Samaritan Revival Music

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Friends no matter what

Many of you may not know this but my wife and I are dog lovers.  I don't mean that we just like pets, I mean we really love dogs.  We have seven.  Yes, you heard me, SEVEN.  We have one Rottweiller, five labradors and one Sharpei.  I have learned so much about these dogs and they have even taught me about life and how to deal with different type of people.  Don't take me wrong, I am not calling people dogs, but like dogs, people are different and they react to different situations differently.

Lets start with Max.  He is beautiful black Male Lab who is the BOSS.  He keeps to his own but every one of the dogs respect him.  During the day, he spends his time out in the yard walking around letting the others know that they better behave.  Here is where everything changes. When their is fireworks or thunder, Max goes into a panic attack.  He gets very nervous and even though he does not cry, he starts running around trying to find a place to hide.  The other dogs just look at him like "What is the world is wrong with him?"  He is the only one that is afraid of fireworks on thunder.  At night, he comes in the house and he will not sleep unless he is in bed with us.  If we don't turn the air conditioner on, he will just stare at it until we turn it on.  He lays his head down and in three seconds, he is snoring.

Gus is a yellow male Lab.  We thank that he may be a little mixed with hound but he is an incredible loving dog.  He loves Olga. my wife, more than anything in this world.  We have finally figured out that he does not think that he is a Dog.  He will not have anything to do with the other dogs and even though we let him out to play, he just goes out and uses the bathroom and then he is back in the house wherever Olga is at.  At night, he sleeps with us and he even has nightmares.  He will start shaking and crying while he is asleep.  He eats alone.  He will not eat when the other dogs are around.  He is a loner and as long as Olga is around he is happy.

Jolly is a female Rottweiller.  She is a beautiful dog and she is so loving that she when she wants to give you a kiss, she will actually rap her paws around your neck and pull your face toward her.  She cares nothing about being in the house.  She loves the outdoors and that is where she sleeps.  She plays with all the dogs and sometimes a little rough but they all love her especially the males.  

Yellow, Browny, and Smokey are beautiful young labs.  They are all about six months old and my favorite is yellow.  She loves me more than you can imagine.  Where ever I am, she is there with me.  I can be working on the computer and she will lay their by my side for hours until I get up.  If I go to bed, she jumps in the bed and lays beside me.  She is faithful and loving. Browny and Smokey are playful.  They have so much energy that they can run all day long and not get tired.

Now lets get to Juliette.  She is so ugly that she is beautiful.  I know that sounds strange but she is totally different than all the other dogs.  All the other dogs don't really like to play with her much but let me tell you that when she wants to play, they are going to play whether they like it or not.  She will go after them and follow them around until they pay attention to her.  Being a Sharpei means that you are a guardian.  You are small in size but you feel like you are eight foot tall inside.  You don't look down at yourself and you no matter what happens, you will be in the middle of it.  Sometimes Juliette will want a kiss but instead of a kiss, she will grab your lip and almost bite it off.  She does not mean harm but that is just her way of showing affection.  

All of our dogs have different personalities and they have to be treated differently.  Just because they are different does not mean that one is better than the other.  They all have their good points and their bad.  Because we love them, we over look their bad and we focus on their good.  We show them love and they show us love back.  We don't wait for them to show us love first.

How many people do you know in your life.  Just think about how many different people with different personalities you know in your work, your church, or even in your family.  Sometimes we seem to notice the bad in them and they seems to over shadow their good side.  In the past, I have known people that just rubbed with the wrong way but when I got to know them, they turned out to be wonderful people.  I know that their are people out there that is just unbearable to be around but the question is "Does that make them a bad person?"  

I thank God for many things in my life but their is one specific thing that I am truly appreciative for.  I just don't judge people anymore.  That does not mean that everyone is my friend but I just believe that if anyone is going to be judged, it is going to be God that does the judging.  We all know this because the Bible tells us but in real life, it is hard to not judge others.  If I were to beat one of my dogs because of his flaws, he may not show much love toward me but if I can learn to live with them even though they have flaws and correct them in the right way, the love they show they can show is incredible.  

