everything shapes us

i just got finished making myself a nice bowl of icecream. as i was putting the icecream in the bowl a weird sensation came over me, and i asked myself what time is it?

why did i ask that? well because i remember growing up, and after dinner, we would play for a little while and promptly at 8pm, eat our icecream. never before, but i also don't remember delaying this event much either. and so, some 20 years later, i still feel weird about eating icecream in my house if it isn't around 8pm.

so that got me thinking a little more of my "growing up" years. another memory is dad coming home from work in his suit, and disappearing into his bedroom. when he emerged a few minutes later, he had transformed from a "professional businessman" into - how do i put it??- a 13 year olds worst nightmare, if you happened to have friends over. he would confidently greet everyone in his green sleeveless t-shirt, sweatpants, hiked up ever so slightly to reveal his dress socks and house shoes.

now where do i find myself. i rarely change out of my dress shoes, and i am certain my kids will be having fits when they are old enough to notice my attire.

fun times for sure!! what else has shaped me? well, quite simply......everything!!
god has a lot of work to do!

10 ways i have changed

was turned on to this blog by my good friend george. i spent some time tonight reading his posts and came across this one. i can relate to all 10 (except for maybe the bible is simpler. i would need more clarification to agree with him totally on that one), so i decided to share:

Ten Ways I’ve Changed

1. My circle of essential beliefs is smaller than before.

2. My loyalty to Jesus as presented in the Gospels is greater than before.

3. The Church is larger, more inclusive and less local than before.

4. The Bible is simpler than before.

5. My theology is more efficient. (That is, it more quickly moves to Jesus and the Gospel, avoiding more detours, side roads and cul de sacs.)

6. The Kingdom of God is more present and fundamental than before.

7. My vocation is more satisfying than before.

8. My spirituality is more “Jesus-shaped” than before.

9. My orthodoxy is far more generous than before.

10. The Gospel is more vital to every aspect of my life than before.

call it emerging, emergent, repainting, reevisioning or whatever else you want, but this is the journey i have been on for sometime now. just glad i still believe in grace!!! i am certain i will need it.

jam packed sunday

had a jammed pack sunday today! we got off to an early start and assembled with the crossroads church in floyd, in. it was a good experience. got to finally meet one of my electronic friends, who i have only been in dialogue with via email. he was much like i expected. after service, i pulled another adam and put my bible and day calendar on top of the car while putting kylie in her seat. and as expected forgot it was up there, until we were long gone. jody and i ran back to see if i could recover it, but to no avail. that is probably the 4th or 5th time i have done that! it was frustrating to say the least. had lunch with jody and his wife missy, and their two kids. it was a very pleasant afternoon, and my family enjoyed our time together.

emily, then went straight to a baby shower and was there the rest of the afternoon. when she got home we had to prepare for our small group. our verse this week was i peter 4:10:

"each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering god's grace in it's various forms."

couple things about this verse. one, we all, by god's grace, have been gifted. and these gifts are to be used to serve other people. two, god's grace can take on various shapes in our lives and the lives of the one's we are serving. it is quite amazing to think we can steward god's grace to others. again, it is not anything i can brag about, because it is only by the grace of god that i have the gift in the first place!! once again, it is humbling to truly understand this passage of scripture.

this is derby week, so there are all kinds of festivities planned in louisville. we hope to get to spend some good times with friends, toward the end of this week, and family over the weekend.

reds update - we took 2 out of 3 in san fran. we scored 20 runs in the last two games. hopefully some indication our offense is coming out of it's long slumber. we hit the road for 3 in st. louis (critical games), and 3 in atlanta. it would be nice to take 4 of 6, and head back home with some momentum built up. we are still 4 games under .500.

blogging for it's own sake

felt like blogging, just to blog. beautiful weather here in louisville, the last couple of days. had many opportunities to spend some time outside. family came downtown this afternoon and we spent the good portion of an hour playing at waterfront park. it is a great park for kids and they really seemed to enjoy it. if we could do that everyday, it would be like heaven on earth for me. great break to the day, and always good to see my wife and kids. puts things right back in perspective for me.

in-laws are in town tonight visiting some family. they stopped by for a short visit, and then met some of their family for dinner. they plan on spending the night with us tonight and going back to st. louis tomorrow sometime.

emily, the kids and myself plan on visiting crossroads church this weekend. got to be good friends with a guy from work and this is where he attends. although he holds to reformed theology, i try not to hold that against him, he has a real passion for jesus, or maybe better said TRUTH. i am looking forward to assembling with them this weekend.

pray everyone has a blessed rest of the week! the weather is supposed to be more of the same - sunshine and warm! use this as an opportunity to get out from in front of the tv and take a walk. you won't regret it!!

updates

last night we had some friends over and we rocked out on guitar hero iii for a couple of hours. lots of fun, and i am feeling more like a rockstar everyday.

