baseball and Christmas

I received a collection of DVDs about baseball from my son for Christmas. I love the sport,played a lot in my younger days, coached some little league, and have a lot of memories about my father "Ninth-inning Ed"a superb player himself.

The gift is history of the game from its inception through todays game and is contained in 6 2-disk sets. I am half-way through the first disk and look forward to many hours of enjoyment.

beautiful snow

Christmas day was nice as I went to my in-laws for dinner. Actually my wife and I furnished the ham and she made the deviled eggs, strawberry salad and yams, and her sister brought the white potatoes and green beans and my wifes brother-in-law did the cooking and cleaning.

After dinner my wife and I came home and watched "Home Alone" (We had watched the "Christmas Story" early) and built a fire in the fireplace. It was relaxing, romantic, and peaceful.

Sunday I had to work which won't have been so bad but the seafood clerk called out so I had to deal with two departments. I was the only one in the meat department and it was busier than it should have been on such a cold, wet, miserable day but since people didn't have to work and couldn't make it to church, they decide to go grocery shopping and to the movies.

It's amazing where people put their priorities.

Some otherwise nice people seem angry but I have better use of my time than trying to get even or get ahead because we all die in the end and I'd much rather be happy than vindictive.

I love the line from that song "You are so vain you think this song is about you."

Anyway, I was disappointed that the snow cancelled church services but that will only make the next time we meet than much sweeter.

My Mom got home from the mountains yesterday just fine. BTW, the picture is of Mom who isn't bad looking for 85.

TJ back in Jail

TJ in Jail
For those of you who were long ago readers of this blog you may recall the lady who was the main character in my book "Queen of Southgate" the herione who saved a little boy from a fire. She is back in jail in Guilford County.

After being released from prison she vowed to go straight and found a boyfriend but he's a loser like all her other boyfriends and she was soon arrested again. She was given a court date and released but before she could go to court she was re arrested on old charges from Cumberland County.

Her new boyfriend surprised me and bailed her out, even after I advised him against doing so, but it was his heart and money on the line.

She never made it back to court and she never made that turn around she promised herself. She has been arrested again on burglary charges and now faces failure to appear, drug paraphenalia charges, as well as probation violation and the new burlary charges. She will also have to go back to Cumberland county to face those charges as well as soon as Guilford county is finished with her.

Another woman from the same book has cleaned up her act, gotten married, and is working as a care giver and is working to obtain her nursing certificate so she can improve her work situation.

Good luck to them both.

I survived Christmas 2010.

Business was unbelievable this year. The store Iwork in was the second busiest store in the entire chain, beaten only by Norcross in Charlotte. i was mentally beaten when I walked into work at 5 this morning, dreading having to face another day but resigned to get through it as cheerfully as possible.

I think my last customer was the one i made the happiest as she was looking for a roast of a certain size and all we had were either too small or too large. I believe she thought i would tell her to take her pick of what we had and leave her in a quardry.

If I was her and in a grocery store that is the answer I would have expected as that is the way things usually are. But instead of that, I cut her a roast to the exact size she wanted, did it cheerfully, and did it without being asked to do it. she was very happy. One lady wanted me to cut two pie4ces of link sausage into ultra thin slices and another wanted a filet cut into pieces about a quarter of the size of fondue.

Holidays can be stressful times: trying to find the right gift for that special person, picking up a last minute gift for someone you had overlooked, planning the family meal, dealing with inlaws dropping in, etc. The last thing one needs to deal with is store personel with an unpleasant attitude or unwillingness to help.

For me the Christmas eve shopping rush is over. My poor wife had to go in to deal with the rush of last minute shoppers. Don't expect much from where she works as her place of business is about saving you money. The truth is, I couldn't have done what I did today unless my employer made in possible but great coustomer service comes at a price. But don't expect to pay bottom dollar and get top dollar help.

What a difference

Since joining One Way Baptist I have noticed a change in myself. I have not made an effort to change but I am different somehow. I have noticed customers are opening up to me now and have even received some extra nice feed back from customers.

One lady told me I was sweet and another wanted to thank me personally for thwe extra effort made in processing her order. She noticed I was only wearing one hearing aid and asked if I was going to replace it. "I can't afford too" I said and she reached for her wallet to offer me some cash to help me buy another hearing aid. I thought she was going to cry there for a moment when I politely refused her offer.

I have always been good at my job but it was like I operated using a formula -going through the motions, as some would say. This year I seem to have more concern for the customer. I've always greeted them with a smile in a timely manner, listened to their problem, found the solution and watched them go on their way a satisfied customer. That's my job.

