The Principle And The Path

There are many books I read once and enjoy. There are some books I read once and regret that I lost those hours out of my life. And then there are some books I read over and over again.  Yesterday I finished one of those books.  The Principle and the Path, by Andy Stanley, is one of those books that doesn’t tell you anything you don’t already know, but it tells you in a way that grabs you by the collar and demands your attention.  Where we end up in life, in every aspect of life, is determined by the direction we have traveled.  Sounds simple, but how often do people end up in a bad place in life and then act surprised, when at the same time, everyone around them sees their predicament as the expected result of the direction they had been traveling.

We all think we are the exception to the rule. When it comes to our marriages, our kids, our money, our health, and our walk with the Lord, we think that somehow things will just work out for us. Even though most people’s neglect of those key areas of life end in destruction, it will be different for us.  Andy Stanley reminds us that this is an absurd way of thinking.  We are not the exception!

Our destination is not determined by our desire or our intentions.  Our destination in every area of life is determined by the day-by-day direction we have been heading for months and years.

Yesterday was the first day of my annual study retreat.  This is a time I get away and read, pray and write.  These are such refreshing times for me.  And I don’t think there could have been a better book to start the week. I recommend this short book to every father, mother, teen, ministry leader, influencer…

If you need a wake-up call, you will find it in this book!

Pastor Noel

Prep for Tomorrow

Tomorrow's message outline is printed in the bulletin, and Carla did the projection slides for me yesterday, but I need today to polish things up a bit.  So it is a study day.

I will be preaching on the Six Actions of a Healthy Family from Ephesians 5:22-25; 6:1-4.   I am really looking forward to sharing this on Mother's Day.

I ran across an illustration in my reading today that is way too corny to use in a message, but some of you will enjoy.  Here it is:

Recipe For Child Raising
 1 cup of Proverbs 22:6
 2 Tablespoons of Proverbs 19:13
 1 Dash of Proverbs 23:13
 1 Teaspoon of Proverbs 3:5
 1/2 cup of Titus 2:3 through 7
 Mix all the ingredients, add a pound of persistence, one cup of love, and whip until right consistency. This recipe is recommended by the Creator of Mankind.
 Please add a pinch of Ephesians 6:4

(I will list the Scripture verses below.)

So now I am going to sit out on the deck, and obey 1 Timothy 4:13, "Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine."  I'm reading "The Fulfilled Family" by John MacArthur.  Good book.  You can purchase it from Amazon.  (Soon, when our construction is complete, we will have books like this that relate to Sunday's messages for sale in our bookstore each week.)

Remember, our new Connect Group semester begins tomorrow.  If you haven't yet signed up for a group, just come a little early, and you can get signed up at the main welcome center in the worship center foyer.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

Pastor Noel

--------

Proverbs 22:6 - Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 19:13 - A foolish son is the ruin of his father, And the contentions of a wife are a continual dripping.
Proverbs 23:13 - Do not withhold correction from a child, For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.
Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;
Titus 2:3 - the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things—
Ephesians 6:4 - And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

Audio Books

I enjoy listening to many audio books.  In fact, just today I finished "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy: A Righteous Gentile Vs. The Third Reich".  An excellent book about a great theologian I knew very little about before, but now am very inspired by.  (I know that was poor grammar.)

Today I ran across a free audio book of a great book I read a few weeks ago:  Adopted for Life by Russell Moore.  If you would like to listen to this book, you can download it for free here.  I promise you won't be disappointed.  You may be challenged and convicted, but not disappointed.

Pastor Noel

Graduation and Recitals

This has been a busy week, not a good week to have a cold. Today there is a homeschool recital and then a graduation service to follow. Tonight is dance recital number two. Wednesday's recital lasted until nearly 11:00 p.m.! But the nine minutes my girls were dancing were really exciting. During the other three hours and twenty one minutes I read the new Craig Groeschel book, The Christian Atheist. Pretty good book.

Two big events coming up at the church...

Youth leave for youth camp this Sunday!

VBS begins the following week (6/26)!

Be in prayer for these events.

By the way, a lady in our church, Tonya Carlisle, is expecting to give birth to her baby today. She is only at 34 weeks, so we are all in prayer for mom and baby.

Pastor Noel

Men's Connect Groups -- Part 2

Below is another email I sent out to all of the men in our church for whom we have an email in our system. For some of our men we either don't have an email at all or we have an incorrect email. So, here it is...

