Too Many Favorite Things

I got to combine a lot of my favorite things today. I was working outside while planning ahead (one of my new favorite things, believe it or not). It was great. It's kind of scary to think where technology has taken us, I worked outside with Internet (and had classical/soundtrack music going) while enjoying the sun and that one bird that keeps squawking just above my head. Add in the iced tea I had in my frosty mug and it was a good day.

And on an even better note, I'm still ahead of schedule on my collar bone. I have 100% mobility back, my strength is ahead of schedule, the only thing they're concerned about is my calcium deposits don't seem to be that big, so I still have to go back, over spring break, but that's okay!

T

What's Your Motivation?

So my lovely wife is making the screens for our Sunday morning services today, one of her many talents and jobs. And we briefly talked about all the names she has to put on the screens this week.

In our traditional services it is our Celtic Sunday so there's a little bit of special music, and for each song/group, Lorie makes a screen to let people know who's playing. Always nice.

But the reason we were talking about it is we remembered back to a while ago when Lorie for a sermon series did not put anyone's name on the screens. And for weeks, no one said anything. That is until someone realized their name wasn't up on the screen when they played. And boy did they complain.

It just makes me wonder why we need to put people's names in the bulletin, on the screens, etc. Yes, it's nice to recognize someone for giving back to God, but if that is the primary reason they give, so their name is "in lights" so to speak, is that really the right reason to be playing/singing for God?

If you're going to give something to God, just give it to God and don't worry about all the other stuff. This is from our Bible Study discussion tonight (see you there at 7:00!)

Matthew 6:1 ~ Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding. (MSG)

Do Not Attempt

Sorry, but I was watching TV a few minutes ago and sometimes, the stupid just gets to me.

It was a Maytag commercial, maybe you've seen it. They tell about the features of the washing machines, then they show a monster truck drive over two rows of machines. And in small print at the bottom:

Do Not Attempt

Really, I'll have to do my best. Because if I had enough money to buy a monster truck and thirty odd washing machines, you better believe I would use that money to drive over the machines just to make sure they were sturdy enough. Where am I going to find thirty Maytag washing machines? Drive to seventeen Sears?

Thank you, guy who makes the fine print, you may have saved my life...

T

Goals While Fasting

As most people know, Ash Wednesday (last week) kicked of a forty day period of fasting in the Church known as Lent.

During Downpour (our weekly Bible Study) last week we went to or church's Ash Wednesday service and then came back to the youth room to talk about what Ash Wednesday is, how it started, why we do it, etc. (it always amazes me a little how many people are willing to go through weird church rituals with next to no idea of what they are doing in and why). We talked about how it's really about your heart, not what you do. We talked about how instead of just giving something up you can take something else on, things like that.

So in the spirit of people fasting or giving something up without knowing why or focusing on the heart, I want to share something I was reading today. It's from a group of people who were fasting to God and they prayed to God, telling Him how they did all this fasting but it didn't help, how God seemed to have not cared about their act of suffering for Him. And here's what God said:

But the Lord says, “You do what pleases yourselves on these special days,
and you are unfair to your workers.
On these special days when you fast, you argue and fight
and hit each other with your fists.
You cannot do these things as you do now
and believe your prayers are heard in heaven.
This kind of special day is not what I want.
This is not the way I want people to be sorry for what they have done.
I don’t want people just to bow their heads like a plant
and wear rough cloth and lie in ashes to show their sadness.
This is what you do on your special days when you fast,
but do you think this is what the Lord wants?
“I will tell you the kind of fast I want:
Free the people you have put in prison unfairly
and undo their chains.
Free those to whom you are unfair
and stop their hard labor.
Share your food with the hungry
and bring poor, homeless people into your own homes.
When you see someone who has no clothes, give him yours,
and don’t refuse to help your own relatives.
Then your light will shine like the dawn,
and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your God will walk before you,
and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
Then you will call out, and the Lord will answer.
You will cry out, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ ~ Isaiah 58:3b-9a

So if you're fasting for Lent, may I ask why? And are you not just giving something up, but are you also living better, doing more, helping those God loves while fasting?

