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243.6 / -.4 / 21.4
This weeks highlights...
NEW GRAND DAUGHTER! Hayden Elizabeth Sharp - born 2/23/09 - 7'2" - 19" long - PTL!
Finished chapter 4 in Revelation in our Wednesday night Bible Study.
Finally joined Facebook - up to 107 friends already.
Avoided the treadmill - uggghhhh - I've got to get this together!
Did I mention I'm a new granddad again?
244 / +2 / 21 - I was bad :-(
Wow - I can't believe it - she is finally here.... My new granddaughter arrived Monday afternoon at 12:02 PM - she weighed 7'2" and was 19 inches long - she still has no name... LOL Mom, Dad, sister, and baby are all doing well. If you want to whole story check out Beth's Blog.
Grandpa and Grandma are doing GREAT!
242 / -1.3 / 23
So my wife sends me this e-mail about aluminum foil - and here's the deal. Did you know they have little tabs on the end of the box that you can push in to lock in the roll? That keeps the roll from coming out when you pull out X amount of foil. Guess what - they have the same thing on other types of stuff too. Like Saran Wrap, even the "cheapo stuff" - I checked!
Who hasn't tried to pull out some foil or plastic wrap only to have the roll come out of the box, hit the floor and roll away. And can you explain this to me - how it will easily unroll going across the floor - but when you need just so much to cover a dish it fights you tooth and nail? That's another post!
Anyway - I got to thinking. How often is my life like that? How many times have I tried to do something only to have something jump out of the box and take off on it's own? Attempt a new ministry only to see it unravel. Come up with a creative idea only to find out that while it was creative - it was also unfruitful. I wonder if I have the tabs pushed in to keep the roll in place?
So what tabs does God have in place to keep me centered? Keep the stuff in the box that needs to stay there, while letting out what needs to be let out? And what about you?
All you have to do to make the foil stay put is push in the little tabs - it's that simple. So where is God wanting to push in the tabs in your life? Are you letting Him do it? Or would you rather go free wheeling where ever you want to?
243.2 / -1.9 / 21.8 (Today's weight / loss since last post / total loss)
I've been having an ongoing discussion with Dan and Justin about vision (with others chiming in occasionally). Here are some things that I've been thinking about.
1 - When it comes to vision, make sure it's God's not just the latest and greatest idea from another church or leader. You don't want to wind "up a Willow Creek without a Bill Hybils". Don't make the mistake of seeing how God's vision for a sister church is working and assume it will work for you.
2 - When it comes to Vision the biggest mistake we can make is putting it out there and then not following through with it. And this takes tenacity - you have to stay the course. God's vision will always call for change, change is hard and will always be resisted. But if it's God's vision you MUST STAY THE COURSE. If it's not God's vision why would we do it anyway? If it is God's vision why would we try anything else?
3 - Beware of distractions! I have made the mistake many times of saying yes to a good idea without considering the distractions to the true vision this new thing creates. Distractions can also come from well meaning, God loving people. "Did you hear what they are doing at "1st church"? Or "I read this guys blog - this is something we have to do". Wow, there's this great new book! While all of this can be good - it can also be distracting. When I find myself spending more time reading blogs than God's word something is wrong!
4 - Another temptation is to get caught up in the creative process and forget what the main thing is. I love being creative, I am surrounded by creative people, and I serve a creative God. God desires to be glorified in our creativity! But there is the temptation in trying to come up with something so cool that we loose sight of the message we are trying to get out or the vision we are following. While people may be attracted by the "wow factor" they will only be changed by God's vision being lived out in their lives.
5- The flip side of #4 is the danger of #5 - Not allowing God's inspiration of creativity to come out as we follow the vision. God deserves the very best we have to offer. God has brought certain people to our church - we need to utilize the gifts these people have for His Glory. And that means we must be creative! We just don't need to let the tail wag the dog.
6 - The last one (at least for now) is huge - it is the temptation to seek God's vision in the wrong places. God's vision will only come through time with God. Time in His word, on our knees, away from the table (fasting), etc. And while we hunger for God's vision - it is way to easy to just Google the topic and see what's going on in other churches and let that be our guide. What we must do is seek God first for the Vision and then, and only then, gain insight and help as needed from others.
OK - I've got to clean my reading glasses - I'm not sure my vision is as clear as it should be - how's yours?
242/ -1.8 / 23
OK - I'm brain dead - nothing especially insightful or challenging to blog about. So I'm going to post about something cool.
Most of you have heard about the Magic Jack. It's a little box that plugs into a USB port on your computer. You then plug a phone line into the box and you have phone service over your computer. We decided to kill our land line and go with just cell phones. But there was still a benefit to having a land line too. So I decided to try out the Magic Jack. We've been using it for about six weeks and it is great!
