Blog comments and other drivel

Ok, Haloscan is nice especially since it is free. However, I do not get email notification of WHEN someone leaves a comment on one of my blog entries. That sort of bites... Oh well, maybe one day when finance pick up a little bit I can afford to upgrade to their premium service and get all the bells and whistles...

New England Patriots are favored as winners by 6 points against the Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII. Silly people... Dont they know that the Panthers are going to BURY the Patriots under a rock.... LOL....

I am off Monday and I am SO looking forward to it. What am I going to do on my day off? I borrowed a pressure washer from a friend and I am planning on washing all the green junk off of this trailer. The trailer has been LONG over due for a bubble bath. I probably wont have any bubbles but the pressure washer will knock that junk right off of it. Wahoooo the house will go from GREEN to GREY in a matter of hours. Neat huh?

Monday night is always a treat since that is the night that I attempt to hit the head pin and knock down all 10 pins at once. Last week I bowled a 156 average in three games and the week before I bowled a 152 average. Considering that I have a 129 average for the League I am getting better as time progresses. Too cool!! My goal is to bowl several games over 200 so I can add to my ABC patch collection.

Have you ever used Incredimail? Go to http://www.incredimail.com and download their email client. A friend of mine is using it and has had a lot of FUN with it. So, I was encouraged to give it a try. The last time I used it I had some technical difficulties that I just decided not to live with so I went back to Outlook. I still have everything backed up in Outlook and I still like the PIM functionality of the application so it will never go away completely. Incredimail is cool because it has all sorts of email stationary, animations etc etc. Check it out!!

Captain Kangaroo died at the age of 76. Children all over the world are mourning that death. Ok, maybe not children today, perhaps the baby boomers are feeling the grief more? I found out today that the Martian rover is having hardware and software failures. Apparently the darn thing must be running American hardware and the Operating System must be Microsoft Windoze. LOL... They are saying that the darn thing has been rebooting itself 60 times in a specific time period. I forget what the time period is but I wonder if it has a screen that shows the Blue Screen of Death every time it goes to reboot itself? I think the project cost something along the lines of 4 million dollars. That figure seems sort of low actually. Anyway, what a shame. We landed it, it crawled off the launch pad , sent back some cool pictures, sampled some soil and found evidence of water and then died..... I wonder if the second rover that is about to land will die as quickly? I hope it had Linux Redhat installed on it and not Mickeysoft.....

Have you purchased The Purpose Driven Life book yet? If not, why not? LOL.... Wow, this is an incredible book... I highly recommend it to ANYONE that wants to give their spiritual walk a super charged boost. How many books do you read, put on the bookshelf and then forget the contents or worse yet do not allow the contents to change you for the better? Does that sound like something we do to our bibles? We take it off the shelf, dust it off and then take it to church every Sunday. What do we do with it during the other 6 days of the week? Does what we read in the pages of our bible change us from the inside out ?

Once you have finished the 40 Days of Purpose in the Purpose Driven life book then I would recommend your picking up a copy of the Purpose Driven church. I am reading that book as well and while it is geared for pastors and lay leadership everyone in the church ought to read it.

The Purpose Driven Life - 40 Days of Purpose - Day 19

Day 19- Community requires commitment


Verse - We understand that love is when we realize that Christ give his life for us. That means we must give our lives for other believers. 1 John 3:16

Question to consider - how can I help cultivate today the characteristics of real community in my small group and my church?

Cultivating community takes the following:

Commitment
Honesty
Humility
Courtesy
Confidentiality
Frequency


The following statements stood out to me as I was reading this chapter about each characteristic mentioned above.


HONESTY


We cultivate fellowship in our community with the choices and commitments we make.

You will have to care enough to lovingly speak the truth

Real fellowship depends on frankness

The tunnel of conflict is the passageway to intimacy in any relationship

Thoughtless words leave lasting wounds.


HUMILITY

Self importance, smugness, and stubborn pride destroy fellowship

Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is thinking more of others.


COURTESY

Respecting our differences
Considerate of others feelings
Patient with people who irritate us

Community has nothing to do with compatibility
The basis for our fellowship is our relationship to God

CONFIDENTIALITY

Only in a safe environment of warm acceptance and trusted confidentiality will people open up and share their deepest hurts, needs and mistakes.

Gossip is spread by wicked people, they stir up trouble and break friendships. Proverbs 16:28

FREQUENCY

You must have frequent, regular contact with your group in order to build genuine fellowship.

Relationships take time


A small group covenant should include the following characteristics

Share true feelings - authenticity
Encourage each other - mutuality
Support each other - sympathy
Forgive each other - mercy
Speak the truth in love- honesty
Admit our weaknesses - humility
Respect our differences - courtesy
Not gossip - confidentiality
Make the group priority - frequency

Fellowship means giving up our self centeredness and independence in order to become interdependent.

The way that I can cultivate the characteristics of community is by practicing each of them in every relationship that I have. That will take some courage on my part because ti will mean that I will need the Holy Spirit to enlighten me as to which characteristic is missing in the relationships that I have. I will need to practice courtesy with those people who are fearful or scared of going to a deeper level with their relationship. Perhaps I have already been practicing honesty and humility and that might be what scares people off. I desire deep and meaningful relationships. I want to give and encourage others and I need to be willing to receive these characteristics of community in return.

It is always easier to practice these on others but not so fun to allow others to extend the same to me. It is easier to focus on known failures and weaknesses but a bit painful for someone to speak truth about something I am not immediately aware of. Receiving truth into ones soul can take enormous amounts of courage and humility. I feel that I need to grow in the areas of mercy, courtesy and frequency.

As I study this book I am painfully aware that I am lacking in true biblical fellowship or community in my life with regards to a small group or the local church where I serve. Community and biblical fellowship only happens superficially. The largest common denominator for our church body is time. We get together 2 hours per week at the most. You can not expect community or deep meaningful relationships to happen in a corporate environment. I am also reminded of the fact that there is a difference between the attendees at our church and the church membership who have made a commitment to play their part in the ministry at our church.

The scariest part of all of this is that I am fearful that if I were to start advertising the need for folks in our church to read this book that one of two things will happen.
The first thing would be that some people will read this book and nothing will change externally. In other words, they will probably get something out of the words in the book but it will not move them enough to make changes. Perhaps that is because they as a church attendee are happy with the status quo and don't want to see anything change. The church attendee may be in a rut and comfortable with what is going on. The second type of person will look at the book as an attack against tradition and the denominational culture they have been raised in. They will see my promotion of this book as pointing a finger and rocking the boat.

What good is knowledge if it is not applied to our lives and changes made? Would someone please get me a LARGE bandage?

The Purpose Driven Life - 40 Days of purpose - Days 17 & 18

Day 17- I am called to belong not just to believe


Verse to remember- In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Romans 12:5

Question to consider- Does my level of involvement in my local church demonstrate that I love and am committed to Gods family?

The following principles taught within this chapter are very important and a good reminder to me as I learn how to focus HOW I am involved in helping to build the church through ministry to fellow believers. I believe that I am very involved in what Christ is doing to build the local church we are attending. My wife and I are committed to using the gifts that God has given us to bless others in any way that we can. However as my understanding of WHAT ministry and worship really is I am learning HOW to GROW my perspective of ministry and what I can do to be better at what God has called me to do.


The Church meets the five deepest needs:



Purpose to live for
People to live with
Principles to live by
Profession to live out
Power to live on

Gods purposes for his church are identical to his five purposes for you


Worship helps you to "focus on God"
Fellowship helps you to " face life's problems"
Discipleship helps you to "fortify your faith"
Ministry helps you to "find your talents"
Evangelism helps you to "fulfill your mission"

" The difference between being a church attendees and a church member is commitment. Attendees are spectators from the sidelines, members get involved in the ministry. "

" Jesus has not promised to build your ministry , he has promised to build his church"

We are commanded to do the following "one anothers"

Love
Pray
Encourage
Admonish
Greet
Serve
Teach
Accept
Honor
Bear burdens
Forgive
Submit
Devoted

" Today's culture of independent individualism has created many spiritual orphans - "bunny believers" - who hop around from one church to another without any identity, accountability or commitment. "



Day 18- I need others in my life


Verse - share each others troubles and problems, and in this way obey the law of Christ. Gal 6:2


Question to consider - What one step can I take today to connect with another believer at a more genuine, heart to heart level?

The following Quotes from this chapter stands out for me.

