I'll never forget the day I gruaduated from high school. We didn't have a very large family in Pennsylvania, but my unlce (who I mentioned earlier) and his family were at our house post graduation for a little party. It was during that party that as I walked through a doorway with my dad coming the other way....he reached out to me a pulled me to him with one arm...a one arm hug....and said "son I'm proud of you". I can remember no hug prior to that time nor since. But ah...the emotion.. I walked into another room and cried until I could compose myself..Well sorry...big stuff to me.
Two years later after spending time delivering bread door to door with Holsum bakery, and a 3AM route with Servomation Vendors....found me married...and moved to Catonsville MD...just outside Baltimore.
Then...this farm boy found himself as an employee of Saint Agnes, Hospital....employed as an inhalation therapist...today Respiratory Therapist....Again God taking very little..me..and giving me an opportunity that formed and sustained me for the next 40 years.
There were other jobs in between....owning a milk can hauling business for 8 months....back to Servomation Vendors.....son born...back to the hospital...daughter born.....backhoe operator....son born.....back to hospital.....and then Durable Medical Equipment Company for many years.
As you can see a lot of unrest in my soul....But in all the unrest, failure, trial.....God has been and ever is good.
In all of these experiences and time though I knew God personally through His Son Jesus.....I was like Job. I knew of God by the hearing of the ear. There were times when exhorted from the pulpit or radio or the written page to be deligent about spending time in reading God's word and spending time in prayer, that I for short periods of time would go gung ho reading and praying. I soon was right back to spending almost no time with the God I claimed to love.
In my next post I will explain how I with Job can now say "I heard about You by the hearing of the ear" but......"Now I see You"!
By God's grace
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
More Back Ground to My Journey
Scared of my own shadow....that pretty clearly defines my level of self esteem through out my adolescent and teenage years. I always had friends at school but never spent any time with anyone outside of school or church. I was the oldest of 3 children...which became 5 children when I was 15 years of age. I sometimes would take a zero in something I had to get in front of the class to complete.
An amazing God... I serve. In spite of tremedous fear I had of being in front of people form the age of 15-18 the Lord saw fit to make me the president of our church youth group...a group of about 35 or so.
The fear didn't go away....God just gave me strength in the face of it. How could you enjoy so much what you feared so much? That is exactly what God did for me.
Other great opportunities God gave me to build my confidence were in the area of custom farming. At age 14 I began spending my summers with an uncle who loved me, worked the heck out of me and gave me responsibilities that few today would ever get the opportunity to experience today.
The business my uncle owned, in custom combining, took us all over the southern end of Chester county, some Lancaster county and even into Maryland. Do you think a 14 year old boy was scared....and excited all at the same time as I drove a tractor pulling 2 grain wagons and a grain blower....what a trian down the road...through rural towns...even through the "big town" of Oxford PA.
And you think that was big stuff?....well the next 3 years I graduated to actually operating one of the self-propeled combines. Could you imagine the look on a farmers face as a combine pulled into his farm to harvest his grain...operated by a teenager?
Some weren't very trusting. They came into field often to look under the straw. Do you know what they were looking for? Well it wasn't worms or rocks....it was grain...because the grain was supposed to be in the bin not on the ground. What an awesome responsibility for a 15 year old boy.
The trust my uncle put in me for those years built me up in ways that now as I grow older I just now begin to understand.
Again!......the Awesomeness of my God!
Oh by the way.....the last year I operated combine...my Uncle assigned me the # 2 combine in his fleet of 6. You should have seen the faces of operators much older and with greater experience than me.
I have ever brought little to the table...and God...He has given much
God bless,
www.chethiatt.com/yourhealth
An amazing God... I serve. In spite of tremedous fear I had of being in front of people form the age of 15-18 the Lord saw fit to make me the president of our church youth group...a group of about 35 or so.
The fear didn't go away....God just gave me strength in the face of it. How could you enjoy so much what you feared so much? That is exactly what God did for me.
Other great opportunities God gave me to build my confidence were in the area of custom farming. At age 14 I began spending my summers with an uncle who loved me, worked the heck out of me and gave me responsibilities that few today would ever get the opportunity to experience today.
