Sleep the final frontier

It is hard to believe it is already Tuesday morning at 2:18 am. I seem to remember that I just went to church and then went out to lunch and went to work 3 pm to 11 pm Sunday evening. Then I went back to work at 7 am until 3pm on Monday morning. That was yesterday and here it is after 2 am in the morning on Tuesday. It is a good thing that I dont have to go to work until 3 pm today. Maybe Sammy the mutt will let us sleep past 4:30 am today. Yesterday morning after going to bed at 1:30 am he went out to leave his mark on the neighborhood and when he came back inside he decided he would start barking at Angel to see if she would wake up and play with him. That plan backfired on him because he wound up waking up the Boggy Creek Monster who came into Kristina's room and descended upon him in an attempt to change his mind with regards to barking at 4:30 am. Apparently the Boggy Creek Monster likes to sleep undisturbed during that time of the day. Sammy the mutt was unable to dodge the first two blows that bounced off his body but he did dive for cover next to Kristina who awakened and came to his defense in the nick of time. The Boggy Creek Monster having made his point clear enough to Sammy the mutt retreated back to the creek and attempted to go back to sleep.

As we fast forward to around 8 pm last night you will note that I decided to make a run to Wallyworld to locate a TV antennae for our television. We have not had cable TV now for about 2 months which also means that we were not getting local TV channels either. That means that I have been several quarts low on Jay Leno monologue. My trip to Wallyworld was productive in that I found an antennae and a DVD movie of interest and came back home to install said antennae. I am not sure IF Jeff Foxworthy has a line in his book called "You must be a redneck if" with regards to TV antennas. If not, I can happily add this one to his ever growing list. You must be a redneck if you spend 20.00 on a TV antenna and the only way you can get it to work in your double wide trailer is to throw it outside on the porch. LOL... That is right. This high powered antenna would get a signal but not much of one. I figure that while the metal in the double wide trailer is not much with regards to keeping in the cool or keeping out the cold it certainly can keep out all matter of TV signals. I guess that means that I dont have to worry about people sitting outside with parabolic mics listening in to our conversations.

In the past I tried this same manuver in an attempt to find a signal. In my desperation the next step became the mother of my newest brain child which was to toss the stupid antenna outside. That required a couple of extension cords and a 20 foot piece of cable and a splitter that allowed me to throw it out on the porch. Lets not forget the special enhancement that I added when I wrapped a couple of pieces of aluminum foil to each rabbit ear. That seemed to REALLY do the trick.

Pressing forward towards the Prize....

I utilized my Ipaq to take notes this morning and I was touched by this morning's message by Doug Dickerson who filled in for our pastor Tom Glisson. Doug Dickerson has preached at our church on several occasions and were happy to hear what God said through him this morning.

Doug picks up the sermon in Phillipians chapter 3 verses 12-14 as the apostle Paul is speaking....

Grace Fellowship Church
Sermon 7/11/04- Doug Dickerson

Phillipians 3:12-14

Phi 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Phi 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
Phi 3:14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Are we preserving or progressing in the Lord with our relationship?

Preserving is maintaining
Progressing is to move forward to the prize or pressing on

Are we content in living in what used to be?

Moving out of our comfort zone takes risk

God can not do anything new until we shake off the past and our comfort zone.

Do we place our comfort over commitment?

The tradition of the past hinders God from moving us into the future.

God does not change but we can be changed by God.

We can not be content in just our Godly heritage

We have not arrived.

There is always something new to experience and gain in our relationship with God.

Bad Attitude that hinders growth
Yesterdays experience was sufficient and can not be exceeded.

We are dependent upon God today.

Spiritual pride keeps us from experiencing God in a new way. We should not live in the past and our accomplishments with God.

Preserving is a defensive hold on the past.

Progressive is moving toward the future.

The 7 deadliest words for a church = We never did it this way before...


Paul was passionate abut knowing Christ. To move on with God we must become passionate about who God is and what He wants for us.

Fear of new things paralyzing us and keeping us from what God wants for us.

Fear paralyzes our dreams and hopes.

Lay down those (the) sin(s) that so easily entangles us

Three challenges for us today.


Believe that God wants to exceed our expectations

To keep our eyes on Jesus and not our circumstances

To keep pressing on towards the goal to win the prize