A view about manhood

This evening my wife and I went into a local bar and grill to eat dinner. We pulled into the parking lot and there were a half dozen or so cars in the parking lot. We hadn't been into this location before so I wasn't sure what to expect. I opened the door for her and we went in. The first thing I noticed was that most of the patrons were seated at the bar engaged in conversation. We were greeted with a sign that said seat yourself. I've always felt uneasy about the level of service at an establishment with a sign like this. My thought is that are they "too busy" to help you to find a place to sit sown. We had frequented a different location of this bar and grill in Lawrence and had always had a pleasant experience along with good food. We started to walk to the left but none of the tables looked like they had been cleaned off so we went around the other way passing the bar area. We passed a man and I greeted him and he just looked at me like I had two heads. Oh we...

    My family has been through some changes over the last 3 years. Three years ago this past week I found out the lumberyard which I had been managing for the past 15 years was going to be at the end of the business day, which was about 90 minutes later. A few hours earlier the owner of the chain of yards had stopped by to tell me that he was no longer in control of the yards and didn't know what the future held in that regard. Our lifestyle would require an involuntary reduction in spending. Three years later we are living comfortably on about 60% less than what we were before. We live in a smaller home, which still has "more than average" room, and are far from starving for food.     The past week I spent in West Virginia I was reminded of how much I have in terms of material assets. I was surrounded by those with less (material wise) than I have, but still consider themselves fortunate. My thought today is, could I make some changes to live on less today? This wo...

If you had the chance to say something lasting to one person, what would it be? Suppose you had the same opportunity with 100 people. What kind of influence would you have? Next think what would happen if that person shared the same thing with 1 other person each year. Now suppose this chain reaction kept happening over the course of 30 years? This person you told (if each told someone different) would reach over 500 million people. (1 becomes 2, then 4, then 8 ,etc.)What kind of influence could you have? If each believer over the course of history told someone about what Christ has done for them, what influence would we have on the world? We are called to do this, and if we were just 10% successful we could reach the entire world in 240 years. At this 10% rate, if that's cut by 1%, 900,000,000 people don't hear about Jesus Christ.

 My name is Kevin Sowards and have lived in northeast Kansas my entire life. I grew up with a tight knit family and still am close with my parents, brothers and sisters. We enjoy spending time together- I am blessed to have this relationship with them all. I was raised with a strong knowledge of right and wrong which is another advantage of my upbringing. I still suffered from a prideful attitude wanting everything my way, and when things didn't go my way I tried to shut myself off from the world outside. I turned to alcohol to numb myself from the already depressed state I was living in. I struggled to get by through my early adulthood years not knowing how to leave this pattern of life. In the years from 1994 through 1999 a transformation took place in my life. I started to live my life not dependent on alcohol, not putting myself in compromising situations, understanding what life could be like- a life without the binding chains of this life. I read the Bible with a differen...

This weekend I was asked this very question. Before I was asked the only thing running through my mind was that I needed to get to work or I would be late. After the question was asked many other thoughts raced through my mind- I should consistently be praying, I should acknowledge that God has given me the job that I'm thinking about, I should have done something different in regards to planning my time. All this before I hesitated in answering. I knew that if I said no I don't have time to pray would be the wrong answer, but if I said yes I would be late for work and be held responsible for that also. As I weighed both options (all this took place in less than 15 seconds), I decided I would take the time to pray for those men around me at the time. This doesn't mean I'm not responsible to my employer for being late. I'll face the consequences of that later. We have a set limit on time, the issue with this is no one knows the set amount we have except God Himself...

Concrete is a useful product. But concrete can also cause quite a mess. If poured without proper forms and reinforcement it can cause this mess and is difficult and sometimes seemingly impossible to clean up.After it dries it can be cleaned up with much effort and work. Most concrete crews like to be prepared before the truck shows up with the concrete. The crew will look at the plans of what's being built and setup their forms and put the reinforcement in its proper places. Sex outside the boundaries of marriage is like concrete poured without forms. With these forms (marriage), it can be a benefit. Without forms it can create a mess that is difficult to clean up. Can you imagine a world without boundaries in relation to sex? What would this world be like? Would it be like the world we live in today, a world that thinks to highly of sex? We are all looking for something that satisfies us. If we have sex with a person and don't get that satisfaction we go looking somewhere ...

Lately I've been thinking about my material possessions. My thoughts go in all different directions. Why has God given me these things? This includes everything in my care, from money, time, a home, cars, or even the people around me. What is the ultimate purpose for having these things. God has a plan for everything He has placed in my life. The reason this is weighing on my mind is I'm concerned that I'm not putting these in places that God would want me to. I'll start with money. Are the charities I support where God wants me to put His money? It is not something I can decide on one day and then forget it. It's something I need to constantly look at and exam. The world is changing and the focus of where my money goes changes also. I can't make any rash emotional driven decisions. My decisions need to be thought out only after looking to God's word and prayer. It sounds simple in my mind, but there are so many implications involved- people are affected. I ...