prayers please...

I almost feel selfish asking this as there are so many of you with your own issues and decisions who could stand to have someone pray for you also, but truly I need your prayers today. A bit of news was passed to me about a possible path for my life/ministry. It would invlove a major step of faith for my wife and I but before I even get into anything about that, I just really need your prayers for us to hear God's voice clearly in this. I am sure I could rationalize either decision in a convincing enough way but I definitely want to be in the center of God's will on this. Truly I am in need of God's peace and his divine direction. As it stands, I am tremendously touched and humbled to have even been thought of for this opportunity but I don't want to jump into something just because it's there. This truly could be the way to my ultimate goal but it could also be a costly distraction from it. Please, please pray for me. Oh yeah, by the way, in case you hadn't already realized it, I'm a Christian. I know, I know -- those are fighting words in most parts of the world(or the supreme court--read "peanut gallery"-- for that matter) but it's who I am. Thanks in advance for your prayers.

morning brain spill

It's been a couple of days since I last checked in. Listening to the radio this morning I heard what is perhaps the stupidest marketing line ever devised: "The more you spend, the more you save." I suppose that's a bit of a misnomer - it's quite possibly one of the smartest lines ever created and people fall for it all the time. But it really chaps me. It's a twisted lie. If you're spending - you're not really saving at all! Saving is the opposite of spending. But it is in effect also true in that if there's a discount you do "save" more if you buy more but in actuality, you're still only getting the same percentage off...nevermind. I'm boring myself, and besides, any of you who graduated 4th grade could easily figure out for yourselves what I'm trying to say.

"The more you spend, the more you save." Unfortunately, I think there's a lot of church ministries out there that have adopted this marketing line as their spiritual motto. They have the fanciest buildings and the best special interest programs. They dress in the finest clothes and bring in the best worship "shows" with the mindset that if they can convince the world that being a Christian isn't as bad as they thought, they'll buy into it. Make it attractive! Show them they can live well and have great entertainment, too! (oh yeah, and they get to go to heaven... if they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior) It makes me wonder -- how would it have made my wife feel if when I proposed I had told her she wasn't so bad so we might as well but I was mostly in it for the benefits. I don't think I'd be married today if I had done that. But when I expressed to her that I thought she was the most beautiful woman in all creation and I wanted to spend my life with her because I loved her and couldn't imagine being happy with anyone else in the world and in fact no one in the world could fill that void even close to perfectly, it made her happy to accept my proposal. That's where we need to be! Christ doesn't want us to settle for him -- he wants us to come into a love relationship with him.

What makes cancer treatment attractive? Is it the hours of radiation and chemo? Is it the nausea that follows? Is it the cool new hair style? No, of course not. It's the fact that the treatment could potentially cure your cancer. We should come to Christ the same way recognizing sin and our sin nature as a cancer - incurable without the knowledge of and intimate relationship with Christ Jesus! The word says we are all dead in our transgressions, but God by his great love for us and his mercy, he made us alive in Christ. It is by grace( his unmerited favor) that we are saved(Eph. 2:4-5). Christ is the cure for our cancer of sin.

What happened to the days of investing time in God's Word to learn his promises so that we can have an effective means of presenting his gospel? Investing in missions? Investing in the study of apologetics? When the rich want to save money and grow wealth don't they invest? It's not the same as spending. To invest is to commit something in order to gain a future return. To spend is to pay out, use up, or waste wealth. Seriously - look it up: http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=spend&x=16&y=17

Wow - I really didn't mean to go all the way here. In fact I attend a church that has all the finest things, and great special interest cells, and the greatest worship in the city, and a tv ministry and all that and I see nothing wrong with that, and while that may sound contrary to what I wrote above, it's not. Our pastor does us a great service in making sure that our primary focus remains Salvation, Deliverance, and Healing -- it's the theme of our church. There's nothing wrong with prosperity, but seek first the kingdom of God...and then all these things will be added to you. But you've got to keep it in the right order. Otherwise you end up thinking "the more you spend, the more you save." The truth is "the more you invest, the more you save."


BTW - thanks for stopping by. I was suprised to see there are a few of you who return regularly. Thanks. And drop a line sometime.

Weight Watchers recipe cards, circa 1974

Weight Watchers recipe cards, circa 1974

found this link on ze's blog. I saw it an hour ago and my sides are still sore. Pretty clean. Warning -- this could temporarily affect your appetite -- hey maybe that's how they got to be so successful! Hmmm.....

ze's page

ze's page

nobody should ever be denied the right to laugh so hard they fall out of their chair and roll all over the floor...at work, no less. Anyway, if you have been deprived in such a way, this site is for you. Check out "naughtybird" - you'll need a lint roller if your office is carpeted!

my wife's favorite...and yes it's a pink shirt...and yes I liked it

my personal favorite

same as below - just closer and b&w

I love the way the wind caught the tie in this one.

here goes nothin'...

Well, here it is at last - my first post to my new blog. For those of you who don't know, I'm kinda new to whole blogging arena. Actually that may be abundantly evident already, but I'm just gonna do my own thing; however, I will certainly welcome any pointers from you blog-buffs out there. I figured I would start with the fairly ambitious goal, for me at least, of getting some pictures up on the blog. These are all photos a good friend of mine took about 2 months ago. I still look the same today except my hair is about an inch longer and my face is now sans mustache. Brian Benoit is the photographer and he did a great job. He and his wife have their own salon in Houston - Emmanuel: A Salon - if anyone is interested. I highly recommend them. Anyway, we'll hopefully get those up soon. Better get to workin on that. Later.