Tracy Petry

We've all heard the expression, "Know your enemy". The Enemy is Satan. How well do we, as Christians know him, really ? For every good and perfect thing that God gives us, Satan is right there to offer us a counterfeit, at a bargain basement price. Let's take a look at some of the most popular counterfeits he's handing out; God gives us the gift of speaking in tongues. He shows us in the Book of Acts what that's really all about; the apostles were able to speak in languages they'd previously not had any knowledge of in order to spread the gospel to people who didn't speak their language. Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? It was a gift from the Holy Spirit and it was given for a purpose. Hand in hand goes the gift of Interpretation of Tongues. Paul points out in his letters to the church in Corinth that if you're speaking in tongues and don't have anyone there to interpret - don't do it, because you're only edifyi

For any of you who have been keeping up with my blog - you know what I face during my day. I go into battle with roaches and spitefully filled commodes. And that's on the good days. There are other slices of my life, though. One of the slices that's been getting bigger lately is the spiritual slice of life. My husband and I are Seventh Day Adventist Christians. We each tried out a lot of different churches before deciding to join this one. My husband was raised Catholic, and when he was young he swore off religion entirely because of it. When we first got together he told me, "You wouldn't catch me dead in a church." He's now a deacon, and does the "Children's Story" portion of our weekly service. Our spiritual walk together is the most important part of our life. In the last few weeks I've been blessed beyond measure, to be able to witness to people I care deeply about; to be able to share the truths that give me peace in my lif

The next time you rent a home, I'd just like you to do something. It'll take just a few minutes, I promise. Walk into the empty home. Take out your camera or phone and take some pictures of the empty home. Smell the empty home. Does it smell clean and fresh? Take off your shoes and walk barefoot on the carpets. Do the carpets feel fluffy and clean under your bare toes? Look in the bathroom - go ahead, really, look in the bathroom. Look in the shower - are the walls clean? There's no people-goo on the walls right? Now...lift the seat of the commode.... Is the commode empty? I mean, aside from the water, is it empty? Check out the walls in the home - are they freshly painted? Are the window sills clean? How about the fridge - when you open the door, what does it smell like? There's a lot of behind the scenes action that has gone on to bring you that nice, fresh home. Trust me. The former tenants did not just walk out the door and leave it that way. I don't

Some days I get to work from home. Those are the best days of all. I can get comfy on my couch with my computer and my phone. The phone is used for texting and emails only. I despise talking on the phone. Some days I'm in a neat, clean office. Well, okay, it's really not all that neat but it's sanitary. Okay, to be perfectly honest, I'm not really all that thrilled with the main bathroom, but it's just old. It gets cleaned frequently. But old bathrooms just have the slightest air of funk. Even the ones that get cleaned frequently. And there's some dust in the main part of the office. And a little clutter. But I don't feel like I have to burn my clothes when I come home or anything. So, like I said, some days I'm in a "neat, clean office". Other days I'm...not. Some days my work outfit includes bug spray that I just go ahead and spray on myself in anticipation of what I'm going to be walking into. Just because it's easie

We make decisions all the time that we regret. The one decision no one gets a chance to regret is suicide. It seems like every day now we hear about someone taking their own life. It's reached epidemic proportions now among kids. Just last week two celebrities decided it was time to end their lives. These were people who seemed to have everything going for them; wealth, success, to the rest of the world it appeared that they were living their dreams and had everything anyone could ever want. So what was it they found so lacking in their lives that they deemed those lives not worth living any longer? Have you ever thought about just ending it all? I'm not sure that even at my darkest moment I've ever really considered not facing another day, bleak as they sometimes seemed. I've had really bad times. I've made some really bad decisions. I've had those days when things crashed down on me so hard I could hardly breathe. You know that feeling - when one o

Today was one of those full days.  Do you know the kind of day I mean?  It's not that anything today consumed very many hours, but the hours were full.  Kind of like eating a small meal, packed with fiber and protein.  It was a fiber and protein kind of day! We had a lockout scheduled in one of our Gastonia parks - erm, communities at 10:00 this morning.   Here's how we get to a lockout; The tenant doesn't pay their monthly bill. The non-payment exceeds the time allotted by their contract.  So, we go to court and file for an eviction.  About ten days later there's a court date.  If they still haven't paid, we're granted the eviction and the property reverts back to the company.  The tenant has approximately ten days in which to vacate.  If they fail to vacate by the date given by the court, we go back to the courthouse and file for a writ of possession, a lockout. All this takes like another ten days. Then, on the lockout date one of our mainten

Have you seen the movie? It came out in 2016. Marty and I went to see it in the theater as soon as it came out. We went with another couple we're friends with from church. Although none of us are really big fans of war movies we were all pretty excited to see this one. Why? Desmond Doss, the main character and hero of this movie was a Seventh Day Adventist. And so are we. It was because of his tremendous, unshakable faith that he was able to do what he did. He not only believed , he stood up for his beliefs. He firmly believed that the Commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," was not a conditional kind of thing. That it wasn't a command from God that a secular leader here on earth had the authority to overturn. He believed that so much that when he volunteered for the armed services he did so as a conscientious objector and refused to carry a weapon. He signed up as a combat paramedic. He believed in living out the fourth Commandment as well, "Remember th

My favorite time of the week is here. The work week is over. Marty and I generally work six days a week. He works full time, I work full time but my hours are spread throughout the week as needed. Either way, by Friday we're exhausted. It gets a little harder every day to think straight or perform to the very best of our abilities. Being tired does that! Even aside from work, we're two very busy people and by Friday evening we're about worn out. Did you know that at one time days were measured from sundown to sundown instead of midnight to midnight? According to that first manner of time telling, on Friday evening we to say goodbye to the sixth day of the week and enter into the seventh day as the sun prepares to go down. The Sabbath. And we're ready to rest. On Fridays, even as we're winding down, we're done with our paying work week. I went out and did my banking and grocery shopping earlier in the day. We were ready to welcome in the Sabbath. We don&#