What a weekend....

Well, all in all it was a good weekend sports-wise. FCS won on Friday night to secure a spot in the playoffs. I love the small town, Chris' picture and name was on the front page of the paper Saturday morning evening though he didn't play a single snap in the game. He evidently made a picturesque celebration leap when they won. My apologies to the lineman who do all the hard work and seem to not get any recognition.

Saturday was good....UT beats Steve 'I'll throw my hat at you' Spurrier that's always good. The Titans play horribly on Sunday but luckily played a team that played worse. I almost forgot, Rockies win 21 of 22 then lose 4 in a row. Wow... It's interesting to watch the rise of the BoSox and the decline of the Yankees at the same time. They announced during the game last night that A-Rod was leaving the Yanks. I'm pulling for A-Rod, he seems like a decent guy, and he's the best hope we have that Barry Bonds won't hold the home run record long. Go A-Rod!

Most of my weekend was spent working. We are releasing a web site this week and it's been quite a challenge to get it ready.

You know how some folks buy a car every 2 years? I've figured out that you need to buy a new house every 15 years. That seems to be when everything starts breaking.

We had a nephew and niece spend the weekend with us while their parents were out of town. Kathy spent most of the weekend keeping up with them and trying to figure out how to get the normal stuff done (laundry, grocery etc..) done now that she has a 5 day/week job. I told her that she should get her no good husband to help.

Chris went to the church youth hayride. It brought back stories of last year when he went. Last year it was the first real activity that he went on with our new Church. He managed to have an ember from the bonfire land on his jeans and start a small blaze. He wound up having to take his pants off in the woods so they could put them out. From then on, he was the 'boy that burned his wiener' at the Church hayride. He takes teasing and kidding much better than I did at his age....his response..."I'm good, but thanks for asking"

Sarah is excited and ready to play basketball. I believe that she will do well this year. She has a lot of hustle and a very good attitude. The coaches seem very interested and have a good track record in coaching girl's softball. We'll just have to see.

Well....that's the news and I am outta here....

A letter to Paden....

I wrote a letter to Paden the morning after I baptized him. I was desperately trying to help him understand the picture of Jesus that I now have. As I've mentioned before, my picture of Jesus has dramatically changed over the years. He's not the cosmic accountant tallying up my good and bad to see how the balance tilts at the moment I die.

Anyway, in my letter to Paden I came up with this word picture that I felt a child could understand. I thought I would share it with you....

Have you ever been separated from your mom and dad in a mall or other busy place? If you haven’t, picture yourself in a very crowded place like an airport or a train station. People are whizzing by with no time to talk to you or help you. Your mom and dad are nowhere to be found. You can’t find a policeman to help. Can you imagine what that would feel like? Then, after a long time, you hear your mom’s voice and you see her, kneeling down, arms outstretched. You run to her and embrace. Can you imagine what that would feel like?

That is the best picture that I can come up with of what your relationship is with Jesus. You and I and everybody are separated from God. We are lost and without hope. There is one and only one person that can help. His name is Jesus. He’s the one that is searching through the crowd to find you.

Cry baby....

Yeah yeah, Rockies lost again....whatever...

On to more important stuff. Many of you who read this know me personally. Some don't. For those that don't, I'm fairly big guy by normal standards. I'm about 6'2" tall 270ish pounds. Small for an athlete, but fairly big for an average Joe. Many times people equate size with toughness. I don't know how many times I've heard people say, I wouldn't mess with him, look how big he is. Truth is...I'm probably the only person you'll ever meet that got in trouble at school for NOT fighting (it's true). I got in trouble for fighting also, but I did get a stern talking to from a principle for not standing up for myself.

Anyway, something else that you might not expect is that many times I'll cry at the drop of a hat. Sometimes, if I'm talking about something that is important to me, tears will just start. It's embarrassing sometimes, but I can't help it.

Baptism is one of those things that makes me cry. I've mentioned before that I went through a really tough time about 11-12 years ago. It was during that time that a counselor helped me make the connection between my spirituality and my life. It sounds funny to say that now, but there really wasn't much connection before that. I was compartmentalized. Spirituality was a slice in my life. Finally, somebody said to me if your life is a pie, spirituality isn't a slice, it's the crust. I guess if you are going to get through to me, an analogy involving food is the way to do it.

