Husband, Father, Servant

Love and Grace

2012-01-27T22:01:00.002-05:00

Much has been going on recently at home. Through Hannah's weeks of intense prodromal labor, things have been anything but normal. But now--praise Jesus--Piper Joy Burgett has been born and we can begin moving toward what can only be called the "new normal." We're ready for things to settle down.

The ones who have taken these changes the hardest have been Riley and Amity. Everything with them has just become more difficult, from getting dressed to eating to going to bed. It has not been easy. I have been talking to Jesus a lot recently and they tend to come up often. One of the most common things I have talked to Jesus about and asked for is grace. Grace is traditionally defined as "unmerited favor." In my mind, that has been exactly what I need. I need grace so I can treat them right even when they are acting nuts.

Well tonight I was laying down with the girls, putting them to sleep. I prayed with them as usual and commenced singing and stroking Amity's hair until they fall asleep. The process was taking longer than I wanted and I started to become impatient. In this moment, I turned to Jesus and almost said what I often say, "Jesus, please give me grace for this moment!" But before I could say the words, I heard in my mind, "Is grace really what you need?" That was exactly what I needed to hear.

As I pondered those words, I realized that my request came out of impatience stemming from selfishness. There is nothing wrong with asking for grace, but what I should have been asking for was love. Grace stems from love. If I love someone, I will treat them well regardless of how they treat me. To ask for grace in order to satisfy my own selfishness is absolutely wrong!

I am reminded of our heavenly Father, who loves us with perfect, unconditional love. And the grace and mercy He shows to us flow out of that. That is where my grace should come from. It should flow from the unconditional love that I have in my heart for my precious family. There is no place for selfishness in being a husband or father.

So in the name of Jesus, I repent of impatience and selfishness. I ask now for You to fill me with Your perfect, unconditional love. Let everything I do come from that love. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.

Loooooong Day

2012-01-16T16:08:00.001-05:00

I know I'm not pregnant, so I really have no room to speak, but I just
wanted to say that this has been one of the longest days ever. I have
been fighting a cold and have it nearly defeated, but for some reason
this day has been just plain slow. Last night was very weird, I tossed
and turned most of the night and never got into deep sleep. And when I
did sleep I had very weird dreams. In fact, I met Mitt Romney last
night. He was dressed like a normal person, but was talking in his
normal robotic tone and told me, "You might wonder why I am dressed like
a normal person. Well, it is because I am a normal person just like
you." Thanks for that, Mitt. I still don't believe you. I would much
rather have met Ron Paul in my dream. Now it's back to work. The worst
part about missing work is that paperwork piles up like nothing else
then I am doomed to sometimes multiple days of never leaving my desk
just to get caught up on paperwork. I would much rather prefer to be
putting something together. There's a sense of accomplishment to that,
but no such feeling comes from moving a pile of papers from one side of
my desk to the other. I look forward to leaving in less than an hour.
Maybe the baby will come tonight, but I am really just hoping for a good
night's sleep. Then maybe the baby can come first thing in the morning.
That sounds good to me.

Work

2012-01-12T13:07:00.004-05:00

We had our annual employee "reviews" today at work. Normally we have done it on an individual basis, but because of the many changes in leadership structure over the last year it was decided that at least for this year we would do group reviews. While we normally leave reviews feeling beat up and discouraged, we all left this year feeling encouraged and excited for the new year. Each department has strengths and weaknesses and our plan is to make the most of our strengths and reverse our weaknesses (or "challenges" as our boss so kindly put it). For the department I am in--Production--there are five action points we need to focus on in the next year. Our company goal for this year is to "work smarter, not harder." In our industry, we are the BEST, hands down. Nobody has products comparable to ours or production quality as high as ours, so that is not the problem. Our challenge is that we now need to find ways to continue with the same high standards of quality while doing it smarter and more efficiently. In order to work smarter this year, we need to:

Be more production-minded
Spread the load
Suck-it-up and get unwanted tasks done ASAP (no more working slow doing a task just because we don't enjoy doing it)
Focus and avoid distractions
Keep our work areas clean and uncluttered in order to make it easier to work efficiently. (It's incredible how physical clutter around us can slow us down and clutter up our minds as well!)

These line up quite a bit with a list I put on my wall a few years ago following a review then. I thought I would go ahead and list those here too. These are what I keep in the forefront of my mind when working so I will be the best and most efficient worker in our company. (I am not at that goal yet... but certainly working towards it!)

Work Hard
This is pretty self-explanatory. When given a task, I need to work hard and get it done. I am being paid to work, so that is what I must do.

Work Smart
Working hard only goes so far. Working smart is what makes my work profitable. This involves checking myself throughout every task to make sure I am not wasting movement or time in my accomplishing of it.

Listen First
This is what I have always struggled with the most. When I am given a task, I immediately think of a number of questions which I feel I need to have answered before I start. What I often find is that while I am thinking of the questions, my supervisor is still talking and answers most if not all of them before I even have a chance to speak. Then when I ask my questions he is annoyed that he has to repeat himself. LISTENING COMES FIRST! When I am given a task, I need to listen first and not question until I have thoroughly heard everything my supervisor has to say. I have gotten much better with this over the years, but still need to work on it.

Speak Little
This follows close on the heels of listening first. I need to speak only the minimum in order to be most efficient. Why go into pointless detail or waste time trying to make myself sound smarter when a simple question or answer is all that is needed? This also goes for pointless talk. If the talk does not pertain to the task at hand, it is not worth speaking.

Stay Focused
This involves actively keeping my mind on the task at hand and making sure my surroundings make my work more efficient rather than slowing me down. Sometimes listening to music or in my case, books and sermons, is a detriment to my focus. Most always speaking of non-work matters to co-workers causes me and whoever I am talking with to lose focus or at least have less focus on our work causing mistakes or increased production time. Staying focused is key to profitable, quality work.

Be Flexible
When I began work at Walkers, this was my biggest problem. My mind naturally systematizes and works logically. I see things in absolutes. This does not work well for a company that does 100% custom work. I do a task one way and expect to be able to do it that way next time. But when the next time comes, I get thrown off because it has to be done differently in order to serve its purpose for this particular job. Also, in a small company, everyone wears many hats and everyone depends on everyone else. It is not uncommon to be called away from a task to do some other task that at that moment has now become most important. This is true in any company, but especially to very small companies like ours. I cannot sit down with my one task, lock my mind into it and sit and do it the entire day. I instead need to be flexible enough to easily move from task-to-task as is necessary and be able to change my focus as need be. I have come a very long way in this and think it has now become one of my greatest strengths. I can be simultaneously working at many tasks and not be mentally thrown for a loop when something else come down that I need to do.

So that is me. That is what I have learned already, am learning still, and what I am still working on. I hope that by writing this out and thinking it through I will continue to grow into being the best and most profitable employee in our company.

"Jesus Wouldn't Use Bad Words!"

2012-01-06T12:27:00.001-05:00

This morning I was reminded of a funny experience I had with the young child of a co-worker a couple of months ago. He was talking with me while I was cleaning walls about how much he likes superheroes. I said, "Well do you know that Jesus is even more incredible than those super heroes?" He asked me what I meant. So I said, "Well, do you know what happened when Jesus was in a boat with His disciples during a terrible storm?" He said "No." So I continued, "It was a terrible storm and his disciples were terrified! But Jesus was not afraid and looked up at the sky and said, 'Shut up!' and it did! The storm stopped immediately! Now that's pretty incredible, I have never heard of a real superhero doing that!" I looked down at him and saw his face white as a sheet with the most incredible look of shock. I asked what was wrong and he forcefully told me, "Jesus would not use bad words!" Oops. I agreed with him and explained that Jesus actually said, "Peace, be still" to the storm. I still can't believe I used such bad words.

What Fires Me Up

2012-01-04T12:58:00.000-05:00

I was quite surprised to see that the former PA senator, Rick Santorum, did so well in the Iowa caucuses last night. It shocked me, to be perfectly honest. On Facebook this morning I mentioned how he appears to me to be an angry person and I often refer to him in my mind as the "angry evangelical." What popped into my mind next what the question, "What about you?" The question was less of an accusation and more of a gut check for me. I am an evangelical (though I am significantly opposed to many of the views of the modern "evangelical" movement) and I do have some very strong feelings and do find myself fired up on occasion. So the question is whether I have a right to say in an accusatory way that one person is an "angry evangelical" and I am not. The big difference between me and say, Rick Santorum (or other evangelical conservatives like him), is WHAT and WHO we get fired up about.

I do not get fired up when I see non-Christians that do not act like Jesus. If a person does not follow Jesus, why would I expect them to try and live like him? This is in stark contrast to most of the evangelical church today. They get fired up over "sin" that is "rampant" in this country and in "hollywood" and the "public schools." Then they take that often angry passion to the government where they use violent force force to compel people to look more like Jesus. This manifests itself in laws of prohibition against sexual activities, drugs, bad language, abortion, etc. The question becomes, is this a good thing?

Jesus was a good person and lived a perfect life. He told His followers to be like Him, so that's what we strive by the power of His Spirit to do. But where did He say that we are to use violence to force people to look on the outside like Him even though in reality they don't follow Him? The fact of the matter is that He never said that. Jesus said, "Those who live by the sword die by the sword." Violence gives birth to more violence. What Jesus brought was an alternative to government violence as a means to get people right with God. That was tried by the Israelites in the Old Testament under the Mosaic law and proved to be a miserable failure. By the time Jesus came, the people of Israel were not followers of God, but hypocrites who followed the law on the outside (because of force of violence) even though they were not right with God on the inside where it really counts. What Jesus brought was a better way than force of violence. He brought love and told His followers that they will be known by their "love" not violence.

What fires me up is when people who claim to follow Jesus today, ignore His message and go back to the old way of using violence to make people look right. That is what the vast majority of evangelical conservatives are trying to do today. By doing that, they are misrepresenting Jesus to the whole world. Rather than Jesus being the one who paid the penalty for our wrong so we don't have to, He becomes the policeman ready to hurt you for not doing what is right. THAT IS NOT JESUS.

Jesus showed us what the antidote is to a world drowning in pain and sorrow. The antidote is love, Jesus' love. We don't fight with the weapons of the world, we fight with love. If that's how the church lived, then the world would truly know us for our love. I turned on the Michael Savage show last week and heard a popular evangelical say we need to "wipe [fundamentalist Islamist Palestinians] off the map." It broke my heart. That sounds more like Hitler than Jesus.

The world may use hate against us, but we are called to show only love. It might cost us dearly (in fact, Jesus promised it would), but it is the ONLY way to accurately be Jesus to a lost and dying world.

“Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him... Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” -Jesus (John 13.31-35)

Frustrating

2012-01-03T06:44:00.003-05:00

So Hannah is now thirty-eight weeks along in the pregnancy, we are certainly in the final stretch. I took yesterday off of work in order to spend time with Hannah and give her some really good rest and focus time so she would be in a good place for the last few days or couple weeks. It was a good day. But then came the night...

Amity was a TOTAL mess the whole night through. I can safely say that was the WORST night I can remember. She kept Hannah and me up basically the entire night, and that is no exaggeration. Amity cried and screamed the whole night through, "Mommy! I want Mommy!" So we would snuggle her and she would enjoy it but not go to sleep. Then we would put her down in her bed next to ours and the whole process would start again. It was awful. Normally it is not a problem to get her down when she wakes up during the night and I can do it without issue. But last night was just a mess.

I feel like prayer is the only thing that will be able to break the cloud over last night and this morning.

Help us Jesus!!!

Cooking During a Snowstorm

2011-10-30T18:59:00.001-04:00

Three cheers for cooking during a rare October snowstorm with no power. Rice and beans for dinner!

"There Is No Condemnation"

2011-10-25T10:51:00.001-04:00

by Don Francisco

Sittin' by my window on a rainy afternoon
Everything inside my head was playin' out of tune
I was thinkin' of the fool I'd made of me the night before
In front of God and everyone I'd sinned and sinned some more.

I thought of all the things I'd done, I winced at things I'd said
I wallowed in self-pity, I hung my worried head
Right when I was so far down that even up looked wrong
That's when Jesus gave to me the chorus of this song.

He said, "Satan the Accuser has been whisperin' in your ear"
You just tell him you're forgiven and he's got no business here
'Cause it doesn't matter what you've done
It matters what you'll be
There is no condemnation when the Son has set you free.

Now I could say that right away the sun burst through the clouds
And I just started singin' on the chorus right out loud
But actually I moped around and blew another day
Before I let myself accept the words I'd heard Him say.

So I can't criticize you now if you want to take your time
And cling to all your problems just the way I clung to mine
But now you've got the answer Jesus wanted you to know
He'll take your sin and guilt away if you'll just let them go.

There is no condemnation when the Son has set you free.

Leaving Soon

2011-10-17T16:53:00.001-04:00

I'll be leaving work in a few minutes. I'm excited for the evening. The
plan is to make some more ginger snaps with the girlies (they love
rolling them into balls) and also bake some pumpkin bread. It will be
fun. I hope the family had a good day. I had quite a bit of shipping to
do today, which was nice. I enjoy shipping a lot more than counting parts.

A Sleepy, Somber Kind of Day

2011-10-17T12:59:00.001-04:00

I am sleepy today. I'm doing my best to not let it affect my work, but I
wouldn't be surprised if it is... oops. Had a wonderful weekend with the
family. On Saturday went out to a dairy farm where we saw cows, took a
hayride, went through a corn maze, and got pumpkins and raw milk. Very
fun time. Sunday we took it easy. We spent part of the morning at the
playground and had a blast with the girlies. While they napped, I did
some baking. Later in the day we went to Trexler Park and ran into an
old friend. Then pumpkin pancakes for dinner. Another great day. But now
it is Monday, getting back into the swing of things. I miss Hannah and
the girlies. I have been counting today, tons of tiny electronic pieces.
It's annoying work, but I don't mind it too much. I only get annoyed at
how tired it makes me. I have been listening to some old music from my
friend Glenn: Elvis Presley, Johnny Horton, Glenn Campbell, Tennessee
Ernie Ford and Dolly Parton. I enjoy the music immensely, but I always
end up thinking about Glenn afterwards. So it's kind of a somber, sleepy
day. I am trying to stay awake and focused as I count and think about
good times with Glenn. Back to work.

I can't believe how much I look like my dad in this pic!

2011-10-11T19:04:00.001-04:00

I can't believe how much I look like my dad in this pic!

This Afternoon

2011-10-11T13:04:00.001-04:00

I will be stuffing our fancy new generator boards this afternoon. We
built an incredible new generator which has far more memory and
capabilities than anything we have previously had. It is all surface
mount and can be manufactured as an analog board for a drop-in
replacement of our old boards, or can be made all-digital for our new
systems. Pretty cool. I am currently stuffing the extra parts to convert
a few all-digital boards to analog. I have to admit, I'm getting pretty
good at using dual soldering irons to solder on the surface mount parts.
Fun stuff :-).

