My new favorite song - My Jesus by Todd Agnew

If you notice, Todd Agnew has moved up to the top of "My Favorite Music" list (on the left). I've really been moved by this song lately. I don't really understand why or what God is trying to say to me through it, but all I know is that I keep singing it and listening to it over and over and over and over...you get the picture. Anywho...I've posted the lyrics below. They are pretty rough to those who don't really have a true picture of Jesus... heck, who am I kidding...they are pretty rough to those of us who DO have a true picture of him. Anyone out there reading this who doesn't know MY Jesus, well, this is from His heart I am sure.

Thank you Todd Agnew for being bold enough to write this. You are truly an inspiration to me. Thank you God for giving him the passion, ability and for speaking to ALL of us through him.

Listen to My Jesus, here are the lyrics:

My Jesus by Todd Agnew
Which Jesus do you follow?
Which Jesus do you serve?
If Ephesians says to imitate Christ,
Then why do you look so much like the world?

Cause my Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and liars
He loved the poor and accosted the arrogant
So which one do you want to be?

Blessed are the poor in spirit
Or do we pray to be blessed with the wealth of this land
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness
Or do we ache for another taste of this world of shifting sands

Cause my Jesus bled and died for my sins
He spent His time with thieves and sluts and liars
He loved the poor and accosted the rich
So which one do you want to be?

Who is this that You follow
This picture of the American dream
If Jesus was here would you walk right by on the other side
Or fall down and worship at His holy feet

Pretty blue eyes and curly brown hair and a clear complexion
Is how you see Him as He dies for Your sins
But the Word says He was battered and scarred
Or did you miss that part
Sometimes I doubt we’d recognize Him

Cause my Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and the least of these
He loved the poor and accosted the comfortable
So which one do you want to be?

Cause my Jesus would never be accepted in my church
The blood and dirt on His feet might stain the carpet
But He reaches for the hurting and despises the proud
I think He’d prefer Beale St. to the stained glass crowd
And I know that He can hear me if I cry out loud

I want to be like my Jesus
I want to be like my Jesus
Not a posterchild for American prosperity, but like my Jesus
You see I’m tired of living for success and popularity
I want to be like my Jesus but I’m not sure what that means to be like You Jesus

Cause You said to live like You, love like You but then You died for me
Can I be like You Jesus?
I want to be like My Jesus

Which Positive Quality Are You?

VG asked me to take this quiz... I knew it would come out as Faith! Is that faith or what?!?!?

Which Positive Quality Are You? Your Result: Faith You are Faith. Faith is the belief in better things, in spite of the cynicism and doubt that swirls around us. Faith gives us strength; it inpsires us to move forward and follow our hearts. "Faith tells us what the senses do not."
Friendship
Courage
Love
Charity
Peace
Which Positive Quality Are You?

WHAT?!??!?! NO WATER??????

Tuesday when I got home from work, my wife - in her most lovingly way - proceeded to tell me that for some strange reason we didn't have any cold water in our upstairs bathroom. Oh NO! I thought for sure because of the great Ohio weather we are having that my pipes had froze...we had never had that problem before, but it was very cold out and the wind was blowing from an odd direction. In an orderly fashion I began banging on pipes and turning valves and trying all kinds of things, but to no avail. I called my brother (who does home repair for a living) and he said it sounded like frozen pipes to him, I needed to find the section that was froze and thaw it out.

I literally tore apart a linen closet in the bathroom to get to the pipes in question. Hmmm...cold to touch but not freezing by any means. (Insert odd thought here) Should I stick my tongue on it to see if it sticks??? Just kidding... :-) NO, I didn't. But I did break out the handy dandy pipe thawer outer (Hair dryer) and let it run for a couple of hours. (insert 2 hour break here)

Pipes are now nice and toasty! :-) Still no cold water. :-( Hot works great...NOTHING out of the cold though. Strange finding here --> Toilet in said bathroom still works! Toilets use cold water... Why? I dunno...they just do... Anyhow, now I am really perplexed because it has water and the sink/bathtub do not. They all run on the same line from the basement, so how could that be??? Sounds like a good reason not to go to work tomorrow... Call off work and go to bed.

