Cliff Benoist

A very good friend of mine recently sat me down to quickly discuss a few passages from the bible. He said he was going to be using the verses in his bible study class that was discussing prayer. I was more than happy to listen. The passages come from Colossians 1:7-14.

⁷This you learned from Ep'aphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, ⁸and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
⁹For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. ¹¹May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully ¹²giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. ¹³He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

So I have read this many times and adapted this into a prayer that I use when praying for others or for myself. The version below is the prayer I use for myself, asking the Lord to help me become more Godly, to be more like Christ in everything that I do.

Lord, fill me with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that I may lead a life worthy of you, fully pleasing you, in every good work as I grow in the knowledge of God. And Lord, make me strong in the strength that comes from your glorious power, and prepare me to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to you. Through you I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins and am transferred from the power of darkness into the your kingdom.

In your name I pray, Amen.

Steve, thank you for being a great friend in the Lord.

I discovered a very good piano player while cruising around the various music sites on the Internet.  If you haven't had a chance to listen to his music you may want to visit Rob's page on Jamendo.  The downloads are free and you can, if you like the music, contribute to the artist.

Enjoy!

My prayers are with the family and friends of J. Wesley Kugler.  Wes, a mentor and friend, passed away on the 9th of July 2008.  It was an blessing to know him.

I managed to catch a nice sized garter snake on camera.  It was warming itself on a rock at my in-laws house.

If you want to read more on garter snakes check out the Garter Snake on wikipedia.

Pictures can be found in my wildlife photo gallery.

I have for quite some time been trying to lose some extra pounds, 40 to be exact.  But I have come to realize that focusing on the weight lose is not the right approach.  If I focus my energy on changing my eating and workout habits, I might have a real shot to realize my goal.  Even more important than that, I will have changed my life for the better.  So starting today I will be keeping a daily food diary in my blog.  I will post periodic updates on my weight to show my progress.  I am doing this for myself, but if anyone else gets any value from it that is great.  I am also open to feedback on things I should try out.  Feel free to drop a comment if you have any suggestions.

Breakfast: Swiss and bacon omelette (~400 cal), orange juice (220 cal) bottle I got had two servings.  I have to remember to read the labels.

Snack: None

Lunch: Small honey bourbon chicken (320 cal), Baked lays chips (130 cal), Bottle of Life Water (100 cal)

Snack: None

Dinner: 3 small meatball subs (~900), bottle of sprite(~220).

Snack: None

Total Calories for day: 2290

Cups of Water (8oz): 6

You may ask yourself why I am tracking how much water I drink.  CNN has a good article about how much water you should drink everyday and the effects of not drinking enough water.

The rest of my diary entries can be found in my blog. They will not be promoted to my homepage.