"self-pity dries up sympathy for others"
"you cant have fellowship without forgiveness"
"you must make allowances for each others faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember , the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others" Col 3:13

The best way for me to connect to others for the purpose of genuine fellowship is for me to invest more time into the lives of people around me. I need to make myself available and encourage others to find the time to connect with me. The oly agenda that I should have during these times of connecting is to be open to whatever the Holy Spirit leads us. Listening to others and allowing them to share their heart is a powerful way to build trust and further communications. I need to be more willing to look beyond any obvious rough edges or obvious sin so that I might see the good things in a person that will allow us to have something in common and make a connection. It is so much easier to seek out people with the same interests and commonalities. God created each one of us with such diversity and just because someone is not just like me does not mean that their differences are bad or negative.

Who would have ever believed that Carolina Panthers would BEAT the Philadelphia Eagles? The score was 14-3 and the Panthers are Houston Texas bound to be in Super Bowl XXXVIII. Wahoooo ! Go PANTHERS!!!!

Day 16- Life is all about Love

Verse to remember- The entire law is summed up in a single command. Love your neighbor as yourself. Galatians 5:14

Question to consider - Honestly, are my relationships my first priority? How can I ensure they are?



Relationships are high on the priority list but probably not at the very top. I am a people person and I thrive being around people. I have been told that "people do not know how to take me" so perhaps I am not the type of person that folks want to surround themselves with. I love interacting with people but I am not social butterfly. I do not thrive on superficial blather. I do not mind breaking the ice and talking about trivial things to get further in a conversation but once I learn that the folks are not willing to talk about "heart matters" I can get bored pretty quickly. I also have a problem with saying what is on my mind when it gets there. I usually do not pull any punches and while I understand how important it is to be politically correct and tactful I still have some work at knowing when to be that way and when not to be that way. A friend told me that I get too deep too fast. I get too up front and personal and in your face too quickly in relationships. I have been told that I expect way too much out of a relationship. I guess that I am the type of person that you either love or you hate. People that are more skilled at relationships than myself and have the ability to look beyond my rough edges are able to find out who the REAL me is and they sometimes choose to stick around. For those folks like myself that find it difficult to look past the irritating , frustrating rough edges of others I guess they just blow me off and get out of the way. I need to take a lesson from that thought in that I too need to find a way to be more patient with irritating, frustrating people with rough edges. I have not arrived nor am I perfect and without fault. How can I expect everyone else to be perfected and able to provide perfect harmony with me when I am not? The toughest part of love is learning to love the unlovable. It is so much easier to love someone that has the same priorities, drive, ambitions, faith etc. Unselfish love is that which takes a sacrifice to deliver. Only through the power of God can we find that "Phileo" love that only He can give to reach out and love someone that is difficult to approach for whatever reasons.

The only way that I can ensure that relationships are my top priority is to examine how I spend my time. What I spend my time on the most is what I love. I need to evaluate how I spend my time and remove some of the "time eaters" that rob me of valuable relationships. I find that I spend a lot of time going between the computer and the television set. I lovingly call the TV the "idiot box" because it allows me to disengage my brain and allow myself to be "entertained". Instead of being entertained I need to use some of that time more responsibly by developing closer relationships with my wife and children. I do not consider myself to be emotionally absent like some fathers we might know but I do need to find activities and moments of down time that I can appropriate to spend with my family. I can show my family more love by spending more time with them and getting to know them better. As for relationships outside of the family unit I need to pray and ask God to show me those people that I can invest my time in. I need to be a "Paul" in the life of a younger man who might need to be mentored and I also need to put myself in the position of being a "Timothy" to a man older and wiser than myself that can mentor me. I spend some quality time via the Internet investing time into the lives of men through e-mail and bulletin board systems. I need to spend more time away from the Internet and more time investing my life with others in the community in real life that God has placed me in.

The Purpose Driven Life Chapters 10-15

Chapter 10- The heart of worship is surrender

Verse to remember- surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes Romans 6:13b

Question to consider- what area of my life am I holding back from God?


Several quotes from this chapter got my attention


"There are three barriers that block our total surrender to God; fear, pride and confusion."

"to have complete control - is the cause of so much stress in our lives. We struggle with God."

"You know you re surrendered to God when you rely on God to work things out instead of trying to manipulate others, force your own agenda and control the situation."

"surrender yourself to the Lord, and wait patiently for him."

"the most difficult area to surrender for many people is their money"


As I think about lack of faith and trust equating to not surrendering totally to God I think of my past and some of the issues or circumstances that I can look back at.

In the past 24 years I have worked in the following occupations and held positions within the occupations.

Psychiatric Technician
EMT and Nursing assistant
Roofer
Longshoreman/ Stevedore
Security/ Law Enforcement
Information Technology

In the last 24 years I have been married twice with my current marriage lasting almost 14 years and going strong. Due to the last 15 years having been spent in Information Technology and because I spent 8 years in Law Enforcement we have moved at least 24 times or maybe more. Is there no wonder that I want to settle down in one occupation and live in the same location for longer than 2 to 3 years? I/ we feel that we need stability. Our children need stability. All these years I have attempted to find steady and lasting employment. Perhaps my lack of a college degree has something to do with that? My parents tried to teach me the importance of having a college degree when I was still living at home but in all my wisdom (at the age of 18) I yearned to be outside of their realm of authority and influence and wanted to be my own man and do my own thing. So I dropped out of RN school and did my own thing.

When I was in my early 20's I felt a very strong calling to ministry. I did not feel called to pastor a church but rather to Christian ministry. After my divorce and coming from the SBC denomination all hopes of ministry were flushed down the toilet. At the age of 42 I look back at the last 24 years and wonder if I have been rebellious in more than one area of my life. I became a Christian at the age of 17 when I asked Christ into my heart out in the woods of Quinlan Texas as one of my friends father led me to a saving knowledge of Christ by a chopping block. I began to understand the need for Christ to be the Lord of everything in my life and not just my fire insurance card when I was in my mid 20's. When I compare my life to other friends that I know it appears as if they have their life in order and my life appears to be a ship wreck floating out in the harbor.

Waiting on the Lord and surrendering my will to God has been a pursuit since I got serious about the Lord being Lord of all. I spent quite a few years trying to figure out how and why I needed to quit making decisions through intuition and gut feelings. I have a natural tendency to be spontaneous and do things on the fly. I guess that I have always equated success to having stability and that stability would equate to stable income and finances and that would guarantee a safe and secure family. Perhaps I still need to learn how to totally surrender all and let go of the things of this word, especially its wisdom and let God do what He wants with my life.



Chapter 11 - God wants to be my best friend

Verse to remember- Friendship with God is reserved for those who reverence him.

Question to consider - What can I do to remind myself to think about God and talk to him more often throughout my day.



I spent a lot of time doing activities and tasks that require me to tune in with the Holy Spirit and converse with God and meditate on his word or research what Gods word says about a specific topic. The following statements from the book have special emphasis.


"if you are seeking an experience of his presence through all of this, you have missed the point. We don't praise God to feel good, but to do good. Your goal is not a feeling, but a continual awareness of the reality that God is always present. That is the lifestyle of worship."



So to become a BEST friend of God I need to learn how to perfect the skill of talking with God about every day tasks or events as well as meditating more on his word.
I find that the worries of this world can sometimes overwhelm me and drag me down into the pit of helplessness or give me the feeling of hopelessness. Instead of allowing the circumstances to control how I feel through emotional responses I need to learn how to consciously channel those things to God and ask him how to deal with them. Sometimes I spend so much time during quiet time repenting of sin and fearing God that I forget that God wants me to be his best friend. God cares about every single detail of my life. I know that but somehow I still compartmentalize God with regards to WHEN I spent quiet time or let him into my life.


Day 12- I am as close to God as I choose to be.

Verse to remember - Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you. James 4:8

Question to consider - What practical choices will I make today in order to grow closer to God.



The following comments in the book are of importance.

"You must work at developing your friendship with God." "I must choose to be honest with God." "Complete honesty- about your faults and feelings. " "Bitterness is the greatest barrier to friendship with God." "I must choose to value what God values".



There are times during my typical day that I am aware of God but I am passive in regards to communicating with him. I need to quit seeking to be emotionally happy and constantly entertained during moments of down time. Instead of doing something just to pass the time and experience momentary pleasure I need to pursue God passionately. Prayer, meditation and talking to God honestly about my feelings on a regular basis and not just when it is my scheduled quiet time with God. God desires to be a full time friend and not someone that needs to fill a time slot in my Day Timer.



Day 13 - God wants all of me

Verse to remember - Love the lord your God with all your hart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Mark 12:30

Question to consider - Which is more pleasing to God right now- My public worship or my private worship.



