Thursday, July 29, 2010

Red Lights

Do you realize when God is giving you red lights?


Often times red lights are put in our paths but we either choose to ignore them & blow on through or we just don't recognize them as red lights. There is a story in Numbers that is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It is is chapter 22 starting with verse 21. I'm going to paraphrase here so it may not be exact!! There's this guy named Balaam that was called by Balak basically to put a curse on Israel so that God would turn againts his people. (Like God wouldn't see through this) but we do this, don't we?!?! Anyway, Balaam sets out on his donkey to perform this task but God wasn't happy at all with it & placed an angel in the road, when the donkey saw it he turned off & went into a field. Balaam beat her to get her back on the road, again an angel of the Lord stood in the path, the donkey saw this & moved so close to a wall that it crushed Balaam's foot, so yep, another beating. Yet again the angel went to the most narrow part they were traveling through where there was no room to turn so the donkey laid down. Balaam was so mad that he beat her with his staff. Here's the good part..

Wait for it...

The donkey spoke, yes you read that right. God opened her mouth & she asked Balaam what she had done for him to be beating her. This went on for a bit until the Lord opened Balaam's eyes & he saw the angel standing in the way.


Balaam realized he had sinned & said he didn't know God was standing in his way to stop him.


God will try to stop us from pursuing paths that will lead to destruction or harm us. He won't force us to stop but he will try to get us to stop & think about it then he will either put more hurt to get us to top or he will let us carry on & suffer the consequences.


Do you need a donkey to speak to you right now in your life???

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Changes

So, since I have gotten married I have, ahem, gained a few extra pounds. That's being nice! So, my wedding ring doesn't fit. I quit wearing it a while back for this reason & I'm just not a jewlery person. However, I have been amazed at just how many people pay attention to this sort of thing. My boss even approached me a while back & asked if everything was ok. I said yes why do you ask & he said some co-workers had noticed I've not been wearing my ring.

Seriously?!?!

Then today a guy stopped at the gate, I addressed him with my usual hi, have a nice day spill & he looked at my hand, looked back up & said you too, Miss.


Oh well, not only the extra pounds but I have discovered patches of gray in my hair. What the heck?!?! I'm 30...something. I shouldn't be getting gray hair already, right??? (Indulge me here people).


Changes happen. That's a part of life. Some changes I like & some I just dread. Like the approaching task ahead of moving Aimee to college. Ed says I don't get it, she'll be home on the weekends. I say it's not the same as having her home everyday. Then in 3 short years Cole will be folowing suit. Ed is looking forward to it but not this mom!!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Have you ever noticed just how easy it is to get distracted?? Maybe it's my ADHD but I think most people have the same issues with it!


You're chugging along just fine when the next thing you know you haven't picked up your Bible in a couple of days, or you haven't prayed like you should.


The ole' scum dog is SO good at getting in our mind and keeping us distracted. Our job is to learn to recognize when he is doing this and start taking our thoughts captive. It isn't an easy practice and just when you think you have it mastered it surprises you when you don't!


I get distracted very easy and can get my ole feather's ruffled quite easy as well. I have been working on that hard for a few years now but every now and then I have that occasional mouth overloading the brain syndrome then feel guilty later on. The good thing is no matter how much we neglect God or say things we shouldn't or yell at the dog or whatever He still loves us and wants a relationship with us. That my friends is a reassuring thing!




Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2).

Monday, July 12, 2010

I read this verse today & it made me realize that we need to be living in the reality of God's love for us. Not just say we know he loves us & yada, yada but actually live it out daily!!

Isaiah 54:10 Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed yet God's unfailing love for you will not be shaken.

Through everything, every situation; kids screaming, laundry piling up, bills due, meetings to attend, kids leaving for college (ehhh). Through it ALL if we live the reality that God loves us... REALLY loves us then we can have a "walking faith" that gets us through it all everyday

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Barefoot Bandit

I must admit I have been fascinated to be reading about this kid that being said if he were my son I wouldn't think it was so "neat"!



Barefoot Bandit's Mom: 'I Think It's Kind of Neat'

David Lohr
Contributor

AOL News (July 7) -- For more than two years, lawmen have been hunting Colton Harris-Moore, the elusive 19-year-old "Barefoot Bandit" they believe is responsible for hundreds of burglaries and the theft of at least three airplanes and a $450,000 yacht. Today his mother considers him a harmless kid, but the FBI has a $10,000 reward out for him and may be moving in on an arrest.

"Colt is highly intelligent," his mother, Pam Kohler, said in an exclusive interview with AOL News. "He's just living his life. He's not hurting anybody really, physically, I mean. I think it's kind of neat."

