A branch, strengthened by God, from henceforth, excellent.

Thanks

2009-10-31T06:33:00.001-07:00

Check out the, "International Grace Party", on facebook, It's a great way to connect with your journey mates in real time, over the phone. To date we've been meeting once a week or so in a conference calling format.
Best
Leonard

Interview with the Breeze Man

2009-09-21T12:55:00.001-07:00

A spoof ???

Wonderful Councilor.

2009-09-06T08:23:00.000-07:00

I know some folks who call themselves "wonderful councilors", to this day I wonder if they still help to engineer train wrecks, with their council.

A while back I was teetering on a simple decision, someone had offered me a ticket to see and hear one of my favorite authors speak, I couldn't make up my mind to go or not, cuz I'm not all that comfortable in big crowds and I'm still a control freak as far as trying to manipulate whom I encounter, why? because I'd rather not have to deal with folks that are religious and there was a chance I'd bump into one of em at this event.

So "I was talking to an Eskimo", friend of mine, and she said, paraphrased, " look Leonard if ya don't wanna go then stay home, your righteous no matter your decision on this matter", my Eskimo friend made it clear to me that I was loved and completely excepted by her & the Spirit that resides in her. Once I understood this, it was easy, so I went, and am glad I did.

Thanks friend, a wonderful councilor resides in you and your wise and lovely to yield to Him.

Look what Bino showed me on fb.

2009-08-22T12:11:00.001-07:00

Guess I'll be keeping my face book account...

Cut & Paste.

2009-08-15T10:15:00.000-07:00

Quoting Jamie, quoting Gary.

"Jesus’ death was so that your old man could die." .......

"Their sins were drawn into Christ. II Cor. 5:21 says He was made to be sin for us. That is evangelism, just making people believe in the finished work of Christ. But the problem is that we don’t even believe that the finished work of Christ was enough.".......

"What is the field, ....... The field is the world. Jesus is the man, the world is the field, and the treasure in the world is the church. In order to have the treasure, Jesus had to buy the whole field. In order to get the glorious church He had to buy the whole field, and He sold everything that He had, to get it. All He was He gave so that out of the world there would be a treasure, which is the church a people in His image. He couldn’t get that treasure by just buying the treasure; He had to buy the whole field. Anybody in the field can become part of the treasure. In order to buy the church, He had to get the world. There was only one way to make this thing legal, and that was to buy the whole world. So He became one with all the world so that out of the world would come the treasure. He was more than willing to do it".......

"Daniel 7:21-22 I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom

He’s talking about a revelation of the judgment that happened at the cross.

Judgment was given to them. That means a revelation of the judgment of Christ was given to them, and in that they can turn and deliver those people who are still trying to crucify themselves. The anti-Christ will prevail against you until you get a revelation that you are not the one doing the crucifixion. Who is the anti-christ? The anti-Christ is everything that is not Christ. It is anti-Christ.

If He was crucified for you and you are still trying to crucify yourself, that would be anti-Christ".......

Friends, we have all been cut and pasted into Christ, the good news is so good even us,"His Church", struggle to believe it.

Grace only, no leaven. "follow that cut and you'll find hidden treasure."

Best to you.

Leonard

Seed Shack.

2009-08-13T07:12:00.000-07:00

I went to hear Paul Young speak about his book the Shack, the other day.

If I understood him the Shack represents the flesh and all its window dressings, in other words it represents the place we live and hide.

My shack is pretty shabby but others have wonderful looking shacks, thing is they are still shacks.

Mr. Young went on to explain that it took him better then 11 years of yielding to dismantle his Shack and come to a place where all he had left was a seed. He is everywhere I wanna be.

I also learned that the Character 'Missy', represented our innocence murdered by this fallen world. It was a very enlightening talk, if you ever get the chance to hear him, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Jhn 12:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Your prayers appreciated

Paul Young and I.

2009-08-11T20:13:00.001-07:00

I was so nervous I managed to hold the book upside down.

The thing about Hats.

A Mastermind

2009-08-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

I want your mind, mine is all concerned with self , self promotion and preservation... It's all about me, give me yours .

Whats that ??? you say you already did... then how about some ear drops and eye salve ???

Whatdaya mean, view things from your prospective??? Howmy gonna do that,? its not like I can see things from your point of view...

"Seated with you" ??? for Pete sakes whataya talking about ???

I'm beginning to think your pretty stubborn, you always seem to wanna do things your way, said the branch to the vine.

Peculiar people ***

2009-07-25T21:03:00.000-07:00

What attracted me to the gospel of the Grace of God verse religion...

I've been thinking about that question quite a bit lately. The message of Gods Grace is captivating to me because it puts us all on a level playing field, those who truly are proponents of the Grace message, say like people who teach it and truly live by it are a strange bunch, "a Peculiar people",,, the ones who truly understand or have caught the message don't seem to look down their noses at those who haven't attained as much, because near as I can see, if you've attained to something and grown and your are sold to the pure gospel, then you can look down on no one because you've come to realize that what ever it is you've attained to, it has been by Gods grace alone. The people who seem to really get it are very peculiar indeed... I like that.

Its a very humbling message and only the humble seem to excel in it. There is a lesson in this somewhere for me.
Only Grace.
Best
Leonard

You gotta see this...

2009-07-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8DCt3Lmi28

Thanks allot Yvette, Yew could'a told me to fix the shortcut,,, Sheesh.. ;-)

I have written what I have written.

2009-07-21T11:14:00.000-07:00

And I had no idea that a deleted blog could be undeleted...

I deleted this blog months back because I figured it was more about selling me than the Grace of God. Completely forgetting that He bought me for a price. I do that allot, see I've gotta good memory but sometimes it only last about 5 minutes .

Showers vs. baths.

2009-05-12T10:55:00.000-07:00

A friend posted this on face book, hope you enjoy it.
Best
Leonard

Thru the past eight months I had grown accustomed to Dag, and his, here I gotta look for a political way to phrase this, "quirks". He was a hard worker who drove his earth mover relentlessly, a manic smile on his face, talking non-stop to himself beneath the din of the heavy machinery, as he busted open the hard, red, New Mexico clay.
He had a drive that few others possessed, even the most seasoned of hands on any crew i had ever seen. He wasn't old, by any stretch of the imagination, I mean-not like me, yet he was far from wet behind the ears. And though, when he wasn't cutting open the ground at break neck speed, or maneuvering his Deere like nascar idol and he was talking non stop, he seldom talked about himself.
So the past eight months have moved slow. No new hires, no new jobs. Just busting and clearing for the gas and oil companies that were finishing the drills they started in the fall, before the economy...fell. We needed a crew of six cutting brush and moving tinder out past the third cattle guard on Hart Canyon road near well # 117, so it was me, four of the long timers, and Dag. I brought him along for kicks, there was no dirt work for him today, and knowing he needed the pay, I was eager to see if he could handle a chain saw like he could an earth mover or a front end loader. We broke into three teams, hopped into the pickups and headed out.
It was only a fifteen minute drive out to the sight. I figured Dag would talk my ear off about Egyptian mummies, or the kind of wood George Washington's teeth were made out of, you know, one of his crazy fact based observations, but he was quiet.
He just looked at me every once in a while with this big ass grin, then look away and shook his head. It was starting to piss me off, but before I could ask him what the hell his problem was, we were deep in the canyon on the lip of the #117.
We were behind the water truck, and as we hit the less developed part of the road things slowed down. This was the part of the trip that could take longer than expected. I sighed, and rolled down the window a crack, and fiddled with the radio knob, even though i knew that there was not a signal to be had over this side of the bluffs. Dag smiled and shook his head.
"You ever read the Bible?" Dag asked.
"What the hell kind of question is that? Of course I read the Bible" I said. This guy presumes a whole bunch.
"The whole thing?" He asked.
"Enough to keep me from going to hell!" I said. "Look, if your gonna start in on the Bible this morning, keep it to yourself, okay? I'm not interested in what your New York Times reading- commie sympathizing-Clinton voting, tree hugging- ass has to say about God. I like God. God has been good to me".
"Okay" Dag said, smiling.
The water truck ground to a stop, the doors opened and Yazzie and Nelson, the two navajo drivers, hopped out and opened the hood. The road was too narrow to pass them, we were stuck for a while. I sighed loudly, wishing I had the foresight to remember my Coffee thermos. Dag raised his arms, placed his hands behind his neck, stretched himself out, and smiled.
"What are you so happy about this morning?" I asked.
"I am happy every morning, Trainwreck" he said.
"Well, what makes you so happy every morning?"
"Everyday I wake up, I am a victor, I have defeated my enemy
once more" he said.
"Oh boy, here we go. And your enemy?" I asked.
"Death" he replied.
I laughed out loud about that one, and lit up a Camel. "You may have won the battle, but that is a war you ain't never gonna win".
"My job is the little battles, the big one has already been taken
care of for me" Dag said.
I started feeling anxious. I had one of those trapped in a confined space with a person who is gonna start telling you crap you didn't want to hear kind of feelings.
I took a deep pull of the butt, rolled the window down a little more, and blew out a long slow cloud of smoke. The sun had risen a little further over the hill and was pounding through the windshield, stabbing me in the eyes. I tried to maneuver the visor to block it out, but it was no use. I sighed again.
"You're a Camel man, eh?" Dag asked, smiling.
"I am" I said, plainly.
"How long have you been cozying up with those monsters?"
he asked.
I could feel myself getting a little hot for no particular reason. Dag smoked. I seen him plenty of times. He carried a pouch of Bugler, and one of those magazine bought rolling kachinguses, so I knew it wasn't about the harms of tobacco. Still, it was making me uncomfortable, I wasn't sure where it was heading, but I didn't like it just the same.
"I have been a proud smoker of Camel brand cigarettes since i was
shittin yellow and suckin on my mommas tit" I said, smiling back.
"You paint a pretty picture, Trainwreck" he laughed.
I took a deep drag, and, blowing out a thick, blue cloud, tossed the butt out the window. A slight breeze carried it into some weeds by the side of the road. Before i could belch, fart, or say huh, the weed burst into flames.
'"Sonofabitch" I shouted, and jumped out of the truck and stomped the weed until the danger was gone. Yazzie and Nelson stopped banging on their engine for a moment and looked up, laughing.
"Hey Train wreck" Yazzie yelled, "doing a little rain dance?"
Nelson giggled like a school girl, and they went back to work on the engine, laughing and talking in Navajo. I got back into the truck and slammed the door. I was expecting Dag to be laughing his ass off, or at least smiling, but he was staring out the passenger window with far off look in his eyes.
"What, don't you have something witty to say?" I asked.
"Camel, they're a turkish blend, right?" he asked.
"That's what it says on the package" I replied.
"Well, it's American tobacco, right?" he asked.
"Well, yeah!" I said.
"What does that mean then, Turkish blend?"
"I don't follow"
"Well, its American tobacco, grown here, picked here, rolled
here."
"Yeah?"
"So what makes it Turkish?" He asked.
"The Goddamn palm trees on the stupid label" I shouted.
"You realize, of course, that they do not have palm trees
in Turkey?"
"Just leave me the hell alone will ya?" I said.
I was getting hot. The car was getting hot. I was getting irritable for no particular reason and wished to God that those two goofy redskins would get that water truck running and on up the damn road.
"What do you know about feet washing?" Dag asked.
I was starting to get steamed.
"So now you're gonna start in on my feet, are ya?" I growled. "If you
don't like the way they smell, stick your head out the window".
"I mean the washing of feet" he said.
"Don't start in my hygiene, I take a shower every morning when I
wake up, and another one when I get home at night. My feet are
fine. Not any stinkier than yours, at any rate."
"Not your feet. Feet."
"Feet?"
"Yeah, feet."
"I don't know what your getting at?"
"Foot washing" he said.
"I don't think I like where this is going. Foot washing?"
"Foot washing."
"You mean, like, in the Bible, or something?"
"Yeah."
"What do you mean what do I think of it?"
"Ever washed anybody's feet?"
"Hell no!"
"Ever had your feet washed?"
"No. I have not."
I was feeling less angry and a little more amused.
"Why, did you have it in your head that you were gonna wash my
feet this morning?"
"Did you want me to wash your feet?"
"Okay, I'll bite. What about the feet washing?
"You remember the episode in question?"
"Well, not in so much as I was there, but I know the story"
"Tell it to me"
"At the last supper, Jesus washed his disciples feet."
"And..."
"And what?"
"How did they feel about it? What did it mean?"
"I don't know, I think if I were them it would have made me a little
nervous."
"Why?"
"Well, how would you feel if I ran over to the water truck, got cup of
water and started washing your feet? You'd feel a little silly,
wouldn't ya? And how do you think Yazzie and Nelson would
react? Men just don't go around washing each other's body parts at
the dinner table."
Dag took out his pouch of Bugler, he took a wad of the loose tobacco and held it tight in his fist. He blew slowly into his fist and said:
"How did the disciples react?"
" They put up with it. Probably felt pretty good once you get past the
weirdness of it. I wouldn't like it."
"What about Peter?"
He blew long and soft into his fist.
"Oh, well he didn't go for it at first, like I said"
"Why is that?"
He blew into his fist again.
"Well, it made him nervous, he was like : 'Dude, nah, if there
is any foot washing going on here, It'll be me washing your feet,
you aint washing my feet, uh uh'.Peter knew Jesus was God, and
Peter wanted to serve God, to honor him. He didn't want to see God
degraded by getting down on his knees in front of everyone and
washing his feet like some kind of slave."
Dag blew into his fist again and said:
"Go on"
"Why are you blowing into your fist like that? That's distracting and
kind of annoying."
Dag laughed.
"My tobacco is a little dry. If I hold it tightly in my fist for a
while,and blow through it, the condensation from my
breath, and the sweat from my hand moistens it. Then it
burns slower. It makes for a more pleasing smoke."

