Crazy Date Night

Cheryl and I had a pretty crazy date night last evening.  Jeannie graciously provided care for our children while we decided to go to Stony Point mall where we could sit at a small table on the patio drinking something from Starbucks and catching up from our rather hectic week.

While Cheryl was in Starbucks getting our drinks and I was on the phone with Mary Beth helping her pick out a good webcam and ran into Dennis & Monica Norwood.  As soon as Cheryl came out with our drinks and I finished helping Mary Beth, I see a text message from Pierre asking me if I’m enjoying my Starbucks.  He appears a few minutes later with his wife to chat for a bit about their evening.  Within a few minutes after they left us, I look up and see Rachel Yeatts and Abi McCamant walking past us.  Before long we had Chris and Steve with all the children surrounding us…it was great to see our friends again.

So here’s where it gets crazy…

For the next hour we talked about the past week and how we were each handling some of our questions about where God has us right now. Around 9:45, the mall was pretty much dead. Where we were sitting, the only people I noticed at all were a group of teenagers at a table inside Chipotle. Suddenly, this guy comes walking across the middle of the mall area talking way too loud on his cell phone. He’s carrying a rather large picture frame box that appears to be empty by the way he was swinging it back and forth as he strolled along. He sees us and immediately changes direction toward us.  He walks right up to the table 5 feet from us, places his box on that table, waves at me, and continues to talk loudly on his cell phone.

Here’s where I get annoyed…

I gave him about 10 seconds, realized that it was time to go anyway, looked at Cheryl and told her we needed to go. As we began to walk away, I can hear the guy still talking and following us. At this point, I’m thinking I may have to confront him and deal with his rather rude behavior. Fortunately, I hear him begin to trail off in the direction of Chipotle. I hear in his conversation that his cell must have dropped the call. I turn to verify he truly is going in a different direction only to see that he’s still looking right at me. As he is entering Chipotle, he points at me and says, “Looks like deity.”

What did he say…

I looked at Cheryl and asked her, “What did he say?” She confirmed what I thought I had heard. In hindsight, I would probably have gone back to him to ask what he meant. I just remember being highly annoyed at the moment and could think of nothing but going home.

Adoration & Perspective

It’s day 11 in a row of listening to Bob Hartley’s “Adoration” CD.  I am so grateful for him helping me to focus on the mercies of God rather than on my own weaknesses.  Bob focuses on this perspective in the last track of his CD.  I need to hear this more and more until it breaks away all of my criticism for myself and others.

Adoration of Jesus

Listening to Bob Hartley’s “Adoration” CD this morning, my heart was broken when he described having the eyes and heart of Jesus.  He talked about obtaining these from his times with Jesus, adoring Him until he began to emulate what he saw in Him.

I realized that I began to experience this in some part yesterday morning after listening to this CD and adoring God.  I also realized that I did NOT experience this throughout the rest of my day as it faded.  He speaks on this CD of our examples from scripture who set aside time to adore Jesus 3-7 times each day.  He spoke to this very issue of how we move from practicing this as a discipline to craving it as necessary to sustain our life.  I NEED this.

This is not a utilitarian purpose of getting something from Jesus, and yet we experience the blessing of receiving His insight and perspective on all of life when we simply focus on and adore Him.  If we seek the blessing then we miss it as we miss Him.  It is the transformation of our thoughts, emotions, faith, and our physical forms as we adore Jesus.

Joseph’s Birthday Balloon

It’s Joseph’s Birthday!

My son is 1 year old today. In honor of this special day in his life, I would like to make a request of you to give him a gift.

When I thought about the type of gifts appropriate for a 1 year old, I realized that he will most likely have equal appreciation for both the gift and the wrapping paper. With that understanding in mind, my request for a gift is focused on your heart for him as my son and as a child of God. The following are the types of gifts I would like for you to consider:

An encouraging word – this could be something as simple as a “happy birthday” greeting.

A Bible scripture – this could be your favorite verse.

A prophetic scripture – this would be a verse you sense God has specifically for Joseph.

A prophetic picture – this would be a vision you sense God has for Joseph.

A prophetic word – this would be a word or phrase you sense God has for Joseph.

I will be compiling all of these gifts into electronic form where Joseph will be able to access them later in his life when his knowledge and understanding have grown to fully appreciate them. Feel free to use various media types (video, email, paper, stone tablet, etc.). I plan to continue this for him every year where the year over year effect of these gifts will weave together into a tapestry of personal, scriptural, and divine encouragement for his entire life.

If you have already purchased a gift or still desire to give him a token of your love in addition to one of the heart gifts above, then please do so. If your generosity is swelling up inside of you and is about to burst, then consider making a donation to “Joseph’s Cup” as an option. This is a trust setup for the purpose of funding a non-profit organization which strategically and tactically works to combat the issue of the 40,000 children who die each day from starvation and preventable disease. The fact that you give will also be recorded with the gifts above for Joseph. It will also have a direct impact on Joseph’s life as an adult. Contact me directly for more information.

Thank you.

Joseph’s Reaction to Fresh Mango

Joseph’s Laugh

Liberty-isms

Liberty told us that she wants to go to “Chic-a-leg” and get some “yum-en-aide” and “french-eyes” this morning.

Checking in…

…since it’s been a while.  I’ve been incredibly busy with work for a few months.  I’m currently fighting some type of cold that hit me last Sunday.  All 6 of us came down with it at the same time, but I seem to be the only one still dealing with it.  Please pray for the mercy of God to provide healing quickly.

How to catch a wild pig

The following story (unknown authorship) may or may not be true, but the point is clear and worth reading in our current climate of political persuasion being thrown back and forth across the country.  It is a perspective that I would consider to be consistent with the Republican party at large, but I find it interesting that this perspective is limited to American policy and excludes foreign policy.

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There was a Chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class.  One day while the class was in the lab the Prof noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back And stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet  lodged  in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were  trying to overthrow his country’s government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. 
He asked, ‘ Do you know how to catch wild pigs?’

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. ‘You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you  put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start  to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in The last side. 
 
The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.  Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how  To forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government  keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, free medical, etc. while we continually lose our freedoms - just a little at a time.

One should always remember ‘There is no such thing as a free Lunch! Also, a politician will never provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.  Also, if you see that all of this wonderful government ‘help’ is a problem confronting the future of democracy 
in America, you might want to send this on to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life then you will probably delete this email, but God help you when the gate slams shut!

‘A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to
take away everything you have.’ …….. Thomas Jefferson