THIS IS FOR BETSY!

Betsy,
I know you don't have anytime to waste so I pick the best for you!

Enjoy!
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/mot_mib/index.html

This is my bride,
Her love is the source of my pride.
An anniversary of her birth is near,
I pray God will bless my dear.
The life she has lived is testiment,
Her future is sure filled with love and sentiment.
A heart so pure and loving,
If you know her you would agree, it is really something.
If my request to God comes to be,
Their will not be another bride as happy as she!

Take a moment to wish RA a happy b-day anniversary(gifts need to be in by Saturday), she is such a great wife, mother, daughter, and child of God! I LOVE YOU RA!

Inspirations from Anna

I have to say that I have had a great evening and I was just about to call it a night when I decided to check the blog. Much a do about nothing and low and behold I read Anna's comment. Well this is for you Anna.

I am not against organized religion, I don't agree with a lot of it, but it has its place and can do good for many people. That said, I don't believe God is into religion, He is into Relationship. You see the church for all its good, is people and while God will never fail you people will. People are introspective and tend to look at themselves. Have you noticed how popular all the Purpose stuff is right now. Well purpose is me centered, which is wrong. Don't get me wrong Anna, God loves you and cares about you dearly. But the question is not what is my purpose, it is what is God's purpose? You see God had an ultimate intention for man, He created man with a purpose, which is His not ours. While God's purpose was being fulfilled, man having free will choose to fulfill his own purpose and fall from God. I liken it to a road. God built a road or path for man and he took a detour. God made a detour back to the road he originally built for man. The road back is Jesus. Now this is where I disagree with organized religion. I am not discounting Jesus here I love Jesus dearly, but the Church looks at Jesus as the main focus. I don't think this is correct the focus should be on Gods Intention for man which is the road. So what is the road? The road is a relationship. God made man for relationship and that is what is important to God. If you have children you can see this as His model. Why do you have children? The same reason God has you. For a loving, caring, growing relationship.

I have been asked one prevailing question by so many that are struggling with Faith. If God loves us why would He let something bad happen to me? Well why would a parent let something bad happen to their children? You don't, you try to prevent it at any cost, as does God, but bad things still happen to our children because you allow them to have free will. So where is God in this you ask? He is all over it. Yes, I don't want anything bad to happen to my sons, but what happens when it does? Look at the big picture. When it does I grab them and pull them close to me and we bond in ways I could never had if everything was just right all the time. Some of my best memories of my relationship with God are when things have been the worst. Because God came there to me in the midst of it and Loved me, held me, like a mother to a daughter or a father to a son He picked me up and comforted me like no one else. That is why God allows it to happen, because if he didn't then he would take away the one thing that man has been dying for since the beginning of time, freedom. Bottomline, its your choice even if you don't decide you still made a choice.

mThe Perfect Search Engine! REALY!

Don't know which search engine to use? Confused with all the different ones out there? Here is truely one better than Geico giving you quotes on three competitors. I don't know what it's official tittle is, but it is the SEARCH ENGINE to Beat all Search Engines. CLICK HERE. ENJOY!

Day and Night

We wake up each morning never thinking that someone is going to bed on the opposite side of the globe do we? The same is true in the spiritual realm. God is Life, Life is cyclical, Life is Seasons, Ups and Downs, Highs and Lows, Good and Bad. However you define it, it is a series. When we look at where we are at there is someone on the opposite side of your globe. Kind of like Bizzarro world yet with purpose. Jesus said in Matthew 6:34,
"don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today."

My interpretation: Preparing for tomorrow is time well spent, worrying about tomorrow is time wasted. How do you tell the difference. When done right, planning will alleviate worry. The truth is worrying will do nothing but interfere with your relationship with God. I think of the story in Mark when the disciples panicked because a storm threatened to destroy them all, and Jesus was unconcerned and resting. We go through storms and get anxious, I want to be be like Jesus and rest.

OK, so bottomline, whatever your difficulty, you have two options: you can worry and assume that Jesus no longer cares, or you can resist fear(this ones for Larson- False-Expectations-Appearing-Real), putting your trust in him. When you feel like panicking, confess your need for God and then trust him to care for you.
Psalm 3410 Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the LORD will never lack any good thing.
God knows what you need more than you, what you are going through may suck, but take equanimity in the fact that God is helping you grow more dependent on him.