"If you want it to stay moist just stick an apple peel in there. The
tobacco will absorb the moisture from the peel, and you get that nice
apple taste."

"I don't like apples".

Dag blew into his fist one more time, broke the tobacco up with his fingers, fished out his little rolling machine and papers, and twisted up a smoke and lit it with a silver zippo
"What happens next?"
"Well, Jesus tells Peter that if he won't let him wash his feet, then he
will have no part in him."
"Why does Jesus say that?"
"I don't know."
"What else happens?"
"Well, Peter starts getting a little goofy and asks to have the rest of
him washed. then he washes all of their feet and tells them to do it
for each other. Wait, oh yeah, he says, he says, 'Now that i have
done it for you, do it for each other, the servant is not greater than
his master."
"So, what do you get out of that?"
"Me? I don't know, that we are to be humble, I guess, and serve
each other"

I was impressed. He had been smoking that same cigarette for it seem like forever, and it wasn't even half gone. I lit up a camel. I began to wonder what
Dag's point was. He wasn't the kind of guy to lead you on and on without getting you somewhere, a point, a punch-line, something.
"So am I wrong?
"Not at all."
"Well, what does it meant to you?"
Dag took a monster drag on his square, the cherry burned a quarter inch down the shaft of his smoke, and burned bright. He opened his mouth and let the smoke roll out slowly, and inhaled it with his nose, finally ending with a couple of huge smoke rings. I could tell he was leading up to something.
"I was talkin with this Rabbi fellah at the rec. center. We
finished swimming at the same time, and were in the
shower at the same time."
I wasn't sure I wanted to hear anymore, but I still managed a "Yeah?"
"And he was talking about how important baths and
showers were to his faith. About the Mikvah, this special
bath they would have to bath in to be clean in front of God.”
It didn't seem like it was going to go the wrong way, so i tossed out another, "Yeah?”
"He told me that in the first century in Israel, that a Rabbi
would choose his disciples, take them to the Mikvah, su
pervise their bath, and after he had made sure they were
clean,that they belonged to him. He became their master,
and they followed him everywhere, they did all that he said,
memorized every word out of his mouth, and followed him
for the rest of their lives."
He seemed really concerned about this, so I had to rib a little:
"Well, you didn't let him scrub ya, did you?"
Dag laughed. "Nah, no."
"So what are you worried about then? Did you scrub him????!"
"Ha. No. It just got me to thinking that's all."
"Uh huh. Thinking about washing feet?"
"Yeah."
"What did you come up with?"
"Well, it got me thinking about the last supper. there
were some things there that just kind of made the
picture just a little different then it was before I had
that shower."
"Like what?"
" Okay. So I went home and I read The Gospel Of
John. And I get to chapter 13 where the feet stuff
happens, okay?"
"Go on."
"So Jesus is Jewish, right? Okay, so He starts wash
ing their feet, and he gets to Peter, right, and Peter
goes: 'Lord, do you wash my feet?'
"Well thats what I said."
"I know. And the disciples called him Rabbi, see? and
Jesus says, 'If I do not wash you, you have no share
with me.' Right? and I'm thinking: ah, if he doesn't
wash them, they don't belong to him! anyways, Peter
says: 'Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and
my head!'"
"I told you that!"
"I know. I know. LIsten, then Jesus says,'The one
who has bathed does not need to wash, except for
his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean' .
So I'm thinking, Oh, they have bathed, they have had
a Mikvah! And now the rabbi is washing their feet, so
that they belong to him now for life, right?”
I was getting a little nervous again, but the water truck wasn't moving so I bit. "Yeah?"
"Yeah. then listen to what he tells them: “Do you un
derstand what I have done to you? You call me Rabbi
and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your
Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also
ought to wash one another's feet.
For I have given you an example, that you also
should do just as I have done to you' get it?"
"Yeah..."
"Yeah, he says, ' I say to you, a servant is not greater
than his master, nor is a messenger greater than
the one who sent him..."
"Right. like I said..."
"Right. So what does it mean?"
"A servant is not greater than his master?
"Yeah, what does it mean? Is the servant ever
better than his master?"
"It means we are supposed to be equal."
"Then why is one guy washing and the other guy
getting washed? Who would the servant be,
the washer or the guy getting washed?"
"I guess the guy doing the washing would be the servant"
"So Peter was Jesus' master?"
"What? No! I mean, Yes, Jesus was everyones servant. He is
everyone's master though, too!"
"So who is serving and who is being served?"
"So, you mean we can serve someone by letting them wash our
feet?"
"Well, what do you think?"
He was driving me nuts. My head was starting to hurt. I was having trouble seeing what he was getting at. Jesus commanded them to do this for each other, so he wanted them to wash each other's feet. The only thing i could make of it was that they were to be humble, do stuff for each other, and to have clean feet.
"Dag, I'm getting a little tired from lack of motion and lack of caffeine.
Why don't you just put it all together for me? Have a little pity?”
Dag seemed to like that. Like he had been waiting for this moment. He took the last drag off of his hand rolled number and snuffed it in the ash trey. He blew out a cloud of smoke, pushed in the ashtray and took off:
"Okay, see, first off, Jesus is their rabbi, they call him
rabbi, and he has bathed them in the mikvah. They
have been baptized into him, and belong to him. They
agree to submit, serve,and see to his needs,
He takes responsibility for them and agrees to lead,
love, and teach them for the rest of his life.
Then he tells them to do this for each other, so that they
will each submit themselves to each other
as servants, but also each take responsibility for each
other as rabbi's. Not only are they to be equal
to each other, they are to own each other also, follow?
There is no greater, each must teach, and each must
serve, and they are to do this to and with all who come
together with them under Him!"
He had really worked himself up, the veins were bulging in his neck and forehead, the truck was rocking with the violence of his gestures. He Honked the horn and shouted out the window:
"RABBIS AND SERVANTS ALL!!! IF YOU KNOW THESE
THINGS, BLESSED ARE YOU IF YOU DO THEM!!!"
LOOK OUT YAZZIE!! REPENT NELSON, I AM
COMING UP THERE AND I AM GONNA WASH
YOUR DIRTY, STINKING, FEET! YOUR FEET
BELONG TO ME!!!!
Nelson and Yazzie stopped and looked around the water truck smiling. Yazzie jumped into the big red monster and turned the key, and the engine turned over and barked. It began to hum. Nelson slammed down the hood, hopped into the passenger seat and they lurched forward and on up the hill. I started up the truck, and within seven minutes we were at the #117. The other guys had beaten us there and were taking advantage of my absence by laying around and napping. I got them all on their feet and asked Danzer, one of long timer's, to show Dag the right way to cut down a tree. Dag laughed. He grabbed a chain-saw, pulled his safety googles on and said:
"Trainwreck, there ain't no right way to cut down a tree".
He fired up the chain saw, winked, and headed off into the brush.

Charles Pike aka Trainwreck

Dinner in Seattle.

2009-04-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

I got involved in a 4 way net meeting last night, using an application called tokbox, it’s kinda temperamental but we had 4 time zones on it and were able to see each other and video chat all at the same time. If your on my yahoo buddy list then you’ve probably received and invite to tokbox, like I said, its kind of temperamental but when ya get the bugs out it works fairly well so I’d encourage you to play with it if you’ve time because it’s a great way to connect and fellowship with your friends & family across the globe. It works best with ear phones because of an echo problem, also if you’ve no web cam, one can be had for between 10 and 20 dollars at your local Wal-Mart.

The family I had dinner with recently observed and likened the early church’s use of the worlds infrastructure to our current use of the world wide web in the following post, http://dhcosbyfamily.blogspot.com/2009/04/walking-roman-roads-today.html they noted in the read how God uses the worlds infrastructure to further His agenda in our time as well throughout history.

Funny side note, I use to think face book was a bad idea, I figured it was just some trendy thing you did to be trendy and that it was just another invention of the worlds you could use to be cool and hip, but have since found it to be simply a Roman Road that can be used for the encouragement and fellowship of others not to mention a witness to the curiosity of those seeking a relationship with the Master. Just wanted to throw in that little plug for those of you who’d like to take your journey to the next level by being a bit more known and accessible, no pressure though, just wanted to throw that idea out there.

Just wanted to let those involved know it was a pleasure to fellowship with ya’s see and meet your family’s and just plain get to know ys’s better. Special thanks to my new friend Chas for keeping us entertained and the conversation flowing during the awkward times when the conversation waned and no one knew what to say.

It was a real hoot to join friends several time zones away at their dinner table. I hope you’ll try tokbox or some other voice messenger application for fellowship with your journey mates.

Ps. No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
Or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,'
Because they will all know me…..

Grace, its for being known.

Best
Leonard

Voices in the wilderness.

2009-03-17T22:39:00.000-07:00

All things considered, I’d rather be reading your journey, speaking with and or listening to you, because I type poorly, am lazy so it’s a chore sometimes. But I guess that’s not fair, so I’ll try and pry myself outa laziness.

