But that's not supposed to happen ...

This past summer we lost power for 8 days – see my second blog entry. Eight long days w/o electricity. And they say lightening is not supposed to strike twice in the same place – don't believe that! We had another St Louis storm, but this time with ice and snow. 14,400 out of 19,600 in my zip code were out of power! Over 350,000 people went dark. They were saying that it could be 5 days to restore power for most people. Thankfully, we were only out for two and half days this time – thank you Jesus! We have radiant heat – water pipes in the floors – and I was really worried that we might be out for 4 or 5 days. Never mind the inconvenience of no electricity, I was worried about the freezing temperatures freezing my floors. It only got down to about 25 the first night, but down to 15 the second night. The night we got electricity back it was going down to about 10 degrees, which might have frozen my perimeter. Once that happens, the pipes burst and the concrete slab seeps water into the house. And then its forced air and about 2 grand to fix. I spent a lot of time praying for the Ameren UE repair guys. Really tough conditions to work in.

I can do the heat, but the cold – no thanks! Some friends were going to put us up for however long it would be, which turned out to be only one night. Its always nice to have good friends with finished basements. It was the body of Christ in motion. Christians reaching out to the family of God.

Comments

A simple beginning

First, let me start by saying that I am a Christian first and foremost. I don't expect some of you to believe what I will be writing, nor do I expect you to agree with it. I see things from a slightly different perspective and I acknowledge that it is colored by my faith. Before you respond (or even read any further), you must also admit that the same is true for you. Each of us believe what we believe because of our background (how we grew up, who we interacted with, how we were treated by friends and family) or particular circumstances in our lives (things that we did or things that occurred to us), as well as the God given personality that we all have. Just like you I have a worldview, but mine is a Christian one. And just like you, everything is filtered through that lens. And since you do the exact same thing, please don't pretend that you don't. Second, I think, investigate and have opinions about a lot of topics. Most of those topics are in some w...

Who is Your God?

So here we are ending 2008, ready to start a new year, with a new president, an economy in recession and a nation that seems 'hell-bent' on continuing to throw away the very faith and values that created her and inspired a governmental structure unlike any other on the face of this planet. No, I'm not getting political or disregarding the 'too many to count' horrible things that have been done in the 'name of Christ' as so many like to point out. We all know these things to be true and are reminded of them continually by people whose motives most likely are suspect. So I'm not trying to put lemon juice on a paper cut, but I do think there's a hidden truth that seems to get overlooked by too many Christians feed up and tired of being brow-beaten with the actions of people that none of us knew, and wouldn't have been able to control had we been alive during their times, or present during their sinful actions. Trying to 'fix' that perception...

As for me and my household ...

In the past I have pointed out some of the inconsistencies of what is stated about Islam and what it seems to practice, as well as some of the differences between Islam and Christianity. Today's entry is really no different. These days our so-called secular media seems to be going out of its way to faun all over Islam and prop up the ridiculous “religion of peace” mantra it tries to hind behind. I read a couple of very interesting articles concerning the newly elected African-American Muslim congressman from Minnesota. This is an article about Keith Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to congress . Beyond the flap about him putting his hand on the Koran instead of the Bible for the ceremonial pictures of the swearing in process, the larger issue is, that as a Christian convert to Islam, Islam seems to get a pass on all of the questions that would be asked any other person with seemly extreme personal beliefs that would also seem to violate the US Constitution, the very thing he...

Of Terrorism and Terrorists ...

This was originally posted in my Yahoo! 360 blog back in Aug 2006 ... and its still ass true today as it was back then ... A couple of days ago, once again, we got a reminder of what the face of terrorism is. The West just doesn't seem to get it – its about religion stupid! Its a bit unrealistic to think that the Islamic fascists controlling the vast majority of Islam today would embrace democracy when they are still stuck in the 7 th century, and they still believe that killing in the name of God is their highest calling. I say the 'vast majority of Islam' because you really never hear moderate Muslims reject or repudiate the teachings of the Islamic fascists. I know that they are out there, they just seem to be conspicuously silent, or making excuses as to why what the Islamists do is somehow justified. But then, I understand that mentality a little. Years ago I was part of the Operation Rescue movement and its attempt to eliminate abortion via non-violent ci...

Relationship not religion ...

Wow! It has been a really long time since my last blog. I have chosen to back out of a business venture because I just don't have time anymore; actually, I never had the time in the first place. It was an interesting little adventure and I'm glad I did it, but with a full-time job and all of my responsibilities at church, it was completely unrealistic to get involved with. As my partner said, "What we do for the Lord is much more important than what we do in the business world." He is of course correct. Every church has a slogan, ours is, "Relationship not religion". But slogans are not always easy to live up to, so the question we should all be asking, which I am, is, "does that slogan match what we really are?" A lot of the time its what we really want to be, but not always what we really are. And with all of the transitions going on at my church and after reading a short book, I starting thinking about this and its relationship to my topic, the ...

shadman's old Musings

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