Monday, June 11, 2007

Your brother must be Jason -->A Family Reunion Thing

This past weekend we attended my family reunion in Holmes County Ohio. There were approximately 175 people there of which probably 90 were my first cousins. This is the first time I have seen this much of my family for a long time. I have to be honest with you. I didn't really want to go to the reunion. Delilah really wanted to go, she gets excited about learning new things about the Amish. I wasn't really looking forward to it.

My family all call me Jason. I had forgotten about this until I was talking to one of my cousins and he was able to place me with as my dad's son but didn't remember my name. I told him it was Jake and he replied "Oh your brother is Jason." Um, no that is me.

All in all it was a good time to be there. I was able to talk to my Aunt and Uncle a little bit. They moved to Coshocton and now he is helping with the internet sales at Woodbury Outfitters a hunting outfitter. It is my cousins business. I was able to pass around the fliers he gave to me to some of my co-workers at work. They really seemed excited about it.

Delilah and my cousin Emma really hit off, the next time they have to come to the Akron area they are going to go thrifting together. Delilah can't wait. I'm sure she will blog about that experience.

Later

Monday, June 04, 2007

Running with the Consequences

Everything we do has a consequence to it. It can either be a positive or a negative consequence. I have done some horrible things in my short lifetime which I have apologized for over and over but it doesn't change the fact that I will have consequences for it for a long time.
God will and does forgive us for our sins. This doesn't mean that when we sin and ask forgiveness that there are no consequences for our sin. We still will have consequences for our actions. Consider David from the old testament, he did some horrible things. God forgave him yet he still had consequences for his actions. The things that David did, didn't mean that God couldn't use him in powerful ways. God used David in mighty and powerful ways.
The Apostle Paul is another great example. He was a horrible persecutor of Christians. But God was able to use him in a powerful way.
I guess what I am trying to say here is that even though we may do horrible things, we have to allow the consequences to run its course. A lot of good can come out of horrible situation if you allow God to take control of the situation.
My hope is that God uses me a sliver of how He used Paul and David.