BJ Not BK

Another week gone, and another - short- series of posts handed over in triplicate to the folks at iron mountain to be hauled via armored car to the hillside bunker for safe keeping.

1.  Friday is for photos:  These photos come to you courtesy of an evening at Dollywood.

I think S really wanted some of his big sister's chicken?

If you like great photography make sure to visit Steve Mckoy's Friday photos here [link] and Joe Thorn's here [link].

Want to see your photo published here?  Submit all family friendly photos to bjnotbk@gmail.com for consideration.  Please note that I reserve the right to publish or not publish any submission.

2.  How was your Thanksgiving?  Mine was the best I can ever remember.  Food, Football, a special getaway with my wife and children.  Too much to elaborate on here but what a time!

3.  I had the extreme honor and privilege to attend the Fan Into Flame conference on Thursday.  This conference is a ministry for pastors and teachers under Anne Graham Lotz and was incredible [link].  The purpose of the conference was multi-fold.  Anne and her team are the first part of three ministry teams that will be visiting our city.  Anne's ministry focuses on refreshing and equipping Bible teachers and pastors with solid methodology and a fresh approach to scripture that first makes the one preparing the lesson or the sermon receive God's word so that the teaching and preaching become more vibrant and vigorous because the one who is teaching has already received God's word for themselves.  We did several workshops  throughout the day which were incredible as well as heard two powerful messages from Anne that were such a blessing.  The next ministry team will be William Franklin who will host a citywide youth rally in a couple of months and the final ministry team will be Franklin Graham who will do a citywide crusade.  The purpose?  Revival through sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.

4.  Speaking of revival....how fresh is your relationship with Jesus?  Do you remember how it was when you first met Him?  When you first were saved?  What has changed since that encounter?  Are you still in love with Him? 

5.  There is word on the street that this weekend someone will be playing football?  

6.  What are you reading?  I am making my way through the gospel of Luke and loving every minute of it.

7.  What are you listening to?  We have been hitting the Christmas music hard and heavy recently with a good dose of Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Charlie Brown Christmas Album, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Juior...we also have a wonderful Christmas Album by Sarah Mclachlan.

You have to listen to Noel by her here [link].  This song is beautiful and will make you want to purchase the entire album.

8.  Can anyone tell me just where November went?

9.  Thanks everyone for reading bjnotbk this week.  My prayer is that you will be entertained and encouraged or challenged each time you stop by.  I am also praying for you, my readers, that is, so be encouraged in knowing that no matter what someone, somewhere is praying for you.  Now go read your Bible, love your family, lover your neighbor, get outside, and love Jesus!     

  Here is your weekly Church Steeple Picture.  I see Jesus as God reaching down to man, the steeple as man lifting up the cross to the community and reaching up to God.

This picture is provided to us by Heather of the Hills [link] taken in scenic Cades Cove.  I have had the pleasure of being involved in two wonderful events here.  1. Preaching a sermon and 2. Being best man in my best friend's wedding.    

      Mark Twain once said that the difference between the wrong word and the right word is the difference between lightning and lighting bug.  Clear, concise communication is extremely important when giving directions to one's house, when putting together furniture, or when assembling a bike.  If the directions don't make sense you get lost never reaching your destination, your bookshelf leans to the side and crumbles upon placing the first book, and your bike won't be able to take you very far. 

The same is true with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  As followers of Jesus we must be able to clearly communicate the good news, that is that all of us have sinned and the penalty for sin is death.  That Jesus lived a perfect live without sin and willing took on our sin and took the place for us and received punishment and paid the penalty for sin and died in our place.  That Jesus rose from the dead three days later and that all who freely believe and accept this gift from God are saved from their sins, they have new life, and an eternal home in heaven. 

Central Truth:  To fulfill Christ' mission, I need to be prepared to share the Gospel of Christ clearly and accurately.

John 4:1-26, 39-42 

"The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

 Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."

 "I have no husband," she replied.

   Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

 Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."

And

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.

 They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."

