Jesusgreek

The following is a story from my mom written by yours truly since she doesn't blog.... My mom went to the new Target store in Kernersville yesterday before heading home. While she was shopping, she walked past the toy department and a kids toy phone caught her eye. She stopped to take a quick look since all the grandkids love to play with phones. When she pressed one of the buttons to see what it would say / do, she was shocked to hear what came out of this kiddie phone. "Hello queer!" That's what mom thought it said but there was no way a kids phone would say something like that. So she tried it again. "Hello queer!" Still in shock, mom sought a second opinion. She asked a sales associate walking by what they thought it said. "Hello queer!" Now the sales associate was in shock. Mom told him that she didn't think toys like that needed to be sold in the kids section and he agreed. He immediately got on his radio and told his supervisor that ther...

I found "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer to be one of the most gripping, emotional, unforgettable reads of my life. Into Thin Air tells a fascinating story of hardship, tragedy, heroism and a lack of respect for nature. The amazing part of this story is the author was there, suffering through the storm and watching his fellow climbers die around him. Krakauer was actually on the summit of Everest in May 1996 when tragedy struck. The basis of the book is Krakauer was sent to Everest by Outside magazine to join New Zealand guide Ron Hall's expedition in the spring of 1996. He was there to write an article about how anyone who is reasonably in shape, has some (and not a lot) of climbing experience, and who can fork over more than $60,000 could be taken to the summit of Everest while Sherpas and yaks carried most of your supplies, cooked your meals, and carried you when you collapsed. One climber even brought an espresso machine. He also wanted to comment on how Everest has...

Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven: David Crowder Everybody wants to go to heaven But nobody wants to die Lord, I want to go to heaven But I don’t want to die Though I long for the day when I have new birth Still I love livin’ here on earth Everybody wants to go to heaven But nobody wants to die Once upon a time There lived a man And his name was Hezekiah He walked with God both day and night But he didn’t want to die He cried, “O Lord, please let me live Death is close, I know.” Lord smiled down on Hezekiah Gave him 15 years to go Everybody wants to go to heaven But nobody wants to die Lord, I want to go to heaven But I don’t want to die Though I long for the day when I have new birth Still I love livin’ here on earth Everybody wants to go to heaven But nobody wants to die Jesus lived here on this earth He knew his Father’s plan He knew that He must give His life To save the souls of man When Judas had betrayed Him Our father heard Him cry The King was brave until His death But He didn’t...

It's been a good run. 32 years I've hung on to my man card. But it's was with great sadness that I turned it in today, the 25 th of August, 2006. It all started last night when I received an email from Ticketmaster telling me of an upcoming Barney and Friends show at the Greensboro Coliseum in October. Tickets were going on sale Saturday at 10am but I could use a special code and buy them pre -sale today. I deleted the email and moved on but something inside kept bringing me back. Was it the fact that Barney loves me and we're a happy family, or was it the thoughts of Jacob at his first (and Lord willing last) Barney show knowing what a huge Barney fan he is? I took the night to think about it and decided to talk it over with Beth this morning. Once I told her, she too felt conflicted. On one hand Barney stands for all that is wrong with America, but on the other, Jacob loves some Barney, BJ , Baby Bop, and Friends. So after much agonizing, I decided to purchase 3 tick...

I'm finishing up reading "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer . The book is his actual account of the Mt. Everest tragedy of 1996 when several climbers lost their lives on a climb he was a part of. It's a fascinating but sad read. From their first accent of the mountain you could see they were set up for disaster. I will give my full thoughts on it in a later blog. Did you see where Pluto isn't a planet anymore? To me, once it's called a planet you have to leave it a planet, even if it's not. Kind of like a grandfather clause of astronomy. The summer TV season is just about over which means the end to some really bad shows. One show that has caught my attention over the past few weeks is Rockstar : Supernova. I don't know why, but I just like it. I did catch a new show the other night that has a lot of potential. "Vanished" on Fox was actually really good. We'll see if they can keep it up. Speaking of "Vanished", why do networks alw...

