favorite movies and lines from them

here is my list:

princess bride "i don't think that word means what you think it means.", "i am not left handed.", "stop rhyming. i mean it!" "anybody want a peanut?"





fiddler on the roof "you could die from such a man!", about wealth: "may You smite me with it, and may i never recover!"






a few good men "are we clear! ... are we clear!" "crystal."








the hunt for red october "submarines don't react well to bullets."







o brother, where art thou? "i'm for your's truly." "well i'm for your's truly" "well, i'm with you fellas."







tron "do you think we can merge with this memory bit?" "no."








shawshank redemption "i need a rock hammer.", "do you trust your wife?"







vision quest "i like men's hands."









the breakfast club "you mess with the bull. you get the horns.", "i'm not that prestine!"







ferris bueller's day off "hey, battah, battah ... suh-wing battah!"







top gun "i have a need." "a need for speed!", "i'm gonna take a shower. do you mind?" "yes! i mind! i'm hungry!", "goose, take me to bed or loose me forever!" "show me the way, honey!"




gone with the wind "you need kissing ... and real bad.", "it ain't fittin'! it just ain't fittin'! humph."







so what are some of your favorite movies, and lines from those movies?

things we really need to pray

i was reading a devo sent to me by my lovely bride, and it had a prayer of sorts in it. i want to share it with you, but i am going to give it to you in two parts, and not in the order that it came in the devo. i am going to give you what i think is the "real" part of the prayer first and then i will give the first part. let me know if this fits you, too:

And thank You for the things I don't want: the track marks on the carpet that remind me of loved ones who live here, the never-ending laundry that reminds me how you have provided for my family, the high power bill that reminds me I have a warm home, the taxes that need to be filed because it means we have income, and my exhaustion at the end of the day because it means I am alive and well. Please give me a contentment that is separate from my circumstances and my stuff. Please give me a want for what I have.

here is the first part:

Lord, thank you for the gifts you have given me: my family, my friendships, my church, my ministry, my home, my health, my time. Thank you for the opportunity to serve with You; the honor of serving You. I am grateful for the favor of your grace, the freedom of your forgiveness, the unconditional love and acceptance that I long for and the promise of your presence. Give me a "want" for the things of God.

does this sound like the real you, or does it sound like the you that you want to be, or is it not even in the ballpark?

i must be crazy

i say that i must be crazy because i have signed up to be a willing subject of horrible name calling, and my faculties are going to be questioned, and i am doing this willingly. however, i am going to be paid for it, so that will bring some consulation.

do you go to sporting events? who gets yelled at most? who gets questioned all the time no matter what they say? the officiating person, right? well, i will be attending a class to become a certified soocer referee in a couple of weeks. what am i thinking? i must be nuts, right?

well, i love the game, and i have done my share of yelling and questioning of refs in the past while attending my daughter's games, and i have always said to myself, "i could do a much better job than what they are doing." so i will be going to learn how to become blind, and unsmart. i won't have to work very hard at that last one.

so, pray for me to absorb and put into use the knowledge that i will be gleening.

do you have a favorite sport that you like to watch? have you ever been a ref, ump, or someone who makes the call before? what was your experience, if you did?

a prayer

Our Father, Who dwells in infinite light, above everything, we proclaim You as Holy, and we pray now that You will reign here in every human’s heart, even as You reign over the heavens.

We pray that You will give us what we need to survive today, and we’ll count on You to do that again tomorrow.

We pray that You will forgive us for all the ways that we fail to be Your children, even as we compassionately forgive those around us.

We pray that You will not lead us in over our head, but, by Your power, will deliver us from the one in control of this world.

So that in the fullness of time You should crush him, and every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess You, Who is now Lord, as Lord. In Whose name we pray.

Amen.

wouldn't it be nice if you were taught to pray like this?

Baptism: The Place Where God Acts

i thought this was so good i wanted to share it with you.

Baptism: The Place Where God Acts

(Good News from Lipscomb University, Vol. 1, No. 2 October 1998, p. 2)

Few doctrines have elicited as much debate and emotion through the centuries as baptism. Ironically, baptism was meant to be a mark of unity among believers (Ephesians 4). How sad that what God intended to be a beautiful symbol of one's participation in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Romans 6:3,4) has often been neglected altogether or - at the other extreme - emphasized as a work that we do to merit salvation.

Let me point out two concepts which must be emphasized to have an adequate doctrine of baptism.

First, baptism is part of the faith response to God's saving work in Christ. Consider Ephesians 2: 8, 9: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.

When some brethren respond, “but faith is not enough," they miss the point and role of baptism. This response positions baptism as some kind of "work" and fuels the arguments of its critics. Baptism is not a work of righteousness which we do; it is the God-ordained faith response to His grace- Titus 3:5 makes this point very' clear: He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.

He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Baptism obviously is part of the faith response God mandates for accepting the mercy He offers on the cross of Jesus.

It is a mistake to let a human define faith and its response. Much of Christendom has defined “faith” as “belief.” While belief is the core of faith, God has defined the way that belief is culminated or enacted. Consider the faith response God demanded at the wall of Jericho (Joshua 6), or when the Israelites were being bitten by poisonous snakes (Numbers 21) or when Naaman approached Elisha about the cleansing of his leprosy (II Kings 5). In each case, God dictated the faith response to release His power. In each case, the response was simple and powerless in and of itself. In each case, God demonstrated great power.

Likewise, baptism is part of the faith response God desires for accepting salvation. It is critical enough to be tied to the forgiveness of sin (cf. Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16). Because it is God's decree, it is not optional.

