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| Where Are You Storing Your TreasureI've been thinking of posting some children's sermons I used to do in church years ago. This was always one of my favorites. First though, I'll give you some background on who inspired it. Have any of you ever heard of the late Dr Stephen Olford. What a Godly man and incredible expositor of God's word. He once had a saying that his dad told him when he was in the hospital not long before he died. "Only one life will soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last" That has stuck with me since I was a younger believer in Christ. Here is the link to Olford Ministries International, a ministry he started to equip preachers with preaching the Gospel. This is his profile and how he started the ministry.I won't put anything here,but please go read about this incredible man of God.There may be some of his sermons on there to link to, I haven't looked at the site in detail myself. http://www.olford.org/CC_Content_Page/0,,PTID314886%7CCHID702174%7CCIID,00.html Everytime he preached at South Woods, the spirit moved in my heart. The children's sermon that God layed on my heart was reguarding wealth. I had a nice size rock and a piece of flash paper (a piece of paper that when lit with a flame,burns in a flash). I told the kids that the rock represented everything that we have done on this earth for Christ, (helping others, serving others telling other's about Christ's love, etc.) and the flash paper represented all the material things we had gathered in our life, (cars, boats, houses, TV, and all the things we enjoy with the money we make. The lighter is God's fire of judgement of which ALL things must pass thru. First I lit the lighter and placed the rock over the flame. Of course the flame didn't destroy the rock or hurt it in any way which shows how God views the things we do for Christ's honor and glory. But when I put the flash paper over the flame, POOF, up in a quick flash went all those material things we thought were worth all our time and effort to gain. In God's eyes, these things are worthless. Not that there is anything wrong with having these things, they just shouldn't be our reason to live, our desire if you will. Only what's done for Christ will last the test of God. I did this children's sermon on one of the occasions that Dr Olford preached. It was when the war Desert Storm was in high gear. He used to call me Tiny Tim and when he got up to start preaching after that children's sermon he said, "Well, Tiny Tim launched his own scud missles this morning" There was a little more to the children's sermon, but you should get the jest of it. Here's a pic of me with Dr Olford about 19 or 20 years ago. I was about 29 or 30.  What an awesome man of God this man was. Please go to the link and read about his ministry that still thrives today. It's actually right around the corner from my house  What a blessing to have been able to meet this man. May God bless you all this weekend with His marvelous grace as you turn your eyes upon Jesus! Lots of love to you friends! ~Grampy~ | | |
| The Great White Squirrel Of Kenton, Tn LOL EDIT #2: Ok, at the request of Candy, I've changed my song to Ray Stevens "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" This song just cracks me up!  I know Squirrel's can REALLY be a pain and can cause all sorts of problems with your house  Been there, done that! But these guys are just too cute. I go up to Kenton to inspect houses every few months and these squirrels just amaze me. Get out of the city limits of Kenton and these White squirrels are not found.I haven't read up on it to see why this is, but just one of those weird things in nature. I'll get to the more serious posts later, I just didn't have time to do the one I wanted to, so here is a light hearted post. Here is the sign coming into Kenton, Tn. Think they are proud of their squirrels. There even used to be a statue of a giant White Squirrel I remember seeing but is gone now. Here are some pics I took last trip of thses squirrels. They were everywhere. Yesterday it was almost dark when I got there, so I didn't see any.    
I also did a video and put it on my Youtube if you want to see it. http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=xGUzctwxw6Q Hopefully soon I'll have the stuff I need for my next post. Hope all is well with everyone. God bless you all! Grampy Edit: Here is a pic I took in one of the other towns that just cracked me up.  I don't think a blind hill would scare me, BUT, if I saw one with glasses, I might freak out! 