Neat thing out here is the voices you get to hear, I’ve found a family of journeyers and they actually bother to listen as well as speak. Thanks and thanks for your encouragement.

I heard a voice once and no one was there, and I don’t wear aluminum foil hats to keep the Martians from beaming thoughts into my head, I know my own thoughts.

Everyone it seems is dealt a random hand some live long some die young, some are rich some are poor, some are sick some are relatively healthy, some struggle with depression. I have had some serious bouts with depression and one day I woke up and had come to an end. I was pissed off because I woke up again, I’d had it. So I went into a room by myself and sat down put my feet up on a desk and began to reason in myself. I wasn’t talking to anyone just myself nor was I looking to or for God at the moment. I was at the lowest of lows and it went something like this.

I reasoned thus, you know you’ll probably never have any kind of satisfying career you’ve tried pretty much everything you can think of and nothing ever seems to work out, and I couldn’t agree more. Then I reasoned you know you’ll probably never be married have a family someone to come home to, you don’t seem to excel in the relationship department as a matter of fact you seem to suck at it, your always sabotage relationships, so anyway you’ll most likely never have a special someone, I couldn’t agree more, at the time that one stung the most. And on I went reasoning should I stay or should I go, and all the reasoning seemed to point to the go column, one after the other, lined up in the cons, there were no pros to be found. Ya follow?

Then I reasoned thus, you know, on top of all this, you are a coward for your God, you’re no example, you’re no shining light, who in their right mind would want your God for being exposed to you??? And I couldn’t agree more. At just that moment I heard a voice, like I said; I know my own thoughts and do not wear metal hats to keep the aliens from telling me stuff.

To the best of my recollection this is what the voice said. “ I understand, pause, but I have done a great and mighty deed for you, pause, would you consider doing this one thing for me, would you stay here a little while longer and after a little while I will send for you or I will come and receive you unto myself.” The voice said nothing more, I was dumb struck and very amazed, then the fear of death was removed from over me, that fear you have that keeps you from playing in traffic or standing to close to the ledge of a high place, it was gone, it was as if the voice was saying, “there I have removed your last obstacle you may come home now if you want”, the voice didn’t say it but that is the strong impression that I received. (Permission to die.)

At this point I would like you to note the first words out of the voices mouth, just two words, “I understand”, that is not the voice I am use to, the voice that was familiar to me up to that point would have said something more along the lines of,” what were you thinking or why would you do something as stupid as that, or what did you expect considering the way you’ve gone about it”. Have you heard that voice? I have, and still do.

Also note that the voice made no demands, none, I didn’t have to perform for the voice as a matter of fact the voice found me, I wasn’t looking for it. Years prior to this I had ask for forgiveness and sought the voice but on my own terms or the terms of those that I thought were better qualified, (“Brokers” to borrow a term) for the most part.

I’ve shared this story with more than one IC professional, these people are fools at least the ones that I’m thinking of; some even told me that God would never give one “permission to die”. A few of these IC professionals even have the audacity to liken themselves as wonderful consolers. How they love to point to themselves.

In some IC’s foot washing is made into a real drama, some guys will even wash a family members feet to put on a show, it sickens me because when Jesus washed feet, he did it in secret, he didn’t parade his friends before the congregation, to put on drama , and show how much he cared for these guy’s, it happened in an upper room, there were no witnesses. It’s not a lot of wonder, when you walk into most big churches you get the impression your in a theater and that is usually what you get, Theater. If you wanna wash something so bad, why not wash some ones car, chances are that the guy already had a shower that morning and your just doing it for kudos anyways and most of the time it’s the guy’s car that needs a bath course that wouldn’t make for good drama on Sunday would it ???

I’d much rather be reading you, yes even the sound of your voice, I find more soothing than any sermon I’ve sat through. You are the Lions. Make no mistake about it. The above mentioned are the fools and phony’s.

Oh and by the way, I went on to turn that awesome gift of the voice into a reason to be puffed up, just like Peters little walk on the water, I reasoned that hey I must be pretty special because the voice has spoken to me, If there’s a way to screw it up just like Pete, I’ll find it, I can be a pretty big fool myself. So in conclusion, I understand these fools, I do not excuse them, they have chosen to buy into one lie at a time until they liken themselves to “Wonderful consolers”, sorry but that position has already been filled and it aint you..

I guess the best you can do is point to the voice, don’t try and impersonate Him, because if you do, then, in the end all you’ll have to show for it is wood hey and stubble and you will thank Him for burning it, who would want to go though eternity dragging around a load of crap, especially when it comes time to throw the precious things to His feet, would you wanna be throwing your garbage??? No I’ll thank Him for burning mine, and I think for the most part we’ll beg him to burn it, see everything He dose is motivated by …

Grace, it’s for fools too, we need it, lots of Him.

ps. the morning after I posted this someone sent me a short cut to a random quote for an unrelated mater, here is the quote. >>>

"Candor is always a double-edged sword; it may heal or it may separate."
~ Wilhelm Stekel

Best
Leonard

Go to Quality Street instead...

2009-02-24T22:22:00.000-08:00

Quality Street.

ps. she left the radio on ,,,,,,, typical Eskimo.

Seeing.

2009-02-17T11:17:00.000-08:00

I’ve been taking part in this book study over at Joel’s, well not exactly at his place but he did instigate the thing and seems to be the only one with the study guide. We’ve been looking at a piece by Jim Robbins called “Recover your good Heart”, it’s a pretty good read, the main theme of the book defines exactly what it was that was accomplished and gifted to us by God in our spirit man or Heart, anyway the book can be had at Lulu for about 4 bucks if you don’t mind the download version.

I think we’ve met on line now about 4 times and I’ve enjoyed the fellowship and getting to know some of ya’s through the interaction there, it’s been quiet enjoyable for me and some of the folks that participate don’t even have the book so if you wanna check it out it’s open to all and you’ll have no trouble if your open to a conversation. Thing is we do it pretty much font only, using yahoo messenger, which works out well for a net meeting since you cant see the other people and haven’t a clue as who is getting ready to say something, so the text format seems to work great.

Joel’s been at the Grace message for quite sometime and has accumulated a good deal of experience, wisdom, and communications skills, not to mention growth, there I said it Joel, now can I have the 5 bucks you promised me… Anyway I’m glad to be tagging along and wanted you to know you can expect a good experience if you’re open to a conversation that is.

I had a pretty big aha moment the last time we met, I’m gonna try and take a shot at relating it to you but will not be disappointed if I cant make ya understand because for me to “get it”, was I believe a timing thing and I had to be ready, so I have no elusions that I can open your eyes, it’s not for me, revelation comes from the keeper of it.

So hear it is and no that was not a type-O. >“It is finished”.<

Grace, because most books have a bone or two.
Best
Leonard

Ps. I haven’t arrived yet but had my eye’s open to the fact that to the God head I am now expectable,,, cool beans. Even when I think I’m sinning, in truth I am only doing something that is not expedient, in other words, by His work I have been perfected, I finally saw that when it was pointed out at the book study.

Your better than you think.

2009-02-13T15:35:00.000-08:00

Say I was to gift you with a small vile of magic healing potion that would cure every disease known to man, but the catch is there is only enough for one person, all you have to do is uncap the vile and poor it on your head and whalla your healed from every thing from depression to cancer and guaranteed to die of a ripe old age, unless of course you get careless and step out in front of a buss or something…

What would ya do ???

You don’t have to answer this question because I already know whatcha would do. You’d take the vile to someone else that you care for who is for the lack of a better term been dealt a crappy hand; you’d uncap the thing and dump it straight away on their head. Oh yeah, and you would do it with great joy, even if it meant your own death.

Maybe there was a time that you would do this because you couldn’t live with yourself, had you used it on you instead of them, even that is a selfish motive. But now it’s different, self for self is no longer your motive or your nature, now that you’re joined to the Master and growing in Him, it’s all about them now isn’t it.

Thanks for your friendship, I really do soar with eagles, at least when I’m not moody.

Ps. Yes Jamie, I like the title of this post too. :-)

ps. ps. I havent a clue as to how to spell whalla... sorry folks .
Grace only, thanks for stopping.
Best
Leonard

Moody.

2009-02-12T17:54:00.000-08:00

I’m tired of being moody, is there an end to moodiness???

No hype please, but let me know if you’ve found the secret to an even keel.

Grace for the moody blues.

Lets Dance.

2009-02-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

Calling out Joel and Free Spirit, it's your turn.

Eskimos is code for, “the babes”.

2009-02-06T08:56:00.000-08:00

I like the Babes. You Ladies make wonderful friends and journey mates. A friend of mine recently posted something in honor of you’s and I wanted you to see it, It’s here.

Also If you look to my right hand margin and scroll to the last margin entry, you’ll find a shortcut to a video about a Lion reunited with his friends, if you ever get a minute watch that video, that would be me at the end hugging you’s and slobbering all over your pretty face’s.

See the truth is, you really are a princess and you really are lovely no matter what you think you look like.

Grace to you always.
Best
Leonard

Ps. The picture is a Google pic of an Eskimo girl that I don’t know, see I was gonna post a collage picture of all of ya’s, but figured I’d better not because I don’t want to experience, death by Eskimo, some of ya Eskimos are pretty particular about stuff like that..

Ps. Ps. funny thing happend when I went to visit my friend Amy.

Ps. Ps. Ps. Make the day of a "little Eskimo" brighter, visit her and leave an encouraging word...

Bear the wonder dog.

2009-01-29T13:38:00.000-08:00

I wonder if there is no end to his appetite.

For the past week or so I have a new best good buddy, his name is Bear and he likes to come over to visit once or twice a day to see what's on the menu. I keep a box of milk bones in the warehouse so I started to give him a snack when he stopped in while making his rounds.

The other day I cooked a chicken and afterwards I boiled the bones and gizzards to make him some broth, now I give him a ladle full in an old pie tin when he stops over and am rewarded with slobbery kisses that smell like chicken soup.

I cant help but notice all the little patches of yellow snow that have suddenly appeared in the yard, I guess bear has adopted the yard as part of his territory but so far he hasn't chipped in on the yard work unless you want to call his markings "snow removal".

I'm Rich.

2009-01-26T17:13:00.000-08:00

I was feeling a little cynical and shared that with a friend of mine, here is what she wrote me…Pay close attention to her words in red.

Subject: Re: Hi

Leonard sorry to hear you are feeling that way. Cynical about life in general? Or your faith? Or God's love for you? I would like to help, but maybe it is something between you and Him.

I have been reading through Colossians with my friend Cencerd. That has been so encouraging. It is a wonderful book, so full of Christ.

Something I never understood before is in chapter 2, verse 14 that talks about the decrees that were against us being nailed to the cross. I always thought it was our sins that were nailed to the cross, but it was our obligation to obey the law. He blotted that requirement out (KJV) that was "against" us. He took away the consequences of our not being able to obey it. Anyway, I have to think some more on it.

Did I ever send you this link? It is a great site. You can look up any passage in the Bible, and then click on the words and phrases and the meaning in the original language comes up in the white box. It is a tremendous help.

http://www.bju.edu/bible/bible.php?b=col&c=2&v=0&d=2&w=0

Cencerd and I were saying how focusing on Christ has a way of putting everything else in perspective. He is the Theme of all Scripture, and the One we will spend eternity gazing upon.

Have a good day my friend.

