And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Matthew 10:22 KJV

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. Matthew 24:9

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Mark 13:13

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake. Luke 21:17

While a lot of this hate may be well deserved because of our failures to get the message across in love, most of it is spiritual in nature and most of them cannot explain their vicious hatred toward Christianity.  It is one thing to not have a taste for something but to hated it with a heated passion is something else.  One of the reasons that I believe it is spiritual is because the Bible tells us so.  For example in Ephesians, Paul says…

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12 KJV

Also in Romans it says…

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Romans 8:7 KJV

As I always say, don’t just read the scripture alone because people including me can take a single scripture out of context and can be done inadvertently.  It is always important to read the entire chapter so that you can see the individual scripture in the correct context.  The point in all this is that for the world to hate  you for Jesus’ name, is to be expected.  This is not a personal battle but a spiritual one.  When the world comes against you, don’t let it overcome you because this is a sign that the Bible’s words are true.  In fact Jesus said in Luke 21…

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift upyour heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. Luke 21:28 KJV

Hostility is supposed to happen when you come in Jesus’ name.  I know it is hard to be attacked all the time but God sent us the Holy Spirit, the comforter, to be there for us.  Jesus told us in John 14…

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. John 14:26 KJV

We are not alone and have the Holy Spirit there to keep us close and show us what to say when we are under attack.  Of course we have a responsibility to learn God’s word (Bible).  In 2 Timothy 2 Paul tells us our responsibility…

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15.

The bottom line in all of this is that we are to learn God’s word.  We are to understand what is expected of us. While we know there is no way to achieve perfection, we must strive to represent Jesus.  If we don’t spend the time that it takes to learn God’s word, we cannot know what to strive for.  Paul tells us in Romans what it all boils down to in Romans 10…

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? Romans 10:14 KJV

It is so encouraging to know that God cares about everyone that he gave us his word and the Holy Spirit to be there for us when the world comes against us.  History is clear, the world is evil and will only gets worse with time.  Individuals can be reached but the vast majority will reject God.  We have a responsibility to try to reach those that can be reached.  We need to understand that because there is a spiritual evil that is in control in the world at this time, people will hate us for giving the gospel to the world.  This hostility will only increase with time but it is worth it.  God expects us to reach the lost and to be an example.  Thank you God for helping us know you and to allow us to serve you.

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Mother’s Day.  It is days like this that make me miss my mom so much.  My mom went to be with Jesus on February 24th, 2005.  She was a great mom and to this day has an impact on my life.  My mom was born and raised in Las Cruces, New Mexico (Fair Acres) and met my dad while he was stationed at Holomon AFB near Alamogordo, New Mexico.  She moved back to Oklahoma City when he finished his time in the Air Force in 1962 though her heart was always in New Mexico.  She sacrificed and moved here for my dad and lived the rest of her life here.  She did not like people taking her picture and I honored her wishes but have found that by doing that, we have very few pictures of her.  Those that I do have are priceless.  While I look pretty scary in that outfit , the fact that my mom is in it, makes it worth more than all I have.  While my beautiful wife Sunday is the new woman in my life, my mom will always be in my heart.  I love you mom!

On May 4th, 2013 I got a new phone and I love it.  Strangely enough, I didn’t set out to buy this phone although it was on my short list of desirable phones.  Our contract expired on April 29th and so my wife and I pre-ordered the new Samsung Galaxy S4 and received it on April 27th.  We really liked those phones and my wife still has hers.  Mine had a problem immediately in that my Yahoo Mail and AT&T Mail would not work.  All of my other email accounts worked but these would not.  Then after a few days, I noticed another problem.  My GPS was very flaky and would work intermittently.  The only way I could get it to work would be to disable it and then re-enable it.  It was getting very irritating.  For the record, my wife’s phone did and still does work fine.  My wife called AT&T to inquire about it and they told her that it was still within the window to exchange it.  They initially said they would send another one but then told us to take it to the local store and exchange it and they would credit us with the exchange.  Both phones were the same price so there was no refund or additional charge expected.

I was working on laying some sod in the front yard so I could not go but my wife took it by the store and exchanged it.  The store did not have a phone available in stock to replace mine so she exchanged it for the HTC One.  She had remembered that I had spoken highly of it.  On May 4th, my phone was exchanged for this one.  I have to tell you that I am very satisfied with it.  One thing that is really awesome is the camera’s 1080p video and the 16:9 aspect ration on pictures taken.  The phone is very sturdy and has an aluminum case.  Even so, I bought this white Spec case for protection.  I really love this phone and would definitely recommend it.  The call quality seems to be very clear so far and that says a lot considering how my hearing is not that great.  I usually hate making phone calls via the cell phone because they are always garbled and choppy.  For that reason, I will never get rid of my house phone.  This phone does a good job in call clarity so far.  I am very critical of call quality and I will certainly let you know if I run into problems.

I am happy and can give you much more information about this phone if you care to know.  Just let me know and I will try to answer any questions.

