I have always wanted nothing more than to hold her hand
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Posted:Nov 17, 2007 5:30 pm
Last Updated:May 29, 2009 6:29 pm 2262 Views
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I am writing this to the best of my memory but it is most definitely true. It's about me, a love affair and a friend. Since there is a lot to write about this story, I will break it up into short posts over? Have no idea how long.
It started 8 years ago, I was starting a new business and separated from my wife of 5 years. I had moved from Colorado Springs, home to Grand Junction. Moved in with my folks till I got up on my feet.
I was playing around in a chat room, I never really chatted before but I guess I needed fellowship even if it wasn't Christian. I was chatting with a girl who called herself Krystal_ca.
I didn't think much of until the next day. I went back into the chat room and while I was watching her type away, I noticed something. I saw some odd personality in her comments. It was kinda like she was troubled but trying to hide it. So I sent her an instant message asking if she was okay. I went outside for a smoke, not really expecting a reply as most girls didn't back then. In the early days of chat it was usually guys trying to get girls to cyber sex with them.
I came back in and sat down at my computer. She did reply with a simple "no, I am not okay so leave me alone!" Well, I felt kinda bad, so I went back into the chat room and started to write about a walk on the beach. I wasn't writing to any one specific just writing about walking on the beach and how nice it would be to hold someone's hand. To share the evening and put our worries aside, kick the sand and gaze at the stars for a while.
The next day I returned to the chat room and saw she was there. I started writing again about walking and holding hands with someone special. Occasionally getting remarks from her and others. I did this for a week straight, until finally my PM window popped up with Krystal_ca asking me to take her away into this beach so she could have some peace, but she wanted me to tell the fantasy in a private room (back then the im windows were tiny). So I did, for hours I would just write. She would sit back in her chair and read as if she was watching a movie...(more to come)
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ICHABOD
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Posted:Nov 16, 2007 2:23 pm
Last Updated:Nov 20, 2007 10:10 am 2488 Views
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This is a commentary by Roger Oakland I got today in my email. It's long but very enlightening.
ICHABOD:
The Bible calls Satan the great deceiver. To be deceived means to be led away from the truth without knowing it. If the person being deceived knew they were being deceived, then deception would not have occurred. One must believe that one is not deceived in order to be deceived. It is just that simple.
I believe that understanding deception has a lot to do with having a proper perspective. Instead of having God’s perspective, the person being deceived has his own perspective. A human desire for power and the potential to be proud are two of the greatest barriers that prevent us from seeing God’s perspective. Satan’s plan is to deceive mankind by working on human weaknesses. He knows what he is doing.
In Proverbs we read: “There is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” [1] Think about this for a moment. The Bible states “the wages of sin is death.” So what may seem right, can lead to death because the consequence of sin is death. Do you see how deception works?
Sometimes it is beneficial to take time to do a reality check on our lives. For example, a Christian can be confident that he or she is serving the Lord when he is actually deceived. This is because what we do “seems to be right” in our eyes.
Not long ago a situation occurred which helped me to see how easily one can be deceived by not having the proper perspective. I was looking over a series of slides on my digital camera. I had taken these photos while traveling around England. Without knowing what I had done I had somehow expanded the view on one particular slide from the normal view to a view that was 10 times enlarged. As I was flipping through the slides, I could not figure out what the scene was that I had photographed.
Moving the picture around on the screen from left to right and top to bottom did not help. It was the most frustrating experience. Nothing that I could see in the photo seemed to give me a clue where I had taken this photo. Suddenly, I remembered how to view the slide in the normal unexpanded view. In a second I could see what the picture was and recalled exactly where I had taken it. I just needed the proper perspective.
Perhaps this illustration will be useful to help you see what can happen to human beings, ministries, pastors and even denominations. It is very easy to go about our lives thinking we are God’s chosen vessel, doing His will, when we are deceived and doing the work of Satan. This is why it is important that we read the Word and give ourselves a reality check from time to time.
When the Glory Has Departed
I know Christian leaders and denominations that started out right but have ended up wrong. This downfall can be predicted in light of church history. God has raised up individuals from time to time to be leaders. As long as these leaders are led by the Holy Spirit and continue in His Word, God’s blessings will be abundant. Sometimes, a pastor will become a leader and a model for many other pastors. Eventually, a fellowship of churches with like-minded pastors may be the result.
This fellowship of pastors teaches the Word of God and the sheep are enlightened and fed. The sheep, because they are learning, love God with all their heart. This love spreads to the horizontal plane and love is overflowing. The sheep want to tell others about Jesus. It is even possible to have a Jesus movement.