Hugs, Macaroni

See, my friends get it and they remind me when I forget it, Grace that is.

ps. I got Mac's permission to post this but I cencerd out the name of her friend out of privacy concerns. Thanks for stopping.

Best
Leonard

Plumbing.

2009-01-22T19:07:00.000-08:00

I always learn something new when I look up a word, take the word plumbing, I looked it up at the Webster site and the first definition is, “1, The act of using a plumb. So then I looked up Plumb, it means; a lead weight attached to a line and used to indicate a vertical direction — out of plumb or off plumb : out of vertical or true. So I guess to plumb something is to make sure that it's true and does not leak.

Then just for kicks I looked up the word Plumber, did you know that Mr. Webster's 3rd definition for the word plumber means,” a person whose job is to prevent or put an end to leaks of sensitive information. Wow, that's kind of interesting, in other words it's a person who protects the interest's of others, I never new that.

On another note.
I like this proverb, not the one in the picture but the one in red font below, I just used the picture to transition, but that proverb aint bad either, well anyway, I first saw it in the book,” He Loves me” by Wayne Jacobsen.

Only by learning to trust him would they experience the deepest longing of their heart.
Eden was not the final test. In God’s heart it was only the first of many lessons. The familiar proverb tells us that if you love something set it free. If it comes back to you, it’s yours. If it doesn’t, it never was. Only those who have loved something enough to let it go can even get a glimpse of what God accomplished in that Garden.
Excerpt from; He Loves Me. author Wayne Jacobsen
Page 101, Chapter 11: He loved you enough to let you go.

Grace, because it will teach you to love fully and wisely.

Philadelphia freedom.

2009-01-22T07:52:00.000-08:00

I used to be a rolling stone You know if the cause was right I'd leave to find the answer on the road I used to be a heart beating for someone But the times have changed The less I say the more my work gets done

'Cause I live and breathe this Philadelphia freedom From the day that I was born I've waved the flag Philadelphia freedom took me knee-high to a man Gave me peace of mind my daddy never had

Oh Philadelphia freedom shine on me, I love you Shine a light through the eyes of the ones left behind Shine a light shine a light Shine a light won't you shine a light Philadelphia freedom I love you, yes I do

If you choose to you can live your life alone Some people choose the city Some other choose the good old family home I like living easy without family ties Till the whipporwill of freedom zapped me Right between the eyes

'Cause I live and breathe this Philadelphia freedom From the day that I was born I've waved the flag Philadelphia freedom took me knee-high to a man Gave me peace of mind my daddy never had

Oh Philadelphia freedom shine on me, I love you Shine a light through the eyes of the ones left behind Shine a light shine a light Shine a light won't you shine a light Philadelphia freedom I love you, yes I do

Oh Philadelphia freedom shine on me, I love you Shine a light through the eyes of the ones left behind Shine a light shine a light Shine a light won't you shine a light Philadelphia freedom I love you, yes I do

Philadelphia freedom shine on me, I love you Shine a light through the eyes of the ones left behind Shine a light shine a light Shine a light won't you shine a light Philadelphia freedom I love you You know i love you, you know i love you, yes I do Philadelphia Freedom, i love you, yes I do Philadelphia freedom, you know that I love you, yes i do Philadelphia freedom, dont you know that i love you, yes I do Philadelphia freedom, dont you know that i love you, yes I do

You are missed please drop me a line.

Grace only, for those who love you.
Best
U.

" I'm cooking, I'm cooking" !!! weeee this is fun.

2009-01-17T20:37:00.000-08:00

Spiced Wine.

2009-01-16T19:20:00.000-08:00

I’m not sure what to write about so I guess I’ll write about that. Writing is such a chore sometimes, because I’m so slow and make more mistakes than I can count. When I was little I use to play with the old typewriter and pretend I was typing something important but all I was doing was banging on the keys, a monkey would have made more sense. When I was in High school I took a typing class but decided to quit school and get a job in the 10th or 11th grade. Seems like I was just passing through at the time, I did get my GED in the Army.

I just finished a half a cup of spiced wine and would have some more but I want to save it for a walk in the woods. I’m going to take a hike and heat some up on my sterno stove and have a little holiday just me and ,,,,, OK now I’m stuck, I was going to say Papa but it feels a little girly, which is fine if you’re a girl, so I need to come up with a pet name for my heavenly father, lets see, how about Abba, yeah that’ll work, it means the same as papa but most in the west don’t know it, so I’ll be able to maintain a bit of my mask, and Clint Eastwood reputation.

Anyway, my Bro Mark who past away many years ago, came back from his duty over seas with different kinds of spiced wine recipe’s and I’ve been thinking about that lately and got a hankering for spiced wine, found a recipe on the web and made some, it’s real good and a great warm up drink.

So I was telling my Sis FS about wanting to take a hike and have a little party all by myself but she insisted that I invite Papa and reminded me more than once. Well I’ve made the Wine and dug out my old sterno camping stove and plan on doing that soon, maybe tomorrow, will see, but I do plan on inviting Abba, which is kinda funny because He’s always there, so maybe it’s a lesson in training my thinker to just realize that fact. I also made some homemade sterno out of old tuna fish cans, card board and recycled candle wax. What you do is cut a 2 or 3 foot strip of cardboard about an 8th or ¼ inch wider then the can is high, roll it up, put it in the can and fill with molten wax. Mark taught me that trick, he was big into camping, it burns great the card board acts as a wick, but don’t use them indoors because they make a lot of soot. Oh and try and use the cans that are stamped out of one piece of tin, because there are no seems to split open from the intense heat.

Maybe I’ll take the opportunity to remember those that have left the planet, seems like I’ve been thinking about my Bro Mark quite a bit lately, I wonder why.

May Abba’s Grace Fill your heart and heal all your wounds.

ps. And don't worry, I'll only be a half a mile away, what could possibly go wrong. LOL...

Best
Leonard

Head Gear.

2009-01-05T21:09:00.000-08:00

For a better view, click pics.

I love a bargain and I’ve said someplace before that I’m a sucker for the Dollar Store. A year or so ago I bought a couple of these hats, because they were a bargain and I figured, “hey I like the hat and if it wears out I’ll have a spare”, thing is people started complementing me on my hat, like the cashier at a store or some other stranger, so what I’d do is go out to the car grab my spare hat and give it to them. Now that’s loads of fun and it only cost me a buck but the recipient has no idea, they just can’t believe someone would give em a hat for no other reason then a compliment. Since then, I’ve been back to that store many times and I always buy a few hats, they are bright orange and say Reese’s on the front in Gold letters. I’ve lost track of how many I’ve given away but I’ve got a little war chest built up, which is good since they no longer have that particular hat available at my favorite Dollar Store.

Sometimes I will trick people into complementing me on my hat, simply because I want them to have one. A couple of months ago I was at Meijer’s, standing in the check out lane, the cashier was quite the personality, he was full of life and joked with all the customers, I noticed an open bible that he was reading during his break or at slow times, well what do ya suppose the guy had to say about my hat? Yep said He liked the hat, so I did what I always do, when I got to my car and put my stuff in, I grabbed a hat and returned to give it to him, and he was grateful and thanked me for it.

That incident got me to thinking, the guy was obviously a follower of the Master, so soon after I looked up the meaning of Reese’s, and it mean Zealous, not Zealot, but Zealous. So I began to develop a theory about those hats and the people who received them from me, it’s just a theory but I’d like to believe it. Side note Zealous is another way of saying enthusiasm if one is enthusiastic you would say that they are full of life. Connect the dots because if I were to spell my theory out loud, someone might wanna lock me up, so I will just quietly believe, and hope.

I’m not a man of much means so I cant afford to do big expensive things for people and when I’m impressed or feel that I’m impressed to do something from the Master, it makes me kinda glad and I’m not saying that sometimes I can be completely out to lunch on some matters. Also I would have you know that I’m not telling you all this to boast but I’m sharing this with you because it may strengthen our faith.

So here’s the deal, recently I packed up a hat and I will sent it to a friend of a friend because I think the guy is Zealous for Grace and I just wanted him to have it. The box I used once contained salt and pepper shakers, see I had 2 small boxes to begin with but I sent something to another friend that has been under a great deal of stress with life, work, and all the other struggles of the game.

Anyway I packed up that idem in a poperie heater box, it was a teddy bear, funny thing about it is my mom loves puzzles, you know those jigsaw puzzles, she puts so many of them things together in the winter that I don’t even pay attention to what shes doing any more well after I mailed the little bear I came home to find she had finished another puzzle, check out the picture below and remember I had know idea what she was working on, I didn’t see the box top, by the way the blocks spell out the word BELIEVE.

Now back to the hat, it’s sitting in my car now and I’ll ship it tomorrow, I was having a second thought or two when I checked into a special lucky sisters latest post, the title of her post is "For unless they see the sky", its an Elton John YouTube of the tune (Mona Lisa’s and MAD HATTERS).

Grace, its for MAD HATTERS, like me and U 2.

Ps. I’m taken a chance that my teddy bear friend wont see this until it is a done deal, I hope her pepper shaker wont say anything to her if he gets here to soon.

ps. ps. Also I hope my other salty friend wont mention it to his friend either, Who would you send a cap to ?

ps. ps. ps. I'm not taking any comments on this one, the idea here was just to grow faith. Besides I don't think they were quite all my ideas in the first place, I just went along for the ride.

Oh yeah, just one more thing, here's a pic of my teddy bear friends logo, when you look at it, it's as though your "Seeing Sky"

More side notes;
Today is tomorrow if you were here yesterday, so I ran some errands, post office, paid bills and went to Meijers, guess who I saw there and hadn't seen him in a while, anyway I gave him my page address and invited him to stop in.

Brett, I hope I spelled your name right, hey you cant comment here but remember to say howdy on one of my older posts, thanks.

Best
Leonard

Relax, this means you.

2009-01-03T08:10:00.000-08:00

The other day a friend phoned to get together for coffee, but it didn’t work out so we decided to meet up the next day for a meal, which was better still. After that phone call I was moved to pray about getting together, but I didn’t know what to pray about, so I paused to listen, after a few moments I heard myself say this, “Master please speak to us through each other during our time together", and He did.

During our conversation my friend told me how he was learning to listen to others and simply except them with out trying to fix them, (sounds like the Master to me). Also the last significant thing that I was moved to communicate to my friend was to try and relax, be loved and enjoy the ride, I felt that is what the Master wanted him to know. ( side note, when I say I felt, please translate that into, I was impressed to do or say something, because I’m pretty sure were not to run on feelings alone.)

So later that same day I discovered a miscommunication with another friend and I was tempted to get all in a bunch and apologize the paint off the wall over the thing. Well this morning I got an email from that friend and though they never used the word, If you were to boil down that piece of mail to just one word, it would simply say, “RELAX”.

Grace, it’s for slow learners like me.

Best
Leonard
Ps. Thanks friend.

ps. ps.
I always wind up fine tuning and tweaking my post, anyway I went up to the kitchen to make spaghetti sauce after posting this but before I started the sauce, I grabbed one of those Dove promise chocolates that mom keeps hidden in the fruit drawer, I unwrapped it and popped the treat in my mouth then looked at the promise, here it is,(refer to pic), it say's," Enjoy everyday as though it was a spa day.

Can someone tell me what is it you do when you go to the spa, most would say, "RELAX".

More Snow ***

2009-01-01T07:47:00.001-08:00

Went for my walk last night, it was very still again, but not cold enough to make the snow sparkle. When I got to the lighted areas I paused to watch the snow fall under the lights. It was snowing lightly and like I said there was no wind, so the show seemed to float under the lights.

