THANKSGIVING

I have to be honest and say I've never really liked Thanksgiving. Whenever people would say what they were thankful for I would always think to myself " ya no kidding". It's not like I wasn't thankful for family, good health, job, but do we need a holiday for that?

This year is so much different. I am so greatful for my daughter Danielle who just refused to give up on me. And I'm thankful she asked the question,"what if "? I'm thankful that she has turned out to be a very nice Christian women. She really is a special person.

I'm also very greatful for my wife. She never gave up on me either. And believe me she had plenty of reasons to. I am so greatful that she holds this family together. It seems like she never gets a break. She's always juggling two or three things.

I'm greatful my family is in good health. Im greatful for my grandchildren and their mom's for taking good care of them.

Now this is where this year is different. I now know who I'm thankful to. In years past I was just thankful. This year I thank God for all of my blessings. I am greatful to God, that by His Grace, I was able to accept God as my Lord and Savior.

Happy Thanksgiving

Romans 12-14

This month at church the sermons are about Romans 12-14. The first two weeks seemed easy enough to follow in life. Love one another. Help each other. Don't carry grudges. Forgive each other. They all seem easy enough to follow. I'm sure in some cases they may not be. But over all not too hard.

Then this past week we got into the political part. Now this throws a big monkey wrench in the easy part. Political leaders are put in place by God. Show disrespect towards them then you are disrespecting God. This is where I wish you could pick and choose the parts of the Bible you want to follow. I know it doesn't work that way but just saying.

I am so guilty of not following this part of the Bible. I disagree with a lot of things the government does. Nothing wrong with that. However I do cross the line and turn disagreeing into disrespecting. This will be a struggle for me. However, with God by my side I'm sure I can over come this. And I'm sure there will be a lot of asking God to forgive me on this subject.

God Bless, and if be, Forgive You

El Salvador

My daughters best friend went to El Salvador with a group from Compassion. While there she kept everyone updated on her blog. This is where I should put a link to her blog, but hello, don't know how. It's thepipers.wordpress.com. I think! Anyhow I was amazed by how happy the people seem. They live in poor conditions and are still happy. She also got to visit with a child she sponsors. And my daughter and her husband now sponsor a child.

ONE DOWN

My first 4 weak class is over. I'm really glad I took it. The three guys that taught it sure did know a lot about the Bible. To sum the class up I would say God is good! I really did learn a lot. And as a bonus I had many questions I had answered.

This is going to be a lot of work. I guess work isn't the right word. It's going to be a minute to minute, day to day process. I guess the important thing is to keep pressing forward, keep learning and growing my faith. And when I fall, ask God for forgiveness and get back up. No more looking back!

God bless!

Week 3/ Faith Class

Week 3 of my faith class delt with reading the Bible and prayer. Turns out I'm not alone with the problems I'm having in these areas. Kinda funny how I thought everyone knew and understood more than me, but in reality they have the same stuggles as I do. I guess that holds true in a lot of situations. Things ain't always as they seem.



I did learn some do's and don'ts for both reading and praying. They are not far from what I have been doing. But now I have a better idea of what I should be doing. I think it will help me a lot. One of the methods for reading is a 15 minute devotional. When we talked about that it seemed like too short of a time. But now that I think about it I probably don't average 15 minutes a day now. I'm dissapointed in myself for not spending more time reading the Bible. It's really kinda sad. Jesus died on the cross to save my sorry butt and I can't find 15 minutes in 24 hours to read about him. That is something I have got to change!



God Bless

FALLING SHORT

I feel as though I'm falling short of Gods expectations of me. And I'm not talking big things here. I'm talking about,what should be,smaller things. Well not that they are small. I'm talking about understanding the Bible and praying.

When I read the Bible I can't seem to understand what the meaning is. Or maybe I should say it takes reading it over and over to figure it out. In my faith class everyone seems to understand it more than I do. And when it is explained I'm like oh ok I get it now. I've never been much of a reader. I never thought of myself as a slow learner,but this is proving to be the case. Then I read, on a web site I visit, a question someone had about not understanding the Bible. The answer given was that because the reader did'nt truly believe what they were reading the Holy Spirit was'nt giving them the ability to understand it. Well I don't like that answer at all. Because I do believe and I will not back pedal on that fact. I'll just keep reading and re-reading as long as it takes.

Now on the praying side of this. I can't seem to pray, for any length of time, without my mind wandering off. Like if I'm praying for someone then all of a sudden I'm thinking about something I did with them. Part of my prayers are asking for forgiveness because I wandered off. But I'll just keep on praying and hopefully will get better at it. I think God will be glad when that happens.

God Bless

By the way. Only Adam and Eve created and listening to God's command to go forth and multiply. Told you, takes a while.

QUESTIONS ON PRAYER

I find myself looking for answers on this subject pretty much every day. The definition I'm using is....A personal experience and intimate connection with God. Seems easy enough. Just talking to God. Asking Him for forgiveness, guidance, for me and other people. And also thanking God for everything I have.

John 5:14-15-"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us- whatever we ask- we know that we have what we asked of Him. That seems pretty clear. If I ask, and God approves, I shall receive. Now that I'm writing this I'm wondering what my problem is!

Ok here goes my questions. So what if 2 people are praying for total opposite outcomes? Example- Please let my connecting flight be delayed cause my flight left late. While at the same time someone wants it to leave on time. This probably isn't the best of examples but you get the idea. Or maybe if it's Gods will, everyone would be praying for the same things. Ok that makes sense. I guess I can't think of any examples of people praying in opposite directions. In the above example you would'nt be praying to God, more like just hoping. I guess I can check that question off.

Now what about in the case where there were many people praying that I would accept God? What if I had died before accepting Him? Prayers go unanswered all the time. Then we say"it was in Gods plan." So why pray? Why not just wait and see what Gods plan is? I guess for me it goes back to the what if question.

This is getting long so I'll say, I know why I pray. It's because I feel closer to God when I do. I truly believe He is listening and will answer if it's in His plan. And I pray to thank God for saving me.

God Bless!