"Until we meet again, may God bless you as he has blessed me." ~ Elvis Presley

Hello and welcome to Tuesday, October 29, 2013. There are folks near our work place that crank up the wood burning stove or fireplace when it gets the least bit cool. They are no doubt rushing it but that smell does bring back a lot of memories. I can see my granddad sitting in his rocker, Bible in his lap, head back, snoozing and snoring before that blazing fire. If you like old school, we had plenty of it this past Sunday. We had us one of those spontaneous thunder events around 4:30 a.m., that lasted for about 45 minutes and it rocked and rolled, huffed and puffed, blew stuff here and there, all the while pouring out water like a busted fire hydrant. Talk about a wake up call! Then it was gone. The rain persisted but all was quiet. No power. It stayed off until 1 p.m. at our place and others went into the night still waiting for theirs to come back on. One lady called me and said they wouldn't be at Bible study Sunday evening because they would be getting their generator going. She said they had driven around the neighborhood and most everyone seemed to have power except for them. I know the feeling. I had done that very same thing before ours came back on. For me, well, I began to wonder if they had intentionally left me out. The nerve. But it came back on and I got the satellite re-synced and NASCAR was actually just ready to start the first lap. The tune Happy Days are Here Again comes to mind but I'll keep it for another time.

Ready for Church.

Driving out of our subdivision to Church brought back some painful thoughts as well. Trees were down. Debris was scattered everywhere. Eerie with all the lights out. It was too much of a reminder of our not-so-good buddy Ike that previously had made driving around a chore. Fortunately, this was mostly superficial damage. We didn't have power at the Church either. We did have some flooding inside one of the classrooms and in the kitchen area. Cancel services? Nope. We herded everyone into the old chapel area where we still have windows. We had to bring in chairs. The room was full. Instead of the choruses up on the big screen we sat shoulder to shoulder and sang the old hymns of the faith. I was helping folks get in and as I walked down that hallway, the richness of that melodious worship music would have made Bill Gaither proud. It was definitely old school all the way. The kiddos where in there with us and that reminded me of how it was when I was growing up. We came. We prayed. We sang. We gave our gifts and offerings. We heard God's Word declared. And, we left with the feeling David expressed, "I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord." (Psalm 122:1) Amen.

Turned out to be a pretty good Sunday after all. My guy, Jeff Gordon, won the race. Hurrah! The Texans didn't lose. Hurrah! They had a bye week. We had a great Sunday evening study where we began to examine the influence and impact of the Messianic Victory Psalm 110 and the variety of references to it in the Scriptures. Came home and found a Duck Dynasty marathon was underway. We started out a little shaky, but, all in all, it turned out to be a blessed day. Our windows in the garage had been open and I will admit that when the wind began rearranging stuff in there, well, it did cause me to wonder. I had made a big pot of shrimp gumbo on Saturday. Think about it. I was able to ladle up a big bowl, zap it in the microwave until it was piping hot, hit it with some generous drips of Louisiana RedHot, and eat it while watching Uncle Si do his thing. One last time. Is this a great country...or what? Amen and Amen.   ....More later.