This is my family

It's been a while since I blogged - so here goes nothing.

This is my family. I love them. Period

My kids were away at camp this week. I now miss them.  Will pick them up tomorrow.  Back to life, back to reality!

The Greatest Christmas Gift Ever!

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” I John 4:10 NIV84 The Christmas season is my favorite time of the year. My family and I eagerly await this time because of the great joy it brings to not only to our family, but also to many people all around the world. It is such a special time because it is the time that we celebrate the God of this universe, the creator of everything; coming to this little speck in the universe, we call Earth. We celebrate what theologians call, “the Incarnation” of Christ. This means that Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, took on human flesh and lived with us. He was born a human baby, grew to be a man, the God-man and then died for the sins of humanity, but then He rose again, conquering Satan, Sin and Death and ascended into heaven. Therefore, now we eagerly await the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. What makes Jesus’ life on Earth so significant was the mission that He was sent to fulfill. His mission was to take on the sins of all humanity, past present and future, and die on across, atoning for these sins. God loved us so much that the only way He could have a friendship with us was to make a way for us to have a relationship with Him. God had to deal with the problem of our sin. Our sin was such a big deal that He had to send Himself, His Son, to atone for our sins and because of that, we now have a relationship with God. The crazy part was that He did this because He wanted to! It was out of His mercy His grace and ultimately His love that He did this for us, even though we did not even want it or even knew we needed it! We celebrate Christmas by the giving and exchanging of gifts and many of us attribute that to the Magi/Wise men giving gifts to Jesus. However, in reality, the first gift that was given was the gift that God gave to us. This gift of eternal life was given to us by Jesus who came to pay the penalty for our sins. If we repent of our sins and follow Jesus, then we, too, can have eternal life with God while we live on this earth and later in heaven when we pass. My challenge to all of us is as we exchange gifts this year is to remember to give thanks to God for the incredible gift that He gave to us – JESUS! As the Apostle John states so simply, “This is love” – the love of Jesus that was demonstrated for us on the cross. Let us then, being motivated by our love for Jesus, be like our generous God and share the gift of the Gospel with others as we live our lives for Him and love those that we interact with on a daily basis.

Logos Bible Software is giving away thousands of dollars of prizes to celebrate the launch of Logos Bible Software 4 Mac on October 1. Prizes include an iMac, a MacBook Pro, an iPad, an iPod Touch, and more than 100 other prizes!

They’re also having a special limited-time sale on their Mac and PC base packages and upgrades. Check it out!

Does the way I live life warrant an explanation?

I heard a sermon yesterday by Francis Chan in which he quoted this statement, "Christians today ought to live a life that demands an explanation." Amen! Our lives should different than the lives of the people we see everyday. So, does your life look different? Does my life look different?

I think that for far too long, our lives have been to similar to the lives of the people we encounter everyday, and like the old frog in the warm pot of water story, we are slowly getting boiled by the trappings of our society. We must learn to live in the tension of being in this world, but not of it. We are aliens, pilgrims, outsiders in this world, but so many of us forget this. We so badly want to fit it and not be seen as outsiders, but Jesus was the ultimate outsider. He lived such a radically different life, yet, he could relate and connect with everyone, except for the religious people! So, what are the implications for me? I need to live a life that is radically different, that people would see my life, the life of my family and wonder, why are they different? What makes them tick? Ultimately, our lives should display the fruit of the Spirit and this will either have one of two effects on people, one of attraction to Christ because they want what I have, or repulsion, because they are running away from God and trying to stick to their sin, their functional god or idol.

I hope and pray that God would use me and my family to help bring more and more people into his saving grace, into his kingdom. Jesus do your thing through me and help me get out of the way.

First Post

Well, here goes nothing!