8The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature^[a]will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
Romans 8:4-6

There are two at work within me the bible says. One against the other, always at odds. As Christians God demands that we "put to death the misdeads of the flesh". I gotta tell ya, fighting the flesh is not a one time deal. "DUH JOSH" some might say, but hear me out on this. I forget who said it that " A mans own self is his greatest cross" and it is certainly true. Why is it that as a man of God I can deny myself daily, refuse temptations, fast for days at a time, beat my body in order to make it my slave, and watch as the spirit grows stronger and stronger as long as I live in sufferable circumstances and only make self denying choices all the time. But then if I allow any comfort in my life, if I stop the fasting in order to keep from starvation, if I don't exhaust my body quite so much on any certain day, If I maybe watch T.V. instead of read the bible once. In essence, If I let up just a little bit, my flesh bounces right back still as strong as ever somehow. Almost as though I had never been denying it anything it wanted in the first place. Is this correct??? (Not a Rhetorical question people, feedback, Please) How is it that if I live according to the flesh for long periods of time, the influence of Gods spirit on me grows weak and cold and very quiet over time. But the flesh nature seems to grow weak only when I'm beating the thing to death by all the methods previously mentioned, and it bounces back, no sweat! What I'm askin here peeps is " Do I have to live a miserable life filled with nothing but pain and suffering just to keep this selfish sin nature at bay. having any blessing in life only makes me loose focus and get too used to life being good. then when hardship comes from following God, I am shocked at my fleshly reaction. It's like the flesh just crept up on me ya know! O.K. Perfect example yall. Anyone who has fasted before will understand what I'm sayin here. After denying your body food for a few days, you sorta overcome the powerfull urges to eat by spending that time with God, and Praying and praising, and your body gets used to it. But the next day you eat, just for that day perhaps, and it's like your back to square one. you pick up fasting again the next day, only to find that your body is throwing a fit again cuz it aint gettin no snacks, and you have a huge fight on your hands all over again. You find yourself saying " Whoa Whoa WHOA! I thought I already dealt with you, I thought you were dead... where did that come from???" I don't get it people. The flesh just doesn't seem to die, even if I kill it, it comes tight back. Perhaps I should have known this, but to be honest I was expecting that gradually the war between my flesh and Gods spirit would get easier, and the sinfull nature would eventually be all but non existant because of denying it so much. Apparently not so! Help me out!

                                                                                                                        :Josh

Alright!

   This will be a much awaited post for some and perhaps a shock to others, and to still others... old news! here we go!

     When I was an intern at TM's Honor academy I had the privilege of two sister core's. it was very kool. I got to know alot about women through those special ladies and learned to appreciate what an amazing thing God had done in forming the woman "Eve" from the man "Adam". I have since learned that while I love being a man and could not think of being anything else, ( like a goat for example... I don't no, just read on) Women bring something to the table that no man could ever bring. Try as he may a man can't display the feminine side of the Almighty half as well as women do naturally. Ladies, you bring the grace and beauty that isn't as common to us fellas. You show me that God, while he is the Lord of the universe, sincerely desires my pursuit of Him. In fact I would venture to say that all of His activity in our lives, weather blessings or trials, is intended by Him to draw us closer to Him. It's an amazing thought, that God on high would desire the affection of mankind. He is completely God with or without it, just as a truly strong, mature woman needs no man in order to feel feminine, but he longs for us all the same, as a woman yerns to be pursued! I grew up with a bitterness in my heart towards women (not sure where it came from just yet) I thought they brought nothing of value to life except to look pretty and make babies... Amazing how wrong I was. Many thanks to the women who taught me this more than any others in my life, save perhaps my mother and little sister. "The heart of a woman is where you shall find her beauty" someone once said. Too true!

