Matthew 16:18 (ESV)
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Matthew 16:23 (ESV)
But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Imagine Jesus addressing Peter this way within 6 verses. This is what happens when we try and tell Jesus what to do. Let's continue to believe God knows what He is doing and decide to be on His side...

Just sitting here looking over the new Xanga and trying to understand it. I haven't really arrived at a point of knowing all about it but I have at least started to be able to add new posts.

Retirement has been a big blessing to me. I try and get a few things done around the house, that I have been neglecting, but I'm not stressing out over anything at the moment. Work was beginning to be very stressful with all the uncertainty and i was glad to leave that behind. I now get up later than my previous 5:00 AM and stay up later than my previous 10:00 PM. No set times but I try and coordinate as much as I can with my wife's schedule so as not to disrupt her too much. Her workplace is also starting to go through big changes and I won't be surprised if she decides to retire one of these days soon also. She has an amazing work ethic and has only missed days when she was in the hospital or I was in the hospital but when outsiders take over as your employers, things change and they don't know you or seem to care about you. It will be their loss if she does retire but they won't ever realize it. She started her job working all evenings and Saturdays, worked her way up to steady daylight, and is now back to working every evening.

My present workload is planning to gut our kitchen and remodel it completely. The deign will be basically the same as the doorways don't allow for much change of the layout, so that will help a lot. We need to go and purchase the cabinets (IKEA) while they are on sale (until the 24th). They have an online design program that really helps, though it isn't perfect by any means.

Well that is enough for now.

Hard to believe I started to regularly update this site in March of 2001 and pretty much abandoned any regular updating in March 2008. I remember so many great friends here from all over the world and the promise it had to bring us all together for the sake of the Gospel. I'm not sure what the motivation was to post daily for a while and then los interest in it all but I recently (June 1) retired from my job with the government and now have decided to attempt to again share what's going on in my life both in the world and spiritually (if you can separate the two.)

I lost interest in my profession when the repubs decided it was fashionable to speak badly of the federal workers almost daily. I've worked with quite a group of dedicated federal employees that, despite the inaction of the congress in properly funding the things needed to make government work properly for the citizens of this country, still managed to do an excellent job. While they were being denigrated, I was thinking they didn't make enough for the work and effort they put forth. Though I could have worked another three years and had a larger pension, I just decided it was time to put all that behind me. I do not regret having left the work force and am enjoying just doing the things I want to do each day and ignoring those I don't feel like doing on any particular day.

As for spiritual things, the Saturday night service we attended all those years finally dwindled down to just those presenting the service most weeks so we finally decided to just give it up. We tried the two Sunday morning services but they were mostly not satisfying us as far as reaching us spiritually. I have a hunger for services in which we can all feel an equal part and participate as we feel lead and don't want to just be a spectator in the pews listening to the "inspired" wise man put me to sleep. It has porbably been about two years now and other than attending my best friend's church (he has been moved from Erie. PA to Warren, Pa) occasionally, we just usually watch Andy Stanley on our Roku on Sunday mornings. I haven't even had my guitar out of its case for several months now. I listen to lots of worship music and still enjoy singing along but that's about as far as my worship leading goes these days.

Well, that is certainly enough for now as my bed is calling me. Any old friends out there send me some comments!

Just wondering if anyone is around anymore. I have retired and have been thinking about posting here again. Can say more Here than on Facebook.

Hi!  I'm still lurking around somewhere...

Hope you all had a great Christmas and will have a greater New Year!

Someone subbed to me today so I came back here to accept their request and decided to write something while I'm here.

I'm sometimes surprised as I read back through some of the things I posted here and am somewhat bewildered that I actually wrote them.  Must have been a large burst of Spirit inspiration, for both the teachings and the poetry.  I seldom do either anymore.  I believe that as we progress in our "knowledge" of God, we sometimes lose the hunger and passion we have for the older things and just become so accustomed to them that we take them for granted and they lose that specialness they once had.  (If that makes any sense.)  For example, we study praise and worship and have such a heart for pursuing God that way but as we learn more about worship and realize that it encompasses much more than just "songs", we start to try and live lives of worship and suddenly the singing doesn't mean as much and gets neglected.  Why abandon something that has had such meaning in our lives?  Anyways...

