I enjoyed my time at the “Ugly Sweater Party”. I didn’t win anything but I didn’t need to. I got the opportunity to spend time with some awesome people. The Meyers are excellent hosts!
As far as good dorm stories, yours were so good, I simply couldn’t think of with any. At least not until I got in my car and drove away, then I started to remember stuff. One story in particular I will share here.
It was Christmas Eve, I came back to the dorm. There were only 3 of us who did not go see family, Chris Wolfe, Paul Spinosa, and myself. Now earlier that day, Morris Henderson and I went to do our visitations. We were visiting with a Russian family who requested that we have dinner with them. We resisted at first but I (against my better judgment) gave in and Henderson followed and we ate with this family.
Now I’m back at the dorm and Wolfe got a turkey from work. He went online at the library and downloaded a recipe on how to “smoke a turkey”. He spent all Christmas Eve night smoking it. On Christmas Day I got up and he was finally done and he showed it to me. This was the blackest turkey I had ever seen in my life. I mean, leather jacket black. It was … buh-lack!
I didn’t make fun of him. In fact, I asked him if I could have a slice. He served me up a slice. Turned out the skin was just black. The flesh underneath was a healthy edible color and it was delicious!!! I know, right!? It had a wonderful smoked flavor! Then Brother Spinosa came downstairs and saw it. He clearly didn’t want any and was very skeptical of it.
Here’s where it got interesting…A knock came on the door. I answered it (I think) and it was Morris Henderson. The first words out of his mouth were,
“Are you throwing up yet”?
Naturally I said, “No. Why”?
He explained his suspicions. That we both ate with that Russian family the day before, therefore, if he was sick and projectile vomiting everywhere then surely I was too. I hadn’t. So he went back to his dorm.
As soon as he left and I closed the door, I went straight to the bathroom and projectile vomited myself! It was terrible!! It started coming out of both ends!! Worst Christmas Day ever!
So now I’m sitting in the living room of “The Coop” trying to catch my breath thinking, “Make it stop! Make it stop!!” Then I run to the bathroom again then come back.
Now I notice these two looking at each other and avoiding eye contact with me. Wolfe felt bad. He looked dejected and downcast. Spinosa looked worried and they kept speaking in hushed tones. Finally Spinosa spoke to me.
“Grant, did you eat some of Wolfe’s turkey”!?
Not sure where he was going with this I said, “Yes, I did”.
“SEE WOLFE!? I TOLD YOU!! YOUR TURKEY MADE HIM SICK”!!!
I actually had to laugh at this point but I explained to them both that I was sick for another reason, which I shared with Henderson that night. He was RIGHT! Eating with that Russian family made us both sick.
Neither Wolfe nor Spinosa could be fully convinced. Spinosa never had any of the turkey. Wolfe never cooked another turkey that I am aware of and when I do visitations and people offer me food my answer is emphatically “No thank you”!!!!!!
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
This Morning’s Epiphany 9.23.2014
I had an epiphany this morning. It is such that I want to write it down and place it upon my blog so that I may go back and read it and remember it. When I graduated New Testament Christian Seminary, my class’ title was Ministers of Truth. I loved that title and wanted to live up to it. I’ve never forgotten how it made me feel when Pastor Davis pronounced this title upon us. The sheer aptness, the incomparable appropriateness of the title, was exactly the theme of my four years of study, of everything my teachers drove home to us. This is the truth and we are ministers of that truth!
Bible College did not make me a bible scholar. It only prepared me to become one. Something I am still working on becoming til this day. I definitely have a long way to go. In that journey I have focused on many things in the bible. Things I understood immediately (thought I understood anyway) and the things I read and did not understand but felt strongly about.
One of those things can be found in Revelation 3:17-18, “(17)… Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
(18) I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see…”
I never really understood this verse of scripture until today. I found myself to be in the case of verse 17, but wanting to be in the case of 18. The question arises, how does one buy gold tried in the fire; and that white raiment to clothe oneself in so that the shame of our nakedness isn’t showing? (Nothing is more embarrassing than a wardrobe malfunction in public) How do we obtain that eye salve to anoint our eyes so that we can see properly with our spiritual eyes?
