Over the years my wife and I have had the pleasure of meeting allot of great people and making friendships that we know will last a lifetime.

I’ve never been afraid of speaking with people, but one time at Liberty University,  we were having a pastors conference, and I was standing at a table with music CD’s and lo and behold I found myself standing next to one of the all time greatest gospel singers of all time, and I stood there speechless.  I wanted to say hello to Doug Oldham,  but  all my tongue could do was whimper in silence!!

Every once in awhile one might meet well known people in ministry,  but the ones that impress your heart, are the ones in your congregations that truly love the Lord.

People like Aud Boeve who has been my spiritual father and who has imparted many hours of wisdom into my hard head,  or Bill Graham, Tina, Eudora, Jerald & Margarete,  Cliff and June, Bob and Tammy,  and a host of other people too many to name.

We’ve also buried great friends like Glen VanHarn, only in his 20′s but like a brother to Sal and I,  he’s one that broke our hearts to see him go,  but so thankful we had the privilege to watch him grow in Christ.

Its easy to keep friendships when your with your congregation on a daily basis,  but when you leave a church,  it becomes difficult because life gets busy as we all know, and at times almost impossible to keep in contact with so many. My blog is an attempt to keep in contact with all of you and to let you know whats going on in our lives. So tell everyone about this blog and tell them to leave a comment so I know whose out there!!

I’ve had the privilege to preach three times this month, and it was great, the folks in our little church are so welcoming and easy to speak to.  Their not looking for things to do battle with me over,  they desire to hear Gods word and its been refreshment to my heart.

In every church, there are those who are there for their own glory and power, its in every church, and many crowns and rewards that could have been won, will be lost, because they got their rewards here and lost out on heavens!

But regardless, if we hadn’t moved to a few different churches, there are people that we would have never had the pleasure in meeting and being a part of their lives, if only for a short time.

In our first church there was Walt, who has passed away,  he use to smoke his cigar in front of the church, I asked him to please not do that.  So the next Sunday, as I looked out my office window, who did I see,  Yep, Walt smoking,  but he was behind the church!!!   it was hilarious.  Walt was a great guy.

It was people like that who made ministry, not only interesting,  and challenging,  but fun.

In our second church,  we had a lady who would start telling a story, with a straight face,  and by the time she was done, I was ready to roll on the floor.  She should have been a comedian.

In our third church in West Branch,  this is the church that should have worked for us,  if I had been spiritually prepared for battle, but I wasn’t,  and we lost the battle.   Liberal and hard hearts will kill a pastor and it did me.

But there were great people there also,  there always seems to be many innocent lambs in the mist of wolves and they aren’t even aware of the danger.

IN every church we pastored,  we made friends, we met those who truly loved the Lord.

My wifes grandmother once told me that if you go to church and look at the people, you’ll never go back.

It took me a long time to understand what she meant,  but what a wise woman.  We go to church, to praise God, we go to church to serve Jesus Christ,  we go to church to learn how to spread the gospel,  we go to church to be blessed by our bothers and sisters in Christ, those who truly love the Lord and who want to love their brethren and not bring harm to them.

If you go to church don’t look for the wolves, their there.  Go to serve the Lord and his people.  But if your in a place where the wolves out number the sheep,  get out,  get out now, and get to a church that loves Jesus Christ.

You don’t have to be a pastor to serve God,  you have to be born again and do whatever God leads you to do.

Go to church and become friends, don’t look to shoot the pastor or get a high out of being in power,  your nothing even if you think your something,  some day we will all bow before the throne of God,  equally.  You might as well learn to be humble now.

