The Dog Days Of Summer

Yesterday may have been the first day of Summer, but here in Central Illinois, it's felt like summer longer than that. I've had the AC running non-stop since the end of May and it doesn't look like there is any relief in sight. Now I don't mind the heat so much, it's just the humidity that kills me. When you hav dew points in the mid to upper 70's, it's a bit too much. The cool thing is we've been having a lot of pop up storms lately due to the weather, I love storms but a quite a few have been severe and we've had tornadoes to the north and south of us. As far as goings on, the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, the Cubs still stink and Sunday I'm to be ordained as a Deacon!

Ronnie James Dio

Today is a sad day for me, Ronnie James Dio, the man with the powerful voice, passed away yesterday. There have been and are some great singers in the Heavy Metal/Hard Rock genre, but to me Ronnie was the best. I always loved Sabbath, but when he joined with them after leaving Rainbow, they seemed to have a much tighter sound thanks to Ronnie. My favorite song that Ronnie sang has to be "To Live For The King" on Kerry Livgren's seeds of change album. He made that song come alive and in Kerry's autobiography he said that Ronnie improvised the lines at the end. Thank You Ronnie for your music, we'll miss you.....

Let Us Pray

Tomorrow is the National Day Of Prayer, please join with me as we pray for our country.
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord: and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance." Psalm 33:12

When I Find Myself In Times Of Trouble..

No it's not "Mother Mary", but God who comes to us in those times. It's been a rough
first five months of 2010, but through it all, my faith continues to increase. Too many times at the beginning of this year I would throw myself a pity party and cry "Woe is me..". Last May I was approached and asked if I would consider becoming a Deacon in our church, I thought about it and said sure. Well fast forward to February of this year, I was asked about it again and was told their was to be a Deacon training being started and would I like to participate. My wife and I (Because a wife plays just as a vital role as the husband does according to 1 Timothy 3:11)went to the first session and I was very humbled after that first lesson, wondering how a man as myself could be called by God for such an important role. But after the six week course was through, my faith was stronger than ever. During that time, we were attacked relentlessly, My wife TWICE had two hospital stays, bills continued to pour in and it seemed at every corner disaster awaited. But through it all, I refused to blame God. Instead He gave me peace and comfort through it all. I'm reminded of the beautiful Keith Green song "Trials Turned To Gold" and Thank Him for all that He has done. Don't let anyone tell you the Christian Life is easy and just filled with blessings at every corner, so-called preachers like Joel Osteen and others with their cotton candy gospel outlook annoy me to no end. Read the first chapter of the book of James, it speaks loudly!

Hooray For Spring....

Yes, spring is here and so is baseball, but, my goodness, what a horrible opening game for the Cubs!! A 16-5 drubbing at the hands of the Braves. It sure started off pretty darned good with Marlon Byrd hitting a three run shot in the top of the first, but it got away pretty quick after that. Supposed "ace" Zambrano looked like crap out there and had no control whatsoever, and don't even get me started on Samardzja!! I know the umps blew a call and killed what looked like a Cubs rally, but this was a crappy played game. Day off today and re-group tomorrow, hopefully with better results.

Health Care

Well, it's been a while since I blogged anything and I apologize. Late last month I had to take my wife to the E.R. because she was having chest pains. After a few days of test, they put a stint in and gave her different blood pressure mediacation. She is doing fine and is on a strict low sodium diet and she's supposed to lose weight and exercise as well since they found she also has a leaky heart valve. Our insurance covered everything and a $57,000.00 plus bill became only a $250.00 co-pay. I shudder to think what's going to happen now that Barack HUSSIEN got his wishes and his stupid health care passed.

Me and the devil Blues

Man, as of late I've been fighting off depression. The weather has a lot to do with one feeling blue, especially during Winter, but also every bill that we have, jumped up in cost. Our house payment, utilities, credit cards, sanitation, cable bill and health insurance, just to name a few, all went up in payment!! Now the bad thing is, our place of employment still has a salary freeze in effect. So while we are still being paid by 2008 standards, everything else is going up. It seems like I'm being targeted even more since I was asked by our church to take classes in Deacon training. Now to me there is now higher honor than being called and serve God, if I'm chosen I will serve with gladness. But Satan has a way of hitting you, and he's hit me pretty hard. As we struggle to make ends meet, I question God and ask where He's at and why is He not helping.
I know that God is indeed there and His timing is not as ours. I do think of the blessings that God has bestowed upon us, but when things look bleak, I seem to have short term memory. The three verses that I'm standing on now are II Timothy 1:7, James 4:7 & I Peter 5:8