God

God, Headline »

[6 Feb 2010 | No Comment | ]

Being a Christian Digg clone webmaster:

Back when I created GODSurfer.com I think I was one of the 1st digg clones that dealt specifically with Christian material.  As the years went on there were a few competitors that popped up.  Gospelshout, Faithtag, Blogs4God…  They all had the same problem as GODSurfer.com has, which is not a lot of traffic.  In some ways those sites had more traffic then GODSurfer.com did.

Years ago I ran a site that I build from scratch, it was called ParentsDB.  I had ran it for years, but after awhile my own parenting issues started to take precedence over site maintenance.  I had shut it down and let the URL lapse.  Well a couple of years ago GODSurfer.com was in the same position.  My life had gotten very busy and I would say my relationship with God is spotty.  I have a hard time being a “Christian” web master without being a “good” Christian.  But in any case I decided that God for me is a long term relationship and no matter what my issues are now they could be different in the future.  So I kept the site barely running with very little updates.

In the mean time it looks like the competitors had sort of the same issues where they either lost interest or had other things come up.  None of them are out there anymore (at least not that I’ve found).  I certainly didn’t wish for their demise.  In face I had contacted most of them to see if we could partner up as there are lots of Christians in the world and the web is certainly big enough for similar sites.  There may be other digg clones out there that are Christian based.  There are lots of Social media sites for Christians.  For now though, GODSurfer.com is the only digg clone site I could find.

I’m still working on the AlphaProject.  I’ve made some serious head way.  But it still isn’t ready yet.  When it is though I’m hoping to build the user base for GODSurfer.com.  For now though it is kinda lonely out there.  Kinda scary and kinda neat to think that GODSurfer.com is the example.


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God »

[24 Dec 2009 | No Comment | ]

bruceAlmightyI was recently asked by someone who is new to Christianity, on how do I pray.  At the time my answer was  that my prayers are private.  This was a cop out for sure.  However, I wasn’t sure how to describe my prayers via e-mail.

Last night the movie Bruce Almighty (Jim Carrey and Morgan Freeman)  was on TV and I watched it with my family.  There was a great scene toward the end of the movie that I thought answered the question on how to pray pretty well.  I’m sure some will have different opinions but I think the emotion and thought behind the scene is accurate.

Now unfortunately the clip was blocked on youtube so I couldn’t post it but I was able to find the quotes from the movie.

The first quote is in my opinion on how not to pray (however, it is a start if you are just starting out):

Bruce: Lord, feed the hungry, and bring peace to all of mankind. How’s that?
God: Great… If you wanna be Miss America.

This next quote is more representative of a prayer.

God: Grace. You want her back?
Bruce: No. I want her to be happy, no matter what that means. I want her to find someone who will treat her with all the love she deserved from me. I want her to meet someone who will see her always as I do now, through Your eyes.
God: Now THAT’S a prayer.

Now not all prayers have to be this heart felt.  But I find prayers are better when you actually mean them.  I know God wants to have a relationship with you.  Praying is the easiest way for Him to hear you.  The way you can hear Him is by reading the bible.


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God »

[22 Dec 2009 | No Comment | ]

Click on this link to here a story by Paul Harvey: paulharvey_christmas


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God, Headline »

[14 Dec 2009 | No Comment | ]

Recently, I was feeling sorry for myself and I was full of pain, doubt and despair.

As I laid in my bed tossing and turning, I was asking God, “Why did you put me in this position? Why is everything seem to be crumbling around me? Why do I deserve this?“  Since it was early morning and I was laying in bed, I had my eyes closed.  I was in that state of being up and able to think but I was not ready to get out of bed.  As I kept my eyes closed I was still able to see images as if I was still dreaming yet I was NOT asleep at all.   After I asked these questions, images like small movie clips started playing of another time that I was at a fork in the road of life and now that I recall I was asking God similar questions then as well.

It was about 14 years ago when I got my then girlfriend pregnant, I was just 22 years old and I was asking Him what was I to do?  Like a movie in my mind. I remembered the fear, the uncertainty,the doubt…  But then I remembered when I became excited about becoming a father.  I remembered that it was like a switch.  It just turned on and I never looked back.  It was as if God gave me the ability at that time to understand what I was to do. He gave me strength for the challenges ahead.

These images was God showing me something.  As I went down this memory lane I heard Gods thoughts tell me that “When you were at the bottom I lifted you up. I  provided you strength.“  I don’t know how else to explain it but it was from God.  After He said this, I felt the pain, the doubt and the despair lifted from me.   Weird but awesome huh?

My life is about to get a lot tougher.  For some reason God wants me where I am.  There are so many uncertainties that I have right now, but what I do know is that I could not of done what I did 14 years ago without God and I know I won’t be able to face the next challenges without Him either!  I need His strength and His promise to get me through the next chapter of my life.  I’m counting on the fact that He will be there.