Why do I feel so guilty about taking time off? Today Stanley and I headed out to "Winding Creek" golf course for a morning of golf. From the minute we set up our time to meet last night, I started to feel an enormous amount of guilt. Did I really have the time to go play nine holes of golf? Did I really have the extra money? Was it fair that I got to go play a game while my wife was at work and my mom was at home watching my kids? What about all the work I had to do at church? Why do I feel so guilty about taking a couple of hours off for myself? On the holes I was able to block out my guilt, it was fun, relaxing, and I actually played pretty well. On the holes where the guilt crept back in, I was anxious, hurried, and played horribly. How do guys do it? How can guys just get away and not feel the tiniest amount of guilt? I guess the real question is how can pastors do it? To make matters worse, I totally blew up on the last 2 holes and Stanley came from 4 strokes down to bea...

If I'm a follower of Jesus, does that mean I have to go to church? If I'm a follower of Jesus, does that mean I have to read my Bible? If I'm a follower of Jesus, does that mean I have to pray? If I'm a follower of Jesus, does that mean I have to stop sleeping with my girlfriend? If I'm a follower of Jesus, does that mean I can't go out and get wasted anymore? If I'm a follower of Jesus, does that mean I can't look at porn? If I'm a follower of Jesus does that mean I can't fib a little so I won't get in trouble? If I'm a follower of Jesus, _______________(you fill in the blank) I've been thinking a lot about the "rules" or do's & don'ts of being a follower of Jesus a lately. Is that what we have reduced our faith down to? A list of certain things you can or can not do in order to be a "Christian" and gain God's favor? Even if there were a defined set of rules that made you a good believer or a bad o...

Yesterday was my birthday. It came and went without much hoopla. Which was fine by me. These past two and a half months have been way to busy and stressful for yours truly. And that's coming from someone who very rarely gets stressed. From my trip to CO, to two mission trips, to selling my car and trying to find a new one, to our church moving into a new facility out of nowhere, things have been less then calm around my household. Beth said I have been really moody lately. She attributed it to my new older age. I just think I have a hard time adjusting to change. Our new church facility is really nice. I've been meaning to blog about it but just haven't had the time or energy. It's a 5000-6000 sqft church building that the Lutheran church in town built as their first church. They have since moved onto a newer much larger building and now we (for the first time) have our first free standing building to call our own. We had our first services there this past Sunday and th...

As I stated in a previous post, I put my beloved Ford Explorer up for sale. Well, last week someone else fell in love with it also and after an exchange of money, it became theirs. It will always go down as one of the best vehicles I have ever owned but like most things in life, it was time to move on. So began the search for my new car. After spending the past few weeks test-driving a researching various SUV’s, I narrowed my list of possible cars down to a Jeep Liberty and a Nissan Xterra. We thought about getting something larger but after factoring in the price of even a used SUV with a 3rd row along with the cost of gas, I decided to stay in the midsize-smaller SUV class. I liked both the Liberty and Xterra a lot so it would basically come down to which I found the best deal on. My search led me to Larry Whicker Motors, the same place I bought my Explorer 5 years ago next month. Larry had a ’03 Liberty at an unbelievable price. I saw it on Sunday (but they were closed) and by the t...

Last week I spent 8 days in beautiful Magnolia, DE. If you have never heard of Magnolia, don't worry. Most people in DE never have either. It's a small farming town with a population of 275 just outside of Dover. Beth, Rhonda, Aaron, Jeremy, and I worked at a GROUP Workcamp mission trip up there. The camp had 350 students and adults from all over the country doing home repairs for needy families in the area. I was the speaker for the week, Beth/photographer, Rhonda/cafeteria host, Aaron & Jeremy/site coaches (they helped guide the kids on how to do the work at their job sites) This was my 11th workcamp and my 5th on staff. This was by far the toughest staff experiences to date. There were some major personality issues that made life behind the scene pretty tough. The camp as a whole was wonderful though. The campers and residents were some of the best I have ever been around. Instead of trying to document all of my happenings during that week, here are my highlights (and l...