A Few Good Blogs

Here is the beginning of my list of blogs that I enjoy following and reading. I am leaving a link to each of these blogs here in this post, but you can also find the same links to these blogs in the sidebar to the right.

The first blog is about fly fishing called Grits-N-Flies, by Matthew French. No, I am not a fly fisherman - matter of fact, I have never been fly fishing, but Matthew is married to my cousin and I enjoy reading his posts because he keeps it real and simple.

The next blog I will share with you is The Troell Family. Stephen Troell is a good friend of mine and in my opinion is extraordinary in photography and design. Here he is chronicling the lives of his two beautiful little girls using his talent for photography to tell the story.

How can I make a list of favorite blogs without mentioning The Henschen Family blog. My wife does her best to keep up with this to share the story of our two little girls and the things we as a family are currently doing.

And finally for now, I enjoy reading posts from Michelle Macphearson. She is what some would call a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Guru. She provides helpful, relevant information that is down to earth and pretty easy to understand for those of us who are not computer programmers.

The New Family Pic

We are visiting family in Illinois for the holidays. Yesterday evening (Christmas Day) it started snowing and hasn't stopped yet. So this afternoon we went outside to play in the snow for a little while. Before we got started we took this quick snapshot.

Christmas

Well, it's Christmas Eve and I wonder, what does Christmas mean to you? Is it just a time to get together with family, eat until you can hardly breathe, and exchange gifts that you hope everyone will be happy to receive? Is it the one time of the year you actually think to be a blessing to others. Do you send out hundreds of Christmas cards, go caroling, and make every effort to spread Christmas cheer. Or are you the person who tosses spare change into the Salvation Army buckets for just a brief moment of peace as the bell ringers stop their incessant ringing to thank you for your generosity.

Christmas to many is just another holiday. It is a time to miss the family they are away from, a time to be charitable and feed the hungry and allow their emotions to govern their actions as they do their good deeds. Though the Christmas season may have begun as a celebration of the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, it has been adopted by the world as a revenue generating holiday; open season for retailers to return their books to the black.

I find it interesting that so many Christians get upset that the world doesn't know, believe, or celebrate the true Christmas story. They go off on their tangents about Santa Clause and Rudolph, Frosty, and all the other fairy tale stories that have permeated the season - foaming at the mouth about how these stories mislead people from the truth of the birth of Christ. But I must ask, whose responsibility is it to tell the world of the true Christmas story?

Then there are many who call themselves Christians who dually become outraged about the consumerism of Christmas, yet they will proactively celebrate Halloween. I believe that one of the things in which Satan has been successful is the deception of the saints. II Timothy 3:13 says that in the last days, "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived." And in James 1:22 Christians are admonished to "be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." It is sad that not only have many been deceived, but that so many more are deceiving themselves. This deception usually comes not in the form of an outright lie, but in a form of a partial truth that is just close enough to the truth to sound like the truth and yet it is a lie.

It is the responsibility of true believers to tell others and to share with others the true Christmas story. In this day and age, Christians must commit to become a people of Truth. They must tell the world who it was that left his throne in Heaven to be born of a virgin and laid in a manger in the humble town of Bethlehem. But that is just part of the story. They must also share why he came; to live a sinless life, and die a shameful death on a cross. An attempt of the masses to purge themselves of their conscience; an act of sacrifice acceptable before an Almighty God for the atonement of the sins of the world. If the Christmas story were to stop there, it would pale in its magnificence and remain just a story. Only when we learn of His resurrection from the dead does the story have power and become alive and dynamic.

This is why I believe the world celebrates Christmas as a Santa Clause-reindeer-snowman-feel good party rather than acknowledging the birth of the Son of God. The world does not believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and without the power of the gospel, the Christmas story is nothing more than a story of a baby being born in a stable where you can add or take away any details to tell it to your liking.

I will tell others the truth. Will you?

The true Christmas story may be dead to this world, but it is alive and well in my home.

God be with you...

"It has pleased God to take from us one exceedingly dear to us, and we must be resigned to His holy will. Thus link by link is the strong chain broken that binds us to earth, and smoothes our passage to another world."
- Robert E. Lee



Yesterday evening, a family very dear to my heart lost their 20-year-old son in a tragic accident in their home. The local news reported that Trent Lockett was killed when his 11-year-old brother fired a pistol that Trent had been showing to him and a 12-year-old neighbor.

Some would say this is yet another reason guns should be banned. But even after hearing of this tragedy, I must say, I disagree. The gun is no more guilty of the death than the spoon is guilty for making America fat. The gun is a weapon - a tool - an instrument. It is used in war, hunting, and other various sports.

So was this nothing more than an accident, or was it an act of the Almighty God? Trent had removed the magazine from the pistol, but was unaware that a round was still chambered in the weapon when he handed it to his little brother. I believe that God has much more to do with this than many would like to give Him credit. Too often we forget that it was God who created Trent to begin with. In Jeremiah 1:5 God said "Before I formed the in the belly I knew thee;" Trent had a clear testimony that he had trusted Christ as his savior at a young age. God knew Trent's end from the beginning, and He allowed this to happen for a reason. That reason we may not know until eternity, but there are already things surfacing that are revealing God's hand in this matter.

Just one of those things I can think of, took place about a week ago. The family had a going away party in Trent's honor celebrating his departure for the military. Little did they know what a blessing it would be for everyone to get to see him just one more time before he left this world to go home and be with the Lord.

This has weighed heavy on my heart since I learned about it last night. My wife had taught Trent in school and is rather fond of his mother. Just three weeks ago, I was at the Locketts putting up a shelf in Trent's room. We count it a privilege to call both he and his family friends; they have been such a blessing to my family and our church.

Our prayers are with the family and their closest friends. May the God of Heaven give them a measure of grace of which only He is able.

"Do it with thy might"

The beginning of anything can often create sense of trepidation and anxiety. Just like our first day of school or the first day on the new job. Not fully knowing what to expect or how will others perceive us, we ask ourselves will I do a good job, will I be accepted, will I make friends? Starting this blog is really no different for me. I have decided to start this blog to chronicle some of my thoughts and ideas, my rants and raves, and to have a place to talk about some of the things I like to do.

I also want to use this to share links to interesting sites and helpful things that I have learned. One thing I can guarantee is that the topics will be very random. I don't necessarily have a theme that I plan to hold to in my posts, but I have decided to start this blog with a motto: Age Quod Agis, a latin phrase for "do what you do well." The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 9:10 "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might;" So with that said I am going to do my best to make things interesting and enjoyable for you to read.