Hidden Item

Hey guys,

It's been a while since you've had a hidden item clue -- they will appear hear on Thursdays until somebody finds this one.

The first clue was

- it's outdoors.


Now for your second clue............












- it's in Waxahachie

Good luck!

Landon

Joke Time

Hello all...

As always, I look forward to seeing you all this evening. It should be a wonderful time of worship.

So far, nobody has won this week's trivia contest. Pedro did give a close answer...however, although many people think "Jesus wept" is the shortest, it's actually the second shortest. I'll give a hint -- it's in the book of Job.

Also, I thought the comments were set to where you didn't have to be registered to leave a comment; I was wrong. So that's fixed now. Anyone can now leave a comment WITHOUT a user name and password.


Okay, here's a lame joke for you. I heard it on ESPN radio.


Where is baseball mentioned in the bible?














In the big-inning. Get it?

Landon

Announcements and Trivia

Hello everyone,

We'll try to get 5 updates on here this week -- now that I'm feeling good.

Keep these dates in your plans:
There's a Lifeline Thursday the 6th
Jr. High Live Saturday the 8th
Devo at the Wisemans Sunday the 9th
Easter egg hunt Saturday the 15th
LTC starts Friday the 21st

Also, for those of you in town, we will probably get together for something most days during Spring Break.

And now, for the trivia...










What is the shortest verse in the New International Version of the Holy Bible?

Whoever comments first with the correct answer (a.k.a. Rebecca) will receive a prize on Wednesday.

I love you all.

Landon

Hello

Hey everyone...

I'm looking forward to seeing you all tonight. I hope you come with a heart prepared by God for worship --

Here's a bit of humor for you:

What did the horse say to the camel?















Nothing -- they're different species.

I made that one up.

Landon

medicine is evil, thus sayeth the Lord

Hi everyone,

I feel much better this morning. Thanks to everyone for the prayers -- they have been powerful and effective.

I went to the Dr. and got a prescription, which has led me to this week's inspirational thought. Since I haven't been able to share my thoughts with you in a while, this one is kind of long, but I think maybe it's worth your time...

Jesus' response to Satan's first temptation has recently got me thinking a lot. Jesus is hungry at the end of 40 days of not eating - as if we wouldn't know he would be, the bible tells us "at the end of them, he was hungry." Satan suggests that he turn rocks into bread and eat them. Jesus answered Satan, but I think he was preaching to me at the same time: “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Bread, for me, is no big deal. I am not empty of bread. So, I think to me, to Landon, Jesus is saying, “You do not live on companionship, or acceptance, or respect, or financial security, or anything else you strive for. You live on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

The words of God, then, are my bread, my nourishment.

Those other things are sort of like medicine. Whatever is wrong with people today, whatever physical or social or emotional sickness a person might have, there is a medicine for it. I know there is not a cure for everything. I know Aids and blindness, so far, have no known cures, but there are medicines that doctors prescribe for anything wrong with a person.

Now, there are problems with medicines, but we call them side effects. In other words, if somebody is taking a medicine, she has reached a point of such discomfort that she is willing to take on other discomforts to get this one dealt with. To her, those other discomforts are nothing more than side effects – simple discomforts that will not add up to the present giant discomfort to be done away with or minimized. All medicines have different side effects – we hear them on commercials and read them in magazines – some seemingly insignificant and others that make me think, “Wow, somebody’s cold sores must really be destroying his life if he’s willing to take on that!”

I noticed early in life that there seems to be one common thread here. I mean, all the different medicines have a unique set of side effects, like fingerprints for people, and yet there is one side effect that seems universal to them all. I did not even have to be old enough to read it in magazines, or pay attention to it on commercials, or even know what the word meant. I figured out long ago that when I take medicine, this thing happens to me, and then I got older and the commercials and magazine ads confirmed it. Doctors have figured out how to do powerful things to make us better and more comfortable, but they apparently have not found a way to do much of anything for us without, in turn, giving us diarrhea.

I don’t mean to be tasteless here, but I do think it makes a powerful point because it is such an unpleasant topic. You can get rid of colds, corns, depression, and acne, but in so doing you will receive diarrhea. And diarrhea empties you. After diarrhea, you are emptier than when you started. You are formless and empty on the inside.

Sins are very much like medicine as we strive for things other than God, our true nourishment: they provide momentary, nonpermanent comfort, and in turn, leave you completely formless and empty on the inside. They give you diarrhea.

Rich Lederer wrote a book in the late ‘80s called Crazy English. In it he tells a story of a foreign couple who had a newborn daughter, their first child. They had, by this time, had some exposure to the English language. They decided to name the girl the most beautiful English word they had heard: Diarrhea.

That’s hilarious – until we realize that it’s all too familiar.

Actually, diarrhea is a pretty sounding word.

That is Satan’s appeal.

There comes a time when that bread from a rock sounds pretty good. There comes a moment when looking at a picture of a naked person, or drinking one’s cares away, or sleeping all day to avoid a bleak life sounds very appealing. More appealing, even, than God’s voice. So we replace our voids with medicine, and we get diarrhea. Then – and we’ve all experienced this – we know that the essence of Hell is life not spoken and sustained by God, life not formed and filled by God.

My prayer for you all is that you stay away from Satan's medicine. I pray that you will live a life inside of God's spoken word.

I love you all. Thanks for reading.

Landon

Announcements, hearts that condemn, and trivia

Hey guys,

Sorry for the lack of updates the last few days. Here are some announcements to keep in mind.

