Anybody Want A New Kid By Friday?

Even though DebbieLynne and I don't have any children of our own, we still care about them very much. DebbieLynne and I have heard Dr. Keven Leman talk on the radio about helping kids to change their behavior. His most popular book is "Have a New Kid by Friday." It seems there are times when many frustrated parents would love to replace (or somehow retrain) the kid that's driving them crazy.

As of yet I haven't read the book, but what I've heard Dr. Leman say on the radio certainly seems to make a lot of sense. Rather than argue with children he recommends establishing consequences for bad behavior. One of the things I like about this approach is that it seems to be similar to how God deals with us. You don't find God getting into a shouting match with His kids, do you? Our Father in heaven tells us what to do. He also tells us there will be unpleasant consequences if we don't do what He says. God told Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for if he did he would die. Adam and Eve nevertheless ate of it. And sure enough they lost the ability to live eternally in paradise God didn't yell at them. But He let them bear the consequences He said would occur. If you think you could benefit from Dr. Leman's book, Have A New Kid by Friday, you could look for it at the library. Or buy it at a bookstore, or online. If you like you could buy it here, either new or used.

A Little Something About Success and Failure

Two or three months ago I came across a blog called SuccessAndFailure.net. The administrator was looking for writers to submit an example of their work so he could choose several to become writers for the blog. The idea was that if he found 30 writers, they could each write an average of one post a month.

It wasn't the name of the blog that interested me as much as that it was that going to be a Christian blog Therefore I emailed a piece of my writing to the administrator and included a link to my blog. And then I went on to other things.

Today I got a call from the guy who started SuccessAndFailure.Net saying that he hoped I would accept his invitation to me to post on his blog on a regular basis. I told him I'd be glad to do so. But first I decided to make a post right here about his blog.

In addition to his blog having posts from a variety of authors, there are also links to obtain information on several topics. One link is for finding a local church. The basic list only has a few churches, but from there is a link to nationwide church search service on ChurchAngel.com.

I decided to use ChurchAngel.com to see what was listed for churches in Holbrook, Massachusetts. Lo and behold the first church listed is Brookville Baptist Church, the one my wife, DebbieLynne, and I attend.
 
OK, that's all for today. With the Lord's prompting I'll seek to post more often.

Let Him Labor...That He May Have Someething to Give

The title of this post is from Ephesians 4:28 which reads:

 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.     -Ephesians 4:28   NKJV  (c) 1982 Thomas Nelson Publishers

One of things I like about this verse of Scripture is that working should not be just to provide for a person's own needs, or even just for the needs of his family. Those who are able to work should seek to earn enough so they can give to those who have a need and are not able to meet that need on their own.

When I was six I became disabled due to polio. The disability is such that I could sit back and figure there was nothing I could do to earn any money. As I get older that day may come, but until then I want to do what I can to earn some extra money.

What am I able to do? Well, I sell things through catalogs and websites. Those sales earn commissions. With those commissions I can buy groceries, treat my wife to a date from time to time, and give to those who have needs.

With catalog and website sales, I generally just try to encourage people to look at them and then I wait for them to place orders.

But I'm a guy who doesn't like to just sit still (ask my wife) and just wait. So I look for other things to earn a bit of money.

Going back to the Scripture verse it doesn't say "let him labor if he finds something that pays really well" It doesn't say "let him labor if he finds something he really loves doing." The verse simply says "let him labor, working with his hands something good."

There's nothing wrong working at something that pays well or that we love doing. But if neither of those is available then I'm going to settle for something that is simply good.

That's why I visit Paid to Click ad sites to earn small payments for viewing ads. The pennies add up to dollars.

That's also why I click on other ads just to earn credits to show my own ads. Sometimes when looking at ads I come across something worth trying out.

Today I discovered Associated Content, a website with content for other websites on a wide variety of subjects.

Associated Content pays writers at least $2 per article if they accept it, and then $1.50 per 1,000 times the article is viewed.

I'm going to give article writing a try. Maybe you'd like to try yourself. There are lots of tutorials in their help section.

Visit to Museum of Fine Arts

Yesterday DebbieLynne and I visited the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. After getting permission from one of the staff I took a few photos without flash, including the one above.

The featured exhibit at the Museum at the moment is "The Secrets of Tomb 10A Egypt 2000 BC."

The treasure trove of artifacts were from the tomb of Djehutynakht, who was governor of a province in Egypt 4,000 years ago.

In addition to these amazingly crafted models retrieved from the tomb, there were also the inner and outer coffins of the governor and his wife. On the inside and outside of those coffins were detailed inventories of thousands of items which had been included in the burial chambers. Most of the valuable items had been looted centeruies ago, but extensive lists tell us much about what the Egyptians believed was needed for the trip into the afterlife.

 I was impressed by how much effort had gone into the carving,  inscribing, decorating and constructing of this tomb. An instant after death the governor knew how useless all that work and all those items were to him.

 If those who believed a false religion could put so much effort into their work, how much more should Christians demonstrate their love for the one true God who sent His only begotten Son to die for them.

Shouldn't we heed the commandment to...

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."  Mark 12:30  NIV

I know we fall far short of that commandment. But we need to remember that it is a commandment, not a suggestion to be considered when we find the time to do so.

