I’ll Tell You What…

Please pray for my son this Tuesday morning. He will be having surgery to remove a fairly large (~2 inches in diameter) congenital mole located just below the neckline along the sternum. The surgery is to take between 6am and 7:30 am at Charlton Hospital in Fall River, MA.

I’ll let you know how it went Tuesday afternoon.

Thanks!

This is too good to pass up. Now, you too can own your very own talking president action figure. I’m serious. You can actually buy these things…really.

The good people at TalkingPresidents.com have made action figures that repeat actual famous statements from the following people:

• George W. Bush
• Bill Clinton
• George H. W. Bush
• Dennis Miller
• Donald Rumsfield
• Ann Coulter

The technology allows 20 to 30 phrases to be stored within the action figure. You can listen to some of them on-line.

And you thought I was just making this up.

My son and I saw the movie Elf tonight and I thought I’d let you know how good I thought it was…

First off, let me say that I loved the movie. It was clean but it did have a little bad language in it but nothing extremely profane. There’s a couple of times where sex is either mentioned or alluded to. The main thing that I didn’t like was that the true meaning of Christmas wasn’t mentioned or even alluded to at all. It was truly a Hollywood version of Christmas. But other than that, it was a good movie.

As many of you know, the movie is about a human baby, Buddy, who is raised by the elves at the North Pole. He never figures it out until he over hears two elves mention that he is really human. So, he sets off to New York in search of his father who is actually on Santa’s bad list.

Buddy, has trouble adapting to New York life but he doesn’t let it get him down until is real father shouts at him and tells him to get out of his life. Buddy causes his father to lose a very important business deal.

Anyway, Buddy sees Santa flying over Manhattan and Santa’s having trouble with his supplimental flying turbine engine. Santa needs that because there just isn’t enough Christmas cheer these days to power his flying sleigh. Buddy meets up with his father and half-brother in Central Park where Santa crashed and his Dad’s hard, crusty heart is finally softened. With the help of his half-brother, Buddy saves the day and Christmas is saved due to a renewed belief in Santa Clause.

I liked it and my son liked it. Bathroom humor goes a long way with an eleven year old boy.

Yeah, sometimes that’s a phrase that is used just to make conversation. As I was thinking about what true thanksgiving was all about, I thought that I would search the Bible and find out what people were thankful for back then…

Thankfulness for other people:

Rom 16:3-5
3 Greet Priscilla and Aquila. They have been co-workers in my ministry for Christ Jesus. 4 In fact, they risked their lives for me. I am not the only one who is thankful to them; so are all the Gentile churches.
NLT

2 Cor 8:16-17
16 I am thankful to God that he has given Titus the same enthusiasm for you that I have.
NLT

2 Thess 1:3
Dear brothers and sisters, we always thank God for you, as is right, for we are thankful that your faith is flourishing and you are all growing in love for each other.
NLT

2 Thess 2:13
As for us, we always thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved by the Lord. We are thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation, a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and by your belief in the truth.
NLT

Thankfulness to the Lord:

2 Cor 4:15
All of these things are for your benefit. And as God’s grace brings more and more people to Christ, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.
NLT

Col 2:7
Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all he has done.
NLT

Col 3:15
And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are all called to live in peace. And always be thankful.
NLT

Col 3:16
Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise. Use his words to teach and counsel each other. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.
NLT

Col 4:2
Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.
NLT

1 Thess 5:16-18
16 Always be joyful. 17 Keep on praying. 18 No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
NLT

1 Tim 1:12
How thankful I am to Christ Jesus our Lord for considering me trustworthy and appointing me to serve him,
NLT

1 Tim 4:4-5
4 Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it. We may receive it gladly, with thankful hearts. 5 For we know it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
NLT

Heb 12:28-29
28 Since we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot be destroyed, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.
NLT

James 5:13
Are any among you suffering? They should keep on praying about it. And those who have reason to be thankful should continually sing praises to the Lord.
NLT

I was deeply saddened and shocked to hear news that two of our troops died in Mosul today. Apparently, their vehicle was fired upon and crashed into a wall. What made it horrifying was that teenagers dragged their bodies out of the vehicle and proceeded to attack them after they were apparantly dead. That was almost more than I could bear. My heart breaks for the families of these two servicemen who served their country to the end. Please pray for them.

Mark is different than the other Gospels in that it jumps directly into the ministry of John the Baptist as the “voice shouting in the wilderness” (v. 3, NLT) followed by Jesus’ pre-ministerial actions. Genealogies are skipped and the portrait of our Savior as a servant is developed. Not only is He the perfect servant but also the pattern servant that we should follow…

J. Sidlow Baxter says1 that there are four “prerequisites to all effective Christian service” contained in this first chapter.

