Christmas Eve 2017

I am very happy to be back at Central Church.  Thrilled with singing in the choir.  My concern for the future is what direction will the denomination take concerning the sexuality question.  If it goes the wrong way, then what will my local church do?  I don't want to change churches again.  May the Lord intervene and there be a revival in the UMC.  The truth in Scripture is crystal clear.  The fact that there is even such a thing as a lesbian bishop, pastor, whatever, proves Satan in behind it all.

Why do I feel like everyone is against me sometimes?  I try to do my best for my family and it seems like I'm continually being shot down.

Overall I like my job, but not the hours, the commute and whatever funky stuff is going on with the money.  Whether it's computer glitches or human ineptitude, I want it fixed!

"I feel deeply sorry for those you who were not around to participate in the music of the 60s. You can listen to the recordings, but there was magic in the air that is lost in the deep mist of time. There was a Golden Decade of priceless music-magic unlike anything else in history. It materialized mysteriously and then de-materialized just as mysteriously. You had to be there. It was like a musical Camelot. We knew it was awesome while it was happening, but we did not know it would end completely, like a dream. It was a religious experience."

--a quote I ran across on YouTube.

So it begins

The first day at the new job is now behind me and it wore me out!  It was a very long 11 hour day (not including the commute) working in and out of air conditioning.  I'm getting my department set up with a LOT of help from co-workers from other departments.  Their efforts are very much appreciated, but  I am looking forward to getting things in the order I want them once the dust, literally and figuratively, settles.  I pray the Lord gives me the strength for this undertaking. 

New/old friends

Met a gentleman at church today who recognized me as the son of my dad.  His name is Ray Hargett and he remembers dad for his dead pan, dry sense of humor.

That's cool.  I hope, when I'm gone, I'll be remembered at all.

So There!

“I’m tired of white supremacy keeping its foot on my neck and the necks of people who look like me,” Thompson said at a news conference. “That statue glorifies the conditions that oppressed people live in, and it had to go.”

Hey Tah-kee-yah!  You've never been oppressed or a slave, so shut your pie hole!

Coming Full Circle

It has taken 50 years and the experience accrued from many different churches during those years, but, (and I really mean it this time😉) I am finally home.  For better or worse, right or wrong....this is where I will finish my race....Central United Methodist Church...the church where I was raised, confirmed, and baptized.
  After years of bible study, sermon listening and prayer, the Christian tradition I believe is true to the Word of God is Wesleyan.  I am talking about the classic, biblical Wesleyanism of John and Charles Wesley.  I am not a great theologian, so, for now, I will move on to my general statement and doctrine and theology can be addressed at a later time.
  God is worshiped in spirit and in truth at this church.  The official stand of the denomination, for now at least, is biblically sound.  The local church is solid.
  There is, however, a cancer in the denomination that totally ignores the truth of the Word of God.  It is a cancer that does not acknowledge passages like Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians 6.  I believed I have been called to stop sitting on the sidelines, roll up my sleeves, and join to fight the good fight.  It is too easy to sit in our little orthodox, independent groups and judge others.  I'm ready to get my hands dirty.
  The United Methodist Church is a denomination worth fighting for and saving.  No matter what the future holds, I believe this is the way to go for me.
 

Time Passages

Here we go again...as this weekend we said goodbye to another family member.  I lost my cousin Jay to numerous health issues at, what now seems to me, the young age of 71.  It is so weird to realize all of your parents' generation is gone and now you are on the front line with your generation stepping off into eternity.  Believe me, you don't know how it feels until you reach that certain point in your life.
Jay was one of the family's resident humorists.  Just like our cousin Jim who preceded him in death by a couple of years, you could always count on him to provide plenty of smiles and laughs.  For me, the younger cousin who looked up to these guys, they were the life of every family get-together.  As I was sharing with someone at the memorial service, I regret how most of our family is/was far apart geographically and over the years did not spend a lot of time together.

Life is precious...time here is short.

Climate change and all that crap

This has nothing to do with whether you like or dislike the current resident of the White House:

http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/11/why-the-paris-climate-deal-is-meaningless-000326se: