Thank you, for your patience

by Ken Pullen

ACP — A Crooked Path

Monday, August 26th, 2019

What I thought could be accomplished in a matter of a few days took 18 days to accomplish.

God our Father and Jesus our Lord created all there is that is known in 6 days. Man and his attempts at creation always take so much longer. Fail many times. Cost overruns. So on. No man can in any way, shape or form come close to creating anything of magnitude, wonder, awe, magnificence, beauty and life-giving, life-regenerating as God and Jesus can, did and continue to do.

This was a lesson in patience for me. And I am indebted to the many people who ended up becoming involved in remaking this website into what it now is.

One simple thing, for one man and any who might happen upon this place took 18 days to accomplish.

Many lessons learned which can be applied to our walk in faith, in the Word, with Jesus and God our Father.

1.) Do not let things go. Do not let an autopilot mentality takeover. Pay closer attention. Daily attention. To all the details. Even if seeming minor. We tend to focus upon and allow ourselves to be taken over, consumed in that which we imagine most important daily and that which is truly most vital and important can then be neglected.

This needs to change. And a daily new habit of taking care of what is most important, paying attention to the details, doing that which keeps one from remaining stagnant or sliding backwards must become the new daily habit undertaken and observed.

2.) Pray and know. Pray in all situations and circumstances. And know that whatever trial? Setback? Suffering? Event or circumstance we may not like and want to be happening in our lives? Is for a purpose. A GOOD purpose and a GOOD purpose we must pause and learn to find what that good purpose is.

No one likes to stub their toes, close a car door on their fingers, burn their dinner — but when these things happen they ought to be showing and telling us important things in our life we haven’t heeded. Like watch your step. Slow down perhaps. Watch where you have your hands placed before acting. And do not walk away from that which feeds and nourishes you and keeps you alive.

Whatever was allowed to distract? Occupy our time? Move us elsewhere? To grow impatient and not pay attention? We need to learn what those are and remove them and replace them all with what affords protection, life, health — spiritual health as well as physical health. Spiritual health being the most important aspect and part of every individual human life on earth.

Let’s stop stubbing our toes, closing car doors on our hands and neglecting, burning that which is to feed us and let us do a much better job of paying attention and not making excuses, rushing, or having our priorities out of whack.

3,) If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. But if it is broke? Don’t continue to ignore that fact and continue plodding on. I guess this is directly related to item number one here. Thing is we need to be well enough versed, wise enough, grown up enough, mature enough to know the difference between when something is broke and when it is not. And then do not ignore that information. Actively do something about either circumstance. And either fix that which is broken — although our broken world cannot be fully fixed until our Lord and Saviour Jesus returns His second time — but we can certainly pay attention to all in our own lives and learn what is broken and seek the Lord and His infinite power, mercy, grace, love and inerrant living word to fix whatever is broken in our lives. And if it isn’t broken? Keep it well maintained. Keep what is working maintained daily.

Okay — the NEW & IMPROVED A Crooked Path is hopefully a two thumbs up with everyone who is a subscriber, a long time visitor, or anyone new or recent to ACP. I hope that is the consensus.

Very clean, very easy to see, read, navigate and use.

I still have some minor tweaks to make, such as redundancies on some of the pages, but these are minor.

At the top everyone can clearly see the title. And the pages to this site (it is in the page text and images I need to go in a tweak things).

Then the posts appear in a 3 row grid pattern. Large and easy to see, read and click on.

Once a person clicks on an individual posting / article they will be taken to that article and also find there a sliding sidebar on the far right hand side of the page with some Bible verses and all the “Links” provided for use by any and all coming to this place to further their experience here. The “Links” only appear when clicking on and being directed to an individual post / article.

There are an increased number of posts to select from on the Home Page now. And any visitor will find buttons at the bottom of the posts on the Home Page to go to more and more pages. Every post from March 2011 when ACP began remains here on the new & improved ACP. 

Scrolling down to the footer on the bottom of the page…

There visitors will find an area to subscribe, if they are not already subscribers. That is easily seen on the left hand side of the footer at page bottom.

In the center of the footer folks will find a self-explanatory brief listing of some of the most current articles posted on ACP.

On the far right hand side is a new added feature. People can now contact me through email at ken@acrookedpath.com

All emails received that do not contain profanities, threats, so on will be replied to. Anyone using this for profance speech directed at me or what ACP is, or threatening me or anyone, or blaspheming against the Lord will not be given the time of day and replied to. If a threat and it is deemed serious enough it will be forwarded to law enforcement authorities. Otherwise all profanity laced emails, threatening emails, ones deemed nothing more than from troublemakers? Those desiring nothing but contention and mayhem? To distract and pull away from the work needing done? All those will be merely deleted and not replied to.