This wek I discovered one lady I've waited one for years has been a loyal Harris-Teeter customer for forty-five years. I could feel the love one customer had for her two sons as she picked up her childrens favorite food for the holidays.

There are less of us this year and business is more brisk than ever and it is very stressful but somehow it is all good this year.

See you in church.

Sunday services

Unless severe winter weather (yes, all weather between dec 20 and march 21 is winter weather) forces One Way to close, Sunday morning services will be held at the regular time on December 26 so if your church calls off services you are more than welcome to visit with One Way.

We are not interested in luring away members from other churches but if you do not have a church you regulary attend you are more than welcome.

Check us out on the link at the bottom of the blog page at faith hop and love ministries.

See you in church Sunday.

What is the meaning of the twelve days of Christmas

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were

not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone

during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics.

It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning

plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each

element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality

which the children could remember.

-The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.

-Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.

-Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.

-The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.

-The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.

-The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.

-Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.

-The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.

-Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.

-The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.

-The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.

-The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.

So there is your history for today. This knowledge was shared with me and I found it interesting and enlightening and now I know how that strange song became a Christmas Carol...so pass it on if you wish.'

Merry (Twelve Days of) Christmas Everyone

man-up

I think that is the new way of saying stand up and be a man. I've had on my mind the story of Adam and Eve. Satan talked Eve into trying ther fruit from the forbidden tree and she offered some to Adam who willingly took some of the fruit.

He should have refused but he didn't so when God cam looking for him he hid because he knew he was naked. When God asked him how he knew he was naked, Adam replied that Eve offered him some of the fruit of the forbidden tree. "It is her fault," he claimed.

He should have manned-up about what happened. Would it have made a difference?

I don't know but it would sure be refreshing to hear someone accept responsibility for their own screw-up rather than place the blame on someone else.

Delightful

We had our Christmas program at church tonight and it was absolutely delightful. The kids had practiced long and hard and did an excellent job with thier parts and the program was worthy of churches with much more to work with than tiny One Way does.

We had a fair number of visitors tonight and I can tell great things are getting ready to happen there. Every large church started out small just like every great man began life as a baby. And just like that baby, one must grow or perish so don't judge this congregation as unworthy because we are few. This is a great opportunity to get in on the beginning of a great work.

We will have a morning service on December 26.

If coming from Asheboro, take the 311 exit and turn south onto 311. Turn left at the first intersection onto Stout Street and travel a mile or two until you get to Sunset. make a right onto Sunset and the church will be about a block down on the left.

Ill see you in church Sunday.

Weather

Durin the overly hot sumnmner season we all wished for cooler weather but this is getting ridiculous.

I am looking forward to the childrens Christmas performance tomorrow night even though we know that Christ wasn't born in December, we still celebrate His birthday them so the Catholic church could take in more donations. Really, that's the reason for a winter birthday celbration. The important thing here though is why Christ was born.

I know some people don't believe in Christ and some don't believe in God either but that doesn't change reality. Even some who have atended church in their youth and claim to be Christians haven't a clue either, like the woman critical of Sarah Palin who claims that because she believes the bible, the verse in Genesis that man shall have dominion over the earth and she was annointed at her church that it means that she believes she has been chosen by God to be a ditator over America. If that wasn't so ridiculous it would be funny.

Really, the best kind of Christianity is that practiced by pre-teens with their child-like innocence. maybe that's why I amn looking forward to the childrens program at church.

Frozen Fish

Not a good shot of a fish but a good shot of ice covering a fish. Showa isn't enjoying the cold but will survive. No food until the spring thaw though.

Lonely Headstone

Near the place I once lived is this headstone under a tree right by an intersection in the front lawn of a church. The church has a cemetery on the other side of the building but this particular person or persons chose to be buried by themselves away from everyone else. I passed this headstone almost everyday for years and always promised myself I would stop to see whose grave it was. I had a curiosity about it.

Did the people buried there think perhaps being laid to rest there was a honor or was it a case of the church being obligated to furnish them a grave site but didn't want them buried next to anyone else? Were they so disliked in life that they are even shunned in death?

From the neat surrounding of the grave and the fresh flowers it appears that someone does care, either about the people buried in the grave or in appearances.

The way the grave is laid, it is as if there was something the people (it appears to be husband and wife) there wanted to see but there is a house, a building for retail stores, and a convenience store on the other three corners of the intersection, none of which are particularly view worthy.

It can't be just the church or the neighborhood that the couple wanted to be buried near for being in the same cemetery with everyone else would have been just fine for that. Either the family thinks its so special that they felt the need to shun everyone else as too common or they were themselves the shunned ones I can't answer.

