Wedding Pictures

The wedding Pictures in the next blog are full size, Just click on them. They will take a minute to download at first.

Randy and Kim Wedding Pictures

I was concentrating more on video and staying out of the Photragraphers way.

Roland, Helen and Trey (8th Grade)

Janna, Dori and Sheryl

Janna, Derold, Devon, Shai

Randy and Kim

Got this from Becky

None of that 'Sis'-sy Stuff

Are you tired of those sissy 'friendship' poems that always sound good, but never actually come close to reality?

Well, here is a series of promises that actually speak of True Friendship. You WON'T see cutesy little smiley faces on this card- Just the stone cold truth of our great friendship.

1. When you are sad,

I will jump on the person

who made you sad

like a spider monkey

jacked up on Mountain Dew!!!



2. When you are blue,

I will try to dislodge

whatever is choking you.



3. When you smile,

I will know you are

plotting something

that I must be involved in.



4. When you're scared,

we will high tail it out of here.



5. When you are worried,

I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse

it could be until you

quit whining, ya big baby!!!!



6. When you are confused,

I will use little words.



7. When you are sick,

Stay away from me

until you are well again.

I don't want whatever you have...



8. When you fall,

I'll pick you up

and dust you off--

After I laugh my rear off!!



9. This is my oath...

I pledge it to the end.

'Why?' you may ask;

-- because you are my FRIEND!

Feeling Locked Up?

I have visited enough people in prison to know that it is definitely a place I do not want to be. The clang/bang of the closing steel doors makes my skin crawl…and I am on the out side! The news is full of stories of people going into or getting out of prison. For me, just the threat of prison is enough to curb any fleeting reckless impulse. Yes, I have considered slapping some sense into some people….of course in the most spirit filled way…and I may even be convinced in my own mind that it would do them some good, but I doubt a judge (or for that matter THE GUDGE) would agree with me, so I restrain myself. I really don’t want to spend even an hour in any prison for any reason. What brought this to mind was a comment I read from Jacob Boheme. He observed that in life, people build their own prisons. What we freely choose with our will holds us captive. If my life is filled with the things of the material world I am imprisoned in a way by them. They have to be insured, cleaned, cared for etc. Of course a certain amount of that is necessary in this world but when it gets to the point that the material things of life have over taken the soul, the real spirit and breath of eternal life, I am in a prison of my own making. Jesus said not to get to caught up in the things of this world…it will all burn in the end anyway. The real Joy’s of life is NOT in things, it is in relationships, especially the relationship we can have the eternal God, the reason we were created in the first place. I want to be free in every sense in this world, don’t you?

Typewriter Art

I made a quick trip to Georgia this wekend and was still back on time for church Sunday Morning so I am playing catch-up today but if you have a second check this out:
http://www.paulsmithfoundation.org/index.html I found it after looking at cousin Ray's blog listed on my home page. Since my grandson has CP it was amazing to see what can be done even with severe CP. I'll try post the wedding Pics soon but I got to get them transfered and the copy of the tape made for my Aunt Ruth.

Eternal vrs Internal

I was just wondering if a person could have the Eternal Kingdom of Christ later if the person does not have the Internal Kingdom of Christ now? teh shack study guide, the shack discussion guide

Spiritual DNA?

Jesus said something that really troubles me. He said a lot of people who claim to be his children are not going to be allowed into heaven. Considering the source of the information, it must be true. But who are these people and more importantly, could I be one of them? Jesus explained to the people of his day:
MT 6:22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

MT 6:24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Before we start judging each other’s actions, let’s remember: MAN judges the outward appearance but GOD judges the heart. The standard for entrance into heaven is found in the heart. Is it the true will of the heart to forsake all and lean only on Him? Forget for a second what the body does. What is it that you truly, deeply want to do? Sure we confess sins and accept forgiveness, but that largely is to escape consequence, either now or in eternity. What we need to ask ourselves is, are we really sincere and earnest? Do we really desire to be obedient, (fleshly action is not the subject here, the heart’s desire is). Paul said in Romans 7 we would have trouble with the flesh even when the heart is right. The real question I must ask myself is “Do I truly want to be obedient?” Does the dna of my heart match the dna of His?

What will they think of next?

If you have a couple minuets a curious mind highlight and paste this link:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2022170440316254003

It will show you a concept of how they are hoping to use nano technology to build super computers from a desktop replicator. I would say it is impossible...if I were not typing on this computer that was "impossible" in my grandfathers time. This is mostly for Cousin Ray. He finds this kind of stuff all the time.

Why have a free will?

