12 of 12 - February 2009

7:23am - I wrote Valentine Countdown Poems for Amanda. I got started a little late, so she got to open a couple of them this morning.


9:41am - One of the many exciting jobs I do! I am hosing off the sidewalk where mud collected after our last heavy rain.


11:58am - I couldn't fix anything this time...had to call Konica Minolta to come replace their worn out part. (They diagnosed the problem, not me).


12:01pm - Stacking chairs in preparation for a reception on Friday night.


12:35pm - Break time! It was a nice day and Brooke was up for it, so we took a short break at lunch and went for a motorcycle ride.


12:48pm - Only in Texas! Just outside the city limits we saw these Texas Long Horns while on our motorcycle ride.


2:22pm - Another one of my everyday jobs...changing light bulbs.


5:42pm - Painting trim in the garage...still working on my home office.


6:03pm - One of our favorite evening activities...Daddy/Daughter wrestling!


6:04pm - Brooke wrestling with Boo while Punkin and I wrestled.


7:25pm - Sully was the first to get a haircut tonight.


9:25pm - Putting the finishing touches on Boo's haircut.

As My Daddy Always Said...

..."If I didn't have bad luck, I'd have no luck at all!" And that IS how it goes every home improvement project I start, and my office painting is no exception.

One night in January, I got this wild hare idea to repaint the office. That first night, I had one whole wall painted with Kilz. That was the only thing that has has gone according to plan since I started. There was also the issue of the trim...it was that coated Styrofoam-type stuff that broke easily. I can't replace broken pieces because the trim was bought 20 years ago and at Payless Cashways and it is not made any more. That means I get to buy and paint more trim. And then there was the whole ceiling thing that held me up a week.

But now it's the bookshelf. I have a white book shelf that is not the fanciest, but it looked OK...until I put a fresh coat of white paint on the walls. Now my "white" bookshelf looks yellow! I knew better than to try and paint it with a brush since the paint would be way too thick (based on how the trim is looking that I'm painting with a brush). So I had the brilliant idea to spray paint the bookshelf...white bookshelf with black doors. Nobody told me that there is some kind of secret skill needed for spray painting. I don't know, perhaps every other guy on the planet is born with this skill, but if that's the case, I missed that line when it was being handed out. I took just the four shelves out and started with those. When I was "done", I could tell the paint had not dried evenly. No biggie...it takes a while for paint to dry. I figured out something was wrong when, two days later, the paint still had not "dried evenly". No matter how many coats of paint I spray, it never looks finished. It still looks like parts of it are wet and other parts need more paint. This leaves me with one other option...disassemble the bookshelf and roll each piece then reassemble it. There's at least another week added to my project (at the speed at which I work).

Since the bookshelf thing wasn't working out, I painted some trim tonight. I think the paint is about half an inch thick on that stuff, but because it's glossy black it still looks good (lucky me). After I had painted all the trim I had room for on my trim-painting shelf (which is now painted black, just like my trim), I decided I would change out the electrical sockets that need to be replaced (you plug something into it them the cord just falls out). I am no electrician (I know that comes as a SHOCK to many of my readers), but I know you gotta turn off the power to the plug before you go messing with it. What I did not know was that the breaker which turns off the sockets in my office also turns off all the lights AND THE TV in the living room. One little switch eliminated the lights AND eliminated the happy wife (who was watching TV).

So in an hour's time tonight, I have unsuccessfully sprayed four book shelves, painted four pieces of trim and NOT changed out the sockets in my office. I suppose I'll begin disassembling the book shelf so I can roll it tomorrow night.

What's not to love about home improvement projects?

My Moral Support

Since I have begun my "Three Month Office Remodeling Project" (aka "painting my home office"), I have had all of my family members come in and offer words of encouragement. But I have had just one faithful companion who offers moral support just by being there every time...Boo. The same day I brushed up against the freshly painted door frame and got paint on my comfy red t-shirt (which I did not notice until the paint had dried), Boo tried to make me feel better by brushing up against it too and getting white paint on her little black ear. Wasn't that sweet of her!

