Have you ever been to a variety show? I think our society should be divided up between those who have been and those who have not been to a variety show. I am a different person after experiencing one last night. I can't say I am a better person, my horizons have only been widened and wider is NOT always better, just take my word for it. We were given the ticket by someone that will remain nameless. The ticket was given to him by someone else. That should have been our first clue. No one wanted to go so "lets give it to someone who has never gone". There must be some club somewhere that people can join only if they have been to a variety show. They sit around and talk about their experience and make lists of people they can pawn off tickets to. It was a $35 dollar ticket. I was not about to let a $35 ticket go to waste. I mean if you can command $35 for your show you must be somewhat good, right? not necessarily! Some of you may be wondering what the show was like. I don't think I could explain it. You really have to experience it for yourself and if you give me your name and address I will put you on the list to recieve a free ticket when it is passed on to me. You might see these types of things on TV from time to time as you are flipping through the channels right between senior womens pro wrestling finals and the 'how to grow your own herb garden' show. One of the things that was more exciting than watching it on TV was that the first act was the hula hoop girl. Needless to say one of the hula hoops was launched into the audience and it was no surprise that when the plate twirling guy came out the custodian was waiting in the wings with a push broom, yeah, it was a good thing he was there. So, when someone offers you a 'variety show' ticket just say "no thanks, I have enough variety in my life" and walk away and if you don't have enough 'variety' in your life don't say I didn't warn you.
Poppy out.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
I'm back...
I have not been able to post anything for a while bbbb (my "b" button is not working tonight) I have not been able to post anything for a while because we have been internetless for a while. We would never do this but a friend of mine was living next door to someone who had wireless internet. My friend was able to get on from his house and not have to get his own. Is that wrong? I think it probably is. He can't get on anymore because his neighbor moved away. Now he has to take his laptop outside in the middle of the street and hold the computer above his head and if he holds his breath and sticks a potato on his right pinky finger he can get another connection. One can only hope that the new neighbors have wireless!
We are thinking about getting a higher speed internet than the dialup that we have now. I am not really interested in paying 40 or more dollars a month for internet though. Gas is $3.03 here now. Speaking of money I heard about this family with seven kids that is debt free. That is really cool. That is one of my goals right now is to get debt free. You might think OK, the debt free family makes $100,000 and walks instead of drives a car...? Nope, they have made an average of $35,000 a year the last 20 years or so. Pretty amazing! There were several concepts that they go by. 1. Spend less than you make, kind of a no brainer there but I guess that is a real problem these days. 2. Avoid debt at all costs. You dont need a credit card. A debit card does everything a credit card does and has the same protection. 3. Learn to live frugally. this is a tough one for most of us. But I can see the beauty of freedom not being a slave to anyone is and I want that more than I want a bunch of stuff that I am either going to throw away soon or poop out later. I know I sound like I am a weirdo but I'm not as weird as I hope to be. I still buy stuff I shouldn't, I am not on a budget yet ( we are going to do that), and I am not as disciplined as I really want to be. I am making efforts in that direction of freedom. You should too.
We are thinking about getting a higher speed internet than the dialup that we have now. I am not really interested in paying 40 or more dollars a month for internet though. Gas is $3.03 here now. Speaking of money I heard about this family with seven kids that is debt free. That is really cool. That is one of my goals right now is to get debt free. You might think OK, the debt free family makes $100,000 and walks instead of drives a car...? Nope, they have made an average of $35,000 a year the last 20 years or so. Pretty amazing! There were several concepts that they go by. 1. Spend less than you make, kind of a no brainer there but I guess that is a real problem these days. 2. Avoid debt at all costs. You dont need a credit card. A debit card does everything a credit card does and has the same protection. 3. Learn to live frugally. this is a tough one for most of us. But I can see the beauty of freedom not being a slave to anyone is and I want that more than I want a bunch of stuff that I am either going to throw away soon or poop out later. I know I sound like I am a weirdo but I'm not as weird as I hope to be. I still buy stuff I shouldn't, I am not on a budget yet ( we are going to do that), and I am not as disciplined as I really want to be. I am making efforts in that direction of freedom. You should too.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
someone should say something
I dont want to write just to fill up space but right now I feel like that is what I am doing. So if you have better things to do maybe you should go do them. If you leave right now and it will bother you the rest of the day wondering what comes next maybe you should read on.