Finally, Faith means resting in what God has done for us in the past, But YOUR FAITH only grows when you trust him for what he WILL do for you in the present and future.

Tolerance for the ........

Don't let an opportunity pass to show God's Love toward anyone. It wont be through your own efforts to succed in anything you do, only through God's help. I have been really learning to be tolerant of others this week(OK, maybe one person in paticular) and as I pray God shows me how sad he is, for this individual is broken. Then I rest in his care, confident that God will do what is best for me, provided that i will, for my part, work diligently but contently. I say "contently" because revenge and unforgiveness is harmful both to our heart and to our future and is not really diligence, but rather over eagerness and anxiety. I pray for and am thankful for God's mercy. I beg him, through that same mercy, to fill all with His everlasting Love.
"Anyone can say, who can do?"

SWANS REFLECTING ELEPHANTS

OK BETSY! Once again to appease you, the picture is Swans Reflecting Elephants and it is by one of the greatest sureal painters ever! Salvador Dali

He is definitely seen as controversial and an avatism of Picaso, but his work will make you think!

OBFUSCATE

I would like to obfuscate the new blog. I would like to obfuscate my e-mail. I would like to obfuscate my credit cards. I would like to obfuscate my anger. I would like to obfuscate my responsibility. I should obfuscate my selfishness.

Interesting how words come to fruition? I obfuscated my blog in order to make sure those who want to read it really want to read it. Have faith it will get better!

36 Hours and counting!

OK, What is the deal with Cialis, it claims to last 36 hours? Why would anyone beyond Buck Wild want it to last 36hours?

I want to go fishing with these dudes!


I noticed Rachel put the vacation photos on her blog, but she missed this one at Busch Gardens on the newest thrill rollercoaster!

I heard they are coming out with one without the training wheels?

THANK YOU!

OK, you all know I have the best wife in the whole world. Well I just have to thank her publically for writing one of the sweetest posts ever. Honey you ROCK. I love you so. It reminds me of the the third verse of our song, hey wait we don't have a song! OK, we need a song anyone have any suggestion, how about witchey woman? Or how about Desperado? Let me know if you have any suggestions!

I LOVE YOU RACHET!!!!!

PS JESUS IS YOUR CO-PILOT AND YOU ARE DRIVING TO FAST?

FOR MATURE ADULTS ONLY!

It is funny what TV and Commercials do to the brain.

Do not try this at home? Like I would actually pick up a Ford pick up by a screw?

Would I really call my doctor after taking viagra and it was three hours later? Or would I, well you get the idea.

Jared, come on lost 600 pounds eating Subway? What he ate one sandwich a day and thats it?

Doesn't the chick on the Herpes Medicine commercial make you think she is a bit, again you know what I mean. I wonder how she is looked at by her friends and family after doing that commerical.

Who is audtioning for a role to do a silly dance and touch body parts that are affected by:Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea?Hey! Pepto-Bismol!I'm watching the Seinfeld and this stupid commercial for Pepto-Bismol. Now I can't get this song out of my head. And I think about the actors in it. Do they brag to their friends that they're in it? Do they put this on their resumés?Look, I appreciate Pepto-Bismol. When you need it, you need it. But I watch this commercial, and the entire series of them, and I feel embarrassed for the actors.

Finally, the Outback ones with the guys in the tight jeans GIMMEE A BREAK

Am I alone?

G MAIL USERS

If you use Gmail do this please:
1) Log into Gmail 2) Click SETTINGS 3) Click "turn shortcut keys on." 4) Click "save settings."
Everything will work exactly the way it did before. You will not have to think. You will not have to study. You will not have to memorize anything.
But soon you will say, "Gosh, I feel silly for not at least trying that sooner."
From now on, if you meet a Gmail user who hasn't at least tried the shortcut keys whack them upside the head with a rubber chicken.
You have all been warned.