Once I went through that time in my life, and I really made the connection, baptisms have always made me cry. Yesterday, I had the distinct pleasure of baptizing my nephew Paden Robertson. I was telling my boss that I needed to leave early so that I could baptize my nephew. Yeah, you guessed it...when I was telling him I felt the tears come. I held them back, but it was close.

Baptizing a child is one of those things that makes people uncomfortable. Chris was baptized when he was 9. He had been talking about it for a while, I kept putting it off because I wasn't sure he was 'ready'. Sarah has been talking about it, is she 'ready'? does she understand? that always seems to be the concern.

When I look at my own experience, I was baptized at church camp when I was about 11, because everybody else was. At 16, I realized that I had done it for the wrong reason, so I was baptized again 'to be sure I had done it right'. Well, I look back now, I certainly didn't have the understanding then that I have now. So was I 'ready' at 16?

As I struggle with this, I think about Phillip talking to the Ethiopian in Acts 8. He was obviously a spiritual guy already, but he didn't know Jesus. Phillip talks to him as they are driving down the road. We have no idea how long they talked, but it seems to me that he went from 'not ready' to 'ready' in the course of a single conversation. How much do you need to now before you are ready?

Jesus is the one...He's the Good News from God. Do you believe that? As far as I can tell....you are ready.

That sinking feeling...

Some of you may not have experienced this, but there's a certain feeling that I would get in high school when a teacher would come in and start handing out a test that I had forgotten about, or asked everyone to turn in a project that I hadn't done.

Evidently, the Vols forgot they had a game last Saturday.
The Rockies forgot that they had a game last night.

When Alabama pulled off a successful onside kick on the opening kick off....I heard it put best that Sabin was playing Chess and Fulmer was playing checkers (I think tiddly winks would have been funnier).

When Pedroia (a rookie) hit a lead off home run for the BoSox after the Rox went 3 up 3 down, I knew we were in trouble. I didn't realize how much trouble, but the Rox were in trouble.

Oh well, still a National League guy, but not very loud and proud right now.

Did somebody make sure the Rockies know they have a game tonight?

Rockin' Sockin'

Today marks the first game of the World Series. It's kind of sad for me, this is the first year in about 10 years that we didn't make it to at least one professional baseball game. Unless someone suprises me with World Series tickets, I guess we won't make it.

For the most part, we are a baseball family. One year, not long after we got married, Kathy and I decided to paint the entire inside of our first house. The baseboards were stained dark and we were painting them white so it took a very long time. We both took a week of vacation and painted. It just so happened that it was the week of the World Series.... we painted, watched baseball, painted, painted, more baseball. It was Atlanta's worst to first season. I don't remember the year, but we still talk about that week.

I'm a sports fan in that I like to watch the games. I know some of the most popular players, but I don't know all of the statistics and all of the players involved. I guess I'm just a casual fan.

Sarah, doesn't care much about baseball, she usually goes to the other room when we watch any sport. Chris is a died-in-wool Sox fan. He has the Atlanta A and the Boston B painted on his bedroom wall. I'm pretty sure that Kathy will be pulling for the Sox as well.

Me....I'm torn...for some reason my heart is with the National League. Lately, it seems that American League has dominated the series and interleague play, but my heart is with the National League. I think it all goes back to the idea that ALL players should bat. I have a philosophical problem with anyone that would call themselves a baseball player but then not bat. I know that when the pitcher comes up to bat in the National League its like the last boy that was picked in elementary school. I can just see all the guys in the field yelling "EASY HITTER!!!", But anyway, baseball players should bat. American League pitchers should bat. National League pitchers should do a better job of it.

I'm also pulling for the Rockies because of Todd Helton. He played for UT, I remember watching him when he was in college. So, I've made the decision (just now) I'm pulling for the Rockies.

Three Holes Left

This week has been a week that I've dreaded in some ways. One of the first things that they do at the beginning of the school year is to take the school pictures. At the end of the first nine week period, the prints are usually ready to be sent home. This week was the week that we received the prints.

Its not that I don't want their pictures, the problem is these frames that Kathy bought several years ago. You've probably seen them before, each school year you place their picture in the frame and then the Senior picture goes in the center. Each year, it's been a celebration when we put the new picture in the frame. This year, it wasn't so much of a celebration because we saw that there are only 3 holes left in Chris' frame.