When I originally wrote my answer I missed the "MY" portion of public or private worship and thought it was asking "which" form of worship was more pleasing to God. I will go ahead and run with my thoughts on that question and then answer the original question below.

My thoughts on WHICH type of worship is more important to God.

I believe that God is interested in both private and public worship. I also believe that God looks past our method of worship and examines our motives for worship. As this chapter and book states the acts of worship are far more diverse than just singing choruses of music on Sunday morning. God wants us to worship Him thoughtfully, authentically and passionately. I have to remember that when I make an effort to minimize my desires and wants and put the needs of God and other first and foremost that I will have many different ways to worship God. I have always said that a tithe is much more than 10% of my income. I believe that our tithe and or worship is time, talents and money.

My thoughts on "MY" private and public worship.

I believe that MY definition of worship has been radically changed by reading the definition that is given in this book. I believe now as I look back that there have been times when I thought that I did not worship God in a pleasing way that in fact there have been times that I have worshiped him both publicly and privately and have brought a smile to his face. I think that there are times when I am in the spot light of public ministry no matter what role I might be playing that I am more conscious of how I APPEAR to others than I should be. I have always attempted to be sincere and authentic with my worship and have never had a problem with being REAL or passionate. Where I need to improve with regards to worship both publicly and privately would be to seek out new opportunities for worship now that I have a NEW definition of WHAT worship really is. It is much more than what happens on Sunday morning or during a specified church program.



Day 14 - God is real, no matter how I feel

Verse to remember - For God has said, I will never leave you, I will never abandon you. Heb 13:5

Question to consider - How can I stay focused on God's presence, especially when he feels distant?



The following statements had special meaning and relevance in my life.

"God is real, no matter how you feel"

"But circumstances are not always pleasant"

"The deepest level of worship is praising God in spite of pain, thanking God during at trial, trusting him when tempted, surrendering while suffering, and loving him when he seems distant"

"We grieve Gods spirit and quench our fellowship with him by disobedience, conflict with others, busyness, friendship with the world and other sins."

"God can handle your doubt, anger, fear, grief, confusion and questions"



I can attest to the fact that my circumstances in the last three years have played havoc with my emotions and at times my faith. I could relate to Job even though my trials were not as severe nor did my faith always reflect his total trust in God. My trust in God was seated in total ignorance of my circumstances and a loss to know what else to do other than to cling to what I knew. I knew I keep coming back to the statement that the "purpose" is not about me but it is about God. It is so much easier to be obedient, fruitful, content and happy when the circumstances of life are going my way. When I continually seek to be emotionally satisfied I limit my perception of Gods desires to my immediate circumstances and how I feel about them. I can allow those situations to rob me of my joy.

I can stay focused on Gods presence by doing the following.

A. Communicate with God and tell him how I feel
B. Focus on who God is and not my circumstances
C. Trust God to keep his promises
D. Remember what God has already done for me


Day 15- I was formed for Gods Family

Verse to remember- his unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ Ephesians 1:5a

Question to consider - how can I start treating other believers like members of my own family?

A. Showing genuine concern for their well being
B. Loving them selflessly just as I would want to be
C. Thinking less of my own circumstances and pursuing healthy relationships
D. Investing time, talent and resources into the lives of younger believers
E. Allowing myself to be trainable and teachable to a mentor

The Purpose Driven Life Journal Entries 3-9

Chapter 4 - Made to last forever - Thinking about my purpose.


Point to ponder - There is more to life than just here and now


Verse to remember- 1 John 2:17 - This world is fading away, along with everything it craves. But if you do the will of God, you will live forever.



Question to consider- Since I was made to last forever, what is the one thing I should stop doing and the one thing I should start doing today. The following quote from page 37 struck a chord with me.


" When you fully comprehend that there is no more to life than just here and now, and you realize that life is just preparation for eternity you will begin to live differently. You will start living in the light of eternity, and that will color how you handle every relationship, task and circumstance. The closer you live to God, the smaller everything else appears."

I have heard of people that were so heavenly minded that they were of no earthly good. We are in this world, passing through and aliens to the worldview around us.
Perhaps there needs to be more of a balance. Maybe we are so earth centric that we loose sight of eternity. One of the things I need to stop doing is to stop limiting myself with regards to my mental or spiritual potential. How many years have I wasted in ministry because I bought into the church mindset that says only licensed and ordained ministers are qualified to "minister". I need to stop filtering my spiritual and ministry purpose through the light of denominational legalism and cultural and/or tradition. I know that I have not been called to the office of a Pastor. However there are other spiritual gifts within the body that do not require me to be a pastor, ordained or licensed. What do I need to start doing? I need to start becoming more radical with my faith. I need to be more willing to take some risks. I need to quit worrying about my personal security bubble or whether my being spiritually fruitful for God will infringe on my creature comforts. How ill the hurting and spiritually dying and ignorant ever know about Christ if I do not tell them? How many people in the community that God has placed me in are lacking or hurting or headed for hell because I am not willing to take a risk? What is more important in life? Is it being politically correct and making sure you don't upset someone or is it more important to deliver the good news of Christ in a spirit of love, compassion and humility? I need to start being more effective with every resource (time, talent and money) at my disposal to becoming fruitful for Christ.



Chapter 5:

Point to Ponder: Life is a Test and Trust

Verse to remember: Luke 16:10 a- Unless you are faithful in small matters you wont be faithful in large ones.

Questions to consider: What has happened for me recently that I realize was a test from God? What are the greatest matters God has entrusted to me?



Recently my life metaphor has been viewed as survival. Katy and I have found ourselves going day by day reacting to the stress, trials and tribulations with the mindset of surviving. "We are in survival mode" has been our response when folks asked "how are you doing?". I like to say " I am" vs I am not, or "one day at a time" meaning that I am hoping to just survive that day with its crisis and make it to the next one. I like the following statements on page 43. " God tests my faith through problems, tests my hope by how I handle possessions, and tests my love through people." "God left him alone to test his character to reveal a weakness, and to prepare him for more responsibility". "Most people fail to realize that money is both a TEST and a TRUST from God. How many times in my life have I realized that God did not bless me with more than what He has because I probably could not be trusted with it. OUCH!!!!

Recently I would say that God has been testing me through the loss of a child to cancer and the loss of regular income and employment. The greatest matters that God has entrusted to me are the following.

To be faithful and obedient despite my circumstances

To be the type of husband that Katy needs, one who is a spiritual leader, Christ like and less selfish

To be a good father to my children and reflect the character of God to them through my actions.

To be faithful and fruitful in ministry both online as well as the local church.


Chapter 6: - This world is not our own

Verse to remember - So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18

Question to consider- How should the fact that life on earth is just a temporary assignment change the way I am living right now?


The first thing it should do is change my perspective of life. My life metaphor should change. I should begin to invest my time, money and talents into things that have eternal value. I need to invest in my family, my local church. I need to equip my children to be aware of their purpose and how to be able to recognize that purpose and walk it out in practical ways. I need to quit worrying about what standards that other people judge me with. I should be more passionate about other people knowing Christ on a personal level.


Chapter 7- It is all for HIM

Verse to remember - For everything comes from God alone. Everything lives by his power, and everything is for his glory. Romans 11:6

Question to consider - Where in my daily routine can I become more aware of Gods glory?



On page 54 we are reminded of the following need with regards to God's Glory. " We are commanded to recognize his glory, honor his glory, declare his glory, praise his glory, reflect his glory, and life for his glory." I can recognize the glory of God on my daily routine by being more aware of those things, events or people who reflect the glory of God. Sometimes it is easy for me to compartmentalize God in my life. In other words there are scheduled moments in time where I focus primarily on the character of God and pursuing him in Christian disciplines and activities. Then if I allow myself to get entangled in the things of this world I begin to loose sight of the importance of viewing my world through the eyes of a believer. When I view a situation in life I can either look for Gods glory in it or I can look for opportunities to use that situation as a way to make me more secure, comfortable or happy. I need to spend more time pursuing the glory of God present in other people and do less measuring of them through my world view. If I only see the negative, bad or faulty side of a person then I will be blond to what God things are present in that person reflecting Gods glory. I need to be less condemning and critical of myself and allow God to show me his glory reflecting through those things he has done in my life through the years. I need to slow down and re evaluate all of my life centric tasks so that I can be in a position to take the time to find Gods glory and enjoy him to the fullest.

The following brings Glory to God


We bring Glory to God by worshipping Him.

