update-finally

Wow! It has been almost two months since my last blog post. I know some people have probably given up even checking for updates but I have not abandoned the blog.

Micah is now VERY mobile. He is not walking yet but he can get anywhere he wants to. Any day now he will take those first steps that send him into another stage of development and daddy into another stage of activity.

Micah is asleep right now and Sunday's sermon is ready so I'm taking a moment here for a quick update.

My dad's back surgery went well this week. For those who may not know, he had a herniated disc in his back causing pain and then numbness in his back and legs. Immediately after the surgery he experienced feeling in his legs again and the doctor said the rest will return in time. He has at least 6 weeks of recovery ahead of him so please keep my folks in your prayers as they attempt to get settled into a new house in the midst of this recovery.

Natalie has her first dance recital next weekend and she is beside herself with excitement. We can't wait to see her up on stage...(one of her favorite places at church).

Allison is doing well and continues to allow God to work through her at Hospice. Her ability to submit to God's Spirit in her job never ceases to amaze me...even when she's had "enough".

Back in April I had my latest check up at the doctor and had lost 18 lbs since October. I am no longer taking Prilosec and have had fewer problems with allergies. Notice I said fewer...just fewer.

I am setting a goal for myself of blogging at least once a week so everyone check back for more thoughts and things. Thanks to everyone who takes a moment to check in everyone so often.

God Bless!

Friday's thoughts

It's been a full plate lately. There's been all of the Easter activities and services and then this week a lot has fallen on my plate. Add Micah to the mix and it's been none stop action. However, I would not say it's been bad. I know some people who have had an actual "bad" week and I have nothing to complain about.

I say all of this to say I have several blogs in my head ready to come out so keep checking back here for updates.

In the mean time here's a prayer by John Wesley that I came across recently. I hope it helps you draw closer to God in some way.

Grace.

"Oh God, seeing as there is in Christ Jesus
An infinite fullness of all that we can want or desire
May we all receive from him, grace upon grace;
Grace to pardon our sins, and subdue our iniquities;
To justify our persons and to sanctify our souls;
And to complete that holy change, that renewal of our hearts,
Which will enable us to be transformed
Into the blessed image in which you created us.
O make us all acceptable to be partakers
Of the inheritance of your saints in light.
Amen."
-John Wesley

today's links

• Clayton nails it with this post. Be sure and take a moment to consider this.
• Last Friday had a Daddy/Daughter date with Natalie. Don't have a link for this but thought it was cool enough to share with everyone.
• Quote of the day...“Every great movement of God can be traced to a kneeling figure”–D.L. Moody
• Check out the latest digital version of Catalyst Leadership here.
• Hope everyone is having a great day!!!

100 entries!!!

I have officially reached my goal of 100 blog entries for the year!!! Yeah!!! I know not all of them have been actual thoughts of mine but I have tried to at least put something interesting on the blog each time. For example...check out this video that was played at Newspring during their Christmas series...good stuff...

Christmas Opener: Just Come Home from NewSpring Production on Vimeo.

Tiger Woods

Everywhere you turn lately everyone seems to be reporting on Tiger Woods and his family. You hear more about them than what's going on in the Middle East with Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc...

I have to admit that I am becoming more and more frustrated. I don't really want to hear any more about it but every time I check the news there seems to be a new development that they can not wait to tell me about.

Then today I found the following two posts on one of my favorite blogs.
Here's the first one that brought back some memories of several years ago.

Now read the followup to that. I think we all need to read this one from time to time.

Wow! We all need a savior! This Christmas we celebrate His birth! Thank you, LORD!!!!!

Monday morning reflections

• Yesterday we experienced a great God service. God's word. God's music. God's generosity. God's people. God's timing. WOW!
• Saturday was a great day in the life of WJACC as so much of the church came together for the purpose of celebrating a wedding and a marriage. Congratulations Marshall and Sarah!
• My brother and sister-in-law were visiting this weekend and we had a blast together. Natalie took about 1 1/2 seconds to warm up to both of them.
• I will be blogging some of my thoughts from yesterday's sermon on giving soon so keep watching.
• Quote of the day...this one is for all pastors and worship leaders. "The hour on Sunday can be a time of wonder, a time of transformation, maybe even a time of awe."-Nancy Beach
• Check out this blog from Clayton...it should make all of us pause.

6 more countries

My normal Monday morning reflections has been put on hold today. I received one of those early morning phone calls today that required me to rush off to the hospital and I've been caught up in other stuff today. I will update on the past weekend at some point but I do want to let everyone know that as of today we can add 6 more countries to the thoughts and things blog hit list. Wow!!! Check back soon for updates.

still international

I have received a hit to thoughts and things from another country. Last year sometime I received a hit from Spain. This year we add another country to the list. Drum roll.......South Korea!

Who would have thunk it?
Fascinating.

happiest place

It recently struck me how some people call Disney World the "happiest place on earth". While I know this is just a phrase that people may or may not mean at the time it did get me thinking. What IS the "happiest place on earth"? How would you describe the "happiest place on earth"? Please feel free to leave you comments here or e-mail me. I'm looking forward to what you have to say.

couple of links

Scot has an interesting question about Obama's trip to Latin America. See his post here.

Los made me even more excited for my son to be born in August. Check it out here.

Mobile blogging...WOW

This is the world we live in. I can now send a blog entry from my phone. With all if this technology do you think I will keep this updated more regularly?mmmm

Subscriptions

I know I haven't updated much lately. Once again I am hoping to do a better job at keeping this blog updated. One option everyone has is becoming a subscribing to the blog. That way you will receive a notice anytime the blog is updated. Just trying to make your life a little easier.

