Looking for grapes

Well, I haven't been a very good blogger. It has been quite some time since I updated this particular blog. But my wife gave me a great idea the other day, and I actually incorporated it into one of my sermons this month. We were talking about remaining positive in disappointing times and one of my keys for doing that was to only do what God told you to do, and nothing more. Numbers 13 tells the story of the 12 spies that were sent into the Promised Land to spy it out. Moses told them to check out a number of things. He told them to see what kind of people lived there, whether they were strong or weak, how many of them there were, what is the land like, good or bad. How do they live, in tents or in strong holds, again about the land, is it fat or lean. And then he told them to bring him back some grapes because it was at the time of the first harvesting of grapes when they were going in. They did all of the above, but they also noticed that there giants in the land. The bible says they found a cluster of grapes that had to be placed between a pole and carried by two men. Now that is a big cluster of grapes. But do you think they mentioned that when they got back? NO. The only thing they could talk about was the giants who were there. The bible also tells us that they already knew that the giants would be there, and had been told that God would take care of them. Their panicked talking about giants instead of showing off the grapes they brought back caused their brethren to lose hope, and cost the older generation their opportunity to go into the Promised Land. If God sends you for grapes, don't come back talking about the giants.

Obama Used Faulty Anecdote in Speech to Congress - Political News - FOXNews.com

Obama Used Faulty Anecdote in Speech to Congress - Political News - FOXNews.com

Some of you will discount this issue simply because it is was brought up by Fox News, but is it an issue at all that the president of the United States used a faulty anecdote in his speech the other night about Health Care? With all of the resources available to him you would think that he could have a speech written that would not contain such mistakes. Could the gaffe have been intentional? Did he have them leave it in hoping he wouldn't get busted on it? Or could he have left it on hoping to get busted on it so that he could then point out how much the "wingers" and the "teabaggers" just don't get it? It "almost" happened the way he said it. As a matter of fact if it had not been for government intervention it would have gone down that way. What do you think?

Headed to Hawaii

As you can tell if you have stumbled across my little portion of the blogosphere I don't keep up with my blog very often. Life is very hectic for me right now and this seems to be a terribly selfish waste of time when I have so many other things I could and should be doing. My wife and I are very active in our church right now. We also both work full time jobs that cause us to work extra hours most weeks. In addition to that we are in the startup phase of launching a new church in Lawrenceville, GA. That is the topic for a different day or blog, but since we are so busy we have been looking for some ways to get to spend some "me" time with one another recently, and the Lord has provided the perfect solution. Due to some extra labor I performed on the side and the generosity of a dear friend who loves us greatly we are headed to Kauai, Hawaii in 9 days and a wake up. We are so excited about going. Without something like this happening the odds would have been that we would never have gotten to go, so we really are pumped about the chance. By the way, does anyone know anything about a cheap, used car rental place on the island called Island Cars? Honestly I find it difficult to think about spending $500.00 on a rental car for a week when there are so many other things I would rather spend my money on. I plan to post some pics and blog about the experience when we return, so stay tuned. Ron, out.

The aforementioned buried car in Rodanthe. I don't know if they ever got it out.

Rodanthe House

This house was in Rodanthe in October when I was there for vacation. It is the house that was used for the outside shots in the movie Nights of Rodanthe with Richard Gere and some other female actor whom I cannot remember right now. This was just after a weekend of storms that caused the ocean to breach the dunes and cover the road with sand. They had to use earth movers to clear the road. I saw one house where the swimming pool was completely buried and another where they did not get the car out in time and the car was buried up to the lower portion of the windows. You can dig out of snow but I'm not sure you can dig out of sand, at least not easily. Anyway I really like vacationing in that part of the state and am looking forward to going back. I may not make it this year though as we have decided to try Hawaii. A free time share and buddy passes for the flight helped to make that decision. We have never been and are looking forward to going. The island we will be staying on is Kauai. Anybody been there done that?

Holiday Hangover

Well Christmas is over although the decorations are still up. New Years is only a couple of days away so the Holiday celebrations are not to the end. Please don't get me wrong, and don't mistake the title of the post as an indication of my partying over the holidays. Short of an occasional glass of wine I haven't had anything to drink for many, many years, certainly not enough to give me a buzz much less a hangover. When I say glass of wine that is what I mean, ONE glass of wine occasionally. But I do or am developing a Holiday Hangover of a different kind. Again, don't take this the wrong way because the holidays have been a lot of fun this year even with the economy in the tank the way it is. We have had several dinners with different couples and friends over. My daughter and the grandkids came over for dinner on Christmas eve and we opened presents with the grandkids. Church was great, all was well. But for some reason this just seems to be the holiday that never ends to me. I don't mean to be a Grinch, or unappreciative, and even with the tough times we were able to be a blessing to the kids, but for some reason I just want this season to end today, right now. Be gone, be over, I'm done with it. I led devotions at work this morning and in talking over some scripture I shared I think I discovered part of the reason. It has been such a busy season that I am afraid we have taken time to have fun and fellowship with everyone but God. And I am way tired of running in my strength and not getting a daily uplift from fellowshipping with the Lord every morning before my day begins. So pardon me if I sound more like Scrooge than Santa Claus, but I am really ready for the holidays to be over with so that I can get back to a more normal routine. What about you?

My Monthly Ramblings

Well it has been almost a month since I last posted so maybe this will turn out to be a monthly blog. Who knows. Blogging has never really been one of my passions and time constraints keep me from doing it on a daily basis, but it is good to sit down and let the thoughts sort of free flow for a little while to see where I am even with myself. Of course the holidays are such a busy time but we have also been very busy in daily activities. My wife and I are the Directors of the Deacon ministry at our church and we have a number of deacons who are now at the end of their term and desire to transition off. Therefore we now are interviewing and talking to a number of candidates to fill those positions as well as others to prepare for the growth that has been occurring in our church. I prefer to stay ahead of that game rather than fall behind and I am sure our current deacons do as well.
We have also continued to pray and plan for the launch of our own church in the spring of 2010. That is very time consuming. We are praying about and for prayer team members, board members, ministry name, 501c3 status, and many other facets to the launching of a new church. It is an interesting process and one that I would not have been prepared for just a few years ago. I do believe that the Lord has stretched us to the point where we can now believe Him to help us establish this church and to cause it to be a healthy, growing entity. So life is very busy right now and we wouldn't have it any other way. Speaking of busy, the Lunch Bunch is calling and I have to run out to Little Azio's for lunch with the gang. See ya later.

Ron