Canada is weird, eh?

Well, last week, I was in Canada. For some reason, I always think of Canada as the US extended north - not much different, just colder. Well, there are some differences.

I saw a joke book with a joke that went...

"How does a Canadian spell Canada?
C eh N eh D eh"

It is true, Canadians do say "eh" a lot at the end of things, ... , eh?

They also say "no worries." It is the appropriate response to just about anything that doesn't require a response.

I think it may rain today. No worries.
Excuse me. No worries.
Where's the rest room? Over there. Thanks. No worries.
Can I get the salad dressing on the side? No worries.

It really works with just about anything.

The other thing about Canada that I guess I knew, but was still a bit surprised about, is that they have longer days in the Summer. I walked out of the hotel at about 9:45 PM to get a late dinner and the sun didn't even look like it was about to go down. Sunset happened between 10:15 and 10:30 every night.

Fast food and Wal-mart both closed by 10:00 PM every night. Everything is in Kilometers and Celsius. It was weird to see 110 as the speed limit and a hot day at 25 degrees.

I am sure that there are other things that are weird to us Americans, but that is all I have for now.

Today is a Great Day!

Hello world,

Today is a great day! "Why?" you might ask. Today is a great day because 27 years ago, a blessing beyond my imagination was born. Of course, it took almost 24 years before we actually met.

Amy is the most beautiful girl in the world. She is the most amazing wife and wonderful mother of my child (soon to be children). She is compassionate and loving and a servant that really puts others before herself.

I just had to wake up this morning and tell the world how blessed I am and how they should join me in celebrating Amy's birthday.

Happy Birthday, Beautiful.
I love you!

Ramblings in Alabama

This morning I left for a business trip to Alabama. Once I got to the hotel, I was flipping through channels, trying to find something to watch on TV, and came across a debate of Democratic Presidential candidate hopefuls. Below are some questions asked, statements that were made, followed by my sarcastic remarks:

• What would you do in the first 100 days of being in office if you were elected?
  • Bring our troops home because we would like to give terrorist nations a chance to get organized and then start the war on American soil


• How would you improve the education system?
• Provide free preschools to all children because our coloring skills are not up to par


• Are you in favor of creating a mandatory time of military service after high school?
  • Not necessarily military, but one year of any kind of public service in exchange for 4 years of paid college because we want to devalue college education more by providing it for everyone; and, by the way, we have a plethora of good teachers to make this possible.


• What would you do in the first 100 days of being in office if you were elected?(Another response)
  • End the Genocide in Darfur(Great Cause) by leveraging China to use their influences by boycotting the Olympics since they are scheduled for Beijing because we want to offend, not only China, but the rest of the world that supports the Olympics.

So, after the debate, I was flipping again, and found Ocean's 11. What is great about that movie is that a man knows what he wants, knows he can have it, and takes it (the money and the girl).

What would happen if the Church (all Christians) knew what we wanted (what God wants), understood that all things are possible with God (Mark 10:27), and then made it happen.

After I watched the end of Ocean's 11, I turned off the TV and listened to this morning's message at Fellowship North. I can't help but feel that God is lighting a fire here and in many places. A paradigm shift is coming. The churches are going to become the Church, a wonderful bride of Christ (Revelation 19:7 and Revelation 21:2).

Ephesians 4:11-16 says it best:

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

The we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, the Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

How Beautiful...

Why don't we just do it?

Matthew 28:19 says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

In John 17:23, Jesus prays for all believers (present and future Christians) saying, "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

On Sunday, Craig Loibner spoke at Fellowship in North Little Rock mentioning both of the above verses. Christians have tried so many different tactics to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19).

We have ...

• sent missionaries all over the world


• passed out tracts


• put on conferences


• organized Christian concerts


• preached hell-fire and brimstone


• preached Grace


• invited youth to summer camps


• made marathons of alter calls singing a hymn 150 times


• fought in wars


• debated


• fasted


• prayed


• tortured


• killed

Some of these are good, others are not. We have done none of them as a unified Church.

Why do we (the body of Christ) ignore unity as a method, possibly The Method, of fulfilling the Great Commission?

Craig said some amazing things on Sunday. If you missed them, or want to hear them again, click here. If the link doesn't work, turn off your pop-up blocker (mine was Tools->Pop-up Blocker->Turn Off Pop-up Blocker).

My Space, the good and the bad

OK, so I check my MySpace account on average about once every 2 weeks or so. I have found some really good things about MySpace and some really bad.

We'll start with the bad...

Solicitation! I checked the MySpace messages today, and I had about 15 from people who have had their accounts deleted (My assumption is that they were misusing their account to solicit people). Then I had one that still had an account. It looked suspicious, but I have clicked on a suspicious one before and reconnected with people that I have not seen in ages, so I clicked on it.

It was a solicitation - the worst one that I have ever seen!

Why was it so bad? It was so bad because it was claiming the name of Christ!

I apologize for showing you this, but I have to give you an idea of what the devil is up to. Here is the banner:



So this ad is to meet Sexy Christians. It makes me sick to my stomach. My question is, Does a Christian person really think that this is an alright idea, to advertise sexy and Christian as some sort of "complete package"? I feel like this would be a situation similar to when Jesus turned over the tables of the money changers in the Temple (Mathew 21:12,Mark 11:15,John 2:15).


Now for the good...

It doesn't get any better than this. Following is a video from Jon Shirley's MySpace of him getting vaccinations before his trip to Ethiopia. I laughed so hard! If you don't know who Jon Shirley is, he was the pastor/worship leader of the River Market Church in Little Rock and is now the Worship Leader of a young adult service called The Gathering in Overland Park (Kansas City) at Heartland Community Church.

Ethiopia shots

Dreamer - I am in Trouble

So, I was sitting in my hotel room yesterday, and a movie came on that I had seen before, but this time it was a bit different. The movie was Dreamer.

It is a story about a race horse that breaks her leg and Kurt Russell buys her because her daughter doesn't want her to be put down.

Why is "I am in Trouble" in the title? Because we are about to have a little girl that I am going to have a hard time saying "no" to. I have a feeling that I am going to have to count on Amy a lot.

The movie is cheezy, but if you haven't seen it, you should. It features Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, and Elizabeth Shue and even has a theme song by Bethany Dillon - one of my favorite Christian artists.

It is just cool.

The World Before Lucy

So, I just realized that I have not posted anything about how Amy and I found out a few weeks ago that we are having a girl! We have already received lots of advice and comments on having a girl:

• "Start saving for the wedding now!"


• "She is going to have you wrapped around her finger. She'll be 'daddy's little girl.'"


• "No, no, no, no, no" (The first time we said to Eli "Are you going to have a little sister?")


• "Girls are different from boys - boys are easier"

It is very difficult to imagine what this will be like. I also remember saying that with Eli, and now it is difficult to remember what life was like before Eli. I am sure that it won't be long and we will be saying, "What was it like - The World before Lucy?"

Yes, Lucy is the name that we have settled on. I found that out the other day while on the phone with my sister. She asked if it was definitely Lucy. We had been telling people that it wasn't definite, reserving our right to change our mind. Amy overheard me trying to tell Tarah that we weren't 100%. When Amy heard this, she said, "Its Lucy ... it just is." Then she went on to tell me that she had just finished a blog titled "Lucy's bedding". She is right. The name is Lucy - I mean, there is something that makes it so natural to say "I love Lucy".

So, I am sure that there is a lot of other very good advice. Give me your 2 cents.