American Idol

Here is the thought lately......

How much of an idol is American Idol?

Is it really ok for any true believers in Christ to give of our time to something called and associated with pride and greed and idol worship?

Is it ok to watch and be a spectating participant or critical participant in the show and enjoy a musical/vocal performance as long as we keep it in the realm of recreational time as opposed to living our lives around the show?

Where does the ACLU and anti-religion groups stand on this since the term "idol" is extremely closely if not always associate with the term "worship" which is clearly religious terminology?

Your thoughts?
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<' ((( ><

Purify Heaven???

For the sake of the pride of the KJV only readers that may grace this blog with their precious time, I'll quote the KJV here (just remember that this is not meant as an exhaustive commentary):
Colossians 1.20
And, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

Trying by all means to not take things out of context and by not doing exhuastive research on this as of yet, the questions arise, is ALL of heaven pure, or are there things in heaven that need to be purified? and what "heaven" is this particular verse talking about? Heaven where God's throne is and where we (the elect) will be some day? or is this the term heaven that refers to the cosmos?

Now before you are quick to answer that it is the cosmos refered to here, have you thought about Hebrews 9.23-24: again the "perfect" KJV since God spoke in Shakespearean English and not the language of the writers,
"It was therefore necessary that the paterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:"

and Job 1.6
"Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them."

So if Satan is the personification of sin, and sin affects/defiles just about everything, why would the things in heaven not be affected and need purifying? Also, in this verse in Job, is this "LORD" meaning Jesus or God the Father? If Jesus, did this meeting take place in heaven or another location to keep Satan away from heaven?
I can almost picture a very flustered and frustrated janitor angel with several arms pushing a cleaning cart as he follows behind the elephant in the parade of the "sons of God" as they arrive in heaven to present themselves before the LORD. The angel's arms are holding cleaning/purifying solution and cloths washing everything the elephant touches. Now don't take this to say elephants are satanic, I just used them because when they dump, it's no little thing to clean up.

What are your thoughts?

Who or What Holds Rock, Metal, etc, Together

Wrap your brain around this as nothing else needs to be said:
Through Christ all matter exists and stays together.
Colossians 1.17

Baby is well.

Just in case anyone is wondering if something is going on with the baby we have now....ALL IS WELL SO FAR!! Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement. Praise God this baby, and Mommy :-) are growing just as expected. We should be able to find out boy/girl in the next few weeks at the next appointment.
Thanks again to all for your continued prayers.

Kaelins Letter From Daddy

The following was written while I was on a trip with work to the Adirondacks. God led me to post this hear and to grant permission for it to be shared with anyone who may have suffered the loss of an unborn child. This was written August 25, 2007. We found out we were pregnant and a week later God led us through a miscarriage. My prayers for you are for the comfort that only God can give if you are going through this or are struggling with the thought or memory of this in your own life, and that this may help you and the father of the child.

Dear Kaelin,
Though we haven’t exactly met each other yet I wanted to thank you for your impact on my life and tell you about how you have changed it forever.

As I sit here I can’t write as fast as my brain is going. I miss you so very much and love you. Each day I pray and ask God to give you a hug for me. And like just now, each time I ask that or even think it, I cry, as I think about not being able to hold you in my arms, watching you as you sleep on my chest, hearing your first cries as you enter a new world from the womb, hold your tiny hand in mine as you take your first wobbly steps, learn how to ride a bike, cast a line, blow bubbles in your drinks with your straw, go on your first “date”, pursue a passion that God has given you, keep your big sister in her place :-), play together, argue with each other, do life all together.

We only knew of your existence for a couple of weeks before you left us for better company there in heaven :-). I have to tell you that your mom and I were devastated with the news of your certain departure from us. While we certainly would much rather have you here with us, we are wrestling with accepting this as God’s will for you and for us.

Yet, we saw God’s hand at work directly in and through all of this. But if it were up to me totally….you would be here….forget anyone else. But that is not how God was to use you, was it? No. Let me tell you about what happened so far.

Kaelin, because of you, our faith in God’s infinite and perfect wisdom and total dependence on Him, another kid was saved from hell, deeper staff connections were made, and a very much previously unavailable connection was made with a teen who was deeply hurting but had been burying it and trying to cover it with her outgoing flamboyant personality.

Which reminds me, don’t know how this works in heaven right now, but could you find this teen’s son or daughter and let ‘em know that Mom and I are here with her? Thanks. Also be sure to him or her know that Mom had accepted Christ a few months ago and will be there when God’s plan for her life is complete, you’re such a perfectly obedient child….I know…..because you’re in heaven :-)

It was amazing K, to look back at the afternoon and the evening on Wednesday and see how God was so clearly in everything. First off, I knew that God wanted me to share something with the teens, but what? Well it all came together so clearly and I was growing excited as I saw it happening how the lesson was taking shape. Extremely difficult? Oh absolutely!! Worth it? ABSOLUTELY!!

After I had the lesson all set to go I got to church and one of the teens, Brooke, wo sporadically comes, was there with her two sisters. One was in 6th grade, and Barbara is in 5th grade. She asked me if they could stay for youth group. Well our age limit is 7th but after some careful thought I felt comfortable allowing them to stay but as long as they all (mom too) knew and understood it was a rare exception. I didn’t know then that it was all part of God’s play for Barbara’s life that night.

