Worship

Worship? What is it, what does it mean, how do we worship? Last night at church I feel we finally made a giant step forward. For the first time since I have been there everything went smoothly and people actually were connecting. I am so excited to see where God is taking us. I pray that we allow ourselves to find ways to worsip everyday. Why wait until Sunday or Wednesday to worship? Worship is a lifestyle.

As we walk through this thing we call life we can worship God in so many ways. Do you enjoy photography? That can be an act of worship. As you look through the lens of the camera and find beauty in the subject rather it be a person, nature or scenery realize God made it and thank him for it. Or maybe you are a writer, God has given you the ability to express your thought through pen and paper. He has created us to worship him and we must take the oppurtunities that he has placed in front of us.

Rollin' in the dough!

We bought a bread machine yesterday. For years we have wanted one but fought the urge to be trendy. If I did the math correctly we should save about $.50 a loaf. I am not gonna retire off the savings but why not save a few bucks a year. So I made my first loaf of bread last night and it smelled amazing. Yankee Candle Company hasn't come close on capturing this scent. I have yet to try a peice but the family seemed to enjoy it. I am hoping to find a recipe exchange as I experiment with my new machine.

Good Times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday night we decided to have our guys from church come over. What a blast! We used to do this all the time with our former church but this was the first time we have done this with the new guys. I hope they enjoyed the evening as much as I did. The food was great! (The cook was pretty hot too!) We had a ton of desserts (which believe it or not I resisted the temptation of eating any of them).

We watched a few brave souls make fools of themselves with the karaoke. Never seen a guy sing Material Girl with as much emotion as Adam. We all met a lot of new people and got reaquainted with some old friends. Next time we do this it will have to be bigger and better. I was really hoping to put up some pictures but they really didn't turn out that well. Just means we have to do it again.

I find it hard to work when the family is home!

Being married to a school teacher is not the easiest thing in the world for me. My wife had the day off to celebrate Presidents' Day. I will be the first to say teachers deserve all the days off they get. Between the whiney kids, parents who don't realize their children are brats, and administration who have no clue they earn it. It just sucks when you have to go to work and you were enjoying just laying in bed watching mindless telivision. I never seem to get as much done on days like today!

Connor went with me to work today and we had a lot of fun. I had to do some work at a vet's office and he enjoyed playing with all the animals and snuck a peak at a surgery being performed(he gets that from mom). We then decided to go to a pet store where he exhibited his father's love for animals. He found a dog, cat, hamster, gerbil, fish and rabbit he wanted. He is trying to talk Mom into a hamster for Peyton. We found a princess cage and a wheel designed to look like a carriage. I have a feeling Peyton will he getting this for her birthday if "Babba" earns the cash.

Farmers Market

Today we decided to hit the Farmers Market in Winter Park. In times past we did this because it was the cool place to go. Believe it or not I was able to purchase ostrich here on a prior visit(if you ever get the chance, try it, it is a very lean red meat). Today my purpose in going was to try to find healthier foods as well as to support the little guy. I have recently felt a responsibility to eat healthier as well as a need to be more enviromental. I also enjoy the thought of being able to help support an individual directly and promote independent business. I believe this was the first time my children have ever been. My daughter was more intrigued with all the dogs people were carrying around than the vendors. Connor was interested in all the free samples and obsessed with the thought of putting change on the train track and watching the train smash the quarter to twice its original size. (I should have never told him that story.)


We were able to find a booth selling hydroponic tomatoes that looked fake because they were so perfect. We cannot wait to slice these guys up and put them on some sandwiches and burgers. We got there kind of late so the pickings were kind of slim, but we also were able to aquire some "honeybell" oranges that were the best oranges I have ever had. There was so much to look at. There was even a booth selling catepillars and cocoons.

There were several vendors selling all sorts of foliage. I kept drifting toward the booths that were full of orchids but had good self-restraint and resisted the temptation. Not to mention I had just received an orchid for Valentines Day from my wife and another one the night before from a gas station. I am rather proud of the gas station find. It is huge and was only $10.


I decided to take my camera and didn't get any good pictures of the children but was able to get some interesting snapshots.

Love is in the air!

Well the big day is here. Today is the day Hallmark has chosen for us to celebrate our love for each other. I am excited to spend the time with my beautiful wife and two children. I have been blessed by God to have the "perfect family"! I have a wife who supports me in my ministry efforts. This is no small feat because the longer I am in ministry the more I begin to understand how unsettling this can be. Many days you come home frustrated and defeated but it is nice to come home to a wife that encourages and supports you. I know Paul wrote that it is easier to stay single but without my wife I think I would have said forget it along time ago. So as we celebrate commercialized I love you day I am grateful to have her on any day and honored to celebrate our love today.