Did you hear what is going on in the world right now? I just read that the U.S. has imposed sanctions on Iran. I told S. that within 7 days from right now things are going to get interesting. Now I dont know exactly what that means but with the kurds and the Turks fighting again and now for all intents and purposes the U.S. just declared war on Iran, things could get interesting REAL fast.
This next point is debatable but I have heard and would tend to agree with people that say America is not mentioned in the end times according to the Bible. How is it that basically, not being self centered here but, the world revolves around America. How is it that the Bible doesn't have anything to say about America as it relates to the end times? Is it that most of America will be raptured before the end times events get rolling? Some would say yes but I am not entirely sure. I am not the judge of peoples hearts but we USED to be a Christian nation, are we now? I don't think so. If we are a post-Christian nation how many Christians are there here? The other possibility short of the rapture is that something will happen to the U.S. and it's standing as the superpower will fall. There have been several prophecies about America losing electricity. I think that computer hackers could get into the national grid, (have you ever seen the movie sneakers when they tap into all of the high level sites?) anyway If that happened there could be a lot of damage done. Lets stop and not entertain fear but think about what your life would be like without electricity.... we would be watching TV in the dark!!!! How much of your life is dependant, even influenced by electricity? Do you have an emergency bag packed? end of American civilization or not its good to have one especially in the winter. Something to think about.
I certainly don't want to scare anyone. Worry is a waste of time. God will ALWAYS take care of us. GOD IS ALWAYS GOOD. These are exciting times and I am super glad to be living right now.
Be blessed and fear not!!
Poppy the electrician
Did you hear what is going on in the world right now? I just read that the U.S. has imposed sanctions on Iran. I told S. that within 7 days from right now things are going to get interesting. Now I dont know exactly what that means but with the kurds and the Turks fighting again and now for all intents and purposes the U.S. just declared war on Iran, things could get interesting REAL fast.
This next point is debatable but I have heard and would tend to agree with people that say America is not mentioned in the end times according to the Bible. How is it that basically, not being self centered here but, the world revolves around America. How is it that the Bible doesn't have anything to say about America as it relates to the end times? Is it that most of America will be raptured before the end times events get rolling? Some would say yes but I am not entirely sure. I am not the judge of peoples hearts but we USED to be a Christian nation, are we now? I don't think so. If we are a post-Christian nation how many Christians are there here? The other possibility short of the rapture is that something will happen to the U.S. and it's standing as the superpower will fall. There have been several prophecies about America losing electricity. I think that computer hackers could get into the national grid, (have you ever seen the movie sneakers when they tap into all of the high level sites?) anyway If that happened there could be a lot of damage done. Lets stop and not entertain fear but think about what your life would be like without electricity.... we would be watching TV in the dark!!!! How much of your life is dependant, even influenced by electricity? Do you have an emergency bag packed? end of American civilization or not its good to have one especially in the winter. Something to think about.
I certainly don't want to scare anyone. Worry is a waste of time. God will ALWAYS take care of us. GOD IS ALWAYS GOOD. These are exciting times and I am super glad to be living right now.
Be blessed and fear not!!
Poppy the electrician
Monday, October 22, 2007
Hashbrowns, oatmeal, and the best tasting bacon in a long time.
Monday mornings are our team meetings for work. We meet at the breakfast club and it is a meal that I look forward to every week. I know I shouldn't like it too much but sometimes that ol' mouth gets a-waterin' and I can't help it.
Yesterday I was talking about some of the choices or "roads" that are set before us throughout our life. Thank you for your comments. These tidbits are not meant to be a one way communication but more of a conversation starter. My uncle sent me a response to the last post and had some good things to say. One of them was that when we look at the choices set before us we need to understand that not all of them are set before us by God. The enemy likes to tempt us with tantelizing options. There are times too that we need to understand, God will put two options or "roads" in front of us and give us the choice to take one or the other. It won't be that one option is good and the other is bad. It will be that one is good and the other is God. What I mean by that is one road will be a perfectly good road. There will be good fruit that comes from it but the other road is the one that God REALLY wants us to take. This road is usually harder or at least looks that way, But the rewards far outweigh any of the other road's rewards. Look at David and Saul. There were plenty of times when David could have taken Saul's life AND BEEN JUSTIFIED in that decision. But David chose to take the high road and go God's BEST way. Well, how will we know what way is God's and what way is just good? That is where a close walk with God comes in. A daily walking with God to know what He is saying.
I cant take credit for these insights. I listened to a message from Kris Vallaton at ibethel.org. Check it out, really good stuff from him and Bill Johnson.
OUT!