The business my uncle owned, in custom combining, took us all over the southern end of Chester county, some Lancaster county and even into Maryland. Do you think a 14 year old boy was scared....and excited all at the same time as I drove a tractor pulling 2 grain wagons and a grain blower....what a trian down the road...through rural towns...even through the "big town" of Oxford PA.
And you think that was big stuff?....well the next 3 years I graduated to actually operating one of the self-propeled combines. Could you imagine the look on a farmers face as a combine pulled into his farm to harvest his grain...operated by a teenager?
Some weren't very trusting. They came into field often to look under the straw. Do you know what they were looking for? Well it wasn't worms or rocks....it was grain...because the grain was supposed to be in the bin not on the ground. What an awesome responsibility for a 15 year old boy.
The trust my uncle put in me for those years built me up in ways that now as I grow older I just now begin to understand.
Again!......the Awesomeness of my God!
Oh by the way.....the last year I operated combine...my Uncle assigned me the # 2 combine in his fleet of 6. You should have seen the faces of operators much older and with greater experience than me.
I have ever brought little to the table...and God...He has given much
God bless,
www.chethiatt.com/yourhealth
Thursday, December 9, 2010
A New Life Begins
My earliest memories are of the dairy farms on which I was raised until age 12. Ah so many great memories of walks in the pasture to bring the cows in for milking....climbs into the silo to throw insalge down to feed the cows, of 5AM feeding of the cows...even milking by hand some of the "fresh" cows....when I was a bit older. Ah yes....one of my favorites feeding the calves. They were fed milk from a bucket with a nipple on it, but the great fun was letting the calves (who had no teeth) suck my fingers and hands. As they sucked their saliva would run off my elbows. Strange fun huh?
Work was always a part of life and I have no memory of ever even thinking of complaining about any of it. Well ....maybe one thing ....pulling weeds out of the 5 acre truck patch of tomatoes.
In the midst of all of this in my 10th year.....a dramatic change occured in my family. My dad and then my mom were born again....I mean born again! We had been invited to go to a "tent meeting". This meeting was in a huge 4 pole tent in the middle of a field near Herr's potatoe chip factory. The speaker was Oliver Greene. We drove from Chads Ford to Nottingham for this meeting and I can remember clearly my dad roaring with laughter and riddiculing Rev. Greene on our drive home. But guess what? The next night we headed for Nottingham again...the difference? On the ride home dad cried like a baby. The message so clearly presented of our sinful condition, a holy God who could not tolerate our sin and the good news of God so loving us even in this sinful state that He gave His only begotten Son....Jesus (Merry Christmas)
And this Son Jesus.....the only one to ever live a sinless life...died on a cross ....shedding His blood ...becoming our sin sacrifice. Only Believe...and that is exactly what dad did that night.
Well...I said our lives changed? From church 2 times a year..to now every time the church doors were open. And tent meetings? Yes...every time Oliver Greene was within driving distance either in a tent meeting or in a church for revival meeting...we were there.
At age 12 in Sunday evening service (Sept 10, 1960) I believed the gospel for myself and began a journey of knowing God personaly. A personal relationship with the living God.....awesome!
Now these many years later....after much failure....adversity...much answer to prayer...seeing the faithfulness of God and beginning to understand His heart and His jealousy over His name.......and His insistence that the way of proving my love for Him is ......simply.....to His word.....OBEDIENCE.
Work was always a part of life and I have no memory of ever even thinking of complaining about any of it. Well ....maybe one thing ....pulling weeds out of the 5 acre truck patch of tomatoes.
In the midst of all of this in my 10th year.....a dramatic change occured in my family. My dad and then my mom were born again....I mean born again! We had been invited to go to a "tent meeting". This meeting was in a huge 4 pole tent in the middle of a field near Herr's potatoe chip factory. The speaker was Oliver Greene. We drove from Chads Ford to Nottingham for this meeting and I can remember clearly my dad roaring with laughter and riddiculing Rev. Greene on our drive home. But guess what? The next night we headed for Nottingham again...the difference? On the ride home dad cried like a baby. The message so clearly presented of our sinful condition, a holy God who could not tolerate our sin and the good news of God so loving us even in this sinful state that He gave His only begotten Son....Jesus (Merry Christmas)
And this Son Jesus.....the only one to ever live a sinless life...died on a cross ....shedding His blood ...becoming our sin sacrifice. Only Believe...and that is exactly what dad did that night.