I’ll tell you how and with what! The currency is our faith! The transaction is endurance!! We live our lives serving God, walking by faith. When things come our way to test that faith, we bare them, we endure them. We resist the devil and he is forced to flee from us. Every time the devil flees, every time our faith holds out, we earn that fire tired gold! Our garment remains white. Our eyesight has been anointed with that eye salve that causes us to see more clearly what is of God and what isn't. We are less concerned with the material world and more concerned with the spiritual! We can clearly see right from wrong and are able to make the choices that better affect us both spiritually and physically.
We all know how God makes a definite difference between the carnal man and the spiritual man. We know how God feels about carnality!
[Romans 8:7, “…Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be…”]
God hated Esau but loved Jacob!
[Malachi 1:2-3, (2) “…I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, (3) And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.]
What was wrong with Esau that caused God to hate him? I believe it was his carnal mindset! He only cared for the world in which he lived. He cared more about his life than his life as it pertains before God. He was in line to receive a blessing from his father, (his birthright) that would make him the physical and spiritual leader of his people, yet he sold it all to his brother for little more than a bowl of beans.
[Genesis 25:30-34, (30) “…And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.
(31) And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
(32) And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
(33) And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
(34) Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.]
He despised his birthright. That which God would have given him, which was rightfully his, he despised it. What was the end result? He still became a mighty people, but God still laid waste to his habitation. His carnality caused God to hate him.
I don’t want God to hate me. I want God to love, adore, and treasure me! …and I want to live up to that, WHATEVER IT TAKES!!!
So I’ll humble myself. I’ll accept whatever humiliation comes my way…but at the end of the day, I will bow my head low to the ground and call Jesus Christ my Lord, my savior, my Master!
{Thank you Jesus and God the Father for it is through your mercy and grace that I am saved and by your grace that you allowed me to happen upon this epiphany this morning. Help me to give more attention to myself as it pertains to you and your will for my life and those around me!}
Bible College did not make me a bible scholar. It only prepared me to become one. Something I am still working on becoming til this day. I definitely have a long way to go. In that journey I have focused on many things in the bible. Things I understood immediately (thought I understood anyway) and the things I read and did not understand but felt strongly about.
One of those things can be found in Revelation 3:17-18, “(17)… Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
(18) I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see…”
I never really understood this verse of scripture until today. I found myself to be in the case of verse 17, but wanting to be in the case of 18. The question arises, how does one buy gold tried in the fire; and that white raiment to clothe oneself in so that the shame of our nakedness isn’t showing? (Nothing is more embarrassing than a wardrobe malfunction in public) How do we obtain that eye salve to anoint our eyes so that we can see properly with our spiritual eyes?
I’ll tell you how and with what! The currency is our faith! The transaction is endurance!! We live our lives serving God, walking by faith. When things come our way to test that faith, we bare them, we endure them. We resist the devil and he is forced to flee from us. Every time the devil flees, every time our faith holds out, we earn that fire tired gold! Our garment remains white. Our eyesight has been anointed with that eye salve that causes us to see more clearly what is of God and what isn't. We are less concerned with the material world and more concerned with the spiritual! We can clearly see right from wrong and are able to make the choices that better affect us both spiritually and physically.
We all know how God makes a definite difference between the carnal man and the spiritual man. We know how God feels about carnality!
[Romans 8:7, “…Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be…”]
God hated Esau but loved Jacob!
[Malachi 1:2-3, (2) “…I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, (3) And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.]
What was wrong with Esau that caused God to hate him? I believe it was his carnal mindset! He only cared for the world in which he lived. He cared more about his life than his life as it pertains before God. He was in line to receive a blessing from his father, (his birthright) that would make him the physical and spiritual leader of his people, yet he sold it all to his brother for little more than a bowl of beans.
[Genesis 25:30-34, (30) “…And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.
(31) And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
(32) And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
(33) And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
(34) Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.]
