Ramblings

Ok, so I haven’t written anything in awhile, Between car trouble, Church retreats, and Brother Taylor in Africa until the end of the month things have been kind of frantic lately. I know that is not a good excuse but it’s the only one I have.
So in order to pacify my children I will just ramble on for awhile until I am able to come up with something a little more structured.
Although Brother Taylor has gone many times I still feel a weight of responsibility just in the extra preaching and classes. Not just the time spent studying but the responsibility of sharing the word of God and trying to give the people what they need to grow and be edified.
We lost a grandchild to a miscarriage, although I never met him I still feel a sense of loss and am looking forward to seeing him in heaven.
My Grandpa passed away, I thank God for the assurance from my Uncle that he had been genuinely saved.
I stood in front of his casket and saw a picture of his old auto body shop and a flood of memories came rushing back to me of the summer I spent in Waco when I was around 13 years old. This is the first time this has ever happened to me. I thought it only happened in the movies but I actually stood there and began to remember things about that summer I had forgotten. I remembered John who worked for my Grandpa, I remembered stories my Uncle Rick told me, and staying at his house. I remembered my Grandpa’s shop and his office.
I am not sure of the physical or psychological reason that we forget so many things and something can trigger so many memories, but if I might wax philosophical for a moment I know that those memories cause me many times to be sad but thankful for those who loved me and were an influence in my life.
As I have said before, I don’t have much choice but to share memories because most of the exciting stuff happened to me when I was younger. My kids recently told me that I should write down all of the stories I tell. I am reluctant to do this partly because I sometimes remember things differently than others. It’s not that anyone is lying it is just that stories tend to change over the years. So I don’t know who would read my stories but my children, but perhaps that’s reason enough.

A funny story

Grandma said “Grandpa, tell Audrey a funny story”. I just happen to be quite possibly the best funny story teller I know. My kids always loved the creek bank story so using my best dramatic voice I started to tell how I had been playing with matches and set the creek bank on fire as I told about the flames climbing higher and higher Audrey’s eyes got bigger and bigger. I began to realize that maybe that this wasn’t the best story for a 2 year old but I hadn’t gotten to the punch line yet. When I got to the part where my Dad said “Billy get to the house” and when my Dad said that it meant you were going to get a whipping Audrey was almost on the verge of tears. I guess there was just something wrong with a story where Grandpa’s got spankings.
OK so maybe I am not the best story teller I know or maybe I just need to know my audience better. My kids loved the part where I asked Tammy to pray with me that I wouldn’t get a whipping and we both got one.
I knew I would run out of stuff to blog about because I never do anything exciting. So I tell stories of things that happened in the past. I think stories are important if they can be used to impart spiritual truths to our children and grandchildren. I also think it is important to make memories so that our children have stories to tell. So bear with me while I take a stroll down memory lane. I got this idea from Rebekah by the way but I am sure she won’t mind me stealing her idea. I would like to share with you some of my favorite childhood memories.

When Mom read the bible to us.

One of my earliest memories is being at a park with my Mom and Dad, I don’t remember where or when or who else was there, I just remember having fun and I remember Dad standing on a pedestal like the statue of liberty.

Riding horses, scooters and go karts and playing basketball in the school yard across the street from our house in Arvada. Dad was actually a pretty good basketball player, I never was.

The time we went camping in the mountains with the folks from Missouri and the coon dogs ran off and we stayed an extra week looking for the dogs. I enjoyed the time we spent looking for the dogs the more than anything else.

Wrestling with Dad in the front room.

Saturday mornings when Mom would fix a big breakfast and we would just sit around and talk after breakfast. (usually we had work to do)

Playing board games (not monopoly)

My favorite memories are the times we did things together as a family, even when we were fixing fence, hauling hay or cutting wood. It wasn’t fun at the time but I have some good memories of those times now.

I have a lot more, but I won’t bore you with them. I also have some bad memories of my childhood but I choose not to think about them. You can call it denial or repression, I just know I am a lot happier when I think about the good times, so that is what I try to focus on.
The memories we focus on as adults directly affects our level of joy and contentment, but as parents and grandparents we have an obligation to make some good memories for our children and grandchildren. The people in our Church have heard me say this many times, but please allow me to say it one more time:
I have never heard someone say “I wish we would have bought our kids more things, or I wish I would have watched more T.V. or spent more time at work or with my friends while my kids were growing up. But I have heard a lot of people say “I wish I would have spent more time with my kids. Its been awhile since I told a 2 year old a bedtime story, hopefully I will do better next time, because I want my grandkids to have good memories of the time they spent with their Grandpa and hopefully along the way I can impart some spiritual truths that will help them walk uprightly in a world that is becoming more dangerously wicked every day.
By the way the spiritual truths of the creek bank story are…
1. Obey your parents, especially when they tell you not to play with matches
2. When you pray God will forgive you, your parents will forgive you but you
will probably still get a whipping, especially if you were playing with matches.
3. Last but not least, when you pray for grace and mercy for someone else you
might want to say a little prayer for yourself… just in case.

Motor Blog

I had an opportunity to go to the drag races, I hadn’t been since I was a kid and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you have never seen Top Fuel Dragsters race it is an experience you will probably never forget. They are so loud and powerful you literally feel it, if you get to see them at night there are flames a foot high coming from each piston, they take off the rear tires wrinkle from the stress, the front end leaves the ground and it is over in 3 seconds.

