A Digital Piano Is NOT an Organ

Earlier this week, I was called and asked to play for a funeral service that was to happen this morning. Both the pastor and the family member that contacted me told me that the funeral home had a organ. So, I prepared my prelude music fully expecting that I would be playing on a organ. However, I got to the funeral home early this morning in order to familiarize myself with their instrument and what they have is a digital piano, NOT an organ ("well, it can sound like an organ," says the gentleman that showed me into the chapel). Now, I don't fault the pastor or the family member for telling me they had a organ because I'm sure that's what their contact had told them. Fortunately, I had come prepared with several piano pieces just in case the "organ" was not what I was expecting. It was a beautiful service.

The Duck and the Devil

I'll tell you something: things happen strangely in my life. For example, Nicole and I will talk about something one day and the very next day, that exact thing that we were talking about will appear somewhere else. Well, after what I wrote yesterday, I happened upon this today:

The Duck & the Devil

There was a little boy visiting his grandparents on their farm. He was given a slingshot to play with out in the woods. He practiced in the woods; but he could never hit the target.

Getting a little discouraged, he headed back for dinner. As he was walking back he saw Grandma's pet duck.

Just out of impulse, he let the slingshot fly, hit the duck square in the head and killed it. He was shocked and grieved!

In a panic, he hid the dead duck in the wood pile; only to see his sister watching! Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing.

After lunch the next day Grandma said, "Sally, let's wash the dishes," but Sally said, "Grandma, Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen."
Then she whispered to him, "Remember the duck?" So Johnny did the dishes.

Later that day, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing and Grandma said, "I'm sorry but I need Sally to help make supper."

Sally just smiled and said, "Well that's all right because Johnny told me he wanted to help." She whispered again, "Remember the duck?" So Sally went fishing and Johnny stayed to help.

After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally's; he finally couldn't stand it any longer.

He came to Grandma and confessed that he had killed the duck.
Grandma knelt down, gave him a hug and said, "Sweetheart, I know. You see, I was standing at the window and I saw the whole thing, but because I love you, I forgave you. I was just wondering how long you would let Sally make a slave of you."

Thought for the day and every day thereafter?
Whatever is in your past, whatever you have done...and the devil keeps throwing it up in your face (lying, cheating, debt, fear, bad habits, hatred, anger, bitterness, etc.)... whatever it is... You need to know that God was standing at the window and He saw the whole thing. He has seen your whole life. He wants you to know that He loves you and that you are forgiven.

He's just wondering how long you will let the devil make a slave of you.

One of the many great things about God is that when you ask for forgiveness, He not only forgives you, but He forgets. It is by God's grace and mercy that we are saved.

Go ahead and make the difference in someone's life today. Share this with a friend and always remember: God is at the window!

When Jesus died on the cross, He was thinking of you!

Confession: Good for ... ?

People say that confession is good for the soul and the Bible tells us that God will forgive (and forget) our sins if we just confess them to him. Through Sunday morning's sermon, the Lord convicted me of a certain sin in my life that was preventing me from answering the call to a possible opportunity to serve Him and His Kingdom due to the fear of somebody finding out about it should I be chosen for this calling. You would simply not believe the amount of searching that I had done to find "justification" for this particular sin and had myself convinced that it was alright and not really a sin. The devil can be very sneaky in guiding you to any (mis)information that might help you think that a particular sin is right. Now that this sin is confessed and out of my life, I feel at peace with God once again and am free to serve him to the fullest of my ability.

Nicole and I also made a decision this weekend to begin getting into the Word and sincere prayer more often like we should. We have committed ourselves to two 15-minute (or longer) bible studies each day, one together and one individually. We both desire a closer walk with God and want increase our spiritual maturity.

My Weekend Part 3

Ok, I promise this will be the last installment of this story. At this point it's now Saturday morning, I'm at home in West Ashley, and the Mustang is sitting in an industrial park in Mount Pleasant with a flat tire. Here we go...