Test. Does this work?

2011-10-11T12:40:00.001-04:00

Test. Does this work?

No Break for Me

2011-10-11T10:09:00.001-04:00

Woke up this morning to find that Riley has diarrhea... funfun. Quickly
took stock of what we had: Toilet paper? No. Jug of Gatorade? No. Clean
underwear? No. So I made a run to Walmart while Hannah cleaned some
laundry. I got to work over an hour late and now it is break time but I
have no reason to take one because I came in so late. Ugh. But the thing
is, this has been a crazy morning and it is only 10am and I am
exhausted! But, alas, I must wait until lunch. Back to work...

Pondering the Beatitudes

2011-06-15T20:45:00.002-04:00

A few months ago, our pastor asked me to preach for a Sunday while he was out. I excitedly accepted and then began praying to discern what God wanted me to speak on. It did not take long before I felt a peace that He wanted me to take the congregation through the beatitudes. These first twelve verses of Matthew five should be incredibly significant to us all. In these twelve short verses, Jesus lays out the most comprehensive list found in the New Testament of characteristics that define the people of Jesus' kingdom. As with the rest of the sermon on the mount, these are very practical, dealing with our everyday lives in this physical world. These are not spiritual ideals which we hope to achieve internally or some fluff like that.

Now as I started studying these, I began to realize just how radical they were. To make a long story short, I came to the understanding by the grace of the Holy Spirit that the mainstream church system of today is not representing Jesus. All of us who have put our faith in Him are His ambassadors on the earth, we represent Him to those around us. But while we should be characterized by these characteristics from Matthew 5, the church today is known by entirely different things (political issues, worship styles, hypocrisy, judgment, etc.) and are therefore blaspheming the name of Jesus. God cares deeply about how people represent Him. Remember Moses? God told him to speak to the rock, but Moses was upset with the people and struck the rock twice in anger. He misrepresented God to them as being angry and frustrated. But that was not the case. So God told Moses that because he misrepresented Him, he would not be able to enter the promised land. As Moses represented God to the Israelites, so we represent Jesus to the world.

The following are my own ponderings on the beatitudes, led--I pray--by the Spirit of Truth living within me. These are the characteristics we take on when we become followers of Jesus. Whether or not our life physically manifests these is dependent on our willingness to lay down our lives before Jesus and therefore let our inward reality become our outward truth. I was tempted while writing these down to write that these characteristics "should" define Jesus' follower or point out that we should "strive to" present ourselves as such to the world. But the awesome reality is that when we were first saved, we received as a free gift from God the righteous perfection of Jesus! When you look inside us now, you don't find darkness and depravity, you find Jesus! So the incredible reality is that we ARE defined by these characteristics, whether we show them on the outside or not. But now let us remember the words of Jesus, "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." It's when we humble ourselves and give our lives to Him that these inward realities become our outward characteristics.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5.3) – Followers of Jesus recognize that they cannot accomplish God’s purposes in the world by their own power. It is only by the work of God’s Spirit within us that we are empowered to live the lives He wants us to live.
“Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5.4) – The world we live in is in a sad condition. Pain, suffering, and hurt are all around. The condition of the world brings us to tears. Followers of Jesus cannot look at the world and ignore its terrible state, but instead acknowledge the reality and let it drive them to do something about it.
“Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5.5) – In the kingdoms of this world, the rich, the powerful, and the independent are exalted. But in Jesus’ upside-down kingdom, the least shall be the greatest. In His kingdom, humility is the standard by which greatness is measured, and the meek find themselves blessed.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5.6) – Righteousness is a gift given to us by our loving God and Savior. Followers of Jesus live to make that inward state their outward reality. While others hunger and thirst for the passing pleasures of a fallen world, we yearn for our lives to reflect the righteousness of Jesus.
“Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.” (Matthew 5.7) – From whom much is given, much is required. Even though we each spent part of our lives ignoring Him, Jesus showed us mercy by giving His life for our sake. It is from the overflow of His incredible mercy given to us that we are left with no other choice but to be merciful to those around us.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.” (Matthew 5.8) – God cannot stand hypocrites. Jesus’ followers live lives of integrity, where their outward lives match their inward reality.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5.9) – Violence has no place in the life of a believer. We know that “vengeance is mine, says the LORD.” Jesus told his followers to “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back.”
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5.10) – There is a huge difference between persecution for the sake of righteousness and persecution brought on because of pride, judgment and hypocrisy. Followers of Jesus whose outward lives match their inward reality will find themselves living radically different from the people around them. This is because the value system of Jesus’ kingdom is radically different from the value system of this world. This inevitably brings on persecution, but only for a time. Jesus’ follower look forward to a day beyond this where Jesus’ kingdom is fully in place and all pain, suffering, and sadness are things of the past.
“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5.11-12) – It is an incredible fact that those people throughout history most characterized by humility, love, non-violence, mercy and righteousness have also been the most persecuted. They find themselves surrounded by a hostile world on one side and a power-hungry and judgmental church on the other. This is not an easy path to take, but it is the path that leads to Jesus. Blessings come to those who follow Jesus, and those blessings far outweigh the costs.

Time For Bed

2011-04-25T01:20:00.002-04:00

It's late, time for bed. But before I go, I just wanted to write quick post. Today was a very good day. Everybody was grumpy, but for some great reason I was not :-). Church was absolutely wonderful. We had the best pre-reader class yet. Lots of singing and dancing, ribbon swinging and praise shouting, it was great. Then we watched an animated movie of Jesus' resurrection. We had my favorite helper in class, she's the kind of person so full of the Spirit that He just can't help but leak out all over everyone around her :-). I also had my guitar so we all sang a little tune about praising Jesus every day of the week. How many days does Jesus want? All of them!!! I love our little lessons we teach about Jesus. We talk about who He is and what He did. We talk about all the incredible things He made. We talk about His death and resurrection, but most of all we talk about His return. We talk about why He made us and why we serve Him. It really is a blast and I cannot help but feel uplifted in the Spirit following our weekly class. I find myself during the week wishing I was in class rather than at work or wherever. I wish our adult worship service was more like the kids's. It really does stink when form and order trumps the Spirit. I know that we strive to let Holy Spirit drive our services, but we still end up more-or-less following a script from worship through the carefully outlined sermon. Speaking of that, I am going to be preaching on May 29, which I am excited about. I am praying about what God wants me to speak on. I keep bouncing between Matthew, Romans, Genesis, Galatians, and Revelation. So it should be easy to narrow it down to one 50min sermon, right? We will see :-). On another note relating to church, my pastor's wife told me today that she is feeling that we should start a children's worship service which would run alongside the regular worship service. So rather than the children joining their parents and worshiping as a family, the children would spend the entire service apart from their parents, first in children's worship and then in their respective classes. I answered from my gut when she told me and said, "I'm sorry, but that sounds horrible!" As I continued talking, I realized I was bringing her to tears and I realized my wrong and apologized for my obvious lack of grace. But regardless, that is the polar opposite of what God has been working in my heart over the last couple years. I have been feeling more and more the impotance of keeping the family together in church. Jesus said, "Let the little children come unto me, and do not forbid them! For of such is the kingdom of heaven." He did not say, "Hey James, hey Andrew, why don't you take the children off over there and give them an age-appropriate teaching while I teach the adults. Rather, Jesus taught the parents while having a child actually sitting on His knee! And rather than use a child as an example of immaturity and childishness, He used children as an example for believers of pure faith. Rather than breaking up families and pushing kids off to the far corners of the church, I feel we need to bring them up front... and learn from them! Their purity of worship is astounding and their excitement at the person of Jesus makes me want to shout for joy! And if there is any institution which supports the unity of the family, I think it should be the church. Why not worship with our children in our arms? Why not teach the ones who cannot yet read to shout "Praise Jesus!" throughout the songs? Why not use each song as another opportunity to point them to Jesus and His love for them? Some of the best teaching moments I have with our girlies are during corporate worship. As we sing about Jesus returning I excitedly tell them what is going to happen! Plus they get to see me worshiping and loving on Jesus... what could be better than that? I have been studying Deuteronomy and God emphasized time and again the importance of bringing the children into all parts of worship as a means of teaching them God's truth and pointing them to Him. Sure the kids sometimes start jabbering during prayer and sure they sometimes want to dance in the aisles, but let me ask you this: What is wrong with that? They are children and learning and growing! And besides, I think we as adults should do more dancing in the aisles! Let me ask you this, why do you think the apostles time and again wanted to take the kids away from Jesus? It takes hardly a moment to know that they thought the kids were a distraction. Kids make noise, kids have a hard time focusing, kids laugh and decide to say something even when everybody else is quiet, but that is because they are children. They are still growing! This annoyed the apostles and they saw them as distractions and wanted to push them to the outskirts of the crowd. But once again I point out, Jesus did not see them as such. Jesus brought them to the front and even sat them on His lap. That same Jesus is the one I praise and worship every day. My pastor once said, "The children around Jesus must have been very well behaved and quiet and respectful for Him." But I followed up by asking him, "Then why did the apostles want them sent away?"

So there we go, you can see I am still processing all of this. I am praying that Holy Spirit will continue to work in me and show me and Hannah and our whole church what is right and how we can be more like Jesus. Regardless of where we disagree, I'm glad to know that our goal is the same: to be like Jesus. There we go, that's my post. Time for bed.

Trudging Along

2011-04-16T00:00:00.003-04:00

Life is exhausting right now, to say the least. I had a feeling at the turn of the year that this was going to be the craziest time of my life thus far... and that has truly been the case. Between family, school, church and work I hardly have a moment to catch my breath. I cannot remember the last time I watched a whole movie or went to bed not feeling guilty that I had not finished enough schoolwork. In fact, it's going to be a major stretch if I am going to finish my classes on time. I trust that God is working in all of this, but I am just so incredibly exhausted. I seriously do not know what to do. I spend my days running at 100% and then when I have a chance to get started on school I cannot hardly hold my head up. It certainly does not help that I am working Saturdays now. But once again, I keep reminding myself: God has enough grace for this, God has enough grace for this, God has enough grace for this... if He didn't, I'd be in big trouble. But praise the Lord that God is God and never changes. He wants me here, right now, doing what I am doing. So regardless of how exhausting life is, I will praise Him still.

Great Day

2011-04-12T22:44:00.002-04:00

Today was a great day. I was a little tired to start, but eventually I was able to wake up and enjoy the day. After work, Hannah went out to have some time alone and I had some fun time with the girlies. We looked at the new lift-the-flap Easter book that I got them. After reading the book multiple times and talking about Jesus, I thought it would be a good time to watch our movie about Jesus' death with them. Riley has never let us watch it all the way through (she gets upset when the soldiers show up in Gethsemane), but this time we watched the movie and flipped through the book at the same time, really emphasizing the events of that last week. Riley Joy was engrossed but Amity was content to just keep flipping open the flaps over and over again and did not pay any attention to the movie (she is much like Karis when it comes to watching movies). It was sad and hard to watch (even an animated version of those events), but I was most excited to get to the second DVD, which was the resurrection. So after Jesus had died, the camera zoomed out and faded into the credits. I quickly pulled out the next DVD to put in, but was unpleasantly surprised to see that it was cracked! Somehow the DVD had gotten stepped on or something and was cracked and unwatchable. It really stinks to watch Jesus die and not then be able to see Him rise up again. So we just talked about Him rising back up. But I hope we can replace that DVD soon, especially with Easter coming soon.

After putting the girls to bed, I had some great time with Hannah. We watched the Cosby show and then an episode of Dog the Bounty Hunter and had fun. Then we talked for a good while. I like her :-). So overall a good day and a great evening. Now for schoolwork...

The Best Medicine

2011-04-12T00:36:00.003-04:00

I was just at a diner catching up on some reading for school. It is incredible how exhausting it is taking care of two children and a wife... :-). By the end of the day it is difficult to stay awake enough to get real work done. But that is what's nice about going to the diner every once and a while to study there. I'm able to stay awake and get work done rather efficiently. I had a great time tonight. I first spent some personal time with Jesus looking at Philippians 2 and then moved into Basic Bible Interpretation. In Philippians, I was blown away anew by verses 14-15 which say, "Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world." I think we often underestimate the importance of having a good attitude. These verses do not say that you become "blameless and harmless" and "lights in the world" by living some sort of legalistically righteous life, or by having a comprehensive understanding of theology, or by having a perfect attendance record at church. It says that being a blameless light in the world begins with simply having a good attitude. It is easy to complain and dispute but then rationalize it away based on my circumstances, but that does not lead to a blameless life. To be a light to the world, we need to have a good attitude, whatever the circumstances. Do we really believe that God is sovereign? Do we have an intellectual belief in His sovereignty or do we have an active, living faith in His sovereignty over everything that happens in this world? The truth is that He is sovereign, so to complain and gripe over circumstances is really to tell God that He is screwing up. But God does not screw up. Jesus is a perfect model of living faith in God's sovereignty. He had more reason to complain and gripe over His circumstances than anyone else who ever has or ever will live, yet He was 100% actively given over to God's will in faith. That's the kind of faith I am praying for, the kind that is living and active in me, causing me to always have a good attitude in the face of any and all circumstances. It is when I reach that point, that I will truly be a light to the world. When people see that, they will be directed straight to God. Isn't that neat? Our witness is inextricably tied to our attitude, which is then tied to our faith. I never want to underestimate the importance of having a good attitude.

I really enjoyed my reading in Basic Bible Interpretation. Roy B. Zuck is a wonderful writer and he has a way of infecting me with his own excitement over the Scriptures. When I read his book, I always end up excited to dig deeper into the Word. I have read other books dealing with Bible study and interpretation, but none have had the same effect on me. Today I was reading about literary styles in the Bible and was disappointed when the chapter ended. The Bible is doubtless the greatest literary work ever created... but would we expect anything less from a book written by God Himself? I really want to read Leland Ryken's book on the same topic, How to Read the Bible As Literature.