We did get up to Erie to visit our Pastor friends over the 4th of July weekend.  Had a great time and wish those visits didn't always go by so quickly.  Their small church walked in the local parade and handed out 2400 bottles of free water of which the congregation donated so they did not have to purchase any with church funds.  A great way to show Christ's love to a community.

We also took a quick run to Cleveland Ohio on the long way home after Erie to visit the four Half-Price Books stores.  I bought about 20 worship CDs for a $1 a piece and my wife got several books she had been looking for.

Well I'm striving to think of something else to write so shall end it here.

Be Blessed!

Hi!!  Anyone still out there?  Hard to believe I have a life membership here and have neglected it for so long.

I see that my last entry was in February of 2010.  When i go back and read old posts it is like a diary of my life and I'm sort of sorry I haven't kept it up even if for my own sake.  I am still working as a Project Engineer with the Corps Repair people and have been pretty busy over this last year.  Things tend to fall apart when they get old and our facilities are all quite old so there is never a shortage of work to be done, just a shortage of money and manpower to get it done.  I have quite a challenge to get my projects for this fiscal year done by Spetmeber but, with the goodness of God, I will get it done.

I still lead worship for the 6-10 people that still attend our Saturday Night service but we are now in our summer recess (June - August) and will pick it back up in September. As always it is a labor of love in that I somwetimes don't want to do it but enjoy doing it at the same time.

We still get up to Erie to visit my best friend every month or so.  We skipped June but will heading up there for a few days soon.

Well this is sounding very boring.  I sometimes post some things on Facebook if anyone is interested.

Be Blessed!

As before, I didn't have a title but feel obligated to provide one since that big empty box is staring me in the face...

I am feeling 100% these days after my surgery in December.  I just need to get some ambition to start retackling some of the projects around here.  Lots of things need done and are only about 50% finished.

The snow on the Pittsburgh area has been a pain (literally and figuratively) but I was pleasantly surprised that I did not really get too winded even with all the shoveling.  Must be a benefit of the 37 pounds I've lost since May.  I did have to stop alot because of a sore back though.  We got a snow day off work, I took a day of vacation, and I teleworked a couple of days so I didn't have to go out and drive in the snow too much.  I do have a two week job starting on the 22nd in Warren, PA though and I'm hoping the weather further north will not get too bad for my travels.  At any rate, I know other areas of the country get a lot worse snow so I'm not complaining (too much).

I've noticed that when typing a word like "complaining", with the repeated "inin", I will often skip one set of "in".

I've also noticed that blogging here allows for much more input than Facebook.  I've actually missed blogging here regularly as it provides me a backwards glimpse into my life though I can't seem to generate much enthusiasm for getting on here.  I miss the multitudes of relationships we had here from all over the world but I guess we all move on don't we?

I've been trying to locate an old Pastor friend of ours whom had such a gift of preaching/teaching that opened up the Word to new meaning in our lives.  I finally tracked him down on Facebook and from reading his and his families "friends" lists and public info it seems he is divorced and remarried, alientaed from his adopted son, and just generally appears to be in bad shape.  I'm not sure whether to contact him or not as we really liked his former wife and her teaching also and she has moved out west.  I guess this is another example of why we shouldn't be respecters of people and, though God uses them to teach us, we need to allow the Holy Spirirt to be our teacher and recognize that it is He Whom is teaching us and not the vessel he is using.  Reminds me of a quote I once heard from Pat Robertson who stated, after walking to the podium under thunderous applause, that he now knew how the donkey felt when Jesus rode it into town on Palm Sunday!

Well I think that is enough randomness for now.

Take care and be Blessed!