I, too, pray often for the speedy return of Christ.  At the same time, though, we need every moment of the time we have left to bring more souls into the Kingdom for the glory of the Lord.

Excellent point, Sunny & Jen...thanks for the reminder!

Sissy,

We live full-time in our RV, too.  If you ever want to talk RV'ing, let me know!

I see that this is kind of an older thread, but...

I'm from Houston, Texas (and we're looking forward to welcome all of our Superbowl visitors this week).  I grew up in a teensy weensy little town about 50 miles east of there and I've lived here all my life.

Sissy - not only do we have an RV, but we live in it full time and have for the past 3 years.  Talk about a non-materialistic lifestyle, if you get something new, there's so little storage that something old has to go to make room...lol!  We lived in a little 21 (or so) foot travel trailer until we were able to upgrade to a 5th wheel with triple slides (yeehaw!) which makes it much more roomy.  If you ever want to talk RV'ing or want to know of a great park near the Houston area, feel free to email me.

PS...to all of y'all...this is the friendliest forum I've ever visited; I'm already enjoying myself here  

What would I ask him?  

May I pray with you?

As for his punishment, I don't think it's our place to try him.  I think the Iraqi's who have been terrorized by him all these years should have that singular pleasure.  If I were on the jury, I'd want to see him hang.  An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, is what the Bible says, right?  Personally, I support the death penalty for capital crimes, then again, I'm from Texas where we not only have the death penalty, we use it; there's even an express lane for especially heinous crimes (killing a child under age 6, killing more than 1 person, killing a law officer, etc...)

Are we also allowed to review secular books in this forum?  I commute an hour each way to work and have a ton of time to read, so I have quite a few to review.  I wasn't sure if we could review stuff other than Christian books (and I've read a number of those, too) and didn't want to offend by doing so without permission.

When we go through trials,
think of it as a way to help
someone else during the
crisis or in the future...

That reminds me of the song by Kris Kristofferson "Why Me Lord"...the second verse goes:

Tell me Lord, if you think there's a way, that I could repay, all I've taken from You...Maybe Lord, I can show someone else, what I've been through myself, on my way back to You!

Lord help me Jesus, I've wasted it so, help me Jesus, I know what I am...now that I know, how I've needed You so, help me Jesus, my soul's in Your hands.

I may be off-track here, but I do have an opinion about this Mars exploration that is suddenly the new "hot" topic.  My fiance and I were arguing (rather heatedly) about this just the other day and here's my two cents on the topic:

I think that space exploration is a relatively good idea.  Satellites and other instruments that are long-range and long-lasting launched to record images and transmit them back to earth are truly interesting.  However, I think that spending ka-zillions of dollars on a piece of equipment that takes "purty pictures" for a few days and then stops working is a waste of tax-payer dollars.  I believe that our money would be better spent feeding and clothing and housing the homeless, caring for our elderly who can't afford medical care, teaching our children, finding out what's at the bottom of our own deepest oceans, a cure for cancer, a cure for MS, a cure for Parkinsons...need I continue?  If there is life on other planets, the God Almighty put it there.  Unless NASA is planning to inscribe the Gospel on the Martian surface as a lasting testament to any other possible life forms in the universe, then I'm really hoping that this form of space exploration will come to an end.  It's not like people will ever live on Mars or the Moon, so I maybe I'm just missing the point.  My bottom line is that those "purty pictures" aren't worth the cost.

I'm interested in what the Christian view of this topic really should be.  I don't see a Biblical answer, so if you do, can you point me in that direction?

Good mornin' Ambassador,

I'm with you...I find that the more I study my Bible, the more I thirst for knowledge.  Reading and studying prayerfully allows the Holy Spirit to minister not only to my mind, but to my heart and soul.  We can fast and/or abstain from many things, but it should never be from the Word!

Hi, there, Anne!  I'm new here, too, but thought I'd say hi anyway.

I can sympathize with being in the close quarters of a truck all day for weeks on end.  We lived in a 21 (or so) foot travel trailer for a year and also worked together too...talk about togetherness...lol.  There were weeks at a time when we weren't even in different rooms for more than 30 minutes.  I must admit I'm glad we have separate jobs now; gives us a chance to miss one another a little.

Hi, Sunny.

I'm new here too, but thought I'd say howdy, anyway.

Homeschooling is extremely admirable!  I understand that is must be hard but rewarding work, am I right?

Thanks, everyone, for the warm welcome!  I really appreciate it.  I guess I should tell you about myself here; I suppose this is my testimony so pardon me if it runs a little long.

I grew up in a Christian home and accepted Jesus as my Savior when I was 8 years old.  I don't really know that I fully understood what that means until just the last year or so.  Frankly, it is sometimes still so overwhelming that I find myself confused, lost, and faltering.  As a teenager I "talked the talk" but didn't "walk the walk".  I was going to church for the wrong reasons; putting up a Christian front while wallowing in sin.  I got married way to young to my teenage sweetheart who also professed to be a Christian but who beat me to a pulp, raped me, and cheated on me on a regular basis.  In a knee-jerk reaction, I left him for another man.  Of course, because that marriage was without God it ended badly as well.  About 3 & 1/2 years ago, I began a torid affair with a man I then worked with and we moved in together.  A year or so went by and my boyfriend lost his job.  I was working 2 jobs to make ends meet and help put him through school so he would be employable.  My mother (God bless her) offered to lend me her copy of the Left Behind books since I commute to work and have lots of reading time.  Well, those books have changed my life.  All that time, I thought that I had lost my salvation and that there was no hope for me whatsoever; I actually thought Jesus had turned His back on me, too.  Boy, was I wrong.  Jesus hadn't left me and the proof was that all those things I was doing that were sinful nagged at my conscious.  That was Jesus reminding me that I was His child and that I was wrong.  I'm now engaged to be married in a few months (though due to our financial situation we still live together because neither of us have anyplace else to go; we avoid sexual impurity as much as we can but we are still sinning by living together).  I hope that you all won't judge me to harshly.  I was a member of another board and when I went to their leadership to ask for counsel in this situation, they pretty much cut me off at the knees and wouldn't reply to my emails or posts or anything.  I guess they thought my sin might contaminate them.  I long for the day when we will be married so that this burden will be removed from my heart.  I am struggling with some other things that I need God's help to clear from my life, but I am constantly working toward obedience.  I've rededicated my life to Christ and am trying to walk in His ways.  I hope that fellowship here will strengthen my walk with Him.

God bless each of you!

Hi everyone.

I'm new here and just wanted to say hello!