-----

Dear Men of First Heath,

This morning, let me recommend another men's connect group for next semester...

About a year ago I picked up a book someone had recommended to me called Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I don't think at that point I had even had heard of Francis Chan. The book was short and easy to read, so it didn't take long to get through, but wow! It turned out to be one of the very best books I've ever read.

Crazy Love is about how much God loves us and how we can be closer to Him. And while that seems like the theme to a hundred thousand books, this book is different. This book is so genuine and so fresh, I promise it will change your outlook and understanding of how much God loves people.

This next Connect Ministry semester, Sam Smith, who I think read the book about the same time I did, will be leading a connect group centered around a study of this book.

This would be a great group for all of our men, young or old, new Christian or long-time Christian.

The group will meet at the church each Monday, at 6:00 a.m..

If you would like just a taste of what the book is about, visit the website www.CrazyLoveBook.com and watch some of the brief videos there.

You can see all of the men's groups on our website: www.FirstBaptistHeath.com. Click on "Love People" and then on the link for our Connect Group Catalogue.

To sign-up for this group or any other group, just visit our website or call our church office (740-522-5245). If you have any questions about the groups that are offered, email our small groups pastor, Pastor Shawn (Shawn@FBCHO.com), and he will be glad to help you.

In Christ,
Pastor Noel

Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe

There are two things on my mind this morning as I do a little studying and praying about what is on the horizon at First Baptist Church of Heath…

First, I am looking forward to our new message series that begins this Sunday. After spending six weeks focusing on just two chapters in the Book of Revelation, now we are going to skip around the Bible for the next six weeks. I am borrowing this series title from a Larry Osborne book I read a while back. As soon as I saw the book title, I thought this would make a great message series if the Lord gave me liberty to preach it. So the title of our upcoming series is “Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe”. Larry, in his book, identifies ten of these dumb things. In my message series, I plan to address six. Three of mine are similar to his; three are different. Here is my list…


Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe
• Myth #1: Your Conscience Should Be Your Guide (9/13)

• Myth #2: Dead People Go To A Better Place (9/20)

• Myth #3: God Helps Those Who Help Themselves (9/27)

• Myth #4: God Forgets All Our Sins (10/4)

• Myth #5: God Has A Blueprint For My Life (10/11)

• Myth #6: All Things Work Together For Your Good (10/18)

Invite your friends, family, and co-workers. Let’s see how God’s Word can encourage us as we learn the truth about these myths.

Second, I have received much positive feedback from our on-line quiet time encouragement videos. Tomorrow (9/8) I will begin to focus on the Gospel of John. If you would like to join me for these quiet times for a few weeks, this would be a good place to start.

The best way to begin is to watch the video I made on how to have a quiet time. Then just jump in with the rest of us tomorrow morning!

For the introduction video, click here.

For the daily quiet time videos, click here.

Invite your friends, family, and co-workers to join in. The website is MyMornings.Blogspot.com.

Pastor Noel

Columbine

I just finished the book, Columbine, by Dave Cullen. It tells the story of what really happened at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, when two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Kiebold killed twelve students and one teacher and injured many more before committing suicide.

It was a very interesting book… more than you would think, though it is difficult to read because of the very offensive language.

There are many lessons to be learned from this tragic event. People involved in law enforcement, school administration, media, and those responsible for emergency response or security for a large facility should definitely read this book.

I’m not involved in any of those fields, so I read the book as a father of two pre-pre-teens and as a pastor. Here are some of the lessons I learned and a few truths that I was reminded of…

• Media reports of anything beyond the basic facts of a news event are mostly wrong! Most of what you know about the Columbine event is wrong: the background of the killers, the kind of people who were targeted, the motives, the events of the stand-off… With the Columbine tragedy certain wrong information was given by the media in the beginning and even when it was clearly shown to be wrong, the media stuck with it because it was more ‘interesting’ than the truth. It seems every time I am involved in a news event or have some knowledge of what really happened, I am amazed and surprised at how the newspaper reports differ from what really happened.

• Having a two parent home with a stay-at-home mother doesn’t guarantee your kids will turn out great. Parents need to be committed to being involved in their kid’s lives beyond just providing a stable home. Parenting must always be active; never passive.

• Parents should take seriously the warning signs of aberrant behavior. While much of the time there may not be reason for alarm, we should not operate from that assumption. I know from the few suicide cases I’ve been involved with that this truth is too often ignored.