1. A Preliminary Separation (v. 9) – Our Lord’s baptism was His initial, deliberate separation of Himself to His public Messianic ministry. This separation was twofold. There was (a) a separation from His former kind of life; (b) a separation to His new ministry of teaching and healing: and utter separation to God. That is also the first prerequisite for us.
2. A Preliminary Anointing (v. 10) – Our Lord (a) saw something, i.e. “the heavens opened”; (b) felt something – “the Spirit descending upon on Him.” That also is the prerequisite for us. We must know that the heavens “opened” to our praying, and the enduement with “power from on high.”
3. A Preliminary Assuring (v. 11) – Our Lord at Jordan received a preliminary assuring (a) as to sonship – “Thou art My beloved Son”; (b) as to character – “in whom I am well pleased.” That is the third prerequisite for us. We need the inwrought assurance of the Holy Spirit, and motives well-pleasing to God.
4. A Preliminary Testing (vv. 11, 12) – There are two things to note about this preliminary tempting of our Lord: (a) It was Divinely sanctioned, i.e. “The Spirit driveth Him”; (b) it was real temptation – “of Satan.” Strange though it may seem, even the entirely separated, Spirit-anointed, Heaven-attested Servant must undergo this preliminary testing, to settle it whether He will go only and utterly God’s way – or man’s.

Baxter finishes his comments by saying, “Let all who would serve the Lord of heaven, in this sinful world, observe carefully those four prerequisites. The question of all questions for the Christian is: Am I really willing to yield myself here and now to Christ for His will alone to be done through my life?”

Well? Are you?

———————————-

1 J. Sidlow Baxter, Explore the Book (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervon, 1960) 225.

As a kid, I remember hearing adults say things like “time flys when you get old.” I never fully understood how time could get faster the older we got until I became an adult. It’s no wonder that there’s so much high blood pressure and other kinds of self-induced heart disease in our society…

Where has the time gone this year? Thanksgiving is next week and Christmas less than a month after that. Have I been so busy that I haven’t noticed the changes that have occured around me? What about the people that I come in contact with on a daily basis? Have I neglected to see the changes, good or bad, there? I don’t think I can categorically say that because I have taken some time to reflect on the situations I am in.

I think that in our busy culture we sometimes fail to get personally involved in what surrounds us whether it be people, nature or places. We wake up early only to realize that traffic is heavy and we are going to be late. Our blood pressure rises a little because the situation did not happen as planned so we speed through traffic in hopes of recouping lost time.

Does this describe you in the morning? I’m sure that if you live in or work in a densely populated area you can relate. This is me sometimes, I have to admit. But, I have learned over the years that it doesn’t have to be that way. Believe it or not, it is possible to accept the circumstances that you cannot change.

For me it wasn’t not something that I learned overnight. It has more to do with patience than anything else and we all know that praying “Lord, give me patience….now” doesn’t do anything but place us in a circumstance that demands patience. It takes a determined heart and mind that says, “When I am in a situation that will try my patience, I will stop myself and be slow to speak out against the circumstance because obviously, there’s something to learn here.”

This kind of thought takes a lot of discipline to master and most of us, including myself, have a long way to go. 2 Cor 10:5-6 says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.” (NIV) This is important stuff but I know that I cannot so it on my own. I need to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide me and direct me when I find myself in those situations.

Solomon even had some words for those of us who jump the gun and speak out in haste and react quickly to adverse situations. We would be wise to follow his advice!

Eccl 6:11
11 The more words you speak, the less they mean. So why overdo it? (NLT)

Eccl 3:7
a time to be silent and a time to speak, (NIV)

Prov 29:20
20 Do you see a man who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for him. (NIV)

Prov 13:3
3 Those who control their tongue will have a long life; a quick retort can ruin everything. (NLT)

Eccl 5:2
2 Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. (NIV)

So as I try to follow the advice of Solomon and the direction of the Holy Spirit, I urge you to do the same. You might just find that it really is possible to slow down and enjoy the peace that comes from God.

How many of you are goal oriented? Many people are and that’s good because completing goals gives us a sense accomplishment and self-worth. A sense of purpose, if you will. Many of us define our lives by our goals and accomplishments. It’s even encouraged in the workplace. Is this a good thing? It can be so what does the Bible say about it? …

On Sunday, the sermon really challenged me. For the past few Sundays we have been learning how to cultivate a resilient spirit. “A what?”, you say. A resilient spirit. Princeton’s WordNet on Dictionary.com defines resilient as

1: recovering readily from adversity, depression, or the like 2: rebounds readily.”

