Thanksgiving Day disaster

Nov 25 THANKSGIVING Day, 2004
God is able and He is willing; I am expecting so there is nothing that can hinder.
That is the thought was in my mind as I awoke this morning. That knowledge creates joy. Just as Peter wrote.
Now for the rest of the story…
In June of 2003 I got laid off. This was a blessing because while I was working I couldn’t afford the health insurance they offered, so I had no coverage. When I got laid off, I went on unemployment and so was automatically covered. That’s when Scottie got sick and started running up a million plus dollars worth of medical bills, which were all covered, thank God. But that’s a different story.
He was so critically ill for so long, that eventually my unemployment ran out. Unfrotunately, I thought I still had three more months to go. So we got behond on our mortgage and were on the edge of foreclosure. After waiting for Fannie Mae approval for a couple of months, the credit union finally said they would be able to restructure the loan and save our house. But we had to sign a modification agreement at 9:00 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving and it would cost $500.
I figured the Lord could take care of that somehow and I realized that my $800 paycheck would be deposited on Thanksgiving Day. Good. That will take care of that. He can take care of the $700 payment that will be due on Dec. 1st, too.
Just before we left home for Mom’s for Thanksgiving dinner (and just after I wrote the first two paragraphs of this journal entry) I went online to check the balance on my checking account, to see if my paycheck had been deposited yet. It had in it $400. I thought. “Hmm, haven’t those checks come through yet? Hasn’t my check been deposited yet?” Then I saw that my $800 deposit had been made, but there was only a $400 balance.
Somehow I had miscalculated. I had gotten overdrawn, all my checks went through in two days, generating $189 worth of overdraft fees, leaving me $100 short of the money I needed to save our home from foreclosure on Friday.
It was hard to maintain thankfulness that Thanksgiving Day. I knew there was nothing I could about it that day. The thought came to borrow it from my mom, but I rejected that idea. Then I started to think, “No, not what am I going to do, but Lord, what are You going to do about it?”
Well, the money did not magically appear in my checking account overnoght, so I asked the credit union if they could delay the signing for one day. They agreed. Then I went to work delivering papers.
That was where the victory was won. As I walked the streets in the drizzling rain I struggled. “Lord, you let me down.” “No, the Lord will never fail me, He cannot fail me.”
“But what am I going to do?” “No. Lord, what are You going to do?” “But how could You let this happen?” “The enemy may have messed things up but it’s not over yet.”
Finally I remembered last December after Scott’s emergency RVAD surgery, when they didn’t think he was ready to have it removed, but there was a huge blood clot that blocked the blood flow, so they had to remove it, and miraculously, he did fine without it.
After that surgery, the Lord gave me a word from Joshua. It was simply, “I will not fail thee.” And that has stayed with me ever since. And it strengthens my faith whenever I think of it. And it strengthened my faith then.
So since I knew the Lord would not fail me, (knew, not hoped) I decided to sing and praise Him. I thought “Well, this should be pleasing to the Lord - if I can still praise and worship Him even in this situation where it looks hopeless.”
So I did. The rest of the paper route I praised the Lord and rejoiced in Him. I knew that He is with me and that He is in me. That He is in me and He is with me.
So when I finished the route I went to the credit union. I knew that the Lord was with me and the Spirit in me would give me favor with them. I told them what had happened and they refunded every single one of those seven overdraft fees. $189.00 worth!
The next night I had dream. Star and I were climbing up a tall mountainside. It was densely covered with short green shrubs. We caught a glimpse of something white scurrying past us. I saw that it was a white bird’s wing. We ran, following it to the top of the mountain, when suddenly, the earth just ended and we went over the edge into space, with the earth far, far below us.
Star was fearful, thinking we would surely die. I looked way, way down there and just thought, “Well, I guess this is it.” Then I suddenly realized that we could fly.
I woke up with this thought in my mind: When the bottom drops out, that is an opportunity to soar.

