Is it Not Ironic?!

Today is April 15! Tax day. Millions of people dread this day. It is like the end of the world for some. People can spend all year complaining about this day. So I decided to research this day and see just how it as come to be the infamous day that so many despise; other than the fact that it is tax day here are two reason some people can April 15…..
On this day in the year of 1912 the Titanic sank. This resulted in the loss of over 1500 lives. The accident could have been prevented if the largest passenger ship in history had hit the iceberg head on. This would have simply breeched the first two compartments. When hit from the side it breeched 7(I believe I remember that number right). Hence the ship filled with water, rose straight up into the air, broke in half, and sank. You can now take a family tour of the beauty under water. How morbid does that seem?
In 1865 The American president Abraham Lincoln is assassinated while watching a play. Some have said that this happened on the 14th others say the 15. John Wilkes Booth was a successful actor who Lincoln had seen many times. Lincoln had stated his approval for Booth’s work. Booth was distraught at the Civil War and made plans to assassinate Lincoln and several other political leader. At one play Booth yelled out his line and pointed in the direction of Lincoln. Lincoln unaware that these actions were more than lines later went back to see Booth preform. On April 14 Lincoln was attending a play. Booth came behind Lincoln and shoot him in the head. Booth then jumped over the balcony railing. He broke his ankle in the process. Lincoln died the next morning(hence the dispute). Booth fled. He was shot and killed two weeks later by Union solders.
So it is safe to say that 15th as brought some bad news. However it as also brought some good news. Like….
James Ross discovers North Magnetic pole. Hence compass sales soared.1800
Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, is awarded the Order of Lenin.1961
First English language Dictionary Printed.1755
In Hartford, Conn. the first school for the deaf was opened.1817
Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen was liberated by Canadian and British forces. 1945
With the good comes the bad. Hey, Jesus lives! Tax day is not all that bad now is it.

I finally picked my candidate.

The primary race that we have watched unfold in front of us this year has been unbelievable! I am very pleased to have been able to see such a tight and hard fought battle. Democrats have been beating on each other in a way that reminds me of how Rocky used to punch meat in the factory freezer. I have seen enough now to know which way I will go.

You see, I like the fact that our economy seems to due better under the Democrat party. I am not a big fan of their standards on abortion and being so easy on drug dealers but I am in favor of the economy growing. This race has been tight. I tried not to pick a candidate in an ignorant manner and I believe that I have done a pretty good job of researching and looking past the media. The media is favoring Obama and I mean big time. I believe that they should remain neutral but that just won't happen. So I have looked past them as much as possible.

With the smoke that the Democrat race has supplied it was not easy to look for the proper candidate. After reading statement after statement, watching video after video, and reviewing voting records throughly I have come to the conclusion that I must switch my political view, at least for this race, and endorse McCain.

I feel that McCain is not the best man for the job but that he is the best candidate running in this election. The choices are not to great. I waited as long as I could hoping that one of the Democrats would pull me in their direction but that never happened. This one came down to morals and beliefs. While I feel that our economy would be better off with a Democrat I cannot endorse Hillary or Obama with any confidence that they are going to lead us in the right direction.

My Heart Goes Out!

Today a fellow blogger and a close friend of mine suffered a huge hit in his life. It is one of those things that is easy to lose control and to get frustrated on but no this guy.
My friend's job was at a company called Sports Belle. Sports Belle distributed jerseys and other athletic equipment. They even provided the uniforms for Tennessee's basketball and football teams. Well Sports Belle caught fire last night. This means that he may be out of work for a little while. I would freak out. Not my buddy though.
My friend said that no one was hurt and that is what was important. My friend commented on a news blog and the only thing he was upset about was that the local volunteer fire departments were not getting printed for their efforts to help fight the fire. I was blown away by this. I would more than likely be ranting and raving about poor pitifully me. I would demand to know what happened and deep down inside be looking for some one to blame. Not my friend.
My heart goes out to my pal who is a model citizen, a great friend, and the type of Christian that you could watch and learn what it is to be humble. Now he of course would dispute what I have said about him. He would claim that he is not that important and just trying to fight the battle with Jesus by his side. No credit, honor, or glory is ever taken by this guy. He can decline the compliments but the value that he and his wife bring to me and my wife is something that he cannot denounce.
My heart goes out to my friend and I pray that he will rebound fast and move forward(I know he will). I would say that if you need anything you can call and ask but we all know that that would be pointless. You don't ask for anything unless you ask for it in prayer! Just know my friend that we here at the Foulks House value you and your wife and we are even bold enough to say that we love you guys!

