The band and I are going through some difficult times. James would have gone to jail yesterday, but after a lot of prayer to the Lord, he managed to pass the drug test and avoid going to jail. James would have been put away for a year. After this, he swore he'd never do pot again, and is looking forward to getting his driver's license renewed so he can get a job. And work. Now if we can only get him to quit smoking!
I still had a fun time russelling with Luke about what to play at the 'concert.' We worked out a solid song. But, I wanted to have a back-up just in case. He's persistent on the one-shot thing the man told him and refuses to listen to my ideas of 'Hey, lets have a back-up,' or, 'Lets add something to the song.' But it's okay. The Lord is with us during this talent show and beyond. He was with us when we auditioned and got in, and made the impossible possible for us (and believe me, there were a lot of impossibilities we had to face together that day). I asked him if since he planned out this song, I could compose the next. He'll be resistant on that, but if I can sit down and come up with something with James, I believe that would make a world of difference. I think it's because he doesn't like straying from what he found works already. But I really think that if we played hard the new thing, we wont need to worry about how its received.
Baby Boy is doing good on the drums. I managed to get Luke to explain to me the set-up, and I really believe we can run in there and set things up in less than 5 minutes...contrary to how long it should really take (30 minutes). Only Luke took away the Tom-toms so he wouldn't be tempted to do a roll. But I really think he should do the roll regardless of if its out of time or not.
The rest of the band is being kind of lethargic these days. Lucas is only showing up to the practice on Saturday and hasn't shown up for a practice for months, which is sad because I wanted to do this with him. And Luke wont even mention where Alex is. I wanted to get in touch with our Interscope record-scoped drummer Jim and see if they signed him, but Luke is apprehensive. Well we'll find out. If they signed him, we wouldn't be able to do anything with him anymore because he'd be on a contract already...
But in all these things, and these worries and concerns, the Lord is with us. And we're taking this by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving. Please pray for us for the show on Sunday. We have faith that this is going to work out fine.
As far as crowd-pleasing. I don't do that, but as long as I'm having a good time, I'm sure I wont have to worry about it. I'll know the Lord is please.
I sent a blog a half an hour ago. This is the answer to the proposed question within it, and let me explain.
I typed it out to think, and when I went to play a song on guitar, the Holy Spirit was letting me know I needed to do something. So I prayed, and said, "I'm putting on the helmet of salvation."
I turn to open the bible program I use, and there was my answer:
"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my life; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." "This is my commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you." "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
My sister cried over what she heard and gave me the $25. After what the Holy Spirit had done, I picked up the phone and went to call Luke. The phone rang and wrang. I was mentally processing what the Spirit revealed. Job suffered. The Lord despised that Job's friends gave him unwise, evil counsel. They told him things that weren't truth. When Jesus began ministering, His disciples, after 3 years of teaching them, He called them friends. Jesus, the Lord God Himself, came down and counselled His friends Himself, so that we'd know the truth, and wouldn't have to suffer evil counsel. He Himself fulfilled what was recorded in the love letter's oldest book.
So I hung up the phone and called James directly. James already had the $25. As far as tomorrow, Jesus said let tomorrow worry about the things of itself. Sufficient to the day is its own trouble.
So I will program my heart out until tomorrow afternoon. And continue to pray for my friends. And for James. And for Matt. And for Carolyn, who I wont see for 5 weeks. I have faith.
Yesterday I James, Luke, Baby Boy, Marley, Marvin, and I were all down at the studio doing a good thing. Then we rehearsed. We were concerned about Jame's cousin not being our vocalist. The talent show is this Sunday.
Today I find out from Luke that Jame's dad found out he'd smoked pot, and his parole officer is going to test him tomorrow for it. James called me and told me that he'd done it and that he wasn't feeling too good about it. We had a long talk. Then he called me back a half hour later, and we had a longer talk. I'm feeling pretty bad for him. He might be in jail for a year. Adult jail this time. This would be his 5th offence. His youth is wasted on his sins. He once told me that if he hadn't have gone to jail for 19 months before, he'd be a lot better at the guitar than he is now.
Right now, I'm in a very tight spot. James needs $25 to buy a cleanser so he can pass the drug test tomorrow. I don't have the money, but my sister just came in here with the money because she was listening in on the conversation. I don't know. I don't want him to go to jail. But it isn't right for me to give him the money to get out of paying for something that he committed. I've taken it to the Lord in prayer. I don't want to do a bad thing.
