The weather here is kinda mellowing out – temperature wise. The humidity has been making most rollercoasters look like kiddie rides. My aching has been deep and constant.

My posting, for this reason, has been missing. When you are trying to accomplish the basics (put your feet on the floor, stand up, walk around, do your job duties, breathe, etc. through a fog of constant pain (and the induced fog of Tylenol Rapid Release Gels) you get tired.

And then you get to fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ; you, in fact, get to help lead them in praise and worship. The pain lifts for a blissful while. You enjoy it while you can, because you know that it will be back. It’s just a matter of living with it for so many years; and you deal with it. Nothing that can be “cured,” nothing that can be “fixed,” nothing that can be changed. Just endured.

Lord, thank you for letting me feel the pain, since it reminds me that I am alive in You.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Feast your eyes on this:

People are expressing amazement at the high daytime and even more amazement at the high overnight lows that the Phoenix Metro area is experiencing. This, in spite of their (stated) understanding that the development of the area (large areas of concrete and asphalt, massive structures) creates a heat island – that is, these structures and areas soak up the heat all day and slowly release it all night, keeping the overnight lows artificially elevated and the daytime temps stay high because there is no “cooling off” period.

Once you get out of Metro Phoenix, you get to experience the true desert weather pattern – very warm and dry during the day, and much cooler temps at night since there are no heat sinks to retain and then discharge the heat. Temperatures in the lower 50’s overnight are not unheard of, even in the middle of July and August, and in the spring and fall you can actually catch freezing temperatures. Of course, once this is discovered, everyone rushes to build in that area, and the heat island begins to take affect.

And then people complain about the incessant heat.

Whose idea was it to build such a massive metropolitan area in the middle of the desert, anyway?

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Sometimes, I miss the time I could afford to take to do my old Thursday Round Ups. I don’t want my bloglist to think that I’ve forgotten them; so if you would all do me a favor and run down my bloglist on the sidebar and pay those good folks a visit, I would appreciate it. I’m sure they would too.

I was thinking about our fellowship this morning. The message last night included a sidebar by the pastor, referring to some former members who have left to follow a different path. Most of those who have left were sincere brothers and sisters while they were in the fellowship; but once an item was discussed they couldn’t believe it or they couldn’t follow it within the parameters of Christianity.

This begs the question – if you are not willing to follow ALL of the tenets of Christianity, why do you call yourself a Christian? The particular example mentioned last night was in regard to personal accountability, but others have been some pretty basic stuff – things like not having any gods before the One True God (following money instead of God), not being willing to give up a fleshly desire (alcohol to excess, extra-marital sexual relations) or allowing fleshly desires to interfere with your continued relationship with the Christ (again, the extra-marital thing). One brother left our fellowship because of jealousy and covetousness – he could not grasp the concept of a leader who could afford to provide for his family AND have a boat (which, by the way, is freely offered to the group for use).

(as a side note – this leader is blessed by God not only in his personal life, but in his business affairs also – and it is solely because he has consecrated everything to the Lord. he already has one successful business and is embarking on launching another – he has a history of entrepreneurial successes – both current endeavors are in partnership with his brother, who is also a wonderful man of God. watching their success is a testament to the power of faith)

At any rate – last night we covered 1 Corinthians 4-6, and that discussion is what generated these thoughts. Follow God, be successful. Pick and choose which parts to follow, run into issues. Saying you are a Christian is easy. Being and acting as a Christian is another matter entirely, and one where a lot of “Christians” fall.

Watch your step, brothers and sisters.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

No, not me – I’m a nice guy, and don’t get black listed. I do, however, get about a ton of “questionable” comments that WPSpamFree think might be real comments. Not here – over at Black Canyn Railroad Museum. For some reason, even though the settings at both sites are the same, that one gets hit with a LOT more spam comments. Sure, some of them show up over here, but I am in the middle of wading through over thirty spam comments and adding their IPs to the WPSpamFree “blacklist” – which is supposed to automatically mark as spam and trash any comments coming from those IPs. It wouldn’t be so bad, but thirty is since Sunday evening, when I spent more time blacklisting over fifty – since Friday.

Sometimes, it doesn’t seem worth the effort to chew through the straps in the morning.

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

It was kind of a clunky process, but the pastor in Florida managed to highlight the “peacefulness” of the “Religion of Peace” (which, if it really is peaceful, shouldn’t need to be reminded of that fact so often) by agreeing NOT to burn to korans in his possession.

A while ago, I had this little tid-bit in the middle of a post:

Well, fine, you think to yourself – this old heap has been giving me problems anyway. Down to Larry’s Used Cars and Crullers you go for a new-to-you vehicle.

Oops – Larry’s closed down, too. Same reason – Cash For Clunkers took the decent used vehicles and, per government mandate, crushed them – so not even the salvageable parts, much less the entire car, could be resold. Part government program, part Green Whiners solution.

Today, in the Arizona Republic (link not guaranteed) was this little gem from George F. Will (caution – wapo):

The used-car market is an important mechanism for redistributing wealth to low-income persons: The price of a car drops when it is driven out of the dealership, but much of its transportation value remains when it enters the used-car market. Unfortunately for low-income people, the average price of a three-year-old automobile has increased more than 10 percent since last summer. This is largely because the Car Allowance Rebate System, aka “Cash for Clunkers,” which ended in August 2009, cut the supply of used cars.

Gee, I wonder why no one wants to let Obama continue to run the economic policies of this nation?

Chat ya later…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!