He despised his birthright. That which God would have given him, which was rightfully his, he despised it. What was the end result? He still became a mighty people, but God still laid waste to his habitation. His carnality caused God to hate him.
I don’t want God to hate me. I want God to love, adore, and treasure me! …and I want to live up to that, WHATEVER IT TAKES!!!
So I’ll humble myself. I’ll accept whatever humiliation comes my way…but at the end of the day, I will bow my head low to the ground and call Jesus Christ my Lord, my savior, my Master!
{Thank you Jesus and God the Father for it is through your mercy and grace that I am saved and by your grace that you allowed me to happen upon this epiphany this morning. Help me to give more attention to myself as it pertains to you and your will for my life and those around me!}
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Dreaming In A Docile Society
I had a weird dream last night. I dreamed that some associates and I were investigating a mountain Home. The house was built into the mountain. We discussed living there, you know, the pros and cons. Pros, we could bring livestock up there and raise them. Also, it’s securely set in the mountain and is a basically a mansion. On the downside, or cons, an earthquake that could bring the mountain structure down, not to mention a correctly placed missile.
While we examined the place I told one of the guys in my party that I recognize this place. I recognized it because he had sent me there to do a job once when we worked together (he was the QA guy and I was the installer). The area I installed seem so big and wide now, and I wondered what the owners had done with the place. They, clearly, had abandoned it. Even left behind some old cars, but one of them was new enough that I was reasonably sure that it worked. Perhaps in their retreat, they had no time to get to the vehicle.
While we examined the place, a space ship flew overhead. From the shape of it it didn’t look as if it could fly, yet it did and the size of it was…disconcerting. What came next was just as bad. A horde of portly, older women marched on our position. These women all looked the same leading me to the conclusion that they were clones. They had an aesthetically, non- threatening persona, that is until they were within 20 feet of you. Then their malicious intentions were clear. They pulled out these knives that looked like glass shards and began to attack us.
Even though I was a US Marine, I hate violence. My mom in teaching me how to deal with bullies unwittingly made me a pacifist. It wasn’t until later that I learned that sometimes you have to fight. This was one of those times. As the clone got close, she drew her glass knife, yelled some unintelligible battle cry and attacked. I don’t know what I was expecting because I didn’t immediately move to defend myself. Once I had been cut, however, I moved to defend myself. Years of martial arts training came back to me in a flash as I moved without thought. I disarmed one and took her down. Then another, and another. In an instant I had a glass knife and I was the aggressor. I remember grappling one clone and stabbing her repeatedly in her midsection, way more than necessary to take someone down. No blood. Weird.
The next thing I know we were back in the city. We were in some sort of hospital or medical facility. What I haven’t shared with you yet is that this dream was apocalyptic in nature. Our government made a deal with the devil. They got access to alien technology beyond mankind’s imagination and the aliens got us. I suspect that when our world leaders realized what they really got themselves into, it was too late. I remember thinking something along the lines of where was God in all of this? I wondered if Jesus had already returned for the ones who were worthy and I was deemed unfit to go and had to stay here on a planet whose social system had clearly imploded in upon itself and the replacement rulers were content to treat the rest of us like fodder, meat for the grinder, game legally expendable at their slightest whim.
We tried to quietly leave the hospital. We pressed the button for the elevator only to discover that it doesn’t work. In a new facility like this? Clearly someone wanted us to stay right where we were. I don’t know how we escaped the mountain retreat, nor do I remember how we escaped that medical facility. I do know I ended up in a friend’s house. His mom was just an innocent bystander in this. I did not tell her that I was being pursued. Suddenly her power did not work in her apartment. I knew they were coming, be it for me or for us. When they arrived, I was in the bed room trying to think of an escape route. I found one, the way I came in. I realized as they went through out the apartment and finally settled in the bedroom I was hiding in but pretending that I was where I was supposed to be, they drilled us with questions. While I got suspicious glances, I took the opportunity to move around them letting them believe I was cooperating with their “inspection” of the premises. I removed my belt wrapping it around my fist so as to use the buckle as a bludgeon. I leaned against the door jamb, my posture clearly saying, “Your move”.