The sod was already green and growing on its own so I am hoping that it takes root into the ground pretty quickly.  This time of year our growing time is limited because by the time July comes around, the hot and dry period moves in where even with artificial irrigation it is hard to keep the grass growing.  Now I am watering it every day to make sure that it gets enough.  Right now the grass is holding on strong despite getting another .36 inch of rain the next day after laying the sod the second time.   As you can see in the picture below, things are finally turning green.  This year it has been slow to heat up and I am glad to see that because I am not ready for it to get so hot and dry.  This picture is of my back yard taken today with my new HTC One phone.

This week has been a serious irritation to me and to add to that, my weight loss has come to a virtual stop.  I lost 53 pounds and still have a lot more to lose.  I am hopeful that I can kick start the weight loss again soon because I have not reached the point that I am hoping to reach.  In the name of Jesus, I am going to stick to this and lose the rest and keep it off.  I will update my progress later.

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 1 Timothy 4:1

Despite the world going crazy and labeling evil good and good evil, God is still in control and foretold these things and also told the end of the story.  God will not be mocked and will be praised.  There is a lot of reasons to be thankful despite the decline in morality in our country.  Our God is worthy to be praised and I will do that.  The Bible is still true to this day and no matter how much people try to convince people to the contrary, that fact will never change.  Good will always be good and bad will always be bad.  God is and will always be the almighty, omnipotent, righteous Father.  I would like to thank him for giving us another day of life to praise him.

This morning I went out to mow the lawn when my neighbor walked over to show me how the rain had washed out a large hole in the ground in the ditch in front of my house.  He started giving me all sorts of pointers on how to deal with this situation.  After mowing the front yard, I decided to go across town and buy about 2,000 pounds of rich soil to fill in the hole with the intention to put sod on top of it.  My son and I were in the front yard trying to shovel the dirt into the hole when the neighbor drove up to give me the following piece of information… “You realize that all that dirt is going to wash out into my lawn.”  I tried to be a good guy and not assault him with with my shovel .  I went ahead and finished the job as you can see in this picture.  Now I have to buy some sod to apply to this dirt.  I am hoping that I can get this done before the next rain does wash it away like my neighbor was concerned with.  Well, if it happens, then he should be happy because he was clearly upset when the city dug the ditch in the first place. If the dirt fills in the ditch in his lawn then the problem is solved from that point.  You know, I genuinely wanted to help the guy out.  I really want to be a good neighbor but it seems like with certain people, you cannot win whatever choice you make.  I really don’t wish anything negatively on him but I have to admit that I was pretty angry when he seemed to critique everything I did.  Believe me, I did want to speak my mind but I didn’t think it was appropriate at the time.  I hope the problem is resolved, or will be once I get the sod down and he can be happy.  Despite my endless rants on this blog, I really do like to get along .  Anyway, I just wanted to share how my day went.

This week was an exciting time when my wife and I received out new Samsung Galaxy S4 or (SIV) phones on April 25, 2013.  This marks a fantastic day when I can wipe my hands clean of Apple.  Most of you probably already know about my bad experience with my old Blackberry Curve 8900.  For that reason, I broke down and against my better judgment bought an Apple iPhone 4 back in 2011 and I wrote about it here.  Anyway, I took a lot of heat from people for being such a Apple hater and then buying one.  This week I rectified that problem with this phone.

I really like the phone so far but have been so busy that I haven’t had time to play with it enough to learn what I am doing.  This post is not a review but just an announcement that I got the new Galaxy S4 before they went on sale in the stores.  My wife and I decided to save up and order it online and it actually came in faster than they claimed it would.  One thing that I noticed right away that I do like is that you can customize your notifications for each app, something you can not do with an iPhone.  Now my phone announces to me that I have a Facebook Message or  a  Google+ Message and I can hear that without even looking at my phone.  And praise the Lord, finally I have Google Talk, a native app that works and does not time out on me.  My family and friends are avid Google Talk users and I had to deal with this  never ending downloading of new third party apps just to get me online.  None of them had full functionality and would always time out after so lone of inactivity.  This new Google Talk app has some amazing video quality.  The Google+ Hangouts also has some great quality as well.

Anyway… This is a great time to finally rid myself of that Apple product.  With life being so busy, I’ve not had a moment to sit down and learn most of the features.  Even now in my brief time that I could be doing it, I wanted to post this blog telling the world that I am finally over on the Android side.  Don’t get me wrong, the other phone was okay and a pretty good quality product but I just did not want to be associated with that company.  When they took away Google Maps, that was the final straw.  Eventually they finally wised up and opened it back up to download but I had already had all I could take.  The world is right again.  I have gone around and collected any semblance of Apple products and put them together to dispose of properly.  Just kidding.

This year’s storm season is almost here, well, it is already here but we’ve not been getting any storms out our house yet. I took these pictures from my drive way on April 15th looking toward the Southeast.  I am hoping that we get some real storms here before long. I have to get to work so I can’t type much. I just wanted to share some awesome clouds.