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Yosemite Timeless

2012-02-06T03:45:49Z

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

Test

2012-01-20T21:12:35Z

Test Post

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Solitude and Leadership--William Deresiewicz

2012-01-03T16:56:57Z

We've heard it said that Leadership is a lonely endeavor. But this thinker wants us to learn to enjoy solitude as part of leadership. He provokes us to something more than what we call leadership today in this speech to West Pointers.

Things Are About To Change

2012-01-01T21:07:18Z

Turning pages in a shelf copy of Fast Company magazine I came across an advertisement or product promotion for a camera call the EFS-1 System. It lets you take 24 digital photos and then you pull the large card looking storage medium out of the camera and connect it to your PC or Mac where you can upload the photo's. The price, $699.00. The year, 2000.

We routinely do this now with our cell phones or camera's. It's old stuff. In the space of 11 years, the price has come down, the quality way up and the convenience enhanced. Now almost everyone has a camera in their pocket. We pay hefty cell phone bills perhaps, but we have one.

It just hit me as I read the promotional article that things have changed a great deal and we have not had much time to notice. I've got a feeling there are some changes taking place right now that are just as huge, but we hardly notice. Things are indeed about to change. The Cover of the Fast Company Magazine is Titled, Your Job Is Change. Your Boss Can't Handle It. Your Company Won't Do It. Your Future Demands It. How To Be A Change Insurgent.

I've noticed one thing in the past few years. Things or organizations or people who don't change don't last. They might still draw a paycheck or sit on a board or have a important sounding title or put out a time tested product, but they really don't make much of a splash anymore. Kodak for instance. Everything was Kodak when I first took an interest in photography. Now, not so much. They are almost gone. Sad perhaps, but true.

Take a look around you this new year. What's Changing. What needs Changing. From this 12 year old magazine come some good advice. Your Job Is Change.

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Liberating Leadership

2011-12-31T12:17:00Z

Edward Abbey can rub most people the wrong way. Sorry to say, he never has gotten under my skin. I don't dream of being as rebellious as he was nor non-conformist. But I do love his descriptions of place and people across the Desert Southwest. In Beyond The Wall, he writes about the tallest mountain in Texas, Guadalupe Peak. His description of the peak and the park surrounding it are inviting and picture something of an Oasis in the desert. Truth is, there are very few people in the area and it sees far fewer visitors than the average National Park.

Most mountain areas in the Rockies have plenty of people nearby, think of Denver and the front range. But Guadalupe does not fit in to this high population mentality. For the most part, it's wilderness, even though you can find Aspen's and Ponderosa Pine, even a Douglas fir on occasion. But the deepest impression a visitor might take away is the overwhelming desert that surrounds the peak. It is relentless in most directions. It is like a great moat that prevents one from ever approaching the highlands and their cooler furnishings.

As much as I love the desert and mountains though, it is what Abbey writes about the people who live in this area.

Such an environment breeds a cantankerous variety of human. For instance, I was told of the former owner and operator of a gasoline station near Pine Springs, on the eastern edge of Guadalupe Park, who refused to sell gasoline to strangers if the strangers car failed to carry Texas license plates. Why? Well, for the main and simple reason that foreigners had no business nosing around Pine Springs Texas.

If you've spent any time in Texas, you get the sense that this could happen in just about anyplace in that proud state. But I think it is especially likely in the desert of West Texas. This next paragraph is interesting as well.

Another story: About four years ago a local rancher, James Prather, seventy-nine years old, was riding alone in the rocky foothills looking for a cow, when he had an accident--his horse stumbled, broke its leg and rolled on top of the old man. The fall broke one of Prather's legs, a few ribs, and trapped him beneath the twelve-hundred pound body of the horse. The horse, alive trough crippled, kept thrashing about. The old man drew his revolved and shot the horse dead. Then he unholstered his knife and cut his way free from the carcass. He rested for a while before crawling three miles over rock, through brush and cactus, to the nearest road. He waited there for two days without food or water until somebody came along in a pickup truck. The old rancher was in a rage because nobody had found him sooner.

Tough people. Desert type people. The desert and its inhabitants are often tough people and not given to intruders. Nor are they likely to be led by anyone but themselves. Many West Texans are out there in the wide open spaces precisely because they distrust or even dislike leadership.

There was a similar time in Israel's history as well. Numbers 13 offers a picture of desert dwellers trying to come to terms with what was right in front of them but they could not grasp it. They could see the highlands, and had examples of the bounty of the land paraded right in front of them but they could not ascend from the desert to the higher, more prosperous regions. They could not enter the promised land. They truly could not be led. They preferred their own leadership to that which God provided. God Himself could not lead them.

