That Dang Bully

I have been taking some really hard looks at my life lately. There are some things that I really don't like. One of the TWO biggest things is that I am a BULLY. That truth hurts. I have always considered myself a defender of the weak and a advocate for the lost... what a load, Ask my baby brother, he will never say it but I was horrible to him when he was little. I lost a lot of good times and good chances to be a good brother and I ruined it. There are people to this day that maybe not as overtly as when I was younger that I bully. I have recognized my pattern and it  is really easy to say that I will work on it, however if I am going to place myself in the way of Grace and proclaim myself a follow of Christ, then there has to be significant change in my behaviors.  I know a few things, my Father is Mighty to Save and there is nothing to great for him to do. I know it is hollow on a blog, however I am very sorry for those of you that I have harmed and I guarantee that a change is a foot.
 2 notes
#1 the other change is something that is a small seed is planted
#2 I apologize for the pause between blogs, life sometimes interupts, thank you for your patientce

Does He speak to you too?

Funny question, but do you believe that God speaks to you. I don't mean this to be a academic question, but an actual question question. I believe that the Lord has spoken to me at least three times. Once I have mentioned in a previous blog. The other two are a little crazy. The first time was years and years ago. I was in church one day lost in my own thoughts and at the time I was a smoker (no longer) I was asking myself the question, why do people consider smoking a sin? I got a direct and immediate answer and since it didn't come up as something I had ever thought about, it left me considering the Founder of the Universe and the King of eternity answered me... little ole nothing me. The answer was "When you want ME more than a cigarette it will no longer be a sin." WOW! I mean what do you do with that? I ignored it. I can be a little petulant sometimes. The last time I believe God spoke to me was exactly one week ago today. I had a really bad day at work and with the baby coming and all the crazy spinning out of control my life is right now, as a matter of fact the storm that my life is and I heard the Father speak again and not for the first time amidst a storm. "Oh ye of little faith, remember last year when you sat in your little duplex and said will we ever have our own home, and here you are, or when you said will I ever be able to pay my debt and a year later your debts are paid, as a matter of fact I have blessed you even more immeasurably with this baby I have chosen for you, when will you have faith?" KABOOM I can tell you this time I did not ignore him. This time I chose to obey and be thankful.  I fasted for three days and re dedicated my life and soul to Him and now... I listen.


Do you ever hear from him, or have you I would love a comment or a note about this. As I grow in this process as a writer, Christian and man, husband, father I feel the need to reach out for any feedback, growth tips, advice or just whatever. Thank you in advance sorry so wordy and needy sounding..

Peace Out and God Bless
P.

TAKE 2

Fear is a funny thing... my sister wrote a blog around this recently and I struggled with it mightily last week. I absolutely felt my whole life was crashing in, the sky was, as they say, falling. The specifics are not important, however I haven't felt so helpless or closer to giving up in my whole life. Life isn't supposed to be easy, bad things happen, what I have learned last week is that as soon as there is a crack in your faith the enemy wiggles in, I originally posted that the enemy tries to wiggle in, I changed it because if you worry, the enemy is there. I honestly wish I could remember who said "worry is irrelevant and irreverent" but they nailed it on the head. Worry and fear are not tools of our Father.
Lessons that I have learned with a week(weak) of fear.
1. be a good steward.
2. be a good father
3. you can't outrun trouble, just deal with it.
4. the enemy will attack you when you are relevant to the Kingdom
5. attack sucks but it is pretty cool to warrant one.
6. there is a battle raging, the prize your soul
7. everything can be taken from me, but my faith that God is who He says He is and He will do what He says He will do.

If anyone stumbles across this post would care to comment on what they have learned from fear, or how the light has shined through the darkness I would love to hear it. God Bless see you soon.
P.

TAKE 1

Lesson #1 Don't say something in a blog like my next post will be all about reading the Bible... cause its not, what I should have said is that I will cover reading the Bible in a future post...which I will
Lesson #2 I really don't have a lesson #2, 3, or 4 at this point, I really just wanted to get the whole lesson #1 thingy out of the way. It is the whole reason I haven't posted, I had a topic that I sat over my head and I am just not ready to tackle it yet. I take the Bible very serious and very personal. SO before I ramble I would like to be entertained by the fact that I am all worried about not following up a previous post with a promised topic and my main audience at this time is my sister and my wife and they both know exactly how I am. Now I have succeeded in posting a topic with no relevance.

Maybe Paul was on to something...

I have been inspired for a while now from a passage in 1 Corinthians(1:28 to be specific) I would love to quote the text, however there are so many rules around quoting scripture I find it easier to not. But for those of you with out a bible nearby to paraphrase (I've always wanted to say perryphrase but I digress) God chose us the lowly sinners and "dummies" to teach the learned and the proud of what the Kingdom is, was, and will be. The reason for this in my humble opinion is that mankind in general needs to learn that it doesn't matter what degree you have, or where you went to school, or if you even went to school, what matters is that rich, poor, sinner one and all and its only through grace that you get in.
If I was to ever write a book that is where the foundation is. That pastors, you guys are a dime a dozen, worship leaders, same thing, famous singers, writers, speakers etc. etc. etc. We the "dummies" we think you are all amazing and we tend to flock to you, but we have no idea how to live this life for the Kingdom, we didn't go to seminary, we don't know Latin, or Greek or Aramaic. What we do know is that we need to find a way to live after we invite Jesus into our hearts. We need to find actions that we can do. We need to find a way to move the Kingdom...
Please don't misunderstand, and if I offended, well I tend to do that sometimes... The problem and the passion I have is how does an average Joe get to the Kingdom and move it. There are many books and solutions and seminars for that answer, but none of them was written by one of "US" And to say I wrote this book based on "average people I know"...is the same to me as saying I wrote a book on grief after I met a guy who lost his mom...
Anyway I am rambling and I apologize, I just think we the average person making a dime and trying our best need help from someone who is us to finding and keeping Christ. 
My first official tip for the average person... READ THE WORD... not as a chore, or a assignment. My next blog will be all about reading the Bible, but to keep yourselves out of trouble find a Bible and read it, don't have one get one, can't get one email me and I will buy you one, don't want to do that  then download (free) youversion is the one I carry on my pda's. Anyway read the Gospels, read it all and realize if it isn't in the Bible it just ain't true. Anyone claiming to speak for Jesus had better have a Biblical back up.
See you next time