But over the course of my time reading and studying, I could not help but notice a man sitting alone a few tables down from me. The Spirit put him on my heart, so I went and asked him if he knew that Jesus loves him. He responded that he was agnostic but used to go to church (effectively dodging the question). I asked him again if he knew that Jesus loved him. He responded something like, "Yeah, probably, I guess." He then agreed to let me pray for him so I took a moment and asked Jesus to work in his life and pour out His love upon him. I asked Jesus to give him guidance and direction and to reveal Himself in an awesome new way. I ended by reiterating the fact that Jesus loved him and asked Jesus again to pour out His love in Peter's life for His glory. I am trusting in Jesus' name that He will do just that and will work in this man's (Peter is his name) life and really grab ahold of his heart. It was a neat moment. It is so very funny that I can go for so long asking God halfheartedly to open up ministry opportunities in my everyday life, but then when I take a small moment to pray for someone that God suddenly fills me with the most incredible desire to minister to everyone I see. It's funny how God works like that. I have found that there is no better medicine for a mediocre Christian life than to pray for the people around me. It is one small way of showing them Jesus' love, but it also in a neat way connects me to Jesus' heart and fills me with a desire to continue doing more for Him.

So I continue to praise Jesus. Isn't He wonderful? I love Him so much.

A Humbling Experience

2010-08-03T14:49:00.002-04:00

So I had the most wonderful morning with God today. We talked and talked as I was working in Electronics. I prayed and worshiped and had an absolutely wonderful time. Since I was having such a great time, I decided to go out and spread God's love over lunch. I did not even stop at my computer to check my email, but instead just threw my ESD jacket on a shelf and practically ran out to my car. I initially did not know where I was going but decided to storm the gates of CVS Pharmacy in Macungie with the gospel! I did not let anything deter me and went straight there. Once there, I jumped out of the car with my spiritual antenna up, looking for anyone that I could pray for and share the gospel with. Then I got an idea, I wondered if I had any Bibles in my trunk that I could give away to any new converts. So I opened my trunk and pulled out a few, but then thought, "Why should I limit God? Why not grab ten!" So I grabbed ten Bibles and pulled out my keys to open my car door to put them in the front seat. But then I realized something... there was no car key with my other keys! I stuck my hand back in my pocket, but nothing was there. I looked on the ground around me, but nothing was there. Then I realized what had happened. My key is broken and sometimes falls off, and while I was getting the Bibles out of the trunk, my key fell off into the trunk, which was now closed and which I had no way to get into. Ugh. So I called Hannah to let her know what was up, then I called AAA to see if they had any suggestions. They told me that they could only get me into the car but not the trunk. Which did me no good. So then I called Hannah again and told here that my only option was to have her come rescue me. It had been more than a half an hour since lunch had begun and I was hot and annoyed and holding a pile of ten Bibles. The air was certainly out of my balloon. So I set the Bible on the roof of my car and prayed and thanked God for the humbling experience. Then I prayed for three nice folks and told them that God loved them. I also had a very refreshing short talk with a very old man who was also a Christian. Then Hannah rescued me. It was a good, but humbling lunch time :-).

Riley's Bedtime Routine

2010-07-22T12:11:00.002-04:00

1. Bath/Shower
2. Brush teeth and get dressed
3. Watch "The Miracles of Jesus" DVD
4. Carry up to bed
5. Snuggle together
6. Pray to Jesus
7. Sing (1) Winken, Blinken, and Nod (2) Puff the Magic Dragon (3) I'll Never Let Go of Your Hand
8. Give her a kiss and tell her goodnight

The Kingdom of God

2010-07-15T12:44:00.006-04:00

"But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you." Matthew 12:28

I have just been so blown away by what the Spirit has been teaching me over the last week. He has been filling me with an understanding of who I am in Christ, and with that new identity, what I have been called to do. But not just me as an individual, the whole body of Christ! I was reading in Matthew and anyone who knows Matthew knows that the key phrase in the book is "Kingdom of Heaven" which is most literally translated "Kingdom of the Heavens." That kingdom is not spiritual, it is not "heavenly" as some might think, but it is all created matter from the third heaven down to the lowest heaven where earth is. But Matthew does not only talk about the kingdom of "heaven" in his book, but five times he uses the term "kingdom of God." That makes those few moments particularly stand out from the book as special. So what is Spirit teaching us through these passages? Well, rather than look at them all, I want to focus on this one verse where Jesus basically is saying that by the signs He is doing, the people in Israel see that the "Kingdom of God" is upon them! But what is the Kingdom of God? Well, it is a spiritual kingdom, it is the kingdom of all those spiritual being who have submitted themselves to Him. But because it is a spiritual kingdom, the people of this earth have no way of seeing it. That is what was so awesome about what Jesus was doing here! He was literally showing the people of Israel the Kingdom of God! By the signs He was performing, He was manifesting the Kingdom of God before their eyes! The unseen was being seen!

As believers, we are all part of the "Kingdom of God." And being part of that unseen spiritual kingdom, it is our responsibility to manifest it to the world. We are literally ambassadors for God on the earth! When we were born again, we were literally made a new creation in order that we can be fitting ambassadors for God to this world! When God sees us, He sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ! And with that righteousness we are therefore able to properly represent God! And you know what? He wants us to represent Him! As Jesus showed the Israelites the Kingdom of God, we must as ambassadors for God show the world the Kingdom of God! We must show them the love and power of God! This involved humbly submitting to the work of Holy Spirit in our lives. We should live our lives in such a way that people look at us and say, "What is this? What are you?" And we can say, "We are ambassadors for God, redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ and living for His glory." Wow! Imagine that witness! Rather than the Gospel being words we speak, it becomes a life we live! The world will see the Gospel lived out in our lives! THAT IS WHAT WE AS THE CHURCH, AS THE BODY OF CHRIST ARE CALLED TO DO!!! We have been bought at a great price, sanctified and called to make disciples of all nations, SO LET'S DO IT! Let's live our Gospel to the world! Let's be the ambassadors we have been born to be! Let's come to the realization that everywhere we go now becomes an embassy for the Kingdom of God, and everywhere we go, we are shining examples for Him! Let us not live contrary to the new nature that has been given us by God, but instead let us live fully in the reality of who we are in Jesus Christ!!! We are born-again righteous ambassadors for the Kingdom of God, who are being transformed and sanctified every day for the glory of God!

And what is the point? Apart from the purpose of showing the glory of God, in doing this we are giving people a taste of the kingdom that is to come. When Jesus returns, the Kingdom of Heaven (all created matter) will merge with God's perfect spiritual kingdom, the Kingdom of God! In that time, the world will be restored to its Edenic perfection and the Kingdom of God will not longer be unseen, but visible to every people on the earth! Praise the Lord!!! THAT will be an awesome day! As Jesus did, we are giving people a taste of the coming perfect Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Isn't that an awesome responsibility!?!?!!?! Oh how I praise God for it!!!

Refreshed in the Spirit

2010-06-02T14:46:00.002-04:00

There are no words to explain the gratitude I have for what God has been doing in my heart recently. Since last February it is as if He has just cracked my heart open and is excitingly pouring out His Word and His Spirit directly into me. It is as if I am being given a blood transfusion by God Himself, replacing my fleshly self with Himself so for the first time in my life, He is flowing through me as my lifeblood. All praise be to Him. So many things which I have felt for years are now coming into focus as He is now making His will clear in my life. The frustrations I have had in the past are melting away and the hopes I have desperately held to are now coming to fruition. As for God's wonderful Word, it is as if he has taken the scales off my eyes and allowed me to see the truth in the words and have it stick to my brain. The Scriptures make sense to me like never before and I hear the Spirit whispering into my ear even as I am reading and praying. All praise be to God for the glorious work He is doing in my life, for His glory. My life is His and I am excitedly moving forward in Him. All praise be to Him!

Refreshing

2010-05-26T14:50:00.002-04:00

I watched this video at CBN News this morning and was very refreshed by it. I love seeing the Spirit at work :-).

I am reminded of John 14, where Jesus said,

11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

12 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

19 "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. 20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."

"Hey World"

2010-05-21T12:08:00.003-04:00

by Bob Hartman

It could have gone either way when it came down to the choice
To keep the life within a life that had no voice
It must have surely seemed the harder road to choose
To be so young to have to say who had the most to lose
But she came through like a champ and she blessed the world that day
Then gave the hope of a better life when she gave him away

Now the innocence and joy is there each day he wakes
Expressions of his love of life in every breath he takes
He could have been thrown away before he had a chance to say

Chorus
Hey world, I am here and I have something to give
Hey world, I'm alive and I am wanting to live

He turned to lock the door as he wiped away a tear
The hopelessness of missing love, his adolescent fear
As he struggled for the strength to put the gun away
He found the courage and the hope to face another day
He could have been blown away before he had a chance to say

Chorus

Down the corridor or life in between our death and birth
We may start to lose our way in the search to find our worth
Our value comes in the fact we live
Life is a gift only God can give

Almost 1/3 Through!

2010-04-23T12:34:00.002-04:00

So we are almost 1/3 of the way through this year! I was just pondering that and getting excited about next year. Of course this is a great year, but I am really REALLY excited about starting Bible School at the start of the new year! Golly me, I can not even describe all that God has been doing in me and it is incredible to behold. He just blows me away. All praise be to Him :-).

Excerpt from "Experiencing the Holy Spirit."

2010-04-21T10:15:00.003-04:00

Oh, Christian, learn at this point that your life daily depends on God's will, on God's grace, and on God's omnipotence. Yes, every moment God must work in your inner life and strengthen you by His Spirit; otherwise, you cannot live as He would have you live. Just as no creature in the natural world can exist for a moment if God does not work in it to sustain its life, so the gift of the Holy Spirit is the pledge that God Himself is to work everything in us from moment to moment.

Learn to know your entire, blessed dependence on God. Recognize the claim you have on Him as your Heavenly Father to begin in you a life in the mighty strengthening of the Spirit and to maintain it without the interruption of a single moment.

Paul tells these believers what he prays for in their behalf in order that they may know what they have need of and ask for it themselves. Expect everything from God alone. Bow your knees, ask, and expect from the Father His manifestation to you of the riches of His glory. Ask and expect that He would strengthen you with might by His Spirit who is already in you as an unknown, hidden, and slumbering seed.

Let this become the desire and confidence of your soul: "God will fill me with the Spirit: God will strengthen me through the Spirit with His Almighty energy." Let your whole life be daily permeated by this prayer and this expectation.

The Gospel

2010-04-19T10:10:00.002-04:00

I have been thinking so much about the Gospel recently. I just want to grab the shoulders of those around me and shake them yelling "Turn to Jesus and be saved!" I know that would probably not be the most effective way to lead them to Christ, but it still feels like all I have left. I see people around me every day and I pray, "Lord God, please turn that person's heart toward You if they don't know You already." I am a sort of silent prayer warrior. I hope God takes note of those prayers and works in those random peoples' lives. I especially hope He works in the hearts of those around me who I see every day and yet know are rejecting Him. THEY NEED HIM AND THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW IT! Or maybe they do realize it but are just putting on a cool exterior to try and mask the fact. I want them to break down and give in! I want to see them turn their hearts to Him and know that my prayers have not been in vain! I trust that God takes note of how I try to spread His Gospel to those around me, but I want to see salvation. It is like I see a dark cloud over these people, as they work, as they talk. Every day it bothers me more and more. I know that I need faith that it is all in God's hands, but that is little comfort when beholding those who are [currently] damned.

Jesus paid your price! Don't let His suffering be in vain! You don't even know what you are missing both in this life and the life to come!

I just want to shake some sense into them.

Life...

2010-03-16T23:19:00.002-04:00

I am listening to music from years ago... it's incredible how music can instantly bring back so many memories...

I'm remembering visiting Lockridge Park as a child with the family... remembering Dad's old friend Joel... remembering a rainy day and a fort that was nothing more than a pile of warped lumber... remembering Daddy's ankle popping while playing soccer, pulling up handfulls of grass while in so much pain he could not speak... remember him in a cast working with Mark Zook... remembering plastic frogs in my pockets... trapper keepers... Mother dancing to a song that she loves... swimming in the lake... Daddy surprising us one one evening and taking us to an airfield to each take individual flights with a pilot over our house... school uniforms... tea time and movies alone with Mother... Chick-Fil-A... the Bible... Hannah...

If anything is clear, it's that my life is not my own. I thank God everyday for His sovereignty. I have seen His hand in every piece of my life thus far... and am excited to see what He has around the next corner for us.

Foundational Truth: The Separation of Church and State

2010-03-10T14:57:00.001-05:00

"Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's,
and to God the things that are God's."
Luke 20.25

These are the immortal words of Jesus Christ given in the Gospel of Luke. In this simple verse, Jesus makes a clear distinction between God and Caesar, or what we would consider Church and State. Each has distinct responsibilities from God and have been given authority to fulfill those responsibilities.

Throughout history, we have seen this distinction blurred and the results were always disastrous. In the Middle Ages, we saw the Catholic church take on the responsibilities of civil government (the state) and the world saw bloody crusades, oppression, widespread poverty, and total abandonment of the proper functions of the Church. On the other hand, we have seen governments attempt to control the church for political means and especially in recent history have seen government claim responsibilities that are rightfully left to the church. These have caused corruption, poverty, persecution and pointless bloodshed. If each party had respected the other and each fulfilled its proper functions, many of history's greatest disasters could have been avoided. So what are their respective responsibilities?

Let us start with the church, or the Christian religion in general. In Matthew 28.19-20, Jesus lays out three responsibilities: (1) Discipleship (2) Baptism (3) Teaching. Also, James 1.27 says, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." So those are some basic, biblical responsibilities of the Church. Now what are the responsibilities of civil government? Romans 13.4 tells us that God has given civil government authority to be "an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer." So, to put it in a nutshell, civil government has been given the responsibility of protecting good people by punishing evildoers.

We must always make a proper distinction between the Church and the State. They each have been given authority to fulfill certain responsibilities, and in any case where one attempts to usurp the authority of the other there is nothing but trouble and pain. We must hold fast to the wisdom of Jesus and render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. That is truth.

Reading, Studying, Talking

2010-03-09T12:28:00.002-05:00

I was excited to start Bible studying with my carpool buddy, Dan, today. The plan is that when he is driving (every other day), I will lead as we read, study, and talk about the Scriptures. We decided to start in Genesis and work our way through. We will move relatively quickly through the Bible without much commentary, just presenting the Word with limited interruption except for short comments to aid in understanding. I started in Genesis a while back and am in Psalms now, so it is especially fun to go back and start over after having only recently been there. And it also helps in preparing notes for our study :-). So this morning we started in Genesis 1 and worked through the end of chapter 3. The plan is to finish chapter 5 by the time we get home tonight. I am very excited about how God is going to use this extra study time in our lives.

I am at a point in my life where I absolutely can not get enough of the Scriptures. In Bible college, I read and studied all the same things, yet it was like there was a cloud over my eyes and I could hardly even read the Bible. My eyes would dart all over the pages and I would read the same paragraphs over and over again. It was so incredibly frustrating that after leaving school I did ZERO reading (not just the Bible) for two years! But a couple of months ago, God unlocked something in my brain and for the first time in my life I can not just read, but I can actually absorb the Scriptures and other books on the Bible. The exact same books that I physically/mentally COULD NOT read a few years ago, I am now able to absorb quickly and recall easily.