Only Me and My Wife(Conflict of a Geek).........

We have some issues that we just cannot resolve. They are issues that most would never encounter but in the Foulks House it is everyday. Here are the five things that we encounter that no one else deals with counting down to the most the frequent issue....

5. She doesn't want our lives to be a remake of "Revenge of the Nerds."

4. We have more CRT monitors sitting on the front porch that we do TVs and they have been there for months.

3. That while in the house I still use the iPhone to check mail and browse web sites. My Viao is normally three feet away.

2. Cutting a hole in the bathroom wall to have a slide out laptop stand that includes an IBM Thinkpad. Every one should have one if you ask me.

1. Wanting to name my firstborn son Linux. This tends to go bad when I bring it up!:)

Blessed!

My plans were to post on Friday. I have given up on blogging everyday for now and am content with blogging a couple of times a week. I was planning to post on Friday but due to the fact that I am now a Dad that is least of priorities. I am going tp e taking a short(2 days to 2 weeks) break on post. This is due to a need to of being a new dad.My daughter was born on Feb. 14, 08 at 8:51 pm . Get this. She weighted 10lbs 12 oz and was 20 inches long! One big baby! So don't think that I have gone awol. Just taking a few days off to realize my blessing@

Should Christian Couples Have Children?Swap Blog

When I was writing the last post it reminded me of a post I read at a better blog. Yes, yes Swap Blog. 99.9% of the blogs out there are composed of better writers, thinkers, and story tellers than I could be. Anyway here is a segment of the post they posted awhile back. I suggest you finish reading this one....

Marriage and kids

Are Christian couples compelled by God to have children? That question seems to arise a lot in today’s world, so what are the feelings of the Christian blogosphere on this?

God ordained marriage to be between a man and a woman, honesty hurts sometimes people. He also ordained marriage to be a means of procreation........(more)

Soon to be.

In a short amount of time my life will change. The first major change in a man's life come with the unity of marriage. The males world goes upside down and inside out. All of our priorities change. We go from watching Sports Center to listening to Rachael Ray cook eggs benedict 24 different ways. We go from being able to stay u all night playing xbox to staying up and watching lifetime.
More importantly we go to not caring so much about the xbox or Sports Center. We start to care about different aspects of our life. We want to get our lives in order. We cannot do that if we are up all night dominating Madden. It just can't coexsist. We have new proritys. Then once we feel like we are begining to take control of the new phase of life....We have kids!
When I think about kids I think about panic, money, schools, do I have enough space, can they come out potty trained, how did this happen, what am I going to do!?!?! It can be frustrating. These are what I thought when I found out I was to be a dad. Now it is getting closer and I cannot help but to wonder. Why worry? This is going to happen. How much distrust in God do I show by not displaying my faith in Him to provide. Yeah me and my wife are young. Yeah we had a five year plan for children. Yeah it wasn't meant to go down like this. Well it is though. No more five year plan. No extended time to prepare for all this finacally. No way out. Stiaght forward and faith we must approach this. God is in complete control. I know this. Now I must show this.
We look for foward to the birth of Annalise Elizabeth! We know that God made big plans for all of us. No matter what our size or age, have a part in God's everlasting plan. The works of God extend beyond the molten rock, the trees, the sky, and the stars. They extend to all of us. We are the works of God! His most treasured works! So a child birth should never bring concern. It should always be a great thing. When a child is born every dad is proud of what they "made"! Do you think that God is any different! Our loving heavenly Father rejoices in child birth! No you won't find that in those words in scripture. Maybe it is some more of my bad theology. I don't think so.
Soon to be. A work of God is about to be revealed in my life. I get to watch this work come into the world. I am excited and blessed for the opportunity that God has given me.

The Journey-From SWAP BLOG

THE JOURNEY

Lift your head see the end of the road is near.
Taking the road less traveled is farther away from home,
But when the journey is over;
You’ll know it was worthwhile.
Ask the one’s that have gone on before.
Don’t lose faith.
You’ll make it home.
This battle is not the whole war.
Go on, you’ll make it.
Set your eyes on the prize.
You can’t run-away now, there is no escape.
Shed the skin of your past.
Spread the wings of your future.
In this race we’ll never win,
If we fail to begin.
Off with the old.
On with the new.
The war the race will be over soon.
Jesus will guide you home.