T

Almost Mucas Free And Able To Go To Canada

Sorry it's been a while. Last week both Lorie and I were out for days. 101+ fevers, aches, congestion, coughing, we share everything.

I will say that today I missed Canada a bit. I got a call at 8:00am (a great time to call when I'm sick by the way) and found out that again they want more forms with my passport. The only fun part, I think Canada is the only place in the world where you can get a call from the deepest French part of the country and have the person on the phone be Indian. I love diversity :)

I'll be blogging more, but to add to Liz's blog, the Sr. missions trip is almost full. If you still want to go or have a chance at the waiting list, you better sign up soon...

T

Does This Sound Like America?

Today I was reading a story about Hezekiah in the book of Isaiah. I've read it before, but with all the financial problems in America right now, it kind of had a new twist to me.

The back story, Hezekiah is the king of Judah and is about to die. He prays for God to heal him, so God does, giving him fifteen more years to live. Hezekiah happy.

Now the king of Babylon (right now starting out, one day super-power that will enslave Judah) hears about King Hezekiah's miraculous discovery and sends the king a gift. Nice gesture. So King Hezekiah in his thanks and ego for being healed shows the envoys (the guys who brought the gifts) around the entire palace, including the royal storehouses of gold and silver, all the expensive gifts given to God in the temple, etc.

Why did he flaunt his wealth? He's an idiot. But that's not the worst part. Isaiah comes to visit and tells the king that because he did this, one day in the future all of this wealth will be carried away. Even chldren born to the king will be taken as slaves. And after hearing this doomsday prophecy, here's Hezekiah's reaction:


Hezekiah told Isaiah, “These words from the Lord are good.” He said this because he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.” ~ Isaiah 39:8

He thought "no problem" because it doesn't directly affect him. Now does that sound like America?

"There's not enough oil to sustain the way you live."
"But there's enough for me now, right? So I can still drive my H3, right?"

Something to think about...

Another Perspective

Today we had a group of people come into the church who are building a Family Life Center kind of like ours (its' the same architect, slightly different design). I just happened to be in the gym and was able to talk to them for a few minutes, to answer questions, etc. Nice people.

It just kind of reiterated to me how important it is to get outside input on things, how hearing what someone else sees, even if you don't always follow it, at least knowing and maybe getting ideas from them is a good thing. Like these guys, we talked about our projection system in the Life Center, which is really bad (you can't be close to the stage and still see the screens), and no one would have told them that until I was there. And they even saw some things in our room I hadn't noticed, like the acoustics work (I'm just so used to it).

So whatever you're doing, get an outside opinion. It helps :)

Prov. 15:22 ~ Plans fail without good advice, but they succeed with the advice of many others. (NCV)

T

Two Hands!

My arm is finally out of the sling and I can type again (although I'm sucking at it)! I'm ahead of schedule according to my x-ray, but now I'm doing all sorts of physical therapy exercises (and they don't hurt at all, there's no excruciating pain when I lift my arm, no, none... maybe a little...)

Now I just need to have interesting things to day and I can blog again :)

T

No Blogging For A While

Sorry, but typing is not that easy anymore. See if you can figure out why. Liz saw it right away (hint, it's the collar bone).

T

Winter Retreat

Sorry I haven't been blogging all. Every moment I'm at my computer lately has been doing the Winter Retreat. It's funny how you can have everything done, then more appears.

Either way, I'm gearing up for this weekend. I hope you all are ready for some outdoor fun. We had lots of snow last night!!

T

Crosses Done... Kinda...

I'm almost done the crosses. One is completely done and standing in the Sanctuary, the one for NewSong, I ran out of nails so I will finish it tomorrow.

But a few more things that hit me today (literally).

