WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND?

Hey, I doing a survey, I want to know what concerns you. What kind of things are going on in your life that concern you, the things that you would like to talk about or need help with. Tell me about them. You can post them here or e-mail them to me at careybaptist@gmail.com or wilson.randal@gmail.com

Thanks and I hope to here from you soon.

JOAH

OK, I have waited as long as I can. Here he is, my grandson, Joah Wilson Detwiler.

Here are all four of my grandkids.

Truly I am blessed. Thank You Lord!!

THE OLD CROSS AND THE NEW CROSS

The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it. The old cross brought tears and blood; the new cross brings laughter. The flesh, smiling and confident, preaches and sings about the cross; before that cross it bows and toward that cross it points with carefully staged histrionics - but upon that cross it will never die, and the reproach of that cross it stubbornly refuses to bear.

 I well know how many smooth arguments ca be marshaled in support of the new cross. does not the new cross win converts and make many followers and so carry the advantage of numerical success? Should we not adjust ourselves to the changing times? Have we not heard the slogan "New days, new ways"? And who but someone very old and very conservative would insist upon death as the appointed way of life? And who today is interested in a gloomy mysticism that would sentence its flesh to a cross and recommend self-effacing humility as a virtue actually to be practiced by modern Christians? These are the arguments, along with many more flippant still, which are brought forward to give an appearance of wisdom to the hollow and meaningless cross of popular Christianity.
 A.W. Tozer, God's Pursuit of Man

TIME

Do you know what sad is? Sad is when you have a blog, twitter and facebook and no one reads your blog, follows you on twitter or facebook. And no I am not talking about myself, I'm just saying that would be sad. That would be like the kid no one would play with, not even his imaginary friend. I know that people read my blog and people follow me on twitter and I don't even have a facebook account, although I have been thinking about getting one, I'm told that it is a good way to keep up with people in your church. But that would require even more time, and you know what time is, time is the one thing that you can't recycle. Why is it that the things that are supposed to save you time cost you more time? Like cell phones, they are supposed to be a convenience, a device that saves you time, something to make life better, but it seems like people always have one stuck in their ear, talking to everybody about everything. Computers are suppose to be a time saving device but people sit on their computers for hours a day, at work, at home, laptops in the car, in the park or anywhere else you go. Spending time on facebook, twitter, blogs, watching movies, skyping and sometimes working. And after all of this, no one sits and talks face to face with family and friends. Are we losing the art of communication? In the movie Wall-E (see another movie) humans never talked to each other, they were all glued to their computers. How far are we from that? I have started helping out hospice as a chaplain and one of the most important things that we do is listen. Way too many of us have lost the art of listening, if we do talk to people we want to be the one talking, but good communication skills require listening. I think that too many of us are too busy to listen, listen to the birds sing, listen to God, listen to each other, listen to our kids or grandkids, or even listen to our own bodies. I love to listen to my grandkids, Zoe talks a lot, most of hers is in Greek, Eisley is talking more and more and getting more plain, Mia talks and has great things to say. All of them love to sing, Mia is never off pitch, Eisley sings very pretty and at the nursing home service the other night Zoe was singing Amazing Grace, the words were Greek but she had the tune and timing down pat.
 We need to take time to talk face to face, look people in the eye, look your kids and grandkids in the eye, you might like what you see, love. Or you might see pain and the need to help. Take time to look and listen.
 Anyway, I'll talk to you later, on my blog, or by twitter, and if I see you; face to face.
 Have a Blessed Day! Remember, God loves you so much that He sent His one and only Son to die for you, and His Son, Jesus, loved you enough to do it willingly, Jesus loves you. Bye for now.

BLOGGING???

Is blogging a thing of the past? Just hear me out, it seems that some people still blog a lot and some people read them, but it also seems that alot more people are using twitter and facebook and other forms of communicating rather than blogging. So my question is, Is Blogging a thing of the Past?
And another thing...why is it that most of the responses I get are in some weird form of type? Maybe these are words that I don't allow on my blog. Maybe I will respond to them with scrpiture!
Let me know what you think.
Until next time....

JUNE 1st/ THE MOWER SAGA

Well the Mower Saga has taken a new twist. They adjusted the valves, had them just right, started the mower up and it knocked real loud. Pulled the valve cover off and the rocker arm bols had backed themselves out. Ended up having to buy a new head for the motor because the rocker arm bolts were stripped out, so the valves could not be adjusted where they would hold. Got that put on, the mower started up, ran great, no more smoking, turned it off and it would not start again, the compression valve inside the motor was shot and in order to replace that the motor must be taken out turned upside down and torn apart and so while the motor is apart you might as well rebuild the entire motor, and by that time it will cost as much as a new riding mower, so.......I bought a new riding mower. 2 horsepower more and it starts every time, tires don't have to be aired up every time I need to mow, turns in less space, you know, it's just newer and better.
So my mower saga has come to a close..I hope.

MAYDAY, MAYDAY

Well here we are, the first day of May and you will never guess what happened to me on the way to the yard....let's just say that my mower is now in the shop. Maybe they can figure out what is going on with it, maybe the valves are out of adjustment or it is out of time or maybe.....I don't know. Anyway, I didn't get to go over my yard again and by the time it is fixed I will be behind a jungle again, but, it's all good.
So how is your spring going???

