The Bible-Believing, Bacon-Eating, Blog-Writing, Bald-Preacher

     My family went to see the lights at Charlotte Motor Speedway. They say there are over 3 million lights on display. I will take their word for it because I am not counting them. We drove around on the 3.75 mile course that took us on around the speedway, on the track, in the infield and many other places. We could watch Elf on the big screen as we drove around and listen to it on the radio. There were blinking lights, lights that made pictures, lights that formed moving pictures and lights that just were bright. We walked around the Christmas Village which was not very Biblically accurate but was pretty to look at. We stood under the "snow" and got our picture                                           took. We walked by the "shops" and feed some animals in the petting zoo. My daughter got to pet a llama and was very excited. I left still not in the Christmas Spirit.      For over a month my wife has been watching Christmas movies. We have watched Elf, Frosty

     As I was driving to the office this morning I saw something that brought back a scary memory. I was driving on 321 and I glanced over to the lane beside of me and saw some snow fly off the top of a car and come crashing down against the windshield of the car behind it. It wasn't a big amount but I am sure it was enough to give the driver a scare. Now the memory it brought back to my mind had a lot more snow in it. I was driving down a two lane road a day or two after a heavy snow. It was the first day the roads were not covered in snow and ice so it was the first time many people ventured out. I was following a minivan with enough snow on top of it to let you know it was on its maiden voyage out. As we drove down the road a few small lumps of snow came flying off so I backed off some. A few minutes later I assume the minivan driver figured out the roads were not as icy as once thought because they went from driving Miss. Daisy to driving the last lap at the Daytona 500 in seco

    A little over 20 years ago my wife was asked by some of her family to join them for some Black Friday shopping. They told her about all the sales and deals that stores have on that day. She reluctantly went. They only went for a few hours and they didn't go early when all the stores opened. She come home that afternoon with bags in her hands, a sparkle in her eyes and excitement in her heart. She was hooked on Black Friday Shopping. The next year she went again and came home with more bags in hands, a bigger sparkle in her eyes and more excitement in her heart. I realized that it was now in her blood. I knew she would be a regular and she has been.      Her third year something changed though. Going later in the day wasn't going to be good enough. Only going for a couple of hours wasn't going to be good enough. I will never forget coming home one day to find her sitting at the kitchen table surrounded by sales papers. She turned around to show me a toaster oven that wa

     Last night at 9:30ish while I was laying in bed watching TV I started feeling that "I think I could go to sleep" feeling. At 10:07 I decided that even though it was earlier than I normally go to sleep I would give in to the feeling. Soon there after I was off to sleep. I don't know what happened the next few hours, because I was asleep. That didn't last long though. At 2:24 I woke up staring at the alarm clock. I thought to myself I have a few more hours of sleep to go so I rolled over to continue my sleep when a thought ran through my head.      I know it wasn't important at the time but for some reason it wouldn't leave my mind. Off and on all day on Sunday my wife and I had discussed our meal plans for the week but we had not locked any of those plans down. So I wasn't sure if I was supposed to go to the grocery store or not and if I was what I was supposed to get. It wasn't like I was going to get up at 2:30 in the morning to go to the grocer

     Has anyone else noticed how busy the world has gotten? I am in the process of finishing the preparations for our bi-annual planning meeting at the church. So for the past couple of weeks I have been looking at my family's calendar, the church calendar, event dates and new ministries for next year. I took a glance at everything and I thought, "Wow, 2018 is going to be a busy year." Then it was as if 2017 spoke to me, "Hey, I wasn't a slow year." It is true. There doesn't seem to be a not busy year in my future or anyone's future for that matter.  I heard someone say one time that they were so tired they could die. I have often wondered if that was true. Could you die from lack of sleep? I went to my good friend Google to find out if you could really do it.            According to most medical sites I went to in theory you could die from lack of sleep. Now how long was a great debate. I seen as long as six months and as short as a couple of weeks

     " You get the limo out front; Hottest styles, every shoe, every color ." Come on, sing it with me. Everyone who is under the age of 30 knows the song. " Yeah, when you're famous, it can be kinda fun; It's really you, but no one ever discovers. " Those of us with kids in high school still remember the song even if we don't remember the lyrics. " In some ways you're just like all your friends; but on stage your a star!" Ok, everybody now. " You get the best of both worlds; Chill it out, take it slow; Then you rock out the show. You get the best of both worlds; Mix it all together; and you know that it's the best of both worlds."   Ok, that is enough. I have officially reach the legal limit of Hannah Montana lyrics I am allowed to quote and keep my man card. No, I didn't type them from memory but yes, I did sing the song in my head as I typed it.      That is of course the first verse and chorus to the theme song to the

     Over the past couple of weeks I have received emails, messages in FB Messenger, a text and even seen posts on Facebook saying if I wanted to be blessed by God all I needed to do was share this email/post/message. Some were very specific to what I would be blessed with. Things like money, health, more friends and etc. Some of the posts on Facebook made it hard to get those blessings. You had to type Amen!, like and share the post. Wow, that's a lot of work for a blessing. I have noticed one thing about these one click blessings, none of these emails, posts or messages came from God. You know, the One who would actually do the blessings.     We like that concept though. Click here for your daily blessing! Share this so that God will bless you with money from the sky. Send this to 5 of your friends and you will receive a blessing within an hour. Sounds good don't it? Little to no effort to earn a big blessing. It such a great idea I wonder why God didn't think of it?

