Archive for 2007

My aunt and uncle sent me an Amazon.com gift certificate. I began to browse my wishlist to get a book or two, but was distracted by a recommendation from Amazon for me.

As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be the perfect birthday gift. It’s a collection of all the Amazing Spiderman comic books on DVD (more than 575)! Some of you know that I was and if I had the money would still be a comic book geek. I still have all my Spiderman comics, and I can’t wait to review this amazing collection.

Thanks, John and Carolyn!

My daughter’s dog and I don’t get along. At all.

For starters, she barks incessantly, even maniacally at the slightest noise. I can alter my voice while in another room, and she’ll literally bark herself into hysteria at the thought that perhaps a person who looks like me but talks differently has snuck into her home to steal her dogfood.

I have often threatened her with a swift and self-satisfying death.

However, for 2008 (or as long as I can take it), I have resolved to be kind to Fancy.

The next few days will be relatively easy. I’ll be out of town until the new year while she is still at home being dog-sat by the Morgans.

Again, you’ll have to forgive our amateurishness. We’re working on it. Many thanks to Taylor for help with the video and the editing of it! For future episodes, we’re going to cut the length in half and hopefully begin to include some interviews. Give us some ideas, thoughts, and (kind) input…

I’m just glad I was the one behind the camera. No shots of my attempts currently exist.

Sounds a little, well, demanding, but I’d love for Huckabee to come to our little town and share his viewpoints and why he thinks he should be elected as the President of the United States. Would you? Click to “demand” it. I’m sitting on pins and needles…

I don’t know how I got out of it, but Carolyn wrote the Christmas letter this year and did a great job! Make sure to tell her! (That way I can get out of more letters in the future.) It’s been a year of growth, learning and discovery. We’re grateful more than ever for friends, family, and most importantly, for the all-gracious presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has been our Rock this year in some difficult times.

We are hoping that you too, whoever you are and however you might have stumbled upon this little blog, will seek to discover for yourself the tender might of the God who announced good news of great hope for all people. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Jeff has been blessed by two great gifts (or toys) this year. A good friend gave him his white Honda moped. Everyone loves it! When you fill it up with gas each month for $2.91 you suddenly do not care what people are saying about you. “Ghost,” as he proudly calls it, has been a blessing.

His pride and joy gift from his dad was an Apple iPhone. Sam and Carolyn stood in line for 3 hours on the day it was released. He literally has not put it down since he received it. It has made him proud once again of Apple and all of it products.

Journey Church is still going strong. Jeff’s prayer this year was for Journey to see God work throughout the nations. Prayers have beeen answered. One of Journey’s families surrendered their life to missions and moved to Alaska to be bi-vocational missionaries. Journey has also partnered with a church in India where we have sent them letters, books and even a bicycle. We also have had mission teams travel to Denver to help in the Operation Christmas Child distribution center and to Memphis to help an inner city church with a live nativity.

Once again, God has proved himself faithful. We continue to follow.

Carolyn has enjoyed our travels this year. In February, we all played hooky and spent a week at Walt Disney World. We went the week of the Superbowl so Sam and Jeff got to see Tony Dungee and Dominique Rhodes. That made things smoother when Adelyn and Carolyn drug them to eat at Cinderella’s caste. The week really was ‘magical’.

Jeff and Carolyn also traveled to Washington DC with a group of Monticello leaders. We were honored to be in such company and loved seeing our nation’s finest. This summer Carolyn and a good friend met up at Schlitterbahn in San Antonio, TX. The two crazy friends and SIX children enjoyed every soaked minute of the world’s largest waterpark, and no one drowned or got lost. It was a miracle considering the amount of water and people there! In October, she and a group of ladies from Journey
walked in Race for the Cure in LR. The quantity of people alone was incredible, even so, the quantity of money raised for breast cancer.

Carolyn continues to take photos. She did not get an iPhone this year, but opted for a new camera lens she found more practical!

