Sunday, October 25, 2009

My Uncle Leon

My Uncle Leon passed this afternoon. Machines kept him alive, but his spirit was ready to go Home. We will be heading to Ohio for his funeral this weekend.


Uncle Leon, is a man of God, he served under Dr. Criswell, was President of Clear Creek Baptist College in Tennesee, served on the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board, and just recently pastored a church in northern Ohio. My Uncle was my kind of Pastor. He was always reading a dozen books and thinking about the sweet love of His Savior. He had such a tender heart in his preaching and in his day to day communicating. You never saw him without a smile on his face. He even learned the German language so he could read some of the fabulous German theologians! Brilliant man!


As his life hung in the balance the last couple of days I am struck by eternity. I just read a quote by Martin Luther in a book Tricia and I are reading together, he said, "There are only two days on my calendar, this day and that day." It is in moments like these that I am sobered by the reminder that "That day" governs "this day."


Oh, beloved of God. I will see my wonderful Uncle Leon again on "That Day." I am promised by my Lord that I have been sealed with a promise that I will praise Him for all eternity. I hope you will be there too, so I can introduce the two of you. You will like my Uncle Leon, he was one of our Father's prized sons. He spent his life for the Savior and for the preaching of the Gospel.


"I have come to seek and to save that which was lost." - Jesus

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Prayer

I understand better Jesus' words "Man does not live on bread alone, but on the very words of God."

When you have tasted of our Lord it will not be hard to seek nourishment from Him. To spend many days in prayer and seeking is never in vain. To deny yourself some worldy necessity, like food, and hunger after God is an amazing spiritual discipline.

The Lord will satisfy you on His hidden manna!!!

Whether or not the things I prayed for come to fruition, I know the Lord was pleased to see HIs child seeking Him with a captivated heart. Oh, to love the Lord my God is the greatest desire and pleasure of my entire life!

I love my Lord, I love His Word, I love HIs provision!

Be blessed in your prayer life. Find a closet and stay there!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Life Without the One Eyed Devil

Through God's providence and other reasons to cut back on spending we turned off the cable to our TV. My wife and I had talked about this before in the past for several reasons. It cost $50 a month to watch a handful of channels and it would help us in helping our boys to watch less TV.

I feel I am a decent parent and I monitored closely what my sons watched. But, I began to notice a disturbing pattern-althouth the TV shows were mostly innocent, we had outlawed a bunch, it was the commercials that really bothered me. Every commercial was designed to create a need in my son for the next best toy, game, and movie. It was never ending. It was sick!

But, because of financial mismanagement on our part we had to cut out some unnecessary spending and TV was on the chopping block. Only one boy actually cried when we told him the TV shows were going bye-bye. I knew this was a sign we were doing the right thing. We prepared for helping our boys walk through this monumental tragedy in their young and preciouis lives. Well, wouldn't you know it, they haven't missed TV at all. They have no idea what new shows and games and toys are out there and that has helped our check book amazingly! They still play their games on PS2 and Wii and we watch movies, Disney and kids stuff.

My wife and I thought not having FOX news would be painful. Not really. My life has simplified substantially without that one eyed beast. Not knowing what the President said has been wonderful, not just because I don't approve of him, but it has brought freedom to me. Watching TV makes you care about unimportant things alot. I don't care anymore!!!

I find the information I want to be concerned about through the web on sites I trust and appreciate.

Also, in God's providence He is watching out for us too. Out original TV was loosing its color, everything was turning pink. Not to big of a deal, but annoying. Trying playing games where color makes the difference. Tough, to say the least. Anyway, my parents left us a TV from their RV, a small 19 inch, but beautiful color. We were content. At church, a brother heard about our plight and gave us his 39 inch. Wow! This was a movie theater for us. We got to enjoy it for a week and then the TV went out. I hope to try and get it fixed, but I have this feeling it will be vanity. So, the 19 inch is doing just fine, right next to the quiet and blank 39 incher.

In the end, removing your TV isn't as painful as you might expect. You will be amazed at how many hours you gain in a day.