A different perspective

I was flying from San Antonio to Houston TX yesterday and was thinking about how things look differently depending on where you are. When I was on the ground in San Antonio, it was cloudy and rainy. There was no sunshine and you wouldn't even know it was there except that you remember that it was in the sky yesterday. When we left the ground and got above the clouds there was a beautiful sunrise (6:00 am flight).

This is like the unsaved person vs. the saved. In troubles, the unsaved can only see the clouds and doesn't even know the sun exists. This is kind of hopeless and depressing. How great it is to know that the sun (Son) is above our troubles. It is easy for us to only see the clouds too. It is obvious when we get through our troubles that the Son was there all the time but faith is weak and we forget or ignore what a Savior we have.

Are you where you want to be?

Men's bible study this morning: The comment was made "If you want your life to count, God is going to take you to places you don't want to be." This was in reference to Joseph and how God used him in Egypt to preserve his family.

The emphasis of the Bible study was long term thinking. Do we need to rethink ?

• Our attitude toward suffering
• Our long term purpose
• Our long term relationships

It is easy to become discouraged if we only look at where we are now. It's hard to look beyond where we are now. How do we do that? Look up instead of looking down or around or behind us.

In Joseph's case, God took him to a place where Joseph didn't want to be through circumstances beyond Joseph's control. Sometimes we are in places we don't want to be because of decisions that we have made. God can still work in our lives in these places but that was not God's choice for where He wanted us to be. How much better to be where God puts us than where we put ourselve through poor choices or choices made based on our personal desires?

I Finally Figured out how to add a Title :)

I saw Thad's blogs and each one had a nice title and I couldn't figure out how to do it. And like any good male, I couldn't stop and ask directions.

The answer was go to Settings -> Formatting -> Show Title Field and select yes.

It's been a long time since I have updated my blog so I thought I would take a few minutes to update where I have been and what I have been doing for the last month (more like 6 weeks).

Finished the "Wild at Heart" men's Bible study on Friday mornings. I think I managed to make it to about 4 or 5 out of 8 weeks. I also finished reading the book on one of my trips after the study had ended. I think one of the best weeks was the last week where he talked about building bonds with a small group of men. Good idea but it takes a long time to do this. Some of the men he had this relationship with he has known for a lot of years and he is only now building that close relationship. The study was heavy on video clips and light on good Biblical references. As a tool to get men involved in looking at their own life, I think this video series was good. For in depth Bible study this isn't the video (And it didn't claim to be that).

Now we are back to the "Man in the Mirror" series. This is what the original men's Bible study was organize around. Click here to view some info: www.maninthemirror.org
Thad, this may be an idea for your small group. It has discussion questions and everything. We meet once a week at 7:00 AM or on Wed nights at 7:00PM for an hour.

Other news - I have been asked to be a yoke fellow - precursor to being a deacon. As part of this process, you are ordained to be a deacon. I think what this means is once a deacon always a deacon. If you move from one church to another, you are qualified to serve in another church. I guess I'll have to hit the theology books before my ordination :) I may even check out the Bible - there may be some useful stuff in there.

Traveling news - I've been to Atlanta and Tulsa, OK since my last posting. This was my first trip to Oklahoma. I didn't manage to see Oral Roberts University while I was there (not that I was trying) but there is definitely a strong "Christian" influence in that area. Going to San Antonio, TX and Kansas City, MO at the end of April. Mom is going with me to San Antonio for a few days. We are staying on riverwalk so that should be an enjoyable time. I just worked out the schedule for the installation of our new servers. In the next 24 weeks, I'm going to be home 9 weeks. So I'll be a traveling man for the summer. Holidays off and that's about it.

Visitors - Mike, Sue and family visited for a few days. Had a nice time for us all. Aunt Connie came down for Grandma Paris' birthday (85 years old) and we went to a ballgame with her for her birthday. Mom had a visit with Ralph and Fern Henderson (friends from Ross Corners Church) and Marilyn and Roland Horton (Marilyn was Marilyn Lilea from Ross Corners and Roland is from Bradford Baptist) Both mates died and they got married after meeting on a bus trip through Empire State Baptists.

Mom news - Mom just went to Diabetes school. One of her Dr. appointments within the last month, the Dr. told her that she definitely has diabetes. Controlled with diet and pills now. She is also getting a sleep machine next week for sleep apnea. Mom is also coming to NY for a couple of weeks. I think the dates are May 10th - May 24th. Not sure she is not here right now.

Weather - sunny and high 80's. Great convertible weather.