When you look at the pictures, you may see the laugh in the kindergarten picture, the slicked back hair and smirk in third grade. Alfalfa hair in fourth grade, braces in the sixth grade that lead to the million dollar smile that he has now. But all Kathy and I can see is the three holes that are left.

We've had such big plans, I've desperately wanted to take both of them to Chicago, out west, a baseball tour of New England area and a cruise in the Caribbean...but the time is getting away.

To be honest, we are not done yet. There is so much that I want to teach them. Are they really ready to be on their own in a college atmosphere? Surely, we weren't as young at that age.

All along, my mom has told me, "They grow up so fast". I never believed her. But I am absolutely amazed that we have only three holes left.

Who is the pearl?

Three years ago, when Chris was in the 6th grade, I went with him on a school field trip to Land Between the Lakes. It was a really cool experience. One of the neatest things that they did was a challenge course. A group of kids goes through this course together. They were faced with several challenges. Parents went along, but we were under strict orders not to help. The challenges were designed so that the kids had to rely on one another to complete the task. It was cool.

One night before we went to bed, we had a campfire devotional. The devotional thought was presented by Jason Miller and I thought that it was fantastic. I was reminded of it when I read a story about the guy who bought a rock (20 years ago) and it turned out to be a sapphire (so he claimed). Anyway, self esteem has always been something I struggled with. There are times when I've just felt worthless and useless. Fortunately, I've not experienced that in a while. Thoughts like the following have really helped me, so I thought I would share:

In Matthew 13 Jesus tells several 'Kingdom' parables. The first two parables are about a farmer. When he explains the parable of the weeds to his disciples in verse 37, he tells them that he is the farmer. And I believe that most of the time when we think about these parables, we consider the farmer or sower to be Jesus.

If you skip down to the Parable of the Net, you see a picture of a fisherman separating the good fish from the bad fish. Jesus tells us that the angels are the ones that are going to come on his behalf and separate the good from the bad. Essentially, he is the still the main character.

The most interesting parable that Jason mentioned is the Parable of the hidden treasure in verses 44 and 45.

44"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

45"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

I don't know if I was taught this or not, but when I think about these parables, I've usually put myself in the place of the man and the merchant. Something like, "When I find Jesus, I should give everything else up for him". There is nothing wrong with that interpretation, however, as Jason pointed out, why do we make ourselves the main character in these parables when all of the surrounding parables have Jesus as the main character? What happens when Jesus becomes the main character? We become the treasure...we become the pearl.

Do you feel that way? To be honest, I don't. Whenever I think about it, I am so humbled that it brings me to tears. He found me...and considered me to be a hidden treasure....a pearl of great price.....sold everything he had....and bought me.

Wow...great thought....

Hair Management Day

Well, yesterday was the day that I looked in the mirror, find that there are a few (very few) hairs sticking straight up on top of my head and they need to be put in their place. One of the cool things about being bald, is that when I need a haircut I can do it myself (for the most part)

A few random thoughts on hair from the bald guy:

• We bought some clippers 11 years ago for $35 to cut my hair with, I've saved a ton.


• Cleaning up after a haircut doesn't take as long as it used to.


• I really don't worry much about what kind of shampoo I use any more, that used to be a big deal.


• What are split ends?


• If measured in something like follicles/Donnie I'm probably in the plus department compared to when I was in high school


• I never saw my dad with hair, I guess that's why I don't worry about it much


• My dad always carried a comb, he said he used it to scratch his head.


• Hair is like real estate. What's important is location location location


• I used to use shampoo and conditioner, now a bar of soap works in a pinch.


• I used to use a blow dryer, now a towel works as both comb and dryer


• I do miss the social aspects of going to get my haircut


• Thank you Michael Jordan for making bald cool!
  

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I love quotations, always have, in my blogroll I have a service that give quotations every day. Today's post had a quote from G.K.Chesterton, it was pretty good:

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

I noticed that I could click on his name and see all quotes in the collection that were by him...This one caught my attention:

Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

Here is the full list of G.K. Chesterton quotes

By definition....

These two words are used a lot in mathematics. 'By definition' basically means "don't ask why, it just is".

Please bear with me, there is a point to this...
Here's a quick example, in the field of probability they use a mathematical function called the factorial. The factorial is represented by an exclamation point, the easiest way to explain it is to show an example:

3! = 6 (3 x 2 x 1 )
6! = 720 (6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1)

Now, here's the kicker....

