Ever have one of those days when nothing goes right? As soon as you get out of bed, you stub your toes. You cut yourself shaving. The toilet won’t flush. There’s no hot water in the shower. The toast is burnt. The car won’t start. The boss doesn’t want to hear why you’re late, then demands you work extra time on the ’special’ project his three-year-old could do … and it gets worse! Ever have one of them? What do you do? Throw in the towel and quit? Jump in bed and bury your head under a pillow? Look for the shells to the (licensed) revolver? Beat the wife and stare at the punching bag? Or vice verse?

Here’s what has helped me. I FORCE myself to get alone, get quiet, and take several deep breaths. Then I turn in my Bible to Psalm 118, verse 24 : “This is the day which the Lord has made; we ( I ) will rejoice, and be glad in it.” OK, so you don’t even believe in God. That just adds to the kind of day you’re having. Me? Just by acknowledging it’s a “day the Lord has made”, gets my attention off me, onto the Lord. When I think what kind of day He’s having, I almost have to laugh, what with all the whole world’s population having ‘bad’ days at the same time! If I can’t laugh about that, then I FORCE myself to rejoice. One or two “Ha, Ha’s’, and suddenly my ‘tude changes, and I start forgetting the wrongs and rejoice for the rights. It’s now a day in which I can be glad. We’re all different, but it works for me.

Have you ever observed the following scenario? : children go to church with their parents regularly; the same children suddenly disappear from church attendance when they reach ‘the age of driving’. Ever ask yourself, “Why?” My pastor hit the nail on the head in Sunday’s message when he said, “Children who spend their entire growing years in church, depart when they get older, because .. ” – are you ready for this? – “they have only HEARD about God, without ever having had an ENCOUNTER with God.” In a lot of cases, we as parents have placed more emphasis on church attendance than we have on introducing the children to Father God. To take this a step further, speaking personally, children observe their dads’ behaviors. Dads who take the little ones to church every Sunday, but live like the rest of the world from Monday through Saturday – you know: partying, cussing, arguing, lying, cheating, etc., etc. – are presenting two different messages to their children. The children get older, see the hyprocrisy of dads’ lifestyles, and say, “I don’t want any part of this church scene; I’ll just go do my own thing rather than pretend to be a Christian on Sundays.” In reality, they are being more honest in their choices than the examples being set for them by pretending dads. I can write this because I was one of those pretending dads. God has dealt with me in the recent past, about talking ABOUT God without ever really having taken the time to KNOW Him intimately. I’ve asked God to forgive me for such neglect. The next step is to ask the 3 children to forgive me also. And finally, I need to forgive myself, quit dwelling on past failures, and actually set the example of commitment and live what I say without saying anything. It’s more important for others to READ my life than HEAR my words.

I thank God for His patience with me and for His promise of forgiveness, recorded in First John, chapter 1, verse 9. Read it for yourself. Believe it for your own promise. Thank you.

Happy New Year everyone! Today I’ll be enjoying a family tradition – we have mashed potatoes and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day. It’s been said that, “You’ll never be broke if you have sauerkraut to eat on New Year’s Day.” Well, I don’t put a lot of stock in superstitions, but I do like sauerkraut and ‘taters, so bring it on! Most of the time we have pork with the sauerkraut. And I’m leading up to a commercial here, so bear with me.

A week or so ago, I wrote about my older brother, in the pleasures of never quitting. The article was dated December 24, 2009, if you want to take a look. But today I want to mention my nephew, brother George’s oldest boy – Wayne. Wayne prepares some of the best tasting pork you’d ever want to eat. Actually, he operates a terrific meat processing shop, in Cadott, Wisconsin. You can visit him on the internet at www.crescentqualitymeats.com. If you check him out and decide to order something, let him know you were referred from PleasuresForEvermore. Who knows? Your New Year could be a lot tastier after today.

Come on back tomorrow and see what’s on the menu.