Jesus has just begun His ministry, He is preaching, people are drawn to Him, are being saved, lives are being changed for all eternity and already the religious folks are getting jealous, envious.  Because Jesus is not ready to confront the Pharisees just yet and because He is on a mission He departs for Galilee. 

v4. states that "He needed to go through Samaria."  Samaria was smack dab in the middle between Judea and Galilee, but for the Jews Samaria was unholy, unclean, a place to be avoided at all costs.  The Jews looked on the Samaritans with great disdain and prejudice and saw the Samaritans as an unholy people group who had intermarried with non-jewish people.  So most people who traveled from Galilee to Judea would often travel around Samaria at great cost of both time and money.  You have a people who are trying to live under the law, trying to keep themselves clean, to be pure so they isolated themselves from certain activities, certain foods, traveling into certain places and interacting with certain people.  Not Jesus.

  Luke 19:10 Jesus states His mission that he came to "seek and to save" and we see in Luke 19 how Jesus went out of His way to Jericho to seek and to save Zaccheus.  Jesus refuses to let geography, socio-economic, and racial boundaries keep Him from loving people.  v4 "He needed to go to Samaria." not because it was the shortest way but that there was someone to rescue for all eternity.

On the outskirts of Sychar Jesus comes to rest at the well of Jacob while His disciples go off to buy food.  The have been walking for miles in the heart of the desert and now they are hungry, tired, and thirsty....it is about noon.  But Jesus isn't at the well at this time and at this place by chance, He is purposefully seeking someone.  Soon a Samaritan woman shows up, alone to draw water which is strange for several reasons:

1.  She is alone, women rarely traveled alone.
2.  It is high noon.  Most everyone worked either in the cool of the morning or the cool of the evening.  She it out at the heat of the day.

Why is this? 

Simple, she doesn't want to be bothered.  People who are in sin, who are lost, expect religious, "good" people to look down on them, to judge them and they tend to avoid most contact for fear of ridicule of what they already know is wrong.  The Samaritan woman is avoiding interaction, she is seeking to avoid ridicule so you can imagine her surprise at encountering Jesus at the well and see her irritation at His request for a drink of water.  She even reminds Jesus that He is a Jew, as if He had forgotten, and that He wasn't suppose to talk to her (you can hear the sarcasm in her voice).  Yet Jesus never gives up on her, in fact He begins to share some good news with her.

v10 Jesus states, "If you knew the gift of god..." If you knew that Jesus saves us from our sins, if you knew that Jesus can make you clean, if you knew this was a free gift from God not something you had to earn and that by accepting Jesus your life would be forever changed, radically transformed then you would ask for this gift....especially if you knew who Jesus is.

v11 The woman is still skeptical, still standoffish towards Jesus and speaks in the physical pointing out to Jesus the depth of the well, the fact the He did have a bucket, a subtle diversion tactic on her part, all trivial stuff in light of what He has just shared with her. Jesus answers her in v13 "whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water I shall give him will never thirst."  The lady asks for the water and states that her goal is to never thirst again and to never work again which is not at all what Jesus is promising as she is still focused on the superficial, the outside, unwilling to deal with the inside.  If you drink you will thirst again, if you eat you will hunger again but if you hunger for God, if you thirst for Jesus and receive Him you will have Him and will never have to look for Him as He will give you life and will live within you forever.

v15 Cutting through the verbal sparing, Jesus tells the woman to go get her husband knowing that she is living in sin, knowing that she is hurting, knowing that she does not have a husband.  Up to this point the woman has kept Jesus at arms length, kept the conversation to the superficial so Jesus lets her know He knows her, knows she has needs, knows she has sin.  Immediately the woman tries to change the subject from herself to a theological debate.....of all things....where to worship.  Is is at the temple in Jerusalem or on our mountain.  Cool thing is that Jesus doesn't get sidetracked, doesn't get sucked into pity arguments about religion, He connects everything back to Himself, connects everything back to the Gospel, the good news.  Jesus tells her that the time is now when you will worship God everywhere in everything that God is worshiped in spirit and in truth not in programs or buildings or certain types of music but in genuine faith, with a thankful heart and in truth realizing how great our sin is and how great Jesus' sacrifice and payment was. 

Jesus tells the woman about the good news, He shares with her the proper way to worship, and He connects it all back to Jesus/Himself.  At the end of our teaching, at the end of our testimony, our worship, it all has to point and to connect right back to Jesus or it is meaningless.

v28 The woman leaves the well, her bucket, and goes off to share Jesus with everyone in the town.  Her life has been changed from meeting Jesus.  She is no longer concerned about what others think, she no longer tries to avoid others on the contrary she is looking to find others to share Jesus with, who He is, what He has done in her life, where He can be found and as a result of this many Samaritans come to Jesus because of the testimony of a woman who earlier had been irritated with Jesus.

