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The Bible Challenge

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In order to understand Christianity, the coming of Jesus Christ to the world to save us from our sins, you must believe that the Bible is the word of God. Let's not argue details right now. Can you believe simply four words of the Bible? Here's a challenge for you. For one week, only one, as life beats you up and you struggle with your day to day existence, ponder these four (first) words from the Bible: “ In the beginning, God...” Truly, fully believe for one week that there is a sovereign, everlasting, infinite and all-powerful God that existed since the beginning. That could change your life. Try it. If you want more... Detractors will pick a Bible story and point out how it cannot be accurate. At one time they espoused the belief that Pontius Pilate existed in the Bible as a composite form of conquering Romans. In 1961, Dr. Antonio Frova excavated a limestone block in Caesarea Maritima with Pilate's name on it. Oka

Rex Review - Fallout 4 Survival Tips

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My buddy Major Rex plays Fallout 4 a lot. When he gets bored, he just makes a new character. He plays on Survival, the hardest level you can play. In Survival you suffer fatigue, hunger, thirst and pestilence (I might have added that last one). So I thought I'd give a Survival character a try. The most annoying aspect is you can't save the game. You get an auto-save each time you rest, and if you ever played FO4, you know that beds just aren't that easy to find. If you die, you go back to the (only) saved game you have – the last spot you slept. Played for forty minutes and some radroach kills you? Yeah. You'll see that pest again. Oh, and there's no fast travel. Now when one of my settlements come under attack I have to wonder – is it worth the trek across the countryside to try to help? Or will I die in the attempt? I have no idea yet what the consequences of failing to help are – and I've failed often. I finally went to the Major after a co

Limericks

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Limerick Castle in Ireland (I think) Shouldn't there be a hidden meaning - something funny? There once was a girl from Kazoo Who walked wearing only one shoe Said she when I asked "It's all in the past. I left my left shoe at the zoo." Yeah, but can you play with the words? There once was a girl from Odessa Who wore a blue and white dressa Said she with a smirk "Don't be a jerk. Without my dress I'm a messa" Or it can be really personal (this to you, Leba) I know a lovely librarian who moonlights as a barbarian Adept with big words and slicing with swords She really is quite contrarian

Writing Word Counts

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Word count is a huge topic in writing circles. Short answer - Tell the story until you're done. For a standard fiction novel, aim to write 100K words or so and edit it back down to 85K. Even though there are fabulous guidelines, every beginning author thinks they are the exception. None of us are exceptions. I love short stories. I love to write them. I love to read them. It's like eating a bag of potato chips. Bag open. Salt, oil and chips consumed with gusto. Bag tossed. All without sitting down. Here's my word count for my currently published stories: Preparing for the Fiscal Cliff 5639 - nonfiction My Mother-in-Law Misadventures 28554 - memoir The Duel: A Von Crapp Brothers Tale 1364 flash fiction Safari in the Mist: A Von Crapp Brothers Tale 9226 short story Psychic Toll Call 841 flash fiction Print Your Own Booklet Using Microsoft Word 2974 how-to

The Last Interview

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Dr Bailey Smith spoke at Sagemont today. Most people are familiar with the parable of the wheat and tares. If not, read Matthew 13:24-30 before we begin. Jesus told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping , his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.   Pastor Smith commented before the heart of his mes

Generational Wisdom

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We met Mr. Earl Smith the other day and he shared the wisdom of his father, CE Smith, with us. Here you go. Link to a father's prayer on Youtube. Before you complain, think of three blessings you have. Once you get to the third blessing, you should forget your complaint. If you can't think of three blessings, then you might want to think about your life, and look a little deeper. God blesses those who revere Him and follow Him. If it's wrong, just don't do it. Don't bother trying to bend the rules or justify what you're doing.  Just. Don't. Do. It. If you're praying to God, then you must be willing to wait on him. Pray, then wait for an answer. (Cautionary tale here is Abraham's wife Sara, who took God's plans into her own hands because she couldn't wait.) Don't take bible verses out of context. Know the whole story. I loved the example CE Smith gave his son. He opened Little Red Riding Hood and turned to the page where

I Quit Elvenar

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I'm a gamer. That used to be something you never said out loud. Gamers were pariahs. A lot has changed in forty years. Now Gamers are cool. Are you playing the game or is the game playing you? A lot of games have perfected the art of sucking you into a free game - then you pay. To avoid waiting. They hooked us on that one. To have bigger, better armies. Yup. To have equipment that others don't. Ouch. To have special mounts. (Thanks, WoW. Loved you.) It's psychology, and the game-makers mastered it. I quit playing Elvenar. The makers of the game hit me in my weak spot. They know I don't like waiting, so a few crystals here, a few crystals there and I'm moving again in the game. Crystals cost real money. Pretty soon it adds up. The game is free. Playing it isn't, unless you can resist. Resistance is futile. The Plarium games are worse. They know I don't like waiting, and I can pay to skip that (and have). They also know I don&

