Will's Graduation,Dec.13,2014, Oklahoma Central University

William Richard Watkins, Magna Cum Laude, 2014, University of Central Oklahoma

There are many wonderful things about being a Grandpa but I won't take up your and my valuable time and space in this blog posting to list the many things. I must mention just a couple to set the stage so you will know where I am coming from or where I am heading with this posting. Maybe I will figure it out also. First and foremost, having the ability to travel to witness special events. Jan and I had the privilege of seeing all eight of our grand children high school graduation ceremonies and several of their college graduation ceremonies. Following Jan's passing I have been able to see the remaining ones graduate from college. What a wonderful experience. But, it doesn't seem like very long ago that Jan was traveling to Tulsa, Oklahoma to be with Jamie when Will was born. We saw him become quite a musician and worker in his church with the youth music program. We saw him try his hand at sports but that did not seem to be his niche especially after he broke his arm playing football. It doesn't seem possible when you look at him now ( the tall hunk of man that he has become ) to think that at that time he was just about the smallest player on the field. Boy has he changed.

Following High School graduation he entered University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Oklahoma. I suspect Will was about like the rest of us in that he changed his mind a couple of time before deciding what course of study he would pursue. He finally nailed it down to and he received his Bachelor Degree In Business Administration with a major in Finance. He will be specializing in accounting. Throughout college he has been a diligent student and worker. He was a leader who had the ability to meet and talk to people and be completely at ease in doing so. He worked for a period of time in the University President's office and later interned with the Devon Energy Company in Oklahoma City who eventually hired him full time. 

I drove to my daughter Jamie's home in Tulsa and on Dec. 12th. Sara flew in from Texas A & M on Dec.12th. Steve, Jamie, Sara and I drove over to Edmond for the graduation ceremony on the 13th. There we were met by Steve's mother ( Doris Watkins ), his sister( Karen Warren and Karen's daughter Leah ) as well as Mr and Mrs Schmitz and their daughters Kelsey and Casey. Will and Kelsey are engaged to be married in May 2015. The following photographs are all in Edmond, Oklahoma.

 It was extremely foggy on the drive over and you can still see some of it hanging around at 10:05 AM ( 9:05 Central Time ). I told some friends in Ohio I expected to be able to buy gas for under $2.00 per gallon in Oklahoma. The 7-Eleven stations in Edmond had regular for $1.99 per gallon.

 Hamilton Field House where graduation ceremonies were held. There were two ceremonies on Dec. 12 and two on Dec. 13

 School Mascot

 We entered to find twelve seats reserved for "The Watkins Family"

 General view of interior of Hamilton Field House.

 General view of interior of Hamilton Field House. Just before the ceremony started they asked us to move to the seats in the front row shown here. Better yet.

 General view of interior of Hamilton Field House.

 General view of interior of Hamilton Field House.

 My daughter Jamie with her husband Steve Watkins and their daughter Sara

Dr.Dan Betz, PhD, President of UCO comes over to talk to Steve, Jamie and Sara

 Waiting for the ceremony to start. Jamie took the photograph.

 Dr. John Barthell, Provost and Vice President, Academic Affairs makes the call to 

order and introductions.

 Dr.Dan Betz, PhD, President of UCO checks the program

 Dr.Dan Betz, PhD, President of UCO makes his remarks

 Greeting remarks made by Representative from Oklahoma State Regents For Higher Education

 Special music performed by UCOMusical Theatre students was outstanding.

 A few of the graduates had decorated their mortarboards.

 Will approaches Dr. Betz to receive his diploma. 

 Will receives congratulation prior to official photograph.

 Will waiting for official photograph to be taken.

Graduate Will Watkins endures family photographs.

Graduate Will Watkins endures family photographs. 

 Graduate Will Watkins endures family photographs.

 Sara and Will

 Kelsey and Will

 Kelsey and Will

 After the ceremony we were driving around the campus to take photographs at special locations 

and we came upon Dr. Betz headed into his office and we got another photograph of him 

and will.

 It seems that on all campus there are certain locations that students want their graduation photographs taken and this is one at " The Arch ".

 It seems that on all campus there are certain locations that students want their graduation photographs taken and this is one at " The Arch ".

