Are You a Warrior?

Sometimes you read something that makes your heart go thump. One of my Brothers on Facebook, Pastor Levi Webb, posted the following. As a Christian, and a biker, I couldn't help but ask for permission to re-post this on my blog. How many of us feel the same way? How many wish they did? ARE YOU A WARRIOR? read....





The Lord Jesus Christ is my commanding officer. The Holy Bible is my code of conduct.
Faith, Hope, I ama warrior in the army of God. Love, Prayer, and God's word are my weapons of choice.

I have been taught by the Holy Spirit, trained by experience, and tested by fire.
I am a volunteer in this army. I will either retire in this army or die in this army; but I will not get out, sell out, be talked out, or pushed out. I am faithful, reliable, capable, and dependable.
If my God needs me I am there.

I do not need to be pampered, petted, primed up, pumped up, picked up, or pepped up.
I am a warrior. No one has to remind me, write me, visit me, entice me, or lure me.

I am a warrior. I am not a wimp.

I am in place, saluting my King, obeying His orders. His Kingdom.

No one has to send me flowers, gifts, food, cards, candy, or give me hand outs.
I do not need to be cuddled, cradled, cared for, or catered to. I am commited.
I cannot have my feelings hurt bad enough to turn me around. I cannot be discouraged enough to turn me aside. I cannot lose enough to cause me to quit.

When Jesus called me into this army, I had nothing. If I end up with nothing, I will still come out even, I will win.

My God will supply all my needs. I am more than a conqueror. I will always triumph because I can do all things through Christ.

Devils cannot defeat me, people cannot disillusion me, weather cannot weary me, sickness cannot stop me, battles cannot beat me, money cannot buy me, governments cannot silence me, and hell cannot handle me!

I am a warrior. Even death cannot destroy me.
For when my Commander calls me from this battlefield, He will promote me to a captain.
I am a warrior. In an army, I am marching, claiming victory.
I will not give up, I will not turn around, I am a warrior, marching.. Heaven Bound!!!

There are 4 Kinds of soldiers. Which are you??

1. Active Duty: serving the Lord 24/7-365
2. Reserve Status: Serving only when called upon, only twice a year (Christmas/ Easter)
3. Guard Status: Backing up the active duty group
4. AWOL!! Absent With Out Lord

May the Love and Peace of our Lord Jesus protect and guide you all the days of your life.
God's word is perfect.

Pastor Levi Webb
Footsteps in the Sand Ministries

cheap to eat

I’ve not posted much lately. Either too busy or just no inspiration.
Since the economy is what it is, and there’s many and I mean many struggling to make grocery money, I decided to post a couple of recipes. These are cheap, quick & most of all easy.

Trail Tater Surprise

1 medium size spud/person, 2 slices bacon/person, Cavender’s Greek Seasoning, cheddar cheese.
Family of 4 for about 6 bucks. The 6 bucks should get enough spud, cheese, and bacon to do 2 meals
Fry bacon until crispy not burnt, remove from skillet, add sliced taters & fry in bacon grease seasoning with Cavender’s.
When taters are soft & done, remove from skillet and serve, crumble bacon and shred cheddar cheese over top.

Yeah, it’s high starch & cholesterol but hey it’ll keep you alive and is tasty as well as filling.



Zach’s Ghetto Spaghetti (aprox. 60 cents/ serving or less)

1 pkg Ramen noodles, small can tomato sauce (with meat if you can afford it)
Boil the water ,add noodles but leave out the seasoning pouch. drain off, add ½ can of tomato sauce

Here’s the key to this recipe: refrigerate the remainder of tomato sauce for next meal (or hide in a cool place if refrigerator isn’t handy). Season with salt, pepper, or hot sauce if you can find it. (salt & pepper can easily be obtained at convenience stores in the little packets. Keep the seasoning packet for when you don’t have any noodles then you can boil a little water and have some broth.

Same Kind of Different

Recently I finished reading " Same kind of different as me" by Ron Hall & Denver Moore. While most of the books I've read lately are either the Bible, or enlightening books to improve worship, prayer, evangelism, stuff like that.

My mother-in-law gave me this book to read, thought I'd like it. I did.

First of all this book is one of the most powerful Non-Fiction books I've ever read, and while this blog will not be a "book review", it is however, a report on the authors, and some of the comments they had made during an event last night.

I will tell you now. This book is about a very wealthy selfish white man, a very mean homeless black man full of wisdom, a Saint of a lady who caused these men to cross paths, and a city that was changed by that explosion.

Last night I attended a fund raiser for Victory Mission, a homeless shelter here in Springfield in which the authors of this book were speaking. Since I had recently read this work of art, and was so moved by the book, I had to attend just to hear these men and their story.