So they settled for 40 years in the wilderness, the desert. They refused to believe that God could carry them to new heights. I think they were like those West Texans in the sense that Abbey wrote about. They had a fierce sense of self and trust in their own abilities and could not come to faith in God. It would cost them everything except their children's eventual future. They all died in the wilderness except Caleb and Joshua. Only their children would go forward into the Promised land.

It stands as one of the most massive failures of leadership ever described. The group of twelve men picked to spy out the land were certainly leaders. They just couldn't lead in faith, but fear. Their fear of other men was more influential than their faith in God. It's no wonder they were ornery and hard to get along with during their wilderness wanderings.

I wonder what 2012 will be like for us. Will it be a year of successful leadership in faith or a year of wandering due to fear. Which will steer my life, my family, my church? Let's give Caleb his due. He and Joshua were the committee members who continue to teach us how to live by faith. They had complete confidence in God and that they were in God's hands. May 2012 be the same for us. When we look back a year from now, it will be from the high places above the desert, refreshed and empowered by the Spirit of God. May God lead us with His liberating leadership.

Christmas 1944

2011-12-24T23:40:00Z

Some of our fathers were there.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/christmas-1944-when-us-troops-said-nuts-enemy

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A Bicycle For Our Mind

2011-12-23T14:30:00Z

Grow up BC and PC Before Computers and Present Computers and this really makes sense to me.

The God Of Freedom

2011-12-23T00:50:41Z

Listening to the debate between the two Hitchens brothers was very interesting to me. One is (or was since he just passed away a few days ago) an Atheist in a part of the world that is a bit harder to be an Atheist, America, and the other a Christian in a part of the world that is equally hard to be a Christian, the UK.

That's the nutshell version of these two brothers, Christopher and Peter Hitchens. They both are persuasive and interesting and talented. I think the Atheist among the two has a bit of an edge in some ways, but that is not that important. I found myself drawn to the argument for the challenge it might bring to my own thinking.

When I started playing chess in high school, I was quickly given the advice, play the game with those who you know are better than you or others. Don't worry about losing, worry about learning. I take that sense into my listening to Christopher Hitchens, in his books and media appearances. He is a skilled thinker, debater and reasoner. I'll bet he was even a pretty good guy to be friends with. I'll never really know obviously but I respect him and his memory for some of these reasons.

Naturally, we are opposed to each other in the area of theology and religion and God. At least in the general themes. Look underneath the large themes and you find a number of things to agree with. He was highly skilled at showing you the flaws in some of your thinking. If you could get past your defensiveness and listen to him for a bit, you could learn something from him instead of worry about losing the argument.

One of the things I was amazed at as he spoke was his belief that any Divine being could somehow love us and at the same time want to restrict us with rules and behavior modification now on this earth and in some kind of heaven. To him, that was a wicked concept from an evil quarter.

His brother, only having five minutes to respond, went on a mild attack against being amoral, and not seeing God as a Moralist but a Loving God. I have made the same points myself, so I'm not faulting Peter, but can we learn something from Christopher's conclusions? I think we can.

I invite you to watch the video's either on iTunes or on youtube. It will take a couple of hours, you may tire of it after a bit. You might also find it fascinating as Hitchen's attempts to lead us into the mind of Atheists and why they find the concept of God wicked and repulsive.

I don't agree with him of course. I find God inclusive, liberating, empowering and creatively concerned with my future. This text from Deuteronomy is indicative --

Deuteronomy 32 The Message

The Song

^1-5 Listen, Heavens, I have something to tell you. Attention, Earth, I've got a mouth full of words. My teaching, let it fall like a gentle rain,
      my words arrive like morning dew,
   Like a sprinkling rain on new grass,
      like spring showers on the garden.
   For it's God's Name I'm preaching—
      respond to the greatness of our God!
   The Rock: His works are perfect,
      and the way he works is fair and just;
   A God you can depend upon, no exceptions,
      a straight-arrow God.
   His messed-up, mixed-up children, his non-children,
      throw mud at him but none of it sticks.

^6-7 Don't you realize it is God you are treating like this?
      This is crazy; don't you have any sense of reverence?
   Isn't this your father who created you,
      who made you and gave you a place on Earth?
   Read up on what happened before you were born;
      dig into the past, understand your roots.
   Ask your parents what it was like before you were born;
      ask the old-ones, they'll tell you a thing or two.

