the 2nd greatest commandment

We pick up children in an old school bus to bring them to an AWANA program on Wednesday evenings. We do this because we believe what Jesus said about loving little children (and some that are not so little). Some of them are in difficult situations...but, children are extremely resilient.

Children in third-world countries often work long hours in horrible working conditions and receive almost nothing in return for their labor. I have heard this reply many times when describing their situations: "They are better off than they would be if they didn't have any work at all!"

Now, I wish that all of our AWANA children were in loving two-parent, Christian homes, where they would be nurtured in the admonition of the Lord. It's not happening and I can't make it happen. However, I can show them the love of Christ during the time that I spend with them.

How about those children in third world countries? Is my best hope for them that they can work 12-14 hour days in awful conditions, so that they can be better off than they would be otherwise? Who benefits from their "slave" labor? We do! I do! I can buy cheap products at places like Walmart and have a higher standard of living when they work for practically nothing. And I can echo the Big Lie, "At least they are better off than they would be if they didn't have any work at all!"

I would never wish those sorts of conditions for MY children or for MY grandchildren (if I ever have any). When I wish that third-world children would be better off, why don't I wish for them to be as well off as my children are? Or, at least to be as well off as our AWANA children are. The problem is, if they get better conditions, then I will have to pay higher prices for products...I might have to skip a meal at Prima Pasta this month.

Jesus, when speaking of the greatest commandment said this, Mat 22:39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Freedom in Ministry

It's a blessing when you feel the freedom to serve the Lord wholeheartedly. We have had a situation at our local church where one person significantly stifled the creativity and freedom that we have in Christ to serve Him. That one person insisted that he had the only vision for the church, that he was the only mouth-piece for the church, that all ideas had to go through him. Everything that didn't fit his agenda/vision was effectively squashed. If you questioned his right to rule then you were silenced. There had been an atmosphere of fear, wondering if you were going to be the next one out the door.

With that person gone, we are feeling a freedom to worship and serve the Lord in spirit and in truth.

Last night, we had 26 children show up at AWANA. I thought it possible that we would have five to ten show up because of the difficulty that we had trying to contact the children. I couldn't contact the majority of our club because their phones had been "disconnected or were no longer in service". Still, through prayer, the Lord brought 26 children and more than enough leaders and listeners to articulate the gospel message. I spent a portion of last night and this morning praising the Lord in my heart because the work of ministry is His. Yes, He works through us, but He gets the glory because it clearly is His ministry.

The Big Lie

How do you know when a government official is lying? When he/she opens their mouth.

This "crap" they are giving us about rescuing the economy is nothing but a big lie. It is another way for them to continue their policy of turning the US into a socialist country. They use the big lie method of putting fear into the sheep and then promise to take care of the poor sheep by fleecing them for their own good.

They continue to create the crisis, then they tell us how bad it is, then they take over more and more of the economy to protect us. Don't you recognize their methodology. They supported Suddam Hussein until the day before George H. Bush invaded. All of his (real) evil made no difference to the new world order folks until they wanted to put fear in the sheep. Same thing is happened with the economy. They tell the sheep that they can spend their way to prosperity, lowering the interest rates at the Fed so that more will join in the festivities. Then, when they have their crisis, they come in for the rescue, removing more and more of our freedoms.

Open your eyes!

Danger: Economic Disaster Ahead

George Bush has asked Congress for a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry. The g'ment will also have to pony up $100 to $200 billion to shore up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The last time I looked the g'ment was almost double figures in Trillion Dollar Debt. Where is the money coming from?

We might have avoided ruin when Y2K didn't materialize; but, now the government is attempting to put us way over the edge. Hello Socialism, goodbye Capitalism and goodbye Freedoms. You heard it here...

Inequities

I have been driven from my blogging lethargy by two articles from the International Herald Tribune (http://www.iht.com). These two articles were right on top of each other. Their titles were as follows:

Food Crisis Meets Chaos in Horn of Africa
Saudis Rebuff Bush's Request for More Oil Production

While human beings in parts of Africa are starving to death Bush is visiting King Abdullah's ranch to ask him to increase Saudi oil production. People around the world are starving to death and Bush wants to drop our gasoline prices a few cents so that we can continue to "stimulate" the economy by spending more than we earn. People fearful of the future have a tendency to save a bit rather than spend all of their income. Instead of dropping bombs all around the world, why don't we drop a little food on starving people? Oh, I remember, you have to have war in order to continually gear up the war economy machinery! For the month of May, the total value of the 124 reported contracts awarded by the US Department of Defense stands at $5,598,552,730. War makes a good bit more income for politicians and their buddies than does peace.

I can't do the topic justice in one short blog; however, I believe that I prefer to feed starving people than bomb them into starvation.

Garden Report and Other News

We just missed out on a killing frost last week. Friends that live 10 miles away lost most of their garden. It got down to 33, but the conditions weren't right for a frost.

