Blessed Money

Malachi makes it clear that the tithe already belongs to God.
In Psalm 24 David declares “ The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains.

The Bible makes it clear, He owns it all. We are stewards or managers of the things that God has intrusted to us.

Giving God what already belongs to Him is not so much an act of stewardship; it simply keeps us from being a thief.

In Malachi 3:11 God promises to rebuke the devourer.

Pastor Mark has taught us that God does not need our money he needs our obedience. The tithe severs as a testimony that we believe that God owns both the spiritual and material things within our lives.

In Hebrew, the word tithe is maaser and in the Greek it is dekate. The Literal meaning of both words is tenth.

Stewardship begins with tithing but continues with the remaining 90 percent. The 90 percent actually belongs to God as well, because we belong to God and He created everything.

A few weeks ago Vicky and I were watching IWORSHIP before going to Church and Pastor Hansen was preaching on Blessed Money. This is a very powerful concept.

Simply, Blessed Money is the 90% that is left over after the Tithe. If we Tithe and if we are good Stewards of what God has given us, then the remaining 90% is blessed.

Offerings are anything that you give in addition to your Tithe, such as gifts for special projects, the church building funds, missions, etc. If you give to missions and do not Tithe, then your money is not blessed.

Vicky and I believe that everything that we do with the remaining 90% is blessed money and that concept has opened up a whole new understanding of God’s commandment to Tithe and what we do with that 90%.

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Shot Him Dead

I always knew that Grandpa Cox (William) was tough and sometimes down right mean. Daddy used to tell me stories about Grandpa Cox when we would go fishing and hunting. I can’t remember what sparked this story about Grandpa Cox and the Coal Wars.

Daddy said that he came home from school one day and Grandpa was setting at the table with a big bandage on his cheek. Daddy asked him what had happened and Grandpa said that he had been shot. This is what daddy said.

Grandpa went to a mine where picketers were blocking the entrances to the mine or business offices. He got out of his car and a guy came up and shot him in the face. Grandpa was talking at the time and the bullet entered his mouth, hit a tooth and exited through the side of his cheek.

Daddy said that grandpa always carried two, pearl handled handguns, with him wherever he went.

I asked daddy what grandpa did. He said that Grandpa Cox took out his gun and shot the guy dead. I asked daddy if grandpa went to prison. He said no. It was not that uncommon for someone to get shot and even killed and anyway the other guy shot grandpa first.

Daddy said that grandpa and the men he hung around with would not hesitate to protect themselves, their families or their friends. Cross Grandpa Cox and you could end up dead.

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Mom

I don't know anyone that had a better Mom than we did. Our Aunts (on Mom’s side of the family) were very close.

I remember saying to the girls after I had carried Mom's casket to the hearse that us kids had a good Mom. I think back now, knowing what I know, and realize that we didn't have just a good Mom, we had an amazing Mom.

Mom was always their for us. When we needed our Mom, she stopped what she was doing and was by our side.

I like to tell people that I never got up in the middle of the night that I didn't see Mom with one of the girls. She was always there. Mom allowed us kids to be kids. When it rained and the yard and street would flood, Mom let us go outside to play in the water. We had friends over constantly, inside and outside the house, and I can’t remember Mom ever saying no.

I never knew that Mom got up real early and cleaned. Bonnie told me when I was an adult that Mom would get up early to get everything clean before we got up in the mornings. I just thought that the house was always clean. I know now that keeping that old house clean was a major job, especially with 4 kids and a husband.

And the food, Mom’s food was always hot and always good. I don’t know how she did it, but Mom always burnt the edge of the meat just a little for me. The only things I didn’t like was liver and beans. I think that the liver was daddy’s idea. I still don’t like beans, but liver is ok. Any of my friends that were lucky enough to eat at our house wanted to come back for more.

