Yep…it says so right there in Acts 8.1, “And Saul was there giving approval to his death. Skip over to Verse two, “Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.”  Verse 3, “But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.”

That’s quite the start for the church. And for some time Saul continued to be persecutor of the followers of the church. God caught up with Saul on the road to Damascus with letters to arrest  followers of Christ, but Jesus struck him blind, spoke to him telling him to get up and go into the city and there further instructions would be coming to him. Then, He told Ananias  to go to him. Ananias told God all he had heard about the evil doings of Saul of Tarsus. Acts 9.15, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer in my name.”  And thank goodness Saul became Paul, telling the  gentiles. Saul changed and did exactly what God asked of him.

There is a story in there for a lot of us. It tells of the power of our Lord and Savior. And we also need to listen to Him…. Paul spread the gospel story. And it is still being spread.

Yep, old Saul went from stoning Christians to spreading Christianity…Yep, Jesus got hold of him….

Well, I’m confused, which is nothing unusual, but I read this morning concerning legalizing marijuana that there are presently about 330,000 people in jail for illegally using or selling marijuana, most of them black the article stated and it further states that it was a result of white business men taking advantage of poor black kids who went to jail for selling and using that marijuana while making them (the white businessmen) rich. ….Now that marijuana is being legalized those same white business men will become rich for doing the same thing that the poor black kids went to jail for, is what the articles states….

Am I being oversensitive here? Does that make sense to you? The key word to me here is “white business men”. I personally do not believe that is a true statement. I think black business men used black kids and white kids, to sell the stuff also and maybe there were more of them than there were of the “white business men” doing the using. Someone is doing some amazing deductions in the thought process and blame game, if you ask me…..

Wonder what will happen to the 330,000 prisoners when the marijuana does become legal in most states? Will they go free and use the selling skills for other products? I hope for the best if it does happen.

follow-the-sun-by-e-v-pete-hester

This novel, click on the title and when reading, it moves right to left by using your little wheel on top of your mouse. A little different but you soon get used to it…..I hope. Enjoy it

J I Hall, Jr

It does not matter in life what you do, who you are or what your religion is, nor your gender or even if you are a “world made” transgender, the things that happen in life happens. Good, bad or whatever, they are going to happen. The bible tells us that over in Ecclesiastes. However, the way we deal with all those happenings does make a difference. One thing about being a Christian is that Jesus through the Holy Spirit helps us deal with them. We are going to be sick, we are going to have to deal with diseases, we are going to have times of need, and times of plenty…..happy times, sad times, wet years, dry years and experience all the emotions of life…After we pass on, of course, it’s over. The way we have met and dealt with those living moments will affect the hereafter…..having Jesus as our savior is the only way to cover those sinful moments that we all face in life…We ask Him to forgive us and those sins are forgiven. He becomes our blood sacrifice covering all our transgressions. So in life we are going to have it all happen to us to some degree. In the hereafter, however, it’s different…It’s, well it’s, Heaven for  the believer….beautiful, peaceful, no death, no tears, no sickness..For the unbeliever, well, that’s the eternal fire called Hell. We have to choose before we die….It’s all covered in the Bible, don’t just take my word for it, read all about it there.

America is a lot happier nowadays, ain’t we. No one seems to be discussing the sins of America, telling us what we are doing wrong and trying to correct us to their way of thinking. The nerve of some of the preachers trying to push righteousness down our throats telling us that is what God wants us to do. Folks over at the major networks do not like that at all….Everything goes is much, much better than nothing goes. Nothing goes sells nothing. Everything goes sells big time. That’s what America wants….Everything goes. It ain’t legal or God says it ain’t right, well, let’s just pass a law that says it is right and that it is ok and get on with it. That’s what we do. Ain’t it?…. I’m not saying it is correct and right in God’s sight but you and I both know that’s how we want it to go. So that’s exactly what we do…….Yes, I know that we are now living under a much gentler time, where everything is forgiven if we ask for it and repent and I really believe that to be so. But consider,  back over there somewhere some words echo in my heart that stands out….FEAR THE LORD THY GOD…..We have a new Covent now. I know that. But still, we cannot be forgetting who is boss and forgetting that He writes the law and only He can change them. Thy shall not kill…..it is still a law….Love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul….it is still the law….Still expected from us. Some things go on forever and forever….He is not happy with us when we just keep on sinning with no remorse, no repenting…So things happen in life that make us look to Him, things that make us realize that some things are much bigger than what man can handle….and we still need His help. Like now….

In November 1935 Pete Hester was born. In April 1936 Cecil Bonner was born. He lived up on top of the hill and I lived just down under the hill. Around the road it was probably 1/4 miles between our houses, but up the path between our houses was probably a lot closer. Anyway, our houses were very close, our Dad’s were very close and he and I became two peas in a pod. We worked in Uncle Dee’s cotton and corn fields together and worked for Uncle Dee at his sawmill. And he would pay us, always a little something, always as an award to make us realize the value of working and getting paid for it. Because of our being so close, I reckon I became close to Cecil’s family, cause they just took me in and loved me and I felt it was almost as much as they loved Cecil. For many years, if you saw one of us, you saw the other. So, we worked together and we played together and we ate together. My mom worked. Aunt Vera, Cecil’s mom did not work, well, away from home anyway. She was a wonderful cook and of course she would always invite me to eat with them. Only thing, when Aunt Vera fixed a meal everyone at the table was expected to eat some of everything she fixed. She fixed okra, you ate it…she fixed asparagus, you ate it, she fixed tomatoes, you ate them. Now I was a meat and potatoes man, except Aunt Vera did not let me get away with that . I had to take some of everything and I had to eat everything I took. You did not leave the table until everything was gone and there was no way to cheat. Aunt Vera was so pretty and so precious that I really did wanted to please her and do everything she said, but a meat and potatoes man having to eat all those veggies, like English Peas….and lettuce and radishes and carrots, rabbit food? Yep, she made you eat it all.
On to my point, finally, today I eat it all, thanks to Aunt Vera and I generally clean up my plate. I’m still a meat and potatoes guy but I eat all that other stuff, including the rabbit food. Cecil, Uncle Dee and Aunt Vera are as much a part of me as Mom and Dad and Gent and Sam. I loved them….More importantly, they loved me….

Did you ever wonder what will the dates be after AD…..if there are records kept of days after the return of our Lord…What did we have, around 5000 years of BC? And now, 2021 years of AD so far…and we are probably a few years away from the Rapture…will we start recording the years as AR or some other initial stating how long we are in heaven? I think not…It’s forever and who will want to count forever?. And the one’s that are already there would already be counting I reckon. When God said, I Was and then said, I Am, I guess the counting really started at I Was, so the years over there are probably recorded in the I Was years, I reckon they number in the billions by now. No, I really don’t think we will be worried about how long we have been there…we will just enjoy our time together…for years and years and years and years….well, you get the idea about us in the I Was time and dates…