Upcoming Preaching Engagement and a Dead Computer

I'm sorry that I missed posting anything last week, my laptop computer had a sudden meltdown and is not yet repaired.  I took it to two shops in town and was told two different stories as to what was wrong with it.  One of my friends from the gym has agreed to take a look at it and see if he can't get it back up and running for me.  I haven't gotten it to him yet but hopefully I'll see him at the gym in the next day or two.  In the meanwhile I've dug out an old notebook and I'm using that for now.  It gets the job done but it's very slow and is prone to freezing while online.

Unfortunately, the ELM training session I was planning to attend in Hastings last weekend was canceled at the last moment.  They just did not get enough registrations to make the event viable.

This week I was asked to preach at Judson Baptist Church on Palm Sunday.  I was happy to accept the offer and I'm really looking forward to visiting Judson as it is an ABC Church here in Omaha that I haven't had the chance to attend yet.  I'm already working in my head on the sermon but I forgot to ask if they are having a 'Maundy Thursday' service or not.  Depending on whether they are or not will affect how far into the 'Last Week' of Christ life on earth I will go in the sermon.

Judson has a bit later service time than many other local churches with a start time of 10:45 am.  If anyone is interested in attending their address is, 8517 Park View Blvd, La Vista.  I understand that there will be cake and refreshments after the service so feel free to feel bribed to attend.

Yesterday morning we went to Benson Baptist for their 8:30 am service.  I was happy to see my friend Dr. Edsel Buchanan there with his daughter and her family.  Edsel is a retired professor of physical education and in his youth he was a very accomplished trampoline gymnast and a three time NCAA champion.  Today though Edsel suffers from Alzheimer's disease and I was very glad to see that he was his happy and cheerful self.  He recognized me immediately and I sat down and had a good visit with him prior to the start of the service.

This Wednesday I am having lunch with my friend and mentor Rev. Bob Molby.  I have a couple of books I want to lend to Bob and I also want to visit with him about the sermon I'm thinking of giving at Judson.  Bob has been out of town visiting family for a number of weeks and I'm looking forward to catching up with him and to see how he's been getting along.

Yesterday Pastor Paul used the Lord's Prayer as a major illustration in his sermon.  I hit him with the trivia question of where is the third source for the Lord's Prayer.  I apologize for catching him flat footed but he didn't have an answer for me, the answer is in the "Didache" (a/k/a The Teaching of the Twelve).  I'll close this blog post with the Lord's prayer translated from 8:2 in the Didache.  

May you all be well and blessed.

In God's Love, Glory and abounding Grace,
Roy



Didache 8:2
Neither pray ye as the hypocrites, but as the Lord commanded in His Gospel,thus pray ye:
Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name;
Thy kingdom come;
Thy will be done,
as in heaven, so also on earth;
give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our debt,
as we forgive our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for Thine is the power and the glory for ever and ever.

Preparing for Classes and other Ramblings:

Well this Sunday we attended the 8:30 am service at Benson Baptist Church.  With the time change it was, as always, a bit more of a struggle to get everyone up and going and out the door.  But I was surprised and it looked like all of the regular attendees were there perhaps slightly less bright-eyed and somewhat less bushy tailed than normal but there none-the-less to celebrate God's love for us.

When we got back home Gail started right in on working on her 'bags' she has a show in a couple of weeks.  It's a show of local Artisans and their creations, and Gail has been working very hard to build up an inventory of her bags.  She really does a nice job with them and they are very functional.  The bags come in many different fabrics as well as various different accent pieces.

Maddie and I completed her FAFSA application and worked on her link on the University of Omaha web-site.  She has applied and been accepted to transfer to UNO next fall and she is very excited about that.  She's looking forward to being back home with us next year and maybe being able to have a part-time job again.  For her the whole being away from home in a big school just hasn't worked out as she had hoped.  I of course have no problem with my girl being back home for a few more years as the whole empty nest thing isn't to my liking anyway.