I could pick out individual flakes and count up to 12 Mississippi before they found the white carpet. The poles on those lights must be about 25 feet high so that's about a 2 foot per second decent.

The other thing I noticed was that 2 flakes would be together at the top of the light but by the time they made contact with the earth they had floated miles apart, well miles if you were the size of a snow flake

Made me think of how he has scatted you all over the planet. The Master must have good reasons for scattering you. I look forward to harvest time too.

Grace, because He's wiser then me.

Best New Year To You And Yours.
Leonard

ps. Added short cut just because I like the tune, I'm not taking a poke at anyone by it.

Are we there yet ?

2008-12-29T12:42:00.000-08:00

Grace, because there may be some assembly required.

Best

Leonard

Learning to live Loved.

2008-12-28T19:22:00.000-08:00

Recently I was listening to a podcast @ the God Journey, I like the God journey guys because their message is so consistent, anyway it was a 15 minute message with one of those guys and his wife.

The long and the short of their message is,"Learning to live Loved". The wife said that when she is struggling, she likes to stop and ask Farther, " Help me see where I am not living in your love".

That statement resonated with me, I think I would like to learn to live loved.

The trouble with Grace is there is no formula, in a way I like that because I was recently reading a friends page and she just throws out a thought. Sometimes it just a line or two, she's teaching me to live and blog lawlessly.

I guess its ok to live only by Grace. Thanks for the lessons friend.

If your becoming adjusted to " Living loved" I'd like to hear of it, but no platitudes please, just your experience.

Grace only.
Thanks
Leonard

The End.

2008-12-27T19:50:00.000-08:00

After much consideration I have decided to put an end on my blogging pages, This has been a difficult decision but I believe it is the best thing to do, actually I think it is the most excellent thing for me to do.

It has been a pleasure and an honor getting to know you and to share notes from our journeys together. Also I have been enriched by this experience and I thank you all. I just cant tell you how good this has been for me.

So long for now and I wish you all the Best or All Grace in the new year to come.

Grace because stat meters just wont do.

ps. If you would like to see the New End of my pages Scroll down to the bottom.

ps. ps. No comments please as my decision is final.

Birds in trees.

2008-12-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

Yep we got those too.

Took this shoot from moms room this morning.

Plus I got ya this Dove.

Grace and Peace.

Leonard

Christmas.

2008-12-25T09:12:00.000-08:00

Grace and Best always.

Leonard

Snow ***

2008-12-23T19:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday evening I went for my hike after dark it was very cold but still, no wind. In the winter months I like to take laps on a dirt road over by the old state hospital, they keep the road plowed and there’s not much traffic, at night you hardly see a car at all. The nice thing about walking there is that you don’t need snow shoes, I get can by with yaktrax. Yaktrax are like a web of heavy rubber bands with springs wound around them, you stretch em over the soles of your shoes for better traction.

Being as cold as it was the snow was different then normal, there is a couple of lighted parking lots that I pass by and the snow really sparkled in the light, I wanted to take a pic to share with you’s but my camera was on its dock getting charged at home. Anyway it was quite impressive like a field of gems in a sea of white. Like a peppering affect.

It made me think of you’s, you who walk after Grace. The Master has many children but few disciples.

I took my camera with me this evening hoping it would be the same but it’s a little warmer and it didn’t sparkle like last night. When it’s colder the snow even sounds different as your trudging along, it’s much squeakier. Kinda like its talking to you as you walk on.

Grace.
Best
Leonard

Can you hear me now !!!

2008-12-23T18:59:00.000-08:00

When Joel Dreams, I have nightmares.

2008-12-23T12:25:00.000-08:00

In case you missed it...

I stole this pic from Joel's pages, pretty cold in Iowa this time of the year, Well at least the hoser is heading a good direction...

I just hope he doesn't hit that other hose head.

SAVE FUZZY !!!

2008-12-23T12:24:00.000-08:00

Folks we gotta situation here, Please click the bear and Save him from the Trash bin, Heartless Heather must be stopped...

Grace, is for bears too.

Best

Leonard

Seasons Greetings

2008-12-18T10:07:00.001-08:00

My Christmas wish from all of me to all of you. Oh and don't listen to Craig, Joel and especially Jamie, "I am not a Ham", even though she's the resident expert.

ps. Dee, this is a short clip so it'll probably load ok for ya.

ps. ps. Roll the tape.

Craig say's watch this.

2008-12-15T08:51:00.000-08:00

Doors.

2008-12-13T18:19:00.000-08:00

Okay, here’s the set up. About a month or so ago, my poor old 82 year old mom was backing out of the garage one morning to go for her daily 2 mile walk, down at the civic center, the trouble began when she forgot to open the garage door, she backs up very slowly so she didn’t take the thing off the hinges or track but it ruined one of the wooden panels and since those doors are more than 25 years old, there was nothing to do but call the insurance company and order new doors.

Busted door.

I was able to patch the thing up good enough to use it while we waited for the new doors to come in, ya gotta order them, and that took about a month.

In the mean time my brother stops by frequently to lose money to my poor old, walks 2 miles a day, beats the snot out of any and all challengers in cards, works the cross words with a pen, mom, who happened to slip up one day and forgot to open the door before backing out. Oh and I did ask the guy who installed the new doors and he said it happens all the time with people of all ages. I tried to cheer mom up with that fact but she just wanted to feel old and incompetent for a while. So I figured hey, maybe Russ and I could help.

Mom, she's happy cause Mac shares recipe's

Mom drives a 13 yr old car, so there’s a cassette player in it. The day after we got the new doors installed I put this tape in the player, and when she started the car this is what she heard, it’s me and Russ on the tape and it’s going to make allot more sense to you if you’ve seen the movie, “Driving Miss Daisy”. After Russ and I finish talking it just goes on like that with the theme song. Oh by the way, my Dad’s name was Leonard so my birth family refers to me by my middle name, “Roe”, they did it like that so we both wouldn’t turn our heads every time we heard the name, “Leonard”, and I’m the youngest, go figure.

Me and Russ, I'm the handsome one with the sexy hair cut Also I'm the smarter one, I don't play cards with Mom for money.

Roll the Tape.

Grace, because mom's need it most.

Best

Leonard

More fun with doors.

2008-12-13T18:15:00.000-08:00

Once in a dream, I found myself at someone's door, the door was ajar slightly and hinged so that if I were to knock it would close the door. I could hear music coming from inside, it sounded like a small radio playing, and I knew you were there but I couldn't tell if someone was in there with you, so I reached for the door knob and stopped midway because it wouldn't be right for me to open your door, that's only for you to do, like I said I couldn't knock because if I did, it would close the door all together. So in my dream I walked away from the door very frustrated, there was nothing I could do.

Some time later, I'm pretty sure you left me a note, and you hung it in two trees, and I think you had a helper.

I would have you know, that I did reply to your note with a 4 page letter. To this day, you may still find my reply in a Blood Covered Lion's Den. Number 12, Rocky Raccoon.

Grace and All His Best to You.
me
ps. Unless you hang notes in trees, please don't comment here.

Joel now and then.

2008-12-11T13:45:00.000-08:00

Hey, I don't normally like to post what others have written or said, but I had to let you in on this because it was hidden in the comment section of one of my favorite bloggers.

I may have a few years on my friend Joel, but I still consider him a big brother.

The following words belong to him, the context is a conversation he is having with somebody, and he's trying to persuade them of the superiority of Gods grace over the old testament Law system.

Have a look. Joel's words in red.

I guess what I'm talking about here is the difference between faking the sanctification process and truly growing in grace.

There are some elements of what you're saying that I agree with and some that I disagree with (as far as how they fit or don't fit into the Christian life), and that's all ok, but just to highlight a couple of things...

I think that so many people focus on the "work out your salvation" part and make it out to be something that's so very, very hard and difficult --- while leaving out the rest of it ("for it is God who works in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure"). Jesus said the work of God is to believe in Him. He said, "take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Hebrews says, "strive (or 'labor') to enter His rest. Jesus said that as a branch abides in the vine, so we abide in Him and we will bear fruit. (By the way, HE produces it... WE simply bear it)! He said that even the work He did wasn't His own work, but it was the Father's words and it was the Father who was working the works in Him. I think we can take a tip from Him!

Since we seem to focus on the "work" part and spend very little time understanding that the work flows from our rest, we have a church full of burned out servants, who are really only faking service, since they're not doing it from a state of abiding. They're not doing it from a state of rest. They're not doing it in the way that Jesus said ("This is the work of God - that you believe in Him who He sent"). Rather, they're working hard from the flesh to try to get things done.

Jesus did indeed say that people must be perfect. "Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Actually, it means something closer to "complete" or "mature"). He also said, "if you want to enter into the kingdom of heaven, your righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees." "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out" was part of the same speech (or "sermon"). Who can obtain perfection by what they do? Who can enter the kingdom of heaven by any amount of their own righteousness, whether it exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees or not? Will plucking our your eye or cutting off your hand really amount to anything!?? This whole sermon was, to me, the words of an Old Covenant teacher (Jesus), teaching "law" to those who were still under the Old Covenant. As Paul later said, whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and everyone become guilty before God" (Rom 3:19).

If this particular teaching of Jesus is a New Covenant teaching (that is, for Christians to follow), then there's going to have to be an awful lot of instant "perfection"... or there's gonna have to be an awful lot of faking it!!! No one can become perfect through what they do. No one can enter heaven by their own righteous deeds. No one can gain an inch by cutting off a hand or plucking out an eye! Even if Jesus was "just exaggerating to make a point" (which is what too many people think), it's still far-fetched to believe any of this can be done!

And so my point... it all comes down to grace, grace and more grace. Our struggle is the struggle of getting rid of the fleshly notion that we can do any of this on our own. We "work it out" by resting in Him. We reckon (count it as fact) ourselves as dead to sin because He has taken our sin away and we are dead to sin through His gift!

We live above sin, not through a struggle to overcome it, but through a vibrant faith that we are His workmanship and that He works in and through us! We take His easy yoke and His light burden upon ourselves and rest in Him. He Himself is our victory.

I 'get' all the spiritual warfare stuff. In fact I've posted about it before. Taking away from the battle imagery for just a second, look at the substance of the things Paul mentions in Ephesians 6. Truth. Righteousness. The Gospel (good news) of Peace. Faith. Salvation. The Word of God (Jesus - not the Bible)... and last but not least, Prayer.

What are all these things but GIFTS from God! Be strong in THE LORD and in the power of HIS might! It's HIS battle... not ours! As we rest in Him, these gifts are made manifest in and through us. Leave it to Him. You won't ever have to fake anything!

Grace, it's what makes Grace Roots Possible.

ps. There's just a couple other things I'd like you to notice about my big Bro Joel, at the risk of embarrassing him.

Note when you visit Grace Roots and Grace Roots org to down load an MP3, you'll find no paypal or donate here buttons, my brother Joel works for a living and he takes some of what he earns and builds and maintains web sites and hours and hours of Archived MP3 files in hopes of winning some to Grace. Not to mention he builds trust in relationships with the Master. See my Bro takes after the first disciples, {the Peters and Paul's of old}.

Not that there's anything wrong with soliciting donations, it's just that when you visit Grace Roots, at least up until the time of this writing, THE GRACE IS ALWAYS A FREE GIFT.

