Wow. Does our church know how to eat or what? God has definitely blessed us - not only with an abundance of food, but people that know how to cook. We had around 130 people out at the campground for dinner on Saturday night.
Not only can we eat, but we traditionally play a huge euchre tournament after dinner. While it no longer lasts into the early morning hours, it's still a lot of fun and a lot of competition. The Netzleys pulled off a huge win this year!
I love speaking at the campground on Sunday. I wish I could do it every year. In fact, I wish every service was this way, but then it wouldn't be special would it? I spoke on "Servants must share the message of hope" based on Mark 2:13-17 and the example of Jesus as the servant of God, giving hope to Levi / Matthew.
This was the first year for me to enter the horseshoe tournament. Jason Stover and I were paired together and went undefeated into the championship round (beginners luck). We then were promptly beaten twice by Mark and Eric. It was a great time of fellowship with these guys and their families.
If I would have approached the championship game a bit more seriously perhaps we would have won! What a great weekend we had heading out to Chain O' Lakes state park in Albion, IN.
Today I took my wife on a "date". It was to the Tree of Life bookstore & cafe in Winona Lake, IN. You must check out their site and go grab a cup of joe there! They have wonderful drinks!!
Our barista was Sherrie, our former church secretary. She is one of the few people that understands that if you're going to drink coffee then it must be strong coffee!! No sock-water coffee here! She seems to really be enjoying this job and did a wonderful job on our drinks.
Here's the menu, but you can read it online better by visiting their site! My wife had a raspberry and banana smoothie while I had the "after dinner mint" - a coffee drink with Irish cream, Oreos and whip cream. Yeah, it's not necessarily a 'healthy' drink... but it was very good!
If you're in the Warsaw / Winona Lake area, I strongly suggest that you go to the Tree of Life bookstore on the campus of Grace College & Grace Theological Seminary. You will find a wonderful bookstore with a ton of books, clothing and gifts available at reasonable prices as well as an over the top great coffee cafe.
On what do you focus during the troubling times of life? Jeremiah makes a concious effort, he exercises his will, to focus on God. Because of this focus, he begins to realize hope.
What then becomes his 'new' reality. In other words, what does Jeremiah realize as a result of this intense willful focus on his God and His goodness towards him?
As we focus on the goodness of God to us, in the midst of these difficult days, and as we realize our reality in Him, let us not forget our duty:
What then is your focus in your difficult days? Have you forgotten God? Have you misplaced the reminders of His love and kindness towards you? Do you understand and have you realized your reality in Him? Are you fulfilling your duty? As you begin to focus on God, you will soon be able to say with the prophet Jeremiah:
This I recall to my mind, therefore I have HOPE.
I have no idea who owns these vehicles, but they're great! I saw them as I was heading from Schroon Lake, NY traveling to the Ticonderoga ferry as I planned to make a trip to Vermont. Someone is pretty creative - and has a great sense of humor. But honestly, I'm glad they're not in my front yard.
If you click on the swimming picture you will get a better view of who's in the water. You can see Aaron, Colin and Patrick's heads as they are treading water for 5 minutes. This was after they swam 2 full laps in the deep end. All of them qualified and passed their swim tests!
Christopher getting re-hydrated again. I think he has two Gatorades here and already downed a water bottle before I got this picture. He is soooo excited too! lol...
Christopher and 3 other guys setting up to play Nintendo Wii's tennis game. It plays a lot harder than it looks.
We watched several rounds of speed paintball yesterday. Tuesday we will play regular paintball at 130p on the far side of the Island. This was kind of fun to watch, but went too fast for the amount of money it costs to play.
This morning we got an non-anticipated “early” start by 8:30 as we left 
But alas, I had not gotten any coffee with my breakfast, so 15 miles down the road I pulled into the service plaza and ordered a large mocha from Tim Horton’s. I was a little aggravated by the wait at Tim Horton’s but it was just a short period of time down the road when I realized God was gracious in allowing us to be delayed. We came upon traffic slowing to a stop, with emergency vehicles shortly on our back bumper. A very serious accident brought west bound I-90 traffic to a halt. We were stuck on the interstate for just over an hour. We took some random pictures, autographed the white line on the side of the road and then decided to pass out our bottled water supply to those around us. We took a black marker and wrote “FREE WATER” on our cooler and carried it down the side of the interstate. We passed out several when the cry came down the road “We’re starting to move!” We ran, carrying the cooler, back the 3-400 yards to the van. (At least those watching us got a good laugh!) And then, we were underway.