I started reading a new book yesterday, "Prodigal Christianity, Ten Signposts into the Missional Frontier" by David E. Fitch & Geoff Holsclaw.  This is the book that they will be talking about at the upcoming "Prairie Pastors Conference" (Prairie Pastors Conference Web-Page) but in reviewing it I thought it might also be beneficial for the program I am attending this coming weekend in Hastings put on by Cotner College.  This event is entitled "Ministry from the Pews" and I have decided to attend the session on "The Once & Future Church" being conducted by the Rev. Dr. James Gordon who is the current Interim Regional Ministry for the Disciples of Christ.

I've only just gotten into the book so I'll reserve comments for now but there is one chapter in particular that I am afraid I'm going to have considerable disagreement with.  The authors have a background in the 'Emergent' and 'Neo-Reformed' movements and I'll confess that I have some issues with both.  But in all fairness I will read the book and reserve all judgment until I have completely finished the text.  It is entirely possible that these authors have addressed areas that have concerned me and if so I very much look forward to reading and then listening to David Fitch speak at the conference.

Book 'Prodigal Christianity' on Amazon

I am very much looking forward to the program this weekend, and I also look forward to visiting with Jim about any opportunities that might be coming up for ministry with the DOC.  Jim is a fantastic individual and a very close friend of my good friend Dustin who is the Pastor at the DOC Church in Hastings.  Actually Dustin's Church is hosting this event and I told him I was going to bring him a large box of books for his personal library.

Misc. Ramblings:

The last couple weeks have been a bit wild.  I ran into a bit of an issue with my health which I think I have now gotten sorted out.  I noticed in the morning on the Thursday before last that I had broken out in a pretty good rash.  It was over my face, neck, shoulders and part of my chest and back.  So I dropped out pretty much all of my supplements and started taking Benadryl.  It slowly died down and I started adding back in my supplements slowly to see what had caused the reaction.  Well by the next Wednesday I had gotten about half of my supplement regiment back in force and nothing had caused an issue.  So I went into the gym and did my leg routine again.  When I got home and as I was changing I noticed that I had broken out once again.  Apparently, when I'm doing legs my blood pressure is spiking very high and I'm causing capillaries to burst.

I checked my blood pressure the next morning and it was at 142/85 which my wife tells me is not considered to be hypertension.  BUT, that is high for me as historically my blood pressure has sat around 115/70.  On my way into work I stopped to see my buddy Brandon at 'New Dawn Nutrition' and picked up a bottle of his supplement for blood pressure control.  It seems to have helped as my blood pressure was down on Saturday to 128/75.  I'll keep an eye on it to see if it won't come down a bit farther.

Brandon also gave me the name of a local Doctor who sees several other lifters here in town.  I called and talked to his Nurse, she then faxed me a form to have my old Doctor release my records to them. Once they have the records and the Doctor has reviewed them she said she would call me to set up an appointment.  Honestly, I am due for a general check up and I need to make sure there isn't anything more serious that is affecting my blood pressure spikes. It is past time for me to start dropping some body weight and personally I think that is a part of the reason for the elevated blood pressure.  So as of Friday I started cutting and completely switched not only my supplement routine but my lifting routine.

Gail will be happy that I'm switching to higher repetitions and lighter weight for leg training from low repetitions and heavy weight.  My legs have never been large in size but my legs and hips are very strong for my size and on leg presses I was hoisting weight that I've only seen two other lifters in the gym match, and both of them are a good 25 pounds heavier in body weight than I, and I know that if you add their ages together I'm still six years older than they are combined.  Both are great guys and we all give each other a lot of grief (in a good way) at the gym.

In closing I will leave you with this wonderful poem that I came across the other day.  May this day find you all well and blessed.

In His All Abundant Grace,

Roy

 Little Country Church

Wooden, white, weathered and worn,
surrounded by hard pack, thistle and thorn.
Whitewash fades from warping walls.
The steeple bell no longer calls
the faithful in to find their pews
and be inspired by God’s Good News.
Stained glass memories of better days
create a multi colored haze
on unused pulpit, dust-caked floors,
a broken chair and open doors.

