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Showing posts from December, 2008

Prayer for 2009

For the past 4 years I've been doing the One Year Bible.  I try to read the passages selected for each and every day.  Sure... some days I miss... It's not about being legalistic or anything... just wanting to draw closer to God through the regular reading of the Bible.  I also like to kick start that reading time with a very short prayer that I repeat each time so that God will really work on my heart as I spend that quiet time with him. This year was a pretty crazy, roller coaster ride as it came to my walk.  I have felt both incredibly close and incredibly far from God at different times.  I was blown away by his mercies and grace in some areas of ministry, and frustrated and hurt by his apparent lack of involvement in others.  I've both loved seminary and been overwhelmed by it. It's very interesting to go back and look at the short prayer that I put together for each year.  I can see how God moved in each one of those years... 2005 - Passion for God's word, his

Resolutions

Christmas has come and gone... (Insert sigh of relief here) ... and now I begin my yearly ritual of seeking God's will and direction for my life in the coming year. Every year around this time I like to look back at the past year, review what God has done in my life. I like to examine where did I listen closely to God and see his blessings, and where did I try to go it alone in my own strength and see things crash and burn :) Mark Batterson has a great post on his blog on how to go about setting resolutions for the New Year. You can read it here . This is pretty similar to what I've been doing the past few years but I've never broken it down to specific categories. I really like that idea. In fact, I like it so much that as soon as I'm done writing this post I'm going to refill my coffee mug and spend an hour or so in quiet time and prayer and put some of the ideas that come to me down on paper... well... that is if the kids will give me an hour :) This Sunday

Merry Christmas

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Christmas is both a joy and a stress...  I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the world would turn something as beautiful as the birth of the Saviour of all into a time of stress, frustration and hurt. This year, I don't know, but I'm not as stressed as normal.  Probably has to do with the fact for the first time in 12 years we are doing no driving!  Everyone is visiting us!  Praise God for that one!   With all the business of the next few days, I just want to rest in the joy and peace in knowing that the Lord of Lords, the prince of peace, and the king of kings has come into the world... and for some bizarro reason, he loves me so much that he allowed himself to be born in a stable surrounded by animals and shepherds.  The creator of the universe loved me so much that he would humble himself like that!  That thought is just MIND BLOWING!  And I want to savour every minute of celebrating that event this year with family and friends who mean so much to me! The Saviour is b

Monday Mind Dump

Taking another Monday off to get the house ready for hosting Christmas. Lots to do... but figured it's time for a little mind dump :-) We've been continuing the Great Purge in our house. Last week I got rid of about 5 garbage bags of junk that just was taking up space. I was hoping to get to our bedroom closet today... but with so much to do I guess that is going to have to wait till the New Year. Couple of things I REALLY want to be doing better at in 2009... The first is I'm planning on getting on an exercise and diet routine to drop 15 lbs. Not sure exactly if I'll do this with playing more squash or getting back into jogging... The second thing is I need to be much better at taking a Sabbath. I just find that I'm not resting and relaxing nearly as much as I should be... I want to spend a lot less time in front of the TV or computer screen and get back into doing more art.... whether painting Warhammer miniatures or drawing. I just love doing things more c

Do We Really Hate People That Much?

This video is awesome!  I came across this video from another blog I read and just thought this was a great story. What if every single one of us who confesses to be a follower of Jesus loved people this much to be recognized by an atheist as a nice man! What a testimony to the world that would be! If you're reading this on Facebook you can find the video at this LINK .

Wolverine Trailer!

Now this gets my geek blood all excited! Check out the trailer for the new Wolverine movie coming out next May. I haven't been this excited about a super hero movie in a while... If you're reading this on Facebook then click this LINK .

Monday Mind Dump

Today I'm at home using up some of my remaining vacation days before the end of the year. I have a small honey-do list to take care... and I plan on getting to that shortly :-) Here are some ramblings this morning while the self-cleaning oven is sending nasty small into my computer area... "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ." This one little verse has just been ROCKING my world the past few months. If Jesus is the example, and he DIED for me, then just what does that say about how I live my life? Who am I dying for? How am I imitating the life of Christ... so that that's what people are seeing? Jesus loved the poor. Loved the hurting. Loved the outcast. He spend his time with thieves and the least of these. Do I? This simple little verse is just rocking everything that I believe about the institution of the church and is shaking way out of my comfort zone! And, crazy as that sounds, I LOVE IT! I'm having a bunch of computer problems

Sam the ROCK STAR!

I think my daughter Samantha is going to be the next Jerry Lee Lewis! Great balls of fire!! This girl just REFUSES to sit down whenever she plays the piano :-) Way to ROCK that recital sweety!

Hulk Vs

I love these Marvel animated movies! The latest one is coming out this January and features three of my favorite characters: Hulk, Wolverine and Thor. Check out the trailer! Or check out www.Marvel.com to see the video there! I LOVE THIS STUFF!

The Great Purge

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My wife and I have started something in our house this week... and I'm calling it The Great Purge ! We have just really been overwhelmed with how much stuff we have.  Closets are overflowing.  Kid toys are everywhere.  Every nook and cranny of our house has just filled with stuff. BUT NO MORE!   We have been going from room to room and just been purging everything that is of no use and simply taking up space.  On the weekend we completely redid our office space.  I actually want to sit at the computer now :-)  Before you could barely move in there and now it's just so organized, clutter-free and simple!  LOVE IT!! Last night we tackled our entertainment unit.  We bought a leather binder with sleeves to store our DVDs.  So we threw away all the DVD and CD cases and put them nicely away in the binder.  Guess what?  There were THREE big garbage bags full of cases!  THREE!!!  That was all just completely cluttering the area.  Not only that but we put together a box full of old kid

Monday Mind Dump

As we start a new month I figured I'd dump some of the stuff floating around in my head these days :-) This morning I delivered 94 shoe boxes filled with toys and candy to be sent to impoverished children all around the world.  I'm just amazed by these boxes... filled with stuff that we would never give to our own kids for Christmas... yet will be the highlight of the year for most of the children who will receive them. Just 2 more weeks of school for this semester.  I've LOVED this class on Pastoral Leadership Foundations.  I learned a TON of great stuff.  Next semester I'm going to try to take two classes, Moral Theology and an Old Testament course.  Hopefully that won't kill me :-) Looking forward to having the family visit us this Christmas.  I think this is the first time in 12 years that Danielle and I have been together that we didn't have to spend hours in the car over the holidays! I'm working at completely revamping our integration process here at