Well...I said our lives changed? From church 2 times a year..to now every time the church doors were open. And tent meetings? Yes...every time Oliver Greene was within driving distance either in a tent meeting or in a church for revival meeting...we were there.
At age 12 in Sunday evening service (Sept 10, 1960) I believed the gospel for myself and began a journey of knowing God personaly. A personal relationship with the living God.....awesome!
Now these many years later....after much failure....adversity...much answer to prayer...seeing the faithfulness of God and beginning to understand His heart and His jealousy over His name.......and His insistence that the way of proving my love for Him is ......simply.....to His word.....OBEDIENCE.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Christianity assumes a Relationship
The word Christian was first used by a group of people, recorded in scripture (Acts 11:26) who were not necessiarly followers or believers in Christ themselves. The name was given to those disciples of Christ who were not only followers but also believers in Who He was.
There are many today who consider themselves followers of Christ but are not necessarily believers in Who He is.
I begin this blog today as a challenge to both the followers and belivers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Regardless of the group you consider yourself to be a part, I believe that all of us have a huge Resposibility to live our lives by the teaching of the Person we claim to follow/believe.
In the coming days and months from a lay perspective....believing that God's word is our guide for ALL of Living, we will look at challenges from scripture that give explicit direction in many areas of living.
Some of you will challenge my education...nothing formal...only a life of attempting to live to God's glory. Many struggles...many failures....growth by experience and obedience to God. Obedience to God...what is that? It is nothing more and nothing less than believing that scripture is God's word...that it is absolute truth....that God's Holy Spirit is the teacher.
My prayer and hopefully yours is that we be DOERS of this Word....not hearers ONLY.
What are some of the issues Gods word addresses and that we will present here?
My desire is that you with me, regardless of pain it causes us, will allow the challenges to live possibly more differently than ever before to change our lives....our thinking....our actions.
Many are hurting today as a result of layoffs, health etc.
I am working together with a gentleman that offers free training to help you get started with an online business. If you are interested ....at No Cost whatsoever...>>Click Here<<
Also I believe there are ways to take charge of our health. If this is of interest please Click Here.
To His glory
Chet Hiatt
There are many today who consider themselves followers of Christ but are not necessarily believers in Who He is.
I begin this blog today as a challenge to both the followers and belivers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Regardless of the group you consider yourself to be a part, I believe that all of us have a huge Resposibility to live our lives by the teaching of the Person we claim to follow/believe.
In the coming days and months from a lay perspective....believing that God's word is our guide for ALL of Living, we will look at challenges from scripture that give explicit direction in many areas of living.
Some of you will challenge my education...nothing formal...only a life of attempting to live to God's glory. Many struggles...many failures....growth by experience and obedience to God. Obedience to God...what is that? It is nothing more and nothing less than believing that scripture is God's word...that it is absolute truth....that God's Holy Spirit is the teacher.
My prayer and hopefully yours is that we be DOERS of this Word....not hearers ONLY.
What are some of the issues Gods word addresses and that we will present here?
- Dependence....on Government?......on others? on self?....on God?
- Health.....any personal responsibility here? its my body so......
- Defer....to whom?......when? ......why?
- Attitudes.
- Response to negative circumstance
- Thankful
- Contentment
- Money.....or the lack thereof
- Much more
My desire is that you with me, regardless of pain it causes us, will allow the challenges to live possibly more differently than ever before to change our lives....our thinking....our actions.
Many are hurting today as a result of layoffs, health etc.
I am working together with a gentleman that offers free training to help you get started with an online business. If you are interested ....at No Cost whatsoever...>>Click Here<<
Also I believe there are ways to take charge of our health. If this is of interest please Click Here.
To His glory
Chet Hiatt
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