I was listening to a podcast today and according to the latest census the nuclear family is now a minority. All though it is just slightly it is a fact that the "model" family is becoming less and less the norm. This may not be a suprise to many but the effcts it has in our churches are more and more evident. First we see community being placed of higher importance in our churches that are experiencing growth. Rather it is our traditional churches or home groups or "emergent churches" community is playing a larger role than it did ten years ago. People want that family feeling and find comfort in community. Secondly we can no longer define our relationship with God the same way we used to. For example when we use the language of God the Father many people have a hard time grasping this concept because they have different ideas of a father. Watch the news for ten minutes and you will hear about fathers who have beat, molested, and abandonned their children. When they hear father those are the images that come to mind for many.

So on a day we celebrate love I encourage you to define love. The world has put its definition on love but what do we say it is. As we celebrate this day let our love not be limited to those in our family, or even our communities. What a difference we could make if we could learn to love everyone we come in contact and even intentionally making contact with people in order to show them love.

I delight in knowing that my traditional family is now considered dysfunctional. We live together with our children and decide and work on having a nurturing, loving, family enviroment. I will take my little house on the prarie family and cherish every moment with them.

Valentines Day

As we get ready to celebrate Valentines day I look around at all the stores gearing up for yet another holiday driven by our greed and lack of creativity. As my children prepared the cards for their classmates I wonder if they even cared about this holiday or is it just another excuse to have a party. I understand that if we just stop celebrating now that alot of us guys would be sleeping on the couch but I am willing to bet the ladies would be happier with a gift that took thought. Our children watch us stress about the perfect gift and learn fom our example to be materialistic.


I wonder if we were to treat our spouses special everyday how much lower would the divorce rate be? I spent time making chocolate covered strawberrys and although they may not have been as fancy as the mall version that cost $3.00 each I bet they are equally as good. This year I am going to try to do something extra special and creative instead of falling into the trap of buying something for the sake of buying it.

A Day In The Park

On Saturday Feb. 9th we went to Blue Springs State Park in Deland. It was a beautiful day out. This was the first time that we as a family had been able to do anything together in awhile. It was a day for us to get away and leave all the hectic parts of life at home. The park was amazing. We went on one of the cooler days of this winter. (I believe it stayed below 75 all day)

As usual I had to spend time trying to find unique picture oppurtunities while everyone else was bored. They were patient and tried to understand my need to see things through a different perspective. I was able to get a few shots that I really liked before Peyton decided she had enough of looking at leaves.

We walked from one end of the park to the other. Peyton has grown up so much. She no longer wants to be carried but wants to walk like the rest of us. This is exciting in some ways but on the 10 minute nature hike it took us an extra 30 minutes. Big brother loves the fact that she imitates him and likes to encourage her to do the same things he is doing. (no matter if they are right or wrong)
We explored an old house built in the late 1800's. Peyton made her self at home on the front porch. She loves rocking chairs. We monopolized the front porch and sat there enjoying the cool breeze and the view of the St. John's River.


Connor finds the whole world to be a playground. These are the things we have to look forward to him teaching his little sister .


It was a great day. I think we all needed a day to get away and relax from the fast paced world we get wrapped up in. We hope to have these getaways on a monthly basis. Oh yeah, Blue Springs is known for the manatees that migrate there in the winter, we saw a few but the highlight of our day was the time we spent together.

Thank God not all Christian men have been neutered!

I have recently read various books and articles about how Christian men have lost their boldness and observed this phenom in local churches. We have down played a major aspect of the male psychi and asked them to be almost neutral in actions and language. The results are that men have lost their passion in life. We hear wives complain about how their husbands no longer have the same passion toward their marriage. Men are no longer the head of the house because they have been told to be passive. They have become so politically correct that they are no good. They are afraid to stand up for their beliefs because they "must turn the other cheek".

I want to first discuss the teaching of turning the other cheek. I do not see Christ as being politically correct or as being passive. Pacifist maybe but passive NOT! Let me suggest (and this is me suggesting this I am not saying this is God's view) that maybe, just maybe, we have missed a little in the turn the other cheek verse. Let's look at this through a literal slap in the face. When you turn the other cheek you are making the other party look at you directly in the eye . This takes the interpretation from a completely passive view to a bold, stand up for myself and willing to pay the price, move. Yet you are still not stooping to their level of foolishness. How much different would it be if we Christian men could embrace this idea?

