Those who want, have to wait

I missed this past weekend because it was Memorial day weekend, and since I did not get the day off work, I took the weekend off from blogging.
This coming weekend I will be at Men's Retreat, so I will miss my weekend blogging again.
The following weekend I will be in San Diego to spend time with my brother before his 2nd heart surgery in 6 years (he is only 23). I look forward to seeing my brothers and family, but I wish it were under different circumstances.
Since my small group is done for the summer, and I have a while before the study of David book is coming for my wife and I to do this summer, I don't have a lot of theological thoughts.
But please be praying for my brother and his heart surgery on June 10th.
I hope to blog before then, but I cannot promise anything.

I also apologize for my brevity, I just don't have a lot to say.

Sunburnt and Sore

This weekend was the big "Men's Workday" through my church. Out of the 15 guys that signed up to do it, only 8 showed up, one was my grandpa and 3 were from my life group. So we really only got 3 guys out of our church of almost 1500 to show up to help out a neighborhood. I have to say I am a little disappointed, but not too much, because the Lord came through in a big way. Every one of my neighbors that asked for work to be done, we got it done. We did a lot of yard work, replaced a heater, swept a roof, replaced a front door, put in a new light switch, built a new gate, and put down some weed felt. It was an awesome experience, and I hope we can do it again. The neighbors were really thankful and quite a few asked about our church. I did not hear any stories of converts, but that was not our intent. We did this to show the love of Jesus in a practical way. Since we cannot feed 5000 with some bread and fish, we knew that we could mow and weed gardens. Then the rest is up to the Holy Spirit.

That is about all I have for this weekend's edition. My neck is fried and my body is sore. But it was a great weekend, and ending it was my good buddies 29th bday party with BBQ and some poker. I had never played Texas Hold 'em before but I had more chips at the end then when I started so I did OK.

Lessons from the OT

A lot of people look at the Old Testament as a place for some interesting stories and maybe a few good ideas to follow. As I study the Bible I am learning more and more that the OT all points to Jesus Christ, and there are a lot of amazing things to learn.
At least the first quarter of the OT is about Israel and them falling in and out of favor with God. It starts in the garden, and with the fall of man comes the curse of the earth. (Does anyone else see all the recent disasters as the earth's curse as it "has been groaning together with labor pains" ? Rms 8:22) Then we see Israel enslaved and set free, and then because of their lack of faith, the wander the desert for 40 years. I am not anywhere near 40 years old, and I feel like I have been on this earth forever. Yet they wandered for that time. Something that hit me as I was doing my Nehemiah study was this in 9:21 "You provided for them in the wilderness for 40 years and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell."
Going back to my time on this earth, I have been through a countless number of clothes. Probably more in my first 8 years than my last, but can you imagine, clothes lasting 40 years? Talk about hand-me-downs. Yet they never wore out. So we see that even when we are lost and wandering the desert of our spiritual life, God is still providing for us in miraculous ways. Probably in ways that we do not see. I am not sure the Israelites noticed their clothes were not wearing out, but we know they did not have a Kohl's to rummage through the clearance rack behind every outcropping of boulders.
The last point I will talk about was one that was brought up my my pastor this weekend. He too was talking about the Old Testament, even though our current study is through Romans. We are going through the end of Chapter 3 and we were looking at the fact that we all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God. Pastor guy reminded us that in the Ark of the Covenant are reminders of our imperfection. The 10 Commandments remind us all that we cannot live up to a few simple laws. Aaron's staff was with the Ark as a reminder that the Israelites did not trust God to rule them and they demanded an earthly king. There was also a jar of Manna that God had preserved to remind them, again, that they did not trust God, yet he provided.
This blog could go on a long time, because the OT is filled with good stuff, but I will end with that and encourage you not to shy away from the Old Testament. There is a lot to learn, and you will see that it is an important prequel to the Good News that we can all put our eternal hope in

It is Officially a Recession

The Financial Experts in the USA disagree whether we are in a recession or not. Some say we are, because house prices are down and gas prices are up, which is causing the price of groceries to go way up. (Top Ramen is up to just 10 boxes for a nickel instead of a dozen) Others say since our GNP is up, it is not a recession.
So using all the authority I got from my 2 semesters of Economics (one in high school and one in college) I am going to officially declare that:

We are in a recession.

It has been told to me (by a very reliable source) that he read an article that says once we admit we are in a recession, we can get out of it quicker. Since my blog is an international phenomenon, (thanks Jesper!) I will use all my clout to aid the USA out of this recession. (George, you can call me on my cell to thank me)
I would love to hear from all of you, with your thoughts, especially those blonde political experts I know read this blog.

Psalms 5:9

In addition to my other post about life, I thought I would also go after some other topic that could ruffle a few feathers.
This morning at church, our pastor continued taking us through Romans, and we hit 3:13 which is from Psalms 5:9
For there is nothing reliable in what they say; destruction is within them; their throat is an open grave...
In case you are not a Bible aficionado, this is David asking God to keep the unrighteous enemies away from him. Since the Bible is timeless, it works today and I am praying for the same thing.
It seems to me there is a group of people that have self-righteousness at the forefront of their mind, and they are willing to step on their brothers and sisters to gain a higher altitude on their "pillar of righteousness".
If we look back to the verse, let's pull out the grave analogy and look at it.



To me this is saying that our words (coming from our throat) can have as much harm as murder. When we talk about our fellow humans in awful ways, whether it be about the names we pick for our children, or the friends we choose to have, or if we choose to have a few drinks with a friend, or even how we would raise other people's children, we are cutting into them. Maybe not literally, but when we gossip about people, we give them no chance to defend themselves, or to show who they truly are to other people. We can ruin friendships before they can even start. When harmful words are said and taken as truth, even when there is no truth in them, we are producing destruction.



So to those that are gossiping (and sharing "prayer requests" without that person asking for prayer in that area is gossip) and to their spouses that are allowing it or even participating in it: Your gossip buddies do not see it, but the rest of us are avoiding you because of the stench of death escaping your "open grave" and we do not want to be any part of it.

Thank Goodness for the Goodwill!

As all three of you may already know, Coraly and I will be playing on the softball team for our church this year. We wanted some old T-shirts that we can wear, since our team is not cool enough for uniforms. So I remembered back to my college days, when my brother Scott and I would go to the local Goodwill and find random shirts. Scott's prize winner was a black shirt with sparkly gold embroidering, stating: Bangkok, Thailand. Coraly thought it was a weird idea, but once we got to our local Goodwill she found this winner!



The girls found the toy area in the back and within a second latched on to 2 bikes. We have been looking for bikes for them, but I have not felt like paying $40 a bike when we have limited summers. So for $15 and $5 we found some great bikes, which Layne helped me adjust.



Maisen used the "pumper" and quickly found out how to make a farting sound by putting it in her bellybutton (somehow that got through the genes from my brother Mark).



They sure like riding their bikes. We are in for a great summer... If the sun ever decides to hang out for more than 12 hours.