Feeling blah!

I started not feeling well Wednesday morning. My throat felt like sandpaper when I woke up but I felt a bit better after a shower so went on in to work. Ended up going back home after lunch and also stayed home yesterday. I slept...a lot. I felt fairly good this morning upon waking and my throat didn't hurt anymore. I made it into work and get off in an hour. Now my head feels like a balloon and my nose and ears are plugged up. I've managed to stay fairly healthy all this winter. Now it's 80 degrees out and I get a head cold. Why is that?

To make matters even worse, we're leaving right when I get home today. Patty is feeling ill also, but with totally different symptoms. Hers is all stomach and nausea. We're heading to Tucson and staying the night at my parents house. Then heading for the orphanage Saturday morning and coming back home the same night. Pray we both get better fast.

Peace!

Body Odor

I just read a post over at Kingdom Grace's blog and it was so right on about how people from some church "bodies" (hence the title body odor, how fitting) just slam other followers of Christ because they don't agree with "their body".

I really liked what she said at the end of her post...

What I don’t get is why so often those who claim most loudly to be on the inside track of the deeper christian life are also the ones most likely to be considered asses by everyone else. Their claim is “we are the only ones who are really doing it right,” yet their reputation does not reflect that in any way.

At what point can we be deluded into thinking that it doesn’t matter that instead of the aroma of Christ we have body odor?

What to do? I suppose you don’t tell someone they have body odor. I wonder if the attitude of superiority is what prevents them from seeing that everyone around them backs up a step. Hopefully at some point the fruit of the Holy Spirit will become evident in their life and the aroma of Christ will overpower the body odor.

It is sadly interesting that this condition afflicts the people who claim to have the inside track of the one and only way to truth and church life or whatever. With this depth of knowledge and understanding, one would expect that they would demonstrate in their manner a deeper knowing and reflection of the nature of Christ.

This should be obvious, but I’m going to say it anyway…

If we represent Jesus, it isn’t okay if people think we’re an ass.

You can read the entire post here

Peace!

An excellent post by the nakedpastor

I want to direct you to a very well written analogy by my blogger friend in New Brunswick, the nakedpastor. I really loved this post and found the analogy very true. I certainly know of some pastors that should read this.

Cultural Legacy and Mitigated Speech

Peace!

Rage singer to march against Arpaio

Zach de la Rocha, the lead singer of Rage Against The Machine, will be leading a protest march in Phoenix today against Sheriff Joe Arpaio and DAMMIT!, I have to work today. Had I known about this I would have made sure I had the day off to participate. Here is the link to the story.

Rage singer to march against Arpaio

Peace!

Sharing your faith by being yourself!

I finished reading a book by Jim Henderson called Evangelism without Additives - What if sharing your faith meant just being yourself?

When sharing your faith, do you give yourself a gold star if you convert someone? Do you keep haggling with the person until they say "the prayer"?

Here's a thought. It's not you doing the converting. How many folks have you turned off by "witnessing" to them? Why can't we just let people know that we care for them and love them right where they are at? Isn't this what Jesus did?

I certainly challenge everyone that calls themselves a follower of Christ, Christian, Evangelical, (Insert whatever you call yourself here) to just be yourself around people. Don't try to change them. Love them. Pray for them. Encourage them.

Peace!

Fun in the Sun

So we flew to Cabo San Lucas on a direct flight from Phoenix that was a short two hour flight. We arrived at the airport about 1:45 pm and had to catch a cab to the resort. This was an ordeal in itself. We were immediately bombarded with offers for a ride if we signed up for stuff.

We finally got to the resort and it was absolutely beautiful. The weather was perfect while we were there.

A few highlights was the food. Absolutely awesome. We did some shopping in town also. This was a part of Mexico that we were not familiar with. The orphanage is in Sonora and the people there are not well off. I would call them very poor actually. Cabo was very Ameicanized and touristy.

The beaches in Cabo were very clean and the water was just right. In the low 70's I would guess. When you would leave the resorts and walk past the roped off areas you were bombarded by the merchants selling their goods. I was very shocked by the offers of illegal drugs that were rampant. They would have jewelry in these little display cases and would whisper to me "would you like to buy some blow or some weed?" And they weren't lying either. They would open the palm of their hand and you could see the small individual baggies of white powder or marijuana. I wasn't really shocked I guess, because it was a very party like atmosphere. I was just shocked by how upfront they were about it.

