January 29th, 2007

I've been asked many times in recent memory, 'hey dipstick, when you gonna update your site?'

Good question.

Time. Its all about time. Or is it?

I keep telling myself  I don't have the time. Perhaps I've just convinced myself of that when in reality, I need to make time. Assign priorities. Get my shit together.

Work, family, brothers, sisters and the occasional complete stranger all seem to have drawn my attention away from this site. Some days, it just seems I'm forever paddling upstream.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy maintaining this site as an outreach. Or maybe as a signpost so that folks know where I am and can find me. And they have. My ministry outside this site is a busy one. So much so that there are times it scares me so completely, I can't describe it.

But this is where it really began and I promise, I'll pay more attention to it this year.

Stay tuned..........

 

April 14th, 2004

The next time you feel like GOD can't use you, just remember...

Noah was a drunk
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses had a stuttering problem
Gideon was afraid
Samson had long hair and was a womanizer  Rahab was a prostitute
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt
John the Baptist ate bugs
Peter denied Christ
The Disciples fell asleep while praying
Martha worried about everything
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once Zaccheus was too small
Paul was too religious
Timothy had an ulcer...

AND Lazarus was dead!

..no more excuses now. God can use you to your full potential. Besides you aren't the message, you are just the messenger. Share this with a friend or two. In the Circle of God's love, God's waiting to use your full potential.
1. God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.
2. Dear God, I have a problem, it's me.
3. Growing old is inevitable ...growing UP is optional.
4. There is no key to happiness. The door is always open.
5. Silence is often misinterpreted but never misquoted.
6. Do the math...count your blessings.
7. Faith is the ability to not panic.
8. Laugh every day, it's like inner jogging.
9. If you worry, you didn't pray . If you pray, don't worry.
10. As a child of God, prayer is kind of like calling home everyday.
11. Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.
12. The most important things in your house are the people.
13. When we get tangled up in our problems, be still. God wants us to be still so He can untangle the knot.
14. A grudge is a heavy thing to carry.
15. He who dies with the most toys is still dead.

"God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it's me."
 

 

January 12, 2004

Written by Tami

(Rev Mike's daughter)

Wild Child

I love riding,
It stirs my soul.
It’s in my blood,
to Rock n’ Roll.

Motorcycles, daggers,
leather, tattoos.
Don’t like it? That’s tough.
I’m not here to please you.

I belong on the road,
wind n my hair.
Respected, rejected,
because I dare.

My dad is a preacher,
on two wheels, steady.
I’d describe him to you,
but you just aren’t ready.

I’m proud of all this.
Riding in glory.
I’m a teenage girl.
How’s that for a story?

 

December 22, 2003

 

Today is the winter solstice. An often overlooked day in the year but important to me.

It is the shortest day of the year. (And the longest night.) But from here, the days will grow longer and the nights shorter as the winter marches on towards the promised spring.

I have been watching the days grow shorter since June. Knowing that it heralds the coming of winter. Its depressing knowing that the riding season and the warm, sunny days are waning. Now as each day grows longer, we are assured of the return of spring. We can look forward to spring flowers, gardens, birds and of course the rumble of motorcycles.

So light a candle, burn some incense and say a prayer for there is much of God's promise to celebrate this week of December.

 

Rev. Mike

 

 

December 3, 2003

 

"If a man has a right to find God in his own way, he has a right to go to the devil in his own way also. It sometimes happens that the man most other men would agree is surely going to the devil has instead discovered a new truth that is leading him away from established thought and tradition to a better way. In time these other men will understand and follow.

The Bible singles out the meek and the poor in spirit for special blessings. We'd like to add one of our own:

Blessed is the rebel, for without him there would be no progress."

-Playboy Magazine Forum January 2004 Issue

 

July 25, 2003

 

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Edmund Burke
 

March 27, 2003

 

Lets talk for a minute about the affairs of the world.
These are indeed confusing and horrible times. The world’s leaders have made decisions that are affecting all of us. Many in ways that I cannot begin to imagine.
We, as Americans, have never been popular on the world’s stage. Most Americans have learned to deal with this while some have not. It’s the way it is.
I am not an advocate of war. It is a horrible thing. But I do understand the reasons behind it.
Now lets look at reality,,,,,
America has changed. It started changing with the attacks of 9/11. We have shown remarkable restraint in the face of unprecedented hostility. The attacks that day were not just against us, but against everyone. These were cowardly acts that inflicted great pain upon not just us, but the entire human race. We Americans already know this however some my international guests may be asking “how does this possibly affect me?”
Simple answer:  IT COULD HAVE BEEN YOU!
I’m going to put my faith in God and our leaders to settle this. I am NOT going to pretend that I know more about why this has to happen than our leaders and God do. Every day more and more information surfaces about the Iraqi leadership that leads me to believe this must happen.
In a closing note to all Americans:
You do not have to agree with our president. I for one am not ashamed of him. Neither am I ashamed of being an American. It does bother me how some of my own countrymen are treating each other. Those troops are our sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, fathers, mothers, cousins and neighbors.

HOW CAN YOU NOT SUPPORT THEM?

Those troops are the same ones that would give their own lives to defend YOUR home.
And when they come home, every one of them will tell you that they fought for YOUR right to disagree.
Now get out there and act like you deserve that. Show them some respect and gratitude.

 

-Reverend Mike

 

(P.S. Hey Natalie Maines, WHAT were you thinking????????????)

"Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."

