Jill

You’re the greatest gift God has ever given me, besides salvation.

Not sure how I’d make it through these times without you babe.

I love you.

March Madness!

I’m not a huge college basketball follower, but I caught parts of a few of the games this weekend.

Is this an amazing NCAA tournament or what? Three of the four “elite eight” games went into overtime!





Patrick Sparks toed the line to keep UK alive until double OT.

Found!

Well, I’ve already been found.

I thought it would take at least a few days before anyone noticed this little blog, but Eric over at the excellent Fireant Gazette found me today, left a comment, and has blogrolled me. I’m honored.

I’ve purposefully not done any “word of mouth” to advertise this blog.

I’m conducting an experiment to see how long it takes my other blogfriends to find me, based strictly on referral logs, links, etc.

The next interesting milestone will be when one of my bros from The Thinklings discovers me, out of the bloo . . .

Outback Conversion

An awesome thing just happened, and it was very appropriate for Easter. This afternoon we were eating lunch at Outback steakhouse following our Easter services. Midway through the meal our youngest, Blake, told me that he wanted to ask God into his heart.

Right then I had Blake come sit between Jill and I and we prayed together, and he thanked God for forgiving him, for dying on the cross, and he asked Jesus to come into his life and be his Lord. So cool!

We have always tried to be careful when it comes to our children’s steps toward Christ – never discouraging those steps but maintaining good discernment. For instance, Blake was evangelized by his older sister a year or two ago in the back of our minivan, and he “prayed the prayer” then, but in recent talks with him I know that he really didn’t understand what he was doing at that time. I believe that now Blake is ready (he is seven). We will of course be watching and praying through this time as we walk Blake through these early stages of his relationship with Christ.

God is so good. Jill and I were needing encouragement in such a big way, and God gave us that through Blake and his simple profession of faith.

He is risen!

Saturday

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. – Isaiah 53:4-6

He is in the tomb. It is quiet – the travail and torture of good Friday is over. All creation holds its breath.

We don’t often think about the quiet, tense Sabbath the disciples endured the day after the crucifixion. What a horrible day that must have been for them. They didn’t know that the next day would usher in a joy that, on Saturday, they wouldn’t have believed possible.

Sunday came, our lovely Lord Jesus rose from the dead, and nothing has been the same since.

In my own life I enjoy the happy results of that amazing day. I stand forgiven, a child of God blessed through and through, a partaker of Kingdom blessings and of a joy and peace that passes understanding. And yet in one way it is still Saturday – someone I love more than my own life is spiritually dead and cold. I wait and I pray for Sunday to dawn in this precious life, knowing that without Jesus there is no hope of resurrection. In Him alone do I have hope.

I praise the God of Resurrection Sunday!

Out of the Bloo . . .

Welcome, all, to my humble little site.

It’s a quiet place at this point, tucked away in this untravelled corner of the blogosphere. It will be interesting to see how long it will take for me to get my first visitor, my first (non-spam) comment, interaction. I will try to keep the content fresh.

I’m a bit of a blogosphere refugee. I am involved in several other blogs as both webmaster and poster but, recently, I’ve just wanted and needed some quiet. I will rejoin my online communities eventually, but also want to make a go of this, my more personal space.

Welcome friends.