Best
Leonard

For my snow loving Eskimo friends.

2008-12-10T19:16:00.000-08:00

Craig's picnic table.

Scooters Hedge.

Come and get all you want, send trucks,,,,,,,,

Big trucks.

Best

Leonard

Blogging religiously?

2008-12-09T19:09:00.000-08:00

Well I found that I had to revisit my blogging technique, what I normally do is print out those of you on my blog roll and read you at my leisure but it seems like I’m adding to my roll weekly and sometimes daily, so what I started to do was to have a second list of bloggers and the reason for that was to save my own face because I had told ya’s that if your on my list, that I print every thing that you write and I wanted to keep my word, hence the second list.

Well it didn’t seem right for me to have two lists, it felt like I was somehow being a divider, or Implying that some were better than others, and I don’t want to do that, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having favorites, kinda like desiring chocolate over vanilla or strawberry, flavored ice-cream. So I’ve found that there are those of you that I seem to connect with better than others, and I think that’s normal, least I hope.

So I’ve decided to scrap my second list and consolidate all on one, but I have found that I cannot keep up with printing everything. Also it seemed like it was becoming something that I had to do in order to feel like I fulfilled some type of duty, {I was getting religious about it}, and I sure don’t wanna go there.

I figure Ill just do the best I can to follow your journeys, and I’ve gotta tell ya’s that I learn more from reading you, than I do from reading any book, not that I don’t learn many things from you authors out there, it’s just that your journals hit home far more than any book.

At the risk of sounding redundant, Thank you for sharing your journeys.

Grace, it’s what makes people real.
Best
Leonard

A day in Joels life.

2008-12-05T11:54:00.000-08:00

For a better view click the picture.

Grace, because women need it the most when dealing with us guy's...

Best
Leonard

ps. Also it doesn't hurt to have some extra when dealing with me...

Windows...

2008-12-04T06:24:00.000-08:00

When I was young , 16 or 17, I met the love of my youth but I didn’t know that I loved her. One day she sat across a table from me, we were all by ourselves, and she told me a story about her childhood, she showed me her deepest wound up to that point in her life, and she trusted me with it. She took me to the window of her heart, and she was bleeding, but I didn’t know it. All I knew was, “I wonder why she's telling me this”. Her story reached deep inside and touched something that I had buried and kept protected, but from that moment I put her up in a high place, because I loved her, from then on she was to good for me.

She told me that when she was a very small child that her mom use to dress her up in pretty lady like things and not allow her to go out and play with the other kids, for fear that she might get her lady like dresses dirty, so she use to go in her room and stand on her bed to peer out her window and watch the other kids play. All she wanted was to be a child, but in her dysfunctional world, it wasn’t allowed.

She grew up to be a very pretty woman but her stature stayed petite, she was so small you were tempted to pick her up and just carry her off someplace safe.

If I had not been so young and self centered and if I had a few more tools in my bag at the time, perhaps I would have stood up, walked around the table, and had giving her the hug that she needed, maybe I would have said in her ear, “I’m wounded too, let me show you”.

Instead, I went on to betray her trust and make her bleed even more.

I held her hand only once, it had an apple in it. She offered me a bite and I took a mighty chomp and slobbered all over her apple, thinking to myself that I was being pretty funny, she gave me a look, turned slowly, walked away, and finished the thing, that should have told me something…

I think the love of one’s youth will always occupy a place in ones heart, it dose mine.

I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I hope you will find it in Him to forgive me.

The other day I sent a friend an open window shot and made a joke, to make him smile, he noticed something about my window and sent it back with his own little joke, told me that I needed to do a windows update, see when I sent him that print of my screen he saw the little update icon in the corner. Hinted for me to do a little maintenance.

I don’t know for sure how to maintain ones regrets in life, but I don’t want to loose the lessons that they have taught me. I wonder if the ache of regret is kind of like the scares in the Masters hands, healed but always there.

Grace, because He redeems.

BTW I’ve tried to install that update, but for some reason my unit won’t take it, send in the geek squad.

Best

Leonard

Check this out, Stages of Faith.

2008-11-29T19:54:00.000-08:00

So I was talking with my friend Jules over at, Faith in the Margins, about growth issues and she referred me to this article she has posted in the top right hand corner of the margin in her pages. I followed the short cut and copied the article to note pad, it ended up being a 7 pager but well worth the read. The guy starts out a little heady at first, well for me anyway, and then it’s pretty simple to follow.

I was astounded at the accuracy of the theories and he did admit that it is theory and not a written in stone type of thing. Well anyway I’d like you to read it at your leisure and come back and let me know your thoughts.

I would consider it a favor if you would take a peek and get back to me when you get a minute.

Grace it’s what friendships are built on.
Best
Leonard

ps. I consider my self a slow reader and it took me aproximatly 10 to 15 minutes.

ps. ps. Its a expensive book more the $20.00 but I think I'm gonna put it on my wish list.

Notes.

2008-11-24T19:20:00.000-08:00

I like to print off the authors on my blog roll and read the hard copy at my leisure, its just easier for me to read off the paper reclining instead of sitting at attention and looking into the screen, so I use windows note pad, its nice because it edits out the pictures and just gives me the font, Oh I like the pictures, but it just saves a lot of wear and tear on my printer see, besides the pics wouldn’t look so good in black and white.

A while back the Master sent me a note, I knew it was from Him because I couldn’t put my finger on a word or phrase that was resonating with me, see it was the whole of the note, the panorama of the thing.

A short while later someone else left a comment for me on their pages, it was short but I knew that was also from His hand, though through another’s. I wonder how many times this happens when I don’t recognize it, or appreciate it. Perhaps all the time ???

Well anyway Ill have you both know that I’ve printed your notes, cut them out so that I’d never have to fold them and I keep them in the back of my Bible and even though one of you has no idea, who you are, because I never told you,{"YET"}, that’s ok because unless you’ve dropped dead by now, it’s a sure bet that your reading these pages, Thank you for choosing relationship over religion, your making a difference. A living difference.

Grace, it’s what I read in your pages, “ALL OF YOU”
Best
Leonard

Naked and Unashamed…

2008-11-15T14:52:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody my names Leonard and I’m a complete nobody. Here let me give ya a taste.

I’m a 47 year old male born on 9-11-61, I have no bank account to speak of, I don’t own a home, in fact I live with my 82, well almost 82 year old Mommy. Seems to work for the both of us. Currently I’m unemployed, now and then I get an odd job driving truck, just a load here and there, enough to keep me in beans, beer, and car insurance. I gave up on growing hair a few years back so I just clip it all off 3 or 4 times a week, you wouldn’t believe the savings on shampoo alone, can I get a witness Matt? Also I’m caring an extra 35 to 40 lbs but I am working on it, I like to say that I’m just short for my weight, heard that one from an Older brother. I’ve never been married, and have no children that I know of, I have in the past went into business for my beans, had a little success but in the end went kaput. I often have long bouts of depression, tee hee, wonder why ? Oh and by the way I can be a lazy bones.

Well a little over a year ago I began to explore The Master’s message of Grace, see when I was a little boy I found a tract in a phone booth and it introduced me to the gift of eternal Life and to my 10 or 11 year old mind it sounded like a pretty good deal so I took the free gift, I got my ticket punched. Then I went about my dysfunctional way with pretty much the rest of the world including the Masters children. I have discovered that many if not most who belong to God are stubborn and want their own way including their own Glory and I do not want to be a part of that camp any longer, but to be honest I do take day trips back there now and then.

A few months back I discovered a world of nerds,”bloggers”, don’t misunderstand me I say it that way, only to make you smile. So I began to explore their journals and journeys, I never equated being a Christen or believer to a journey until I began to look into The Master’s message of Grace, see I thought it was a do to be gospel and that’s a complete lie, I’ve come to discover I cant earn righteousness but not with out trying it the hard way. I’ve also discovered that there’s an element in the blogging world that just don’t quite get it. There’s an element of the old do to be camp that hates free righteousness and feels the need to lecture the free, I would like you all in the do to be camp to know that I don’t even bother to read your comments anymore, You for the most part are to cowardly to start your own pages or even fill out a profile. Why because somewhere inside you, you know that no one or precious few would even bother to read your pages, but arrogance and stupidity demand to be heard so you load up and lecture us on someone else’s comment section, Don’t bother to comment here, we aint buying what your selling. And you rarely make any sense anyway and usually twist the words of others in hopes of making yourself look good..

Now don’t get me wrong, its not that I wouldn’t delight in a relationship with you but your ideas of relationship are not eye ball to eye ball and frankly I’m not interested in your top down ideas of what a friendship is suppose to look like, you haven’t figured out yet that you’re a complete nobody, when and if you do Ill be glad to call you friend, don’t think that I wouldn’t delight in the day, but know that I eat cake everyday with or without frosting.

If your blogging anonymously, well I guess there may be reasons but there’s never a good reason to start a whispering campaign against anyone if you can’t own your words, you might want to consider keeping them to yourself. I don’t take anonymous posts here because I’m pretty sure someone I ask not to, tried to sneak in once. I may make an exception but in the interest of fairness, probably not.

For the rest of you that have befriended a nobody, I thank you. I thank the Master you’ve chosen. I love you and that’s about all I can do.
All Grace on all eyes’s reading these pages.
Best
Leonard

Ps. I thought about doing the pic naked but a mouse talked me out of it.

Ps. Ps. If you’ve added your name to my followers list and have decided to bail, I completely understand and I dislike the word follower anyway. Also if you find your name on my bloggroll and don’t want to be seen there anymore, drop me a note, and know if you do find your name there, I am for a better word, following your journey, in fact, since you’ve been there I’ve printed hard copy of every word that has fallen from your fingers, excluding but some times even your comment pages. I don’t like to read off the screen, makes my eyes burn.

Thanks again for your visit.
Grace only.

Chicken and other random thoughts…

2008-11-10T13:03:00.001-08:00

I’ve been reading a new book that I bought on line and I’m pretty well enjoying it, also I’m enjoying the fact that I could buy the electronic version , print myself and save big bucks, “cool”, I always love a bargain. The book deals with the new heart the Master has given us and speaks about our failure to recognize the fact that we have now a good heart, if we’ve been adopted into the family of God. {How do I do that?} Simply receive Him and His finished work you’ve heard so much about, “His forgiveness/a relationship with Him” see Jules short cut.

So while I agree with the main theme of the book, I ran across one of the authors conclusions that doesn’t sit right with me, I didn’t want to ask the guy who recommended said book because I thought it would be wiser to ask someone unattached to the piece, well turns out the guy I asked hasn’t read it yet but he’s a student of the Master and gave me some terrific advise he said this, Leonard,” reading a book is like eating chicken, eat the good part and toss out the bones.”

My new friend,” brother”, is like icing on my cake, and not the sugary kind that makes my teeth hurt Thanks friend.

Grace It’s what binds His family together.
Best
Leonard

Leonard’s mouse.

2008-11-05T18:37:00.000-08:00

Later this same day that I wrote the blog about the Master’s mouse, I was out in the driveway power sanding a wood working project, I like to do the sanding outside because it makes such a mess, dust everywhere. So in-between the pieces of wood that I was sanding, I kept hearing something like paper rattling, but paid little attention to it, see what happened was, I keep a 5 gallon bucket in the alcove that enters the house this time of year, because it collects all the stray leaves that blow around and I put em in the bucket, along with the empty corn cobs that I feed to the visiting ducks and bunny’s. So finally when I finished and was cleaning up dragging all my tools and mess back into the garage, I stopped to try and locate the sound of the rustling paper, turns out that some one found their way into the bucket to clean up the spent corn cobs, but couldn’t find their way out.