^8-9 When the High God gave the nations their stake,
      gave them their place on Earth,
   He put each of the peoples within boundaries
      under the care of divine guardians.
   But God himself took charge of his people,
      took Jacob on as his personal concern.

^10-14 He found him out in the wilderness,
      in an empty, windswept wasteland.
   He threw his arms around him, lavished attention on him,
      guarding him as the apple of his eye.
   He was like an eagle hovering over its nest,
      overshadowing its young,
   Then spreading its wings, lifting them into the air,
      teaching them to fly.

As far as liberating experiences go, flying is right up there among the top of them. Lifting off and leaving earth behind, even if you don't climb very high, is one of the most powerful experiences I have ever had. The first time I flew around the pattern at a little airfield in southern Alabama, I whooped and hollered and cried as I took that little helicopter, powered it around the airfield, landed it and did it again. It was so cool, I can feel it right now, 35 years later. It really was liberating. In this passage, God taught His people how to fly.

I don't see God as holding us down, not for long at least. I see Him as urging us to new heights, teaching us to soar. And I'm whooping and hollering about it still. My voice is a little horse, but my heart if just as excited. Free Indeed.

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Hitchens vs Hitchens

2011-12-21T14:07:08Z

I came across this on iTunes, some 2 hours long. Here it is on youtube, in clips, here is the first clip if you want to watch two conversationalists, idealists, argumentative provocateurs go at their opposing idea at the Iraq war and Christianity.

I'm fairly comfortable listening to Christopher speak against Christianity. Mostly because it makes me more determined to understand his viewpoint and then reaffirm mine. He does at times make a compelling argument and one worth dissecting for it's kernels. His brother Peter is not quite as polished but does far better than I could so I'll throw no darts at him either.

Sweet Counsel

2011-12-21T02:01:37Z

We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.
Psalm 55:14

That sounds like a neat text. I could make a sermon out of that text, couldn't you?

Here's the Outline

We
Took
Sweet Counsel
Together
And the Result
We Went to the House of God Together.

That sounds like a preachers dream text. That would make a great sermon. Trouble is, you need to read the whole chapter. When you do that, you see this Psalmist is saying that you have betrayed me and we even took counsel together and we went to the House of God together. How could you do that?

The Psalmist is clear in the surrounding verses about how betrayed he felt.

¹²For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:

¹³But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.

¹⁴We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.

¹⁵Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.

¹⁶As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.

A couple of things show up in this text. Our enemies don't hurt us as much as those we consider friends. Actually, that's the only big thing that I really take away from this text itself. But reflecting on this text, makes me want to be more careful when I see a text as I did this one on someone's quote page on the internet and then I think, ah, I'll just quote that one too.

Not taking the time to find out what the text really means is not only embarrassing but misleading. In this case, one only needs to read the context and the meaning is clear. In some cases, it requires a bit more study and understanding of background. Either way, the temptation to pull Bible quotes off the net or from someones quote list might better be left alone.

I mean, why do we want to borrow the quick quote from Shakespeare or Churchill or Lincoln, or the Bible, throw it up on our screen and then leave it for the public to see? What is that all about? I happen to like doing it myself. I'm sure I'll keep doing it. Most of my quotes come from my reading though. I'm not saying that makes me more authentic, but more involved.

And if your quotes and ideas come from something you are more involved with than just reading something on a screen and then tossing them onto your page or blog, than maybe they will have more effect for the reader.

And in my work, handling the Bible as I do, you better be much more concerned about the context of the quote, or the passage. Break that rule and you will enable a certain sort of dishonesty in your preaching and teaching. You'll eventually destroy your effectiveness as a truth teller. Just a little sweet counsel from one who is not your enemy.

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Writing Like This

2011-12-20T14:23:00Z

My Logos Bible Software is a valuable tool for Bible Study and related topics. A few months ago, a package of additional texts from Greece and Rome and other places was available for downloading. And there was also a collection of Civil War veterans and their letters.

Here is a sample of letter from Gordon Meade to his wife.

October 11, 1845.

The mail will leave early to-morrow morning, by a steamer for New Orleans; so that in twelve days you will receive this. How much I wish I could accompany it. What joy to be once more at the northeast corner of Schuylkill Seventh and Spruce Streets; but, alas, it is useless to be speculating on impossibilities! Here I am, and here I must stay, and the best thing I can do is to be cheerful and contented. My health, thank God, is excellent, and as long as it so continues I shall be reconciled. I would have preferred going with Major Bache; but I should have been much more exposed, and my life in greater danger from disease than now; though the certainty of returning to you, and having an office in Philadelphia, would have reconciled me to all that. I therefore join with the major in our mutual regret at not serving together, for I have found him the most thorough-bred gentleman I ever met. Our intercourse has been of the most delightful character, and I am highly gratified that a year should have passed on duty with him, with so pleasant a conclusion.

