Forgiven

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Another birthday? Wow. I'm shocked and blessed that I've been allowed to live this long. Of course, God's grace covers a multitude of sins, but wow, I've screwed up terribly this year. Offending wrongly has always been one of my uglier qualities, but I've crossed several lines that should never have been crossed and am still trying to patch those rifts up. I know that I can do better and, by God's grace, and with Jesus' help, I will change. Two decades is too long of a time to have some of the, umm, defects? Bad habits? Whatever. I think you know what I'm getting at. Well, l've got a year 'til 21, so here's to change. Change by Jesus. 

Be Excited. Jesus Loves You.

So, today, I was talking with some friends about how when you are alone in liking a certain TV show or movie or whatever, it's difficult to share your joy alone. It is. It just is. Then, in church, Pastor Mark Toone spoke about Psalm 122, where the Psalmist is saying "I was GLAD when they said too me, let us go to the house of The Lord!" I was GLAD. You hear that. He went on to say that so many Christians, too many Christian are more excited about the Seahawks than they ever are about church. How it's saddening that so many seats are empty on Sunday. How people are at church because it's the "right thing to do" not because they WANT to. His point in all this was, "Why aren't we sharing our joy? When you're late to church consistently, and don't care, it really shows where your priorities are. You dine and dash. You don't give, you just come and take." I paraphrase, but still, how true is that? Get excited about Jesus. Get excited that He loves you. Come to church, GO to church, be amazed and fall in love, or back in love with Your Saviour...

My Family in History

Really cool tidbit of information, my family (both sides) are in history... Simon Cameron (Simeon by some accounts) was the Secretary of War under President Lincoln at the beginning of the Civil War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Cameron. His son, James Donald Cameron, served as Secretary of War under U. S. Grant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Donald_Cameron(okay, I don't know how closely related we are, per se). But, something cool about THAT is that my Grandpa Cameron's name is Donald and my Dad's name is James.... Woah.


On my Grandma Nancy's side of the family, we have Christopher Gist.... Wait for it... a close friend of George Washington... WUT?! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Gist . Somewhere in there is a guy named States Rights Gist. I kid you not. His name was freaking STATES RIGHTS! Of course, he was a Confederate in the Civil War...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_Rights_Gist