Click the pictures, for a better view.

Coincidence? Well its never happened before, so maybe…....

Ps. I know what your thinking and no I didn’t send the little mouse to Jesus, I carried the bucket across the street and let the little guy out… Sheesh, how could you even think it….

Best
Leonard

Lessons from the Master. 1

2008-11-05T07:44:00.000-08:00

Blogging. The other day I was reading the comments on somebody’s blog and noticed a friend had commented, it was short and sweet and I interjected my take on it and thought it quite humorous but couldn't say so with out offending said friend. So I sent the blog authors an anonymous email and made light of my friend, all the while telling myself I was being big and doing a friend a favor, in retrospect I was starting a whispering campaign , and I had a check in my spirit not to do so, but did so anyway.

The whole next day a little mouse nibbled away at my conscious, I new I had to make things right with my friend, the mouse was sent by the Master. So I confessed to my friend what I had done and obtained forgiveness, I also confessed to the blog authors my arrogance and Identity.

Thing is. The email carrier I used to send said author of the blog, had gone down for maintenance , shortly after I sent my anonymous note,(They never got my note), so the author had no idea what I was talking about and I had to explain the whole story. Said author was quite amused and thanked me for my integrity, (my Integrity), nope, not mine but the Masters, he sent the mouse.

I could have gotten away with the whole episode, if I had kept my mouth shut, but the Master would have none of it.

If I were to whistle, I could call up for you 3 witnesses to the Masters Integrity and to my dependence on it.

All Grace, because we need Him.
Best
Leonard

ps. Seems as though Grace has quite a sense of humor, joke's on me.The Master's mouse.

The bachelor

2008-10-29T08:50:00.001-07:00

Hi guys, I've been playing with a couple of Ideas for a new post but because of my slow typing speed and general laziness I've been putting it off and doing other things, a couple of years ago a friend made a movie like Joel did recently,( http://blog.graceroots.org/2008/10/video-blog-follow-up.html ), and I put this together to reply to his,( my friend John), its kinda funny, I've been told so hope you'll enjoy.
Best and Grace always
Leonard

ps. vanity, I've lost a little weight since then and gave up totally, on the hair thing...

Happy Birthday Amy.

2008-10-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

Doctrine police, who are these people and what are they about ?

2008-10-17T20:17:00.000-07:00

First of all Ill say this, "Jesus Christ is a person, not a doctrine". Secondly let’s take a closer look at the word doctrine, will go to Mr. Webster to find out,

Doctrine
1archaic : teaching , instruction
2 a: something that is taught b: a principle or position or the body of principles in a branch of knowledge or system of belief : dogma c: a principle of law established through past decisions d: a statement of fundamental government policy especially in international relations e: a military principle or set of strategies

Notice the words (archaic, teaching, instruction, something that is taught, principle, position, dogma, law, goverment, polcy, strategies, and system)

I have a friend his name is Craig, now let’s apply these words to my relationship with Craig and see what we come up with.

1, Archaic; Is Craig Archaic? No, He’s right now, my friendship with Craig is in the moment, if I described my friendship with him as Archaic He'd probably tell me to get another friend. Although I've known him for quiet sometime.

2, Teaching; Is Craig a teaching? No he's a person. Do I learn from Craig? Yes as long as I maintain my friendship with him.

3. Instruction; Is Crag an Instruction? Once again No Craig is a person, a living soul. Dose Craig ever instruct me? Why yes, he likes his soda cold. How do I know that? He told me. Could I have read that in a book about Craig? Yes I can learn many things about Craig in a book, but I can not learn a relationship with Craig, It must be caught not taught.

4. Something that is taught; Is Craig something that is taught? Nope.

5. Principle; Is Craig a principle ? No, Craig is a person I tells ya. Dose Craig have and maintain principles? Why yes, He’s never peed on my rug. Again could I have learned of Craig’s principles from a book or maybe talked to someone who has read about Craig, to see if he's house broken? Yes I could learn many things about Craig but I wouldn’t know him unless he were my friend, see the difference?

6. Position; Is Craig a Position? No. Dose Craig have a Position? Why yes, He's a father to his son, Lord of his house, a brother and friend to me. What dose this mean? Well when I visit with Craig, I don't slap his son around I respect him, also I don’t pee on his rug.

7. Dogma; is Craig a Dogma? Is he a doctrine or body of doctrines concerning faith or morals? No Craig doesn’t need any faith to be Craig. Dose he have morals? Why yes, we’ve observed he doesn’t pee on rugs.

8. Law; Is Craig a Law? No, but I have observed he doesn’t rob banks, therefore he remains a free man.

9. Government; is Craig a government? No even if he’s elected president, he's still Craig and I'd be one of a handful of people to have access to an audience with him at most anytime.

10. Policy; Is Craig a policy? No. Dose he behave in ways that are easy to predict? Most of the time but not always. example; he usually gets his mom a birthday present but if his mom were to pass away, God forbid, or go into a coma, he probably wouldn’t get her a shiny new nick knack, nor would he disown her, his relationship with others is a living and breathing thing, subject to many variables.

11. Strategy; Is Craig a strategy? No. Dose he strategize? Why yes, If traffic is backed up he'll find a way around it to get to his destination. Hmmm see any analogies there? He’ll find a way…

12. System; Is Craig a system? No. Dose he use systems? Yes. Can I predict Craig’s comings and goings by applying a system to his behaviors? Sometimes yes, but not always, Craig Like Christ is a living being and wont be walled in by a System. Life is full of variables; the second rule of thermodynamics basically states that all systems break down in the end.

Now let's get back to the original question, ( doctrine police, who are these people and what are they about?), from what I've observed these people are those who Love to become experts at Learning about a person but never really knowing them, also they love to delude themselves with the lie that because they've learned about an individual, that makes them well equipped to speak for said individual, in other words instead of me going to Craig for advise , reassurance, friendship or what ever, these people would set themselves up as a go between, they love the spot light and delight in face time, it’s usually all about their ministry and not about pointing people away from themselves and to the Master, in short they need dependents or a following unto themselves in order to meet their God given need to know significance. Trouble is their seeking it from the wrong place. When I was a kid the hot dog peddlers had this one pretty well figured, Remember the tune, “If I were an Oscar Meyer Weiner everyone would be in love with me”.

If I know that I’m loved and secure, do I need to seek your love and approval or is a relationship with you, icing on the cake ?
Grace to you all, its what’s for dinner.
Best
Leonard

Smiling fire

2008-10-16T12:57:00.001-07:00

READ THE FOLLOWING, THEN CLICK ME, I'M A SHORT CUT.

This post was inspired by my friend Bino's latest post, " Friends, Gods, and Devils, blog post,". If your into authentic, add Bino, http://branchofvine.blogspot.com/ to your blog roll, never disappointing.

Smiling fire, Push Play and watch the fire, Watch closely, it seems to take on the shape of a smiley face and it even sounds different. Enjoy.

ps. This works best in the full screen mode, you can see it better.

Why I like Brad Cummings.

2008-10-13T20:07:00.000-07:00

I like it when real people

speak about reality's.

Click here for 42 second

audio.

Blogger color tour

2008-10-12T20:59:00.001-07:00

Michigan; Northern lower peninsula color tour.

Pie in the sky.

2008-10-05T20:09:00.000-07:00

Acts. 1:46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.

Well in the temple until they were thrown out or left of their own accord, as I understand. I’ve often thought of this verse what it would be like to meet daily with other Christians with gladness and sincerity of heart. I thought wow how cool would that be to dialog and encourage each other daily. But in our culture and hurried up world it was always just a nice thought, kinda pie in the sky, not practical , no can do type of thing.

I was wrong. I’ve found a family that I can meet with daily, it’s all of you. I’m having pie in the sky, and I thank you all.

Gobs of Grace to you, you and all your house.
Best
Leonard.

Bugling it's all about me, or is it my agenda ?

2008-10-02T22:33:00.000-07:00

Recently I visited Vanderbilt Michigan to camp with my brother, who owns a heated RV. , otherwise, forget it, it’s too nippy this time of year for camping in Michigan, but try and tell that to them nutty bow hunters. We were the only ones at that particular campground other then the nut in the tent. He disappeared until late in the evening, probably to fill up on anti freeze at the Ugly bar in town, yep that’s the name of the place. Well I guess those guys are pretty hard core, Sleeping on the ground at night then stealth fully trying to kill another creature, from a perch in a tree , I tried that when I was younger but decided not to make a career out of the Army.

It was a great couple of day’s, we got to see about 8 elk at the viewing areas where they plant alfalfa or something like that, and we also got to hear the males bugling for a sweetheart, usually in the evenings, sound familiar??? We took turns cooking and doing dishes, the secret when you’re camping is paper plates, I usually clean them in the fire, when it’s my turn.

The bed in his trailer was warm, toasty and perfect, if you were a short 12 year old, it was one of them pull out couch things that we would refer to as a (love seat), if it were in the living room at home, I only hung over it by a foot and a half or so, but it sure beat sleeping on the ground, all I had to do was relearn the fetal position for a couple of nights, now I walk funny. All in all, we agreed that it was a really good time, we had lots of great conversations, good food, and beer to boot, all kidding aside I’m glad he invited me.

I don’t know much about Elk but Russ said that during mating season they bugle to impress the babes, aint that just like us, we like to blow our horns to get attention and the more insecure we are the louder and harder we blow.

One of my favorite bloggers is,”Amy’s walking in the Spirit”, short cut, I like her writings because she’s Amy anybody, anybody thats fed up with religion and legalism that is, and she writes about the things that I can totally relate to, I’m not trying to endear myself here, all of you who blog about walking in grace, share your walk and experiences in ways that are both relatable and approachable and I salute you all, it’s just that I first stumbled on hers and was intrigued with the blogging world of the ordinary Joe’s, or Josephine’s, who have decided to exchange religion for relationship, hence the banner that I stuck up on this page. You all get a banner in my book and I thank you for your wisdoms and authenticity, nuff said.

Anyways, a while back I was reading the comment section of one of her post, when a legalist decided to drop in and learn us a thing or two, His venom was particularly directed at said blogger, I’m sure a lot of you have had experiences with the Pharisee types who, “love to spy out your Liberty”, and trouble you with their bondage. I was in, and still struggle with, the issues that entangle them, so I do understand these people and their motives, but I do not condone their behavior or their cruelty’s to the “free woman”,(Galatians 4:22), if you get my drift.

I did take note of a few things that I observed and maybe you’ve seen this too, first these individuals tend to see themselves as elevated and out to help you get the speck out of your eye, they seem to come off totally top down, rite out of the gate.

Second, when their challenged they tend to rant and become long winded, trying to justify themselves and their motives, ignoring their own hypocrisy and projecting corruption on their victims, this particular individual even brought up the old and tired, “What about the children rant”, first made famous by the house of Israel when it was time to cross the Jordan, Numbers 14: 3, seems like when people want to get their way, they love to seem pious and high minded by alluding to their thoughtfulness of the weak and helpless.