Meade, G. Vol. 1: The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Major-General United States Army (G. G. Meade, Ed.) (30–31). Medford, MA: Perseus Digital Library.

Once you get used to the fact that you have letters you can read from war veterans in your Bible study software, it gets kind of interesting. Take a look at the carefully worded sentences and character descriptions in Meade's letter. And notice the really nice things he writes about Major Bache.

We just don't write like this anymore, do we? We don't write letters for one. And most of our writing is shorter, quicker, more abbreviated. And to talk so glowingly of someone is not done nearly at all like it was in Meade's time.

This was written some 15 years before the war of course, on the eve of war with Mexico in fact, but it is a product of those times. And it is common to find writing like this, in fact, much more so than this among the many other letters and correspondence of those times.

Here's another letter or part of it. Well written and commonly wise.

camp at Corpus Christi, Texas, December 25, 1845.

To-day is Christmas. Need I say how I have longed to be with you, and how my heart has beat with the recollections of former happy Christmas Days! Last night I lay for hours on my rude bed, in my tent, with the cold wind whistling around me, and felt warm and happy, as I related to memory the truly happy Christmas Eves I had spent with you. I thought of last year. Do you recollect what a beautiful, clear night it was, and mother and Mariamne and myself going out in a cab and making purchases; how thronged the streets were with crowds of happy faces; what hustle and commotion in each house when the bell was rung; what joyous and merry meetings then were held? And, afterwards, at the Major's20 to see the interest with which he was putting aside the various presents for each of his children! Alas, poor fellow, like myself, he has but the recollection of these pleasures to support him now! Here nothing is seen or heard but the regular sound of the drum, sending the men to bed, and the shouts of drunken men in the little town adjoining our camp, which has sprung into existence since the arrival of the army. Still, I am most thankful to Almighty God for the blessings He has thus far showered upon us; you and my dear children, healthy, comfortable, and happily fixed; me, though separated from you, still in good health and as good spirits as I could be under the circumstances. With ample means to support us, all our wants gratified, blessed with the loveliest children, at once a source of pride and the most perfect happiness, who that reflects on this picture but must say 'tis black ingratitude to complain! And if I have complained, it has been because I was not well, irritable from indisposition, and because I did not reflect, and instead of expatiating on my annoyances, turn over in my mind all the blessings of which I was the recipient.

Meade, G. Vol. 1: The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Major-General United States Army (G. G. Meade, Ed.) (41–42). Medford, MA: Perseus Digital Library.

In Kaplan's book, Lincoln, The Biography of a Writer, you see the great pains Lincoln took to find the right words, cadence and thought patterns, clarity and context for his words. From our viewpoint you could come to believe that Lincoln and others of his time were obsessed with words. I tend to think that that it was a time when the right use of words mattered more, much more than it does today.

Can we write like this again? I don't know. Maybe not. I don't know that I could make the time for it. But maybe I should. I know one thing, some words are simply communication. But every now and then, some words become instruments of communion. I want to write to inspire communion. I want to write like that.

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Inspire

2011-12-19T17:51:42Z

Push, Push, Push Yourself.

How much can you take and keep moving forward?

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Yep, Don't Try This At Home

2011-12-18T18:54:13Z

Some things take your breath away, some things inspire, some things are crazy, some things are all of the above.

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What I Like About My Two Churches

2011-12-12T20:19:20Z

I'm just feeling good about both of them. So maybe a bit of blogging about them is in order.

Let's start with the younger one, a church plant about 12 years ago or so. We just finished a new building. About 7400 square feet. The members own that building, it's their thing, they invested lots of love into it. We've got some serious bills now, so they are going to keep on investing in it for some time. I'm just so thankful for the spirit that prevailed and the teamwork that brought it all together. I can't say how much good I think this last year of building has been for New Creation.

On to building lives as we use our new building. New Creation was started as a result of an awakening and a escaping in my opinion. I wasn't there at the beginning, but I'm pretty dialed into it's history. My take on it is very positive. It needed to move into the world of the relevant. Notice the words that are related to relevant, relate, relationships, etc. In the minds of the early leaders of New Creation was a value that serving the community in a contemporary setting was the only way to go for our church. It is not a statement that older, more traditional churches can't relate, just a direction that we had to go in order for us to express our praise to God and offer the Gospel to our neighbors. Using the word escape feels a little awkward but it did have to move out of its environment and comfort zone in order to get a new church started. Kind of moving into a new orbit.

