Lowes Vs. Menards

It’s time to blog about something one of the dreaded topics like Chevy vs. Ford or Iowa vs. Iowa State. This one is Lowes vs. Menards on my last trip to Lowes it happened again super excellent customer service from not just one but two different associates. The was in the Garden Center and she helped us out with an idea. We were going to buy a trellis and she gave us a better cheaper way to do what we wanted and what we needed Lowes didn’t even sell. I appreciate that. Then we went to look at weed eaters and the guy there was helpful as well. They were running a special for a free edger attachment with the purchase of a Toro weed eater. As luck would have it they were out and the sign said while supplies last. There was another attachment that I actually would have used more I asked if I could substitute it for the edger and they said yes. Then I thought I wanted something for my lawn mower and it was $15 he showed me something that would work just as well for a third of the cost. This was just my last trip and it’s been that way for some time and not just one Lowes. For the record my standard comment when I walk into a Menards is prepare to be disappointed and they usually never fail me. So my advice is shop at Lowes.

Resturant Review: Uncle Ronnie's

Uncle Ronnie’s
West Burlington Iowa

 I wanted to try Uncle Ronnie’s for some time the place really has a split personality. One side is a dark restaurant with no cohesive feel the other a wannabe sports bar with the free beer stuff on the walls and strangely place TV’s. Our waitress was the highlight of the evening she took the time to explain what was popular from the menu and was very honest. Teresa had the usual French Dip and said it was very good. For her side she choose the sweet potato fries they were over cooked and not very tasty.  They were served with an interesting sauce which we were told consisted of powdered sugar and maple syrup. It was good but could only have a small amount of it. Teresa’s meal is pictured here.

 The waitress told me that the Grouper Ruben was very popular so I said what the heck let’s give it a try. It was deep fried Grouper served with coleslaw and thousand island dressing served on rye bread. I’ll have to admit it was pretty good. The rye bread a little strong for my taste. The coleslaw was good as well.

 

I thought it was strange that the owner and spent the whole time we were there sitting at the bar. He got up once and bused a table. Perhaps that is not always the case but while I was there I thought he was missing out on an opportunity to do something. It was just an overall average visit.

Price range: (everyday, a night out, a special occasion only) everyday

Overall rankings all based 1 to 5

Atmosphere:  2.5

Service:         3.5

Food:            3

Value:           3

Overall          3

 Uncle Ronnie’s

800 S. Main St., Burlington, Iowa 52601.

This explains it

As each day passes I get more and more fed up with what is going on in the world. When I see the news I am shocked by what some people do. When I go out into public I am again mortified by what is going on in society. Daily we are all reminded of how far this world has fallen and for the Christian we are forced to consider that indeed the end of the world is coming, how soon only God knows. However I read something recently that truly explains everything that is going on in the world.

Ignorance of God is the source of all wickedness and confusion among men. In short all the rage, blood, confusion, desolation, cruelties, oppressions and disasters which fill the world to this day, by which the souls of men have been swept into eternal destruction, have all arisen from the ignorance of God. ~ John Owen The Glory Of Christ

If you really stop and think about there is so much truth in this saying and there are many on this earth today that unfortunately have the same mindset as by buddy Calvin in today’s picture. Ignorance is not bliss it can be fatal, eternally fatal.

Not good enough

Are you a good person? That is one of the most important questions you can ask yourself and an interesting question to ask others. One thing most non-believers and believers have in common is they both will or at least will want to say yes, they are a good person. However on this subject there is one thing that both absolutely have in common and that is neither the Christian nor the non-believer are  good, when you define good by God’s standards. Today I am going to let you non-believers off the hook so if you don’t call yourself a Christian you can stop reading this and go back to whatever you were doing before you clicked on this link. If you do call yourself a Christian consider the rest of this blog very carefully. I will pick on myself as not to offend anyone today. When I was not a believer I did consider myself to be a good person. I was better than those around me, we will just leave it at that. Okay to be more specific, I didn’t drink but I tried it and bought it for my friends. I didn’t smoke, but I chewed tobacco for over twenty years. Was almost never late for my curfew but I drove over 100 miles an hour to make it on time. I was never physically mean to anyone yet made fun of almost everyone behind their backs. Yet I very much considered myself to be a good person.