Yesterday I was talking about some of the choices or "roads" that are set before us throughout our life. Thank you for your comments. These tidbits are not meant to be a one way communication but more of a conversation starter. My uncle sent me a response to the last post and had some good things to say. One of them was that when we look at the choices set before us we need to understand that not all of them are set before us by God. The enemy likes to tempt us with tantelizing options. There are times too that we need to understand, God will put two options or "roads" in front of us and give us the choice to take one or the other. It won't be that one option is good and the other is bad. It will be that one is good and the other is God. What I mean by that is one road will be a perfectly good road. There will be good fruit that comes from it but the other road is the one that God REALLY wants us to take. This road is usually harder or at least looks that way, But the rewards far outweigh any of the other road's rewards. Look at David and Saul. There were plenty of times when David could have taken Saul's life AND BEEN JUSTIFIED in that decision. But David chose to take the high road and go God's BEST way. Well, how will we know what way is God's and what way is just good? That is where a close walk with God comes in. A daily walking with God to know what He is saying.
I cant take credit for these insights. I listened to a message from Kris Vallaton at ibethel.org. Check it out, really good stuff from him and Bill Johnson.
OUT!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
I'll take the high road...
Here is a thought, correct me if I am wrong...
Today I was thinking and praying about what God wants us to do with our lives, as a family, and came to a conclusion. I don't know if it is true or not. I was thinking about the life choices that are set in front of us at any given time. Some of the "roads" are high and some are low. By that I mean some roads take a lot of faith, sacrifice, money, etc. and some roads are very easy, they don't require much sacrifice at all. I think that God gives us these choices to see what we will do with our lives. When we come to a cross road we get to choose what we are going to do. This is the realization I came to: When we choose what road we are going to take God gives us everything we need for that journey. If we take a road that takes 80 units of faith (whatever that is) and 20 units of money, then God will supply that exact amount when it is needed. But if we decide to take a road that requires 1000 units of faith and 10,000 units of money and we set ourselves to take that road then God provides THAT exact amount of resources when it is needed. The thing is that we have to decide what road we are going to take BEFORE God provides. He gives the provisions nessesary depending on the road chosen. One of the problems with this idea is that once we have chosen a road, maybe one that doesn't take a whole lot of effort on our part we see the exact provision of God in that particular situation and we can say " Ha, see, God only provided that amount so now I am justified in my decision." There is the possibility of saying "the resources didn't show up so that 'high road' wasn't the Lord's will for my life."
So if there is a fork in the road for you where you need to decide what road you are going to take look back and ask yourself what promises God has given you. Do any of those promises lead you to a particular road? Don't just go with the gut feeling of "this is what I want to do" God does give us the desires of our heart but really examine what the end result of each road would mean for you, as much as you can, and don't worry so much about what it will cost. God will take care of that! If the decision will cost you something you don't have God will give it to you. If it costs you something that you do have already God will give you the grace to give it up if you have commited yourself to take that particular road.
Investing in the spiritual realm is like investing in the temporal world. If I decide to invest in a money market account it is a safe investment. My return will be small but my risk is small. If I decide to invest in stocks my risk is high but the potential for gain is higher as well. In the spiritual realm if I am willing to risk high I will gain high. If I am not willing to risk very much my gain will be small.
Poppy, out!
Today I was thinking and praying about what God wants us to do with our lives, as a family, and came to a conclusion. I don't know if it is true or not. I was thinking about the life choices that are set in front of us at any given time. Some of the "roads" are high and some are low. By that I mean some roads take a lot of faith, sacrifice, money, etc. and some roads are very easy, they don't require much sacrifice at all. I think that God gives us these choices to see what we will do with our lives. When we come to a cross road we get to choose what we are going to do. This is the realization I came to: When we choose what road we are going to take God gives us everything we need for that journey. If we take a road that takes 80 units of faith (whatever that is) and 20 units of money, then God will supply that exact amount when it is needed. But if we decide to take a road that requires 1000 units of faith and 10,000 units of money and we set ourselves to take that road then God provides THAT exact amount of resources when it is needed. The thing is that we have to decide what road we are going to take BEFORE God provides. He gives the provisions nessesary depending on the road chosen. One of the problems with this idea is that once we have chosen a road, maybe one that doesn't take a whole lot of effort on our part we see the exact provision of God in that particular situation and we can say " Ha, see, God only provided that amount so now I am justified in my decision." There is the possibility of saying "the resources didn't show up so that 'high road' wasn't the Lord's will for my life."
