Top Ten for Baptist Service

I was raised Catholic and Quaker. I ended up a Baptist. Something I enjoy but what is even better is the fun I poke at all of them. If you are Baptist, you may understand some or all of these things. Enjoy

1.Show up late: Assigned seating, while not encouraged, happens. Don’t mess with the grove. You have you ritual, we have ours

2.You will ALWAYS look like someone’s, boyfriend, girlfriend, sister, brother, cousin…

3.If you attend church with a member of the opposite sex, the congregation will notice you, but won’t think to ask your name. More than likely they just want to know if you two are dating.

4.No you are not paranoid; they are staring and talking about you.

5.There will always be one 98 year old woman with bright red hair.

6.If you fill out the card, you will get calls, visits, and a home made something.

7.There’s nothing to memorize. Much of it is improvised by the Holy Spirit…and the quickness of the service is gauged by how long it will take the roast to cook.

8.There is a pecking order, and at the top…the director of the WMU.

9.We do not do the meet and greet with the precision of the Catholics.

10.Service will start on time… when it ends is debatable.

Old Blog

Even if no one reads it...I need to do it for myself.

I am a soldier in college and during the time that I am in basic training, the army sets aside money for all soldiers to put towards college. I have been in college for 4 years and I am now in my 5th. The money that the Army set aside for me has been used up and now I have to tighten my already sufficating belt. That is 480.00 a month that I have to make up for.I got a wild hair up my butt and decided to get crazy involved with school this year so my schedule is slammed. Meetings, classes, student goverment, mentoring....I mean slammed.When I saw today that I was 32.00 in the hole after all my bills are paid for September...I now needed to start thinking about October. I get a monthly drill check that barely breaks 200.00 a month. And people dare to say that soldiers are over paid.I now had to start thinking of things to get my next months bills paid...quick! Can I get a job? Not with all my comittments with school, no one would be crazy enough to hire me. Weekend job? Drill makes that an issue. I even went as far as to consider deploying to AZ. and finishing the year with online classes. But I have made commitments to kids who need a mentor...I can not leave them. So now what?Deployment was looking to be the only option at this point. But I cant think about that now. I have a youth group meeting with my kids (kids I mentor. not my own...i have none) Hard times have hit the youth leaders family so he was not able to attend, so my buddy David steps in with the message for the evening.He began to speak about when Jesus walked on water. A story I have heard soo manytimes so I began to lose the interest, but God made me listen.

In Matthew 14:27 says:

"Immediately Jesus spoke to them (the disciples on the boat) "Have courage! It is I. Do not be afraid." (Matt.14:27)

Jesus was walking on the water, outside of the boat in the middle of a storm. These men who follow him daily thought he was a ghost and they were scared. They were thinking they are seeing ghost on the water, the boat is rocking, they dont know where Jesus is. Then Jesus assures them that it him on the water and not to be scared.That grab my attention. "Do not be afraid." I dont know about you but most people would say that me considering deployment to survive would be freaking out. So I listen more.Peter...the disciple I relate with the most...ask Jesus

"Command me to come to You on the water." (Matt.14:28)
Jesus said, "Come." (Matt. 14:29)

So Peter walks out, and he is walking on the water. But soon Peter sees the waves, and gets scared, and begins to doubt Jesus and begins to sink in the water. He screams out,

"Lord save me!" (Matt. 14:30)

Jesus comes to Peter, reached out his hand and saved him. Jesus than looks at Peter and says ,

"You of little faith, why did you doubt me?" (Matt.14:31)

So I am listening to this and going, man! I was commanded by God to take on these things. The mentoring, BCM...I felt like these things were taking up all my time and was the reason why I was "sinking." I took my eyes off Jesus and started looking at the waves in my life and I doubted that Jesus would be able to help in this. That was the real reason why I was sinking. Jesus called me to walk out in this storm, and he is waiting for me to keep going. I know Jesus will not allow me to sink. He has placed me where I am and in the situation I am in for a reason. He will take care of me and all my needs. Does that mean that I wont have to make scarifices? No..but I will be ok, cause he called me out into this storm.

Finally thought.

When Jesus delivered Peter back into the boat the storm stopped. I know this storm will stop, as long as I place my faith in Jesus, I know this storm will stop.

...a little peace of mind

So an eventful week eh?

What do you say at a time like this? I'm sorry? "I'm sorry" just doesn't really cover it. More like, "I wish I was there so I could have done something." "I wish this never happened." And why do want to say these things? Because we all want to take the pain away. Regardless of race, sex, religious preference, we are all still human, and on some deep level that many of us have been programed to ignore, we love each other.

I want it to go away, but more on a selfish level. I don't want to think about it. I want to be happy all the time. I don't want to grieve. I don't want to think that bad things happen. But they do. There are people out there and for whatever reason they lose it, and people suffer.

Can I tell you why? No. I can tell you that my God is in control of it. And if He wasn't? Then those death truly would have had no purpose. They would have been senseless, random occurrences. Who wants to think that way? Don't people want to believe that there is a higher purpose at hand? Why wouldn't you?

I want to cry for those people, just like Columbine, Heath High School, Jonesboro.

Some people who have no faith will ask, "Where was your God there?" I believe that they ask that question cause they really want to know. Some where deep down they don't want to think that this had no purpose.

Let me tell you where my God was.

In the classrooms

In the dorm

In the homes of the victims families awaiting the phone call

Listening intently to prayers

And yes even with the shooter

He was all around and He has a plan for all of this. It hurts, and it will leave scars.

I dont really know what else to say other than I know my God has a plan.