In other words, it’s the ability to get your life back. Does this sound like you? I’m not sure it’s describing me either. Does the Bible have anything to say about being resilient? 2 Corinthians 4:7-9 states:

7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8. We are hardpressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; (NKJ)

Wow! This sure sounds like the definition of resiliency.

My pastor outlined 5 things that will help you be resilient in your Christian walk.

1. Focus on the Essential, Invisible Things in Life.
   In Fred Rogers (of Mister Rogers Neighborhood) office was a sign written in French. It was from Saint-Exupery’s “The Little Prince,” “L’essential est invisible pour les yeux.” (What is essential is invisible to the eyes.) What a small but profound statement. Fred Rogers lived by this motto.
2. Load up Your Loss Column.
   Move all your temporal gains to your loss column for Christ because they are just that: temporary. Phil 2:7-8 says:
   

   7. I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ. (NLT)

   Did catch that last phrase? “Counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ.” All these earthly things can disappear in an instant so don’t define your life by your gains.
3. Cut Your Losses.
   Don’t allow your losses to rent space in your head or even cling to you in any way! Those losses and failures slow you down and make it easy for the Devil to snare you. 1 Pet 5:6-8 says:
   

   6. So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and in his good time he will honor you. 7. Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you. 8. Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour.(NLT)

   The devil is a restless foe that will offer anything to get your attention. The key to overcoming those temptations and promises is to count as loss the seeming payoff sin presents. The end result of achieving that pleasure or whatever is emptiness and guilt. You’re worse off than before.
4. Carry the Dying.
   Live with a predisposition to transfer all those things into the loss column. Paul, in 2 Cor 4:10, puts it this way:
   

   10. Through suffering, these bodies of ours constantly share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.(NLT)

   Living for Christ is not easy. If you are not experiencing difficulty in someway due to your devotion to Christ, you might want to re-examine your Christian walk. Nevertheless, cast all that hurt and pain into your loss column. That’s where it belongs.
5. Open the Treasure.
   Imagine searching for buried pirate’s treasure and after many long weeks or months finally finally the X that marks the spot. You dig deep struggling against the heavy, packed sand that seems to be glued together by the moisture in the earth. You hit something hard and your heart races. You dig furiously all around the chest exposing the lock on the front. It’s rusty so a few quick blows with your mallet knocks the once securing fastener. Butteflies like you’ve never experienced invade your stomache like a swarm as you tug at the lid. It opens but with difficulty. The wonder you behold leaves you awestruck. The gold and jewels appear to glow on its own.
   That is nothing compared to the treasure we have within us as Christians. The Creator of heaven and earth lives within us. He knows us by name and cares for us deeply. Revisit 2 Cor 4:7-9 and add verses 10-12:
   

   7. But this precious treasure - this light and power that now shine within us - is held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own. 8. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we don’t give up and quit. 9. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going. 10. Through suffering, these bodies of ours constantly share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. 11. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be obvious in our dying bodies. 12. So we live in the face of death, but it has resulted in eternal life for you. (NLT)

Re-examine your life. Does it show that the life of Jesus at work in everything we do? That’s my desire and I hope it’s yours as well.

Today while browsing another site that discusses repenting, I realized how close we can teeter toward despair when dealing with repentance.

Look at the woman brought to Jesus right from an act of adultery. Was there any pressure when he said, “Go and sin no more.” How could it even be possible for her to stop leading a life of sin?

Can a woman, forgiven by God but perhaps by no one else, leave her lifestyle and return to live with her husband? Can a man, forgiven by God but mocked by others, overcome his addiction to illegal pain pills and stop sinning?

Commands from Jesus surely aren’t impossible to be obeyed. He knows what’s in our hearts without being told. He knows what’s impossible for man is possible for God. He knows that those who love him still keep his commandments.

Jesus explained another woman’s life change. “Her many sins have been forgiven - for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little, loves little.”

Responding to sin with love and forgiveness - now there’s a challenge. Without love and forgiveness, is anger, hatred, despair, and little chance for repentance.

from repentance.lifewithchrist.org

Have you ever searched for yourself on the Internet using a search website? Try it! You might be surprised by what you find…

I received an email yesterday saying that if you entered your telephone number into Google’s seach engine with dashes (555-555-5555), you would see your name address and telephone number listed. A link to Mapquest is listed next to your listing that shows exactly where you live. This writer further stated how this was such an incredible invasion of privacy.