kylie and jackson are both well. jackson continues to talk more and more everyday and he is getting all kinds of teeth. his upper gums have bumps all over them, where the teeth are about to break through. it shouldn't be much longer and he will have a head full. it is about time!!

kylie is currently sitting behind me reading a book. she is the sweetest, but continues to test her boundaries with her mom and i. emily and i pray for patience but consistency with our discipline with her. we feel it is important she gets the same message from her parents. we also believe it is important to "keep your head" even when she seems to be pushing every button. kids need to respect authority and learn to listen and obey their parents b/c they are their parents. this may sound like a naive thought from a man with no kids, but i have two (with one on the way) and i still hold to this. i know she will NEVER do it perfectly, so there is lots of forgiveness involved. sounds like another relationship i am involved in.....
to pull this off with any regularity we need the holy spirit to intervene. and i am not kidding. we want our kids to know jesus is guiding us, even in our frustration and sometimes anger. pray for that!!

today we may take in a louisville cardinal baseball game, depends on the weather. may you have blessed weekend and feel the presence of god today!

times are tough

what will/did you do with your tax refund? times are tight with the rising cost of fuel and food, so we need to be extra judicious with our funds.
found these things to do as particular innovative and meaningful as a cincinnati fan (oh yeah, and kinda funny):
-Fill'er up with premium and brag about it loudly while standing at the pump.
-Go to the Cincinnati Flower Show this weekend and buy every petunia in a pot.
-Order one of those tasty-looking Baconator sandwiches from Wendy's. Ask for extra bacon.
-Start a fund to buy out that whiny Chad Johnson's contract with the Bengals.
-Overpay the mortgage by $5 and include a note: "Keep the change, chump."
-Invest heavily in Johnny Cueto bobbleheads.
-Pay the water bill and tell Grandma it's OK to take a shower the next time she sleeps over.
-Get Kings Island passes without dressing up like SpongeBob.
-A water-proof iPod for the pool? Gotta have it.
-Finally, the family can eat a real meal on Wednesday night - no more left-over goetta casserole.

jumpin kylie

 when the reds went down 9-1 this afternoon, we decided to take a trip to the mall. once kylie spotted the "jumping circle of death" she just had to take a turn. here you see emily giving her a little "extra" to make sure she got her money's worth. i can attest to the fact she did, and loved every minute of it.

had a good small group tonight. emily talked about isaiah 53:5. amazing prophecy of the suffering jesus would endure and the peace that would result. she did a great job!

thunder

 thunder over louisville was last night. we watched from the comfort of our home. someday we want to venture to downtown and "take it all in." last night just wasn't in the cards. it was cold and windy.

now begins the 3 weeks of celebrating before the derby. it was a very odd thing to experience when we first moved here, but i am beginning to enjoy it!! nothing like the build up for a 90 second race 3 weeks away!!

recovering a vision, takin' back the house

i was asked to give some thoughts on revival in the wednesday night men's bible class. there is a group of men, talking about, studying and praying about revival; in their lives and in the life of our church.

so the past couple of days i have been pondering revival and thinking about instances in my life when revival has happened (or so i thought). my conversion was at age 14 - i made the decision to follow jesus. my journey began, and in my early
20's i experienced a revival of sorts. at the heart of that revival, was capturing a vision for the kingdom of god. i began to understand the mission of jesus in a whole new way. all of the sudden it wasn't just about "getting to heaven," but it was about engaging daily in spiritual warfare. it became about trusting jesus as the lord of my life - and being set free to experience true life.

in large part, christians have lost sight of the vision of the kingdom. we have made it about church, rules, doctrine or sometimes we have just made it about our "american dreams." i have learned that i can't impart a vision for the kingdom on anyone. i can teach about it, talk about it and blog about it - but christ alone gives the vision.

so today, i listened to a greg boyd sermon entitled "taking back the house." and in this sermon he hits on this vision. he asserts that western christianity has explained the reason jesus came to earth and died was soley to engage in a legal transaction in which we are forgiven. it is all about the transaction.

i have written some about this in earlier posts, so i won't re-hash here, but i agree with him! it is not just about a mysterious transaction. the real reason jesus came, live and died was to "take back the house." the world is in bondage to the "principalies and powers." it is run by satan. but through the perfect life, death and resurrection of jesus he has taken back the house and wants to "divide the plunder." he wants us, in our everyday lives, to wage war against sin - and take it back for god!! however, we don't fight like the world fights. it is not "eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth." instead he has shown us the only true way to over power evil - with good. with sacrificial living and dying for people.

now i believe recapturing this vision alone, will bring revival in our individual hearts and the church. this is why jesus came. we are freed from sin and it's bondage and ushered into a reality like no other - the reality of the kingdom of god!

amen!!

bloggin' from my basement

just moved the computer from our kitchen to the basement. not sure if am going to like bloggin' from the basement yet, but i am happy i was able to pull it off. had a little difficulty moving the cable hook-up. had to do a little "adam engineering." so far so good, it seems.