Tractor tracks gouge the gravel drive
where farming families once arrived
on Sunday morning and Wednesday night.
But now, the economic plight
has forced those families off the land
and into lives they never planned.
Weeds grow through the picket fence
that surrounds the congregants
who lay beneath once well kept sod.
Headstones proclaim their faith in God
and say they have gone on to Glory.
But, no one’s here to read their story.

The scene is quaint and some say, sad.
An empty church. But it’s not bad
because the seeds of faith they grew
have been transplanted someplace new.
The good news soon to be revealed
is of the increased harvest yield.
God’s field hands have been moved to where
they can witness, love and care
for those whose lives are in the lurch.
See, that building’s just a building.
God’s people are The Church.

Poem by, Jeff Hildebrandt 

Upcoming Classes and Seminars.

In the next few months I am planning to take in several classes and seminars.  First off in March on the 14th and 15th Cotner College is hosting at First Christian Church in Hastings, a session entitled "Ministry from the Pews".  There are four different subjects being offered at this session and I am still trying to decide which of the four I wish to attend.  

Next in April from the 28th to the 30th, there is the annual "Prairie Pastors Conference" in Bellevue.  This is a gathering of American Baptists Pastors from a four region area; ABC of the Central Region, ABC of the Dakotas, ABC of Nebraska and Mid-American Baptist Churches.  I am very much looking forward to this event as it will be a great chance to meet the various Region's Executive and Associate Executive Ministers.  Some of whom I have visited with on the telephone but who I have not had the pleasure of meeting in person.

In May on the 7th and 8th at Hastings College, there will be a continuing education class through Cotner College on "The History of Hell".  This class I am very excited about and I have already been corresponding with the instructor Dan Deffenbagh.  Dan is a professor of New Testament Theology at Hastings College and was one of my favorite teachers during our ELM program.

The last thing I have planned (thus far) this year for classes will be the ELM class on "Disciples of Christ History & Polity" that will be offered in August at Saint Benedict's Catholic Retreat near Schuyler.  I've already taken the Polity Classes for the American Baptist, United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church, so this class will give me a background in all four denominations included in the ELM program.

In preparation for the May class on the "History of Hell" I have already purchased the textbook that Dan will have us use "The History of Hell" by Alice Turner.  In addition Dan recommended to me the book "The Formation of Hell" by Alan Bernstein.  The book by Bernstein is a more scholarly book and Dan thought it would be of more use to me in researching for the book that I'm trying to write.

I started this week reading the book by Turner and I am switching back and forth between reading it and the book "The Origin of Satan" by Elaine Pagels.  The evolution of Satan through and outside of scripture is a fascinating phenomena and definitely a subject that very few note nor consider.

Yesterday, I was asked by one of my past students if I would consider putting together and leading a new Study Group.  I told her that I would ask around and try and determine if there was enough interest to put together a new group. One of the biggest hurdles to putting together a good group is finding a mutually workable time to hold the class.  I also need to try and figure out where the class might meet.  Interestingly one of my friends that lives in the United Kingdom has expressed interest in joining the group via Skype.  It would be great to work that out if we can but I'm afraid the time difference may be too great of a hurdle to overcome.

If any of you would like to participate (even remotely as it seems we may make the leap into using Skype, something I've never done but Maddie uses it daily so I'm sure she can teach me in short order) in a Study Group please contact me at either my e-mail address (roykarlen@juno.com) or call or text me at 402-740-4875.  I've already started thinking about what the first book should be that we might use for the study.  Generally in the past I've come up with 4 or 5 suggestions and let the group decide which they find the most interesting.  For this new study (if it comes to pass) I plan to put together an outline and a set of study questions.  These I will give to the group a week in advance so they have time to prepare for the next class.