Application:  We need to be prepared to share the Gospel of Jesus clearly and accurately.

True worship happens in spirit and truth and should be done everywhere with the right heart.

Everything must be connected back to Jesus. 

Prayer:  Father God I thank you for Jesus, for His mission to seek and to save lost people including myself.  I thank you for the good news of what Jesus has done on the cross, what He has done in His resurrection, and what this means for everyone who believes and accepts.  I pray that we would be people just like Jesus seeking lost people, being on mission, loving, helping, purposefully sharing your good news.  Amen.
 

Today the UPS man brought me a wonderful surprise....a gift from Zach via my wish list.

Thank you so much Zach for the movie.

Here is a big virtual hug from me to you.

Of course this is a manly hug full of tobacco spit, chest hair, and beard stubble.

Thanks brother! 

     One week of pure blissful vacation past me and I feel like a new man, ready to take on the world, refreshed and ready.  I was surprised this morning to only find 249 emails waiting on me.  Not too bad.

 I am also returning fresh from a Thanksgiving Day Victory, Napalm valiantly led his team in a late game comeback but alas it was not meant to be.

Look for some hard hitting posts coming soon to a screen near you.
 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Please accept this post as a virtual piece of pecan pie to you, my extended family.

God bless you and your family today. 

Yesterday I was afforded the luxury of joining my Aunt for a hike in the Great Smoky Mountains National Forest.  The weather was beautiful, about 45 degrees when we started, the sun was out, the air was crisp, and the leaves were magnificent.  My Aunt picked the Grapevine Ridge Trail for us which was fine with me as I had never hiked this one before.

The trail head begins in Greenbrier at the Ranger Station and is roughly 8 miles or so one way.  Our plan was simple, we parked a car at the beginning and the end so that we wouldn't have to retrace our steps or walk our way back down the road to our cars. 

The hike was one of the best I have done for several reasons.  Greenbrier use to be a community of farms, homes, school, and church before the National Park Services came in and purchased the land.  My Great Grandmother was raised in Greenbrier, was saved and Baptized at the Freedom Baptist Church in Greenbrier, and several of her family members are buried at one of the cemeteries in Greenbrier. 

There is almost nothing left of the settlements other than some steps and some rock walls that line some parts of the trails.  We were able to visit one of the cemeteries.  The highlight for me of the hike was seeing an abandoned steam engine.  Apparently supplies were brought in on a steam engine and on one trip the driver got to close to the edge of the creek, causing the engine to crash into the creek bed where it still remains to this day. 

Here are some of the pictures I took.  Hope you enjoy.

1.  This is one of the several rock walls along the trail.  This is pretty much all that remains of the settlement.

2.  One of two cemeteries - that I know of - on this trail.

3.  The steam engine and various parts.

     I love being a daddy.  God has truly blessed me with a wonderful wife, daughter, and son.  I am thankful for these precious gifts God has given me and the responsibility He has handed over to me as leader of our home.  One of the great privileges I have in all of this is teaching and sharing with my kids who Jesus is, how great Jesus is, how much Jesus loves us, and how they too can know Jesus. 

Each night I do L's nighttime routine.  I give her a bath, we play, we laugh, we sing.  I put her pjs on and before I finish dressing her she always says...."you read my Bible daddy."  Man my heart melts to here her say that!  Before L was born I bought her a baby Bible and for the first couple of years I would periodically read it to her.  Since she has grown older and can understand more we now read from a Children's story Bible that has great pictures and well written stories.  I must confess that this has been a tremendous blessing for me and I have learned allot. 

The blessing comes in two parts: 1. I get to read the Bible to my little girl and she loves it.  2. I get to read the Bible to my little girl and I love it.  I love reading the stories in this format because it cuts right to the heart of each story, these are the fundamentals.  In a way it is akin to a football coach having his guys practice tackling and blocking, going back to the basics.  Of course I still have my own Bible study time apart from mine and L's time together but our time is so sweet and so refreshing.

My prayer is that as L and now S grow older that we will continue to read our Bibles together, that the version will mature as they grow and that one day, when L is in her teens she will still say...."you read my Bible daddy."

I couldn't think of anything else I would rather do.
 

In my best caveman voice let me say....."Sabbath good, mongol like Sabbath."

