I'M BACK!!!!!

Hello everyone!! I'm back!!! I have been realizing it has now been a few years since my last posting! Guess I just never felt like I had anything interesting to say! A friend and I were just discussing blogging experiences. I thought I would give it a shot again! Now that I write this, I am trying to determine what to say. It is rather difficult as I contemplate some changes in my life and I do not feel ready to share as of yet. I guess I need to request prayer from all you readers (or should I say both of you!?!? How many of you are there!?!) Over the last few years, I have pretty much settled here in Texas and decided this is my home. I would prefer to live in a different neighborhood. Now that I have my own house, I now know what my preferences in a home are, and I find myself visiting new home models in new subdivisions. Depressing sometimes that I am upside down in this house and cannot afford to move at this time. Praying for the Lord's provisions. But trying to be mindful about trust and contentment in the Lord. Speaking of contentment, I have reached contentment in my singleness. I think I learned this significantly from a good friend I met 4 years ago, David Sepe. He was only a couple years younger than me and was very content as a single man. Before his coming to Christ in salvation, he had been married briefly. Anyhow, God brought this buddy in my life for me to know him just long enough as he went home to be with the Lord suddenly. Quite a shock it was, but I marvel that this heavenly minded man was ready to go be with his Creator. Being that it was shortly before Christmas, I had days later gone to a Christmas performance and as the choir was performing the Hallelujah Chorus, I suddenly imagined him singing along in Heaven with his signature ear-to-ear grin in perfect bliss. I had to laugh because while here on earth, he would poke fun at his own singing voice (though I myself never had opportunity to hear what his singing actually sounded like). Having said all this, I am shocked to find myself these days seeing relationship possibilities coming my way and contemplating actions. I have been confused as to what the Lord has for me in that regard. Please pray for wisdom! Blessings, Paul

Audio Sermon Series -- Let The Men Be Men and The Women Be Women

http://www.faith-bible.net/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=76&func=select&id=71&orderby=2&page=1

Hello, I just pasted the audio link above to a series done by Chris Mueller, former pastor of Grace Community Church where I was a member many years before moving away from California. It was done over the course of a few months during my early years at the church in the 1980s. Chris Mueller is now pastor of Faith Bible Church in Murietta and this series is on his sermon archives. So grateful my friend Cheryl referred me to it.

The series contains biblical instruction on how we are to live and conduct ourselves in the roles God designed us to be, especially in purity and relating to the opposite gentder. It made a life long impact upon my life as it did many of my peers. Recommend listening especially for the younger adults.

You can even hear my voice during some of the discussions! LOL

Facebook -- Overcoming the Evils That Occur

As most of you know, I am a heavy-duty Facebook user. I have been active for about a year and half. It has brought much joy to my life as it has helped me strengthen my contact/communication with those who are in the Body of Christ and with friends I grew up with in my boyhood town in southern Illinois. I have friends from seemingly all age brackets. Only recently I have started partaking in some of the fun activities such as "quizzes" and "fun notes", resulting in lots of witty feedback, all in fun!

In fact, I was one of the earlier active participants within my age group from my hometown. I was deemed instrumental in reuniting some long-lost friends. A small group of them were so ecstatic that they have begun planning a Facebook reunion in my hometown this coming June. Since I am the one who allegedly started the Facebook craze, I have been roped into coming. I could not resist the urge to come! I knew I couldn't afford it, but I did find a good deal on a travel package, too good to pass up, so I am planning on going after all!

Facebook could almost easily become an addiction so I have had to take great efforts to keep a balance in my life. Fortunately, it is helpful that I am unable to access Facebook at work due to some network "firewalls", and that is a good thing! (Am too busy at work anyway!) So pretty much, the evening is the only time for Facebook. All in all, I have found the rewards to be worth my time.

However, a couple weeks ago, there was a sickening incident that occurred. I had just gotten home from work and was barely signed in when I was beseiged with some IMs' from those I would never expect to receive. I was warned about some graphic image that I was tagged with.

As I scrolled down the home page, it was even more horrific than I could imagine. Gratefully, I was able to receive assistance from other godly users on how to remove it and report it. In that duration, I was sickened and grossed out nauciously as I persistently labored at these tasks while coaching other affected users in doing the same. I initially was apalled at the person from whose account
I was tagged, allegedly a new Facebook confirmed friend who I had requested months ago (she was a friend I knew from Grace Community and had lost touch). While she is a fellow believer, she was known also for pulling an occasional prank. After I successfully dealt with the removal of the image and tagging, and with the apologies to my fellow users, I then found out that this friend had nothing to do with this (I feel awful and foolish for doubting her in the first place!!) A student of hers had hacked her account and performed the sick acts. I am told she was equally upset (probably more so), and disabled her account. I can only imagine the pain she is feeling in dealing with the situation at her school. Please pray for her!

