Daddy got a brand new toy

So we took the in-laws to the big city of Raleigh yesterday to go shopping at a real mall. Well when in Raleigh you have to stop by the big music stores cause they have all kinds of cool stuff with buttons and strings and all. AND before I go on, I cannot play anything and have NO musical talent to speak of. But in Sam ASh I saw a usb keyboard marked down from $199 to $59! So I had to have it!!! I would rather have an 88 key but hey, I don't know how to play but one key at a time anyway. So this is a 66 key.
Apple has some cool apps so I can start to learn or I can use this to keep dust off of my desk. Either way, it's cool and was cheap.

So here is me and my new toy:


Sheila does know how to play a little so maybe we can start a band~

OK, who said we have to have a lot in common?

I absolutely adore my wife. Sheila hooks me up. She takes great care of me and I don't know what I would do without her. I am more content just being in the house with her than out doing some hobby. But... We really don't have much in common at all and it works for us just fine. I like rap, she like country. I am not so much into sports and she is. I could live in a messy house, she cannot (and will not). The few things we do have in common are from us being together for so long.

So this post is for Sheila: Thank you for being YOU, I like YOU and want YOU so don't ever change. You are now and will always be "my girl" and you are a good wife.

drifting Believers

I think too may so called believers in Christ are simply drifting along. Going with the flow, I don't know how often the "flow" actually heads toward God but I don't think it is often. We head out about OUR lives and IF some opportunity to show God's love or the chance to tell someone the Gospel HAPPENS to come up, some of us take it. I think drifting is a dangerous thing more often than not takes us away from God.

So what do we do to stop drifting? Start paddling towards God. Intentionally head in HIS direction. Pick up His word, Talk to Him. Effort is the key. When was the last time you got up and went out JUST to find a needing person or a lost soul? Yeah me to! We are told to GO OUT not to sit by and wait for the lost and hurting to drift by us.

The world need hope, we supposedly have hope, lets make an effort to show and share that hope. and wouldn't you know it...Hope Floats!

beat her to it!!!

Sheila has been to quick on the blogs lately and she is using all the best pictures. But I got sneaky and got the camera from her before she posted our latest addition to the family:


yeah, she is a little crooked but she is ours!!!

and yes she was sportin oaklys for the phto


Sorry Sheila, I had to post these 1st!

ok, I am changing my career!!!

I have to learn this skill!

Joey, can you teach me this at small group?

BTW, this is all real!!!


here is a little more for your viewing humor

slow blogger here

Been busy and been sick. Plus with all the blog action lately, I have to watch what I say :)
So I am feeling better now, I had like a crash flu or something, it hit me at 12:34pm on thursday and knocked me out for the weekend. I am still hacking up some unknowns but I feel 100% better now.
We are on pins and needles waiting for our snow to start and praying that we get enough to play in like all of my fellow bloggers have. It does not snow here very often and Sheila has been threatening to go back to Fl.

So anyway, Church Sunday rocked. We had a great worship service and I think the crowd was louder than the band. If you don't attend our church, then feel free to listen to the podcast There are videos up somewhere but I can never find them.

Ok, This is just funny

If you don't think so, look closer or seek help:

[Read the next line in the voice of a great warrior]

"I AM THE GREATEST MOUSE CATCHER IN THE W O R L D!!!!!!!"
look at my last post. Well baby mouse (Sheila named Fuzzy Wazzy, I named SATAN) showed me how to catch momma mouse. Yesterday when I woke up Fuzzy Wazzy/Satan was in my trash can and could not get out. So last night I put my trash can in the closet where I have heard the mice and put food in it. Then I made a little Bridge to the can with cardboard. It turns out that momma cannot jump out either. So now I have to make the decision for 2 mic




So guys I need you to chime in on the voting because option 3 IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN (option 3 Sheila grows attached to them a keeps them)

Devil Among us

There is an evil that has invaded my life. It comes in and consumes all my resources. It is NOT welcomed and was never invited. But it just will not go away. I know the nature of this evil and it has to prey on someone somewhere after all it is a scavenger. If it isn't offending me, it's offending someone else. The Good boy side of me wants to keep the burden so that others may be freed. I don't know if I am willing. Today things changed. This evil left it's guard down and showed a weakness. So now it's my turn to prey, my turn to intrude, to offend and to once and for all remove this thorn. Oh, I know there will be more, there always are, but this one is done.