And the band, we practiced at our house a lot and Mom never said no, she never said turn it down... She just kept encouraging us... You have to know that we were very very very loud. I think Robert, Ron and Mark all liked the lunches and suppers that Mom made us.

Mom spent hundreds and hundreds of hours with me working on my spelling.. She never give up on me. Mom knew that I wasn’t stupid just because I can’t spell.

Even with all the grief that daddy gave mom over the years, she still loved him until the day he died.

The one thing I really miss about Mom is the phone calls I would get at work every few weeks. We didn’t talk a lot, she just wanted to know how I was doing...

I tell people that I had the perfect home when I was growing up. I know that it wasn’t perfect, but I do know that my Mom loved me and my sisters and showed us love every day.

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The American form of government

A history lesson...everyone needs to see this video.

http://www.wimp.com/thegovernment/



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Only One Could Go

I was talking with our cousin Joyce (daddy’s niece) a few years ago about Grandpa Cox (William). Joyce said that when she was in high school that Grandpa Cox arranged for her to go to Washington and met with President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower was President from 1953 -1961. Joyce did not say what year she went. Joyce told me that Grandpa was a friend of Eisenhower and had talked to him about her coming. Joyce said that she got to the White House she waited awhile and then they took her into the Oval office to meet the President. She said they talked for about 15 minutes and then they escorted her out. Joyce said that meeting the President in the Oval office was the most exciting thing that she had ever done in her life. It would have been interesting to know what they talk about, Joyce did not share that information.

I asked Joyce why some of the other older kids did not get to go... Joyce’s answer was “you know grandpa”. We will never know why he only chose one to go. Maybe that is all that Ike would see, or maybe he did not even think about sending someone else. Whatever, that was a good answer, that was how Grandpa Cox was.

This story explains a lot about daddy and WWII... That is another story....

National Day of Prayer

Please add to your calendar. National Day of Prayer October 16-18 2009

Pastor Stan Pratt

This was printed for the Taylorville Breeze-Courier Taylorville Ministerial Letter on Friday, July 17, 2009.


Submitted by: Pastor Stan Pratt
The Way of Life Church
1929 W. Spresser St.
Taylorville, IL 62568
#824-2548


The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:1-4 (Amplified Bible) “But understand this, that in the last days will come [set in] perilous times of great stress and trouble [hard to deal with and hard to bear]. For people will be lovers of self and [utterly] self-centered, lovers of money and aroused by an inordinate [greedy] desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters. They will be abusive [blasphemous, scoffing], disobedient to parents ungrateful, unholy and profane. [They will be] without natural affection [callous and inhuman], relentless [admitting to no truce or appeasement]; [they will be] slanderers [false accusers, troublemakers], intemperate and loose in morals and conduct, uncontrolled and fierce, haters of good. [They will be] treacherous [betrayers], rash, [and] inflated with self-conceit. [They will be] lovers of sensual pleasures and vain amusements more than and rather than lovers of God”

Sounds like reading or hearing the daily news doesn’t it?

The Prophet Joel asked in Joel 1:2 “ - - Has anything like this
happened in your days or in your fathers days?” His statement is
concerning the troubles of the nation - a shrinking economy and more.
The stark circimstances are then attributed to the ceasation of God-honoring lifestyles.

Scripture also warns of many “being deceived” in these “last days”.
To “be deceived” is to believe a lie, to deny what is truth, to accept what is false as true or real. What about you and me? Where are we in this picture? Are we walking in truth, or are we among those deceived - at least partially? We can certainly agree with Joel’s question concerning it being different than we have ever seen it before can’t we? We should, as Christians see that much of the troubles or perils of these days are due to the shrinking back of men and women standing for truth - real truth, the Word of God, Christ who is Truth, and the Holy Spirit who is the witness of Truth. Sin is the issue. Not some “problem,” but rather not honoring the God of
all creation by refusing to accept Christ as redeemer or as the real
answer to that which is destroying us. The issue is life and death -
the life of God, which brings His covenant blessings, or death which
leaves us separted from Him.