Now here is where this all gets interesting since becoming a Christian I have stopped chewing, my drink of choice is water, I could never even dream of staying up past 12:30, I love people and the biggest part of my job is helping them and I have not uttered a cuss word in I don’t know how long. So by most standards I am much better person now since becoming a Christian. Who knows with this resume I could even have made it to “good person” status. Believe it or not as I have grown in Christ I have finally come to understand that I am by no means a good person. The more I grow in Christ the worse I realize not only I was, but I am even worse now. Am I becoming a bad person by living the Christian life? No by reading the Bible and through study and prayer I am learning more and more about the holiness of God and thus His standards and His definition of good. Please consider the end of today’s blog very carefully. As you grow in your Christian walk there are sins in your life that will and should become less and less, however for each sin that is laid to rest you should become aware of at least three more that need to be gotten rid of. Back to my original question today if you or anyone says yes indeed I am a good person perhaps some time in God’s word is in order. For me by the world’s standard, yes I am a better person but by God’s standards I am still a depraved, sinful, rotten to the core human who thankfully God still loves and by His grace and the blood of Jesus has been saved. Praise God for that.

The new normal is not normal

Most will find this hard to believe but the Christian way of life was the intended way of life from the very beginning of time. But at the fall Adam and Eve exchanged the intended or normal way of life for an abnormal way of living. The new normal is by no means what was intended to be normal. Just because things today are accepted does not make them right. Today it has come to the point where everyone is made to think that the Christian life is very much out of the norm or weird, but it’s not. Don’t ever forget it and don’t be afraid to live it and defend it.

Explaining the world we live in

This explains a lot. Take a minute and read 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 reading this today made some things much clearer to me.

⁹ This man will come to do the work of Satan with counterfeit power and signs and miracles. ¹⁰ He will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction, because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them. ¹¹ So God will cause them to be greatly deceived, and they will believe these lies. ¹² Then they will be condemned for enjoying evil rather than believing the truth.

As I sit back and watch what is going on in my community, in the country and the world and ask myself why are things so bad? And why do people do the things that they do? For some time now I have realized that it is because we live in a fallen world. But when I read these verses it was made much clearer. These verses are describing end times which as bad as things are we are not there yet, however we are getting closer. As bad as it is we have seen anything yet the way I read the Bible. But anyway the key words that help me understand today’s state of affairs are found at the end of verse 10 and the beginning of verse 11 where is says “because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them.” This is talking about everyone who does not trust in Christ and therefore not a Christian that they will be greatly deceived and believe all of the lies. Christians are bad enough on their own because they are still sinful creatures, but the unbeliever does not have a chance and that to me explains why things today are so bad. The best thing we as Christians can do is spread the Gospel message so that others will hear the truth and have the chance to accept it.

Street Corner Symphony

Last night I was fortunate enough to go to Fairfield and listed to Street Corner Symphony an a capella group that I had seen on TV. It was a great show for south east Iowa to have. As I was listening to them sing last night I was reminded once again how much I love to watch and or listen to people who are really good at what they do. I was also reminded that their talent is a gift from God and that we all have particular gifts as well we just need to find them, develop them and use them and not them go to waste. On a side note Street Corner Symphony came off the show the Sing Off which is a talent show like all the others on TV now only in my opinion this is where the real talent lies. American Idol and The Vocie have nothing on The Sing Off , but maybe the host. The song attached to the blog was their encore song last night it was so go, your electronic device will not do it justice. I’ve added a you tube link to show off their talents even more and remember there are no instruments in this link.

http://youtu.be/QV1Vq2kqDNw

I will be paying attention to http://www.fairfieldacc.com to see what show they will be bringing in the summer.

