It's good to be loved when you feel overwhelmed.

Christmas time is here.  In fact today is the day after Christmas and the hustle and bustle is over and we move toward a new year.  The Holiday in the Sossamon house and those of our family have been exciting yet somewhat bitter sweet.
First my mom has been sick for a while now but that's all I'll mention about that out of respect for her being a private woman.
Second, we had our little girl on Dec 23 2014 at 10:38 pm......Baby Alina Rose came in with a push and a pull!  That's where the other stress has come in.  It's been an emotional roller coaster ride.  When she was born she had to get deep suctioned to make sure lungs were good and clean.  Then her sugar was low.  After getting a bottle her sugar went up, but then back down.  It's now getting fairly normal, but she hasn't started eating quite well enough yet.  She has been tested for a heart murmur, nope,  been tested for seizures, nope, and they even have some cultures right now that they are looking at with in the next 48 hours or so just to check for infections.  She does have a couple of issues that will be checked out after the results from the cultures come back, and we may have to have some surgery to correct it.  All in all she is still a pretty healthy baby, but just has a couple of tweaks before she can come home.
Steph stayed an extra night at the Hospital to be close to Alina which basically cut her out of Christmas but she needed to be near the baby and the Doctors.

As rough and trying as the many circumstances are, and regardless of the amount of tears.....We are Blessed people.  We have family near by that have absolutely been there for us.  Some have kept the twins, some have been a firm support, and some have done both!  Our circle of people that are around us have had a wonderful impact.  God has place each one of them in the place where we have needed them so that they can be most effective.  We are grateful for what all has been done by them, and for God's Providence in this.  It is not easy having a brand new baby and having to leave her at the hospital.  We know she is in good hands that God has led to her, but it's still hard not to have that bundle of joy with you.

All that is going on has made me question something.  How do people without Hope, Cope?  With the game of Good News, Bad News that we've been playing with both my Mom and my Daughter,  how could anyone ever make it without the Great Hope that is given us in Jesus?  If you want to hear some scripture, email me but I'm not going to quote any right this second.  Think about this when the world is baring down on you and you can seem to handle it, where do you turn?  As a former Olympic Track and Field star and WWII veteran put it, there are no Atheist' in fox holes or life rafts.  When the rubber meets the road and all looks lost, do you have the relationship with Jesus Christ that will give you Hope?  Jesus is called The Great Hope for a reason and I have experienced this reason several times in my life.  I'm not a water walker, but I am a believer in Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

We appreciate all of your prayers and encourage you to continue praying for us, baby Alina Rose, and for my mom.  We are extremely Blessed not by monetary things but in the fact that God put you in our lives.  You are worth more than all the Gold in the world, therefore we are Blessed!

Thank You again for loving on us.

~Lee

Right Here, Right Now.......

Many times I have said that the time to accept Christ is upon us.  This time is no different.  You may not have tomorrow, you may only have today to make a decision concerning your eternal address.  In this world we are faced with addiction, the kind of thing that creates a void so deep in your life that you are embarrassed and need to fill that hole.....you try to shake it but you can't.  The void in your life will never be filled with fruits, deserts, beers, smokes, or porn.  The void in your life can only be filled with Jesus.  Satan will whisper in your ear that you are disgusting, that you're an embarrassment, you're weak, you're pathetic, you're a sinner, you can never make up for what you've become.  You see, all that is BULL!  We belong to a Lord that has paid for us.  Bought and Paid.  As Christians we are the only religion that has a God that requires us to be pure and sinless to be acceptable.  The kicker is He provides us a Sinless Savior to cover all of our short comings.  We have to accept the Grace that He and only He can offer.  Fill your void with Jesus! 
What if tomorrow you find out that you are at the end of your life?  What if you, a relatively healthy person but you go in for a Doctor appointment and come out with a whole new diagnosis?  What if it's Cancer?  What if it's something that there is no cure? Where do you turn?  Any person reading this right now could be at the end of their life.  Do you want to leave this life without hope?  Without the Great Hope?  Jesus has given a Hope like no other to ALL who accept Him.  Do Not Go to bed tonight without knowing where you'd be if you did pass away tonight.  Jesus talks about the road being wide, but the gate narrow.  Although many folks may make it to the gate, only those that have accepted Him will enter the gate.