0! = 1 ?!?!?!!?!?!

Why? 'By definition', don't ask why, just accept it.

Now the real point...
Yesterday, I was talking with someone who was having some pretty deep struggles spiritually. He asked a question that I struggle with. It boiled down to this idea.

If God is good, and all powerful, why does bad stuff happen?

I was reminded of a broadcast that I listened to from Ravi Zacharius. He was having a question and answer session with some students at a prestigious university. One of the students asked Ravi, "Is it right for God to do such and so". Ravi spent several minutes talking about the fact that there is no sense of right and wrong that exists outside of God. God is the one that defines right and wrong, so if God does it, it is right and good 'by definition'. Don't ask why, just accept it.

The story that I think of here is the story of Joseph in Genesis. Everything is doing just fine then suddenly, your family turns against you, you are now a slave in a foreign country. You work your way out of that hole, then suddenly, you are accused of a crime that you didn't commit and now you are in jail. The story goes on and on until the climax where we find that Joseph is right where God needed him to be to save his people. The whole story is in Genesis 37-45.

When Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, he says something amazing:

"And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. " 8 "So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.

We all have our definition of good. My definition includes me and my family being healthy, all of our bills are paid, we have good friends, basically nothing bad happens. Anything different from that is not good in my book. But what if God needs me in a different place? What if, like Joseph, he needs me to go through a little bit of hell to be where he wants me to be? I might not like it, but I'll need to go through it.

I don't pretend to have all of the answers, does God make bad stuff happen? or does he just allow it to happen? I don't know that it makes a lot of difference either way. I don't understand, I just have to remember that God is good, by definition. I heard this quote several years ago, I tried to find the original source for it, but couldn't. I think it is appropriate here:

"A God that is small enough for my mind, is not big enough for my knees"

Amen

Proud of my boy.....

Kathy and I were both band geeks. I was in the percussion section of my high school band, Kathy played clarinet. I was athletic when I was younger, played basketball, baseball and football a year or two. When I hit high school though, I really got into music. Kathy is an amazing woman, however, athletics is not one of her strong points.

Somehow, these two band geeks got together and had two athletes. Chris has loved baseball since he was a baby. At age 3, he had figured out that you could watch the Cubs play during the day and the Braves played at night. Many times he would watch two full baseball games/day. Sarah is not quite as into athletics, though she loves softball and basketball. I think that she's looking forward to giving volleyball a try as well.

Chris has played baseball since he was 5. T-ball, coach pitch, little league, dixie youth, this past summer he played on his first travel team. When he hit 5th grade, he played football for the first time. He's played football every year since then except for one year when he played on a fall league baseball team.

Chris is very gifted athletically, the only thing that is hampering him right now is his size. He'll be 15 in December, many boys at his age are fully grown. He's got friends his age that are 6 ft tall and 200+ lbs. Chris is 5'7" 135 lb. The one thing he does have is speed. And like they say 'You can't teach speed'.

This year, with him being in the 9th grade, he's on the varsity football team. It's been quite an eye opener. They really do work him hard. I've told him since he was small, there are 3 parts to a person: mind, body, spirit. You have to take care of all three. Varsity football is working on the body part for sure.

Chris hasn't gotten to play much on the varsity squad, though he does get to play quite a bit at the JV games. Friday night, the JV squad got to play most of the game because the opposing team wasn't very good. At the beginning of the year, Chris was focusing on being a receiver. It seems like now, they are focusing on him being a running back.

Anyway, Friday night he got his first touch of the ball in a varsity game. He was a slot back on the right side and he got a handoff running a sweep around the left end. He broke it for a 62 yard touchdown! It was cool. The thing that I love about living here is that people really know the players. They've watched them grow up and are just as proud as the parents are when they do well. When Chris came off of the field, the crowd gave him a second standing ovation. It was really cool.

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On another note, I heard a story from Kathy's sister that was too funny. Her sister has 3 children, the oldest is 5. He wanted to go ride his bike so he asked his dad if he could. "No, son, that requires supervision" was the answer. His comeback in total seriousness was "But dad, I have supervision, I eat my carrots!" Too funny.