I had to fill the pulpit once again this week and since it was fathers day, I of course spoke about fathers! But most of the men in our church are older and we have been through the raising of our children. We’ve been through the changing of diapers and adolescence, the teen years and having to buy pets for our kids.
Those were great years, but that was a season in our lives, but for most of our men in our church, we need to hear from our Father in Heaven about things that pertain to us fathers who are older and pass the age of rearing children. And so we went to Joshua.
Joshua was a great man of God, who was also one tough soldier, he made John Wayne look like a girl scout!
But at the end of the Book of Joshua, he is old and he gathers his people together for some words of encouragement. Us men who are growing older need encouragement, and he tells the men to remain courageous, it takes courage to get older, especially when we see the younger generation taking control over our nation and taking it in a direction that is completely wrong.
We know that certain directions will bring hardships, loss of blessings from God, and immorality. And because we’re older, theres not allot we can do to stop things, But thats where we need courage. Knowing that our God fights for us, and that he’ll never leave us nor forsake us.
Secondly we need to love God supremely, it won’t be long before we see him face to face. Its our love for God that sustains us through our older years.
And then Joshua tells us to remain faithful, its not easy staying faithful when there is so much temptation thrown in our faces everyday. Its tempting to rely on a doctor and pills instead of relying on God, We may need the pills, but we need to trust Christ and remain faithful to him. Its tempting to stay home on Sundays because theres something in our body that hurts. But our God wants us to be in fellowship with our church.
Its tempting to throw up our hands in despair when watching our government continually working overtime to bring division between the citizens of this country, so that their party can stay in power! Or we can stay faithful in prayer and doing whatever we can to heal our nation.
As older fathers, we have an obligation to live a faithful life to Christ before our children, remain courageous, tell them about what Christ has done for us, pass along our faith and our wisdom.
Men, God will bless you if you continue to bless him!!!
Stay on your knees, stay in the Word, be a father until the day you die then meet your heavenly Father.

Hello World,

one of the greatest joys I had was to pastor 4 churches in Michigan. We were truly called to our first church in Beulah. we began there with only 20 people, but they were so sweet and God was really blessing us.  Sometimes God is doing a work that we just don’t see. Theres reasons for it, one might be we’re not walking with him as close as we should be, or we are looking too much to our own selves instead of seeking Gods direction, or it may be that we’re getting such a fat head thinking we’re great and start thinking that we should be used for bigger and better things. Such was my case, I kept hearing what a great preacher I was and that I should be in a big church.

I started listening to them,  instead of listening to the Lord and opening my eyes to what he was doing.  Since then my wife and I have met some great people and we’re thankful for them, but 17 years later, I,m driving an expeditor van and out of the ministry.

Its so important to open our eyes and see what God is doing, how he’s blessing otherwise, our choices may take you in a direction that you may regret you walked in.

But something important that I’ve learned is, even when your at a place, you don’t really want to be in, God won’t abandon you. Keep holding onto Jesus,  walk with him, obey him, and he’ll bring you opportunities and care for you in ways you never knew.

Although I didn’t follow in the direction that God wanted for me, he still taught me things in the direction that I chose to go.  For instance: if I hadn’t made some of the choices that I did, perhaps we might have never led some of the folks to the Lord that we met over the years. Perhaps we wouldn’t have made the friendships that we’ve made.

Although I know I’m not in the place where God wanted me, he can still use us where we are, this might not make sense to you, but it does to me.

God knew the direction I was going before I got there, and he said alright, since your still loving me and I’m loving you, you can go your way and I’ll still watch out for you.

The key is, are you faithful and following the Lord?

Are you still loving God?  Are you Faithful?

Is it everything you thought it would be?  I hope so.  After 34 or 35 or 36,  let me see,  we were born in 1950 something,  got hitched in my teen something or another,  yeah that makes it around,  yeah thats it,  many years of marital  bliss not blistors!!!

Its something to get married after you graduate college, got your career all in balance,  figure out exactly what kind of spouse you want, her measurements, hair color, weight requirements,  eye color, does she smell right,  eat right,  politically right, does she tie her own shoes, cook,  wash dishes,  makes at least $15.00 per hour, can be the belle of the ball, stand on her own two feet and not mine.

And its entirely something else to get married at 17, with runny noses,  no money, no carreer or even a carreer thought,  don’t know if she smells or does smelly things????  Don’t know what she believes or what a politician is nor do we still care!

But at 17  pimples and all we got married!!   Oh wedded bliss!!