We harvested our clove garlic last week and Caleb peeled and separated them today. The elephant garlic still isn't ready to harvest. We have been eating spinach and lettuce for a few weeks. We are going to have a hot spell over the next few days (low-to-mid 90s) and hope that they don't bolt. Ate our first broccoli head yesterday. I noticed that the cabbage looper has found a few of the bushes. Our onions are starting to bulb. We have been eating green onions for a while. We have several squash growing on the plants right now. I guess this means that the squash borer will find our garden in the near future. Joshua planted some pole beans beside the corn stalks today. I have never grown beans up corn, but have heard it's a viable way of saving space...so we'll see. The tomato plants have blossoms as do the green pepper plants. There are buds but no blooms on the potatoes.

We got "lucky" this year. We usually have either a killing frost around Easter or extremely hot weather...which does in the cool-weather crops (not that I consider my small garden having crops).

I was reading in Genesis the other day about the time when Abraham lied to Pharaoh about Sarah being his sister. After they left Egypt it was said that Abraham was extremely wealthy. This was because he had cattle, gold, and silver. I don't have any cattle and very little gold and silver. As a matter-of-a-fact, I do have a little stock in a gold mining company that is influential in the genocide that is occurring in the Congo. If that is true, then I will be selling that particular stock.

As food prices continue to go up and up and up, I think it prudent to consider growing some of our own food. The cattle (gold and silver) that Abraham owned represented his ability to feed himself, his family, and those in need.

The trailer "house" that one of our AWANA children lived in burned this past Friday. He was at his grandmother's house when it happened. His mother got out okay, but they lost all of their worldly possessions.

Time for the Abrahams of our church to come up with some substantial help for the needy! Maybe I can sell that stock and help a family in need who lives in our little town!

Ministry

Deuteronomy 6 teaches us that fathers are responsible for training their own children to love the Lord with their whole hearts. We are required to teach them throughout the day. I buy into that wholeheartedly.

What about children who don't have fathers? Who is responsible to train them to know and serve the Lord? Is it their often drugged-out, multi-partnered mothers? or grandmothers? Is their school teachers, who would be fired for "separation of church and state" issues? No! It's us, of course. It surely isn't their real biological fathers, who have abandoned them to the world.

On Wednesday night, for 1 1/2 hours, we have an AWANA ministry at our church. We purchased an old (small) school bus from a rural school so we could pick up children and bring them to our church. On Wednesday night we have more people at our church than we do Sunday morning. That's because we believe that it's our responsible to tell these children about the love of Christ and train them to serve Him.

By-the-way, lest you scoff, it's not just about Wednesday night. Several of the children attend our Sunday morning service (picked up by church members) and you will find these children over at our houses and spending the night with us. Gasp!! We let the unwashed come into our homes?

We have had about thirty professions of faith the past two years, after six or seven years of none at all. The Lord knows how many of them are real. Our responsibility is to teach them the gospel of Christ and let the Lord change their lives.

Is it often tough? You bet it it is. I have around 10-15 children in my TNT club every week. The numbers are constant even though the children change. Every semester we have children come and go...they are an extremely mobile group. Some are hiding from CPS, some are hiding from abusive dads, and some are trying to get out of government housing.

Four of our children have fathers in prison. One has a mother in prison. One mother is hooked on meth and doesn't want her children to attend. One child goes home to satanic spiritualism. Others have drug addicted mothers. Some are raised by a number of "relatives." The one we pick up lives in a trailer with his mother. His mother works the evening shift...we have never seen her there when we pick him up or take him home. He goes home to an unlocked door and an empty trailer. Most of these children are told that they are losers and will never amount to anything at all.

Please don't think that I am tooting our horn or that we do it perfectly. We are simply trying to meet the need in our community for reaching out to those who need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. It's messy and gets tough at time. I wish, however, you could have been there the night that two new children (brothers, ages 10 and 11) insisted on immediately hearing more of the gospel of Christ. This was my first experience to have someone urgently ask to hear the gospel explained fully.

Rom 10:11 For the scripture saith, whoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Rom 10:12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all, is rich to all that call upon him,
Rom 10:13 For whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Rom 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
Rom 10:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things?

We had an interesting discussion in our Organizational Behavior class this afternoon. With all the scandals in the business world, there is a push towards "ethical" leadership. We are studying a chapter over Leadership. Our discussion question to start the class was, "How can we expect anyone without moral absolutes to act in any way other than self-centered?"

In 1 Corinthians 15:32 Paul said:
If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what
advantage is it to me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to-morrow
we die.

In-other-words, if this world is all that we have, why should we not just live a hedonistic, me-first lifestyle? To think that we should live a "moral" life when there are no morals simply does not make sense.

We then discussed how, without an absolute standard, all morality is simply relative. It changes as the wind blows. You have your morals and I have mine.

A study came out recently stating that greater than one in four teenage girls have an STD. Planned Parenthood responded that abstinence programs simply aren't working. Really? Neither is the "war on drugs" working. I hate to agree with Planned Parenthood on anything; but, abstinence programs aren't working. Why do we expect children who are trained in moral relativity all day long to do other than what pleases them? Why do we expect them to not just eat and drink, for tomorrow we die? Why do we expect that one or two hours of church will give them what they need to fight against the sexual perversions that are prevalent in our society?

