2007 Reading

I have failed. A year after first accomplishing my goal to read at least 50 books a year, 2007 was a failure, as was 2005. Ah well, 2008's off to a great start! Look through the list and tell me what you think!

1. The Testament by John Grisham
2. The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun with Paul Hattaway
3. Tempest by Troy Denning
4. Pursuing Holiness in the Lord by Jonathan Edwards
5. What Jesus Demands From the World by John Piper
6. Love That Lasts by Gary and Betsy Ricucci
7. The Pelican Brief by John Grisham
8. His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis
9. Whale Done: The Power of Positive Relationships by Ken Blanchard
10. Surprised by Joy by C. S. Lewis
11. The Last Christian Generation by Josh McDowell
12. Vienna Prelude by Bodie Thoene
13. Exile by Aaron Allston
14. Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel by Eugene Merrill
15. The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels by Thomas Cahill
16. Dawn by Elie Wiesel
17. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
18. Going Places with God: A Devotional Journey Through the Lands of the Bible by Wayne Stiles
19. Aces: The Last Season on the Mound with the Oakland A’s Big Three by Mychal Urban
20. Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World by Justing Marozzi
21. Humility by Andrew Murray
22. Prague Counterpoint by Bodie Thoene
23. The Summons by John Grisham
24. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
25. God’s Passion For His Glory by John Piper
26. The Legacy Of Sovereign Joy by John Piper
27. Moneyball by Michael Lewis
28. A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan by Michael Kazin
29. Allegiance by Timothy Zahn
30. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
31. The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis
32. Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage in the Bible by Jay Adams
33. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
34. Preaching the Cross by Mark Dever, et al.
35. Munich Signature by Bodie Thoene
36. Searching For God Knows What by Don Miller
37. The Giver by Lois Lowry
38. Let The Nations Be Glad! By John Piper
39. Sacrifice by Karen Traviss
40. Inferno by Troy Denning
41. The Assassins by Bernard Lewis
42. Suffering and the Sovereignty of God ed. John Piper and Justin Taylor
43. Trusting God by Jerry Bridges
44. A Murder of Quality by John Le Carre
45. Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God by C.J. Mahaney
46. The Parables by Gary Inrig
47. Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck

Non-Fiction - 29
Fiction - 18

Muslims and Christians

I wish I had more time to comment on this, but John Piper has a good nine-minute video on the recent developments involving a paper written to American Christians by "138 Muslim scholars, clerics and intellectuals," entitled "A Common Word Between Us and You." It is also discusses the reply from American Christian theologians, scholars and pastors entitled "Loving God and Neighbor Together: A Christian Response to A Common Word Between Us and You."

Dr. Mohler also talked about this on his radio program on December 12, 2007. You can listen to his response here.

The main point is, do Muslims and Christians (we could extend this to Jews if it applied to this specific occasion) believe in the same God? The answer must be an emphatic NO, as you will see in the video. Christians must be careful, however, not be unloving in how this answer is phrased, and I think Dr. Piper does a good job of expressing this.

My Little Brother

This is the current background of my computer at work:


I've gotten several comments from people in the office ranging from "Who is THAT?!?" to "Aww.... he's so cute!" Frankly, every time I look at this picture I think how alike we are. And I miss my little brother!

Mom, make sure Dan sees that he's famous on his big sister's blog :-D

Christmas Pictures!

I'm still alive--I promise! I know I haven't posted on the blog in well.... a long time.... Perhaps I've just been too busy with all that's going on, but the main reason.......... I forgot about our blog!!!!

Now that I've been graciously asked by my wonderful husband to post pictures on our blog, I thought it would be a good time to post more than just pictures. Yes, this will actually be an UPDATE by AMY.

Since..... my last post...... we've been getting more involved with church and loving it very much. We've had opportunities to get to know many of the students better and are beginning to build friendships with them that I pray the Lord will use for His glory. It's so exciting to use the gifts He's given us and see Him work!

Speaking of work, things at my job have been getting more and more busy. I've gotten many more responsibilities and have very little free time. I'm now entering about 80% of the invoices we receive and helping sort the invoices by vendor each month. I've been getting more "odd" jobs from many of the project managers as well, and am thoroughly enjoying being more of an asset to the company. My hours also changed so I now work 7am-3pm with a 15 minute lunch break. Wednesdays I work overtime for payroll, and have begun entering time cards (we have over 250 to enter each week). It also sounds as though there are some changes on the horizon, but we'll see how that goes.



For Christmas we were able to fly back to the East coast to visit my family. It was such a blessing to spend a more extended period of time with my family and enjoy the cold weather as well! Of course a lot more can be said about that--in particular about our flights there and back--but I think I'll save that for another post. However, I am supposed to post pictures, so here they are.

Happy New Year

To open a new year (the third year of this blog), I wanted to post a link to a Christian review of my third favorite movie trilogy (behind the two Star Wars trilogies, of course!) The Bourne Trilogy, consisting of The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum. The review is by Pastor James Harleman of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. Here's a taste:

It seems very curious that water plays a pivotal part of Bourne’s life, at every moment of transition. We find Bourne is:

• Baptized into his life as a killer…
• Baptized after a crisis of conscience and awakening
• Baptized from life with Marie to become an instrument of vengeance.
• Baptized again, after having his past sins revealed.

Hopefully more news and pictures will appear on the blog shortly!

HAPPY OLD YEAR!

It's the end of 2007, and we're about 3,000 miles away from the party at Steven and Emily's where we thought we were going to be.