How foolish, that many who consider themselves part of the “church”
fit right into the statements made by Paul to Timothy quoted above!
And worse yet, defend their position(s) as being “okay”! How can we
deny the truth of Scripture and expect blessings to abound? How
can we stand silently by while so many declare as truth that which is
false? A danger in that is we also will become deceived because we
are not “standing in truth”. We risk mingling the Holy and the
profane by thinking all is okay even as we are denying the power of
God to bring His blessings into our lives - personally and / or as a
nation. Examples would include those who say they are “christian”,
and yet support abortion and sexual perversions of some or all types,
or those who openly deny the truths of Scripture in one or more areas
as “old fashioned” or say that Scripture / God changes with the
advancement of mankind. Wake up! God never changes, Christ is the
same, yesterday, today and forever. God honors His Word above His
name and won’t alter it for anyone or any generation, period!

Even if a President says “America is not a Christian nation”, we as
christians must arise and realize that if we are not a Christian
nation, then we are no longer the United States of America that the
writers of our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, the Bill
of Rights, many of our Presidents and Judges declared us to be. Even
if a President declares a month to honor sexual perversion pridefully,
we as christians must arise and say that we are not proud of sin being
honored on our land. We must declare that for us and our
household(s), we will serve and honor the Lord! Especially, we who
are Pastors / leaders in the christian community must stand firm in
truth lest we become party to deceiving multitudes in our spheres of
influence. I personally do not want to stand before Christ trying to
explain “why” I bought into deceptive issues so clearly stated in
Scripture! I don’t want any under the sound of my voice to either!

Recently, I stood with about fifty other Christian leaders from across
Illinois and declared that “This nation was founded on Godly
principles, formed as a nation under God, and stands on that
foundation”. We decreed that “this foundation will not be destroyed
or changed by the voice of man” and that “the belief of Christian
principles and a nation in need of a Savior and Lord is inherent in
our Constitution”. We decreed that “America was born a Christian
nation, is still a Christian nation and will forever be.” Standing
as one, we renounced and rejected the President’s decrees that we are
not a Christian nation and the decree of June, 2009 as a month to
honor sexual perversion as a lifestyle. Although our President is
trying to issue a decree that supercedes the Word of God, it “will
not stand because the Word of the Lord stands forever”. We declared
that these presidential decrees had exalted themselves against the
knowledge and design of God. We agreed to choose submission to those
authorities over us who are submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ
and the Word of God. Where that differs, we choose to follow the
Lord. In our sphere of authority, we will decree righteousness. We
will not condone rebellion, sin, appeasement or ungodly decrees with
silence.

Things contrary to God and His Word are happening and will happen
increasingly in this world, but we, as Christians, though in this
world are not of it. We will stand in Him and see the salvation of
our God. We do not have to be partakers of those things contrary to
God and His Word. We are partakers of His divine nature so that we
can release His light into the darkness of this world. We, as
Christians are here, in such a time as this, to bring glory and honor
to Him through Christ so that of the increase of His government and
peace, there is no end, and that the knowledge of His glory will cover
the earth as the waters cover the sea. Our hearts desire is that all
men repent and come to the great salvation which is available by grace
through faith in Christ.

Be blessed as you choose to honor God and His Word at all times.

If God is for you who can be against you?

Together, we advance the victory of the King of the Kingdom!

