How I made my BBQ smoker

I posted a picture of my homemade BBQ smoker on Facebook and have received several questions about how it was made and how it works. I got the idea for the smoker from the video below. I couldn’t find a pot like he used for his lid so I used one of the things that goes under the base of the flower pots. I had to drill a hole in it for the thermometer. Before I use it again I’m going to follow some of the suggestions I read elsewhere about taking apart the hotplate and putting the temperature control on the outside of the pot and disabling the overheat switch on the hotplate. I’m also going to put a handle on my lid. Btw, this whole flower pot BBQ smoker has quite the cult following with people making their own versions.

The pot cost me about $18 and the lid about $14. I bought a 17” pot because anything bigger was $30+ and I didn’t want to pay that much – although a bigger pot would be nice. The BBQ thermometer cost me $8. I got all of this at the Home Depot. The hot plate cost $10 at Walgreens. I picked up the wood chips at Walmart. I already had a grate so I didn’t have to buy one.

The whole thing was a little pricey but it will last a long time and doesn’t have thin walls like some of the cheap smokers you can buy. The thicker pot holds the heat better than the cheap thin walled smokers. Plus I don’t have to buy charcoal every time I want to smoke some BBQ – just the occasional bag of wood chips.

I also made some homemade bbq sauce for this whole endeavor. I’ve never made sauce before so we’ll see how it tastes…another hour and it’s chow time!!

John Wesley and his preachers

Currently I'm reading "American Saint: Francis Asbury and the Methodists" and in it the author shares what some of John Wesley's expectations were for his preachers. They were to rise at four a.m. on days they preached at five a.m. and by five a.m. all other days. He expected them to spend an hour every morning and evening in prayer, meditation, and reading the Bible and other books.

He was very concerned that his preachers become better educated. So, not only did he want them to spend an hour every morning and evening for devotions, but he urged his preachers to spend "at least five hours" a day reading "the most useful books." To those preachers who complained about this and said, "I have no taste for reading," Wesley's reply was, "contract a taste for it by use, or return to your trade."

I've got to run - I've got some reading to do!! :-)

Barack Obama asked a question about R.G. Flexon??

I did a search for R.G. Flexon and pulled up this question and answer on Yahoo Answers. Apparently Barack Obama is curious about a story that was supposedly told by R.G. Flexon about the unpardonable sin. Obviously Barack Obama didn’t really ask this question but it makes me wonder why someone with the screen name Barack Obama would? What’s even weirder is when you click on the user and follow the links to Youtube or to their blog (although I don’t recommend you visit the blog).

For those of you who don’t know, R.G. Flexon (1895-1982) was a Pilgrim Holiness church pastor, evangelist, District Superintendent, missionary statesmen, college president and General Superintendent. You can click here to listen to him preach.

Peter Cartwright meets Joseph Smith

Arminian Today has an interesting post about when the Methodist preacher Peter Cartwright met the Mormon Joseph Smith. Click here to check it out.

I Have a Dream...

I wasn't alive in the 1960's. I never saw the segregation that separated whites and black to the point that blacks could not eat at the same places as whites (except for eating spiritual food in Church...). But, I've seen plenty of racism. I've seen whites that don't like blacks and blacks that don't like whites, etc. I suppose that the only place where there will no longer be any racism is in Heaven (I suspect if some "Christian's" make it there they will want separate sections for white and black...)

There should not be any racism among those who claim the Name of Christ! Unfortunately I've seen many who claim to be Christian's who have a problem in this area. The Church is the one place where everyone should be welcomed - regardless of race, financial status, etc. Sadly the most segregated place in America is in Church on Sunday mornings...

My stance on this issue has unfortunately caused some people to stop attending my Church**. However, this is an issue I can not compromise on because God makes His position very clear on it! If I can't love my neighbor and invite them to my Church - regardless of their race - than I would sin against Him! If Jesus died for everyone (and He did!) than I must do my best to win everyone. 

Martin Luther King Jr. was right: we should not judge someone by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. May God help those of us who claim His Name to obey His Word!

"Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism  35 but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right." Acts 10:34-35

"God does not show favoritism." Romans 2:11

"¹My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. ²For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, ³and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, "You sit here in a good place," while you say to the poor man, "You stand over there," or, "Sit down at my feet," ⁴have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? ⁶But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? ⁷Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? ⁸If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well. ⁹But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it." James 2

"²⁶for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. ²⁷For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3



**This is not a reference to the church I currently pastor as this was written in 2010 prior to my moving to Tarrant and thankfully this has not happened here and as far as I know there is no one here who feels this way.

Facebook Advertisement for Classic Holiness Sermons

Recently I ran this ad on Facebook for Classic Holiness Sermons. This was really an experiment for me. I had a $50 ad credit to use and thought I would put it to good use and see how many people I could bring to the site by advertising it.

My budget was only $5 a day because I did not want to exceed my $50 credit. As you can see in the chart below there was a couple of days when the ad did not run. This had something to do with the way I had it set up and I had to tweak it and run it again. In total I have actually only used $45 of my $50 credit.

The ad was displayed 293,074 times. It was clicked on 122 times and their clicks lead them to the website where they could hear the message of Full Salvation. In the end it cost me about $.37 per person to get the 122 people to the site. Plus, think about the 293,074 people who had the chance they otherwise might not have had! to hear holiness preaching! Not a bad investment in my book! Now if only I had money to do this all of the time…

The actual number of visitors to the website appears to have increased by about 2,000 visitors over the previous 20 days in which the ad did not run. This increase may or may not have anything to with the ad though. I also created a Facebook Fan site etc.