Although we were young, dumb,  but in love, we trekked out together not knowing what tomorrow will bring,  but after so many years, allot of mistakes,  and I don’t want to minimize the mistake part either,  I grew more in love with her as the years went by.

Now I’m hundreds of miles away from her every week, and my heart aches when we’re apart.

How does a marriage stay together from the age of 17 which some say is impossible to becoming even greater years later?

Some would ask what was your secret?   You want to know what it was?

I’ll tell you,  we chose to love each other, come hell or high water,  we’ve been through both,  but when you chose to love each other, divorce is not an option.  We agreed early on, killing each other was an option,  but divorce wasn’t.

Second of all, placing Christ in the center of your lives is the glue that binds you,  its not the rings,  its Christ.

& Thirdly, being faithful to each other.

It use to be men were guilty of roaming through fields that they thought were greener,  but today, women are roaming as much as men.

To us, there would be no roaming,  no matter how great the temptation might be.  I thank God, we both roamed in our own fields and never went outside our fences!

What makes a great marriage?  Is it a woman who knows her place, to be submissive to her husband and a man who rules with an iron fist?

I tell my wife that She can BOW at my throne, & she crowned me a few times!!!

Lets get a few things right,  a submissive wife is one who will say (as my wife does)  he can make those decisions, and he can answer to God for them!!

But she lets me make decisions, good or bad, she’s stood next to me.

In the same manner, a great husband will also allow his wife to make her decisions good or bad and let God be the Judge

But heres what is key:  those decisions that we both make should not be decisions that will harm each other!!

I have done many jobs,  some dangerous,  we’ve moved over 30 times, and she allowed it because she knew I was trying it for the betterment of our family.  Sometimes it didn’t work out, but she never said I told you so.  She stood by me.

Same is true of her, I know when she makes a decision, she has me and our kids in her decisions.

Is our marriage perfect?  I’ve met couples who think theirs are,  but we’re not that blind,  you can always improve in areas, we men sometimes and foolishly don’t take the time to consider what our wives might need and we miss opportunities to bless them.

I know our marriage isn’t perfect, but what I’ve seen go on in other homes, I wouldn’t trade mine for anything in this world.  And because she’s hot!!

Let me end with this also,  if you want a great marriage with what I’ve already stated,  theres one more thing, before you get married,  become best friends.

Best friends really do make great lovers,  best friends do things together,  we shop together, its not the same going to a store without her.  Its not that you have to be together 24/7  but I sure miss her when she’s not with me.

Many people are always looking for happiness, but is happiness what we really need? or is there a bigger question? Many things will bring you happiness, but the problem is, it doesn’t last. Its fleetiing, short lived and then you have to find something else to make you happy again. The real desire that we humans really desire is joyfulness not happiness. Joyfulness is that deep down attitude of contentment no matter what is going on in your lives, good or bad.
If you look at most people today, they put a smile on their face, but inside they feel empty. but they like the feeling of happiness and so they will try all kinds of things that will get that feeling back. they will try drugs, sex, money, booze and a host of every immoral thing one can think of to get happy. But after its over, that empty feeling comes back and so they try more and more things to get happy.
So happiness doesn’t last, but some people seem to be happy no matter what is going on in their lives, be it good or bad. The fact is some people have something more than happiness, they have joy, but what is joy how does one get joy?
Joy doesn’t come from anything in this world, happiness comes from this world, because its temporary, everything in this world is tempory. But joy is not from this world, its from above, its from God. And the only way one can get joy is to be born again through Jesus Christ.
Joy is deep contentment with life, its knowing that you are Gods child and no matter what life is throwing at you, your safe in Jesus Christ, so your able to bear all things.
This world is tough, and its getting tougher, economically, socially, the hatred towards Christians, conservatives and Jews is increasing. We have a government that is quickly encouraging hatred toward anyone who isn’t liberal.
You never know when your life will change, this week I was driving through Illinois, and a UPS semi drove through the median and hit a car head on. All of their lifes changed. so in order to be prepared to face life, when it changes, and it will change, you can have joy by being in Jesus Christ