Well it is that time of year again. The countdown to the holiday meltdown. For some reason everyone begins to get nutty this time of the year. Some get started even earlier with the craziness but for us it usually begins the week of Thanksgiving.

Last year I devoted a week to posting what I was thankful for and I decided that I would like to carry on the tradition of doing so.

I am thankful for the dynamic duo. Did you know that I have two superheroes/jedis living in my house? I was particularly excited one day to come home and find Batman/Superman/Spiderman/Anakin/Luke living in my house. The following day I came home to find Batgirl/ Obiwan there as well! See the pictures below. I’ll let you determine who’s who.

As you can see God has blessed me beyond anything I am deserving. Matter of fact I am deserving of Hell, but God in His infinite mercy and grace has decided to redeem me from myself as well as entrust two precious lives into the care of my wife and I. Praise God for His goodness! Thank you Lord for my children!

How about you? Have you told your children how much you love them and are thankful for them? Have you told anyone else? Don’t let the sun go down today before you take the opportunity to tell someone what your thankful for, especially our Heavenly Father!

Click on the sidebar to go to their site. What is it?  Its a document worth reading. Its a statement of who we are as Christians and what we hold of value: life, marriage, and liberty. If you agree with it, sign the declaration. If you don’t, pray that your heart will pursue God and His direction for you.

I normally don’t get involved with “social issues” too much, but at some point we have to let people know what we believe in a civil, correct, unoffensive way. This is one way to do that.

Here is a quote from the end of the document:

“Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.”

Join me in this declaration.

This article is from my hometown newspaper. It’s worth checking out.

Odds are these men should never have been friends. One was a family man, the other an ex-convict who once made a habit of robbing banks.

One was a devout Catholic, loyal to his bishop and pope. The other’s an Independent Baptist, bent on winning souls for Jesus and viewing Scripture and Christ as humanity’s sole spiritual authority.

But Ray Walker and Ken Cooper found they had lots in common.

The decades-long friendship they forged deepened the faith of both men – and, some say, demonstrates how interfaith dialogue can and should work.

“Nowadays, people are a little closed-minded,” said the Rev. Robert J. McDermott, former pastor at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, the Jacksonville parish where Walker worshiped. “They believe there’s no salvation outside of their own religions, and Ray and Ken show that’s not true.”

Cooper, the Baptist ex-con, and Walker, the Catholic, met in 1988, quickly discovering a shared interest in prison ministries aimed at keeping felons from getting in trouble again.

They began meeting weekly in local restaurants. They had no idea at the time those prayerful sessions would continue, rarely interrupted, for 21 years.

“The idea is to get with someone to be accountable to, [and] to share prayer needs with,” Cooper said.

It was out of those prayers that Cooper found the courage to launch the Prisoners of Christ ministry in spring 1989.

“Ray basically prayed it into existence,” said Cooper, 72, adding that Walker later served on the organization’s board of directors.

The prayer meetings ended only recently. Walker died of natural causes Nov. 1 at age 87.

Read the entire article.

I am feeling a bit under the weather today. Sore throat, runny nose, headache,… must be a man cold!

Our God is an Awesome God!

Whether you like him or not, imonk, has written an article worth sharing with everyone you know!  Read it here or over at his blog.

UPDATE: We are still praying for Gary and his family. He’s still fighting. Your prayers are welcome.

The news story is strange and tragic. Three college softball players go for a night time drive in the country. On an unfamiliar road, they take a wrong turn and drive into a pond….and drown. There was a day before. A day with no thought of drowning. A day with family and friends. Perhaps with no thought of eternity, God or heaven. There was a day when every assumption was that tomorrow would be like today.

 My friend Gary has been the night dean at our school for more than 20 years. His wife has been in poor health, but he has been a workhorse of health. He’s walked miles every day, eaten a vegetarian diet and always kept the rest of us lifted up with his smile and constant focus on the joy he took in his salvation. Two weeks ago, the doctor turned to him and said leukemia. Today he stands on the crumbling edge of this earthly shadow, looking at the next world, fighting for his life with all that medicine and prayer can offer. Our prayers for him as a school community have been continuous, because we never thought there would be such a day.

There was a day before he heard “leukemia.” A day of work, chores, bills, hopes of seeing a grandchild, prayers for students, love for Suzi. Not a thought that the journey of life contained such a surprising turn for him. And on that day, Gary was full of faith, full of a servant’s heart, ready for many more days or ready for this to be last one before whatever was around the corner. We all live the days before. We are living them now.

There was a day before 9-11. There was a day before your child told you she was pregnant. There was a day before your wife said she’d had enough. There was a day before your employer said “lay offs.”

We are living our days before. We are living them now.

 Some of us are doing, for the last time, what we think we will be doing twenty years from now.

Some of us are on the verge of a much shorter life, or a very different life, or a life turned upside down.

Some of us are preaching our last sermon, making love for the last time, saying “I love you” to our children for the last time in our own home.

Some of us are spending our last day without the knowledge of eternal judgment and the reality of God. We are promising tomorrow will be different and tomorrow is not going to give us the chance, because God has a different tomorrow entirely on our schedule. We just don’t know it today. Who am I on this day before I am compelled to be someone else? What am I living for? How am I living out the deepest expression of who I am and what I believe?

My life is an accumulation of days lived out of what I believe is true every day. Gary lived every day with the story of Jesus nearby and the joy of the Lord a ready word to share. When the day came that “leukemia” was the word he had to hear, he was already living a day resting in the victory of Jesus. That word, above all earthly powers, cannot be taken away. It speaks louder and more certainly the more the surprising words of providence and tragedy shout their unexpected turns into our ears.

Live each day as the day that all of the Gospel is true. Live this day and be glad in it. Live this day as the day of laying down sin and taking up the glad and good forgiveness of Jesus. Live this day determined to be useful and joyful in Jesus. Live this day in a way that, should all things change tomorrow, you will know that the Lord is your God and this is the day to be satisfied in him

We all know, some choose to ignore.

If its morally right, why should it be a “last resort”?