"God wants our worship to be motivated by love, thanksgiving, and delight, not duty". How many years have I spent viewing the act of worship as what we do on Sunday morning before the sermon when we sing praise and worship music? This book tells me that I can worship God in these ways and bring God glory when I do them. We are reminded that worship is a lifestyle of enjoying God, loving Him, and giving ourselves to be used for His purposes.

We bring Glory to God by loving other believers

The book states "Christ is not just a matter of believing; it also includes belonging and learning to love the family of God." Loving the family of God takes time, sacrifice and a willingness to extend grace and mercy to both the loveable and the unlovable. We find it so easy to love those people whom have the same ideals, philosophies, lifestyles and doctrine. How can we extend grace, mercy and love to those children of God whom we struggle to identify with because we perceive some rough edges?

We bring glory to God by becoming like Christ

That is easier said than done. The process of sanctification should happen on a daily basis and it usually requires that I exit my comfort zone and take some risks that will test my faith. 2 Corinthians 5:17 describes this daily process.

We bring glory to God by serving others with our gifts

The book tells us "Each of us was uniquely designed by God with talents, gifts, skills and abilities" "God did not give you your abilities for selfish purposes."


We bring glory to God by telling others about him.

We bring glory to God by telling others about him. Why do we fail to tell people about who Jesus is? Are we ashamed of God are we afraid someone may ask you a tough question or even worse ridicule your faith? Are we too busy earning money to pay for our extravagant lifestyles and that leaves no spare time to share the good news of Christ with our neighbors and friends? I need to purpose in my heart each day to find creative ways to inject some passion and enthusiasm into my life so that people will want to know more about my Jesus. How can I tell anyone about my Jesus when I allow the circumstances of my life to rob me of my joy in the Lord and his promises? The answer is I can not share the joy of the Lord or his good news when I am constantly focusing on negative circumstances.


Chapter 8 - I was planned for Gods pleasure

Verse- The Lord takes pleasure in his people Psalms 149:4

Question - What common task could I start doing as if I were doing it directly for Jesus?


The two things that come to mind would be work and domestic duties around the house. As a husband and father when I manage to find the desire to do domestic chores I know that I am serving my family. If I were to do those tasks as if unto the Lord then it would be an act of worship as well. My work can be an act of worship if Christ is the center focus of how and why I do what I do to earn money. I am an ambassador for Christ in the workplace and if I view my job as a way to serve and worship God and my fellow man then God will be pleased.


Chapter 9 - God smiles when I trust him

Verse to remember- The Lord is pleased with those who worship him and trust his love. Psalms 147:11

Question to consider - Since God knows what is best, in what areas of my life do I need to trust him most?



I need to trust God more in the area of finances. I need to trust God more with regards to my circumstances. I need to trust God more with regards to believing His word that states that those that trust in Him as Lord and Savior will be in Heaven. As I walk through the grief process of loosing a child to cancer I sometimes struggle with having faith to believe that I will see Jessica again one day. I have been told by other Christian brothers that I have trust issues so maybe I need to trust God to give me the ability to trust other people and their motives and intentions. I tend to react with the spirit of being from the "show me state". You show me you have pure intentions through your actions and then I will believe you. I suppose that is why trust and faith go hand in hand.

Go Panthers Go!!

I took a couple of pictures of the County Office Building Annex where I work and thought I would share them with you. Trust me, it is not exciting but atleast you can see where I spend part of my time.

It appears that I have been successful in ripping out the Blogspeak code and inserting the new Haloscan code and republished my Blog Site. I have not had the time to look at the functionality of Haloscan so hopefully it is as user friendly as what Blogspeak provided for us. I also hope that Haloscan does not charge for this service. If they do the functionality will be coming back out.

What a beautiful day in the neighborhood. I almost wish I was on the 5k run with the rest of the ATHLETES this morning. Just the thought of running down the street makes my heart skip a beat. actually, if I did try to run down the street my heart would probably just explode and they would have to call 911 for the beached whale lying in the middle of Meeting street. I guess I will just stick to walking the parking garage for exercise and maybe next year I can think about something more strenuous. LOL....

Good morning world!! It is a nice crisp 32 degrees in Downtown Charleston this morning and I am coming to you live from the Charleston County Office building where I work Saturday from 7 am to 3pm. Apparently there is a 5k run that kicked off this morning on Meeting street so that means that I am not the only one that is awake this morning.

I got an e-mail from a service called Halonscan which apparently has taken over the hosting for Blogspeak Blog comments. Harry wrote his blogspeak customers and told us that his hosting ended sooner than he expected and Haloscan has taken over those responsibilities. I will probably need to add some code to the Blogger template before the comments section will come back on my blog. The blog entries that were on blogspeak were imported into Haloscan so once I add this functionality to my blog your comments will show up again.

I am on day 17 of the 40 days of purpose devotional which is from The Purpose Driven Life series by Rick Warren. I will post some more of those entries soon. Have you gone through this devotional series yet? If not I would highly recommend your doing so.

Katy and normally would be in Myrtle Beach SC on a Renissance Weekend get away hosted by Happy Days and Special Times in Charleston but I have to work weekends now. So, priorities and responsibility sucks. Instead of being in Myrtle Beach I am working which in and of itself is a good thing considering I spent most of 2003 unemployed. I am still pretty much broke but atleast I can pay a bill here or there and child support is being paid and I am staying out of jail for now. THAT is a HUGE benefit along with the health benefits of walking around in a 9 story parking garage once an hour. Who said life was not fun. LOL....

Ok, speaking of work perhaps I need to quit flying this keyboard and start my next round.

Have a good weekend.

RSS Links

RSS Links

This appears to be a very NICE RSS resource page. Check it out!

Jeremy Moffitt informal Senior Picture

Jeremy Moffitt with his Tuba in his senior jacket in 2004!

Who let the dogs out ??

How many DOGS are there should be the question ? Lets see, we have Angel and Sammy. They LOVE to bark and carry on because I guess that is something that just comes naturally. They bark at anything that moves and if they can make something move that normally does not move they will do that and bark anyway. Once they get bored at creating their own amusement they then bark at Fergus across the street who is Nurse Shannon's dog who has been abandoned in Chuck's yard for the last several years. Fergus and Sammy and Angel all love to holler back and forth and back and forth all day long if given the opportunity. I have found that if I schedule a SFE (scheduled flyswatter event) on Sammy's short little body that it tends to cause him to stifle the noise. Tracking him down and actually hitting him with the flyswatter can be an aerobic event. The fact that I know I am going to have to chase him around and around the tree sometimes causes me to be lazy and just threaten him from the porch. Sometimes that works and sometimes it does not. I am glad that he can not get on the Internet and read my blog. That would just ruin it for me altogether. Oh yes, lets not forget the mutts up the street. They like to bark all hours of the day and night and all that needs to happen to set them off is for the wind to move one single leaf on ANY tree located within 20 square miles of their back yard. Is it still unlawful to kill someone else's dogs? Most days I don't want to kill the neighbors dogs (or birds for that matter (snicker) but I would like to find the mute button. Can I find some pills that will instantly mute the dogs in the neighborhood? You know, they open mouth to bark and NO SOUND comes out.
I need to research that immediately. I thought about buying a dart gun and some tranquilizer darts but that would mean that the event UDE (unscheduled dart extraction) might be seen by a neighbor and then the local police department would have to have an UV event (unscheduled visitation) which we certainly dont need.

Now that I am sharing my lovely story about the CND (canine noise dilemma) I am reminded that atleast one of the children (not mentioning names) (yet) (snicker) from our little commune (SLC) (slumlord commune) down at the bottom of our hill (gully?) has taken barking lessons from the dogs. Instead of barking though the child stood in the middle of the street the other day (OMG) (@v@) and screamed at such a regular and high pitched interval it caused a UCC (unscheduled child chasing) by yours truly. Luckily for the child I was having visions of all the calories that I was going to have to burn to get off my rear end , put on my shoes and launch myself out the door, across the porch, down the stairs and over the ditch. Gosh, that would have been worth video taping huh ? Luckily for me I counted the cost and just inserted my ear plugs (STILL heard the child anyway) and tried to tune them out.

I have to share another event with you. Are you surprised? Angel is experiencing a OMGIAIH event (Oh my gosh I am in heat) which in turn has caused a OMGIAHE (Oh my gosh I am horny event) for Sammy. Things have been interesting around here lately. Can you imagine Sammy running all around the house chasing Angel for all he is worth with tongue hanging out? (not going any further with that mental picture @@). I think that the hormones have gotten to poor Angel though because we saw her turn the tables by starting to chase Sammy around the house and taking on some male tendencies that I probably wont bother with describing. (@@) Lets just say that we have had to make sure that we have all had to resort to wearing tennis shoes, knee high socks and knee pads just in case Sammy comes running around the corner of the house and mistakenly identifies one of us as a 60 pound Lab.......

