Saturday, November 26, 2011

A Black Friday Message From Hank!

I received a text message from our ol' buddy Hank the West Plains Church Dog to let me know he survived Black Friday. Here's what he said...

"Black Friday wipes me out. At least I beat the crowd. 
Hank"


From the looks of things I would say he got out of the mall just in time. These are just a few of the headlines from Drudge Report Friday morning....



BLACK AND BLUE FRIDAY

Woman pepper sprays other Black Friday shoppers 'to gain an upper hand'...

'Competitive shopping' turns into chaos...

VIDEO: Mayhem over $2 waffle maker...

Two women injured in brawl...

Woman shot, robbed in SC after midnight shopping trip to WALMART...

NC police use pepper spray to break up melee...

VIDEO...

GUNFIRE ERUPTS AT MALL...


Sound like a boat load of fun doesn't it? NOT! I think I will wait a few days even if I have to spend a dollar or two more...

Thankfully the text from Hank proves that not everyone was sprayed with pepper spray, involved in a brawl, beat up over a $2 waffle iron, robbed at gunpoint outside the store or arrested. Some found their bargains, saved a ton of money and made their way safely home and took a long nap.

Frankly I stayed home and took a long nap myself. Friday was our first day with no travel or no preaching in a long time. I took full advantage of it. Kelly Jo and I have a few days of scheduled time off in a week or so and Friday we practiced for it! lol

Hope you are safe...

Davy

Friday, November 25, 2011

Thanksgiving in Hillsboro, Ohio with The Morgan's

Yesterday we ate Thanksgiving dinner with Kelly Jo's family down below Hillsboro, Ohio and what a feast it was! The turkey was delicious! Well everything else was good too but I focused on the Turkey! We laughed and cried and praised God for His goodness to us. It was a very good day. All of Kelly Jo's immediate family were there plus an Aunt and a few cousins. Below are a few pictures from the day and of course... I started with the Turkey....

We attended service at our home church last night and it was good to be home. Bro. Bennie preached and it was like sweet music to our ears. His Thanksgiving message didn't tickle our ears at all but it was a blessing to our hearts. I love it when the preacher deals with the issue at hand whatever that issue might be. I am thankful for a great home church and a great Pastor.

Hope you all had a good day of thankfulness too...
God bless you,

Davy





My First plate...





















Kelly Jo's brother Danny singing Opera to the extreme delight of her cousin Jackie. It was hilarious!

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving From Hank and Boggs Family Ministries

Hank with the Galiher's Thanksgiving Turkey. I don't know if Hank was delivering the turkey, guarding the turkey or claiming the turkey in this picture! Whatever it is it looks like Hank was taking his job seriously...


It is Thanksgiving Day in the USA again. Today is set aside to pause and thank God for his blessings in our lives and in our nation. We ought to live in thankfulness but this day we thank Him collectively. May God bless you as you spend time with family, eat a good meal and take time to have a grateful heart...

Happy Thanksgiving from Hank the West Plains Church dog and from all of us here at Boggs Family Ministries. We are thankful for many things including all of you that take time to read this blog and pray for our family and ministry...

Davy, Kelly and Odie Boggs

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Odie The Dog


And everybody wonders why we call our daughter Odie. No need to wonder any more! Give the dog a bone!

I guess this is just more visible proof that Insanity does not run in my family, it strolls through slowly, taking its time and getting to know everybody on a first name basis.

Davy

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Sharonville, Ohio

Sunday night we began revival in Sharonville, Ohio for Pastor Randy Brown. This is our first revival for Bro. Brown and the Free Holiness Church of God in Sharonville but I have known many of the folks for years. In fact I have known Bro. Brown all my life. We were both raised here in Waynesville and went to school together all the way through. I am so glad to see God working through Bro. Brown and his family. It is a great privilege to stand in his pulpit to sing and preach.

Isn't it amazing to see how God works? I doubt any of our teachers, coaches, principals or even our families looked at us and ever considered that the two of us would be holiness preachers. Our youth was not spent in dedicated preparation for the ministry as it should have been. Yet by the grace of God we have both given most of our adult lives in service to Jesus Christ who saved us. Oh thank God for grace!

We have had two great services so far and we have two more to go. We will be closing Wednesday night to allow every one to enjoy Thanksgiving with their families. We hope to be with Kelly Jo's family during the day Thursday and then to be in service at our home church Thursday night. I hope my Pastor, Bro. Bennie Sutherland preaches right to me. That should make for a wonderful Thanksgiving for the Boggs family.

Here are a few pictures of the last two nights. I hope to snap some more of the people and post them later. If you missed yesterday's post on forgiveness you can read it HERE. God bless you all.

Davy






Sample of the plans for a new church.

My hat found a resting place at church.

And we found our way to Frisch's on Sunday night and White Castle on Monday night!

