Death and Life: My Mom and Jesus!

     So today is kinda a sad day for me. I lost my mom one year ago today. She lost her battle with breast cancer on Sept. 24th, 2007. She went to be with her Maker one year ago. That is what gives me a smile today. Knowing that she is with Jesus in heaven worshipping God!! For those of you who have had a chance to get to know my mom, you will remember that she was a very spiritual woman and a woman who walked with Christ daily since she was a young woman. She was very open about her faith and encouraged others to evaluate their spiritual lives no matter where they were in life or what they believed. She was not a judging person or close minded bible thumping Christian. She was the opposite of that. What she was, was a woman who loved others unconditionally. I guarantee  that anyone who knew my mom would say the same thing. That is why she loved being a school counselor and why she was such an effective counselor. She met people where they were at in life and showed them true unconditional love. 

   There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that she is in a far better place. Don't get me wrong, I love life and this earth that we live on; but heaven is going to be a place so incredibly awesome that there are not words to describe the greatness of heaven. And that is where my mom is right now! I miss her. I love her. But I know I will see here some day again. That is what keeps me going on this day. 

   From a young age my mom taught me about Jesus and the unconditional love that he lived his life by. About 12 years ago I put me faith in Jesus Christ. What that means is that I started to live my life for Christ and not for other things, not for myself. I accepted Jesus into my life because I felt I was missing something and that turned out to be God. Through my 

relationship with Christ I can know God. It says so in the bible. John 14:6-7 talks about if you know Jesus than you will know God as well. I challenge you, the readers of this blog, to think about that. I am not trying to "convert" you or "thump you over the head" with my faith or my beliefs. I am just trying to show you how important faith is to me and was to my mother. 

 I know some of you probably think Christianity and Christians suck. (And unfortunately there are a good number of Christians who do suck and act very judging and unloving.) But I want to let you know that, myself included, there are many loving and open minded people who profess a faith in Christ.  Of course I would love for y'all know Jesus as I do but that is not my choice. Of course it is your choice. It is a decision you can make and a decision that you can make on your own time and whether or not you make any decision at all is up to you.  I just ask that you think about it. Think about where you stand in your faith in what ever it is that you believe. What does that means to you? If you are missing something and if you want more and want to know Christ, He is there for you. Just ask Him to come into your life and ask him to forgive you for your sins. We are all sinful. I think everybody will admit that. Nobody is perfect. The answer to that is Jesus. He was perfect and he forgave us for our sins when he died on the cross and rose 3 days later. Through Jesus we can know God. 

  Sorry to ramble and sorry to preach but faith in Jesus is important to me and was important to my mom. I hope I shared this with you in a non-threatening and non-judging manner. And I felt it important to share on the anniversary of my mom's death. I love her and miss her today but I take joy know that she has been with God in heaven for the past year. I hope a great day for everyone reading this and if you feel inspired to leave me a comment (positive or negative) please do so. 

Alive and well

Just writing a post to let you know that I am still here. Just been very busy lately. The kids, out of town friends visiting and some church  stuff has keep me pretty busy lately. So I am here, I do have thoughts to share and ideas to explain, just not now. Peace be with ya'll!

Urgent prayer request

   For those of you who are believers is prayer, I would ask of you that you pray for my wife's family and the many people in the path of Hurricane Ike.  Abby's parents (Dave and Dori Renneker) and grandparents (Bob and Judi Kruse) live in the Houston metro area and are almost in the direct path of Hurricane Ike, according to the latest weather update. They live far enough inland from the coast that they feel they do not need to evacuate. But there is still plenty of danger headed their way. They are in the NW suburbs of Houston and expect strong cat.1 to weak cat.2 winds (100+ mph) where they live by late Friday night into early Saturday morning. Not catastophic but enough to do damage! Please pray for their safety as well as the many others who are affected by this hurricane. Living here on the Gulf coast of FL, I know exactly how much storms like Ike  drastically affect the lives of thousands of people. If you could take just a minute to pray for thier safety, Abby and I would be very grateful.  

 

 Also here is a link to a great tropical weather website if you are interested in staying updated on the storm. There is a lot of info on the webpage so just scroll down to get to the latest predicted track.   http://www.crownweather.com/ike.html

NFL Opening day is here!

I know some of my recent posts have been a little political and serious lately.  So on a lighter note....All I have to say is God bless the beginning of the NFL season! I have missed you so much for the last 7 months. Here is to many Sunday afternoons together (and Sunday and Monday nights) and continued success for my beloved Green Bay Packers. And I can not complete this post with out giving Mr. Brett Favre his due respect for his first win as a NY Jet. May you have one more glorious year left in the tank ole Grey Beard!

Politics and Palin

   I know most of you have probably seen this speech on TV last night but if not, here it is for your viewing pleasure. I had to post it because I thought it was absolutely phenomenal. While I don't really care for McCain, I do really like Sarah Palin. I have always said that I am a moderate with centrist views but when I vote I tend to lean right. There are policies and issues in both the Democratic and Republican parties that I support. At the same time both parties have issues and policies that disgust me. Where does that leave me? I guess you could say I am stuck in the middle as I previously mentioned. In fact, I am seriously considering registering as a Independent here in FL. The problem with that is I will, in effect, not be able to vote in primary elections because independent politicians are few and far between here in Northwest FL. And in FL you can only vote for your party in the primary elections. To me that is a price I am willing to pay in order to be a registered Independent voter. I can't in good faith be registered with the Republican or Democratic parties. 

    With all that said about where my political affiliations are, I have to say that I like Sarah Palin as a VP Candidate. I like her reformer credentials. That is a big deal to me because I am absolutely disgusted and literally can't stand the 'good ole boy club'  here in Bay County FL. The fact that she took on the good ole boy club in Alaska and won is a definite plus in my book. I also enjoy the down home middle class mom persona that Palin exudes. You feel as if you can relate to her and I know I am not the only one who is saying that.

    I know I have readers of this blog (the few of you that there are!) who are going to disagree with my comments and i am glad you do. Everyone needs to have an intelligent opinion as it is your right to have. So I want to hear from you whether you are a Liberal or Conservative or somewhere in the middle like me. Let me know what you think. Leave me a comment!

 Any way here is her speech with some interesting excerpts I included below if you don't want to watch the whole thing. 

"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening. We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco."

"We've all heard his dramatic speeches before devoted followers.

And there is much to like and admire about our opponent.

But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not even in the state senate.

This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word "victory" except when he's talking about his own campaign. But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed ... when the roar of the crowd fades away ... when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot - what exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger ... take more of your money ... give you more orders from Washington ... and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world. America needs more energy ... our opponent is against producing it.

Victory in Iraq is finally in sight ... he wants to forfeit.

Terrorist states are seeking new-clear weapons without delay ... he wants to meet them without preconditions.

Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America ... he's worried that someone won't read them their rights? Government is too big ... he wants to grow it.

Congress spends too much ... he promises more.

Taxes are too high ... he wants to raise them. His tax increases are the fine print in his economic plan, and let me be specific.

The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes ... raise payroll taxes ... raise investment income taxes ... raise the death tax ... raise business taxes ... and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars. My sister Heather and her husband have just built a service station that's now opened for business - like millions of others who run small businesses.

How are they going to be any better off if taxes go up? Or maybe you're trying to keep your job at a plant in Michigan or Ohio ... or create jobs with clean coal from Pennsylvania or West Virginia ... or keep a small farm in the family right here in Minnesota.

How are you going to be better off if our opponent adds a massive tax burden to the American economy? Here's how I look at the choice Americans face in this election."