Let me start by saying that this is not an invasion of privacy. All the information listed has been gathered from public sources. Anyone can find anything about anyone else if they know where to look. Ever wonder who lives in that huge house in that ritzy neighborhood? You say all you have is an address? That’s no problem. Go to City Hall and look in the public records for the address and you’ll find not only a listing of who owns the house but also everyone who has ever owned the house. Ever hear of title searches? You just did one.

Another way to look up someone’s phone number is by purchasing a special business phone book that is designed for reverse look-ups. This phone book also has a section that lists addresses in street order with names and numbers listed next to them. Is this an invasion of privacy? No. This company just sorted the phone book in a different way than the phone company did.

The point I’m trying to make here is that your name, address and telephone number is public and there’s nothing you can do about it. But, there are ways to minimize your exposure in this information overload age.

If you have children, I urge you to purchase Net Nanny. Net Nanny not only filters out all the porn and hate sites out there, it also filters information in. Net Nanny can be setup to prohibit your children from transmitting their telephone number, address, real name, etc across the internet to potential pedophiles, et al. No matter what you think about Internet censorship/filtering, your children are much more important. Especially, when you consider the Google search example mentioned earlier.

Another way to minimize exposure is to not disclose your real email address in chat rooms, USENet/newgroups, on website guestbooks, etc. Search engines will find those pages eventually and you will be filed away for a future search.

Do you have a website? Have you ever created a link so that someone could email you with a click of a button? Search engines find those as well. That’s because a search engine sees the code behind the pretty facade in the web browser. It will see the mailto:yourname@youdomain.com. Guaranteed.

Precautions need to be taken to protect your privacy and your family’s as well because with the Internet at your finger tips, it’s as easy as 1-2-3 for any stalker to find you.

Please pray for my oldest daughter. She’s been ill for the past few days. She went to the doctor’s office today and having blood work done tomorrow. I’ll update more when I know more. Thank you.

As Veteran’s Day comes to a close, hopefully we are mindful of the many sacrifices that the men and women of this nation have made so that we might be free. It was only by the shed blood of her people that America obtained the freedoms that it did. These freedoms are often taken for granted by those who see the military as an unnecessary line item of the national budget. Not so with me. I served in the military out of a strong desire for service to my my country and to have a greater sense of purpose. A purpose that was put there by a God who had something greater for me…

Today was Veteran’s Day. A day that we, as Americans, have set aside to remember those who have served in the military and those who died in the service of our country. This day is a special day for me since I served in the US Navy as an officer.

There was always something about the military that intrigued me. Maybe it was the uniform or maybe it was the weapons. Beyond all that I believe that it was the sense of purpose that serving as a defender of the USA gave to me as a young boy. “If I were in the military I would be somebody.” “People would respect me because of the sacrifice I made by serving my country.” Perhaps those were my thoughts deep down.

Whatever the psychological reasons were the fact still remained that I wanted to be a part of something much greater than I could ever be on my own. Having this sense of purpose fulfilled would subconsciously permeated my decision making from the time I was a small boy to now. Did I realize that what I was sensing deep down was this? I don’t think so. It was just something that was driving my actions and decisions for the most part. I can remember many, many decisions I made for very selfish reasons that were not based on filling that hole in my life.

I believe that each and everyone one of us feel that drive at at least one time in their life. It is also my belief that this desire for purpose is put into our hearts by the One who made our hearts: God. French mathematician and Christian philosopher, Blaise Pascal, called this a God-shaped void. Augustine wrote of a restlessness that can only be satisfied in God.

I realize now that this was exactly what I was sensing because everything that I was throwing into myself just fell away into nothingness. What meaning did it give me? It did provide me with experiences that eventually gave me the basis for my conclusions. Of course, without those experiences and ultimate conclusions I would not be here telling you this!

God allowed me to experience the consequences of my own actions so that I would turn to Him when the time was right. I had to decide on my own that He was the only One who could fill that void in my life. When I accepted Jesus as my Savior I found a sense of peace that was missing in my life. I was complete for the first time in my life.

You see? My life before Jesus Christ was pointless and without satisfaction. Ecclesiastes 1: 14 says, “Everything under the sun is meaningless, like chasing the wind.” Have you ever felt that way? Even people who have achieved everything they ever wanted, like the writer of Ecclesiastes, King Soloman, have this experience. If so, then turn to God, the maker of your heart, and ask Him to fill it as only He can.