Rest is wonderful and needed.  God knew exactly what He was doing when He gave us the Sabbath.

Thank you Jesus for your Sabbath rest that is eternal and thank you Father God for our physical Sabbath.

      What is the one thing you lost that drove you crazy and where was the weirdest place you looked for it?

Comedian (the term comedian is debatable) George Carlin once did a skit on losing stuff that loosely went something like this:

"I don't like to loose anything.  It's not so much that I mind losing something it is the not knowing where it's at that kills me.  I just had it, it was just here, where did it go?  There are some people who lose stuff and their first reaction is....."WHO STOLE IT!"  They are unwilling to admit that they are so stupid as to lose something. 

Did you ever notice that the longer you look for something the stranger the places become where you look?   You look in the strangest places...why?  You have to!  You already looked in the easy places, why?  Because those are the obvious places.  People ask you..."Have you found it?"  NO..... "Well, have you looked everywhere?"  OBVIOUSLY NOT!  It's still missing.  "Let's keep looking in the obvious places I'll check the furnace you look in the cesspool."

Did you ever look in the freezer for your car keys?  You have to...why?  Because they might be in there.  You wouldn't want to pass on an obvious place like the freezer would you?  You can see them in the freezer, your mind can follow the logic...."Let's see, I came out of the grocery store and I had the banana guacamole and my keys in this hand.  I got home, had the guacamole in this hand, set it in the freezer and must have dropped the keys in the freezer!  Let's just go loo....Oh there not in the freezer!  I could have sworn that I left those keys in the freezer and hey!  WHO STOLE MY BANANA GUACAMOLE!"  And of course, if you loose your keys you have to check your pockets 600-700 times.

We drive ourselves crazy looking for lost things because we want to know where they are, we care about what we lost, and we want to find it.

Now take that same intensity and apply it to seeing lost people found, lost people hearing the gospel of Jesus, and lost people accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Jesus loves people and He said He came to seek and to save (Luke 19:10) and so He teaches us through example and through His words the importance of seeking lost people.

Luke 19: 1-10

 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

 All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.' "

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."

 Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

v.1 We see Jesus on His way from Samaria to Jerusalem (Luke 17:11) making a detour to visit Jericho.  If you are not familiar with the geography Jericho is about 20 miles away from Jerusalem and sits on the other side of a mountain range about 3400 feet above Jerusalem.  Needless to say the journey was not easily made on foot, took sacrifice, and took time and the journey happened about a week before the cross.

The question is why did Jesus make such a dramatic detour?

Jesus was searching for someone.
His search was intentional - He went to Jericho to find one person.
His search was relational - He was focused on Zacchaeus.
His search was consistent - this was Jesus' lifestyle, He kept searching until the lost was found.
His search was revealing - His search revealed His priorities.

Jesus tells three stories in Luke Chapter 15 to emphasize His priority of seeking and saving the lost.

The lost are drawn to Jesus - tax collectors and sinners, as he preaches (15:1).
1.The lost sheep - sheep get lost through carelessness.
2.The lost coin - the coin was lost due to no fault of its own, it was a victim of someone else's action.
3.The lost son - the son was lost due to poor decisions. 

We also see throughout scripture that God loves us, seeks us out, and desires a right relationship with us.

Genesis 3:9

"But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

The God of the Universe, the one who created everything, is sovereign, all powerful, all knowing, Holy, righteous, is so concerned that He looks for us individually, seeking us, drawing us to Himself and back to a right relationship with Him.

Central Truth:  As a representative of Jesus Christ, I must be seeking lost people to be saved. 

v.2-4 Give us some insight on who exactly Zacchaeus was.  

"A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way."

Zaccheus was despised by those around him.  He was wealthy but not by hard work, he was a tax collector and tax collectors had a terrible reputation for dishonest gain.  Rome commanded that each collector bring in a certain amount in taxes and that anything over that belonged to the collector.  So you had tax collectors driving Bentleys with spinners and living in these blinged out cribs and the people hated them for it.  Zaccheus was not only a tax collector, he was a chief tax collector which was kind of like the first pyramid scheme.  Not only did he pull in cash from those he collected from but also from those who worked under him. 

