Prayer Alert

To all praying Christians out there.

I maintained my Christian witness today even though it was worse than a punch in the face.

After eight years of faithful service I was suddenly terminated from my job for poor job performance. Last year after decreasing my hours and adding to my work load they gave me a thirty day warning to improve my performance, or else.

When that time was complete I requested a formal review. When none came I had to assume everything was OK. Then with no warning out of the blue they fired me.

Nevertheless my boss said I could use them as a reference.

When God closes one door he opens another.

Insurgency!

It's an insurgency!

It's all about God's love. We all know
God is real. We're witnesses.

One tells another, who tells a friend, who tells a family member, and so on and so on.

And now it's time to take it to the next level in our church. We've
all written down the names of all the people we've witnessed to.

They're our friends, our family members and coworkers and students.

Everyone taking the names with them to a special all church prayer
meeting tonight. That's both the main fellowship and our satellite
church as well.

It's like we're turning a corner as a church. The usual cliches like
"revival" somehow don't seem to fit. Who knows what's going to happen,
but going to be great!

Bit by bit, person to person lives are going to be changed.

It's an insurgency!

Overcoming Besetting Setbacks

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Sinus infection headaches are so the pits. It's not just the debilitating pain and feeling like my head is stuffed with cotton. It's the way the medication drags down my emotions.

The best thing anyone can do in that condition is not to take any of their thoughts seriously. Because everything is just going to be a sucked down the drain of depressed emotions. And if your emotions are already down from a disappointment, depressing medications are just going to make it even worse.

Take it from me, from the book of "been there, done that" it's a chain reaction you don't want any part of. Just let depressing thoughts fly in one ear and right out the other.

Because depression is the pits!

Theme Song

Every blog should have a theme song.

Mine is "Love Comes Down" by "Rez Band."

"Because when you lose, you win . . "

I'm a Witness

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Recently our pastor at Grace Fellowship reminded us that
God didn't call us to be His Lawyer. He called us to be witnesses.
Too many people try to argue everyone into The Kingdom usually
with bad results.

Of course some are really good at being God's lawyer. In fact they've built
an entire ministry around that idea. But even those people admit every one's
not the same as they are so they're going to be used by God in another way.

So I guess the bottom line is, be a witness. No one has to argue about that.
It's like this.

"Hey! I know God is the real deal. This is what The Lord did for me."

People can argue all they want. But they can't deny your story. You know it's true. And deep down no matter what they say they know, YOU know your story is true.

So what's my story?

God is not only the God of the second chance. He's the God of the third, forth and Nth chance. I know it's true. I'm a witness.

My life was a box full of broken pieces. It was a series of false starts and missed opportunities. Some things looked like I got them right and then I'd blow it again. To try and put it all together again right seemed impossible. And it was. For me that is, but not for God.

It was a little over a year ago I decided that I was going to commit to going to a local church. I was really going for it this time, broken pieces, issues, hang ups and all. If something came up, or if I messed up I was going to keep going forward. If people think I've got "freak" issues, so be it.

Besides it wasn't about me. There was my family to consider. And of course there's the fact that no one's getting any younger and what time is left over seems to be accelerating to warp speed!

Thankfully there were no freak issues. (Not yet anyway) And the family is coming along and becoming a part as well.

The tipping point for me was easy to mark. It was when I knew this really wasn't yet another false start. That was the day Grace Fellowship announced the launch date of their satellite church.

We were equal distance from both so for us it was a toss up. But as many of you already know when The Holy Spirit decides something for you, YOU KNOW IT!

All the broken pieces slowly started coming together in a way I couldn't have dreamed. It's not that I've arrived. (NO WAY)

This is the starting line.

LarryK12309
Grace North
Halfmoon NY

Keeping up with the Duggars and people like Them

I'm reading the book by The Duggar family. They have a reality show by the same name, "18 kids and counting."

My first reaction to their show was to imagine wives all over the country turning to their husbands and saying,

"Don't even think about it cowboy! You did not marry a baby factory!"

Then I tried to picture how a liberal might feel about the show. I'm guessing they hate it. It's not so much that Michelle has over 15 children, that makes them upset. It's that all her children have the same father! Not only that, but when Michelle first got pregnant she was already married to her husband Jim Bob.

How unbelievable is that!

But seriously folks even though my wife and I have the same core beliefs as The Duggars we wound up with opposite results. They have over fifteen children of their own, we have two, both adopted. And we wouldn't have it any other way.

Once we realized the route we were supposed to take The Lord blessed us every step of the way. When a decision had to be made when a need had to be met, He was there with the answer.

The real shock came after both adoptions were finalized. All at once both countries we adopted from totally changed their adoption requirements. Had we waited any longer it would have impossible to adopt the way we did.

You see, keeping up with the Duggars isn't like keeping up with the Jones-es, or any other family for that matter. It's all about keeping up with The Lord. Follow Him, and that's where you'll find true fulfillment.

And even though we have a much smaller family, we're still getting allot out of their book anyway. ;-)

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• Adoption (fundable.com)

Our Blessed Vacation

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To call our latest vacation, "Blessed" is not to try and sound spiritual. It's because we really were blessed down at the Jersey shore.

First of all it really is possible to keep a covenant with your eyes even on a public beach. Granted the watchman may have to work overtime but it can be done.

Second there's God's protection. As any of you know who've ventured out into the ocean know,
even on calm days, the waves can be a bit rough. My daughter Katie and I were wading in shallow water when we got knocked off our feet by a surprise wave. That's when I felt Katie's teeth hit my elbow.

"Oh dear!"

Praise God she wasn't hurt at all. Just a tad shaken up. Granted there are first aid stations close by and I know she would have made a quick recovery, but I would have needed oxygen.

Finally there's the arcades. No trip to the Jersey shore is complete until you hit all the arcades on the Boardwalk. It's all about collecting those tickets and coupons for prizes. (Yes they're really cheesy prizes but it's the thrill of winning that matters!)

Right when my wife and I had just about had it with our two cranky kids, some nice people came by and just handed us all their arcade tickets!

"Sweet!"

This really was a blessed vacation!