Mondays momentum

Three weeks to Christmas. Is it just us or do others of you think it seems to come faster each year? When we were kids on the farm it was always great fun to head to town just before Christmas to do the grocery shopping. The streets were all lit up and the store played Christmas music. Everyone new that Christmas was about the baby Jesus and everyone greeted each other with a Merry Christmas. But today so many are in such a hurry to dump everything that relates to the Christ child and somehow expect to have the same atmosphere and blessing as before. Some even believe it will even be better. What a mess we have allowed this season to become. "Joy to the world the Lord has come, let earth recieve her King" this is the only hope we all must hold on to. But now the new song must be" drunk and stoned is the world because all hope seems gone, how can we mess thing up some more, cause we don't want to believe in God, cause we don't want to believe in God, or in heaven or anything." Why are we allowing it all to slip away. Today as I was doing some shopping at the greatest department store of all, Princess Auto and as I was in the line up and waiting not one person said Merry Christmas to the teller. As I paid for my treasures I wished her a Merry Christmas and she with a big smile returned the greeting. Those of us who still believe need to carry the message of hope and pass it on and on and on. This Christmas, many will have to do with a lot less, but often that will draw us back, back to the stable where it began and we may end up with a whole lot more than we have had for a while. Merry Christmas because Jesus is the reason for the season. Galations 4:4&5 "But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever would believe in Him, shall not perish but would have eternal life." This is the reason we celebrate Christmas

Sunday, Sunday can't beat that day

Ever notice how sometimes what a person contibutes doesn't get noticed until they are no longer around to do it. I read a story about a husband who came home from work one day to find his house a complete disaster. The baby was crying, all the dishes were piled up in the sink, and dirty laundry was spread all over the floor. The TV was blaring, beds weren't made,carpets weren't vacumed and dinner was nowhere in sight,he had never seen anything like it before. When he found his wife he demanded to know what was up, his wife said, " you know how you always ask what I've been doing all day? Well today I didn't do it." Often, we as men and husbands can easily start to think we are doing it all and others just aren't pulling thier share of the load. We work all day and when we get home, tired often we say thing we shouldn't Flowers a big hug and a kiss work wonders. In the past 33 years I've said my share of stupid things to Diane but she has always forgiven me, and as I look at her sound asleep right now I can't help but thank God friend. We been through a lot together and we are stronger for it. The blessings and fruit are all of our children and the grandprize our beautiful grandkids, what more could anyone ask for? Wendy had a great birthday party for Mike and some super family time. Nothing better than talking about hunting, trucks and motorcycles and great food. Miracle has to be that we now have another company that would like to raffle off a new vehicle to raise money for the ranch project. God is so good, give Him a chance. Hebrew 11: 1 big time hope in this verse check it out.

Saturday surprise

Jesus Christ name above all names !!! Satan called a worldwide convention of demons. In his opening address he said, "We can't keep Christians from going to church." "We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth." "We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their saviour." Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken." "So let them go to their churches; let them have their pot luck dinners, BUT steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ.." "This is what I want you to do," said the devil: "Distract them from gaining hold of their Saviour and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!" "How shall we do this?" his demons shouted. We will do it with lies, small but suttle lies mixed in with their truth so, that they will believe it is thier right, and also; "Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow." "Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles." "Keep them from spending time with their children." Have their children so addicted to video games that thier lives will be ruled by the games they play, and they will soon loose all respect for God, their parents and all authority. "As their families fragment,we will soon have children having more parents than parents have had children, and soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!" "Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice." Divide the churches so they never respect each others way of worship, let each church think they are the right and only way. "Entice them to play the radio or cd player whenever they drive." To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly." "This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ." "Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers." "Pound their minds with negative news 24 hours a day." "Invade their driving moments with billboards." "Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes.." "Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so their husbands will believe that outward beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. " "Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night." "Give them headaches too! " "If they don't give their husbands the love they need, they will begin to look elsewhere." "That will fragment their families quickly!" "Convince them that Santa Claus is the one and keep them from teaching their children the real meaning of Christmas." "Promote the Easter bunny so they won't talk about Jesus resurrection and power over sin and death." "Even in their recreation, let them be excessive." Let them beleive that alcohol will not harm them, then once they start let it destroy their credibility and witness. "Have them return from their recreation exhausted." "Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's creation. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies instead." "Keep them busy, busy, busy!" "And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences. " "Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus." "Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause." "It will work!" "It will work!" It was quite a plan! The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busier and more rushed, going here and there. Having little time for their God or their families. Has it worked in your home? Today as I was picking up some groceries for Diane I had a good talk to a business man and friend in the checkout line and he said we need to get together as they would like to discuss a way that they can help support the ranch project.P.T.L. another miracle. Jer. 29:11-14 our ticket to where God desires us to be.

Friday's Frenzy

It's all going to come down to a time when we will all be asking the same questions.

- What was my purpose for living - Did I make a differance in any one's life - Where am I going next. How

many people live a life without purpose just moving through the motions kind of a cloan thing? I remember a fellow plumber once said to me I can live how I want to, do what I want to, and as long as I'm not hurting anyone else I'll be just fine. I'm a good person and that's what really matters. As a believer in Jesus Christ our purpose is to share the forgivness of our sins and the hope of eternal life by the shed blood of Jesus Christ to each and every one we cross paths with and when nessasary even to use words. Not every one will accept it but that is up to them to choose. There were two criminals on crosses beside Jesus, one to the left and one to the right and in the last moments of their lives you can read about the choices that they made for their destiny. Luke 23 : 39 to 43 tells the story of how it ended for these two on death row. If a person has no duty or destiny, the next logical step is that a man has no value. You are valuble if your name has a Dr. in front of it or ph.d. on the end of it. You are valuble if you have a six-figure salary and drive a fancy car. Value has come down to two criteria, appearance and performance. Pretty tough system, isn't it? U Tube is looking for people to do videos about human rights issues and I believe a video needs to be done about all the people being brought into this country to work and our youth are once again being left out. If there ever was a human rights issue our youth that are humans, have a right to be trained with a life skill or trade. Please pray that at the ranch we will be able to train up and help many young men and women to enter the work force with skill and confidence and as Jerry Ritz our ag minister hopes for training places like this everywhere. John 15 : 13 "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