Thirdly and Ill stop here, the Pharisee Loves to quote or twist scripture, that is they mostly quote it out of context. This particular individual referred to 40 bible verses after which I referred to one, John 5:39, and do you know the poor guy couldn’t help himself He came back to own that verse 4 times even though I addressed it to no one person. The forth time was so cruel and top down that the blog author deleted it rather than have it muck up her blog with poison disguised as concern for others.

So what’s my agenda, Leonard’s, you may ask is it to bash the bashers there by making myself seem superior, is it to learn from their foolishness so I don’t travel dead end roads or is it to make His agenda, The Masters, mine, at this point to be honest with you, I’m thinking it’s some combination of all of the above.

Let Him Who Boasts Boast in…….
Grace, Thank God for Him!

Tomatoes and porch swings these are a few of my favorite things.

2008-09-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

OK, OK, anyone who knows me, knows I cant stand to eat a raw tomato and by no means are they one of my favorite things, but lets talk about porch swings and then we can touch on tomatoes.

About 7 or 8 years ago, my sister and her husband built a new house, it wasn't far from their old house, but I understand that their final trip out of the old drive way was a little emotional for her, lots of sentimental memories there where her children grew up, go figure.

So somewhere about that time I decided to build her a porch swing for a house warming present and before you decide, how generous of me, keep in mind they had lived there for over 25 years, so I thought it a safe bet I wouldn't have to do anything tremendous for another 25 years.

The swing I decided to build morphed into a love seat rocker type of thing because I wasn't sure where to hang it or how, after all it was my first attempt at lawn furniture, since then I've built a couple more that actually do swing. So being my first attempt and not knowing exactly what I was doing, I made a monumental mistake. The sand paper I used to finished the seat with was to coarse and left a bunch of swirly marks all over it, but I didn't detect the error until I applied the stain, that's when they stuck out like a soar thumb, by this time all I wanted to do was finish, so I just went ahead and applied urethane to make it shine and protect it from the elements, hoping Sue would maybe think that they were some kind of spiral graph designs that I purposely made, there by still securing a "super hero status for myself", until she moved on to other things.

Eight years or so later, her "swing / rocker thingy", no longer shines like new, she mentioned that to me earlier this summer, hinting and fishing for a re coat, I changed the subject and filed that little tid bit away until I could figure a way to exploit it to my advantage. Sue is my older sister so Ill assume the males out there who've been reared under a big sister know what I'm talking about...

Well In a week or so It'll be her birthday, I just had one, on 9/11 I was 47, e-gads, "I'm a poet and don't know it". So this year from Sue all I got was a shoe box birthday card, I mean come on, no cookies, Sue is a genius when it comes to cookies so one of the big benefits to being a little brother of hers is Christmas and your birthday, but this year I experienced what a waitress feels like when she gets stiffed... But that's OK, vengeance is mine. She went out to Colorado a few days ago to visit one of her daughters and I took the opportunity to make off with her ,love seat rocker, and refinish it... I know what your thinking, "but Leonard don't you know about shame based manipulation", and I would say, " why yes but you don't know about Sue's cookies", and now I can look forward to a triple portion come Christmas............

Some of the seat had worn so much that it need to be re stained, so I tried to rub a little stain in the bad places, but those swirly marks kept mocking me, finally I decided to take the thing out side and re sand right down to the wood and start over because a touch up job just wouldn't do, see I had to get right down to the base element, the wood, and rework it from the ground up. I started to gloss over the problem, going for the quick fix, but realized it just wasn't working.

If the wood could feel It probably wouldn't mind being rubbed with a soft cloth soaked in stain, nor I imagine would it mind being stroked with a soft brush full of urethane that makes things shiny and attractive. Makes you wonder what that same piece of wood would say when you approached it with a power sander, or worse yet a saw, chisel, or drill bit, the wood has no idea that it's being shaped into something that will become precious, valued, perhaps even a family heirloom, like I said, Sue has daughters, so I guess if the wood could talk and choose like us, it might act as foolish as me, when it comes to trusting the craftsman.

God likens us to clay, and this lump doesn't like to be squeezed, pinched, spun till I hurl or baked in a furnace, but it's learning to trust the potter. The potter promised to save us from sin, not pain, it's taken me a while to embrace that and frankly I for one still wrestle with trusting the Potter. I’m looking forward to being at a place of total stand down…. Bit by bit

BTW I just sanded down the seat and arm rests, not the frame, after all were only talking cookies here...

Here's a couple of Ideas for those surplus tomatoes you may have laying around. Open faced tuna tomato sandwiches. Make some tuna and apply it to toast, then layer with slices of tomatoes, onions if you like and top with Swiss cheese, Place on some type of broiler pan, then broil about 3 minutes or until cheese boils well.

Consume…

Another thing I like to do is …..
Top a frozen Pizza with those surplus tomatoes…
Obtain a frozen pizza and top with slices of tomatoes sprinkled with basil and Parmesan, onions if you like em , then add a little more Mozzarella if you got. Then bake like it says on the box.

Now there’s some good eating...

Thanks for stopping by.
Happy to take comments or suggestions on any subject.
Best
Leonard

Lessons from Scooter the chipmunk.

2008-09-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

This morning it was pleasant enough to open up the doors of the warehouse, "my nick name for the garage", while I caught up on some reading and had my wake up coffee. I had printed some various things off from the Internet, articles and some of my favorite blog post, so I could sit back and enjoy some good reading, I'm fortunate to have an office printer that belonged to my brother, he kept it when him and his ex wife, who remains a dear friend of mine, sold their family business and divided up the booty, so he stored it at moms where I currently reside and allows me to use it, otherwise I wouldn't do so much printing but hey toner is allot cheaper than ink.

I hadn't been reading for very long when something or someone began to climb up my back and proceed to my shoulder, I had some amount of caffeine coursing through my system so I wasn't to startled and had an idea who it was, you don't have to leave the door open to long before Scooter assumes that your open for business. Scooter is the offspring of Tumor, who went missing shortly after she weaned her twins earlyer this summer, she got her name from the way her face looked after jamming a record 5 peanuts in it. Tumor became so tame that I could pet her while she loaded up for a trip to her warehouse, somewhere under the hedge, in fact she use to follow me around the yard while doing chores hoping that a peanut would fall out of me from somewhere,,,, I think that may have been her undoing, her fear of man was completely undermined and she may have made a pest of herself in one of the neighbors garages or jumped into some poor women's lap while she was lounging in the sun, can you imagine???? I tell myself that it may have well been a predator so I can still befriend her kind and not feel like I'm sealing there doom.

So there I was stooped over in my chair, elbows on my knees and clipboard in my hands when Scooter decided it was time for her breakfast, I keep and old plastic Foldgers can on the table well stocked for just such eventuality's and if I'm elsewhere Scooter will leave little calling cards on the table , maybe to punish me for being so thoughtless, heck sometimes she leaves them in my hand like we were making a trade or something, fertilizer for peanuts, no she doesn't have the greatest educate, but I'm sure she means well.

The thing is shes still young and very jumpy, she has no idea how delighted I am to see her, that is until her 5th or 6th load then I close the door for a while hoping she will visit a bird feeder while I finish my reading. You see Scooter is a delight to me but to her I'm just some sort of peanut dispenser and that is exactly the way I have viewed the Lord most all of my life. Scooter comes to me for blessings not fellowship, but I settle for her pestering up to a point because in my eyes well she's just so cute with those racing stripes and all the satisfaction you get from developing a measure of trust. She has no idea that when in my presents she is safer than in her mothers womb, if a neighbors dog or cat showed up they would be quickly dispatched by me but Scooter doesn't know that.

How much more patient is the Lord with us ! He allows us to wander and treat him like a peanut dispenser as long as it takes before we realize the prize is the blesser and not the blessings.
Best
Leonard

Your thoughts ???

Up coming teaser,, It's that time of year again and you may not grow em but a neighbor or friend will most likely "Bless" you with their over flow. So tune in soon for>>>> Tomatoes & what am I gonna do with all these things???

"Please sir, May I have some more."

2008-09-16T09:49:00.001-07:00

I've been wrestling with communion and as usual I've been trying to dot all the i's , and cross all the t's, a couple of you have been pretty helpful and I thank you for your input. So anyway last night I reread a new friends blog, Link , to try and get a better picture in my mind of honoring Christ command to do this in remembrance of me, break bread and so forth. While reading I had a small revelation when taking in the following lines," Seems to me, that Jesus knew as time passed, our common foods would change as well" and " I thought it additionally interesting what Paul says in 1 Cor.11;29,,, "For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself "". The thought occurred to me that among the things Jesus was saying here, remembering that the Lord never wastes words and often say's many things in a word or two, that He was saying when you eat and drink, taking in substance, remember me, "this is my body and this is my blood."

The trouble with me sometimes is that I forget to keep things simple.
I'll leave you with this song.
Best
Leonard

Your thoughts ?

Church at the warehouse...

2008-09-14T21:23:00.000-07:00

Today I was fortunate to have a fellow traveler and comrade come by and share our journey with one and other, my face to face circle isn't extremely large but it's extremely authentic and I wouldn't trade it for all the friends in China. So anyway we have our fellowship meetings out in the garage, there's a table, couple of chairs and a apartment size refrigerator that I must keep well stocked with diet coke and sometimes we share a brewsky, we call it church at the warehouse because we can smoke big fat stinky cigars and cigarettes out there and not stink up the house, besides, mom wouldn't have that for a new York minute...

Today we talked about many things as usual but we got on the subject of communion and the lords supper, I don't think Jesus was passing down any kind of ritual when he first broke bread and shared wine with the disciples and said do this in remembrance of me, but to be honest with you I'm just not sure what it's suppose to look like nor how to instigate it without it feeling or looking like religion or ritual. We talked about getting some grape juice and bread at one time but I'm to chicken to follow through because I wouldn't want things to get weird, maybe I'm being to self conscious but I'd like to know how to do communion in the context of relationship and keeping it real.

If you enjoy the lords supper in any form from a feast to simply breaking bread with your fellow believer friends on a regular basis, then I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Best
Leonard
liondeer

A branch, strengthened by God, from henceforth, excellent.

2008-09-13T20:38:00.000-07:00

So I figured for my first post I may as well explain the title of my blog.
One evening I was up late studying something in my bible and was using my Strong's concordance to do a word study on whatever it was that I was looking into, anyways I had been studying for quite a while and got board and needed a distraction, so just for kicks I looked up my phone number in my Strong's, I broke the number up like you normally would, the prefix, first 3 digits then the last 4 digits, for example 111-1111, then I looked up what the numbers word corresponded to in the Hebrew then the Greek and I got "a branch, strengthened by God", in the Hebrew then I did the same thing in the Greek and I got " from henceforth, excellent". At that moment I decided I would never part with my number, and the cool thing about it is no matter how you jumble up the four words It always says the same thing, neat huh??? If you ever get a hankering to try and figure out my number, don't bother because the Hebrew and Greek languages are two of the most explicit known to man, In the Hebrew alone there is more then a dozen words for branch. Nuf said.

The reason I'm starting this blog is because of the encouragement I receive by reading the journeys of others who embrace the Grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Who like me have been burned and burned out by religion and the Institutional Church culture. I hope that some may be as encouraged and strengthened as I have been by reading these pages as I have theirs. You know who you are and I salute You,,,
" Family My Family "!!! May His Grace Make You to Soar. as for me I'm just a branch so Ill be just hanging around.

Best

Leonard

"A branch, strengthened by God, from henceforth, excellent."

Notice how God does it all, so nothing to boast about here. Liondeer.