I know that this may sound funny but my dogs make me feel special, probably because I make them feel special.  We as human beings can be the same way.  Try it out.  Pick five people and start doing special things for them.  Start showing then extra attention.  Call them on the phone and just listen to their problems without judging.  Make them see that you care about them and every once in a while, do something extra special for them.  

Do this and let me know the results.  You will be surprised the impact you will have in their life.  How will you know?  Because they will start doing the same for you.  Their is a scientific equation that says "Every action has a reaction" and this is true in our relationships with our loved ones and even with the ones that we have not learned to love yet.  

Just love one another and be happy.  Easier said than done, you say?  Not if try and with Jesus living in our hearts, we can do it!!!

Philip 

This world is turning upside down

Have you ever set back and just looked at everything that is going on around you.  I have and sometimes it is pretty scary.  The problem today is that as Christians we are not allowed to express are true feelings if those feelings may upset someone.  I guess that is why I love to write on this blog because no matter if you read this or not, at least I am expressing what I feel and if this hurts me then I guess I will just have to live with it.

This world is turning upside down.  Twenty years ago, it was really easy to know exactly how to act and what to do or not do in the ministry but today everything has changed.  Churches are so divided in so many ways and honestly, I do not know how Pastors are able to handle it.  Just take the future election that are coming up.  We have a Democratic candidate that is extremely popular but he is extremely liberal.  He believes in gay marriage and abortions.  Just those two issues should make any true christian stray away from him but that is not the case.  

Just this week we had a man come down on one of the mission trips to Honduras who was very very pro Obama.  Of course no one knew this and when my mother mentioned something to him about the elections, he made it very plain to everyone that he was a strong Obama supporter.  What should a person do in a situation like that?  Should we keep quite to keep from offending him or do we have the right to express our opinion?

Politics is not just a problem today.  As we visit churches in the states, we enter every venue not really knowing what to expect.  Years ago, every church was pretty much the same when it came to many aspects but today you never know what to expect.  Their is not much middle ground anymore.  You are either liberal or a legalist in  your beliefs.  I used to think that legalistic meant you followed the law of God but I have found out by experience that most legalistic minded people make up new rules as time passes.  Liberals on the other hand seem to have no rules.  Many have no respect for the house of God anymore and it is overwhelming to see a song leader leading worship in flip flops and in bermuda shorts.  

As a group, we truly try to overlook what we see and focus on our purpose of being there.  Unfortunately, we run into situations that effect us.  One example is that their is now a movement in churches in the U.S. that believe that singing with sound tracks is a sin.  Please dont ask me to quote a scripture for this because I would have to read the Bible from cover to cover and I dont think that their was soundtracks back in the days of Moses.  

At one of our concerts in North Carolina, I actually had a man come to me all excited because he had found the problem for rebellion in the youth today.  SPORTS!  Yes, I am not lying.  He said sports.  I was not planning on hearing to much more of this but he went ahead and explained why SPORTS was the demon that was destroying our youth today.  He said that SPORTS came from the country of Greece and since the Greeks worshiped other gods then anyone who participated in sports was actually bringing honor to other gods not the true God Jehovah.  Here we are in a church, invited to sing, what I am supposed to do.  I just looked at him and said REALLY, and walked away.  

I envy people who are able to find a good church to go to and that is the only church they assist. Unfortunately for missionaries, evangelist, singing groups like ours, we visit all kinds and it is not easy find one you fit in but when we do, it is such a wonderful experience.  

I am not liberal and I am not a legalistic.  I am in the middle and the Holy Spirit guides me in my daily decisions.  I have been thru it in my life because of some stupid decisions that I made when I was much younger but it has done something good for, it has shown me who really love me and does not.  If you want to know who your true friends really are, mess up once and see who sticks around.  Ninety percent of my friends vanished but I thank God for the friends that stuck around.  Guess what, these friends are not legalistic and they are not liberal.  I guess you would just call them christians.  They dont judge, they just love.  Sounds like Jesus to me!!!

Philip