Secret Societies Handbook: I picked this book up off the discount rack at Barnes and Noble. It's a little book about how the secret societies have shaped the history of the world and our country. It was a pretty interesting read about the different societies, the famous people that are members of them and their different rituals. This book was missing a few things though. Like actual descriptions of their secret rituals, how the secret societies have shaped history and solid evidence that these secrets are dangerous.
20 of 52
The Martyr's Song: by Ted Dekker. Oh I'll read this little book over Christmas to close out my year for reading. It will be a quick little read a enjoyable little piece during my vacation; those are the words I thought to myself. Why I thought a book titled the MARTYR'S song would be a piece of light reading currently evades me, perhaps the word song threw me off.
Placed at the end of WWII a village of believers with only a priest is persecuted for their faith by a rogue band of bosnian soldiers.
21 of 52
Monday, December 31, 2007
2007: I'm setting a couple of goals for 2007. Brandon keeps asking me what my goals are for 07 and I keep giving him a dumb look. So at his prompting here are a few of my goals.
To read 52 books
To lose 52 lbs
To meet 520 new people this year
and see 52 of them come to a Bridge worship service
I would also like to be intentional about reading through the Bible
As a church we will strive to see 52 people make a decision to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ.
(invest and invite)
Those were my goals for 2007. Pretty much I failed at reaching most of those. But don't dismay Mr. Optimistic is here to stay.
Assessment of those goals:
1. I did not read 52 books I read 1 book 52 times (Go dog, go). I did read 21 books, two of which I haven't posted on yet so hopefully I'll get to that today.
2. I did reach my goal to lose 52 lbs. In fact I more than doubled that; as of this morning I have lost 112.3 lbs. (for my canadian readers that's 51 kilos)
3. I did not meet 520 people this year, not even close.
4. We did not see 52 decisions for Christ this year at The Bridge. I think of all the goals to miss and miss it big we did, this one hurts my heart the most.
Stay tuned for my 2008 goals. I'm not thinking I should try to lose 110 more lbs next year...
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Stuff they don't teach you at "pastor school": I threw my bag into my car this morning as I was heading to the gym then opened the garage so I can put the trash can out to the street. I was loading my car with other recyclable trash when I hear someone's cell phone ringing. It being about 6:40 in the morning and the fact that I was outside it dawned on me that it might be my phone. By the time I made it to the phone the person who had called had already been sent to voicemail.
I checked the number and assumed it must have been a wrong number, then the voicemail alert, I checked the message. It was Kristina Sherman (odd, I thought). Then I thought "oh crap, Hannibal is a firefighter and something must be wrong". I listened to the message cliffs version are: huge church fire in portsmouth, Hannibal's crew was first on the scene, from the video on the news it looks like every crew in portsmouth is down there. I turned on the news and it was just the weather. I called Kristina and she was very calm and told me what she had said in the message. I could hear, Eden, their 3 month old son chattering in the background. I told her that I would pray for Hannibal and pray for her. So I prayed for them on the phone and told her to keep me and Heather updated.
As I was driving to the gym I called Heather and told her what was going on. I asked her to call Kristina when she could. Then I went from pastor business mode to pastor friend mode and I just started praying for Hannibal's safety and the safety for the crew he's on. Then I started crying and I was scared and I was worried. I thought it ironic that 10 minutes before I was doing my best to provide comfort and strength to Kristina when really on the inside my heart was shaking and I was afraid it was breaking.
The good news is that Hannibal is safe. His crew was the first ones there and they were the team in the article that went inside searching for people. They began to hear the church collapse and that's when the dropped their equipment and went outside to continue to fight the fire.
I have more to say but don't think I will right now. I'm just greatful that Kristina trusts Heather and I enough to call us and ask us to pray and I'm so greatful to God that Hannibal and the other firefighters are safe after such a dangerous event.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Ok: So I was bluffing. Actually I've been inspired to blog a little more the past few days. Likely nothing profound, hopefully nothing too profane.
Mental: The easiest thing I do everyday is get up and get to the gym. It's the one thing in my life that is measurable, attainable, and progressive consistently. There may be a day where that changes but for now in my life it's true and I appreciate it. I do two main types of workout- cardio and weights. In the weight room there are two things that limit me- my mind and my body. My mind will tell me that weight is too heavy for me when often it's not, the key to progress in the weight room is letting your body prove your mind wrong.
Running has become a new hobby of mine simply because of this mental game. Many times my body will tell me that I'm tired, that my legs are burning and that my lungs hurt and that I need to stop running. It's easy to stop running, to lower the speed on the treadmill and call it a day after all I'm not letting anyone down. But when I run I know that if I stop now I'll be quitting I also know that I have more physically to give and that I'm mentally quitting.
Sometimes when I run I like to pray. This week I have been focusing on areas that I believe The Bridge is struggling in. These are areas like lust, marriages, finances and others. When I run I begin to struggle mentally and physically I begin to pray for these things and for people because it reminds me the severity of that struggle. Yesterday as I was running to began to really pray and like those times you can't plan God came near. I looked to the heavens which was blocked by a gym ceiling. But I prayed and God was there. I felt tired physically, my legs were burning and I was beginning to mentally break down but God was there and he brought me peace, he brought comfort to my body through running but as a message to the spiritual things I was praying for. For a few minutes I just felt him and everyone else and everything else just disappeared. My legs were light, my body felt good and I ran. And God cheered me on and said keep running and said that when I struggle just keep running because he is near.
Amen.
