Welcome Home

This past summer, my church was broken into and one thing was stolen. A metal box that the thieves assumed contained money. Thankfully, we don't keep money at the church because, how should I put this, thieves can break in and steal it? So our intrepid criminals absconded with a metal box that contained nothing more than some old ledgers filled with numbers. Quite a heist I know. Anyway, I had pretty much decided that the case was forever resolved to the dustbin of history. Then today, I got a call from a deputy that our box had been recovered. Some people out for a walk came across it on a road just outside of town. It would appear that most everything is still in it. Damp, but still there. Unfortunately, finding the box didn't mean finding the ones that dumped it there months ago. So we have our wonderful box back and just to reiterate once again, we don't keep money at the church. We keep it at the bank. You never know, the thieves may spend their idle time reading my blog and I just want them to know that.

A New Method

Sometimes it's good to shake up the normal way we do things. A little change can bring a fresh perspective. For the past few weeks I have been undertaking a new method for my sermon preparation. I want to thank Gene Roncone for sharing his teaching notes on the method that I am currently using. The crazy thing about change is that while it can be a good thing, the process is not always enjoyable. The steps I'm undertaking now in my weekly preparation are not natural for me. Sometimes I feel like giving up because it is difficult for me. Yet, with this change I find myself having to go deeper in the text I'm
planning to use. I find myself thinking deeper about what God is saying and wants to say through it. The time I'm spending to prepare has increased dramatically as I expected with learning a new way. That added to an already full schedule makes life hectic at times, but it's worth it. The eventual dividends outweigh the current struggle.

With that said, I need to get back to my preparation.

Destroyed By Choice

One of the hardest things about being in the ministry is that you get to watch people choose destruction. People that no matter how much you care about them, no matter how much to teach them, and no matter how much you you fight for them, still choose to live a life apart from Christ. There are many I've seen where I know the end result of their choices, yet they choose to ignore it. It's not that they don't know. They know full well, but they choose not to believe. A choice not to follow Christ is a choice for destruction.

Thankfully, there are others that I see that have so much promise. They are striving to live and do what God has asked. They struggle, but they don't quit. May they keep wrestling with God because when we wrestle with Him, He wins. And when God wins out in our life, we win too.

Pizza Hut Is Out To Get Me

Anyone that has read this blog knows that I'm fighting the diet battle. After slacking off, I'm trying to hit it hard again. Thankfully I'm still below my all time high. Everytime I get serious I go through the first several days where I'm just hungry. Okay, I'm hungry every day but I digress. Without fail, when I get serious we get an ad from Pizza Hut in the mail. In the ad there is always the same picture. It's one of their sandwiches with what looks like boneless BBQ wings on it. It looks amazing. The funny thing is I've yet to try one. When I break my diet I go other places. Yet without fail the ad shows up when I start trying to be good again. I'm beginning to believe that Pizza Hut has singled me out for diet destruction. I'll show them, I think I'll call Papa John's.

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Adios Old Comments and Other Changes

I have officially made my behind the scenes changes to the web site. I know some of you don't care and if that's you, go ahead and stop reading now. The biggest thing that I changed was that my bog now syncs with my blog that I have on Google's blogspot. Before acquiring my own domain and deciding to use Rapidweaver, I tested and used both Wordpress and Blogger. They were okay, but I liked the greater control I had using Rapidweaver. I never got rid of the accounts though. Anyway, I came across a way to sync my blogspot and Rapidweaver. I set it up and it does work. The benefit is that I have a backup blog. This is nice in case I decide down the road not to renew my domain. That's a couple years away, but it I thought it wise to have it already have it in place.

The added bonus is that I can now blog from my phone when I'm traveling. There is a free iPhone app that allows you to post to your blogspot blog. I can write a blog, it syncs to blogspot, and then appears on my blog. Then, when I publish down the road with Rapidweaver, the blog entry is imported into Rapidweaver. I've been impressed on how well it works. Some bugs to be sure will pop up, but nothing too bad.

That does lead us to the couple problems I faced. I had to choose between my old comment system or switching over to the comments from blogspot. Using the blogspot would allow comments to be present on both sites. I chose to go that route. Unfortunately that meant losing my old comments. Tough decision but I made it.

Also, Google's spam fighting features prevent me from importing my entire blog at once. When I tried I would get locked out and could only post from blogspot using Captcha to verify that I was a human. So, I will be slowly rebuilding old post a few a day. I'm not in a big hurry. I don't believe that people are clamoring for my blog archives.

That's where the blog stands now for those that were willing to read all the way through.

For the insanely curious, you can check out the mirror image of my blog at www.focusedjourney.blogspot.com.

Kenya's Coming Fast

I am about one month away from heading to Kenya. It's amazing to think that I will be heading to another continent for a time of ministry and then returning before Christmas. The missionaries of the past have my deepest appreciation. Many headed out never expecting to return home. For many it was months of travel just to reach their field. I'm humbled that I am able to fly half way around the world, preach and teach, and then fly back in such a short amount of time. Praying that the Lord will use me and the team for something great.