THANK YOU!!!

What's In The Bible?

2010-03-08T23:32:00.004-05:00

This is an exciting new series from Phil Vischer, the creator of Veggie Tales. I bought the first DVD in the series today and am very impressed. I am excited to see the rest.

Consistent Interpretation of Prophesy

2010-03-04T19:53:00.003-05:00

It really bothers me how easy it is for folks to look at a prophetic passage and admit that the first part has been literally fulfilled, but then say that the next part of the prophesy will be fulfilled spiritually. Let's please be consistent. If we are consistent, we can see that ALL Bible prophesy that has been fulfilled, has been fulfilled literally. As Dr. Paul Benware summarized in the his excellent Understanding End Times Prophesy:

"Prophesies that have been fulfilled completely have been fulfilled literally, and that gives us confidence to expect that those prophetic utterances that are not yet fulfilled (or completely fulfilled) will also end up being fulfilled literally. We believe that Jesus Christ will literally return to this earth and reign at His second coming because He literally came to this earth the first time, being born of the virgin Mary at Bethlehem."

If we interpret consistently, Biblical prophesy is really not all that confusing, and the major disagreements people have over the covenants and the relationship of Israel to the Church all fade away.

Children's Church

2010-03-04T14:45:00.002-05:00

I will be leading Children's Church this Sunday and I am quite excited. I was going through Judges (one of my most favorite books) and read the story of my favorite judge, Ehud. After that I sent my pastor an email telling him that if there was a day that they needed a sub for Children's church, I would be happy to fill in and teach the children this wonderful story. He was excited and then they asked me if I could do it this Sunday... OK! Hannah will be visiting her mother's church so I will not have anything to worry about (small, high-maintenance children!) except my lesson.

In NTM Boot Camp, we had a guest speaker one night who spoke on the book of Judges. He went briefly through all the judges in the entire book and at the end explained how God is all-powerful, and just as he gave the judges in Israel exactly what they needed to accomplish His will for them, He will give us today all that we need to accomplish His will for our lives. That lesson stuck deep in me and since then I have always enjoyed that book.

But as for application, I am not sure yet where I will go. I am trying to decide between:

1) Explaining that just as God gave the judges exactly what they needed to accomplish His will for them, He will give you all that you need to accomplish what He wants you to do.

or

2) Present Ehud as a temporary deliverer (a miniature Christ), and then go right into the gospel and explain how Jesus is our eternal deliverer.

I am leaning toward the second option.

I am very excited. Now I must end this and continue work on my props :-).

Random

2010-03-03T14:53:00.003-05:00

I was looking through my email at work and came across some numbers that interested me.

First email sent: 10/19/05
Total emails sent: 3748

I started work at Walkers in June of 2005. I was initially at the Warehouse, but in August I was moved to the Shop. Once in the Shop, I worked in Electronics until October. In October I began working primarily with inventory and was assigned a computer to use. I can assume that the first day I used my computer was October 19, 2005. So I have been working at this computer for over four years. I have been working at Walkers for longer than I was in High School. I have worked at Walkers only six months longer than I have been married. In June, I will have worked here for five years. In the four years that we have been married

-Hannah and I have lived in two different apartments, and with her mother.
-We have driven from PA to Texas and back
-We have driven down to Florida and back multiple times
-We have flown down to Florida twice and flown back once.

Totally random, but it was what was currently in my head.

Thoughts on Mark 1

2010-03-03T10:09:00.002-05:00

I have been reading through the gospel of Matthew and have really enjoyed myself. But I finished it yesterday and was quite disappointed. It is so majestic and is written in the same way as the wonderful books of the Old Testament. I would go so far to say that it should be the 67th book of the Old Testament. But after finishing it, I was disappointed to have to move into simple little Mark. But, I put my biases aside and in faith began Mark this morning to see what the Spirit would teach me through it.

Now after having read the first chapter in Mark for the first time in a long while, I have to say that my initial attitude toward the book was ABSOLUTELY WRONG! While Matthew is deep and somewhat dark at times, Mark is refreshingly simple. Matthew was written to the Jews and it is all about the future kingdom of Israel, but Mark is about the gospel for me! Right from the start, Mark sets the stage. Rather than presenting Jesus going around explaining OT prophesy, it starts withe Jesus "proclaiming the gospel of God." This is the gospel for gentiles! It is quite simply about Jesus and what he did for us.

Simple and beautiful.

I also love the wilderness imagery. John was the imperfect crier in the wilderness, Jesus became the perfect crier in the wilderness of the world, and now in the power of the Holy Spirit we are left as criers in this wilderness of a fallen world.

I'm very excited to read the rest of the book... it's been far too long :-).

Our Rights With God?

2010-03-01T12:06:00.003-05:00

Quote from John Piper, "The Called of Christ and the Loved of God: Part 1" May 17, 1998.

"I assert, that human beings as they presently exist have absolutely no rights with God. None! Zero! We have no rights over or against God. We have no right to claim anything from God. Nothing! Therefore, all condemnation from God is just and all salvation from God is gracious. And nobody can raise any complain whatsoever."

That is ever so true.

The Bread of Life

2010-02-27T22:41:00.003-05:00

Jesus... oh sweet and beautiful Savior! I have been watching "The Gospel of John" and pondering the truth of God's Word. It is quite intense. Jesus fed the five thousand and all the people got so excited! The became obsessed with Jesus! They loved Him! What could be better than a king that could make food appear basically out of thin air! They followed him and asked Him time and time again about food and He obliged them and said, "I am the Bread of life!" Then He told them that to be saved, they would have to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Then what happened??? They got angry! What!?!? We saw You make real bread, we can't possibly eat You! Then many quickly lost interest in Him. Jesus was of course talking spiritually, but they had not the faith to accept His words. He could have laid it out and explained it away in the most clear and persuasive ways possible, but He purposely did not. Jesus was interested in their hearts! He wanted their faith! If He had spoken straightforwardly, He certainly would have been followed by larger crowds and who knows what else might have happened, BUT HE DID NOT WANT IT THAT WAY!!! As the Old Testament prophets warned the Israelites, GOD DOES NOT WANT YOU TO LOOK RIGHT, HE WANTS YOUR HEARTS TO BE RIGHT! Time and time again the Israelites heard the law and vowed to uphold it and then regularly visited the temple and did the things of the law to the best of their ability. But they were not doing it in faith! They were just following a list of rules! If their hearts had been rights, their allegiances would not have blown back and forth and over and over and time and time again! Jesus did not care if He only had a handful with Him, because he wanted those whose hearts were right (of course making an exception for Judas, but Jesus knew this and allowed Him to continue anyway).

THE HEART, THE HEART, THE HEART!!! In the Old Testament, God wanted hearts. In the New Testament, God wanted hearts. Today, Jesus wants hearts. Don't focus on the bread, on the earthly things. Look in faith on Jesus, our glorious Lord and Savior! All praise be to Him!

Psalm 128:1-4 (ESV)

2010-02-25T12:46:00.000-05:00

Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
who walks in his ways!

You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;

Your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
who fears the Lord.

Memorization on the Cross

2010-02-24T15:02:00.002-05:00

I am currently working through these.

Romans 6:6-7
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

1 Corinthians 1:18
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

Philippians 2:8
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Colossians 1:20
And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

Hebrews 12:2
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Matthew 16:24-25
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Epochs

2010-02-15T14:48:00.004-05:00

Epoch - a point in time beginning a new or distinctive period

From whom do I receive my life? God. From whom do I receive my life's direction? God.

God's will is often difficult to see and sometimes even more difficult to understand, but regardless, we search it out. He gave me life and He owns me. So to most properly live my life, I must keep my eyes fixed on God so I will be able to receive and discern from Him what He has for me. This process of trying to discern His will has been going on my life for a long time, and will continue until I die, but it certainly has been getting easier. My hope and prayer is that as my relationship with Him increases in depth and significance, His direct revelation relating to my life, family, and place in this world will become more frequent and clear. But looking at my life thus far, I can discern three specific moments where God told me what my purpose was for that time in my life. These three epochs significanly affected my life, and every decision I made during the time period following each was made in the light of that new understanding. Now it is worth pointing out that these epochs have never been contrary to each other, but rather progressive steps toward a greater plan which God has not yet revealed to me. So as I said before, there have been three turning point in my life where God clearly revealed something to me pertaining to my life that I did not know or realize before. The first came to me in High School.

"Ryan, go to PBU."

In 2003, God clearly revealed to me that I was to attend Philadelphia Biblical University following High School. He did not speak the words to me, but I knew clearly in my heart that it was His will for me. Going to PBU gave me opportunity to be in Pennsylvania where I reconnected with Hannah Joy.

"Ryan, you will marry Hannah."

Late one night after spending the evening with Hannah, I was lying in bed trying to go to sleep. God spoke these words to me, "Ryan, you will marry Hannah." I questioned Him at first, but knew that it was Him speaking... and how can you really argue with God??? Once that was revealed to me, Hannah and I officially got together and then were officially engaged and then married less than a year later. Once married, school was at least temporarily out of the question in terms of finances and also emotionally, Hannah's father having just recently passed away. But we moved forward in the truth that we knew, which was that we were supposed to be married. Every decision was made in light of that truth. The next revelation came while Hannah was pregnant with our first child.

"Your ministry is your family."

These, once again, were not clear words from God, but regardless He spoke them clearly in our hearts. Outward ministry had always been a big part of my life but God was saying that my number one ministry was inward, to my own family. In light of that truth, we made a number of decisions, including changing churches. We needed to be at a church where others would be able to accept that truth and not pressure us into living and serving in ways that took away from what we knew to be our primary call. And this step was not a new direction for us, it was just another step in our purpose, on top of being married.

We are still living in light of that truth, that our ministry is our family, and are trying in everything we do to seek God's will in fulfilling that purpose. But until God gives us the next step in the process, we know that this is the single purpose He wants us to be fulfilling at this time in our lives. Whether it was changing churches so we would be free to minister to our own family, or me joining LBCCS to try and preserve freedom for my children, every decision we have made during this period of time is based off of what we know to be our purpose at this point in our lives.

In our zeal to accomplish these purposes, we have at times pursued ventures that were not in God's perfect will for us, but He has been gracious enough to close those doors before we got in too far. But regardless, I can see two instances during this time where I clearly made decisions myself without regarding God or what I knew to be His purpose for me: (1) Trying my hand at real estate investing and (2) signing up to go to online school and study communications. But once again, God closed those doors and I learned from those experiences.

Now the question is, when will He further clarify our purpose to us? When will He give us the next step? A large part of me feels like God will be making it clear to us soon, but I am willing to wait for His perfect time. It is always such a joy and comfort to know that He is sovereign and no stupid decisions I make will ever change that.

So I will continue to seek Him and His will, and I will continue to pursue what He makes clear to me is my primary purpose for each moment in my life. I am very excited to see what He has for us next :-).

New Blog!

2010-02-09T23:19:00.002-05:00

I have started a new blog, another blog on the side. It is based off of Andrew Murray's devotional book, Experiencing the Holy Spirit. God has been using it so much in my life recently, so decided to take it and work slowly through it and rewrite it in my own words. I have decided to take that and put it into a blog. I know it will be a blessing to me as I write this out, and I hope it will be a blessing to you as well. To view my new blog, follow this link:

http://experiencingtheholyspirit.blogspot.com/

Political Spectrum Quiz

2010-02-07T09:23:00.000-05:00

My Political Views
I am a far-right social libertarian
Right: 9.48, Libertarian: 6.45

Political Spectrum Quiz

Born Again American

2010-02-07T06:56:00.002-05:00

I was directed to this by a forwarded email. It is a beautiful and video, even though it was funded by big-government progressives as a propaganda tool. Apparently people are supposed to watch this and get emotionally charged up, then Obama is supposed going to sail in as the answer to it all. The video was funded by "Declare Yourself" which is sponsored by Change.org, a wildly progressive website that is against everything in this video. Figure that out... :-). Enjoy the video.

Excerpt from Experiencing the Holy Spirit

2010-02-06T22:24:00.003-05:00

This paragraph really touched me. It is from Experiencing the Holy Spirit, by Andrew Murray. I have never read any of his work before, but am really enjoing it now. He was not seduced by the widespread legalism of his time (the late nineteenth-early twentieth centuries). He spoke truth.

"At no stage of our spiritual career are the power and the deceitfulness of our individual self and the self-life more manifest than in the attempt to grasp the full blessing of Pentecost. Many people endeavor to appropriate this blessing by a great variety of efforts. They do not succeed and are not able to discover the reason why. They forget that self-will can never cast out self-will and that self can never really mortify itself. Happy is the man who is brought to the point of acknowledging his helplessness and impotence. He will especially need to deny himself here and cease to expect anything from his own life and strength. He will rather lay himself down in the presence of the Lord as one who is impotent and dead, that he may really receive the blessing from Him."

Husband, Father, Servant

2010-02-06T22:20:00.002-05:00

What I love abou this blog is that it so clearly states my priorities in life. I am a husband, a father, and a servant of my Lord Jesus Christ. Simple, straightforward. I have recently lost sight of these simple priorities in my life, but God has been working in me to get me back on track. All praise be to Him. Let's see what He does :-).

I Am a Classical Liberal

2009-12-21T22:31:00.002-05:00

A friend was on my Facebook page and saw that I consider myself a "Classical Liberal." He then sain, "I expected something more like Ronald Reagan conservative."

So I went ahead and explained to him in a nutshell what I meant:

Let me put it this way. When I hear "Reagan Conservative" I instantly think of massive, overbearing, intrusive government with a great big American flag plastered over the front of it. That is NOT me.

I am a classical liberal in the tradition of John Locke, many of our founding fathers (Thomas Jefferson in particular), Frederic Bastiat and Ron Paul. A classical liberal believes in the God-given natural rights of human beings to life, liberty and property; and understands that the purpose of government is to protect those rights to the extent that we as individuals can not efficiently do it ourselves. Crime is the forceful violation of another person's rights and the only legitimate circumstance to deprive a person of any of their rights is in response to their unlawful deprivation of another's rights. And in all cases, the punishment should match the offense plus with extra compensation to the victim. It is a very simple philosophy that leaves no room for large, overbearing government. And it is a philosophy right in line with our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. It is worth pointing out that the Constitution only delegates 18 powers/responsibilities to Congress, then the Executive branch has the responsibility of faithfully executing those laws and the Judicial branch is supposed to watch and make sure all legislation fits within the confines of the Constitution and natural law. Very simple. If our federal government stuck to the Constitutional formula, it would be extremely small, in fact significanly smaller than any State legislature. Can you imagine that?!?! Oh, how far we have fallen!