PC Guy, YES. Vista Fan, NO!

When I first began hearing the negative reports about Vista, I chalked most of up to "Mac Smack"... you know, the guys who run the expensive machines. I am a PC guy plain and simple. I will admit that I have not spent much time at all on a Mac, but that's because the software I need to run is Windows software. I understand Windows can be run on a Mac, but there is the cost factor as well. Enough about that debate, I use a PC and I'm happy. I'd like to give Linux a spin (thinking Ubuntu), but I can't figure out how to add hardware!

Anyway, I began hearing people complain about how terrible Vista was, but most of the people I heard complaining were people who were mostly "users"...not even "power users", let alone what I would consider real "computer people". Most of them were complaining just because they had to learn a new operating system and things were not the same. That's called a "new" operating system, not a "bad" operating system. My wife got a new Vista laptop a year ago. I set it up and had no problems with it. I ended up turning off User Account Control because I got tired of having to give myself permission three times to do everything, but that was my only real annoyance.

But this year, particularly in the last month, I've had a bit more experience truly "working" with Vista, and I DON'T LIKE IT! One of our office computers started having odd, bad error messages. I knew it was time to get a new computer before this one died. (Jump to end of the story..the computer died the same day I had the new one ready to go). Since I'm the "computer guy" at our church (unless it's the media guy's Mac, of course), I began pricing new systems. Pastor said go with a system that will carry us into the future, so that meant 4 gigs of RAM, and 4 gigs of RAM meant the 64-bit version of Vista.

I had read about incompatibility issues with 64-bit systems, but I did not understand them. I did some Googling and it seemed all of what I read was over a year old and one article I read said 64-bit systems would be backwards compatible. So, with an incomplete understanding, I purchased the 64-bit system.

This post will never end if I continue at this pace, so let me give you an overview of my "Vista issues" with this new machine:

• "Backwards compatible" did NOT apply to the two most expensive programs on our computer (Membership Plus and Quick Books Pro). Add $400 (would have been $550 had I not been a good online shopper!)
• User Account Control would not allow Membership Plus to run properly. After much Googling, I figured this out, turned it off and the program began to work properly.
• Had to call in tech support for the copier so it could be installed as a printer. Short version... it took the guy so long he did not charge us. Vista has been out two years and he had never installed a copier onto a Vista system (yes, it's that popular!). Sharing what I had learned after two hours of trying to install the copier myself and learning some of the Vista quirks, the copier tech and I got the thing installed. He came back the next day to set up scanning. His 8 page manual for setting the copier up as a scanner for Windows XP had become a 24 page manual for Vista (no joke).
• Just this week, our secretary said nothing was happening when she tried to open Windows Media Player. I thought perhaps it was going to be a simple fix (like "click this icon and not that one"). Wrong. More Googling. Get this... WINDOWS Media Player 11 has severe issues and just quits working in WINDOWS Vista. Microsoft knows about this problem, yet there is no fix!!! Say what? No wonder Mac gets away with their "I'm a Mac" commercials. My "fix" was to install WinAmp.

And then, our sound room computer started acting up (after MAJOR power surges last week). I checked our main software on that computer (Easy Worship) and found that the newest version was Vista compatible, 32-bit or 64-bit. But, the little control program that turns on our projector from the computer is Vista 32-bit compatible only, so that's what I set out to buy. Everything I read, and the "computer people" I know all strongly suggested an Intel processor for Vista. I tell ya what, finding a 32-bit, Intel processor system was a bit challenging. Finally bought a Lenovo and brought it to the sound room.

We have always run two video cards in our sound room computer; one for the monitor and one for the projector. I checked and the video card we had in the old computer had Vista drivers, so I downloaded those and tried to install the video card. As soon as I plugged in this second card and fired up the comptuer, Vista disabled my on-board video card. An hour later (after much Googling), I discovered Vista will not allow two differnt video cards (ie two different architectural structrues) to run on the same system! Add $60 for a new, dual output video card.