 Will Watkins

 It seems that on all campus there are certain locations that students want their graduation photographs taken and this is one at " The Gerald K."Cowboy" Barnett " plaque.

 It seems that on all campus there are certain locations that students want their graduation photographs taken and this is one at " The Gerald K."Cowboy" Barnett " Bell Plaza.

It seems that on all campus there are certain locations that students want their graduation 

photographs taken and this is one at " The Bell and The Campanile Central State College " 

plaque.

It seems that on all campus there are certain locations that students want their graduation 

photographs taken and this is one at " The Bell and The Campanile Central State College " 

plaque.

 The Gerald K."Cowboy" Barnett and Bell Plaza

 Will By the The Gerald K."Cowboy" Barnett Marker

Next we moved to the Nigh University Center for photographs in front of the UCO sign

and it was a lot warmer

 From left to right Sara, Will, Jamie and Steve 

 Grandpa Bill and Will

 Do Over Please.

 From left to right Beth Schmitz, Casey Schmitz, Will, Kelsey Schmitz, Alan Schmitz

 From left to right Beth Schmitz, Casey Schmitz, Will, Kelsey Schmitz, Alan Schmitz

  

Jamie, Sara, Will, Steve

Will and Kelsey

 Will and Kelsey

 Jamie and Will

 Jamie and Will 

Jamie, Will and Steve

 Will and Steve 

 Next we found our way to this excellent Mexican restaurant 

 Next we found our way to this excellent Mexican restaurant  (Ted's Cafe Escondido"

Waiting for our table  

Watching the process of making and baking tortilla while waiting for our table. The lady would 

throw a small ball of dough into the machine on the right and out would roll a nicely flattened 

tortilla ready for baking on the hot plate.

The lady remove finished tortillas for serving. They were delicious.

Cover of Commencement Ceremony book

Cover of Commencement  book

The following history of the University of Central Oklahoma is taken from the Cover of Commencement Ceremony book. For almost 125 years the University of Central Oklahoma's bedrock mission has been developing leaders for Oklahoma and the nation. The university began in 1890 when the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature created the Territorial Normal School. Its mission was to educate teachers for the one-room schoolhouses being built across the growing territory. The first students class had 23 members and met in the basement of Edmond's Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1893, they moved into the school's first building, Old North, still standing today.

Five name changes later, UCO is a beautifully landscaped campus that welcomes around 17,000 students each semester. It strives to meet the needs of those seeking a traditional campus atmosphere as well as the non-traditional student. Central also welcomes the role of being Oklahoma's major metropolitan university, purposefully combining the needs of the students with those of the larger area. No longer just an Edmond campus. Central stretches into Brick town with its Academy of Contemporary Music at UCO (ACM@UCO), Construction of the new CHK Central Boathouse on the Oklahoma River, classes starting in January in downtown Oklahoma City, the university's partnership with Tinker Air Force Base, working with entrepreneurs through one of three UCO Small Business Development Center offices--UCO works to meet the needs of the metropolitan area. Earlier this year U. S. News & World Report again ranked Central as one of the top colleges and universities in the nation. Central was the state's only higher education institute to be named in the "2014 Great Colleges to Work For" by The Chronicle of Higher Education.  As Oklahoma's third largest state university, Central has evolved into six colleges, including the Jackson College of Graduate Studies, all with nationally recognized programs including Nursing, Forensic Science, Accounting, Physics, Graphic Design and more. The university offers 114 majors for bachelor's degrees and 65 for master's. It's accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Central remains an institution where learning comes first, where students enjoy personal relationships with faculty and staff who are committed to transforming lives.

I was so pleased and thank God for giving me life to see Will graduate. I am so proud of him and I pray God's continued watch care and blessing over his life. So until we meet again at my blog I ask you to remember That God Loves you so much that he sent His Son Jesus to live a sinless life and to die on the cross for each of us so that if we will confess our sins and receive him as our saviour we will live with Him in Heaven forever and I also love you.

