A Pick Me Up

This weekend has been one of mixed emotions for me. First came the end of marching band season. I'm happy for the Rittman student musicians. They have worked so hard this season and it was an outstanding one. But I was somewhat sad as it marked the end of some folks involvement with the band. Adults whom I've become friends with and students who have grown into responsible young adults. And on a selfish note, as announcer, I was enjoying the attention(and praise) I was getting. That's over until next August.

There are also some things happening, in my life, which has made feel like I'm the everyday variety white trash. My world seems to be crashing around me at this point. An expression I always use to give me some motivation in these occasions is "this too shall pass."

Anyway, I've been doing some moping around this weekend, just doing enough to get by. Then I thought as I was surfing the web, I wonder what Terry Pluto wrote in his faith column yesterday. So I checked it out. It's amazing how the Lord works. Terry's column was titled "Getting up again and again after falling down". It was about how Christians keep having to ask the Lord to help them up time and again after feeling low.

God has a way of communicating, doesn't he?

Needed: More Fellowship

This is in response to a comment left on another post by Sindi, which I have felt times myself. I have met more new friends online in the past couple of months than I have physically.

Sometimes I wonder why this is so. There are many reasons given. We live too far away from others we go to church with, people are working all the time and are too busy are two of them.

People are spread too far apart in our church: Sometimes Christians are bound too much to tradition. They stay in the same church even though they live an hours drive away. That's fine when we all gather together on Sunday, but during the week, if we need encouragement of any kind, it's hard to find someone to talk to.

I recall when I first got saved in 1980. We were going to a Southern Baptist church. It was the one my wife grew up in, founded by one who come from Georgia and some of the first members were folks who come from the south to the Cleveland area by lure of good jobs in the auto factories. The pastor had stressed belonging to a "local, New Testament church". My wife, being bound by tradition and not wanting to hurt her parents, felt that it was wrong for me to want to change churches when we moved to Rittman, which was about 20 miles away from that church. After we went elsewhere for about a year, we returned there and stayed for the next twelve years. But by that time, all those that my wife had grown up with had moved out of state.

I stressed to the pastor when we had left that we were urged to go to a "local, New Testament church" but this church, and the other members were long distance by phone.

But that's the problem by and large. Most people in the church don't live in the community that the church is in. It's very difficult for the church to serve that community. The very visible church on Sunday becomes the invisible church during the week. We can't reach the lost by osmosis, and we also can't fellowship by ESP.

I'm enjoying the encouragement that I'm getting from fellow bloggers and messages we all pass back and forth in the comments section. But I really feel for those who don't get the physical pat on the back when they do well, or the hug they need when they are hurting.

We need fellowship during the week over a cup of coffee and piece of pie. If the lost can see believers loving one another and serving one another then maybe they will see what they need through us.

Dual Posts: Not all Media Types Dislike Bloggers

Most of my WIXY's Gone Bananas readers know that about 2 months ago I was "dissed" by a certain afternoon radio talk show host and the next day I wrote a post about it. It was somewhat in jest even though I was upset with the language that this "professional" used when he spoke to me on the air. I had played along and got the most hits I had ever got on one day.

I am way past that and have gotten a pretty good out of town following since that day. In the past few weeks, my faith based blog, "Seek Him First" has somewhat taken off, also with readers from outside of Northeast Ohio.

This past week I blogged about Terry Pluto on the Seek Him First side. I had posted links to Terry's articles before on the WIXY side, but this time was the first on the SHF side.

I had also emailed Terry with the link to the post. Even though Terry answers all his email, I hadn't expected a quick response with so much happening in Cleveland sports this week. He emailed me back right away, telling me how much he appreciated that. He also sent me a book of his and in signing that he wrote that I was a blessing. The times I have met Terry in person, he has always given me the impression that he was regular people. He takes time for everyone where he's at and respects those around him, no matter who they are. In short, he lives the faith he professes.

All the comments on that post were favorable. I will post links to his faith columns there when I know that they are on cleveland.com.

Will this get the comments that the Trivisonno post got? I doubt it, but I'm writing this to let my readers know how much a blessing I got.

More About Terry Pluto

I have some good response from my post the other day about Terry Pluto. I emailed Terry with a link to both of my blogs. One of the posts from WIXY's Gone Bananas concerned a ministry partner of his, named Gloria.

Gloria is a lady whom you can tell by the first minute you talk to her that she loves the Lord. Gloria has a vital part in the Summit County jail ministry. Terry conducts a bible study there. Terry has told me in person that if there was any star in the ministry, it would be Gloria.

During other hours, Gloria works at Sam's Club, passing out samples as a demo person. I was going through a rough period a little over a year ago and I shared some information with her. She wouldn't let me leave until she prayed for me-right there in the store.

Back to Terry. He is head sports columnist at the Plain Dealer, and I figured that he would be too busy to send a response right away since the Indians were in the American League Championship Series. Guess what? He sent me a response yesterday afternoon, a very nice one at that.

Terry has written many books on sports topics. He likes to tell the story about how he would complain about his job to his dad who would then say, "You get paid to go to ball games" which would put things into perspective. He has also written two books specifically on faith topics, "Everyday Faith" and "Faith and You." I know that he sent 10% of his profits of the first book to the Haven of Rest, a homeless ministry in Akron.

He also sent me links about his books and columns.

Terry's books.

