Four months ago... Five days ago... The sixth...

God has been doing great and wonderful things!  It all started back in Genesis when “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.”  I have discovered what God said to be true, “It is not good for the man to be alone….” 

I have spent the last several years grappling with these thoughts, and endeavoring to follow Jesus’ leading along the way.  There have been times of questions and wondering, times of direction, many deaths of vision, and many rays of hope.  There have been times of joy, times of pain, and much time with Jesus.  Through all these things I have cultivated contentment, learned tons about life, and drawn closer to Jesus.

All of that to say, Jesus has led me down a new path full of changes.  But so many things remain the same as one travels down this path:  Jesus and His character, His principles, and the glorious ways that people understand each other’s hearts.

With a heart full of joy, I am glad to say that my good friend Amy and I have been traveling a path that has led us closer together for some time.  Neither of us recognized it for several years.  But through an extraordinary set of events our friendship has rapidly become a wonderful exploration of the possibility of marriage, beginning in mid January.

Here are some pictures that might lend a hint as to our thoughts on the matter:

We were engaged 5 days ago, on May 6^th! 

I appreciate Amy so much for the heart she has to love Jesus and all the people He brings across her path.  There is a long list of things I appreciate about Amy: character, ideals, personality etc etc… but that can come in a later post. 

For you dear friends whom we have not called personally, I deeply regret our lack of time and forethought to get in touch with you; our schedule has been exceedingly full.  Please accept our apology as we now use the modernity of XANGA in our endeavor to let you all know what the Lord is doing in our lives. 

Blessings to y’all!

Sir John the Mysterious

A post? Nah, a post on the fly!

Spring has sprung,
Sun versus Xanga;
Stepping up the next rung-
Life is full of dange-uh!

Things are busy-
Lots of work and fun;
Sometimes I'm dizzy,
Anywho, I'm on the run!

I'll try to post something on a slow day - just wanted to let you know I'm doing well!

Here are a couple of pictures from a recent photo op:

Sir John the Mysterious

Workin'

I guess its time to post a bit of John's life!  Somehow when he is doing contracting work, his computer time diminishes... sorry he has not even found time to comment and hang out with y'all! 

Stained glass windows are a spectacular sight in many churches, and ours has probably more than its share of them!  It is a wise thing to keep them protected from the weather, and the storm windows are badly deteriorating!!!  This is the bottom of a window in comparatively better condition than the rest:

I don't know if I have much skill in storm window work, but hey, the people who built them used various dimensions of lumber in the same window, so I guess I am allowed to make it up as I go.  This window used to be one piece - 12 feet tall, and 4 feet wide.  When we took it down, it was light enough to handle because almost all the glass had fallen out of it.  When I rebuilt it, I made it into 3 sections for ease of handling.  The bottom section is all new construction:

Washin' the window at about 20* F before hanging a finished storm window:

Encourage your hearts in God our Savior!  He is at work, even in the mundane things of life.  Some days it is hard for me to remember that, but He is faithful:

"If we died with Him, we shall also live with Him;
If we endure, we shall also reign with Him;
If we deny Him, He also will deny us;
If we are faithless, He remains faithful;
For He cannot deny Himself."
2Timothy 2:11-13

Die to self daily!  Allow Jesus to resurrect you daily!  Grow in faith!

Blessings~
Sir John the Mysterious

It is Super Tuesday!

Greetings~

I have put off my decision of who to vote for until just a couple of days ago – I wanted to weigh out all the up to date information before deciding.  So who is my candidate?

Ron Paul

Here are a few bullet points for why: 

• He is pro life:  As an OBGYN, he has delivered over 4,000 babies, and has never performed an abortion.  He believes that life starts at conception, and should be fully protected by law. 

·         He is pro family/home education:  From his own website… “I support giving educational control back to parents, who know their children better than any politician in D.C. ever will.  The federal government has no constitutional authority to fund or control schools.”

·         He stands firm for the right of Americans to own firearms.