Meanwhile back at the ranch we can see a cloud of dust in the distance as the herd of saber toothed space chickens are headed in our direction. I can see that Paul Bunyon is going to have to run fetch the gun so we can defend ourselves..... Maybe Nurse Shannon and the REAL man in her life can learn how to kill and pluck SPACE CHICKENS......... I wonder if they are edible??

My dogs are barking

No, I am not talking about Sammy or Angel even though they do tend to bark on a regular basis. The dogs I am talking about are my feet who are not very happy with me at the moment. I spent the last three days working a 3 to 11pm shift at the County Office Building which included making rounds in a 9 story parking garage. I can not begin to tell you how much fun that was. NOT..... I know, I am reminding myself of the fact that it IS a JOB. I was scheduled to work today from 3pm to 11pm BUT I will be bowling tonight instead. I advised my company that I go to church Sunday morning and bowl on Monday evening and that I can work OTHER hours during those days. Nevertheless they scheduled me anyway. I called the on call supervisor at 6:30 am on Saturday as I was headed to a 7 am to 3pm shift and woke him up to advise him of my NEED to be off today so I can bowl. He was not too happy that I called him at 6:30 am. Oh well.... The joys of supervision at a security company. heheheheheheh

Lets see, now for the fun stuff. We experienced the following events this morning before we got up to start our day.

UAD = Unexpected Appliance Death
UTW = Unexpected Trip to Wallyworld
UBA = Unexpected Bill Arrival
SHS = Scheduled Hammering Session


Katy was awakened by our Terrier Sammy at 6 am wanting to experience a UPB (Unscheduled Potty Break) so she got up and let him outside to do his business. Then Katy attempted to initiate a SCP (Scheduled Coffee Percolation) which failed miserably in a UAD (see above). That in turn caused Katy to experience a URTPIB (unscheduled Return To Prone Position in Bed) where she lamented the fact that the light was on with the coffee maker but no one was home. At this point I am awake faced with having an NDC event (NO DARN COFFEE) which in turn meant that I would soon experience a UTW (see above please). Once we meandered back from WallyWorld I went to the mailbox (huge mistake) and experienced the UBA (see above) and then wandered back down the hill to be advised by Katy that she needed to experience a SHS (see above) so that she could hang some pictures.

I dont know if I can handle any more scheduled or unscheduled events at this point. Hopefully the coffee will be ready and I can get on with the rest of my day. LOL....

The Purpose Driven Life days 1,2 & 3

The following thoughts are conveyed in the first three chapters of this book.

A. It is not about me but God
B. I am not an accident
C. What drives my life ?

At Battle Plan Ministries website at the link listed below we have 160 members and thus far only 6 men have engaged in making a committment to do this devotional for 40 days. I wrote a message yesterday to encourage the men to take the step and just do it. I can see where some folks just might be intimidated by the thought of journaling their thoughts, meditations to these devotional chapters in an online log. Nevertheless, as a leader there I felt compelled to lead by example and to share my thoughts. My fear is that someone will see me for who I really am as I share my heart. My HOPE is that everyone will see the real me and my personal pursuit to be who God wants me to be despite my sinful nature. So, with that in mind I choose to be transparent. I choose to be that way not to bring attention to who I am but rather to reveal who God is to me and through me. So, now that I have said that I will begin to share my meditations with you. I also hope that as you read what I write that you too will receive this as a challenge to buy the book "The Purpose Driven Life" and join me in your own personal journey.

The Purpose Driven Life Website

Battle Plan Ministries


40 Days of Purpose


Chapter 1: It all starts with God


Coll 1:16 for everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him

Point to ponder: It's not about me

Question to consider: In spite of all the advertising around me, how can I remind myself that life is really about living for God, not I?

I live in a materialistic world that tells me that I deserve a break today. If it feels good do it. Everything about our society is centered on what I can accomplish for myself. Before Christ I was my own God sitting upon the throne room of my heart. My meaning and satisfaction and purpose started and ended with my flesh and emotions. At the point of salvation the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to God the Father and showed me how my sinful nature made me an enemy with my creator and separated me from Him. Through Gods grace I was able to enter into a personal relationship with God and found a new purpose for living. Instead of satisfying flesh and emotional needs I now desired to fulfill Gods purpose for my life. My spirit was awakened and given the ability to see Gods love, mercy and character. The road to sanctification is a daily struggle to remove self off the throne of my heart and to put Christ first. Christ died so I might live eternally with Him. God created me for His good pleasure and purpose. My struggle is to realize that life is not about whom I am or how I feel or how much junk I can accumulate. The only way that I can connect myself to Gods true purpose for my life is to continually pursue Him through prayer, reading of His word and being obedient to His bidding.


Chapter 2: I am not an accident

Verse- Isaiah 44:2 - I am your creator. You were in my care even before you were born.

Question to consider- Knowing that God uniquely created me what areas of my personality, background and physical appearance am I struggling to accept.

I sometimes struggle with the fact that I want to pursue people in deep personal relationships and very few folks make an effort to get beyond the superficial aspects of daily living. I want to talk about matters of the heart and it tends to scare people off. I tend to be strongly opinionated and I call things for what they are. I know the importance of tact and being politically correct but my Christ view usually conflicts with the normal worldview of most people. That typically puts me in a position of being separate from others and lonely. I sometimes wish I was not a people person.



Chapter 3: Living on purpose is the path to peace.

Isaiah 26:2- You Lord, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you.

Question to consider- what would my family and friends say is the driving force of my life. What do I want it to be?


I think that my family and friends would say that my family and being religious are the two driving forces in my life. I have a handful of family members who view my church activities and Christ view of my world as being super religious. They do not understand that my religious activities and Christ view has been born out of years of sanctification and trials by fire. I can look back at my life and see several instances where my life was driven by fear, resentment and anger and need for approval. Every since I was 17 years old and God entered into my heart I have wanted to serve Him in any way that I can. I used to perceive serving God as something that could only be done in the context of full time ministry in a traditional church setting. As I lived through the consequences of divorce in the Southern Baptist Convention I had a rude awakening about ministry. I was told that I was not good enough for ministry because of my divorce. I was shown by God that I could serve him on a personal level in my life and that my faith and obedience in the non traditional moments of ministry were able to touch the lives of people in the community all around me. God showed me that He could use me for the purpose of glorifying His Kingdom without being licensed or ordained. God showed me the importance of ministry to my family first and then the church and community. I am learning that when I look outside of myself for Gods purpose and desire in the community and lives of people around me that as I engage in these activities God reveals His purpose for me personally. I am also learning that when I seek Gods purpose that when I find it the experiences is not always emotionally charged. I must pursue God daily on a personal level without requiring God to make me feel good or do something in my life to make me happy. I have also learned that it is easier to be in survival mode living life reacting to circumstances instead of living life proactively with a planned out purpose.

Forty Days of Porpoise

Check out Forty Days of Purpose

Katy and I are going to be doing this as a GREAT way to start out 2004. One chapter per day for fourty days. Check out the URL above and see if this is something you would like to do to enhance your heart attitude for 2004. It does not matter where you are at in your spiritual journey. All that matters is that you realize that you have not arrived and that you too can learn something. Sometimes it is not a matter of learning something new but rather it is the ability to apply what you have learned in such a way that it makes your life better. Sometimes small changes can make a world of difference. When we change our heart attitude and our mental attitudes about the things in our lives not only will we be better for it but our lives will be more peaceful and full of joy. When that happens those around us see a difference and they like being around us more. When we can see change in us then we can eventually affect change in the people around us in our community. All it takes is the willingness to understand that we have not arrived at all knowledge and that God can show us something new about himself and about our world that HE created for us. Maybe the commitment will take some sacrifice. I am figuring it will take a minimum of 15 minutes per day and maybe even 30. It is highly recommended by Rick Warren that you take the time to read the devotional, scriptures listed and then meditate , pray and then journal what is being shown to you in your spirit.
I will be posting here in my blog some of those insights as I feel led to post them. No matter whether you decide to do the Fourty Days of Purpose devotional or not, I encourage you to do something. Do something that will increase your pursuit of God in your life. You will be a winner if you do. God bless




James Moffitt
http://www.jesus-connect.net/jcmoffitt
moffittj@bellsouth.net

Out with the OLD and in with the NEW

The year 2003 is almost GONE. POOF! Where in the world did it go? All I know is that I will be GLAD to see it be GONE. The year 2003 was not one of my favorites along with 2000,01 and 02. Maybe 2004 WILL be much better for me and my family.

