For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12 Hi, my name is Chris The Meaning Behind My Blog Name: ChristianPaladin1981 Christian: A follower and lover of Jesus Christ Paladin: This is my fantasy dork self coming out. A Paladin in most fantasy worlds is a Holy Knight/Warrior in the service of a deity, who seeks to fight against evil wherever it is found. With their holy blade, they smite evil. With their shield they stand in harm’s way to defend others, and with their hands, they heal the wounded. Their ability to do these things come directly from their deity. 1981: My birth year So how does all of that relate to me? As Christians, we do not fight against flesh and blood. The Battles are fought in the spiritual realm. The enemy is the Devil and his demons. God has given us the tools to fight. The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (The Bible). The shield is called the shield of faith, which is typically exercised through prayer. And the wounds that I seek to heal in others are wounds of the soul, which manifests itself in the forms of depression, self injury, a false self-image, etc. The main weapon of the enemy is lies. Satan is called “The Father of lies” He craftily mixes lies with truth, which makes the lies harder to spot and easier to believe. You want to defeat your enemies? Destroy their weapons! Destroy those lies! This is what I try to live up to. That is why I chose the name ChristianPaladin1981.
I returned last night from my trip to Georgia for my grandmother's funeral. My aunt asked me if I would like to speak at the funeral. I am not the greatest at public speaking (i am more of a writer), so I was nervous, but I did it anyway because it was an honor to do so. Some things are too important to pass up no matter how nervous one might be about it.
Even though it was a funeral, I was very blessed to spend time with a lot of family members I had not seen in a long time (11 years for some of them). I really enjoyed seeing my cousins and meeting the families they have started. I really wish I could spend more time with them. It is hard with everybody's schedules and everybody living in different areas.
I have seen enough of airports for a long time. My flight home got cancelled and I had to sit in an airport all day long, for two days straight. So I am glad to be back.
My grandmother passed away this afternoon. For those with the time and will to listen, I thought I would tell you a bit about her. One could not ask for a better grandmother. Whenever I was around her, she did whatever she could to make sure I was happy. She spoiled me rotten.
Some of my fondest memories with her was when she would play Super Mario Brothers with me. How many people can claim that about their grandmothers? Not many, I would imagine. It was hilarious watching her play. She was not very good at it at all, but it was something I enjoyed doing so she did her best to enjoy it with me. When she would push a button to make Mario jump, her right leg would leap up, as well as her hands which held the controller. When Mario fell down the hole, she would say with a confused look on her face, "I mashed the button, but he fell down!"
When I came to visit, she would take me to the grocery store and let me pick out whatever I wanted. When she gave me ice cream, she didn't give out those little dinky dessert bowls. Oh no, she gave me a cereal bowl and said, "Have as much as you want." This sort of thing caused problems for my parents when I would return home because I would expect the same treatment, which never happened.
She was kind to everyone and very giving. She would take me to her church and I enjoyed watching her sing in the senior choir... "Young at Heart" the group was called.
Even as an older lady, she joined a bowling league and became very good, sometimes scoring over 200. It was kind of embarrassing getting my behind stomped by my own grandmother when I would bowl with her. I was proud of her though.
I will be taking a short trip to Georgia soon for the funeral. I won't have time to visit anybody while I am down there, even though I would love to, but a more fun trip is upcoming where I will be able to do that.
This world has lost an incredible lady today. But I am confident that she is in heaven with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and that I will see her again at the end of all things. If you have gotten this far in reading this, I appreciate you taking the time to do so. God bless you all.
RNC: Hillary Clinton! Hillary Clinton! Hillary Clinton! Blabidiblab Hillary Clinton!
Trump at RNC: We are a united and healed party now, right?
Republican Party: *blood oozes out of a thousand cracks*
Hillary Clinton: "Hahaha, look at the RNC. The DNC will be much more united and we will actually stick to the issues instead of slamming people!"
Hillary at RNC: "We are a united and healed party now, right?"
Democratic party: *blood oozes out of a thousand cracks*
DNC: "Donald Trump! Donald Trump! Donald Trump! Blabidiblab Donald Trump!"
I am tired of seeing people lying to themselves about the so-called unity of their party and their falsely perceived greatness of their candidate. Can we be honest with ourselves and each other instead? Face the facts. The corruption of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is not even a partisan issue at this point. We need to stop playing Neighborhood of Make-believe (Don't get me wrong... Mr. Rogers was a good man) and deal with reality. We all need to work together to find a way to ensure that we get better candidates options in the future without all of this cloud of corruption that forms as we smoke on our rage-laced hatred.