Lord, I know this to be true.  You are the One True God. Jesus you are The Way, The Truth, and The Life.  Please Lord come live with in my heart as I confirm You as my Lord and Savior, through the acceptance of a Grace that I am undeserving.  Please forgive me of my wrongs with Grace that only You have offered a sinner like me.  I do not deserve to be forgiven, but You forgive me anyway.

Praise God!
Amen

A Man in Times of Trouble

A MAN..... What is a Man?  Jesus was a man.  Jesus was meek at times and Jesus was Man's Man as well.  Just think about those tables He turned over at the Temple.  Real Wood not press board, Ornate Tables that were heavy.  Jesus laid the smack down by over turning the tables and whooping folks with a whip made of ropes....  He may have been meek but Jesus was not a wimp.

Here is why I mention Jesus being a Real Man.  We as Men need to step up and be MEN in a world that needs MEN more than ever.  Fellas, are YOU the spiritual leader of your household?  Are you taking it on your shoulders to make sure your family has a good relationship with Jesus?  Fellas it's time to stand up.  Men have taken a back seat and just let things flow for so long now, our nation is in a bad spot, our communities are being attacked, and our houses are in danger of corruption.

You see we have become a Springer Nation.  Every facet of society has to be more extreme than the previous.  Nothing is Sacred.........

I originally started this edition of the SossBlog to talk about the recent epidemic of children suffocating in hot cars.  I still don't understand how the parents can murder their children in a hot car like that, but I'm changing gears.  I'm not writing about that.

My thought's were changed by my son and daughter.  My wife and I, along with my church family, our friends and our relatives have tried our best to teach our children about Jesus.  We've worked on teaching the Christian songs for children, The Lord's Prayer, and even the Doxology.  We've tried to be godly examples for our children because we know it's real.  As proud as I am of both of my children, I have to tell about my son. 

Saturday July 5th 2014, my children were given New Testaments by the Gideans at a street festival up in West Jefferson.  From the time my son got this New Testament he has been spreading The Good News, The Gospel, the Basis of our Faith!  It is the most simple and beautiful example of witnessing I have ever seen.   My little boy has been taking his New Testament around to everyone exclaiming " Jesus is Not Here, He Is Risen!!!" 

He started off by sharing it with his family, then this morning my wife let me know that he was so excited to see his friends today because he had something interesting to tell them that is very important. 

There are so many things about this that we adults should be learning and making notes, but sometimes we just don't  pay attention.  Proverbs 22:6 says "6 Train up a child in the way he should go;even when he is old he will not depart from it."  Yes we have been working at training our children to be Jesus followers but we have had support that has reinforced it.  This "I want to share this Good News with everyone because it's important"  is all on my son.  He has taken what we have given him, has taken it and is doing exactly what God has told us to do with it.  Mark 16:15 reads ( and is the FIRST statement of the Great Commission)
"15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation."

Again, my daughter has her was of spreading the Gospel but today I'm really only talking about my son and his methods that are plain, simple and to the point.   If a 4 year old boy can be given a New Testament and can immediately take it and start telling people the most important message they will ever hear, why can we not do the same?

What is it that is holding us back from spreading the Truth?  Do we really not believe what we hear every Sunday?  Do we really sit for an hour of Sunday School and an hour of Worship Service but yet are still unbelieving?  If your children are attending, they are learning and need you to reinforce it!  Men, YOU ARE THE SPIRITUAL LEADER in your household!  Women you are the glue!!!  Both men and women have jobs to do in this effort and neither are less important than the other.  Hearing my wife singing Amazing Grace to my children warms my heart and soothes my soul.  
This real life spreading of THE GOSPEL by my son has inspired me.  This makes the wind fill my sails once again.  

I've began to use a phrase something along the lines of "This world needs less Jerry Springer and more Andy Griffith".  How do we make this happen you ask?  We stand up and not be accepting of the load of Bovine Dung "The World" is trying to feed us!  We have to train up our children!  We have to believe it ourselves.  We have to live in a manner that brings Glory to God!  Our Children and our grandchildren are dependent upon our decisions and actions now.  

The Great Commission is not just a call to action for "them", it's a call for us, it's a call for ME.  
We have got to do this and change the course of this ship.  We are the last line in this battle that has already been won.  We are the ones that reduce the body count that Satan is trying to pile up.  Satan knows it's over, he knows he lost! but he continues to attack and destroy any soul that will allow him a foothold.  Our job is to prevent that by introducing folks to Christ. 

