Well, I had a great long weekend. I took yesterday off and bummed around the house with the family. I tried my hand at being an electrician and replaced the dimmer switch in our bedroom (the last one burned out just before our gathering on Sunday). I also finished off the book,
Deep Church by Jim Belcher. It was a really good read. I always know a book is a good read, when I can't just rip through because there are multiple challenging statements and ideas. I'll be giving a copy of this book to our elders and some of our ministry leaders for them to read and process too.
Last night we had my sister and her family over for dinner to celebrate her 29th birthday. It was a good meal... steak, mashed potatoes, caesar salad, and homemade oreo ice cream cake! It was great to have them over as laughing with family is always the best. We skyped my mom into the evening so she could see some of her grandchildren playing together.
I love my wife. Not only is she a fantastic better half, but she continues to be an awesome mom and great cook! However, she does like to move furniture and this always puzzles me... for the last two weeks I've seen every piece of furniture in every possible spot (she is like an ant... for a small gal, she can move objects 50 times her weight). Sometimes she recruits friends when they're over to help with the insanity. However, there are certain items that only I can move (it's why she married me) and this is how I get dragged into the craziness. Yesterday, we put it all back to the original way we had everything... not saying any more.
Sunday was a great gathering... Tony lead us in worship. I always appreciate Tony's heart (he's genuine... a rarity in today's world) and he's got talent (and yet he's humble). We looked at the third act of the story of the cripple being healed. There are lots of things to learn from this passage, but the thing that stuck out to me the most was while I despise the Sadducee response, I have to admit that I often respond to God like they did. I am often more concerned about comfort, stature, and wealth, then I am about worshiping the Messiah. I hope I wasn't too harsh... I often feel that I beat people up more in sermons than build them up (I hope that's me being overly critical). Some people like that style, but not me. The Gospel is Good News (albeit there is a critical component to the Good News that reveals the bad news [we are sinners]), but the Good News is good because it trumps the problem of sin. I'll also have to clean up my language next year when I recap the highlights of the bocce tournament (it was one of those had to be there moments that I won't repeat here).... let's just say, when you're tournament winner's name is Harry and I describe the last play of the match, next time I will be calling them 'spheres'.
Following the service we were invited over to the Chapman's house for a pool party. It was a lot of fun... hamburgers, sun, and a pool. Their house was also kid friendly (love that). It was good to get to know them better, have fun, and enjoy each others company. We also discovered that Charlie has no idea on how to eat ice cream cones (he starts at the wrong end).
Tonight I'm going golfing with Dave, his Uncle, and I think, a fourth person. I hope the weather clears up. I've got my 'Off' ready to go.
The rest of the week for me is a few meetings, working at the College, and some more reading. I hope that this week we will fall more in love with Jesus and therefore be less in love with ourselves/world.
