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Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life
by Tom Kelley
Owning a new home is both a blessing and a cursing. The blessing is that you own it. The cursing is that you own it. No, you're not seeing things. Owning a new home is such a blessing in that you know it is yours and you can do with what you wish. However, anything that happens to it is also yours; every failed appliance, every threadbare carpet, every squeaky step, every cracked wall.
Right now the walls are what are starting to get to me. There is nothing on them. We are still trying to let them "speak" to us. That's what we were told concerning walls. Walls will tell you what they need on them. You just have to listen. I am just about to the place where if I want their opinion I'll give it to them. Especially the big blank wall right over the entertainment center. BIG blank wall.
The surface area is about ten feet by fifteen feet. All it is is a blank wall except for the paint on it. It is just a wall. However, it begins nine feet above the level of the living room. Whatever gets put on it will stay there for a long long time. That's the frustrating thing about walls. They just are. What they do is important. They separate rooms and provide strength to the house. It is tough, though, to have to sit and stare at them just standing there.
Churches are a lot like houses. The people make up the very structure of the church. Without the people there would be no church. Each person is a block in the walls of the church, laid neatly upon each other and drawing their strength from the people whose lives led them to Christ and providing encouragement and love for those they have influenced. Quite often we look at the lives of people in the kingdom of God and only see a blank wall without appreciating the strength that wall represents.
"Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 2:4, 5 A spiritual house. That term should have great meaning for us as we build that living house life upon life.
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...He was the Minister of the Minorsville Christian Church located near Stamping Ground, KY.
...Becky and Tom have three children; John, single and in worship ministry in Nicholasville, Kentucky; Sean, married (Jennifer, elementary school teacher) with twins (Grace and Patrick, b.d. 10/31/04) and regional director of Papa John's Pizza in Central KY; Kara, married (Vince Taylor, prison guard) and working with Hospice East in Winchester, KY.
...Tom went to be with the Lord on November 13, 2009 after a lengthy battle with cancer. If you have been touched by Tom's writings please send an email to Tom's son at jkelley@catalystchristian.net
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