The Pastor's Perspective

   It has been 4 years now since we had to deal with COVID and the "New Normal". Since that time we have endured a great many changes. Now some of these changes were good, and some were not.      For me one of the positive changes has been me using Amazon Prime to purchase various items online. Prior to COVID I had never used Amazon prime and rarely did I purchase items online. I never really felt the need to use it. However with the demands of social distancing we were forced to use more online shopping options. Since that time I have been using Amazon prime for a variety of reasons. I have bought everything from coffee, tools, and even some country ham.      If you have ever used Amazon prime, or you have ever bought anything online, or even the Shopping Home Network you know that it will take a couple of days before your item's arrive. Normally it will tell you when you can expect your items to arrive at your house.      Now ther...

    There was  man from Brooklyn who went to court to change his last name from Kelly to Feinberg. Then a year later he went back to the same court to change is name again. This time he changed his name to Garibaldi.      It was at this time the judge asked the man "Mr. Feinberg this is the second time you have petitioned this court to change your last name with in a year. Now I must ask you are you trying to make the court confused or foolish?"      The man replied "No not at all your Honor"      "Well then why are you changing your name then" asked the judge     The man replied "Because your Honor my neighborhood keeps changing"  We live in a world full of change do we not. From culture, to technology, to style, to politics nothing stays the same. In our church we have a wonderful godly lady who is 101 years old I can't imagine the changes she has seen in her lifetime. She used to teach in a one room school hou...

  Go down the cereal isle this week and you will find several different boxes of cereal that look similar. The color scheme is similar, the nutritional information is similar, and the overall taste many times is similar.  Sometimes the generic brands are just as good and there is little to no diffrence to the taste. (Except for Oreo's! I don't know what they put in those cookies to make them taste the way they do, but the generic chocolate sandwich cookies just are not the same. But I digress.) You see for the most part there is very little diffrence between the cereals except one might say "Honey Nut Cheerios" and the other might say "Honey Nut Scooters".  That's because one of the cereal's is name brand and the other is generic.      Now the generic brands tend to design their product after the name brand product they are mimicking. They are trying to entice you to try there product that they are claiming is just as good as the other only its not a...

    I believe we all have something that we are proud of.  It might be some accomplishment or some reward we received at one time in our life.   It might be a talent or a skill that we have. It might be the accomplishments of our children, or grandchildren.       No matter what it might be we all have something that we are proud of.  One of the ways you can tell what someone is proud of is by seeing what they love to talk about. People often love to share the things they are most proud of with others. Parents who are beaming with pride with the accomplishments of their children share posts on Facebook. Individuals who are proud of their scholastic accomplishments post the pictures of there degrees and awards. When we have a great recipe for some great dessert we have found we share it with others. We share what we are proud of, and what we are proud of is what we like to share.   Capt. Edward John Smith     The bible ...

     Some of you may or may not know this, but I have a guilty pleasure. I like to watch those video's when the take an old rusty, beat up item and restore it back to its former glory. I love watching an item that would other wise be thrown out in the trash get a make over. There is something about seeing the before and after shots that intrigues me for some reason.      Now I am not very skilled at fixing things. In fact for the most part I am all thumbs when it comes to working with tools (something I am trying to get better at). So for me when I watch those video's I am amazed at the skill and work that it takes to restore items that I probably would overlook or throw away.      Now there is something else that I must confess. I don't normally watch the videos all the way through. That's right I love the video's, I watch them regularly, but I rarely if ever watch the video all the way through. For me I want to jump to the part of the video...

There was a shepherd who had a large flock and a big problem. A wolf had been taking his sheep one sheep at a time. The shepherd done all he could do to rid himself of this problem but nothing worked. Each week he saw more and more sheep taken from his flock and each week he felt more and more helpless.  Until one day the shepherd had enough and struck out on his own to deal with this wolf once and for all. He tracked this wolf for miles and every now and then he would get close enough to get a shot off  but he would never hit its mark.  He stayed the night in the woods, and the wolf circled his camp time and time again but the shepherd was unable to get a clear shot. Morning came and he sought to continue to track down this wolf.  As he was tracking the wolf, a great blizzard had started to come in and the shepherd realized he needed to turn back to make sure his sheep would be safe.   As he headed back the wolf began to emerge from time to time and the sh...

Anyone who knows me knows I hate, and I say again, hate mowing the grass! I have often said that when I get up to heaven I am sure my place will have astroturf in the front lawn. I know there are some who love the smell of fresh cut grass, who love the time outside and love making there lawn picture perfect. That is all fine and dandy, but I absolutely hate doing it and if I wasn't so cheap I would pay for someone else to do it.  Now beside me lives an elderly couple who for years had someone do there lawn. He would come by at least once a week and mow the lawn and weedeat around the shrubs and trees. Well about a year or so ago he was unable to do it, so my neighbor across the street had told this elderly couple that he would mow there lawn for them this year. However, this past winter he had passed away. Now I did not know if they had hired anyone to mow there lawn yet or not.  As Spring came I noticed that the grass was getting higher and higher and I assumed that since w...