Evidence of Evolution

On todays MSN homepage was proof that evolution is a fact, not just a theory.  It seems some are touting mechanical devices implanted into humans as evidence we are on the verge of a new step in the evolution of humans.  Gosh, in that case cable TV evolved from antennae. 

Resolutions

     I never have been one to make resolutions, especially for the New Year,  Change is not something that occurs because you will it to be or because it is a certain date.  The last time I made a resolution I failed miserably,  nevertheless my failure did not prevent me from becoming accomplished in my ultimate goal.  Things just took a different twist than I thought it would.  I'm sure that I will eventually be able to do what I had once resolved to do but not because of the effort to do it but as a by-product of other efforts. 
  The gym's will be packed Monday as people begin a new weight loss regime.  Weight loss doesn't begin in the gym and people expecting to go to the gym for a few minutes for a half-hearted workout a couple times for a few weeks in January are soon disappointed when they don't lose weight or feel better. In fact, they probably go home sore, eat to comfort themselves, feel worse and weigh more, get depressed and give up.  No, weight loss begins at the table and has little to do with how much or how little one eats.  It has more to do with what one eats and drinks and how and when that food is consumed. 
  Going to the gym has more to do with shaping and strengthening our bodies  and actually very little to do with weight loss. 
  As far as quitting smoking goes, good luck with that one.  If you focus on what you are losing then you will never quit.  Focus on what you are gaining.  Use every aid you need to and you don't have to choose just one.  It is a nasty, unhealthy, expensive addiction that can be beat and you will be so proud of yourself that all the smokers in your life will hate you for it. 
    If I have something I would want to change it is how I spend my time.  Since I retired I have spent time fixing up my yard, taking care of the church property, helping my Mom, studying and learning, and doing many things for other people.  Starting now, I am going to spend more of my time being attentive to my wife  and doing things with her and for her. 

Double lesson on Sunday

  We did not have Sunday School on Christmas Day so this coming Sunday, January 1, 2017 church will begin 15 minutes early so we can teach the lesson from the 25th as well as the less for the 1st.  
I don't mind teaching two lesson at one time but these two lessons are radically different.  Glad I'm not the teacher.  I have secretly been looking for my replacement for a few years now and have not found anyone knowledgeable enough to teach an interesting class or someone I could stand to  listen to for even half an hour. 

  The only person qualified to teach the adult Sunday School class thinks Sunday School is his opportunity to deliver a mini-sermon.  I did manage to get another person elected as my substitute teacher and he has taught a couple of times.  His first lesson was awful.  He was intimidated by my style and try to over teach but needed up reading to the class the onions of learned men which was not only dry and boring but well over the understanding of the class.  His second lesson was much better.Still, he isn't the person the class needs.
 
   Not one to give up, I looked to one of the new members and he is teaching this Sunday.  If he is well received by the class then I will take steps to turn the class over to him.     

letter to brother

Today I wrote my brother a letter letting him know that I still love him in spite of his transgressions
but I still expect him to do the correct thing, especially since a great dishonor was done to our mother. 
  I understand his motivations for doing what he did but not his justifications nor will I tolerate his denials or his blame shifting.  The best thing to do is own up, make right and then move on.

Dishonesty in the Brotherhood

    I have two brothers, one older and one younger, and we have never been close.  I may have mentioned a time or two that my brothers, particularly my older brother has not only never warmed up to me, he often has been hostile.  I have always believed that a person tends to kick against his own evils.  How often does one read about the President of the local substance abuse agency get pulled over for drunk driving, or the local bully who singles out gay people to harass and then gets caught in a homosexual act.   I think that is true of some preachers who rail against one particular type of sin only to have it discovered that was his vise. 
   I mentioned preachers because they tend to be more vocal and have speaking opportunities that most of us do not have but I believe this truth crosses all lines of work.  The policeman that takes bribes, the law and order politician that is caught embezzling, the husband who constantly accuses his wife of cheating while he is having an affair, and the murderer who attempts to aid the police in solving the latest murder. 
    All these many years my older brother has accused me of trying to scheme to deprive the family of their inheritance when Mom passes away and has blocked every effort I have made to help her up until a year ago when she ended up in a rest home.  Of course over the years he had convinced my Mom that I was untrustworthy so both .he and my younger brother have financial power of attorney but I was left to handle her financial affairs with no access to the necessary information. 
  After I had successfully gotten Mom qualified for Medicaid  older brother took over paying the bills except that he never really paid them.  Each month I wrote the checks and had Mom sign them.  Mom has been on Medicaid for a year now and she is broke.  It shouldn't be but she has $24.00 left in her account.  She receives $90.00 a month from the VA which cannot be used to pay bills with but there it is, gone too. 
  I asked my younger brother for help.  Fortunately he is a CPA and he discovered   that my older brother has taken out over $4,000.00 from Mom's account to pay his own bills with.  I'm going to give him a little while to make good then I'll let the law take over if he continues to say he isn't responsible for all of it, implying that I was dishonest too.  This time I have proof. 

