More than a song....
My friend, Josh, just did a post on the way a song, ( "The Voice of Truth", by Casting Crowns), lifted him, and reminded him of God's plan for him, during a time of struggle. I was reminded of the power of music, which most of us listen to daily, to transform our spirit, and affect our outlook and attitude. The question is...what are you listening to? What are you're children listening to? Is it filled with references to sex, one night stands, drugs, violence, etc. Or is it filled with the hope, love and guidance that we get from our Father. There is an incredible amount of unbelievably good Christian music out there, in every style you can think of. As Christian parents, we should be setting the example for our children, and encouraging them to make choices in their music that may not be on Billboard's Top 100. The good news is that some Christian bands are making it there. Switchfoot is just one example. If you have an interest, click the "I-Tickets link on the sidebar. Click on the Artists link to find info on 100's of Christian acts. May God bless each of you. Ken
The Offering
Look back at yesterday. Picture the days events in mind. See the day as a bowl of fruit, each piece of fruit corresponding to the actions, events and emotions of the day. You'll have some good fruit; these are the things you did happily, when you served others, when you prayed or studied God's word, or when you helped to lift the spirits of someone who was down. There will be some fruit that's slightly bruised; these are when you raised your voice in anger, when you hold a grudge against another, or when you thought only of your own needs. You get the idea. Then there is the bad fruit, the truly rotten fruit. You know, when you lusted for someone, or for something, when you struck someone, or told them something that really hurt them inside. Or when you worship something that is not God; money, things, sex, alcohol and drugs. Everything you think, say or do is some sort of piece of fruit. Now picture it, all there in a bowl. Some of it good, some not so good, and some truly detestable. Now picture this: presenting that bowl of fruit as an offering, at the feet of God. How do you think He would feel? Or rather, how do you think He does feel? Because, in truth, that is what we do each and every day. The whole of our day, when we go to bed each night, becomes an offering to our Father. All our thoughts, all our actions, the words, the good, the bad, it all is presented to God. As Christians, when we grow in faith, we try to continually improve our offering, that is our lives, making it more and more presentable as we go. None of us can ever hope for a perfect offering; only Jesus himself was able to make that kind of offering, both in the life he led, and the life He gave for us. But, we can gradually get rid of the bad fruit, and replace it with good fruit, until we have an offering we can be proud to present. And that is my prayer for us today; that we would recognize the fruits of our offering, and that we would strive to do better each day, and that upon placing our offering at the feet of Lord, that He would smile and say "Well done, good and faithful servant" Amen
Things that make you go.......WHAT?
So, my sixteen year old daughters home sick. Too sick for school, but not too sick to sit at the computer, the computer my wife and I paid for, but she believes is hers. ( this is why you won't see a lot of weekend posts here) I get up this morning, (I work evenings) and I see her laying on the couch. I go to the kitchen, make coffee, and figure I'll check my e-mail and such, while I have a chance. A couple minutes later, this conversation took place:
J- Dad??
Me- Yes?
J- My juice just spilled, can you get me more?
Me- Did you wipe it up?
J- No
Me- What? Why not?
J- I'm sick. Can you get me more juice?
Needless to say, things got a little heated after that. Did I mention she's sixteen?
Faith
I got a lesson in Faith and the power of Prayer on my second mission trip to Guatemala. On this particular trip, we attended a church service in one of the local churches. While the adults were in the main service, some of our youth took the children to do a childrens church. As I was the designated photographer on this trip, I was taking some pictures of the service, and then during some music, I went to take pictures of the children and our youth. While I was taking pictures of the kids, the camera ran out of film. (I know, 35mm film...how quaint) As my camera bag was still in the van, I went out to the van, climbed in, and proceeded to change film. Now the van was set up with window film, so that people could not see in, even during the day. It was early evening, and starting to get dark. As I was loading the film, I saw a man walk up to the front of the church. He stopped, turned and looked inside through the open doors, and just stood there for a couple minutes, staring inside. Then he walked away. I thought little of it, and continued at my task of taking pictures. A little while later, (these are 2 - 3 hour services we go to down there), I was surprised when the same man I had seen earlier walked into the service. With him was a women, who we learn later was his wife. She was carrying a baby in her arms. The image of that child will be with me forever. It was limp in her arms, it's eyes were rolled back so all you saw was white, and there was almost no color in it. Guatemalans have that very dark complexion, even the children and babies. But not this one, it was a sickly gray color. For all intensive purposes, this baby looked dead.The man went up to the Pastor and began to talk to him. After a couple minutes, David, one of the couple we serve there, came to us and explained what was happening. It seemed that this couple's child had become very ill a couple weeks before. They had brought him to some "traditional" healers (witch doctors) without any success. They had brought him to a couple of doctors, but had no money for the visits, much less any medications, and were turned away. They had all but given up hope, when, as