Ron ( the rich white guy) did most of the speaking re-telling the story of the book along with a few extra details that weren't in the book.

Denver ( the mean, wise black guy), spoke short and last, but his words rang with truth and hope. for instance:

At first when they were talking about this book, they were getting invited to all of these bible study groups.

Denver: Do all white folks go to bibles studies?

Ron: Well yes, many of the folks in churches do

Denver: When we gon go to some bible doins? Seem like they all studyin, but none of'em doin.

and then stuff like:

Denver: This book (Same kind....as me) ain't the Bible, how come ya'll read this book before ya read the Bible? makes sense, huh

later more:

Denver: Sometimes, to help someone outa the pit, ya have to get down there yourself

later:

Denver: B I B L E, Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth

then more wisdom:

Denver: Folk think they're different, everyone think they unique, better or worse, they all special. Well let me tell ya somethin. We All homeless 'til God calls us home.

When he finished ( and when you read this book you'll understand) he sang. Denver doesn't sing a hymm, or anything rehearsed with set words or phrase. He sings a prayer of praise, from the heart as it hits him that second, in a raspy ol' voice of a black sharecropper. With his years of hard living, I found it difficult to undestand his words. So.. I closed my eyes and listened, allowing myself to feel his song of prayer...... keep me humble Lord.....outa this pit......

the words became clear as I prayed in my heart with him... all was clear, all was right.... all was for Him... ......

and it was good

A Specticle of Myself

Old age sometimes sneaks up on you , or just flat out ambushes you.

I really need to get my eyes checked. The reading glasses aren't cutting it anymore and I guess vanity keeps me from carrying them on a regular basis. I am now to the point that if I forget, my wife has to read the menu for me when we go out to eat, because the dim lighting and small print makes everything look Hebrew. Then it gets worse. The ones I have aren't strong enough so when I do read, sometimes the words just don't sound right. For instance, last week at church we're standing and singing and due to the glare from the lights on poor pitiful not strong enough glasses the word was glorify and I'm singing clarify, you get the point.

Then it all came to an embarrassing head about a week ago when......

Did you know that it's okay for women to go to the restroom together, sit next to each other, and even sleep in the same bed together?..... there's a post in the future on Men's ettiquette...anyway

It was a nice 60's and I needed to run into Springfield. My ol' scooter hadn't been run for a while and I thought I'd give Brother Jeffrey a ring and see if he would like to get out for a bit and roll some thunder. He of course, said "yes". Well, the mission was to head to "Redeemed Books", great place to get used books, theology, sermon's, research books, just all around a cool store.

Here we are rolling up on a couple of Hogs, strolling into the store, and heading to the section to see how many copies of the " Barbarian Way" they have. I realized then that I neglected to bring my glasses.

So... Here we are two guys clad in leather jackets and my partner is having to read the titles and backs of these books to me because I can't read squat. I found myself trying to back up far enough to read the print, then when I get far enough away, the print is too small to read.

This my friends, is nothing more than tragedy run amuck. There was a nice guy there with his daughter, you know the folks, long uncut hair, beard, the little girl had a pretty yellow dress that went down to the ankles. They both looked at us, well okay, they stared at us as Jeff, read to me in the middle of this store.

After a short while we found nothing that would suit our fancy so we started to leave. While on our way out. Jeff looks at me, points, and says "here's the Dwayne section" it read: "LARGE PRINT" and yes, I could read that.

As stated above.. there will be a future Blog Post on Men's ettiquette...

Praise the Lord & Sharpen your Sword !!

I used this phrase recently at a bible study and was asked if this was a phrase that was mine or did I get it somewhere else. I guess I own this one, but with reference to an earlier period in our history. Later I began to think more on this phrase, where I coined it, how it became a phrase of mine, and how it pertains to my life today
We were doing a study of the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament, in Chapter 4, while rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem there was a threat of attack and the walls had not yet been completed.

(vs. 7-9) But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem's walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry.8They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it.9But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.
In verse 9, the key to me is that while we don’t know what God’s will is, we must prepare and have faith regardless of the outcome we desire. We continue with verse 13.
13Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows.14After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”
15When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work.16From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah17who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other,18and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.
19Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall.20Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!”21So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out.22At that time I also said to the people, “Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve us as guards by night and workmen by day.”23Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water.

Now, back to the phrase.
When I was a kid we used to play army a lot, we were all heroes and maybe the root of this phrase came from that time. I’d heard it came from an old soldier or saying in WWI or WWII. “Praise the Lord and pass the Ammunition”. So naturally this phrase got adapted in this study. So, how will this work for present day? Let’s look at the New Testament.