I know now who is buried there but not why that particularly spot or when they lived and died. I do know that living outside the mainstream is lonely, whether one chooses to live apart or forced too, it's just lonely and uncomfortable. Too want to portray being different and outside of mainstream society for as long as ones grave marker lasts is not an idea that appeals to me.

See you in church Sunday.

Catching up on my reading

Since its bee so cold outside, I've been spending my day mostly indoors catching up on my reading. I did help the preacher lay some safety strips on the ramp at the church and took him out to lunch for his birthday but its indoors for the most part.

Even though I had a novel published and an article in Our State magazine I am not an accomplished writer. I don't have talent; just a willingness to put forth an effort. If I had half the talent as Dr. J I would be a successful writer.

My Dad was a preacher and I can understand why so many churches have what seems to be generic sermons, nice to hear and basicly biblically correct but lacking something important.

It's kind of like most people's idea of Jesus Christ: meek, mild, non confrontaional, easy going, caring, and loving. The whole truth is, He wasn't like that at all.

Can you imagine the scene at church if a visitor got up in the preacher face and told him he was a snake and a liar. Well, Jesus told the Pharasees that they were a generation of vipers and then truth wasn't in them.

What about the time Jesus told the rich man to sell all that he had or the time he told a man to let the dead bury the dead.

Being a pastor has to be a tough job because people wear their feeling on their sleeves. I don't believe in catering to people just to get them to attend church. It doesn't matter what seems right to man but what the truth of God is.

Christianity isn't a set of rules and laws but a relationship and fellowship with Jesus Christ and church is a social club but a gathering of like-minded believers who help bolster one another and to spread the word about God's plan of salvation.

See you in church Sunday.

Unusual service

I hgrew up attending church but I didn't much like it and hated the preaching. It was long, dry and boring and my favorite words were "and in conclusion." I do remember one preacher, Rev Rowles. He was a big man with a little woman as a wife and a fat nerdy son who scored a perfect score on his SAT. Rev, Rowles told a lotof stories about himself from when he was in the Army.

I quit going to church shortly after starting college necause the local church never talked about Jesus. It was somehow offensive to me so I quit going for three years. My senoir year I went to church every Sunday. First I went with Sandra to early Mass, then with Linda to the 10 o'clock service at the second Baptist Church and hurried to meet Pam at the Methodist church.

In the evening I went to a Luthern church and the an Espiscopalian.

I never went while I was in the service and only attended churches my dad preached at or pastored. When I moved away from where he lived I seldom went until I moved to High Point. I started attending a small church near the house but there was something just not right there and I believe I stayed mainly to figure out what was wrong rather than for any other reason. After a year or so the pastor resigned and we got this man with really weird views and aftger several months I just could not handle him any more.

For the last fifteen years my attendance has been spotty at best and even when I attended on a semi-regular bases, if I missed a few Sundays no one seemed to mind. Maybe they would have cared more if I had been a member but I didn't want to join with a bunch of people who didn't care if I was there or not.

Eventually I quit going all together. It seems that God had something He wanted me to do but no one seemed to care if I did it from their church. Then one day I was driving along and saw this little white church and wondered what kind of people went there. A bunch of non conformist nuts, I supposed. Then one day I come home and there is a note from the preacher at One Way Baptist Church inviting me to church and inquiring about my salvation. My wife had placed it where she placing my mail and when she pointed it out, she said "Do you think you wahnt to go?" I said I didn't know.

I drove by the little white church and I wondered about the people attending there. I really couldn't see myself attending such a place as this yet I couldn't get the invite out of my mind. One Sunday my wife and I had a Sunday off together and I asdked her if she wanted to go. She said she would. I thought maybe the service started at 11 but it was already half over when we came in. We were greated warmly and as the preacher preached I saw my wife smile and I caught myself drinking in every word.

We are now members of that little white church.

Yesterday, because of the weather, the members had decided to call off the preaching part and to meet just to let the children practice their parts for the Christmas program. Then the preacher said he cot to thinking that the evening service is the only time I can attend so he prepared a little message just in case.

The evening service the pastor lets Robert and Dennis take turns preaching and Robert want to take his turn. He wanted to keep it short because this was just supposed to be a meeting to allow the kids to practice. The pastor said he had prepared a message and he wasn't going to preach it, he just wanted to share some highlights. As he shared we began to encourage him to keep on.

As it turned out, the kids never did get to practice and I got to hear two sermons in one service.

Unlike when I was a kid, I hung on every word and wished it would never end.

See you in church one day.

I could write a book

during the courseof my life I've heard many people express the sentiment "You should write a book about that" or say "I could write a book" yet few people attempt, relatively speaking and far fewer every succeed in finishing a book. It is fewer still who actually punish one and just a handful who actually make any money at it.