So if there is a fork in the road for you where you need to decide what road you are going to take look back and ask yourself what promises God has given you. Do any of those promises lead you to a particular road? Don't just go with the gut feeling of "this is what I want to do" God does give us the desires of our heart but really examine what the end result of each road would mean for you, as much as you can, and don't worry so much about what it will cost. God will take care of that! If the decision will cost you something you don't have God will give it to you. If it costs you something that you do have already God will give you the grace to give it up if you have commited yourself to take that particular road.
Investing in the spiritual realm is like investing in the temporal world. If I decide to invest in a money market account it is a safe investment. My return will be small but my risk is small. If I decide to invest in stocks my risk is high but the potential for gain is higher as well. In the spiritual realm if I am willing to risk high I will gain high. If I am not willing to risk very much my gain will be small.
Poppy, out!
Monday, October 15, 2007
quota
Hey, trying to get my blog quota in for the week, whatever that is. I was possed a question last week about my faith in God. " what paradigms do I have in my mind about Christianity?" In other words, what ideas do I have about Christianity that really are from the Bible and what other ideas do I have about Christianity because my culture gave them to me. Who says we have to go to church for two hours from 10-12 every Sunday morning? Where is that in the Bible? Who says we have to pray and read the Bible everyday? Is that in the Bible? What ideas do you have about Christianity? Are they Biblical? I think maybe we Christians need to stop sometimes and examine our own lives and determine if what we are doing is really from the Bible or is it something that our Christian culture tells us we are suppose to do. Just something to think about.
peace!
peace!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
God is crazy...
Did you know that God is crazy about you? I have heard this statement several times over the last couple days. It is so good to know that God loves me so much He is crazy about me, and you. John 3:16 in the Bible says 'God loved the world so much that He sent His only son that whoever believes in Him would have eternal life. Thats it, if you have been searching for the meaning of life there it is. Jesus is God's son and if you believe in Jesus, that He is God's son, you will live forever with God. Everyone lives forever after they die. It is just a question of WHERE you are going to live.
I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that said "God is too big to be contained in just one religion", or something like that. I say God is too big to be contained in ANY religion. God is not interested in our religions. He is interested in having a RELATIONSHIP with each of us. God loves you so much He sent His son to die for you so that we could be in relationship with God. I know it is sometimes hard to understand but I believe that if you are reading this right now and you don't have a relationship with God, He is the one that brought you to this page. If you want a relationship with God pick up a Bible and turn to the Book of Romans. That will explain how all of this works.
God bless you all
Poppy
I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that said "God is too big to be contained in just one religion", or something like that. I say God is too big to be contained in ANY religion. God is not interested in our religions. He is interested in having a RELATIONSHIP with each of us. God loves you so much He sent His son to die for you so that we could be in relationship with God. I know it is sometimes hard to understand but I believe that if you are reading this right now and you don't have a relationship with God, He is the one that brought you to this page. If you want a relationship with God pick up a Bible and turn to the Book of Romans. That will explain how all of this works.
God bless you all
Poppy
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Lora the exploder
My girls love Dora, I think it would be cool if there was a Lora the exploder.
We had a great time at church today. Jonathan from Surname south america was guest speaking and he challenged us in our faith. He reminded us that our faith doesn't mean a whole lot when we aren't out of the 4 walls of the church showing God's power to the world. There is no difference between the power in us and the power that Jesus had when He was here on earth. Praying in tongues and fasting is some of the most effective ways of developing our relationship with God, assuming you are already a Christian. If you aren't and want to be in right relationship with God email me. Salvation is a free gift of God. If you don't know what speaking in tongues is email me and I will explain it. The devil is real and will do everything he can to keep all of us out of relationship with God. For those of you (us) that don't have many signs following us we need to ask ourselves why. When our relationship is right with God we can expect two things to happen. 1. Signs will follow to show others around us that God is real and loves us. 2. The enemy will try to get you sidetracked, distracted, or even try to destroy you. God is the one with all of the power and all of the authority. Those are ours when we are in relationship with God.
Peace.
We had a great time at church today. Jonathan from Surname south america was guest speaking and he challenged us in our faith. He reminded us that our faith doesn't mean a whole lot when we aren't out of the 4 walls of the church showing God's power to the world. There is no difference between the power in us and the power that Jesus had when He was here on earth. Praying in tongues and fasting is some of the most effective ways of developing our relationship with God, assuming you are already a Christian. If you aren't and want to be in right relationship with God email me. Salvation is a free gift of God. If you don't know what speaking in tongues is email me and I will explain it. The devil is real and will do everything he can to keep all of us out of relationship with God. For those of you (us) that don't have many signs following us we need to ask ourselves why. When our relationship is right with God we can expect two things to happen. 1. Signs will follow to show others around us that God is real and loves us. 2. The enemy will try to get you sidetracked, distracted, or even try to destroy you. God is the one with all of the power and all of the authority. Those are ours when we are in relationship with God.