But v.3 says that he sought out to see who Jesus was.  Here is a man who had all the wealth of Jericho yet something was missing and that something was Jesus.  The Bible says that Zaccheus couldn't get to Jesus because of two things:

1. His self - he was a short man 5 foot tall or less - how many times do we get in the way of Jesus?
2.  Others - the crowd prevented Zaccheus from seeing Jesus - how many times do others get in the way of Jesus?

So, Zaccheus did what any other extremely rich and feared man might do in his situation, he took off running as fast as he could in his freshly dry cleaned Armani suit and he climbed a tree.  All of a sudden there was a total loss of concern or fear of what others might think, say or do because of his actions.  He had no fear of rejection and his drastic actions show his humility.  Something happened when Zaccheus heard that Jesus was coming, heard that Jesus alone forgives us of our sins.  Suddenly he wanted to experience Jesus, touch Jesus, follow Jesus.

v.5-10 shows us that Jesus finds Zaccheus and calls him by name.  The Bible says that Jesus:

Jesus knows my location - came to the place where Zaccheus was
Jesus knows my face - looked up and saw him
Jesus knows my name - called him by name
Jesus knows my need - said to him "hurry and come down out of your tree, today I must stay at your house." 

And we see the response of Zaccheus in v. 6-8 is one of immediacy and action as he quickly goes to Jesus and his life is radically changed by Jesus as he gives half of everything he has to the poor.

Questions for thought:  Consider everyone you know, your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers....is there anyone on the list who is like Zaccheus?  How can you intentionally go to this person?  How can you build a relationship with this person based on his/her needs?

Will you consistently love this person and build a relationship with them?

Closing prayer- Father God, I thank you for Jesus.  Jesus, I thank you for your willing sacrifice on the cross that has paid for our sins, that anyone can be saved by simply accepting your free gift by believing in you.  I thank you for all those who will be in class this Sunday.  I thank you for anyone who reads this study and is challenged and changed by your words.  Jesus, please change us to be better and accurate representatives of you, help us to better share your good news of salvation, grace, mercy, and peace to those around us and to those you send our way.  Jesus, may you be glorified in all that we do.  May we come to you, stay with you, and follow you.

     Another week gone, and another series of posts handed over in triplicate to the folks at iron mountain to be hauled via armored car to the hillside bunker for safe keeping.  This week's transport is being escorted by Hollywood writers who are on strike.  Apparently the quality of programming has risen substantially since the strike as many of the big studios have brought in scabs to cross the picket lines and write the new material.  Did you watch CSI this week?  I wrote that episode...but please don't tell those on strike.

1.  Friday is for photos:  These photos come to you courtesy of a day at the Zoo and were taken by a friend of my wife's.

If you like great photography make sure to visit Steve Mckoy's Friday photos here [link] and Joe Thorn's here [link].

Want to see your photo published here?  Submit all family friendly photos to bjnotbk@gmail.com for consideration.  Please note that I reserve the right to publish or not publish any submission.

2.  Speaking of the Zoo...do you have a good Zoo where you live?  Do you get a chance to go to it much?  The wife purchased a pass this year for our Zoo and we have made many trips this year.  I have to say that I absolutely love the Zoo.  When I see the elephants and the giraffes something inside of me comes alive.  I fell like a kid again, full of wonder and excitement and awe at God's creation and creativity.  If you haven't been to the Zoo in a while I would encourage you to go.  You will not regret it and you will not stop smiling.

3.  I am beginning my week long fast as we work our way up to Thanksgiving.  Mmmmm Thanksgiving.

4.  The annual Napalm/BJ not BK flag football tourney is fast approaching.  I have the play book together and have been practicing all week.  The wife is a little disturbed at my antics though.  It seems that I may have gone overboard with building the coache's tower blasting eye of the tiger in the backyard, the tackling sleds, and the tire obstacle...something about killing the grass and destroying the value of our investment.  What could be more valuable than a victory at this year's Turkey bowl?

5.  In an attempt to boost my street cred I have converted every last bit of currency I have to Euros [link].  Apparently the local gas station does not take Euros?  And why haven't we converted to the metric system already?  We were promised the metric system!  I am tired of buying a gallon of gas...bring on the liter! 

6.  What are you reading?  I am making my way through the gospel of Luke.  Right now Jesus is preaching and teaching as He makes His way to Jerusalem and to the cross.  I think I am going to stay with Luke and go right to Acts after this.

