Blog by Cy

Oven Roasted Turkey?

Or

Deep Fried Turkey?

It was quite nice to take a couple weeks off from this blog.

I really didn’t want to start writing again. I’m going to give it a couple of weeks to see if God has anything to say through this avenue. If He doesn’t, we’ll just fade this to black.

A new website launched on Monday. SaveOttumwa.com is the place to go for coupons to local businesses as well as recognition of good deeds and the occasional hearty laugh.

Everyday there will be new videos posted and coupons are always up for grabs. My favorite video has to be this one.

Enjoy.

This will make you smile. Carlos Whittaker shooting some footage for an album, when a man walks up and joins in. It is awesome. God is truly a God of joy. Have fun.

Four people have stepped up and confided what their score is for “Have you Ever“. However, as you all know; five of you need to comment to get my score. That is just one more of you.

Also, if you want explanations of my score, you need a total of 10 commenters with their scores held high.

Who is up for it?

6:6 – They prayed and laid hands on one another. There is power in the touch of our brothers and sisters during prayer. As we gather in community to pray, may we bless each other with the laying on of hands in the name of Jesus.

6:15 – This is a very interesting verse to me. It is one of the few descriptive verses in Acts, primarily action oriented book (pun intended). But these people who killed Jesus saw that Stephen’s face was like that of an angel. (Spoiler alert, they kill him anyway.)

Chapter 7 – Most of chapter 7 is Stephen’s sermon to the Sanhedrin in response to the men who said he had blasphemed God. It was like and OT rewind. Stephen kept his cool and was doing great. Then we get to verse 51.

7:51-53 – He called them out just like Jesus and Peter had.

7:55-60 – Part of me wonders if God didn’t take Stephen as soon as he saw heaven open up. For his faith, God didn’t want to burden him with the pain of being stoned. Maybe he was so full of the Holy Spirit it didn’t matter what they did to him. This is a huge turning point in the Bible for us. The story changes from here on out. the mission is changed. Stephen “had” to die for this to take place. For us to be here, the disciples needed scattered.

I am interested in missions…

Isn’t that such a loaded statement? I think there are whole organizations that exist just to help some one dig deeper into that thought. I think of a bunch of questions that follow after a statement like that.

What kind of mission work? Where? How long? How will you raise funds? What about your family? What will your friends think? You can’t just leave your job or house or car or furniture.

We struggle with the thought of “doing” missions because of how cumbersome it would be for us. Think of a family I know that recently up and moved to Haiti to work at an orphanage. Permanently. They had to sell their house here in the US. Their cars. Give away or sell all their furniture, appliances, etc. Cull out some clothes that wouldn’t be necessary in Haiti. Looking at the list above, it isn’t hard to figure out why more people don’t jump into the mission field. That is daunting list of stuff to accomplish and you haven’t even gone anywhere yet.

But, I have good news! Did you know that most of the people that live in your city aren’t followers of Jesus Christ? Did you know that most of your neighbors aren’t living a life glorifying God? Just step off your front porch and start a conversation and you are IN THE MISSION FIELD. The whole world must hear the Gospel preached, not just the third world.

However, why not sell everything and go to a developing country? If your heart breaks to know there are children all over the world that have never heard of the love of Jesus, then go. I’ll do all I can to help you go. Why not start today?

Here is my attempt:

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Woodrow Wilson, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush # 1, Bill Clinton, George Bush # 2, Barack Obama, Lyndon B. Johnson.

I hate this time of year from a sports perspective. I am not a baseball fan, so there is nothing to follow except for golf. I love watching golf, but after the British in July there is a pretty big gap of important golf tournaments too. So at this point, I am bored of sports. That is probably healthy I suppose, but it is my usual diversion for more important matters. Sports is where I go to give my mind a rest.

What do you do to give yourself a mental break?

I don’t know if it is AM or PM, but the clock in our kitchen always reads 2:15. It needs a battery and all our batteries are currently under duress in Isaac’s toys. So, the clock just sits there and never moves. This will sound weird, but that clock makes me think of God.

Relax. I don’t think God is broken or out of energy or batteries. I mean, the clock never changes. It is always the same. It is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. That is God. He never changes. He has always been and always will be, but never changes. It is so comforting to me.

We change. I was talking with some folks on Tuesday. 500 years ago, us humans were discussing the same theological questions we do today. We couldn’t figure out everything then and we certainly can’t now. The funny thing is it is the same Bible we read to learn about God, the Bible hasn’t changed either. We become more liberal or conservative. We change to please those around us. We don’t want to offend anyone.

Jesus loved everybody, he wouldn’t offend anyone.

Really? Read the Gospels, specifically Matthew 21 – 23. Tell me Jesus didn’t want to offend.