Memorial Day

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Sagemont Church planted 38,000 flags in remembrance of all the fallen soldiers from Texas. I helped put a few flags out. It was my honor to do so. Memorial Day is not a holiday celebrated by those in uniform, as Colonel Allen Orr reminded us during church service yesterday. It is a day to remember with gratitude the men and women who sacrificed their lives in service to us, their fellow countrymen. It is a day to honor those among us who still strive to provide the peace our country needs: those in the military, those in the civil uniforms of police and fire, and those who teach the next generation of United States citizens. For me it is a day to thank most members of my family. My Great Uncle Jerry, who also served in WWII (and met his bride in England). My Great Uncle Dwight, who served with him. My Great Uncle Floyd. Grandpa Comfort, who was in the Air Force in WWII. Grandpa Mac and Grandma Jen, who both served in WWII. Mom, in the Navy when I was born. Dad, a Na

Bad Company Corrupts Good Morals

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My Uncle Told Me bad company corrupts good morals. I didn't believe it when I was young. Other people weren't going to change me. Yeah, they can, and yes, they did. I got through college and hardly ever swore. I rarely said "D***" and never used the F word. Ever. That was something else he told me. Cursing is for the lazy and weak-minded who don't know how to express themselves. After a few years working in the chemical plant alongside some very rough characters, I changed. One day I was in an office in the main building and vehemently gave my opinion about some software we used. I was called in to Personnel, where they told me someone complained about my language. They reprimanded me for it. Rightly so, and shame overwhelmed me. I thought how disappointed my Mother would be. I thought how right my Uncle was. Learning NOT to swear was hard. Once you learn to do something bad, it is really hard to get back to the straight and narrow. The o

What I Ought, I Don't

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It's an age-old struggle. You make a promise to yourself to do better, to do more ... maybe just to do - and you don't. I've heard people I admire say "I must not be a very good Christian." I guess they think Christians are immune to failure, like Jesus is some shot you get that protects you from doing wrong. Let's get some perspective on that, shall we? Can we all agree that the apostle Paul, admittedly a late-comer to the apostle group, was a pretty good Christian? He was quite likely a pretty good fellow, too. Well-educated, well-traveled, a great speaker - I imagine he had a story for almost any occasion, and was probably pretty great to listen to. There was this one time he spoke for so long that a young fellow hanging out in a window fell asleep, dropped three stories and died. It's okay. Paul raised him back to life (Acts 20:9-10). So let's agree that Paul had it all together. I can't raise people from sleep who listen to me and Pa

Who do men say that I am

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"Who do men say that I am?" Jesus asked this question of his disciples, yet it echoes down to us through the centuries. The question remains relevant to this day. If you ask most people that are not Christian, they will tell you they think Jesus was a good man, a great teacher - perhaps even a prophet. Would a good man concoct a lie which ensnared generations of people? Only a devious man would do such a thing. Would a great teacher tell his followers, and the Jewish people, that He now fulfilled the law and was God incarnate? Only a lunatic would do so. So, Liar or Lunatic - those are your only options, but certainly not that He was a good man and a great teacher. There is a third option. Jesus is exactly who He said He was, the bodily personification of God. Accept the third option and you're faced with two choices - accept Him as God or not. Peter answered the question of Jesus with "You are the Christ, the son of the Livin

Christ alone - and only

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The message in church on Sunday was clear - you get into heaven by Christ alone, by the price he already paid. You just need to accept the gift. This is the key difference between Christianity and other religions. You don't need to give all your money away. You don't need to follow a set of rules written in other books. You don't need to kill infidels or martyr yourself (which seems a contradiction to me anyway). The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is all you need. Your ticket is punched. Your seat is reserved. You just need to get on the train. There. That summed it up. Funny, though. The preacher took over twenty minutes to give that same message. It's like I said during our Ecuador mission trip when they asked me to speak. Tengo solamente cinco minutos hablar. Pero en el Bautista Iglesia, cinco minutos son todos los tiempos! Yeah, I don't know if the Spanish was correct, but it got a laugh.

No Potato Salad in Heaven

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There is no potato salad in Heaven, at least according to Dr Charles Lowery , a guest speaker at our church Sunday. FYI, he's an entertaining speaker, so you might want to check out his web site or YouTube channel . He emphasizes relationships. All I know about relationships is they are hard to forge and harder to maintain. My ears perked up when he said there was no potato salad in Heaven. I like potato salad, probably too much. In the Baptist church, as in most religions, when someone dies there is a gathering of people to mourn, quite often at a church, as was the case for my youngest brother a few years ago . One of the staples at such gatherings is potato salad. It's a comfort food, I guess. I know I feel better when I eat potato salad. So, since there are no tears in Heaven, and we will never see death again, there is no potato salad in Heaven. No pain, no sorrow, no death. We exit this life into a better eternity.  Without potato salad? I think Dr

Fool Me Once, Fool Me Always

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A pastor this morning mentioned that Satan is not very creative. He keeps using the same tricks. Of course he does. They seem to work with every generation. Satan uses the same lies to fool me - over and over again. Here's the one that gets me most of the time: "You can do this one yourself." Quite often that means the same as "You don't need God for this one." One of the big lies is that Jesus isn't God. I get it. That Trinity thing is confusing. Like one Pastor said "Find someone who tells you they fully understand the Trinity and you can be sure he'll lie to you about other things, too." Some religions even teach that Jesus isn't God, using Col 1:15 as the basis for that belief: "Who [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:" (KJV) The argument is that if Jesus is the firstborn, then he is the pre-eminent emanation of God, therefore he, like us, is a "god" with a s