I must say that things are starting to look better for us with regards to finances. Katy is doing substitute teaching and I am doing private security. We are not bringing in as much income as we are used to BUT we are bringing in SOMETHING which compared to NOTHING is a very good start on the new year.

The other day Katy managed to injure herself on a bed frame. You might be asking yourself "how in the world can you injure yourself on a bed frame?" You can do that by take the frame off the bed and sitting it in the hallway outside of Justn's room with the sharp ends pointing towards the door and then running into it with your bare foot at full speed. Can you say OUCH ??? Poor dear is hobbling along but healing nicely.

Remember the Lady in the Shoe who moved out of the shoe into a brand new triple wide trailer next to us? I am happy to annouce that the Lady in the Shoe is now being promoted to Nurse Shannon. :) Nurse Shannon has been faithfully tending to the minor medical emergencies in her own personal slum community here at the bottom of the hill. We lovingly call Nurse Shannon and her Paul Bunyon (the REAL man of the neighborhood) as Slum Lords. :)

On November 27 of 2003 I started up a Yahoo Group called Happy Days and Special Times for all of the family members who are associated with this awesome group here in Charleston SC. In just 30 days we have 16 members and over 200 messages. I am looking forward to seeing more and more folks signing up and becoming a part of our cyber extension of this wonderful community of families who support one another. You can view the website for Happy Days at Founder Debbie Stephenson

Battle Plan ministries Bill Berry (founder and newly ordained minister of Central Church) has decided to encourage the men to enter into 2004 by starting it out with the 40 Days of Purpose by Rick Warren who is the pastor of Saddleback Church in California. You can find the specifics of this devotional series by visiting their website at the following link. Rick Warren Founder of Saddleback Church As a ministry leader at Battle Plan Ministries I am being encouraged by our Elderberry (now called RevBerry) to engage in this 40 days of purpose devotional. I am going to be in prayer about doing just that. Katy and I started this devotional in 2003 but thanks to our circumstances we found ourselves not being able to complete it. Perhaps this would be a great time to engage this study.

Thanks to the folks at Happy Days and Food Lion our children were sponsored for Christmas and received many new and exciting toys under the Christmas tree. Thank YOU Food Lion and Happy Days for your support once again during Christmas. I am going to pursue a job at Charleston County as an Emergency Services Dispatcher and have a friend of mine that works in the same building to deliver my application and resume to the director of this department. Pray that I might have favor in this situation and that they will consider hiring me to be a dispatcher.

We wish you a Happy New Year filled with PEACE, LOVE, GOOD HEALTH and JOY for 2004. God bless

Berkeley County South Carolina Web Page

Berkeley County South Carolina Web Page

I worked 2pm until 10 pm today at Bayer Industrial park. Yes, the same company that makes Bayer Aspirin. At this plant they do not manufacture that product though. I got home at 10 pm and headed down Redbank Road, turned right on Old Back River rd. I stopped at the 3 way stop that the county just installed and then turned left on Mapleridge Dr. I almost ALWAYS use my turn signals. I was slowing down at the end of Mapleridge Drive to let the neighborhood scrooge pull his new white Ford Mustang into his driveway when I see blue and white overheads coming on behind me. Say do what I thought? At first I thought that they must be responding to a call down by one of the trailers where we live. Nevertheless I stopped the car and the first officer in the first of three units came up to my car with his flashlight on me. The deputy told me that I did not use my turn signal when entering Mapleridge drive and that is why they (all three units) stopped me. When the deputy saw my security uniform he told me that they were doing drug enforcement in our neighborhood and that he was going to let me go. I told him thank you and went on my merry way and heard one of the other units on my hand held scanner talk to the officer that stopped me. The deputy stated that I was wearing an American Security Jacket and that is why he probably did not jack me up.

Now that I am thinking about it they must have been sitting off of a side street in my neighborhood because they were not sitting anywhere on Old Backriver between Redbank and where I turned. That means there was no way that they could have seen whether I used my turn signal or not.
I think that they were looking to jack up a druggie on our street which unfortunately is KNOWN to have some shady characters. Oh well, they threw me back into the pond and maybe they will get lucky on the next one they reel in.

Search for Missing West Ashley Child - WCBD-TV, Charleston, South Carolina

Search for Missing West Ashley Child - WCBD-TV, Charleston, South Carolina

A Christmas miracle that happened right here in the lowcountry of South Carolina. Thank you Jesus for keeping this child safe in freezing weather out in the woods of West Ashley....

Jesus Connect Ministries BBS

jesus-connect.net :: Index

Have you ever heard of Jesus Connect Ministries? If not, now you have. :) Jesus Connect Ministries is a para church ministry that has a clear set vision and ministry focus. Our vision and ministry focus includes supporting the local church. In other words, we know and encourage believers in Christ to faithfully worship and serve in their local church.

With that said, visit with us and read our vision and mission statement. We have been online for 10 years now and in the last two years we have had to change servers and start from scratch. That means we lost over 500 members. Some of those members were active and some were not. So, we have a nice clean start and we can start adding folks as of now. If you register for an account I will validate you.

I am hoping to see some activity on this BBS soon.

No Cooties for Christmas by Matt Hartley

I tried to post this using my w.bloggar program but it was spewing forth a weird error tonight for some reason. This article, which is excellent was delivered to me through my RSS reader that I use to keep up with different types of news content on the Internet. Have you started to explore RSS yet? If not, ya need to soon. :)

This is an excellent article and it hits close to home for me since I have spent the last 13+ years doing computer and network support. I can not tell you how many times I have asked someone when the last time they did a backup or updated their antivirus software and got a blank stare. What did you just say? No, it is not that people are stupid but rather they are just uniformed and uneducated about some very critical information that they need to learn quickly. People feel that if they shuck out X amount of bucks for the latest and greatest computer at Best Buy or wherever that when they take it home their journey should begin with little to no learning curve. The truth of the matter is that the learning curve just began. There is no end to the learning curve with regards to computer maintenance and learning how to use software and software subscriptions that come with that new computer.

Anyway, enjoy this excellent article.


GNOMEREPORT: No Cooties For Christmas

Am I nuts here? Do you think that anti-virus companies are doing as much as they should to protect you? What about the media? Many of you out there most likely think that they are. I, on the other hand, would tend to disagree. Sure, they do the best they can to protect our computers in a literal sense. But what about ensuring that newer computer users understand how to use the darn things?

For those of you that do not deal with "Mom and Pop" computer users everyday, there is a huge lack of understanding that is going on all over the U.S. and perhaps all over the world. I have worked with many college-educated professionals that honestly believe that you install the software to protect your computer and voila, you are protected. This would be a dream come true - unfortunately, this is just not reality. I'm so tired of trying to calm angry, confused, and frustrated clients who are positive that "I" must be trying to con them when I alert them to the fact that there is a multitude of viruses on their computer.

So who is to blame here? Is it my fault? Well, I can only show them how to protect themselves after I have actually had the opportunity to meet them for the first time. It is most certainly not the clients' fault. How can we expect them to take responsibility for something that most people have never even heard of, much less know how to deal with? There is a desperate need for some healing here, folks. I'll tell ya, I am plum ticked. Who at, you ask? First and foremost the mainstream media for their lack of decent coverage. For instance, my local paper (that shall remain nameless) really blew it as far as I am concerned when the Blaster worm hit. "Just go to the Windows Update Web site and install all of the available patches. Also be sure to update your anti-virus software as well," states my local newspaper. My phone rang off of the hook that day with people asking me what in the sam hill was the newspaper talking about? A huge number of readers had no clue what a "patch" was, much less where to get it from the updates Web site or how to use an anti-virus program.

So being that I am a loudmouth, I called the editor to "share my love" for the article. Guess what the man told me? He stated that the Blaster worm was not a problem any more and there was no reason to add anything to the article in future issues of the paper. I asked him about other viruses and was promptly told that according to his HIGH SCHOOL son, viruses were "not a big deal" and this will almost for sure never be an issue in the future. (Meaning Blaster type worms) Now, I am going to stop on that note because I am not going to go down that sadly misdirected path again. I simply refuse to.

All right, then, what are some positive ways that this could have been avoided?

