This guy reminds me of my dog Plato who was likely half Aussy Shepherd.
Category: Journal
My journey
What a wonderful event! We have been visiting our daughter and son-in-law this week in anticipation of this event. Our son-in-law awakened us about 4 am yesterday telling us it was time to head to the big Hartford hospital. We learned that 4000 babies per year are born there. Keely was smiling and dressed, ready to go. The hospital has birthing rooms where the family could stay for as long as the Mom wanted. We stayed through the early stages of labor to encourage but then moved about 9:25 am to the waiting room. I napped (and munched). Samuel entered this world with a hearty wail, we were told, about 11:30 am. Samuel is my middle name and my maternal grandfather’s name. Glenn is Mark’s paternal grandfather’s name. Keely did very well with just coaching and support. Labor was 11 1/2 hours, exactly the same span as for JoAnne when Keely was born. Samuel has big blue eyes and is charming everyone. Soon after he was born, I went to Logan airport in Boston to pick up Mark’s parents who are also overjoyed to be here for this occasion. I’m starting a first gallery for Sam, of course. There was no time yesterday to put things up so I’m working on it this morning.
What a joy once again to participate as a teacher at Burmese Bible School in Syracuse. I was the professor for the class, Church Leadership and Management.
For the last three weekends, the class met from roughly from 5 PM to 9 PM on Friday evening and again on Saturday from 9 AM to 4 PM with an hour for lunch. It’s a lot of concentrated class time, even with breaks for Burmese tea (I tried three kinds, one of which I liked quite well). I also taught the class two years ago, but it was a four Saturday format at that time, so I needed to reorganize my material. I also supplemented it where needed and from books I have read in the interim. Everything is translated so that the school can serve the immigrant community whose English is not yet good enough to handle classes in English alone. Pastor Than from Lyncourt translated most of the time, with Dr. Khai, head of the school, translating one Saturday. I notice in the three years I have been involved that the English level of the students is constantly improving. It keeps me extremely busy. I will only attempt it in January when the church schedule is not quite as heavy as in some months.
Categories
Fighting spam
Fighting spam is part of blogging today, I guess, unless one does away with comments. Askimet at least relegates most to the spam file. But why do I have to see it at all? Why do I have to take time nearly every day to delete spam? So I am changing my anti-spam strategy and adding a captcha to the comments. my hope is that this will keep machines away. I am sorry for the inconvenience to commenters.
In Central New York, one needs a winter pastime. JoAnne and I do jigsaw puzzles with the help of whoever happens to visit. As I mentioned, I now am doing them online occasionally too. Here’s a cut I had not seen before.
As we begin the New Year, most of us are making plans of some sort. Some of us (like me) are making plans to lose weight (again); others are making plans for major changes in their lives, a marriage, a move, or a job change. But as the New Year begins, it is also important for us to think about the spiritual plans that we should be making for the New Year, plans that can help us to grow and advance in our Christian lives.
That is the purpose of our new series of sermons that began last Sunday. Each week we will take up a new topic that represents a key area of our spiritual life. In some areas we will find the message simply affirming habits that we already have in place. In other areas, we will find ourselves deeply challenged to strengthen our walk with God, our witness, and our service.
I invite you to join us for this insightful and inspiring series. It will carry into February and be followed by our 50 Day Lenten Emphasis which will start February 19.
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Spiritual Plans for a New Year |
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Date |
Topic |
Text |
Speaker |
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Jan. 1 |
Preventing a Famine of Hearing God’s Word |
Amos 8:1-12 |
Ben Mackey |
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Jan. 8 |
Partners In the Gospel |
Philippians 1 |
Pastor Kelvin |
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Jan. 15 |
God’s Plan for Financial Stewardship |
Gen. 14:17-20; Lev. 27:30-32; Mal. 3:6-12; Matt. 23:23,24 |
Pastor Kelvin |
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Jan 22 |
The Power of Testimony |
Revelation 12 |
Pastor Kelvin |
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Jan 29 |
Bring the Sacrifice of Praise |
Hebrews 13:1-21 |
Pastor Kelvin |
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Feb 5 |
Using Our Abilities for God |
Matt. 25:14-30 |
Pastor Eric |
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Feb 12 |
(Preschool Sunday –family emphasis) |
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I read a great quote this evening that is worth posting. It helps provide prospective for the New Year too. I’m enjoying the book very much.
