So it's raining cats and dogs...which is bad for the rats and the mice. But seriously folks...

... it really IS raining cats and dogs. I just stepped in a poodle.

The old jokes are the best jokes.

Or maybe not.

The above is "inspired" by my friend Rob, who sent out the note below to his Sunday school class "up to" the Methodist church. He keeps me on the list. Glad he does. Some of his note to his class this week follows...

".......What I'm tying to say is that it's raining so hard that the statue in front of City Hall is soaked to the skin.

"All right already, enough about the weather. Remember this, as bad as it's storming now and looks like it'll be that way for the rest of the day; seeing how the gray skies and rain have overhung us for many days now; and we wonder when we're going to get some relief from the skies - look forward to Friday, Saturday, et seq. When you see the blue heavens and the brilliant sun, think back about how dark and scary it looks this morning.

"Isn't that just like life? Whatever storm is whipping around you right now, it won't last, don't you know? The promise of God is there behind the clouds for above all this stormy weather is blue sky and sunshine. We just can't see it today, but it's there. Hold on to His promise that some pretty awe-inspiring days are just around the corner, weather-wise, and for each of you, too.

"So, between now and Sunday, when I pray we're all together, endure storms with prayer and thanksgiving, and enjoy the celestial brilliance that I believe we'll see after the deluge.

"We'll be finishing up the book of Jimmy - James if you prefer to be formal - with Chapter 5. Here we'll see the admonition to the wicked, you know, the bad guys; the need for patience; a word or two about @$%&# swearing; the power of prayer; and reclaiming those who are wayward, e.g. 'doing' church.

"May God's loving hands be on each of you and may you be safe."

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Sermon-on-a-Stick: 'Just Do It'

(Sunday's sermon if you trust my note-taking)

Just Do It

James 1: 21-25

* "Take in'' the Word properly

Better information leads to better living. How do we 'take in' the Word?

a. Hear it.

Romans 10:17 -- Faith comes from hearing, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Put myself in position to hear the Word -- go to church, Sunday school, Bible studies...make sure I put myself in a position, regularly, to hear the Word.

b. Read it.

Get a Bible you can understand and one you enjoy reading. (Google to find out which translations are on which reading levels, or go to the bookstore and look for a Bible you like. Pray about it. Ask friends what they read and look at their Bibles. Lots of Bibles contain good study guides and notes and commentary.

1. How to approach studying my Bible

*Just read it: Maybe just read the New Testament once a year (less than a chapter a day will do it), and the Old Testament once every three years (three chapters a day or so). The way you can tell the Bible is the inspired word ... it never gets old. You almost always see new things each time you read a passage.

* Study it: look 'intently' at what the text says. Maybe read five verses a day or 10 in a dedicated study time. Pray over that text. Read it over and over. But then ...

* Just Do It --

Live out what the Bible says to live out. Bible studies and reading the Word is a good thing, but the main thing is doing what the Bible says, doing what God is telling us, through this letter to us, to do.

*A lot of us "audit" God. We don't need more Bible studies. We have lots of Bible information. But we need to DO, to live out, what the Word says. A lot of us are good "practice" players but not good in the game. And God always has us in the game.

* Mark Twain: "It's not what I DON'T understand about the Bible that scares me; it's what i DO understand but don't do."

* Am I tithing?

Do I forgive people?

Am I an instrument of reconciliation?

Am I faithful to my church family?

Do I love people?

Am I living out the Word?

Am i doing or only hearing?

* Let's say my parents leave a list of things for me to do the weekend they are gone. When they come back, they ask me if I did those things. And I say, "I studied the list. I memorized some of the list. I studied the list with friends, in a group. We argued about the list, agreed with some of the list, but felt that it was definitely an inspired and divine list. It's a good list for sure."

And my parents say, "But did you DO anything on the list we asked you to do?"

And if we say "No," it's the same principle as when we read the Bible, maybe even agree with the Bible, but decide not to do everything God asks us to do, commands us to do, in His Word. He won't ask us one day if we read the Bible; he'll ask us if we did what he asked.

God speaks through James with a passionate plea: when it comes to the Word of God, just do it.