Visit Swap Blog @ http://www.team-swap.com/wordpress/

What would you grab/What to save?

I was taking my visit over to Swap Blog and stumbled upon an interesting post.
The post had been linked from a friend of his named Pink Kitty. It ask the question...
In fire what would you save? So I began to think about it and found that I would burn to death trying to grab 50 different things. I finally narrowed it down. So here is my six( seeing how this is the number they both used)...

1. The rabbit.

2. My cuff links and money clip ( my wedding present)

3. The Vaio.

4. My text books.

5. My Phone ( it is new an I dig it).

6. Our marriage license.

Some are trivial but all currently play an important role in my life at this moment.

Prescribed by the Great Physician(sent to me in an email)

The next time you feel like GOD can't use you, just remember...
Noah was a drunk
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses had a stuttering problem
Gideon was afraid
Samson had long hair and was a womanizer
Rahab was a prostitute
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt
Peter denied Christ
The Disciples fell asleep while praying
Martha worried about everything
The Samaritan woman who was divorced, more than once
Zaccheus was too small
Paul was too religious
Timothy had an ulcer..AND
Lazarus was dead!

Now! No more excuses!
God can use you to your full potential.
Besides you aren't the message, you are just the
messenger.
Have a great day!!! The SON is shining and He
can certainly use you!



Dear God, I have a problem, it's Me.

There is no key to happiness. The door is always
open.

Do the math .. count your blessings.

Faith is the ability to not panic.

Laugh every day, it's like inner jogging.
If you worry, you didn't pray . If you pray,
don't worry.

Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be
bent out of shape.

When we get tangled up in our problems, be still.
God wants us to be still so He can untangle the knot.

Ten Cannots

Found this post over at Swap Blog thought it would be good to share with you all today.
Ten Cannots


This came over the email transome and I KNOW it is worth sharing and applying to our lives (personally, professionally, etc.)

“The Ten Cannots,” authored in 1916 by German emigre William J.H. Boetcker, a Presbyterian minister who died in 1962.

• You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift

• You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong

• You cannot help little men by tearing down big men
• You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer

• You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich

• You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money

• You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred

• You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more money than you earn

• You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence

• And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

Why wouldn't Jesus be in a pew every Sunday?

Maybe it is because he would only teach and w2ould never be lead?! Nah, Jesus was too humble to desire to always be the center of attention.
Maybe it is because He would be doing the books in the office?! I don't think so. He would probably give away the money that the church made(if any one knows where to find a church where they operate the same way that early church's did let me know. No lights, no air, no running water. I would go. I think that church could really do what they were meant to do with tithes).
Or just maybe He would be in the rec hall doing miracles?! Probably not my friend. Jesus main message was not about the miracles.
Picture this...
The choir is singing on key, the pastor speaks and the word rolls off of his tongue in only a way that god could let it. Your arms are raised, everyone is saying amen!You look out of the window to see this man eating with the homeless at a park table. He shares some laughs and then walks to the slide and catches the children at the bottom. His blissful smile is enough to make you want to go outside and play with the children. At that moment the pastor lets out a strong sentence on focusing on God. You realize that you need to pay attention to the message. Where is Jesus? I think you know.
Jesus is not the building, He is not the choir, the pastor, the hymn manual, or the stain glass above the baptism pool. He is not only preaching love but showing it. Jesus wouldn't be in the church because He would be out loving the lost and caring for the needy. If you want to find to Jesus you better start going to where He is. While He is everywhere, in everyone, showing love to all. We are not. We should be. We should be going those places that he went.
To visit the elderly,
Hang out with the homeless,
Write and visit inmates,
Give some one a ride.
To not do these things constitutes a sin. Oh yeah! You didn't know?! Go read Matthew again. See the words in red in the Sermon on the Mount? Read those again. To sin is to go against God. For us not to go ad do these things is a sin. There is no sin credited to you for missing church to go and love your fellow man. Get up out of your pews and go live the life Jesus did. Leave your AC behind to go and be with the undesirable in the most unwanted conditions. Go make children smile! Jesus would not be in the church because there is a big world out there that needs His love and that love should not be confined to a fortress of bricks.

