Bills blog stop: Wake Up and Smell The Truth

Pepe's Great Escape!

Today, while we were foraging for a new food supply for our Love Bird, Pepe, we spied some new environmental enhancements for his cage(er, living habitat). An attachable, edible, beak sharpening branch to enhance his hunting and pecking skills and a beautiful red ring the size of a large swing with a bell hanging from it to accompany his visions of swinging in a tree in the jungle! After fighting the strong currents of traffic on the asphalt river to arrive back at camp, I proceeded to “green up” Pepe’s habitat. Well, as soon as I brought one of these strange new objects in through the door, he was having none of this! With wings of steel, he squeezed through as space so small I couldn’t see it without my glasses and off he went into the wild blue(uh, wondrous air spaces) in our house! Sooo… armed with nothing but a couple of soft towels and a non threatening, wooden back scratcher, we set out on a find and capture expedition that should have aired on “Wild Kingdom”! Through sheer strength and maneuvering on our part, we began to wear down the resolve of our adversary! At one point, I had to hit the switch for the overhead fan with the swift dexterity of a gazelle to extricate the fowl winged beast from his perch without flinging him into the wall! After many attempts to cast our nets(ugh, towels) over our ungrateful friend, I guess he just valued his newly found freedom too much, he finally managed to fly into the side of a cliff(wall) and wedged himself between it and a large bookcase! After great thought about our dilemma, we decided to pull one end away from the wall, then I proceeded into the dark recess with my trusty little belt flash light and towel. Much to my chagrin, the little beggar pushed forward behind the next book case! So with great trepidation, I place the towel next to this opening with one hand, and with the other, proceeded to simulate the tremors of a minor quake to the other case! Low and behold, I saw a small red and green streak flash into the towel and voila, I had him! So I transported him to his home and gently extracted him into his own, familiar environment with the new additions and left him to himself to get used to them. I came back a little later hoping to catch him happily swinging on his new swing only to catch him soundly sleeping away, totally oblivious to his new toys! oh well, so much for the great jungle experience!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Wake Up and Smell The Truth

Here is an article I wrote and posted in my other site, "Hangin With Jesus" sometime ago. I haven't done anything with that site for a long time, so I was reviewing it this morning and came across this piece and decided to share it here. I hope it will help to inspire you to continue in your walk with God as it has me! Thanx for your time, any feedback would be apprieciated!

Bill

Wake up and smell the Truth! Do you ever feel like you are on a long journey and the path you are on leads you down into the pits in a deep valley, and at other times it leads you to the exhillerating highs at the top of a mountainpeak? Ever have one of those inspiring moments when reading something that inspires you and stirs your soul? Well, I have just had such a moment while enjoying my favorite morning brew at one of my favorite places. What and where else? Starbucks, of course! Easy, Easy! Calm Down! If big coffee corporations make you uneasy and you prefer to support small business, I have no quarrel with you! I just like the coffee and atmosphere here.But back to my question, I was reading my daily study in Our Daily Bread, and the scripture that went along with it, (Nehemiah 4:1-14). This takes place at a time when the Israelites were in captivity in Babylon. Nehemiah was sent to Jerusalem to lead the people there to rebuild and fortify the city and it's fortress walls. When all their enemies in the surrounding areas heard about it, they were very angry and banded together in an attempt to stop the rebuilding! However, Nehemiah was wise to their schemes, and he organized the people not only for the work, but armed them and set them on guard to stop the enemy. Then, they have their own people coming against them from within! Whining and complaining in fear and only seeing all the negatives! But that didn't stop Nehemiah, he bathed the whole situation in prayers, submitting it to God, then trusting Him for protection, dealt with the situations as they arouse and completed the work. But the closer the work was to completion, the angrier the enemy got, and the more they came against them!If you are a Christian, you know that there are real enemies to our soul attacking from a spiritual dimension! If you are not a Christian, you may not be aware of it, but alot of the things in life that are just vexing and downright evil are coming from a real enemy, Satan, and his demons! And I'm not talking about a little guy with a pointed tail and a pitchfork! The Bible tells us all about these spiritual entities. I believe we need to help each other, like Nehemiah, to keep our guard up and commit to help each other stand strong in the face of an enemy that we cannot see, but just as sure as we can feel the wind in our face, we can feel the effects of his attacks on our emotions and our physical being! Let us not bow down to the nay sayers and people who want to drag us down! We need to pray for them and ask God to encourage them to see things more positively, keeping ourselves on course to finish our journey and bring as many along as we possibly can!I think as we read through this scripture section, we can see parallels to Sanballat and the devil with all his schemes to tear down any spiritual growth and building of strength in our walk and lives, but he is no match for God and His might on our behalf! I think we all have times when we are so weak in our own humanity that we just want to give up! So much easier to grab an innertube and float on down the lazy river with the rest of the world around us. Sound arrogant! I don't mean it to be. Jesus himself said wide is the road that leads to destruction and there are many on that road, and narrow is the gate that leads to life and there are few that will enter through the gate! Please join us on the road to Eternal life with God if you haven't already! You won't be sorry! I'd better post this before I give in to one of those weak moments and decide against it! As always, in Christ, cdcwilly, aka, Bill