• Having a relationship with Christ really does make a difference in the way we are able to handle tragedy. There really is a peace that passes understanding! The author, while definitely not writing from a Christian perspective, remarked at how very different the reactions were between the Christian parents and the non-Christian parents when the bad news started pouring in.

• In a tragedy, churches should focus on caring for and loving people not on aggressive outreach. The Holy Spirit will draw people to Christ. In the midst of a tragedy, our first response should be love in deed and in word. I believe in evangelism, but the message from the church to the world should be that we love you and Christ loves you, not that we want to take advantage of a difficult situation to ‘sign you up’. If a church doesn’t have a stronger witness and testimony in the community a year after the tragedy, then the church didn’t respond in the right way.

• It is never right to exaggerate or embellish a story to accomplish a good and noble purpose. Some of the great stories of Christian faith that could have come from this event have been lost because well meaning Christians encouraged or embraced known exaggerations, and when the embellishments were proved inaccurate, the whole story lost credibility. God will never bless an untruth, no matter our good intentions.

Pastor Noel

Study Retreat

Well, I'm in Greensboro, NC this morning heading back to Ohio after spending a great week getting away to do some studying. I am both exhausted and refreshed... and I am very much looking forward to tomorrow.

Let me say a giant thank you to my wife and girls for allowing me to be away from the family for seven days. This wasn't the easiest week for them for me to be gone. They are so supportive of me, though. I've got the greatest family in the world.

Also a big thanks to Pastor Wally, Pastor Shawn, and Pastor Troy for holding down the fort while I was away. Either everything went great while I was gone or they've done a good job of keeping anyone from calling me and telling me what went wrong. Either way is good. Thanks for all of your extra work.

I am thankful for a church that allows me to take a pause in my schedule like this and spend a week focused on the ministry of prayer and the Word.

Let me share with you what I was able to get done in a week's time...

I was able to have six extended, uninterrupted, unhurried devotional times of Bible reading and prayer. That was very refreshing!

I was able to read four books... One on writing (called "On Writing"), one on time management, one on how to better study and prepare, and one on apologetics. The last one I would recommend to you. It is called "The Reason for God" by Timothy Keller. Keller is a pastor of a very large church in New York City. He spends a lot of time ministering to a crowd of people who have many intellectual and cultural objections to believing in Jesus Christ. In this book he shares how our faith can best be taught and defended in a modern culture.

I was also able to write 65 pages on a project that will form the basis for a sermon series in the Fall. As a church we will use this both as a sermon series and also in new member training. More to come...

This has been my most productive study week ever.

----

I am really looking forward to tomorrow. Four big events have got my motor running...

First, I will be preaching a message in the morning service on having margin in our lives and in our marriages. I have been looking forward to preaching this message for six weeks.

Second, we will be worshiping through the Lord's Supper in a very different way tomorrow. I've never done this before so I don't know for sure how it will go, but I am excited. During all of my time tomorrow when I'm not preaching (we will be having three worship services tomorrow, more on that in a moment), I will be leading in worship through the Lord's Supper in my study. I will meet with the church body, one family at a time, every seven minutes, for prayer and worship. I think the deacons have a great system worked out to make this a very special time for our church. Carla told me this week that so far we've got people signed up for every seven minutes until sometime past 9:00 p.m. It will be a long day, but I am looking forward to it. There are still slots available if your family hasn't signed up yet, but they are all after 9:00. We may do this again the following week to accommodate those we couldn't fit in this week, but I'm not sure. I'm trying to move some things around on my schedule to make it work.

Third, we will have a 'members only' preview of our new 'Sunday Extra Worship.' Beginning next week we will be re-doing our Sunday morning worship service on Sunday evenings after our regular Sunday evening service. I know that sounds complicated, you'll have to hear more as we talk about it at church tomorrow if you don't already know how it works. Our prayer is that this new service will do two things... First that it will help relieve the overcrowding in the morning service, and secondly that it will allow us to reach people we could never have reached before. We will be doing something special in the 'preview' tomorrow.

The fourth special thing tomorrow is a special announcement we will be making. I have been working with the leaders of our church for a few months on a special project that I think is going to be the key to our church reaching a new level in its outreach and its ministry. We have worked and prayed very hard to get this put together. Tomorrow we will be able to share the good news...

Well, I need to get on the road so I can see my family...