The first one was while I was doing the first cross. I was working and had some worship songs on and then the old hymn "How Marvelous, How Wonderful" came on. Now, that hymn is always powerful with me, but when you're actually making a cross and it comes on, not to sound girly but I was trying my best not to cry. It was just crazy to think that this was the instrument used for my freedom.

Then Lorie and I put the nails in. If you want to know why the crosses are pre-nailed, come to church on Sunday, but yes, they both have small headed nails in them. Lorie left to go to the Sanctuary as I finished the nails myself (she said I was better at hammering) and I was going to move it. I realized I couldn't lift it because it was too tall to get through the door and still a little wet from the stain so I got the bright idea to use a dolly/cart. I put the cross on no problem. But then, the nice circular base started to twist, I had one hand on the cart, the other on the cross trying to make sure they didn't fall. There was only one thing I had to balance the cross, my head. Now for those of you keeping score, there are over a hundred tiny, small-headed nails in the front of the cross that were now pushing the weight of the cross into the side of my forehead. And it freaking hurt. I managed to stand it back up alright but I was thinking about how much that hurt then almost slapped myself again for being a woosie (see last post). I had the dull side of the nails, and not into my forehead like Jesus would have had. Again, realizing a little more what Jesus went through for me.

But then the clincher. This one's a little nicer. One cross done and in the Sanctuary, working on the second one and cleaning it up, making it look kinda pretty (which Arlene Reynolds said I shouldn't do, the real cross would have looked gnarly, and I agree but this is for the church so I wanted it to look somewhat decent). And I was doing it, songs like "Everything Glorious" and "Everlasting God" and "The Stand" came on and I realized hos God used the cross to make us pretty. How we are cleaned up and "made glorious" because of the cross.

Anyway, it's been a weird experience. What will be key is in seeing them used Sunday morning in church and Sunday night at our prayer night with the students. Maybe more on that later.

T

Crosses Are Heavy

I'm on day two of making the crosses for our church and today was a little rough. I have one pretty much done, the other one was causing me some trouble. I kept having to cut the crossbeam hole over and over. So that required me putting the cross together, seeing it doesn't fit, taking it apart, cutting a little tiny bit off, repeat many, many times. And as I was moving the main beam back and forth I started to think, "Boy, is this cross ever heavy." Then another thought went through my mind:

"Shut up".

I mean, I started thinking about how Jesus had to carry His cross, bloody and battered, falling on His bare knees all the time for what must have seemed like an eternity and here I am complaining "Oh, it's so heavy" in my comfy basement while I try and make my cross look all pretty.

Yeah, Jesus had it harder, and I thank Him for it...

T

Making Crosses

Sorry to mess up the website with my last post. But it's a cool video...

Anyway, tonight I was working on a special project for Celebrate Recovery. I was making crosses. And not little woosie crosses, seven feet tall, two of them.

As I was making them I started thinking about how hard this would have been two thousand years ago. I had a handy little table saw, they did not have electricity so it wouldn't have helped them. And then my thought processed deeper (which is scary) and I thought about the guy who's job is would have been to make crosses. After all, there were tons of crucifixions by the Romans, odds are there were guys who sole occupation was to make crosses for the Roman government. I mean, what goes through your mind every day as you make instruments of death and torture. Who will get this one? What did they do? How much will they suffer? Were they so calloused they didn't even care?

And what about the guy who made Jesus' cross? Did he know Who was going to carry it? Did he know God was going to be sentenced to death upon it? Would it have been more special or just another day at the office?

Yeah, it's bad when I stay up late, I start thinking...

T

Cool Bird Sounds

I happened to see this today. Anyone heard a bird imitate a chainsaw? (It's amazing, yet sad at the same time...)

Enjoy.

T

Less Is More

I was fortunate enough to go shopping on Saturday. Not to the mall or anything (thank the Lord) but to get groceries, pet stuff for Clover, etc. And everywhere Lorie and I went, lines, people everywhere, traffic, etc. And here's what I realized.