I think it is easier to becaome a professional athelete than it is a successful author. I was pleased when my first novel was accepted for publication becuase that put me in the companyof a select few. I have even been paid for an article I wrote for a magazine, so maybe that makes me a professional writer. I'm not quite sure what qualifies one to be called a professional or a successful writer.

I do know outside of that one small check, I have never made any money at writing.
People that have read my book have told me they really enjoyed it not many have been willing to fork over any money for it.

That's the wau it is in life.

But instead of saying, I could write a book, go ahead and do it. Have a copy self-published. Even that small step is far more than most people do. A small accomplishment true, but an accomplishment notheless.

See ya in church.

Good People

My mother-in-law, a citizen of Asheboro, took one of the vans used to transport those who can't drive for a doctor visit last week. There was another lady on the bus who didn't have on a coat on one of the coldest days of the week.

The van driver asked the lady about her lack of a jacket and the elder lady said she didn't have one.

The bus driver took hers off and gave it to her passenger.

She later told my mother-in-law she does it all the time because she likes to do her little part to make this a better world.

This is the season to be scurrying about in search of Christmas gifts for our friends and family. If we are too busy to help other maybe, at least, we could stop and thank our unsung heroes like the driver of this van.

never seen this in the papers

Gosh, I've seen birth annoucements, birthday announcements, and death announcements. People get promoted, married, divorced, robbed, arrested, in an accident, make a movie, cheat on their spouce, hit a little white ball into a hole or hit one over a fence, kick an oval ball between two poles, or drive around in circles really fast and all get into the papers.

But get born again and nary a word. Why is that, exactly?

Which came first?

An age old question but I want to ask it in another way. Which came first: God or human beings?

Is there a God who created everything or is God a creation of the human mind? Many will answer that god is the creation of humans who grasped for the meaning of life and to understand what was happening in nature. It was the primitive, uneducated and unlighted man that needed a superior being to understand how things worked. science and modern thinking prove there is no god.

God seems to be silent and evil things occur in the world on a daily bases. Recent studies have shown that chimps are evolving at a faster rate than humans (which doesn't make sense to me if humans evolved from chimps, how can chimps be evolving faster that people?).

To help me understand the conclusion of the matter, I will attack the problem from both ends and work towards the middle.

On the one hand there is the newly created or evolved human being, all alone in his existence, something truly unique in that he could walk upright and he could cry and he could reason problems out and act on those solutions.

At the other end we have the modern man with years of knowledge and accomplishments.
In between one can find unspeakable acts of cruely and horror and unbelievable actsd of courage and kindness. Is the human being indeed an evolved animal or just a mutation gone bad, as all mutants seem to be?

A mutant is a creature born radically different from its parents. Examples would be a two headed cat, or an eight legged turtle. Mutants seldom survive long and never replicate themselves. There are freaks of nature and somthing that might indicate that birth and living is just a roll of the dice, a radom uncontrolled occurance. Most human babies are male or female but some seem to be born as either or neither. Most babies are born normal but some are born mutatred or diseased or abnormal while others seems to have special gifts and talents than seem way beyond belief. is this just a random occurence or according to some design plan?

Can I prove that God exists? No. Can I prove he does not esist. No. I have to view natureand determine from it whether God does not or does exist and then if I believe He does exist, just who or what He is and how I am to relate to Him.

If I study nature and conclude there is no God, can I accurately conclude that there is evolution? Ancient man believed in God but never fully understood who or what god was, giving rise to many different beliefs. Evolutionis the concept of modern man. Such stuff as that never occurred to prior generations. Evolutionists teach, or once taught, the therory of survival of the fitest.

It seems that whatever was just was and there were no life forms anywhere to be found. Then we had this big bang. It could have been an explosion, a loud noise, or just two elemnts coming together through a freak of nature that had never occured befor but suddenly there was life. A simple one cell creation. This simple creation wasneither male nor female but had the ability to divide itself into two parts, but just like the original. What is most amazing is that in order to survive it needed food and there just happened to be ready available food for it to eat.

It would have to be that the food didn't like being eaten so decided to change into something different in order to survive. Unbelievable as it is, when the food changed into something that the first animal would not like to eat, the first animal changed itself into an animal that just happened to like what the plant changed itself into. So now evolution has begun.

Many years later an animal, supposedly a chimp, decide to develop a brain so he could outhinkhis food and have a decided advantage in this world over everything, not just his food of choice. But in order to get the brain the chimp had to be born without hair or fur that would serve to protect it from the extremes of weather, or hoves or pads on its feet to protect it from the ravishes of nature.