McDonald's Commercial

McDonald's has a new commercial that bothers me. A man walks around holding one dollar in his hand asking what he can get for it and is told at a variety of places that he can't get anything. Then he goes to McDonald's where he is informed of all the wonderful choices on the Dollar Menu. The man happily hands over his one dollar. Make a note. It was one dollar. We see pictures of food and then the commercial ends with the man at a table eating. He's eating a McDouble, but on his table is also a drink and a yogurt parfait. He handed the worker one dollar, but he has three dollars worth of food. I don't know why this bothers me but if does. It's like when a car commercial shows you a car loaded with features and gives you the price only to tell you in the fine print that all those features shown are not included in the price.

The man either had more money, which sort of negates the entire commercial being about one dollar, or he stole the extra food. Neither one seems like great marketing to me.

Meatballs and Sausage

A few of my youth and I ran a fundraiser tonight at our church. It was a bluegrass gospel concert and we prepared and sold food during the intermission. A lot of work, but we did fairly well. I arrived to the church at 3:45 this afternoon and left some time after 9. Over five hours, and the most exciting time was that 30 minutes where everyone descended en masse. There is an adrenaline rush when everything is happening at once and you have to move everything to high speed. Anyway, it was good to work with some of my youth and raise a little money for our retreat

Ironing Out Some Problems

Sorry if the blog is messing up over the next few days. I'm making some behind the scenes changes.

Book Review - The Sound of Sleigh Bells

A book review by Kelly.

Publisher's Info
Beth Hertzler works alongside her beloved Aunt Lizzy in their dry goods store, and serving as contact of sorts between Amish craftsmen and Englischers who want to sell the Plain people’s wares. But remorse and loneliness still echo in her heart everyday as she still wears the dark garb, indicating mourning of her fiancé. When she discovers a large, intricately carved scene of Amish children playing in the snow, something deep inside Beth’s soul responds and she wants to help the unknown artist find homes for his work–including Lizzy’s dry goods store. But she doesn’t know if her bishop will approve of the gorgeous carving or deem it idolatry.

Lizzy sees the changes in her niece when Beth shows her the woodworking, and after Lizzy hunts down Jonah, the artist, she is all the more determined that Beth meets this man with the hands that create healing art. But it’s not that simple–will Lizzy’s elaborate plan to reintroduce her niece to love work? Will Jonah be able to offer Beth the sleigh ride she’s always dreamed of and a second chance at real love–or just more heartbreak?

Author Bio
Cindy Woodsmall is the author of When the Heart Cries, When the Morning Comes, and The New York Times Best-Seller When the Soul Mends. Her ability to authentically capture the heart of her characters comes from her real-life connections with Amish Mennonite and Old Order Amish families. A mother of three sons and two daughters-in-law, Cindy lives in Georgia with her husband of thirty-one years.

Kelly's Thoughts
I have really begun to enjoy reading Cindy Woodsmall's books about the Amish. The Sound of Sleigh Bells did not disappoint. It was another great book. I enjoyed the story line and felt connected to the characters. In the story you see two characters that have faced hardship with different attitudes. The one who turns to God for healing is able to reach out to those around him. He helps the others to see that opening up and allowing God to heal you from the inside is better than living in bitterness. It is a good read for Christmas or anytime of the year. The story is fun to read and is captivating from the very beginning. It is a great book and I highly recommend it.

You can find the book at Waterbrook Multnomah or my favorite Amazon.

On Facebook? The original post resides at www.focusedjourney.com.
This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

A Connection

We asked our daughter what she learned tonight and she as a matter of fact told us about Daniel getting eaten by a lion. When asked to clarify, she said that Daniel was eaten by a lion but he prayed inside, just like Jonah in the whale. Her version of Daniel made me laugh, but it was cool that she made a connection (even though incorrectly) to another story in the Bible. Something is is sinking in.

Bumper Stickers

I'm not a big fan of bumper stickers. If you're one that loves them I'm sorry. In my opinion, people often reveal their ignorance in what they choose to slap on their car. As in an example, let me bring forth a sticker that I saw the other day. It stated, "If you ain't a Steelers fan, you ain't *crap*." Now for anyone that finds that word crap offensive, I wish to point out that the word that was originally used was much stronger and I chose to lesson it.

The bumper sticker was supporting the Steelers. It was in their team colors. I think there might have even been a tiny Steelers logo on the car. Yet, when you read it properly it is a slap against the team.

Ain't (it is in the dictionary that I checked) is basically an informal way of saying "is not" or "are not." So, reading the words of wisdom again, you wind up with, "If you are not a Steelers fan, you are not crap."

Read it again slowly. "If you are not a Steelers fan, you are not crap." Basically, if you cheer for anyone other than the Steelers, you are not crap. Or, as I was taught in school, let's use the fact that having two negatives in the same sentence cancel each other out. We're left with, "If you are a Steelers fan, you are crap." Somehow I don't think that is what they were intending when they put it on their car.

Whether you take the literal meaning of the real last word in the phrase, or use the idea that it means "a person that is worthless," it still doesn't make sense.

Before you slap something on your car for the world to read, think it through first.

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