Prayer and Praise

   I just wanted to share a major praise of God's awesomeness. This past sunday I asked our Sunday School to prayer that I would run into my neighbor (which I hardly see) to invite him to an outreach sportsmans Banquet in Janurary. God answered that prayer doubly. About an hour later on our way home we passed him pulling out of the neighborhood so we both stopped and talk. From that I was able to stop by later on in the day to give him the registration form for the banquet. Now he is planning to go and drive so that we can go together. God is AWESOME. I have been praying and inviting him to different outreach events as well as witnessing to him. He keeps telling me he is not ready for Christ yet. I hope that at this banquet he will be ready to meet our Lord Jesus Christ. Please pray for my friend as you are lead by the Lord.

Prayer Requested

   Could you also pray for me in two areas. About 2 months ago now my lower back began to cause me sever pain that at times had me bedridden. Just after Thanksgiving it went away, but now I have been facing for about two weeks major acheing pain in my left let in the calf and upper leg/butt area. Please pray that God would in his time remove this pain, give any doctors I see wisdom in how to deal with it, and for me to rely on God for my strength as I deal with it. During this time I have spent some time thinking about how God might use this to teach me different things. One of those lessons has been pateince and humilty.
    Due to this pain I have also begun to think about where God may lead me to serve next with the gifts and abilities he has given me. I am not talking about leaving where I am at as much as using what I have where I am at. God has brought us to Heritage Baptist Church for a reason and I want to serve here. But I feel a leading to an area of service or helps in the church. More specifically I am wondering and praying about how God can use me to meet the needs of others. Currently I am planning to get involved in some area shelters, soup kitchens, shoveling snow, or trying to find some other area locally where I can be a servant to another. Please pray for me in this area as well as God leads me in my daily life.

Godspeed to you all and a Merry Christmas to you.

Wesley

Open the Trenches
by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

"Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts. And this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord: he will deliver the Moabites also into your hands" (2 Kings 3:16-18).

To human thinking it was simply impossible, but nothing is hard for God.

Without a sound or sign, from sources invisible and apparently impossible, the floods came stealing in all night long; and when the morning dawned, those ditches were flooded with the crystal waters, and reflecting the rays of the morning sun from the red hills of Edom.

Our unbelief is always wanting some outward sign. The religion of many is largely sensational, and they are not satisfied of its genuineness without manifestations, etc.; but the greatest triumph of faith is to be still and know that He is God.

The great victory of faith is to stand before some impassable Red Sea, and hear the Master say, "Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord," and "Go forward!" As we step out without any sign or sound--not a wave-splash--and wetting our very feet as we take the first step into its waters, still marching on we shall see the sea divide and the pathway open through the very midst of the waters.

If we have seen the miraculous workings of God in some marvelous case of healing or some extraordinary providential deliverance, I am sure the thing that has impressed us most has been the quietness with which it was all done, the absence of everything spectacular and sensational, and the utter sense of nothingness which came to us as we stood in the presence of this mighty God and felt how easy, it was for Him to do it all without the faintest effort on His part or the slightest help on ours.

It is not the part of faith to question, but to obey. The ditches were made, and the water came pouring in from some supernatural source. What a lesson for our faith!

Are you craving a spiritual blessing? Open the trenches, and God will fill them. And this, too, in the most unexpected places and in the most unexpected ways.

Oh, for that faith that can act by faith and not by sight, and expect God to work although we see no wind or rain. --A. B. Simpson

• This classic devotional is the unabridged edition of Streams in the Desert. This first edition was published in 1925 and the wording is preserved as originally written. Connotations of words may have changed over the years and are not meant to be offensive.

It has been sometime since my last blog, but I have not felt like doing much of anything lately. For the past three weeks I have been struggleing with lower back pain. At times I have been just stiff an other times I have pain that either radiates down to my knees or comes in intense bursts that make my cringe and weez. Please be praying that God would use this to help me trust in him more for my daily strength.

On a better note I have been reading an excellent book, American Solider. This is an excellent autobiography of General Tommy Franks starting with the things that shaped his character from childhood on. One must be advised that General Franks holds little back. You will find some questionable langauage as he describes his younger years in the military, but it paints an honest picture of how the man is. Be also aware that this book is about 600 pages long. Currently I am about page 180 and he has just begun to talk about the time after the first Gulf War.

Have a great day in the Lord and I will try to blog sooner than later.

Godspeed,
Wesley

COUNTY VERSES COUNTY

If you have not seen the county by county break down of the election here it is. It is amazing to see that the majority of the counties sided for Bush. Our culture seems to be divided by where we live. Rural and Suburban verses Urban living environments seem to determine whether or not we vote for the more liberal or conservative candidate. I currently live in the 3rd or 4th largest urban area of PA and they went with Kerry. Where as my home county in Ohio which is a suburban area went Bush. As you look at this map let me know if your county is rural, suburban, or urban and which candidate they choose.

Maybe the election process should factor in the quantity of property that wants to be governed by a particular candidate. I think this would in essence be a reflection of what the founding fathers had in mind when they went with two legislative branches. One branch (the House) has it's members determined by state population. While the Senate has only two members from every state. This was designed so that the smaller states would have a louder voice so the larger states would not over power them. As well as giving the larger states the loud voice they deserve due to their percentage of the population. This small change could protect the voice of the populations who have a larger land bases from those who have smaller land base. The electoral college does in some ways do this, but it was not designed for that purpose.

