God's Provision or "How Twitter Failed me"

Recently I had a load that took me to Nashville to load 500 Guitars from Gibson. On the way to Nashville I noticed my voltage meter was low. Like on 12 volts. It normally runs at 14 volts so I knew my alternator had quit working.. I noticed this in Calhoun Georgia. about 180 miles from Nashville.. I had a plan, It was very important that I make my appointment for 6pm at Gibson, I would continue my trip to Nashville and get an alternator from the Freightliner dealer, take my break and replace it. Sounds like a good plan. Right?

Well Freightliner didn't have an alternator in Nashville, but the dealer in Chattanooga did and it was 352.26. I had been running on battery alone for 3 hours now, so I was wary of driving on the batteries all the way back to Chattanooga, a good 2 hour ride at best. Freightliner closed at midnight. it was now 8pm.
I send out a Tweet, I need a ride to Chattanooga and back, I have gas money.. just need a ride.
I get alot of re-tweets cause my twitter network is awesome, but alas re-tweets is all I get.
So I make a decision. I will have to drive back to Chattanooga, so i set out on my way.. I get halfway there and it gets too dark to drive with out lights, so I am forced to cut the lights on. This puts a drain on the batteries even more about 20 minutes from the Dealer in chattanooga I hit some construction and its stop and go traffic. Everytime I hit the brakes the lights flicker and the warning buzzer tells me "Low voltage", Like I dont know already.. but then I'm 10 miles from the parts dealer and the truck completely dies...in the middle of Interstate 24 Milemarker 181.
It is 11pm, I have an hour to get to the parts counter, I try not to panic. I let the truck roll backwards and I guide it onto the shoulder out of traffic as best I can, I set out my Triangle Markers and with a flashlight in my mouth I start to remove the Alternator.. I finally get it off. Its 11:30 I have some Twitter friends that live in Cleveland Tn about 30 miles away so I tweet again.. I'm stranded.. need a ride.. No answer.. well I'm not gonna be able to make it by midnight walking so I climb in the bunk and go to bed.
THAT IS WHERE TWITTER FAILED ME.. THIS IS WHERE GOD DID NOT..

I wake up at 530am.. I ready myself to walk the 10 miles.. so with alternator under my arm I start walking down the interstate, Thumb out. A truck pulls over, I run up glad to get a ride, only to find out that the woman driving didnt even see me hitching a ride. She had run out of Gas.. I explain my situation and tell her that I have a gas can in my rig. I will walk back get the can.. buy some fuel off the exit and bring her gas if she can give me a ride. She agrees. As Im walking back to my rig a D.O.T rescue truck pulls up behind her and gives her 2 gallons of gas and she gets me and we go.. well she runs a "break truck" stopping at work sites and sells sandwiches and drinks, etc. She tells me that she will get me to where I need to be, but, she is on a schedule. LOL. Folks I end up riding with her for 4 hours.
I had an opportunity to talk to her about family,life and more importantly Jesus.
She finally gets me to the Dealer at 10am.
Do you think she just ran out of gas by accident? I think God sent her there just at the right time.
I walk inside to buy the alternator. the one for 352.26 well guess what its only 241.50.. I save over 100 bucks. I am blessed. I walk out the door to a gas station on the corner and there waiting for me is a Church Van from Ormond Beach Florida. They Give me a ride back to my rig and I put the alternator on. but the Batteries are too dead to turn the truck over.. After a half an hour of trying with a car to jump start.. a roadside rescue truck pulls up and they have the 24 volts jumper. sure they can jump start me.. but its 85 dollars plus Tax.

Isn't God Good?
I only had 375 dollars to begin with, I saved over 100 on the alternator and here the money saved is paying for the jump start.
God provided the rides to and back and the money for the jump start.

Oh and by the way.. the Twitter friends that lived locally.. tweeted me around 10 am saying they couldnt help me ..thats okay..

God Always Has My back..

Trey

Superstars for Jesus

There is a term used in my volunteer circle. That term is Rockstar. Rockstar is used to create excitement and enthusiasm in our our volunteer community. To be honest, what we do, in being the "hands and feet" of God is exciting. To share the Love of Christ with people from around the world is a great honor. I use this term rockstar alot because I do want people to be enthused but I was thinking recently that if you are told you're a "Rockstar" enough you begin to believe it. Dont get me wrong, Since Ive started serving my church in an online capacity I know my faith has increased in doing what we are commanded to do as believers, Spread the Gospel of Jesus. But do I really want to be a "Rockstar"?

Recently Francis Chan told his congregation that with the success of his books "Crazy love and Forgotten God", that he is more determined to stay as the Pastor of Cornerstone Simi because it keeps him grounded. He could easily leave his post there and become more of a featured speaker but he does'nt want that kind of "Celebrity" throw upon him.