The newspaper ought to have toyed with the concept of speaking to a professional about the virus problem and what could then be done to prevent future outbreaks.
The article could have given basic instructions on how to update McAfee and Norton anti-virus. It would have taken less than a small paragraph for both sets of instructions.
The newspaper could have advised people who are new to computers to seek help. There are a few outreach programs here in my local area that can help those in need, free of charge. (Myself included.) The newspaper could have offered phone numbers to these resources.
The anti-virus companies, too, must share responsibility for this problem. They need to put a bright stickers on the front of their product boxes making it clear that it is imperative to read any included instructions. This ensures that newer computer users jumping into the new software are educated in what they need to know.

Now it comes back to us. What can we do to deal with this ever-growing problem? Simple, we educate. Those of you that are self-employed IT folks should take one day every two weeks and help low-income families and seniors that cannot afford to pay our regular rates. What goes around comes around. Sure, you may not get paid, but you could be making a real difference to someone that really needs it.

Now everybody sing: "C'mon people now, smile on your brother. Everybody get together, try and virus scan one another right now..." Okay, that was pretty bad, I admit. Seriously though, if we all went out on occasion and did this, many of these people might show their friends and family members how to protect themselves, as well. Then, maybe, just maybe... viruses would not spread as quickly and viciously as they do now. Think about it! /end rant

Let's get digital,
Matt Hartley




James Moffitt
http://www.jesus-connect.net/jcmoffitt
moffittj@bellsouth.net

A Special Invitation To A Christmas Party!

You are cordially invited to

A BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!!!

Guest of Honor: Jesus Christ

Date: Every day. Traditionally, December 25
but He's always around, so the date is flexible....

Time: Whenever you're ready.
(Please don't be late, though, or you'll miss out on all the fun!)

Place: In your heart.... He'll meet you there.
(You'll hear Him knock.)


Attire: Come as you are... grubbies are okay.
He'll be washing our clothes anyway. He said something about
new white robes and crowns for everyone who stays till the last.

Tickets: Admission is free. He's
already paid for everyone...
(He says you wouldn't have been
able to afford it anyway...
it cost Him everything He had. But
you do need to accept the ticket!!

Refreshments: New wine, bread, and a
far-out drink He calls "Living Water,"
followed by a supper that promises to be out of this world!

Gift Suggestions: ; Your life. He's one of those
people who already has everything else.
(He's very generous in return though.
Just wait until you see what He has for you!)

Entertainment: Joy, Peace, Truth,
Light, Life, Love, Real Happiness,
Communion with God, Forgiveness, Miracles, Healing, Power,
Eternity in Paradise, Contentment, and much more!
(All "G" rated, so bring your family and friends.)

R.S.V.P. Very Important!
He must know ahead so He can
reserve a spot for you at the table.
Also, He's keeping a list of His friends for future
reference. He calls it the "Lamb's Book of Life."

Party being given by His Kids (that's us!!)!
Hope to see you there! For those of you whom I will
see at the party, share this with someone today!

Grape Nuts anyone?

This morning I caught Katy eating Grape Nuts..... I thought to myself, since when? I told her that only OLDER people eat Grape Nuts and that most OLDER folks eat that for roughage..... I also told her that Grape Nuts was a good cereal to pick for OLDER people because you can eat it with or without your dentures.....

Katy and I had a real GOOD laugh over that one. Poor Katy, what is she gonna do with me anyway?

I have the beginnings of a nasty cold. For the last week I have been fighting first a chest cold and then a head cold. Last night I made things worse by working security out in the COLD for 5.5 hours directing traffic at Charleston Southern University. I was so cold my bone marrow hurt. It was only 41 degrees outside so it is not like it was freezing or anything. After standing around for 5.5 hours you could not have told me it was not freezing because I was so cold I wanted to set myself on fire. I went home at 10:44pm last night and my head cold was having a good time with me. I was running like a faucet. Thanks to a hot meal and a dose of Theraflu I was able to settle in for a long winters nap. We did not crawl out of the house until around noon today.

It appears that Katy's 83 station wagon has taken ill as well. It seems that the battery and/or alternator has expired. Who knows, maybe both. When it rains it pours. The jalopy will have to sit in COLD storage until we can gather the funds to fix it and use my car for transportation. Katy works during the day and it looks like I will work at night time so we can make this happen.

It is 13 days to Christmas. I know this because Justin Matthew Moffitt advised us of this today. Do you remember being 8 years old and having Christmas two weeks away? It seemed as if 14 days was an eternity. Now, in my older age, 13 days passes by and I don't even realize what happened. They say that the older you get the faster time flies. Whoever said that knew what they were talking about.

Hey, guess what? NO ONE is leaving comments on my blog any longer. What gives folks? Are you still reading this blather or have you just gone to peeking at the pictures only? Tell me that you, my fan club, are visiting and reading my blog so that I will be encouraged to continue my daily drivel.

Happy Holidays

SLED Qualifications today

Today was spent in class listening to a level I,II &III SLED instructor talk to us (7 men) about carrying a firearm in the state of South Carolina. After the class room instruction that lasted about 2 hours we made a trip to the ATP indoor range in Goose Creek. We were to qualify with a firearm and make a score of 170 out of 250 to qualify. My score was 236 out of 250 which means that I qualify to carry a firearm as a Security Officer in South Carolina. Now I wait for SLED to finish my criminal background check and commission me to carry the firearm as a South Carolina Security Officer.

Here is the kicker folks. The ironic part of all of this. At the beginning of the class the SLED instructor tells us that if we KNOW that we KNOW that we can not take another human life in the line of duty that no one would think anything bad if they needed to leave the room and not take the course. He reminded us of the somber responsiblity of being in a position to make a split second decision as to whether someone would live or die in the line of duty.
Some of you might be thinking that only peace officers (police officers) have to make those decisions. If you are thinking on this line of thought I can tell you from having been on both sides of the fence that Peace Officers probably have more opportunity to do this just because their jobs are to enforce the law. Security Officers are private sector security personell who protect the lives of the customer , their customers and property. That means that there is a possibility that the Security Officer may be presented with serious bodily injury or death because of the actions of some perpetrator and therefore the need to carry a firearm.

The ironic part of this is what you are paid for this type of responsibility every time you put on the uniform and place yourself in possible danger. Would you believe 8.50 per hour? Here is something even scarier than that. No one can pay you enough to take the risk of getting shot at. How much is enough? Do Police Officers get paid enough to take a risk that they might be shot by someone in the line of duty? What about our soldiers? The answer is no, no one gets paid enough to get shot at. The sad thing is that we live in such a fallen world and there are folks out there that take pleasure in preying on the general population at large. Security and Police and our armed forces are a necessary evil that we have had to put in place to help protect those law abiding families out there that are about the business of living.

You might think that I am trying to play on your sympathies or make you admire the job that these different folks do. What I am trying to do is to make you aware of the dangers that they face and that they do a job that other folks are not able to do. Not everyone is cut out to take those types of risks or make those types of decisions. Maybe you are a nurse and you do not feint at the sight of blood. Maybe you are a steel worker who walks steel beams five stories off the ground with nothing but a leather belt to hold you in case you fall. What about window washers that clean windows on skyscrapers? We all do our jobs for one reason or the other. One reason is because we have a driving need to pay bills and one reason is because we are uniquely gifted to do what we do.

Here are some pictures of my target today!


The white tape were four practice rounds

The soldiers Bush didn't visit on Thanksgiving

Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Editorial / Opinion / Op-ed / The soldiers Bush didn't visit on Thanksgiving

This is a reality check for those of us that are safe and secure and warm in our homes this morning here in America. Thanks to the technology of today we are bombarded with images of war every day both on TV as well as magazines and Internet access to sites such as CNN. It seems as if there is nothing that escapes our perview. The only way we can escape the harsh realities of life and the human sufferings of others is to deny ourselves any type of media consumption. How often do we do that?

I believe that because we have such instant access to the violence all around us that we have become desensitized to the pain and anguish of others all around us. That goes for the drive by shooting in North Charleston to the wounded soldier in Baghdad. We hear reports of random violence every single day and we are far removed from becoming emotionally involved. We tell ourselves that yes the world is a violent place to live in BUT it is happening to THOSE people and not me or my family. Some of us kid ourselves into thinking that we dont have to worry about it happening to us. We rationalize that because we are who we are or because of where we live we surround ourselves with a false sense of security and hope in that those things will not happen to us.

