• Out of the mouths of babes, part 2

    Niagra_falls_113After the last post about Paul, I’m guessing people think my kids are really wild animals. Well, truth be told that’s partially true… but they also are really sweet and say nice things.

    Last night Paul and Kristen were laying in Paul’s bed. Kristen was trying to get Paul to go to sleep when he said, "Mommy, can we sing the calm song?" Kristen didn’t think she knew it so Paulie started singing…

    "Oh, no. You not let go, through the calm and through the storm. Oh no. You not let go of me."

    Kristen instantly recognized it as the Matt Redman song, You Never Let Go,  on the Passion CD. It’s amazing the spiritual truths my 2 year old is picking up from listening to our iPod. (The boy likes Tomlin too, he once got us all stopped talking in the car to saym "Mommy, holy is the Lord. The Lord is holy." Makin Moses proud there eh?)

    Here’s the lyrics from Redman’s song… good stuff. He completed ripped off David!

    Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    Your perfect love is casting out fear.
    And even when I´m caught in the middle of the storms of this life,
    I won´t turn back, I know You are near.

    And I will fear no evil,
    For my God is with me.
    And if my God is with me,
    Whom then shall I fear?
    Whom then shall I fear?

    O no, You never let go,
    Through the calm and through the storm
    O no, You never let go,
    In every high and every low
    O no, You never let go –
    Lord You never let go of me.

    And I can see a light is coming for the heart that holds on –
    A glorious light beyond all compare.
    And there will be an end to these troubles,
    But until that day comes,
    We´ll live to know You here on the earth.

    (And I will fear no evil¦)

    Yes, I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on,
    And there will be an end to these troubles, but until that day comes,
    Still I will praise You, still I will praise You.       

  • Mormonism Series, Part 4

    Missionaryonbikes_1
    Last night we wrapped up the summer Light Force series on Mormonism. If you want to catch up… here are the topics we covered.

    As I shared with our students each time we talked about this, I did this series in response to what’s happening here in Romeo. Over the past year or so Mormon missionaries have been making more and more concerted efforts to talk to high school students. With the planting of a local LDS church in our area coupled with high school students being heavily recruited… it was the goal of this series to fill our students with as much truth as we could about this different faith.

    That said, here are 4 talks that point to why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are not an expression of Biblical Christianity.

    – There is only one God
    – The Bible is God’s Word
    – Women Have Equal Access to God

    This weeks talk, Mormonism and Salvation, contrasts a works-based vs. grace-based salvation.

    (more…)

  • Out of the mouths of babes

    Lightforce_018Few things are more fun for me than hanging out with my kids and talking away. For this story… you need to know that Paul still has a hard time with his "s" words. The conjunction "st" gets pronounced more like "sd" and "s" words often come across as "sh" words.

    So you can imagine the laughter in the house when Paul was wrestling me tonight and he proudly proclaimed, "I’m sitting on daddy’s head."

  • Why are we working like mad?

    Late Summer is traditionally wild for me. I’ve got to participate in my summer activities and gear up for the Fall programs all at the same time. So, while most of my students are chilling at the pool, staying up until 3 AM, and sleeping in… I’m cracking the whip and falling into a pile at the end of the day.

    What’s doubly crazy is that this year is twice as mad as usual! Why is that? Well, starting in September we are implementing a lot of changes to the youth group. "Changes, I thought we were a Baptist youth group?"

    Yeah, we’re morphing (not changing really) the make-up and philosophy of ministry for Light Force. I am saving a lot of the details of this until a Parents Meeting on August 16th… but let’s just say it’s BIG and it’s really exciting for us.

    The net result is that I have lots and lots to do and I’m trying to break it all up into bite sized pieces. I love everything I’m doing… just panting like a dog to get it done.

  • Doggy First Aid, part 2

    I just got back from the vet. Stoney is now sporting a very cool orange bandage. They took him in the back room and he came back a few minutes later. He was very good about it. He’s been pretty lazy today, but I’m expecting him to be back to his normal self in no time.

  • What a Mess in the Middle East

    I think the whole world is keeping an eye on this Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I have to be honest as say that I don’t know who is right and wrong. Hundreds of people are dying, thousands have been injured, and nothing but anger has come to light.

    I can see how Israel seems to be overreacting to everything. An enemy does something small and Israel responds with thunder. But I can also see how Palestinians are not being reasonable in the least. It’s just a mess.

    Than this happened yesterday. How sad.

  • Good News for High School Employees

    MinwageBuried deep in an article on CBS’s economic website, it seems that Congress is trying raise the minimum wage nationwide.

    The bill calls for the minimum wage to rise to $7.25 an hour from $5.15
    an hour, an increase that would be phased in over the next three years.     [Read the rest]

    Obviously, this hasn’t passed through the Senate yet… but raising the wages of our lowest paid employed persons out there is good news. It’s kind of sick to think that someone could work 40 hours per week at Wal*Mart and bring home less than $200 after taxes. This would take that 40 hour take home pay to about $250.

    Postscript: This doesn’t mean our babysitters will be getting a raise. In fact… we didn’t know we could pay so little!

  • Doggy First Aid

    Dewclaw2We are dogsitting for Nat’s massive hound dog named Flapjack. So far, it’s been really easy since he’s a nice dog. But the first day Stoney and Flappy did get into a little bit of a scuffle.

    In the course of fighting there was a lot of scratching and biting. While Flappy didn’t get hurt at all, Stoney did get a bloody ear and his right dewclaw got messed up. I cleaned up and iced his ear. But we’re keeping an eye on his dewclaw. I’m not trying to be cheap, but I’d hate to go to the vet to have him charge me $100 to remove a nail that will likely fall off in a few days.

    p.s. Still no Violet.

  • I don’t think I mattered

    I’m not sure I even want to talk about this. But it has to come out somewhere and I think it has a good purpose.

    (more…)

  • 3 theories on church websites

    It seems all my really good thoughts seem to come to me while pushing the lawn mower. As I sweated my lunch off this evening I started thinking about something.

    Today, we had Dave take a look at a list of the 50 Most Influential Churches in America’s websites. Based solely on the websites,  the top 50 seem to fit into one of the following categories.

    1. The personality church– These are places where it’s all about the senior pastor, his books and messages, and everything else about him. He/She is prominently featured everywhere on the site. I’m sure his fingerprint continues throughout the organization… at least you are led to believe so.
    2. The McDonald’s church– These are churches that are infatuated with their organization or denomination. My guess is that they are anticipating people to come to their site to discover that they can trust X Church since it’s just like all the other X churches out there.
    3. The fearful church– These are places where the best thing they seem to have is that they are right and the rest of the Western world is wrong. Of course… being that they own all that is right, they will point you and your family in the right direction. Trust them…

    Kind of weird eh? Go ahead… find them for yourself.