Imagebearer’s Weblog

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Book Review: Blackberry for Dummies

Just finished reading this one today. I have been through 3 Blackberry Pearl Phones in 13 months and now I have been switched to the Curve 8330. I really miss the Pearl. It has Suretype that helps to spell words for you as you type and is a great time saver. Other than that just the small size is missed. I don’t like carrying a belt clip nor do I like things in my pocket so the Pearl was perfect.

The Curve seems to be a better phone overall.

Anyway, the book is very basic. I did learn a few things. I learned to use the speaker phone which is different from the Pearl and I learned to set pictures to come up with the person calling. I learned a few other small things. If anyone needs this one you are welcome to it.

The blackberry is a good personal assistant but like everything else, you had better have a back-up.

Ronnie

February 1, 2010 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Playing in the Snow

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The Future & Out Of The Box

Out Of The Box has some talent that is beginning to form, we are praying that we will soon have a house band.

February 1, 2010 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

My Boys

February 1, 2010 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

How Not To Witness

It really is as simple as inviting people to church. 50 Golden Days of Evangelism, Holston Evangelism Challenge, Easter to Pentecost 2010

3000 People coming to Christ

Invite someone today!

Ronnie

February 1, 2010 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Smart Faith: A Book for Teens

I just ordered this one from IVP to review. Hopefully this will be another good tool to pass on to the youth of Out of the Box. I will write a review as soon as I finish reading.

Ronnie

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Become a more well-rounded, intellectual disciple–someone who can clearly elucidate the finer points of the Christian faith. Learn to embrace the mind’s role in spiritual formation and acquire new spiritual disciplines.

From the Back Cover

Prepare your mind. Smart Faith challenges you to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to “love God with all your mind.” Full of relevant examples and analogies, Dr. J. P. Moreland and Mark Matlock enable you to grasp the theological and philosophical foundations of faith. Learn to: ·Identify fallacies of logic-your own and others’ ·Embrace the mind’s role in spiritual formation ·Acquire new spiritual disciplines Become a more well-rounded, intellectual disciple-someone who can clearly elucidate the finer points of the Christian faith. Take back your mind and be smart about your faith.

February 1, 2010 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Living Life in the Zone

Just ordered this one to review. I am constantly getting request for a good devotional/growth tool for men and this one looks good. I will post a review soon.

Ronnie

Why this book? Because many men still have the desire to have a real faith dialog, but much of today’s current church literature and methodology doesn’t appeal to them.

Living in the zone—that state of mind when almost everything seems to be working for you—is every man’s desire. But how does a man live in the zone as a Christian?

This 40-day spiritual journey is a sports-filled prescription designed to remove stress and give men confidence to embrace their daily adventure. The book, divided into four sections—Marriage, Children, Work, and Faith—is:

* Designed to strengthen both churched and unchurched men
* Brief enough for men to enjoy but with spiritual depth
* Filled with issues that are real but often not discussed in church
* Concentrated on a daily spiritual to-do list

Includes input from celebrities such as Tony Dungy, Lee Corso, Chris Mortensen, Bobby Bowden and more.

February 1, 2010 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Book Review: If The Pasta Wiggles Don’t Eat It

  • Reading level: Young Adult
  • Paperback: 219 pages
  • Publisher: Vine Books (January 1995)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0830734457
  • ISBN-13: 978-0830734450

I picked this one up off my shelf in early January because I am always looking for good devotional books for teens to work through. This book was published in 1995 and therefore it is a little dated but amazingly you wouldn’t really know it.

The book deals with all of the different things that a youth will face, such as, attitude, being truthful, being a good witness, peer pressure, dealing with brothers and sisters, dealing with parents, etc…

This book is very relevant for todays younger teens. I highly recommend it for 12 to 15 year old youth. If you are looking for something to build strength and character in your teen, pick up a copy for you and your youth and read through it together.

Take one day at a time, read it separately and then set aside a time during the day to talk with each other about what God’s Word had to say to each of you through today’s reading. Your teen will grow but the great part is that you will also.

I like anything that Martha writes and I like this especially.

Not really great for older teens.

Ronnie

February 1, 2010 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Book Review: Finding Purpose in our Pain

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Thomas Nelson (November 3, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0785229221
  • ISBN-13: 978-0785229223

I cannot contain my approval of this book. There is truth here that every Christian needs to read and understand. In this book the authors take us on a journey through scripture and what God taught related to the pain that inevitably comes into every life.

There is no way to avoid the things that life brings, such as death. Every person who lives very long will experience the death of those they know and love and eventually we will all have to deal with our own death in this world. This book will help you to understand how we can grow and become mature in our faith as face these difficult times.

Losing a job, suffering an illness or that of a loved one, disease, divorce, etc… We live in a fallen world but the authors of this book help us to find meaning and purpose in every situation we will face in this life and the benefits for the life to come. There really is a purpose and a plan in God’s economy.

