SHOULDA, COULDA, OR WOULDA

Either your past is serving as a springboard to a better tomorrow, or it is the proverbial albatross keeping you from moving forward today."

Les Parrott III,

The year before our eyes

J.C. Philpot

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As your days—so shall your strength be." Deuteronomy 33:25

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The year before our eyes may hold in its bosom,events which may deeply concern and affect us.We do not know what is to come. What personal trials, what family trials, what providential trials may await us—we do not know. Every year hitherto has brought its trials in its train; and how can we expect the coming year to be exempt?

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Sickness may attack our bodies, death enter our families, difficulties beset our circumstances, trials and temptations exercise our minds, snares entangle our feet, and many dark and gloomy clouds, make our path one of heaviness and sorrow. If, indeed, we are His, whatever our trials may be—His grace will be sufficient for us.

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He who has delivered—can and will deliver.And He who has brought us thus far on the road, who has so borne with our crooked manners in the wilderness and never yet forsaken us—though we have so often forsaken Him—will still lead us along; will still guide and guard us, and be our God, our Father and our Friend—not only to the end of the next year, if spared to see it, but the end of our life.

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Blessed with His presence—we need fear no evil; favored with His smile—we need dread no foe; upheld by His power—we need shrink from no trial; strengthened by His grace—we need panic at no suffering.

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Knowing what we are and have been when left to ourselves—the slips that we have made, the snares that we have been entangled in, the shame and sorrow that we have procured to ourselves—well may we dread to go forth in the coming year alone.

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Well may we say, "If Your Presence does not go with us—do not send us up from here!" Exodus 33:15

HAVING A BLESSED NEW YEAR WITH CHRIST IN BEGINNING

Like other figures who seem, in retrospect, to have been precociously representative of their times, Kerouac was not simply responding to the Zeitgeist, but to the peculiarly twisted facts of his own upbringing.-- Jack Kerouac: The Beat Goes On

J.C. Philpot had his idea of the Zeitgeist of the day, but that view came from an understanding of the Word of God.

Today John MacArthur, Jr. has and understanding of the Zeitgeist. (next post)

The year before our eyes

J.C. Philpot

"As your days—so shall your strength be." Deuteronomy 33:25

The year before our eyes may hold in its bosom,events which may deeply concern and affect us.We do not know what is to come. What personal trials, what family trials, what providential trials may await us—we do not know. Every year hitherto has brought its trials in its train; and how can we expect the coming year to be exempt?

Sickness may attack our bodies, death enter our families, difficulties beset our circumstances, trials and temptations exercise our minds, snares entangle our feet, and many dark and gloomy clouds, make our path one of heaviness and sorrow. If, indeed, we are His, whatever our trials may be—His grace will be sufficient for us.He who has delivered—can and will deliver.And He who has brought us thus far on the road, who has so borne with our crooked manners in the wilderness and never yet forsaken us—though we have so often forsaken Him—will still lead us along; will still guide and guard us, and be our God, our Father and our Friend—not only to the end of the next year, if spared to see it, but the end of our life.Blessed with His presence—we need fear no evil; favored with His smile—we need dread no foe; upheld by His power—we need shrink from no trial; strengthened by His grace—we need panic at no suffering.Knowing what we are and have been when left to ourselves—the slips that we have made, the snares that we have been entangled in, the shame and sorrow that we have procured to ourselves—well may we dread to go forth in the coming year alone.

Well may we say, "If Your Presence does not go with us—do not send us up from here!" Exodus 33:15

CHALLENGES FOR 2007

Comprehend more of the Word of God, by more research into the meaning of the text.

Continue to study the Doctrines of the Word, by reading more.

Church leadership study, learning biblically

Choices that will help develop my character

Clarify better my understanding of life

Coffee never gets old

Cogitate, discipline, to ponder or meditate

Collection of Nascar Dale Earnhardt Sr.

Communication skills, verbal and written

Cross of Christ

Christ glorified

Contemplate a number of blogs

Confiscate Information, keeping informed though monergism.com and the weblog.