Now whether this hairless creature decide to change the color of its skin depending on what part of the world it settled into or whether different chimps decided to evolve into harless creature with a brain at the same time but each choice a different skin color for lack of a more defined purpose, I have no clue.

From a one cell animal with no enemies the first creature has evolved into something that needs to kill in order to survive and needs to destroy and change its environment in order to thrive. In the beginning, the one celled animal lived at peace with its enviroment and could multiple at will with no need to attract a partner has evolved into a creature that has to attract an opposite to survive but accepts a normal and natural those specimens that are only attracted to lie kinds that cannot reproduce, which must kill other animals to survive via food and clothing or must destroy the homes of other creatures in order to produce the planrs needed for food and clothing and shelter.

For the survival of the world, the last thing this world needed was what this first creature turned out to be. The human knows it can not survive because of itself but has decided to expand its environment to included plantents far away from where the human now lives. If he succeeds, it will only come back to bite him in the butt,based on mankinds record to date.

On the other hand, we have the story of man creation and Gods love for that man and mans rebellious nature, and how God has provided a way for man to redeem himself, and how things will end and begin again.

Evolution equates to doom without hope while Gos way is a way of hope. You decide.

Faithloveandhopeministries.com

www.Faithloveandhopeministries.com is the link I have at the bootom of the page but one wouldn't know it was there unless one rolls the little hand over the link. It is a beautiful web page with links you can click on to learn more about the Pastor and the church.

We had a dinner together tonight and it was great to fellowship together. Is Randleman the wicked little city I've heard it to be? Maybe so, and if it is, it needs a church like One Way. I'm excited about attending that cjurch and now that I'm a member I'm doubly excited.

If you would pay the church a visit I'm sure you'll find out what I'm excited about.

if you can'tcome a least visit the web page and if you are a Christian, remember One Way in your prayers.

A tough Concept

I posted a joke about earning ones way into heaven, which is how some people believe it is done. Salvation is a gift. Too simple yet still hard to comprehend.

There are lots of tough concepts out there. Vastness of existence is one of them. Even if there was an end to the universe, then there would have to be a void outside of that. If our universe is so large it is almost unreasonable to think that there is no other life out there and if we have been visited by UFO's and aliens from other worlds, would they not have to be more advanced than we are?

One fact of science is that something cannot be created from nothing yet there is something here so that proves there always had to be something. so where did that something come from?

It is almost inconceivable that in a vast emptiness, a life form just sprang into existence and that other life forms sprang up at the same time that supported that first life form and enabled it to survive.

Multiple life forms at the same time? Evolution focuses on animal lifeforms but let us not forget about plants. Where did the grasses and weeds and flowers and bushes and trees come from and why did they have the need to evolve?

And to think in a vast nothingness that multiple life forms sprang up not only in one place but multiple planets as well.

And you find God a hard concept. Evolution sounds nice to prove that there is no God but there is no proof of evolution. The exact opposite is true. Animals adapt, many changing colors to survive better or growing larger or smaller to adapt to the changes in the food supply but a bird is always a bird and a dog is always a dog.

Evolution at best would have to be a gradual process yet fossil study shows distinct and abrupt changes in life forms. No history of evolving is evident in nature.

Another thing doesn't make sense. If each change is to allow a species to better survive, then why did the chimp shed its protective covering for bear naked skin when it changed to a human? And why is did it give up is strength and ability to survive in the treetops? Physically, the human seems to be inferior to the chimps as having the ability to survive in the wild.

Maybe it is the concept of Gods love that throws you for a loop? Or the concept of free will. Some people have become confused over God's will and free will. When an innocent five year old girl is repeatedly raped, beaten, and finally murdered. it is not God's will that allowed that to happen. But would it be more fair if God commanded that we love and obey him and controlled our every thought and action?


As hard as the concept that God exists is for some people to grasp try the concept that God doesn't exist.

That's a tough concept.

Yahoo mail

I have e-mail accounts with msn (hotmail), google (gmail), roadrunner (triad.rr) and Yahoo. Yahoo keeps coming out with beta versions and I've tried them all and also goe back to yahoo classic. I used yahoo almost exclusivly until my e-mail accout was hi-jacked. I had all my contacts block me and now I can use the account for other reasons.

I don't like yahoo bets. It is too much like some of the other accounts and if I liked them I would not have stuck with yahoo classic.

Why do companies think they have to continually mess with success?

It's kind of like religion. There was nothing wrong with old-fashioned Christianity until college educated ministers tried to fix it and now Christians are fast becoming the most hated group of people in America.

Sometimes it is just best to leave it alone.