Proud

I'm proud of The Master's College for its work in the community of Santa Clarita. Why? Here's one very tangible reason.

I Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

Take it away Mr. Durso! This is what we are consistently not raising our sons to do.

Good Day

I wanted to share a praise, but I need to get back to work so it will be short (for me). The Lord has brought some very encouraging people into my life lately and I'm seeing answers to prayer every day. That alone is a praise, but there's more! Today is payroll day and my boss came to work barely functioning. He asked me to check the report he usually checks, which is usually when I take my lunch break. I'm about halfway through (I have been eating lunch at the same time), but my attitude is better than it has been in a long time. I thing it's mainly because of the prayers of faithful friends, but I'm sure getting enough sleep for several days on end REALLY helps. Also, I'm feeling physically better today than I have for a while, which just makes the whole world seem brighter. So, praise the Lord with me for His work through friends, prayers, sleep, and gospel-centered music that I can listen to at work :-)

Skipping

I'm a reader. I love reading. I like to think that someone could call me a voracious reader or a committed reader or a diligent reader. I read history, I read theology, I read methodology, I read fantasy, I read modern fiction, I read classic fiction, I read . . .

I (almost) always read the prologue, the introduction, the preface, the acknowledgements, the conclusion, the epilogue, the footnotes, the endnotes (even though I ABHOR endnotes!), the "about the author" page, as well as the front cover and back cover and dust jacket.

Now, you may think that this is a very self-serving post so far. Well, maybe it has been. But here's why I bring this up and why I entitled this post "Skipping." When I'm reading a Christian book (theology, Christian living, textbook, commentary, etc.) I all to often find myself reading everything but the quoted Scripture in the book! I've been challenged on this omission several times by Gunner Gundersen, the Associate Dean of Men at The Master's College, and yet I still do it quite consistently.

Even now, as I'm reading Right Thinking in a World Gone Wrong, I keep having to remind myself to SLOW DOWN and go back to read the Bible passage that was quoted. I think I do this because I grew up in the church, God saved me at a young age and I'm now in my 19th year of Christian education. It's like I've inoculated myself against feeling the need to read the Bible verse(s) not because I don't know the passage - I probably am familiar with it - but because I somehow think that I've exhausted all the truth and meaning from the passage long ago.

This is the very thing that I'm concerned about for the youth under my care at Village Bible Church. I continually tell them not to rely on the third grade flannelgraph (most of them don't have any idea of what I'm talking about! I blame this development squarely on VeggieTales.) stories they learned so long ago as if they heard the story and have the content and the applications/implications for their lives stored away forever! May I see this blindness in myself and fight against it with heart, soul, mind and strength!

What about you? Do you find yourself doing this? Do you even read? Do you read theology and Christian living and Christian (auto)biograhies to strengthen and encourage your walk with Christ? Are there other reasons that I/we skip over the Bible passages in the books we read? Let me know in the comments to help think further about this issue.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. - Hebrews 4:12

Great Ministries

Here are two fantastic ministries that I've learned much more about in recent days:

Gospel For Asia

International Justice Mission

At Village Bible Church, we are in the process of planning for two big events in the coming months. One is the Program Formerly Known As 30 Hour Famine. I would give you our new title, but I haven't announced it to the church yet, so you'll have to wait on that. Traditionally, the college/career group creates, coordinates, communicates and essentially runs this event. We try to raise awareness of world poverty, AIDS, disease, death and other concerns to our junior high, high school and college aged young people. We also endeavor to raise money to help provide for those with little or nothing of their own. Last year, in conjunction with World Vision, we raised more than $6,000! I'm really looking forward to the event this year. Lord willing, it will all go down March 12 & 13.

The other big event is a mission trip to Tijuana, Mexico. We are going with Caravan Ministries, a ministry that mainly builds houses for the poorest of the poor in one of the poorest sections of Mexico's fastest growing city. This trip will be a different trip than our youth have ever done, so I'm praying that God would prosper the work we will do in Tijuana and broaden the scope of our vision for global missions.

Down from the Mountain

Amy and I spent this past weekend with our church college/career group at a cabin in Big Bear Lake. Most of us went up Friday afternoon and the majority of the group came back yesterday afternoon. Amy and I came back Sunday evening.

It was a good time of fellowship, devotion, movie-watching, game-playing, laughter, some sleep, good walks in the cold and snow, lots of food and getting to know people.

God was gracious in allowing all our vehicles to get down safely and He gave us some good discussion times as well as a great opportunity to attend First Baptist Church of Big Bear. We heard an excellent sermon on the breastplate of righteousness, sung God's praises with his people and even saw one of Amy's college friends!

I love my job!