Sam is ten years old and has had quite a year. In January, he joined the Drew Co. 4-H Shooting Sports Club. He practiced shooting archery, shotgun, 22 &
Muzzleloader twice a month which prepared him for two state competitions that he attended in June and July. Being part of such a great group prepared him for Arkansas Youth Hunt in November. Sam killed his first deer. It was a doe. Although, he didn’t have antlers to show for his hunt he had an incredible experience. He not only killed a deer, he helped skin and clean it, he packaged the meat and we all enjoyed the yummy deer steak dinner he prepared.

Sam is in the 5th grade and on the honor roll. He still enjoys playing baseball and came close several times this season hitting the ball over the fence. He has his own
fantasy football league. He and Jeff spend Sunday afternoons watching football and keeping up with their players’ stats. He is growing into a young man, and we
are very proud of him.

Adelyn is eight years old, and her signature this year is Converse tennis shoes. She is quite the free spirit and we never know how she will be dressed each morning for school. Her claim to fame this year is her role as a little angel in the Arkansas Ballet and Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s Nutcracker. On a whim in August, she tried out for a part and made it. That experience alone was a great but the whole production is something we all will cherish, even though her time on stage was
only one minute long. Many family and friends were there to see her and she hopes to try out again next year.

She also swam for the Monticello Swim Team this summer where she was awarded, for the second year, “Most Points Swimmer” for her age division. She loves her weekly dance class where she learns tap, jazz and ballet. She has a new love for the piano. Her teacher has started teaching her chords and how to sing along with the music. She is a great student in all areas and we love to watch her grow.

I’ve been playing fantasy football since 1992. I’m still in that same league with some friends from Ouachita and a few others who have joined in the past 15 years. About nine years ago, I created another league that has guys who were mainly from Monticello, but it too has grown and expanded to include others. Finally, there’s a kids’ league that was created last year, mainly for Sam and some of his friends, and this year, it is just our family and another family, with a total of six teams (1 team for me and another for the other parents and the other four teams for kids).

Long story short… I’m in the Superbowl in the Kids Rock League and in 15 year-old Stink Baby League tomorrow! Also tomorrow, I’m playing for the division championship and the right to represent my division in the Superbowl in the mainly local Weevil League. So three championship games in one Sunday!

Already, the fantasy football gods have sought to smite me. Pittsburgh Steeler running back (and NFL rushing leader at the time) Willie Parker broke his ankle in Thursday night’s game. I owned and started him in two different leagues.

My son Sam and I are both addicted to fantasy football and usually devote our Sunday afternoons during football season to watching the games and keeping track of our stats and scores. (That is, unless I fall asleep on the God Couch).

Most of you won’t be able to appreciate this, but during the last game of the regular season, one of my team’s scored a league record 309 points. As far as I know that would beat any record in any of the three leagues I’m in.

So for all you fantasy coaches out there who are still in your league’s playoffs, good luck! Here’s hoping that this is my year… in more than one league!

You better watch out.

You better not cry…

Or should you?

I was spending some time in scripture reading and prayer the other morning when I happened to glance over at the end table where my coffee mug rested. My eyes were somehow drawn to the ceramic Santa perched proudly thereupon. When what to my wandering eyes should appear but two tiny children dangling helplessly from his clenched fist…

Aaaaaah!

Now that’s just downright spooky.

I haven’t said a word about it to my wifey yet. It’s probably some family heirloom that has never been at eye level. Now that it is, it’s sure to scar any impressionable mind. What the heck is he doing here? Carting off bad children to work in his sweat workshop?

Now I can’t sit in that chair without wondering about the sadistic Santa.

After a couple of months of weekend practices and much fru-fru buildup around the house, our daughter (8) performed in The Nutcracker at Robinson Auditorium in Little Rock yesterday. She was cast as one of the little angels (and it was such perfect typecasting…). Almost 30 folks from Monticello made the trip to Little Rock to watch the performance as well as my family and Carolyn’s mom and sister, from Hobbs, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas.

With all the hoopla going on, Sam and I were ultra concerned about missing the games. This weekend was the first week of our fantasy football playoffs. Sam and I were slated to play each other, and the winner moves on while the loser, well, loses.

So slow moments (and there were many) found Sam and me sneaking peaks at my iPhone to see who was winning. My brother-in-law James helped out as well with his Blackberry, especially during intermission.

Probably one of the funniest moments came on the way to Little Rock, when Sam asked Carolyn, “Mamma, will there be a concession stand there?”