      I was in the grocery store this past Saturday and I was very offended by a young lady on her phone. She must of have been talking to a family member about the upcoming hurricane, Irma. She wasn't really concerned about the hurricane. How do I know? She said so, very loudly so that everyone around her could hear. She said, "I am from Florida and I know what kind of hurricanes to worry about and this isn't one of them." After the person on the phone replied she continued her rant, "All I want is some bottled water but the shelves are empty." The person on the other line spoke again to which she replied, "What should I expect from people who buy milk every time it snows. Why do you need milk for snow?" As a full blooded Southern I was insulted. Everybody knows you need milk for snow cream and bread for milk sandwiches when there isn't any snow to make snow cream with. I almost offered to drive her back to Florida but I wanted to get my milk

     Most nights I sleep like a baby. You know the joke, I wake up every two hours to go to the bathroom and I come back to bed wide awake for a for an hour or so. I have learned though not to cry. My wife doesn't find it funny to be awaken at 1:00 am by her husband play crying. She used to think it was cute when our daughter did it but I guess her being an infant at the time makes it a little different. Over the years it is during those hours laying awake in the middle of the night/very early morning that I have done some of my most deepest thinking.      Some people count sheep when they can't fall to sleep. I tried that once but I got bored of seeing sheep walking through my mind so I started making them jump and do flips. I imagined their wool to be different colors to the point it looked like they were painted by NASCAR. After a while I figured out counting sheep wasn't for me so I started counting bacon recipes that I have seen. That didn't work either, it just m

     When I first moved to Burke County I was introduced to something that changed my life, Friday Night Football. It was the 1980's and everybody flocked to the football games on Friday to watch East Burke play. Our church would take the church van to several games each year even to a couple away games. It wasn't just the youth that went. All ages would pile in the van and car pool behind the van to the games. The stadium would be filled with people from all over the community. That was the first live football I had ever seen and I was hooked.      I remember hearing the announcer announce the players as they made tackles or ran the ball. I remember hearing the fans scream in joy when East Burke scored. I can still hear the boos when the referee made bad calls. Everyone once in a while you could hear the cheerleaders and band. But the sound that drew me to the game was the sound of players knocking the snot out of each other. The sound of two helmets hitting gave me cold chil

     While I was on vacation last month I was sitting on the beach  just out of the reach of the waves behind the seashell line I noticed something. What I call the seashell line is that line of broken seashells that appears just past where the waves come in. I noticed that it was constantly changing. Big waves would take some of the shells away. Small waves dropped new ones in. People were digging into the seashell line hoping to find a beautiful shell, a hard to find shark's tooth or some other treasure. What I noticed was the adaptability of the beaches and shells.      Let me explain. When I looked at the seashell line everything looked to be in harmony. Then a wave would come in and drop a new shell in the seashell line. For a few moments it looked out of place, like it didn't belong. But then something happened. I would look away for a second, then look back and things had changed. The new shell not only looked like it belonged but it was hard to find which shell was the

     The Thursday before Mother's Day I went to the doctor for a regular check up. My blood pressure was in the range the doctor wanted. All the numbers that were high in my previous blood work had dropped and most where back into the normal range. Somehow my weight even dropped. My doctor was very pleased and announced I was doing good and was healthy even with my slightly above average bacon intake. I was happy because instead of having to go back monthly to make my copayment donation to her children's college fun I got a six month pass.     Then Friday come, Friday afternoon to be exact. I was running some errands with my daughter and felt a small but sharp pain in my lower right side. It didn't stay long. It later came back but left again. This pattern continued for the rest of the evening. The time in pain got longer and the pain got worse while the pain free time got shorter and shorter. By bedtime there was no relief and the pain just came in waves. On the pain scal

     I do believe I am addicted to something and this morning from the time I got up until now I have been craving it. At first I did it socially with some family and close friends. I justified as "they wanted to do it." I kept telling myself it wasn't a big deal and if "nobody wanted to" I would be alright without it. The truth is though, I think about it every time I am in the area of my connection. There are times I have to physically restrain myself stopping to fuel my addiction. I have even considered rerouting my travels so I would not pass the temptation.      Today is bad though. I have just about talked myself into rearranging my schedule today so I can give in to the temptation I am facing. That is only the beginning of my battle. I know the next few days are going to be extremely busy for me so there will be no time to see if "anyone else wants to" but I think I have found some time I can do it alone each day. On Wednesday, I have figured o

     I have caught a bits and pieces of a movie entitled, "The Croods" over the years. The few minutes I have watched seemed to be funny so I decided that I wanted to watch the entire movie at some point. I had never caught the beginning or the end so I really didn't know what the storyline was all about. I could tell it had something to do with a family of cavemen on a trip. I finally got a chance to watch the entire movie this past weekend. I did enjoyed it and learned a good lesson.      Basically, the Croods is the only remaining family of caveman living in a cave. All their neighbors had died off and that made the father become over protective of the family. They couldn't leave their cave except in a group and they only left to find food. They would stay days at a time in the cave. The father taught them to "Always be afraid." He also told them all new things were dangerous, curiosity was a bad thing and fear was the only way to survive. Everything was

     If you are flying in an airplane the last thing you want to hear your pilot shot on the radio is, "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!" When the word mayday is repeated 3 times it becomes an international distress signal. It is most commonly used by pilots and ship captains when their plane or boat is going down. Some local fire departments, police stations and rescue squads use it also when they are in distress or immediate danger. So when ever you hear it you know something isn't going right and danger isn't a possibility but a definite.      In 1923, Frederick Stanley Mockford, a senior officer at the Croydon Airport in London, was m'aider which was a shortened version of the phrase venez m'aider meaning "come and "help me." In 1927, the International Radiotelegraph Convention of Washington voted to make Mayday the official term for distress replacing SOS. It has been used every since. asked to come up with a word that would be easily understoo