When I left off last time, I had stated that God and His angels lived in the spirit realm, along with the devil and his demons (fallen angels). I use the number one best seller of all time for my reasonings: the Bible. The Bible tells us that God existed “in the beginning”. Some folks don’t believe in God. That’s OK. Let’s just take a ‘wait and see’ approach. The Bible also tells us that God created ALL things, and I have to believe that includes the devil, too. You see, I believe ( everyone say – this is what he believes ) that the devil was an angel, created by God. This angel was named Lucifer, and in his original state, he actually led worship to God. Then, he looked in a mirror one day, saw how beautiful he was, and decided he wanted to be, not just LIKE God, but to BE god, the object of worship rather than the leader of worship. God said, “NO!”, and cast Lucifer forever from the dwelling place of God. Lucifer convinced a third of the angelic host to follow him, as he was descending from God’s presence; and the ‘war’ was on: satan (the devil or Lucifer) versus God. When satan got to earth, he caused so much devastation, that we’re told, ” .. the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” – the Book of Genesis, chapter 1, verse 2.

Sometme thereafter, God spoke, His Spirit responded, and creation ‘happened’! Again, to re-emphasize, this is what I believe. You are free to exercise your right to disagree. I will continue this explanation in yet another article. This could become ‘days of our lives’ ‘as the world turns’ for ‘all my children’ … a never-ending saga of hope for the hopeless. Come on back for more. Thank you.

Ever wish you could be two places at once? Stop wishing. You are! And you might say, “You’re nuts. You can’t be in two places at once.” Well, I respectfully beg to disagree. Allow me the opportunity to explain.

There are two realms of existence, co-existing together. There’s the realm we are most familiar with, which is the natural realm. The natural realm requires a specially designed “suit” for existence. That suit is our flesh and blood body, which I’ll call our ‘earth-suit’. This earth-suit has eyes for seeing, ears for hearing, skin and nerves for feeling, noses for smelling, and mouths and tongues for tasting. Our earth-suit confines us to the things of the earth, you know, like gravity, the air, climates, seasons, etc. We are limited by time and controlled by the laws of the land.

However, there’s another realm. Some of us are familiar with this realm, but a lot of folks aren’t. It’s an un-seen realm, unseen by our natural eyes. This realm is called the spirit realm. Now don’t go getting spooky on me. It’s a very real world, more so than the natural realm; the reason it’s more real is because this is where God lives. God is a Spirit, and He created all things out of that realm. Some people believe in ‘the big bang’ theory of existence, which is fine with me. I believe in evolution myself. You see, when God created the heavens and the earth, everything was PERFECT! But over time, it gradually evolved into what we all live with, right now. Anyway, we are on earth in our earth suits at the same time we are in the spirit world, with our spirits housed inside our earth suits. There are no ‘time’ limits here, and all things are controlled by the law of the Spirit. God and His angels are very much present in this realm; but, so too is the devil and his demons (fallen angels).

For space purposes, I’ll close at this point, but I’m not done with this explanation. Tune in again for more. Thank you.

This article is being written because a marketing manager (I’ve never met) tells me I need to keep putting something new in front of you at least once a day, preferably twice a day. Ha! Sometimes ideas flow to me like waves to the shore. But today ain’t one of them times. But I’ll try to do what I’m told. Who knows? Maybe I’ll hit a gusher once I get started.

Nope, not yet.

One thing I really like to do is share the things I learn from God’s Word. Did you know God’s Word is written AND oral? The written Word is the Bible. The oral Word is what God speaks to you either publicly through a word of prophecy, or privately in one’s own devotional time. Anytime someone is speaking is an opportunity for God to speak. That’s why we need to guard what comes out of our mouths. Sometimes I don’t want anyone to hear what I’m spewing, know what I mean? That’s the one area I need to exercise more discipline – especially when I’m alone. Boy the things I say when I’m alone. But I’m really never alone. The Bible records a promise that Jesus made: “I will never leave you or forsake you.” Oh, oh. Jesus is with me even when I’m by myself. OK then, I think I’ll just go quietly now and come back tomorrow for another attempt at giving you something new.