Doing these studies takes a bit of work on my part but it has been my experience that if you really want to learn a topic, then set about teaching it and you'll ultimately be the one that learns the most.

Again if you or anyone you know might have an interest please let me know, also let me know what your schedule is and what days and times would work for you.

I have more I want to discuss this week but I'm going to let that go for another post so with this I will bid you all farewell for today.

May you all be blessed and enriched in your journey.

In His Unending and Ultimate Grace & Love,
Roy

Walking with God: Theology, a New Truck & a New Friend

Three weeks ago this last Friday, Gail was involved in a traffic accident in which she was not injured in any fashion, but the car I normally drive was totaled.  For whatever reason she decided that morning to drive the Taurus to work instead of her Audi.  Thankfully she did, as not only is the Audi smaller and the likelihood of her being injured far greater; but to us the Taurus was just another vehicle, whereas the Audi is a special little car.  The accident was the result of a woman in a SUV running a red light, Gail wasn't even the first person through the green light but rather the third car so it was obvious the woman just wasn't paying attention.

Ever since the accident I have been watching for a used car to replace the Taurus.  I have to say that currently the used car market in Omaha is for the most part in my opinion overpriced and most of the vehicles I looked at were in far poorer condition than I've run into in the past when looking at vehicles.  Perhaps that's because this time I decided to look for either an SUV or a mini-van, and these type of vehicles tend to carry children and so the seats and carpets are filthy.  It just amazes me that folks who are wanting to sell a vehicle don't take the time to bother to clean it up a bit.  Yesterday morning I saw a listing for a Ford Expedition which seemed promising so I called on it and ran over to take a look.  It turned out that the car was listed by a local dealer rather than an individual but I was happy to see that the interior and exterior were in excellent condition.  I took it for a test drive and could find nothing wrong with the vehicle so I went back to talk to the dealer.

The dealer that had the truck was "Mid-American Auto Mart" owned by Russ Joons.  I went in to talk to Russ who is a very likable fellow and we for some reason got to talking about religion rather than about the SUV he had for sale.  I ended up spending about two and a half hours talking with Russ about everything from Free Will, Suffering, Grace, Evangelism, and how do we as Christians deal with Islamic Terrorism.  Russ is a Youth Sunday School Teacher at a local Mega-Church (a Missouri synod Lutheran Church) and we seemed to develop an instant rapport.  After talking for about an hour and a half I did say to him "well I should ask, what is your best price on the truck", he thought a second and gave me a number, but before I could respond to that he asked me another theological question.  So we talked about that for another half hour before I stopped and said "well we have budgeted this amount", he thought again for a second and said "okay for you I'll do that, I've really enjoyed visiting with you".  And we proceeded to talk for about another half hour until I said I really needed to get back to the shop and he offered to meet me at his shop the next day to complete the transaction on the SUV.

This morning Gail, Maddie and I went and picked up the SUV and Russ was just as cordial as the day before.  We both agreed not to get started on another theological discussion as obviously Gail and Maddie wouldn't want to sit there and listen to us ramble on for hours.  All in all a long story shortened, we found a good used vehicle and I couldn't recommend Russ and his services more.

But here is the the really interesting part, lately I've been feeling a little discouraged.  I have not heard anything from any of the churches I've submitted resumes to and the likelihood that I'll find a pulpit to serve anytime soon seems more and more distant.  Russ as I mentioned is a Youth Sunday School Teacher and he has been feeling discouraged lately about whether or not his efforts are making a difference.  After our lengthy conversation I left feeling reassured that God can and does use me to aid others on their faith walk (whether or not I'm in a pulpit) and Russ left feeling that through him God does make a difference in those children's lives.

Now you have to understand that a Missouri Synod and a Liberal American Baptist are really in fairly different theological worlds, and the fact that we could sit down and discuss God and his love in depth and with no holds barred for two and a half hours and both of us leave feeling refreshed, renewed and strengthened in our faith is truly a 'GOD' thing.  Praise God!  I certainly hope that I have not seen the last of Russ for both of us walked away feeling that we had made a new friend in the faith.