Next, I installed Easy Worship, only to have quirky problems. They have excellent tech support, so I gave them a call and found out they are not Vista fans, either. After downloading and installing the Vista debug file, Easy Worship was working.

And now THIS computer needed to have the copier hooked up to it. After spending a couple hours with the copier tech guy, I was confident I could install the copier on this computer myself. Short version, I did, but it took longer than expected. All in all, it took a complete day-and-a-half to install the computer and get it ready for church today. I am not Microsoft Certificed or anything like that, but I have had plenty of experience getting new computers up and running and doing so while learning a new OS. Am I still a PC guy? YES. Am I a Vista fan? NO!!!

Amazing Talent

She's Growing Up TOO FAST

My friend Craig called me today while he was on the road. "Have you heard that song, Cinderella, by Steven Curtis Chapman?" he asked.

"Yes", I replied.

"Have you really listed to it? Do you get it?"

"Yes, I know. It's a Daddy/daughter song, " I said.

"Well, I've heard it three or four times before, but I never really listened," Craig said. "I get it now. I listened...and just started bawling."

Craig has two daughters, one in high school and one a year or two behind Amanda. I know why he was crying...I've listened to the words of the song. So we talked about being daddies and then we talked about marrying our daughters. We're both pastors and we've both talked to our daughters about letting us perform the wedding ceremony. Neither one of us have figured out how we're going to do it without crying.

I don't know why, but even after talking about the song making a daddy cry, I listened to it again (3 times) on the way to the airport to pick up some friends tonight. I didn't cry...until the second time through the song. Oh...my little girl is just growing up too fast! I'm trying to dance each and every dance because I know too soon the clock will strike midnight...I already feel the evening is gone and Amanda is just 10 years old. I'm so proud of my little girl, but I just wish she could stay little for a little longer!

So all of this song listening and crying made me think about the memories we are making. Like Sunday when we went for a motorcycle ride. We like to ride slow, out in the country and see how many animals we can see. On Sunday, we saw a really cool goat with a funny "beard" and long, pointy horns. We saw a "dwarf pony" (Amanda's description), another really fuzzy pony, cows, horses, burros, a BIG dog that looked friendly until he started chasing the motorcycle and a Brahma bull. Those were the "normal" animals. We also saw two hawks sitting in a tree, a road runner not 10 feet from us on the side of the road, at least 4 farms with llamas and one that two camels!

Although we were supposedly out for a motorcycle ride (Daddy's agenda), we can never be out too long without having to find a park where we can play (Amanda's agenda). We were riding in Lillian and found an elementary school where we stopped and "borrowed" their playground for a while. After that we came home and then joined Mommy at a friend's house for a Super Bowl party. When I tucked her into bed that night and we prayed, we had a lot of fun things to give thanks for.

My little girls is growing up too fast. I'm just trying to treasure every moment I have.

A Glimpse of the Future

Justification Sermon Illustration.

Sermon audio will be available here.

Freedom is Only For Those That Have the Guts to Defend It

Prayer is...

"The effect of prayer is union with God, and, if someone is with God, he is separated from the enemy. Through prayer we guard our chastity, control our temper and rid ourselves of vanity. It makes us forget injuries, overcomes envy, defeats injustice and makes amends for sin. Through prayer we obtain physical well-being, a happy home, and a strong, well-ordered society. Prayer is the seal of virginity and a pledge of faithfulness in marriage. It shields the wayfarer, protects the sleeper, and gives courage to those who keep vigil. It will refresh you when you are weary and comfort you when you are sorrowful. Prayer is the delight of the joyful as well as the solace of the afflicted. Prayer is intimacy with God and contemplation of the invisible. Prayer is the enjoyment of things present and the substance of things to come."

- Gregory of Nyssa

12 of 12 - January 2009

7:18am - Gluing on a patch to Amanda's school uniform pants.


7:26am - I write a goofy poem/rhyme on Amanda's lunch napkin each morning. Here is today's offering.


7:57am - Amanda playing Nintendo before it's time to leave for school.