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| Are You The Same In Person As You Are On XangaThis wasn't the next thing I was going to post about,but I've had things happen on here that have gotten me to thinking about it.My last xanga I had that I shut down about a year ago, some people that know me personally said my writing and commenting didn't really sound like me. I wonder how many people really act totally different on xanga than they do in person.I for one really am shy and not that talkative, unless it's someone I know really well and even then it usually has to be a topic I'm passionate about. Weither it's posting and commenting on xanga or chatting on AIM, I guess I feel like I can be the person I WANT to act like but too shy to be in person with people I don't know. Also I'm a slow thinker myself, so writing on xanga and commenting or even chatting on AIM make it easier to say what I want to say because I have more time to think instead of one on one in person where when talking and the moment to say something slips away before you can say what you wanted to say. Is anyone else that way or am I the only one.Then there are these people that are rude,crude,mean and just plain obnoxious on here. Is that how they are in person or is that just how they want to be but hide it in person? I guess some are just like that PERIOD. I heard a country song a while back I hadn't ever heard and haven't heard it since, but I think it was Brad Paisley it was something like "I'm Cool On The Internet" Don't know if thats the name of the song, but it made me laugh and made me think how true that is in a lot of folks minds when they are on here. Anyway, a lot of you may think I'm an outgoing guy and maybe even funny to be around, but really you would find me pretty boring (ask my wife)  Well, this was just something I wondered about and if anybody else ever thought "Is this how I act in person" and is this how I want people to think I act like? Just some thoughts, what do you all think? Do you act the same way on xanga as you do in person? Have a great weekend friends! God bless you all! ~Grampy~ | | |
| Dealing With Bitterness and ResentmentBitterness, we ALL struggle with it. The thing about it is do you let it take root in your life. Everyone gets mad at someone for something, lots of times it's something really quite silly and meaningless. But there are those times when someone really hurts you deep down and that root of bitterness takes hold of your life. Your bitterness towards that person takes over your life, even though you don't realize it. All it can take is for someone to say or do something similar to what happened to you and BAM that bitterness sprouts right on up. It can ruin relationships, cause others to not want to be around you and you might not even realize it. That bitterness will carry itself to every friendship/relationship you ever have. You do have a choice to make in the matter though. Forgiveness is SOOOO much more healthy than bitterness. Living with forgiveness in your heart won't let bitterness take root. Bitterness will destroy everything in it's path, forgiveness restores everything in it's path. Resentment is a lot the same thing, but a little different in other ways. I've heard folks be so resentful towards others simply because they wanted this certain thing to happen to them, but instead it happens to a friend, or even a family member. They bad mouth that person saying mean things, just because something good happened in their life and they think it should happen to them and not that other person. Do you know people like this? I know MANY! That is the height of selfishness in my book. Resentment so takes over your thoughts that you can't even SEE when something good DOES happen to you. You are so caught up in anger, EVERYTHING makes you angry. Such a sad way to live a life. If you want to BE happy, be happy for others when God blesses other's lives. That may be what He is waiting on to bless your life. Be happy for other's when they are prosperous and good things happen to them, it'll change your whole attitude about living. I just want to exhort everyone who has lived in bitterness, live in forgiveness. You will be SOOO pleasantly surprised at how living with a forgiving heart changes your whole outlook on life. For me, the only way to be able to TRULLY forgive is thru Christ. He has shown the ultimate forgiveness in forgiving us of our sins. I know what it feels like to carry bitterness around with you everywhere. It's raised it's ugly head in my life many times, only now because of Christ, I see it's head pop up when I get angry about something and it doesn't take root any longer. Only Christ can pull that bitterness out by the root, you can't do it yourself, as hard as you may try it just keeps coming back. Live with the freedom of forgiveness folks, that way YOU can be happy in ALL things. This wasn't quite the post I was going to do, but it's what came out. Just something thats been on my heart for a while and really started hitting home while I was away from Xanga for that 40 days. I thought about a lot of things, this was one of them. Sorry I'm not the eliquent writer to whoo everyone, but it's from the heart none the less! May you all have a blessed and forgiving week this week my xanga friends! God bless you all with what HE see's fit! ~Grampy~ | | |
| Charlie Bit MeI'm sure a lot of you have seen this on Youtube since it has close to 20 million views, but this just cracks me up. What's REALLY funny is hearing two of my granddaughters act it out...Brinley and Braelyn. What a hoot! Stuff that is caught that hasn't been staged is just priceless. Hope you get a good laugh....like Charlie did! http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM Really, watch this if you want to laugh out loud. Hope everyone has a blessed Lords Day! ~Grampy~ | | |
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