God works in his creation through his creation, as I like to say we are His hands and feet in this world, and we all need to be in prayer searching for his will for us in serving him.  Incidentally I had just finished praying for guidance from God in my search for a vehicle when I saw the listing for the Expedition on Craigslist.

I just finished on my Kindle the book "What the Hell, how did we get it so wrong? Eternity, grace and the message of love." by Jackson Baer.  It's an interesting book but I must confess that I find the author's various positions on theology puzzling and inconsistent.  Some of the logic he applies to hold a position similar to my own he disregards entirely in order to hold a position on another point that is entirely counter to my own position.

As I stated in a previous blog post we all are hypocrites in some area or another of our lives, but I'm always puzzled when somebody has a contradiction in their beliefs that is so blatant and obvious.  However he is fair enough to point out these beliefs but doesn't pretend to insist that others must agree with him.  Also the areas that I disagree with him on are primarily not those areas of theology of which attention is being focused in this book.  All in all it's a book worth reading but certainly not on par with books such as "If Grace Is True" or "Love Wins".

On a completely unrelated note, the other night I was at Baker's picking up a few grocery items and noticed a product that they had on sale called "JuMex" a non-carbonated canned fruit juice.  They had several different flavors and since they were only 39 cents a can I grabbed several.  So far the flavor I have enjoyed the most is 'Guava'.  I haven't had guava fruit since visiting Hawaii back in the late 80's but I enjoyed it back then and it was an unexpected treat to discover this product.

At about 170 calories a can I wouldn't suggest making this product a staple in one's diet, but as a treat or as a part of post-workout protein shake the product has potential.  I'll have to try mixing some with banana flavored protein and see how that works.

I hope this blog post finds all that take the time to read through it well and blessed by God's Holy Spirit.

Blessings,
Roy

Martin Luther King, Jr. 2014

It is difficult to believe but another year has passed.  Last year I published a paper that I wrote concerning Dr. King for my ELM classes.  Since my late Mentor Jesse was such a good friend of Dr. King's it's impossible for this day to come and for me not to spend time reflecting on Jesse and the things he taught me.  I do believe he'd be proud of the book I've started penning and I do wish he was here to help me along the way.  His prowess with Greek and Hebrew would be of immeasurable help to me.

May this day of celebration concerning the life and teachings of Dr. King find you all well and blessed.

In God's Constant Care and Ultimate Grace,
Roy

(below is the introduction to last year's blog post and a link to that post)


As I have stated before my late mentor Jesse was a close and long time friend of Dr. King.  As a part of my ELM education I did write a paper about Dr. King.  As an American Baptist Dr. King is a very important man to our denomination and most likely the most famous American Baptist Pastor of all time.

May this essay stand as a tribute to both Dr. King and my friend Jesse's memory.

God's Eternal & Undivided Blessings to you all,
Roy

My 2013 Post for MLK Day

Note to any that may be reading my blog on either Facebook or LinkedIn, please like my post on those sites to help me increase my reach.  Thank you and God's Blessings to you!  Roy

Another Quiet Sunday

Yesterday we started the day off by attending the 8:30 am service at Benson Baptist Church.  It was a good service and we sat beside Susan Gilles.  I had a brief but good conversation with Susan, it is always a pleasure to see her.  After church we came home and made ourselves 'brunch'.  I cooked up some sausage and Gail and Maddie prepared waffles and scrambled eggs.

We all did a little bit of reading after cleaning up before setting out on a shopping mission to prepare Maddie to return to UNL for Spring Semester classes.  Shopping with Madeline can be a tiring event, she loves to shop and unfortunately neither Gail nor I are particularly fond of running from store to store to find that perfect item.  We ended up going to five stores in all before Maddie was content with what we had found.

