Friday Funny - Music and Floods

Well it is Friday and we need to "funny" in the day. When you life start flooding your schedule remember this little story and laugh out....enjoy

Little Noah came into the house with a new harmonica. "Grandpa, do you mind if I play this in here?" he asked.

"Of course not, Noah. I love music. In fact, when your grandma and I were young, music saved my life."

"What happened?"

"Well, it was during the famous Johnstown flood. The dam broke and when the water hit our house it knocked it right off its foundation. Grandma got on the dining room table and floated out safely."

"How about you?"

"Me? I accompanied her on the piano!"

You know I love ya and will be happy to accompany you on the piano anytime! - Don

I Need Encouragement!

But Paul and Barnabas traveled inland to Antioch of Pisidia. On the Sabbath they went to the synagogue for the services. After the usual readings from the books of Moses and the prophets, those in charge of the service sent them this message: “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, come and give it.” So Paul stood, lifted his hand to quiet them, and started speaking. “Men of Israel,” he said, “and you God-fearing Gentiles, listen to me..."- Acts 13:14-16.

All of us need and want encouragement. No matter how educated we are, how old we are, how self-sufficient we are; we never outgrow our need to be stroked, encouraged, comforted, supported, and invigorated. And yet, encouragement is often a commodity in short supply. An old minister, on his deathbed, was asked, "If you had it all to do over, would you do anything differently?" He replied, "Yes, I would have criticized less and encouraged more."

We live in pretty heavy days. We have a multitude of concerns: personal, inter-personal, national and international. Are we safe from nuclear warfare? Will the Middle East ever know peace? Will South Africa solve its problems? Is the stock market a safe investment? Is there hope for a cure for the AIDS epidemic? Can we ever solve the drug problem? Will I have enough money to send my children to college? Is my job secure? Will my pension/retirement funds be sufficient? Will my wife/husband/children/parents/friends ever understand me? Will I (or my loved ones) survive this threatening illness? What about death; am I ready to die? Am I prepared to meet God?

Oh, yes, it's easy enough to see why these leaders of the synagogue asked for an encouraging word. The world is a rough place. Paul's starts of with the Old Testament and on to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Now Paul comes to the good news, that "word of encouragement" they had asked for. He said, "We (Paul and Barnabas) tell you the good news." True, Jesus did not deserve to die, true they killed him and nailed him to a tree, true they buried him in a borrowed grave, "But God" - (there's that wonderful phrase that we find over and over again in Acts) - "But God raised him from the dead!" The Christian faith and hope of the resurrection is a glorious one. It's a divine-shot-in-the-arm (or heart) for depression. The circumstances of life can only push us so far. The devil can only oppress us up to a certain point. We believe in the resurrection and nothing can ultimately defeat us!

We all need encouragement...the sure and depressing word is that we are sinners - all of us - but the "encouraging word" is that Christ died for sinners and there is for us, unworthy as we are, forgiveness of sins. We can be encouraged...we are not alone. God loves us enough to forgive us, lift us up, and embrace us with life for all eternity.

You know I love ya and be encouraged today because God love ya too. -Don

When Jesus Gives Up!

"Yet those who wait for the LORD, will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired,They will walk and not become weary." - Isaiah 40:31

Ever feel like that? “Just giving up”?

“Just give up” was the Pharisee’s advice to Jesus. Herod is after you. He has you marked for death. Get out of town quick. Give up your mission here.

When Jesus hears this warning, he surprises those Pharisees by both disregarding and embracing their message. Jesus dismisses the threat of Herod with a flip and a quip. Herod is nothing but a “sly fox,” Jesus quips, forever plotting but powerless against God’s mission in the world. Jesus has his own schedule, his own agenda, his own mission to fulfill, and the time-frame has already been divinely determined.

But Jesus also asserts he WILL give up. He WILL give himself up. He WILL travel to Jerusalem and meet head on the traumatic tradition of that city encapsulated in this phrase — “Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it” (Luke 13:34). Jesus will give up everything, his very life, in order to fulfill his eternal mission of salvation.

Let me put it as clearly as I can: Jesus will “give it up” in order that we might “get it all.” We need to follow that example.

Cherishing it all and loving you! - Don

Friday Funny - Mud Holes

Watch out for the mud holes!

In a little town in Georgia, a motorist had to pay a farmer $20.00 to pull him out of a mud-hole.

"Seems to me that you''d be so busy pulling folks out of these lousy mud roads that you''d be doing it day and night."

"Nope. Cain''t pull 'em out at night," drawled the farmer. "Night's when we tote water to muddy the road!"

Keep Laughing - Don

Mountain Moving Faith!

I believe God can move mountains...and many times He does it by giving us a wheel barrel. Read this story of faith from East TN:

A small congregation in the foothills of the Great Smokies built a new sanctuary on a piece of land willed to them by a church member. Ten days before the new church was to open, the local building inspector informed the pastor that the parking lot was inadequate for the size of the building. Until the church doubled the size of the parking lot, they would not be able to use the new sanctuary. Unfortunately, the church with its undersized lot had used every inch of their land except for the mountain against which it had been built.