I have also always been interested in diesel engines, they were invented by some French guy named, (you guessed it) Diesel. They are the motors that power trucks, boats and heavy equipment.

If I may use an analogy I realize that I am neither a diesel or a top fueler, I have known some folks who are spiritual Top Fuelers, they take off with an impressive display and it seems they can do anything, but there is a problem with Top Fuel Dragsters, they run off of nitro-methane, (the nitro part should give you a clue) and the motor usually has to be rebuilt after every race.

There are some who just keep running like nothing is wrong, they say they are still in the race when they are running with a thrown rod a burnt piston and two dropped valves. It is obvious to everyone what has happened by the loud rattling sound, the oil dripping from under the car and the smoke billowing out of the tail pipe, but you cannot point out the problem lest you be accused of that unpardonable sin of judging someone.

There are others who are diesels, the diesel has the ablility to carry unbelievably heavy loads for thousands of hours and not blow up like the Top Fuel motor. It is designed to carry the stress that is placed on it, for an extended period of time.

I don’t really want to be a Top Fueler and I don’t believe I will ever be a diesel. My goal is to be like a 350 Chevrolet motor, if you are a Ford person I am sorry, I am sure God can overlook that and use you anyway hopefully you will get your heart right.
This is my blog and so I am going to use the Chevy analogy. I had a 350 Chevrolet and it wasn’t incredibly fast and it couldn’t carry huge loads for extended periods of time, but it always was ready for service and it always got me where I wanted to go. It had it’s own little problems and peculiarities but it was reliable. This motor survived Bro. Taylor, myself and then was put in little wanna be race car and never did quit. I am sure it is long gone now but during it’s life it was faithful and reliable.


There have been times that I have run too fast and hard and got ahead of God and had to be rebuilt and there have been times that I have had to carry a heavy load and tried to do it in my own strength and realized it just wasn’t there. So I know I haven’t reached my goal, but when this old 350 finally gives up the ghost I don’t care about someone saying how much he accomplished or how impressive he was, I just want them to be able to say the old 350 was faithful.

My space?

Having spent a lot of time in front of a monitor I considered myself to be reasonably computer literate. At least where hardware and software are concerned.
The internet however has never been my thing, I pay bills and see how much I don’t have in my checking account and that is about it. I am not an E-mail type guy, I check it once a month whether I need to or not. I don’t play computer games, I don’t chat and I only surf when I am searching for something in particular.
Recently I have been hearing a lot about blogs, I have come to the conclusion that they are kind of your own personal little web page, which is kind of cool I guess. I love to read my daughter in law’s blog, my Pastor even has one. I had two major fears in starting my own blog.
1. I wouldn’t have anything clever, funny or profound to say, I couldn’t just talk
about my life because I would have to embellish quite a bit to make my life
interesting to anyone and preachers are not supposed to embellish (lie).
2. No one would read it. Number one and two are kind of tied together but it
would seem a little embarrassing, kind of like getting picked last when they
choose up teams for a Church softball game because you are the old fat guy.
There were some things that have come up recently however that have caused me to overcome my fears.
One is I made my kids promise to read it, or at least pretend to read it and post some complimentary remarks. The other and main reason is that I recently discovered MY SPACE. My boys pointed out to me some of the folks they knew on MY SPACE and I was a little shocked at what I read.
I was not only shocked, but I was also a little disappointed, saddened and sickened. It was the same kind of sad sick feeling you have when you find yourself in a place you don’t belong and you feel kind of sorry for the folks that are there and for some reason unknown to you they enjoy being there.
I will not give all the gory details about what I saw and heard (you get to pick out a song to play while people are visiting your little web site). So not only are you assaulted by filthy language, sexual references and even a little Satanism you also get to hear it set to music (for lack of an appropriate term).
It was troubling to me to see kids that I loved and had invested my life in to be involved in that kind of thing.
The Bible is pretty clear about what kind of things we should think about and be involved in.
Philippians 4:8
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
I suppose the most troubling was to see references to God and Jesus in the midst of the filth.

I know I am preaching, but I am a preacher, what did you expect?

And so here is my blog, I don’t know how often I will post something, I probably won't until I need to vent again. I am sharing this with parents of teenagers because I would want to know if it was my kids. I am sharing this with the teens because I love you and I HATE to see you degrade yourselves this way and drag the name of my Lord and Saviour through the hog pen you are wallowing in.
I know this isn’t a blog it is a book but let me just share a few things with the
young people.
Language
The way you speak tells people what kind of person you are.
When you use foul language it tells people something about you.
1. You are showing a lack of respect for the person you are talking to because you are assuming they want to hear someone talk that way.
2. You are showing your ignorance and limited vocabulary
3. Your testimony around friends that are lost is being destroyed and you could be responsible for them never being saved.
Music
1. I know you have heard this one before, but words that are set to music can not be filtered out.
2 Music affects you Physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Sex
1. Sex is not a joke, it is not a toy it is a gift of God to be enjoyed only by
a Husband and Wife.
2. To treat sex any other way is playing with fire and you are headed for heartache. You will lose something precious you can never get back and You run the risk of an unwanted pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases.
I know that you think it is none of my business what you do but the bible says it is
Hebrews 13:17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
I will continue to do everything in my power to prevent you from getting involved in something you will later regret because I love you
Maybe next time I will be able to post something not quite so heavy, but this is what the Lord has laid on my heart, so here it is.