Mother Teresa is Disrespected

After 66 years of hardcore, dedicated service to the cause of Christ Mother Teresa died(ten years ago). This was a woman who didn't have alot in life because she had sacrificed it all to God. The only thing she asked when she was dying was that her letters she had written over the period of her 66 year long servitude be destroyed. Did she get it...No!
What she got was that the church held onto her letters and made a book out of them. They say that it will help people to better understand her and her work.
Some letter are letters that she has written where she questions here faith. Atheist are having a field day with that. He is some news to you. Every one questions their faith. Everybody will come to points in their lives where they will say they have doubts. They would be lying to sya they don't. We still have to seek answers. We need to be reassured. He would be nice if we didn't but we do. We have to study the Bible so we can see how God works and learn to look for Him in nature, objects, people, places, in everything we can find Him.
So what if she questioned her own faith from time to time. She still stayed true and continued to work for God, speak of God, show His love, and all that other jazz that most of who call our lives Christian lives never learn to do. Questioning our faith can actually do us good. We can sometimes learn how small we really are, how little we understand, to dig deeper for the answers, lead to more prayer which is always a great things, lead to more reading of our Bible, and a revival of our faith.
Just because she was considered a "Super-Christian" by many changes nothing. She was still human and still dealt with alot of the same doubts that we do. She just learned to over come them. It is wrong for us not honor her wishes and destroy the letters. Wrong in all ways. Shame on us.

Fight Fair-(from premarial counseling)

Okay so last night was the last session of counseling for me and my soon to be wife. We covered three subjects and instead of putting both into one post why not spread it out. The topics that were presented to us were fighting, right thinking, and sex. Well you can look at the topics and see why they would each need to be discussed. So for now we are going to do fair fighting.
What does it mean to fight fair? You hear this boxing and growing up may have heard it a little in school. So what does it mean to fight fair with your wife/husband? I means to fight for today. A fair fight is not a fight with things that happened yesterday, last week, last year, or anytime besides today. Alot of people have a mental set post-its and when ever something is said or done they will mark it down ad store it for later. We fill up the gun with has many bullets we can fit into it before the big fight. Why? We are asking for a big big fight.
When you husband or wife does something that is not all that likable to you(and they will) you have to address it that day or let it go. Now that doesn't mean that you have to fight in the middle of a restaurant. That means you should look them and say,"I know you love me but what you just said really hurt my feelings. When we go home we should talk about this."
It is not that hard to do. Most of the time it is habit to hold in our thoughts of how we feel. For us guys it is even tougher. We are suppose to be macho men! We have to realize that our women see us as their big softies. We should feel up that roll. Now don't worry guys they also see us as their rocks, protectors, and all that other strong guy stuff. They want you to be able to tell them what is bothering you and not do it in three weeks over her not filling up the gas tank. Women the huffing and puffing for two days doesn't help. We need to know what is going on with you. You have to let us when we hurt you. Don't get in front of us during Saturday's game and remind us of all our failed attempts to start home projects and then our personal faults.
Fighting should be fair and that means for us to fight about an event that happened today and not any other day. Let the bullets go. Your fights will be over a lot faster. There are tons of books on healthy fights. Go and read one some time. It will really help your marriage.

Be Cool

Yeah that is right. Just try to relax. I don't care who you are. Try being happy with where you are and what you are doing. Not every little detail of you day is going to change you life. Have some peace for once. SO often we get bent out of shape over bills, over children, neighbors, some even over work. I mean I know that is not you. Just relax. Life is too much of a blessing for you to be so exhausted. Just grab a book and smile at your life. It is not that bad.
the dream of every American is being satisfied. Homeless people I know are. So why shouldn't you be. Don't you have a home? Food? Love? I hope yo have God. Just listen to me and relax for once. Be happy.

Tomorrow.