In summary, as a classical liberal, I stand uncompromising in support of "the laws of nature and nature's God."

To learn more about classical liberalism, visit http://www.lbccs.org/.

Town Hall Meeting Becomes Violent

2009-08-07T12:38:00.002-04:00

The following took place on 08-06 in Tampa, FL. Wow. The good guys were being loud and disrupting the congresswoman's propaganda meeting, so her union thugs roughly hustled them out. Notice how when the good people protest, they do not throw poop and urine and shout obscenities. We will definitely see more of this in the near future. Hopefully it will not have negative consequences.

The Defenders of Liberty... Wow!

2009-08-06T14:59:00.000-04:00

Political Spectrum Quiz

2009-08-05T14:53:00.002-04:00

My Political Views
I am a right moderate social libertarian
Right: 6.63, Libertarian: 2.76

Political Spectrum Quiz

And once again they get it wrong :-). They assume you can't be a true libertarian/classical liberal if you are strongly opposed to abortion. Truth is, if you are a TRUE classical liberal with a belief in natural law, you must be opposed to abortion. But most political spectrum analyzers do not bother to take that into account.

First Round of Layoffs

2009-08-04T23:12:00.001-04:00

So we had our first round of layoffs today… ugh. Mark T, Charlie and Abby were let go. It was a sad day, a soul-draining day. At the beginning of the year we were told that the company was feeling the pain of the current economic conditions, and if things did not improve they would be forced to have some layoffs, but they would go by seniority. So I made a list and have been checking people off of it, watching as my name gets closer and closer to the chopping block. Four names are down, three more before me. Unfortunately for me, two of those names are pretty well locked in place, which means there is only one name before me. Either way, we have downsized significantly this year because of firings, layoffs, and people quitting. We started the year with about 31 workers, and 7 have left so far. So we are down 22.6% in workers, and therefore working at 77.4% of our original workforce. That is pretty significant, so they must be saving quite a bit of money. And at least three of those people were relatively well-paid positions.

So we will see what happens next. I started the day off with a lot of resentment about my job, and my bosses. But after the layoffs, I was suddenly so grateful for this job. I spent the rest of the day thanking God for it. It is incredible how resentment always crowds out gratitude. There is not enough room inside us for both. I want to hold on to gratitude so I have no room for resentment.

Thank You, Lord, so much for my job. Please fill me with gratitude. Your will be done. Amen.

Does this work?

2009-08-04T20:43:00.001-04:00

I am writing this test post from “Windows Live Writer” and am very interested to see how it posts to my blog. Will it work?

We will see!

Who are the terrorists?

2009-06-29T21:01:00.002-04:00

Karen Bass, the Speaker of the California Assembly said this on Saturday regarding those who speak out against higher taxes ("revenue" as she calls it):

"The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now [some] are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: "You vote for revenue and your career is over." I don't know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess it's about free speech, but it's extremely unfair."

Click here to read the full story.

The Whole Premise Is Wrong

2009-06-29T14:46:00.002-04:00

The President said today:

"I've asked Secretary Chu to lead a new effort at the Department of Energy focusing on implementing more aggressive efficiency standards for common household appliances... The first step we're taking sets new efficiency standards on fluorescent and incandescent lighting."

The government says we need to be "responsible." But is it being "responsible" when we are being forced to do it by the government? The government then says, "We will be saving you money by doing this [so don't worry about the fact that we're forcing your hand]!" I must point out, the whole premise of the President's argument is wrong. He wants to force us to use certain light bulbs (Yes, our government has its fingers so far into our lives that they actually are concerned about what light bulbs we are using). Our President works under the assumption that the government own us and therefor can tell us what we should and should not do, but for our own good, of course. In his eyes we are nothing more than servants to the greater good. Well, that is wrong. We are individuals who are responsible to our family and God.

We have responsibility for ourselves and cannot be forced to be responsible for the collective good. We were all created by God and given two arms, two legs, and one brain. We have the same capacity for decision-making and responsibility as our government officials. We use our faculties given to us by God to protect and provide for our families and make decisions based on what is based for them. God gave us that brain to make those decisions, and any government official who makes decisions for us (regardless of whether it is supposedly for our own good) is putting themselves above God by saying that He did not give us the necessary brain function to make the best decision. That is a dangerous place to be. These men see themselves as "supermen" as Bastiat would put it. God confounded the plans of the men at Babel who put themselves above Himself, and may He now confound the plans of these arrogant men who would do the same.

For Those Who Ask Why I Use Such Strong Language On My Blog

2009-06-27T21:19:00.003-04:00

What I display on my blog is righteous anger. God puts leaders in place to punish those who do wrong and do good to those who do right. It's very simple. Illegitimate leaders are the ones who do not do that and God eventually always brings the house down on them. Obama's time will come, but in the meantime I am going to do everything in my power, whatever the cost, to preserve at least the smallest bit of liberty in this country for little Riley Joy. But how can you possibly stand calmly by as they consider whether or not to put children under Government supervision? THEY CAN TAKE MY DAUGHTER AWAY BECAUSE WE GIVE HER TOO MUCH RELIGION! They have already threatened to do that in Oregon! This is the time to be standing in the streets screaming with all that we have to try and wake people up to the fact that these leaders are putting themselves in the place of God! I have been studying our founders and what they were fighting against, and it can not help but make me angry as I see what this tyrannical government is doing. I HAVE READ THE LISTS OF GRIEVANCES THAT LED TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, AND IF OUR GOVERNMENT PASSES WHAT THEY ARE TRYING TO AS WE SPEAK, OUR LIST TODAY WILL BE EVEN LONGER THAN THEIRS! It is time for NON-violent revolution! It is time to wake people up and change the system from within. We already have the foundation in place, we just need to chase out these rotten folk that are playing God with our families! One unmistakable part about our founders, though, is how deeply they loved God and stived to follow Him. They soaked everything that they did in prayer. George Washington (the "indespensible man") started every day with over an hour of prayer on his knees. That has really blown me away, and as our government wages war against the individuals and families that make this country great, I have been driven to my knees both in desperation and in remembrance of our founders. They absolutely could not have accomplished what they did without divine support, and almost every one of them acknowledged that with quote after quote. He gave us the priviledge of living in a country where we have a say in what goes on, and we will be responsible if we let it slip away without a fight.

Mind you, I watch my tongue when I am in public and representing LBCCS. But on my personal blog I will be brutally honest.

The News

2009-06-26T12:43:00.003-04:00

So Michael Jackson has died... and I am sick of hearing about it. I heard first last night and went, "Oh, well at least we won't have to look at his face anymore." No sadness, I must admit. Now I just wish everyone would get over it! He was a freak, and now he is dead. No more story.

Our Tyrannical Government

2009-06-25T10:01:00.002-04:00

I watched the ABC special interview with Barack Obama and his healthcare plans. This was my reaction:

What is wrong with this mas? He wants the government to control our healthcare! He says people are getting too many procedures done. That is true. But what does he plan to do FROM THE FEDERAL LEVEL about it? He can say whatever he wants, but I DO NOT want a WASHINGTON BEAUROCRAT deciding which procedures I or my family members should or should not have! These TYRANTS have no right to make ANY decision for me.

Of course, this goes right along with the other freedoms our tyrant king is trying to wrest from us. As of yesterday, the administration made public its intention to push for ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights on Children treaty! Should that happen, the government would be the final authority on our children. Homeschooling will be virtually illegal (along with most private schools), the government will have the right to surprise inspections of our homes to check on how we are raising our children, and the government will have the final say when it comes to punishment and religion for our children (can't be pushing one single religion on a child or somethings). The moment this treaty is ratified, it becomes on equal level with the Constitution and therefore the supreme law of the land. And at that point we will lose all rights as parents. Some say, "Oh, well you are just taking this too far! Come on, you will not go to jail!" Oh yeah! What about in Europe now where parents are being thrown in jail because they refuse to send their children to public schools! What about in our own country where a judge recently used the CRC as justification to order parents to reduce the amount of "religion" they push on their child and told them how many times a week they are allowed to send their him to church!

And one more, the "Smart Grid." Our government is trying to get the power and technology to record from within our own homes what appliances we have on, what temperature we have our thermostats set at, how many lights we have on, how often we watch television and anything else they want to! This would be warrantless, of course. Can we really expect anything else from these tyrants? Then they say that it is for our own good.

LEAVE ME ALONE! STAY AWAY FROM MY HOME AND MY FAMILY! YOU HAVE NO MORE RIGHT TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO THAN ANY PERSON WHO WOULD BREAK INTO MY HOUSE AND HOLD A GUN TO MY HEAD!

Where I Have Been

2009-06-24T15:05:00.002-04:00

Hello world, I am back. Life has been busy and wonderful. Riley Joy is doing incredible new things every day and Hannah just blows me away taking care of Riley Joy during the day and still being able to have dinner ready when I get home. Work is fine, nothing special. Things are slow which makes the days drag, but the weekends still find a way to come quickly enough. Church is wonderful, I love Pastor David and the other members. I never thought we would actually be able to find a church that sought the Spirit but also held fast to the Scriptures. God is good :-). The May rain decided to come in June so we have been drenched the majority of this month but it looks like it finally is going to end. That is well appreciated, because our yard is piled high with half-finished projects that have been waiting for a nice weekend to complete. I need to finish two fences, put in three gates, break down a fence, trim the shrub trees... and the list goes on.

Now, I actually have been doing quite a bit of writing recently. I started a blogsite for the Liberty Bell Center for Constitutional Studies (LBCCS) and have been recording all of the goings on of the organization there. We try to educate through every single email and communication we send out. Even if a person just reads an announcement for upcoming events I want them to get something out of it that they can take away with them. So I have been putting quite a bit of time into our correspondence. Also on the website we have tons of resources for anyone interested. Everything from online books to online audio to informative current event sites. I hope anyone reading this will check it out. The address is:

http://libertybellccs.blogspot.com

So that is my life right now: Family, Work, Church and Country.

Natural Law

2009-06-22T10:03:00.000-04:00

Why should you care about Natural Law? Well, it is the foundation of UNALIENABLE RIGHTS, HABEAS CORPUS, LIMITED GOVERNMENT, SEPARATION OF POWERS, CHECKS AND BALANCES, RIGHT TO SELF-PRESERVATION, CONTRACTS, THE FAMILY, RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS, THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION and much more.

When our country was created, all other nations of the world were under a legal system known as “Civil Law” which holds that the government is the ultimate law and any rights the citizens have are granted to them by the government. Our founding fathers knew that was wrong and instead built our government based on the radical belief that the government is not the ultimate law. Instead, governments are under the law, Natural Law. But what is Natural Law?

The enlightenment philosopher, John Locke, wrote:

The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions: for men being all the workmanship of one omnipotent, and infinitely wise maker; all the servants of one sovereign master, sent into the world by his order, and about his business; they are his property, whose workmanship they are, made to last during his, not one another's pleasure.

Natural Law acknowledges that people's rights come from the Creator, not the government. No government has the right to deprive a person of any one of their rights “unless it be to do justice on an offender” of the rights of others.

Samuel Adams referenced Natural Law when he said:

The natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life; second to liberty; third to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can.

And Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.

Author Richard Maybury writes:

After 1776, America became the leader of this movement to Natural Law. Countries that adopted a Natural Law viewpoint came to be known as the “free world,” of which America was the acknowledged leader. These countries also became the most prosperous, with the most job opportunities, the largest middle classes, and the most investment opportunities.

The United States of America was the first nation in the history of the world to align their law system with the “law of nature and nature's God” and became the most prosperous nation the world has ever seen.

Riley Joy as a UPS racecar driver?

2009-05-28T12:41:00.003-04:00

I generated these at:
http://www.racing.ups.com/crewme/

They made me laugh :-) But just to warn you, they get scarier as you go down the list.

Me On Glenn Beck

2009-05-27T14:48:00.002-04:00

I had the opportunity to be on the Glenn Beck Program on Fox News. It was my big moment on national television :-). I got some laughs, but our brains were not on the same track at the end. I was presenting the political spectrum as our founders saw it but he was presenting the scale as a means of making a certain point. Whatever. A friend told me later, "Did you really think you were going to make YOUR point on HIS show?" Yeah, I get it :-).

But boy was it fun!

Finally A New Entry

2009-05-27T10:05:00.003-04:00

My brother Tyler implored me to get back to writing on my blog... so here I am. Life has been moving faster than the speed of light and things have been happening so fast and so much that my brain can not condense it into words. So what has been up?

Well, I went on the Glenn Beck Program on Fox News Channel a few weeks ago with some friends. It was a neat experience. He invited me up onto the stage for a demonstration. I was also able to get a few laughs from the crowd.

I have been getting more involved in the Liberty Bell Center for Constitutional Studies where I have now been made the Chairman. We have monthly discussion group meetings to discuss the Constitution and the beliefs of our founding fathers and how they apply to our country and world today. And on June 5 we are having our first LBCCS movie night where we will be watching "A More Perfect Union" which is an awesome dramatization of the Constitutional convention where they put together our current Constitution, the most incredible political document in history. I am excited about that. I have been working with a man named Paul Fiske who founded LBCCS and it is neat to pick his old, wise brain :-).

I have been doing lots of reading about economics and history... my usual.

Work is going fine, nothing special.

Financially we are strapped right now. The old woman Hannah helped died a week ago so Hannah is now without a job (and unable to start a new one with the baby coming). So I have been desperately trying to cut down our monthly bills and expenses so we have some money for food and gas (what Hannah was providing for). We will see how it all plays out. Both of our cars are out of gas until Thursday when I get a check.

Funfun.

I am tired also. Riley Joy is such a handful right now and because of all her new teeth coming in kept waking up last night in the middle of the night and singing and climbing on us. But even though I lost sleep because of her, just writing this down makes me smile. There is nothing in this world like having a child :-).

Racism... Again.

2009-04-27T14:59:00.003-04:00

So a few weeks ago I was up getting my tea out of the microwave at work when I saw a paper posted on the bulletin board there. It was a picture printed off of someone's computer. The picture was of a large airplane that was supposed to be Air Force One. On the front of the airplane there was a picture of a monkey eating a watermelon and on the rear of the plane there was a picture of President Obama eating a watermelon and the caption said, "The Watermelon Express."

WHAT! WHO WOULD POSSIBLY THINK THAT WAS AN OK THING TO POST UP THERE! I am not a politically correct person and I enjoy stereotypical humor, but that picture was making two unmistakably racist references!

What is wrong with some people? Who would possibly think that was appropriate... or even funny?