Finally, when there are no moral absolutes we lose the need for redemption. If we haven't "sinned" why do we need a Savior? Let us hold firm to the absolutes of Scripture! For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Praise the Lord that we have a big Savior!

Finance Opinion

There is a wonderful story of God's provision for His people in the book of Genesis (41). You know the story--God gives Pharaoh a dream of seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. After interpreting Pharaoh's dream, Joseph gave an outline of how to provide sustenance for the years of famine. Please note that Joseph did not say, "Don't worry about it Oh Great King, God will provide supernaturally for our needs." God had already begun His supernatural provision by giving the dream to Pharaoh. God expected Joseph to use his gifts, abilities, and hard work to accomplish His sovereign will. Joseph worked diligently for seven years to provide for the coming needs of Egypt in the great famine to follow.

God uses our gifts, abilities, circumstances, and hard work to accomplish His will for our lives.

Joseph wasn't told that his seven years of hard work would also accomplish God's provision for his own family--sustaining the line of Messiah-- when they could not take care of their own needs.

God uses our gifts, abilities, circumstances, and hard work to accomplish His will for others when they are unable to provide for themselves.

Joseph's plan entailed saving up 20% of the grain each year for seven years in order to provide enough for the seven years of famine. Through careful planning and hard work, Joseph accomplished God's will...he saved both Egypt and his own people.

I am certainly not a prophet and have not had a vision/dream from God. However, I do know that God uses our "plenty" to accomplish His will, both for our lives and for those who presently can't provide for their own needs.

We need to use our plenty to provide for ourselves, our families, our churches, our friends, and our brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world, to the glory of God.

We live in a land of plenty, at least I do. I have a desktop computer, a laptop computer, another computer at work; we have four cell phones, two cars, a microwave, books aplenty, CDs, DVDs, an extra freezer, etc. This is a land of plenty. Like Joseph, I am to save from my plenty to provide for my family and for those who currently can't provide for themselves.

Are you saving your plenty or consuming like the world around you? I John 2:15-17

D3 National Champs

The Howard Payne University Lady Jackets won the D3 National Title today, beating Messiah 68-54. It is the University's first national title. Congratulations to the Lady Jackets. By-the-way, they have a team GPA greater than 3.0.

Budget

I have read articles that bemoan the pain that rising gasoline prices are putting on families in our country. Families now can't afford to get further into debt because they have to pay their increasing gasoline (and food) bills.

The real problem is that America is up to its eyeballs in debt! People can't afford any additional expenses because they systematically (more than) maximize their income. The problem isn't with income, the problem is with spending.

We budget $200 per month for gasoline, and never use that much unless we go on trips. When we go on trips, we use our Vacation budget account for gas. A 10% rise in gas prices raises our potential gasoline expenditure by $20 a month. Not earth-shattering by any means. If you spend $1,000 per month on gas, this will raise your expenditures by $100 per month...also not an earth-shattering figure-->unless you've maxed everything else out and are already spending more than you earn. We do have a negative savings rate in our country, by-the-way.

I've made financial mistakes in the past and will probably make more in the future. This is one thing I am certain of: Having a budget that is less than you actually make is much better than spending more than you earn.

Don't expect a government bailout if you can't afford to pay an additional $20-$100 in gasoline. Bailouts are reserved for those who are monumentally more stupid and/or greedy!

Mediocrity

As a teacher I see much mediocrity, some real excellence, and some real failure. This is a blog about coffee, however, not education.

I don't drink caffeinated beverages any more due to a heart-rhythm problem. I do, none-the-less, still like a bracing cup of decaf, especially when I am reading/studying. As you well know, prices are going up, up, up. Even coffee prices! The shop where I purchase my decaf coffee beans is raising the price. From $5.00 per half pound to $6.50. That is a 30% rise in the cost of coffee beans in a single movement. As I drink one of the last few cups from a $5.00 bag, I ponder, "Should I switch to Folgers?"

Please understand, coffee isn't just a beverage, it represents higher values...the search for excellence and the rejection of mediocrity.

We use filtered water in which to brew the coffee. We use a Chemex coffee maker. We also have a home coffee-bean roaster and have purchased green coffee beans with which to brew our coffee. You get the picture.

James 1:17 says, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

Much of my life has been replete with the tacit acceptance of mediocrity. With the Lord's help I hope to strive for excellence in serving Him and His kingdom. Let's talk about it over an excellent cup of coffee (I'll take decaf).

Back in Blogland

I am back in blogland after quite some time off. I am looking forward to putting my thoughts out there...

I am "hoping" that we are past the last freeze here in Central Texas. We get an Easter freeze fairly often. We have a couple of small gardens in our small town home. Today we planted a bit of sweet corn. We now have corn, squash, potatoes, green peppers, onions, lettuce, and spinach planted.

Besides gardening, I am interested in serving the Lord, playing basketball, economics, and personal finance. That's enough for today.

May the Lord bless you and keep you and cause His countenance to shine upon you.