However, the passing of time has a way of helping us forget. Perhaps another way of saying this is that Satan hates what God is doing. It doesn’t take long before the fellowship of pastors takes on a different perspective. Some pastors forget from where they came. They were once shepherds with small flocks. As they taught the Word and fed the sheep, the small flocks grew to become mega-churches.
These mega-churches grew to the point that there was no longer a flock, there was a herd. There were so many sheep in the flock that the shepherd had no choice but to manage the flock by turning the church into a corporation.
As everyone knows, churches, when they become corporations have to operate like a corporation not a church. In the world, people in corporations are always looking for position. The only way one can be successful in climbing the corporate ladder is to be loyal to the corporation and the corporate president.
Here lies a problem–when a Christian becomes more loyal to a man than to the of Man, spirituality can soon turn into carnality. Carnality that is further driven by the obsession for power, position and possession often is the perfect recipe for disaster. What once was a wonderful Spirit-filled church now becomes a machine that simply goes through the motions. Everything looks like it is working. However, the machine is broken.
When the Spirit Departs
In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit inspired the writer of I Samuel to give us an example of what happened to the of Israel in days past.
Israel, as a nation, knew the glory of God's presence among them. The of Israel prospered and became strong as they followed the Lord. However, Israel turned from God by making wrong choices. Eventually, they came to the place where the presence of God was no longer among them. The glory of God had departed.
In a desperate attempt to win a battle with the Philistine army, Israel devised a plan. The leaders actually believed that if they took the ark of the covenant with them to battle that God was obligated to lead them to victory.
Such was not the case. God did not fight for Israel. Israel was defeated and the Philistines triumphed and even took the ark. When a messenger returned from the battlefield with the sad news that the army was defeated, the ark captured, and the two sons of Eli were dead, Eli fell backward off his chair, broke his neck and died.
Eli’s -in-law, the wife of one of the sons killed in battle was pregnant. When she heard the news that her husband, brother-in-law and father-in-law were dead she went into labor. She gave birth to a , but she died during the delivery. The Bible states that the woman who was acting as the midwife named the –Ichabod. “Ichabod” means the glory has departed. [1]
There are other examples in Scripture of what happens when the Spirit of God departs from a man. For example in 1 Samuel 16: 14 we read, “But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.” Or, remember the story of Samson. Once empowered by the Spirit there came a time when the LORD departed from him and Samson was not even aware that it happened. [2]
A Biblical Solution
The Bible paints a grim scenario with regard to what happens when the Spirit of God departs, doesn’t it? Well, I have some good news. There is a solution.
I believe that such a scenario could be turned around. God wants His servants to finish the race. He does not take joy in seeing them defeated.Do you recall the words of Jesus when He spoke to the church at Ephesus as recorded in Revelation 2? [3] While the members of the church were noted for saying what was right, in their zeal to be right, they were wrong. In fact it almost seems as if the Spirit of God had departed from their midst
This can be deduced by reading what Jesus said. He was warning that He would depart from their midst. Jesus said that the church at Ephesus had “left their first love” and that they needed to “repent” and “return to the place” where they had once been. That means they had departed and did not know it.
Jesus said He would remove the “candlestick” if they did not repent. Clearly Scripture interprets this to mean that Jesus would remove His presence from the church of Ephesus. Did that mean He was about to write “Ichabod” above the door of the church?
The Spirit of God points us to the Word. The Word, Jesus said, is the truth. What we do with the truth is entirely up to us. We can choose to obey or to disobey.
I would pray that every Christian would sincerely ask God for His perspective of where we are and what we are doing. Don’t rely upon the praises of man or the fear of man as a spiritual barometer.
When we stand before the throne all the things we did in the flesh will burn like wood and hay. Only those things that were done when we were led by the Spirit will count.
It is all about getting the right perspective, now.
Before it is too late.
[1] I Samuel 4:1-21
[2] Judges 16:20
[3] Revelation 2:1-7
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Chew on this...May leave a nasty taste, but...
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Posted:Nov 15, 2007 5:55 pm
Last Updated:Dec 9, 2007 10:43 am 2301 Views
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How often are we seeing these things today, the abuse, the killing everyday, school shootings, kidnappings, sexual immoralities all over the place and even throughout our countries leadership. These are all signs of the end times coming to fruition. We need to reach out to those we love and those around us, introduce them to Jesus and tell them of the gift.
I rarely quote scripture in my blog, but I figured it was warranted.
2 Timothy 3 verse 1 thru 9
BUT know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith;but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.