In closing I'm leaving you with John 3:16-18,
"16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."

I hope God's blessings for you are obvious to you and that you will continue to be intentional in giving Him Glory.

Lee

I'm so Happy that, I can't stop crying......

Most of my readers realize that my Blog is not meant to be offensive, it's to be something that places a stone in your shoe.  Something that you will think about and the longer the stone is there the more you think about it until you decide to take action.
Well this edition of the SossBlog is no different.
This is unsolicited but is a combination of a few things that are wearing on my heart.
The one most important thing I can do for my children is Not teach them how to make money, not Algebraic Expressions, not Chemistry, History, Psalm 119, or how to tie their shoes.  The absolute most important thing I can teach my children about is a relationship with Jesus Christ.  If I fail at everything else in my life, I want my children to know and love Jesus and have a personal relationship with Him as their Lord and Savior.  I don't care if they have perfect attendance at Sunday School, Bible School, church Service or what ever, as long as I introduce them, and help them develop a relationship with the ONE who matters.
With that said, I have a couple of things on my mind....
One: PARENTS it is your job to make sure your kids are respectful and relatively well behaved.  If your child needs a pop on the bottom to make them attentive, then do it.  It is disrespectful to other people for your child to put their fingers in a birthday cake that belongs to someone else. 
It is disrespectful if your child ignores you, handle that business now while they are still a child and their minds can be changed rather easily.  It is your job as a parent to make sure your child isn't watching things on TV, internet, magazines etc. that they don't need to know.  According to Josh McDowell (look it up), Children 6-8 years old are already being introduced to Pornography.  This should not happen!  Teens are becoming "active" younger and younger, and if they have a smart phone there probably has been some type of Porn on it too! As Parents, it is our Job to monitor what our kids are looking at, talking about, and listening to. 
You're probably asking how all of what I just said goes back to helping my children build their relationship with Christ.....I'm getting there!
Watch this..... If I'm attending church every week, but I live a life that teaches my child that making a sex object out of a woman is okay ,or it's okay to lust after this guy, or it's okay to read this "fantasy" or whatever it is and it goes against what God teaches us about in the Bible...... why are they going to even grace the steps of that building when they get old enough to make those choices for themselves?

In a conference a while back (2009ish?) the speaker threw some numbers out.  87% or so of kids that grew up in the church, left the church as they entered college.  Of that 87% only 20-30% returned when they came into their mid to late 20's.  My thoughts are the parents did not help these young people develop their relationship.... The importance of going every Sunday was more important than the development of that relationship with Christ.  I've heard someone make the statement of "I don't drink, don't smoke, and don't cuss, so I must be a Christian".  Not doing those things is good, but it won't get you into Heaven.  You don't do these because it drives a wedge between you and God, not because you're labeled a "Christian". 

The churches are to a point that it's almost a panic, trying to figure out where all the young folks have gone.  I can't blame the church for looking for these young people.  I can believe that the parents failed on that front.  I can believe that the parents are to blame partly if not entirely on the absence of these young people.  We have turned our churches into social clubs where the Biblical principles are merely a good suggestion, but if it feels good do it.... and we don't have to be respectful, we don't need to pray ( because we're strong like that), we don't need to read our Bibles (because it's mostly just old ways of thinking and isn't really pertinent to today), and you know I'm just not sure for myself about all this Jesus stuff so I'm going to let my child make up their own minds as to what they believe.

Look, there are folks out there that will reason until the day they die that God is not real, that a relationship with Jesus is just a was of time..... They are WRONG!  We've just come out of the Easter celebrations in the Christian Church and we learned that He is not dead! He is Risen!!!  Parents, this is a call to you....  You have to make the decision that Jesus is Real in your life. You have to decide that you are going to let your children see the light of Jesus Christ reflected in your life.  You have to decide that YOU are going to teach them about Jesus and that He is the Lord and Savior of your life....They will follow you.  Do not do them a disservice by not teaching them the things that will make them great citizens and more importantly Christ Followers.

Think about it... if we give them something real to carry with them, they will bring something real back with them.  We, as the Adults have to decide that WE DO Believe and that it is important.