Today I went out to the country and rode on four wheelers. I also have been training my girlfriend Charity on how to play softball so she can play on our team next year. I am going to try to get her cousin to play with us as well. That man is strong as all get out... with proper training he would be hitting home runs all day long. I want to help build a softball team that can rival our church’s other team which was undefeated and won the championship this year.
Today at church, we had a guest speaker about human trafficking and Fair Trade products. Pastor Kirk then also preached a short but much needed message about how love trumps all else. It can be difficult for us to stay loving during the election season because we all have strong views about it and on what we should prioritize when electing people. It is difficult in light of all of the crazy stuff that is going on in the world and even in the U.S. right now. But it is very important that we love everybody, even the ones we really dislike. If we stop being loving, then we are failing in our role to pointing Jesus to the love He has for us and are not being good ambassadors to what we represent. So let us not let our anger and frustrations get the best of us when encountering people we don't like and/or disagree with (I say "or" because there are actually plenty of people that I have strong disagreements with that I still really like as people).
Today was the day of our softball playoffs. We played the team we crushed last week, only to have them return the favor this week. Like I said in my last soft ball post, they have a lot of talent that just didn't come together that day... but today it did, and we did not play as well as we could. I only got 3 at bats. We started off great the first couple innings. I had a solid line drive base hit to the outfield that I think drove in a run. The second at bat, I tried to not swing at the first pitch like I normally do, but it was a strike. I protected the plate so as not to strike out. But then he threw a pitch that almost hit me and I had to back away from, but it curved and hit the plate so it looked like a strike so I got called out on strikes. I should have just let the ball hit me. haha. The third at bat I grounded out. Not my best game ever, but it could have been worse. I went to watch our church's other team play their second game against the team that beat us, and New Life Blue kept their undefeated streak going and is headed to the championship game next Saturday. I was hoping to win our first game and have a second crack at New Life Blue, but it didn't happen. I am proud of them for what they accomplished this season! The season is now over for me, and I am looking forward to next year!
We had another soft ball game today. Our team killed it! We won 21-12. Coach moved me up to 5th in the batting order and I was able to get 5 at bats. I had 2 hits, drove in a couple of runs. The 3 times I got out were solid line drives that almost found the hole into the outfield, but not quite, so nothing to be ashamed of there. Though one of my team mates pointed out that I am reaching a bit for some of the pitches instead of waiting for the ball to get to me. This limits how much power I put behind my swing, so even though I am hitting the ball hard, I could hit the ball even harder if I wait a bit longer to swing. This tends to happen a lot to people who grew up playing baseball where pitches come in fast rather than slowly arced in the air before getting to the plate. So we get impatient in waiting for the ball to get there.
We were supposed to play two other games this week but those teams couldn't seem to get their team together, so they forfeited. That leaves our team at 4 wins and 3 losses for the season. Play offs start next week. We are playing the team we beat today in the first round. Even though we beat them soundly today, I saw a lot of talent on their team. It just didn't come together for them today. So it might not be so easy to win next time. But at least we know we can beat them.
Last night, we played softball against our church's other team (New Life Blue). Their team was undefeated and still are undefeated after playing us. It was still a fun game though and I am proud of New Life Blue's accomplishment this season, as I know a lot of the team from church, including our church's pastor.
I personally had a good game, but I had an extremely rare strike out. I almost always connect, and even one swing and miss is very rare for me, but I swung and missed twice in a row that at bat. I don't know what happened. haha. But my other at bats were fine, with a sacrifice ground ball and a hit to the outfield.
Our team was supposed to play today, but the other team cancelled again. I think that means we win by forfeit, but I am not sure on this league's rules. The playoffs start next week, so I don't know what else it could be.
There is a lot of fake in this world. Fake jewelry... fake friends... fake plants... fake breasts... fake religions... fake politicians... fake money... fake food... fake identities... I naturally a very skeptical and very cynical person... BUT! In spite of the existence of some fake Christians and fake pastors, I am convinced that God is real. Jesus is real... and many great and real things spring from this... True love is real. Salvation and Redemption are real... True friendship is real. True beauty is real. True peace is real. True joy is real...
Please Please Please... do not let the fake in this world keep you from seeing what is real and what is great in this world!
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