Power Under Control

Fred was an easy target. He was a bit goofy, a little effeminate, one of those guys that younger men find it easy to make fun of. Perry was a boisterous young guy that moved here from Louisiana. He was loud and a little bit mean. He found it easy to make fun of Fred. We all did to a certain extent, but Perry, for some reason, was particularly cruel. One day, they got to the point where Perry challenged Fred to a fight. Fred walked away. Years later, when I left that job, I found out that Fred was a 3rd degree black belt in Taekwando. It was something that he had a passion for, but he kept a secret from anyone at the office.

I remember, as a kid, hearing lessons about how Jesus didn't open his mouth when he was being accused. I would be taught lessons about how "He was a sheep, led to the slaughter". Even the pictures that you see of him portray him as a gaunt, weak looking man. But he had tremendous power. In the garden, he told Peter, "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?". He let Peter, and us, know that he could have stopped it at any time.

Turning the other cheek was always something that I struggled with. I hate feeling weak. If I walked away, it was like I had accepted defeat. Later on though, I finally learned, that walking away is not necessarily weakness....it it simply power under control.

ABTY

The Yankees are facing elimination tonight in the American League Divisional Series. Here's hoping they find it.

Anybody But The Yankees

Nashville really wants to be a big city...

When I tell people that I grew up in Nashville, many times they are amazed. I get responses like "I've never met anyone FROM Nashville" everybody moves here from somewhere else. I had a friend that moved here from Chicago, he remarked that the quality of life here was so much better than it was up north. I told him "We are glad that you are here, you are welcome to stay, however, please don't call your family and friends and tell them how good it is here, you'll just mess it up"

I don't want to sound like a geezer, but Nashville really has gone through a lot of changes since I was a kid. I can remember NEVD which stood for "Nashville Extra Value Days". Back when all of the department stores were downtown, they would have a week during the summer where all of the stores would have outdoor sales. We would ride the bus downtown and spend the day. As a kid, it was amazing to see it all. It looked like New York City to me. Then came the malls...all of the stores left downtown and moved to the suburbs. Downtown Nashville was a ghost town for several years. It was sad to go there and see all of the boarded up stores.

The first time that I ever visited Chicago, I made a point to see the Chicago Art Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Museum of Natural History. I made the remark when I got back that the closest thing Nashville had to that was "Barbara Mandrell Country". Over the years, Nashville has come a long way. We actually have some really cool cultural places. The Ryman auditorium is now a very cool music venue, we have Frist Center for the Visual Arts and now the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

Here's the thing, Nashville is great. But, in my opinion, Nashville has always been struggling to become a big city. For some reason, the measure of a big city seems to be the number of sports teams that it can have. I can remember when the Nashville Sounds (AAA baseball team) began playing here. I was in high school and was a part of the opening celebration for the stadium. They have been the AAA affiliate for several pro teams over the years. Over the last few years, they've worked on a project to get a new stadium built downtown. The deal fell through and now some of the investors are suing the team to get their money back. It's a mess.

The Predators were the first real major league team to come to Nashville. They are in their ninth season now (does hockey have an off-season?) but the owner has lost money every year. A local team of business men are trying to buy the club and keep it in Nashville. My opinion is, that is not going to work, the team will wind up moving.

The Titans are our success story. They seem to be doing well, drawing plenty of fans and will likely stay for a long time.

But, will Nashville ever be a big city? I am not sure. I doubt that it will ever be like an Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago or New York. But that's ok. It's still a great place to live. Just don't go telling everybody...

Go Vols!

UT is doing amazingly well against Georgia, I hate to admit it, but I really thought we were going to get clobbered. Oh, Chris got his face painted now as you can see. The picture is straight from Neyland Stadium...

Go big Orange!

Any idea where Chris will be today?

Last night, I asked Chris if he had to choose between a baseball scholarship at a small school or going to UT with no baseball scholarship, which would he choose. His answer was "I'll go to UT and walk on to the baseball team". For some reason, I've always thought that maybe there was a chance that he would go to some other school. Don't get me wrong, I am a UT fan, but I went to a small college and am somewhat concerned about sending him to such a big school. Last night, though, I think I resigned myself to the fact that he wants to go to UT regardless.

He had the opportunity to go to the UT Georgia game with Kathy's sister and her husband. When they saw his outfit though, they may have wanted to rethink their decision. Oh, he wanted to paint his face too, but we couldn't find the right color orange. He'll probably find some on the way. He took the camera, I hope he gets some good pictures.

Catching up...

Well, as you can probably guess, its been a bit of a crazy week at the Hall home. Let me see if I can catch you up on what's going on.

