Sunday, July 25, 2004

:: Definitions

I wonder what is the true defintion of a blogger. Is it someone who blogs daily? Is it someone who puts their whole heart into each blog? If you blog weekly are you a wannabe? Anybody seen any good blogs or articles along these lines?

Life is so stinkin busy these days. I am working a job that is taking me 60 hrs a week. Somewhere in the middle of all that I am trying to be involved in a church plant. Lately it has been survival mode. Survival mode is when life is spinning a little too fast to keep balanced emotionally, physically, spiritually, and socially. There are days in here I feel like the old Randy Stonehill song "Stop the world I wanna get off".

I am sure God is up to something in all this. For the life of me I haven't got it figured out though.

I better stop this is getting too much like a rambling rant. Later.

Monday, July 19, 2004

:: The Wedding

We were in Lubbock this weekend for my sister Beths wedding. It was a family event with me doing the ceremony, my other sister Sherri as the maid of honor, My wife a bridesmaid, my brother in law a groomsman, and my kids candlelighters. It was a great time at the wedding and seeing family.

Going into the wedding I kept praying that it would not be just a wedding but a time of giving glory to God. For me I can tell when the Lord intervenes strongly in a place and this was just such a time for me. I'm not saying all was perfect, but there was such a peace about the whole ceremony. Thanks Lord for your hand upon all of us this weekend.

I decided to begin a photoblog this week also. You can find it at: http://bear.fotopages.com


Friday, July 09, 2004

:: The ultimate bloggers resource

Look at the Ooze annual blog tools roundup for a brief review of tons of blogging tools. It was written by Jordon Cooper.

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

:: Vintage wisdom

I found Glorify His Name while perusing Greg Burnetts blog. On it are quotes from many saints of old.

:: Prayer a necessity

As I have wrestled with our little community's process of growth, I have been reading on the subject of prayer recently. I am reading a book right now by Terry Teykl called Making Room to Pray.

Three quotes are significant to me.

"Our work is just that, but prayer releases God's work"

"When we pray He (God) breathes upon us. Prayer is to inhale the breath of God. Evangelism is exhaling what we inhale in prayer."

The last is a story about Paul Cho (pastor of the worlds largest church). He said God spoke to him in prayer and asked "How many quail would Israel have caught if they had gone quail hunting in the wilderness?" Not too many. I then realized that God sent the wind which brought the quail. There is a difference in chasing a strategy and in finding the Holy Spirits strategy.

Sunday, July 04, 2004

:: Gotta have a dog

Did you know that Americans eat 2 billion hot dogs in July each year. 150 million of those are eaten on July 4th. Personally I like the all beef dog, cheddar cheese, a bit of chili, mustard and topped with sprinkles of onions.

Friday, July 02, 2004

:: Sunday night

We continued our theme of prayer on Sunday night. We all read Phillipians with an eye for the mentions of prayer in the book and an eye out for a verse that stood out to us. Phillipians seems very pertinent to the situations of our little community. We are learning to count all things loss for the sake of knowing Christ, we are learning to be content in all stages of life whether abundance or lack, we are learning that Christ will continue his work in us.

We broke up into groups. Each group did a skit that illustrated a verse on prayer in Phillipians. The shark hunting protection skit was funny.

We then spent time in worship and ended joined in a circle of prayer. It was a good God night connecting with our community.

:: Working, working, working

I have been putting in some hours on the new job. Actually more than some, actually quite a lot. This is an interesting situation for a church planter. The job that I have allows a bit of flexibility and I can take my kids with me so it fits in one way very well. The hard part is I don't know how much I'll be working until day of or the day before, so it runs into our Thursday night FUEL meetings some.

I trust the Lord is working in all this. I am learning to trust by faith in what God brings with the job. I am working for a company that contracts out to mortgage companies cleaning up and checking on houses that are in delinquency, bankruptcy, or foreclosure. I get paid to check on statuses and then at times clean up the properties so they meet HUD standards for resell.

I miss being more regular on the blog and will try to get back to that discipline.