Adelyn did great, by the way. She looked beautiful and was quite the budding ballerina.

All the guys who made the trip were ultra disturbed by the male ballerinas’ leotard bulge.

Oh, and as of Sunday night, I was 15 points up on Sam, but he has a quarterback left to play in tonight’s MNF showdown.

There’s a favorite expression making its rounds in the church today. It is a resurrection of St. Francis of Assisi’s quote (Founder of the Franciscan order, 1181-1226), which goes like this:

Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.

The reason it’s soared in popularity and practice is because many Christians would rather simply be “nice” and “do good” while remaining silent about why they’re being nice and doing good. It is a good, moral life lived well among neighbors, coworkers and family, but it is a life absent of the proclamation of faith and God’s glory as revealed in Jesus Christ.

Scott McKnight, in his commentary on 1 Peter says, “We have been easily led astray into following socially significant ministries rather than following the path of salvation as the road Christians should travel.”

In other words, it’s the age-old tension between balancing social ministry and preaching the gospel. In our country, conservative Evangelicals have tended to do well on the latter and poor on the former, while it’s the opposite for liberal Protestantism.

Many churches, including mine, emphasize the importance of serving others as an outlet and proof of our faith. After all, if Jesus washed His own disciples feet, then ought we not to serve one another? However, when serving others becomes an end rather than the means of gospel proclamation, disciples of Christ have gotten off track. The foot washing incident and other instances of Jesus’ physical ministry (healing, raising from the dead, feeding multitudes, etc.) all came in the overall context of His goal in ministry: to seek and save the lost.

Scripture reveals that signs, wonders, miracles, even when done by the apostles after Jesus’ ascension were done as proof of the Gospel message. They were never performed simply to relieve an isolated need. They were done with the Gospel in mind, with a view toward all the earth knowing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that only through faith in Him can one have ultimate salvation in God.

McKnight says, “The history of the church proves dramatically that when Christians get out of balance here, it is always the message of salvation that gets lost.”

It’s not that churches ought to do less social work or service (some are doing none). Rather, it’s that we do serve wholeheartedly, without losing sight of the very reason we serve. It’s to communicate the glorious, liberating truth of salvation in Christ alone. Service without proclamation of Jesus’ love does indeed meet needs, but a filled stomach without hope is a tragic paradox.

Perhaps one of the best books to urge a balance between service and proclamation is Lifestyle Evangelism by Joe Aldrich.  At the heart of it all though, seems to be an unfortunate reality… if someone has to tell you to tell others about the joy and hope of your salvation, then most likely you’re not currently living in it.

Maybe the most important thing is to continue to be burdened by the real needs of those around you. Continue to mobilize yourself, others and resources to meet those needs. And continue to dedicate yourself to communicating the life-transforming content of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Elton had a post the other day looking at Romans 10.17:

So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. 

Essentially, one cannot have faith in what one never hears about. Preach the Gospel at all times using words. Period.

 A flat tire… a tense argument with a loved one or friend, a financial cruch… When any of these happen singularly, they are aggravations or frustrations. However, if they begin to occur in tandem, with other stressors, Christians are quick to begin claiming scriptural promises about “suffering” for their encouragement.

Scott McKnight, in his commentary on 1 Peter says, “Such events are not true counterparts to suffering in the early church… we are not entitled to trivialize the suffering of that church by finding cheap analogies and then pretend that such things are suffering for faithfulness to the Lord.”

He says in the context of Western Christianity’s tendency to claim as suffering those events that are actually brought on by other circumstances or causes rather than instances of hardship and calamity caused directly by our faith in and proclamation of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Rather, he says, Western Christians do not suffer in comparison to Christians in other cultures around our world, nor can we easily relate the sufferings of Christians in the early church with our own as we bemoan a lack of finances while we watch our TVs and eat a #1 combo from Wendy’s.

“Our lack of suffering is, in part, due to a lack of nerve on the part of the church to challenge our contemporary world with the message of the cross and to live according to the teachings of Jesus with uncompromising rigor… Those who live faithful lives in an unbelieving world will find opposition to their ideas and their practices.”

