Amazed at God's grace

Tonight I was thinking about and praying for my family; Christa, Caleb and soon-to-be-born Regan. How much God has blessed me! I don't deserve people this wonderful in my life. I can't ask why God has blessed me this way. He simply has. It's is not according to my works or what I have done. God has chosen to smile upon me in this way.

How far I've come! In March, Christa and I will celebrate our 7th anniversary. Caleb will be 4 in April. And REgan is due on Feb 9. My single days seem to recede farther into the past with every day that goes by. I can't image what my life would be without them.

Thank you, God my Father, for these incredible blessings.

Caleb gets me in trouble...again

I've got a reputation at the bank here for being someone who really enjoys food and has his share of it.

Well, Caleb and Christa came in the office today for a quick visit. it's the last day here before Christmas and we've got plenty of food around. Caleb comes in and ask me, right in front of my boss, "Daddy, where's all the food?" Needless to say, the 'like father like son' jokes have been circulating around the office all day.

Giving out phone number

I've got a Barnes and Noble discount card. Well, technically, Christa has it. When I use the membership, I need to give out my phone number. Today, I bought things at Barnes andNoble at three different times. Each time I was taken care of, it was by a woman. Each time, I had to give my phone number to get the discount.

I wonder how my wife would feel about me giving out my phone number to all these women ?????

The Lord's Prayer

The last couple of days I have been reflecting a bit on The Lord's Prayer. How can this act as a guide for us to pray today??

The first two (or one) lines are "Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be THy Name." As I was walking and prayng tonight, these phrases kept rolling around in my head, over and over. Soon, they became a bit condensed and even modernized. I found myself repeating, almost as a type of mantra, "My Father in heaven, Your Name is Holy." That became the defining moment of my prayer tonight. No matter what else I prayed, I kept coming back to that. "My Father in heaven, Your Name is Holy."

I want to start using this as a preface to my prayer in the coming days. How will this help focus me? Will it serve me in my development of a greater, more powerful prayer life?

Praying for my men

When I began my first men's group a year and a half ago, I was struggling to figure out how to do prayer. I didn't want to simply do prayer requests every week and leave it at that. I was after something greater. With a commitment of a year together, I thought that the possibilities for prayer could go beyond what I had experienced in small groups before.

As I began thinking, brainstorming and praying, I think God gave me an idea that I had never thought of before. Since we were going to be together for a year, what things were there that we could pray about for that length of time? What long-range thngs could we be in prayer for each other about? Instead of how can we pray for each other this week, it became a matter of how we could pray for each other over the space of a year.

God did not answer all of what we prayed for. But we were reasonably faithful in it. Some really solid answers did come in. So I am doing it again with this group. having seen this work last year, I'm excited about being in prayer for these men over the next few months. As God begins to work in our lives through our prayer, I'll pass along what it is that He is doing.

Caleb's weekend

Last Friday, I took the day off. That morning was the only time in a week that we could go and get our Christmas tree1 Caleb actually picked it out at Home Depot and we spend a decent amount of time that day lugging it home, stringing lights and hooking ornaments.

Bu the real fun came later. We went and picked up my parents in San Mateo and then went down to Santa Cruz to take the Christmas train. it's a train out of Roaring Camp railroad that starts in front of the Boardwalk in Sanat Cruz and goes for about an hour through the town. It's totally lit up like a Christmas tree. Santa made a surprise visit through town along with his lovely wife Jessica. Plenty of Christmas carols and hot cider also. Caleb absolutely loved it. We've got some great pictures of him siling and mugging for the camera at every opportunity.

The only downside fo Caleb was the appearance on the train also of a green furry-faced guy named "The Grinch'. I'm not sure why he was on the train to begin with (he only made 1 fleeting appearance), but I would think he'd scare young kids. Caleb had never really seen the Grinch before and he got scared, almost to the point of crying. He kept saying, "Him's scary" in a tiny voice. One day, he'll get his grammer right.

We need to start some Christmas traditions like this, that we do as a family every year. Wherever we end up, I want to plug into the local ocmmunity and join in the local Christmas events on a regular basis

staff Christmas party menu

The staff Christmas party at BayHills has been moved several times this year due to different conflicts which seem to have risen at the last minute. As of now (and hopefully permanently!), it is on Dec 23. Most everyone is going to be able to make it, which I'm a bit surprised at, considering the late date to Christmas.