END OF APRIL

OK, so it's been a while since I have posted anything, sometimes I feel like I have nothing to say, which sounds weird since I am a preacher, but sometimes I feel like I am just out of words. So what's going on in my life these days? Well I've been taking more seminary and I have finals coming up on Wednesday and I'm not sure that any of it stuck if you know what I mean. I took the class and learned a lot but I'm not sure about the final test, but if I study enough this week I'm sure I will pass. The trouble is that I have been making straight A's and I feel the pressure to get another one. This is a new problem for me, when I was in school (when I was younger) I felt good just to pass, but I never studied, I never saw the need until I was taking the test. But now I am applying myself and doing well, but since my surgery my brain doesn't seem to work as well, just an excuse? Maybe, but it's the best I have. So pray for my memory recall.
This is the end of April, tommorrow is May 1st, MayDay. Back when the kids were born we lived in Colorado and I worked an a large farm and I would grow a beard every winter to help with warmth, and every year on May 1st I would shave it off. Why is this important??? I have no idea!
We are still waiting on the birth of our first grandson, he will be here the last of July or early August. His original due date was August 11, my birthday and I thought that that would be a great birthday gift, but now they, the doctor, have moved it up. But one thing that I know is that whenever he gets here it will truly be a gift from God. And he will be a good addition to our three grandgirls, life just keeps getting better.
Well this weekend should be quieter that last, we set up the inflatables (Buncha-Jumps) in the park last Saturday for Keep Childress Beautiful day and had lots of fun with all of the kids. We will be setting some up at Lots in a couple of weeks, come on by and join us.
Well, last week we were in Denver to see Becky's cancer doctor and she is still in remission, ma that's a good word!! The week before we went to Lubbock to see my cancer doctor and mt PSA is still 0.0, just like it should be. Both are good news, her cancer is under control and mine is gone, the only thing that would be better is if her's was gone also...
For someone who didn't have much to say I sure said a lot, but now all of my words are used up for a while, do you believe me?
Well I'm getting ready to go mow my yard again, I worked all day this past Monday on it. We had been gone and it rained for days so it had grown up, a lot. I never did get it sprayed for weeds so everything is growing really good. On Monday I edged and ran the trimmer, cut on some trees and then worked on my mower for a couple of hours before I got it started. I was able to use the grass catcher on the front yard but not the back, so I am going to attempt to catch the back yard and hope that it doesn't plug up the catcher. Anyway, I think that the grass is dry enough and if I can get it done today I can do it on Friday's as I like to do. So here I go..........

A DOG'S LIFE?

After reading Amy's blog I realized that I also had not blogged in a while, and while she related her blog to a relationship I thought that if I were hired to do this I would get fired. so I had to add my Donald Trump dog......

People ask me all of the time how I am doing and how Becky is doing, so let me try and catch up. I am doing better everyday and I am cancer free; I am getting back into the gym and working on my weight again. When I first went back into the gym I had some really weird pains but those are all gone and so I am trying to get more serious about my weight loss. I had lost 47 pounds before my surgery and gained a few pounds back in the weeks following, but now I am back to working on it, I would like to lose another 50 pounds. I just don't seem to have the same intensity that I had before, what I need to do is get the same mindset that I had before, I just need to say in my mind and out loud, "I'm not allowed to have that" and stick to it, instead of allowing myself to eat all of those foods that I really enjoy. But something that I noticed while I was not eating all of my regular foods was that I stopped craving those fat greasy foods, and when I did eat some I felt bad. Cleaner foods make me feel cleaner I guess. Any way I just need to make myself get up and go to the gym and eat right.

So when I feel like a lazy dog.....
I just need to get out and run....
or at least walk a couple of miles a day.


Becky is doing well with her cancer, doing her treatments every week, when she misses a treatment, it shows up again, so she continues with the treatments, most likely for the rest of her life. She is home today not feeling well, she has some sort of weird stomach thing (DON'T SHARE WITH ME!).

Anyway, considering all, we are doing good. So here is an update, enjoy, the way I am it might be a while before the next one.
See ya.

FOGGY SUNDAY

Well here I am at church on a foggy Sunday morning, roads were not too bad coming out this morning, although we do have freezing fog, but our parking lot still has a lot of ice patches that are not safe. So why am I telling you this? Because after I got out here, I was informed that we were not having church today because of the conditions. So, what's a preacher to do on Sunday morning when he is all dressed up and no place to go? Do I go back home, go to another church and listen to another preacher, it just seems weird. The churches in town cancelled Sunday school to give it more time to clear off, but when the ice gets some sun it will be worse.
I think that most people will not go today because the whole town lost power this morning, it's back on now, but a good excuse. Becky and I took our showers by candlelight, she is back at work again today. South Plains has been working around the clock since Thursday morning, she went to work at 7am Thursday and came home 7am Friday morning, slept for 3 hours and went back to work, came home at 10:30pm. Went back to work at 9:30am and came back home at 12:30am, and went back to work at 8am this morning. Since Thursday morning she has worked about 50 hours, but at least she got to come home and sleep. It's days like this that the linemen don't get paid enough, at least Becky gets to work inside the office, not out in the cold like the linemen.
So what should a preacher do on a Sunday when church has been cancelled?

WILSON CHRISTMAS

We had our Wilson Christmas this past weekend, I know, it a bit past Christmas but it worked. Most of us were there, Jody and Sarah could not make it, Vanessa And Robert also could not be there, but the rest were.

We did the Chinese Christmas, where you can steal another person's gift. We also had the returning gag gift, a pair of Uncle Troy's shorts.
And guess who got them???

Carolyn!!! Whoever get's them has to model them, add something to them and bring them back the next year.

Becky got them last year, so she added a Broncos patch to them.

Ashton and Cooper got trucks.

A big hit!!

Hey Lisa, show us how you really feel.