neighbors yard

  This is what I have to look at everyday.  The shed in the backyard is not finished and the fenced lot on the right of the house is for yappy little dogs.  He has an untagged yard machine which he rides on the streets, blocks the road with excess vehicles and broken trailers, and is constantly swapping junk
but is always bringing more than taking. 
  Bot only is the place an eyesore the man is drawing disability but is constantly working, building, tearing down, loading and unloading junk.

A different kind of march mdness

    March is known for St. Patty's Day and for March Madness, the NCAA Basketball tournament.  It is also the month that One Way Baptist has it's annual revival services.  This year the speaker was Danny Castle from Shinning Light Baptist Church in Morganton, NC.  He was one of the best speaker's I've ever heard.  But more than being able to deliver an interesting and entertaining speech, he was able to present the gospel  in an appealing way. 
   You missed the services this year but we are having him back next year so mark your calendars for next March.

Revival services at One Way Baptist

  Danny Castle from the Morganton area is the guest speaker at One Way Baptist.  Although I am the longest attending active member of the church having missed only a couple of services (not Sunday morning services but all services of the church) my pastor and I have very different tastes when it comes to "good preaching".  It seems the louder and more flamboyant a speaker is the more holy our preacher thinks he is.  Flaying od the arms, hacking, and screaming at the top of ones lungs does nothings to enhance a mans message.  Granted, these types of preachers can generate excitement and garner a lot of whops and hollers  but rarely have anything of substance to say.  The ones I dislike the most are the ones that have speech impediments that make them hard to understand.  It seems though that this type of preacher is the type preferred by my pastor and it also seems the more animated, the louder, and the worse the speech  impediment the better the preacher likes it. 
  I will agree that a message should be delivered with a degree of enthusiasm so that time seems to fly by and your interest held but I also think the message should have a beginning, a body and an ending and to have gone somewhere.  Some preachers can spew out well worn phrases for an hour and never actually make a point.  One preacher carried two handkerchiefs, one in each hand, and wiped his face constantly as he spoke, using one hanky to swipe his brow and the other to wipe his lips.  He would start on his cheek wipe down and the across his lips and then down to his chin.  He has the required speech impediment   and wiping his lips made it impossible to understand what he was saying.  That made for a long evenings  and to be subjected to that night after night was a little more than one soul could bear. 
  I have been looking forward to this weeks revival services with dread especially since the preacher seemed to be so excited about the proposed preacher.  It would be a big shock to everyone at the church if I wasn't there but I had already informed my wife that if this preacher was anything like the last three preachers that had been booked for our revival services I was staying in Hickory and not coming back until all the work there was done and I was serious when I said that. 
  I was pleasantly surprised last night.  Danny Castle is one of the best speakers I've heard in a long time.  I will be back tonight.  

Remodel complete

  I picked the tops up from Lowes Tuesday morning, purchased some liquid nails from Wal-mart and glued the tops down.  I had the project complete by 7:05 am.  I was then able to visit Mom to have breakfast with her.  I then brought her to her house to see the finished project and to do some cleaning.  She was very pleased with the results,  She said my younger brother, who saw it Sunday, was pleased with the results also. 

Remodel almost complete

    I'm going to Hickory tomorrow and pick up the counter tops.  Once they are installed the remodel will be complete.  Of course there is still plenty of work to be done, the hardest of which will be the clean-up.  I have an out building to paint, grass to plant, and  china cabinet glass to replace and furniture and stuff to arrange and window to wash. 
  There is, of course, things I wanted done I couldn't get done like the flooring in the kitchen and bathroom replaced, a dishwasher installed, and the yard professional landscaped, and the stumps ground, but some of that will come in due time.  I had the money to get all the undone stuff completed but because of time constraints most of Moms money went to pay the Bryan Center and Omnicare.  If all the money had been available from the start and I could have paid for everything up front then I could have completed all the necessary projects. 
   I know Lowes refused to replace the bathroom and kitchen flooring but I could have found someone to do it.  But things are were thy are and I did the best I could under the circumstances.  The house is much improved and I believe all the work and aggravation   was worth it to get the final results. 

Upholding science at the expense of religion

    In todays paper one of the feature guest writers extolled the virtues of science while depicting religious institutions of being close-minded and pig-headed, believing in miracles where non exists and he has every right to feel that way and to say so publicly.  But that doesn't make him right.   
  First of all, what the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church did has no reflection om the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.  True religion is having a relationship with Jesus Christ  and not debating the value of religion over science or denying the accomplishments of science.  What scientist have been able to prove in no wise contradicts the scriptures.  What some scientist conclude about what they believe but can't prove, however sometimes sounds more foolish than what is taught in the scriptures. 
   During WWII a German Doctor operated on hundreds of Jews without them having need of an operation and without them having the benefit of pain killers all in the name of science yet I would not hold him up as an example of what science is about yet secular people like to hold up the ungodly popes of centuries gone by as typical of the Christian attitude yet these popes were not Christian at all.  The crusades were waged by the Catholic church against Christians because they choose to believe the teaching of Christ was that salvation was through Him yet the Church wanted people to believe that only the Catholic Church could grant salvation. 
  The secular world disallows creation to be taught in school yet they teach a theory as fact.  Who is being close-minded and pig-headed.  If an idea cannot be proven as fact then it should not be taught at all or opposite and/or opposing views should be allowed. 
  I'm sure the writer is willing to dismiss claims of miraculous healings as just consequence but exactly how many consequences in a row does it take for one to think there may be a divine hand in things?  Impossible things do not happen to one person often yet when the impossible happens over and over and over again for years on end then does that prove mere luck or provide a cause to believe
in divine intervention? 
  While the writer mocks the early church and modern day believers he conveniently leaves Christ alone while is the only wisw thing he did. 

Trump for President

    It seems the Donald is doing a good job of getting people to turn out to vote in the primaries and to vote for him.  The trouble is, Donald Trump doesn't really want to be President.  It's all a joke to him and I believe he is as shocked and the RNC is that people are taking him seriously.  Lately he has been doing things and saying things to derail his campaign but no one seems to be paying attention.  In the last week or so he made the statement that he would not be surprised to lose the nomination and this week he bragged about the size of his manhood.  The President of North Korea might be interested in that but the rest of the world does not care.