great news!
joey and callie have accepted the offer that the shepherds gave them! joey will be the new youth minister here at port city! that is so cool!
can you tell i am excited? he is from new orleans, and callie is austin. another good one from texas!
jerre and i finished our class on tony evans' book 'free at last' this past week. i was tired, and i wish jerre actually did the last class, but his time has been taken by a more important job; supporting his wife during the health problems of her parents. i love jerre and his huge heart! jerre is one of the reasons that i am still at port city. he is such a supportive man! he has a way in his classes that makes you feel that you are the only reason for him to be there, and he is there to tell what he learned this past week and he wants to talk to you about it.
port city is an awesome church, but there are things, IMO, that could be done differently. the truth about God and His Son are always proclaimed there, and their need and importance are taught there. i think, IMO, that the congregation could be more ... i don't know ... enthusiastic?.?. (that's not really what i mean, but i can't think of a better adjective) i wish that our prayer for the Holy Spirit to just engulf and penetrate our lives and our worship has not been realized and we have not allowed Him to work in our lives totally. ya' know?
we are in a transitional period right now. we are interviewing and having prospective youth minister candidates come and try out for the spot on our team, since the departure of chris, when he left to take the pulpit of a church in hotlanta. this past weekend we had joey and callie come and see us.
the weekend started off with a dinner on friday night at a member of the search committee's house. we met joey and callie face to face after hearing about them through correspondence.
then they attended a get-together with the youth group and some parents at the house of another member of the search committee on saturday. their house is on the water, and there was skiing, swimming, and laughing and an all around good time. however, i was sweating some pounds off while running around and reffing five soccer matches in pace, fl.
after the those festivities, joey taught the teen class on sunday morning, of which i did not hear one bad comment. our teen class is usually between 6 and 20. nothing firm on any given sunday, mind you. however, this sunday there were 26! it was SRO in that room. i'm glad the fire marshal was not around!
then the whole congregation got to hear him preach. his sermon was very interesting. he talked about the comparison of superman to the original Superhero, Jesus. that was cool! i will share more about the sermon if you want. just ask about it in the comments. it was so good that, no offense is intended here, even some of the grey hairs said, "don't let him get away. we need to hire him. that was good!" i have been to places where the older members just do not care for the younger generation's views of culture and our walk.
then we happened to visit the same life group in the evening that he was visiting. i bet he thought we were following him. we visited the life group because our group was not meeting since the leaders were the ones who hosted the teens the day before. it was a great time sharing and learning.
well, that was the weekend. i will post later about the fun in pace and reffing.
i have seen and read of people being tagged out here in blognation, but let's go this way. i am going to create an interactive questionaire. listed below are questions to find out what or who is your favorite "?". answer the questions in the comments section please.
who or what is your favorite ...
... color?
... ice cream flavor, and topping?
... sport?
... bible verse? why (if you want to share)?
... season?
... day of the year?
... bible character?
... celebrity?
... vacation spot you have been to, or would like to go to?
... car?
... genre of music? ... group?
... childhood friend?
... childhood toy/game?
... mac or pc?
... website?
... soda?
this is just a few to get the ball rolling. please don't feel like you have to share family secrets, or personal info. thanks for stopping by.
i have been tagged by my good friend JD. i'm kinda glad he did, because i haven't updated my blog in awhile. this is a great excuse to do so:
1. One book that changed your life:
romans, paul
2. One book that you've read more than once:
the firm, john grisham
3. One book you'd want on a desert island:
a very, very thick one for more than one reason.
the hunt for red october, tom clancy
4. One book that made you laugh:
velvet elvis, rob bell
5. One book that made you cry:
i don't think that i have cried during a read. i may be wrong, but i can't remember.
6. One book you wish had been written:
things you wish you knew when you were a teen, A. Smart Alick
7. One book you wish had never been written:
the great gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. One book you're currently reading:
narnia, C. S. Lewis
9. One book you've been meaning to read:
Seeking a Lasting City: The Church's Journey in the Story of God, Doug Foster, Randy Harris, and Mark Love
10. Tag five others:
chris lockhart
greg foster
donna
danny sims
brandon scott thomas
i am very excited about getting to referee the soccer games here in the united states. i am qualified to ref in any state that the ussf refs in. i don't know of any that don't have refs, but i am only qualified to ref in the united states. make sense? weird, huh?
the class was two days long and very intense. there is more to reffing than just making a call and getting yelled at. you know refs always make a bad call, at least in the eye of the team the call is made against.
well, before i get to do the center ref job i will be doing the lines as an assistant referee for quite awhile until i get some experience under my belt, and wouldn't you know it. the week that i would get to start, i have to go out of town for a week on business! that bums! oh well! there will be games when i get back, but the other new refs will have a few games on me, but i will be there when i can.
what are the movies these lines are from:
1. "we'll take the lot."
2. "hello! my name is inigo montoya! you kill' my father! prepare to die!"
3. "yee-haw! jester's dead!"
4. "good sabbath, mottel."
5. "you know how to dance?" "i should. i took a lesson every day of my life until 2 days ago."(?)(maybe a paraphrased line, sorry. but a good movie.)
this is a good start. add some of your own memorable lines.
here is my list:
so what are some of your favorite movies, and lines from those movies?
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 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?
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?
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)
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!
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.
have you ever heard this song?
Broken Thingsi 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.
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
(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!
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?
... i used to ride my bike everywhere! i mean, to school, to the pool, to baseball, and soccer practice, to my friend's house and then go riding around the neighborhood or riding trails in the woods. i have a bike now, but its tires are rotting from lack of use.