double success

ration   This is being posted from my new computer.  I successfully access my blog.  The only disappointment for the day was that both the banks and post office are closed today b meaning some important documents will have to wait a day or two longer to get mailed. 
   I hope you had a Merry Christmas.  I did.  Our Christmas play went well and we had two ladies get saved.  I visited Mom and discovered her in good spirits in spite of her having double pneumonia.  Even though yesterday was Christmas it was still Sunday and we had a handful at church.   It seems to me that if there was one day a Christian would want to be in church it would be the day we celebrated the birthday of Christ.  I realize that there is a lot of preparation to be done for Christmas dinner and the kids want to open and play with their presents.  It reminds me of the time that Jesus stopped by to visit some friends.  One busied herself in the kitchen making dinner and trying to make everything just so so while her sister just sat at the feet of Jesus.  Jesus reminded the lady that the one who sat at his feet did the more needful thing for He wasn't always going to be with them. 
  I believe dinner can wait, the toys aren't going to disappear, and the children aren't going to die before church services are over.  To me it just goes to show where our hearts really lay. 

Success

Everyone likes to succeed.  I got a new computer and but my old desktop in the living room.  It seems I could not connect to my wireless network so I worked all day yesterday trying to figure out how to connect my computer wirelessly.  Last night I had an idea so I tried it this morning.  It worked. 
   Now my next project is to get my blog up and running on my new computer.  It seems I forgot to record the address and I didn't run cables between the computers to load info from one to the other.  Hopefully my next post will be from my new computer. 

Not what I wanted for Christmas

My wife and I usually don't exchange gifts at Christmas time.  We seldom even put up a tree.  We do love the Christmas season and are normally busy doing things for others.  We prefer to get something expensive sometime during the year.  One year we purchased a gas fireplace insert, another year it was living room furniture, another time it was new computers.  This year we didn't need anything really so I bought something special for her and she did the same for me.  We even put up a tree, howbeit a 2 foot desk top model with lights but it is big enough for us. 
  We never have friends stop over and family lives to far away.  I'm glad because this way no one is disappointed when we find other things to do so we don't have to see each other.  Well, that last statement isn't exactly true.  I do have some family members that I care a lot about. 
  Anyway, my wife and I had not planned on anymore expenditures this holiday season but our heat pump started acting up again.  Some kind of part was not working properly and had to be replaced.  The part itself was inexpensive but the labor to replace the part would be almost the amount of the entire bill, estimated to be around $1100.00.  The unit is almost twelve years old and we have spent  a lot of money keeping it repaired.  Enough. in fact, to be enjoying a new one so instead of repairing this hold unit once again enjoying a new one is exactly what we are going to do. 
  We were told it would be installed by Wednesday.  Our present unit is a Trane and I really didn't want another one.  Our new unit is going to be a Coleman.  The kind I'd really like cost almost twice as much (and maybe cheaper in the long run but there is never a guarantee).  I think the Coleman is a pretty good unit.  I sure hope so.      It's not exactly what I wanted for Christmas.

Christmas Program

The church had its annual Christmas program today and, although short, it was highly effective.   Two ladies got saved tonight.  If you don't know what that means, I'll explain.  It means that a person admits they are a sinner (which doesn't mean they are bad people) and acknowledges that they need a savior and accept what Christ did on the cross and agree to live the remainder of their lives under the leadership of Jesus. 

My semon went well.