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Oswald Chambers

It is always humbling to read Oswald Chambers. His "My Utmost for His Highest" is the best-selling devotion book ever. You can find it online here. Today's effort, I've pasted below. Read about him sometime when you have a chance; he was not without early struggles. But when he "got it," God used him, and still does. He makes you think, for sure.


Getting into God’s Stride

"Enoch walked with God . . ." — Genesis 5:24

The true test of a person’s spiritual life and character is not what he does in the extraordinary moments of life, but what he does during the ordinary times when there is nothing tremendous or exciting happening. A person’s worth is revealed in his attitude toward the ordinary things of life when he is not under the spotlight (see John 1:35-37 and John 3:30 ). It is painful work to get in step with God and to keep pace with Him— it means getting your second wind spiritually. In learning to walk with God, there is always the difficulty of getting into His stride, but once we have done so, the only characteristic that exhibits itself is the very life of God Himself. The individual person is merged into a personal oneness with God, and God’s stride and His power alone are exhibited.

It is difficult to get into stride with God, because as soon as we start walking with Him we find that His pace has surpassed us before we have even taken three steps. He has different ways of doing things, and we have to be trained and disciplined in His ways. It was said of Jesus— "He will not fail nor be discouraged . . ." (Isaiah 42:4 ) because He never worked from His own individual standpoint, but always worked from the standpoint of His Father. And we must learn to do the same. Spiritual truth is learned through the atmosphere that surrounds us, not through intellectual reasoning. It is God’s Spirit that changes the atmosphere of our way of looking at things, and then things begin to be possible which before were impossible. Getting into God’s stride means nothing less than oneness with Him. It takes a long time to get there, but keep at it. Don’t give up because the pain is intense right now— get on with it, and before long you will find that you have a new vision and a new purpose.

Happy Anniversary! ...

to my little sis and to Jeeves, married 13 or 14 years this very evening. (I know it's something in the low teens and I meant to ask her when I was on the phone with her a second ago but forgot because we were talking about, of course, Madea.)

Tinker and Jeeves rock out and are your kind of people.

Happy Birthday to ...

me.

Yesterday. Columbus Day Eve.

The Big Five O.

It was a good day. I spilled prune juice on me only once. I dozed off just three times, but only twice while i was talking. I'll write about it for Sunday I think, if I live that long. That's a serious jump ball.

If I don't, I'll die knowing my family loves me, that's for sure. And I love them, but only because I know how now. They went all out and I appreciate it. (Wish I could remember it.)

Sorry for the blogging delays. Computer woes. Lots of work to do. I'm taking a class at Tech, honestly. Probably failing it. I know I'm failing Sunday school. Who fails Sunday school? (Got Noah confused with Moses and it costs me 30 points on our last test.)

Mad at the Red Sox, Twins and Cardinals, swept unceremoniously. Costs us a lot of free baseball. Thanks a lot! And it was my birthday and everything, too....Losers...

Broom and Biscuit are making me supper tonight: cheesy chicken spaghetti and a surprise dessert. Good for me! And I hope they'll let me watch the last few innings of the Rocks/Phillies game. Pull for Colorado so we can get one more free game, OK?

Talk to you soon.

Tiny boys and baseball, old men and baseball

If my Granddaddy Teddy were still alive, he'd be turning 100 tomorrow. He died 6 days after he turned 61, 4 days after I turned 11. Fifty years older than me, almost to the day.

I wish he would have lived longer. I could have taken him to ballgames. But maybe I wouldn't have. I'd like to think I would have. I would today.

He'd take his vacation from the paper mill in West Monroe and watch the World Series on television. He'd have enjoyed today and yesterday: three games in one day, of playoffs. He was a sweet man. When he got sick, a lot of guys at the paper mill split time and worked his shifts. I wish you could have met him.

Sunday's column is called "Watch the Ball into Your Glove." It really doesn't have much to do with baseball; it just uses baseball, hopefully to make a point. But this following note does have to do with baseball. Scooter works at the paper and has already read Sunday's story. He wrote me this note today after he did. He and Melissa, a couple of years ago, had Hadley.