Truck update well D&R automotive threw their collective hands in the air on my truck. They simply didn't have the equipment that they needed to diagnose the problem. They recommended that I take it to the dealer. There is another shop in town where the owner used to work at a dealership. He seemed to have the equipment that he needed and was even aware of a technical service bulletin that was related to the issue that I was having....here's hoping. To D&R's credit though, they looked at it 4 times and didn't charge me anything. I begged them to charge me and they wouldn't.

Job Update Wrapping up my part of the first big project at the new job. About to start the next project. It's challenging, hard work, but it is good to feel like I'm really part of a team rather than being the 'outsider'.

Kathy Update Kathy is really enjoying getting going on the real estate thing. She's going to do well, though, if you read the news, its not a good time to get into real estate.

Chris & Sarah I'm so proud of these two. We got their grades this week. They work hard at it, and have done very very well.

Football Update The 5th & 6th grade football season is over (Sarah is a cheerleader). That frees up one night per week. We are in the second half of the varsity football season. Chris doesn't play much during the varsity games but has done well at the JV games. FCS had their first district loss last night. It was a hard fought game.

Spiritual Update I think Donna wrote in her blog about worry being sin. I know that. I also know that instead of worrying you should pray. I remember to do that....sometimes. Sometimes I just worry. The Jews were always big on monuments and festivals. They were constantly surrounded by reminders of events where God had taken care of them. When pressures start getting to me, I try to think back about all the times where there is no possible explanation other than God reached down and took care of me. I think when I get into trouble is when I start thinking its up to me...

Blogger milestone

Being a fairly new blogger, I'm still fascinated by the idea that anyone would be interested in anything I had to say. I learned about the technology behind blogging several years ago. I saw some really interesting business uses for it, but personally why would anybody just post random thoughts for the whole internet to read? Over the years, I'd thought about starting one. I would start, then never find the time to write or didn't know what to write about so I would quit. Finally, I just started writing to it fairly regularly. It's been almost two months now, and I've kept it going.

I still don't know why posting random thoughts is compelling, or why anyone would read it, but I have found myself going through the day thinking about what I'm going to write. I'm hoping that I can get a better camera phone soon so that I can get some pictures on here without having to lug my digital camera around.

Anyway, the milestone that I passed yesterday was 1,000 pageviews and ironically, 500 visits. For the non-geeks in the audience, a visit is when a unique person visits a web site or blog. There is usually a time associated with visits so that if you visit the same site within a half hour (time varies) it is considered a single visit. If you visit the same site outside of that time limit, it is considered a separate visit. Within a visit, a reader may go to several different pages, each page visited would count as a pageview. A thousand pageviews isn't much for a big web site, but for some yahoo Tennessean blowing off steam every once in a while, I'm sort of proud of it.

This blog has been visited at least once by people from 22 different states as well as 8 different foreign countries. Most of the visitors have come here from my dear friend Amy Grant's blog (not her, the other one). The most visited post was the one that I did on Thorn Removal. Followed closely by the one on Getting up early.

Web site statistics is a fairly interesting subject. I'm going to create a post on my technical blog about Google Analytics which is where all of these stats are coming from. If you bloggers out there aren't familiar with it, you might find it very interesting to see who is reading what.

Could it really be that simple?

I was reading a blog concerning a fairly polarizing issue with a particular group of believers. Those on one side of the issue considered it to be a 'salvation issue' (if you do that you are lost) where others considered it to be more a matter of preference.

For years, I've been one of those that constantly worried...am I saved? how do I know? Could Jesus' blood really take care of that thing I did? I was often confused about whether I was 'good enough' (I'm not) or had done enough (I haven't) for Jesus to pick me when he comes to gather his own. I was confused many times by what I was taught. It seemed that I was being taught that someone could be lost for believing differently even though you couldn't find two people that agreed on everything.

Though I had read this story many times, the implications of it had really not hit me until someone pointed it out to me. Is this really a picture of what Jesus is going to ask at the judgement? Are these the real 'salvation issues' I think that they probably are. Maybe we should quit arguing about differences of opinion and make sure that we have these taken care of.

Prayers for a young family....

I'd like to ask you to pray for a young family that has recently had a tragic loss. Clint Gibson was a fellow that I worked with many years ago. Clint passed away a couple of weeks ago. He has a wife and two teenage children who need our prayers.