Not everyone shares that view, and a hero-vs.-villain debate is playing out between law enforcement and an Internet-driven fan base.


Island County Sheriff's Office / AP
A self-portrait of Colton Harris-Moore, who police believe to be the "Barefoot Bandit" responsible for hundreds of burglaries and the theft of three airplanes and a yacht.
According to Kohler, Harris-Moore grew up with her on a five-acre plot on Camano Island, Wash. His father walked out on the family when Colton was just 2 years old, but the void was filled by a stepfather whom Kohler says her son grew to love as his own.

But the father-figure did not stay in Harris-Moore's life for long: He died not long after Harris-Moore's seventh birthday. Kohler said the loss of his stepfather "devastated" her son.

Not long thereafter, Harris-Moore began to change and appeared to "disconnect" himself from the outside world, she said.

"There was no father here, so I figured I got to play both parts," Kohler said. "I did my best with him, but he has a strong mind and, when he sets it to something, he does it. We fought like hell when he was at home."

At age 12, Harris-Moore had his first taste of the justice system when he was convicted of theft. Other convictions soon followed, but Kohler says he was often accused of committing crimes for which he was not responsible.

"[The police] were always after him on Camano Island," Kohler said. "One time, I bought him a new bike, and they stopped him on the side of the road, put it in the back of the car, brought him here, and the cop opened the trunk and said, 'Is this Colt's?' I said 'Yes. I just bought it for him.' Because I am poor they did not think I could have bought it for him, and [they] thought he stole it. That's what they used to do all the time -- harass and mistreat him."

Harris-Moore's problems with the law continued, and, in 2007, he was charged with 23 felonies in Island County.

"It was ridiculous," Kohler said. "They made such a big damn deal of everything. He was blamed for everything that happened in [the] county. [The police] even took some of my jewelry, tried to say that he stole it, and put it in evidence against him."

One of the people helping in Harris-Moore's defense was Shauna Snyder, a private investigator and paralegal in Washington State.

"He was charged with residential burglaries," Snyder told AOL News. "There were 23 felonies and, like often happens, the prosecutor did not feel like they had a strong enough case on all of them, and the defense team was able to plea bargain it down. He was 16 years old at the time and sentenced to just about three years. He spent part of it in a juvenile hall and was then transferred to a group home."

There was more freedom for him at the group home, but Harris-Moore -- not one to be "confined," as his mom explained -- did not stay there long; he fled from the facility in April 2008.

Today, more than two years after his escape, Harris-Moore is suspected in countless burglaries round the country, including Washington, Idaho, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois. He is also believed to have committed crimes in Canada and, most recently, the Bahamas. While some of the alleged crimes include burglaries and auto thefts, Harris-Moore is also suspected in the theft of at least three airplanes and a $450,000 yacht.


According to Harris-Moore's mother, he never learned how to fly, evident by the fact that each of the planes he is suspected of stealing has crash-landed. Authorities speculate that Harris-Moore taught himself how to fly by reading aircraft manuals and handbooks.

"I think [the plane thefts are] pretty gutsy," Kohler said. "He just needs to work on his landings. I've also said he should take a parachute."

Since many of Harris-Moore's alleged crimes were committed while he was barefoot, the media dubbed him the "Barefoot Bandit."

Those who know Harris-Moore say he's not the violent type.

"Colton dislikes guns," Kohler said. "I asked him to go to the gun range with me one time, and he didn't want to go. He said, 'No way. I'm not shooting guns.'"

Snyder agrees.

"He's not a violent kid," she said, adding that recent rumors that Harris-Moore had stolen an AK-47 out of a police cruiser are just that: rumors.

"There have never been, to date, any charges filed on any crime like that," Snyder said. "So, if they had evidence of that they would have filed it. Those kinds of rumors and rhetoric have made him sound more dangerous than he is. He's been accused of about every crime this side of the Mississippi now."

Harold Copus, a former FBI agent who has worked hundreds of violent crimes over the years, also doubts claims that Harris-Moore is a violent kid.

"This is not a guy who will turn to violence," said Copus, who heads up Copus Security Consultants in Atlanta. "This is a guy who loves thumbing his nose at authorities. He's not really done anything that is more than just the average garden-variety crime. If I was a victim of that, I would probably take offense to it, but really that's what you get down to.

"It's almost the stuff that legends are made of," Copus continued. "He's creating his own, and I'll bet you they'll be talking about him 30 or 40 years from now."

Not only have several folk-hero-style ballads been written about Harris-Moore, but he also has a huge fan following on the Internet. A Facebook fan page dedicated to him boasts more than 44,000 fans.

