Could the Recession be from God?

Could it be that this current down turn in the local US economy is from God? The bible has plenty to talk about in regards to this, and you may want to watch this video. If you don’t want the video, you can read the text.

What do you think?

How crazy are things right now?

It seems that the last few weeks have been quite a crazy ride for the economy. Unless you have been living under a rock, you will know that some companies have made poor decisions in allowing some people to have mortgages that shouldn’t. When those mortgages started defaulting, an economic downward spiral began. On the way down, some major names in business went along with it. Who knows what is to come in the next month. Just check the news.

IS THIS NEW TO GOD?

Let’s look to the bible to see. How about Job 42:2:
“I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.”

Or how about PSALM 115:3:
“Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.”

These verses speak to the sovereignty of God. There is nothing that happens that is not already known by God, so there will be no surprise to him. One more verse, Amos 3:6:

“When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?”

TAKE COMFORT

These verses help me experience comfort in knowing that God is in control, and he can’t be surprised by any calamity that comes into my life. He is there, reigning supreme, and has complete control of all things. I trust in Him for my salvation. I know that he has a plan for me, even in the calamity of all that is going on around me.

What a weekend!

This past weekend, I went on a men’s retreat with some members of my church and my buddy Jason.  The activities at the retreat were ran by God’s Country Outfitters.  Man, was it awesome!

We got there on Friday afternoon.  They split us up into 2 teams.  Our first challenge was a fire building contest.  We had a magnesium block to use for starting, and then we had to build the fire big enough to burn the rope tied above the fire pit.  We placed the wood and leaves in correctly and then I used the magnesium stick to start the fire.  A little blowing, and getting enough wood burning, and we clinched the win with a quick burn of the rope.  After that, we made s’mores and talked for a while. 

We camped out in tents at the Arrowhead campground in the Uwarrie National Forest.  The weather was a bit warm, and it took a while to get to sleep because of the heat. 

The next day, we ate breakfast, had a devotional, and then headed out to play paintball.  This was my first time playing the game.  Turns out that I really like it!  It was so much fun.   We played capture the flag in the forrest.  We played some other games too.  It was quite fun, and it stings a bit when you get shot.  I would love to play it again.  After all the game playing, we headed back to camp to eat lunch.  After lunch we had another devotional and then got in the cars to head out to the next activity. 

The next activity was to kayak down the lake to a rock cliff.  When we got there, we got out of the kayaks and then climbed up the rocks.  Once we got to the top, it was 32 feet over the lake.  Next we each jumped off into the cold deep lake.  Sounds simple enough, but it you have never jumped off something that high, or you are scared of heights, then it would prove to be more difficult.  One person failed to jump. 

I took some time, and finally took the plunge.  What a rush!!  That is quite the adrenaline jolt!

Next we kayaked back to the cars (2+miles) and then drove to the next activity,  This was another rock cliff, but it was 60+ feet high.  This time, there was water at the bottom, but not enough to jump in.  Instead, we repelled down it!  That is quite the fun activity too.  Some peop!le even did it Aussy style – meaning face first down the repelling line.  FUN!

After that, we went back to the camp site, packed up and had another devotional.  After that we headed home.  I am still a little sore from all the exercise, but I loved it!  I can’t wait to do it again!

Blogged with Flock

Can you be sure?

I just read over this article, And it just makes me laugh. It is amazing that people will find something and then somehow jump to conclusions and come up with a story of what they believe is the history of an object. Not to mention that they will stick to their story until someone finds more information that contradicts their findings. I enjoy science. However, I am glad that I found Jesus to help me understand things, and keep them in perspective.

Simply amazing..

The other night I happened to catch an interesting show. The name of the show was “Emperors of Antarctica”. The show was about these people who traveled to a place in Antarctica to see the breeding and behavior of the Emperor penguins. I was amazed to see what the penguins go through to live and reproduce. To me, it was another awesome display of God’s creative genius. Who would have guessed that in the most remote place on the earth, God would have created such a wonderful animal. Amazing.

Sand and Rocks…

You know those times when you are doing something, and then God decides to speak to you? That happened to me this week while I was on the beach building sand castles with my sons. As I was building a “sand boat” for my son, it became clear that the ocean was inching closer. When the ocean finally came into contact with the sand boat, it was clear that we needed to increase our efforts to keep the boat together. We held off the ocean for a while, but eventually the ocean took over and leveled the sand boat. This is normal, and we expect that.

In that moment, God reminded me that sand and rock are essentially the same material, but the rock, unlike the sand has a stronger bond, and they are not susceptible to outside forces. As I thought about that for a while, I see why God is our rock. I think of the sand as people. individuals without a common bond. I think of the rock as committed Christians with the same bond, Jesus Christ. As the individual can accomplish things and build things, the winds of change can easily change some of the individuals, and can tear down anything they do. Also, the sand can be drastically changed by the ocean of influence. However, the rock stands firm. Even take a small rock, and place it in the sand. As the sand changes and shifts, the rock will remain unchanged.

Should we build with sand? No, we should only build on the solid rock we call Jesus Christ. He is the unchanging God that we need to keep us steady in this world. I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but God is reminding me that I need to make sure he is number one in my life. Thanks for the reminder!

Where has common sense went?

I read this article today and asked myself, where has common sense went? I remember a time when you went to the store and purchased an item. If you poked your eye with it, or something else like that, you were responsible. You would never think to file a lawsuit against the manufacturer to tell them that they should redesign the item to keep me from poking my eye. That seems to be the state of things today. Who would have thought that the information age would have meant that we take less responsibility as a consumer rather than more. One thing they mention in the article is that hearing loss has more than doubled since 1971. Is it possible that music is better now? Is it possible that technology now makes it possible for me to play my music louder than I could in 1971? Just because I can, that doesn’t make the manufacturer liable. I mean, gun manufacturers would definitely be out of business if that was the case. What a complicated web we weave.

New Category!

I have added a new category to my blog. Christian. That’s right, I’m a Christian. I haven’t really talked about that much in my blog, but I figured it is time to start. Most of the time when I am adding entries it is because I was playing with some new piece of software or hardware. I guess now I want to open up another part of my thoughts to any readers out there.

I guess I will open up with what I believe. Here is a list of a few things:

• I believe that Jesus is the only Son of God.
• I believe that Jesus died for my sins.
• I believe that God raised him from the dead and he ascended into heaven
• I believe that the only way to get into heaven is to believe in Jesus and have a personal relationship with him.

That is a short list of the things that I believe. I haven’t put that into typed words before. In the future, I will expand on this list.