It's good to do good for James and get him out of this situation, and he's very sorry he smoked the weed. I don't want him to suffer in jail for a year. Again. Jesus paid our price and got us from death himself, satan. And He did it by grace, out of compassion. But would the Lord want me to do the same? The Lord also shut the door of the ark from the neighbors and friends of Noah from getting in the remnant and finding comfort with the ones the Lord's chosen. I don't know. It's hard. Where is my helmet of salvation? One is the truth. And one of them is a lie. Not what the Lord did, but what's in my mind that's preventing me from making the right decision based on what the Lord Jesus Christ would have me do. It's funny. If right now were tomorrow and the time were past, I'd think radically back at this time when I wrote the blog which is right now in the current sequence of events. And feel very bad if I didn't buy the cleanser for James. But worse if I didn't do the right thing in the Lord's eyes. So is the right thing to buy the cleanser for James? Or is it to let him go to jail?
From the book The Story of the Aleph Beth, by David Diringer. (Pretty boring book, but meh...)
ENGLISH SPELLING "This brings us to the problem of phonetic spelling and the much-discussed necessity of spelling reform. Very few alphabets are what we may call perfect; such an alphabet would imply the accurate rendering of all speech-sounds: each sound would be represented by a single, constant symbol, and not more than one sound by the same symbol. In English, for instance, the number of the ancient Roman letters was from the beginning insufficient to express with accuracy wlal the sounds (there are no single letters to represent the sounds th, sh, ch), while several letters are redundant (a and c when representing the sound k). As a result, while English is probably the richest and most colorful of all modern languages, English spelling differs so much from pronunciation that in many words it is almost an arbitrary symbolism. What better example of the English spelling-problem can be given than the following sentence containing ten different pronunciations of ough ("uff", "oe", "ow", "off", "up", "oo", "ock", "a", "aw", "o"): "The rough-headed dough-face ploughman went coughing and hicoughing through the village after the houghing the thoroughbred which he had bought for his brougham.""
I once got an email from someone at the Google group I started, and sadly abandoned...
They said: We believe that Jesus Christ is from God, but just another prophet. Jesus said: "But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet." Luke Chapter 7, Verse 27.
If you believe Jesus Christ spoke from God, as all true prophets are by definition, then what Jesus Christ just said above is a truth from Jesus Christ's mouth. From God's mouth. Jesus Christ is more than a prophet. He's the Son of God, Elohim, God Himself in the personship of the Son, He's everything He says He is and more. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." He says, "I am the resurrection." This angered the people that heard it when He was preaching because "I AM" is the name that God told Moses was His name. It was Jesus Christ that spoke to Moses from the burning bush. That spoke to Abraham. That spoke through the authority of the "angel of the Lord" mentioned so often in the books of the TORH (Old Testament). Jesus is "I AM THAT I AM." He often said that He and the Father are one.
Today James, Luke, Baby Boy, my sister, Sible, and I went to Countryside and auditioned for the talent show on Christ's strength.
We made it. Now it's 1:38 and we've finished practicing, horsing around, getting lost, shooting spit-balls, and driving around. Time to rest from doing good on the Sabbath.
Cucumbers 4062; Green Bell Peppers 4065; Red Bell Peppers 4066; Red Onion 4082; Avocado 4046; Persian Limes 4048; Watermelon with Seeds 4031; Watermelon without Seeds 4032; Lettuce 4061; Tomatoes 3151; Cantaloupe 4050; Corn/Maze 4078; Case Donuts 9870; Bag o' ice 3207; Peaches 4038; Vidalia Onion 4159; Bananas 4011; Navel Oranges 4012; Mangos 4959 Check for yourselves: http://plu.plucodes.com/pluco...
Aisle 1 - Frozen Entrees Aisle 2 - Frozen Ice Creams and deserts Aisle 3 - Boxed pastries and breads Aisle 5 - Canned foods Aisle 6 - Foreign and ethic products, pastas Aisle 8 - Cake Mixes and baking products Aisle 11 - Cleaning Products Aisle 12 - Laundry products, napkins Aisle 13 - Chips and dips aisle, alcohol, for barbecues Aisle 14 - Cookies
From front left main entrance: Grocery side, straight ahead; Clothes, forward and on your right along grocery side; Baby product, to the back left of the store, next to the dairy area and water refill station; Housewares, next to clothes and behind Jewelry; Jewelry, forward and make a right at the registers, just past clothes; Cosmetics, behind Jewelry; Stationaries, behind Cosmetics; Pharmacy, Down the hall to the right past the registers, under big Rx sign; Health and beauty, right behind Pharmacy; Pets, right behind health and beauty; Garden Center, to the front right of the store past Pets; Toys, to the front of the pets department, where the big bike racks are; Home furnishings, to the right of housewares; Electronics, to the back right of the store, past the bike racks; Sporting books, just behind electronics; Shoes, to the back middle of the store, next to where it says Layaway; Crafts and sewing, right of layaway, to the right of the shoes and things; Photo center, inbetween crafts and sewing and electronics; Cell phone kiosks, please go to electronics and ask for some service, and it will be just past the clothes aisle and to the right; Deli, to the left as you walk through the entrance, past Mc Donalds; Seafood, right in front of the deli; Produce, in front of aisle 1, grocery side (left side); Bank, to the right of the entrance, third store down; Nails, to the right of the entrance second store down; Hoveround, immediately to your right; Customer Service, to the right, past register 15, next to the bank; Paychecks - go to customer service, please; Layaway, go to the back middle of the store where the blue writing that says layaway is on the wall; Hair salon, immediately to your right and all the way down, to the second entrance; Photography, right next to customer service; Vision Center, next to Photography; Self-Checkout, to the right of you where the registers are sitting; Mc Donalds - immediately to the left.