8:36am - I oversee the Jr. High character development curriculum program at Amanda's school. A group of three students does a short presentation during Monday morning assemblies. Here is today's group. I spent about 45 minutes with them one-on-one Friday, and today's presentation was a definite improvement.


11:55am - Ran by my Pastor's house to feed their dog Zoey at lunch time today.


3:50pm - Amanda being goofy with a mailing label on her nose. She put mailing labels and stamps on 80+ postcards to help out today.


5:19pm - Dinner with the Fam.


7:49pm - Started rolling the ceiling tonight working on my "Three Month Office Remodeling" project. Others call it painting...I call it a three month project!


8:35pm - The mess is getting to be more than I can handle as I paint my office. If I had room someplace else in the house I would move everything out until I finish painting. But there isn't space, so that's not an option.


8:27pm - Can you see the stripes? No, those are not shadows...those are areas I missed when I was painting the ceiling tonight! I'm going to have to get all that mess out again to finish. I found out bright lights pointed at the ceiling don't really help when using bright white paint.


9:29pm - Watching DVR'd 24. Two nights, two hours of 24 each night...why can't every week be like this?


11:54pm - I could not handle the mess in my office, so I had to make more room. I moved the brown book case into the living room until I am done with my painting. Wonder what Brooke is going to say when she wakes up in the morning and sees it?

How Awesome Would This Be?

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Living in Chaos

The work on my "Three Month Office Remodeling" project continues. This afternoon I painted all of the trim (except what I have not taken off from behind the desks and from behind the big bookshelf). I really like the look of the black glossy trim. I think it will set off the white walls nicely. This evening, I caulked a few cracks where the paneling joins, put spackle on two ceiling spots and used a brush to cut out almost half of my ceiling. Until I get done, my office is in total chaos. I am not one of those people who can do well in chaos!

Sometime between homework and watching the next two hours of 24, I hope to paint the entire ceiling in my office tomorrow night. This week, I would also like to get the final coat of paint on my closet doors and the one wall that has white Kilz on it right now. That's my goal. Would I be surprised if I got nothing more than the ceiling painted this week? No.

No Arks for Me

There are MANY things the Lord does that my little mind cannot understand, but there is one thing I totally understand. I know why God did not arrange for me to be born back in Noah's time and task me with the responsibility of building the ark. The main reason is the time factor. Had I been born back then and given that responsibility, you never would have heard the story of the Flood because it would not be in the Bible...for the simple reason that I'd still be working on the ark today!

If you are wondering where I came up with this interesting take on this old Bible classic, I'll give you a hint...I've been working on my "three month office remodeling project" tonight. You could change the task, but this story is repeated OVER and OVER and OVER again every time I attempt a "home improvement" project.

I already blogged about my venture to repaint my office. Here's how it's going:

• I have ONE wall completely painted...with Kilz (which means I still have a top coat to go)
• All the trim is taken down
• I painted some of the trim only to find out the black paint I had was too flat, so along with the 600 other pieces of trim I have, I get to repaint that first batch
• I have water damage in a couple places on my ceiling. I have no experience (nor desire to gain experience) with taping and bedding. My solution: scrape off the damaged "popcorn" texture and paint from the ceiling thus exposing the UGLY sheet rock and cracks between the sheet rock, caulk the cracks between the sheet rock and spray some of this canned popcorn ceiling texture stuff on the ceiling; paint.
• I tried the above procedure tonight only to find out that the spray texture idea is a ABYSMAL failure! First of all, one can supposedly covers six square feet of ceiling. For some reason, in my mind, that meant six feet by six feet squared. (Thank you, I now realize that would have been 36 square feet so need to comment on that!). This miscalculation was fortunate for me because I would have WASTED so much more money buying enough to cover my bare spots. Anyway, I prepped the area (sorta) and sprayed. When I was done, everything but the ceiling had texture on it....my carpet, the couch, my bean bag chair, the paneling that was supposed to stay brown, my vacuum cleaner and, of course, ME.
• I also tried this procedure in my bathroom which has the worst water damage. Besides the texture being sprayed on everything in there, my ceiling now looks much worse. So, when I finally do get my office finished, I get to repaint the ceiling in my bathroom. How much fun is that?
• Oh yes, I almost forgot the primer coat I put on all the closet doors last week. For some really dumb reason, I thought taking the doors off the hinges would make it easier to paint them. WRONG! I guess if I had a workshop to put them/paint them in, it would have been OK. But it was NOT a good idea to lay them flat across the back of two chairs and try to paint them in my office. The doors took up too much space which made it a real pain to get to the bathroom to wet the washcloth and keep walking back and forth wiping up the paint I kept splattering on the carpet.
  