• He understands the constitution better than any other candidate – the very rule of law that all presidents swear to follow:  He consistently makes decisions based on the Constitution; He demonstrates a working knowledge of the Constitution.   
• Some of his “odd” views (i.e. not supporting a Federal Marriage Amendment) are because he sees that the federal government has no jurisdiction in those areas according to the Constitution.  In the example of the FMA, and many others, he is right. 
• Most of the arguments I have heard against him are that people don’t like his personality.  Since when is personality the sole deciding factor for choosing a President?  I agree – he could use to develop some amiable personality traits.  But when you are trying to speak long-forgotten truth in modern day sound bites, you don’t have much time to spare for winsomeness.  We the people have forgotten so many basic principles laid out in the Constitution that we take error for granted.  We assume things are supposed to be this way because we can’t remember when they weren’t. 
• Concerning the war in Iraq:  He is against the war for the right reasons: 
• It is an unconstitutional, undeclared war
• We are selling ourselves to China in order to fund our “war on terror”
• National debt is up to $26,000 per man, woman and child
• We are becoming China’s slaves in order to fight this war

I would like to add here that I have a high respect for those of you who have chosen a different candidate, and the research that I have done is not exhaustive. 

But from what I am seeing Ron Paul is the only one who comes close to representing what I believe about the role of the federal government.  He is not a perfect candidate, but he does stand for principle.  For those of you who say he will never win, I wish I had written down every person who claims to agree with his philosophy, but said they would not vote for him because he won’t win.  If that is you, I ask you to consider that your way of thinking is the reason he won’t win.  There are enough people who have said, “He won’t win, so I won’t vote for him” to swing the election in a big way.  

Thanks for reading – Happy Voting!!! 

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues/

Sir John the Mysterious

P.S. I'm sorry about the font colors - something seems to be goofed up here - hope you can read it alright.

Ever find yourself in a jam...

...session?   I have - and quite recently!  I mean, sitting on a couch, squished between two people, and trying to play the recorder is quite the jam.  Surprisingly, my recorder occasionally knew exactly what note to play, and we had a grand time.  When my turn came, I requested the song "Life's Railway to Heaven."  That was when the real jam started, since I had no clue how to play it, and could not recall the words.  Many of the others did not recognize it either, but those who had some fuzzy recollection of it did a splendidly fine job of playing.  Here are the words, for my review and y'all to enjoy.   Oh yeah!  I also got to play a homemade washtub bass... this thing had four strings, a fingerboard and an awesome sound... I need some time to really get acquainted with that instrument!  Thank y  ' a   l   l  for a great time!

Life is like a mountain railroad,
With an engineer that's brave:
We must make the run successful,
From the cradle to the grave;
Watch the curves, the fills, the tunnels;
Never falter, never quail;
Keep your hand upon the throttle,
And your eye upon the rail.

Chorus:
Blessed Savior, Thou wilt guide us
Till we reach that blissful shore;
Where the angels wait to join us
In Thy praise forevermore.

You will roll up grades of trial;
You will cross the bridge of strife;
See that Christ is your conductor,
On this lightning train of life;
Always mindful of obstruction,
Do your duty, never fail;
Keep your hand upon the throttle,
And your eye upon the rail.

You will often find obstructions;
Look for storms of wind and rain;
On a fill, or curve or trestle,
They will almost ditch your train;
Put your trust alone in Jesus;
Never falter, never fail;
Keep your hand upon the throttle,
And your eye upon the rail.

As you roll across the trestle,
Spanning Jordan's swelling tide,
You behold the Union Depot
Into which your train will glide;
There you'll meet the Superintendent,
God the Father, God the Son,
With the hearty, joyous plaudit,
"Weary pilgrim, welcome home!"

May YHWH bless you as you bravely chug through life!  Enjoy every minute of it with Him.  Even in the stressful times, He is joyfully your Superintendent, helping you make your run successful! 

Sir John the Mysterious