I am a dorky Christian, husband to my beautiful wife & best friend and father of three amazing children. In my spare time, I like to play guitar and coach little kids' baseball.
I use this website to log my random thoughts (which doesn't seem to be that frequent).
I am a designer, developer and web analyst for my company, Visual Notion.
Contact me if you need something.
It seems the "Americanized" church is devoid of two crucial characteristics:
Christians should be trained to follow Christ through leaders who are upright and excellent examples every day of the week. to be more like Him. A Bible Study buffet of "topics" doesn't constitute discipleship.
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
– 1 Peter 2:2-3
They are the next generation of leaders and not just "things" that should warrant a baby-sitter (aka programs that keep them from "bothering" adults) at all times.
Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
– Matthew 19:13-14
For hundreds of years, Christians have quietly repeated fragments of Scripture or short prayers throughout the day to remain present to God. As the Russian Christian writer Anthony Bloom put it, “God is never absent . . . We complain that He does not make Himself present to us for the few minutes we reserve for Him, but what about the twenty-three-and-a-half hours during which God may be knocking at our door and we answer ‘I am busy, I am sorry’ or when we do not answer at all because we do not hear the knock . . . we are a great deal more absent than He ever is.” Having a simple refrain to call upon during the day helps us maintain connection to Christ and tunes the heart to hear him knocking at its door.
In the Crowded Mind: Learning to Pray Without Ceasing By Cameron Lawrence
From the article at InTouch.org
If you feel "disrespected" because someone else celebrates their American heritage in their own country, the United States of America, you obviously don't have a strong sense of contentment and self-respect for your own heritage.
No matter the day, I will not apologize for my heritage and country of origin.
My thoughts after Rick sent me the link to this story.
Attempting to isolate God to a particular day of the week and specific areas of our lives only, leads to a pretty pathetic existence.
To only "allow" God access to us and our life shows not only do we not trust Him or follow Him, but we don't really want Him to follow us, either.
This just shows that we want to look good; to look pious at a given time that may suit our whims.
It is not at all Biblical. It is not piety. It is merely hypocrisy at it's finest.
To my lovely bride of ten years,
Jennifer, I can't imagine it happening any other way or with anyone else. The day we married was the best starting point we could have and I'm amazed at the lifetime of blessings that the Lord has packed into just ten years.
We've been through a job loss, starting a business, tight times, the birth of three beautiful children and almost losing one before she was born. The ride continues to be fun and wild with many ups and downs, and I can't imagine being side by side with any other. I don't believe it's possible to have a more wonderful and loving woman as you.
I love you.
When furthering convergence of real life with online data something has to give. People will cut back on something. Commenting, for one, has become too noisy on blogs, in my opinion. People will trim the fat and time involved in managing comments which typically are negative or distract entirely from the information presented.
I don't believe that ALL commenting is bad. I just see that more people are seeing how time-consuming it is to manage and need to cut back on offering that as a communication method on their website.
[Originally posted on November 11th, 2008 and reposted in honor of Veteran's Day]
We attended the Veteran's Day program at our son's Christian school this morning. The program was well done and honored the memory of those that have lived and died fighting for our freedoms. Hearing Taps has always given me chills all over. It so eloquently salutes the heroism lived out and the tragedy that has occurred.
Do your best to do the right thing in any situation.
It may cost you time, pain, money, etc., but there's nothing like a clear conscience.
For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men. – 2 Corinthians 8:21 (NIV)