letter to Sen. Dayton

Dear Sen. Dayton;
I am very disappointed that you chose not to represent the views of the vast majority of Minnesotans by voting against the Federal Marriage Amendment.
I commend you for your study of the Holy Scriptures. If you truly believe that marriage was ordained of God, you know that it was divinely ordained between one man and one woman. I believe it to be a very significant fact that marriage is the only institution founded before the fall of humanity.
Now mankind, consistent in its rebellion against the Almighty, seeks to alter the quintessence of the human relationship.
You know very well that a federal judge could find unconstitutional the definition of traditional marriage, therefore I find your arguments disingenuous.
I urge you to reconsider your position and to vote in favor of the amendment.
Thank you for your attention.
sincerely,
Mr. and Mrs. El Norteno 
Minneapolis, Minnesota
“The First Amendment of the Constitution was not written to protect the people of this country from religious values; it was written to protect religious values from government tyranny." Ronald Wilson Reagan

Re: an Essay on the Trinity by Jonathan Edwards

Yeah, I was thinking tonight about going back through it and just extracting the highlights out of it. One of the main things was about how Jesus was begotten of the Father by being God's perfect idea of Himself-His exact reflection as it were. Or as Paul said in Heb. 1.3- who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person. That explains for me how Jesus could be "begotten" but not created.

And the other interesting thing was about the Holy Ghost. The Father and the Son love and adore each other; Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him. Pr. 8.30.
I, Wisdom, Jesus, was the Father's delight, AND I was rejoicing always before (or in ?) Him. So they were rejoicing in each other. Edwards contends or at least puts forth that that adoration, that Divine Love is the Spirit of God. God IS love. IJn. 4.16. Here is a quote:

(That God's love or His loving kindness is the same with the Holy Ghost seems to be plain by Psalm 36:7-9, "How excellent (or how precious as 'tis in the Hebrew) is Thy loving-kindness O God, therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings, they shall be abundantly satisfied (in the Hebrew "watered") with the fatness of Thy house and Thou shalt make them to drink of the river of Thy pleasures; for with Thee is the fountain of life and in Thy light shall we see light."

Doubtless that precious loving-kindness and that fatness of God's house and river of His pleasures and the water of the fountain of life and God's light here spoken [of] are the same thing; by which we learn that the Holy anointing oil that was kept in the House of God, which was a type of the Holy Ghost, represented God's love, and that the "River of water of life" spoken of in the 22nd [chapter] of Revelation, which proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, which is the same with Ezekiel's vision of Living and life-giving water, which is here [in Ps. 36] called the "Fountain of life and river of God's pleasures," is God's loving-kindness.

But Christ Himself expressly teaches us that by spiritual fountains and rivers of water of life is meant the Holy Ghost. (John 4:14; 7:38,39).That by the river of God's pleasures here is meant the same thing with the pure river of water of life spoken of in Revelation 22:1, will be much confirmed if we compare those verses with Revelation 21:23, 24; 22:1,5. (See the notes on chapters 21, 23, 24) I think if we compare these places and weigh them we cannot doubt but that it is the same happiness that is meant in this Psalm which is spoken of there.)

Interesting, eh? And also interesting is the number of Scriptures he cites where love and the Spirit, and joy and the Spirit are mentioned together. I haven't written them down and looked them up yet but they will be some good meditatin' (or masticatin') when I do!
Let's let Rev. Edwards sum up:

And this I suppose to be that blessed Trinity that we read of in the Holy Scriptures. The Father is the Deity subsisting in the prime, un-originated and most absolute manner, or the Deity in its direct existence. The Son is the Deity generated by God's understanding, or having an idea of Himself and subsisting in that idea. The Holy Ghost is the Deity subsisting in act, or the Divine essence flowing out and breathed forth in God's Infinite love to and delight in Himself. And I believe the whole Divine essence does truly and distinctly subsist both in the Divine idea and Divine love, and that each of them are properly distinct Persons.

There. That might be a little more digestible. Enjoy!