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Bits & Bytes »

[27 Aug 2009 | No Comment | ]

Everyone needs to watch this video…  Pretty disturbing but it gets the point across.  Watch with your spouse, your kids, your family and friends..

Texting While Driving PSA


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Featured, God »

[13 Aug 2009 | No Comment | ]

The conclusion of the Train Truma!
By Olivya:
Hi everyone–
I couldn’t finish the message earlier today because my daughter’s laptop (which I am using now) lost its charge and I had to wait until now to finally finish this message.
After Margie’s phone call, I sat there stunned about the timing of that phone call and the situation I was facing.  Although I was sitting there terrified, I kept looking at the lady across from me that was silent and drawn into a ball and praying.  I knew she was scared too, so I asked her if she was ok.  She started to cry and came over to where I was sitting.  She told me this very scary to her and that she was thinking we were going to stay there forever because it was Sunday and this type of problem would take a lot time to resolve before we could get going again.  I told her that what people can’t do, God can do and that we needed to believe that He had a solution and was going to help us very soon and that we needed to stay calm and trust Him.  I couldn’t believe what was coming out of my mouth—was I talking about having faith and trusting God after all that I had been questioning throughout my trip?  Was I really sitting there telling someone else that God would take care of it when only minutes before I was thinking that He was letting me down?
As I was talking to this lady (I don’t know her name…it didn’t seem important at that time for me to know that), I saw the conductor walking towards us and he was speaking into a walkie talkie type phone  He stopped to answer a question from someone and then headed towards the area that she and I and about three other people had led to talk about being patient and staying calm.  I heard a voice on the radio tell him that we could get moving in about 5 minutes or so.  I could not believe it…we were not going to spend the night there and I would be able to get to my stop and see my babies!!!!
The conductor or engineer rushed back to the front of the train and we heard several attempts of starting the engines on the train and they were not working at all and we were all just sitting there holding our breaths and waiting and waiting.  After a few minutes, the train jerked as if it was hit by a car and then we heard the engines roaring loud and clear and the lights instantly went on.  I was so excited I could hardly stay seated and we all hugged and cried with relief.
The engineer informed us over the speaker that we would be arriving in Newport News, Virginia within 30 minutes and we cheered and hugged again and again!
What I learned from this experience was huge for me.  I always think that I have a lot of faith…enough faith to know that God is with me and that His will is all that matters no matter what I plan or want.  In those moments that I was filled with fear, His voice was shallow in my heart and I couldn’t find the comfort and the “knowing” that I usually experience while in the middle of a crisis or tragedy.  I am usually a take charge type of person and can act pretty calmly in an emergency situation and always go to my “happy place” which is my spirit because that’s where God is in me, but in this situation I was not at all in control of anything and mostly not of my faith.
God wanted me to know that my life is not dependent on my plans or my execution of those plans.  My life is owned and paid for by the blood that Jesus spilled on the cross to save me from eternal damnation.  He has my pink slip and it is His perfect right to dispose of my life as He sees fit or as He has a purpose for.  God’s plans for us are not based on what we think or would like, He does not need our help to bring out His purpose and outcome as He works in our lives.  The thing that I find extremely awesome about this experience is the set of unexplained events that God put in front of me to let me know He was with me that were totally lost by me.  I kept expecting Him to remove the train from the horrible terrain and scary heights and put it on flat land and I could just sit back and get bored with the miles and miles of dessert, tumbleweeds, trees and farm or flower fields.  Instead, he kept me on track (no pun intended) for His purpose and to teach me a valuable lesson.  I have always needed God, I needed God during this trip and I will always need God.
I will never be smart enough, wise enough, faithful enough, mature enough, knowledgeable enough, strong enough or secure enough to not need Him or live without depending on Him for my life.  I have a very bruised ego and the confidence in me is shot to  heck, but I have a clear and definite understanding about the authority and the power that God has  and cannot be mistaken or ignored.  He is the King and the Master and without Him we are fooling ourselves if we think we can walk without His guidance and His power.
I won’t go as far as saying I am grateful about the experience of this train journey, but I will say that I fully can appreciate that God is not here to do my will or follow my plans and I am so glad that He is in control…always.
Thank you, Jesus for being the pilot, the conductor, the driver and the master over my life.
Psalm 91:1-16
Be Blessed–
Olivya
PS:  I am in Virginia Beach Virginia and having the time of my life.  My granddaughter Savannah and I spend every day together while her mom and dad are at work and we have a blast together–she is a joy and so worth all I had to go through to get here.  The Lord has blessed me with so much, but I truly don’t understand what I could have done right to have Him bestow the most beautiful and wonderful grandchildren and children anyone could ever ask for.  I have stated before that my children are not perfect because they are human, young and are finding their own way and traveling their journey, but they have survived incredible challenges and never give up and neither does their mom.
I am sorry about the 3 parts to this, but I really tried to shorten the story, but a lot would have been missed that was vital for me to convey to you the grief and challenges I was going through and the tremendous way that God provided for me.

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