"He's out there doing stuff a lot of people would not dare to," said Adin Stevens, founder of the Colton Harris Moore Fan Club. "There are a lot of haves and have nots in the world. [For instance,] this kid would probably have never had the opportunity to fly airplanes, but, there he is -- doing all these things on a whim, and I think that appeals to a lot of people."

Stevens, who owns a screen printing business in Seattle, said he became a fan of Harris-Moore's about a year ago and started selling T-shirts with Harris-Moore's photo and the phrase "Momma Tried." The shirts flew off the shelves and eventually led to the creation of the fan site, which Stevens says brings in thousands of visitors every day.

"He's a modern-day outlaw," Stevens said. "He's building a name for himself, and I think he's enjoying that."

Even Copus says he can't help but chuckle whenever he reads about Harris-Moore in the news.

"You can almost draw a parallel to the times of John Dillinger or Bonnie and Clyde," Copus said. "Now, what they did was obviously more violent, but, at the time, the American people were going through some bad times, and most people are going through a bad time right now, so this is a little bit of the little guys winning right now, and people are cheering him on."

Despite Harris-Moore's attraction and near folk-hero status, not everyone is laughing at his antics -- chief among them Sheriff Mark C. Brown, from the Island County Sheriff's Office.

"I don't agree with it," Brown tells AOL News. "I don't like the sensationalistic media blitz that's taken off about looking at that person as an adult hero. I think he's an adult felon who needs to be caught and sent off to prison."

Former island resident David Peters has taken it upon himself to ferret out Harris-Moore and has created a website devoted to catching him. Like Stevens, Peters also sells shirts on his site, but the message is clearly different: "I support safe communities, not fake heroes," reads one T-shirt, accompanied by Harris-Moore's police mug shot.

"[I] started the website because I noticed there were a lot of articles out there, and [Stevens'] website was contributing to this folk-hero status," Peters told AOL News. "I knew some of the people from the smaller communities in the Northwest, and I knew they did not agree with what the website was saying, and I knew they didn't look at him as a folk hero or any kind of hero."

Peters said he has received some tips via the website, which he has passed on to law enforcement, but his main goal is to continue raising the reward fund so that someone who might be assisting Harris-Moore will "do the right thing" and turn him in.

Peters speculated that Harris-Moore could be taken into custody within the month, and he may be correct.

On Tuesday, the FBI announced that they had a "solid indication" that Harris-Moore is responsible for the weekend theft of an aircraft from a hangar in Bloomington, Ind. The plane was found crashed and abandoned Sunday off the coast of Abaco Island in the Bahamas. As a result of the incident, the FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the "Barefoot Bandit."

"Colton Harris-Moore has gone from a regional nuisance to an international problem," Special Agent Steven Dean with the bureau's Seattle office told KOMO 4 News. "We need to step up our efforts to get him."

Today, authorities on Abaco Island are continuing a large-scale search for Harris-Moore and are investigating his possible connection to a vehicle theft that occurred not far from where the plane crashed.

"It was probably him," Harris-Moore's mother said, adding, "We've not talked in the last few weeks, but the last time we did he was doing good. I tried to talk him into turning himself in because I got him one of the best damn lawyers around, but because he's a kid and I'm a mother -- ya know, kids just don't listen to their mothers."

While she said she would like to see Harris-Moore again, Kohler said that, at this point, he would probably be better off heading to a non-extraditing country where he could finally live in peace.

"It's gone on so long that I pray it keeps on going; otherwise, he might get hurt," she said. "And if he gets hurt, it won't be because of him. It will be because of overzealous cops."

Despite the fact that her son is constantly on the run and keeps in touch only on a sporadic basis, Kohler said she does believe he follows articles that are written about him.

"Tell him to send me a round-trip ticket to the Bahamas," she said. "I mean it. Can you print that? I've never been there, but [I've] been wanting to go all my life. [If he does,] I'll send you a post card."

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Wild Olive Tees

Wild Olive



These shirts are so great! Check out their website!
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. — Colossians 4:2 NIV

It’s easy to get so caught up in the physical challenges of our days that we forget the very real spiritual battle that rages on around us. We have an enemy who would love to keep us so distracted and busy that we forget to focus on what really matters: our relationship with our Father. Jesus knew this and he purposely pulled away, not only from the crowds, but even from his friends, to be able to be alone with his Father. He obviously craved that time to restore himself.

Of course, not all of us are refreshed by being alone the way Jesus was. Each of us has a unique, God-given personality that affects how easily we’re distracted and by what, what helps us refocus and what doesn’t.What matters is finding a place where you know you can block out other distractions and enjoy being with the Father, who longs to spend time with you.

Even more important is making the commitment to fight our human tendency toward distraction. Sometimes I will take a notebook and write down twenty things that I love about being God’s daughter.

I can only imagine that our specific declarations of love to God are precious to him.