Jesus is the Rockstar.. Not me.. not you.. I would rather be the bass player, or even better, the "Roadie". I dont want to be the center of attention cause its not about me. And its so easy to get caught up in the feeling that you're important. I like behind the scenes. I enjoy being a small part of making it happen. And I rejoice in how that makes the true star Shine..

Surrender

The other day, talk on the twitter stream was "What does "surrender" mean to you?"
As a Christian, surrender, has a different meaning than it would for a non believer or at least a different context.
Most of what I read on the stream was, Defeat, Giving up, letting go..etc and the like. What struck me was that these definitions are all true, but as a Follower of Christ it means so much more.

When you surrender you are Defeated ( you can no longer resist)

When you Surrender you are Giving up (you are giving up what you can no longer handle)

When you Surrender you are letting go (you are letting go of what you want and letting the victor Have it).

True enough.. then I got to thinking.. to put this in perspective for a Christian When we surrender to God.. we are letting him have control of our lives we are no longer going after the things we want.. for now what we want is to be more like Him.. we seek him to know him.

We surrendered , He takes us... When an Army or Government accepts the surrender of a foe..what happens? well in the case of say North vs South(US Civil War). The north came in and rebuilt the south.. After Japan Surrendered to the U.S.A. The US came in and rebuilt the infrastrucure of Japan and Protected them with Their Army...And then it Hit me...

When we surrender to God our lives.. He ( the Victor) comes in and rebuilds (Restores) our lives.
He also Protects us We fought against him, we surrendered to him our problems, our fraility, our insecurity, He came in and gave us RESTORATION..

How Beautiful is that?

Zealots and Religious Nut Jobs

I dont know if you pay attention to the news or not but have you seen the story about the Preacher in Tempe Az that is Praying that Barack Obama die from a brain tumor?
http://beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/story/tempe_pastor_reiterates_wish_for_president_obama_s/

I was like "WOW" I could'nt believe what I was hearing. To be honest when you hear something like this you ask yourself "No wonder the secular world looks at Christians as weirdo whacko nut jobs?" Recently I was in Memphis TN. I was just driving around looking for a bank when i saw this huge Church that took up most of the city block.. and standing on the corner was a huge Statue of Liberty holding, not a torch, but a big Cross.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/05/us/05liberty.html

Now some of you are probably standing applauding this, but I was alittle embarassed by it. Again somebody who isnt a Christian would look at this and shake their heads.
all I am saying is that we always say we are under attack but dont you think that maybe just maybe we bring it upon ourselves?.. Im not saying do nothing, just keep your hands in your lap.. but C'mon.. is this the message of Love we want to project. Is this the message we want to send to the outside world? Come be a follower of Jesus and you took can be a weirdo..
NO way ... I like Christine Caine's veiw on this..BE THE CHURCH. we dont have to be over the top. We just have to be Christians not the sterotype of religious nut jobs, which is the catagory I place these two into..

Death and Divorce

My Grandfather died Monday night. You can send your condolences if you want but save them. Save them because while he was my grandfather I never knew him, thanks to divorce. I dont have any "moments " to remember because I never met him..ever. Quite frankly, i didnt even know he existed until 1997.

I am the product of a divorced family. My Mom? A product of a divorced family. My Dad? A product of a divorced family. I have no real memories of ever living with my own father,and to be honest I dont even have a "father/son" relationship with my dad. Rarely even talk to him on the phone. I know your sitting there saying "oh thats so sad". Please dont be. I think it helped me to be a better father to my own children and a better husband to my wife. I knew that it sucked to not be around my Dad and I had a great Step-Dad, but I didnt want that for my kids. I always felt abandoned by my father who had gotten remarried and had a couple kids. My Dad was a non-participant in my life. He was military so, as an adult, I understand.... kinda. But like I said before, I didnt want that for my kids.

I have 3 Sons and 1 Daughter and I cannot be in the same room with them and not touch them in some way. (Hand on the shoulder, arm around the neck etc.) The lack of a father figure for me has placed a burning in my heart to let these kids know that their Father Loves them and while we may be angry with each other at times ( the boys are 15, 17, 20) there will be no doubt in their minds that I love them. I do things with them because I want them to have the memories I didnt have of doing things with their Dad.

On a side note: I still dont feel comfortable enough to call my Dad and say Im sorry about his loss. He didnt know that his step-dad wasnt his dad until he was 18... He never knew his Father either.. Do you see the cycle?.. I had to break it

Hi

Hey, how are you doing? This is my first attempt at a blog. My assumption is that its just basically my opinion('s). Well I have my opinions about alot of stuff. I would'nt say I am a radical. As a matter of fact , I've been told that I have a knack at looking at both sides of any issue. I dont fly off the handle either. I am really curious as to how this will develope. I look at your blogs and they are so well done. Nice graphics and professional looking ( to me anyways), I wonder how I will compare. I wont be doing the comparing though because quite honestly I dont care how I "measure up " to you. I'm doing this for me and nobody else.

feel free to comment but please be gentle..LOL