Look at all that wasted water…
Wait. Look closer.
Everything you see except for the man is chalk! YEA!!!! Tell me about it! Chalk drawings that look so real. Check out more at the painters website: http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm
Over the past few months, and more dramatically the past few weeks, I’ve been going through a change. It’s hard to say that I’m a changed person since I’m looking from the inside out, but I feel different and I see things differently than I did just 4 months ago. I know I have many more steps to take before I get where I want to be, but I do feel I’m moving in the right direction. Who knows… maybe my wife will comment and tell me it’s all in my head. 
It’s been a long time since I’ve been in my Bible as much as I have been lately. It’s been an equally long time since I talked to God for more than just a few minutes. Our conversations were usually about me thanking him, then asking for stuff. It wasn’t really much of a conversation as much as it was a laundry list of things I wanted to happen. In the end, while I realized that God wasn’t some restaurant attendant who was sent to wait on my every need, thats exactly how I was treating Him.
I may have learned these things a long time ago, but after backsliding for many, many years I finally understand them again. God’s not here for me, I’m here for Him. The more I realize that, the easier life gets.
I’ve learned that God gives us all spiritual gifts. Some people have the gift of serving and go into ministry. Some people have the gift of prophecy and carry the message of God to others. Some gifts stretch far outside the church walls. Teachers may have the spiritual gift of teaching. Doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel may have the gift of healing, or helping. But just because your gift isn’t considered “spiritual” doesn’t mean that God didn’t give it to you for his purpose.
If everything is from God and to be used for His glory, then everything we do well is more or less a spiritual gift from God. A friend of mine that I game with has often asked me out of the blue if I was on a 3 day rotation at work. He can sense the tension in my voice and has often talked me down from being angry or upset. For all I know God may have given him the gift of counseling. My wife definitely has the gift of levelheadedness. Even though it may take a while for me to realize it, she’s usually right and has many times kept me from shooting my mouth off about situations that I wasn’t happy about.
So where’s all this going. Well, I’m at a crossroads now. For a while I’ve felt like I am supposed to be doing something. I’m not exactly sure what it is, but I feel like I’m supposed to be doing something for God. While I’m not fearful, or hesitant about what I’m supposed to do, there is a bit of anxiety surrounding this situation. I know that I’m not supposed to move until directed by God. I know that if I don’t do what He wants then I’m doomed to fail. I know that my main goal should be to spread Gods word and to further His kingdom. The question is what…
God Gave me two things that I really enjoy doing in which I’m also pretty good at. One is working on computers, the second is hiking. Personally, while I enjoy working on computers in some aspects, I don’t think that’s where God is calling me to move. I get too frustrated and have been known to throw mice and keyboards when things aren’t going as they’re supposed to. I know, I know… I definitely need the spirit of patience, but thats another subject. That leaves hiking. I’ve got some ideas in mind but I really need to know that this is Gods will.
God’s moving, thats a given. The question is; is it time for me to move, and if so is this the right path?
While it’s old… it deserves a place here at C9
1. Keep your priorities in order
2. Know when to act without hesitationA college professor, an avowed atheist and active in the ACLU, was teaching his class. He shocked several of his students when he flatly stated that for once and for all he was going to prove there was no God.
Addressing the ceiling he shouted: “GOD, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I’ll give you exactly 20 minutes!!!!!”
The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop. Ten minutes went by.
” I’m waiting God, if you’re real knock me off this platform!!!!”
Again after 5 minutes, the professor taunted God saying, “Here I am, God!!! I’m still waiting!!!”
His count down got down to the last couple of minutes when a SEAL, just released from the Navy after serving in Afghanistan and Iraq and newly registered in the class, walked up to the Professor. The SEAL hit him full force in the face, and sent the Professor tumbling from his lofty platform.
The Professor was out cold!! The students were stunned and shocked. They began to babble in confusion. The SEAL nonchalantly took his seat in the front row and sat silent. The class looked at him and fell silent…..waiting. Eventually, the professor came to and was noticeably shaken. He looked at the SEAL in the front row. When the professor regained his senses and could speak he asked:
“What the heck is the matter with you?! Why did you do that!?”
“God was really busy protecting America’s soldiers, who are protecting your right to say stupid crap and act like an butthead!!! So he sent me!!”
ONE NATION UNDER GOD!!!
Over the past few weeks I’ve been browsing blogs that other people have. Most of the time I search for hiking or backpacking blogs. I’ve found lots of good information about climbing mountains and seen some beautiful pictures. Something today led me to search another category; Christianity.
I typed in the word Christian and was almost immediately overcome with grief. I don’t understand why, but only about 1 in 15 reports were pro Christian and while I didn’t read the blogs in their entirety, it was easy to tell that Satan was using people to do his bidding online.
We all know that God has already won the battle. We’ve already seen his grace and mercy. The problem is that many haven’t. It’s time to pray and pray hard! We need to realize that there is a generation of youth who are being influenced by what they see on the net.
Let me make it a bit more real for you; my kids, your kids, your siblings… It’s this generation that need our prayer most of all.
If you’ve tried to reach me through the Rescue9-={AT}=-Yahoo-={DOT}=-com (< -- spamfilter. ) address, there is a good chance I didn’t get your message. Yahoo changed some code recently that caused all mail from August 22′nd on to be dumped without being downloaded my server. I caught a few messages that I know were missed, but I’m not sure what else was missing.