I will not be posting any blog on Friday August 3, 2007. I want to take time away from my PC and think of the better things in life. Like oh say, life it self.
On a day like today I am certain that I will remember the tragic events that took place in Minneapolis. It is a said thing happened. I am certain that I will remember it like I did the day 9/11 happened, like Columbine, like Oklahoma city, or more recently Virgina Tech.
It may not have as high as a death toll as some of those but what is to be remembered is that it is one of those days were people are shocked. We say this shouldn't happen. What went wrong? Why did this happen? If you are like me you believe in the redeeming power of Jesus Christ and all the truth that the Bible speaks about. The said part is this. People are lost. People die that are lost. There is eternal life and it is one or the other, really good or really bad. Once you have no more life it is too late. No take backs, no re dues, no I wasn't ready. Life is serious.
We have blessings in this. A school bus with I think I heard around 50 kids on it fell with the bridge and all were alive. Only two lanes of the bridge were open. We see blessings in this. Even though the sorrow covers our eyes we can still see it could have been worse. Alot of people were spared. Thank you Jesus for that.
I pray that we not point fingers at what went wrong when we find out the cause of this all. I pray that we learn to love each other so that we can forgive.Not the type of love we know(the feeling of love) but the very action of love. Loving some one or something even though you are angry or sad.
Sadly this does happens. Lets not just say too bad, or 9/11 was worse. I about cried when they killed Saddam. I went to a "Christian website" were a the blog owner had posted the video and placed a caption under it reading this....
"Lets see if those 72 virgins come to save him from hell!lol."
How terrible are we? We should all be grief stricken.Yet the world was rejoicing! Saddam died. He went to hell. He never, ever, ever accepted Jesus. When we cheer for that we cheer for satan. When we are not affected by the death of the eternally lost we are saying to satan that we don't care. There is no love in us. Wake up guys! Lets fight for the lost. Lets mourn for those who won't be going inside the gates.
Jesus wept and so should we. If not with tears then with the spirit we are blessed with. Realize that everyday is a gift. We have a task to do. Preach the gospel so people do not die in sin. One day when I get to heaven I will look around and I know there will be people I lived with my whole life that I don't see there with me. I fear that I will find out that the very man I worked beside for 10 or 15 years will not be in heaven and I had the chance 5 to 6 days a week to sow a seed. How accountable am I? Completely if I never try.
With that said I am taking tomorrow off of has much as possible to praise God and to pray to him to allow me to serve him better. To serve others better. I am about to write a short prayer on this post and I ask that you pray it with me, for me, you , and any other who reads this or needs this( that would be everyone I know). When you are done you can comment to say amen, add on more to the prayer, or not do anything after you pray. Even if you don't agree with everything I said or have ever said you can pray this one with me.Thank you and God bless you.
Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you so much for this life. Everyday is truly a blessing. I pray that you give the family s of those who died today comfort in your arms. I know that all things work together for the good and I just pray that whatever reason you allowed this to happen for, that you allow us to see the good and obey your will even when we don't understand. Please use this to lead others to you.Open the eyes and the hearts of lost. Recharge my spiritual battery and let me do your will here on earth. Thank you so much. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Will God make me build an Ark?

A few weeks ago I went to the movies and watched Evan Almighty (FYI= This is nothing like Bruce Almighty. Evan Almighty is a really good movie with a lot of Bible history to it.) and I got to wondering? Why has God not ever asked anything of me like He did Noah?
I know that God promised not to flood the earth! I know this.
"I was thinking what would be my Ark? "
"What would be my flood?"
Then it hit me. BAM! It is so simple. Let me share with you what I picked up on.
Go does not need me to build an ark because Jesus is the ark! The flood that we face is so many things. Persecution, people, unbelievers, but mostly just my sin. I cannot survive these floods. I would never be able to escape the water. It would always be there soaking me, pulling me under, taking my very life.
That my friend is where the ark comes into play at. Jesus was sent to be that way. I can get on my. That would mean to follow Him. Once I am on there I can start calling others to join. My Jesus has made a way for me to stay above the waters. No matter how hard they try they can never again even spot my shoulder with the smallest rain drop from the clouds. I have my shelter, my needs, and my salvation in Him. How great it is to me saved by grace.
But now I was at a stand still.... God said he would never flood the earth again. I know the obvious meaning to that. Then I thought. Go will never doom mankind but what if we go to the water? That is meaning, to stay in sin and never get on the ark(Jesus). That is not God's doing! That is our doing. We allowed ourselves to be flooded with the sin. We bring about our own death. So we have to pick. Do I drown or get on my ark. I will tell you which one makes sense to me. I would be swimming today!

Post Traumatic Moving Stress Syndrome

It has been two months since we closed and started to make our house our home. We have come along way but now we are hitting the stressful part. We are at end with each other at times. The title of this blog is Post Traumatic Moving Stress Syndrome. I believe that this is wha we are both dealing with right now.
We both now share a house.
We both realize that this is hand.
While we are happy to be together we feel a desire to have a safe room in the house.
We are not to used to the neighborhood.
Tired from 50 hour work weeks.
Then another 20 hours work on the house.
Plus the gym.
Really the best way I think to deal with the stress of living in a shared house is to stop working so much and go out sometimes. I am taking her to see the new Harry Potter movie this weekend and I believe that will reduce alot of or tension. It is stressful when you make these changes but remember that true love and concern will always out way the bad.