They say that a preacher's wife is always his number one assistant.
An example of this comes one Sunday morning after the preacher had just finished his sermon. He went and sat down with his wife and she asked him how he thought the church service went.
The Preacher shrugged and said, "The worship was excellent, and I think the prayer and communion times went quite well, but," he continued, "I just don't think the sermon ever got off the ground."
The wife looked over at him, and before she could stop herself, she said, "Well, it sure did taxi long enough!"
This post directly continues the previous post, Life-Line.
Tim has frequently said that he should tell his side of the story because you’re only getting my side here, and he thinks he’s being portrayed better than he should be in the whole adventure. If he had been a jerk, it’s possible the story would be different. Although having said that, from my perspective it really didn’t matter what Tim did or didn’t do. This was really between my Father and me – as odd as that may sound.
So my changed attitude began by simply asking, “Father, what would Tim enjoy right now?” “What can I do to make his day better?” “What can I do to help him in life?” For any of you who have read John & Stasi Eldridge’s book Captivating, you may remember how significant “helper” is in God’s declaration that "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."1 They write,
“Ezer kenegdo… is notoriously difficult to translate. Alter is getting close when he translates it ‘sustainer beside him.’ The word ezer is used only 20 other places in the entire Old Testament and in every other instance the person being described is God himself, when you need him to come through for you desperately. [Deuteronomy 33:26, 29; Psalm 121:1-2, 20:1-2] Most of the contexts are life and death, by the way, and God is your only hope. Your ezer.”2
Living in the Sunshine state of Florida and seeing snow accumulating on the ground is the closest thing to blasphemy I know. Everybody knows it does not snow in Florida.
The other night I was so cold I tried to pick a fight with my wife just to get into some hot water. Unfortunately, she was too cold to participate and so we sat together shivering and trying to keep warm.
Just when I thought all of that cold was behind me it happened.
Some people say that the inevitable is simply that. I, the other hand, do not know the meaning of the word inevitable. But if it means something that is supposed to happen will happen then I guess, it has happened to Yours Truly.
Someone took a lot of timesetting up this message. If you have trusted Jesus as your saviour, this is what you are.
THE BELL I KNOW WHO I AM I am God's child (John 1:12) I am Christ's friend (John 15:15 ) I am united with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17) I am bought with a price (1 Cor 6:19-20) I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph. 1:1) I am a personal witness of Christ. (Acts 1:8) I am the salt & light of the earth (Matt 5:13-14) I am a member of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27) I am free forever from condemnation ( Rom 8: 1-2) I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant (Phil 3 :20) I am free from any charge against me (Rom 8:31 -34) I am a minister of reconciliation for God (2 Cor 5:17-21) I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:18) I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6) I cannot be separated from the love of God (Rom 8:35-39) I am established, anointed, sealed by God (2 Cor 1:21-22 ) I am assured all things work together for good (Rom. 8:28 ) I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16 ) I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph. 3: 12 ) I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13 ) I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15: 1-5) I am God's temple (1 Cor. 3: 16). I am complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10) I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).. I have been justified (Romans 5:1) I am God's co-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1). I am God's workmanship (Eph. 2:10) I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected. (Phil. 1: 5) I have been redeemed and forgiven ( Col 1:14). I have been adopted as God's child (Eph 1:5) I belong to God Do you know Who you are? Keep this bell ringing...pass it on 'The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you And be gracious to you; The LORD turn His face toward you And give you peace... Numbers 6:24-26
You always hear the usual stories of pennies on the sidewalk being good luck, gifts from angels, etc. This is the first time I've ever heard this twist on the story. Gives you something to think about.
Several years ago, a friend of mine and her husband were invited to spend the weekend at the home of her husband's employer.
My friend, Arlene, was nervous about the weekend. The boss was very wealthy, with a fine home on the waterway, and cars costing more than her house.
Anybody who has spent any significant time on a computer knows what it is like to lose valuable data due to a failed hard drive or scratched/lost cd.The moment of acceptance that valuable data has been lost forever brings with it a determination to never again operate without a reliable backup.That moment also comes with an introduction to a whole new frustration with computers - how to actually backup one's data.
Backing up one's data can be a nightmare.The "Ntbackup" utility that comes with Windows XP (I've avoided Windows Vista like the swine flu) is certainly more versatile than Win98's laughable "briefcase" program, but it runs from a command line whose syntax bears this form:
To be fair, the help area of XP does elaborate on the above, but let's keep perspective here.The need is to back data up - not get a degree in running Ntbackup.Even once you've come up with a complete and accurate command to run, I doubt you want to type it in every time you want to back your files up - not to mention any other commands you create for backing up other areas of your computer with info not in your main data area.I guess you could always put all your command lines in a batch file and run them all that way.What are batch files you ask?Yeah, let me tell you about something far more simple instead.
So my changed attitude began by simply asking, “Father, what would Tim enjoy right now?” “What can I do to make his day better?” “What can I do to help him in life?” For any of you who have read John & Stasi Eldridge’s book 
Living in the Sunshine state of 
You always hear the usual stories of pennies on the sidewalk being good luck, gifts from angels, etc. This is the first time I've ever heard this twist on the story. Gives you something to think about.
In yesterday's newsletter mailings I gave the following riddle:
Backing up one's data can be a nightmare.