New Life'n

Panting for pepitas

Yikes!  The veggie stand down the road has already closed up shop!  Pumpkins, hay bales, fall flowers -- all gone!  (Christmas trees must be arriving next week!?)  Ok, no need to panic, I'm sure Teeter or Food Lion still have pumpkins.  Must...have...seeds...  It's been a whole year.  The smell of them baking; the crunch; the irrisistablity of one more handful.  Recipe HERE.

One simple scrap of paper

Scared to death in a thunderstorm, he vowed to become a monk.  Later, scared to death of hell, he finally found peace only in what Jesus had done for him.  Infuriated by a religious system that he felt corrupted Jesus' gift, he wrote up a protest and posted it in the public place where such "debate starters" were posted.  That's when the trouble (and the revolution) began. 

Today is the anniversary of the day he nailed that "simple scrap of paper" to a door. 

Years later, friends kidnapped him and hid him to save his life -- this scene from the movie about him shows him during that time translating the Bible into the language of his country so his people could read it for themselves:

You can read his story HERE.  Have you ever sung THIS SONG he wrote?

And here's what was on the scrap of paper.

The Backstreet Boy who wanted to be a youth pastor

Brian Littrell tells the story of growing up singing in church and joining the Backstreet Boys

I didn't really want to be a pop star. I didn't even want to do even Christian music. I wanted to be a youth minister or a music minister in a church. My plan was to attend Cincinnati Bible College and study youth ministry and music ministry. I visited the school and spent a whole weekend there. I love it and had my whole life planned out...

God really gave me an incredible opportunity to stand on many stages as a Backstreet Boy and talk about my faith and about how God has benefited my life.

He wandered some, but had a wake-up call

I got caught up in the success. You can just get overwhelmed with everything that's going on: answering question after question, making CD after CD, going on tour after tour. It becomes a big whirlwind, and there was a time that I felt like I could carry my life on my own...Life was great!...

I was completely fooling myself. You know you're going to fall when you try to step out on your own two feet without God's help....

At 23—during the height of my Backstreet Boys career—I underwent open heart surgery....

How to enjoy Bible study

Isn't that the biggie -- enjoying (not just doing) it?  For me, this helps most >>>> never ever ever ever ever ever EVER EVER forget that it was written by real people who were thinking and feeling and writing to other real people about things that were very important to them.  And I get to look over their shoulder and listen in!  The first thing I notice is a feel for the mood or sense of urgency (or lack of it) that the writer had.  When I do that, I immediately see that (for example) Galatians feels way different from Philippians. 

Plus, I truly believe that the whole thing is totally true -- a by-product of that is I'm not always dissecting every seeming contradiction or inconsistency.  If you wrote me a letter and I spent my time reading trying to catch you in a lie, I may never hear what you have to say to me. 

Here's THREE SIMPLE GUIDELINES from a pastor whose books and sermons have helped me a lot.  For 9 years I have done exactly what he says to do in #1, and it's done me more good than anything.

Tired of fishing

Hey, we went a half-hour!  Now it's time to climb and throw big rocks in the water and see how big a splash we can make. 

I guess I could make 'em get back over here and fish!  And define fun for them.  And squelch their spontaneity and curiosity and sense of independent adventure.  But that would violate Rule #10.  So maybe I'll stand up here and watch awhile.

We've all seen it

"But who made it?  And how did it become so popular?"  The Face That's Everywhere. 

So what do most of us look forward to the most?

A good night's sleep!  Next is spending time with friends and listening to music.  Fourth? -- attending church!  And Americans say they look forward to reading the Bible more than they look forward to reading a novel.  Story HERE.

And it makes sense who's grumpier in the morning...

Pigs in the spinach

Wow.  Isn't it funny how fences getting trampled in private can end up being a big public mess?

Wild pigs may have spread deadly bacteria onto a California spinach field, sparking an outbreak that killed three people and sickened more than 200 others nationwide...

State and federal investigators have narrowed their focus to the ranch, where boar trampled fences that had hemmed in a spinach field.

When the fence between David and another guy's wife was trampled, there was grief and suffering and death and his family was never the same and his own son led a revolution against him.  Pigs in the spinach.

But when the fence had stayed intact between David and Saul, and David wouldn't make himself king even when he had the chance, there were a whole bunch of glorious years for both him and his nation when he finally was king.  Ahhh, untainted spinach -- much better.

What are your fences?  Three of mine are:

• giving God my undivided attention regularly -- listening, enjoying him
• doing the same with Brenda regularly -- just enjoying being with her
• NOT listening to the you're a loser voice in my head

When I let my fence get trampled, and I don't control what I think and do, my spinach can end up with a lot of pigs running around in it.  And people I care about end up contaminated, too.

Video we made

The little red circle in the road in front of my house fascinated me.  Kept thinking about how it was the starting point for the houses they were building across the street.  With the New Life 91.9 staff, my wife, daughters, two grandsons and a neighbor girl...this is the one shown at the Mark Schultz concert last night

All about Halloween

It's history, and some reactions to it basically trying to answer the question,

"do we ignore a pagan romp, merge with it, attack it, or cover it up with seasonal fun?"