2009 Reading

For those interested, here's my reading list from 2009. I just missed 50 books for the third year in a row. When at first you don't succeed . . . up the ante! My goal for 2010 is 60 books. Excuse me, but I have some reading to do.

1. Atheism Remix by Albert Mohler

2. Darth Bane: Rule of Two by Drew Karpyshyn

3. A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards

4. Desire and Deceit by Albert Mohler

5. Extreme Measures by Vince Flynn

6. Christian Psychology’s War on God’s Word by Jim Owen

7. A Little Exercise for Young Theologians by Helmut Thielicke

8. A Skeleton in God’s Closet by Paul Maier

9. Research Strategies by William B. Badke

10. Three Views on the Millennium and Beyond ed. By Darrell Bock

11. Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders

12. Unfinished Business by Greg Odgen

13. Spectacular Sins by John Piper

14 The Church in God’s Program by Robert Saucy

15. The Brethren by John Grisham

16. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

17. Christian Beliefs by Wayne Grudem

18. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

19. What is a Healthy Church? by Mark Dever

20. A Tale of Two Sons by John MacArthur

21. Safe in the Arms of God by John MacArthur

22. 1812: The War that Forged a Nation by Walter R. Borneman

23. How to Thrive in Associate Staff Ministry by Kevin Lawson

24. Moving On Moving Forward by Michael Anthony and Mick Boersma

25. Finally Alive by John Piper

26. The Street Lawyer by John Grisham

27. The Transforming Community by Mark Lauterbach

28. Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

29. Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul

30. Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin

31. Believer’s Baptism ed. by Thomas R. Schreiner and Shawn D. Wright

32. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson

33. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

34. The Shack by William P. Young

35. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

36. Get Outta My Face! by Rick Horne

37. The Truth War by John MacArthur

38. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

39. Show Them No Mercy ed. by Stanley N. Gundry

40. Crazy Love by Francis Chan

41. Knowing God by J.I. Packer

42. Desiring God by John Piper

43. Moral Choices by Scott Rae

44. The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence

45. What is a Healthy Church Member? by Thabiti Anyabwile

46. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

47. The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World by John Piper and Justin Taylor

Non-Fiction - 34

Fiction - 13

Post MORE??

After Happy's inspiring posts, I thought maybe I should make a resolution to post more on our blog... But then I realized that you have to actually post with some regularity before the resolution to "post more" would apply.

There is a real reason why posting doesn't happen much from my end. The main reason is based on the fact that life for me is just about exactly the same from week to week. I suppose I could share stories about the crazy lady I work with who constantly paces around my cubicle, causing my entire desk to shake and my computer to rock in such a way that I frequently think it's an earthquake... but who really wants to hear about that?

Today was bagel Friday (like every Friday) and (like every Friday) I toasted a sesame seed bagel and put margarine on it. Normally by this time on Fridays I am sitting at the front desk answering phones from 12:30-5PM. It's really exciting. Today my routine was changed by the mail arriving late, causing the "normal" receptionist to stay a little later in order to sort. I am currently waiting for her to call me so I can go down to my duty.

After work today I'm driving up to meet my mother-in-law for the rest of the drive up to Santa Maria because Mike (Happy's cousin) is getting married tomorrow! Okay, that's more exciting than my work schedule. The best part is my mother-in-law is joining me on the ride so it won't be 3-4 hours of me driving alone in traffic. She's pretty great :-) (I promise I'm not trying to suck up, I really think she's great). Perhaps when we return there will be pictures from the wedding...

Okay, I'm sure I'll be called any minute to leave my post (HA, in two ways) so I'll end here with that excellent pun. Happy weekend!

Resolutions

Tonight at Reality Check, we talked about the dangers and benefits of making resolutions. We also discussed how to make a wise resolution. Here's five of mine in abbreviated form.

1. Get down to 165 pounds.
2. Blog twice a week.
3. Read sixty books.
4. Read Proverbs every day.
5. Study through Psalms with Spurgeon.
6. Pray with and for Amy more.

New Goals For A New Year

What's this, a blog siting? An update? Say it ain't so!

Yes, folks, it's a new year and time for a new commitment to this blog. Amy and I felt like the last four months of 2009 went so fast, partially because they were so full. That's part of the reason that blog updates just haven't happened. However, I'm determined to be a much better blogger in 2010. I know that I've said that before, but this year I want this blog to be a place where I discipline myself by forcing myself to write out thoughts, link to important/significant/funny websites, keep family and friends updated on life, and post pictures.

So for today, go here to view six new photo albums from the fall and winter of 2009. There's lots of great church/family/friends/vacation pictures.

Before I sign off I wanted to say that this year my goal is to post at least twice a week on this blog, so be sure to check back MUCH more frequently than normal.