Understandably, this upset several users connected with me. Some closed their accounts, while others removed me as a friend. I myself was upset to know that my FB account could be exposed to an image like that. I was grateful to learn from others that they knew I was above reproach and would have nothing to do with initiating this incident.

I wondered what action I should take on my Facebook account whether to continue. But it has become such a valuable tool in my life, I chose to retain it after weighing the pros and cons. Some of my friends chose not to continue it, and though I miss them terribly, I fully support their decision accordingly. One of my dear and well-respected friends, yet another school teacher, stated that as an educator and a church deaconess, she could not risk any potential repercussions of any brief association with images of that kind, so that was obviously understandable. I am grateful of having another means of contact with this godly woman as I value her friendship greatly.

I realize that I need to be mindful of these concerns as well. As a middle-aged single man, I know what skepticism I am faced with and the associated stereotypes. And that is why I am swift to remove anything that may cause anyone to stumble and to replace with truths that live up to the principles of Ephesians 4:29 and Phil 4:8.

Something I was reminded from this is that God reigns over all and is the Great Conqueror; greater than any of our sins. Through Him I am able to do all things through Christ that strengthens me. And the impurities of this wicked world will cause you to stumble only if you let it. I feel I did everything possible to rid of that gross image and maintain the pure integrity of my Facebook account. I will continue to strive to use this as an instrument to encourage one another, and to make myself available for sharing any prayer requests and concerns. Just some thoughts!

Grace and Peace,
Paul -- Ephesians 3:20

Dr. Nicki Coertze -- The Spurgeon Conference

Recently, there was a Spurgeon conference at my church (Founders Baptist Church). The basic theme I would label it as the Integrity of Preaching the Truth of the Word of God. The guest speaker was Nicki Coertze from Christ Seminary in South Africa (affectionately known as Brother Nicki). In addition to being an exceptional preacher of the Word, he has a special place in my heart as he ministers along side some friends of mine (the Beakleys and the Macks). Also, a supporting church of his happens to be in my dad's hometown in West Frankfort, IL. He addressed the issues of the trend of preachers compromising and "tickling the ears" instead of preaching the Truth.

While Brother Nicki addressed the seriousness of these issues, there were some memorable quotes of his during his week long series; some of which were hysterically funny! My favorite was in his response to a church organization criticizing Christ Seminary's training his pastors-in-training to be "dogmatic". His response in a written letter was as follows:

"I must humbly apologize for appearing to be too dogmatic. It was never my intention to be dogmatic. I meant to be "Bull-dogmatic". It is better than being "cat-matic" and be pussy-footing around the issues!"

Too funny!!!! More memorable quotes as follows:

"Goats like to bump heads. You can't build a church on goats."

"Repentance doesn't save, but no one is saved without repentance. ... "

"There's a difference between being crude and being honest."

"A positive message will fill the pews, but it will fill hell as well."

In all seriousness, Brother Nicki Coertze will likely be remembered for these classic quotes above. (There should be a Coertze book compiling his quotes, similar to one done for Spurgeon's) During his preaching, Dr. Coertze has a tone of humility and gratefulness for all that God has done in his life, yet is boldly firm in Biblical doctrine, and exhorts us to be faithful in adhering to the truth, and demonstrating genuine love among the brethren. Very memorable, and I consider him a personal hero.

Eola Dodson

A couple days ago, another personally impactful dear saint went to be with the Lord. This person, Eola Dodson was from my hometown in Marissa, Illinois where I grew up from Kindergarten through 11th grade. This was a tiny town, population just around 2200, so most people knew just about everyone by name and face.

Mrs. Dodson was my English teacher in jr. high and high school. Actually during my elementary years, she was actually the school librarian. As a little kid, my first impression was that she was a rather stern, dry personality, but nice enough. However, when I actually had her for a teacher, she taught english in a brilliant methodical manner. I have great understanding of the subject-verb agreement to this day, and I credit her for imparting this knowledge to me. Our classes continued through my first couple years in high school and my respect and fondness for her just grew deeply. Her faith in Christ was evident and she was very kind and compassionate also. I noticed that she had great patience for struggling students also. In a Facebook forum, one former student noted how she showed no partiality to any flashy, popular or intelligent students vs. anyone else average. I realized how true that was.

Mrs. Dodson herself was not a flashy personality who drew popular attention to herself. Therefore she often did not come to mind as a flashy fun-loving teacher. However, she certainly did not lack a sense of humor and she was a willing participant in those classic, hillarious faculty frolics of the late 70s and would also dress in the Meteor attire to display school spirit. She was not necessarily labeled popular, but she certainly was well-loved and respected by the student body.