Socially acceptable bigotry

for some reason links aren't posting, so here's the url www.metropulse.com/dir_zine/dir_2003/1322/t_gamut.html
This is a kinduva long article but please read down at least to the 3rd subhead and see what you think.
And let me know.
love y'all

P.S. WARNING: Some offensive language in the article

email

Hi Brooks-
I found online what we were talking about on the 4th. Good luck! It takes quite a bit of mastication (look it up, Dr. Q) but will repay the effort. Just the first four or five paragraphs is enough to keep me occupied for a week.
He elaborates quite a bit on the Holy Spirit which is very interesting and not just because of the novelty of it. This expalins the tremendous joy that I felt welling up inside me as we walked. I knew it was much more than fine weather. The Holy Ghost was walking with us and in us!
Scott and Ralph, any thoughts?
In His joy,

here's the url- http://www.ccel.org/e/edwards/trinity/trinity.html

Prophecy

June 26

We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ep.2.10

This is the verse that has been rolling around in my heart all week. At church this morning Peter told me a Word he had gotten two weeks ago while we were praying in the choir room before service. We were praying greatly. I began swinging my Bible this way and that in front of me, slashing the air with it like a machete. Every once in a while Peter would come over and touch me lightly. Today he told me that once when he did, the Holy Ghost gave him a word for me which was “Young man, I have more work for you to do.” Peter repeated this many times this morning. He asked me which felt better, that the Lord called me a young man or that He had more work for me to do? I answered that that they both went together.

We rejoiced and prayed in the Spirit. He said that I will put my hand to the plow and not look back and plow the fields which the Lord has ordained. That reminded me of the verse I had been meditating on all week.

I will be starting my new job after the Fourth of July. Maybe those are the new fields which I will be plowing. In one sense they will be for certain. But I still feel there is a greater calling yet unfulfilled. But it's coming... It gets closer every day. Habakkuk. 2.3 says: For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

After church I was talking to Monroe. He was talking about ministering to people at work. Some day we will be done with that. On occasion I have gone to the church administrative offices and there is Mary at the receptionist’s desk greeting visitors and answering phones. And I just get the impression that that is so wrong. She is so marvelously gifted to minister to God’s people and there she is answering phones. But the day is coming when that will change, when she and we will walk in the fullness of our callings.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. I Jn. 3.2,3.

Bob in the yard 

We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ep.2.10

This is the verse that has been rolling around in my heart all week. At church this morning Peter told me a Word he had gotten two weeks ago while we were praying in the choir room before service. We were praying greatly. I began swinging my Bible this way and that in front of me, slashing the air with it like a machete. Every once in a while Peter would come over and touch me lightly. Today he told me that once when he did, the Holy Ghost gave him a word for me which was “Young man, I have more work for you to do.” Peter repeated this many times this morning. He asked me which felt better, that the Lord called me a young man or that He had more work for me to do? I answered that that they both went together.

We rejoiced and prayed in the Spirit. He said that I will put my hand to the plow and not look back and plow the fields which the Lord has ordained. That reminded me of the verse I had been meditating on all week.

I will be starting my new job after the Fourth of July. Maybe those are the new fields which I will be plowing. In one sense they will be for certain. But I still feel there is a greater calling yet unfulfilled. But it's coming...It gets closer every day. Habakkuk. 2.3 says: For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

After church I was talking to Monroe. He was talking about ministering to people at work. Some day we will be done with that. On occasion I have gone to the church administrative offices and there is Mary at the receptionist’s desk greeting visitors and answering phones. And I just get the impression that that is so wrong. She is so marvelously gifted to minister to God’s people and there she is answering phones. But the day is coming when that will change, when she and we will walk in the fullness of our callings.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. I Jn. 3.2,3.

First Post

Well I have finally created a blog. I have been keeping a journal for some time, but now the same irresistable creative impulse that drives me to The Poodle Club on Karaoke night compels me to expose myself online.
Welcome and I hope it's worth your time.