AP report-
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – A rural Tennessee father is accused of his two teenage daughters and using electric collars to establish dominance over them, authorities said Tuesday.
The charges against the 37-year-old man and his 35-year-old wife were referred to a grand jury on Tuesday in Tazewell, which is in rural Claiborne County near the Kentucky border.
The man is charged with aggravated abuse and two counts of . His wife, who prosecutors say knew about the use of collars but not the alleged sexual assaults, is charged with aggravated abuse and failure to report abuse.
Prosecutors said more charges could be handed down when the grand jury convenes Dec. 3.
The husband and wife were identified in court, but The Associated Press is withholding their names to avoid identifying their daughters. The AP generally does not identify possible victims of sex abuse.
The wife's attorney, Buddy Baird, said his will be vindicated when the facts come out. He refused to elaborate. The father's attorney, Dale Potter, did not return a call for comment.
The man used remote-controlled shock collars to force his two eldest daughters – now ages 18 and 19 – to obey him, said Capt. Sam Nelson, the lead investigator at the Claiborne County Sheriff's Office.
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Tracking natural disasters #5
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Posted:Nov 15, 2007 4:36 pm
Last Updated:Nov 16, 2007 8:11 am 1600 Views
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Well I guess we are up to 5 now in the last 30 days. Posted about the earthquake in Chile yesterday and we only had to wait one day for another. Hmmm, seems that maybe the conclusion I was attempting to draw about us getting closer to the end times and the increase of natural disasters as an indicator, may be coming to fruition. I think it's too early to say that yet because I need about few more months to do a true trend analysis against prior decades, anyway here is the latest!
-T
KHULNA, Bangladesh – A powerful cyclone packing 149-mph winds slammed into Bangladesh on Thursday night, tearing down flimsy houses, toppling trees and power poles, and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in the low-lying nation.
Tropical Cyclone Sidr swept in from the Bay of Bengal, buffeting southwestern coastal areas within a 155-mile radius of its eye with heavy rain and storm surges predicted to reach 20 feet high.
Sidr's eye crossed the Khulna-Barisal coast near the Sundarbans mangrove forests around 9:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. EST), the Bangladesh Meteorological Department said. It was centered over the Baleshwar River in Barguna district.
In the coastal districts of Bagerhat, Barisal and Bhola, residents said the storm flattened thousands of flimsy straw and mud huts, and uprooted trees and electric poles.
"We sitting out the storm by candlelight," resident Bishnu Prashad said by phone from Bagerhat.
At least 620,000 people had moved into official shelters and 3.2 million people were expected to be evacuated in all, said Ali Imam Majumder, a senior government official in Dhaka.
No casualties were immediately reported, but rescue teams were on standby, forest official Mozharul Islam said in Khulna.
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Man killed by a gator while running from the cops!
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Posted:Nov 14, 2007 10:19 am
Last Updated:Nov 15, 2007 8:46 am 1799 Views
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I came across this today, thought it was kinda well, funny, ironic and (sad too).
Foxnews report
SWEETWATER, Fla. – A man was killed by an alligator on the Miccosukee Indian Reservation in Miami-Dade County, Local10 reported.
The man, who has not been identified, was running from Miccosukee police when he dove into a retention pond, Local10 reported. There, he was reportedly attacked by the gator and bitten several times.
The man was suspected of breaking into cars with another suspect on the Miccosukee Indian Reservation, Local6 reported. One was quickly captured.
The man's body was found at the bottom of the pond Friday. The man was bitten on the head several times, Local10 reported. The gator was later trapped.
Why punish the gator? All he did was answer the door for the pizza delivery guy!
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Tracking natural disasters #4
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Posted:Nov 14, 2007 9:49 am
Last Updated:Nov 15, 2007 4:29 pm 1547 Views
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Guess we are up to 4 in the last 30 days now. In addition to the earthquake there are dangerous water spouts (tornadoes)lingering of the coast of Florida right now.
AP- SANTIAGO, Chile – A major earthquake struck northern Chile on Wednesday, sending terrified residents fleeing into streets cut by toppled power lines. Authorities and residents reported damage and some injuries, but no deaths.
The quake, which struck at 12:40 local time (10:40 EST; 1540 GMT), was felt strongly in the Chilean capital, 1,260 kilometers (780 miles) to the south, as well as in neighboring Peru and Bolivia.
The U.S. Geological Survey calculated the magnitude at 7.7. That's a major quake, but this temblor was also relatively deep – 60 kilometers (37 miles) beneath the surface – diminishing its destructive capability.