This is the busiest time of year. We all know it. We all expect it. If you think you're going to go outside and not wait it's just going to happen. You would think people would be more patient since they know life will be a little more chaotic.

So why is it that people seem less patient? Doesn't it make sense that since we need more patience at this time of year, at Christmas, focused on Christ who lived patience, we would give more out?

So as you shop for those last minute things (and I know you will), try to be a little more patient. Especially since it's not the part-time employee at Wal-Mart's fault that they are out of what you're looking for...

T

Another Wii Injury

Sorry Jen, but this one's for you. You're not the only one to hurt yourself playing Wii.

Mark Cavendish has set a lot of British records. He won four stages of the Tour de France this year, the best ever results by a British cyclist. He's won gold medals at numerous European races, including the World championship Madison, the Commonwealth Games Scratch Race, and won two stages of the Giro d'Italia this year.

But put him on a Wii platform to play a snowboard game, and he becomes a danger to himself -- and any furniture that happens to be nearby.

Cavendish was playing the snowboard game (no reports on whether it was Shaun White's new game), when he got a little too into it. While rocking with his feet and thumbs, he slipped off the platform substituting for a snowboard, fell and injured his calf muscle.

Now that takes some doing! The injury hurt a cyclists most important muscle (though in any kind of bike riding, all the muscles are important). But for road racers, the calf is used hard in every pedal stroke, both pressing down and pulling up.

Cavendish was supposed to go out and train on his bike after the game; but the calf injury meant he couldn't ride. This is not a good thing, because even in cycling's off season, riders on his level can't allow one smidgen of their fitness to evaporate by slacking on their training. He rides for Team Columbia, and the team has scheduled a training camp in Majorca for later this month. Cavendish, fairly new to the elite peleton and Columbia's top sprinter, will be expected to attend.

(Full Story @ http://outdoors.fanhouse.com/2008/12/12/champion-cyclist-injured-while-playing-his-wii/)

So learn a lesson, don't play Wii too much!

T

Get Inspired

I saw this today and just had to post it, too funny.



T

How Well Do You Know Jesus' Story?

I was doing some reading this week and the authors mentioned something I didn't think much about, well, until now.

If you were to ask the average person the story of Jesus, they'd mention Christmas. Most will add in Easter too. But very, very few seem to know what happened in the middle. And here at Christmas, I see it. Most people seem to know the Christmas story (the basics anyway) and most know the basics of Easter, but to name ten miracles, five parables, it gets a little harder.

And then the other author mentioned how we tell Jesus story without going into the big picture. Many people hear that Jesus died for their sins, but how many people know it was to restore us back to where we originally created to be with God? Not we're born sinners, but before we were born, we were created in the image of God to know Him! Christ is simply restoring something we have long forgotten and lost.

It makes the Christmas story more interesting, and it helps understand that the story of Jesus doesn't end in the manger... :)

T

Real Christmas Laws

Today I'm listening to classical Christmas music in my office and I found this list of laws from England I read a while ago. I thought you may like them. They are all still on the books, although I'm sure they are not thoroughly enforced.

~Playing sports on Christmas (except archery) is illegal.
~According to the Holy Days and Fasting Days Act all citizens are required to attend church on Christmas Day (and they must walk there and back, that's a part of the law).
~Christmas dinner is legally limited to only three courses. Mince Pie and Christmas pudding are not allowed, they are banned to be eaten on Christmas.
~Working on Christmas is banned.
~Hunting on Christmas is banned.

Now we laugh at those, but I don't know. To me it's kind of sad that we find it funny. Aren't those good suggestions for Christmas anyway, not over indulging, not working, spending time with God and family...?

T

I'm Back

It's nice to finally be home, with Thanksgiving and Liz, Lorie and I at YS (a Youth Pastor conference), it's been a busy two weeks.

But I have something for tonight. If you can, go out and look at the moon. Jupiter and Venus, the two brightest planets, are next to the moon tonight. I could even see them through the clouds, it looks like a real Procter & Gamble symbol :)

T