Ya know you want one

Today as I was reading a book by A.W. Pink I was made to consider two things that I had not previously thought about Eve.

In the past in my head I had a picture that Satan came to Eve and was telling her all that stuff about the tree of life and then Eve went to the tree and did some harvesting.

What Pink says actually makes much more sense and makes mankind even more depraved and gullible than I even previously thought. Pink said that Eve was standing in front of the tree longing for the fruit even before Satan approached her If she was not standing in front of the tree in the first place what difference would that have made. Makes perfect sense now that I’ve heard that, and again highlights the depravity of man.

The other thing that I had not considered is the fact the Satan himself more than likely took a piece of fruit for himself and ate it right in front of her and I can only imagine how he must have been making all those sounds like, mmmmmm, ahhhhhh, ohhhhh, then lied about the powers it gave him. This enforces how gullible mankind really is.

So in closing just think about what tree is it that you are standing before right now then consider the motives of those that tell you it’s okay to pick from it.

Are you kidding me? Look busy

Today as I was looking for a picture I came across a saying that quite frankly upset me. The saying is found on window clings, bumper stickers, T-shirts and yes even church signs. The saying is Jesus is coming look busy. I looked for just a bit to see the origin of this statement but did not find it. However when I read this phrase it leads me to think that you can pull one over on Jesus and if you look “busy” when He returns you will have fooled him and he will let you into Heaven. Good luck with that. If you think you can fool Jesus Hell is for you. The second I do not believe Jesus wants us to be “busy” I think he would prefer us to be worshipful to Him only and if we are to be anything else on this earth it would be to be effective in proclaiming the Gospel message. I still can not belive that a church would put this on their sign. Instead of this saying why not read what Colossians 3:1-4 has to say instead.

¹ Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. ² Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. ³ For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ And when Christ, who is your^[a] life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.

Wanting to believe a lie

One of the biggest problems society has today is being tricked into believing things that are not true. (In fact we don't even like to call them lies.) We do it with good intentions but good intentions do not make it true.  If a lie is repeated often enough, people will begin to believe it, and not only will they believe it they will also defend it as the truth. This problem affects us at every level of life; just watch TV for 10 minutes. But most importantly in regards to the Word of God and Jesus don’t be deceived. There is a lot of lies being told over and over again, even in the church. Lies that we have all heard and perhaps even believe ourselves. To know the truth you have to have a relationship with Jesus and read and study His word. There are many times we want to believe a lie because lies are much easier to believe than the truth. Like they say if you know the truth the truth will set you free.

Colossians 2:8

⁸ Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers^[a] of this world, rather than from Christ

Resturant Review: Fongs Pizza

Fong's Pizza

Des Moines Iowa
Well after a few years of hearing about Fong's Pizza I finally made it. I have 3 words to describe the place, the food, and the experience. Unique, unique, unique oh did I say unique? First we’ll start out with place, I’ve seen it many times while at the farmers market and it’s across the street from the Royal Mile which I’ve been to a few times. I walked in expecting to see a Chinese restaurant whatever that means and it was an old, old bar complete with fighter pilots helmets hanging on the wall I’ll get that in a minute.

Now for the experience it started out very strange when upon entering some told us to go all the way to the back room, was not sure if he was making a comment on our Mount Pleasant shirts due to the fact we were in town for the basketball game and he was from the opposing side, or there was no tables in the front, or due to the fact he was drunk mind you he was dressed in green from head to toe. I decided to go with the later. The experience continued when a lady walked past the table wearing more strange attire and almost clown type makeup went to the backroom which did exist and many strange sounds came from the back. We found out there was some kind of bar run/crawl going on which explained a lot. Now for the helmets on the all, at one point the bar tender took the helmets off the wall and made some patrons put them on to drink some kind of kamikaze shot. Must be some drink.