Here are the benefits I have found so far.
Cost - The initial cost is 39.00 and additional years are only 19.00. That's it. You pay 39.00 and get unlimited local and long distance.
Clarity - the clarity is good as long as you don't have someone downloading or doing anything that takes significant bandwidth.
Options - It comes with call waiting, caller ID, forwarding, etc (all at no additional cost.)
So if you are thinking about doing away with your home phone you may want to try this out. You will need to get a new number (and KY does offer local numbers in the 502 area code).
Note - you do have to have a high speed connection - cable, DSL, etc.
If you, like me are wanting to save some money - try it out. I did check with some of my more tech savvy friends and they highly recommended it.
243.8 / -3.2 / 21.2 (wt today / loss since last post / total loss) - Wooo Hooo a Superbowl rebound!
I hate turnovers - no not "apple turnovers" - I'm talking about turnovers in basketball. You know, that gut wrenching event that seems to happen 2 out of 3 times Kentucky's guards touch the ball. It is infuriating to watch. Seeing a team with several players in double figures losing games to teams they should beat. And not because they faced a superior opponent - but because they simply gave the ball away too many times!
I even thought of a remedy - Just throw the ball out of bounds and let the other team get it on the inbound. At least that way we would have a chance to steal it! UGGGGHHHHH!
But then how many turnovers do we have in life? How many times should we be winning the game but wind up losing because we simply give the "ball" away too many times. And how do we do that?
- We turn the ball over when we start trusting ourselves instead of the Holy Spirit.
- We turn the ball over when we give in to our habits instead of giving them over to God.
- We turn the ball over in our marriages when we neglect the most important people in the marriage, our partners.
- We turn the ball over when we let the TV, Computer, and Video games raise our kids.
- We turn the ball over when we are too afraid of being viewed as intolerant to tell a friend they are in eternal danger without Christ.
You see, in basketball, a turnover is usually caused by a player not paying attention. Not paying attention to a couple basic rules of the game - You can't win if you don't score, and you can't score if you don't have the ball.
God has put the ball in your court - what will you do with it? Will you score or simply turn it over?
247 / +2 / 18 - I was bad - too many Superbowl snacks (especially hot wings!)
I read something called "Monday Morning Insight" almost every Monday - if not on Monday I read it later in the week. It is a collection of news and blog listings compiled weekly by Todd Rhodes. You may want to check it out and subscribe.
So I'm reading it and come across this article in Ethics Daily - it blew my mind! Here is a part of it... take the time to read the rest of it too.
The guy telling this story is a Pastor and his daughter is a server at a Chili's restaurant - You're not going to believe this.
"A group of six church-goers came in the other night after their evening services and sat down, not in her area but in another server's. When the girl came to greet them and take their drink order, one of them said, "We want to tell you up front that we will not be tipping you tonight because..... "
Are you ready?
"... we do not believe in people working on Sunday."
The rest of the story is amazing - but wow this got my dander up.
My wife and I both have worked in the food service industry. I know full well the reputation the "church crowd" has in restaurants. Most servers simply hate to wait on church people and here is why. And this is first hand experience.
- They are often rude (can you believe that?)
- They hog up a table forever in "fellowship"
- They have a reputation of being demanding.
- And the worst thing - they are notoriously cheap - often leaving no tip at all.
- And I've personally seen this one - leaving a gospel tract without a tip!
So here's the game plan. When you go on Sunday (or any other day) ask how Jesus would treat these people? He would love them right? How can we show them we love them? After all they are having to give up their weekend to work. And they have a predetermined negative view of the "church crowd".
- So be nice - I mean really nice, polite, patient, complimentary, encouraging, and grateful.
- Make them want you to be the one sitting in their station next time.
- Tip - and I mean tip generously. They are making a living serving you. Show them that not only do you care about the service they give - but more than that you care about them!
- Do the math! It is customary to tip at least 15% - anything less is considered cheap. Why not help lighten their load a bit by being a little extravagant here? Give them 20-30% and you can easily do this by simply drinking water that is free and pass on the Soda Pop.
- If you don't have enough money to tip - go to McDonald's or somewhere where tipping is not customary.
I know - there are some out there that think the extablishment should just pay them more - and maybe they should, but they don't and most likely won't. That's the system live with it or eat at home!
But if you just insist on being cheap - please for heaven's sake don't even give a hint that you know me if you see me there or have any association with Harmony. Enough people are going to hell because of hypocritical Christians who preach love but don't live it. We don't need the bad press!
243.6 / -.4 / 21.4