I have seen good Godly men tuck their tail between their legs in order to avoid confrontation. They say they don't want to compromise their convictions but where has their conviction went to stand up for what is right, and noble?

In view of recent events in my life I am glad to say there are still Christian men that are intact. As men we need to embrace the boldness we are born with and encourage and support our brothers. Thank you for the bold men that have been examples to me and my son and may God bless your integrity wherever it takes you.

Church Conflict?

I am sitting in a class on church conflict thinking about how unneccesary this class should be. I might be naive but if we as the church allow God to have his place in church we will stop getting in the way and starting conflict. I knew when I was called into ministry it would be a challenge but my eyes have been opened to whole new set of realities.
We have begun to go down the road of the pharisees and sadducees and added our opinion, our garbage that we feel is important. We have set up rules of order in our churches based on what we like that never take into consideration what the Bible says. I guess why bring the Bible into it if we can handle it. Somehow we have allowed our opinions to become the primary focus of church.
I recently attended a conference, Sustainable Faith, that really seemed to put things in a refreshing perspective. My impression was that they believe if it is not in the Bible it really isn't an issue. It appeared as an almost lets get to the root of things and get to what matters to God. We have (in the church) fought more about carpet colors, music style, and buildings then which social injustice we are going to collectively try to help. In one of the breakouts the point was brought up that the church is notorious for taking more resources than it is giving back. I really realized how the scales have been tilted.
I am at a point where I have begun to question things that I was taught were scriptural (i.e. death penalty, politics). This has been a great struggle for me. I have been firm in these beliefs and even defensive of them. I have been really researching the Biblical view on these and I am not here to persuade or even discuss them at this point but will say the conference was one of a couple of reaffirming moments in my quest for a Biblical view.

Jesus is found in the most unusual places

On Sunday the 28th of January I went with a group of ten to hand out blankets on the streets of Orlando. We had no real game plan other than we wanted to love others like Christ loves us.

Before embarking on this mission we ran into all the stereotypical warnings. I want to address one of these warnings before I go any farther. I was told to cut the tags off the blankets so they couldn't be returned to buy "less than desirable items". These words have been ringing in my ears like a lowrider with a cheap stereo. Who in the heck am I to judge what they do with these blankets? Has God not blessed me in countless ways and yet I continue to waste and misuse his blessings? We are so quick to judge those we find fault with but walk around with a telephone pole in our eyes. Then we ask "why does the world judge us so harshly".

Now comes the point of my story. We meet all kinds of people. Young & old. All different colors. But what we did not meet were any that were rude. None that were ungrateful. They didn't judge us. We ran out of oranges way too early but they didn't get upset with us. (Unlike the line at church when we run out of coffee.) They were just thankful! I want to tell you the story about one young man. He appeared to be in his late twenties and carried a black backpack. I approached him with a blanket and a couple of oranges in my hand. I greeted him and offered him a blanket. He refused my blanket. He didn't want a larger one or a different color. He already had one. I tried to insist he take it but I had no luck. He explained he had a blanket in his bag and he would rather me be able to give it to someone who didn't have one. I was speechless. This man who could fit all of his belongings into a backpack refused my brand new blanket in order to make sure someone else could stay warm.How different is this from the world I live in. I have seen adults get in physical fights for the latest fad at Christmas time. I see people competing to get more stuff. You place free books on a table and grown men will gather as much as they can carry rather they will use them or not. Seen people wrestle each other to the ground over a free t-shirt. All of these people claim to be Christians. Yet a man with all of his belongings in a backpack gives up a blanket to ensure someone else will get one?We read in the Bible how if we have two shirts and see someone without we give them one of ours but I saw it. We read the Beattitudes and don't quite connect with them. When I say I found Jesus in an unusual place this is what I was referring to. We go to church and put on our shirt and tie looking for Jesus but we walk by Him every other day. I saw Luke 3:11 lived out in front of me. We see in Dueteronomy 15 we have a responsibility to help those in need. We pray for them and donate thru corporations to them but we are afraid to be with them. It's as if poverty is a deadly virus we might get if we come in contact with them. The only thing we are gonna catch is a glimpse of the kingdom of God.
My hopes are to do this again in the near future and allow this to become a part of my life. This is not some sort of experience to allow myself to feel better. This is a result growing in my relationship and understanding of Christ. Let me be known for the deeds I do not the labels we wear.

God is Love!