Well here we are in Tennessee

We got up this morning at 0145 and took off for Tennessee for our vacation that we have not been on in three years. It's been a long day, but a good day. My daughter, son in law and two grandchildren just left. We had dinner and then spent some quality time together. It is now 2040 and time to get some rest. God is good, all the time.

This is too cool

Last night Annette and I went to Trinity International University for the information session for the fall semester. As we were signing in, they gave me a name tag and put my name in a bowl for the drawing later. After the session the director of the program came up to do the drawing. The Holy Spirit spoke to me very quietly and told me that I would win the drawing. Well.... I did. It's not the prize that excites me. It is the fact that God very clearly and succinctly spoke to me. I approached the director after the meeting and told him I wanted to share something with him. As I started he stopped me and said "you felt your name didn't you?" He said that as he was about to ask me to pull the winning ticket, he stopped because he knew that I would pull my own name. How cool is that!? God is always speaking to us. The problem is that's we are not always listening. I can hardly contain myself in anticipation of getting back into school. God is the God of second chances!

Philippians 3:13-14 (KJV)
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

College Student? at 55?

Well here I sit at almost 56 years old on the threshold of what God called me to do in 1973. Does this mean I am a slow starter? :) I think not. As I've been thinking back over the last 35 years, I can see the hand of God in all that I've done. I am humbled that God found me faithful putting me in the ministry. As I have said in an earlier post, I was right on the brink of getting a pastorate when I was 22 or 23. I thank God that I did not. I was nowhere near being mature enough to have handled it. There is no doubt that I would have failed miserably, probably never to try it again. Trust me, I've made my share of stupid decisions over the years, but God has used all of those decisions for my training and benefit. Also, I have a myriad of life experiences, some good and some bad, to pull from. I find it to be less than a coincidence that I've always been intensely interested in the battlefield of the mind and now I'm going to study psychology with a strong emphasis on counseling. I'll be almost 60 when I graduate, but, if Jesus tarries I'm going to be almost 60 anyway, so I might as well have a degree.

Psalm 71:18 (KJV) 18 Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.

Hosanna in the Highest

[Verse 1]I see the King of glory Coming down the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes, the whole earth shakes
I see His love and mercy washing over all our sin
The people sing, the people sing

[Chorus]Hosanna, Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest (x2)

[Verse 2]I see a generation rising up to take the place
With selfless faith, with selfless faith
I see a near revival stirring as we pray and seek
We're on our knees, we're on our knees

[Bridge]Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks Yours
Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity

[Chorus]


HOSANNA. The Gk. form of a Heb. term, used at the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem (Mt. 21:9, 15; Mk. 11:9; Jn. 12:13). The Heb. consists of the hiphil imperative hôša‘, ‘save’, followed by the enclitic particle of entreaty nā’, sometimes translated ‘pray’, ‘we beseech thee’. It does not occur in the OT except in the longer imperative form hôšı̂‘â nā’ in Ps. 118:25, where it is followed by the words, also quoted at the triumphal entry, ‘Blessed be he who enters in the name of the Lord.’ Ps. 118 was used in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles, and v. 25 had special significance as a cue for the waving of the branches (lûlaḇ); see Mishnah, Sukkah 3. 9; 4. 5. But similar expressions of religious enthusiasm were not restricted to the Feast of Tabernacles: 2 Macc. 10:6–7 implies that psalm-singing and branch-waving were part of the festivities at the Feast of Dedication also. We may reasonably assume that the waving of palm-branches and the cries of Hosanna which welcomed Jesus were a spontaneous gesture of religious exuberance, without any reference to a particular festival and without the supplicatory meaning of the original phrase in Ps. 118.

God is Faithful

Well ... where do I start. On my last post I said that I had finally done it and quit driving a truck. Since then, I have been on a journey. I had been praying about making the change for awhile. Every time I prayed, all I heard was God saying "do you trust Me?". I applied to the Veteran's Administration for Vocational Rehabilitation because of my service connected back pain. It was approved. I start classes at Trinity International University on September 16th. Here I am 35 years after God called me into the ministry and I am at about to start college. I did complete an excellent two years of pastoral training in South Carolina at Harvest Pentecostal Holiness Church. I spoke with Pastor Dennis Wells a couple of days ago and told him about the changes that are happening in our lives. I am totally confident that He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it!

1 Peter 1:3-5 (KJV) 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Well.... I did it!

I'm sitting here on a Monday morning unemployed. Praise God! I finally had the courage to do what I know God has been telling me to do for months. I, with God's help, will find the right job to allow me to: 1. be at home with my wife and two attack Pomeranians. 2. Be the pastor that God has called me to be and 3. to pursue getting back into school and finish my degree. I don't have any idea how God is going to do that, but having said that, God will do it. Thank you Gene and Aaron for your support and friendship. It's going to be exciting to see how God works all of this out. I'm exactly where God wants me.... totally dependent upon Him.