Once we got home I started doing some laundry and in between spent time reading from the Bible using an RSV translation.  For whatever reason I find that I prefer the Revised Standard Version when I read scripture.  I have finished re-reading "If Grace is True" and I started the other day a book on the Kindle entitled "Hope Beyond Hell".  This book is jammed full of Scripture references and is a fairly dense read.  In order to really do the book justice one would have to reference each and ever bit of scripture as the Author only provides short snippets of the text.  I suspect that at least some of the scripture references are being used out of context however I simply don't have the time to dig up each and every one.  Honestly it would take months to read this book doing so, as it's a fairly long book and as I said it is jammed with references.  I have some fairly strong disagreements with the author on some of his conclusions and I have some areas where I firmly agree with him.  In this book, as I see all too often when reading the author has his own particular set of 'blinders'.  Some of the determinations he references to make a point on one aspect of theology would and do completely submarine a position he raises and supports in another chapter.  This is all too common in our world, inside and outside of religion.  I see this in politics to a large degree on both sides of the aisle.  Rarely do we sit down and try and weigh one position against another, this is why as I often say "we are all hypocrites, we just pick different areas to be hypocrites".  This is one of the things I enjoy so much about my friend Dustin Bower.  Dustin is the Pastor of the DOC Church in Hastings; and Dustin spends an enormous amount of time reconciling his various beliefs about theology, and the rest of the world.  If there is anyone who is rarely a hypocrite it is Dustin.

I also spent some time reading in one of Jesse's books of prayers.  This book is called "Prayers for a New World" and was published in 1964.  It uses a lot of old prayers and the language for most is quite old, but I find that many of these prayers speak to me very well and I do enjoy reading them.

One of my resolutions this year is to finally write a book.  I've wanted to write a book ever since High School and honestly I did write a manuscript back then but never quite finished it.  Somewhere around here I believe I still have that binder.  I wrote a good deal and there are several hundred pages composed.  However, that was a sci-fi book and I no longer have a desire to write science fiction.  So the book I have started (actually I started it over a year ago) is of course a book on theology.  I pulled in up on my computer yesterday and read through and edited what I had already written.  Frankly, I was surprised how much I had composed and I was overall delighted with the composition.  While we were out shopping I picked up a small journal which I intend to keep on the table beside my chair with a list of the minimum things I want to do reading and writing wise each and everyday.  Before I turn in each night I'll go through the check list and make sure that I've accomplished each goal and check them off.  If I've fallen short I'll simply have to stay up until I've reached my minimums, which are not too stringent and honestly wouldn't take much over an hour to satisfy.

The idea is that if I set a minimum time to commit, I know myself and once I get started I'll easily go past that small increment.  But by forcing myself to get started (more so on the writing) I'll actually sit down and put words on 'paper' or spend time reading.  I've set time allotments for reading scripture, reading about scripture, and for reading prayers or devotionals.  The writing won't include my blogging but rather writing on the book.  The next step after writing the book (which I suspect will take me over a year as there is a considerable amount of research to be done in order to complete it) will be to get back to the screenplay that I started writing about twelve years ago.  I have transferred the file from computer to computer and it is saved on the hard drive of this laptop.  That however is a horse of a different color as the screenplay is about a couple during World War II.  Who knows perhaps I'll work on both the book and the play at the same time.

I have finally beaten the dental infection that was plaguing me and I was able to get in a few workouts this past week.  Hopefully I'll be able to do a complete week of training this week.  The only possible road bump would be that I'm getting a root canal on Wednesday.  Wednesday is a rest day for me so unless it is still bothering me considerably on Thursday I should be okay for working out.  One of my goals now is to improve my flexibility.  I've concentrated for so long on gaining size that my flexibility has suffered, so I've started a stretching routine which I will do daily (it's also listed in my little daily journal) and see if I can't make some improvement in that area of fitness as well.

