Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Salvation Army grid::blog

Salvation Army grid::blog

Monday, January 30, 2006

growing up is hard to do…

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starting to feel like a grown up.

This December, some friends in the States threw us a baby party. Not a shower, but a party. The purpose was for friends and family back home to get to meet our new daughter. It was a great party and we really appreciated it. But a childhood friend said something at that party that really made Jamie and I smile and think a lot. When discussing “all of us”, they described the group as having become adults – and then came the part that made us smile – “except for Tim and Jamie”. In some respects, I hope that’s true. I hope we never lose our childlike passion and especially our teen angst. But in other ways, I’m feeling more and more like a grown up these days.

Part of it is becoming a father, but part of it is also working with young 20 something year olds. I love them dearly, and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but I find myself thinking and saying things to them that older adults have been saying to me for the past ten years. “Follow through on your responsibilities.” “Don’t blame others for your mess ups, take responsibility.” “Don’t blame the church for your lack of spiritual growth, step up…and take some responsibility.” See a common theme here?

For my dad, all the problems in the world came down to my attitude. I had an “attitude problem”, or so he said. For me things seem to be boiling down to responsibility.

Becoming a grown up sucks.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

He lives...and He looks a LOT like me!

A friend wrote and gave this to me. It's to the tune He Lives.

I serve a middle class saviour
He’s in my life today
I’ve made Him in my image
And that’s how He will stay
I’ve shaped Him by my worldview
With tender loving care
And when my lifestyle’s threatened
He’s always there

He lives and gives
Me comfort on life’s way
He walks like me and talks like me
Why would I ever stray?
He lives and gives
Salvation without cost
I’ll never need to sacrifice
Or suffer for the lost

Btw, I considered titling this post Phil Laeger.com. : )

Thursday, January 26, 2006

what a shame

Ever had one of those weeks? Boy has this been one of those weeks. And, what’s worse, I can’t share any of it. Yeah. So I get to just sit here and bathe in a really bad week.

So, with that in mind, I’ve decided to invite you to rant. If you could say anything you wanted, about any subject at all, what would it be? For this one post, I’m turning off the login which means that you have the opportunity to post anonymously. So go ahead. If you could say anything you wanted to, without the fear of making a mess for yourself, what would it be?

This will either be really interesting, or really boring. Or really offensive to me. : )

Sunday, January 22, 2006

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


blogshares

I posted this a few months ago, but if you’re looking for another addiction, and you’ve got way too much time on your hands, blogshares is an obsessive game. Blogshares is a game that takes the blogging community and translates it into the stock world. Blogs are treated as businesses, and valued according to incoming links, outgoing links, and the amount of people buying and selling shares in your blog. With that in mind, the following are a list of blogs (from friends of this site) and their worth per share…

These are my church clothes - $3,519.10
Drew Forward (I mean Forster) - $170.94
Phil Laeger - $142.65
Mel Reynolds - $52.62

Why do I share that? Mostly just to bug Drew, Phil, and especially Mel. : )

Friday, January 20, 2006

video

Check out http://www.compfused.com/directlink/49

This kid is the REASON I'm still in youth work!

Hahaha...oh man, my sides hurt...

so many things to think about...

Jamie and I have some friends who are missionaries in China. They aren’t, of course, there under that pretence, they’re also working as teachers. But it’s been amazing to hear how God has been working through them since they’ve been there. Having said that, I received this letter from Jason yesterday. The following is just part of it.

“To make a long story less long, we stayed really late at our friends house talking about all kinds of things both meaningful and non. As a result, Sara and I left the house near to midnight, and had about a mile to walk to get to our apartment. About half- way home Sara and I saw a man who seemed to be wrestling with a bush. Thinking this didn't seem right, we got a bit closer and saw that he was not wrestling a bush, but strangling a human being with his hands around the persons neck. As I saw that it was a woman he was strangling, I approached the man - yelling at him to let go or be knocked down, to which he responded by backing away from the girl and from me. The girl was in pretty bad shape, but could still get up and stand and walk. After recomposing themselves, both the man and woman explained to me that everything was all right, because this woman was this man's wife... she kept saying.. its OK.. I'm his wife.. its OK... I'm his wife... I had enough Chinese to ask the woman if she would like to walk home with Sarah and myself which she declined, and then I asked if she would like us to walk to her families house, which she declined - because she was OK.. this was her husband, which she said as she was bleeding freely, which I didn't discover until I had reached my own home, and found that my own hands were covered in her blood.

