Bible Survey class tonight!

Oh man! I haven't taught a class like this one ever! It's our Vineyard Westside Pathway course on the Bible, and I'm teaching the books of 1 Samuel 8- 31, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings 1 - 11, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles 1 - 9. It's rather intimidating! About 30 adults are taking the class and I've got to do all that in 30 minutes! WHAT?! Impossible! But I'll be highlighting the major themes and stories. I'm actually looking forward to it.

I'm doing a quick Rock & Roll Story about King Saul, and a recap of the story of David dancing in his undies, with the Raiders of the Lost Ark theme playing at the end.

As I was looking at this text, I realized many things. Saul was chosen to be King because he was taller than anyone else in Israel, he was humble, and he lost some donkeys. LOST SOME DONKEYS?! Weird. God sure does have a sense of humor! I've lost a few things in my life (including my mind) but never any donkeys. I've tried to ride a donkey or two for Donkey Basketball and Donkey Softball, but never lost one. (I couldn't get the dang thing to do what I wanted, but that's another blog waiting to happen.) Anyway, qualifications for leadership are written about every day by thousands of people. I might try to investigate this whole "losing some donkeys" thing that everyone probably forgets about! :)

Have a great day, but watch those donkeys and don't let them out of your sight for a second! You know how easy it is for them to wander away! :)

off to austin

kim and i will be flying to austin, texas on friday to spend the weekend with matt and tammy haney. yeah! they are old friends from our days at vineyard community church back in the 90's! they were a big part of our kid's ministry back then! they have been in austin for almost 7 years doing a ministry of their own. we can't wait to see their boys. brandon, alex and ben. it's been 11 years since we have seen them, so i'm sure we won't recognize them unless they're standing by their parents! :)

we've had 85 and 73 kids the past 2 weeks at vineyard westside. it's pretty early to hit the high for the year, but it looks like we will peak in the next few weeks. then vacations start to kick in. if we could get everybody there one week, it would be amazing.

we moved the office and studio down to the basement yesterday. it frees up a bedroom on the first floor for guests and family. it's actually quieter down here for recording and that's a good thing.

going to texas where it's in the 70's will give us a healthy dose of "spring fever" but i'm ready. i won't be ready to come back to the cold, but... oh well!

we're meeting bram, sarah, benjamin, jenny and ryan on feb. 29 in morgantown, wv to celebrate benjamin's first birthday! it should be fun! the motel has an indoor pool (and hopefully a hot tub for us old folks who need a good hot soak!). it's hard to believe all that has happened in one year! i hope that one of these years won't be so eventful, but i doubt that it will ever happen!

have a great week!

This week's lesson

Hey peeps! This week we're starting a new series, along with a bunch of other churches in the Cincinnati area called the Consumed Journey. The first lesson is about GREED. We live in a greedy society. But this is nothing new. It's a human trait that goes way back!

The Mpire Story is progressing. This week's story is "The Prodigal Son." It's pretty funny. Our Blacklight Story is about King David and Bathsheba. That's a tricky one to tell kids, but I think we'll be fine!

Two weeks ago we did a new song called "At the Drop of a Hat", and the kids seemed to enjoy it alot. Last night I was blessed beyond belief. I got a call from a Mom who asked me to hold on. Then there was this glorious rendition of the melody from "The Pretzel Song" done on a keyboard by a first grader named Jack! Wow! That was so cool!

OK! That's it for now! PEACE!

how time flies

Time is amazing. I'm sitting here in my office, watching my VeggieTale clock tick away. I realized tonight that this past week got away from me. We went to Lexington to spend a few hours with Kim's parents, brother and sister-in-law, Kim's sister, her husband and their twins last Monday. We also spent some time with our nephew Adam's Mom, Mary Ann. Time has gotten away from us all. Kim's Dad was in good spirits. The one test came back as an aggressive cancer. We'll know more this week. I'm sure time has gotten away from James and Rhonda this week as well.

I remember as a kid how time just crept along. One night, we went to a furniture store and I had just received a stop watch for a gift. When we left our house I started the watch. After we had been in the store for what seemed to be hours, I took the stop watch out of my pocket and looked at it for the first time since we had left. It said that we had been gone less than an hour! WHAT?! Impossible! I thought maybe my stopwatch was broken, or didn't work right!

I heard a professor in College talk about the time he wanted to pray all night. He closed himself into a closet (literally) at 7:00 pm and started praying. It seemed like he had been praying forever. He prayed some more. He prayed some more. When he felt like peeking to see how long he had been praying he stopped himself from doing it. Just keep on praying all night! Finally, the curiosity got the best of him! He looked outside the closet door to look at the clock and the clock said 10:30! He thought maybe he had prayed all night until 10:30 the next morning. WRONG! It was 10:30 that same night.