Here is my little devil:










we have him is a little fish tank for now.

So you decide:
1 let him go outside where he will just come back in
2 take him to the Ebelings house to be food for their pet snake

I once read somewhere:

"...as we get lazier and lazier in our language. The KJB was written when the english language was at utmost height, since then, we have been on a downhill slope,..." The part I will address is "The KJB was written when the english language was at utmost height". I personally use a King James Version translation of the Bible, along with many other translations. But I do not personally agree that the english language was at it's upmost height.

I believe that our language and understanding of it are ever increasing but it is and has always been limited to the extent of it's embracement.


also,
longevity dose not prove best nor dose popular demand (think about prostitution, lying, adultery and even monarchy (not to mention M.A.S.H. which is still on tv!!!)). Consider this passage for my point:
Matthew 7:13-14
13Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
I don't quote this passage to say that the KJV leads to destruction. Please don't think I believe that. I love my KJV! I am saying that the argument that "the most used is the best" isn't the best defense for God's Word. 

And for that matter, lets not even use the argument that any particular translation is the most successful in leading people to Christ because I live in a place where I personally don't see the fruit of it's success. I don't see many people trained up, sold out and passing it on. My great grandfather had the KJV and so did his son and his grandson, None of them raised me me up in the way I should go and I believe a lot of people today could quote that statement. I am saved by the power of the Holy Spirit not by a translation. So just to be clear my NIV does NOT say Jesus and Satan are the same, it tells me Mary WAS a virgin, it tells me that the water WAS stirred up by an angel of the lord. Remember: the footnotes are there for a reason, embrace them but never dismiss them.

And lastly: I will be NOT doing any more blogging in response to my commenters. I will from this point on either leave a comment or leave them alone. I love my readers and their opinions. I always welcome an idea that provokes thought (even though I swore off thinking in an earlier blog :).

Big man toy

This is parked next door to Jason's dads house in "New Bern". This may be the biggest truck I have ever seen that is for personal use and not haulin a trailer!!!



Look at the garage! That things hood could even fit in!



It's even bigger than Jason's truck (only because he didn't let me put a lift kit on it!)

Been doing a lot of thinking...

but I may stop because it hurts! I have been thinking about worship styles, true faith, a Loving God, His Word and a bunch of other things. This Christmas season I have found myself doing more soul searching and vision searching then I ever have. Don't misunderstand my ramblings as discontentment. I am happy with where I am, who I am with and what I am doing. I am amazed that God has decided to bless my life. I do have a good one! A great wife and good job, good friends and health. I have just been trying to define things a little better to work of more goals.

I may or may not reveal in future blogs more detail on some of these areas. One thing I will tell you is I want MORE faith. I got a little and want a lot. As I told the youthgroup this week: Sometimes I don't act like God is as great as He really is. If I had true faith in how great God is, I think I would act differently. I think it would be easier to "Love Others" and even tell tell them how great He is and what he has done for us. In the same way I don't have sufficient faith in how BAD being separated from God could be. I once heard someone say that when you die, and see God face to face, experience His presence and then have that taken away because you didn't believe when you were alive, that being separated from Him is worse than all the fire and pain of hell! Have you ever beheld something so precious only to have it taken away from you? That is what I am talking about. Just a million times more.

Tell me, How many people did you potentially let slip into an existence without God this week? Did you tell the lady at Mcdonald's about your hope in God while she served you your coffee? Yeah, me neither. If I truly believed that she was in danger, I would have acted different. I would have told her AND showed her.
Tell me, what did you do this week to make your God valuable to the people you encountered? Maybe if WE CHRISTIANS worked harder to increase God's value to the world, more of them would be listening to us!

I love the Gospel (how can I not) but I think we have way to many people repeating it and even defending it but NOT LIVING IT.


P.S. God loves you, He sent His only Son (Jesus) to pay the price for your sins (the things you think, do and say that separate you from God) by dyeing on the cross, on the third day he rose to life and now sits at God's right hand and has prepared a place for us in Heaven

12 hours

12 hours of road between us and you!
So let us pack our bags and we will see ya soon.