  I preached Sunday night and my message was well received.  At least I made my point.  I know the pastor doesn't much care for my lessons or my messages.  Almost every time I preach he has an off handed commit to make the next time he preaches.  Just because the preacher doesn't agree with me doesn't mean I'm wrong.  He claims he studies all the time and I don't doubt that buy his study methods and mine are different. 
  His father pastored for 47 years and saved his message outlines.  I'm almost positive that the pastor selects and outline, copies and pastes the supporting scriptures , and then studies the message to insure he can deliver it properly.  I don't have message outlines.  I do sometimes read a book or listen to a message and develop my own outline from that but most often I originate my own message.  I study by reading commentaries, books by preachers,  reading the scriptures, or listening to preachers on the radio.  I try to stick to things that I can validate through study of a wide variety of opinions and not just by telling others what someone thought or what I think. 
  I will never say things like "once saved, always save, If saved always saved, or you have to get right in order to live right in order to die right.  If those phrases were found in scripture then I would have no problem using them but those phrases never occurred so I don't.  Even the idea that one of those phrases could be correct does not occur.
   Yes, salvation is a simple process and it is true that one can be sure of ones eternal destination, but there is something lacking in those canned phrases above.  I also know after salvation we are freed from the penalty of sin but we are not freed from the obligation to obey the Law.  Christ fulfilled some of the requirements of the law and paid the penalty of disobedience for us but we are duty bound to surrender our selves to Christ and live our lives as if he is living his life through us.  It is neither as complicated as it sounds nor as simple as some people make it. 
  In any case I support my pastor in his efforts to do God's will and will not undermine his efforts even if he does that to me. 

computer problems

   From time to time we all have computer problems.  My internet security expired and didn't renew because I had changed my credit info and didn't update my info.  I'm not saying I got hacked but my system became unstable.  I had to purchased a new router so I could have a secure connection and then I had to do a system restore to stabilize my system.  It seems to working fine now.
  I know I had been working with an unsecure network and north state was no held in remedying the situation.  Until 2 weeks ago there had been no problem.  I decided to ley Windows Defender take care of my internet security which I suppose was a mistake.  It may have been that my problems began after my security was cut off and before I restarted Defender. The program worked good when it was Security Essentials. 
  Even so, I ordered a new computer in which there is no tower but it is consider a desktop and has the touch screen technology.  I need a better computer in the living room ( I have one connected to by big screen TV ).  The one there is so slow. Gosh we have lots of computers.  I have two desktops and a laptop and my wife has two laptops and is getting another one.  I don't use my laptop for much; just to make a DVD of the church services on a Sunday afternoon. 
  I need a reliable computer to print the church bulletins and to find information on to help me prepare lessons.  I don't know how we did it without computers.  Well, I do and we didn't do it quite as well. 

Advise Not Taken

In an earlier post I talked about a man that was about to receive a large settlement from disability and what I thought should be the best way to handle his new found gains.  I don't believe he followed my advise because he paid for Christmas dinner for the entire church at the Pioneer last night.  He has been driving a "rental" car the last week which I believe is the "new" car (2016 model) he was thinking about buying. 
  We had another man get a lump sum from disability about 3 or four months ago.  He purchased a picnic shelter for the church and bought some new clothes and a used pickup truck.  He didn't attend the dinner last night because he was broke.  Two years ago a family won a large settlement from an auto accident.  It seemed like they traded cars every three months and were all the time grabbing the check at church functions.  It was youth night and the youth director was taking the kids to Sir Pizza.  It was the mans daughter's birthday so he picked up the tab for all the pizza.  There was the preacher and his wife, the youth director, his wife, and two kids, this guy, his wife and his four kids and the oldest ones wife, his brother and his wife, and his ex-wife and her husbands and three children plus eight kids from the youth group and then some other folks I have no idea who they were. 
  The group had ordered eight individual pizza and 8 extra-large pizza's plus salads and drinks.  The bill was in excess of $300.00.  Any way, the man and his wife are now separated mainly because he spent thousands of dollars and had little to show for it.  She has her money and a new guy and he has a run down trailer, an old pickup truck medically problems, and no real job. 
  Getting a lot of money is not a cause of celebration.  For my birthday a friend gave me a lottery ticket (a $10.00 scratch off) which cashed in for $1000.00.  I gave a tenth to the church, a tenth to my friend and a tenth to my wife and purchased some new clothes with the rest.  A thousand dollars is not new found wealth
  I retired six years ago and I still have most of my retirement fund and all of my pension.  The total amount of my retirement fund was only four thousand dollars more than one mans back pay on his disability yet several months after receiving it he is too broke to go to a church dinner. 
  Most people are poor because God can't trust them with money. 

