Sometimes days just suck. Remember God will get you through.

The first thing I find out today was Leonard Nimoy died. Mr. Nimoy was one of my favorite actors, I loved him in Star Trek like everyone else but I seen him other things. I remember him playing the Prophet Samuel in a TV miniseries and he was excellent. I guess he was special to me because I watched Star Trek as a child and I loved Mr. Spock's intelligence. Star Trek stimulated my imagination and that is important for any child. I also tried to learn as much as I could because I wanted to be like Spock. Today I feel like I lost a part of my childhood. While Mr. Nimoy has passed his memory will never pass. Rest in Peace Mr. Nimoy and thank you for all you have given us.

Another bit of bad news occurred later in the day, my Great Uncle Bob on my dad's side past away. This was another part of my childhood that has passed. The only time I met my Uncle Bob was when I was a child living in Missouri during the 1970's. I remember Uncle Bob as a nice man. I remember it as being one of my favorite times in my childhood. 

The day seemed to suck, well it does. While people in my life have passed, one related to me and one I  never met, I will have their memory and I am greatful to God for that. I pray the Lord welcomes them into his loving arms.

God Bless.

Planning gold prospecting trip for spring and summer

I have always been interested in panning gold since I was a kid. There is no real gold to find in Florida where I grew up but I live in Washington state now and figure what the heck. I have really been inspired to do this from Watching #GoldRush on discovery. I love the show and love how the Hoffman crew shows their Christian faith. I expect 3 thing from the trip: exercise, some gold, and communion with God away from everything. I just have to get the wife to go along with it.

I am richer and better than you. Yeah, right.

Today's blog is judging other solely on wealth, looks, or other things of that nature. This is a subject that hits close to home for me and perhaps many of you. I mean have you ever encountered someone who appears well of and looks down on you just because you have less money? Or maybe it is a supervisor or someone higher up in your organization who looks at you with contempt because you are an underling. I have encountered both in my life and I can tell you they were quite wrong. They judged me by the means of the man and not the Lord who happens to be the ultimate judge in character and life.

From 1986 until 1997 I served in the US Navy as an Electronics Technician on Submarines, the kind that can carry those big firecrackers that level whole cities in a flash. In the navy as in other military organization there is a command structure that goes from the President to the most junior recruit.

I rose to the rank of second class petty officer (E-5) before medical issues required me to leave the service. In that time I met many Officers and more senior enlisted than I was at the time. Some of the Officers were great, and though there is rules to prevent fraternization, they treated everywhere with respect and equality as a person. Then there were those who were really into class distinction and treated enlisted as nothing more than a tool, a means to an end; that is to say for their advancement. The reason this happened was because of their training and the misbegotten believe that officers are better than enlisted. Officers are educated, some from wealthy families, while us enlisted represented the poor, uneducated, and low lifes of society. This could not be more wrong. I knew many enlisted with college educations, from wealthy families, or just of a better social nature. I can also tell you that many enlisted have higher IQs than most officers and perform jobs that many officers could not perform nor comprehend. I can tell you of some pranks I pulled on Junior Officers but this is not the time for it, maybe later.

Now in my life outside the military I ran into people who thought that because I did not, nor do I now, have a lot of money that I pretty much was a lowlife. I know of an instance where a person formerly related to me through another thought that they were better for my children than I was because I could not afford "experiences" for my children such as numerous expensive vacations and such. Wow, with that logic and by extension only Bill Gates could afford to be a proper parent. Wealth is not everything, what should be most valued is values. Values is what we need to teach our children, how to treat and respect others. What does a roller coaster teach you except to hold on and watch what you eat before you ride. With proper values we are less likely judge others improperly.

Hey I am not rich but I think I have personal values that make me a better person. I just want people to love and respect one another. I do not want to pre-judge someone and by so doing cause problems. You know I am not perfect but hopefully most will judge me to be a good guy and in the end this is how I want to be remembered.

God Bless you, and hopefully I'll catch you later.

Tomorrow's blog

I plan on doing a blog on Judging others because of their income, job, or status in society. How many of us have been guilty of this?

Some days it just is not there or maybe I'm not.

There are times when I want to write I do not want to write. Huh? It is more like that I want to write and get on a roll it is just my motivation is not there and it took my imagination with it. Maybe they are both on vacation to Florida or some sunny place. I would not blame them I hardly take them anywhere since I do not like to fly. Funny, I love planes but the thought of flying is another thing entirely. Anyway, I hope they return soon so I can write something pretty cool but until them I will be  working in my shop making knives and a gold sluice for  trips I am planning this summer. I bet my motivation and imagination will return if I end up finding some gold. Well, I will try to catch ya'll tomorrow, until then God Bless ya'll.

Temptations, and I do not mean the singers.