... i used to go bowling, i forgot to add that in the previous list, on saturday mornings. i bowled in a league growing up, and then when i joined the navy. my ball, shoes, and bag were stolen when i transferred back from japan to the u. s. of a. almost 15 years ago. a friend of mine who owns a bowling alley (some may know who he is) has bought me a new ball, and has ordered me new shoes and bag ... as a gift. he said he is doing it because he likes to help when people enjoy doing things, but can't. after the ball had been drilled, and fitted, i was practicing with it, and 4 out of the next 9 balls were strikes. they were also in succession. too bad they were not all in the same game. my daughter and her friends were playing pool, and left their games on the lanes so i finished them.
... i used to go to the pool all summer long. i would get a pool pass to the base pool. i don't think i ever used sun screen. now i don't leave home without it. i even swim in a t-shirt now.
what are some things you did while growing up? these are just a few things that i did.
wow, what a great experience in leading my first adult sunday morning bible study! i was so anxious. yet excited. i was worried that i wouldn't be able to get my points across. i enjoy classes and studies where there is a lot of interaction between the leader and the audience. at one point i asked a question (one of four) and we were like 5 or 10 minutes into the 45 minute class, and i said, "this is really going to be a short class if y'all don't start talking." or something like that, and the class just busted out laughing.
this sunday i will not be here in mobile, because i am driving my daughter to arlington to do something awesome. she is sacrificing time with her friends on her first week out of school to go and work in the hot texas sun and work on houses and do yard work for people who can not do it on their own. i am so proud of her.
however, mrs. k2 will not be going because she is the church secretary and there is no one qualified to take her place. she runs the church office by herself, and God forbid if she get sick. she gets calls asking, "where are you? and why aren't you at the church? i need you to do this." i better stop before i get myself into trouble, but anyway, her best friend is even more upset than me, because she will not get to see her, either.
i will return after being gone a week, and teach two sunday classes while jerre is out of town, then we will take turns on teaching this awesome class.
so its like this, i leave tomorrow for a week in texas, then come back for a week and then go out to lucedale, ms, to sleep in a cabin for a week with some boys and make sure they don't burn the place down, and maybe share some stuff with them, and they with me. i also get to learn and maybe teach and worship with some great people, my brothers and sisters!
what do you got going?
well, i'm back from my business trip for awhile. this sunday i begin co-leading a class with one of our shepherds, jerre. the discussion will be over the book "the case for a Creator." i get to leadoff with chapter one, white coated scientists versus black-robed preachers.
have any of you read this book by lee strobel or any of his other works? i like his perspective on things being as though he was an aethist, and now he is 180 the other direction. here is a quote from chapter one that basically might be able to be said of most of us:
But there was also an undercurrent of something else: an inchoate fear of the future, of change, of new ideas, of cultural transformation. I could sense a simmering frustration in people over how modernity was eroding the foundation of their faith. "Many of the protesters," wrote the Charleston Gazette, "are demonstrating against a changing world."this quote reflected how some of the citizens of west virginia felt concerning the changes in textbooks in the schools. the schools were going to have textbooks that supported evolution. do any of you remember when this started? i was in second grade so i don't remember what the textbooks looked like before the changes were happening. i was going to school in south houston until my 3rd grade year. then i had to go to school in the DOD system in panama where my dad was stationed.
well, i looked for a geocache, but the distances on my gps must've been off. when i got out of the car it looked like the 'cache was about a couple of hundred yards a way, but when i got on the trail and started walking ... that winding trail started to add up to at least half of a mile, and i am out of shape. plus, it wasn't a flat walk. it was up and down hills, and up and down hills. needless to say, i did not get to the 'cache.
i got back to my room and got ready for the game. i met michael about 3:00 and then we headed to springfield where we got on the metro. we had the option of taking the blue line all the way to the stadium station, or transfer from the blue line to the yellow line and then back to the blue line to save some time. we stayed on the blue line and stopped at the arlington cemetary. have you ever seen the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknowns? its a part of living history, in my book. i find it very awesome.
after that we got back on the metro and went to the united game. wow! that was so cool! the united have this section of cheering fans with drums and horns and cheering and jumping. its so cool, it must be like being at a game in europe. the stands of rfk stadium were shaking. if i make it back for business and the united are in town ... i'm going!! the score ended in a 1 - 1 tie, but the refs disallowed a goal because of an offsides that would've put united ahead. in my opinion there was no offsides. the ball came off the post and a united player slammed it into the back of net. bad call. oh yeah, ado had an AWESOME misdirection and faked a fc dallas defender out of his boots. it was cool!
then today i went to church at springfield coc, and they remembered me from wednesday night. it was neat. then i went to quizno's for my first time ever. that sandwich was great! then i walked around best buy for a couple of hours, and bought 2 u2 cd's; joshua tree, and war. then i drove by mclean bible church to get my bearings so i would know how to get there for their evening service. then i went to some stores around the church to waste some time.
i then went to the church to do some reading, and get a snack, and wait for the service to start. the service was like i mentioned in my previous post. i walked away stoked. the guy, todd, talked about the future release of the da vinci code, and how it is a book of lies, and total fiction. i got a neat hand out that will give some great ammunition to fire back at people asking, "what about this? and what about that?" from the book. the singing at the service was great, and i just had a great time. very freshing.
now i am back in my room blogging, and preparing for the week, and watching one of my favorite movies: forrest gump (imagine that, another tom hanks movie. i like tome hanks.).