Plain Dealer column archive(includes sports columns)

Plain Dealer faith columns.

I plan to add these links to my sidebar in the very near future.

Something to Check Out

Those who have followed my other blog, "WIXY's Gone Bananas," know that my favorite sportswriter is Terry Pluto. He currently writes for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Before that, he wrote for years for the Akron Beacon Journal. He became a born again Christian in 1997 and shortly thereafter started writing a faith column. When he went to the Plain Dealer, part of the deal was he would continue the faith columns.

This past Saturday, Terry wrote an excellent column on being offended. Click here for story.

And for all my recent friends click here for something I wrote about Terry on my other blog.

One last thing. I am really enjoying the fellowship in the comment sections in all the linking blogs

God is an Investor

And He changes the times and the seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:
Daniel 2:21 KJV

I gave this advice twice this past weekend, once to a fellow announcer at a high school band show and once to a fellow blogger-Be yourself.

You cannot do your best when you use other people's talents.

All too often we envy others for their talents while making excuses about why we aren't all we could be for the Lord. God didn't give me your talent because he has a different ministry for me.

We are responsible for using the tools God has given us for the up building of His kingdom.

God invests in us, and He is a wise investor. If we use these talents the value of our "stock" go up, and God will give us more. If we don't use our talents, they will be taken away from us.

God wants the best for His children but he wants us to use the best for His glory.

I Smile

Great song with some very neat pictures.

Dual Posts:Thankful Thursday

I'm sure that some of you noticed that I didn't post anything in either blog yesterday. That was because I was not up to it emotionally. I did contact one of my best friends via email about it and was sent some real encouragement back.

I figure if I didn't post today, some would get concerned since I have some real super friends who stop by here. So as I was showering this morning, I come up with the idea, actually I ripped it off, I mean borrowed it, from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, of Thankful Thursday. I am starting this at 4am my time, and hope to have it posted during my morning break so it will be up before my regular readers take their strolls through the "bloggerhood". And it will be on both blogs.

First, I am thankful that I have good friends who read these blogs, those who have been with me from the start, in August, 2006, to those who who have started reading recently. Your comments brighten my day.

I am also thankful for the job I have even though it's not my dream job and it's 46 miles from my house.

But I'm also thankful that I have reliable transportation to get me there, even if it is a two toned(blue and rust) 1989 Toyota.

I'm thankful that I have a home to go to at night.

I'm thankful that over the years I have always had enough food to eat, to the point I need to lose weight.

I'm thankful that I have those at home who care about me.

I'm thankful that we had enough extra money to eat out yesterday, even if it was Wendys.

Because I am thankful that an old friend of the family followed us in just to say "hi".

I'm thankful that the weekend is coming up, and Rittman has their homecoming game on Friday, and that we have a show to go to Saturday.

I'm thankful God gave a big booming voice and that I can use it to help 44 student musicians.

And that the Rittman Marching Band gives me a good product that makes it easy for me to yell about.

I'm thankful that I have some singing ability, because due to some people not being in church this past Sunday I was asked to lead the singing.

Remember the Bible says that there is power in praise. Start your own "Thankful Thursday" list. It's a very easy post to do because once you start the ideas flow freely.

God is Good - Don Moen

That's so true!!!

Iron Sharpening Iron

As iron sharpens iron,
So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
Proverbs 27:17 NJKV

One thing that's amazed me in the past few weeks is how many friends I have made through the Internet. First it was Liquid. Then off her blog, I was introduced to Pilgrim. Last week I was introduced to Frasypoo, and through her blog I was introduced to Kathy's Klavier. And before all this I had known through the Cleveland.com message boards a gentleman known as WZZP.

All these good people have taught me a thing or two about living the Christian life. WZZP was there for me when I was going through depression last winter. Liquid has done a great job in making me feel me about my blogging and has been a fantastic friend behind the scenes.

The first post I commented about on Pilgrim's Scrawl, was about Pilgrim being a serial intercessor. By the way, I was just at Pilgrim's Scrawl and Pilgrim has posted that he will be away from the blogosphere for 1-1/2 weeks, and he wants us to pray for him. He and I have had some contact through email, and we also have become good friends.

Another introduced to me by Liquid is Frasypoo. Frasypoo originally is from India, but now hails from Georgia. Frasypoo is very frank about her religious and political views, but will also let you know if you are doing a good job blogging. She is a very committed Christian.

Kathy(not Mrs74WIXYgrad) came here this week, having discovered me through Frasypoo. I've taken a look at her blog and am impressed. She seems to be a relatively young Christian, but has her feet firmly planted Check out her blog, Kathy's Klavier.

Let me tie this all together. Why have I told you about all these good folks? Because we all need each other. These people have all been working on sharpening me and I hope I have been able to help sharpen them.

It's been said that no man's an island and we aren't. We need contact one with another. God created man in order to have someone to fellowship with. He expects his greatest creation to have fellowship one with another. We can learn from others. We can teach others. Jesus told the disciples to Go therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. We need to learn from some before we can teach others.

If We Are The Body

Explanation of Posting Above.

The idea that I had for posting this video was inspired by a post by Frasypoo in her excellent blog, This and That, where she laments about people being on their best behavior on Sunday. During the week they were just another part of the world. I will take it another step since I was the fat kid from the other side of the tracks. Yes I like the songs with more of a beat, but I also like to listen to Christian songs with a message.

Let the music speak to you.