When God created man in the garden He gave man a free will in order for man to be separate and distinct from God. Created in the likeness or image of God, man was not God but a kind of reflection of him. The lines of distinction from man's point of view were blurred. God was obviously more powerful and the creator but man in his original perfection could not see all the differences clearly. God gave man a free will to operate in cooperation and obedience to God. Man’s free will is a reflection of God’s free will. The infinite difference between the created and creator would only be known IF AND WHEN man should chose to exercise his own will outside of God. When that happened the separation was infinite, immediate and obvious. All that God is, man was not. All that man now is, God is not. The contrast is now quite clear. Think of it like this. If you put the above white paper doll (perfect man) on the white background you could not see him as distinct from God (the white back ground). God is a white piece of paper, man is a white cutout image. Place the cut out on the white sheet of paper and the paper man blends into the paper god. When man opted out of God’s will and into his own, the likeness was destroyed. He is now demonstrating one chief distinctive from God...exercise of his own independent will. Man is now quite distinct from God, losing all that is in God. As it were, man’s own will stained him the blackest of black. Now instead of seeing man white on god white, it is black on white. All That which is NOT god showed up instantly and immediately with no way for man to restore that division or unstain himself. God made it possible to restore man’s purity and “whiteness” in the life and work of His son. When, by faith, man commits to the eternal will of God he does not become god, but is made white again and restored to his original position in God. the shack study guide

Original Sin

For my weekend readers I thought we'd go a little deeper and ask:

Where did man’s original sin come from?

To understand where original sin came from we have to understand where ANYTHING came from. The only reliable source of information on that subject is God’s Word as recorded in the Bible. God opens His Book to us with the undefined declaration: GE 1:1 In the beginning God. As He unfolds the story we learn more about him but never everything. His ultimate description of himself was given to Moses.
EX 3:13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, `The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, `What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" EX 3:14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: `I AM has sent me to you.' "
Later God will go on to explain: DT 32:39 "See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me.

Logically this statement makes sense to me because something has to exist in and of itself, outside of and beyond creation. Of necessity whatever the IT is, it must be all encompassing of any description or definition, perfect, limitless and eternal. Every other model develops everything out of NOTHING, which is beyond absurd! So what we know is that simply put, God IS, or God AM if you prefer. Before he created anything at all, he was all there was. Forget about time limitations here because there was NO time and nothing to mark its passing. Injecting time into timelessness is self contradictory but I don’t know how to say it other than at some point God began to create things that were NOT God but in everything he created there was a reflection of God. In time, God manifested himself in the person of Christ. Paul explained:
COL 1:15 He (Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

The Bible simply declares that EVERYTHING, of any description is in Christ and created by him and held together by Him. Does this make Christ the author or originator of Sin? Scripture and logic both demonstrate the impossibility of that. God declares that he is both Love and Light. We know that the opposite, hate and darkness exist but how? They were not in God. But since they exist they must somehow be a part of creation. It is hard to physically picture the love / hate relationship so we will use the parallel Dark/ light. We Know for a fact that darkness does not exist in God. Logically it cannot since God is Light. If we miss the logic, the Bible flatly declares: 1JN 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. So where did darkness come from if it was not created and for that matter what is darkness? There is no formula for dark as there is for light. Without the light, we could not know or understand there is darkness. Darkness is simply the ABSENCE of light. Before creation there was NO darkness because ONLY God was and he is light.
Genesis tell us more:

GE 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. GE 1:3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day.

In creation there is a difference between God/light and the created/dark. Creation only has the light God gives it. In and of itself it is dark. Dark can be only on the creation side, never the God side of the God/not God equation. We only have a sense of it by the CONTRAST with light. God did not create darkness anymore than he created hate because it is not in Him. Hate should be seen as darkness, the absence of God’s love.

God did not create sin but his creation revealed it as something that is not in or of God. Sin, darkness, hatred and the like are not the true reality. They do not even exist apart from there presence being revealed by the contrast with the Holiness, love and light of God. In God’s original creation it was all good and a true reflection of Him. Man’s exercise of his free will (which was also a reflection of God’s free will) brought into the light all the evil, destruction and darkness we call today sin. Before Adam’s free will exercise (see Why God allowed sin) sin had no meaning or power. AFTER his action he lost all the light of God with no possibility of regaining it on his own. All subsequent generations were NOT born in the image of God, but in the image of Adam, in darkness. GE 5:3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
Man was created in the image of God of holiness, light and love, but BORN in the image of Adam in darkness. Jesus, the second Adam, came and destroyed the bondage of darkness and all its relatives that befell man in his independence from God and made it possible for man to return to the purity of the Light and love of God. Darkness no longer has any hold over any child of God: The good news is that darkness in any form will never regain control again, NEVER! And that can begin now in your experience here like it will be then. God promises us: Romans 6:14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Our future is totally secure:

Rev 21:23: The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Rev 22:5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.