watched the reds last night. they lost to the pirates 1-0. another great outing by volquez, although it was cut short due to a rain delay. we need to get on a roll with 5 more games against national league central teams. if we come out ahead on this road trip, it could set the pace for a good season.

well, back to work. got some cleaning up to do in the kitchen, where the computer once was. it will be nice having some extra space - we don't have much in this house, and it is about to get more crowded!

have a good weekend, and watch the reds beat the pirates tonight!!

trip to walmart

kylie and i ventured to walmart. i don't make it to the superstore very often and for good reason - too many choices. but i had decided to get a little push mower to take care of the lawn this year, so i had a reason. kylie and i settled on the yardman. i just finished putting her all together and gave her a quick trip around the yard. she purrs like a kitten!

we made a trip past the wii games. i saw about 5 i wanted, but didn't give in to the temptation - this time! still enjoying the games i have. we did buy kylie "horton hears a who." she spotted it as we were viewing the games. that little girl pays attention to everything. she said, "daddy, can i sleep with it - dream with it tonight?" not sure if we are going to let her, but it was pretty cute nonetheless.

we had another beautiful day today. loving spring!! pear trees are blooming in our neighborhood, and i am enjoying them. they are only like this for a couple of weeks. windows open and a cool breeze blows through the house. thank you god!

sunday morning

kylie and i were reading her favorite bible stories out of "daddy's bible" this morning. it as a nice time, and she was being very sweet and asking hard questions (which she has always done.)

after this nice time of reading together, i went to finish getting ready for assembly. when emily goes in the living room to check on kylie she is staring at the tv, and it wasn't a wholesome show - it was "the bride of chucky." ooops. nothing like a little bible, and the bride of chucky to get us in the right mindset for assembly.

what is the bride of chucky doing on tv sunday morning anyway? who do i need to call to complain about that?

on being the church

grabbed this quote from alan hirsch, who ripped it off of Antoine de Saint Extupery. it helps me understand the difference of "doing" church and "being" church.

"If you want to build a ship, don't summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs, and organize the work—rather, teach people the yearning for the wide, boundless ocean."

it is tough to begin grampling with new and creative ways of being church. i find it starts with my life, my family's life, before it can ever bleed over into my "church" activity. my questions is "how can i (and my family) recover a vision for church? i have moved past the "how can i fix church?" so, do i and my family follow god's calling to be sent people? do we attempt to indoctrinate people, or call and invite them to "wide, boundless ocean" that is the gospel, a reconciled relationship with the living god?

the following was hirsch's response to the question - "how you think adopting a distinctly missional-incarnation approach will find a faith community emerging from mission, rather than mission emerging from a particular expression of church?"

Quite simply because when you adopt an missional-incarnational approach to engaging our world, then you are forced to a go-to-them, hang-out-with-them approach to mission before you ever get to ask the question, “What is church for this people group?” The problem is that we usually frontload our idea of church into the missional equation. And while the reality of the Church as God’s community is a vital, non-negotiable, part of the Christian faith, the forms that the church must take are almost entirely to be guided by the cultural context of the church. If this were not the case, the Paul’s argument in Galatians is flawed and we all should be adopting Jewish forms of church, including circumcision! Ouch! The church follows mission and not the other way around.

change

no doubt our world is changing at a break-neck pace. how are we, the church, to be faithful in this ever-changing environment? it has to be about relationships, it has to be about the kingdom now. more information, more institution is not the answer.

watch this!

good evening

good evening tonight. we had some friends over and grilled some burgers and hotdogs then talked and played some wii. it was a good time. jackson hasn't had a fever the last couple of days, but continues to put his hands in his mouth. emily and i are convinced he is attempting to cut "the rest" of his teeth. he is drooling like it's nobody's business, and not eating a whole lot. poor guy.

looking forward to a beautiful weekend. hope to spend some time outside with the kids, and maybe mow the lawn for the first time this year.

thinking about teaching a wednesday night class, starting in the summer entitled "jesus: the revolutionary." would use some clips from the documentary i watched on the discovery channel, along with some thoughts from yoder.

the debate continues over whether god has predetermined our every move, or free will is a possibility. some tend to think if god has not predetermined everything then he is a "lesser god." i am not of this opinion, but it makes for some good conversation. we have scheduled coffee twice a month to continue to challenge one another on our views. i am looking forward to it.

one question

brennan manning (author of "ragamuffin gospel") is "utterly convinced" that on judgement day, christ is going to ask one question.

listen to this clip. meditate on the question, and encounter god.

0 - 1

the reds are 0 - 1. it was fun watching the game, and i am glad the season has started, but i guess we aren't going wire to wire this year.

played volleyball for most the night last night. we ended up taking 3rd place. all in all it was a fun time.

jackson is a little under the weather. can't decide if he is sick, or just getting a bunch of teeth. he had a fever most of yesterday and today, and didn't sleep much last night. emily and i are pretty tired today. hopefully he/we will get some sleep tonight.

may god bless our week, and open our eyes to his will on this earth.