In the book of Ephesians 6:10-20, Paul writes of wearing “the Armor of God”

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. 19Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,20for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

In verse 17 we have the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. So for me, and I believe for all followers of Christ, the daily lesson here is simply this:

Give praise to God for all that He is and all that He has done, give thanks for all that He has provided from the sunrise to sunrise and everything in between. Sharpen your sword, study, know and live by His word. Finally, verses 19-20
19Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,20for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

“Praise the Lord and Sharpen your Sword”

60+ degrees & Cruisin'

For those who would rather spend time on 2 wheels than anything else, winter really puts a damper on enjoying a ride. Yesterday, we got to get out for a bit, even just for a couple of hours does amazing things for the senses.

To me there are 2 types of rides, no brainer & mo brainer.

No Brainer: Riding on 4 lane, moving w/ traffic, pretty much straight. Allows you to relax a little more (even though you are moving w/ traffic between 60 & 80 mph), kick the feet up and clear the head.

Mo Brainer: Riding 2 lane, usually between 30 & 60 mph, twisties, ya have to think a little more with these, become one w/ the road and total enviroment, total concentration, and test of skill & reflex.

Both have their own distinctive ways to relax the rider from stresses of everyday life.
No Brainer you do have the ability to think of other things, Mo Brainer you are only thinking of the task at hand and the rest of the world doesn't exist.

Yesterday we ( Jeff, Oscar, Brian & I) did the No Brainer, the scooters were needing a good run out to get the cobb webs out of'em. It was a good day @ 60+ degrees, and by the time we were halfway home, light cloud cover was moving in and blocking the sun. By the way, in January without radiation of heat from the sun highway speed can get rather chilly. But we got out, we got back, and I slept like a brick last night. YiiPeee!!!

Heavy on the Heart

We all have times when we are feeling a little out of sorts, and while I try to be upbeat in all that I do, I still fall in to an occasional slump. This has been the case for a while, maybe it's because I miss riding the scooter, wind in the face, sharing Jesus with whomever, or even just a no brainer ride with friends to jar loose the cobwebs, or maybe it's just winter, or just a busy life.

Either way, a couple of months ago I fell into this and it has taken until the last 3 or 4 weeks to get it gone. I had been feeling a little guilty about all that I've not done for my Lord. You know how it is, you stew on the opportunities missed, or lack of them ( means you missed'em). It was hard to just sit & read scripture. With this New Year, I proposed my "10 steps to contentment" earlier post, and found that following 10 simple steps has helped.

Slowly over the past few weeks things have started getting back to where they ought to be. Not there yet but a WHOLE LOT better than it was, and I'm not feeling as bogged down as before.
I'm here to tell ya there is no more refreshing feeling than when God feels your pain and struggle and reaches down with that hand of comfort and assurance. The trick is to have faith that it will come and then be ready when it does.

like the story of the two men who needed rain for their fields, the one who lacked faith prayed and waited, while the one with faith prayed and went to prepare his field. no different today than then.

Anyway, just wanted to share my heart and get this off my chest. In that, I also want to apologize now to any who I have failed in this lull I was in, and share a small verse.

Acts 26:16 But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;

I have really enjoyed these last few weeks with my Lord and the messages he has sent me through His word in my personal time and the motivation recieved through our study of Nehemiah. (thanks Josh) Leadership, tenacity, perseverence, integrity, and loyalty.
What excellent teachings!


The slumber that had thrown me into a state of melancholy has passed and I now feel awakened to the work which He has commanded me to do.
Praise God, for your blessings on me, my family, my friends.
Praise God, your majesty and glory is infinite
Praise God, I bow humbly before You, oh Master and Creator
Praise God, for all that you are
Praise God. Amen

How could a loving God send someone to Hell?

In today’s indifference to Christianity, with “New Age” and “Post Modern” beliefs, this question gets presented as an argument quite frequently to attempt to nullify the sacrifice of Christ and compromise the truth of God. In the end this argument is all about empowerment of the individual to justify their actions and belief that they are in control and the center of their universe.
While they may have a compelling argument on the surface, there is notta when you look at it from the proper angle and perspective. The discussion goes something like this:

“I don’t believe in all that Hell stuff” he said, “Why would the God of love send someone he created to burn in a lake of fire?” that’s just a scare tactic that churches use”. He then continued with “Do you have kids?” “yes” I replied
He continued “No matter how bad your kids were, mean, bad, cruel, could you honestly toss one of them into a lake of fire for all eternity?, they are your children and you love them.”
I thought for a second and replied with an honest “ no, I probably couldn’t” but….
I then replied “Let’s say that you and your wife were walking down a street, and some punk kid comes out of nowhere robs you and in the process, pulls a gun and point blank shoots your wife and kills her”, I paused for a moment and continued, “Now, let’s say that he was caught and was standing trial for murder, would you want the death sentence?”
He said “ sure, you bet I would” I continued
“Now let’s say that he was found guilty and put to death” “Okay” he replied.
“Now, he’s being executed, and you find out that the young man who was sentenced to death was actually a child you had sired years earlier and never knew he existed”. Then there was silence.