Two-three-four weeks ago I was bit by a spider. Maybe a tiny little one. But it had venom. And my leg tingled for about a week. Didn't think I should go to the emergency room. I was having a battle with satan. I didn't have what it took then to defeat satan. But I gave it to the Lord anyway. I anointed the wound on my leg. I then anointed a bump that came up on my forehead that I didn't know was another spider bite. The one on my leg got better and went away after a day. The one on my forehead kept growing.
UNTIL I learned how to use the Sword. I'd always talked about the Sword of the Spirit. Knew what it was from scripture. Knew I had to use Him to defeat the temptation and tackle satan's devices, but I never knew HOW to use Him. So I started memorizing scripture. Remembering it, and storing it up in my heart. Then when faced with temptation, I'd tackle it head-on and recite from memory what the Lord instilled in me. Took a week, but I could defeat satan every time. Then I started UNDERSTANDING the verses, 'count it joy when you fall into diverse temptations,' then what it meant to be Christ-minded and to be in a constant state of 'awareness' rather than in the carnal mind, following Christ.
After then, the Holy Spirit urged me to go to the emergency room, and so I did, and they cut a hole in my forehead and removed the hard pus on the inside, then taped a pack of gauze to my forehead and gave me papers on how to clean it and sent me home.
The following day I was supposed to have a Chemistry test. I was so worried about it, but I didn't let it give satan an opportunity to down-trod me again. So I prayed, had faith in John Chapter 15, Verse 7, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you." And I studied and studied. I don't know when I went to sleep, but the following morning, I put on my biggest hat to cover my forehead, which had swollen to the size of a grapefruit, and went to take the test. One friend noticed, Ian. I didn't see Adam that day. There was a hole in my forehead, but I continued to take that test, having faith.
It's not been a week since I took that test, and I didn't check the score until 10 minutes ago! I got an 85%! I calculated my grade from the last test. I have a 77.777277277277... The Lord put His holy number in my grades and proved His Word! And I'm SO happy! I don't deserve His sonship, but if He didn't want to give it to me, I wouldn't have believed and wouldn't now be wearing the helmet of salvation, so I'm exstatic about what all He's done. To spiritual tears that the flesh can't bear.
About two weeks ago I was sitting in this same computer lab surrounded by the same machinery and doing the same task of printing out books for free from the same website. I got into the car and drove out the front entrance of the school and made a right onto fowler. I was strolling along. I saw a crow and paid it no mind. The Lord sends me crows as signs. I didn't pay the first one any attention, so he sent an even bigger one. A bigger raven. Flapped slowly over my path, right in front of me. I drove under it as it flew to my right and across the street behind the car, as I was driving. I was in the left most lane. The thoughts came: this is a sign from the Lord. Should I slow down? I know something's wrong. I didn't listen. I was in an accident about 20-30 seconds later. Unavoidable accident. A car hit me from the right most lane, traveling 20-30 miles an hour trying to get into the turning lane on my left on this 8-lane road. I saw him a few feet before he tried to get in front of me, but it was too late. I couldn't slow down. Slamming on my breaks hard and swerving to the left was all that was left to do, but he hit me.
That morning, I prayed I'd make it to school safely and back, because it's 28 miles away from the house where I live. From that fact alone, that I had faith that the Lord would take care of me, He saved me from an even worser situation. If the moves were right. The car would have totaled the car I was driving and I would have been pretty hurt.
The Holy Spirit rewards diligence, I heard. I want to know more about this Diligence. I wont harden my heart to the Lord my Father anymore.
If I died this morning on my way home I'd want my mum to know that I love her, my sister to burn my stuff, my friend Chris to get back together with Kirya, my dad to be at the funeral, and forgive and apologize to my mum. And my mum to accept his apology, for my enemies to be at my funeral, and for my friends Carolyn, Matthew M., and Daniel D. to meet my family. I'd want Hector and Nigel to finish off my plans for websites and my friend Joe to read the Gospel According to Matthew. I might be asking too much. And I would be with my Father, so the things would matter. And even though I wouldn't be there, my spirit would be with the Lord and the body would just be dust and ash... I'd like to be buried with a box of donuts in my hands. Thanks. Ciao.