he was walking, he was drawn to the open front door of that small church. The man and his wife were not Christians, but he went and got his wife, and brought her and the baby back to the church. We began to pray for that baby. For over a forty minutes we prayed, with the Pastor leading up front. Most in our team could not understand what he was saying, but we didn't need to. We just kept praying ourselves as hard as we could. After about 45 minutes the Pastor stopped, than he said something the congregation and everyone started clapping. We strained to see, and what we saw, and heard, was nothing short of the most miraculous thing I have ever seen, or probably will see on this earth. The baby, who looked inches from death when he was brought in, now had all his color back, his eyes were bright, and he was crying, the cry of a healthy baby. It is what happened next that really opened my eyes. The Pastor again spoke to the congregation, and without any hesitation they opened their billfolds and purses, and proceeded to empty them of any money they had. Now they had already taken the offering before this, so this was over and above. The money was given to the family to make sure the baby was taken care of. Later, I considered what had happened and asked myself why you rarely see healings such as this in the states. It was then that it hit me. These people, who were poor farmers, had handed over everything to someone they didn't even know, someone who wasn't even a Christian....Why? Because they had faith in God to provide for them. And it was this simple, but total faith that had healed this child. They were able to take that seemingly so simple step of handing over complete control to God. How many of us could do that? Could you hand over everything you have to a stranger, and just trust in God to provide for you? I myself am still far away from being able to do this. The materialistic life we lead keeps us from trusting God. Instead we trust in our cellphones, our ATM's, Our PDA's, our computers, and everything else we have that makes our lives easier. We trust in our jobs to provide money to obtain all these wants, thereby becoming a slave to both our jobs, and the money we get from them. We are warned repeatedly in the Bible of the dangers of money, and yet we still let it control our lives. My prayer for all of us is that we will start to see what is important during this Lenten season, when we stop to consider the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made for us. How much can we sacrifice to become the Hands and Feet of Jesus? How can we put aside our pride and become the Light in the darkness? Let's become that light, let's become that City on the Hill, shining in the dark, a refuge for all the lost. Amen
But it's not about me....
I was thinking about my "All about me" post, and I realized, it's really not all about me. I shared a little about my faith, but not about my family. Allow me to remedy this. There is my lovely wife, P, who has put up with me for almost 21 years. She is an Registered Nurse, in the Long Term Care industry. She is on the Worship team at church, as well as serving in other areas as well. Then there is our daughter, J. She currently attends a Performing Arts High School in our area. She is also involved with not only our church, but with one of the so called Mega-Churches in our area, where she attends their youth programs. She spent 6 weeks last summer in Gambia, Africa, with a team from Royal Servants. This summer she is going to spend 6 weeks in Guatemala serving at the orphanage we go to, then she will come back and serve another week at STORM Camp, a service camp run by our former Pastor in northern Minnesota. That's 7 weeks out of her summer break spent serving others. Praise God. She is a teenager, she sometimes makes dumb choices, but overall she has got a pretty good head on her shoulders, and we love her very much.
50 things about me...
I've seen this done on other blogs, and since I always enjoy it when I read one, I'll give it a shot.
- I'm 46
- I live in the Twin Cities of Minnesota
- I am married, 21 years this summer
- We have a 16 year old daughter
- She believes she's 19 a lot of the time
- We belong to the Methodist church
- I am very active with my church
- I have done seven short term Mission trips
- My first was to Uganda, Africa for 3 weeks with my wife
- The rest have been to Guatemala to serve at an orphanage
- I saw an almost dead baby healed through prayer in Guatemala
- It opened my eyes to the power of faith and prayer
- It also made me realize the shallowness of our faith here in the States
- I still find it very difficult to give up control of my life to God
- I have done a Spiritual Gifts analysis
- My gifts are: Discernment, Craftsmanship and Evangelism
- I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit
- I believe the Love comes from God
- I enjoy the outdoors
- I HATE winter
- Did I mention that I live in Minnesota
- I hate mosquitos
- Did I mention I live in Minnesota (State bird=mosquito)
- I enjoy camping
- I enjoy outdoor concerts (Sonshine Festival..woo woo)
- I enjoy Paint ball
- I am a fan of the Minnesota Vikings
- I am a fan Of the Minnesota Wild (hockey)
- I am a fan of the Twins (baseball)
- I love NASCAR racing
- I am a fan of #24 Jeff Gordon
- I once got clocked doing 100MPH on a rural interstate
- The State Trooper was kind enough to let me off with a warning
- I am going to attend my first race in person this summer in Michigan
- My lovely wife is going to accompany me
- She doesn't really like racing
- But she loves me
- I am so lucky to have her
- I work for one of the cities near us
- I work in Facilities Maintenance
- I fix all the stuff other people break
- I love roller coasters
- I am deathly afraid of heights
- I want to go sky diving
- My favorite amusement park is Cedar Pointe, in Sandusky, Ohio
- We have 3 dogs (2 American Eskimos and a Schipperke)
- We also have 3 cats (2 Siamese and a gray one)
- I am running out of things to say
- I am glad your reading this
- Uhhh.......Thanks for visiting!!
