PHILLIES WIN !

I was born and raised in Levittown Pa. This is a suburb of Philadelphia. Having lived there for 21 years I have never gotten over rooting for the home teams. My two favorite are the Phillies and the Eagles. Today the Phillies are the Division champs again and look poised to go further than last year when they blew it in the first round of the play-offs. The Dodgers and the Cubs look good but I think the Philly's can pull it off this year. You just gotta believe !! Go Phillies Go !!!!
My favorite college team is Penn State. The only head football coach I know of there has been Joe Pa. Wow, what a legend he is.
I am excited about our church today. The board announced this morning that we will have a Senior Pastoral candidate come to meet us and preach next weekend. We as a body are ready for what God has for us at this time and ready to move on to the next level. The board has done a great job of keeping us together and focused on Jesus. The enemy would have liked nothing better than to have destroyed LifeChurch but God kept him away. A church needs a leader who hears from God and is able to translate the vision and direction of the church to the people. But through this all God used the board, especially the church administrator, Brett Chandler, to hold things together while He prepared us for our next leader. Thank God for Brett!! Amen !
Jesus Loves You !!

THE GARDEN OF EVEN

I have a little garden that I like call the garden of even, even though I don't do much to it , it still produces veggies. The tomatoes have done well this year and continue to give us fruit. The bell peppers however are a different story. I planted six of them last spring and they have brought forth two peppers about the size of a silver dollar. By mid summer I bought two more and they have given us about 6 - 7 good size peppers. The first batch never got bigger than about 8 - 10 inches tall. The last two have matured as they should needing a stake to hold them up.
We also have a rose garden that has done very well. There are six bushes that have produced many roses this year. I don't know the names of any of them but there is a pink one , two red ones, two white ones and one that has a salmon colored flower. One of these days I will get a picture of it and get it on this blog.
Tomorrow I start a diet. Last year I lost 43 lbs. from March through September. I went from 217 to 174. I held it off until this summer when I put about 18 of it back on. It's time to lose it or buy new clothes.
As they say, a waist is terrible thing to mind !

THE ORIGIN OF SIN

A common misunderstanding of sin is that it has a substance. But if it had substance, or a thing, it would have to have been created by God and would therefore in it’s essence be good.
The biblical view is that sin originated in an abuse of the freedom given to created beings equipped with a will. God did not create evil. Evil is a matter of relationship, not a thing. It breaks away from a relation of obedience to and faith in God and makes a decision to fail Him.
Sin, then, originated in the free choice of God’s creatures. When the serpent tempted Eve, he began with a question, “ Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”” You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” By doing this Satan had Eve focus on the forbidden thing, her mind then started to reason that the fruit would indeed be good for her. Satan did not pick the fruit or force her to eat it. Eve then reasoned with Adam and he too ate of the fruit.
Adam and Eve brought upon themselves, then, the personal consequences of sin ( Gen. 3:16-19)
The first or original sin was Eve and the fruit.
The animosity that erupted between Cain and Abel is the first recorded example of the strained relationships that have marred society since the fall. This, in effect, was the first of all wars.

Ah ! The weekend again.
I have hopes of painting some of the outside of our home. Of riding the horse and getting our youngest to ride as well. She is a little frightened by his size and balks at doing more than sitting on him. Maybe this will be the week she goes for it.
Well the Repub's have done something that is different. McCain has taken Palin as his VP candidate. After listening to her speech the other night I am excited about the ticket . She brings a freshness to this Presidential race that has been lacking for a long time. Time will tell if she is the real deal or just a pretty face with a lot of energy.
I have never heard the word "change" used so much as it is being used during this election. It is a easy word to use but to really do it is quite difficult. Everybody wants to change but nobody wants to go through it. I guess they want everybody else to change " just not me".
Politics as usual.

exercise your spirit

Six Exercises of my Spiritual Walk

1) Every day offer yourself afresh to the Lord.
You have to wake up with joy, looking forward to what God
wants to do. Romans 12:1-2
2) Every day I will call upon the name of the Lord in prayer.
Don’t fake prayer, Psa. 86:3, Psa 145:2
3) Every day I will search out and feed on the word of God.
Ex. 16:17-18, Psa. 119
4) Every day I will die to sin.
Confess your sins. Ex. 16:19
5) Every day speak to others about Jesus Christ.
Testify every day about what he does in my life. Acts 5:40-42
6) Every day I will help someone who is in need.
Help someone by deed or encouragement. II Cor. 1:3-4

Daily excercise is good for the body, mind and soul !