Thursday the day of change

Not long ago and shortly after the turn around in the economy I heard about a guy, he was having a few problems with family and life in general and to top it all off he said he had lost all his retirement investments, gone just like that. What's the use, how do you ever get ahead? And I kind of wondered what it means to get ahead, what is everyone focusing on in the attempt to get ahead. It seems it takes me a long time to learn something because I've made so many mistakes , and it's said that you learn from your mistakes but I think I even blow that most times. For many years we have had people come to our door usually by appointment and want to show us how to invest our money and put it away for our golden years. Most times they would sit and tell us all about the different investments and about all the money we would have for our retirement. We even tried a get rich quick scheme multi-level deal and lost ours and the money of our friends that we had talked into trying this plan also. I think the miracle of the day has got to be when we choose to step across the line and do what's right and invest into the lives of others. Today we have our kids and so many people helping us to build this ranch that God has put on our hearts to build, that you can't help but be overwhelmed. We still don't have any investments or financial portfolio as many would call it and maybe we have been irresponsible with our money. But we have a family we are so thankful for and friends that are second to none. We have a God that loves us and promises to never leave us or forsake us. We have so much to be thankful for each and every day. When I stepped across the line and stopped drinking and drugging it was the right thing to do, but when I stepped across the line and completely gave my life to Jesus that's the day I was set free. It's an everyday miracle and it's for us all.

"Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowedge Him and He will make your paths straight." Prov. 3:5 &6

Drop into His care and you'll have the life your looking for.

Wednesday Report

We need to make the decision today and every day to stand strong and face the challenges in our lives. We need to be bold and dare to conquer! As we stand in faith we will see the salvation, and the deliverance of almighty God in every area of our lives. I love being a plumber and I'm not that bad a plumber. I was blessed to have really good teachers, men that took the time to show me how it was done or at least encourage me to try my best. But I believe that God gives us all the ability to use common sense as long as fear doesn't get in the way to do just about anything. When my dad was hauling propane to people he would be hooking up new tanks to the house system and I would be talking to Mrs. Anderson and she would ask dad and I if we could fix her propane stove as it would not light and she would always have to use a match to light it and it was made to light itself. Well, I was only about 14 years old and dad said go see if you can make it work. So I would look at how it was supposed to work and then with a needle and some sand paper that Mrs Anderson found for me I was able to make that stove work. It was big for a 14 year old to be able to do that but mostly it helped me to not be afraid to try and with common sense most time it would work. One thing about my dad is that he would let me try and at 8 years old I was going around the field on the tractor discing, and by 14 I was hauling grain for my uncle. We built go-carts and and fixed up old cars and guys like Elroy or Walter were always willing to give us kids advice or a hand even though Mr. Ford thought we were just a bunch of crazy kids, we had alot of fun. I watch most kids today and they don't even know how to change a tire or check the oil. Right now we have two young men living with us and one that comes every day to the shop, they are here to learn a trade and some life skills. There are probably a lot better trades people to teach them then us, but there are very few that want to do it, or take the time to pass on to the next generation a little that would help a lot. Miracle of the day is to always be prepared to share the vision because God has ahead of time put the right people in place to build his kingdom and bless the ranch project even at a plumbers trade show miles away. P.T.L.

Father in heaven, search our hearts, show us any area in our lives that you can use us. We choose today to stand in faith and trust in you, use us mightily. In Jesus name Amen

Terrific Tuesday

"For all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding "YES!" And through Christ, our "AMEN" (which means "Yes") ascends to God for His glory " II Cor. 1:20, NLT

What is it in your life that you used to be excited about and really felt called to do. Is there a dream that you have pushed down, goals that you have let go of ? Too often, because those dreams seem to be taking a long time, or because we've been through some disappointments, we start to give up and second guess our dreams. Often it's easy to accept the fact that it's probably not going to happen for me or maybe it wasn't meant to happen after all. But just because you give up doesn't mean God gave up. God never gives up on a dream that He has put on our hearts. He always fulfills His promises! That dream he placed in your heart may be pushed aside by disappointment, setbacks, failures, or rejection. But you need to know this; The seed is still alive. Many may think you'll give up but God's not given up on you. The promise is still in you. You just need to get your fire back! That dream may look like it's dead in the ground, but really, it's just been planted. That means it's coming back. It's going to flourish! Our attitude should be - this may be taking a long time, and maybe I don't see how it could possibly happen, but I know God already has the completion date. You cannot give up on your dreams. There are far too many dreams burried in our grave yards. Those that gave up or didn't even try, don't be one of them and don't let any one discourage you with negative talk, just believe, trust God and keep on going. You can do it. I am not giving up on my dreams. I will not go through life without goals, passion, or enthusiasm. No, I'm going to hold on to the vision that God gave me because I know that God fulfills His promises! The miracle of the day has to be all of you, that keep Diane and I so encouraged and knowing that we are loved and not alone, thankyou so very much. Rest in His loving care it's a great place to be.

Heavenly Father I pray today and thank You for your faithfulness to us! I ask that you breathe life into every dream and desire in the hearts of your people. I trust you with the unknowns and believe that you are working all things out for our good. In Jesus' name Amen

Abraham Lincoln wrote - And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.