So, near as I can tell, here is all I have left to do:

• Put primer coat on three more walls
• Put top coat on all four walls
• Paint ceiling
• Paint trim
• Put trim (all 600 pieces) back on the walls
• Top coat on closet doors and put door knobs back on (except for the one door that had the door knob GLUED ON by the previous owner...no joke)
• Buy and hang blinds (to replace the towel now nailed to the window frame)
• Repaint bathroom

At this rate, I'm fairly certain I can be done by the end of March!

When God Says "It's All Good" it Really Is

WHAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION
Gen 1:4 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 10 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 12 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 18 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 21 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 25 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 31 - Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was excellent in every way.

WHAT GOD WAS SPEAKING TO ME
EVERYTHING God does is good...everything. Even something as simple as separating light from darkness was good (it was part of his bigger plan). EVERYTHING God does is good.

WHAT I NEED TO DO
I want to be a part of the GOOD God is doing in my life, in my family, in my church and in the world. I want to turn God loose in my life and I want to remove anything that would hinder the GOOD he wants to do.

PRAYER FOR SELF/SPIRITUAL LIFE
That I would not hinder the good that God wants to do in my life; that I would be a part of the good God is doing in the lives of those around me.

PRAYER FOR OTHERS
(I listed those God brought to my heart and prayed that the GOOD God has planned for them would be released in their lives and that I would be a part of that)

ANSWERED PRAYER/WHAT I AM THANKFUL FOR
Thank you Lord that you are GOOD and everything you want to do in my life is GOOD

(the six parts IN BOLD are the six topics/questions I use in my Bible reading and prayer time each day)

I Have a Vision

This is a picture of the back wall of my office as I began my "three month office remodeling project". That's what I call it now. When I started, I was going to "paint my office".

"So what has changed?" you ask. Nothing. I have no remodeling plans other than painting, but it is just going to take a while. But I have a vision!

Several years ago, while visiting Brooke's paretns, I looked at the white wall, black trim look of Brooke's Dad's office and thought to myself, "I like that". As I was thinking about hanging some new pictures in my office today, I finally decided to go for it, and the painting began.

But my vision is bigger than just white walls and black trim. I am a VERY proud Texan (wasn't born here, but I was one of those who got here as fast as I could), and I have decided my office is going to become a Texas room. Once my paint job is completed, I am going to start with a Texas flag on the wall right where the two homemade posters hang in the picture above. After that, I'm going to add "Texas stuff" to my office as the budget allows.

I'm doing one small section at a time. No moving all the furniture to the middle of the room and painting the whole thing at once. I want to enjoy the project and not stress out over it, plus I'll have to buy the supplies a little here and a little there. I began with the "poster wall" tonight. I'm taking down all of the trim so I can paint without having to tape. I am not a very big painting fan, but I HATE having to tape and paint. Of course, the house was home made (the people who lived here before us literally built the house 40 years ago) and some of the building materials are not exactly up to today's standards. The trim is actually some sort of coated stryofoam! As cheap (quality) as it is, I'm saving all I can. Once it's painted black, it will look good and that's one less item I have to buy.

My goal for tomorrow is painting the trim I have taken down (to see if the leftover black paint I found is going to look OK) and to paint half of the ceiling (with the leftover ceiling paint I found). I have to take down more trim before painting the other half of the ceiling. We'll see how it goes, but I have a vision!

