Today marks the day that I break another habit. Habit to me is something that you loved to do or say at one time and then it got carried away. It become something you didn't want to stop and then something you could not stop.

I believe this is what has happened to my and my love for ice cream. I love ice cream and I love it so much that if I don't have it every couple of days, well, you know what happens. I start thinking about it. Make excuses why I should have it. Don't care how much it costs. Will go out in rain, snow any kind of weather conditions to get some ice cream. Then when I do buy it, I eat a half a gallon at one sitting. Now that is OUT OF CONTROL.

It happened last night, again. Tin roof was the flavor. Excellent stuff made by Blue Bell Ice Cream. They make great ice cream. I tried the small potion but as always I ended up eating a little more than half of the half gallon. Then ALL NIGHT LONG I PAID FOR IT. Stomach turned over every 30 seconds for a couple of hours followed by the mad rush to the throne room to - well do I need to say more.

So today I am going cold turkey. No Ice cream. I say this now, the morning after - I sound like a alcoholic saying that was my last drink. Ask me by Friday. I need to learn control and balance. Neither is easy for me when it comes to ice cream. We all have an 'ice cream' in your life.

To some it is TV. To others it's chocolate or fast food or potato chips or M&M's or Coke or Pepsi or COFFEE (Here is a big one) or cars or motorcycles or work or Internet. These are the ones we joke about. How about drugs - prescription and over the counter - or alcohol or porn.

You know what yours is. You may not want to admit it but if you got honest with yourself you would know it. My ice cream one is no worse than some. But I still need to learn balance and control. Neither one is popular in our society. Hebrews 12:11 NASB All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Discipline never seems good at the time but it's reward come with time and patience and endurance. You got to see it through. The best way to see it through is to set a goal to reach that will come about by the discipline you are going through. 1 Timothy 4:7 NASB . . . On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness;. Sometimes the only goal I have from the disciplines I set in my life is freedom from being held hostage by something.

This all sounds good on the morning after. Ask me Friday about ice cream and I may have a different answer for you. Proverbs 19:20 NASB Listen to counsel and accept discipline, That you may be wise the rest of your days.

End of Days

Yesterday I was at a memorial service for an 81 year old lady who was a mom, grandmother and friend. It was a really nice service. The kind you don't mind attending.

Hebrews 9:27 GW People die once, and after that they are judged.

As I sat waiting my turn at the pulpit [I opened and closed the service in prayer] many thoughts went through my mind. Here are few of them.

1. Everyone will die. - That's the way it is. God's original intent was for us to live with Him. But we decided to do it our own way. Take matters into our own hand, (Genesis 3) Thought we knew better than God and bingo - everyone now will physically die once. This onset of physical death was brought about because of spiritual death. So if we accept Jesus as our savour the spiritual death [eternal separation from God] is stopped and we are rescued from it [we are eternally connected to God]. Like the first death, spiritual death is still our choice, we choose. I for one chose life in Christ.

2. Life is a gift. It is a gift that is to be spent. John Ortberg writes in his book, "Everything goes back in the box." . . . life is a gift, every day is an unpurchased miracle, every second is overtime. . . . I know it (life) is not something we earn, create, control, or sustain. I know that one truth about us is that we forget we are going to die. The other truth is that we forget we are alive."

3. Family and friends are what really makes life worthwhile.

My Pastor told a story at the service about one of his friends who visited a nursing home with a fellow minister. As he went from room to room saying hi and spending a few minutes with each person in the rooms he found that everyone invited him in. They seldom to never had anyone visit them. No friends or family or church family came by to keep them company from time to time. You see these folks never had time for people. They were movers and shakers of their day. Corporate giants, company owners. You know the type far to busy making money. No time left for people. I read it somewhere and made a plaque out of it, "Get involved in the lives of people, knowing that the only thing God will rescue from this plant is people."

4. When old people die, what you see is really not who they were. This ladies son talked about the times she would dance with the family. This lady had tap shoes and would dance and sing and laugh. All I knew about Maria was I saw her at church walking in very slowly with her cane. Not able to walk very good. You would never know that she could ever dance. We forget that old people weren't old all their life. So I wondered, if I live to be old, say 81, and need a cane to get around, will people around me really know who I was and in my mind still am.

5. What will they say at my memorial service? My wife always cries at funerals. One time I asked her why she was crying. She knew the person but not really that well. It was one of those services you go to out of respect to the family more than anything. She said she was sitting there thinking about her funeral and it made her cry. I still LOL when I think about this.

What will your funeral/memorial service be like? If you invest in family, friends and people it will be full of people, family and friends. People will laugh and cry about things that you used to laugh or cry with them about. They will smile and talk about things that you used to smile and talk about. But if all you did is invest in this world, well, then you will have flowers that will whither and die and a really nice coffee that will be buried along with you. And probably you will have very few people at your service. I have been at this kind of funeral also. Not a pretty site.

I know this is not a fun or funny or maybe even an encouraging topic. It was part of my life this last week and I stopped to think. Funerals are a very interesting time. One of sorrow and self reflection. Reflect now - change now what you need to change now. Time is short.

James 4:14 NASB Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

Slow Down You Move Too FAST

Yesterday I was out driving running some errands. Now driving in Tulsa is always an experience. I used to work in northern Illinois - Chicago. Now there, people know how to drive. It's survival - put on your signal and take the lane. Not my fault if you didn't see the turn signal. On ramps had signs that read merge - which means as I zoom on to the highway LET ME IN. Rush hour didn't have speed limits it was either stop or full throttle. Everyone understood the rules and obeyed. It was survival.

