Friday Miscellany 2

Garden Update

I went out to water and take a look at my garden beds yesterday evening and there is already signs of life!  I have multiple blooms on my tomato plants, I have a plethora of turnips growning and I have three carrots poking up through the dirt!  I am so excited.

I don’t think I will ever get used to watching this miracle of life.  You put some hard, lifeless thing in the ground and a short while later it gives brith to beautiful life!  God is so amazing!

I am still waiting on my watermelon seeds and strawberry plants, but they are on their way.  I will get them in the ground/pots as soon as they arrive.

The Blank Bible Project

I got my second pew Bible for the creation of my Blank Bible.  You can read about what this is here.  I am going to ask my next door neighbor for help in cutting the spines off of the Bibles.  He has a table saw and I don’t.  Besides, he is not a Christian, and it is my hope that this project may open the door for us to talk about the gospel of Christ.  He is a great guy and I have enjoyed getting to know him, but our conversations have not yet lent themselves to the deeper things of life.  I therefore want to get intentional about this.

I also priced a ream of recycled paper to use for the project as well as the bindings.  I am going with wire binding with black coveers and backs and I will print a label for the covers so I know which books of the Bible each volume contains.  I have divided the Bible up into 16 seperate mini volumes.  That way I can put more blank pages in between each page of text for notes.

I am going to take pictures along the way and will give a full report on the process with pictures when I am done.  I just have to figure out how to post pictures on WordPress.

This Weekend

The boys will be with the parental units this weekend.  That means a whole weekend with just me and Dream Girl.  Whoo Hoo!  I am always very thankful for these weekends with just the two of us.  She is my favorite person in the entire world and I can’t imagine anyone else I would rather spend a whole weekend alone with.

One thing we are going to do is check out the new Iron Man movie.  Can’t wait!  I go full on nerd with movies like this and I don’t care who knows it.  It looks like it is going to be a fantastic film if it lives up to its own press.  I will have a review ready to go on Monday.

TV Turnoff Week

As you know we have been observing TV Turnoff Week since Sunday.  I have to admit the first couple of days were pretty tough.  After Monday though it got real easy real fast and I haven’t really missed it at all.  I have gotten a lot of reading done and I have worked on a seminar I am designing on the discpline and practice of personal Bible study.  I have also taken time to just sit and listen to music, or have long in-depth conversations with my wife and boys.  We have played a lot of cards and done a lot of laughing and just enjoying being together.  It’s been great.

Ungrateful Turd

Brennan Manning in his book The Signature of Jesus, tells the following story:

Here is a scenario that plays in my mind: A humble woman seeks me out because of my renown as a spiritual guide. She is simple and direct. ‘Please teach me how to pray.’

Tersely, I inquire, ‘Tell me about your prayer life.’

She lowers her eyes and says contritely, ‘There’s not much to tell. I say grace before meals.’

Haughtily, I reply, ‘You say grace before meals? Isn’t that nice. Madam, I say grace upon waking and retiring and grace before reading the newspaper and turning on the television. I say grace before ambulating and defecating, before the theatre and the opera, before jogging, swimming, hiking, dining, lecturing, writing, I even say grace before I say grace!’

And God whispers to me: ‘You ungrateful turd. Even the desire to say grace is itself my gift.’

Lately, I have become accutely aware of my own “turdness.”  I have been blessed with so much and yet I express a heart of thankfulness so little.  James said this;

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. (James 1:16-18, NIV, emphasis mine)

Let’s go into this weekend filled with thanksgiving for all that God has done, is doing and will continue to do in, through, and for us.