Pastor Noel

Question of the Day

I bought a new book a few days ago to help teach my kids critical thinking skills. We read a few questions from the book when we got back to the car from the store. See how well you do on one of them. (Hannah, my nine year old, beat me to the answer on this one. It only took her about two minutes to figure out a very simple solution.)

Imagine you are in a room with three light switches. Each of these light switches is connected to a lamp in another room. You cannot see, in any way from one room to the other. So three switches in one room, and three lamps in the other room. Your job is to figure out which switch controls which lamp. You start off in the room with the switches. You may stay there as long as you would like trying to figure out your plan. Then you go to the room with the lamps and you have to identify which lamp is controlled by which switch in thirty seconds without leaving the room.

OK. Put on your thinking caps. Don't let a nine-year-old beat you...

On to more important things...

We had two very good services yesterday. I appreciate the way pastor Wally led the morning service and pastor Shawn led the evening praise service. It is good to have people like them I can depend upon.

This week is a 'get organized' week for the new year. Carla, Linda, and Sharron (all three office workers) are on vacation this week. How did that happen? It will be an interesting week :).

We have two people from our church in critical condition in area hospitals. Pray that I will have the right words to minister to and encourage these families.

Let me show you something from my devotion time this morning...

I was reading in Acts 6 about steps the Apostles were taking to stay focused on their core ministries of prayer and the Word. Acts 6:7 describes how the ministry of the church expanded when the Apostles were able to focus on the right things. But what is very interesting is how 'the expansion of the ministry' is described here...

Acts 6:7 Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

Notice that instead of saying the ministry expanded, the writer of Acts says, "the word of God spread."

With the aid of a chart in the study Bible I was using this morning I found three other verses in Acts that use similar phrases...

Acts 12:24 But the word of God grew and multiplied.

Acts 13:49 And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region.

Acts 19:20 So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.

So what does it mean that the word of God grew? Did it get bigger? Longer? No. The impact of the word increased in lives and churches and communities!

In the book of Acts, real ministry expansion is seen in terms of the word of God going forth and making changes in people's lives. One of my prayers for our church in 2009 is that the effectiveness of our ministries would be measured by the same standard. As we count things to determine our progress, let us focus on the real question of the day from the book of Acts, "Has the WORD increased?"

Pastor Noel

Riven

Last night I finally finished a book I have been reading for a month...

Riven, by Jerry Jenkins

Jenkins is the author who wrote the Left Behind series. I read a little bit of those and did not really enjoy them or agree with some of the theology, so I was doubtful that I would like Riven, but a neighbor recommended it at a time I wanted some light reading. I decided to give it a try. Over 500 pages later (it has been forever since I have read a fiction book that long) I can say it was a fun read. You won't learn anything new in the book; it isn't meant to teach theology or doctrine; it doesn't explore any controversial subjects... it is just a feel good story that shows how the grace and sovereignty of God can change lives.

It is an encouraging book on many levels. It deals with marriage, ministry, parenting, failures, skeptics, prayer, suffering, and so on.

If you are looking for a pleasant and godly distraction for a while... if you are looking for something to replace TV entertainment for a while (which wouldn't hurt any of us), this book would be an excellent diversion.

People often ask me what I am reading (and I often ask other people what they are reading). I read a lot of different kinds of books, some you would think very odd (I read "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" a few months ago... very interesting...) Here is a run down of recent and current books...

I just finished "Pilgrim's Progress" in audio format. I've been listening to that book while bike riding recently. If you haven't read that, you should. I had read it in college, but forgotten most of it.

Last week I re-read, "The Cross of Christ" by John Scott. This is not light reading, but if you really want to understand the why's of Christ dying on the cross, there is no better book. If you think, "Hey, I already know all of that." You are WRONG! Read the book. You will be amazed all over at the grace of God.

Last night after I finished Riven, I started reading a business book someone recommended to me, "What Got You Here Won't Get You There" by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter. I haven't read enough to know if I would recommend this or not.

Pastor Noel

The Shack

Several people have asked me my thoughts on the very popular William Young book called, The Shack. The first I heard of the book was in July. My wife and I were in Myrtle Beach having dinner with some friends right after one of them had just finished reading the book. She said it was the most unusual book she had read. She had it with her and told me I could take it and read it.

I hardly ever read Christian fiction, so I thought, “This will sit on my night stand for months.” (Although, I should say that the Christian fiction book by Randy Alcorn called Safely Home is one of the best five books I have ever read in my life. You can read my blog post about that book here.)