“The happiest people are those who have invested their time in others. The unhappiest people are those who wonder how the world is going to make them happy.” (John C. Maxwell in Be a People Person, 2007, p. 20)
Categories
In the Word in a New Year
As a new year begins, I always take time to deliberately pray about and plan for my personal devotional life in the coming year. I use the New Year as a time for revamping it so that personal time alone with God does not get stale. Intentional change keeps it fresh and meaningful. Sometimes gifts that I receive are helpful hints. This year I received a book of weekly devotionals called Living by Faith written by a friend from college, David Venable. David was principal of a large Christian school in the Philippines for many years. We have kept in touch through Christmas letters. I plan to read it as part of my devotions this year. I’m looking forward to it.
This year I also believe it is time for me to return to sequential Bible reading—that is reading straight through books or sections of Scripture. I think everyone should do this some years. If you can average 3-4 chapters per day you can read the Bible through in one year. Those not familiar with the timeline of the Bible either need a Bible handbook to help them place the books in history or they might try reading a chronological Bible—a Bible with the texts arranged in historical order. This past year I read Scriptures associated with the devotional book I was using. They were chosen topically. But the key thing is to have a plan for being in Scripture each day. The Holy Spirit works through Scripture to shape our Christian lives.
I find it meaningful to mark in my Bible too. I use children’s color pencils for highlighting and I use pens to make notes as well. I love Bibles with wide margins so I have a place to write. I have noted dates I have prayed through a Scripture for a family member; Scriptures I received as promises on particular occasions; outlines from Bible studies or from sermons I heard; and scribbled notes on a Greek word I looked up, to name a few kinds of notations. It adds immeasurably to my future studies of those same passages.
As I look into 2012 devotions, I think I also need to do more with planning my prayer time.
Sometimes its good to distract oneself with a game or a puzzle. It gives the mind a rest from the normal concerns, forces it to use rusty corners and actually sparks creativity. It’s also a healthy habit to try something new once in a while too. E. Stanley Jones had a motto to break up one old habit each day just for the sake of keeping flexible. Tonight I did both. I found a jigsaw site online and tried a puzzle cut in tretris shapes. I was a little slow getting started but soon was getting the hang of it and had it all together.
Setting a goal encouraged us to invite others
Some of you have asked me already, “Did we make 500?” I almost don’t want to answer the question because I am so excited about all the great events that happened over our Christmas weekend. Numerous family groups were here in force and I saw many new faces as well. The Christmas Eve music was super inspiring and our children and teens put the weekend over the top with their Christmas musical. But, the answer is, no, we didn’t reach 500 total attendance for our three Christmas weekend services. In fact, we did not get very close to the number goal. But having talked to families and friends as they gathered both on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, I am convinced that we had between 60 and 100 more people than we would’ve had if we had not set a big goal and stretched. The actual total of 370 included many family and friends that had been invited because we had set a goal. John Abbott expressed what I heard from many. He came with a friend that I did not recognize. Knowing he was from a large family of brothers, I asked, “Is this one of your brothers?” He replied, “It’s one of the men who works with me; you said bring a friend, so I did.” That spirit seemed to pervade the congregation both on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning as there were many family members and guests who had been invited to celebrate Christ’s birth with us. Other pastors who had services on Christmas day found their attendance on the low side. But because of our children’s musical and our efforts to invite friends, our Christmas morning attendance (145) was significantly higher than our average attendance. It was also a good thing that we had two Christmas Eve services because fitting everyone who came into one would have been extremely cozy (6 PM 160; 8:30 PM 65).
A wonderful Spirit of worship and a great play
The most touching report that I heard concerning the Christmas services was Kim Ouderkirk’s report of the children’s prayer time as they prepared to perform their Christmas morning play. One prayed something like this, “Dear Jesus, we have received so many gifts; now please help us give our gift to you.” That is priceless. Another prayed that someone would open their heart to Jesus because of the play. The children’s’ prayers were so moving that some adults left the room to staunch their own tears. Then they went out and delivered a nearly flawless performance, remembering all their lines and showing that they definitely know how to act a part. The message of the play that God’s gift to us of his Son Jesus along with the salvation that he brings to us is the greatest gift of all was crystal clear. Afterward the congregation gave them a standing ovation. Our thanks go to Kim Ouderkirk for her leadership, to all who helped her, to the teens and children for their hard work, and to the parents who cooperated by adjusting home schedules on Christmas so that we could tell Jesus’ story and honor him in this important way on his birthday. And they accomplished all this while also working around the 50th anniversary renovations of the sanctuary.