Murphy Strikes Again!

The Northside Youth Group went to Winterfest in Gatlinburg, Tennessee this past weekend and I have so much to tell you that it will have to be a 2 parter!

I will begin with the Murphy bits. He likes me a whole bunch. Here is how he played a role in this most recent trip:

1. We're making great time to our destination of Gatlinburg when all of a sudden I smell burning rubber and see chunks of tire on the road in front of me (I was the last driver in a caravan of 3 vehicles). My cell rings and it is John Sloan (the driver of the big bus) asking if I will pull up and see if he has had a blowout. He had!! We are able to get it into a tire shop and replace 4 (you read right) 4!!! tires. One had shredded and three were almost there.

2. We are having an amazing time at the largest gathering of teens and the second day is getting even better for everyone except...Clint Smith, one of our chaperones. He starts feeling bad and losing everything he tries to get down-even water and Gatorade. When he starts getting the worst headache ever coupled with dizziness and blurred vision, we decide to take him to the emergency room. He stays there for 3 hours getting pumped full of liquids.

3. Now I have just found out that one of the riders on my van had the beginnings of the full blown flu when she was with us on the way home and that it ain't pretty.

Murphy has struck again, my friends.

Prayer for the Day

"Lord, someday may my life look like this orchard for You.
May the fruit of my life be so heavy
that You'll need angels to hold up the branches
And whatever You need to do in my life to produce this
kind of harvest, Lord, please do it!"
- Bruce Wilkinson

Conversations With God

Just got a cautionary email from a friend about a book entitled "Conversations With God." According to the email, this book is offered to children in schools through a scholastic program. It fields questions from tweens and teens about homosexuality, sex outside of marriage and other basics of morality. The author answers with the voice of God. And the answers are basically boiled down to allow the questioners the freedom to do whatever they want or whatever feels right to them.

I don't know if this email or even the book it writes of is real, but I do believe that there is a pervasive mentality in society, and, sadly, among other Christians, of relativism. "Basically do what you want to do and enjoy your life because each of us decides our own morality-It all comes out to the same thing in the end." This is what I hear around me every day and it is very disconcerting.

I have my thoughts on this but I would like to pose some questions for you, dear reader: When you come in contact with this philosophical mindset, what do you do? How do we, as followers of Christ, counteract this movement?

Friends

I am on a high because recently I have been able to spend some good quality time with my former partner in crime, Jim Gardner. He was in town for the funeral of his uncle, Gerald. We were pretty much able to spend a day and a quarter together before he flew back to Fresno, CA.

Just riding in the car with him here in central AR brought back a flood of memories from my early days in ministry. Great times!! Times with an old friend that I will never forget.

How many of you have old friends you haven't seen that you would like to spend some time with? I say just do it!!!

Praise 102

You will notice on the right side of this blog that there is a spot for Praise 102. My quarter devoted to praise and worship not too long ago was so well received that I have continued it on Wednesday evenings at 6:00. We are learning even more songs. I will keep them listed there as we go along.

By the way, are there any great songs that I have missed out on?