One afternoon in High School I came home and laid down to take a nap. I woke up to the wonderful smell of bacon! Man, that's a wonderful smell! Anyway... I got up and went in to take my shower. Suddenly, I hear a loud knock on the bathroom door. It was my Dad. He asked, "What are you doing?" I said, "Getting ready for school!" "Why? It's dinner time!" he laughed! Man was I happy! I felt great and still had an evening to do whatever I wanted! And then more time to sleep!! Yes!

Yes, time is amazing. It does not heal all wounds, but it sure does help. The things that really mattered 10 or 20 years ago don't seem so huge any more. And the things that matter today will probably fall into that same category 20 years from now. This week in Kid's Church we're doing a lesson about CHAMPIONS. There's this really important game on this Sunday night called the SUPER BOWL. At the end, they will pass out trophies to the winning team. They will talk about a game for all time! They will talk about these CHAMPIONS. Well, the Bible talks about these champions too. And it's all about TIME. The trophies that these players and coaches will receive this Sunday night will not last. And they work really hard to get those trophies too! In fact, I would say that there's absolutely nothing wrong with trying to be the best at something. But what kind of trophy will last forever? The eternal kind that only God can give. How about a little effort for that kind of trophy?!

How are we spending our TIME? Are we striving for something that will last or not? Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking... into the future.

bad news

Kim's Mom called tonight with some bad news about Kim's Dad. It seems he's got several tumors, one in his back, and one in his shoulder. They are waiting for some more tests to come back, but everyone is pretty devastated by all of this. It makes the past 8 months or so that we've been around alot more seem really a blessing from the Lord. We're going to head down to Lexington either tomorrow or Monday to spend some time with them. Makes you think about life and death and the fun times that we've all shared together.

I met James in 1978. It seems incredible that it's been almost 30 years. He was always so funny and warm. I remember the night when James came down the steps after a few hours in the dark because of a storm and asked, "Who left the dukey in the toilet upstairs?" I remember when he fed our daughter Sarah who wasn't even a year old fried baloney and gave her Pepsi to drink. He's been an incredible example to me of a person who serves Jesus no matter what others might think. He could have easily stayed in the public sector, making lots of money. But instead he chose to serve God in ministry, changing one life at a time. James and Rhonda have served others in so many ways I can't even begin to tell you.

Several months ago James came down with a very life-altering disease. He lost the use of his legs. But he fought back! He even got to stand in front of his church plant people a few weeks ago and preach once again. The last time we were together for New Years, we watched a home movie from the 60's, 70's and even Sarah's first birthday party in 1981. It brought alot of tears. Jamison is using the video during his shows. It's an amazing example of a life well lived! I hope to live my life that well too!

hot chocolate

The following was an email forwarded to me by my Aunt Carolyn:

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate. When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups. Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate; man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.
Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate!

Good stuff! Thanks Aunt Carolyn!

being a story teller

I love telling stories. Stories from my childhood. Stories from my teenage years. Stories from College. Stories from early married life. Stories from the days of my kids. Bible stories. Since I can remember, I've loved to tell, write and make up stories. I hope I will always be a story-teller.

The stories I tell have gotten better over the years. They've been expanded. They've been made funnier. They've kept secret the identities that would be embarrassed by them. (not really) I've laughed at the stories until I cried and fell on the floor. I've cried at the stories that made me reflect (or had sad music attached to them).

One night, on the way home from an adventure with my kids to find some replacement swing set parts, my daughter Jennifer told us a wild story about the planet Venus. She talked for about an hour straight. It was amazing! At the time she was probably around 6 years old. Jennifer entertained us with her story for the whole trip back from Akron to Cleveland! I can't remember much of the details of her story, but I remember thinking at the time, "This girl is on a roll! I've never heard Jennifer do this before." Stories are amazing.

I'm trying something different this week in Kid's Church. It's the story of Elijah and the False Prophets done with Chocolate Mpire figures, a narrator, and sound effects. It's all recorded and video taped. I'm looking forward to seeing how the kids react to it. Over the years I've tried many different ways to make a story from the Bible come alive and be memorable. It started many years ago with a blacklight. Then there were Rock and Roll stories. Then there were Prop Stories, Sound Effects stories, Sunglass Stories, etc... I've never been afraid to try new methods. See how they work. Adjust it. Tweak it. Revise it. Make it shorter. Make it funnier. But usually with squirt guns. :)

Our lives are filled with stories. Share them with each other. Learn from the painful ones. Learn to laugh at the really painful ones! Learn to be a story-teller! And if you need encouragement, watch the movie BIG FISH. And then go out there and tell, baby! Maybe you're the story teller of the lady from Venus who lives on the planet of high hopes and dreams!