Amanda's 10th Birthday in Alabama

Birthday Boy

This is Sully, and today is his birthday. Actually, today is the day we celebrate his birthday. We rescued him from the pound so we don't know when his birthday is for sure, so we celebrate December 17...the day we brought him home from the pound.

I believe it was in 2002 we were looking for a second dog to keep Boo company. We were leaning toward another Cocker Spaniel (Boo is a Cocker), so when one became available at the pound, I took Boo to meet the new dog. My Mom is the one who saw the Cocker at the pound, so she went with me. The Cocker was not very friendly and did not want to have anything to do with Boo. I was disappointed and ready to go when Mom said, "Did you see that Snauzer over there?" I really was not interested, but she insisted, and so we let him out into the outdoor pen to meet Boo and me. He immediately ran up to Boo and wanted to play, and then he came over to me and wanted to be loved. That is about all the time it took...I was hooked and I took him home.

Brooke and Amanda welcomed Sully (the name we gave him) right away. It took Boo awhile since she was used to being an only dog, but she loves Sully now and I think she would be lost without him.

Happy Birthday, Sully. We love you!

12 of 12 - December 2008

9:26 AM
I was at school (ECIA) helping a teacher learn how to use Engrade, the online grade book selected by the school. Stopped by the front desk and saw Brooke and Brad hard at work!


11:25am
Pastor picking me up to go play some racquetball. He won 2 out of 3 today! :+(


1:35pm
Yesterday I replaced the wood trim around my garage door and caulked it. Today, I filled in a couple areas that needed more caulk.

Caulk, like make up, covers a lot of blemishes!


2:04 PM
Happy Hour at Sonic is 2-4pm where soft drinks and slushes are half price. We stop by at least a couple times a week. Here's our Friday stop.


2:19 PM
Tonight is our church leadership Christmas party and we always have a gift exchange. This year, again, the guys are buying tools. Best place to shop...Foster Hardware.


2:44 PM
Ending up choosing an LED flashlight for my exchange gift.


3:49 PM
Wrapping Christmas presents. Yes, I'm the wrapper at our house. I am wrapping Brooke's present from Amanda and Daddy here.


6:18 PM
Brooke taking a quick rest before the leadership Christmas party tonight. Of course the dogs felt the need to rest with her.


7:16 PM
Church leadership Christmas party. Ed, Rob, Mark, Bill and Mike (left front to back, right back to front).


9:07 PM
Ed ended up with the gift I bought. I heard he was going to give it to his grand daughter.


10:08 PM
Picture of Brooke with full moon in the background. Although the moon does not look too big here, it was a full moon and the largest moon in the past 15 years...tonight.


10:34 PM
This screw driver set is the exchange gift I ended up with at the leadership Christmas banquet tonight. Cool!

Don't talk too much, for it fosters sin.
Be sensible and turn off the flow!

- Proverbs 10:19, NLT

The Heart of Faith

Thoughts from my Bible reading time today.

Daniel 3:16-18, NLT
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

Seems to be a number of statements or levels of faith here:

1. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace... - I had not seen this one before. Perhaps they are saying, "God can keep us from being thrown into the furnace in the first place.
2. The God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O King... - clearest statement, "The God we serve is able..."
3. But even if he does not... - This, to me, seems to be the greatest statement of faith. They were saying, "Even if God does not do what we think he will/should, we will still trust Him and not bow down to the idol."

Some today would say they were not speaking in faith by allowing "even if he does not...". But what is faith? Is it confidence in God or confidence that God will do what we are asking?

I don't know. On the one hand, Jesus had confidence that God would do what He asked. But on the other hand, today we have people telling God what His Word says and tell him that He is obligated to answer their prayer because of it.

I do not feel God is "obligated" to do anything for me. He has done more than enough through Christ. My faith is in a God who is true to His Word, but it is NOT in my ability to understand and apply His Word correctly 100% of the time. That's not an excuse to stop praying and believing according to my understanding of the Word, but it ought to give caution to the notion that I can order or obligate God to do anything.