Proud Grandpa Bill

Gidden's Class Christmas Party, 2014

Late yesterday afternoon the John Gidden's Bible Study class at Liberty Heights Church gathered at my home for the annual Christmas Party. My Granddaughter Lisa served as hostess helping Joe Tatar and Edna Thomas who plan our social functions in arranging the food on the cabinets and in greeting everyone. We started out taking individual or couples photographs but we had to give up on that idea as people started coming in groups, We stopped taking photographs to get everyone inside and coats hung up in the closet.I provided Honey Baked ham, turkey,roast beef from the Honey Baked Ham store and thin sliced prime rib cooked and sliced from Steve's Deli here in West Chester. Of course the ladies of the class out did themselves with their side dishes and deserts. Oh those deserts. We had all sorts of old fashioned Christmas candies and nuts sitting around for munching on before we ate not to mention the hors d'oeuvres. What a feast. I specifically asked that we not play any games or do the traditional white elephant activities just sit around and talk and enjoy each others company and that is what we did.We had 40 class members who attended and only had one couple of our regular attenders who missed the activity due to illness. I thoroughly enjoyed decorating the house and having the house full of talk and laughter. From all reports everyone enjoyed themselves. 

The following photographs are of attendee of the Gidden Class Christmas Party, 12/6/2014

 My beautiful granddaughter Lisa

My Buddy Jim

The following photographs are of my home's decorations

 Christmas Guard Santa Bear On Duty. Looks to me like he is getting awfully sleepy.

        A question I have never been able to answer " What is she saying to him?" It must be nice 

        seeing the smile on his face. I could write a book on the possibilities that have been suggested.

These little wax candles were our first Christmas decoration dating back to 1956

As Paul Harvey use to say "and that is the rest of the story". At least I think it was Paul Harvey who said that. At any rate Pastor Brad was unable to attend due to a prior commitment but at his request I have edited some of the photographs and omitted some of the discussions I overheard that might not seem appropriate for such a group. Just kidding on the contrary I promised to report any such action to him but I must admit everyone was very well behaved and I have nothing to report except that they all were well behaved, happy, and left with a smile and full tummy. As little Tim said " Bless us all". Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Gidden Bible Study class at Liberty Heights Church.

And as I always say remember that God loved us so much that he sent his only son into this world to live a sinless life, be rejected and put to death on a cross shedding his blood as a sacrifice to make a way for our salvation if we (anyone) will confess our sins,ask God to forgive us and accept the free give of salvation. When we say free; the means of our salvation was bought at a terrible price- God's only Son.

God loves you and so do I.

Grandpa Bill

Creation Museum, Petersburg, Kentucky, 10 & 11 June , 2014, Part 9

This posting is the final of the series of postings about the 7 C's in God's Eternal Plan. This next section is the 5th "C" in the 7 C's in God's Eternal Plan - Christ 

                                         7 C's in God's Eternal Plan

                                Christ The Promised Of God's Word

 This brings us to the 5th "C" in 7 C's in God's Eternal Plan - Christ. There is a huge jump in history from the Confusion to Christ. I cannot begin to cover all this period but I do want to try to cover hit all the major points of history that the museum displayed and the briefest of comment on each so please bear with me. Let’s start with Abraham who God called out of his land to a place God would show him. What a leap of faith.Then there was Isaac who God wanted Abraham to sacrifice but God stepped in and provided a sacrifice. Next, we have Jacob who was renamed Israel who had 12 sons. One son was Joseph who was sold into captivity in Egypt and who rose to be extremely high in the Egyptian government and who actually saved the Israelites from a great famine. Next, we find the Israelites are enslaved by Egypt and forced to build mammoth monuments. Then years later God Raises up Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. You see God’s power as he leads Moses across the dessert, Parts the waters of the Red Sea for the people to cross over and avoid capture by the Egyptian Army who was in pursuit. Now the Lord give the Ten Commandments to Moses and the people but the people are disobedient so God made them wander in the dessert for 40 years. Finally Joshua leads them into the Promised Land. This period is known as the time of the Judges with Moses being the first judge and there were many of them. Eventually, the people cried out “we want a king!”. In so doing they rejected God as their king so he gave them Saul as their king. Saul reigned for 40 years. They had many kings following Saul. Some were good and some were bad. God became displeased and split the nation into two kingdoms (Northern & Southern). The two kingdom had kings and just as before some were good and some were bad. Basically what distinguished the kings as good or bad is did they worship God or did they lead the people to worship idols? God sent prophets into the kingdoms but the people did not heed the warnings the prophets gave. Later on the Northern Kingdom went into captivity into Syria and later the Southern Kingdom went onto captivity into Babylon. While in captivity many significant events occurred and God used certain of the Israelites to do great things to show his power but the captives as well as the captors did not change. So God was feed up with striving with them and they entered into a 400 period of silence where they did not hear a word from God. Do you realize that during this period Alexander the Great captured much of the world and the Greek language eventually became the language of the Bible? Then the Romans became a world power and conquered the world. The Romans were in power when Christ stepped into history. I realize much has been left out of this brief synopsis of the world between the Confusion and Christ but you can see that history was moving on. I think that it is important for us to see and understand that just because we do not see that God is working in the affairs of our lives he is and he has a master plan he alone knows.