7.  What are you listening to?  My wife had her women's group over to the house last night so me L and S all headed out.  Me and my little girl love Johnny Cash.  I asked her what she wanted to hear...."Cash daddy.."  was her reply.  Do you have the blues?  Then get rhythm. Enjoy [link]. 

8.  Ahhhhhhh Vacation!  I am off all next week for blissful vacation and boy do we have some great plans!  Monday is wide open for us to do whatever we want.  Tuesday I am meeting my aunt and we are going on a hike in the Smokies...you should see the colors of the leaves here it is truly amazing.  Wednesday we are hosting a chili supper at our house for the family and to help get everyone out of grand mama's kitchen so she can prepare for Thanksgiving.  Thursday I plan on running in our city's annual Thanksgiving morning run.  This is a quasi tradition that I have participated in the last 10 years or so.  Our first stop is with my Great-grandmother where we will visit for a bit before heading over to M's parents.  After lunch we will hit the field for some football followed up by a supper of leftovers.  Friday there has been a talk of another hike.  You can't get any better than Thanksgiving, football, family, and hiking.

9.  Christmas - How many of you already have your Christmas tree up?  Come on now...confess!  How many of you already have your shopping done?  I think we will begin our decorating this week.

10.  Thanks everyone for reading bjnotbk this week.  My prayer is that you will be entertained and encouraged or challenged each time you stop by.  I am also praying for you, my readers, that is, so be encouraged in knowing that no matter what someone, somewhere is praying for you.  Now go read your Bible, love your family, lover your neighbor, get outside, and love Jesus!    

     Freedom scares most people.  Most cannot bare the idea that every box has not been checked, that every question has not been answered and so they develop rules, laws, traditions, methods systems to explain that which they cannot explain.  This really is human nature, sort of a coping mechanism to make us "feel" good but in reality it is a false confidence.  Jesus dealt with this His entire ministry.  In Luke chapter 15 the religious folks complained that Jesus ate with sinners.  In earlier chapters they complain that Jesus was a drunkard because He drank with sinners and throughout the gospels we see Jesus healing people on the Sabbath which angered the religious folk to the point of murder.  Why?

I believe it was because they valued their methods over the principals.  I believe they loved their theology, their systems, their structure and their traditions much more than they professed to love God and you and I can be guilty of this if we are not careful.

You see there are principals that can never be compromised - Jesus is God, the Savior, the only way, the only truth, and the only life.  The Bible is God's word.  We are called to read our Bible, worship God with song, pray, seek out lost people.  These are all principals that don't change.

It is our methods that get us into trouble.

Often we impose our methods onto others.  It looks something like this...."Read your Bible and only read this translation!  Oh, and read it for 12 minutes every morning at 6:12 A.M."  While the principal of reading our Bible is rock solid and unchanging and should be done by all Christians we can't impose on others the method of how to do it by what time and what translation.  Pick a translation that is accurate, one that you can understand, and just read it period!

This can happen with the way we worship...."You can't use musical instruments, or you must use these types of instruments, sing these particular songs, and order your worship in this way."  Again, we are commanded to worship God but these examples are just methods of worshiping God.  You cannot dictate that everyone sing in the Queen's English only hymns from 1212, it is unbiblical and demonic.  God says to sing Him new songs.  Our disagreement with methods comes down to personal taste and tradition.

Principals are the very things that should unite us as Christians, as denominations, as the body of Christ and our methods should be a showcase of diversity glorifying God and drawing people to Jesus not pushing them away because of infighting over systems and man made theologies that have absolutely no grounding in scripture whatsoever.

1 Corinthians 9:22  "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some."

Do you know what you have put your faith in?  Is it traditions of men that are quickly fading away, systematic theology made by men?  Do you love your methods because they comfort you or do you love Jesus Christ, our risen savior and Lord who loves people?

I don't care what Calvin or Edwards or Luther had to say or even what some crazy white guy, living with his mom in Minnesota wrote on a web page - some demons are very good at html, don't talk to me about another book, website or author, let's seek out the only source of truth, our Bibles, and go from there with lots of prayer. 

  Here is your weekly Church Steeple Picture.  I see Jesus as God reaching down to man, the steeple as man lifting up the cross to the community and reaching up to God.

This picture is provided to us by @Home With Mom [link] taken at UMC Corryton, TN.

For everyone who has submitted a picture this week thank you!  I plan on posting your picture so stay tuned.  

