Hello! My name is Mike Dittmer aka revmaddog1948 (use Google search!) or William Michael Dittmer, if you're from Homeland Security. I'm currently the author of 3 blogs, including an e book, The Gift Parables, stories of how God orchestrated my life into a living parable through miracles and grace.
I collect humor and wisdom, and I share my own meditations, observations, and portraits of family and friends. I have a special grace of attracting the very best people to me, including my late wife Lynne, who told me she loved me on our very first date, and Mary, whom I married March 4th, 2010. Attracting the best is why you're reading this right now. May God bless you in the name of Jesus with infinitely increasing GRACE!
http://revmaddog1948.blogspot.com/ A little bit of everything. My original blog. Sermons, essays, observations, adventures, humor, and insanity.
http://myamazingamazonestores.blogspot.com/ I post new material here and also explain about my eStores and what you can purchase there. The side bar has links to my estores. If you want to support my ministry and my efforts to spoil Mary silly, always go to Amazon through these links.
http://thegiftparables.blogspot.com/ THE REASON I am on the internet, the stories I MUST TELL THE WORLD. How God orchestrated my life with a "rain" of miracles and grace into a LIVING PARABLE
Why THE PARABLES?
You may have asked the question, "Why do you call some of your stories and /or sermons parables?"
It's obvious after observing me that I have some stories to tell. God has taken great delight in leading me along a path where I could be a witness to some miraculous incidents.
He has His reasons.
My dilemma arose when it came time to tell these stories.
First, there was the outright disbelief in many listeners in any thing spiritual. Sometimes God would respond to a listener's disrespect by revealing to me something the listener was desperately trying to conceal. But just as often, God would not intervene.
Then there were also the denominational protocols. If the miracle seemed to endorse a different denominational stripe, there were problems.
It didn't help that I was so easily offended when someone didn't endorse me whole heartedly and immediately. Yet I was also uncomfortable with those who bought in quickly, without any double checking of the facts.
I first responded to these problems with silence, not mentioning these incidents for months and sometimes years. But the stories kept bubbling behind the locked doors of my heart.
It helped that Lynne, my late wife, could collaborate most, if not all, of these stories. With her help, we developed a strategy of one on one sharing, and only when the subject of the miraculous was brought up by others first.
But when Lynne began her final battle with cancer, it became apparent that I would have to tell these stories without her enthusiastic support.
Silence was no longer an option. The spring of what I know see was a divine compulsion was bubbling ever stronger.
When I finally put one of these stories on paper as a sermon, I realized that the story was very much like a parable. A parable is a story that may or may not be true, and teaches a lesson.
I realized that God had been orchestrating my life into a living parable.
In a parable, the facts that verify the story as a document are not important, nor is it vital to grasp the meaning immediately.
The important thing about a parable is the story itself. The story has power built in to bring truth to the surface.
The best example of built in grace within the story is the story of the Cross and the Crucifixion of Jesus. Many listeners have had hardened hearts won by that story, without any debate on the facts.
When the facts are verified, it brings even more power to the story, but the story can stand alone and win the most skeptical heart.
I know this to be true, for the story of the Cross won my heart when I was 8 years old.
I want to thank you, my friends, for allowing me to tell my story, and how my story and the story of Jesus became one story.
And now you know how these stories began to be called parables.
It's obvious after observing me that I have some stories to tell. God has taken great delight in leading me along a path where I could be a witness to some miraculous incidents.
He has His reasons.
My dilemma arose when it came time to tell these stories.
First, there was the outright disbelief in many listeners in any thing spiritual. Sometimes God would respond to a listener's disrespect by revealing to me something the listener was desperately trying to conceal. But just as often, God would not intervene.
Then there were also the denominational protocols. If the miracle seemed to endorse a different denominational stripe, there were problems.
It didn't help that I was so easily offended when someone didn't endorse me whole heartedly and immediately. Yet I was also uncomfortable with those who bought in quickly, without any double checking of the facts.
I first responded to these problems with silence, not mentioning these incidents for months and sometimes years. But the stories kept bubbling behind the locked doors of my heart.
It helped that Lynne, my late wife, could collaborate most, if not all, of these stories. With her help, we developed a strategy of one on one sharing, and only when the subject of the miraculous was brought up by others first.
But when Lynne began her final battle with cancer, it became apparent that I would have to tell these stories without her enthusiastic support.
Silence was no longer an option. The spring of what I know see was a divine compulsion was bubbling ever stronger.
When I finally put one of these stories on paper as a sermon, I realized that the story was very much like a parable. A parable is a story that may or may not be true, and teaches a lesson.
I realized that God had been orchestrating my life into a living parable.
In a parable, the facts that verify the story as a document are not important, nor is it vital to grasp the meaning immediately.
The important thing about a parable is the story itself. The story has power built in to bring truth to the surface.
The best example of built in grace within the story is the story of the Cross and the Crucifixion of Jesus. Many listeners have had hardened hearts won by that story, without any debate on the facts.
When the facts are verified, it brings even more power to the story, but the story can stand alone and win the most skeptical heart.
I know this to be true, for the story of the Cross won my heart when I was 8 years old.
I want to thank you, my friends, for allowing me to tell my story, and how my story and the story of Jesus became one story.
And now you know how these stories began to be called parables.
Thanks for the helping hand!
I'm also including my general links to other social sites I'm a member of. Stop by!
http://astore.amazon.com/theshshear-20
http://www.facebook.com/revmaddog1948
https://picasaweb.google.com/106916814136401681601
http://revmaddog1948.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/revmaddog1948
http://www.youtube.com/user/hoosiergrandaddy?feature=mhee
http://www.facebook.com/revmaddog1948
https://picasaweb.google.com/106916814136401681601
http://revmaddog1948.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/revmaddog1948
http://www.youtube.com/user/hoosiergrandaddy?feature=mhee
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