Why we MUST focus on the state and local level

2009-04-08T12:54:00.002-04:00

(I just posted this on the local We Surround Them message board)

I received the minutes from the meeting last Friday in my email today. I read through it and saw one piece that bothered me enough to want to bring it up. Under the topics discussed, the point was made that:

"Though our future leaders will start locally, we really need to focus on national issues. Things are taking place so quickly in Washington and that's the ball we really need to concentrate on right now."

That really toubles me. First of all, I do not necessarily remember this being discussed at all. At least a discussion on whether Federal issues should take precedence over local issues. I think we have been listening to a statist lie for too long. They believe that all power should be centralized in the federal government, a belief not supported by our nations founding fathers. As result, the federal government is now making decisions dealing with our everyday lives... and as result of this, the focus of political action has moved from the local and state levels to almost 100% on the federal level.

It is worth noting that the 10th Amendment to the Constitution states that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

I think this is often overlooked by people. Unless the Federal Government passes an amendment, they have no Constitutional authority to tell us what to do on the state and local levels. We have seen San Francisco recently pass ordinances in direct opposition to federal statues, and though that was just outright beligerence on their part, they still have the right to do so.

The federal government is trampling on state, local, and individual rights, and while the fight in Washington is desperately important, we must remember that we still have the power of the Constitution on our side! We need to put local and state officials into office who will say, "ENOUGH! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO MAKE THAT DECISION FOR ME AND MY CONSTITUANTS!" Washington is too far gone right now to spend all of our time on it. We need to slowly chip away at it while (in my opinion) spending the majority of our time and energy watching and supporting local and especially state level politicians.

Life

2009-04-06T19:51:00.004-04:00

Oh dear me, so much is happening right now. I will try and condense it into a short entry.

Garden:

We decided to start a garden. With the dollar poised to lose much of its value in the coming inflation, we all need to learn to live with far less than we currently do. One of our ways to prepare is planting a huge vegetable garden. We have basically turned our backyard into a giant garden. It is 22' by 22' which comes to 484 sq ft. Two weekends ago we broke ground and I dug up bushes and roto-tilled the whole patch. This last weekend I borrowed a friend's pickup and went and got two truckloads of compost from the local yard waste facility (free compost!) and spread it over the whole area. Then came the real work... mixing it in. I got the shovel and finished about 1/3 of the garden. I will just have to do the rest over the next few days. We have started our tomatoes, green peppers, eggplant and some other plants indoors so they will be ready to plant outside. On top of those, we will be planting colored peppers, zucchini, acorn squash, winter squash, sugar snap peas (we are starting those soon), cucumbers, pumpkins and herbs. I probably missed some, but it is a lot, and we are excited. Rather than call it a "crisis garden" like many are nowadays, we are calling ours a "Glory Garden" because we want to focus on God when we are working in it. I want our gardening to be a form of worship. I want the focus to be on glorifying Him, not trying to survive the current crisis.

We Surround Them:

On Friday we went to the local We Surround Them (9/12 Project) meeting. It was very neat. It is so nice to know that there are people who believe like we do. You would never know this from watching the news. I also made lots of connections with local conservative/libertarian politicians. I hope to become more involved with them and their organizations.

Why We Need to Arm Ourselves

2009-04-06T18:45:00.002-04:00

I read an article today titled "Deadly Rampages Rack the Nation" and was not too surprised at what I found. I do not know about you, but it has seemed to me that there have been a lot more shooting around the country recently... and it is true. It is no surprise to me that as more people lose their jobs and disenfranchisement continues to grow, these shooting are spreading. We are bound to see more of it. So what should we do? These situations to could be averted or at least cut short by responsible citizens armed with guns. I love what Michael Badnarik (2004 Libertarian Pres. Candidate) said about capital punishment. He said when someone attacks him and he shoots them dead, that is capital punishment. Makes sense to me! Rather than restricting our gun rights, now is the time for the government to sit back and let the populace arm themselves in preparation for the extremely hard times coming.

I have armed myself and am probably going to start carrying everywhere I go. I feel it is nothing short of a moral obligation.

My Daugter Kissed Ron Paul

2009-04-02T12:57:00.002-04:00

We often hear of and see politicians kissing babies. But how often do we see babies kissing politicians? I was watching part of a show on the internet and there were a number of guests discussing various topics and issues. At one point John Stossel can onto the screen. My 15 month old daughter saw him and leaned forward and went "mmmmwaaa" and planted a big kiss right on his face! Then she sat back and continued watching with me until Ron Paul came on. When she saw him she leaned forward and again, "mmmmwaaa" placed a big kiss on his face on the computer screen. It made me laugh. My daughter kissed Ron Paul and John Stossel... she has good taste :-).

Quote From "The Alamo"

2009-04-02T10:10:00.002-04:00

I sat down to watch "The Alamo" last night and really got swept off my feet (in a good way). This particular quote from John Wayne's Davy Crocket really got me:

"Republic. I like the sound of the word. It means people can live free, talk free, go or come, buy or sell, be drunk or sober, however they choose. Some words give you a feeling. Republic is one of those words that makes me tight in the throat - the same tightness a man gets when his baby takes his first step or his first baby shaves and makes his first sound as a man. Some words can give you a feeling that makes your heart warm. Republic is one of those words."

Excerpt from "Federalist No. 9"

2009-03-18T12:49:00.002-04:00

by Alexander Hamilton

"The definition of a CONFEDERATE REPUBLIC seems simply to be "an assemblage of societies,'' or an association of two or more states into one state. The extent, modifications, and objects of the federal authority are mere matters of discretion. So long as the separate organization of the members be not abolished; so long as it exists, by a constitutional necessity, for local purposes; though it should be in perfect subordination to the general authority of the union, it would still be, in fact and in theory, an association of states, or a confederacy. The proposed Constitution, so far from implying an abolition of the State governments, makes them constituent parts of the national sovereignty, by allowing them a direct representation in the Senate, and leaves in their possession certain exclusive and very important portions of sovereign power. This fully corresponds, in every rational import of the terms, with the idea of a federal government."

Wow. How far we have come. The appointment of Senators to the Federal government by their respective state governments was essential to preserving the state's rights. It was not just an afterthought, it was an essential piece of the Constitution and one of the key arguments used by Alexander Hamilton and others to convince the states that they would still retain their sovereignty even with a federal government in place. Any rational person can read these arguments by Alexander Hamilton and others and see why the Senate was designed to be the way it was! If only it had not been for that megalomaniac Woodrow Wilson and those rotten Progressives who were obsessed with power and had no respect for anyone other than themselves, we would not be facing many of the problems in our country that we are facing today.

Florida Trip

2009-03-18T12:02:00.003-04:00

On Thursday evening we flew down to Florida to visit my family... and had a great time. Riley Joy was great on the plane (no meltdowns). We brought her car seat along and strapped it into the seat on the plane, so she was quite comfy.

Over the course of the weekend we talked, walked along the boardwalk, ate wonderful food, watched movies, visited their church and just hung out. It was refreshing and relaxing and actually somewhat energizing. I love my family so very much, I wish they were closer by. Riley Joy had a blast. Within hours of being there, she knew sho Grandad was and though she never picked up on what Grandma meant, she on multiple occasions referred to my mother as Nana. She she at least gets the concept :-). She is quite an incredible little girl. While my mother was cooking, Riley Joy would go in and throw up her arms to be picked up. At first my mother thought she just wanted a hug, but her heart was quite blessed when she realized that Riley Joy wanted to be held by her. Out of everybody, though, I think she was most comfy with my dad. He could pick her up at almost any random time and walk off with her and she did not mind. That is very, very unusual. Really, I can't think of anyone except Nana that Riley Joy is that comfortable with. Anyone really surprised? :-) Tyler and Jenna really seem to be enjoying homeschooling again (Tyler is technically in cyber-school) and I was so blessed to hear it. Homeschooling was the best thing my parents did for me and I am so deeply happy to know that they are appreciating it too.

While down there, we had a chance to visit Karis' apartment and it is really nice. She has made an excellent little home out of it. She is not working right now but hopefully she will get in gear and have one soon. We also met her boyfriend, Jason, and he seems to be a very nice person. He recognizes Karis' needs and supports her involvement in support groups and such... that was really good to hear. Though I am curious about his spiritual walk. Does he have the strong foundation needed to lead Karis if they would decide to get married? It would be comforting to know.

We left Monday morning and had a couple mishaps. The first was in line for airport security. We were moving slowly along and Hannah was putting Riley Joy in her sling when we got to the ticket checker. She looked a little impatient with us, so I dropped my bag and reached over Hannah to give her my ticket and ID so she could look at it while Hannah finished. Well, at that point Hannah took a step back and ran into my bag and lost her balance and crashed down backwards and rolled from her hip onto her back with Riley Joy's leg underneath her. Riley Joy was terrified and Hannah was worried she had hurt Riley's leg so they both burst into tears. I felt so bad but was glad that there were not major injuries. Riley Joy's leg was fine and Hannah's hip hurt but was not anything serious. Lesson learned. Do not rush, even in airport security. If I had though before dropping my bag before behind Hannah I would have set it to my side instead (the safer place for it). So that was the first mishap. The second was that we had to wait 40 minutes on the airplane before it took off (maintenance issue). Riley Joy did not like that waiting time and sensed people's frustrations. She got very restless and cried and kicked the seat in front of her (poor guy). We were able to walk her back and forth down the isle and let her run in the clearing near the center emergency exit and that distracted her for a while. We also read to her and let her play with books and watch her movie. But praise the Lord, once we took off and the cabin pressurized and the engines started, she drifted off to sleep and slept for two whole hours! She did not wake up until the descent and even then was in an excellent mood.

Once we reached the airport we had no problems getting our bags and I had no problem finding the car in the economy parking lot.

Overall, it was an excellent trip. Very nearly perfect except that we did nto get more time. I had such a wonderful time having deep, meaty talks with my parents and I wish they were around so we could do that more. There is definitely a different dynamic between talking face to face and talking on the phone of video messaging. My point: I miss my family already. Hopefully Tyler and Jenna will be able to get an excuse to come visit in the near future... we will see!

Thank You, God, for a wonderful trip :-).

"My Life Is In You, Lord"

2009-03-18T10:09:00.002-04:00

I listened to this song today and thought about how I want this to be my prayer everyday.

My life is in You, Lord
My strength is in You, Lord
My hope is in You, Lord
In You, it's in You

I will praise You with all of my life
I will praise You with all of my strength
With all of my life
With all of my strength
All of my hope is in You

My life is in You, Lord
My strength is in You, Lord
My hope is in You, Lord
In You, it's in You

Golly Goodness :-)

2009-03-14T20:41:00.002-04:00

We are down in Florida visiting my family and I just finished helping Hannah get Riley Joy ready for bed. Hannah is in nursing her down right now. But after I finished my part and Hannah started nursing her, I went to turn off the light. The light we were using is a touch sensitive light and everytime I turned it off, my wrist would bump it and it would come back on. Right as I finally turned it off for good, I saw Hannah looking at me, smiling at my clumsiness. Golly goodness I love her smile. I just melted :-). I love her so much!

Everyone Against Abortion, Please Raise Your Hand

2009-03-11T12:57:00.001-04:00

Morality

2009-03-08T23:07:00.003-04:00

I have only read one graphic novel before (Max Allan Collin's "Road to Perdition") and generally avoid them. But I became quite intrigued with the "Watchmen" after seeing previews for the new movie. So I decided to wade into the uber-violent and crass world of graphic novels once again to see what I could learn. It is the most acclaimed graphic novel of all time and one of Time Magazine's 100 best novels of all time. The storytelling is absolutely gripping and I am hooked. Thus far, the biggest theme of the book is morality. The author takes the premise of superheroes and uses it to ask questions about society and the morality of decisions our government makes. The different characters individually carry the set of characteristic of certain groups of people seen in the government, and as you watch them make moral decisions on a personal level, you see the bigger picture of what it would mean for the group of people in real life in government who make such decisions. Does that make sense? It is late and I need to get to bed. But during the pauses between my reading over the weekend, I have been pondering our government and the fact that they are MORALLY BANKRUPT. It is about time we sat down and had a real discussion about the (at the very least) questionably morality of their decisions. For example:

What is the morality of an outspoken pro-life politician (Sam Brownback) supporting a radically pro-choice pick for Sec of Health & Human services just because it will make it easier for him to win the governorship of his state in a couple years? What is the morality of our country saying they oppose torture and then using the Rendition program to send prisoners out to Egypt or other countries to be tortured so we don't have to do it ourselves? What is the morality in congressmen owning stock in certian companies and then awarding those same companies huge subsidies or mandating use of their products? (Think curly light bulbs) What is the morality of a tax cheat heading the congressional committee that writes the tax code and a tax cheat being nominated and confirmed to head the IRS? What is the morality of those same two individuals getting together and having a public discussion about the need to increase penalties on tax cheats! What is the morality of no-bid defense contracts with huge companies? What is the morality of our government passing a BAILOUT or SAVE THE ECONOMY bill that has THOUSANDS of non-stimulus related earmarks? Or what about the TARP program where we were told the money was going to be used to buy bad debt (a bad decision, mind you) and then once the money was authorized, use it to buy into huge corporations! Where is the morality in the government cozying up to mega-businesses and sacrificing small businesses and individuals? Where is the morality in a man defending his family in his own home with a gun and then being thrown in jail for it? What is the morality of our government telling us that they are doing one thing, while at the same time doing something entirely un-related behind our back? What is the morality of the government funding the destruction of frozen human embryos for research? What is the morality of politicians railing against smoking and then using the money from cigarrette taxes to fund our school system? What is the morality of the belief that anything is OK as long as it is for the greater good? What kind of moral code guides a modern progressive to go on and on about peace and rail against war while wearing a Che shirt? What about our government making up the problem of Global Warming so they can gain more control over our lives and businesses? What is the moral code that allows Michael Steele to suck up to Rush Limbaugh and then in a different situations dismiss him as "ugly" and "incindiery"? How can the Republican party say they are fighting for fiscal responsibility while being responsible for half the earmarks in congress?

The list goes on.

Ugh.

Who is willing to have this discussion?

Lots of Snow

2009-03-02T14:58:00.002-05:00

Over the weekend the forecasters were calling for lots of snow... and they were right. We got nothing more than a dusting last night, but over the course of the morning we have accumulated 4+ inches. And the roads are not cleared yet! I just had to go to the Warehouse and boy was that an adventure. I was able to make it down with little trouble (crawling along EXTREMELY slow through the drifts), but coming up was nearly impossible. I am glad I made it. Coming up the side of the hill from the Warehouse there is one last big hump before it levels out, and while it was difficult coming up the majority of the hill, that hump was awful. I came to everything but a complete stop and just crawled with wheels spinning up that last 20 feet. Three cheers for maybe the first decent snow we've had this season and nobody bothering to clear the roads :-).