Colin Powell- when asked if the United States was merely "empire building"

Click here to read what the Shanghai Star had to say.......

 

#wallA

(Courtesy Timothy Jobst. Reprinted with permission.)

Every day "THE ONE" is so very blessed (ripe) in abundance!

"The Many" often make efforts to manifest abundance in their separated lives. In their prayers they ask for this or for that.

Yet while the mind has convinced itself that it asks for abundance with many prayers and supplications, the heart directly within, mistakenly supports some sort of belief and notion that there is a lack existing elsewhere in the person's life. So while the mind asks for abundance, the heart directly beneath recognizes poverty, thereby placing its attention and intention on it (poverty). What can happen other than the heart would be granted its belief and hidden desire and request? From this belief and not the other is the very thing then that the heart prays for. And the heart shall never be denied.

The heart's desire and resulting request will always win over the mind, no matter what the mind asks for through speak or word of mouth. So where does the man or woman truly place his/her belief? - in poverty - and therefore, that is what the heart asks for when it asks for anything it thinks it does not already have.

Man should not try to acquire abundance by asking and praying for what is already there, thus investing instead in his poverty; his prayers only compensating for a lack while he asks for more of the same of that which he focuses upon(poverty),...but man should GIVE THANKS. And if he asks for anything, it is that he should only SEE.

For instance, a man thinks he has a bad day because he focuses one perceived wrong at the end of his day while ignoring and taking for granted the 50 blessings he has had throughout the entire day. And even the mishap is not a mishap, but just another opportunity for him to see differently. In the same, a man may shed a tear only because he takes his current breath for granted. There is always something to be thankful for.

Do not manifest, only SEE.

For some time even the young Ishayas Monks wandered about their mountain wondering how they might manifest money to support their mortgage and their mission. When right beneath their feet and on their mountain stood a wealth of spring water filtered through crystals that could have been bottled & manufactured, marketed as crystal-filtered water, and distributed throughout the world. They did not need to manifest something that was not there, but only open their eyes to what was already there in abundance.

A glass is never half-empty, nor is it even half-full, but it is ALWAYS FULL; half with water and half with air, half with the seen and half with the unseen. It is the same in the RIGHT NOW. Have you ever experienced the frustration of someone you were supposed to meet being late for a luncheon date? Did you wonder for the entire time that they were late what kept them, and then remark to them some irresponsible words when they finally arrived for not respecting your time, inquiring as to why they had kept you waiting for so long? Was you glass half-full? Or did you take that time to perhaps look around you at what might be unseen to most who worry about the wrong in a friend's tardiness, and because of it finally SEE the woman sitting next to you alone, finally SEE the waitress with a kleenex in her hand instead of a napkin, or even finally SEE the hungry homeless man just outside your restaurant window? Were you FULL in the moment moving through observation from a glass(person) that was half-empty to half-full to ALWAYS FULL? Or were you in that moment like a glass that is seen as merely half-full?

Do not ask for, but only SEE abundance in all things and that every moment is FULL, and poverty will no longer be your belief and what you ask for.

Abundance does not operate out of a state of (perceived) lack, wealth being defined by a man who in-of-the-World has more. But abundance operates out of a state of (knowledge of) FULLNESS, and because this man now has the many blessings of the Kingdom, - he needs less.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

In Love, as Love, in Christ.
Timothy

Take a few minutes and read these. Think
about them one at a time BEFORE going on to the next one........IT
DOES MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD especially the thought at the end.

1. Falling in love.
2. Laughing so hard your face hurts.
3. A hot shower.
4. No lines at the Super Wal-Mart.
5. A special glance.
6. Getting mail.
7. Taking a drive on a pretty road.
8. Hearing your favorite song on the radio.
9. Lying in bed listening to the rain outside.
10. Hot towels out of the dryer.
11. Finding the sweater you want is on sale for half price.
12. Chocolate milkshake. (or vanilla!)
13. A long distance phone call.
14. A bubble bath.
15. Giggling.
16. A good conversation.
17. The beach.
18. Finding a $20 bill in your coat from last winter.
19. Laughing at yourself.
20. Midnight phone calls that last for hours.
21. Running through sprinklers.
22. Laughing for absolutely no reason at all.
23. Having someone tell you that you're beautiful.
24. Laughing at an inside joke.
25. Friends.
26. Accidentally overhearing someone say something nice about you.
27. Waking up and realizing you still have a few hours left to sleep.
28. Your first kiss.
29. Making new friends or spending time with old ones.
30. Playing with a new puppy.
31. Having someone play with your hair.
32. Sweet dreams.
33. Hot chocolate.
34. Road trips with friends.
35. Swinging on swings.
36. Wrapping presents under the Christmas tree while eating cookies and drinking eggnog.
37. Song lyrics printed inside your new CD so you can sing along without feeling stupid.
38. Going to a really good concert.
39. Making eye contact with a cute stranger.
40. Winning a really competitive game.
41. Making chocolate chip cookies.
42. Having your friends send you homemade cookies.
43. Spending time with close friends.
44. Seeing smiles and hearing laughter from your friends.
45. Holding hands with someone you care about.
46. Running into an old friend and realizing that some things(good or bad) never change.
47. Riding the best roller coasters over and over.
48. Watching the expression on someone's face as they open a much desired present from you.
49. Watching the sunrise.
50. Getting out of bed every morning and thanking God for another beautiful day.

Some events this past week have prompted me to post this. I find it's lesson well worth having.......

The following story was sent to me. I would gladly credit the author if anyone knows who they are.