Going global

It's official. My blog has now gone international. I received a report today that I received at least one hit on my blog from the country of Spain. Thank you to that one person one stumbled on my blog long enough to be counted in the number of hits for the day. WOW...and to think...it all started with a simple dream...mmmmmmm

first of the year

I know we are weeeeell into 2009 and I am off to a slooooow start on the blogging front. I have recently entered the world of facebook and that has taken a chunk of my "online" time lately. Come look for me at yet another site. I will try to do better but here are some updates for now...

We are pregnant again...YEAH!!!
The baby is due Aug. 24th. We are in a mad search for baby names AGAIN. (We are taking suggestions)

Tomorrow I have the longest (and coldest) training run yet for the marathon...26 miles!!!
The wind chill is supposed to be in the teens at 5am when we start. I know some of you are wishing you were that warm right now but this is FLORIDA!!! It's not supposed to be this cold. Oh well...

The marathon is Feb. 15th and right now it is consuming a lot of my thought process. I'm actually a little nervous about it.

I am 35 now and am loving life...I only have 12 months to be this age so it should be fun.

More updates later...

new tax plan

Scot McKnight has come up with his own tax plan. At first I was expecting something quirky and off the wall but the more I think about it the more it kind of makes sense. You can read his plan here.

wordle

Here's the wordle that came up for my blog today...try it out for yourself.

schedule breakers

It's almost cliche' now to say that things have been crazy. We all have schedules to keep and unexpected things that break into those schedules. Here's a few of our "schedule breakers" we experienced this week.
Sunday-Allison and Natalie are sick.
Monday-my folks roll into town.
Tuesday-I'm sick.
Wednesday-fairly normal...all things considered.
Thursday-my dad is sick...Natalie and I travel down to Deland with Uncle Robert and Aunt Jo to see our Uncle Raymond and meet with his Care Coordinator.
Friday-catch up from all the schedule breakers throughout the week and hopefully air out the house from all of the sickness.

As I was typing this there was a knock on my door. "We need to see if a man can open this." Right off the bat my manliness is requested and challenged. The door to the church bus will not open. After much effort and deliberation (and to make this long story sooooo much shorter) the challenge resulted in my rear-end climbing through a window in order to open the door from the inside.

After that little adventure I was informed that one of the phone lines was lit up without anyone on the phone.

After solving that mystery I was also informed that there were doughnuts in the kitchen for everyone. Of course I had to investigate this as well. After all I am planning on running 14 miles tomorrow in my marathon training.

Now it is 10:00 and I'm just now finishing this entry.
Schedule breakers...mmmmm...they make life interesting.

turning...

This has been a week that no one really wants to see and yet God has shown Himself in some very cool ways. Within 24 hours of each other I sat with a family as they told their twin 8 year-olds that their father had passed away and then I received word that some good friends of mine had also experienced lose. Both were hard to swallow. Both lead to unanswerable questions. Both can not be explained away. Both really, really suck!

Then I was struggling with how to lead Bible study Wednesday night and Allison suggested we just praise and worship. My first thought was selfish b/c I tend to put a lot more time planning something like that than I had left in the day. But God kept nudging me in that direction. So I picked out some songs and then said "Ok, God, You know what you are doing."...and boy does He ever.

Wednesday night we prayed and sang and held hands and lifted each other up and sat still and cried and worshiped and experienced THE almighty God. At the end of it all one person came up to me and said, "tonight, we had church."

Wednesday I cried for all my friends. Mostly during the most random moments. Wednesday night I worshiped with those tears. Now yesterday and today I've worshiped God with what He has graciously given me. I've walked on the beach holding hands with my wife...the greatest Christian I've ever known...and I've played with and hugged my daughter, the personification of adventure.

As I sit here thinking back over this week God has put Jeremiah 31:13b in front of me...
"I will turn their mourning into gladness;
I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow."

I don't know how God does it but He is the only one who is able to turn mourning into gladness.
Don't ever forget that God is able to do anything...even comfort when it doesn't seem possible.

27 states!

We are up to 27 states!!! That means that I have had hits on my blog generating from 27 of our 50 states. That is awesome! Don't forget to check out the blog as you travel around...ESPECIALLY if you leave the U.S. or travel to Hawaii or Alaska. I'm trying to reach out and receive hits from all 50 states...thanks again to everyone for your help on this.

Also don't forget that you can donate to breast cancer research by clicking on the link on the right side of this page.

Awesome Quote!

I traveled by Sam's blog this morning and found this quote that he had up.

"The secret is not me. So many people think that somehow I carry a revival around with me in a suitcase, and they just announce me and something happens-but that's not true. This is the work of God, and the Bible warns that God will not share his glory with another. All the publicity that we receive sometimes frightens me because I feel that therein lies a great danger. If God should take His hand off me, I would have no more spiritual power. The whole secret of the success of our meetings is spiritual-it's God answering prayers. I cannot take credit for any of it."
-Billy Graham-

Also, Perry Noble had this to say about humility recently.

"And then one day I had a conversation with John Maxwell that ROCKED MY WORLD…he said to me,
“Perry, you are where you are for two reasons. The first is the favor of God. The second is the giftedness of God. And Perry, please understand that God didn’t owe you either of these. You are where you are because of Him!”

You can read the rest of Perry's post here.

Great stuff!!!!