My own opinion is that there are many traditional churches that can relate well to the communities around them. I know a handful that do it well. But I know way too many that don't. New Creation started with this value high on it's list. I don't know if it was stated that way, but it was there just the same. Back to my opinion, I think we need more contemporary churches. I am very thankful for church leaders over the years who have helped to create space for such churches like NC. It is not always easy. I've had several presidents who have done a good job of protecting and shepherding the Contemporary church along. I've known a few who were afraid of it for some reason. Whatever, they are not going away, and need to increase.

What I'm saying about New Creation underneath it all is that this Relevancy value means that people matter a lot. We don't always live up to it, but we do pretty good at practicing this value and we always aspire to put people relationships in their proper and valued place. I like this a lot. I'm afraid so many churches don't really practice this well, but say they value it anyhow. To me, drums or guitars or electric pianos are instruments, no more, no less. And they are instruments to share the gospel. I have a slight preference for them myself, but I can see a church that uses more traditional instruments doing well too. It just depends on how much we really care about people and their walk with the Lord.

There are a lot of get er done types at New Creation. Something needs doing, it gets done. Pretty cool usually. I think it offers some challenges for future leaders, but I would much rather see a bunch of get er done types than a bunch of no shows or never do well types. When we get on task, look out. I look forward to seeing how this works in the years ahead.

All in all, the future is bright for us at New Creation. We're sailing and the sun is shining. For a relatively new church, I think it's doing really well. Lots more to do of course for you OCD types, but I'm celebrating for now.

Capitol View is my other church. I value immensely the committed core of members and leaders that are part of that church. They are some seasoned vets and have been through some stormy seas. We look forward to the sun shining as well over Capitol View.

The first time I visited, we were interviewed in a side room in the church called the Fireside room. As I was wandering through the sanctuary with my soon to be new boss, I noticed that they had a set of drums down front. Now you don't need drums to have a healthy church, but it said something to me right away. They too wanted to relate well to people outside the church. They were not afraid to bring a controverted instrument into a very traditional worship service and offer a bit of contemporary worship. Actually the service at Capitol View is a little more eclectic. We might have a folksy feel one week, traditional another, contemporary another. Mixed, or what worship folks call, Blended. It works pretty well for us, at least since I've been here. I enjoy it a lot as well.

Capitol View has a service element to it that a more mature church is likely to take up. We have a program called Foodnet for feeding folks once a week. I'm grateful that a hefty part of our membership takes this seriously and is totally committed to it. It's not easy giving up your Sunday each week to spend in the church basement preparing food and encouragement to give out. In some ways, it might be easy though, but it sure takes up a lot of time and effort. I think a great deal of those folks who do that ministry.

There is plenty more good to say about both, maybe next Christmas.

The one thing that I think is in our hearts at both churches is the aspiration to be thoroughly evangelistic in the 21st century. I love this goal or aspiration. The problem is, we are struggling to practice it well in light of the mixed up society we are a part of today. We do some things, Capitol View has some activities that are moving in this direction and New Creation has the will, but not sure of the way yet. I tend to think this is my main reason for being here, to help both churches find a way in their context to share the Good News in some difficult times. And that is what I like most about both churches. Did I mention there are some great folks in both. I mean awesome people.

OK, Merry Christmas.

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Church in the Hot Tub

2011-12-05T01:00:17Z

No, I haven't gone off the deep end, not yet. It's just that I had a bit of pastoral time with a family in the hot tub this morning at the gym. I was reading, seriously reading Peterson's book on the Contemplative Pastor and Bock's book on New Testament Textual Criticism. Yea, I can read two books at once, can't you?

But these are serious books. One is filled with technicalities and the other massive thinking in pithy doses about the pastoral role and serious thinking about it. So I'm wailing away while submerged in the hot tub and these two kids come over and jump in. Now, normally I'm not there on Sunday mornings, I've been tied up elsewhere for the last year or so with a hammer and saw and other tools working on a church building or at church board meetings. So this was the first time I was there on a morning like this in a long time. I like the hot tub because I am trying to heal my shoulder from an injury so I can keep on swimming, but I just like the hot tub too. It helps me contemplate.