Facebook ad statistics:

Date	Impressions	Clicks	Clicks Rate	Actions	Actions Rate	CPC	CPM	Spent (USD)	Unique Impressions	Unique Clicks	Unique Clicks Rate
12/28/2009	41827	11	0.03%		0.00%	0.45	0.12	5	31809	11	0.04%
12/29/2009	9017	0	0.00%		0.00%	0	0	0	5290	0	0.00%
12/30/2009	1042	0	0.00%		0.00%	0	0	0	656	0	0.00%
12/31/2009	475	0	0.00%		0.00%	0	0	0	256	0	0.00%
1/1/2010	3951	0	0.00%		0.00%	0	0	0	2483	0	0.00%
1/2/2010	1076	0	0.00%		0.00%	0	0	0	715	0	0.00%
1/3/2010	0	0				0	0	0	0	0
1/4/2010	1	0	0.00%		0.00%	0	0	0	1	0	0.00%
1/5/2010	29370	15	0.05%		0.00%	0.33	0.17	5	21114	15	0.07%
1/6/2010	28700	10	0.04%		0.00%	0.5	0.17	5	23619	10	0.04%
1/7/2010	30789	11	0.04%		0.00%	0.45	0.16	5	23492	11	0.05%
1/8/2010	29663	19	0.06%		0.00%	0.26	0.17	5	21328	19	0.09%
1/9/2010	29135	10	0.03%		0.00%	0.5	0.17	5	21162	10	0.05%
1/10/2010	30012	23	0.08%		0.00%	0.22	0.17	5	23392	23	0.10%
1/11/2010	29666	12	0.04%		0.00%	0.42	0.17	5	20504	12	0.06%
1/12/2010	28350	11	0.04%		0.00%	0.45	0.18	5	21009	11	0.05%

Below are the total stats for visitors to the Classic Holiness Sermons website over the period of time that the ad was run on Facebook:

 

Day	Date	Page Loads	Unique Visitors	First Time Visitors	Returning Visitors
Monday	December 28th 2009	139	65	58	7
Tuesday	December 29th 2009	348	123	105	18
Wednesday	December 30th 2009	241	65	51	14
Thursday	December 31st 2009	118	53	38	15
Friday	January 1st 2010	179	30	19	11
Saturday	January 2nd 2010	191	58	48	10
Sunday	January 3rd 2010	146	69	54	15
Monday	January 4th 2010	224	62	46	16
Tuesday	January 5th 2010	196	64	55	9
Wednesday	January 6th 2010	161	65	55	10
Thursday	January 7th 2010	447	240	222	18
Friday	January 8th 2010	215	124	108	16
Saturday	January 9th 2010	212	74	60	14
Sunday	January 10th 2010	164	69	59	10
Monday	January 11th 2010	212	83	69	14
Tuesday	January 12th 2010	260	73	58	15
Wednesday	January 13th 2010	204	66	55	11
Thursday	January 14th 2010	197	91	79	12
Friday	January 15th 2010	223	82	63	19
Saturday	January 16th 2010	186	38	33	5

Great message in this song…

“…that God would stop the plague.”

I like John Piper. His books are (for the most part) good reads. I’ve especially enjoyed “Desiring God” and “When I Don’t Desire God.” I enjoy listening to him preach and have found many of his resources helpful. The problem I have with Piper is his Calvinism and his misrepresentation of Wesleyan Arminianism. Like most Calvinists he frequently uses “straw man” arguments regarding Arminianism.

Follow the link to read a post by William Birch in which he goes “Point by Point with John Piper on Arminianism.”

I love this quote by John Wesley:

"Answer all [the Calvinists'] objections, as occasion offers, both in public and private. But take care to do this with all possible sweetness both of look and of accent...Make it a matter of constant and earnest prayer, that God would stop the plague."

What every pastor and layman needs to remember

“No man builds the church but Christ alone. Whoever is minded to build the church is surely well on the way to destroying it, for he will build a temple to idols without wishing or knowing….We must proclaim–He builds. We must pray to Him that He may build. We do not know His plan. We cannot see whether He is building or pulling down. It may be that the times, which by human standards are times of collapse, are, for him, the great times of construction.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This makes me mad!

Today I received one of the supposed “Saint Matthews Churches” infamous mailings. I’ve received them before, but once again I opened my mailbox to find some of their junk. Here’s what they look like in case you’ve never been so fortunate to receive one of their mailings:

So why does this make me mad? Because I hate people using God as a rip-off scam to start with! His Name is drug through the dirt as a result of these types of scams. Prosperity preachers and things like this have caused so much damage to Christianity and to the message of the Gospel! Granted, this particular mailing makes no request for money, but if I was gullible enough to respond I know their next correspondence with me would!

This makes me mad because they are trying to take advantage of the poorest people in our country. I live in a very poor county so this is why I received one of these mailings. Not only do they try to take advantage of the poor by promising prosperity (if of course you’ll give them a “seed gift”) they also take advantage of those who are going through very difficult circumstances in life. These people are often the most vulnerable and are desperate for any type of hope – and so they fall prey to this type of scam, all done in the Name of Jesus. Oh, and your prayer requests which they seem so interested in praying for, they go up in smoke!

This makes me mad because I know I have some people who attend my church who have fallen prey for this type of think in the past. It breaks my heart to see people trust in a low-life scheme like this rather than just trusting in Jesus!

It makes me mad because of the Scripture twisting that goes on with this type of thing. God never promised us prosperity and money – He promised never to leave us or forsake us no matter what we may face. God never promised us “Your Best Life Now!” Do you think the prosperity message applied to all of the saints who have died for the faith? Did they not have enough “faith”?

So, this makes me mad. Somehow I think it makes Jesus mad as well – temple cleansing, bull-whip wielding mad! If you receive some of this junk in the mail, do with it what they do with the prayer requests that are sent in – trash it, burn it, just get rid of it!