— Sheila Walsh Excerpted from A Grand New Day © 2008 by Thomas Nelson

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

I received the following in an email & thought it was too good not to share. All too often we try to do things on our own.



Monday, July 05, 2010

God made you to work with others

by Rick Warren


For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)

"As you walk through life, remember that you're not supposed to do everything on your own. You need other people to walk alongside you, but you also need other people to work alongside you."

God put us on earth to do a certain work that only we can do. Ephesians says that God made us to do good works and that he planned in advance what we would live our lives doing. However, he didn't plan for us to do that work alone. We need people to work with us.

You know the feeling you get when you do too much work on your own. You get exhausted and burned out. Why? Because you're trying to do your work alone, while God never meant for you to go through life working alone.

God tells us in Ecclesiastes 4:9 that "two people are better than one, because they get more done by working together" (NCV). When you work as a team, you get so much more done. Plus, having good teammates alongside you is a whole lot more fun and less tiring!

Picture this: Individually, each of us is like a snowflake; on our own, we can't make a big difference. However, when one fragile snowflake sticks together with a lot of other snowflakes, they can stop traffic. Like snowflakes, we can make a big difference if we work together, each one of us doing only our small part.

Did you know that when we work together here on earth, we're actually practicing for eternity? In heaven, we will all have to work, but each of us will have just a small piece of work, so we'll never get overloaded or tired. Still, though no one will carry a heavy burden as each one of us does our small part, all the work will get done.
As you walk through life, remember that you're not supposed to do everything on your own. You need other people to walk alongside you, but you also need other people to work alongside you. As you share the burden of your work with fellow Christians, you'll find that you actually accomplish more for the glory of God.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

RAGGED OLD FLAG

I walked through a county courthouse square,
On a park bench an old man was sitting there.
I said, "Your old courthouse is kinda run down."
He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town."
I said, "Your flagpole has leaned a little bit,
And that's a Ragged Old Flag you got hanging on it.


He said, "Have a seat", and I sat down.
"Is this the first time you've been to our little town?"
I said, "I think it is." He said, "I don't like to brag,
But we're kinda proud of that Ragged Old Flag."


"You see, we got a little hole in that flag there
When Washington took it across the Delaware.
And it got powder-burned the night Francis Scott Key
Sat watching it writing _Oh Say Can You See_.
And it got a bad rip in New Orleans
With Packingham and Jackson tuggin' at its seams."


"And it almost fell at the Alamo
Beside the Texas flag, but she waved on through.
She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville
And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill.
There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard, and Bragg,
And the south wind blew hard on that Ragged Old Flag."


"On Flanders Field in World War I
She got a big hole from a Bertha gun.
She turned blood red in World War II
She hung limp and low by the time it was through.
She was in Korea and Vietnam.
She went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam."


"She waved from our ships upon the briny foam,
And now they've about quit waving her back here at home.
In her own good land she's been abused --
She's been burned, dishonored, denied and refused."


"And the government for which she stands
Is scandalized throughout the land.
And she's getting threadbare and wearing thin,
But she's in good shape for the shape she's in.
'Cause she's been through the fire before
And I believe she can take a whole lot more."


"So we raise her up every morning,
Take her down every night.
We don't let her touch the ground
And we fold her up right.
On second thought I DO like to brag,
'Cause I'm mighty proud of that Ragged Old Flag."


Written by Johnny Cash

Friday, July 2, 2010

Nudge

I was lovingly reminded by a dear friend today that I have not updated my blog in 7 weeks.... wow, that is almost 2 months! Now, it isn't that I didn't know this. I knew it and I check other blogs often but it is that I really couldn't find anything that I thought you all would want to hear me talk about or it would probably turn into a whining party! But here I am...


The last time that I did blog I talked about Isaiah 6:8 "Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!" This verse keeps tugging at my heart and to be honest I haven't really spent as much time with God lately as I should be (hence the absence of blogging I suppose). All too often I am a stubborn, impatient person. I know, I know you just can't believe that, unless you know me well than you are laughing to yourself thinking "no way" in the most condescending voice you can come up with!





When I heard the verse it struck a cord with me deep down but I just couldn't figure out why or what God was telling me. But did I persist to figure it out? nope, I just kinda ran away from it until today when dear sweet Keyly emailed me to "nudge" me along. I am SOO thankful for good Christian friends that can put a little perspective back in our lives and ask the hard questions of us. When I read her email I though yea yea, I know but as I began to ponder on it I knew it was from God. SO, I am on my quest once again to figure out where God wants me to go and dear friends would you pray with me that I figure it out soon?



What can we pray about for you all??



Thanks Keyly for listening to the "nudge" to email me today!