I call a friend from church that lives near me to see if they will give me a ride back to where my car is so I can call for a tow and get the flat tire replaced. It happens that they are heading that way anyways to help their son and daughter-in-law do some work on their house so it works out perfect and they have no problem giving me a ride. We get there and the person suggests that we try to change the tire as getting a tow is always expensive. Since, if you remember from part two, I don't have a lug wrench, we try the one he has but it's smaller that my nuts and he didn't think to get his 4-way wrench from his house before we left.

It just so happens that there's a group working in a warehouse-type building nearby that we are able to borrow a 4-way wrench from so we can try to change to my spare. I jack the car up and we put the spare on only to find the spare didn't have enough air in it to get me anywhere (if you've been reading this far, you should have know that it wasn't going to end there). So, I jack the car back up, take off the spare, and take it down the road to a gas station to put air in it. The first station we stopped at had an out-of-order air compressor and we got enough air in it at the second station to get me to a tire place. Go back to the car, jack it up, put on the spare, and I'm off to get a new tire to replace the flat one.

I get to the nearest tire place but it's going to be at least a two-hour wait just to get a new tire. So, I go to another place and they have a new tire on and I'm out the door in about 20 minutes.

There my story ends and the rest of the weekend was uneventful (thank goodness!).

My Weekend Part 2

Sorry I had stop in the middle of my story; but, I was getting tired and the story was only about half over. When we left the story, I had just gotten the Mustang back and was glad to be back in my own car. Don't get me wrong, driving the PT Cruiser was nice, but the color was horrific.

So, I've had the Mustang back for a whole day and go to leave the office for the weekend and get out to my car and what else do I find but a flat tire! I check Google Maps with my mobile phone to see if there is a tire place near the office that I could make it to and, according to the map, there is. I head in that direction to where the tire place is supposed to be (note the emphasis). By this time I'm practically riding on the rim as the remaining air has now left the tire. Well, I go to do what any man would do in this situation: put the spare on so I can get to another tire place (this time, one that I know is actually there). Spare tire: check! Jack: check! Lug wrench: NOPE!!

OK, I know that my boss is still at the office, so I call her to come help me out. She happens to have a lug wrench that will fit my lug nuts so I jack the car up to try to change the tire; but, I can't budge the lug nuts. She calls her husband to find a number for a tow truck and we call that place (now, this is a rainy Friday afternoon: not a good time to call for a tow) and they don't have anyone that can help me and they give me the number to another tow service but this one can't have anyone there for at least 45 minutes (translation: an hour and a half, or more). At this point, my boss now offers to take me to pickup my wife and then take us home and I'll take care of the tire in the morning.

Well, the story's almost over but I'm getting tired again. I'll finish the story tomorrow.

My Weekend and Why Cars Suck

Let me start by saying: it sucks to have to own a car! (Of course, it would suck more not to have a car; but, that's not the point of this post, now, is it?)

This weekend was the culmination of almost two weeks of dealing with my car. It all began when it started running rough and was having problem shifting gears when it should. So, I took it in to the shop near my apartment; but, they were so backed up, they wouldn't even get a chance to look at it and they asked me to come back closer to the end of the day so they could at least connect it up to the computer to find out a starting point for the next day. The computer indicated that it was the "mass airflow sensor" gone bad so I took it back to them the next day to get that replaced. I'd really like to say my story ends there and that replacing that sensor fixed the problems; but, alas, I can't.

When the sensor was replaced, they had taken the car for a test drive and the computer was indicating that it was not getting enough power. But, the technician said that might not cause a problem other than the engine revving from time to time so the computer can get more power. I took it home that night but it was running exactly the same and still having trouble shifting. So, I took it back to the the next day obtained a rental car as it was going to take them a couple of days to diagnose and repair exactly what we going on with it. (BTW, the rental car was a periwinkle blue PT Cruiser. Not exactly manly!!)

So, the shop had the Mustang for a couple days and determined that the computer needed to be replaced. That was done but I only had one key for the car and it requires two to reprogram the anti-theft system. So, they had to keep the car another day as it was the end of the day and the nearest dealership would not be able to cut and program another key until the next day.

Well, I finally get the Mustang back (and return that awful blue PT). It's running great, shifting great, and it's great to be back in my own car but the story can't end there!

To be continued...