If you’re interested in the technicals, you can check out the Ubuntu forum that describes in detail what was happening.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=534458
I simply couldn’t pass this one up. People who break the laws simply because they can hide behind a big corporation really peeve me! I used to buy a majority of my computer purchases from Tiger Direct online, but thanks to this article, you can bet those days are long gone. I’ll have to find another distributor to fulfill my hardware needs. So sorry TD, if you’d follow the rules, you wouldn’t be in this position.
I was visiting a Tigerdirect (Large Electronic Retail Store) in Naperville, IL today (8/23/07). All was going well until after I had paid for my merchandise and tried to leave.
Oh yea…. This thing is Mad Cool!
I decided that since I was now officially on the Hazmat team… it was time I took a bit of pride in my position. Since I’m sure I’ll get questions, I’ll elaborate now. The 2 signifies the Area 2 team that we’re a part of. See… the truck isn’t solely Madisonville’s. It belongs to a number of counties. We’re just lucky enough to have it housed here.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been working through Rick Warren’s book Purpose Driven Life. I have been able to see some areas in my life that really need improvement, and since I began reading I have made a concerted effort to change those areas in my life.
Yesterday I witnessed a video at work about the fire service given at a conference. The video talked about Pride, Valor, Honor, Integrity… unfortunately words that haven’t been in the forefront of our minds until lately. Over the past few years, there have been some problems with the administration and a lot of firefighters, myself included, didn’t feel like doing anything more than was absolutely necessary. That has changed a lot lately.
I’ve learned that there are always going to be people at any job who just want to skate by. I’ve understood the fact that there will always be officers who don’t care about doing things the right way, just like there will be firefighters who don’t care about doing anything at all. The question that I had to answer was; do I want to be like them?
I’ve always had a love for the fire service. Approximately 15 years ago I attended Daytona Beach Community College where I became a certified firefighter. I had pride in my profession then… why did I lose it? I can blame it on the environment, but thats only part of the problem. If I don’t have my priorities right, and realized that everything I do is for God’s glory, then I’m not going to do my best.
And that’s exactly what I need to do; my best.
I thought I’d update you on the status of my job at Madisonville Fire Department. Since our last discussion in July we’ve officially formed a HAZMAT response team. While everyone in the department is able to respond to a hazardous materials incident at a technician level, there are 9 of us who are permanently located at station 3 who act as the front line attack crew. Our job is to make sure that the hazmat truck and trailer are in good working order, organize the contents of the trailer where we feel best, and maintain all equipment needed for hazardous material operations. I didn’t know it could be so taxing, but after working for over a month as a team, I’d say we’ve got it about 95% dialed in. We still have to work out a few things, but it’s a work in progress.
I just wanted to share a quick bit of information on what I’ve got coming up later next year. It’s going to take a lot of planning and preparation, but I’m sure that I can do it. Time is just another stepping stone in the adventure that lies ahead.
Safety Forth: Mount Rainier Climbing Report with Pictures
Mount Rainier Climbing
How to Climb Mount Rainier
Expedition Hope: Climbing for a Cause
It’s been a while since I posted anything due to the server issues I was having, but now I’ve got a backlog of information to post. I’ve uploaded a few photo galleries from the trip we had to Chattanooga. Included are pictures from the Children’s Museum, Coolidge Park, and the Tennessee Aquarium.
In addition, since upgrading to the new system I’ve decided not to include full sized pics on the gallery anymore. This saves me bandwidth, hard drive space, and loading time for my visitors. If you see a picture that you’d like to have as a desktop or something like that, feel free to contact me.
A link to the complete gallery can be found in the menu bar at the top, and as usual, all photos are Copyright Andrew Buskov 2007.
In the beginning Andrew said “Let there be web pages”, and there were, and they were good.
When I built my server 7 years ago, I created a nice little web page talking about my life and everything. It was just that…. little and nice. Over the years though it has taken a life of it’s own, growing, maturing, and developing into the server it is today. It has taken many hours of coding and troubleshooting to get it to this stage, but I’m really happy with the work so far.
See…. building a server is like making a sandwich. You can’t just get the ingredients out of the fridge, and set them on the counter expecting to have a sandwich. No, you’ve got to put work and love into it. I started out with PB&J. I got some bread, peanut butter, and jam for a quick fix. Over time I swapped out for some ham and cheese. Then some lettuce, mayo, and onion. Now I’ve got a full blown hot Italian roast beef with aujous, sauteed mushrooms and onions, melted provolone cheese, and sweet peperoncini all on a fresh toasted hoagie bun.
Anyway… time for lunch.
Yea baby!!!!
I had to bite the bullet and install a new theme now as the photos inside my posts weren’t getting displayed correctly. Thats ok… this theme is Mad Kewl! I’m going to put a new photo up… something of my own work. I haven’t even thought about what, but it will be there soon enough.
I’m working at getting the new server online. I’ve gotten the blog back up, but the photo’s are definitely not working. It’s a work in progress.
That being said. The whole look of the site will change. Change is good… I just have to find something I like. This will likely come after the photo gallery is back up though.
Thanks for sticking with me for the past few months.