Church ministry in the area of our calling.

Coherent and organized form of writing

Commitment to learn how to do better research in writing

Create a relationship with readers that they want to read what I have to say.

Charity is a wonderful, beautiful, lovely lady of 38 years

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant, Checked by Charity Whisnant

REVIEW OF 2006 AND A LOOK TO 2007

Well……it’s New Year’s Day. And we all know what that means. It’s time to take an inventory of how we lived in 2006 and think through some much needed changes for 2007. In other words, it’s time to make a list of New Year’s determinations .Our lists could be long; some will involve a bit of wishful thinking; and few will include some recycled resolutions that weren’t kept last year. But whatever the specifics, everyone agrees on a few key facts: the ball has dropped, last year is history, and the future is brimming with possibilities..

NEW OR IMPROVED DIRECTIONS FOR 2007

List of those Determinations that I kept in 2006
1A Read the Bible with Purpose of Knowing the Lord
2A Continued studies of Biblical Doctrine.
3A Kept up with the Yard Work at our house, the Bakery and at the Temples.
4A Walked from three miles to four miles most days during the week.
5A Read the articles on Monergism.com almost daily.
6A Collected Sports Section of the USA TODAY for the year. (Eric’s help)
7A Selected Bloggers sites viewed weekly. (Oh, about 100 plus).
8A Downloaded articles from the web on subjects of interest. Cataloged them.
9A Kept up with Tiger Woods all year.
10A Read Sermons from MacArthur, Piper, Pritchard.
11A Researched Church Leadership and Ministry.
12A Read selected books on subjects of interest.

SEVERAL UNEXPECTED DIRECTIONS or EVENTS TAKEN IN 2006

1A Preached at First Baptist Church in Altoona, Kansas.
2A In August started "GROW BY LEARNING" Blog.
And posted 114 threads from August 14th to December 30th. .
3A Visited Becky, doing well in Hutchinson, Kansas.
4A Kyle moved to Lexington, Kentucky.
5A Eric getting married to Leslie.
6A Chad becoming General Manager at Holiday Inn in Lexington.
7A Children getting me a MacArthur Study Bible
8A Visited Mom, Ellen and Family in Texas.

SEVERAL DISAPPOINTMENTS IN 2006

1A Not finding a place to minister in a local church.
2A Unable to find a place of service at Bigelow Church

PRAYERFUL DESIRES FOR 2007

1A A greater understanding of the Jesus Christ and His glory
2A A ministry where I could be employed to serve.
3A A better comprehending of the doctrines of the Bible.
4A Learning, and growing daily in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.
5A To be a better husband to my lovely wife Charity.

I truly desire to be able to fulfill the ministry that the Lord has called me to do.

I believe in 2006 that I, to the best of my knowledge tried to the best of my ability to do my best. Maybe I did. But I felt a lot of defeat. In several ways I felt disappointment. One: I am not working., either in the secular or in a church. Somehow I need to do something to accomplish either one.

I kept busy in the spring, and summer mowing lawns at the bakery, and my house and at the Temples’ farm. Nearly every day I was cutting grass, which kept my mind and body busy. Walking for an hour or more each day also was great for me.

Then I logged onto the Internet doing research on a number of doctrinal studies, also on a number of sites that dealt with Church leadership and church ministry. This involved a number of hours each day, when I was not mowing grass, or walking or working out with weights.

My greatest struggle was about ministry. All the effort toward securing a job in ministry have not been fleshed out. I preached in several churches, I sent several résumé to churches, and even went to several churches to check them out. Thus far we have seen all doors shut..

But what has gotten me through all this, is of course the grace of the Lord, the love and encouragement of Charity and my children. Then the work on the Internet has been so good, and then my work on my blog. "GROW BY LEARNING."

I have sent a lot of e mail’s to friends over the year and that has been really encouraging.


Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant 01 01 07 Proof read by Charity Whisnant 01 02 07