My lovely wife for my 50th blog

Today my wife came home from church and she got a newspaper to get her coupons. She spent the next hour finding coupons for items that we buy and going onto websites to get the best deals. I watched a little football and then we went out on a, what I call "sticking it to the man" adventure. At rite aid our total was $30 then after all the coupons we spent about $6.26 but we got $4 back in rebates. I call her the coupon Ninja. She is saving us so much money. She is storing up so we are stocked up after we have a baby. Cassie is the Prov 31 woman. She is stocking up so when it snows or we have flood or some kind of war. She is doing a great job and I am so proud of her. This coupon thing is her new hobby. Saving money, so I can spend the money. HAHA! Since my hobby is snowboarding and running. Neither of them save us any money. I really am excited about the things she is getting. Diapers, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, can goods, cereal, and gum. For free or significantly discounted.

So that is not the only way she is a prov 31 woman. I personally think she is the modern day Prov 31 woman. Taking care of the money, making sure that the family is taken care of, she is strong because heavy lifting around the house, she is taken care of the meals time after time and she is and she is example to all that she meets. She is awesome! And I wouldn't be the man that I am without her! I Love her

pumpkin patch

Today Cas and I went to the pumpkin patch with our friends Will and Julia. This has become a tradition for the 4 of us. (3rd year). We go to the wilson banner ranch and go out to the pumpkin patch. We tromps around in the field looking for the perfect pumpkin. There is something about doing this. We enjoy the fresh air, the natural feeling of going out into the field to get our pumpkin. Maybe it is because we all grew up watching the old charlie brown movie "The great Pumpkin."

This year Cas and I found our biggest pumpkin that we have ever made. It is bigger than a basketball and great lines and great form. As we were walking out in the patch we were talking about next year walking around with a little one with us. That we will be taking pictures and enjoying the time together. Our smiles got bigger and our hearts were warm.

To finish off the event we go get cider and then go back to our house were we have White chicken chilly and play games. (This year Catch phrase) It was a good day.

die for

A few days ago I was talking to a friend of mine and he said I love "so in so" i would die for that guy. I was like really. I knew that they were friends but didn't think that He thought so seriously about that person. I said if he was going to be tortured you would ask to take his place. He said yes.

I was thinking wow. That is a serious commitment to someone.

So I was thinking who is on my list of my die for list.

My Wife,

My sister,

My parents,

My mother in law,

My best friend,

our Youth leaders,

Any kid that is in trouble that is part of youth ministry.

That is a pretty extensive list. I never have thought about it until someone said that.

Mowing

Every once in a while I like to accomplish something that is quick, mindless and the results are immediate. Mowing is that for me. I like to get out and mow the lawn. It is a way that I can sort my thoughts of all the things that are going on. I also like how when I am mowing and I am done the grass looks great and it is done for that week.

My grass has heard the gospel story many times, It knows almost every message that I have preached and it nows my thought patterns. Second only to Paul's grass. If you drive by and see me me preaching to my grass... I am not crazy... I think... um... ok, maybe I am.

What do you do to sort your thoughts? Drive? Mow? walk? Run? take a shower?

Running

So as many of you know I have been training for a half marathon on Oct 16th. I run different lengths each day. Thursdays are my long run day. Well last Thursday I was running and I had a bad urge to go to the bathroom. I thought that it would go away or pass. I passed one bathroom, thought that it would go away. Then I passed another one but it would be fine. Then a few miles later I really, REALLY needed to go. (#2) It got to the point that I needed to find a place ASAP! But I kept thinking to myself that I needed to do the paperwork. Then I came up with what I thought was a great idea. So I then found a safe place on the side of the path that I could relieve myself. That was safe and secluded. I did my business and used my boxers for the clean up. No one came by and not one saw me. I left them there and got back to my run. Later I went back and picked up my undergarments. So that way I wouldn't liter. I feel like I should come up with a moral of the story... so here goes. "When the going gets tough...Don't be tough just Go."

OREO TRINITY

For the third year with the Jr high students we are talking about Christianity and Chocolate. Now don't get me wrong. God is not Chocolate and Chocolate is not Jesus. But we are looking at it as a illustration. To help understand something better. Jesus often times used Illustrations to help understand things. Like the Salt of the earth, or Light of the world, and vine and the batches.

Well I am not Jesus (By far) but i am trying to use a way that Jr high students can grasp a difficult concept of the Trinity.

So I came up with a Oreo.

How many parts are there of a Oreo?

Do all of them make up an Oreo?

If one part was gone would it still make up an Oreo?

I see it as Three parts

Cookie outside

frosting inside

The other cookie outside

The Trinity

Jesus is the outside cookie

Holy Spirit is the cream

God is the Cookie that is attached to the cream

The bible say in John 14 about who Jesus is.

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6:-7

Jesus explained that if someone has seen Him they have seen the father as well. So they look a like similar to the outsides of a Oreo Cookie.

Part of Jesus' role was to come down and make Himself nothing to die for the sins of the world.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— 
even death on a cross! Phil 2: 5-8

Since The Father and The Son are the outside cookies all that is left is the cream filling which is The Holy Spirit. Some call him the Holy Ghost. (ghosts on the cartoon are white) But He is also called counselor or helper.

Matthew 3:13-17 talks about the three parts of the trinity and how the Holy Spirit came down like a dove.

The Baptism of Jesus

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

What does that mean for us?

God that sympathizes with our needs (Heb 4:15)

Someone to intercede to the father (Rom 8:26)

Loves us to send his son (John 3:16)

So back to the original questions:

How many parts are there of a Oreo? 3

Do all of them make up an Oreo? Yes

If one part was gone would it still make up an Oreo? No

One God in Three persons. One Oreo in Three parts.

Wipeout

Over the last year or so I have really got into the show wipeout. For those of you that do not know the concept of the show let me explain. The show gets about 20 contestants and they give them nick names and have obstacle courses that they run through and fall and flip as they go through it. Each round the contestants get eliminated but "all will Wipe Out." The contestants get blind sided by silly obstacles. My favorite part of the show is the announcers. They work in nick names and work in puns with those names.

Well today two 3 year olds came by the church (Quinn and Hannah) and they wanted to go to the nursery and play on the padded slide. They call it the wipe out slide. They will jump off of it and slide down it and even summersault down it. I can only imagine that they just love the show enough to talk about it after show. They had the funniest time.

As I watch the show I keep thinking that I could do really good at this show but maybe i am a armchair wipeout contestant. Wipeout is for all those adults that just never grew up and that want to recapture the fun that they had as kids. At least that is what I feel when I watch this show. Also as you get knocked down you can get back up again.