Lyrics: Snowball Fight

One of my favorite Christmas CDs is one I picked up when I was a youth pastor. It is Ska La-La-La-La by Bunch of Believers. I'll be posting some of the lyrics...because I just love this CD!






Well I'm walkin' in a winder wonderland
With a cold one in my hand
Yeah, I want to be a blessing to someone
God's given me a gift
Like Nola Ryan, if you get my drift
Today the youth group wants to have some fun

The other side is slow like Eyore
But I'm bouncing like Tigger
You've got to pick your hiding place
And I wish this tree was a little bit bigger

Now I know why God made snow
One, two, three let's go, it's a snowball fight
Snowball fight, snowball fight, snowball fight

Well I don't want to miss the mark
But I just hit some bark
It was enough to scare Roberta half to death
And if you look behind that shrub
Boy, they're gonna need some deep heating rub
I know they're back there, I can see their breath

Now if I hit you in the face
Well I mean it all in love
Cold, white flakes of fun
Sent down from above

Though your sins be red like scarlet
They will be made white as snow

Tis the season
To lose all inhibition
At Christmas-time I just praise the Lord
And pass the ammunition

Love, Pt. II

Love is when mommy sees daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.

- Chris, age 6

Love, Pt. 1

You really shouldn't say "I love you" unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.

-Jessica, age 8

Schools - 1957 vs. 2007

Scenario:
Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario:
Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario:
Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario:
Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario:
Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario:
Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario:
Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2007- BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario:
Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

Thanks to Ken Randell for sending me this.

From My Quiet Time This Morning

This is what I read this morning.

Hebrews 10:10 (NLT) - For God's will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus, Christ, once for all time.

Hebrews 10:14 (NLT) - For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

Hebrews 10:18 (NLT) - And when sins have been forgiven,there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.

During my prayer time, I do what I call "two way journaling". I write down my prayers to God, and then I listen for a response. If a thought comes to mind, I begin writing. I don't wait until the thought is finished (because I get distracted and usually interrupt), but I write down exactly what comes to my mind as I "hear" it. Then I read what I've written and ask myself, "Does that sound like me, or does that sound like God?" If I' m not sure, or if I have been given some kind of direction, I can take what I've written to my pastor or a friend and ask, "Does this sound like God to you?" Ever since I started doing this, I have been amazed at how easy it is to hear God talking to me. (What was I waiting for before? An audible voice?).

This is what I journaled this morning after reading the first part of Hebrews 10. I put in italics the part where I felt God was speaking to me.

Dear God,

I guess this is an improvement over not meeting with you regularly, but here I am, up early, and now I am always running out of time wishing I had more time to spend with You. Thank You for loving me, for spending time with me and for speaking to me.

Rob, I do love you and I love spending time with you. You are not something broken that I would have to force myself to spend time with. I have redeemed your fallen nature and, just like back at the beginning of my creation, I long to take walks with you, talk to you, listen to you and share in the life I have given to you. As my child, I want you to love me and desire to spend time with me, but I have created this life for you to enjoy and it brings me joy to watch you enjoy it. Yes, the thing that separated us, sin, was/is huge, but my sacrifice was 100% totally enough to bridge the gap. Now the only thing that can stand between us is you not meeting me here like this.

Father, as I've been reading The Shack, I've been thinking how wonderful it would be to have the opportunity to meet with You and get to talk with You for a weekend like in the book. While that would still be totally awesome, I have been feeling perhaps You were trying to tell me that is what You want our time together here to be. Today, I feel a little bit like that was the case. I feel like a child, in the presence of my Father, totally at peace, full of joy, resting in the knowledge that I am totally loved. I can picture myself running in a field laughing and just resting in your love...and You smiling as You watch me being silly. Each of us being exactly who we are supposed to be (which, of course, is not hard for You!).

Thank You for your love and your presence.

12 of 12 - November 2008

If you haven't heard of the "12 of 12" idea, here it is. And here are my November photos.