Well all went as usual and I did my best to effectively deliver the message, so I am so glad God took over most of the time if not ALL of it and according to others it went very well. Lots of tears thanks to you, kid. But lives were touched and changed.

Right after the lesson time…oh wait….one of the guy teens was right on with his answers, comments, and explanations of sharing the gospel of Christ with others, how very cool is that.

Right after an emotional conclusion prayer, Kelly led the rest of the youth ministry staff in a laying on of hands in prayer over Mom and I….wow that was emotional as well but also what an incredible thing for the teens to witness.

After everyone had gone downstairs to get some food, Brooke had brought up her two sisters and told Steph that Barbara wanted to get saved. Plain and simple and even with a smile. Well Steph grabbed Elizabeth to help out because Steph (Mom) was so mentally and emotionally drained and numb. And they experienced exactly what Steph and I prayed begged God for, to see the frist of many reasons why He took you home. PRAISE GOD WE SAW THAT!! BARBARA ACCEPTED CHRIST AS HER SAVIOR!!! But the night and work for Mom was not yet over. The amazing thing about Mom’s involvement in all this good stuff is that she had STRONGLY DEBATED even coming to youth group that night. She was sure glad she had. And after that sometime, Rachel started talking with her. Well they talked for a long time so I knew it was quite serious.

What a rough summer this has been. Yet as difficult as it is to write, “yet”, it’s in the rough times that we will either look to God more and see Him working more, OR we will give in to the temptations and lies of Satan and become angry and bitter at God, turning our backs on Him and ATTEMPT to do life on our own only to fail more.

Songs that have been ministering to me have been,
Promise of a Lifetime –Kutless,
Praise You in This Storm – Casting Crowns,
Blessed Be Your Name – Newsboys,
Love Them Like Jesus – Casting Crowns,
In Christ Alone – Newsboys,
and lastly though I still can’t listen to it yet,
Noah – Michael W. Smith. I just insert your name in the song.

While it’s been very difficult to inform all those we told about your start in life only 2 weeks prior, now about your early departure from us to heaven….we have literally felt the arms of God holding us giving us the comfort that He alone can give. The only way, I firmly believe, that we have come through this crisis in our lives is by the supportive, intercessory, strength, giving, comfort giving prayers of others. We certainly don’t pray enough and I am not entirely on board with Mom about waiting for about 3 months before we announce news about your baby brother/sister – whichever and whenever God blesses us again. I know and understand her fear but if God were to take us through this again, I don’t think we or I could make it without the fervent effectual prayers of all those that prayed this time.

Well Kaelin Shiloh Bailey, God has given/charged you with a bigger task that I could ever expect of you if you were here with us….to touch and reach the hearts of the lost and the hurting and point them to the loving arms of Christ Jesus. I am still floored when I realized that your Mom and I are a large part of that order so we can’t fail and we pray that we will be ultra-sensitive and ever obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit in this calling.

Well my child, I love you so very much miss you very badly. But we have job to do together and I am so grateful and honored to be your dad and partner in ministry along with your Mom and sister Meghan. I can’t wait to get to heaven and meet you and hold you and then go thank God together for you. Tearing up again, and I know I will from here til I catch up with you heaven. In the mean time, go give your Uncle Michael a few……make that as many as you want, kicks in the rear end for me. And then go welcome all the other miscarried children as well as those who will get there because of the sin of abortion/murder/INFANTICIDE and all other children up there.

I love you kid. I’ll see you soon hopefully.
I love you so very much, and so does Mommy and Meghan.

With love and tears,
Daddy
P.s. Yeah, it took me 2 hours to write this and get through this :-) Now let me get back to work will ya? ;-) Since it’s already 5.21 AM LOL.

A Worthy Walk

In Colossians 1.10 we see "a worthy walk." Briefly give your answer as to what is expected of the Christian walk.

There are a few things to consider here. First of all, in and of ourselves, we are not worthy of Christ at all due to Adamic and personal sin. Secondly, thanks to Christ's substitutionary death on the cross in our stead and our acceptance of that gift we are made worthy to be called the sons of God. Therefore this verse must never be taken out of context and twisted to mean that we can somehow earn our salvation.


What this verse and passage are talking about is the life we live and the choices we make each moment after we accept Christ. God grants us grace, mercy, and forgiveness each day as we grow in our knowledge, understanding and application of His Word in our lives. Singer-song writer, Mark Hall, described it well in the song Lifesong. He likened the daily walk/life as a Christian to a report at the end of the day which Christ reviews with the Christian and signs His name to in an overall approval of that day. Now what makes a day a good one, a day or life that is worthy of Christ's holy and perfect name?
I would actually use this verse (10) to as a springboard to direct someone to Matthew 22.37 where Christ quotes Deutronomy 6.5 and adds one more aspect to it.