The book did sit on my night stand for several weeks, but it seemed someone new would ask me about the book every few days. So last week I picked it up and read it. What do I think about this controversial book? Well...

In short, I don’t think it would be a helpful book for a non-believer wanting to know more about God or young Christian not yet very grounded in the Word.

The book is full of ‘theology’. It presents an unorthodox view of God, the Trinity, and God’s relationship with man. Most of the ‘theology’ presented is OK if you remember this is a fictional book that is trying to make a point by painting a caricature of God. The caricature resembles the truth we know about God from Scripture, but a caricature always shows things out of proportion, and this book definitely does that.

For certain, there are many things in the book that flat contradict Scripture. To name a few...

William Young’s explanation of the role (and sin) of authority (God’s authority, man’s authority, submission to authority) is blatantly wrong. The Bible tells us repeatedly of the authorities God has set up and our responsibility to those authorities. The Bible teaches that we can’t be right with God unless we are also right the with authorities in our lives. In the Bible we see authority not as something that clouds our understanding of God, but just the opposite. God sets up systems of authority to teach us how to relate to Him. Understanding, respecting, and submitting to authority is the KEY to a close walk with the Lord. There is nothing more central to Scripture whether you are reading the law, the proverbs, the prophets, the gospels, or the epistles. The Shack misses this completely. The book teaches that no hierarchy can be found in the Trinity of God or has been instituted by God on earth. The only problem with that is the many verses that talk about the submission of God the Son to the authority of God the Father, the many verses that talk about the submission we should have to the governmental authorities that God has established, the many verses that talk about how authority and submission should work in a marriage and with kids, the many verses that talk about how authority should be organized in a church, and the many Bible warnings about the sin of rebellion against God ordained authorities. The Shack is wrong about authority!

Secondly, the Trinity is badly maligned in the book. When God gave us the Bible, He showed us the right way to look at the Trinity. God chose to describe the relationship between the ‘Godheads’ as the relationship of a Father, a Son, and a Spirit. It is no small thing to just change imagery for ‘shock’ effect or to get people to think of God in a new way. There are some things that are sacred. God is ALWAYS presented in His perfect Word as the Father, Son, and Spirit. Tinkering with that can’t be good, and saying, there is a better way to understand that relationship than the way God has revealed it to us borders on blaspheme.

The book’s worst error, however, is in how it presents God with a benevolence that precludes wrath. The book hints that there may be other parts of God that we cannot understand that explain why He appears to have wrath and anger, but the image of God that we come away with is of a God that does not have standards, expectations, or the anger and wrath that come because of the violation of these. If you know much about Scripture (the only authoritative source we have on the nature of God), then I don’t have to list the thousands of verses that show that while God is love and has provided for our sins to be forgiven, He is also a God of justice and of wrath. I’m sure you remember the stories of Jesus making whips and driving out the money changers. I’m sure you’ve read of God’s many judgments upon the earth. I’m sure you know the standard of church discipline that God instructs the New Testament church to hold. I’m sure you noticed that Jesus taught as much about the fires of hell as He did the forgiveness of God. There seems to be a new PC (political correctness) among many Bible teachers. In many of these modern movements and modern views of God, people feel like they have to clean up God’s image and omit much of what the Bible clearly teaches. I think this is very unfortunate.

So, do I recommend the book? No. I wouldn’t recommend it. In all honesty, I did enjoy the book. And I was personally challenged in some areas. But without a very firm grounding in Scripture, I believe many readers will come away with an extremely skewed view of God.

My fear with this book is that many people will develop their understanding of God more from this than from Scripture. I know people who have read the 250+ pages of The Shack that hadn’t read the New Testament even once in the past year. For those people, this emotional book will warp their view of God in a way they may never recover from. Some have said, that it is great news that this Christian book has been on the best seller lists for weeks. I disagree. I cringe every time I hear that someone else has started reading it.

Pastor Noel Dear

God Should Not Be Our Priority!

I was reading a book at lunch today called The Shack by William Young. Many people have asked me about my opinion on this best-seller and the theology it teaches, and once I'm finished with the book, I will post my view. But I ran across a very interesting and insightful paragraph today that I want to share with you. I have changed the names a little so this will make better sense to those who have not read the book and thus don't know the characters...

