CRASH!

Hey y'all. I will be moving off this blog soon. We are re-doing our website and will use that to have a blog. Not as personal, but cheaper...: )
I will leave a url soon to where.
thx!!
Merry Christmas
steve

Wrong Questions for the Church

How about we change some of the questions we are always asking around the church?  I'm not saying we stop asking the following questions, but maybe we make an effort to stop allowing them to be the first questions asked...here are some of my thoughts

Instead of asking about seating capacity....ask about serving capacity

Instead of asking about money given....ask about money deployed

Instead of asking how many people came....ask what type of people left

Instead of asking how many conversions....ask how many disciples

Instead of asking how many people heard....ask how many people obeyed

Just a thought....

April Kid's Town Video on Friendship

Finally updated

Finally updated some of my recent readings and also stuff i'm listening to.  Sorry for the delay here, i'm a slacker!

Does God Withdraw?

I was asked yesterday by a friend about the daily walk with God.  His question to me was is it a normal experience for God to withdraw from His children?  We are so close to God in times of desperation and often in times of great provision there is a joy and sense of His presence that is so comforting and reassuring.  Why is it that so much of the Christian walk is not like this?  Why must there be times of silence and feelings of being alone?  Below is a quote from C.S. Lewis from his book, The Screwtape Letters.  The book is a fictional novel about a Sr demon giving instructions to a Jr. demon on the art of tempting and tripping up Christians.  There is tremendous insight in this book and the quote below answers this confusing area of walking with Christ in a masterful way.  Read and i hope you are comforted and grown from it

"You must have often wondered why the enemy (God) does not make more use of his power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree he chooses and at any moment.  But you now see that the irresistible and the indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of his scheme forbids him to use.  Merely to over-ride a human will (as his felt presence in any but the faintest and most  mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for him  useless.  He cannot ravish.  He can only woo.  For his ignoble idea is to eat the cake have it; the creatures are to be one with him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or to assimilate them, will not serve...Sooner or later he withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all supports and incentives.  He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs--to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish....He cannot "tempt" to virtue as we do to vice.  He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away his hand...Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of him seems to have vanished and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."  (emphasis mine)

Kid's Town March Video--Honesty

More Pics from Israel

Here are a few more pics from our trip to Israel.  It was such a blessing.  The trip went so well....nothing broke down, everyone got along and the weather was great!!

Communion at the garden tomb, Dana and I standing at entrance to garden tomb, and inside the tomb...guess what?  It is still empty!!  (pics by Kerry Spidell)

What's my Hurry?

What is my hurry?

    i love breakfast but usually skip it becauseI like to get on in to work, or I buy something bad for me on the way to office because it is quick...

    I like sandwiches w/o crust, but I rarely take the time to cut the crust off...

    I enjoy journaling, but often slip into email stuff b4 I journal...

    I usually leave concerts/ballgames early to beat the traffic out...

    I never stay an extra day on vacation and instead usually leave early...

    I consistently drive 5-10 miles over the speed limit...

    I rush to next task on list w/o any (or not much) celebration or thankfulness of what God has done and what was accomplished...

What is my Hurry??  Why all the rush??

Isn't life flying by fast enough?

Ceaserea Philippi

Herod's building genius shows up all over Israel today but possibly nowhere as much as on the coast of Israel at Ceaserea. Here is a short video from our time there this past week. Enjoy!

Ceaserea Philippi

Herod's building genius shows up all over Israel today but possibly nowhere as much as on the coast of Israel at Ceaserea. Here is a short video from our time there this past week. Enjoy!