One of the greatest problems with this argument is that present society moves on the basis that we are all good, just seeking our place in life, and that there are many paths to heaven. The answer in this conversation goes back to the Garden of Eden, when the spiritual death of man occurred. That was when we, of our own will, chose a path to attempt to equal God and in that, the punishment for such pride was separation from Him. Now in this conversation, which really happened by the way, there is suggestion that God would sire an illegitimate child. That is nonsense and silly, so don’t go there with me. The point is true. “Sin” is simply this, “separation from God”, we all have it, big or small makes no difference. It’s there. We must realize that and honestly turn to the one who can pull us out of the mire we’re in to a place higher than we deserve.

In Matthew 7:22-23
22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Many acknowledge that Jesus existed, but they haven’t got a clue why He came. What this passage tells us is that without Christ, there is no way to get to heaven. You can do good things all day long, but when you die, and you find yourself in the seat of judgment, He will say “I never knew you”. Just like that illegitimate son we are separated from the Father and he does not know us unless we realize that we indeed have a pointless existence without Him.
Then with this put to the front, I ask this question. Would you ever love someone whom you never knew to the point that you would send your child to die so that they may have a way to live? The answer is likely no.

God has done just that. He sent His son as a perfect sacrifice so that all who believe in Him shall not perish. Yes, I can tell you that it is true. There IS a Heaven, and there truly IS a Hell.

Don’t be fooled

I HAD a plan !!

It's a real good thing that I'm a heating & Air guy and not an economist or an accountant....LOL

Yes, I had a plan, that I was convinced would work, the trouble is.. instead of letting things jumble in your head, you have to put it to paper first. Then, make sure the math is correct.

Do you know what the difference is between a comma and a decimal?
a couple of trillion dollars!

Yes, my recovery package will not work, you know when something seems too good to be true, it usually is...LOL If allowed to implement my plan, we would have had a lot of people very happy, for about 2 years... then ... BOOM!!! it would all fall apart

Aw well.. the worst that'll come from this is that I look like a fool, which by the way, wouldn't be the first time.

I guess the up side (if there is one) to this is, that I'm concerned about the welfare of our country to at least try to figure something out instead of just gripe and complain about it.

So.. where do I go from here? Back to where I started in the first place, praying for our nation and its leadership. the very best thing I can do.

Have an economically sound day, and God Bless,
Woadtaptain

Economic Stimulus? I have a Plan

I don't know how I keep getting on these economy subjects, but here I am again.



President Bush isn't in much of a position to do anything about it rather than keep the dam from bursting until he's out of office. Nothing against him, just the way it is with a change of administration.



President elect Obama has his team in place to get a package together to the tune of 700 million, with tax cuts, incentives, bail outs, etc.



I'm here to tell you right now... I have a plan!!! I've done some thinking on this, and though I've pushed a few numbers around, I've a few small figures to get done and I will have it.



The problem with these government officials is that they are ALL wealthy. They really don't have a clue as to what we have to go through everyday just to put food on the table ( notice I said food, not a meal, not always meat either, I just mean food).

They haven't been at the bottom ever, or at least for a lot of years, in that, they have no intention of going back there even in thought.



They keep trying to fix the problem on a corporate level, and it just won't work.



Here's the problems:



Consumers are losing houses because;

1. they bougth houses they could not afford

2. financed w/ ARM, never realizing that intrest rates might go up



Banks going under because:

1. they were de-regulated so that they could make a ton of money buying and selling junk mortgages

2. are now losing their shirt because of bad loans

3. nobody was putting their money in banks



Auto Industry needs cash because:

1. they've been so arrogant about who they are that they forgot who we are.

2. in a Wall Street Bull market, everyone wants luxury, that's what they made to sell us



There's more problems than we can shake a stick at that we just don't have room to mention.

My PLAN will:



Put $$$ back in the pockets of the people

decrease the $ needed for the Auto bail out to 25% of what they are asking

eliminate the need to bail out the rest of the financial market

but enough back into the economy to begin rebuilding our infrastructure

drop unemployment payments by 96%



and much more... all for the tidy sum of aproximately 375 million, which is a whole lot better than a TRILLION or 700 million.



it's so simple even a heating & air guy can figure it out