Peace.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Lazy Saturday
Fall is definately here. The girls played outside for a little while all bundled up then we all gathered around the computer and watched a BBC series set in Scotland. We then had chicken soup and talked with our best Scotish accents.
Saturdays are pretty great when you don't have anything specifically planned. So much of the week's time is handed over so causually to others as if our employer is suppose to snatch up 8-10 hours a day of the premier, the most productive part of each of our days, and we are led to believe that is normal? Don't get me wrong, I like my job and I am a VERY firm believer in providing for my family, I do. I just wonder sometimes if there is a better way. One of the reasons I have been wondering this is just about every day my girls ask "are you going to work today?" I say yes, its Tuesday. Girls- "whats tomorrow?" Me- "tomorrow is Wednesday." Girls- " I don't want you to go to work today." Then #1 goes through the list of the days of the week and when she gets to Saturday she says "you don't have to go to work on Saturday?" Me- "nope, I don't have to go to work on Saturday."
If you know of a better way of doing this whole work thing, maybe at home, let me know. I would like almost nothing more than to work at home.
Peace.
Saturdays are pretty great when you don't have anything specifically planned. So much of the week's time is handed over so causually to others as if our employer is suppose to snatch up 8-10 hours a day of the premier, the most productive part of each of our days, and we are led to believe that is normal? Don't get me wrong, I like my job and I am a VERY firm believer in providing for my family, I do. I just wonder sometimes if there is a better way. One of the reasons I have been wondering this is just about every day my girls ask "are you going to work today?" I say yes, its Tuesday. Girls- "whats tomorrow?" Me- "tomorrow is Wednesday." Girls- " I don't want you to go to work today." Then #1 goes through the list of the days of the week and when she gets to Saturday she says "you don't have to go to work on Saturday?" Me- "nope, I don't have to go to work on Saturday."
If you know of a better way of doing this whole work thing, maybe at home, let me know. I would like almost nothing more than to work at home.
Peace.
Friday, September 28, 2007
OK lets try this again...
Hello everyone...or noone,
I am putting this out there for a test. Today is the first day of posting to PC blog. SC and I are looking to go to the mission field. I am going to have to write in code when talking about my family and where we are going. It is a dangerous place so we will leave things vauge when we need to. Here are some of the rules, I reserve the right to change the rules or add rules as I see fit.
1. I will try to leave immediate family names out as much as I can. Most of you that are reading this know us and will know who I am talking about. Those who don't know us it won't matter anyway. I go by Poppy. I chose that name because My daughters are REALLY into Dora the explorer right now and her dad is named Poppy. I will refer to my lovely wife as "my lovely wife" or SC. My girls will be either 1,2, or 3 and 4,5,6,7,and 8.
Rule #2
We will not refer to the country we are going to. The less you know the better. It protects us AND you. Besides we kind of like the whole mystery and intrigue thing. The reason we cannot refer to it is because it is a dangerous place and is hostle toward Christians.
Its cloudy here in Bend today, a bit on the unusual side when we have 300 days of sun a year. Have a great day!
I am putting this out there for a test. Today is the first day of posting to PC blog. SC and I are looking to go to the mission field. I am going to have to write in code when talking about my family and where we are going. It is a dangerous place so we will leave things vauge when we need to. Here are some of the rules, I reserve the right to change the rules or add rules as I see fit.
1. I will try to leave immediate family names out as much as I can. Most of you that are reading this know us and will know who I am talking about. Those who don't know us it won't matter anyway. I go by Poppy. I chose that name because My daughters are REALLY into Dora the explorer right now and her dad is named Poppy. I will refer to my lovely wife as "my lovely wife" or SC. My girls will be either 1,2, or 3 and 4,5,6,7,and 8.
Rule #2
We will not refer to the country we are going to. The less you know the better. It protects us AND you. Besides we kind of like the whole mystery and intrigue thing. The reason we cannot refer to it is because it is a dangerous place and is hostle toward Christians.
Its cloudy here in Bend today, a bit on the unusual side when we have 300 days of sun a year. Have a great day!
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