Stan Pratt
Pastor, The Way of Life Church
First Vice President, World Ministry Fellowship
Facilitator, DP Prayer Shield Team
Co-Coordinator, Illinois NDP

Kids at VBS - Dylan and Amelia

William Cox

William Cox

Born 04/13/1892
Died 08/30/1967
Mother - Mary Hendricks

Sinbad Was Really Mom's Dog

Not sure what year we got Sinbad, but it had to be in the late 50s to the early 60s. Sinbad was a Cocker Spaniel. He was the son of Harold and Joyce Edward's dog. I believe that her name was Lady. When we brought him home to see if we could keep him, we made all the promises that kids make, like we will feed him and keep him clean. Well that lasted for awhile, but then mom took over the job of taking care of Sinbad. I named Sinbad after the movie that I had seen (The 7th Voyage of Sinbad) . I liked the name. Sinbad was a good dog. He liked us and we liked him. I think the biggest plus was that mom loved him. Sinbad was a inside/outside dog, he came and went as he wished. He used to lay on the floor by the side door in the kitchen. He also like to lay on the cool concrete on the porch in the summer time. Sinbad followed us kids around all over Edinburg. He would go fishing with me and I would take him hunting sometimes. I didn't like taking him hunting because his fur would get all tangled from the stickers bushes. He would go with us up to the old grad school to play (the one that is not there any more)

I remember coming over to mom and daddy for some reason and mom being really upset that Sinbad was sick. Daddy told me that we needed to take him to the vet. After mom had said her goodbyes to Sinbad we headed to Tylorville to the vets office. On the way to the Vet, daddy told me that Sinbad would not be coming home with us. Daddy said that Sinbad's kidneys were shutting down and that he was in a lot of pain. I remember holding Sinbad on the long trip to Taylorville. The Vet told us that his kidneys had shut down and there was nothing he could do. The doctor letting us stay in the room while he gave him the shot.. It didn't take long and he was gone. I do regret that we left Sinbad their for them to dispose of the body. We should have taken him home and buried him in the back yard. When we got home mom was really upset and cried a lot... she really loved Sinbad... Sinbad was very good for the Cox family and for mom.

From Bonnie - Sinbad always came to our house to visit when Mom and Dad would go on vacation. I would hear something at the front door and he would standing there. I'd invite him in and give him lots of hugs and then he would lay down and nap for awhile.

Boy Scouts

I really enjoyed Boy Scouts as a kid. I waited to get into Boy Scouts because I didn’t like the Scout Master, who I thought was just mean. In reality he was probably was ok, it was his boys who were mean. The year he quit was the last year that they had a major trip for Scouts in Edinburg. They went to Canada that year. Well, Harold Edwards, who lived across the street from us took over, and his two boys Gary and Curt were also going to be in Scouts. The first couple of years was just getting to know the handbook and have fun. For some reason Harold wanted me to learn how to do the planning for the camp outs. Harold would walk me through the process of identifying what we needed and make check-off lists so that I would not forget anything.

How many days would we be gone
How may boy and adults would be going
What the menu would be each day
How much water we would need
How many tents, Supplies , Cooking utensils
The list seemed to go on and on.

Harold would then teach me how much food to expect each person to consume by meal, and then to add all that up for the finial shopping list. We also had a budget to follow, so there was lots of hot dogs and hamburgers on the menu. I would then go to the store with him and help him get all the supplies. This was a great learning experience for me.

All the boy scout tents and camping material was store at the refreshment stand over at the high school diamond.

Most of the camp outs were at Star Bridge going out to Lake Sangchris, not to far from that great big pile of stones that was from when they replaced the old bridge.

Boy Scouts was great.. There are a lot of stories about Boy Scouts.

My Experience with the Secret Service.
Sneaking into town.
The running nose and breakfast.
Bob Lebshire - New Scout Master.

The Mummy

I remember being at Aunt Alma’s house, on Elliott Ave, when I was very young and Daddy coming to see us kids. I can’t remember if the four of us were staying there or if we were staying somewhere else. When daddy came to see us he reminded me of the Mummy from the old pictures. All covered in bandages. Someone told me when I was older that Daddy had been electrocuted and burnt badly while working in the mine. I do remember that it really scared me. Years later Daddy did tell me that he lost all his teeth from the electricity killing the nerves in the teeth.