Wednesday - Wake up to mountains of snow! OH MY GOOSHNESS (As my 5 year old says). Call my aforementioned brother and tell him he's not so smart afterall. He gives me the wonderful news that sometimes when old pipes get really cold they will flake on the inside and the corrosion will clog up the pipes. Just clean them out. I tore apart the pipes to find that he was right indeed! My 1/2 inch pipes were so full of junk and corrosion that I couldn't even get a pencil in them! Now what, I wondered... The phone rings and it's a new friend of ours who is an outside sales rep for a local lumber yard - we'll call him KS. He deals with all kinds of this stuff and gets me on the phone (Coincidence?? I think not!!! Thanks God!) Anyway, he confirms what my brother said about the corrosion and says that's the good news. I shudder and ask for the bad...replace the pipes is his answer. DOH! We start making phone calls and because of the forementioned Ohio weather, everyone is closed!!!!!!! ACK! Nothing I can do...wait for tomorrow... KS assures me this is a 1/2 day job... call off work again.... go to bed.

Thursday - Now I like hot showers, but scalding is not my idea of fun. With no cold water, there is nothing to offset the hot and make it comfortable. No shower again today - I like to keep my skin on. KS calls me first thing in the morning and is offering to help me out getting everything I need for the job! What an awesome man of God! He stops by and picks me up we are off to go shoping! First place we go is out of everything I need... That's just great. Second place, also out of everything we need. "A truck is due in this afternoon" the clerk says. Whatever... Third place (and most expensive has everything! Woohoo! Load up on materials and head home. KS has to go to work so I am left to my own devices to get this done.

I'm pretty handy at this kind of stuff, those of you who know me real well also know that I've turned my attic into a fourth bedroom, sided my own house, done lots of electrical work and some plumbing. Out of my favorites, plumbing sits firmly below taking scalding hot showers. I grab my stuff, and go to work. It's about 12:30 and I should be done by 6, right? Right...

I won't bore you with all the fun I had, but I will say a few quick tips/suggestions/thoughts...
1) Replumbing a whole bathroom with a tub, sink and toilet takes longer than 1/2 a day.
2) Replumbing a whole bathroom with a tub, sink and toilet is lots of fun, tear yours up and try it...yourself.
3) PVC pipe is very flexible!!!
4) PVC pipe glue stinks really bad for about an hour, then you can't smell it anymore.
5) You see spots 2 hours after begining to use PVC pipe glue :-)
6) 11 degree weather feels A LOT warmer 4 hours after begining to use PVC pipe glue :-)
7) After 7 hours, PVC pipe glue DOES NOT wash off with soap and water! No matter what the bottle says...
8) Turning the water back on after 10 hours of hard work and finding that water only comes out where it is supposed to is an awesome feeling!

Thank you God for awesome friends, family and the giftings you have given me...

I think I will go take a nice warm shower now......

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR WIFEY!

Today is my wifes birthday! I won't give away her age, but I will just say that she is 5 years younger than me! :) Last night while I was out in the garage doing some things, I was thinking that I wanted to post something about this today and God just starting pouring words out to me... I'll try to put them all down, but He is a little quicker downloading than I am typing! lol

1. Encouraging
2. Loving
3. Inspirational
4. Joyful
5. Beautiful
6. Caring
7. Giving
8. Intelligent
9. Fun-loving
10. Funny
11. Sexy(Oh my!)
12. Faithful
13. Peaceful
14. Patient
15. Kind
16. Good
17. Gentle
18. Self-Controlled
19. Trustworthy
20. Playful
21. Fair
22. Sharing
23. Respected
24. Edifying
25. Dependable
26. Cheerful
27. Reassuring
28. Supportive
29. Responsible
30. Sweet
31. Uplifting
32. Focused
33. Nurturing
34. Elegant
35. God-Fearing

AND I AGREE WITH ALL 35 OF THEM!!!!!!!!!