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Chap V Fraz
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Posted:Nov 13, 2007 8:11 pm
Last Updated:Nov 15, 2007 8:47 am 1767 Views
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I get a hard time for playing frisbee in the chat rooms meanwhile these guys are playing global thermal nuclear war in the blogs, this one takes the mustard 
-T
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A post for Cathoholic
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Posted:Nov 12, 2007 7:44 pm
Last Updated:Nov 14, 2007 3:54 pm 1699 Views
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Hey, I just wanted you to know that although we really do disagree with each other regarding doctrine, I want you to know that I admire the strength and passion you convey in your beliefs. You take the time to visit my blog (amongst others) and search for posts in which you disagree with(and state your position very well and respectfully).
My prayers are with you.
God bless you!
-T
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Assassins, CIA and the bad guys.
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Posted:Nov 12, 2007 7:32 pm
Last Updated:Nov 17, 2007 1:31 pm 2211 Views
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I was reading this article today. And well, the first thing that came to my mind was "how long is this guy gonna last?" I personally feel like the CIA ought to take this guy out. But I don't really know if it is Christian to think that assassinations are right if it serves the greater good of the people, but I feel like it's okay. I mean look at Ehud in Judges 3 , I actually spoke out to an empty room "Go God" when Ehud twisted the sword into Eglon. So is it wrong?
AP- SAN'A, Yemen – Yemen has set free one of the Al Qaeda masterminds of the USS Cole bombing in 2000 that killed 17 American sailors, a senior security official said.
Jamal al-Badawi, who is wanted by the FBI, was convicted in 2004 of plotting, preparing and helping carry out the USS Cole bombing and received a death sentence that was commuted to 15 years in prison.
He and 22 others, mostly Al Qaeda fighters, escaped from prison in 2004. But al-Badawi was granted his freedom after turning himself in 15 days ago and pledging loyalty to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The official said police were told by the government to "stop all previous orders concerning measures adopted against al-Badawi."
Witnesses told The Associated Press that al-Badawi was receiving well-wishers at his home in the al-Buraika district in Aden.
The Interior Ministry said earlier that al-Badawi voluntarily gave himself up to police, but media reports said tribal chiefs mediated his surrender after he renounced terrorism and pledged allegiance to the Yemeni leader.
Al-Badawi had escaped prison once before with nine other suspects of the Cole attack in April 2003, but was rearrested.
Al Qaeda used to have an active presence in Yemen, the ancestral home of Usama bin Laden. The group was blamed for the bombing of the Cole and the attack on a French oil tanker that killed one person two years later.
Also Thursday, a second security official said police have uncovered a terrorist cell composed of four extremists who were recruiting young Yemenis to carry out suicide attacks in Iraq and elsewhere.
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A memory from my days during the Gulf War
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Posted:Nov 10, 2007 2:44 pm
Last Updated:Nov 30, 2007 2:20 pm 2074 Views
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I just moved a couple of weeks ago into a new home. While unpacking this weekend I found this picture of me. I stopped for a bit to chuckle cause this picture has a 1000 words of story behind it. (click it for a closer look)
I was in the Navy and 19 years old when the photo was taken. 1989, in the middle of the ocean during Desert Shield / Storm. It was just another day on the aircraft carrier, launching and recovering war planes coming back empty after dropping their bombs. I was working on the flightdeck, deckedge control operator for the arresting gear (the big wires that the tailhook grabs to slow the planes down).
I had a brand new fresh out of boot camp standing next to me and he was taking pictures of flight operations to send home to mom (awe). Any way he snapped this one of me. A split second after he snapped the photo, I disappeared.
Okay, got to set this one up for you. On aircraft carriers the outside catwalk (suspended walkways) around the flight deck has escape sponsons. Basically these things are chutes, with a pole and padded slide that end up at a deck about 15 feet below the flight deck. These sponsons are there in case you got to run for your life if a jet is about to make hamburger out of you. 
This one had a chain across it for safety. Well when the photo was snapped, I was patiently awaiting an F14 Tomcat (navy fighter jet) that was about 1/4 mile in the pattern (about to land). I was leaning up against the chain. The chain SNAPPED! I went backwards, upside down through the chute. The beside me wasn't aware that this was an escape route, he thought I went overboard! He is screaming, the airboss (primary flight control) is yelling out over the 5mc (pa system) the landing safety officers are waiving off the F14 (telling him not to land)and I am dangling upside down about a foot off the deck cause my helmet was attached to a communications cord only 8 feet long.
Anyway this sent me this photo after we got back home, thought you guys might get a kick out of my war story.
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