Anyhow, these two kids are bright and courteous, especially when Grandma came over and sat with them. Now they were no where near 14, the legal limit to float your boat in the hot tub. But hey, they're kids, I was a kid, they ignored rules just like I did at that age and some other ages as well. So I said nothing, just kept at it with my serious reading. When the lifeguard came over and politely reminded them of their infractions, they pulled the illegal parts of their bodies out of the water, only toes allowed to remain in. At that point, I set my books down and wrapped them in a towel to protect them from the splashes that came with the youthful activity all around me.

Setting them down was grandma's cue to chime in with those look like serious books. Yea, I guess so. So I told her one was on the New Testament and one was about being a peaceful pastor. I was thinking fast on my feet and tried to simplify the titles so they might make some sense to her.

Her next question was a simple one, so are you a pastor? My response, yea, on a good day. She chuckled or smiled as a grandma could with two kids, 4 and 6 I found out. But conversation went on, talk of church and God and and kids and such. It was a bit of church.

I had just finished reading or rereading if you want to be serious about it a section of Peterson's book about pastors and prayer and listening. What a natural place to put the book down and practice what Eugene was preaching. I got to listen quite a bit to two young and bright lads and one very caring grandmother. I got to have church in the hot tub, not my usual routine, but maybe I need to lighten up a bit. It was a good day to be a pastor.

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Is the Pastor's Role Changing? Duh.

2011-12-05T00:40:23Z

It has never been the same from church to church, now we are changing by virtue of the change in our movement's and denominations. Why and where to? Take a peak in on this conversation over at Jesus Creed.

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The Bible Is Reward Enough

2011-12-04T06:10:43Z

Mike Fortune posted this on his Facebook page, thanks Mike.

A recent visit to the Back to the Bible Folks here in town reinforced the notion that Bible Illiteracy is rampant and damaging. Most folks can read the Bible in their language but the sense of meaning that is derived from it is hard to come by. So many see the Bible as a collection of negatives about what they can't do. It takes the fun out of life.

The research they have done there suggests a simple involvement with the Word 4 times a week can make a huge difference. I believe it can as well. How can we respond so that the Word is once again the first place that we turn to for our lives, our faith, our future?

I look at these folks in the video and they are crazy in love with the Word. They know how much it cost to get it. It is of great value to them. Tears flow, hearts rejoice, people sing and praise when they get a common Bible. I remember times in my life when God's Word affected me that way as well.

It's a good time to be a preacher. The need is great. But you dare not be a boring preacher or shallow preacher. We have no need of those. You want to risk it all, leave it on the field, wring the marrow out of the Word and serve it up hot and spicy. Like a sizzling steak and the waiter cautions you, hot plate, watch it. Your interested, your mouth waters, your eyes tear up at the thought of a great meal.

Come on preachers, let's go. This is it. The need for God's Word in the daily lives of our friends and family has never been greater. It's time for us to serve it up with gusto, to present it with class, to dig out it's diamonds, to expose it's beauty and riches for our lives and our members lives. These humble Pacific people inspire us to that. As Wesley suggested, Put a little fire in your sermon or put your sermon in the fire. Only one way to do that, jump in the fire yourself. Get thick with the Good Book.

Walnut Writing Desk

2011-11-27T17:19:47Z

We've been working on Michael's Writing Desk for a couple of months now, an hour or two here and hour or two there. I didn't take any pics of the legs yet, maybe when we get it out in the sun I'll take some more. We bought the top wood at a local sawmill about a year ago. Finding an 18 inch wide walnut board is still a treat these days. There are still plenty of large walnut trees in this neck of the woods and south and east of here. But I still get a spine shock when I come across one like this. Mike caught the fever as well when we spied it in the dry shed of the saw mill. And the price was good too, bout 45 bucks for 18 by 60 plus long.

So we put it to good use on the top which we split in two pieces and are going to join to the carcass today. The right side is 22 inches and will hold his typewriter, yep, he still types. It's a thing for him, he loves it. I remember learning to type on a machine that looked like an army tank. He's got one that looks more like a mustang or something.

The left side will lift and open up to a space instead of a moving drawer. Our last work today is to line up the tops and attach them to the rails. So we are feeling good about our Walnut Writers Desk. oops, Michael's Writers Desk. Here are a couple of late night, poor lighting iPod touch snaps. Michael will have to do a better job of photographing it.

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Speed It Up A little

2011-11-23T15:56:26Z

The Famous Wiz By Chocolate Scene from Lucille Ball, or I Love Lucy. Sometimes it's just going by too fast.