- There is a Jr. High Live Saturday from 6 - 8 at the building. 7th - 9th grades are invited. Bring your dinner.

- There is a devotional at the Bauer's house on Sunday evening. Bring $5.00

- We will have chorus practice on Sundays at 3:00 now.

Do you ever feel like you are not close to God, and you can't figure out why? I don't mean the times you don't feel close to God and the reason is obvious (You aren't in the word, you haven't prayed all year, and you just got done robbing a bank and selling drugs to a 5 year-old). I'm talking about the times when you are in the word, when you are truly striving to honor God with your life, and when your prayers are constant -- and yet it seems that you are praying to a God far away, and for some reason your heart tells you that you don't have God in your life right now. I've been there. Did you know the Bible has something to say about times like that?

"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything." - 1st John 18-20

In other words, sometimes your heart is wrong. Sometimes your heart will try to convince you that God is nowhere near, when actually God is more inside of you than your heart is. But, God is greater than your heart. So, live at rest in his presence.

And now, some trivia:
There is one (and only one) place in the bible where a street name is mentioned. Where is it, and what is the street name?

Whoever answers will get a prize!

I love you all.

Landon

If you're a REAL Texan

I'm so excited!! This is my first post!! And I thought that this was hilarious!


U*R*A* Texan If:

1. You can properly pronounce Corsicana, Palestine , Decatur , Wichita Falls, San Antonio, Burnet, Boerne, Nacogdoches ,Mexia, Waco , Amarillo , and Waxahachie.

2. A tornado warning siren is your signal to go out in the yard and look fora funnel.

3. You've ever had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.

4. You know that the true value of a parking space is not determined by the distance to the door, but by the availability of shade.

5. Stores don't have bags, they have sacks.

6. You see people wear bib overalls at funerals.

7. You measure distance in minutes.

8. Little Smokies are something you serve only for special occasions.

9. You go to the lake because you think it is like going to the ocean.

10. You listen to the weather forecast before picking out an outfit

11. You know cow-pies are not made of beef.

12. Someone you know has used a football schedule to plan their wedding date.

13. You have known someone who has had a belt buckle bigger than your fist.

14. You aren't surprised to find movie rental,ammunition, and bait all in the same store.

15. Your "place at the lake" has wheels under it.

16. A Mercedes Benz is not a status symbol; a Ford F350 4x4 is.

17. You know everything goes betterwith Ranch dressin'.

18. You learned how to shoot a gun before you learned how to multiply.

19. You actually understand this and you are "fixin' to" send it to your friends.

20. Finally, you are 100% Texan if you have ever heard this conversation: " You wanna coke?" "Yeah." "What kind?" "Dr. Pepper."


-Kenzi

Marry Poppins -- a horror film?

I found this kind of funny. You'll need to push "pause" on the music player to the right of this blog so you can watch it. Enjoy.



I love you all.

Landon

Weird Al vs. God

Several years ago I was at a “Weird Al” Yankovic concert with my brother, Dustin, in Lubbock. I like Weird Al. I think he’s hilarious. I wouldn’t want to be him, though, because with somebody like that it’s better to just like him while you listen to him and then escape back into normality when you are finished listening to him. During the concert, in between songs every once in a while he would go backstage to change outfits and hilarious video clips would play. During one of these moments of musical absence, though, the lights went out and no video played and Weird Al just stood at the microphone with his back to the audience putting on jackets. Everything got very quiet a few seconds into this, at which time somebody yelled out, “I love you ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic,” which I think couldn’t possibly be true, but it drew a cheer from the rest of the audience. The cheer subsided, and the arena was silent once again. At that point, I kid you not, I stood up and yelled at the top of my lungs, plain as day, very slowly, the only noise heard in the entire place, “I … wish … you … were … my … daddy!” The whole place erupted into laughter. The lights came on, and Al turned to the microphone and said in a very sarcastic tone, “Thank you,” drawing more laughter. The truth is, though, I don’t wish “Weird Al” were my daddy. I don’t wish that at all. I have a perfectly good dad, the best in the world in my opinion. What if “Weird Al” had not reacted sarcastically, but had instead held me to it? What if he had turned around and somehow enforced that from that moment on, I was his son? It was one moment of unplanned, thoughtless impulse, and I would have regretted it for the rest of my life. That, to me, is the definition of sin. I don’t wish for some other reality than God for my life. I love the truths I know about God. Sometimes, though, when I’m in need, I mean when I’m empty, I impulsively, thoughtlessly fulfill that need myself rather than allowing God to do it, and I regret it. I have an amazing God; I don’t want these other things to replace him, but sometimes I ask them to. Paul put it this way in Galatians:

Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God – or rather are known by God – how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

May you remember your glorious dad, and not wish for other fulfillment.

I love you all. Thanks for reading.

Landon

Announcements and Trivia

Hello everyone,

Please keep these announcements in your plans:

- Thursday night at 7:00 is Lifeline and Landon and Cayce's apartment
- Friday evening, be at the church at 5:00 to prepare for the Sweetheart banquet
- Saturday evening, be at the church at 5:00 for the Sweetheart banquet


And now for this week's trivia question (sticking with the theme of football for one more week):
What football commentator made the following observation during a Green Bay Packers game?
"If he hadn't been tackled, he would have been in for a touchdown."

Take a guess - you'll probably be correct. Good luck.

Landon

Factoid Friday

Hello,

Congratulations for making through another week. I hope it was a true blessing - but if it wasn't, TGIF I guess.

Factoid: Male seahoarses give birth.