Going home was a sad thing. Being congratulated by Sara on rescuing the woman was a sad thing. Thinking that the real problem that these two were facing was probably not helped was a sad thing. Thinking that as we went to sleep - completely safe and secure, while so many others are not, was a sad thing.

The next morning I had to teach Sunday school, and we are following a small group lesson book, which I don't even look at until two hours before Sunday school on Sunday morning. The topic was our motivation to not sin, when we have a full license and freedom to sin. The scenario fit perfectly. We are dead in sin - if not dead then dying - crushed, strangled and beaten by sin. And Jesus is our rescuer - and he will rescue us from our love of sin EVERY time we ask him. And he will never tire of the rescuing and the love that he is our rescuer... but.... that doesn't mean that it hurts to be the rescuer… bad...There is no glory in the rescue, and there is no satisfaction in the rescue. There is no pride in the rescue and there is no long-term solution to the rescue UNLESS we put our sin behind us - then the rescue has been successful.

That is why we are allowed to sin - but to do so is a smack in the face of our father - and it is a re-punishment to his son. It is so tempting, and sometimes so desirable to use the sin license to enjoy, or make excuses for our un-holiness, and say that 'I'm only human' But to the spirit who made himself human on our behalf and continued to remain in his holiness, I'm quite sure that this excuse extends no sympathy.

So many things to think about... “

Unfortunately, our friends aren’t able to read our blogs because the Chinese government censors anything with references to God, church, etc. Even our emails are typed in code. But we love them dearly and they are in our thoughts often.

What have you done lately?

Sunday, January 15, 2006

bible based meal replacer

Let’s be honest, the music industry is seriously lacking these days. They will blame it on downloading, but the truth is, the music just isn’t any good. From R&B, which has been cranking out the same song (for the most part) for the past thirty-years, to rappers who all seem to be living the exact same life (same girls, same cars, same jewellery, same song), to country music…which is no longer all that country, to rock…which is no longer all that rocky (and, btw, what ever happened to cool rock voices?), to pop which…well, let’s be honest, pop is still pop, and finally to the Christian industry which is so bad (for the most part) that it really should take a couple of years off and regroup. I swear, if one more rock band or golden oldie comes out with another worship album, with the exact same ten songs on it (that have been out for ten or more years), I’m going to start a campaign to boycott worship albums (…now THERE’S an idea). Seriously, how can a singer songwriter (Michael W. Smith) not be able to come up with his own material for a worship album?

Anyway, while I was in Oklahoma for the holidays, I visited the local Christian mega-store and listened to as many CD’s as I had time to listen to. For the most part, they were still bad, but I did come up with one rare gem. Lyrically, it may be the most relevant, smart, original, and important Christian album to come out since Just Visiting This Planet (Larry Norman, 1972). The name of the artist is Derek Webb and the name of the album is Mockingbird. Just take a look at the lyrics to his song A King and a Kingdom;

(vs. 1)
who's your brother, who's your sister
you just walked passed him
i think you missed her
as we're all migrating to the place where our father lives'
cause we married in to a family of immigrants

(chorus)
my first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man
my first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
it's to a king & a kingdom

(vs. 2)
there are two great lies that i’ve heard:
“the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die”
and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class republican
and if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be like Him

(bridge)
but nothing unifies like a common enemy
and we’ve got one, sure as hell
but he may be living in your house
he may be raising up your kid
she may be sleeping with your wife
oh no, he may not look like you think

Grab this album before it’s banned! : )

In the meantime, check out this other crap I bought at the Christian mega-store. Seriously. And we ragged on the Catholic church for selling indulgences?

Saturday, January 14, 2006

it's good to be home

Well, we’re back…and jet lagged like nobody’s business (if I cussed I could have made that last sentence sound sooooo much cooler).

We had this great plan. Arrive in London at 8:00 a.m. Friday morning, stay up all day (after not sleeping at all on the plane) and then go to bed around 9 or 10 in the evening. We were sure this would work and would guarantee a change of sleep schedule. Instead, we pretty much slept as soon as we got home, stayed up the rest of the day, caught our second wind, and couldn’t get back to sleep until 5:30 a.m. Olyvia, however, was ready to wake up at 6:30 a.m. and then I had to meet somebody at 11:00. So I met them, finished helping a friend move into his new place in our neighbourhood, then came home and passed out on the couch. If everything comes together, I’ll fall asleep around 5:30 again. Awesome!