That's right, we're still in New England. This morning, Amy and I and her mom and John woke up at 3:30am to drive to Albany, New York to board our flight to Orange County. However, it had started snowing the night before and the snow had piled up. What's worse, many of the roads hadn't been plowed, so we 4x4'ed at about 30 mph until we got the Mass Pike where we still couldn't go full speed.

We arrived at the airport much later than we wanted to and Continental didn't have tickets for us! Our original flight to the OC had been canceled and I had rescheduled everything on the phone Sunday. So we were floating around in their network, but had no tickets! Next, we went on over to Delta and tried to figure out what to do. They offered us a trip home today, but it would have gone from Albany to Charlotte to Atlanta to Minneapolis to Orange County. In fact, as I write this (8:00pm ET), we'd still be in the air on the way to the OC.

Needless to say, we declined that option and decided to stay an extra day and fly from Albany to JFK to Orange County on New Year's Day.

Tonight for dinner we ate lobster, clams and shrimp. It was glorious! Bottomfeeders, dad!

Have a wonderful New Year's; I doubt we'll up for it since we have to wake up around the same time tomorrow morning.

Goodbye 2007.

Is Huckabee a fiscal liberal?

Don't believe everything you read, especially if it's the only thing you've read. Since this is the first presidential election that I've been fully plugged in for, I've been trying to pay attention to the media frenzy.

However, just when I think I wrapped my mind around the basics of understanding the candidates, I read some scathing articles that attack the guy I was pretty sure was "my guy."

So, if you've heard the news about Huckabee having a fiscally liberal bent ("Huckabee's Republicanism is even less orthodox than McCain's and seems unviable beyond Iowa,") then read this post to be even more confused!

Complaints for Christmas

Yes, you read that right. All I've got for Christmas is complaining. However, in this case, I think the complaining is warranted. This is only the second post in December 2007.

We're in Great Barrington, Massachusetts right now for Christmas. In fact, it's 8:21am as I type this. The first clock I saw this morning said 6:13am. Amy's little brother Dan woke everyone up to come downstairs to the tree to open stockings and presents. Yes, it was too early. We got many presents and enjoyed watching everyone open theirs.

Oh, and it was my first white Christmas! It hasn't snowed in three days, but the snow hasn't all melted yet. It's beautifully cold outside and we have five more full days to spend in Great Barrington. One day we'll spend partially in Connecticut at Amy's grandpa's house (we call him Pop-pop). We're hoping to maybe spend some time in Boston, since that didn't work out while we were with Amy's dad in southern New Hampshire.

Right now, Amy and Lisa are asleep on the couch; Mike and Raphaelle are asleep upstairs. Dan is trying to download ITunes and figure out his new IPod nano. John is asleep and I have no idea where Amy's mom is. That's all for now, and I will post again before we leave for home.

The Golden Compass, Killing God and Huckabee

Unfortunately, there have been many "scare" e-mails about The Golden Compass being floated among Christian circles. I believe I've received two of them so far. Basically, they are screaming about the horrible message of the movie, the book it's based on, and most especially the author. I've learned more about this movie in recent days and also about Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials, and I agree that the message is a terrible message that completely contrasts with my Christian worldview. However, I don't want to descend to the level of a boycott. Almost all boycotts seem to draw the wrong conclusions with how to deal with something that you disagree with. I would guess that most people who join a public boycott do so on hearsay and perhaps some false or distorted information.

I think it is the duty of a Christian to engage the culture and not shrink away in disgust, as if say that the culture is sinful and disgusting while ignoring my own sin. So, because I have not (yet) read Pullman's trilogy or seen the movie - which comes out in theaters nationwide on Friday - I want to give what I believe is a fair and knowledgeable review of the movie, the books and the man. Dr. Mohler has read the trilogy twice through and saw the movie at a special pre-screening recently. Here's his take.

Also, take a look at the hot-off-the-press Daily Presidential Tracking Poll from Rasmussen Reports. In a crazy development, Huckabee has surged in the last week, displacing Giuliani on top of the polls.

Quick Hits

I'm pretty sure I stole that title from a sports section or website. Unoriginal, I know, but it felt exactly like the title I needed.

Wednesday, Mike Huckabee passed Mitt Romney in the polls in Iowa. This is huge. Several months ago, Huckabee was in the neighborhood of one to two percent.

Yes, we did go to Santa Clarita for Thanksgiving, and yes, it was wonderful. Short version: Lots of traffic on the way there, basketball, great football game, amazing Thanksgiving dinner, lots of good time with family, watched good football, went on walks with Dad, laughed a lot and enjoyed the fastest drive time we've ever had from Santa Clarita to the OC.

Our senior pastor at Village Bible Church has announced his resignation and move to Tacoma, Washington, to direct the Doctor of Ministry program at Northwest Baptist Seminary. We are excited from him and for his wife Karen as they make a big transition in their lives. Their last Sunday will be January 27. Please pray for Village's unity and for wisdom for the elders as they decide on candidates for the senior pastor position.

Junior High basketball season started on Monday. I had 14 guys come out to the first practice and one quit on Wednesday. We have only four eighth graders and only two of them played for me last year. I'm really excited about this team and I hope I can inject some excitement into them.

Amy's going up to Ruth's new home in Fresno this weekend with Heather and Abigail. She's coming back by train Saturday night.

Well, I think that's it for now. Here comes December (and hopefully more consistent posting).