Randy Alcorn

I just finished reading a book called the "Treasure Principle" by Randy Alcorn. What an awesome read! It's a small book that I finished in about 2 hours. Small books that change your life and the way you look at key parts of your christian walk are great! This particular book is about giving. A very tender topic in today's society! There is kind of a "don't ask don't tell" feel to giving today. Well, how are we supposed to learn to give if we are not taught? If we don't talk about it? Randy talks about giving to get rewards. Rewards that will be waiting for us when we get to heaven. Stack those treasures up in heaven where you will have an eternity to enjoy them! I have been struggling with the issue of giving. I am selfish! He also talked about how your heart follows your money. For example: Spend all of your money on yourself, you are important. Spend too much money on your home, you guessed it, your home is important. All that we spend our money on is important to us. I want to spend more of my money for Gods purposes. I want Gods blessings. I want my Heavenly Father to be more important to me. I want me to be less important! Oh...all the times I talked about "my money" I know that its not really mine at all, it's Gods money. I wouldn't have anything if it weren't for my Creator! There is so much more in this little treasure of a book! Read it if you want your life to be changed for the better! On a side note! Alcorn also wrote a book called the Purity Principle. Also very good! I read it 3 times! Get reading folks!

Deerfoot Pics

Well, I promised some pictures of our day a Deerfoot and here they are! The first is Tyler and I trying to look happy. Not that we weren't! The second is Ty saying goodbye to his dog April! They are so cute! The third one is Ty playing teather ball, a Deerfoot tradition. The last pic is of Ty and his "best friend at Deerfoot" Luke. Ty met Luke his first year at camp and they shared a cabin every year since! I was very glad to see that Luke was there!

deerfoot

Well, today I dropped Tyler off at Deerfoot http://deerfoot.org/. It is a christian camp for boys in the Adirondacks. It is about 5 miles from my home. My boy is for sure growing up in a hurry! This is his third year at DL. The two previous years when it was time for Daddy to go, he cried. It was terrible! It was so hard to leave him! This year? He took it like a man, albeit a little man, not a tear shed! I am so proud of him! I will miss him so much! (I already do) He will be there for two weeks! I'm sure I will miss him more then he will miss me! He is going to be very busy indeed!

I little history break.
I was a camper at DL lightyears ago. As a matter of fact I got saved at DL! As you can imagine deerfoot has a very big place in my heart! I was a camper for 4 years and then worked there as a counsoler for a year. Some of the best times of my life! The history of Deerfoot is awesome. The current camp director was a counsoler there when I was a camper. I knew him as Chief Ron and so does my son. I have many friends that I was a camper with that I am still friends with now! How cool is that! Folks I grew up with two weeks at a time, then worked with and now are sending there kids. Tyler is friends with the kids of the parents I was friends with 25 years ago! How cool is that! I will say it yet again, I am so blessed!

I did take some pics but you will have to wait as I can't find my USB cable! The pics will follow...I hope!

Friends

I am starting to notice more and more that I have many, many "friends" who claim to be Christians. Most of these friends live their lives as they want to. They say they are Christians but there is no evidence. I was just looking through my Facebook friends list and there are many who profess Christianity. There are very few who actually live it. When my friends look at me do they think the same thing about me? I like to think that they could not possibly think that about me! I am sure though, that some of those friends, friends that I don't see very often do think that about me! How convicting! I do my best to live my life to glorify God. I also fail miserably more often then I would like to admit. My true friends know the real me. They know my struggles, they also know that I love Jesus. My friend and I were talking the other night about heaven. I truly can't wait! Life is hard. Sin is inevitable. I want to be in glory with my Heavenly Father. I want to know Christ better, I want to see Him and fall at his feet and praise HIM for His love for me, for what he went through on the cross for me! A wretched sinner who doesn't deserve even a second look from a holy God! Thank you Jesus! Thank you Father for choosing me. I don't deserve it for a second! I deserve hell, eternal damnation. Yes, I am a sinner. Thank God I am a sinner....saved....by grace. I praise you Jesus. Help me to live for You.

Frustration!

As I sit here at my parents home, looking at the Sacandaga river gently flowing to the south, I am troubled. There is so much going on in my mind. Way to much to share it all with you!! There is however, one part of my mind that I want to share and I would really appreciate some input! I want you to think about it for a while and I want you to share with me! Here we go! I know that there is absolute truth. Gods word is absolute truth. I believe that with all of my heart. I believe that God and His word are the eternal truth. 2nd Timothy 3:16 talks about all scripture being God breathed, God wrote it! God is truth! God's word is truth! Absolute truth! I know this and I hope that you do too! I have a question though. Is there absolute right? Is there absolute wrong? Don't misunderstand me here. I know it is absolutely wrong to steal candy from a baby. I also know that it is absolutely right to help an old lady carry her groceries. My question has more to do with the grey areas in the middle. Are there degrees of right or wrong? Are there situations and decisions that we make that aren't necessarily right or wrong? Can my conscience be clear no matter what I decide to do or how I decide to deal with a certain decision? Do all of the decisions that I make have to be right or wrong? Let me give you an example from my life. I am living in a situation where I don't know what is right. I really do not know "what would Jesus do?" It is something that I struggle with daily. I really don't' know what to do. Whatever I do is bound to hurt someone. The easiest solution would be to let things go the way that they are. Is that the right decision? Is it wrong? I don't know! My son Tyler really wants to live with me and go to school up here. He currently lives with his mother in the Albany area. I believe Ty would be happy here. I also know that he needs his mother. Ty does spend about 50% of his time up here with me. I know he won't be able to see his mom that much if he lives up here. It gets a little more complicated then that but you get the jest of my dilemma. What is right? Is there a wrong decision? I pray about it often and I still don't know! It is indeed frustrating!

Fathers day

Well, it's that time of the year again where we recognize our fathers for the special folks that they are. I am blessed to have a father who is indeed one of a kind! He raised all of his children to not only be productive members of society but also love the Lord. I am very thankful that I have that kind of example in my life to use to raise my son Tyler. It is often a tough job to raise kids according to scripture. My Dad did it! I love the fact that I can still lean on my father when I have questions or concerns about decisions that I have to make regarding the upbringing of my boy. I praise God for that! I also praise God that he chose me to be His child! He is my Hevenly Father. Like my earthly father, He loves me, He wants whats best for me. Its amazing to think that I have two Fathers who love me so much! I am indeed blessed beyond what I deserve!

Ministry

This photo may not look like too much but it means the world to me! This is a photo of a youth rally we had at Camp of the Woods. We didn't have many kids show up but that's OK because all the kids that were supposed to be there were! The guy in the front is my brother Mike. He is leading the group in song. His wife Laura is playing the piano. My brother-in-law Dan is the guy in the back with the blue shirt. He did the bible lesson. I am the guy taking the picture and doing the A.V. stuff. You may ask, "Why in the world did you waste your time taking such a lame picture?" Well let me tell you! In all the years I have been involved in youth ministry I have never before this day had the opportunity to minister with my family! It was truly an awesome experience! I am blessed. My mother, father, all my siblings and their spouses know Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives. Not many people I know of can say that! I look forward to doing this again someday soon! I praise God for my family and the chance to minister with them!