Monday, November 21, 2011

A Prime Example of Forgiveness - President George W. Bush

I want to share something with you that I read the other day about forgiveness.  It is an incredible example and is very powerful. Having been the recipient of abundant forgiveness I wept and wept when I read this. In fact I am overwhelmed right now by the wonderful grace and mercy I have been shown by God and by His people.  It may not affect you like it did me but each person I have read it to has teared up as well.

Thank God for His mercy and His grace. Thank God that others in my life have personified that mercy and grace to me at very specific times when I needed it so desperately. My prayer is that I may extend that kind of reach to others that I encounter along the way. I want to be a person who forgives freely and quickly. Oh,  God!  I need help with that! I want to be a gracious and forgiving man.

I hope you will take time to read all of this. It is really not all that long and it is worth the few moments it will take. Let me know what you think in the comments.

I first read this HERE. It is part of a larger interview by Timothy Dalrymple of Tim Goeglein. Mr. Goeglein worked in both of President George W. Bush's presidential campaigns and in the White House for over seven years.
You can read the whole interview and Mr. Dalrymple's thought's HERE.
Davy

You had your own experience of sin and grace when a reporter discovered that some words in unpaid pieces you wrote for a newspaper had been taken from other sources. You describe this in your book without flinching. What happened? How does someone in the White House, especially someone as savvy as yourself, start down that road? And how did the President respond when this came to his attention?
I’m pleased to be asked about this. Proverbs is correct: Pride goes before the fall. But in the words of T. S. Eliot, “humility is endless.” 
In my time in the White House, I was becoming a very prideful person. This pride and vanity extended to plagiarizing columns for my hometown newspaper. I was not writing about politics, but about many other things that interested me. Pride takes many forms, and one of them is always wanting to be the brightest guy, the one with something interesting to say. I began plagiarizing these columns. I knew what I was doing, and I knew it was wrong. 
One morning I came to work at the White House and when I opened my email I found a reporter asking whether this was true that I had plagiarized these columns. I literally fell to the side of my desk. I prayed, “Oh God, oh God.” I knew right away that the world as I had known it was over on that day. I felt, as I say in "The Man in the Middle" that my world was collapsing. By return email, I told the reporter that it was entirely true, and I was guilty as charged. I had no one to blame but myself. 
There are, in this world, two kinds of crises. One is where it’s beyond your control, and another is where you’re directly responsible. I was directly responsible, without excuse. I inflicted, as a result of my own sin, shame and embarrassment on the President, and on my colleagues and mentors. I had violated everything I believed in, and was a hypocrite to my wife and children and family. Categorically. So I resigned from the White House that day. That was on a Friday. 
On a Monday, I came back to the White House to begin clearing out my desk and taking the pictures off the walls. I received a call from Josh Bolton, who had become a friend from the first Bush campaign when we met in Austin, Texas. Josh was now the Chief of Staff, and he said he wanted to see me. I presumed that would be the proverbial “woodshed” moment, which I thoroughly deserved. 
The first thing he asked me was, “How are your wife and boys doing?” Then he extended to me his forgiveness. I was genuinely shocked and deeply moved by this. We spent a considerable amount of time together, and before I departed his office he said, “By the way, the boss wants to see you.” 
So surely this, I thought, would be the woodshed moment, and again I completely deserved it. I expected other people to be there, but when I got to the Oval Office the only other person there was the executive assistant. I thought I must have come on the wrong day—but the President called me in. I thought: This is going to be really bad. I went in and closed the door. 
I turned to him to apologize, but barely got the words out before he looked me in the eyes and said, “Tim, I forgive you.” To say I was stunned would be an understatement. I tried again to apologize, but he wouldn’t let me. He said, “Tim, I’ve known grace and mercy in my life. I’m extending it to you. You’re forgiven." 
I said, “You should have thrown me into Pennsylvania Avenue.” Again he said, “My friend, you’re forgiven. We can talk about all of this, or we can talk about the last eight years.” 
I turned to sit on the couch in the Oval Office, but he directed me to the seat of honor beneath the portrait of Washington, where Heads of State sit. I sat there, and he and I had a conversation about two remarkable presidential campaigns, and what was at that point about seven-and-a-half years in the White House. I was by then one of the longest serving aides to the President. We embraced, and I thought this was the last time I would see George W. Bush. As I turned to head out, though, he said, “I want you to bring your wife and boys here, so I can tell them what a great job you’ve done.” 
I was stunned and speechless. The leader of the free world, the most powerful man on earth, wanted to affirm me before my wife and children. Sure enough, my wife and boys came, the President gave them a great amount of time in the Oval Office and gave them gifts. We were invited back to the White House as a family on subsequent occasions. We were there at Andrews Air Force Base for his departure. I’ve seen the President a number of times in Texas and he’s never mentioned it again. So, in my mind, George W. Bush is and was grace personified. 
So to go back to your earlier question about compassion: I was the wounded man on the side of the highway. I was totally and completely guilty and undeserving of the President’s forgiveness, and yet he gave it to me without reservation. He extended grace to me at the lowest point in my life.
Is that awesome or what? Let me know what you think... I will probably have more to say about it later.
Davy