Too many people today are living depressed and discouraged because of what they have had to face in life as well as the many who are losing hope because of the fear of what they will have to face in the future. This book is for you. Get it, devour it, share it. Every page has something you can use to understand life and the struggles we face.

This book will remain in my library to help those who come for counsel and I will read it over and over, not only to help others but to remind myself, God really does understand and care, there really is a plan in the madness.

Ronnie

February 1, 2010 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

This Day In The Life of Your Pastor – January 31st, 2010

  1. Samuel definitely has another ear infection, doctor in the morning http://myloc.me/3oyOK about 5 hours ago from UberTwitter

  2. All 4 of my boys are here with the grandkids, it don’t get any better, I love my family! about 10 hours ago from web

  3. does anyone know how to turn on the feature that will suggest the word you are typing in blackberry to save time? about 11 hours ago from web

  4. Can use yor prayers 4 general health & finances. Samuel’s ear tubes surgery is February 18th, deductable is 1500,00 ouch but it is necessary about 13 hours ago from UberTwitter

  5. It is great to be home http://myloc.me/3nOV7 about 13 hours ago from UberTwitter

  6. finally heading home, can’t wait to see all of them……… about 14 hours ago from web

  7. still in the office, off tomorrow with the family and need it about 15 hours ago from web

  8. We made it back to Hillsville, safe and sound, can’t wait to see the kids but expense report first about 16 hours ago from web

  9. We R back N Virginia http://myloc.me/3nANW about 18 hours ago from UberTwitter

  10. Anxious to see the snow in Virginia, mostly ice in Pigeon Forge http://myloc.me/3ntKh about 20 hours ago from UberTwitter

  11. Great job Divine Rhythm Design Team, awesome times 2 http://myloc.me/3ntBu about 20 hours ago from UberTwitter

  12. Cracker Barrel 4 lunch, sweet! http://myloc.me/3nt0s about 20 hours ago from UberTwitter

  13. Jesus paid it all and raised “my life” up from the dead, I praise You Jesus http://myloc.me/3nmof about 21 hours ago from UberTwitter

  14. “The first to see Jesus risen was the little spider in the tomb” Grace http://myloc.me/3nkLB about 22 hours ago from UberTwitter

  15. So many are so worried about tomorrow they lose the opportunity thay have today http://myloc.me/3niP7 about 22 hours ago from UberTwitter

  16. January 28~30 the date 4 Divine Rhythm 2011, put this on your calendar Hillsville, let’s bring a group of 25 & Celebrate, couples & singles about 23 hours ago from UberTwitter

  17. Checking out of the Econo Lodge, great place to stay Pigeon Forge Riverside. Be sure it is Riverside because there are others not the same about 23 hours ago from UberTwitter

  18. Myrtle Beach Marathon is 13 days ahead, this could be a painful experience, not much traininh http://myloc.me/3n9kz about 20 hours ago from UberTwitter

  19. 4 OOTB Youth and 1 Youth Leader have told me they will be fasting 1 week during my 40 Day Fast, this is awesome! You Rock! about 20 hours ago from UberTwitter

  20. loading up the stuff and heading to worship @ Divine Rhythm, one last time for 2010, then home to see the family that didn’t come about 21 hours ago from web

  21. many people are missing worship due to weather today, spend some time in God’s Word and with your family worshiping and remembering Him about 22 hours ago from web

  22. “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Romans 4:7 about 22 hours ago from web

  23. reading God’s text message this morning Romans 4-5 about 22 hours ago from web

  24. You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call on you. Psalm 86:5 http://myloc.me/3mU6O

February 1, 2010 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Day 32-90 Days to read the New Testament (TNIV)

Romans 6

Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5 If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, [a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in [b] Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 7

Released From the Law, Bound to Christ

1 Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. 3 So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were controlled by our sinful nature, [c] the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

The Law and Sin

7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” [d] 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.

13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. [e] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature [f] a slave to the law of sin.

Romans 8

Life Through the Spirit

1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you [g] free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the sinful nature, [h] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful humanity to be a sin offering. [i] And so he condemned sin in human flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind controlled by the sinful nature [j] is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The sinful mind [k] is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

9 You, however, are not controlled by the sinful nature but are in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life [l] because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of [m] his Spirit who lives in you.

12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. [n] And by him we cry, “Abba, [o] Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Present Suffering and Future Glory

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that [p] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who [q] have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

More Than Conquerors

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then can condemn? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” [r]

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, [s] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

February 1, 2010 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Collins Family 1977

Its funny, I remember a lot about 1977 but I don’t hardly remember the family looking like this. In the picture is my dad, mom, sister Judy, brother Keith and me with hair, lol.

I believe this picture was taken in Oklahoma. The car in the background is a 1977 Ford Thunderbird. In 1977 my mom had surgery and was in the hospital at least a couple of weeks. We had snow every Wednesday in January and we were out of school most if not all of the month. I was in the 6th grade at Lambsburg Elementary School.

Wow, time waits for no one.

Ronnie

February 1, 2010 Posted by | Uncategorized | 2 Comments