In order to build more parking spaces, they would have to move the mountain out of the back yard. Undaunted, the pastor announced the next Sunday morning that he would meet that evening with all members who had "mountain moving faith." They would hold a prayer session asking God to remove the mountain from the back yard and to somehow provide enough money to have it paved and painted before the scheduled opening dedication service the following week.

At the appointed time, 24 of the congregation's 300 members assembled for prayer. They prayed for nearly three hours. At ten o'clock the pastor said the final "Amen". "We'll open next Sunday as scheduled," he assured everyone. "God has never let us down before, and I believe He will be faithful this time too." The next morning as he was working in his study there came a loud knock at his door. When he called "come in", a rough looking construction foreman appeared, removing his hard hat as he entered.

"Excuse me, Reverend. I'm from Acme Construction Company over in the next county. We're building a huge shopping mall. We need some fill dirt. Would you be willing to sell us a chunk of that mountain behind the church? We'll pay you for the dirt we remove and pave all the exposed area free of charge if we can have it right away. We can't do anything else until we get the dirt in and allow it to settle properly."

The little church was dedicated the next Sunday as originally planned and there were far more members with "mountain moving faith" on opening Sunday than there had been the previous week!

I believe He can do it. So lets go out and move mountains. You know I love ya - Don

Mountain Tops

"As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, "Don't tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead." - Matthew 17:9

Mountains were very important to Matthew. When Jesus was tempted to worship the devil in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world, it happened on a mountain. It was good enough for Luke to have Jesus preaching on a nice level place, but when Jesus preaches essentially the same sermon in Matthew he does so on a mountain. That's why we call it the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus went to the mountain to pray. And in Matthew 17, we have this story of the transfiguration, which happened on a mountain.

What is it about something happening on a mountain that adds such special significance? For Matthew, whose roots were in the Jewish tradition and who was writing to Jewish Christians, mountains were holy dwellings of God, places where God's presence was known and God's laws were given. Mountains became symbols of the way things would be when God's rule finally would extend over the earth. "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths" (Isaiah 2:3).

Whatever we make of this story of the transfiguration, it is no accident that it happened on a mountain. On a mountain the glory of Jesus is revealed and the voice from heaven says, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" We aren't sure how God is going to transfigure us in the future, but we like this idea of mountains.

When we are out driving and approach a great stretch of mountains, it is breathtaking and terribly humbling. A drive through the mountains gives us a different perspective on things. Some people invest a lot of time and money in mountain-climbing. That's not for the exercise. They could get the exercise doing a hundred other things. Mountain-climbing is about mastering the mystery and standing where few have stood. We rarely hear of stories about the treacherous descent down a mountain, even though that is great exercise as well. The stories are always about climbing the mountain, risking it all to get to the top, and spending time on some high peak that causes people to see things, and maybe even themselves, differently.

We like the mountains. We even describe some of our greatest moments as mountain-top experiences, but we can't stay on the mountain forever. The emotional level is too intense. However, we can take with us what we experienced on the mountain. It how we share that experience that will define us as Christians.

You know I love ya - Don

Friday Funny - In honor of all those who serve to protect.

In honor of our Men and Women who serve to protect our cities, towns, and homes as police officers and highway patrol...this Friday Funny is for you.

These are actual comments made by 16 Police Officers.

These comments were taken off actual police car videos around the country:

16 . 'You know, stop lights don't come any redder than the one you just went through.'

15. 'Relax, the handcuffs are tight because they're new. They'll stretch after you wear them a while.'

14. 'If you take your hands off the car, I'll make your birth certificate a worthless document.'

13. 'If you run, you'll only go to jail tired.'

12. 'Can you run faster than 1200 feet per second? Because that's the speed of the bullet that'll be chasing you..'

11. 'You don't know how fast you were going? I guess that means I can write anything I want to on the ticket, huh?'

10. 'Yes, sir, you can talk to the shift supervisor, but I don't think it will help. Oh, did I mention that I'm the shift supervisor?'

9 . 'Warning! You want a warning? O.K, I'm warning you not to do that again or I'll give you another ticket.. '

8. 'The answer to this last question will determine whether you are drunk or not. Was Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?'

7. 'Fair? You want me to be fair? Listen, fair is a place where you go to ride on rides, eat cotton candy and corn dogs and step in monkey poop.'

6. 'Yeah, we have a quota. Two more tickets and my wife gets a toaster oven.'

5 . 'In God we trust, all others we run through NCIC.'

4. 'How big were those 'two beers' you say you had?'

3. 'No sir, we don't have quotas anymore. We used to, but now we're allowed to write as many tickets as we can.'

2 . 'I'm glad to hear that the Chief (of Police) is a personal friend of yours. So you know someone who can post your bail.'

AND THE WINNER IS....

1. 'You didn't think we give pretty women tickets? You're right, we don't.. Sign here.'

Thank you for your service - you know I love ya, Don