Now we take a closer look at Christ in history we find in Philippians 2: verse 8 “***and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” So you ask “who was and is Jesus?” He is the creator according to John 1, Colossians 11, and Hebrew 1. He is the Creator God: 2. He is the suffering Savior. 3. He is the Resurrected Victor over death. 4. He is the coming King and Judge of all. 5. He is the sinless fully God and fully man. In Hebrew 4: 15 we find that “For we do not have a high Priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” We hear people say you just do not know how I feel or how hurt I was or how great the temptation is. That’s true I don’t but Jesus does because He went through every experience, feeling and thought as we but He did not sin. He does know and He does care and can help.

When we think about Jesus life several key items come to mind.1. The miraculous conception; 2. His temptation by Satan (40 days fasted & tempted); 3. The Sermon on the Mount; 4. Feeding of the 5,000 on one occasion and 4,000 on another occasion; 5. When He raised Lazarus from the dead; 6. The Last Supper; 7. He being called the Lamb of God. Why was he called The Lamb of God? In Hebrews 9: 22 we find “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. So He stepped into history and shed His blood on the cross for our sins.

Now we come to the 6^Th “C” in God's Eternal Plan and that is the “Cross.” 

We have the first Adam in creation was made a living soul; and the last Adam was made a quickening spirit” in 1 Corinthians 15: verse 45. These two (Adams) are tied together in 1 Corinthians 15: verse 22 where we find “For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive”. Remember earlier we saw that when Adam and Eve sinned against God in Genesis 3 God killed an animal and made clothing for them to cover their nakedness. That killing and shedding of blood foreshadowed the shedding of Christ’s blood to cover our sins. This is expressed in Romans 5: verse 12, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” In another place in Romans 6: verse 23 we see “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal in Christ Jesus our Lord.” According to 1 Corinthians 15: verse 3, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” In Acts 10: verse 40 we find that “Him God raised up on the third day and showed him openly.”

In summary of Christ and the Cross we have learned that: 1. Christ came to save us; 2. we learned how Christ conquered sin and death; 3. We learned why we need to tell others about Christ; 4. We learned that we have something to look forward to spending eternity in heaven with Christ and our loved ones who accepted Him as their Lord and Savior; and 5: We learned how much God cares for us. (He gave His only Son).  

Now we have arrived at the final “C” in God's Eternal Plan “Consummation.” 

 I need to point out that we have learned that the Bible is true as is the Gospel and that we have something to look forward to. In Revelation 21: verse 4 we see “and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”  Revelation 22: verse 3 tells us there shall be no more curse. Remember the earth and all created things have been under a curse since the time Adam and Eve sinned. Then in Revelations 21: verse 27 we see “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” This is talking about heaven. I just about jump out of my skin when I think about this. I Praise God and thank him for his gift of eternal life. You know this brings up the most serious question you will ever be asked, “Is your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life?” If not it can be by simply acknowledging to God that you are a sinner, and ask him to forgive you of your sins and accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. It is just that simple and easy. It seems so many people  try to make it hard and difficult but it is not, it is just that easy and simple. My prayer is that you will make this commitment.

In summation we have learned 1. There will be a new heaven and earth. 2. There is no more death and suffering. 3. We will have access to the Tree of Life. 4. We will be forever in perfection with God and 5. The curse is removed.

I have one more posting covering the Creation Museum and that is about the "WORD of God".

Until then remember That God Loves you so much that he sent His Son Jesus to live a sinless life and to die on the cross for each of us so that if we will confess our sins and receive him as our savior we will live with Him in Heaven forever and I also love you.

Grandpa Bill