Just agreeing we should keep that great commandment isn't enough.We need to seek, fervently seek, God's help to do better at loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Where Did Everything Come From?

If you look around I'm pretty sure you'll come to the conclusion that something exists. You should at least conclude that you exist because even if you decided that nothing exists, you'd be the one deciding that.

If you came to believe (or claim to believe) that nothing existed you would have to be wrong. You couldn't believe anything at all nothing was all that there was.

So, something exists. Whoever is reading this exists (you) and whoever wrote it exists (me).

Again, observing what's is around us, and doing a bit of reading, most people could conclude that the Universe exists. It's a rather big Universe, don't you think? At least in comparison to...well...you or me.

Which brings me to the title of this blog entry. Where did everything come from?

I used to love reading science books and articles. That's when I learned that for awhile some scientists figured we lived in a steady state universe that with molecules and stars and galaxies just rambling around here and there and eventually ending up back where they started before rambling off in another direction.

But as telescopes and astronomical measuring instruments got better, it became obvious that the Universe had a beginning.

Golly! The Universe had a beginning! Then that means that everything in the Universe (including you and me) had a beginning.

Well, where did everything (in the Universe) come from?

Everything couldn't come from anything that was part of the Universe because it didn't exist yet. And whatever caused the Universe to begin must be bigger and greater than anything that came into existence at the beginning or ever since then.

The only possibility of knowing how the universe began, and came to have all that is in the universe, is if whatever caused it to begin communicated that information to us. We certainly couldn't find it out on our own.

Since you and I are fairly intelligent self aware personal beings who are capable of learning and communicating, it seems reasonable that whatever caused us (and everything else) to exist must also be personal and communicating and...teaching. I say teaching rather than learning because anything we might be able to learn must already be known by whatever made everything.

If the one who made everything is personal and can communicate thdn perhaps that maker or creator has communicated in a way that we can comprehend.

If the Maker of Everything in the Universe has communicated in a way we can comprehend, what should we do about it?

Should we tell the maker, I'm not interested in what You have to say to us?

Should we just busy ourselves with other things and ignore, reject, and make excuses for not looking into or heeding what the Maker may want us to know about Himself, His Creation, and us?

There is a book that includes a lot of very interesting passages.

One of those passages says:

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"
(Gen 1:1) NKJV Thomas Nelson Publishers (c) 1982)

Another passage says:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.(John 1:1-3) NKJV Thomas Nelson Publishers (c)1982

It seems to me that the best word to identify the Maker of everything that exists is the word God. And there is a book that declares that "In the beginning, God made..."

Does this God want to communicate with us? Well, there is that book called the Bible where we read these things. We also read:

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us"
(John 1:14) NKJV (c) 1982 Thomas Nelson Publishers

If the One made everything is called the Word, and is the One who became flesh and dwelt among us, then shouldn't we give Him as much attention as we possibly can? Shouldn't we seek to learn from Him everything He wants to teach us?

If He has both given us a Book and come in the flesh to communicate with us and we deliberately and intentionally reject Him and what He has to say to us, would he be just in judging us?

Even if we try to convince ourselves that God wouldn't be just to judge us for rejecting Him and His Word, the only ones we'll be fooling is ourselves. The Creator who made everything is the only One who has the complete right and power to judge.

That should cause all of us to have enough fear and respect for the Maker to take whatever time it takes to learn what is in the book that might rightfully be called the written Word of God.

If the Bible is not the written Word of God then learning what is in it will at least give us some insights into some incredible writing.

If the Bible is the written Word of God, then learning what it in it may have consequences that are as eternal as the Holy God who inspired it to be written for us.

I Learn a Lot from My Wife

Yes, I do certainly learn a lot from my wife.

Before she moved here from California to marry me I would venture around Boston thinking about all the things I would get to show her in such a historic and modern city.

During our first excursion as husband and wife around Boston, for every one thing that I pointed out to her, she pointed out three or more things I'd never noticed before!

She also has taught me that just because certain foods sound threatening (like arti CHOKE hearts) and look really weird, I nevertheless I should try them at least once. Sure enough I now enjoy artichoke on my pizza.

Lately she's been teaching me more about Facebook (TM). Thanks to her I now have a link to my primary website under the photo on my profile page, just under where it identifies me as the "Happy hubby of DebbieLynne."

She's also helped me learn a lot more about becoming a good husband. I'd read a book or two before on the subject before getting married, but to really learn something like that it helps to (1) be married and (2) to have a considerate and patient wife like DebbieLynne.

A Snowy Sunday At Home

Since both my wife and I have physical limitations which include hindered breathing ability, we had to forgo going to church today due to the windy, below freezing, snowy weather.

After breakfast we watched John MacArthur preach a sermon from Ephesians 5 on spiritual warfare. We would rather have been in church, but since we couldn't be there we still wanted to hear teaching from the Word of God.

After lunch I asked DebbieLynne if she felt like playing Bookwormon her computer while I sat alongside to kibitz. Actually what I most enjoy doing is watch her find great words to play and get lots of points.

After a while I had to lie down to rest. When I got up again shortly before supper she was still playing BookWorm and I watched as she made it to 1,100,000 points, level 30, which she'd never done before. I don't know which of us enjoyed it more, her doing it or me getting to watch her reach the new level. She comes up with awesome words that I never would think of. (After all, she was an English Literature major in college.)