 I am a homeowner.  A happy homeowner at that.  There is something deeply satisfying in pulling into your own driveway, stepping onto your own overgrown yard, putting your hands on your hips, breathing deeply as you survey all that is yours, the front porch, the pink flamingos strategically placed beside the satellite dish and the above ground pool, your very own castle and the banks of course.  You are looking at you investment, a work in progress, a place of security, a sanctuary for your family, a place of welcome for your friends, and an environment open to all.

There are responsibilities that come with owning a home though.  There is the yard to mow, bushes to be trimmed, gutters to be cleaned, garages that have to be continually emptied, rearranged, re-organized to make room for the cars and to ensure that at minimum there is a walkway from the car to the door.  Where did all that Christmas stuff come from anyway?

When you rent you don't really belong anywhere and your aren't really responsible to anyone apart from your landlord.  You can punch holes in the walls, throw trash on your porch, and walk around in your underwear when checking the mail, but when you own your own home you now suddenly become apart of a community, you pick up your trash, you are a citizen, you wear a robe when going to the mailbox and you are now a member of a home owner's association which means you now attend home owner association meetings which to me is clear proof that purgatory does exist. 

I have come to the following conclusions about life as I attended our recent homeowners association meeting:

1.  No one under the age of 82 attends homeowners association meetings.  I was the young whipper snapper in attendance.
2.  If you have a group of people larger than 1 it is impossible to get anything done.  People argue over everything.
3.  No matter how great a proposal of improvement is to the neighborhood, how little it will cost, there will always be at least one person upset with the proposal to the point of yelling.
4.  Prunes are not good finger food.
5.  People are extremely proud and protective of their homes.

After enduring shouting matches, yelling, stares, glares, and arms crossed, and that was just over the prunes, I decided to dis the meeting, besides, I had already sat through 2 hours of proposals that were shot down.

I was however able to smash Norma Jean Bailey's (81 years young at 1212 Smith view lane), 12 year old record of eating 65 prunes in one association meeting**** and had finished my 67th prune, kind of like a Cool Hand Luke stunt I guess....believe me, I was ready to go.

I guess you could say the meeting "moved" me.   

***The association record books have been updated and an asterisk has been placed by Norma Jean Bailey's name due to her B sample showing signs of testosterone.

     Another week gone, and another series of posts handed over in triplicate to the folks at iron mountain to be hauled via armored car to the hillside bunker for safe keeping.  This week's transport is being escorted by Big oil.  With gas at $27.00 a gallon it is only through the generous support and donations by Big oil that the armored transport can even make it to iron mountain.

1.  Friday is for photos:  These 2 photos come to you courtesy of warmer days and goose poop.  Ah...warmer days and goose poop.  Good times.

If you like great photography make sure to visit Steve Mckoy's Friday photos here [link] and Joe Thorn's here [link].

Want to see your photo published here?  Submit all family friendly photos to bjnotbk@gmail.com for consideration.  Please note that I reserve the right to publish or not publish any submission.

2.  Whose bright..or should I say dim?  idea was this whole daylight saving time anyway?  I feel like a vampire.  I wake up and it is dark.  I come home and it is dark.  I find myself feeling tired and ready for bed at 6:45.  Yawn...

3.  Steeple blogging.  Thanks to everyone who has been submitting their Steeple pics!  I have them and will be posting them in the weeks to come.  I would love to see pictures of your church and possibly post them on the Wednesday steeple blog post so keep them coming and please make sure to note if it is your church.

4.  Saturday, December 1st.  That is the date etched in  stone for the annual Napalm/bj not bk flag football tourney.  Last year's tourney was a big success as we had a record turnout.  Who will reign victorious this year?

5. What are you reading?  I am 13 chapters into the book of Luke, tasty!  Love you Jesus.

6.  What are you listening to?  One of my favorite bands of all time is Uncle Tupelo.  I know, I know you have never heard of them.  Well, here you go [link].  Hope you enjoy!

7.  Weekend plans anyone?  M still isn't feeling well so please pray for her.  We will probably have a low key weekend. 

8. Thanks everyone for reading bjnotbk this week.  My prayer is that you will be entertained and encouraged or challenged each time you stop by.  I am also praying for you, my readers, that is, so be encouraged in knowing that no matter what someone, somewhere is praying for you.  Now go read your Bible, love your family, lover your neighbor, get outside, and love Jesus!