It’s good to be back in the neighbourhood. It’s kind of weird being here after being gone so long. I’m having flashbacks of when we first moved here. But the neighbourhood has welcomed us with open arms, welcoming us back, shaking our hand as we walk past their shop and, oh yeah, there was that guy I had to chase off because he was peeing on the wall in front of our house. Not kidding. Lol.

I’m a little too jet lagged to go into my feelings about our trip back to the States, but Jamie has some great thoughts on her blog.

In the meantime, it didn’t take us long to grab some dinner at our favourite place in the hood. Genc (pronounced Gench) is a Turkish place in our neighbourhood that is awesome. Everything is cooked on this huge grill and it is amazing! It’s good to be home.

Btw, Olyvia also has a great new pic on her blog! Our friend Debbie took this one, however. I can't take credit.

Saturday, January 07, 2006

just the good ol' boys

So I went to get my haircut today and decided to specifically look for a barber shop rather than a hair salon. I’ve been missing my barber on West Green Road and was hoping for a shave. So I drive to downtown Edmond (probably my first mistake) and found what appeared to be an old barber shop. It was. So I go in and sit down and start looking around this place. It’s got old photos, old newspaper clippings, and cute little sayings carved into wooden plaques. It also has some scripture verses, printed off a computer, laminated, and also hanging on the wall. But what really caught my attention was that, among the five different verses they decided to hang on their wall, were two verses on homosexuality.

???

What’s up with that? Why has anti-homosexuality become the theme of some people’s religion? Jesus never talked about it. The Bible barely talks about it. Yet some people have made it the focus of the church.

What the Bible does talk about, time and time again, throughout all of the prophets and most of it’s other books, and what was one of the main themes of Jesus’ life and ministry, is justice. Justice. But guess what? There were no verses about justice hanging on the walls. No verses reminding Christians that we have a responsibility to help the poor. No verses reminding Christians to love their enemies. Just verses on sin and homosexuality.

Sigh.

visas

Got the good word that our visas have been approved and should arrive shortly. We leave on Thursday afternoon, so hopefully they'll arrive in plenty of time.

In the meantime, check out these two girls I get to live with. Cute aren't they. : )

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

resolved

It seems the popular feeling to hate new year’s resolutions but I, for one, like them. They give me a goal and I need goals in my life. I tend to fly by the seat of my pants a lot, and I have to tell you, the seat of my pants isn’t all that motivated or organized. So I set goals and new years is always a good reminder.

There are lots of goals I could, and probably should, set this year. The following is just a short list:

Lose fifteen pounds.
Cut back to no more than five hours of tv a week.
Eat dinner at the table at least five nights a week.
Read twelve books this year (one a month).
Learn to say to say “yes Mel, I love that music you’re playing me right now”.
Take one Saturday a month to see London and its history.
Finish two (maybe three) Bible study work books.
Get my (freaking) school loans paid off.
And several other professional goals.

All or any of these would be good goals, and I may give several of them a shot (if I don’t lose the fifteen pounds I’m going to have to set a new wardrobe purchasing goal). But I’ve decided on the following as my permanent one year goal.

I want to begin each day asking the question “What do you want to say to me today God?” and end each day asking the question “What did God say to me today?”

I know that’s basic, but sometimes the basics lead to the greatest depth and right now, just making an effort to listen for God’s voice on a daily basis would be life changing.
It appears that I won’t be getting any new pictures posted until I get back to London. Btw, still no visas!

Sunday, January 01, 2006

rick

I had the privilege of spending New Year’s Eve with one of my favorite people on the planet. I have a friend who is an absolute Bible scholar. He’s one of those guys who knows all the weird stuff about the Bible. In fact, he’s one of those guys who has read all of the books that the writers of the Bible refer to (seriously). This guy has been messing me up for years with obscure stories found in the Bible of possible UFO’s, spiritual beings who came to earth, mated with humans, and created a race of giants (a story that was recently discussed in a documentary on the BBC), and other freakish things. So, while the rest of the party gathered around the tv for video trivia pursuit (kill me), I sat with Rick and listened to stories that would mess me up for the next ten years. An evening well spent.

Jamie and I have about a week and a half left here in the States before we travel back home to London (assuming that our Visas are actually approved and arrive in time, please pray about that). It’s been good seeing family and friends, but it’s also been good to confirm that we’re exactly where God wants us and our hearts are definitely on West Green Road. It will be good to get back.