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Posted on 08/19/2005 6:46:31 AM PDT by Billie
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 or .45Man at danbh59@yahoo.com and include Freeper Photo Album in subject line. |
Every Thursday at the Finest  |
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Announcement:
Winston is now in his all-new addition to the apartment. A 10 gallon aquarium. (Surprisingly, the whole set-up cost LESS than the 2 gal tank I had him in!)
Had to run some errands and came back here because it's nice to be a little lazy on Friday for a change. :)
Tater cannons are cool
a happy fish!!!!
You both look beautiful!!
In an interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren said:
People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond,
In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last
forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body - but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillion of years in eternity.
This is the warm-up act, the dress rehearsal.
God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems:
Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one or you're getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort.
God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life.
The goal is to grow in character, in Christ-likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the
toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you got to the mountaintop, back and forth.
I don't believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or........ you can focus on your problems.
If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my pain."
But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of
thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.
It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her
character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a
testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people...
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder.
For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15
million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with
before.
I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for you to own ego or foryou to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence.
He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do,
Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our
lifestyle one bit.
We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call "The Peace
Plan" - to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back.
It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? .........
Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness?
Materialism?
Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better ...
God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list.
He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.
Have been there many times over the years and like to imagine while standing in the Fort how my grandparents must have felt when they first spotted each other in such a dramatic setting.
This has given me an idea to make a Post about Fort Castillo de San Marcos. You're right, it has a very interesting historical story, St. Augustine being the nations oldest city ~ and most charming.
Afternoon, doll. You were up early.....for a change. : )
Billie, I hope you do give yourself a break on Tuesday and run something over, you deserve a break. :)
Two real beauties, eh?
And one very handsome wolf.
Hey.....you've been pokin' around my page again. : )
Wolfie likes being your Woofy Toofums.
Woofy loves his *Exie*. : )
: )
I think I like the white dress better. :)
Wimmin are never satisfied. : (
But *you* would look good in anything. : )
going to nap. It has been a stressful week. Need to rest up for tonight.
You don't know what stressful is until wolfie catches up to you.
Run for your life!
Yeah, my pretty *Lady* goes on a swiping spree about every three weeks. LOL
That was the single most difficult animation I've ever made, Maggie, so th' wolfie had bettah feel real special I made it for him! :)
Wolfie does. : )
Hope all is well with you.
((((((( Aqua )))))))
Gotta run. Amy, hope to see you later. :-)
Bye, leaving for the weekend, enjoy yours!
St augustine is a wonderful city.. and just a bit down the coast is the lovely Ponte Vedra ? Did a lot of kayaking/canoe in that vicinity in the intercoastal waterway when I lived in Mayport area.
Interesting...
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