Christian Comedy

I just discovered this comedian.  Give him a few minutes.  I think he will make you laugh.

Meet Michael Jr

Jesus’ LIttle Brother

Over Saved

Pray with your neighbor

 

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Church Choir Christmas Program

Our choir presented a multimedia program at church this past Sunday.  My daughter and I were both singing.  Here’s a couple of videos from the service. 

 

 

Hope these blessed you today.

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New way to play music

This video is from a church in the Atlanta area.  I have several friends who attend this church and they sent me this link.  The worship team is playing music on their iPads and iPhones.  It is really amazing to see.

A Tribute to Matt Diaz

I am a big Braves fan and my favorite player has been Matt Diaz.  Matt was not resigned for the 2011 season.  I will miss him greatly.  Matt knows how to play the game.  He plays hard and always does his best.  He is a leader on and off the field.  He’s the kind of man that we want our children to look up to.  He’s a man of character and integrity.  He never complained about playing time.  He was always ready to go when it was his turn to contribute. 

In a day and age when athletes are constantly in the news for drugs, guns, cheating on their wives, rape, etc., Matt, you’ve showed us the way professional athletes are supposed to behave.  You are a class act.

Matt, thanks for five wonderful years in Atlanta. We respect you and we love you.  We will miss you but we wish you well as you go to Pittsburgh. 

Feeling disrespected and hurt

An event occurred at work last week where I felt extremely disrespected.  I was given some news and I sat in shock as I heard it.  I tried not to react.  I left feeling like I had just been slapped in the face.  I don’t think it was intended that way but that’s the way it came across.  

I knew I needed to be careful not to react from the flesh.  (Although I did go home and have a good cry about it.)  I knew I needed to take it to God and leave the situation in His hands.  That is really hard because I really wanted to tell these people exactly what I thought. 

I am still struggling with this.  I think it is because I work with these people every day and I thought they appreciated me and respected me.  Right now I need to get past this.  Forgiveness is easy when you are writing about it and telling someone else to practice it.  It’s hard when you are the one needing to forgive someone. 

Living the Christian life isn’t always easy.  Being committed to doing the right thing is hard.  Not reacting when you are feeling hurt is hard.  Letting situations in God’s hands and praying for a just outcome is hard. 

No one said that living the Christian life was going to be easy…

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. “ Ephesians 4:31-32

“An angry man stirs up dissension, and a hot-tempered one commits many sins.”  Proverbs 29:22

“He who is slow to anger has great understanding, But he who is quick-tempered exalts folly.“  Proverbs 14:29

“A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.”  Proverbs 15:1

“A man's discretion makes him slow to anger, And it is his glory to overlook a transgression.”  Proverbs 19:11

“Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.”  Ephesians 4:26

Depraved Indifference

A friend sent me the link to this video.  It will really grip your heart.

"God is looking for more than the money of saints.  He's looking for the entirety of their lives to be spent for the weak."

 

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If you have trouble playing it from my blog, go here - http://ellerslie.com/Depraved_Indifference.html

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Cell Phone Message

On Saturday night, my teenage daughter received a voice mail on her cell phone.  The caller had a creepy voice and called her by name and said “In seven days, I am going to kill you.  I’m going to bring my big machete knife and come in your house.  I’m going to put a pillow over your face and stab you to death.  See you in seven days”

Needless to say we were quite shaken up about this.  My daughter was absolutely freaked out.  She didn’t want to go into her bedroom alone.  She slept in my bed the last couple of nights.  We couldn’t imagine who would do this to her.

She’s a quiet kid.  She’s just pretty average.  She’s an A/B student.  Solid but not top of her class . She’s not a star athlete.  She’s a manager for the marching band.  She’s a good kid who has never been in trouble and is known for helping others.

We suspected a student(s) from school had done this as a prank and so we went the the dean of students at her school on Monday.  He was very helpful and got right on it.  As much as we brainstormed, we couldn’t come up with anyone who might do this to her. 

The school has some Gwinnett County policemen who work on campus each day.  They had me file a police report.  Then the officer went to Sprint and got them to release the phone number who made the call.  It had come in as a private number.  He took the number to Verizon and got them to release the name of the person on the account.  (They wanted us to wait 10 days!)

The officer called the number a couple of times and finally got someone to answer on the other end.  It turns out that the phone belongs to a teenager who lives about an hour from us.  She and some of her friends were dialing random phone numbers Saturday night and when they got a voice mail, her male friend was leaving these threatening messages.  They thought they were being funny.

What they didn’t realize was that leaving threatening messages like this is a felony.  That is a felony count for each message.  The officer talked to the mother of this young lady and she convinced him that she would deal with her daughter about this and that she would call the parents of the young man who left the message.

Then the police officer called us and wanted to know if we are going to press charges.  We decided that we didn’t want to ruin these kids lives.  They made a stupid mistake.  We really just wanted to know that this was a prank and nothing to really fear.

What would you have done?  Would you have pressed charges?  Our daughter was scared to death from Saturday night until Tuesday night.  She hasn’t slept. She hasn’t been able to concentrate on her school work. 

We prayed a lot for God’s protection and for God to allow the officer to quickly figure this all out.  We also prayed for the person who made the call.  We are thankful for answers to our prayers.

All we could think of tonight was how grateful we were that she is OK.  We are relieved that the whole ordeal is over.  We are thankful that the dean of students and the Gwinnett County police officer at our school were really on top of this incident and cleared it up so quickly.  We are thankful that it was just a stupid prank and that there is nothing to worry about.  There really is so much to give thanks for.

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