Okay...so what if you make a Blog, and no one reads it? I have to admit I'm a little disappointed at the lack of hits on my Blog. Perhaps if I use some buzz words and phrases, like: PREMARITAL SEX is wrong, or FREE MUSIC DOWNLOADS is stealing from the artists. Perhaps if I just announce AMERICAN IDOL rocks. But seriously, I realize that it takes time for people to find you, and actually, it really is not that big a deal. I am going to put some links to other blogs on my sidebar, that is once I figure out how, and where my sidebar actually is. LOL Most of them are women writers, and I do find them very inspiring, although I find myself LOOKING FOR SKIRTS to put on our bed, or PLANNING A COMPLETE MAKEOVER for the upstairs bathroom. Well, you can see where this is leading. What I would really like to find is some good, down to earth CHRISTIAN MEN"S BLOGS. The Blogs I've found written by men are almost never Christian in nature. I did find a couple, but they were updated like once every two months. I do have a couple men's Blogs I follow, just to keep perspective; their views are usually not the same as mine, but I like to be kept thinking and asking questions of myself. It would be nice to find a circle of men who share some of the same values and beliefs. Hope to hear from someone soon. EXTREME MAKEOVER HOME EDITION is awesome! I feel so dirty.
Recently, in our state, the topic of gay marriage has been coming up. Some politicians are pushing an amendment to define marriage as a union between one man, and one women. While I am not 100% sure that the Bible, in particular the New Testament, bans love between to people of the same sex, I believe that for a church to perform a marriage, and bless it in the name of God is wrong. If homosexuality is a sin, to not only condone it, but to bless it as well, is perhaps even a greater sin. It goes against that whole "love the Lord God with all your might.." thing. with that said, however, I believe that as the Christians, it is important that we not impose our beliefs on non-believers. Christianity is not something you are born into, it is a personal choice each of us makes. The imposition of moral beliefs, through law, or otherwise, is not what Christianity should be about. We are told that others will recognize us by our love. That is what we, as the Christian church, should be about. That means that if two men, or two women, want to live together in a state recognized marriage, while not condoning it, we should still not only let them, but still show our love of Christ through a show of love for them. That is what Jesus was trying to teach us when he talked of not judging others. We all sin, and in truth, their sin is no greater than any of ours. So, ignore the speck in your brothers eye, as you ignore the plank in you own, and love unconditionally, as Christ would have you.
So, I read an article yesterday that got me thinking. It seem the Dutch are requiring all immigrants to purchase and view a rather racy video, with images that include two men kissing, as well as images of nude women. The idea is that militant Muslims will refuse to watch it. But what about your average non-militant, but religously observant Muslim? Or Orthodox Jews? Or conservative Christians? Or any number of other groups out there that could be offended by these images? While I am 100% in favor of tolerance, it seems that this policy is designed to only allow in those people who are extremely liberal, and therefore, supportive of the current government. What if Bush were to require that all immigrants to the USA purchase and watch videos of Pat Robertson and James Dobson, and that only those with conservative Christian views would be allowed? It would never be allowed to hapen, nor would I want it to. Diversity and tolerance are two of the ways we use to learn to get along with others. There is possibly more to this story than what was presented in that small article, but I still have to ask, what should we allow our governments to do in the name of security?
So, my favorite football team, the Vikes, just traded Duante Culpepper for a 2nd round draft choice. Not much for a former Pro Bowler. However, I never really was on the Daunte Culpepper train. Don't get me wrong, he was very adequate as a quarterback, but he was not as good as he believed himself to be. And he was certainly not worth the outrageous amount of money he was asking for, this after getting a hefty bump in his contract less than a year ago. DC's strength was being able to throw the ball way down field, and have Randy Moss run under it. Take away Randy, and you have a whole different QB, one who has more than a little trouble trying to finesse the ball to receivers in the middle, and one who even has trouble throwing a little dump pass to his backs, often throwing it over there outstretched arms, or at their feet. To me the final straw was the Love Boat incident. Now don't get me wrong, my problem was not the party itself. I do not believe in imposing my beliefs or morals on anyone else. However, DC was witnessed performing some sort of sex act in open. Busted. First he disrespected his wife with that act. Then, he disrespected the public, first by lying, saying he wasn't there, then by claiming that the whole investigation was racially motivated. Now, rather than face his fans and say "I'm sorry", he demands a trade, and behaves in such a way to all the team officials, that they had no choice but to trade or release him. All I can say is, good riddance Daunte, I hope Miami realizes what a gem of a role model they got in you. (Miami fans....my condolences)
hello...is anyone listening???
My first blog...Well, let me tell you what to expect. In the coming weeks I will present you with tidbits and commentary about my family, current events, lessons I've learned, and anything really cool I find (and steal) from other bloggers. I am a married, middle aged male. I am a Christian, but I have some views that some who say are "un-biblical". More on that later. I have found the internet to be a wonderful way to hear countless viewpoints. I believe that no matter how much someone else's view may conflict with my own, it is wrong to totally dismiss it. I always ask myself....is it even slightly possible, that they are right, and that I am wrong? It does not mean that I change my view, I just question myself more. Sometimes my beliefs are strengthened, other times I may modify a belief. This is what I consider true transformation, not adhering to someone else's slate of beliefs. I believe that the more we question ourselves, and our beliefs, the more we learn, and the more we truly grow. And isn't that what we are truly here for? More to come....
