"Evil Is Alive and Well"

In May of this year Jakob Dylan (son of Bob Dylan and lead singer of the band "The Wallflowers) released a solo album titled "Seeing Things". The first track titled "Evil Is Alive and Well" really grabbed my attention. It is easy for us to go throughout our lives never truly realizing the evil that is warring against us every day. This is actually how the enemy, Satan, would have it... In C.S. Lewis book "The Screwtape Letters" he paints us a picture of this plan through the letters of the demon, Uncle Screwtape, to his nephew Wormwood who is a junior tempter. C.S. Lewis says"There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their exsitence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthly interest in them". Satan would love for us to believe that he doesn't exist. If he could keep us in a state of disbelief then he could attack us and we wouldn't even know where it was coming from. Better yet if we don't believe in his existence then we don't believe in God and then we are completely vulnerable and helpless. But if for some reason we break the first part of the Enemy's plan and see his existence he has many other plans to follow. The next thing he would have us believe is that he really is just a little red devil with horns and a pointy tail. If we could have this picture of him then we would believe he is stupid, powerless, and only comes out at Halloween. But if by some reason we figure out that there is more to him then a litte red trident then he will want us to get soo focused on him that we are distracted and afraid to live out our lives. Luckily because of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross we don't have to live in fear of Satan. We have been given the authority, power, and grace to overcome any one of his attacks. I myself have many times not given the enemy enough credit for the times I have fallen into his traps. In fact many times I have blamed it all on myself as if there wasn't an evil battling against me at all. So I plead with you as you go about your day remember the words of Jakob Dylan "Evil IS ALIVE, and Evil IS WELL"..................
Maybe later I will have a little more to say on this topic and it won't end so abrupt. However for now I am tired and I have never claimed to be all that great of a writer. "Evil Is Alive, Evil is Well."

Longboarding and My Brother- Tim

I had the opportunity to spend some time this weekend with one of my favorite people to ever walk the planet... My older brother, Tim. Tim is one of the most genuine and kind hearted people you will ever meet. He is wicked smart and it has shown through the many great decisions he has made in life. One of the best decisions he has made was marrying his beautiful wife Katie. They both have recently purchased a house in the Woodlands and currently reside there. One of my favorite things to do is drive up there and hang out with them at their new house. Last weekend we went up there and I brought my wife Meredith's mountain bike and my longboard. We decided to tie a rope to the back of the mountain bike to pull each other around on the longboard. Ten years ago this would of been no problem for us but it is funny how things change. I am pulling Tim down a nice steep hill and he begins accelerating to a good 20 mph when he begins to get the dreaded speed wobbles. Everything inside of me wants to do whatever I can to keep him from falling but then he pulled the biggest "erfie" of all time and leaps of the board sliding awkwardly on his hands and knees. I immediately stop the bike and get off to check on him. As I run over to him he is already doing the whole "I'm alright, I'm alright" hop down the street. After making sure all of his bones were still in his skin I then began wondering where the my board was!?! As I am looking around I notice a nice sewer opening in the curb and quickly realized where it was. I begin laughing as lay onto the boiling hot pavement and look into a dark sewer that is at least ten feet deep. We try to lift the sewer lid but realize by our burnt fingers that wasn't going to work. We then run and hobble-(Tim) back to his house and get a shovel to lift the sewer lid. We get back, lift the sewer lid off, and Tim climbs down into the hole and rescues my uninjured longboard. We got back to the house and got made fun of by our wives who were working on a puzzle. Me and Tim give each other a look as if it is all worth it despite all the injuries and banter from our wives. I am truly blessed to have such an amazing big brother who will always have a lot of fun! Tim's injuries consisted of a sore knee, chipped tooth, and a concrete enema. I thank God for such an amazing brother and pray for God's richest blessings on his life. Even his chipped tooth...

Live to Forgive!

It is made clear that if we do not forgive we will not be forgiven. There are no two ways about it. Since this is the case what are we to do? It is going to be hard, but I think there are two things we can do to make it easier. When you start reading you don't start with "The Tale of Two Cities". If you are like me you learn to read your A,B,C's and then you move on to something a little more complex like "Where the Wild Things Are". In the same way if we really want to learn to forgive someone (and the key is to really want to) then we need to start small. We need to start with something a little easier than Shakespeare. You might start by forgiving the person that cut you off on your way to work and then work up to your friends and family members that have hurt you in someway in the past week. That alone will probably keep us busy for awhile. Secondly, we need to try and wrap our minds around understanding exactly what loving our neighbors as ourselves means. If we were to be completely honest with ourselves we would realize that we too cut people off in traffic and we sometimes hurt the people around us. If we want to get gut honest we just need to think of all of the times we have done things against God. Yet our heavenly father is so faithful in forgiving us no matter what we do. We also need to carry this same love with us everywhere we go.