Praise and Worship

Well, I said that I was going to share things with you that happen and man, this was something. It may not seem like alot to you but as a dad, I was amazed.

Tonight after work, I drove to Jackson Alabama, half way to Gulf Shores, to pick up my son for the week. His mother meets me half way and so we have our regular meeting place at the Wal-Mart in Jackson Alabama. It used to be under the hugh Pecan Tree but it is no longer there. I'm sure that some of you know where I'm talking about if you go to the beach. Anyway, I meet my son and his mom and we get things loaded into my truck and head home. We stoped by to get us something to eat before heading home and just outside of Thomasville, Doug Jr. reached over and turned on the cd.

Before getting to Jackson, I had my own praise and worship time and was singing like there was no tomorrow. I left the cd in that I had been listening to so we started to sing to the songs, just the two of us. I think that we listened to two total praise and worship CD's and sang together all the way home. We finished with "Blessed Assurance" the second time around and I reached over and turned the CD off. I then patted my son on the leg and told him that I loved him and that I wasn't sure of how many 15 year old young men would sing with their dad and have praise and worship time between the two of them. It was totally awesome, to have my son sitting next to me and praising our God together.

If you as a parent want to experience something totally out of this world, worship our Almighty God with your children....

Happy Easter and God Bless You All.

Relationship With God

In Touch Daily Devotionalby Dr. Charles Stanley1 Peter 5:10-11"10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. 11 To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen." (1Pe 5:10-11 NAS95) Through God's grace, we've received everything we need for godly living. This includes forgiveness for our sins, peace with the Lord, the Holy Spirit, and access to God through prayer. We work, worship, and enjoy leisure in God's favor. His love surrounds, upholds, fills, and sustains us. Romans 5:10 says we're forgiven people and God responds to us as His dearly loved children. He promises to hear our prayers and act on our behalf. He'll provide everything we need for life and godliness. Even correction is an expression of His loving favor. As Hebrews 12:10 says, "He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness." So how are we to respond to His grace?First, with assurance that our position is secure. John 10:28 says no one can snatch us from God.Second, we can have boldness in living for Jesus. Grace is always upon us. Man can do or say nothing to affect our relationship with God.


Please note the last sentence of this devotion, "Man can do or say NOTHING to affect our relationship with GOD". We as CHRISTIANS must take a stand, we must take a stand to make sure that our "GOD" is kept in our homes, our schools, our churches and most importantly our hearts.

People, it is time for all of us to take a look at our own lives. God has a purpose for each one of us, and now more so than ever. Take a look around you and think about how life used to be and then compare it to today and what we are going through. We are in this situation simply because we have lost our "heart" for caring and for allowing for our "GOD" to be taken out of every aspect of our lives. If we as CHRISTIANS don't step up to the plate, then who can we blame but ourselves....NO ONE!

I live each day of my life to help someone else, to make it a better place, just for that one more person everyday.

When I was 40 years old, I wondered why I was doing what I was doing, in my line of work that is (after being at the credit union for 14 years). It wasn't long until I had my answer and it was very clear. I got a phone call from a dear friend of mine that I met through the credit union that I work at. To my disbelief, his step son was in an auto accident and was killed. As hard as it was for me to believe, I had my answer with this phone call. God had me right where he wanted me so that I could be of help to my fellow man, not only in time of great need, but for everyday life. God does have a purpose for each of us, we just have to seek it out and seek him out for him to tell us what his desire is for our lives. I've been so truly blessed because I've been able to help people beyond my wildest dreams. You too, have a GOD given calling.

I have alot of stories to tell and that will follow in the coming days.

Upcoming Post

Please watch for upcoming post as I feel that God has layed some things on my heart that I must share.