bLACK sHOOTER KILLS TWO OFFICERS, SELF

     In the comment section of the articles I've read about this incident, the sentiment has been mostly complaining that the articles do not mention the shooter was a African-American  and complaining that if the shooter had been white that being white would have been the central focus of the article. 
   When I was a college student in Huntsville, Texas I worked for the local newspaper.  One day the paper published a story about a young boy that was struck by a car and killed when he was out riding his bicycle.  The article mentioned that the boy was a black kid.  As it turned out there were two kids the same age with the same name and the one killed was not the black one but the white one.  Of course the parents were upset that the paper misidentified their child.  From that time on the policy became to never mention a person's race unless it was crucial to the article.  I've adopted the same
philosophy for my own speech.  I hear so many people tell an innocent story and if it involves a person of color that fact is always mentioned no matter if  what the person did was good, bad, or indifferent.  I now always leave the race part out.  What difference does it make?
   It is true that when one drives through neighborhoods at night that in predominately black neighborhoods one will see people standing around while one seldom sees this in white neighborhoods.  Seeing this makes one think that everyone in the neighborhood is a thug but if one were to travel overseas and drive through poor villages late at night one would see much the same thing.  This behavior is indicative of boredom with fewer social activities and not ones character. 
  I also realize that where there are young people gathered together with not much to do the likelihood of those young people to commit a crime increases but that is due to boredom and the mob mentality
rather than then color of ones skin.  The truth is that there is very little difference between the races besides the color of our skins.  That should be seen as a distinguishing s characteristic and not a defining one. 

Trump lied about Carrier deal

A Union official said Trump lied about Carrier deal.  Sorry people but being a tattle-tale, protesting, and whatever else losers want to complain about Trump will still become a sitting President.  Roy Cooper lied about solving the problem at the SBI crime lab but he is still going to be the Governor of North Carolina.  Hillary lied about a lot of things but people still voted for her. 
  Studies say the average American lies 70 times a day.  Don't know if that is true but one lie a day is probably one lie too many.  The fact that someone lies is not news.  What is news is when that lie hurts someone or is perjury. 
  The worst lie that anyone can tell is when they lie to themselves about their own relationship to Jesus Christ.  You are playing with your eternity. 

big look Da Nang

Anyone a part of this effort?  Big Look Da Nang that is.

BAD DECISION OR NO?

I have a friend who has fallen on hard times.  He lost his job after a series of mini-strokes and his wife was already out on disability. His car was reposed when he couldn't keep up the payments.  But now things are turning around for him.  His disability was approved and he will shortly get his first check along with back pay of around $20,000.00.  His plan  to purchased a used vehicle.  The one he has picked out is $12,500.00 of which he plans to pay $10,000.00 and finance the rest, the pay off the remainder of his bills.  That would leave him essentially broke again.  Then there is the matter of his reposed car.
   I suggested that he get his old car back which would cost him $750.00 (two payments and the towing/lot fee)  the have fixed anything that is wrong with the car.  I then suggested he open a checking account and an investment account with an automated draw of $200.00 per month to a max of $300.00 a month.   At an average draw of 7% interest  over the long haul he would make $1050.00 a year in interest  on $15000.00   and draw down $2400.00 at a draw of $200.00 a month.  The interest would pay for half his car payment, he would still have a nice nest egg in case of an emergency
  Once his car is paid off (three years, I believe) maybe his credit score will have improved enough to afford him the ability to purchased a car at a lower interest rate.  He could get a credit card with a low ceiling and pay it off every month to build his credit faster.  Six years ago I could not borrow a nickel even if I had a dime as collateral ( a situation created because someone embossed $30,000 from my business and left me in debt).  I now have a credit score of 806 and a small car payment.  I did finance the building my church is using.  I could pay the loan off and carry the debt and make a little from interest but then I would have to pay federal income tax on the amount of the loan which would cost me more than the current plan is. 
  I think my friend would be better off investing the money instead of buying something that will depreciate.  I know the newer car is nice but it isn't needful.  What do you think?

being hungry has nothing to do with it.

  People, especially dietician and those who think they know how fat people should eat think that it is about being hungry.  It's not.  Sometimes it stress, sometimes it's boredom, and sometimes it is just because we like the way something tastes and just want more.  It is seldom about being hungry.