On that note ladies and gents. I am so friggin over the top excited to confirm what some of you peeps have already heard through the grape vine. It is indeed true, Joshua Kimble has landed himself a steller woman at last! And yes thats right, this mystery woman is none other than our very own sister, Lauren (smokin hot) Alphonse!!! Yeah fellas I got her, sorry boutcher luck, but ya gotta be quicker if yer gonna snag a woman like her! She and I are indeed courting as of the 23rd of last month. Some of you guys knew already, but I'm willing to be most of the sister had no idea, but I've been into this girl since the first few months of our internship. I met Lauren during th first week of my yr. She was fun and funny and most importantly... she laughed at all my jokes!!! Haaaa! we bacame friends almost right away, and I was excited to find out later that she was in one of my sister cores. Don't think I had feeling for her romantically yet, but I really liked her as a person. Our friendship really grew the most when we were put on the same team in ATF, and when we got paired together for the UPG retreat. Yeah, thats right, spent the entire wknd in the woods with Lauren. In my mind it was so romantic, but she confessed that at the time she had no feelings for me other than friendship. I kinda knew that, or at least suspected it, but I didn't care. the more I got to know Lauren throughout the yr the more I grew to respect her as a mature woman of god, and as a good friend. I've prayed for yrs about a woman, and a few things I knew then as now were that whoever she was, she would have to be a very strong christian, completely who she was, either single or married. And she would have to have a heart that matched mine! For what I was discovering God had called me to do, I knew if I were evr to be married she would have to be an amazing woman. With that in my mind, Lauren stuck out to me as a standard for that woman I wanted. There have been other women I've been interested in since meeting her, but I aways measured them against what I saw in Lauren! She was the bar, and she set it high for me. I never in a million yrs thought that I would actually get her. I just sorta thought of her as a way of measuring other potentials. Funny thing also... I was sure that she was too good for me. I was just a lil boy, and she was already such a women. thought I didn't have a chance fellas, and If I had said something after we graduated, I wouldn't have had one. God took me home and enrolled me in the Lords school of Hard knocks for maturing leaders. I remember thining so many times over those few yrs that I felt like I hadn't grow a bit, and I wasn't doing anything but failing all the time. Little did I see what God had done in me. He used problems, failure, and hard circumstances to grow me up, even thought I couldn't see it. I had spoken to Lauren on and off as a friend since she and I graduated, and still had strong feelings for her. I went to visit Nathan clingman this past april for his birthday, and knew that Lauren would be down there. I contemplated teller her so many thousands of times over the yrs, but fear and most likely Gods timing held me back! I knew that if I wanted one, I was mature enough to pursue a woman of my choosing towards a relationship now, so I prayed for weeks before I went down there that God would help me get to know her again, closely, during my week, to see if she was still the type of woman I wanted. As I spent time with her @ rockwells and spoke with her on the phone I was reminded of all the reasons why I was so attracted to her in the first place. I was sure I would get shot down, but by the end of the week I had made up my mind that I was going to tell her! I would rather get it off my chest and know at last, then be too afraid to speak up and miss out on a woman I'd wanted for a while. at least then I would have some peace, and I could move on! I spoke to het saturday night on the phone after I had arrived back hom in MD, and we talked for an hour till I couldn't take it anymore. I paused for a moment, took a deep breath, let out a long sigh, and said very intently... "Alright..........Lauren!", "Yeah Josh", "Your a smart girl, (I thought for sure she knew already) I like you... and I have for a long time..." (Silence) "I wanna get to know you better and see if there is even more to you that I like" I kept talking for like 3 minutes, it seemed like three hours, but then I finally took a breath, and waited for some sort of response, expecting the big let down. 2 seconds go by...3 seconds go by... Oh my gosh, 4 whole seconds went by and then finally she says "Josh I am so glad your saying this right now, to be honest I wasn't expecting you to say it tonight", "Does that mean you were hoping I would say it!", I blurted out. " yeah, I hoped you would", " YEEESSSS! Woooo whooo, score! She likes me too!!! we talked again for about a half an hour till my phone died, then I remembered that I had a phone charger in my car so I ran outside at full speed, plugged it in and called her back. we talked again till past midnight, and she agreed that she wanted to get to know me better too. She was shocked by her new feallings for me during my visist, but she prayed like I did and trusted God. we agreed to talk every week and pray hard core about each other and Gods plans. we did so for two of the fullest most exciting, and exhausting months of my life, and then I was invited to her sisters wedding in May. I had been praying about when it would be right for she and I to start courting, and after meeting her family I was sure that I wanted to. I prayed some more and then spoke with her parents. they consented, and we enjoyed the rest of the wknd as a couple.

This Saturday was my fathers birthday, man Dad yer gettin up there. We celebrated yesterday down in the Baltimore inner Harbor. We went to Phillips restaurant which is a Seafood Place, famous for there crabs and lobster. I got the Mahi Mahi! It was O.K. but to be honest it left me hungry, and for over twenty bucks a plate, that aint saying much. We had a pretty good time. Everybody got dressed up, except my dad of course, don't ask why, and even Grandma came along. Our waitress was really cool too, she said we were the best table she has ever had. Yeah, I thought so too, Haa ha! And guess what, I got some Picture's this time, check em out! ...

Ah, the birthday boy, giving us the fakest smile I've ever seen! Nice dad!

Here we have two of the brothers Kimble. A one "Michael Kimble" (on the left) and on the right is young Kenneth Kimble! I believe they were discussing food options with senior brother Gerald!

And just look! Here is brother Gerry now, tonight Gerry will be sporting the salesman attire, featuring the white collared button up paired with a striped dark and light blue tie! Doesn't he look handsome ladies, yes, It runs in the fam I guess. Nicely done Gerry, nicely done!

Whats next???

Ooooh! Here we have the lovely Emily Michele, wearing a scarlet silk dress. Thnx a million Emily, how many guys am I gonna have to beat up for eyein up my lil sis. If I have daughters, there never going out in public, I can't fight everyone you know! Geez people! No seriously though, she's so pretty isn't she? (if anyone from the brother core says so much as a word I swear I'll lose my Christianity real quick. You know who U are fella's, don't mess!)

Here we have the kids all showing there best for the camera. Who's the tall hunk in the gray and black? He's dreamy! And everyone else looks good too... I guess!

Ah, here we all are! (except good ole Grandma, she took the pic, Thnx G-mama) I am so glad we did that last night, I really think everyone had a good time, and it was good for the family to add another to the list of Good memories. Please pray that the good memories keep commin and the bad ones slowly fizzle out till we don't even remember them. Keep these people in your prayers my friends. there all having a great time in this picture, but there's lots of needs represented in each one of those faces. I'll be hittin the prayer mat alot more in the comming months for this group, and I expect nothing less than a miracle from the God of the impossible as a result. K, thats all for this one. be sure and catch the next episode of "Keeping up with the Kimble's" on Xanga television. Haa!

                                                                                                                     : Josh