All other emails will be personally replied to by me. This is a one person operation — except for those many people involved in helping me to bring about the new & improved ACP.

At the right hand side of the footer is where all the different “Categories” can now be found here in an easy to use dropdown menu.

Also, right below that visitors will find the “Archives” area and the dropdown menu to find any article posted here on ACP since March 2011.

I believe this new version of ACP is better. I would surely like to hear what you think as well about the changes. So, please let me know. This place is for anyone coming here to use it and hopefully have their feet placed on the path towards God and Jesus, or to offer what little feeble, finite help this place can offer to anyone coming here to help them draw closer to God the Father, Jesus the Lord and King, know and trust the working of the Holy Spirit in their lives, and to rely daily upon the word of God for nourishment, meat, drink and life itself — eternal life. I do not boast nor think myself so important — I am merely doing this out of affection for, thankfulness towards the saving grace of such a sinner as myself for God the Father and Jesus the Lord. If I am of any help to anyone? All praise and glory be to God and Jesus, please. Never directed here towards me.

Please let me know what you think of the remodeling job.

Email has not been activated and will not become live and activated until AFTER 6:00 p.m. — Tuesday, August 27th, 2019 for anyone who may have seen the contact email address and attempted to submit an email to me before that time. So, please, do not send any email to me until that time has passed. Thank you. Otherwise I most likely will never see it because it never was activated on my end yet. We had to get everything set on the site and that involved getting the contact email address in place before activating the actual email account. I apologize for any inconvenience anyone may have experienced if they attempted to contact me while the email has not been yet activated.

Lastly on the changes that occurred — visitors will see an orange button titled “Buy Me A Coffee” now here on ACP. In the over 8 years of maintaining and building this place I have never run an ad. I do not fill this space with ads. Making money is not the purpose, objective or goal here. I hope all who come here know that. And appreciate that fact. Each year costs of operation have risen. I have had people tell me not to mention how few copies of the book “Wilderness: A Crooked Path to the Promised Land” sells each year, they have feared my writing the facts will dissuade folks, so on. I have nothing to hide. There is transparency here. Nothing else. So, here’s the bare facts — there has never been more than 6 copies sold in any given year since the book has been made available, and I receive a $1.75 royalty from each sale. Not enough to buy that vacation home on a lake (or even pay for the live bait to go fishing on that lake), or even begin to pay for operating this place on my own. Yearly costs of operation have increased and now take a considerable chunk of more than mere pocket change. So, I came to learn about “Buy Me A Coffee” and had the web developer helping me put all this together add it to ACP. I’ve never sought donations in the past. But at this time being on a small fixed income and with costs of operation continuing to rise continually I am now asking if you find it in your heart to help keep ACP going? Please donate what you can. And the options are very reasonable and not asking for large amounts. That is why I opted for the “Buy Me A Coffee” option or feature over some other choices. Know that every penny of every dollar donated will go towards maintaining upkeep, security and so on here on ACP. And should donations begin to exceed the amount necessary to pay for this place? I will then at that time announce a charity or charities the overflow will be sent to and keep folks apprised of those contributions. Thank you.

Again, thank you for your patience.

We will embark now, again, and as we do know that the Lord Jesus and God the Father will be the priority. Not politics, not nationalism, not party politics, left vs. right, so on, or choosing sides other than the side of Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit and the Holy Bible. God and Jesus are the RIGHT. Period. As is the word of God. Those are the foundations for all things here.

We are first and foremost citizens of heaven, children of God, transformed and regenerated, renewed in spirit and mind with, by and for the Lord Jesus. When we permit other things to become so dominate Jesus, the Holy Spirit, God our Father and the Bible tend to become secondary because the Evil One knows very well how to consume our time, distract, and alter priorities and make us lazy and lame of spirit.

Does he not?

We will work daily, always to not allow that to be what happens here.

Let me know what you think of the new place. The paint is still fresh on the walls, and there is some minor cleanup to take care of yet, but welcome! Kick your shoes off. Air out those feet. Sit down with a good cup of coffee, tea or snack and hopefully enjoy the reworking of ACP.

Pray for the Lord to always guide me in whatever work is done here. His will be done always.

Thank you.