God is Sovereign, I've Been Tagged

God is Sovereign
The National Founders Conference was at our church (Bethel Baptist- Owasso) this past week. Timmy Brister "live-blogged" the event; the Pyromaniacs were also there "dead-blogging." You can read their perspectives on the NFC here and here.

On Thursday evening, we were informed that wildfires in Florida were threatening the home of Founders' Director, Tom Ascol. In fact, the fire was about a block away from his house. Bill Ascol, Tom's brother and pastor of Bethel, led us in prayer as we asked God to intervene and spare the Ascol's and their neighbor's homes. Brother Ascol appealed to God's sovereignty in the situation; he appealed to God to exercise His power over heaven and earth, acknowledging God's ability to calm storms, wind, etc...and even a wildfire hundreds of miles from our meeting.

Tom reported later that evening in a post to Timmy Brister's blog:

...we received a phone call near the end of the evening session tonight informing us that a brief deluge fell to "knock down" the fire and bring it under control. The following was posted at 9PM Eastern time on a local TV station’s website:

From Connie Barron, City of Cape Coral: "About 10 minutes of heavy rain helped knock down the fire. We will be sending engines home and keeping brush trucks on scene for a few more hours as needed. Burnt Store Road will reopen at 9pm. Residents are being allowed back in their homes."

I live just off of Burnt Store Road. Some church members have told us they have never seen it rain that hard. According to my calculations, that rain began to fall about 45 minutes after your post went up and shortly after the conference prayed.

We are very grateful to the Lord for His mercy in this.

Our God is AWESOME!

I've Been Tagged"Baxter" at Let My Meditation be Pleasing to Him honoured me with a Blogger Reflection Award. Baxter and I met when we began exchanging comments on each other's blog over the past months. The purpose of the "award" is two-fold:

1. Baxter has selected mine as a blog that has "been an encouragement, a source of love, impacted [her] in some way, and [has] been a Godly example to [her]."
2. I am to select five bloggers who have done the same/similar for me, write a paragraph about them, and notify them of my bestowing of the Blogger Reflection Award.

I am humbled by Baxter's accolades. I'm not so sure what part of my blog has been an encouragement...and I'm afraid that I have not always been a Godly example, but I appreciate her kind words. I don't have that many readers/commentors on my blog. That's OK. This is more of a place for me to vent and just put some thoughts and some of my amateur photos "on paper." Many thanks to those of you that stop by from time to time--especially Baxter. I enjoy reading your comments and your blog as well. I like the fact that the NASB is your favorite book! In addition to Baxter, I bestow the Bloger Reflection Award on the following blogs:

1) Joe Thorn is a pastor in the Chicago area. He's younger than me, sees some things differently than I do, but he obviously loves God, his family and his church. I appreciate his honesty and his passion. Plus, he's gotten me interested in photography. I'm still learning. I had the privilege of meeting Joe this week at the National Founders Conference.

2)Happening Cheatwoods is a blog about "a regular family with one purpose: To love Jesus and share him with the world!!" I stumbled on this blog when Jessica commented on a post I'd written about Christians and tattoos. We had an interesting conversation. She has too very cute little boys and a very talented husband. They are a great family to "watch" grow in their love for God and family.

3) Like "Baxter", I read Joel's Thoughts. I'm not sure how I found his blog, but I go there farily regular to read about his wife's battle with cancer. She was recently diagnosed with stage 2 malignant breast cancer. She began chemo back in April, I believe. They would appreciate your prayers. Joel also has a Flickr photo blog that I recently discovered.

4) Slice of Laodicea is a blog I visit most every day. Ingrid Schlueter writes this blog about current trends in the church today, i.e. "seeker-sensitive", "emergent", etc. Some pretty sad stuff sometimes. I am encouraged that there are still people that will stand up for truth found in the Word of God.

5) Founders Blog by Tom Ascol. Tom is the Executive Director of Founders Ministries. I have been encouraged by Tom's gracious spirit and passion to see true, Biblical reformation within Southern Baptist Churches.

A few "honorable mentions":

• FIDE-O Bret Capranica, Jason E. Robertson, Scott Hill, and Gene Cook, Jr. contribute to this blog. Lots of good links on their blogroll. Plenty of interesting/thought-provoking posts.
• Calvinist Gadfly Although no longer being updated, a great place for resources related to Reformed theology.
• Pyromaniacs is a daily stop for the wisdom and wit of Phil Johnson, Dan Phillips, and Frank Turk. Great graphics, too!