Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
One of the things that I particularly became aware of during my first season of fantasy football was the value of individual players. For example, when choosing a wide receiver, ideally I wanted to choose one who was considered the quarterback’s primary go-to receiver (which might change over the course of the season, depending on … Read more
Recently, we watched Lars and the Real Girl, starring Ryan Gosling as Lars. It’s an interesting — and sorta strange — but good movie with a powerful example of community. Lars is an extreme introvert who mostly keeps to himself. But one day he invites Bianca (a friend he says he met on the internet) … Read more
We didn’t really plan to do a stewardship series of posts, but it’s sorta turned out that way, hasn’t it? See our previous posts: 6 Key Financial Principles, Money Management Tools, and 6 More Financial Principles. This post comes specifically out of our planning/budgeting our giving for 2009. For us, it’s about honoring God with … Read more
Earlier, Joleen posted 6 Key Financial Principles (which came from Church of the Resurrection). In working on another post (which will be posted later), I came across six more principles (with some overlap with COR’s). These came from an audio recorded sermon I heard by Bill Hybels several years ago. In the message, Hybels shared … Read more
Joleen wrote about 6 Key Financial Principles yesterday. Stewardship (a broad term which includes money management) is important to us (we believe it’s important to God!). Because it’s important, we need to be intentional about it. IOW, we need to put some systems in place to help us manage our finances wisely. I recently read … Read more
December and January can always be challenging months financially. Christmas comes with certain expectations. I am not speaking of the expectation of Christ born anew in our hearts, but the expectation of giving gifts. Christmas is a time of financial obligation that sometimes comes back to haunt us in January if we have overextended ourselves. … Read more
New Year’s happens to be one of my favorite times of the year. I think it has something to do with new beginnings and fresh starts. It’s an opportunity to look back and reflect on where I’ve been, and then move on to new adventures! I’ll admit, though, that I’m a little sad to say … Read more
I used the title of the 2006 movie, The Nativity Story, as the title of my Advent/Christmas sermon series (it’s a good movie, by the way). This series focused on the responses of some of the major characters in the biblical story of Jesus’ birth, namely, Zechariah, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and Simeon and Anna. … Read more
On the day after Christmas, Joleen and I watched the 1946 movie, It’s a Wonderful Life!, starring James Stewart and Donna Reed. (Who hasn’t seen it?) For years, we watched the movie every year (during the Christmas season) but took a break from it for a couple years, until this year. It’s a great movie … Read more
After we got up this morning, we brought Ethan downstairs to the Christmas tree. It didn’t take him long to start checking things out. We read a Christmas devotional and prayer then Ethan began opening gifts. Opening gifts was a very slow process — about all morning, including a break for breakfast, not because there … Read more