From Bonnie - Daddy was hurt when dynamite blew up in his face. All us kids stayed at Aunt Alma's house because mom was in the hospital. Daddy was electrocuted another time... Daddy came to see us at Aunt Alma's and that is when John saw him looking like a mummy.

Thanks Bonnie... Love brother John

Why I'm Not a Coal Miner

Grand Pa Cox was a miner, daddy was a miner, why wasn't John a miner.

I graduated from high school in June of 1971. Peabody Coal Mine number 10 in Pawnee was going full blast. I thought that this would be a great place to work and make a lot of money. So that first week of June 1971 I told daddy that I was going to apply for a job at #10. I must have been crazy, I knew that daddy had been hurt at the mines and that it was dangerous. I guess it was the money that made me forget all the bad things about working in the mines. He told me that he would talk to the front office and I should go over later in the week to apply. I went over and got to meet the head man and talk to him about a job. He said that daddy had talked to him and they would have me fill out an application. He said that they were not hiring anyone that week. He told me to check back each week. I went twice a week all summer long. I had friends that got jobs over the summer. Each time they said that they had just hired someone. By the end of summer I was tired of going over and not getting hired. Daddy told me it was all timing, I just wasn't there at the right time.

Several years later, after I got a job at the Secretary of States office as a computer operator, daddy told me that he had told them not to hire me. He did not want me to work in the mines. That was one of those times that a child and parent have a special moment. Parents sometimes have to make "life changing" decisions for their children.

Evey friend that got a job that summer got seriously hurt working in the mine. Daddy did know best...

I have always wondered how much influence Mom had in that decision.

Computers have been very good to me....

Mom's Fried Potatoes

I loved mom's fried potatoes! I took what I saw her do and started frying my own. I leave out the onions when I make them... Mom loved onions.

Name of Recipe: John’s Fried Potatoes

Ingredients:

10 medium red potatoes (enough to fill frying pan)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
Salt
Pepper
Onions (optional)

Directions:

You will need a large frying pan with a tight lid. Remove skins of potatoes. Cut potatoes into medium cubs and place in a bowl. Do not soak the potatoes in water. Place frying pan on burner and set heat on medium. Let pan heat up. Do not add oil to a cold pan. Add oil to pan and let oil heat up. Carefully add potatoes to pan. Optional: Add onions, salt and pepper to taste.

Turn potatoes until all are thoroughly coated with oil. Cover and let cook. Check every 3 or 4 minutes and turn potatoes. Remove lid when potatoes start to turn brown. Finishing cooking with lid removed. Drain potatoes on paper towels and serve hot.

Note: You do not need a large amount of oil, just enough that when you turn the potatoes they have a thin coat of oil over their surface.

Video Quality is bad, but this one has video of mom cooking.

Daddy Drove Ramblers

Daddy drove Ramblers to work each day when I was a kid. I remember going with daddy to look at Ramblers that had been wrecked or didn’t run. He would buy two or three of these cars and then proceed to make one car out of two or three. Daddy had a routine. He came home from work, ate, and then he would go to the garage (which he built) and work on building his car. Sometimes these cars were a patch work of seats, door side panels and colors. Once daddy got the car working he would start driving it to work. I have no idea how many Rambler he went through. I do know that I used to drive one of the Ramblers when I started driving.... I would wreck one and he would fix it.... He always had spare parts.

Daddy told me when I was an adult that he couldn’t work on cars as a young man. He said that Grandpa Cox (Bill) never really showed him anything about cars. He said that when he was a young man he bought a car, and in Grandpa Cox’s garage in Auburn, he took the car completely apart and put it back together. Daddy said that when he said take it apart, he meant that he took everything apart down to the smallest part. He took the engine and transmission apart. He took the electrical system out of the car... Then he put it back together. He told me that he did this three times to the car. Lots of trial and error to get it right, but after he was done, he knew how cars worked. He said this helped him understand how other things worked. Daddy was a very determined type of person. Daddy was an amazing man.