Where does my help come from?

So I was praying in the shower the other day, specifically about my financials. God has blessed us so much in the last year and all the sudden it seems like the bottom has dropped out. My restaurant is down in sales, something that we have not experienced since I took over, my job security isn't so secure anymore, we have a baby coming, we have the holidays to fund, on and on and on. Nothing really different then the average Joe. I was praying for God to come back over to the bless me with money side of things and in this God answered my prayer. Right there on the spot in my shower He answered me. Believe what you will, but when I have thoughts that jump into my head during prayer, I choose to believe they were sent. These are the "thoughts"
1. Cry me a river as you are showering with hot running water in your nice home that is located in a country where you are free to do as you please. What a tough life.
2. Jesus was sent to this world and endured unimaginable pain and loss for you!!!! If nothing else ever was to go your way in this blink of a life, that your place in Gods Kingdom is assured should really be enough.
3. Your comfort should be in the Father and not in this world. I want you to give up worry and doubt and know that the Lord your God is with you.

I was a little shocked, to say the least, if I lose my job and my home and my car and my fill in the blank, then what is left? HE is left, the ONE that should be primary ALPHA as it were, He is the One that is should be in the front, not what I have left. So I am still trying to take this in, but I know in my heart that the Lord is with me. No matter where I go or how this life pans out, I choose to praise HIM.

p.s. Job you da man.

More of an introduction really...

Ok so a few basic things your going to need to know. #1 I don't really expect anyone, except my wife and sister to read this. I am using this blog tool to arrange some thoughts, pour out some feelings and maybe at some point write a book. About the whole book thing we will see, so no pressure. #2 I am not a pastor a preacher, a musician, a writer, a poet, a philosopher, a hero, or anything else "special". The world is full of "special" people, the ones you look at and think... wow that guy or gal is really touched by God, how special they are... I'm not one of those, however I truly believe that I am married to a person like that and have some kids that fall into that category. But I am hardly biased on that point. #3 I love ... which has a technical name of ellipsis. It is an indication of an intentional omission... why do I include that in my "basic things" you need to know, cause I love them and I will use them all over the place and more than not improperly. I know what they are and I know what they mean so no need to say "does this guy know what he is doing?" generally no, but when it comes to a good ellipsis I do know what and why I am doing and get over it if you have a problem with it...

Now about me. My sister is a Fruit Basket, I am more an assorted chocolates kinda guy. My blog name is Power Shower, why is a great question, it goes back to a conversation with a friend of mine that in summary I told him he needed to watch out or  would rain down a shower of power on him with my right hand, and jokingly told him that one day when I become a UFC fighter that my fighter name would be Perry "POWER SHOWER" Johnson, it made me giggle that day and does still to this day. I am probably like everyone in the world and very hard to label. I am a husband, father, Christian, adulterer, sinner, fighter, loner, rebel, Ive been a drunk, but not an alcoholic, a drug user, but not addict, a neglecter of the gifts that I have been given and more, most of what I am or have been is negative. I have been a horrible son to my father, I neglected my mother during the last years of her life, I have been a horrible husband to my ex wife and a poor father to my kids. My wife now, I feel like I have done a lot better, however if anyone knows my talent of screwing things up it is me. All these things I say about myself because I don't want anyone to ever say that I am not real or that I put on about who I am, I know exactly who I am, as I have been driving the whole time. Now having told you who I am I left out a very KEY group of words to describe me. I am a child of GOD, not a god, or even the pop tart god that people try to pigeon hold my GOD into. I am a child of Yahweh and his eternal Son Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus Christ came to this world 2 thousand ish years ago and lived a sinless life and was sacrificed for that life. In HIS sacrifice our sins were washed away and when he rose three days later Conqueror of death our salvation was earned and that in Him and threw Him we have been washed clean and that we are pure threw Him to enter our Fathers Kingdom.
If there is any ambiguity left to who I am please ask and I will clear it up for you. I am not a Sunday Christian, or an Easter/Christmas Christian, I am a follower of Jesus 7 days a week 24 hours a day. I am not perfect, not even close, as a matter of fact I suck at life, but my job isn't to be perfect, Jesus took care of that my job is to do my best, and to point you and everyone else to Jesus. I will never be a bible thumper, or a person that throws judgments, not my place and like I said my job is to point to Jesus, the judgmentalists in the Christian world do the opposite and show people how to run from Jesus and that btw is counterproductive in my opinion...

Ok so I just realized that I was going on a bit and I apologize, there is more time for more posts later. I hope that anyone that decides to follow me on this journey has some thick skin and understands I am not writing for them, but for myself, I love you guys and hope to see you soon. Yours, P.