I am the executive chef for the evening. Here is the menu:

For appetizers, I'm gong to do pancetta and bacon-wrapped mushrooms and shrimp salad served with a melon baller into the middle of a slice of cucumber.

The salad will be Christa's favorite. Butter lettuce, sliced tomatoes, candied walnuts and Feta cheese with a light vinaigrette.

The main dish will be baked chicken with wild mushrooms in a Marsala cream sauce served over wild rice. Accompanying this will be scalloped potatoes with goat cheese.

First pivot

The first major pivot that occured in my life on the road to ministry was deciding to go to college at UC Irvine. I remember that I had choices. I applied also to Chico State and looked at another half dozen colleges or so. But it was a great tour that I got at Irvine (better by far than any other tour) that sold me on the place. I loved that all the buildigs were in a circle with a huge park (Aldrich Park, named after the founding chancellor, Dan Aldrich) And so I traveled from home in San Mateo to college in Orange County.

The pivot part didn't hit until the next year when I became a Christian through the combined ministries of CAmpus Crusade, Mariners Church and Dave Hataj. But it was that choice to go to Irvine that years later has proved to be deterministic in where I am today

new recipe for tonight

Tofday being Friday, it's my chance to make a new recipe for dinner. I found a good one for roasted pork chops. The marinade consists of ginger, garlic, hoisin sauce, Dijon mustard and soy sauce. Coat the chops with the marinade and roast for about 20 min. Then broil the choips for about 5 min.

I'm going to servie it with Christa's favorite salad; butter lettuce, crumbled Feta, candied walnuts and sliced tomatoes, served with a light vinaigrette.

James Kim

James Kim was found dead today. For those of you who don't know, he was the man who's family got lost on a road near the Oregon coast during Thanksgiving. It was snowy, wintery weather when their car got lost. He elected to leave his wife and kids while he tried to hike out for help. His wife and kids were found alive 2 days ago. Today, his body was found.

I'm thinking about this from a father's perspective. If our family was caught in the same situation, I also would have left to find help. I laso would have been gratified to know that my family survived, even if I didn't. That is a father's job, after all, to take care of and protect his family. I have no idea if James Kim was a believer in Jesus Christ or not, but I believe there was enough of the Spirit of God in him that he knew he might have to make the ultimate sacrifice for his family.

Show of all shows

When I was at Target today, I told a girl who worked there that I was looking for Mission Impossible, Season 1. She said that she didn't knowe they were making a series after the movie. All I can say is, "Oh, Lord, give me strength!!"

Mission Impossible is possibly the most brilliant TV series ever to be on the air. Every episode almost had to be written from the end backwards. I'm looking forward to watching all 26 episodes in 3 days. Okay, maybe not realy.

Pivots Part I

At my discipleship group last night, I began reflecting on what I call 'pivots' in Abraham's life. Times when God pivots Abraham's life and begins to take him in a new direction. God constantly does this in both Abraham's and our lives, but Abraham experienced 2 particularly eaningful pivots. The first was in Ch 12 when God told Abraham to pack up everything that he had and leave his father's home and country for a place that God would show him only later. The second pivot occured in Ch 22, when God, using similar language to ch 12, told him to take his son Isaac and to sacrifice him at a place that God would show him only later. Both of these life-changing events resulted in permanent life change for Abraham.

God works the same way in our lives, by using people and events to pivot our lives more in the direction that God wants to lead us. I realize that I've had 3 significant pivots in my life and am just about to set off on a fourth. Over the next few days, I want to sped some time vreflecting upon these pivots and revisit some of my 'ancient' history

The size of a church

Keith Joreski, a good friend of mine who lives in Ft Myers in Florida, called about a pastoral position open at their church. The position is for a Pastor of Dscipleship and Married Adults. The church sounds good, but it's got 7000 attenders. That's just way too many for me.

The church I'm looking for should be in the 200-300 people range. That's what I'm comfortable with. Eugene Peterson's church in Maryland, where he was a pastor for 30 years, never had over 300 people in it. He said that he didn't want to have a church so big that he couldn't know everyone's name. There's a lot of send and truth in that for me. Even though the larger church may be a great opportunity, the size is just too much for me.