Valentines Day we took a dinner cruise and had dinner and got to see the beautiful sunset on the Pacific Ocean. I was amazed at how fast the sun disappeared as it sunk below the horizon.

The trip was very relaxing and it was awesome to spend an entire week with my sweetie. Probably one of the best vacations we have had in a long time.

Peace!

We're back!

Cabo Wabo - Here we come

We're all packed and ready to go. Our flight leaves at 11:25 am and we will be in Cabo at 1:30 pm. I checked the forecast and it should be sunny and warm the entire week with highs right around 80 and lows in the mid 50's. The water temperature is in the 70's. Perfect!

Adios Amigos. Patty is bringing the camera so I should have some pics to post when we get back. We get back on Monday the 16th.

Peace!

Olbermann: Its time for Cheney to shut up

I take it that Olbermann and Cheney are BFF's.

Almost time to fly

Wow! What a week I've had. I installed the new Globe station on Tuesday with prior approval from Region but without a Station ID. The Station ID was in my email when I got back from the installation so I had to go back up there today to set him up for internet based entry.

Tuesday I left my house at 6 am and got home just before 6 pm. Yesterday I was in the office all day and had the blowup I talked about in my previous post. I apologized to the individual first thing this morning and he smiled and said it was accepted. That made me feel better. So I headed up to Globe today and there was a major accident on Highway 60. I sat in a line of traffic for nearly 2 hours. It was right before the town of Superior and on the radio they said that 4 helicopters were used to airlift people. By the time I got up to the accident scene I saw a body with a white sheet over it and the feet sticking out. Yes I said "body". So there was at least one fatality. There was only one vehicle that I saw at the scene and it was a mangled white Ford Escape. I'm assuming the other vehicles involved were already towed away.

After I got through Superior I had to wait in another line for 30 minutes due to blasting. They are doing blasting and road construction. I finally got to Globe, did what I needed to do and came home the back way around Roosevelt Lake. No construction, blasting or accidents.

Tonight I'm helping at Drop-In and tomorrow Patty and I are babysitting for Jeff and Trish while they go to dinner and a concert.

This weekend we will be packing and preparing for our trip to Cabo. We fly out Monday around noon and come back on the 16th. We are really looking forward to it. We're also going to go to Sammy Hagar's Club there called Cabo Wabo.

Peace!

I lost it today

Something happened at work today that I am not very proud of. I lost my cool with a co-worker. While I still don't agree with him on what we were discussing, I was wrong for lashing out at him like I did.

So, I plan on apologizing to him tomorrow. It is the right thing to do.

Peace!

This saddens me to no end that it even happens. We should be able to agree to disagree on things but still be in community with others.

David Hayward wrote...

It is reprehensible to use certain passages that speak about division and swords and enemies to encourage, endorse and enable our propensity towards disunity. It is proof-texting to the extreme, combing the words to find support for our inability or unwillingness to find ways to unite all people. How am I any different from a suicide bomber, fueled with his supposedly scripturally supported hatred for those of different religion and race, if I use the words to explain and even justify why I am not at one with another? Murder is not simply the taking of a life, but the manifestation, the total expression of the desire to be done with another person, that he should no longer be in my life. I’ve come to believe that if I think the only way we can be at one with each other is if you fall into complete agreement with me, then that is hatred and, ultimately, murder.

Check out more of his stuff at http://www.nakedpastor.com/

Peace!

Some notes from the sermon this morning

A pastor's job is not to do all the ministry. It's to see that all the ministry gets done through God's people.

A pastor's job is to prepare and release people to do the ministry of Jesus.

If you are a Christ follower, then you are called to the ministry.

"The measure of our success as a church is not necessarily how many people we have but what is happening to the people who are here, whether they be few or many." - Jerry Cook

What lies at the root of all legalism is a distrust of the life of Christ in people.

Releasing people to minister means setting them free to meet other people's needs whenever and however they can.

Ministry is serving people.

Ministry isn't about bringing people to God; it's about bringing God to people.

Pastors are not called to be wardens of the flock, they're called to be shepherds.

Peace!