Things Are Looking Up

Things in my life are beginning to look positive again. I was laid off from my primary job 3 months ago and while I have not found a “permanent” job yet, I have had steady assignments from a temporary agency for the last 1.5 months. I have also been working toward my Certified Bookkeeper designation ever since I was laid off and should be finished with it by the end of February. Once that is done, I plan on trying to start my own bookkeeping practice: JP's Bookkeeping Services.

We're also moving from our cramped one-bedroom apartment to a two-bedroom house starting in the middle of February. We moved into the apartment almost two years ago when we were having financial troubles so we could catch up on everything. But, now it's time to move back into something larger so we can start to build our family.

Just an Update

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything so I figured I'd just take a couple of minutes tonight to do a quick update of what's been going on to keep me from making some posts over the past 30 days. My last post mentioned that I was elected to the deacon board and my 3-year term began with the church year that started on Oct 1. Also, last weekend and this the church is putting on a Judgement House which is taking up a lot of my time. Well, those are pretty much the main things that have kept me from making more updates recently. Other than not really much else is happening in my life or has struck me as particularly newsworthy.

Whirlwind Weekend

This was certainly an exciting weekend in the life of our church. Yesterday, a large group of members went out of help other churches in their outreach and evangelism efforts throughout the Charleston area. At the same time as that was happening, several people were helping with the distribution of food that had been purchased through Angel Food Ministries.

Today was High Attendance Day where we were all encouraged to invite someone to church and we had a massive church-wide fellowship following the morning services. We also held deacon elections for which I was one of 12 candidates being considered for 9 positions (5 currently serving deacons are rotating off to take their year sabbatical after serving for 3 years and the membership has grown such that additional deacons were added to lighten service load across the entire deacon board). I was one of the ones that the membership chose to serve.

Well, even after all that, tomorrow's just the start of a normal week for me.

Dating Your Spouse

One thing I am extremely proud of in my relationship with my wife is that, even though we have been married for coming up on 8 years next month, we have never stopped dating. Just last night, we went to the Highway 21 Drive In in Bluffton, one of two remaining drive-in theatres in South Carolina. We had dinner and watched Shrek the Third and Transformers. We had lots of fun and it was well worth the hour drive as there is of no other place where two people can get dinner and two movies for under $32.00! We will definitely be going again when they have two movies on the same screen that we want to see.

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.