Jeez...that's funny.... I came up with a list of 35...how coincidental is that????? lol

Happy Birthday My Love!!!

Vision

I just wanted to share a vision that I received from God last night while my wife and I were praying together. It was really cool because we were feeding off of each other as we prayed. She is such an awesome woman of God!

Anyway - the vision:

Somewhere along the line one of us brought up something to the affect of "God cleanse us of all unrightousness". And then she talked about a prophecy that Her and I received a while back from the FMC Intercessors about her and I being vessels of silver. I then got the vision of The Father standing at the sink doing dishes. He was washing two silver vessels while smiling and singing. He looked at me and said, these are you two. Every day the vessels get used just like dishes and by the end of the day they are dirty and need washed so they can be used again the next day. But if we don't come to The Father every day to get cleaned, that junk that is left on us (just like food on a plate) gets hard and dried on. Eventually if left long enough will get nasty and moldy...and nobody wants to touch moldy food let alone a vessel that contains moldy stuff.

I'll leave this to be pondered... :)

What are those flashing lights behind me??

Can someone help me find my heart? I leaped right out of my chest when I saw this in my rear view mirror! I'm pretty sure its still in my car somewhere...

Yep, you guessed it. I got pulled over this morning on my way to work. :( Now most of you know that I only live about 4 minutes from where I work and I drive the same roads almost every day, in both directions. Now there is one road which is actually right behind my house that there is NO POSTED SPEED LIMIT, at least that I know of, in the stretch where I drive on it. I've lived here for what, something like 8 years now, and I always thought the speed limit was 35 on that stretch. Guess what? It's not. It's 25. And me being the lead foot that I am (always in a hurry) I was doing 38. Of course, I explained to the officer that I really wasn't watching my speed as I was on my cell phone explaining to my boss that I was 2 hours late to work because I had just finished working 18 hours the day (and night) before!! Now, when you work 18 hours in a single day, don't you think it would be ok to be a few hours late to work the next day??? Anyway, after having this great discussion with the officer about how I was on the phone with the boss and that I've lived here for 8 years and always thought it was 35 - even though I was doing 38 - he just smiled at me and said, "Sir, I hope your day gets better, don't let me catch you at 5 o'clock tonight doing 35 down that street." I just smiled back and said, "Thank you Sir...I won't" As he walked away, my first thought was, you won't catch me because I'm going a different way home! lol Just kidding. I am seriously going to look tonight to see if there are posted signs, I really don't think there are any! Besides that, I NEVER get out of work at 5 o'clock anyhow!

Anyway, praise God for Mercy and Grace! No ticket, boss felt sorry for me, I'm having left over steak for lunch, and there was fresh coffee when I got to work... The day is good.

Meet the Minister Who Says He Is Jesus Christ

I don't usually read garbage stuff like this, but I just couldn't resist this.

Click here to read this great story published in Newsweek Beliefs on MSNBC.com

You have GOT to read this... I am just dumbfounded. The story gets more and more weird the further along!

Someone else posted a comment on the MSNBC site and I copied it but then changed the translation because I like the NLT (thanks Billy!):

Matthew 24:3
3 Later, Jesus sat on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to him privately and asked, "When will all this take place? And will there be any sign ahead of time to signal your return and the end of the world?"
4 Jesus told them, "Don't let anyone mislead you.
5 For many will come in my name, saying, `I am the Messiah.' They will lead many astray.
23 "Then if anyone tells you, `Look, here is the Messiah,' or `There he is,' don't pay any attention.
24 For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great miraculous signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God's chosen ones.
25 See, I have warned you.
26 "So if someone tells you, `Look, the Messiah is out in the desert,' don't bother to go and look. Or, `Look, he is hiding here,' don't believe it!
27 For as the lightning lights up the entire sky, so it will be when the Son of Man comes.
28 Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near."