I suggest this change because it bothers me that the majority of counties in the USA want our nation to go in a particular direction, but due to a few counties with large populations in urban settings the elections are close. Personally this does not reflect the way the majority of our counties want to be governed. I feel this way because I believe in strong local governments and weaker state and nation governments. This to me would reflect the desires and wishes of each community better than what we have today. I am sure there are weaknesses in this idea, but I would like to see the rise of a smaller state and federal government. Personally I do not believe we will ever see the day the federal and state governments get smaller, but one can dream can't he.

PRAISE GOD!!! BUSH HAS WON!!!

I found the county by county map at USAToday.com and I plan to post it here on Saturday.

Add another 7 electoral votes for Bush!
Thank you Iowa!!!
Please continue to PRAY for the president now that he will be leading us another four years.

http://presidentialprayerteam.com/

Map from USAToday

Be praying for the United States of America today as we go out to vote for a president and various other postions and issues.

LESSONS FROM JONAH

This past Sunday was truely awesome. Not only were my in-laws in town, but a missionary (Tim Vermilyea of Quebec ~ Visit their website here) who spoke during the morning services. He had an awesome message from Jonah. What I apprecaited most about his message is that he used the same genre as the author of Jonah used - narritive. He took us through chapter one showing us the irony, humor, and word plays the God used to show Jonah's uncaring heart for Nineveh, his disobedienace against God, and how the structure of the first chapter is slowly taking us and Jonah down, down, down, until we are in the belly of the fish with Jonah.

I highly recommend reading Jonah and looking to see how God used the language of the Hebrews to communictae a truley unquie and awesome message. Below I have included somethings to look for in Jonah Chapter one as well as the lessons that Pastor Vermilyea gave at the end of his teaching time. I may post some more thoughts on Jonah from my Hebrew Language class notes soon.

WORD PLAYS and IRONIES - When reading this chapter notice these items...

1. God commands Jonah to Arise and Go (1:2) - instead he Rose and Fled (1:3) - Pagain Captain Commands Jonah to "Arise, call out to your God" (1:6)
   
2. "Call out" or "Cry" - Jonah is to do this (1:2); Sailors cry out to God (1:5); Captain commands Jonah to cry to his God (1:6); Jonah is not seen cry out to the Lord until chapter 2
   
3. "Come up before me" (1:2) - basically this means in (before) God's face so here their sin is before God's face. "Presence of the Lord" (1:3 - 2 times here; 1:10) - same or similair Hebrew wording, but this time Jonah is fleeing God's face.
   
4. "Down to Joppa" (1:3), "Down into the inner parts of the ship" (1:5); See quiet down (1:12); Jonah ends up in the bottom a fish in the sea (1:17)
   
5. "Hurled" (1:4, 5, 12,15)
   
6. "Fear" (1:5) sailors have it; Jonah does not even though he says he does (1:9) his actions and arogance speak volumnes. Saiors "excedingly afraind" (1:10); Sailors fear the Lord (1:16)

LESSONS FROM JONAH ONE

1. God has an interest in the lost. Even the enemies of His Children 
   
2. No one can claim privileged status with God over others. Arogance is not a fruit of the spirit.
   
3. God's call to live and serve Him is serious and demands our obedience.
   
4. Our predjudices, likes, and preconcieved ideas must neve become an obsticle to doing God's will.
   
5. God's plan may seem unresopnible and unthinkable, but it is always perfect and must be obeyed.
   
6. God can use any means consistant with his nature to bring us back to Him.
   
7. God has compastoinm for the world. A whole lot more than us.
   
8. God's power can turn the fears of men into respect and fear from Him.
   
9. Talk is cheap ("I fear the Lord" Jonah ch 1). I need to examine my own language to see if it matches my heart.

God's creation is an awesome miracle!!!!! It is impossible for you or me to see all of God's wonderful creation, but we can share glimpses of what we see with others. That is one reason why I try to continual change my header picture. So you can experience God's created order from my little neck of the woods. As I take or come across the beauty of God's creation I plan to continually share it in hope that I can help accomplish a part of what Psalms 40:5 speaks of.

O Lord, my God, you have accomplished many things;
you have done amazing things and carried out your purposes for us.
No one can thwart you!
I want to declare them and talk about them,
but they are too numerous to recount!

(NETBible from Bible.org)

Psalm 40 is one of my favorite passages and it reminds me what is really important in life. Telling others of my Lord's wondrous deeds in nature, in my life, and through the Word of God. My witness may only be one small voice in a world of many, but my God has asked me to boldly and unashamedly proclaim Him as TRUTH.

May all the glory and praise go to Him alone.

Fall is upon us here in NEPA. The leaves are changing colors as the trees begin to shed their summer coverings. It is truely a beautiful scene here. This scene is one I see every day on my way to and from work. They other day this pond was fog covered creating a very tranquil place to mediatea on God's word. It was unfortunate that I had to continue on my drive to work.

Here is a close up of what the area looks like. I hope you enojy these pictures in the country in which I dwell.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: (2) A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; (3) A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; (4) A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; (5) A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; (6) A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; (7) A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; (8) A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.