A Healthy Fear

2009-03-01T13:40:00.003-05:00

Clint Eastwood is a great filmmaker and I have always enjoyed his movies. One of his most common themes is the corruption of government systems. I have to admit, many times I have watched his movies and then afterwords sat back and made excuses for the government programs or authorities that he just tore apart. In "The Outlaw Josey Wales" he exposed many of the injustices wrought on the South following the Civil War. In "Unforgiven" we saw the dangers of local law enforcement working for their own personal gain rather than for the people. In "Absolute Power" we saw how officials as high as the President can be seduced by their power into doing the unthinkable. The Franklin D. Roosevelt administration is labmasted in "Flags of Our Fathers" for their incredible propaganda program. We know that power corrups and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the older I get the more afraid I become of our government. I know that my mind is expanding because I am constantly questioning my beliefs and sometimes changing my opinions as I find truth. Well, while I in the past have made excuses for our big government, I am now seeing the importance of people like Clint Eastwood pointing out the extreme dangers posed by giving them so much power. We have seen the myth built up and propagated that the government is a good thing, something that is working for you to fix the problems in your life and make your life and standard of living better. Well, that is wrong. Our founding fathers knew that the government is something to be feared and that is why they made such a confining Constitution. Though even that has not been enough to hold our federal government in check. We need to have a healthy fear of giving President Bush all the power of the Patriot Act (a terrible name by the way, pure propaganda), we need a fear of our government's powerful propanganda network and the IRS. We need to watch everything they do to make sure they do not keep growing and taking away our liberties. We need to watch movies like these done by Clint Eastwood and not make excuses for our government, but instead watch them and learn that we need to fear our government and fight with everything we have to keep it from getting bigger and more intrusive. We need to fear this new administration trying to take away our gun rights, control our personal healthcare, second-guess our parenting methods and go so far as to mount satellite tracking devices on our cars.

Good job for Clint Eastwood and Ron Howard and all those willing to show the true dangers of giving too much power to the government.

The Sound Of Silence

2009-02-27T10:03:00.002-05:00

As I started driving to work today, I decided to keep the radio and cd player off. I love silence, but it is often so hard to come by. I don't know what exactly it is inside me, but I often do not want silence, it scares me somehow. As soon as silence rears its head I quickly shatter it with noise, any noise, whether talk radio, audio books or sometimes music. But the strange thing is, I love silence. Why do I so often flee from something I love? There is nothing like curling up inside the warm fleece of silence to pray, or meditate, or just marinate in my thoughts. Silence is where my brain expands, silence is where the Spirit guides me into truth. Safely within silence my brain soars! My mind churns, I formulate my beliefs, write essays, solve problems! It is incredible what can happen with just a little silence. So I must make sure I set aside time for silence. I shall start a relationship with silence, court it on a regular basis, and just wait to see what happens.

Finding the Meaning In a Verse

2009-02-23T14:54:00.002-05:00

A new believer friend joined me at the men's Bible study two Saturdays ago. Part of the homework involves us studying many verses and taking application from them. My friend was quite overwhelmed, so I typed this out quickly for him. My mother-in-law also suggested a few clarifications which I added.

1. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide
John 16:13 says the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth and John 14:26 says “He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” In order to get the full meaning out of any verse or passage we need to begin by praying that God’s Holy Spirit will guide our understanding.

2. Read the verse

3. Find the immediate context
Find the beginning of the paragraph or smaller section that the verse is contained in. Read to get the immediate context.

4. Find the larger context
Is the verse part of a speech? Is it part of a larger thought or section? Find the beginning of the thought or speech. Read to understand the larger context.

5. Look up the key words
Which words stand out? Which words are key to understanding the meaning of the verse? Note, the biggest words are not necessarily the key words. Pick them out and look them up in Strong’s Concordance. Read other verses the words are used in to get an idea of how they are used. (http://www. blueletterbible.org/)

6. Put it together
Read the verse again with an understanding of the context and an emphasis on the full meanings of the key words.

7. Read any cross-references
Read any cross-references to gain additional insight into the topic.

8. Read any notes
Read the study notes at the bottom of the page to gain additional insights into the meaning.

9. Find the application
2 Timothy 3:16 says that all Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in right living. If we do not apply the verse or passage to our own life, we are not getting out of it all that God wants us to. Imagine the verse was written by God specifically for you. How is God trying to teach you, rebuke your wrongdoing, correct your thinking or show you right living? Do not over-think this. Often the simplest and most obvious truth is exactly what the Holy Spirit is trying to convey to you.

Rocking My Baby To Sleep

2009-02-14T12:21:00.004-05:00

The room is dark, she looks around trying to focus. I drape her blanket over my shoulder and we sit down in the rocking chair and start moving

back and forth, back and forth

She pushes back and looks at a streak of light coming in through a crack in the window shades. She point and says, "Dat!" We rock

back and forth, back and forth

I pull her head down between my shoulder and collar bone, she relaxes. She moves her feet a little, pulls her head back, and then falls back into position. We rock

back and forth, back and forth

She relaxes, I feel her body melt into mine. We become one, rocking

back and forth, back and forth

The white noise surrounds us, enveloping all other sounds. Only the hum of the humidifier can be heard above it.

back and forth, back and forth

I check the clock, it has been thirty minutes. It sure does not feel like that long. We slowly stop rocking

back and forth, back and forth

I hold her close as I stand and carry her to the bed. I lay her down, she stays asleep. I gently push her blanket into her hands. I pull a pillow against her back.

She sleeps.

I turn on the monitor and quietly make my way out of the room.

She naps.

Excerpt From President Obama's Press Conference

2009-02-10T12:24:00.001-05:00

02/09/2009

I said during the campaign that Iran is a country that has extraordinary people, extraordinary history and traditions, but that its actions over many years now have been unhelpful when it comes to promoting peace and prosperity both in the region and around the world; that their attacks or their financing of terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas, the bellicose language that they've used towards Israel, their development of a nuclear weapon, or their pursuit of a nuclear weapon -- that all those things create the possibility of destabilizing the region and are not only contrary to our interests, but I think are contrary to the interests of international peace. What I've also said is that we should take an approach with Iran that employs all of the resources at the United States' disposal, and that includes diplomacy.

...And my expectation is in the coming months we will be looking for openings that can be created where we can start sitting across the table, face to face, diplomatic overtures that will allow us to move our policy in a new direction.

...So there are going to be a set of objectives that we have in these conversations, but I think that there's the possibility at least of a relationship of mutual respect and progress.

Excerpt from "Tuesdays With Morrie"

2009-02-09T12:24:00.003-05:00

I am currently reading Tuesdays With Morrie, by Mitch Albom and am really enjoying it. It is quite simply about... death. Some might think of death as a morbid subject for a book, but this book is anything but morbid. It is a very refreshing book. If I was to smash the whole book down into an anecdote, it would probably be, "To truly embrace life, you must first embrace death." Here is an excerpt of Morrie speaking:

"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."

Simple wisdom :-)

Changing The World

2009-02-09T10:02:00.005-05:00

I had an interesting exchange with G (racist lady) today. We were talking about Glenn Beck's "We Surround Them" program which he is using to let people know that they are not alone in believing in the basic principles upon which our country was founded. It is built under the assumption that people are more likely to stand up for what they believe in if they know they are not standing alone. I mentioned how I thought it was a good thing and Gale said, "Oh, you think you will change the world, but you will not. You will just have a bunch of kids and be a father and end up doing nothing."

Wow.

Let me pose this question, "Is it more important to 'change the world' on a large scale or for a person to try in his everyday life to affect the world in a positive way?"

The latter is obviously a more reasonable goal for an individual, but I would say that it is also more effective too. If we had a whole world of people trying to "change the world" in huge ways, very little would happen. But if we had a world full of people trying to "affect the world in a positive way through their individual lives" the chances are that lots would happen.

What is my world? What makes up my individual life? My life is made up of my wife, children, extended family, co-workers, work, friends and church family. Now what if my life was devoted to raising good children who will affect their worlds in positive ways? Who knows what could come of that! And with my co-workers, treating them right and sharing the Gospel with them, who knows what could happen! I have already seen God use me to eternally change the life of one man at work! Who knows what else He has in store for me here? And my work, too. What I do here is incredible! We create instruments here that are used all around the world to glorify God. The music made by these is enough to bring glory to God, but all the more when a church uses it in their worship! That is a positive way that I am affecting the world. The same goes for my church family and extended family. If I am working to affect them in positive ways, I will make a difference, and a good difference.

Many people have "changed the world" through history and often in negative ways. Many others have spent their lives striving to "change the world" and accomplished nothing. I am devoting myself to affecting those around me in positive ways. That is how I will make a difference for good in the world, and who knows, maybe God will use these seeds to change the world on a large scale someday.

Pregnant Skin

2009-02-07T22:53:00.002-05:00

Hannah has always had above-average skin, it is as near to perfect as normal people can have. But I have to say, when she is pregnant, her skin changes! It becomes even more soft and smooth and just plain perfect. It really blows my mind. That is a pregnancy side-effect I never heard about.

So here is my advise to women, don't bother getting all that stuff advertised on television to give you perfect skin... just get pregnant! Simple, isn't it?

:-)

The Elixir of Life

2009-02-06T13:00:00.002-05:00

What is the cure to all of life ills? What can make a sad person happy? What works better on headaches that Tylenol? What is refreshing time and time again no matter how often you have it?

Coke.

Coke is the elixir of life and I do not know how I would survive without it. I don't have it very often but it is a joy every time I do. When I am down or not feeling good, Coke is the answer :-).

My Racist Co-Worker

2009-02-05T10:22:00.003-05:00

So, I was up in Electronics Production a while back and heard my friends talking about the television show House. I love that show so I jumped into the conversation. A co-worker said, "Hey Ryan, so what about that ending, Foreman and Thirteen getting together. Wasn't that sick!" I asked what she meant and she said, "You know, white girl getting with a black guy... yuck! You should stick with your kind." My jaw dropped open in amazement. I had never had a friend before say something like that to me without being sarcastic! She continued, "My father taught us well. He said, 'If you ever start dating one of them*, I am gonna cut all your hair off!' One of my sisters did, and he really did it to her! Scarred her emotionally but taught her a lesson. And I told my children the same thing." I could not say anything after that because I was just so in shock that she actually believed that! Wow. That was an eye-opening experience.

I work with a racist.

*you know, those blackies

Workin' Girl

2009-02-03T14:59:00.003-05:00

I am very proud of Hannah. She is doing so well at her new caregiving job. She is back working with M who she worked with until she got pregnant with Riley Joy. Her hours are from 6pm to 9pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday. She has been enjoying getting out of the house (though she still comes home regularly with a headache). Riley Joy and myself have been enjoying our special time together. We hang out in one room until she gets tired of it then we move into another room and play there. We watch some news and play with blocks or I shoot he with my Nerf gun and she brings me back the darts. Sometimes we roll balls or go to the store or share a snack.

There are all sorts of fun things for us to do and I want to relish every single moment of it :-).

Tax Frustration

2009-02-02T10:10:00.002-05:00

I did my taxes on Saturday... and it was not as easy as I expected. In the past I used TurboTax and it was always a breeze... but not this time. I think it was because Hannah did not work last year and it put us in a lower tax bracket. But most of my frustration came from these insane contradicting questions they kept asking. For example, I was asked, "Were you required to pay estimated taxes in 2007?" I answered "No." Then they asked, "So what was the first month you started paying estimated taxes in 2007?" What! I just told you I did not pay them! My other frustrations revolved around the Earned Income Tax credit. Let me lay something out here, I REFUSE TO RECEIVE MORE MONEY BACK FROM THE GOVERNMENT THAN I PAY IN TAXES. That means I WILL NOT ACCEPT WELFARE CHECKS FROM THE GOVERNMENT no matter how little pay we receive! So if I would apply for the EIT credit (for which I am eligible) I would receive more money in my tax refund than I paid last year in taxes. That is not acceptable. And regardless it would also raise our chances for auditing significantly... which is something I want to avoid at all costs. We have been hounded for years over a small mistake in Hannah's 2004 taxes and now they watch us like hawks. And if we try and call the numbers they give to talk to them we get the message "I am sorry buy the number you are trying to reach has been disconnected." Wow. Should I be surprised, though? In the end they forced us to double-pay a portion of Hannah's 2004 income tax. But we have been flagged and the IRS is far too heavy an organization to deal with.

But I was able to get out of the EIT stuff and got my taxes successfully filed. Now time to wait for my refund.

Who Is Michael Steele?

2009-02-01T10:30:00.004-05:00

Michael Steele has been elected the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, effectively making him the new head of the Republican Party. This is GREAT news for the Republican party. But why? Who is Michael Steele? I have been following him since 2004 when he said these words at the GOP National Convention:

"You see -- you see, [my mother] understood. She raised me to understand and appreciate some of the enduring principles that are important to all of us.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and incentive. And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they should do for themselves.

These are the beliefs of our Republican Party."

Wow, this is the man we have been waiting for!!!

The Truth About Inflation

2009-01-30T12:14:00.002-05:00

Wow. This is a very important video and the key to understanding what is coming our way. Nobody is talking intelligently about inflation right now except Ron Paul and Glenn Beck. Everybody in the country needs to see this video. Our government is trying to hide this information from us! (Plus, those who have seen Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" will get a chuckle out of this)

Nasty Day

2009-01-28T12:42:00.002-05:00

This winter has been very, very annoying. Rather than getting a few nice snows, we have instead this season gotten snow/sleet/ice mixes every time! It is just enough snow to make me feel too guilty to skip work and yet enough to make it sometimes extremely hard to get around... ugh.

We got another "wintery mix" last night and it is continuing today. Hannah wanted me to stay home, but Dan (who I was carpooling with today) asked what I wanted to do and I said we should go. I know he did not want to go (and his wife did not want him to either) but I am glad we decided to. I would not have been able to make it with my two wheel drive car.

I can not afford to use a vacation day and I can not afford to take an unpaid day off.

So here I am at work, looking out at the snow/sleet coming down... funfun. I wish I was home. I miss my Joys... but at the same time, I am glad I am here.

