dust). Obviously from the pic they did not walk out so smoothly, but had a ladder in waiting. Guess with wisdom how deep it plunged into the dust? It was a plunge of 3 inches. Yes the climb down 9' 9" to be exact( sinking a whopping 3 inches) making the earth around 6000 years old (Remember 1/2" per 1000 years= 3 inches = 6000) Yes they should have read their Bible instead of Listening to Siegfried and Lloyd. Morons. Go NASA!

Yes the elite of the minds have once again outdone themselves in the recent Delta Rocket explosion. Totals coming in of only $ 40 million dollars worth of fireworks and 250 tons of raining debris and rocket fuel falling to the ground exploding dozens of cars and creating creators the size of small houses. See the stupidity and our taxes go up all at the same time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62-L-_3tdG8. But we at least now we have Velcro right?Where are their job cutbacks? Hope they have at least one job gone after this 40 mill mistake! At least we got to watch our tax dollars at work $40 million in 15 sec = 2.6 million per second, enjoy!

The hand that rocks the Cradle

I have always been a fan of young hearts. I heard a statement made in a journal 20+ years ago made by a Catholic priest who said "let us teach your children for their first 8 years and we will have them for life". Sad but true unless God steps in. No doubt youth is wasted on the young. The LORD has always put a special place in my heart for young people. I have enjoyed to the fullest working with youth in the church for over 14 years now. Alot of great and fun memories have been made, fellowship gained and Bible lessons taught. It has been our privilege to lead a handful of teens to the LORD in these many gatherings. I was reading about World Youth Day 2011 to be held in Madrid, Spain in August of that year- hosted by the Catholic crowd, averaging 1 million in attendance every year. I am thankful my faith isn't in a man wearing a dress, but a Savior who arose from the grave. My forgiveness is not found in a confessional but in the Blood of Jesus Christ alone. I do strive to fulfill Marys only command found in the Bible; "whatsoever he (Jesus) saith unto you, do it" John 2:5. It is her only command, Obey Him, in that I can agree with her.She is blessed AMONG women not above them. Thank God for the Bible which reveals a true baptism (after Salvation not for it) and Communion (not literal blood and flesh but symbolic of it) to remember His sacrifice on the cross of Calvary.

We have just scheduled in this last week another overnight adventure for St. Johns crowd, a trip to Shatley Springs in Crumpler NC just inside the Virginia line for the later part of June. Looking forward as always to the trip, already meditating on the message to teach. Certainly no shortage of things to do in the Blue Ridge Mountains (Cheese Factories, Old time candy stores, fishing ponds, Fresco's, and don't forget Gods handy works - mountains,wildlife, etc. Good times. I know many preachers who are afraid to take people anywhere outside of regular church services because they act different outside of church than in, and the same for the people, but I'm thankful for all the youth I have ever worked with that for the most part have been the same in and out of church -= I only pray the same can be said about me. The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world - make sure parents Hitler and communist do not have a hand on your children's crib!