I thought a beautiful song might get us through this next three days of snow.
Monthly Archives: February 2015
Caddo’s Seven Word Sunday 2-11-15
SHOVELLING AND SNOWBLOWING ARE REALLY GREAT EXERCISE!!!
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Cee’s Black & White: Have A Seat!
This week Cee has challenged us to pull up a seat at the table and show her: TABLES AND CHAIRS
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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Table and Chairs, seating of any kind
Here are mine:
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No Thanks Gatlinburg!
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “No, Thanks.”
The Daily Post has asked us…Is there a place in the world you never want to visit? Where, and why not?
I guess it is not that I never wanted to visit Gatlinburg. In fact I wanted to and did visit this spot tucked away in the Smoky Mountains. It’s a place I never want to visit again!
We arrived on a Tuesday and were slated to visit until Thursday. The hotel we were in offered a suite. It backed up onto the mountain and as we tracked around to the mountain- side of the building where our room was, the mountain itself imposed such a shadow that we lost all the light even though it was midday. Walking across the second story porch to our room was possible only because the night lights were on 24/7. That was creepy enough but when we saw the cardboard sign tacked to the railing that read “Don’t feed the bars.” written in black magic marker, we realized we had left civilization completely behind.
Our room smelled like hornet spray. Dried spaghetti stuck to the walls in the kitchenette, and when I went to wash the dust of the road off I discovered the shower curtain was filled with cigarette burns. Good golly! How addicted does a person have to be to smoke in the shower?!?
We opened the TV console for the kids but the TV was gone. Somebody had put it in the fireplace behind the decorative grate. I ask you why? Why would someone do that?
Needless to say we did not stay the two nights. When I checked out the next morning the lady managing the front desk had a giant wolf-dog with her at the counter. I had to step over the creature to cancel my reservation for the night. I thought I might lose my leg as I stepped back over the dog to leave the building.
My wife and I thought we might redeem the mini vaca by taking a gondola ride up the side of the mountain. But pine beetles had infested the forest leading up to the skating rink at the summit called Oberammergau. Our trip up the mountain consisted of lots of scenery of dead pine trees and $7.00 hamburgers at the top.
Maybe it was just a perfect storm of bad luck. But seriously once is enough for me!
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A Photo A Week :View
I haven’t been able to participate in Nancy’s challenges these last couple of week’s. Shoveling has kept me from blogging. But today I was determined to get back in on the action between snow storms. So Nancy’s challenge this week is to show :A VIEW
You can discover how others answered this challenge at
Here are my responses:
A view from the Cliffs Of Moher
The view from inside Blarney Castle
Thunderheads over the Lower Lake, Killarney
A promised View, Winchendon MA
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Even If?
Recently I have been reading a book by Dr. David Jeremiah entitled, Agents Of the Apocalypse.
It’s not new information to me, but it is written around the characters of the Apocalypse rather than around the events of those days; So the presentation is fresh.
One of the events that Jeremiah mentions a few times in the course of his writing is the “Great falling away” that takes place before the rapture of the church. The good Dr. goes out of his way to dispel the thought that we might be in for a mighty end-time revival before the “catching away of the saints” which the New Testament mentions so many times within its pages. He states clearly that his belief is that no revival comes before the rapture. In fact he indicates that just the opposite seems to be laid out by the New Testament writers.
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. Ma 24:12,13
Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ[a] had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin[b] is revealed, the son of perdition 2 Thess. 2:3,4
Now I have to admit that I am a little hazy as to whether these Scriptures refer to the time just before the rapture of the church or if they refer to the time the Bible calls the Tribulation.
BUT WHAT IF DR. JEREMIAH IS RIGHT? WHAT IF IN THE DAYS TO COME THERE IS NO GREAT REVIVAL? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR MINISTRY?
One of the things I know about myself as an American is that I am truly results driven. I am culturally predisposed to gauge the success of my life in terms of measurable outcomes. My definition of a job well done is one that increases some item in my bottom line. But I am coming to realize that while that is how success is defined in America, it is not necessarily how it is defined in God’s economy.
God spoke to the prophet Jeremiah (not to be confused with Dr. David Jeremiah) and said,
“When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer. 28Therefore say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips. Jeremiah 7:27,28
Jeremiah was called to prophesy, to minister, to give up his freedom and eventually his life for the nation of Judah. But he was told in advance that his ministry was not going to bring about any positive results such as national conversion, repentance or revival. To him was given the task of being a witness against a nation even though it would not change the course of that nation.
My Pastor likes to say, “God always has a witness. Sometimes that witness produces repentance and sometimes it’s just a witness against a person or group of people so that when they are judged by God they can never say, ‘I never knew… no one ever told me…'”
It’s great that God always has a witness. It’s kind of fun to be a witness when your witness is well received. But I have to admit to be a witness when it yields no positive results can feel a bit like beating your head against a concrete wall.