Madeline starts her second semester at UNL today and she has now switched her major from Psychology to Nursing.  She has always been interested in medicine and for many years talked about getting into dermatology.  Now she's thinking she wants to focus on geriatric nursing which of course is a field which will see nothing but increased demand as all of us baby boomers age.  We drove her back to school last night about 7:00 pm, and as always it was sad to leave her behind.  Waking up this morning with just Gail and I there (and all the cats and dogs of course) the house seemed pretty empty.

I am still waiting to hear from any of the Churches that I've asked to have resumes submitted to.  Hopefully now that the holidays are all past I'll hear something from one or the other or both.  The most difficult part of this process is the waiting.  God will eventually find and direct me to the place where he wishes me to serve him and I place my faith and fate in His Almighty hands.  I would appreciate prayers though for His guidance and directions.

May this short update find you all very well and very blessed.  Make this year the year that you grow the closest to our Lord.

God Bless,
Roy

A New Year - A New Chapter

Yesterday was a quiet day.  I spent most of my time just trying to finally fight off this infection in my tooth.  Ultimately, I don't think any of the antibiotics have done much for it (though I am still taking the third antibiotic as directed) and it has come down to my body fighting this thing off.  It's now been over two weeks and I'm feeling very drained by it all.  I am at this moment however planning to go to the gym this evening come hell or high waters.

I did watch the Huskers play yesterday and just the one play was worth the time invested in watching the game.

Huskers Win - video with td pass

Unfortunately I did miss the last few minutes of the game as I dozed off in the recliner.  I was watching the game alone and 'Pansie' wanted to sit on my lap.  Whatever it is about her as soon as she curls up on your lap and goes to sleep she makes you fall asleep shortly as well.  Oh well, I saw most all of the game and I certainly watched that incredible pass play.  So it was all good.

The rest of the day I spent reading in a book of theological essays that Creath gave me for Christmas.  I listened to an Audio-Bible online for a while, and listened to 'Sting' while I read.  The image above is now a couple of days old but, it still applies.  We have a stack of blank pages ahead of us all, let's fill these pages with interesting and enriching words and events.

Each of us has a book or our 'Life' just as Sting says in this song, which is one of my favorite songs of his by the way.  And certainly, the Chapter on religion that we don't understand, but we and myself feel compelled to try and understand.  Even as I am fully aware that it is not possible.  But what we can and all should do is try to improve and strengthen that relationship that we each have with the Almighty.  Trying to feel and see the hand of the Creator that is all about us on a constant basis.

For what it's worth this is my favorite song by Sting.  Though the video leaves a great deal to be desired.  The song lyrics are haunting and one I have burned to several CD mixes of my favorite music.

Likely my second favorite song by Sting, but more for the melody and not the lyrics for this one.  The video on this one is somewhat racy so you've been warned if you are extremely sensitive about such things.

Yesterday I did learn that my Aunt Sylvia discovered a mass in her lung.  The Doctor is fairly certain that it is cancerous but they have not done a biopsy yet.  Sylvia is the last surviving sibling of my Father's siblings.  She has been a smoker for years along with her late husband so in many ways this is not a surprise but it is still heart breaking.  She is such a wonderful lady and if all goes well we should really try and get up to South Dakota and visit her before anything else happens.  It's been far too many years since I've seen her and it is sad how the years slip away from all of us.

Just this morning I've decided that it's time for me to reread the book 'If Grace is True' by Philip Gulley & James Mulholland.  This is one of my favorite books of all time and I'm suddenly feeling the need to read it again.  So I will, it's a fairly quick read really so it shouldn't take more than a day or two for me.

Link to 'If Grace is True' on Amazon

I'm looking forward to 2014 as a year of change for my family and myself.  Where will the dawn of 2015 find us?  Wow, that number sounds 'large'... I can remember as a child thinking I would be lucky if I lived to see the year 2000!  At any rate, there are a number of things 'brewing' for this year and only the Good Lord has any idea what is in store for the Karlen family.

I hope that each of you has a wonderful, deeply blessed and productive year here in 2014.  May God protect and guide you all.

In God's Love and Guidance,

Roy