Now for the pizza, it was so unique I don’t think I can call it pizza. I had the Iowan which was a blend of bbq and house, Canadian bacon, bacon, pork, corn and mozzarella, drizzled with bbq sauce. Yes I did say corn. I decided instead of calling it pizza I would just call it barbeque on a cracker. I was very good and provided some real building heat. For a thin crust pizza it was very filling. Notice the corn on this slice.

 The other pizza we had at the table was the Polynesian it consisted of a blend of sweet & spicy with house sauce, canadian bacon, bacon, pineapple, asiago and mozzarella. The pineapple balanced it out well and was good as well.

In the end Fong's is a destination place that everyone should try at least once in their life to experience all its uniqueness. I would go back however with all of the other great places to eat in Des Moines it’s not on my list of oh I want to go there again soon. But definitely a place you should try.   

Price range: (everyday, a night out, a special occasion only) everyday

Overall rankings all based 1 to 5

Atmosphere: 2.5

Service:        2.5

Food:           3

Value:           3

Overall          3

 Fongs Pizza

223 4th Street

Des Moines, Iowa 50309

http://fongspizza.com

A Dose of Reality

Decided this was a two picture day due to the fact that I was reminded of a simple yet profound phrase which is:
For the Christian this earth is the closest to Hell we will ever be and for the unbelievers this earth is the closest to Heaven they will ever be.

Look at both pictures again from this perspective for the Christian the lush tropical scene is nothing compared to being with Jesus.

Then for the non-believer the utter devastation in this picture will seem like Heaven compared to the reality of Hell.    

Greater than the Creator?

In reading Colossians today I was reminded of something I saw awhile back and that was a few lists of the most important/influential people in the history of the world. The most popular list had Muhammad as number one and Isaac Newton as number two. Jesus came in at number three, which I think is sadly funny. I know in today’s PC society Muslims are off limits (wink, wink) so lets just consider Isaac Newton for a minute who came in right ahead of Jesus. I have cut and pasted most of the first paragraph from Wikipedia in regards to Sir Isaac.  

In this work, Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. Newton showed that the motions of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws, by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler's laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation, thus removing the last doubts about heliocentrism and advancing the Scientific Revolution.

Here is what I find funny Isaac Newton is considered more important than Jesus yet it was Jesus who created the universe, the earth, celestial bodies, natural laws, planets, and gravity itself. Not to mention the fact that Jesus created Newton himself along with Muhammad the two guys that finished ahead of him on the list. I literally laughed out loud when I considered this and again was reminded of what a sinful world we live in. Seriously who can possibly be greater than the Creator

Here are the verses that prompted this in case you need to be reminded of who Jesus Christ is.

Colossians 1:15-20

¹⁵ Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,^[e]
16 for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him.
¹⁷ He existed before anything else,
and he holds all creation together.
¹⁸ Christ is also the head of the church,
which is his body.
He is the beginning,
supreme over all who rise from the dead.^[f]
So he is first in everything.
¹⁹ For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
²⁰ and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

Who sinned first?

Wanted to ask as quick question, who in the Bible sinned first?

Before you answer to quickly think about it for a second the answer may not be what you think.

If you answered Adam or Eve you are wrong.

The first one who sinned in the Bible was Satan and that’s what got him and his cronies kicked out of Heaven.

Sorry it picture threw you off.  

Who's in charge of Hell?

This cartoon reminded me of something that most people and I'll bet a good number of professing Christians may have wrong and that is who's in charge of Hell. Most picture Satan or the Devil and running around barking out heinous orders constantly tormenting or torturing his victims but nothing could be further from the truth. Satan was nothing but the first resident of Hell and yes God is in complete control and in charge of absolutely everything which does include Hell. Besides if God wanted snowballs in Hell there would be snowballs there. Share this fact with someone today and see what kind of reaction you get.

Something worth working for

Today’s blog is part of a series I’m going to call Despicable me. It will be about possibly one of the most important yet most misunderstood subjects in the Bible. A subject has to be properly understood for a person even being to understand the grace of God and that subject is Sin.