Monetary Inflation

2009-01-27T14:53:00.004-05:00

What is monetary inflation? It is the "inflating" of the money supply through printing new money. So what is happening right now in our country? Well, companies are hurting and laying off workers, cutting down stock, and dropping prices shockingly low (80% off regular prices!) to try and get what they have out of their doors. And what is the government doing? Well, they do not want these companies to lose money, so they are printing money and pumping it into the country so there is more money to go around and save these businesses. This is good, isn't it? Nope. With businesses dropping production and yet tons more money being printed we are going to end up with too much money chasing too few goods. The basic laws of supply and demand come into play here and prices start going up. When waaaaay too much money is printed and the prices go waaaaaay up it is called hyper-inflation. This is what we saw in Germany after World War I where their money became so devalued that it became totally worthless. So, you think, "Our country would not be that dumb! They wouldn't possibly do something that would lead to a situation like that!" But unfortunately it looks like they actually are that dumb, because look at this graph of the amount of money that has been printed recently:

Letter From Pastor David

2009-01-24T16:34:00.002-05:00

Our pastor sent us a handwritten note last week. It meant so much that he cared enough to do it :-)

1-13-07

Dear Ryan, Hannah & Family,

[It is] such a blessing to see you all in the fellowship. Michele and I look forward to getting to know you better as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus.

May He continue to bless you guys in every way. Here, there, or in the air, looking forward to seeing you soon.

In His Love,

Pastor David

Obama's First Week

2009-01-24T12:28:00.002-05:00

So, what has Obama been up to this week? We all hoped he would move veeeeeery slowly on his progressive agenda... but he obviously is not. Lets see what he has done this week.

He signed an executive order that will close the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror prisoners. So where are these people going to go? He said he does not know yet. The problem is, they are not American citizens so they do not have Constitutional rights in our country and they are not uniformed combatants so they do not have rights from the Geneva Convention. So what do we do these terrorists!?! I for one do not want them being kept in my neighborhood.
http://businessmirror.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5043:obama-orders-guantanamo-closure-interrogation-changes-&catid=23:topnews&Itemid=58

Signed an executive order ending tough interrogation methods (psychological torture). This was a sticking point for the Bush administration, we NEED to have the option to use these techniques! Has anyone seen "24" before? In a ticking time bomb situation we have to be able to use whatever methods necessary!
http://businessmirror.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5043:obama-orders-guantanamo-closure-interrogation-changes-&catid=23:topnews&Itemid=58

He ended the ban on federal money going to global abortion groups.
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/526953.aspx

He warned people to quit listening to Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talk show hosts... is the (un)fairness doctrine next?
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01232009/news/politics/prez_zings_gop_foe_in_a_timulating_talk_151572.htm

And lastly, the FDA Approved human trials for embryonic stem cell treatments. This was as far as we know not initiated by President Obama, but it is no coincidence that this is happening now rather than during the Bush administration.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE50M2U920090123?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Shooting

2009-01-23T12:23:00.003-05:00

Joe took me out shooting Wednesday night! It was rough being away from the girls, but was great fun. He wanted to get me used to shooting before we used my gun (mine has a bit more kick). We started with a .38 special revolver, which was fun. I learned how to load and shoot it. I did pretty well with it. Then we shot a .45 Colt (not a Colt, but the same design) which was very fun. I loaded it and shot it and had my shots all together, but to the lower left of the center of the target. Then we used mine and it was really fun! It is a great size and easy to hold and shoot. Not having to cock it every time is nice too. I found it a lot more difficult to aim than the revolvers, but regardless was great to shoot. I definitely need to practice. Then before we left, Joe pulled out a .357 Magnum... WOW! That had a nice kick and a very loud sound. Joe shot it first and I was standing behind him. Every time he shot it I felt a shockwave hit my face. I shot it and boy was it neat... It just feels so darn powerful!

So tonight we are going to clean the guns (Joe has lead solvent) at Joe's apartment. I am excited to learn more about my .40 Springfield XD. And I am excited about the next time I go shooting. This first time was definitely fun, but I must admit that once I did try to load my bullets backward... but I will not be broadcasting that around :-).

My Political Views

2009-01-22T14:59:00.002-05:00

I sat down and wrote out a quick summary of my political principles last night in response to my cousin (husband to cousin) Cesar who read that I was "conservative" and instantly assumed all sorts of wrong things about me. I wrote this to show him what I believe and show how absurd it is to try and stuff people into little stereotypical boxes.

Let me lay out for you my views. I could give you some labels but the meaning of those labels changes so often that they end up really meaning nothing. A conservative today is different from a conservative ten or thirty years ago just like a liberal or progressive is different from what they were a few years back. The labels change, but my principles remain the same.

I believe in "Natural Law" as opposed to "Civil Law" when it comes to my political philosophy. The concept of "natural law" is that our rights as humans to life, liberty, and property are inherently given to us by the Creator and nothing can change that. "Civil law" is the way of thinking that the government is the top and gives us our rights. The problem is that a government that gives rights can just as easily take them away. But the truth is, whether a government acknowledges our inherent rights or not, they still are our rights and that oppressive government is wrong to deny us them.

My political principles stem from my belief in our inherent rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of property and happiness. That is true liberty. But liberty can not exist where there is no order, and that is where the government comes in. We need government to keep order and protect our inherent rights.

Now, a person who takes another's right forfeits their own right to such.

For example, if a person takes another's earned property (cheats them of their right) then that person needs to be arrested and made to give back what was stolen. If that person would continue to take other people's property, he would forfeit his right to property and go to jail. Same with if a person should kidnap another (cheat them of their right to liberty), then they can be tried and thrown in jail and lose their right to liberty. We all have a right to life, but if a person takes someone else's life, they forfeit their right to life and can be tried and executed.

Our rights are our own and only we have the power to forfeit them. Any government who takes our rights from us unlawfully is a tyrannical government and deserves to be toppled.

Government's job is to protect our rights, and that is why the military and law enforcement is essential. The military protects our liberty from outside our borders and law enforcement protects our liberty from within our borders.

So that is my political philosophy in a nutshell.

So now lets talk about President GW Bush. Based on what many assume of me, I love him. But based on what I just told you about myself, what do you think I would think of him?

In a nutshell, I believe that our rights come from the Creator and it is government's job to keep order and protect those rights. Government should be powerful enough to protect those rights but small enough to not intrude on our personal lives. As did our founding fathers, I believe that the key to our country surviving is strong families, personal responsibility and accountability, knowledge, and virtue.

So what does that make me? I really don't have a party that represents me right now. I disagreed with GWB about 60% of the time (these last few years) and disagree with John McCain about 90% of the time and so far disagree with Barack Obama about 90% or more of the time. I disagree with conservatives for unrealistic and sometimes absurd illegal immigration policies and free trade that leaves our country more bound than free. I disagree with progressives on the sanctity of human life and the role of government. I end up on the scale somewhere between conservative and libertarian (if I must take labels). But rather than float around as an independent, I am going to do everything in my power to fix the Republican party and bring it back to its Abraham Lincoln roots.

Now what does the Bible have to do with these views? Virtually nothing. But the Bible does serve for me as a confirmation of the truth of common law and the responsibility of the government to protect the right and punish the wrong.

This is by no means a comprehensive study of my political beliefs, but it is a 20 minute quick survey of my political views. Is it really possible to put me in a stereotypical box? Nope. But do people try and fit me into them every day? Yup.

Waaaay too long

2009-01-20T10:01:00.002-05:00

It has been waaaay too long since I have posted here. My mind is bursting with things which I want to put down, but lately it feels like such a chore and I have not been able to bring myself to do it. I have been reading a lot lately, but not writing. It is strange, they seem to trade off in my life, first I am into one and then drop the one and am in to the other. This surprises me, though, because I would assume they would go hand-in-hand. But here is the quick version of what has been going on my blessed life.

My best friend Marc from Texas came and visited from the 8th to the 12th and we had a pretty good time of visiting. I was actually pretty angry during most of it because of a terrible sinus infection that I got the day before he arrived. It is now almost two weeks since it started and is just now going away. I finished an antibiotic tody and hopefully it will be all gone by tomorrow. Marc has just graduated from Texas A&M and is going to be working for his father's company. He is a civil engineer. I have always wanted to have "people" to call when I have questions about anything, so now I have my "civil engineering guy" I can check with any time I have a question on the topic. Someday hopefully I will have a "guy" for everything. I love the concept of telling people, "Well, let me check with my [whatever] guy and get back to you." Ok, well I guess I would most like to have all knowledge and be able to answer authoritatively any question ever asked to me on the spot... but since that probably will never be so I will settle with having "guys" to talk to :-).

On the home front, Riley Joy is doing wonderfully and puckered her lips for the first time (for me at least) and kissed me a couple days ago. She has done the open mouth baby kiss until now... having a child is so incredible :-).

Hannah is doing well. She is very sleepy, but still functioning incredibly well. She is the most perfect mother I could have ever imagined for my children and she continues daily to blow me away. It is such a joy to have her for a wife and mother of my children :-).

I have been reading "Nighttime Parrenting" by Dr. William Sears and have really been loving it. He talks about how parenting does not stop once night comes. We have been striving to be 24/7 parents to our lovely daughter and it is defintitely paying off. There is nothing like having her relax completely in my arms knowing that she is safe and secure there. She trusts us 100% to meet her needs and we feed off that trust... once again I say, having a child is so incredible.

So, today is the big day. This morning change, hope, peace, joy, wealth and happiness are going to instantly flood our nation as Barack Obama is elected President! Ok, yes, that is sarcasm. But though I am scared of what he is going to do as President, I vow to support him to the fullest extent that I can. Regardless of what I think of him, he is going to be my President and I will give him the respect he deserves and respectfully disagree if he acts against what I believe is best for our country.

One one last note, for the first time in over ten years, I am going to have cable television. Well, satellite, but still the same thing. I got a small package without many of the common cable channels, but still with Fox News. That was the only station I was interested in (I despise television and do all I can to avoid it). I am getting a dvr with it so I will be able to record and watch Glenn Beck's new show. Yup, I am excited. It also has lots of family and childrens stations which I am sure Hannah will use (sparingly, of course) for Riley Joy. It will also be nice to finally be able to get the regular broadcast stations. We have made due with the local new station and PBS alone (all we could get though our bunny ears) for years now :-).

So life is good. God is good. All praise be to Him.

Creepy Dream

2009-01-06T22:23:00.002-05:00

A few days ago I had a very creepy dream... hopefully not a sign of things to come. I dreamt I was at work and was on break, reading The 5000 Year Leap. A police officer was walking around the premises and glanced over my shoulder at what I was reading. He leaned forward to get a closer look at a particular portion and said, "Oh my, this is hate speech. You can't be reading and spreading this." and pulled the book from my hands. I said, "You can't do that!" but he then grabbed my bag and started riffling through the contents. I stepped toward him and said, "Hey! You have no right to do that!" and he calmly said to me, "Oh, I can't?" as he continued his search for supposed "hate" material. I was so in shock that this was happening that I just stood there, speechless.

And thus ended my dream. Creepy.

2008 Reading List

2009-01-06T22:08:00.002-05:00

Over the course of 2008 I read the following books (from first to last):

John Williams: Messenger of Peace, by Janet and Geoff Benge
An Inconvenient Book (audio), by Glenn Beck
The Pursuit of God, by A.W. Tozer
The Case for Christ, by Lee Strobel
American Heroes (audio), by Oliver North
Prince Caspian, by C.S. Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis
The Silver Chair, by C.S. Lewis
The Last Battle, by C.S. Lewis
The New Strong Willed Child, by Dr. James Dobson
Against All Odds: My Story, by Chuck Norris
Rediscovering God In America, by Newt Gingrich
Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard Maybury
Abraham Lincoln--The Writer, by Harold Holzer
The Christmas Sweater, by Glenn Beck

I read more books in 2008 than in at least the last three years before combined. I had always wanted to get back into reading, but for some reason could never seem to finish a book. I had the hardest time for a few years reading anthing at all. I would start a book and spend ten minutes on one single page! My eyes would just dart all over the page and I could not focus long enough to read anything. But God decided to give me back reading in early 2008... THANK YOU!!! I have always loved reading and I am so glad to be able to enjoy it again. This year I am going to read even more than last year... and I am so excited about it!

Sweet Dreams

2009-01-05T22:51:00.002-05:00

Life is good. Riley went down easy around 9:15 and Hannah and I got some time to be together before she fell asleep. I held her and we talked about life, maturity, children, and Heaven. Now I am downstairs sipping my Sweet Dreams chamomile & mint tea while lapping up the sweet words of our nation's founding fathers and the philosophers who inspired them. Ahhhhhh... life is good :-).

Christmas

2008-12-28T09:01:00.004-05:00

Christmas Eve and Christmas were wonderful.

Christmas Eve started with me at work. I had my gift exchange with my friends from Electronics. They gave me a new set of bunny ears for our television (our was missing an ear) and the movie Pearl Harbor... both EXCELLENT gifts! I left at lunch and dropped by Kmart on my way home. The traffic was horrendous and the people were almost as bad. Christmas definitely brings out both the best and the worst in people.

I then picked up Hannah and we went to John & Peg's for the family dinner. We were all very tired (especially Hannah) but had a good time. We spent the evening at home with Ben and Joe and Rachel. Ben then stayed for the night.

Christmas morning started at 7am for us. Once we had gotten up it was not long until Hannah's mother, Ben and Sam got up. We had a quick talk on the meaning of Christmas and I read from Isaiah 61. For the first time, I really feel like I get the meaning of Christmas-- Freedom! The gift of Christmas is atonement, which provides for redemption and brings freedom! Jesus bought us the gift of atonement with His blood as we buy each other gifts at Christmas. So because we have been redeemed, we are free! The only chains we bear are the ones we are holding on to ourselves. We need to understand that and live in that freedom, live in the Spirit of Christmas, all year long!

Riley Joy was not as into her Christmas packages as we thought she was going to be. Though she enjoys ripping things, she did not take much interest in tearing off the wrapping paper. Her favorite gift were her twin dolls sent to her by her Great Grandpa & Grandma Golden. Even before we had taken them out of the packaging she was pulling on them trying to get them out! She knew what they were and said, "Baby!" Then when we had gotten them out, she took one and held it close (it was upside down, though) and rocked it... it was very cute :-). She also got the most precious outfits from Grandad and Grandma and a really nice soft bear from Great Grandma Connie. My family also sent us a webcam which could possibly be the best gift we got this Christmas. We had two wonderful video visits with my family with it on Christmas day. Nana got Riley Joy some wonderful toys and got me House seasons 1 & 2 and a large bag of Dunkin Donuts coffee. She got Hannah some pants and a few other things. Hannah got me beef jerky and a nice shirt and a set of books I picked out.

Since then we have been relaxing and watching House and just plain enjoying ourselves. The only thing we have had a hard time enjoying is that Riley Joy is sick :-(. She came down with a fever yesterday morning and has been sick ever since. She is quite a handful... but it looks like her fever might finally be gone. Unfortunately we had to miss church today.

Riley Joy is so very cute :-). We must have another video chat with my family today.