Dual Posts:Blessings

This is one of two dual posts, meaning this will be posted on both my blogs, this week. the other will appear either Thursday or Early Friday.

On October 16, I posted about Terry Pluto on my Seek Him First blog. I sent him a link to it and he responded by a very nice email asking for my home address. He sent me a book he co-wrote with Bill Glass titled "Champions for Life-The Power of a Father's Blessing." He autographed it-"To Cliff-You are a Blessing!" That, in itself, really blessed me.

I was reading this book as I was waiting to see the doctor late this afternoon. What I was reading was what Bill Glass, former Cleveland Browns player and current prison evangelist, had written about men and women needing blessings from authority figures. I am taking this book to Florida with me and I will review it in the weeks ahead.

This occurred to me: Those who read these blogs are a real blessing to me. I get encouragement from those who leave comments here. Those who find these blogs through other blogs, just about all of the time, usually begin with "I really enjoy your blog." I fear that sometimes I may not respond in kind. I've gotten email from those who are concerned about my emotional state and they always pick me up. Sindi just did that for me last week, and it's touching that someone whom I've never met could be such a blessing me.

Those who wished me a happy birthday last Tuesday really blessed my heart. Those who consider me a friend and say so on their blogs or in my comment section, your words are priceless.

And before I post this, I want to say this to those who are my friends but aren't bloggers:Your comments here give me something to brag about to other bloggers I want to be a blessing to everybody and some of you show me how to do it.

One final exhortation:Be as much a blessing to others as you are to me.

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.