NEO FUR REO

Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix
IMAGINE movies and computer games in which you get to smell,
taste and perhaps even feel things. That's the tantalising prospect
raised by a patent on a device for transmitting sensory data directly
into the human brain - granted to none other than the entertainment
giant Sony.
The technique suggested in the patent is entirely non-invasive.
It describes a device that fires pulses of ultrasound at the head to modify
firing patterns in targeted parts of the brain, creating "sensory experiences"
ranging from moving images to tastes and sounds. This could give blind or
deaf people the chance to see or hear, the patent claims.
While brain implants are becoming increasingly sophisticated, the only
non-invasive ways of manipulating the brain remain crude. A technique known
as transcranial magnetic stimulation can activate nerves by using rapidly changing
magnetic fields to induce currents in brain tissue. However, magnetic fields cannot
be finely focused on small groups of brain cells, whereas ultrasound could be.
Now add the fact that Virtual Angel is designing a implant for babies to keep them
on a transponder so you could find them, etc. Now you got the power to make us
mind numb robots with out the one thing God fought so hard to give us. FREE WILL

UNINSPIRED? READ THIS!

They came for the Communists, and I didn't object for I wasn't a Communist; They came for the Socialists, and I didn't object for I wasn't a Socialist; They came for the labor leaders, and I didn't object for I wasn't a labor leader; They came for the Jews, and I didn't object for I wasn't a Jew; Then they came for me and there was no one left to object. Martin Niemoller, German Protestant Pastor (1892-1984)

BETSY MISSES ME?

First it's Shannoning, Next it's Larsoning, Now it's Brianing? Well I am being persecuted to the point that I have to post! So what to post?

29Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

What is faith and why should we need such a thing?
Why do we get up everyday and go to work? Faith? Why do we brush our teeth? Faith? Why do we put on our seatbelt? Faith? Why do we fish? Faith?

We go to work because we believe we are going to get paid.
We brush our teeth because we believe we are going to keep our teeth from rotting out of our mouth.
We put our seatbelt on because we believe it will keep us from getting killed in an accident.
We put a worm on a hook and place it in the water because we believe we will catch dinner.

So, believing is faith. No faith is believing when you have no experience justifying you to believe. Why is Faith important. Because if you don't have Faith you will get a severe disease. This disease goes by a number of names. My favorite, the one that sounds most harmless, is procrastination. Another name for the disease is cowardice, defeatism, "low self-esteem",or just plain debilitating fear. Fear of failure, certainly, but also to some extent fear of success, fear of knowing how much of your life you have squandered. It also masquerades as depression. Or is depression perhaps the root cause of the disease, or the result of the disease? For what can be more depressing, more ego- and soul-destroying, than knowing you know what you need to do but not being able to do it, not having FAITH. Covey calls this disease the urgent/important paradox: That we choose, consistently, even inevitably, to do urgent unimportant things before non-urgent important things, often to the point that the important things never get done. Whatever name you choose to use for the disease is a fair one. It lives up to all these names, in spades.
Step out in FAITH and believe God has called you to do the urgent important things and put them first and you will start to see success.

By the way I am glad I cleared that up with myself...

MY DARK TAN

I am sick and tired of
getting crap for being soDark.
I am deciding to
share the secret to how
it is I get such a dark tan.

A tip is if you want to do
the whole body get more
than one sharpie!

What to get me!

OK, I know you all wonder
"What can I get Brian?"
Well here it is, my favorite magazine.
Subscriptions are now available in the United States.

Find Faith Before it Finds you!

It is interesting how when you are going through something difficult in life as a Christian it is a given you are running after God on his time. But when you are sailing through life God is on your time not His. Make God a priority and be sensitive to the fact that he created you for a relationship with him. Just like a parent has children for relationship. Be mindful of the Lord, read His Word and be in a constant state of prayer. Trust me on this one, when you do and something difficult happens across your path you will be so much more better prepared to handle it. Distraction I believe is one of the best tools the enemy can use to cause us to loose faith. Think about it, it goes on and on and just gets more advanced with time, remember the pager, now we have the cell phone. Look at all we have to keep us away from God, balance is the key and God honors balance. Next time you go for the remote stop and spend a few minutes with the Lord and make a habit of it and you will arm yourself with a tool that will help you live the Life God intended.