"Melissa flew out of town recently on a Sunday afternoon for a business trip. After Hadley and I dropped her off at the airport, we went home and watched Sunday Night Football. He decided early in the first quarter that he wanted to "watch Copper" (The Fox and the Hound) instead. So we watched that until he said "I wanna watch football." When we got to Monday night, same drill - football, Tod and Copper, then more football. Tuesday night he started with Fox and the Hound and was disappointed when there wasn't any football on. Then I hit pay dirt - the "Battle at Bricktown" featuring the Memphis Redbirds and the Durham Bulls. Now all I hear is "I wanna watch baseball."

"The other day he found one of my 12-inch souvenir bats. He walks around the house now swinging at anything he can find, or anything you toss his way. He's stepping into the swing with his back foot, and he's a sucker for the high fastball. But he's playing baseball.

"Life is good...

"I hope you have a great weekend.
"Scooter"

You don't get many of these...

* Shreveport's Scott Baker will start for the Minnesota Twins today in the sudden-death game against the Detroit Tigers in the Metrodome. Starts around 4. I might brew a pot of decaf and strap in. Don't know if I've seen an entire game this season but I'm going to try to watch this one. The winner gets the Yankees.
And last night I kept thinking about how frustrating it was for the Metrodome grounds crew, waiting for the Vikings-Packers Monday Night Football game to get over -- and it lasted a LONG time -- so they could start getting the field ready for today's baseball game. I like my grounds crew guys.

* Sweeter's Peyton Manning poster, rescued months ago from the trash heap by Linnea and given a safe home with one of Peyton's biggest fans, suffered a slight injury after last week's Monday night victory. (A post from a couple of weeks ago will explain all this, if you missed it.) Sweeter was too tired to put Peyton up so she left him hanging overnight, which might have resulted in a slight tear, a couple of inches, on his throwing shoulder. It might have just been the weight of his hanging there all night, looking in the pocket toward the kitchen to see if the sink and microwave were playing two-deep coverage, that caused the injury. I found all this out Sunday at dinnertime, just before Peyton's noon kickoff. Sweeter had fixed the problem with tape; you can't even tell he's been injured. And it didn't hurt him since he won and Eli won, leaving Sweeter undefeated and rolling along in this young NFL season. Eli is suffering from a bad heel this week, but that is in real life and not on a poster so all Sweeter can do is pray, which I'm sure she has and is.

Sweeter could not put on her Official Peyton Jersey for Sunday's noon kickoff because she didn't want to get gravy on it. Tinker and Jeeves were there, Sissy and Keith, Lacey and Champy, Pops of course and also Casey. Roast and gravy, homemade mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole (we are big potato people), green beans Tinker had cooked down, deviled eggs Sissy brought, gallons of tea, some crescents, chocolate pie and also this strawberry shortcake-like stuff. We might have had something else -- corn, and some peas I think -- but that's about it. It was fun and more fun. Jeeves embarrassed himself (the word 'cod' had something to do with it) and I've never seen him laugh so hard. Of course Sissy and Keith had to stop at Sam's on their way back home. It was beautiful. And my little sis might fry chicken for us Sunday. I am blessed. And hungry.

* Starting to feel like autumn! I didn't know until this morning, reading an inspirational writing by my friend Ray, that when the leaves change this time of year, it's because of stuff that leaves the leaves. That causes the 'change.' Here's some of what he wrote...

"With shortening daylight, the green of the chlorophyll simply exits the leaves revealing the remaining reds, yellows, oranges, and browns that before had remained hidden.

"We all have some true colors that remain hidden until a change occurs in our circumstances. Our underlying colors may not be pretty and may present a side of us that we would prefer remained hidden. However, as we walk closer and closer to the Lord, led by the Holy Spirit, our carnal nature will subside and the new revealed colors will be those of the maturing fruit of the Spirit, as in Galatians 5:22, 23 . . . love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

"Those around us may notice our change of season; however, our greatest joy will be in the praise of God when we see the Lord in His time. The Apostle Paul wrote, 'My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.'" 1 Corinthians 4:4-5

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