Pardon the Interruption…

EVERYTIME I try to re-launch this blog, the same thing happens…. LIFE.

Its been 2 1/2 weeks since my last post. Sorry.

But you will forgive me, yes?

After all, it is the Easter Season, Black Friday for Pastors

Can’t remember what the problem was 2 weeks ago, but LAST week was one of “those” weeks in the ministry. A funeral, A hospital visit (In the city), MY oldest son Luke was in the hospital for a planned operation on his shoulder, and the rest of the week was spent trying to manage the pain (severe) and provide him with a comfortable place to rest. Then there was the last minute details of the Girlfriends banquet my wife holds every spring at the church. Throw in a couple of baseball practices for Ben, and end the week (Saturday) with a Birthday Party at a teens house. And somewhere in there I had to find time to prepare two sermons and a Sunday School Lesson – The Sunday School Lesson lost the battle for attention. I woke up Sunday morning, did a “V-8” head slap and remembered that I had NOT prepared the lesson for the week!

Tried to rest yesterday – no luck. Spent the day in and out of my Cell Phone store – Won’t say which one, but its not Verizon, At&T or T-Mobile – because my wife's totally worthless Android phone died and needed replaced. In the words of Charlie Brown…..AAAAAARGH!

So.. no time to post. Got a few hours this afternoon to catch up, so I thought I would post something insightful, thoughtful and uplifting… So here it is:

Jesus Loves You so much He gave His life for you.

Love Him back just as much.

 

annnnnd, I’m out.

Back in a day or two.

 

Pray for me…

It’s April 1st. My wife’s favorite day of the year. If you know my wife, you can just imagine the torture I am experiencing today.

In past years she has pulled various practical jokes on me on this day.

Once she let my dresser drawer be depleted all week of underwear until, on April 1st, I only had one pair in the drawer, which I found out later that day had the fly sewed shut.

On another occasion she waited until I went to bed, then her and the boys filled the bathroom with balloons. Floor to ceiling. I woke up at 5am, needing to be on the road by 6 for a meeting that morning, and I couldn’t open the door of the bathroom for the balloons.

She has kept EPT (pregnancy) test sticks from our children, and years later ran out of the bathroom screaming, showing me the blue + sign.

One year she got everyone in the church, visitors included, involved. When I excused the children for children’s church, everyone got up and walked out the back door!

The king of all April Fools jokes, though, was the year of the Rat Trap. I won’t go over all of it here, but it involved a SET rat trap, my bed, and the distinct possibility that if the trick had gone wrong, we would be as infamous as John and Lorena Bobbit.

I am thankful, though, to spend my life with someone so full of life. Patty keeps me young, or at least on edge.

My life is rarely dull.

This year she has decided to go with multiple small jokes instead of one big joke.

I woke up this morning to garlic powder and salt on my toothbrush. Toothpaste on the bathroom door handle. The tub shower handles removed. The kitchen sink sprayer taped on so when I turned on the faucet I was sprayed in the stomach. There was a “House For Sale” sign in my yard with my cell phone number on it (I live in the church parsonage!).

And to show the total commitment she has to her cause, Patty put dish liquid soap on her tongue, and then kissed me.

I really need your prayers…

What’s the “Right Side”?

As you may have noticed, the blog is redesigned (Thank you Blogger for creating some better templates to use!). With the redesign is a new header. Gone is my “autograph” and in its place a wood plank with my name and the phrase “Ramblings, Rumblings and Rants from the Right Side.”

Of course.

I’m a preacher. EVERYTHING needs a little alliteration, right?

But why did I say “The Right Side.”?

Simple. If you know me, I am a political junkie. And my political DNA is decidedly Right-Wing. I am a Republican. I am a Conservative. I am a Baptist. And I personally don’t know how you can be the last without being the first two as well. If you don’t fit into my mold, hey, no harm. no foul. But this is who I am and I make no apologies for my worldview, my political leanings, or my convictions regarding morality.

So “Right Side” immediately conjures thoughts of Red State ideology (though I live in the deepest blue state south of Massachusetts), and those thoughts would be correct. I “campaigned” for Gerald Ford when I was 9 years old, telling adult relatives and teachers of the evils of Jimmy Carter. I voted for Reagan, just wish I could have voted for him twice. I’ve had Bush/Quayle, Dole/Kemp, Bush/Cheney and McCain/Palin bumper stickers. I was contacted by Mike Huckabee’s staff and asked to be one of his delegates to the 2008 Republican National Convention (couldn’t go, too expensive on a preacher’s salary!) I’m hoping Huck runs again, but am ready to throw my weight behind Haley Barbour if he doesn’t.

But “Right Side” also speaks to my non-political worldview.

I am a firm believer in an unpopular concept called Absolute Truth. I cannot look at the creation around me and not be convinced that there are Laws that govern everything in the universe. It is absolutely true that 2+2=4. No matter how hard you try to convince yourself its not true, 2+2=4. It is absolutely true that when water’s temperature dips below 32^o Fahrenheit it begins to turn solid. No matter how hard you argue, that fact is inviolable. Truth is not, despite current popular opinion, relative. If my truth and your truth disagree, one or both of us is WRONG. There is an absolute truth to EVERYTHING in the Universe. I have found that the truth contained in the Bible IS Absolute. There is nothing wrong in the Bible, there are no mistakes. In 14 years of preaching ministry, I have never had someone claim to me that the Bible was full of contradictions or mistakes,who was not also found to have never read the Bible. The WHOLE thing.

Its amazing to me how “relative truth” ALWAYS goes hand in hand with a person who has never made a serious attempt to read the Bible. I don’t go around giving my opinion or making sweeping claims about astrophysics, I don’t argue String versus M Theory (but I know what they are) and I don’t try to tell women I know how they feel. In other words, I should have some basic understanding of a topic before I spout off my opinion of it.

This is where I become befuddled at my fellow man. The Atheist (the Bible call him a fool – Psalm 14:1) who has never seriously studied the Bible makes pronouncements about its fallibility. Joe Average whose personal education program only extends to watching television refuses to listen to reason and sticks his head back in the sand, ignoring his need and going to hell. Excuses to ignore the truth abound in modern America.

So I’m a right-winger… and these are my views.

I hope that if I don’t offend you, I at least make you think. And if I do offend you, I hope you stick around long enough to be challenged to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12)

Here I Go Again….

Once more… with feeling!

I have tried several times over several years to develop the habit of posting to this blog. Never with much success. The daily pressures of my job and the incredible responsibilities and pleasures of being a husband and father always win the war for my time.

But I know this, writing is good for me. And it gives you an opportunity to not only know me better (so you can pray for me better) but – if I do this right – it can be a great teaching and information tool.

I’ve redesigned the blog, and intend to redesign a bit more, until I’m temporarily happy with the look.

One thing I want to do with this is mix in all of my interests, including comics, art, and tech, along with the Theology and Bible Study. I hope those that read for one, will stay for the others.

So here I go again. I do have plans to preview my graphic novel (which can be more completely previewed at www.redeemedcomics.blogspot.com), Comment on social trends, offer some quick glimpses into the life of a pastor, and much more.

Hope you bookmark this site and stay on for the ride.

pastordave