All this leaves me wondering, am I willing to leave behind my understanding of success and my desire for personal triumph for the kingdom of God? What if serving God faithfully in this generation does not produce a great end times revival? Am I willing to serve as a witness faithfully EVEN IF it does not produce the fruit of repentance and revival I desire? Am I willing to be faithful to the end and spend all my strength for Jesus EVEN IF the only result is a great falling away?
How about you?
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An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Race the Clock.”
So the daily post has given us this assignment today…
Here’s the title of your post: “An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse.”
Set a timer for ten minutes, and write it. Go!
Several years ago I was asked to come and sing for a group of people at a local visiting nurses dayhab unit. I went and sang.
They liked me and so they invited me back. They liked me the second time and so they asked me if I would begin coming once a month. I agreed and went to sing hymns on a monthly basis and did this for two years.
Over the course of those two years my schedule began to fill out exponentially. It was becoming harder and harder to keep the commitment to my monthly hymn-sing at the VNA and so I approached God about it.
“God you know how busy I am.” I complained, “This hymn-sing is nice but I am not seeing any real fruit from it and I just can’t justify continuing when there are so many other more productive pursuits I could be involved in. God I am going to quit after this next concert. But if you want me to stay you will have to do something to make me stay.”
I went to the concert, set up my piano and sang my heart out feeling fully liberated that at the end of the day I would be handing in my walking papers.
We were about three-quarters of the way through my set when suddenly one of the elderly ladies in the room stopped the concert and asked, “Hey you are a pastor right?”
“Yes I am. ” I replied (they had been calling me Pastor J since day one but God chose this day to make it all sink in).
“You know most of us in this room don’t get to go to church anymore.” She said. “Would it be possible for you to bring us communion?”
The activities director blanched a little. But I had to ask, “Is that possible?”
I fully expected an unequivocal “No!”
What I got from her was a, “Let’s vote.”
The vote was taken and everybody wanted communion.
It was an offer I could not refuse. I had my next marching orders from God. Today I have a team of three which brings communion to 35 individuals at this venue. We started another off-campus service with another team two towns away and last month two of us started bringing music to a third day program two miles up the road from the VNA where it all started.
You never know where fruit from ministry is going to pop up!
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Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Fav Things Verse Three
Cee has challenged us to create a post from this prompt…
Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes, Silver white winters that melt into springs, These are a few of my favorite things.
I have no white- dress-blue-satin-sashed girls for this challenge. What I do have is a ton of silvery white winter. With two more feet of the slivery white wintry stuff ready to dump on my head I am really looking forward to the melting into spring thing.
Rough winter 1
PURPLE
Find out how others answered this challenge at…
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Why Fiction?
Why we need to read fiction.
Last month I made an unusual New Year’s resolution for someone as widely-read as myself: It was to read less. It’s been a challenge limiting my book intake in order to focus on my writing.
So in honor of my resolution to spend less time reading, I have to be even more selective of the books I do read than I ever have been before.
I’m having to put aside my beloved history and biography books for a while to focus on fiction to help shape my own writing, but in the realm of fiction, there’s still so much to choose from.
Here’s a list of reasons fiction is good for not just writers such as myself, but for everyone.
1) Fiction can help shape or break a worldview
Oftentimes an author will write about a certain topic because they’re passionate about it. And more often than not, that topic will…
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Be the Church
The crucifix at Kylemore Abbey
Gandhi was once quoted as saying,
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.”
and you know sometimes I can understand his point of view. There are moments when, as Mr. Gandhi stated,
“Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
There are days when it is hard to love the people of the church. There are days when it is even hard to be a part of the church. There are days when as Christians we are tempted to chuck it all and go the Christian faith alone. Here is the thing though, Christianity is a team sport. To “go it alone” as a Christian is akin to trying to play basketball or soccer (football for those of you outside of the U.S.) by yourself. IT DOESN’T WORK!!!!
Chris Tiegreen has said,
“Blood is thicker than water….the Spirit is thicker than blood.”
And Matthew Henry has written,
“When we take God as our God, we take His people as our people.”
For better or worse when we accept Christ we are adopted into a family and that comes not only with the blessings of eternal life in Heaven but with the responsibility of loving and working with the rest of this humongous family we call the church.
The Apostle John wrote,
“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister] lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.” I John 2:9-11
Now some of you will say, “Well I don’t hate the people of the church. I just don’t want to have anything to do with them.”
I have to point out that functionally there is little difference between those two things. You are called not just to “not hate” the church. John calls you to “love your brothers and sisters in the church” and that means being involved with them.
I get it. Family is hard. Church is hard. But in the end we are are called to it. In Heaven you will be a part of the church so you might as well practice being a part of it now no matter how hard it might be.
Lillie-Put 