As beautifully stated by one writer, “Baptism is the initial and immediate step of obedience by one who has declared his faith to others. So important was this step that, as far as we know, every single convert in the New Testament was baptized.”

Second - and most important - is that baptism is where God acts. Far too frequently the focus is on what the convert is doing rather than on what God is doing. Baptism is not portrayed in scripture as a work one does. Rather, baptism is something done to the subject, not by the subject. Thus, the focus of a baptismal scene is not what the subject does but what the passive subject has done to him or her by God. Baptism is not self-administered. The human being's role is to present himself or herself as available to God's action. Thus it might be more profitable to think of baptism as the place where something happens rather than as a work one does,

Baptism is so often thought of as a work that those who affirm its crucial role in God's saving work are accused of believing in "water salvation" or "works righteousness." Perhaps thinking of baptism as the place of God's action rather than focusing on the means would help. There is no question about the importance of the place of God's action throughout scripture.

The water of baptism no more washes away sin than the River Jordan cures leprosy or the pool cures lameness. God is always the active agent, and the human being merely places himself or herself at God's behest.

In summary, baptism is both the human being's response of faith and the place where God acts-where He cleanses our sin and gives us the Holy Spirit. To emphasize God's action without the response would lead to justifying infant baptism (in which there is no free response on the part of the one baptized). To emphasize the response without God's action in the present leads to seeing baptism as a mere sign of something that has happened in the past. Both miss the mark.

Baptism is the unique moment where humble, obedient faith yields itself to the cleansing and empowering grace of God. It is not meant to be a focal point of debate, but the focal point of celebration as one is "clothed with Christ" (Galatians 3:27).

--Randall J. Harris, Instructor in Bible (Harris is now on the Bible faculty of Abilene Christian University)

free concert

a couple of days ago port city hosted new reign for a free concert. it was cool to have them here and give us a fresh look at what is going on in the college arena. i have a friend that goes to ocu (oklahoma christian university), and he, jeremy williams, knows caleb. its a small world, isn't it? speaking of small worlds, i have an awesome story to share later, but for now we will stick to the story about new reign.

we had visitors from pascagula's central coc (thanks for coming jd), and inner city coc. the total for all who came was near 100 or so.

please click on the link to their site and listen to their stuff, its good! we had a great time singing praise, praying, and fellowshipping!

do you know this guy?

have you seen this guy in public, or at a conference lately? some think he is like a church of Christ monk, because you can almost always find him wearing black. his name is randy harris, (no relation, but he has a great last name) and he is a professor at abilene christian university. he also teaches classes with mike cope at times there at highland church of Christ in abilene itself.

well, i am trying to get our shepherds to allow him to come and speak at port city. i don't know what subject to ask him to talk about, but everything i have heard him speak on was great. randy has a knack of making things sound logical to me. he also gets you to think of things in a different way than you had thought of them before he started.

i have quoted him on this blog before. i have really enjoyed what i have heard, and i have tried to apply it to my own life, as well.

song leading to communion

have you ever heard this song?

Broken Things
Ken Young

Verse 1
My father's father worked this land
For many years I took my stand
But the plow is heavy and I can't hold on
To the legacy of the farmer's song
I'll remember the days
With the sun on the land
Wiping sweat from my brow
With a rough calloused hand
And the smell of the ground
Freshly broken and clean
Made by the one who still gives
Broken hearts new dreams

Chorus 1
O Lord who uses broken things
Who through broken clouds
Gives us sweet sweet rain
Who gives us bread from broken grain
O Lord make me stronger through broken things

Verse 2
Give me what I need not what I demand
Send me heaven filled hopes Not earth made plans
But the plow is so heavy and I can't hold on
O Father who cares fill my heart with this song

Chorus 1
O Lord who uses broken things
Who through broken clouds
Gives us sweet sweet rain
Who gives us bread from broken grain
O Lord make me stronger through broken things

Chorus 1
O Lord who uses broken things
Who through broken clouds
Gives us sweet sweet rain
Who gives us bread from broken grain
O Lord make me stronger through broken things

i plan to use it as a segue into the communion service i will be leading in a couple of weeks. do you think it fits? i chose it because of the comparison of how Christ was broken for us to give us the chance of being with Him and His Father one day.

the inevitable

(click on the image above to go to a more readable image)

so this is what happens when you don't keep up with your blog. this is what happens when all you do is read other people's blogs. sorry folks. i hope to do better like chris always pledged, but i hope to really mean it. i love you my brother!

what's been on my mind

wow, its almost been a month since my last post.

i have been thinking lately of how i wish i had known that ken young had scheduled the stream in franklin event for the weekend of the 2nd of july. i would've been there with my family if i had known.

see, i used to live in texas and for about 7 of the past 10 or so streams in the desert events in midland, texas, i had been there, and enjoyed the fellowship, singing, sharing, and the lessons form great men of God like rick atchley, jeff walling, lynn anderson, and the like.

if you have not ever attended stream in the desert, you have missed something great, and you would not have forgotten it.

this would be how the day would be at a stream event:

wake up, and head to the stadium for breakfast.
sing great praise songs with hallal and ken young for awhile, hear an awesome lesson, go to share groups filled with those like yourself just coming to see what they have heard about and what the church of Christ could be like every week, and then go to lunch and share still with your lunchmates.
come back for the afternoon session of singing, hear the speaker, go to share groups, and then go to dinner.
then the option is to either study with your friends that you came to the event with about the events of the day, or attend the evening event. the evening events were usually a concert of a singing group, or a comedian.
then go to bed and repeat the next day.

some say it is a couple days of church, but for me it was spending time with friends and praising, and praying. i really like it.

this was the first year of the event in franklin, and i sure hope that i hear about the next one. y'all want to go?