Daniel 3

Reading today in the Bible in Daniel 3...

What an awesome thing it is to read about people like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Just think about it... of all the billions of people who have ever lived on earth, these three guys and their incredible faith made the cut and were included by God Himself when he wrote his Book.

In the story, these three guys had a decision to make. Either they would bow down to other gods or risk being thrown in a fiery furnace. They didn't budge from their convictions. They believed God would rescue them from the fire but even if he did not they were not going to bow to other gods.

What work does God have for me or for you that is as risky and faith-requiring as that?
Do we have enough faith for God to call us to such a work?

Next time you take communion...

Check out this insight...

To Rosie

Fire can melt steel.
Rosie: physics expert

Back out on a video trip tomorrow

This time I'm heading down to Houston to assist a friend with a shoot of a training seminar. Should be fun and not quite as complicated as last weeks shoot. Using two Panasonic HVX200's (that's what the rental house had on short notice). Haven't used that cam before so it should be cool to try it out. I wish we were shooting in HD and using a P2 workflow on that cam, but getting up to speed on all of that is beyond the scope of this project. And besides, I'm not the one editing the final product and the one who is has Final Cut Express which I don't believe handles DVCPRO HD.

For those who didn't understand a word of this, check back tomorrow when I'm back down out of the techie clouds.

Reading, Listening, and Memorizing

I found a new resource today. This page has the audio reading of the New International Version of the Bible. I chose the Flash version and it worked great.

Today I was reading in Daniel and so I also listened to the Bible while I was reading it.

I like listening to the spoken word as I read. Listening forces me to slow down and take in the story instead of skimming along and rehearsing familiar landmarks in the text.

Two things struck me today:
Daniel 1 - Daniel decided not to eat the royal food of the enemy king and counted on God to make him look as physically healthy and strong as those who did. In the same way, God can give us favor with people or make us "fit in" even when we decide not to do some of the things the crowd does.

Daniel 2 - "there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries."

I want to get back to memorizing passages of scripture. But, I'm not sure what to work on. Any ideas?

Deck Flowers

Now that we have a little deck, we decided to copy my aunt in Virginia (and now also my parents here in Arkansas) and do flowers in pots on the deck. My mom and aunt actually have a contest going for the best deck flowers this year. I'm sure we'll come in third (my aunt had something like 90 pots last year) but we'll have fun watching ours grow anyway.

Here is just one corner of my aunt's deck last year...


Aunt Peg



Our deck this year...

Feeling awful

I guess it must be Texas allergies or something, but I feel bad. I'm at Love Field in Dallas waiting to fly back to Little Rock. I could have gotten stand by on the 6:50pm flight that was delayed til 8:40pm, but I figured if it got delayed further it might even be later than my scheduled 9:20pm flight. And, besides the delay was a maintanence issue which caused the plane to turn around and return to Houston. Not good... anyway...

Our video shoot today went pretty well. Now the editing begins.

It was fun to stay with Kris K and Tom. Thanks guys for your amazing hospitality. That water bed with down comforter was the comfiest thing ever. Kris, I ended up with your coffee mug from today. I'll bring it back to you next week!

Funny 3-year-old story

For some reason, Susie and I were talking about our family tree today. She can't understand anything yet about who is the mom of whom in our extended family.

When we got down to talking about our immediate family she was apparently trying to reconcile the fact that both Debbie and I are somehow her parents. The way she figures, she was in both of our bellies which she said would make us attached somehow. She asked me how we walked if we were attached.

Heading to Dallas tomorrow

Tomorrow night I fly down to Dallas for a video shoot with the same company I've been working for Thursday and Friday. There are a lot of moving pieces in this shoot and it's my biggest shoot yet equipment-wise. I like a challenge... so it should be cool.

I'll be staying at Hotel Koenigsberg. That should be fun too.

Emailer's Cramp

Wow... I've had a lot of email to do today. I like email because I can say exactly what I want to say.... but man... sitting here forever.

Do you prefer email, phone or F2F? Or these days I guess the list goes on... IM, video chat, text message, have your webkinz talk to my webkinz, etc, etc.

Things that make me happy

Having a dining room table again where we can share a meal..

Things that make me happy

Pralines and Cream on a sugar cone

It has been a cold April

Working in the back yard

I love sitting on my deck in the backyard, working on my laptop...



Looking at this...

Leopard

The newst Mac operating system is gonna be SWEEEET! Even just the iChat stuff is so cool.

Online giving available for our ministry!!

We are very excited to announce that online giving is now available for monthly financial gifts to our ministry at Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas.

Getting this going was actually the first project I initiated at Mosaic before we even moved to Little Rock. The solution not only provides a way for me to receive financial support online but opens up a new world of online giving for the general fund of the church and beyond.

If you haven't seen our video about our work in Little Rock, you can view it here and you can get more background here.