"The trouble with living by priorities," [the Holy Spirit] spoke, "is that it sees everything as a hierarchy, a pyramid, and you and I have already had that discussion. If you put God at the top, what does that really mean and how much is enough? How much time do you give me before you can go on about the rest of your day, the part that interests you so much more?" [God the Father] interrupted. "You see, Mackenzie, I don't just want a piece of you and a piece of your life. Even if you were able, which you are not, to give me the biggest piece, that is not what I want. I want all of you and all of every part of you and your day." Jesus now spoke again. "Mack, I don't want to be first among a list of values; I want to be the center of everything. When I live in you, then together we can live through everything that happens to you. Rather than a pyramid, I want to be the center of a mobile, where everything in your life--your friends, family, occupation, thoughts, activities-- is connected to me but moves with the wind, in and out and back and forth, in an incredible dance of being."

The phrase that most caught my attention was, "I don't want to be first among a list of values; I want to be the center of everything."

The real question is not, "How big a part of your life will you give to the Lord?" It isn't even, "What priority is God going to take in your life?" The real question is whether or not your focus stays on Him in everything you do... job... family... hobbies... ministry... and so on...

Pastor Noel

Has That Always Been There?

Do you ever read a passage of Scripture in your daily devotion times and think, "Has that always been there?" Perhaps it is a sign of early senility or maybe it is a case of seeing what you need to see when you need to see it, but it happens to me repeatedly. I try to read through the New Testament fairly often and I use a plan to keep track of it and make sure I don't leave anything out or skip anything before I begin again, but still, every few days I run across something I don't remember reading before. It happened today...

I was reading in Hebrews. In chapter six I came to the familiar first few verses about the once for all sacrifice of Christ, then I came to verses seven and eight...

Hebrews 6:7-8 NIV Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8 But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.

Has that always been there?

I am the land that drinks in the rain. The rain is the Word of God that I read, and hear, and study. The question is what kind of 'crop' is resulting from all of that rain on the land. Where I live, my front yard is 80% grass, but my back yard is 80% weeds. When the rain comes, in the front yard it yields grass, in the back yard, the same rain yields weeds.

These verses got me thinking about the 'output' and the 'yield' of my life. There is certainly no defiency in the rain. (God waters my life regularly with His perfect word.) But I wonder if my life is producing more savory herbs and fruit (I just looked it up, that is what the word for 'crops' in this verse means) or more thorns and thistles.

These verses go on to say God will bless the life of those who produce the good crop. I want to my life to fall into that category! I think it is time to make a list of what is coming out of my life, positive and negative. How and I influencing others? Is the fruit of my life and ministry sweet, life changing, and God honoring? Or is it thorny and thistley (I know it's not a word)?

This just might turn into a Sunday evening sermon.

Well, what else is going on in the world?

George and Stephanie Lambert (some friends of mine that many of you have been praying for) won the court battle to take permanent custody of some children that were growing up in a very bad situation. As it turned out, they didn't even have to go before the judge. The biological family gave in to their wishes and signed over custody just hours before the court hearing.

I'm finishing up Freedomnomics by John R. Lott. It is a great book. If you read Freakonomics last year when it was so popular, then you need to read Freedomnomics. Freakonomics attacked many of the things we as Christians hold dear and it made a pretty bold argument for more abortions AND it made it seem like there was indisputable proof that abortion was a good thing for America. Well the falacies are uncovered in Freedomnomics. It is very enlightening. The part I'm reading now talks about how women sufferage changed the moral fabric and the political landscape of our country. I'm all for women voting, but this is scary!

These books aren't Christian books, they are half social commentary and half history (and half math), but they speak to many contemporary issues. If you are interested in reading them, start with Freakonomics, but make yourself a commitment that if you read the 'Freak' book that you will definately read the 'Freedom' book. If you don't, then you will just be disillusioned.

Donna and I just celebrated our 12 year wedding anniversary. We spent a couple days in Cleveland, just knocking around. If I weren't a preacher I would tell you she and I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame while we were there. Some of it was interesting; much of it was boring. I didn't know who most of the people were. They had on display the costumes that these old 'rock stars' would wear in their concerts. Many of them looked like some of my little girl's dress up clothes... lacy... frilly... wierd. I saw the old albums and concert posters for the Platters. My dad played the saxophone with them for some of their studio recordings years ago. That was neat to see. I mean, it would have been neat to see if I weren't I preacher and I would have gone there.

Well, that should be enough blogging for August. :)

Noel

After three days of searching the river, no body was found :)