Tulsa is different. No one uses turn signals. On ramps are the worse. First of all they're like 20 feet long. Many are 'U' shaped coming right off the side streets so you have little to no time to see the traffic coming and get up to speed. The worse thing about them is the sign on the ramps which read 'YIELD.' Yield to the guys attempting to get up on the highway. Folks driving on the highway are not willing to let you in since you must 'YIELD' to them. So what you will see is people STOPPED on the on ramps waiting for an opportunity to enter traffic. Good thing we are praying people here in the bible belt. It is a experience every time you drive here in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Of course, my wife tells me that I drive pretty crazy. I threaten to put a blindfold on her. "Slow down" "You see that guy is stopping" "Use your turn signal." "If you get another ticket..." And of course there are the looks that she gives me - no words can explain those but every married guy knows what I mean.

Now I have had my share of tickets. I always felt that a $80 to $100 speeding ticket every couple of years was kind of a fee I paid for the right to speed. Say 10 to 15 miles over the speed limit.

Now the problem with driving is everyone is some persons annoyance. If you are bugging me because of the way you are driving then I must be bugging someone with the way that I am driving. When I am driving and my wife is with me I 'drive' her nuts. The reverse is true when she is driving. I'm thinking, "Go faster." "Get in the other lane." "Don't slow down speed up." "Turn here." And so on.

Matthew 7:3-4 NASB "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye?

It is SO easy to see the wrong in others. Much easier than noticing the things that we do that need changed. It is human pride to think we are always right and the other guys is wrong. But we are all guilty of this. Honestly, it's hard not to. There is someone out there that see us as the bad driver on the road. I know there are some saying right now, "NOT ME." but it is true. That's why Jesus said what he said. Don't go looking for the wrong in others when you have enough of your own to think about. BIG JOB for most of us. Did I mention I have had my share of tickets - worse thing is my wife has never gotten a ticket. RATS - that's not fair.

So today as you drive around and get behind someone going slow or driving crazy. And as you start to yell about them, look around - I'll bet you will spot someone yelling about you.

Was it a Morning Like This

I am going to climb on a soap box. I don't want to offend anyone but I guess if you climb on a soap box you are going to offend folks. So here we go.

In church we seem to find more things to get upset about than we find God. That's weird but true. You would think that in church you would find God more than any other place on earth. I know we all have challenges in life. One person in our class asked us to pray for a family with more things going wrong in their life than I had fingers to keep count. Cancer in two family members, pregnancy problems, lost jobs PLUS half of their house was damaged (blown away) by a storm. Problems in a big way. However, we seem to be more concerned about the music, coffee shops, building programs, lights, how old is old, are we contemporary or traditional, should we allow tattoos and the list does go on, and on, and on, and on.

This morning I downloaded off of itunes an album by Sandi Patty. I can already hear some of you saying she is from the 80's. Her music is history. Well, anointed songs stand the test of time. I started listening to her music - In the Name of the Lord - Via Dolorosa (this one is incredible)- I've Just Seen Jesus (sing with Larnelle Harris) and then my ipod came upon her song, "Was It a Morning Like This." Humor me here for a minute

Was it a morning like this

When the Son still hid from Jerusalem
And Mary rose from her bed

To tend the Lord she thought was dead
Was it a morning like this
When Mary walked down from Jerusalem
And two angels stood at the tomb

Bearers of news she would hear soon

We seem to have forgotten that we are serving a risen Lord. NO other religion or belief can say that. NOT a God of the dead. A God of the living. A living God who is all about LIVING! Singing, dancing, laughing, playing, loving and yes, at times crying.

Was it a morning like this - When Peter and John ran from Jerusalem
And as they raced toward the tomb - Beneath their feet was there a tune

We don't run to God any more. Peter ran. Peter ran at the news he heard. Jesus had risen. He ran to see for himself. His excitement was greater than any obstacle this earth could place in front of him. He ran like he never ran before to see for himself the promise had become real. Jesus was alive and Peter ran to see it. His heart was pounding so hard he couldn't just sit there - he had to run or his heart would have exploded from his chest. Can you feel that kind of excitement - energy- joy - hope coming to fruition? To many of us have lost that heart pounding joy of our salvation.

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Chorus 1
Did the grass sing - [I will not be out sung by grass]
Did the earth rejoice to feel You again - [I will not let dirt rejoice more than me at the feel of my Lord's presence. ]

Over and over like a trumpet underground
Did the earth seem to pound he is risen [Is your heart pounding for God]
Over and over in a never ending round He is risen hallelujah hallelujah

When this verse came on I was smacked in the face with the feeling I haven't experienced in a while. The feeling I had when I accepted Jesus as my Savior. The feeling that only comes when you stand toe to toe with the living God - Face to Face with your Creator - so close, as one writer put it, that you could see into His eyes and feel the warmth of His face and the soft movement of his breath. Man that was good, no that was GREAT. I was no longer working out in the middle of a gym. I wasn't sitting on a machine waiting to do my next set. I was in the presence of God.

Jesus was alive and standing right next to me. My heart was pounding. Pounding so hard I couldn't just sit there - I had to get up and move or my heart would have exploded from my chest. I could feel the excitement - energy- joy- hope coming to fruition that Peter felt. At least I thought that the rush I was having had to be close to what Peter felt. I was experiencing the heart pounding joy of our salvation, in the presence of my God.

I know next Sunday morning I will go to church and run into people who - seem to be more concerned about the music, coffee shops, building programs, lights, how old is old, are we contemporary or traditional, should we allow tattoos and on, and on, and on, and on. That's OK. Because when they come up to me and they start to play this same old record - I will think to myself, "Was it a Morning Like This" - -AND my heart will start to pound and . . . . well I think you get the picture. I just hope I don't hurt anyone as I run down the halls!