If you would like to support our work financially, it's easy... just start here.

Still getting settled into Litttle Rock

Today we applied for new health insurance, got renter's insurance, opened a bank account, registered at the home owner's association clubhouse/fitness center/pool, and did more unpacking.

This junk is no fun, but it's necessary and at least it feels like we are getting closer to normal life again.

This weekend Debbie and I are going to Dallas. We have a few more things that we left there which wouldn't fit on our moving truck. We'll be picking up some of those, visiting with some good friends, and having some more fund-raising meetings for our ministry work.

LifeGroup

Tonight we visited a LifeGroup at Mosaic. Met some great people who are growing in lots of very different but powerful ways. The common theme among most everyone was this... "Just take the next step in the direction you think God is calling you."

Good times...

Things that make me sad

I see this place on my way to church...

Things that make me happy

All Nighter

Wow... I haven't done this since college. It's 6:17am and I haven't been to bed. Tonight... last night... whatever... Sunday night at 8:30pm until Monday morning 6:00am the pastor and I worked putting the finishing touches on a very important fund raising video for the church... getting just the right photos, timing, music, everything. It's done! The final DVD is burned.

I love having a pastor who is passionate and driven to move things forward and gain ground for the kingdom. I'm being stretched so much already here in Little Rock. It's great!

Nothing to say today...

I feel like I've got nothing to say today... that's always a good time for thanksgiving.

I'm thankful today for:
- Our new home
- Being at Mosaic Church with kinds of different and wonderful people
- My great fam
- Life
- Salvation
- Grace
- The love of Christ
- My laptop

That's the best I can do at the moment... feeling pretty depleted this weekend... need to replenish...

Good talk with Alex tonight

We went to the Good Friday service at Mosaic tonight. We talked a little about the possibility of the Lord's Supper and that always raises some stuff with Alex. A little while into the service I decided to see if Alex wanted to go to the back of the room and talk. He did. So we talked about these things...

How old is God?
How can Jesus be God's son and be God?
How do I know God is real?
If I reach down my throat will I feel the hair of the Holy Spirit's head?

I asked a bunch of questions and told him some things about Jesus' death, his payment for our sin, his resurrection, his prep of our forever place in heaven... on the best 6-year-old level I could manage.

We talked about how God is good and we are not. He lit up, said "yeah", and started singing "God is Good, I know he is, he's good all the time." (Thanks Aunt Meri for ministering to my kid)

He says he's prayed for Jesus to save him... but he sometimes says that Jesus is saving him from crocodiles and from falling into the ocean.

We didn't end up having the Lord's Supper at Mosaic tonight, but I'm glad it made us have this talk. I think Alex is close to embracing what Jesus did for us if he has not done so already in his 6-year-old way.

Please pray for him to increasingly trust in the love, grace, and power of Jesus.

Too bad

I'm really bummed that this great blog is going away due to hateful threats. Check out that last post of hers. It has some of her favorite graphics she's made to illustrate points. Really great stuff. Hope she comes back online sometime soon.

Ouch!

We have an eMac as well as my MacBook Pro. I've been on the glossy-screened MacBook for 2 hours editing video. I'm now checking email on the eMac and MAN, this eMac tube CRT screen is ugly!!

News and Thoughts

--- Today I went up to church to work on a video project they have going (even though I'm not really supposed to work until I raise 75% of my monthly support). I've got to be careful not to run into doing stuff at church to the neglect of finishing my fundraising.

--- Sunday at Mosaic was awesome. The message was about how we've really only waded out ankle deep in the love Christ has for us and in the love that is possible in the body of the church. The love of Christ is an ocean to swim in. A story was shared with great authenticity about two of the staff members who, through hard conversation and spiritual revelation, are mending their relational and racial differences. Powerful.

--- I spent part of today working on a freelance video project for the same company I've been working for.

--- The kids had another good day at school.

--- I saw the following on a blog that I read:

CHARACTER - The INTENTION to do the right thing.

COMPETENCE - Knowing HOW to do the right thing.

INFLUENCE - Their ABILITY to deliver and execute the right thing.

Here's what I commented on that blog:
That's good... as long as the "INTENTION" mentioned is a true and action-oriented intention so strong that it moves us to work hard toward COMPETENCE and INFLUENCE. I think that INTENDING or being WILLING to help (at least in the conventional weaker sense of "willing") doesn't reveal as much character as becoming and being ABLE to help do.

What do you think?

Great Day

The kids did great today on their first day at a new school. Good teachers... made friends... Great day.

School today

Em and Alex are in public school today. Em was a little nervous. Alex was slightly nervous but excited. I think they'll both do great. Em got the teacher we hoped for and Alex's teacher seemed great too.

It's weird, after homeschooling, to have them gone from home for 7 hours a day.

Palm Sunday

Scott Hodge has a great blog. Here is a great post on Palm Sunday.