In Deuteronomy Moses says, "Love the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength." In Matthew, Christ says nothing about strength but mentions the mind instead,"Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind" and tags on a second commandment quoting the levitical law, Leviticus 19.18-b, "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself". He goes on to say that all the rest of the laws stem from these two.



The Christian life should be characterized by love, integrity, gratefullness, growth, wisdom, and fruit bearing. We should be striving for perfection every waking moment we have. We have the ability to do this each day through the power of the Holy Spirit. While we live with the consquenses of Adamic and personal sin we actually have the real ability to grow in our knowledge, understanding of God and His Word so much that we make the right decision every time. This is the burden and expectation of a walk worthy of Christ.


Now here is the wrench in this that we wrestle with each day, what about the days when we sin, even just once? Praise God, He knows that is going to happen because we are not perfect until we reach heaven. And our minds have been severely limited and sometimes kept from the Word of God totally until we get saved. Once God adopts us as His child, we are seen as students with God as our teacher through our parents (hopefully), Pastors, etc. Does a child automatically know everything there is to know upon birth? No. Neither do we as Christians upon salvation. Upon salvation we are imputed with the Holy Spirit and the desire to learn the Word of God grows in us and we begin to read, study, learn, and apply the truths found therein to our daily lives/walks. This takes time and as we learn we become more joyful in our new knowledge and growth/maturity in Christ that this pleases Him, as it says back in this verse 10.



So a worthy walk would consist of a joyful life, evangelism, striving for Christlike perfection, all out of our love and gratitude for our Creator and Savior.

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<' ((( ><

So Much Joy in a Little Light

We were very blessed this past year in many ways. And therefore there is much to talk about here. Admittedly I am having a bit of difficulty zeroing in on one thought as I am reflecting on this last year, but for the sake of my faithful readers’ time I will just leave it at that and this one thought.
Christmas was the most recent event we all took part in. So it stands to reason that I write something about it. Okay.

Now only was I amazed at the number of gifts that were exchanged between us all this year, given financial changes, but what seemed to stick in my mind stemmed from my experience Christmas morning at work before I left to go be with my family. There was quite the level of excitement throughout the night as the kids slept.

Enter Christmas morning. To be accurate, I was actually disappointed. There was no mention of Christ, or of thanks, or the Christmas story. Just nothing of any tradition or history. The way the morning went certainly made me thankful for the way that my family and I proceed through the second greatest holiday ever (Easter would take first place, that will come later of course). When the kids came downstairs, the focused chaos began. Their eyes lit up with excitement as they each saw a pile of gifts all set up for each of them along the couch and then the wrapping that was once hiding the items hung in the air for all of 5 minutes.

And then it was basically over. The kids started looking at each other’s presents and talking about what they were going to play with first. My heart was torn because these kids should have been spending this wonderful time with their families and being able to thank their parents or whomever for thinking of them and buying them their gifts. But instead, due to sin and the effects of sin, they were with us. Even though each of them had a good number of gifts, they have no idea who the gifts come from due to the manner in which the items are obtained or donated to the agency. So these kids can’t even say thanks to someone outside of the ever present sugar daddy of Santa Claus. Good ole’ St. Nick sure would have a problem with the way his name has been used and changed, let alone the fact that his motivation was to please his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Satan has taken Nick’s good deeds and turned them against God.

Now the way my family proceeds through Christmas morning has varied slightly over the years and I am going to bring back the reading of the “Christmas story” from the Bible back to our family next year. But read it like a play, with feeling, with character. Having a 3 year old this year sure made it fun and exciting as it was sort of like a first Christmas for her in some of her realizations and understanding just setting in this year. The level of excitement hit a new level this year. But we don’t just dive in and rip away as fast as we can. No. We like to hand out the gifts 1 at a time or perhaps 2 at a time. So we all can see the face of the receiver and their reaction to the gift. This takes more time and makes the time that much more special. We also allow one small gift to be open on Christmas eve.

And there is where we will rest our eyes. My daughter has been playing with our blue MagLite flashlight quite a bit lately, during the day and evening. So I got her a little blue MagLite of her own. Since we had more gifts for her, we allowed her to open one little gift on Christmas eve. Well it was that flashlight. She was so excited and didn’t want to give it back to me at first even though I had to get it out of the package to get it to work J So while she and mommy went to get ready to go to church for the Christmas Eve service (I had to work that night so I stayed home and tried to sleep), I got it out and all set for her. The look on her face and even during her playing with it with me in her room with all the lights off and door shut, well it was the most precious look that can’t really be described. After she got her coat and gloves on, she wanted to take her special present to church with her, and she smiled so proudly and held that little light close to her heart with such pride, excitement, love, and thankfulness, it seemed as though there was no other gift that would have been as special to her as that one…ever.
We were blessed enough this year that we were able to get her other gifts, but not a single one got that same look and reaction as that simple little flashlight.

How is it so amazing that light brings such joy? It’s simple, it’s all about Christ being the light of the world. And like my daughter’s acceptance of the light, all we have to do is accept that gift of Christ’s substitutionary, redemptive work on the cross for us and resurrection from the dead, thereby defeating death and hell.

God be praised. Without the birth of Christ, how would Christmas ever have come about? It wouldn’t have, duh!!