I come from a family of men who have served their country. They served their country and went wherever they were sent and did whatever they had to do to stay alive and come back home to their families. It is so easy for us to sit back and be arm chair politicians and analyze the validity of where our men and women are sent. Intellectually we say we count the cost and we realize that some of those men and women will give their lives so that we can have the privelege and right to be arm chair politicians and critics of our government and their policies. This article is not designed to take a political view point or to decide for us IF we should be where our men and women are fighting in Iraq. What this article does is it snaps us back into reality and helps us to count the cost of freedom. Men and women are being killed, maimed and tortured in the name of freedom. If it was your son or daughter that was over there dodging bullets or wondering if they were going to live another day because of worry about landmines, suicide bombers or car bombs then your perspective on the war would probably be much different.

Take time out this morning or whenever it is that you read this and say a heart felt prayer for both the men and women that are fighting for our right to be FREE in America and for those families that have loved ones that are SERVING us with their very life blood on foreign soil. The LEAST that we can do is PRAY to God and ask HIM for HIS devine guidance and protection for our men and women. The next thing we can do is to be sensitive to the needs of those family members that are here and are missing their spouses or sons and daughters wherever it is they have been deployed to.
If those people knew that we are proud of their family members for serving our country and were willing to atleast give them some of our precious time to just listen to them or help out in some small way I know that it would help them tremendously.

Lets pray that somehow this campaign of terror that America is involved in fighting will somehow be resolved so that our men and women can come home once and for all. I know that might be an unrealistic hope or dream but atleast we can HOPE.

Goose Creek Christmas Celebration December 6, 2003

Katy took these pictures when she took the children up to the Goose Creek Recreation Center this last Saturday. They had face painting , games and such.



Tanda lives across the street and is the same age as Kristina. They go to the same school together and are practically inseperable.



Tanda and Kristina with their faces painted together!



My daughter Kristina with cool face art on her cheek



Kristina writing email to her friend



Sammy and LuLu playing on kitchen floor. This is their favorite past time....



Can I scratch without you having to take a picture??

Woman gets 10 years in mayo spat

Woman gets 10 years in mayo spat

Years ago there was a country and western artist who wrote a song about how frustrating it can be when you experience the drive up window of any fast food establishment. I forget the artist or the name of the song but it was pretty popular for a short period of time. You know the drill. You drive up and are greeted by someone on the other end of the speaker who has a difficult time speaking clearly. If that is not bad enough the speaker is a radio shack reject that should have been tossed out in the garbage. Somehow they always wind up staring you in the face just as you want to have an intelligent conversation with the order taker. The song goes on about a typcial order and because the communications is so screwed up the driver looses composure and winds up driving the car through the plate glass window of the restaurant in frustration.

I wonder if this lady in Houston Texas had this song running around her tiny brain BEFORE she lost all self control and decided to run over the manager. I can relate to being frustrated over my order being screwed up. How long does it take to order a Big Mac with cheese, GREASY fries and a cold drink? How long does it take the mental process of keying it into the computer so that someone else can read it? Nano seconds folks.... Its not that hard or atleast you would not think so. We like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt therefore that is why we do not just drive to the window and hand the person a dry marker board with the order WRITTEN out in LARGE block letters. We figure they understand plain english and that they comprehend that we want CHEESE and MAYONAISE on our freaking burger.

I LOVE the fact that the lady tossed her meal back through the drive through window. How much damage did that cause? Heck, we can all laugh about that. Who knows, on an extremely bad day we might even park our cars, walk into the restaurant in question, identify the manager , take aim and fire the food at the idiot who got it wrong. If you do that remember to take the bun off the burger so that when contact is made it will not bounce but stick to the subjects face when it lands. If you miss, just walk over to someone elses food and grab their burger and yell FOOD fight real loud........ OK, maybe I am taking this a little too far. You see the humor or maybe you are a manager of a drive in burger joint and you probably have already closed your browser window.

Attempted murder with a motor vehicle certainly goes above and beyond the call of duty. Its one thing to catch your husband cheating on you and then decide to kill him with your car. Its another thing to try and kill the manager because they forgot the mayo. I wonder if the lady had the song "Grandma got run over by a reindeer song" just before she threw it in reverse and mashed the gas.....

Jeremy's Senior Picture

Here is Jeremy's Senior Picture. I am so proud of him and all of his accomplishments!

Men

Men

Metrosexual? Gosh, I thought I had heard it all until I read this little story about men who are learning how to pamper themselves. LOL. OK then, I was certainly enlightened by this story. Just when I thought that I was limited to using DIAL soap or DOVE I now learn it is ok to pamper myself with skin moisturizers and no one will think that I am weird or overtly feminine. Honey, you are off the hook for Christmas. I did want a Jaguar for Christmas but now I realize that I have been missing the boat. I want to pamper myself now. OK, yes, we need an extra bathroom now because once you buy me all those cool pampering items you will never get me out of the powder room. LOL.... hahahahahahaha

Jesus is the reason for the Christmas season

Hello folks! Christmas 2003 is upon us already. Are you ready? How wrapped up and consumed are we with regards to those events that take place during this time of the year? Someone reminded me AGAIN of the need to remember the REASON we celebrate this Christmas season. Its not Xmas as the world would have us to think but rather CHRISTmas. Christ IS the central theme for this holiday whether we embrace it or not. A friend of mine posted a message on a board that I help to moderate and asked what our gift to God was going to be? What birthday present will WE bring Jesus this year? This was my answer.
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I can not believe it is already Christmas.....Where in the world has time flown to? They say (who is they anyway?) that when you get older time flies faster and faster. Gosh, whoever they is, they are wise. Maybe THEY are older than I am? I turned 42 years on Thanksgiving (gulp) and I can attest to the fact that the years are picking up speed.

I think that the best gift that I can give Jesus for his birthday is as much of ME as possible. :)
I was talking to someone at the bowling alley on Monday night about my walking through the trials and tribulations that my family has experienced in the last couple of years. Here are some of those thoughts as I related them.

We all go through some sort of trial or tribulation in our lives. No one is exempt from pain, suffering or trials. No one is sinless and everyone needs grace, forgiveness, mercy and healing in some area of their lives. Maybe some more than others nonetheless we are all in the same humanity row boat. :)

One of the things that I have struggled with is the ongoing battle. I keep asking when is it going to end? Perhaps the answer to that is that it will never end until Jesus takes me out of this world and graduates me to where my Jessica is. Part of my battle has been to accept the battle which is full of struggles, pain and strife. My perception has had to change to accept my circumstances and realize that the battle does not belong to James. I have had to learn (still learning) how to accept the position of weakness and to throw off the never ending struggle for control over those things I have no control over. In my weakness HE is strong. Not in my ability to control my circumstances God provides. :)

So, with that in mind, my gift to the Lord is to learn how to give up the controls in those areas that I feel I am weak in so that HE can do what HE is going to do anyway. I also need to ACCEPT my position within the battle. I so do NOT want to be in the midst of all of this. I so much would rather have a job, be able to pay all my bills on time and NOT depend on anyone for anything. That is so far from reality at this point. Reality states that I am here and I need to have a clearer understanding of the battle and atleast do my part to be thankful and appreciative that things are not any worse than they are. Sometimes being thankful in the midst of adversity is a gift all by itself. So, that is another gift that I will try to bring the Lord. Being thankful in the midst of the adversity.

The other gift that I am going to try to bring to the Lord is the gift of service when I am able to serve. I have precious few dollars to donate but I do have lots of talent and time that I can bring to the table. So, with that in mind, instead of stressing out and being depressed about being stressed out and depressed I will try to channel that energy into areas of service in my local church. I have always served in church and played a role of service to my fellow brothers and sisters. Sometimes that service has given my the ability to forget the battle that rages on within and gives me some much needed respite.

I also want to bring another gift to the Lord for his birthday. That gift is to be a better and less selfish husband to my wife. My wife is a gift to me and even though I try to show her love and appreciation through my lips and sometimes my actions I know that I need to show her more action and less lip service. I need to be more proactive in doing those things that will bring her joy and happiness in our relationship. I need to serve my family more and myself less.

Help me Jesus to see where I have failed and give me the strength and perserverance and faith to embrace your power and love so that I can bring these gifts to your table.

AIDA32 - Worldwide Sysinfo Tool

AIDA32 - Worldwide Sysinfo Tool

I have not had much time this weekend to read the 14 blogs I am subscribed to. During some down time this afternoon I managed to catch up on my Blog reading and ran into a VERY cool System Information Tool called Aida. Whether you are an I.T. professional such as myself or a curious end user you will find this FREE utility something to be amazed about. I just downloaded and installed the PERSONAL EDITION on my XP Professional computer here at home and it is absolutely astounding. I have looked at more software packages than most humans and I can tell you that this is a Winner in my book. So, with that in mind, click on the link above and enjoy.