Philippians 2:5
⁵ You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

This is a noble goal for any Christian and one that most Christians would say that they strive for but sin makes the goal a real struggle, a lot of hard work. Because the attitude Jesus had is the very first thing Satan attacks just look at verses 6-8 speaking of Jesus.

⁶ Though he was God,^[a]
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
⁷ Instead, he gave up his divine privileges^[b];
he took the humble position of a slave^[c]
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,^[d]
8 he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

 Who wants that? That goes against everything our society teaches us, even in words disguised as self esteem.

To have the same attitude as Jesus had is not impossible however it will take a lot of prayer, support from other Christians and yes a lot of hard work. But that attitude is something that is worth working for.

What happens when we run out of motorized carts?

The last part of my very first blog said the following:

 They say we should never talk about religion or politics. Name me two things that affect your life more. These are two things that will come up in my blog as well.

Now I will admit I have not done hardly anything political, however today I want to blog about something that I think has a horrible affect not only on the politics in this country but on the church as well and that topic is consumerism. We have come to the place where we want, we expect, we demand to be catered to. We often think it and even sometimes even say that we are entitled to something. Then in an effort to keep people coming back to a church or voting for a particular politician we give in to the entitlement mentality and start giving away something for nothing. It’s like handing out free meth, we give away the very thing people are addicted to so they come back to church or again keep a particular politician in office. What good are we doing? Now don’t get me wrong there are times when a person needs some help but there are also times when we keep giving that help we are really doing the person a disservice. Just like in today’s picture now we don’t know his circumstances but perhaps if this guy would have done some more walking in his life perhaps he would not need this type of assistance, but it’s provided anyway to make sure he shops at this store. The problem with consumerism is that fact that when there are more consumers than producers there is less and less to consume and sooner or later we are left with nothing. Like in politics today it sounds really good to steal from the rich and give to the poor but sooner or later there is nothing left to steal and in turn no incentive to succeed. When it comes to the church it really pains me to see those who continually choose not to serve in some capacity or other. If a person come to church only to be served and that number continues to grow all of the ones who do the serving get burned out and then begin to feel entitled to be served themselves. In both instances the pool that produces becomes smaller and smaller and at some point the consumers will have completely drained all of the producers and then what will we do? At some point we will run out of motorized shopping carts and the fight for the last one will be nasty.

You do it more than you think

Today’s blog is part of a series I’m going to call Despicable me. It will be about possibly one of the most important yet most misunderstood subjects in the Bible. A subject has to be properly understood for a person even being to understand the grace of God and that subject is Sin.

What do you do more than you think? For many it may be gossip. I took the following from Kevin DeYoung’s book the Good News we almost forgot. Some good things to think about.

You can gossip in one of two ways by passing a rumor that can’t be substantiated or by passing along a true report unnecessarily.

Before we talk about someone else we should ask ourselves some questions. Would the person I’m about to talk about be happy for others to know this? If I share this story what good will come of it? Am I sharing this negative incident about someone else so that I can feel closer to the person I’m talking to? If I tell this bit of news will it lead the person I’m talking to, to form a negative view of the other person? Gossip can be deceit even if it is true because it leads people to think worse of others than they should.

So are you a gossip?

Can you hurry up!

Today’s blog is part of a series I’m going to call Despicable me. It will be about possibly one of the most important yet most misunderstood subjects in the Bible. A subject has to be properly understood for a person even being to understand the grace of God and that subject is Sin.

Anger, do you ever get angry? Is it a big deal? Has anger been down played over the years? After all we all do it. But that does not make it okay. No it does not. Anger is almost but not always sin. Stop and think about it have you ever gotten angry standing in a checkout line and snapped or at the very least short with the cashier? Yes that was a sin and it comes from the anger in your heart. Yes you are a sinner and yes you need Christ in your life to cover those sins after all sin is sin.