How many of have faced temptations? Well all of us have. There is not one us on the Earth that has not been tempted in someway or another, some good and some bad.

I am not here to talk about being tempted by good food, buying some cool thing, or stuff along those lines, but the temptations that cause us to sin. You know the ones, the Ten Commandments type of sin. These are the ones that tempt you into doing something that could hurt you or others though you may not think so at the time. These are the ones that put a blot in God's Good Book, the ones that kill us spiritually. Think of it like this: If you are facing a situation that may get you some moment of pleasure but can possibly hurt another then that is a temptation I am talking about. Another one of those "weigh it against the Gospel" moments. If you weigh it against the Word of Christ and it does not balance out then do something to get yourself away from that temptation and if that is not possible then pray to the Lord for strength to resist.

If you do fall to temptation then pray for forgiveness and strength not to repeat the fall. Remember God is forgiving to the repentant heart. Notice I said repentant, this means you honestly do not mean to do it again, it does not mean you can keep doing it because you figure You are covered by God's forgiveness clause. Many people knowingly sin but think it is ok because the can just say "forgive me Lord" and that is that. Not the actions of a repentant person if you ask me. To tell the truth I have been guilty of this in the past, we all probably have.

If you want to know more about resisting temptation the get into the Lord's word as he is the authority on the matter. Jesus was tempted by the devil like no one else and he overcame it and will give you the strength and guidance to help you do the same.

My writing experience: When is God speaking to me?

My writing experience: When is God speaking to me?: Here is a good question to consider? How and when do will I know if it is God speaking to me? First let me tell you I do believe God speaks...

When is God speaking to me?

Here is a good question to consider? How and when do will I know if it is God speaking to me?
First let me tell you I do believe God speaks to me; I believe he speaks to me through my conscience. I think this is how many experience it. It is usually my conscience saying something that I may not have considered normally and is relevant and beneficial to me. I will say I do not always listen and those are the times things went bad. God also communicates using other means like signs that trigger thoughts and people who cross your path and provide guiding words.
Now how do I know if it is God communicating to me and not something else. First it never leads me astray from the Gospel. You see I balance the message up against the word of Christ Jesus, if it does not agree then it is not God speaking. I believe God's word will never cause me to harm another. In This I will never waiver.
I know of cases where people have said God told them something would happen for their benefit that would come at the cost of another. This is not the word of God but of a greedy individual using the spirit to get what they wanted; God have mercy on their soul. Unfortunately I know someone who was a victim of such a person; that person is my wife.
A little background, both my wife and I had been married before and both went through rough spots in our lives before we ended up we we are today. Well anyway my wife who is a few years older than I lost a daughter to 2 greedy evil people. These two used prophecy to justify the murder of my wife Diana's daughter, Dawn. One of the people, the man who murdered Dawn, was Dawn's own husband named Nick. What makes this really bad is Nick was a pastor, someone who should know the word of God and what he did could never be condoned by God. The other person was Sandy, Nick's mistress, and a "supposed" prophetess.
The story goes like this: Nick was a Pastor and counselor at a church here in Washington and Sandy worked for the church and acted as a Prophetess for the church. Nick began seeing Sandy and other women he was supposedly counseling for marriage problems. Dawn was a good wife who worked at a bank and helped at the church. I never met Dawn but according to everyone she was an angel. Anyway, in 1997 around Christmas time,or shortly before, Sandy started prophesying that Dawn would die in an Accident and the her and Nick would be together. Somehow this turned into a murder plan and on Christmas night 1997 Nick drugged his wife dawn with diphenhydramine then used a plastic bag to smother her. Nick, or someone, set a fire in the bedroom to make it all look like an accident. For a few years it was listed suspicious but considered an accident, and though the autopsy showed Dawn died before the fire, no charges were filed for years until Sandy came forward years later to reveal the murder. Sandy worked an immunity deal but Nick was convicted of second degree murder and was sentenced to 26 years in prison.
I can tell you at know time was God saying "Murder Dawn and you 2 can be together" to Sandy or Nick. And God certainly did not say to Nick "take the land" as the sign to kill Dawn. There is no way that God would do this, to have an innocent murdered for the murders to gain. No way, I even think it is against and could be a form of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, the one unforgivable sin. I can only guess at this the Lord himself will make the final decision. I do think the Spirit said "stop, this is wrong" but was ignored.
To sum up, God will speak to you in his way, and a way you can understand, but it will not go against the word, Christ Jesus. Weigh what you hear with the gospel and you will not go wrong.

Tomorrow's blog!

Thinking about something to write on for tomorrow. Probably knowing when God is and is not talking to you. See ya then

Prayer for Business?

 

 

Recently I heard of an instance where people were upset that a small businessman prayed for better business. I found myself contemplating this and why I see nothing wrong with this man praying for business and here was what I concluded: There is nothing wrong with praying for better business.

