Real vs Photoshop?

Back in El Campo after spending the weekend in Odessa meeting the community of Bethany Christian Church and hunting for houses. Meeting the congregation was amazing and FUN!

We also looked at LOTS of houses, which was fun for the love of my life, but not quite as fun for me.  I'm a guy so shopping isn't really that much fun.  I can do most of our Christmas shopping in less than an hour, while the love of my life wants to see, touch, smell and take in every little detail. 

We didn't find anything that we feel ready to pull the trigger on yet... but we'll need to go back next week and try to make a decision on someting... That is assuming the congregation gives their approval, which we have been assured that it will be positive.  However, we still need to wait and let the process work...

Back to the housing stuff... it is amazing how nice and neat the houses look on the internet and how different they look in person!  Jesus said something about white-washed tombs... nice on the outside, but dead on the inside.  Almost ALL of the houses look pretty cool on the internet, but in reality need a LOT of work!  Sounds like a lot of people I know... Me included! How about you?

Wednesday Update

Led a parenting discussion today at lunch, spent the afternoon in the office, now I'm off to teach the last session of the GED completion course for the semester... then to get busy for the big move and the new gig!

It's been a loooong year and it's not even half over!

Time to ride?

I'm thinking the motorcycle group's dinner ride just might be the thing to do tonight! Had a full day of training for the August Walk to Emmaus. A ride just might be the best way to end the day...

Head's UP!

Head's up: If you use hand sanitizer while driving & get pulled over for driving faster than the posted limit, you just might be suspected of driving under the influence...

Seems the odor of said hand sanitizer wafts out the window while handing the Trooper your license, insurance and CHP causing him to suspect that you have been over-indulging!

Got a warning to be more mindful of the posted speed limit...

One of the most profound thoughts I've heard lately...

From a tweet on William Vanderbloemen's twitter...

"Nothing that has ever been done BY you or TO you is greater than what Jesus did FOR you."

Very profound, I think!

Interesting thoughts...

Ron Degges, the President of the Disciples Home Mission writes:  "The Christian faith is always in danger of being routinized as is congregational life and the thought patterns of its followers. Routinization is believing and doing the same thing over and over again with the expectation that something different will occur. Each time we routinize the faith as it is embodied in the church and ourselves, we reduce the divine imperative to be fruitful and multiply. With fear, we measure out faith so carefully. We enviously count the number of cookies taken by our children and visitors at church fellowship events, lest they leave us empty handed, snatching either the faith or the cookies, and run away into oblivion.


I have some news for you. The faith and our cookies are not running away anywhere, especially to oblivion. Instead they are running to the hearts, minds, imaginations, and stomachs of all who desire to learn a new thing. In Christ, did not God do a new thing? When we as a people were choking to death on mere ritual and empty promises, did not God en-flesh Godself in our humanity? In life's brokenness, have we not become strong at our broken places because of God's love for us – all of us?

The time has come for us Christians and Disciples, I hope I got the order right, to follow the living Christ by amplifying, developing, and enlarging God's message of abundant love. There are more than enough cookies to go around. Let's stop abbreviating, abridging, and condensing God into our limited, confining, and routinized expressions of faith and action. If we do not, all we can expect is a lower grade God who will ping in our fuel tanks. Where is the octane? No, where are the cookies, please?

I attended an Independent Christian Church worship service this past weekend. The pastor said that "the church is the real roll back place, not Sam Walton's Walmart." It was God who rolled back the stone and it is God who will roll back the stones, no matter how large, that block our way to the timeless truth of the unroutinized gospel. The same pastor also said that "if you are hungry, eat, but don't expect the preacher to feed you all the time." Feed one another. I suspect that we've gotten ourselves into this routinized decline because we have not fed one another.

The word is not in the dictionary yet, as far as my sources of research indicate, but if it were, the word spiritfication would stand as the logical opposite to routinization. It would signify the Spirit-making and Spirit-producing power of a God who is always highest grade, of a God who breaks forth into the world, the church and each individual life opening them to life in all its abundance."

Great thoughts!!