What was nice about growing up in small-town USA was that many of our teachers were also contacts in the community; active in churches, running to them at local stores, dinners out, or community and school activities. Mrs. Dodson was known as a pillar in the community and a very active member of her local Methodist church. She served as a Sunday school teacher, and was a leader in women's ministry, even on a regional level. She was very much a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and a great-grandmother. I actually lived a couple blocks from her so she was considered a good neighbor also.

Her Christlike example and her teaching legacy has impacted countless lives and will pass to generations to come. Now that she is in the heavenly presence of the Lord, I quote Paula Buritsch's statement taken from scripture that God said upon her entrance "well-done good and faithful servant!" Eola Dodson will be missed!

In Memory of Mary Lappala

I lost a dear friend tonight to melonoma of the lung...the worst possible cancer there is. Mary Lappala. She was among my best buddies during the 4 years I lived in Michigan...we had an unlikely friendship, as she was old enough to be my mother. She never married. She did confide that she would have liked to...however I never sensed any discontentment in her singleness. Not long after we first met in church, I discovered how like-minded we were in faith and the doctrines of grace so that is probably why we enjoyed fellowshipping together. We were both single and did not have a whole lot of like-minded singles in town..

Mary and I were both part of Cornerstone Community Church in Escanaba, MI. While most churches today seem to ignore singles, and sometimes setup singles groups for purposes seemingly nothing more than to acknowledge their existence or to simply keep them out of the way. However, Mary and I agreed that Cornerstone being the small church it was, was like a strong unified family and made us both feel valued for the ministry.

But knowing the need of individual families to have their own times, Mary and I sometimes hung out, looking out for each other's needs such as rides, food items, or a simple phone conversation...sometimes going out to eat on a Sunday afternoon..often being joined by other friends of hers such as Barb Waterman, or a couple of other widowed ladies in town...I guess I could have been labeled the ladies man...though I was easily 10-20 years younger than all of them!

But I admired Mary the most out of all of them, especially for her hunger for the Word.. In fact, she was a Grace To You subscriber, and she had checked out Cornerstone, not having any idea of our connection to Grace Community Church. So when she realized this, she was there to stay, and behold, became part of our family. As she soaked up the Word of God in the teachings and her faithful studies alone, she imparted what she learned to the children and served the saints in other ways. She was surrogate grandma to the Woodward kids while they lived there. She was a favorite aunt to her siblings' children and grandchildren..in fact , it looked to me that her nephew Todd's children were almost like her own grandchildren she never had. Mary also was the spiritual advisor to most of her female peers and an example of what a godly woman is to be. She was also a great example and encouragement to me. She work heartily unto the Lord at her various positions as school teacher and medical field employee.

Mary's retirement was largely spent in cancer treatment. When I first heard of her melonoma, I personally thought it was a death sentence, but she pursued treatment with such great hope which was contagious. I would call her often, intending to minister and encourage her, only to have received this enocouragement from her. Finally, a short time ago, the doctors informed her that they did all they could do. She accepted the news with the gratefulness to God for the life she lived and anticipation of the Heaven that she was about to enter. What a tribute her life has been. While I miss this dear Sister, I rejoice that her homegoing was peaceful, and glorious. I along with others will always treasure our days together with Mary here on earth, and I long to enjoy the eternal fellowship with Christ that she is are now experiencing. In memory of our friend Mary Lynne Lappala--our dear loved one.

" Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones." Psalm 116:15

"I'll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,

And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;

And say when the death-dew lies cold on my brow,

If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now."

<-- A verse taken out of the hymn "My Jesus I Love Thee" by William Featherston...a hymn loved by Mary

I'm Back -- Thoughts About Facebook

Hello everyone....I am back!! Sorry I have not posted any entries lately..I guess the hurricane happened and had no internet access for weeks...never got around to getting back to it...hopefully I will become regular at it again..

I have been concentrating more on my Facebook account. Many folks speak the evils of it. I myself have found it rewarding. I have reconnected with some long lost friends, and my high school alma mater FB friends are even talking of a reunion...I have had some major financial disasters recently so not sure I can pull off the trip to IL. We'll see! My Facebook has enabled to have more in-touch fellowship in Christ as well! I say that these internet sites are only as evil as one allows them to be...people talk about the impurities and pornography, etc. But these folks are the ones not fleeing temptations as scripture calls us to. I for one have no desire to go to those sites as I have other purposes in mind. Mind you, I still have to guard the amount of time spent on the net and its appropriate use, as opposed to my time alone with the Lord and His written Word. But Facebook has been nothing but positive for me! Just a few thoughts!!!

Until next time,

Paul