Maybe after reading the first part you are saying that I am wrong and I know nothing of the Bible nor the word of god. Maybe you think praying for things for one’s self shows greed. Maybe it is because Christ says that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to enter the gates of heaven. I agree with this saying, I have to it is the word of Christ, but I do not think it applies in this situation. Well, I do not think it applies here. I am sure the person I am referring to is a good Christian and uses what he earns and his time to help others and bring people to Christ. I believe that if through his actions, that if he helps bring one lost soul to Jesus then that one act is worth more than all the gold on earth and it will be celebrated in Heaven with more fanfare than one can possibly imagine.

I will let the paragraph above stand for my argument about the person getting into heaven but in the end that is for the Lord, our judge, to decide. Now I want to address the prayer itself. Can we pray for anything and everything? Yes, We can. Jesus says that we can ask the Father in his name. There, that is that. I am not saying we will get everything we ask for and I believe Christ did not mean it that way. Think of it like this: As a child many of us pestered our parents for things that now seem silly and in reality were nothing more than future garage sale fodder. I know as a child I was told “no” when I asked and was never punished for asking, at least not the first time. I also know I have told my children “no” on occasions and never punished them for asking. As the saying goes, “No harm in asking.” So you can ask for anything, you just have to understand it is the Father’s prerogative to say “No” like any good parent if he knows it is not for good for you.

Now for a business owner to pray for prosperity? I can hear it now “It is not right they are being selfish and self-serving.” Is it? No, and here are some examples why it is not.

Let us say that our Business owner is a farmer. The crop he grow is not important in the example (exemption in Washington and Colorado) what is important are the owner’s employees, customers, and his family, not to mention others on down the money flow. If this man has a bad crop yield he may have to let go his farm hands who will lose money to support their own families. The farmer himself loses income and, maybe, could lose the farm, as we have seen so many times in the past. Now let us say this farmer prays for a good crop; is this a self-serving prayer? Come on, he is praying for a good crop to sell and that will be turned into money, is it greedy? No, many people benefit from this not just the farmer. And I will bet you the farmer will show his appreciation to the Lord.

I have seen this type of thing in the past. I currently live in Bremerton, Washington but I am originally from a small fishing town on the Gulf Coast of Florida called Carrabelle. (When I say small I mean small; Carrabelle has the World’s smallest police Station, a phone booth.) Now back on topic. As I said before Carrabelle is a fishing town with many shrimp boats and down the road, in East Point, many of the residents are oyster fisherman. One thing about Shrimp and Oysters is that hurricanes are not good for them and large storms can disrupt fishing grounds for years. That happened when I was a senior in High school back in 1985-86. We had 2 Hurricane’s come through in a span of two months. It did a number on the oyster beds and shrimp breeding grounds. To this day I do not think the area has rebounded and the storms that have hit since have not helped. I can tell you that people prayed that the storms went somewhere else. Were they selfish for wanting a destructive hurricane to go somewhere else and praying for that outcome? No, they were thinking of their livelihood and those of their friends and family.

Now we can look at other examples and examine them, but does it matter? Not really, I will still defend the person I am writing about. Now who is it I am writing about? Well first let me say I am not associated with this person or the show he is on other than being a fan. Now for the reveal. I am writing about Todd Hoffman and Gold Rush. On a recent episode Todd, his dad Jack, his business partner Dave Turin, and the rest of the Hoffman crew prayed to find more Gold after a not so good clean-up. Before you stay that is selfish look at who I said prayed. It was not just Todd, it was the whole crew. These men were praying to do better in their profession in hopes of providing for their family. Yes they are gold miners, but they are a business just like the farmer and fishermen above. And like other businesses they have expenses so if they fail to meet their goal it is not just they who suffer. Something else, gold is used for more than jewelry and investment, it is a vital material for the electronics industry and without it you would not be reading this on your Cell, tablet, PC or whatever you are using.

So in closing I said he had the right to pray to find gold and he also exercised his faith in doing so. He sent a message that Christ is for us and will be there for us no matter if it is Mining gold or helping someone from the gutter. I pray the Hoffmans have continued success and that from their demonstration of faith and spreading of God’s word others may be saved.

Why I did not cite Bible verses?

I think if you can get the message of Christ through example or explain the gist then you have a firm grip on the Word. I also believe that if I get one person to find the verses in the Bible that represent what I have written then I am closer to getting someone into the Bible and understanding the Lord’s word. How many of us had Bible drill in the past where they called out the verse and you had to find it? Now find the meaning.

Back to it.

Today I start blogging again. I will be writing about my Christian journey, my writing, and everyday life. Hopefully It will help somebody as I hope it helps me.