6:32 AM - Up for morning devotions and journaling.

7:15 AM - Waking up Amanda for school.

8:37 AM - Time for a new transfusing unit and imaging unit on the copier.

8:54 AM - This is how I see Tammy if I lean over the corner of my desk.

9:14 AM - Don't know what I'm working on that is so serious!

9:21 AM - Payroll is an IMPORTANT part of the Wednesday routine. Tammy is calling it in.

10:41 AM - I was outside putting Amdro on fire ant mounds when the dumpster truck came for our usual Wednesday pick up.

11:51 AM - In typical George fashion, arriving a few minutes early for lunch.

2:39 PM - Picking up Amanda from school.

2:59 PM - Of course I wore my orange shirt like his yesterday. That would make me the trend-setter, right?

6:17 PM - I drove the van to pick up a few students for youth group tonight. Go No Compromise Youth!

8:21 PM - Almost forgot to take a picture at Life Group tonight. Nobody show Brooke what time this was taken (we were supposed to be at the church picking up our kids at least 6 minutes BEFORE this picture was taken).

Calling Off the Air Strike

When I read through my Bible, I mark things that catch my attention. One of the things I have enjoyed finding over the years is Old Testament examples of God's mercy. It seems we too often think of the God of the New Testament as merciful and loving while the God of the Old Testament is mean and quick to judge (i.e. "to wipe out everybody"). Hebrews 13:8 tells us, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.". Granted, we have Christ's sacrifice extended to us in the New Testament, but did God really go through a temperament change between the Old and New Testaments? I don' think so.

Tonight I was reading in Jeremiah and I came across this:

2 "Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah and all the other nations from the time I began speaking to you in the reign of Josiah till now. 3 Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, each of them will turn from his wicked way; then I will forgive their wickedness and their sin." (New Living Translation)

During this time in Israel's history, God prophesied through Jeremiah the prophet that Babylon was coming to destroy Jerusalem. God told Israel he was punishing them using Babylon, but after a season, God would restore Israel and punish Babylon. When we read this story, often we focus on the "every disaster I plan to inflict on them" (God speaking) and see this is an illustration of an angry, punitive God.

But read to the end of verse 4...it says, "Perhaps...each of them will turn from his wicked way; then I will forgive their wickedness and their sin." This is a merciful God giving his people yet another chance to repent so that he could forgive them. He's not quick to judge...he's slow to judge and he tells the people once more all the bad stuff that will come down the pike if they do not repent. He wants them to be horrified at the judgment so they can repent and be forgiven.

When I read this, I got a mental image. I pictured some military commander being informed by a fighter on patrol that a group of people are headed toward allied territory. The people are not a threat where they are now, but if they cross the border into allied territory they are a major threat. The commander has no choice but to order the fighter to track the group of people headed toward allied territory. He gives the order to "go hot" and a missile is armed and ready to use on command to wipe out the the threat. But even as the order is given, the commander strains to see the satellite image on the screen before him. The group does not look hostile, but they cannot be allowed to cross into allied territory. As the fighter maneuvers into position and awaits the "fire" command, the commander moves to the edge off his seat and speaks to the monitor in front of him, "Turn around. Turn around now and you will not be hurt". The fighter is lining up for it's attack while the commander is looking for the smallest sign that the unknown group of people will deviate from their course and stop heading toward allied territory. The pilot checks in and let's the commander know he is ready to fire, but instead of hearing the "fire" command, he hears the commander scream, "They are turning away! They are turning away! Abort!! Abort!!!"

In this story with Israel (and I could image the same in my life), I see God as that commander pleading with his people to turn back so he can call off the air strike. As soon as he sees people turning from their evil ways, God declares "abort", the fighter is brought home and the people can return to safety.

Instead of painting a picture with God on the edge of his seat waiting to jump out and beat on the head those who have messed up, I believe this shows our loving God, on the edge of his seat, watching for the first sign of a repentant heart so that he can jump in and forgive.

Calling off the air strike would be called "Old Testament mercy".