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Showing posts from October, 2008

Vacation Tomorrow!

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WOW! Hard to believe it's finally here! Tomorrow my beautiful wife and I will be leaving for our 7 night Mediterranean cruise! We booked this trip over a year ago so it really feels like a long time coming. And because we didn't get any vacation this summer this trip is even more important to get some great rest and relaxation. This map shows where we'll be stopping. I am so incredibly excited to see Rome! That has been a lifelong dream to get there. I'm also hoping that on Sunday we can find some little church in France to visit. Something with monks and chanting would be COOL! We fly out tomorrow. I'm not bringing any cell phone, Blackberry, laptop or anything else that could potentially get me connected to the Internet :) This week is just all about celebrating the 10 th anniversary to my AWESOME wife Danielle. So... if you don't see any blog postings in the next nine days, don't be concerned :-)

New Hallelujah

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I picked up the Michael W. Smith album yesterday, A New Hallelujah, on iTunes. Yes... I said album... what else do you call music you download??? It's not a CD or MP3s... Anyways... I'm just LOVING this music. Michael W. Smith's music has been a huge impact in my life of following Jesus. He was the very first Christian musician I ever heard of outside of the music played at church. Remember... in Montreal there's no Christian radio and the big business of Christian music is next to nowhere to be found there. His song Live the Life was a mantra that I played nearly ever single day for 5 years! That song was key in my decision that faith was more then a belief but rather a way to live! One of the highlights of my walk was seeing Smith in Toronto with my wife and one of my closest friends. That weekend was so very special for me... then, years later, we saw him in concert again... this time bringing our 3 year old son and 1 year old daughter. It was just great! The mix of

Enjoying IT with Others

I've been very slack on my write ups on the book IT over the last few weeks. I guess I've been pretty slack with blogger period. I really need this vacation... which starts on Friday!!! I so can't wait to get away with my lovely wife and just spend a fantastic week together. I'm going to skip chapter 4 and 5 and jump right in to chapter 6. Why? Because out of all the chapters in this book, this is probably the one that hits me the most. This chapter focuses on camaraderie which is found in churches with it. I'm a relationship kind of guy. In fact, I pretty much base the success of every area of my life on the relationships that I have in these areas. For example, I know my marriage is going well by my relationship with my wife. I know I'm a good dad by looking at my relationship with my kids. I know I'm following Jesus closely by the relationships I have with people within and outside the church. Good or bad, I really do measure my success based o

Things I'm Reading

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Ok ... I know I've been saying that I need to slow down on my reading... but I just can't help myself :-) I love reading, and I love learning... and I love geeking out with a good comic... so I guess I'm just going to accept the fact that I'll always be reading something new to challenge me. Here's an update on a few of the things I've been reading lately. Secret Invasion I LOVE the Avengers comics. I read ever single Avengers title and major character (New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, The Initiative, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk). This year's big tie-in event is about a race of shape-shifting aliens called the Skrulls who have been hiding among the heroes for years planning a secret invasion. At first I was really loving this series... especially the tie-in issues which have been revealing which super heroes were actually Skrulls in hiding... But after several months of this... well... I'm bored. And I'm especially bored of the tie-in is

Red-Letter Christian

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I've been doing a lot of reading lately. I know... I said I was going to slow down on that... I just couldn't help myself :-) This past week I read Red Letters: Living a Faith that Bleeds by Tom Davis, Letters to a Young Evangelical by Tony Campolo and several online documents which have all made comments on this idea of being a Red-Letter Christian. I LOVE THIS! Sure... some of the comments have more to do with the US political situation (the fact that Jesus wasn't a Republican or a Democrat) but there is SOOO much other great stuff here for Christians who are trying to live out their faith as a follower of Jesus. For those who are not familiar with the term Red-Letter Christian, it came from a secular Jewish Country-and-Western disc jockey in Nashville, Tennessee. During a radio interview he was conducting with Jim Wallis, he happened to say, “So, you’re one of those Red-Letter Christians--you know--who’s really into those verses in the New Testament that are in red lette

Asking Questions in Church

This clip from the TV show Desperate Housewives is AWESOME! I admit... I never watch the show... but this is just so perfect! How do we REALLY create an environment where people can ask the questions they have about God and about faith? Is that only reserved for special events and studies? Are we as followers of Jesus ready to answer those questions no matter where and when they hit us? Or are we more comfortable with the status quo and would rather the questions don't interrupt our peaceful church lives? Just some thoughts :-) (If you're reading this on Facebook click HERE for the video clip)

Presidential Election

This guy gets my vote! UNKNOWN CANDIDATE :)

Retreat

In about an hour I'll be heading out for our Men's Retreat that is happening up at Chesley Lake this weekend. I'm pretty pumped about this. The last retreat was on it was 3 days after I had all 4 wisdom teeth pulled out. With all the painkillers I was on I barely even remember being there :-) I'm a tad nervous as well. I'm teaching the three sessions over the course of the weekend. I've been working like crazy this past month and a bit and the retreat snuck up on me... I'm still trying to finish the last one now before my ride gets here to pick me up! :-) Thankfully a LOT of prayer has gone into this weekend so I know I have nothing to worry about :-)

A Field or a Force

LOVE THIS VIDEO! I've been to Granger Community Church before but have never heard one of Mark Beeson's sermons before... but I think, after hearing this, I'm going to have to try to give those a listen from time to time :-) (If you're reading this on Facebook, click this link to access the YouTube video)