Everything that happened after this was fuzzy. We were on the run. People helped us but they did not get involved. It was as if they had accepted this new society as normal. Like birds trapped in a cage too long, they accepted their fate without a fight, without a struggle. I wonder if something was being done to them, fed to them to make them so…docile. After all, this was America! Our nation was born out of the fires of revolution and rebellion! Somewhere, someone convinced the whole country, the whole world to just lay there and take it. But there was a few of us who could not accept that. Mind you…this was just a dream.
While we examined the place I told one of the guys in my party that I recognize this place. I recognized it because he had sent me there to do a job once when we worked together (he was the QA guy and I was the installer). The area I installed seem so big and wide now, and I wondered what the owners had done with the place. They, clearly, had abandoned it. Even left behind some old cars, but one of them was new enough that I was reasonably sure that it worked. Perhaps in their retreat, they had no time to get to the vehicle.
While we examined the place, a space ship flew overhead. From the shape of it it didn’t look as if it could fly, yet it did and the size of it was…disconcerting. What came next was just as bad. A horde of portly, older women marched on our position. These women all looked the same leading me to the conclusion that they were clones. They had an aesthetically, non- threatening persona, that is until they were within 20 feet of you. Then their malicious intentions were clear. They pulled out these knives that looked like glass shards and began to attack us.
Even though I was a US Marine, I hate violence. My mom in teaching me how to deal with bullies unwittingly made me a pacifist. It wasn’t until later that I learned that sometimes you have to fight. This was one of those times. As the clone got close, she drew her glass knife, yelled some unintelligible battle cry and attacked. I don’t know what I was expecting because I didn’t immediately move to defend myself. Once I had been cut, however, I moved to defend myself. Years of martial arts training came back to me in a flash as I moved without thought. I disarmed one and took her down. Then another, and another. In an instant I had a glass knife and I was the aggressor. I remember grappling one clone and stabbing her repeatedly in her midsection, way more than necessary to take someone down. No blood. Weird.
The next thing I know we were back in the city. We were in some sort of hospital or medical facility. What I haven’t shared with you yet is that this dream was apocalyptic in nature. Our government made a deal with the devil. They got access to alien technology beyond mankind’s imagination and the aliens got us. I suspect that when our world leaders realized what they really got themselves into, it was too late. I remember thinking something along the lines of where was God in all of this? I wondered if Jesus had already returned for the ones who were worthy and I was deemed unfit to go and had to stay here on a planet whose social system had clearly imploded in upon itself and the replacement rulers were content to treat the rest of us like fodder, meat for the grinder, game legally expendable at their slightest whim.
We tried to quietly leave the hospital. We pressed the button for the elevator only to discover that it doesn’t work. In a new facility like this? Clearly someone wanted us to stay right where we were. I don’t know how we escaped the mountain retreat, nor do I remember how we escaped that medical facility. I do know I ended up in a friend’s house. His mom was just an innocent bystander in this. I did not tell her that I was being pursued. Suddenly her power did not work in her apartment. I knew they were coming, be it for me or for us. When they arrived, I was in the bed room trying to think of an escape route. I found one, the way I came in. I realized as they went through out the apartment and finally settled in the bedroom I was hiding in but pretending that I was where I was supposed to be, they drilled us with questions. While I got suspicious glances, I took the opportunity to move around them letting them believe I was cooperating with their “inspection” of the premises. I removed my belt wrapping it around my fist so as to use the buckle as a bludgeon. I leaned against the door jamb, my posture clearly saying, “Your move”.
Everything that happened after this was fuzzy. We were on the run. People helped us but they did not get involved. It was as if they had accepted this new society as normal. Like birds trapped in a cage too long, they accepted their fate without a fight, without a struggle. I wonder if something was being done to them, fed to them to make them so…docile. After all, this was America! Our nation was born out of the fires of revolution and rebellion! Somewhere, someone convinced the whole country, the whole world to just lay there and take it. But there was a few of us who could not accept that. Mind you…this was just a dream.
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