Paul related to Timothy, “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2 Timothy 3.12)

McKnight further puts the Western church in a headlock when he comments, “The fires of commitment and unswerving confession of the truth of the gospel are too frequently set on low flame, as if the church grows best if it only simmers rather than boils.”

It is not as if our problems are irrelevant or that we should become stoic to setbacks. Rather, we should understand that scripturally, suffering for Christ occurs when in direct response to our testimony or commitment to Christ we are persecuted or maligned. The point is that everyone – believer and nonbeliever alike – encounters hardships. However, Christians must be sensitive to apply scripture about suffering accurately and not to trivialize the sufferings of our brothers and sisters in faith around the world who daily suffer significantly for their faith in Christ.

For instance, Peter tells us, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed.” (I Peter 4.12)

It’s rather ironic that rejoicing occurs in the presence of suffering Christians in scripture while whining occurs more often in the presence of current Christians. The author of Hebrews urges us to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (12.2)

It’s indeed a radical exercise of our mental faculties that enable us to focus on Christ rather than our circumstances. As we do so, let us rise above classifying our aggravations as suffering.

With such perspective, and in view of the magnificent blessings that surpass our trials, we’ll be able to say with Hudson Taylor, missionary to China, “I never made a sacrifice.”

I called it here many moons ago, but the numbers are in, and they’re startling.

Consider this article and this quote:

In 5 short months, the iPhone not only matched, but opened up a huge lead on Microsoft, Symbian and Palm COMBINED. These are platforms that have been around for up to a decade…when the net was first catching on in the mobile space.

You can read the news report from Net Applications here.

“…He commanded our fathers to teach their children, that the next generation might know [His testimony/law] and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and keep His commandments.” Psalm 78.5-7

I was struck afresh by these words as a powerful reminder for our intentional spiritual influence on our children. The greatest privilege any parent can have is not just telling their child about the Lord but modeling for their children a lifestyle of devotion and love for the Lord and His people.

I grew up in a church culture in which parents dropped their kids off for Wednesday night youth ministry and then showed back up at church when the program was over. For many of my friends in the youth group, they never had the experience of sitting in worship with their parents, nor did they encounter loving spiritual guidance from their parents at home.

This instruction from the Psalmist exhorts believers in God to teach their children. I don’t think it’s as simple as just getting them to learn a few verses or reciting information about the Bible. I think the heart of the command is for the parents to practice a lifestyle of godliness in the home. Yes, the church – the local gathering of believers – has a role to play; however, the most dynamic spiritual impact occurs in a child’s life when they see and experience and hear their parents seeking to humbly follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. A parent is a child’s best pastor.

This principle of intentionality and of “passing it on” is seen again in the New Testament in relation to leadership and discipleship. Paul tells his young protege Timothy, “The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”

In other words, don’t let it stop with you. When you are blessed by someone pouring into your life, whether parent, pastor, friend or family member, make sure to turn around and pass it on. The expression goes, “You have been blessed to be a blessing.”

It makes me think about the cheesy old youth camp song called Pass It On:

It only takes a spark (are you swaying yet?)

To get a fiiiiire goiiing.

And soon all those around

Will warm up to its glowiiiing. (Get ready for musical crescendo!)

That’s how it is with God’s love

Once you’ve experienced it.

You spread His love to everyone.

You want…. to pass….. it on.

(For the rest of the lyrics, check here!)

Not that I need to point out the virtues of Macs and iPods and now iPhones. They speak so loudly for themselves. However, if you haven’t followed the remarkable story of constant underdog Apple Computer lately, you might be surprised that even former Apple naysayers are now on the bandwagon.There’s a great piece here about how many former PC users are seeing the light…Have you made the switch to Apple this year? 

Church: An Insider’s Look at How We Do It

by John G., Jr. Stackhouse

I distinctly remember being curious about this book when I saw it on the steeply-discounted book rack at Mardell’s a while back. I’ve had it for quite some time. Imagine my surprise after reading the first chapter to find myself drawn into the author’s writing style and observations about church.He treats the church with kids’ gloves, intentionally being gentle; however, he also asks some powerful questions that need to be asked.It’s a good read, and one that I would recommend!

See more about Church: An Insider’s Look at How We Do It