If you are familiar with Star Trek beyond the original series, you might get a smile from this:
This is from the Galkin team. The Galkins, as well as the former youth pastor from our church and a few other families, are planning to move to Salt Lake City later this year to plant a Baptist Church there. The young man who first starts singing here was in our older two sons’ youth group in SC. It’s exciting to see how the Lord is opening the way for them!
Carrie reviews Why Isn’t a Pretty Girl Like You Married? in two parts: Part I and Part II. I haven’t read the book but I like the thoughts Carrie shares.
A few weeks ago I asked you to consider voting here for our assistant pastor in a contest to win a handicap accessible van. I think the contest runs for another week or so. This would be a big help to them as their current one needs to be replaced soon. His story is here:
You might pray for his family as you feel led: his wife has suffered two tears in the membrane covering her spinal cord, resulting in fluid leakage and severe head and back pain. She had a procedure done last night that will hopefully fix it. Her own health and well-being is a major concern, but she’s also the mother of two young children and Bobby’s caregiver, and she has been in pain and out of commission for 10 days now.
And lastly, I thought this sounded like a good idea. 🙂
Hope you have a good weekend. I’m running behind, so I am off to get things done.
From a Father’s Heart. Quote: “But even the best intervention will not insure a life without pain for any of our children. So, we fathers do well, not only to protect, but to prepare our sons and daughters to meet the inevitable heartbreak that weave their way into the tapestry of the lives of our offspring.”
Don’t Mistake Doing What You Love With Doing What’s Important. Quote: “Someone has to lift up the value and significance of showing up every day, being responsible, doing your job and taking care of business. There’s something strong, solid, and respectable about it.”
The Illness Idol, HT to Chris Anderson. Quote: “Illness is an idol that can engulf all my waking time and attention. It can breed self-absorption and suck up all of my limited strength, attention and energies…. It suffocates and would choke-out my interest and desire to serve God with my limited strength.” He offers a prayer in response.
You Make Me Feel So Guilty! Good thoughts on true guilt, false guilt, the error of comparing ourselves, and what to do about each.
First of all I’d like to ask you to consider voting for my assistant pastor to be able to receive a handicap-accessible van with hand controls. The one he has is getting old and the hand controls on it are past their recommended length of usage He was severely injured in a car accident in college. His story is here:
Voting is here. From what I understand you can vote once a day from different ISP addresses or phones, but have to wait 24 hours to vote again from any of those sources. Use promo code 970 the first time to gain 5 vote. The code won’t work except one time, but you can still vote without it once a day after that initial use. If you feel so led, it will be greatly appreciated!
Here are a few things that especially spoke to me this week, a couple of them dealing with Easter:
Resurrection Hope. “Before the resurrection, there is a cross. Dark. Death. Hopeless. Before the rainbow, there is a storm. Howling. Desolate. Destructive.”
Sunday Means Someday Disability Will Be No More. The father of an autistic boy ponders the picture of the resurrection in the healing of a demon-possessed boy in Mark 9. “Sunday means someday a resurrected Jesus will take my son by the hand…and he will rise!”
Praying Past Our Preferred Outcomes. “To go deeper than praying only for deliverance means that we approach prayer not as a tool to manipulate God to get what we want, but as a way to submit to what he wants.”
Application to Be a Boy Mom. “Must have strong stomach. Rough-housing will be sometimes required of applicant.”
Combat! Dealing with a boy’s desire to fight and conquer, ways to channel that in good directions.
I hope you have a good weekend and a blessed Easter remembering all that Christ accomplished for you in His death and resurrection.
I Got Nuthin, HT to Robin Lee Hatcher. Powerful. Quote: “If you don’t come to me empty, Jesus says to me, all you’ll have to offer is the self you are so full of.”
On Controversy, HT to Challies, John Newton’s advice to one planning to criticize someone else for a lack of orthodoxy. So needed in these days where Christians appoint themselves prosecutor, judge and jury online. The Bible teaches and demonstrates that we do need to stand for truth, but many people forget the spirit in which it says to do so. (BTW, though the article mentions a Calvinistic viewpoint, I am not a Calvinist.)
Some controversy has come up recently over Pinterest and copyrights. For those unfamiliar with Pinterest, it’s sort of like a bunch of friends looking at magazines and pointing out to each other the things they really like in it, only it’s online. “You “pin” a photo from the site which links back to the original site, and others can “like” it or repin it. Evidently Pinterest’s fine print says if someone sues for using their photo, they sue you, the user, and not Pinterest. That and other concerns led to the approach in this post: Why I Tearfully Deleted My Pinterest Inspirational Boards. But another approach is here, and I am more inclined that way. She makes the point that sites with a “Pin It” button at the bottom of their posts are okay with pinning, and she has other tips as well. I hope some of these issues can be clarified in the future, because I really do enjoy the site, especially the crafts and home decor boards.
This is about 36 minutes long but well worth the time:
Hope you have a good weekend! I’m so glad for sunshine after last night’s storms. Thankfully we didn’t have hail, power outages, or damage in our immediate area.
Here are a few things that especially caught my eye this past week:
Treasure In, Treasure Out, HT to Challies. I don’t know anything about R. C. Sproul’s teaching, so don’t take this as an endorsement thereof, but I’ve seen the name and knew his wife recently passed away. The broader theme of this piece is how what we take in affects how we think, and though that is important, I was especially touched at how his wife’s efforts to beautify her home ministered to him even after she was gone.
This is the time of year some segments of the church as well as some individuals observe Lent. There are some good thoughts on both sides of the issue at On Being a Lentendud and Why Would We Observe Lent? I think the bottom line with this or any other spiritual exercise is to do whatever you do as unto the Lord, thoughtfully and seriously rather than just going through the motions outwardly because it is a certain time of year.
Dating Tebow. Though I cringe at the thought of calling an outing with a 10 year old girl a date, I thought this was a sweet story. Plus it is a good example of ignoring criticism while quietly going about doing good.
If you have a Blogger blog with the new word verification system , please read this, HT to Brenda. Though they seem to have removed the little blobs behind the letters that were making it even harder to read, it is still even more difficult to leave comments. I tried 8 times to leave a comment on one friend’s blog yesterday before giving up and sending her an e-mail.
Stray Thoughts 