Doug

Our Grandson Griffin

Monday, Jan. 19th, Griffin came home with Susan (Mimi) after his mom took him to the office because he was out of school. Mimi took him to get a "happymeal" before they came home. When he got home, he ate all of his hamburger in a flash. He amazed me at how fast he ate. Guess the kid was hungry...LOL...growing boy... Anyway, he was so good, he came in and gave me a huge hug and told me "I love you Pop". Yep, the ol' head swelled just a tad....when your gandson tells you that he loves you, what more could a "Pop" ask for. Anway, he was so good..he wanted to watch cartoons in the bedroom and lay on Mimi and Pops moving bed. So he gets in the bed and plays with the remote to get the bed just the way he likes it, with the head way up high so he can lean back and watch tv. I was in the den on the computer and Susan was laying on the couch taking a nap while he was watching his cartoons. I went in to check on him and he was playing one of his video games. I laid across the bed to watch him for alittle while and he ate that up. Of course, I ate it up to. After while, I was getting ready to go hunting and he was still in the bed watching tv and I went up to him and rubbed his back and told him that I loved him and that he was my man and that I was so very proud of him. He looked up at me with those big pretty eyes of his and said I love you too Pop...what a joy. He looks so forward to Mimi picking him up from school on Wednesday and Thursdays...One day last week, they made gingerbread cookies and this week I think Mimi is going to have him help her make a "becan pie" with the becan's that he picked up at the farm on Monday. Nope, that is not misspelled, that is what he calls a peacan. I'm sure he can't wait to cook with his Mimi while Pop is at work. I love you Griff!!!! Pop.

Bright Star

Well, it's that time again, we are all going to the Bright Star for Allison's annual birthday dinner. I can't believe that Allison and Brad went to P F Changs tonight and then going back to B'ham tomorrow night. Man, Brad has her spoiled to the max. It's hard to believe that Allison is now 22. It seems like yesterday that I was taking her to Hillcrest Middle School every day and here she is married and 22. Man, where does the time go. It's so hard to believe that our children are all grown up now. Grandkids to boot... Guess that shows what a blessed life that we have.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Christmas at the Lake, Hartwell Georgia, Dec. 18,19, 20th, 2008

Well, Katie and I took a drive to Hartwell Georgia on Friday afternoon after I got off work for our annual Christmas with my mother and her side of the family. It included 4 of my 5 sisters and all the families with the exception of one child. It was a very long drive and not knowing where we were going made it even a longer drive. After we got through downtown Atlanta, I thought we would be there before long, well, an hour and a half later, we got to the house. Everyone was waiting on us to get there and of course, we stayed up for several hours talking. My two step sisters and their families went to a hotel about 10 mins down the road and Teri and I stayed at the house. Teri and Tony didn't get there until about 2:30am Saturday morning, they got lost not far from the house and we had to wake Tami up to give her directions to get to the house. This house is on Lake Hartwell and is in the middle of "NO Where" which made it that much more difficult to find in the dark of night. Anyway, we had a great day on Saturday and had dinner on Saturday night. Afterwards, Doug and Andrew decided that we need to have a pool tournament so we all went to the basement and had the tournament. There were several games played but it was not finished because everyone started getting tired so we went back up stairs. Then we sang Christmas Carols, I played the keyboard, Doug Jr. played the guitar, Andrew played the keyboard....it was alot of fun. We finally started to wind down and soon went to bed. The kids wanted to watch a movie where I was going to sleep and thank goodness, Doug couldn't get the DVD player to work so I was able to go to sleep...and they were all tired to so it didn't take long for them to crash either. Katie told me that she was going to set her alarm clock and get up at 7 am so that we could get ready to drive home. Man, she did and she got me up at 8 and we left about 9:30, 8:30 our time. I drove to this side of Atlanta and told Katie that she could have at it when we stoped again. That's about all I remember until I woke up about 2 hours later. Thank goodness she was driving, I was so tired and sleeply....She drove on home...and get this, she loves to drive in the left lane and that just gets on my last nerve...but anyway, she put the pedal to the floor and got us on home. After I got home and gave my wife a big ol' kiss and hug, I had to immediately go outside and build me a fire and work on the swimming pool. It was full of leaves again and the temp was going to be well below freezing so I had to make sure that I could leave the pool on all night and not have any trouble. So I spent several hours cleaning the darn pool after getting home from the 6 hour drive. Needless to say, I slept really good last night and had a hard time getting up this am to go to work. We had a great time and it was good to be able to be with both of my sisters since we don't live close. My mother really had a great time with everyone there and getting to be with all the kids and grandkids. Merry Christmas.....