PleasuresForEvermore.com was started to offer some personal observations about our relationship to God, or to get us to ponder, ‘What does God think about us?’ In the King James Bible, from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 20, we’re told that God has ” … set Him (Jesus) at His own right hand in the heavenly places.” Also Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 6, says, ” … and has raised US up together, and made US sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Psalm 16, verse 11: “You (God) will show me the path of life: in Your Presence is fulness of joy; at Your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”

According to Ephesians, who is at God’s right hand? Jesus AND believers who have been raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What then, or who then, are the pleasures for evermore, as quoted in Psalm 16:11? WE ARE! Now this could be a new thought for a lot of folks … to think that we are pleasures to God for evermore. If so, good! That’s part of our goal, to challenge the way we’ve been taught or thought, and to open our hearts to new revelations from God. Really, they are not new revelations … just what’s been there all along, but brought to light by a fresh wind from the Spirit of God.

Tune in for more in future articles. Thank you.

It’s the day after Christmas, and a dreary, rainy day is unfolding. Rain. Five days into winter in Pennsylvania, and it’s raining. Thank goodness it’s warm enough that it isn’t icing. The rain is actually helping to melt the snow that was dumped in the area last week.

The final days of 2009 are speeding by as the countdown to 2010 is in progress. What will the new year bring? More of the same or maybe something different is in store?

Having recently moved from a beautiful 2-story house into a double-wide home has left us with more ’stuff’ than space. So, as I sort through the boxes of things stored in our new 2-car garage, the one thing I’ve determined is to simplify as much as possible. Part of that means tossing things that have accumulated over the years, but really have no value, just memories. I read somewhere the other day that remembrance of things past can be a real deterrent to moving forward. I agree. Therefore, as we continue our trek into 2010, I’m going to cut the clutter, unload the ’stuff’, and move forward with the resolve to keep things under control. Having experienced the trauma of downsizing from the business realm, I am going to enjoy the efforts of downsizing the personal messes that I’ve caused, whether it be objects, activities, or even people. It’s going to be what matters to me NOW, not from the past or in the future.

Well, here it is: Christmas Day, 2009! Happy Birthday, Jesus. Hope Your day is going well, and that You are enjoying the food, fellowship, and football games. How’s the weather up there? Was santa good to You? Did You get what You wanted for Christmas? What’s that? You say all You want is for mankind to believe in You? Well, that’s not too much to ask. But where’s the joy in that? Oh, You want me to look in the Bible, in the Book of Psalms. Psalm 16, verse 11. You say that ” … in Your Presence there is fulness of joy … ” Well, part of my presents included the chocolate chunk peanut butter cookies that caused me fulness of belly. What? You say, “Not that kind of presents, but presence.” Oh, You want my presence? And if I give You my presence, we’ll both experience fulness of joy!” But, if I give You my presence, I’ll miss the game. What’s that? You say, “This isn’t a game; that You’re serious. You want me and all my rowdy friends to come to Your presence. And if we do, You’ll give us front row seats at Your right hand. Then we’ll be where You want us, and we’ll be Your pleasures for evermore (Psalm 16:11)”. OK Jesus. I’ve thought it over. And I really think Your Presence is better than this football game anyway. My team’s getting whipped pretty bad. What’s that, You say? “Your team has been ‘ … troubled on every side, yet not distressed?, Perplexed, but not in despair?, Persecuted, but not forsaken?, Cast down, but not destroyed?’ (Second Corinthians, chapter 4, verses 8 and 9).” Well, the troubled, perplexed, persecuted, and cast down doesn’t sound too good to me. But, I like the idea of .. not distressed, not in despair, not forsaken, and not destroyed. OK Jesus, count me in. Even if I’m not in the starting line-up, I still want to be on Your team.

How about YOU? Merry Christmas everyone.