The rest of the trip was uneventful. We made good time and arrived at the registration center for camp about an hour later than anticipated. Everything went smoothly as we registered, turned in all meds and got heads checked for lice. Then off to the 
My room is on the third level of one of the buildings on the WOL complex. It has it’s own balcony overlooking the back of the property, with a mountain just several hundred feet away. It is a spacious, relaxing room. I got cleaned up and went to the wonderful buffet they had prepared. Prime rib, raspberry stuffed chicken, some wonderful Tilapia and excellent pasta and sugared carrots. I also grabbed a generous slice of chocolate cake. Being by myself is not something I enjoy when I eat – especially when everyone else it seems has full tables. But God had something in mind and I found a table with two men sitting at it with an available chair. I then introduced myself and had a very encouraging dinner getting to know Chris and Bob from
I got back to my room, wrote my kids at home some postcards and decided to update this blog. I hope to post it Sunday along with corresponding pictures. I anticipate some time to post both to my youtube account and facebook account. Continue to pray for our guys at camp, that God will work graciously in their lives.
Here is an excerpt from a great article, and a great challenge. You can read the rest John Hendryx's article here: monergism.com
When the Lord opened my heart to the gospel in December of 1985, He set me on a radical new course, having delivered me from a wild life which was characterized by various anti-social behaviors, selfishness, drugs, crime, and the occult. Out of the most unlikely place, as I was reading the Scripture, the Lord revealed to me my lost condition: that I was without hope save in the mercy of Jesus Christ alone. In a moment, the Holy Spirit graciously united me to Christ, adopted me into God’s family, turning me from my idols to serve the Living and True God. I reflect back with awe as I consider that during the honeymoon period of my newly granted life in Christ, how the Lord actually poured out on me an extraordinary grace to overcome some of my previous bad habits and gave me a remarkable heart for prayer, especially for the lost. With zeal and great affection my greatest desire was to follow and obey the Lord. He stirred my heart to pray for a couple hours each morning as I arose, knowing that I must call down blessing from God if I was to have any power to live effectively during this age. And the result was much fruitfulness and effective personal and corporate ministry to the glory of God.
Well one day in His great wisdom … and for His sovereign good purposes, God decided to remove part of that extraordinary initial grace. I don’t know if you have had a similar experience but the first years after conversion I felt invincible, that all sins were there to be overcome and souls were there to be harvested. There was a zeal that felt as if I would never fall, yet one day, perhaps due to my great personal and ministry success, and God wanting to show me what was really dormant in my heart, allowed a subtle pride began to creep in. Even though I knew intellectually that my conversion and newfound devotion were all a gift from God, there was self-righteousness which entered my heart in my daily life. I began to believe the lie which presumed that it was my own zeal, my own prayers and my own obedience which kept me in good standing with God. As a result, Christ’s finished work became increasingly minimized by my own efforts and activism. The result was fruitlessness and sin. And when I fell into sin I would hold in the guilt because I considered repentance as something more related to what people do at the beginning of their Christian life. I feared to look at myself in the mirror of God’s word and so hesitated to acknowledge my weakness. Christians were not supposed to be like this, especially me. Pride kept me from recognizing how largely dependant I still needed to be on Christ every day. Being in a far away land I was not able to access good teaching or shepherding, and my understanding became distorted by my sin. A moralistic strain became somewhat more evident in my Christian walk. I had become too reliant on my successful walk in the past and forgot, that all I had was wholly of the Lord, a gift from Christ and not something self-generated. [...]
Saturday I took four of my teens from the youth group to play Frisbee Golf at Little Big Horn Golf Course in Warsaw. They were part of the team that earned the right to go above the other teams in youth group. We had a great time - didn't quite make 18 holes, but learned a lot about disc golf and each other. My back was hurting by time we were done, due to it being out of place. The doctor is supposedly working on that - but time will tell. After the golf, we headed to Hacienda and enjoyed some wonderful chips, salsa and Mexican food. (all except for Jonathon who decided that popcorn shrimp sounded better).
Can I challenge you to read Psalm 104 today? It is 35 verses long, but so encouraging from the standpoint of seeing God interact, not only with man, but with His creation as well. He alone is worthy of praise!! These verses from Ps.104:
This was the question put out by Charlie Bucher & his morning crew on AM 1190 (WOWO - Ft. Wayne) during their "Morning News & Views" segment. At least four people, maybe five, all sputtered and stuttered their way to tip-toe through such a "sensitive" topic. Of course, this "news story" is driven by the decision by the California courts to legalize and recognize "gay" marriage. It is an interesting question. However, I was surprised at the hesitancy of the news crew to address the issue straightforth. Comments varied but were along the lines of: marriage is for those who love each other, homosexuals can't help themselves because they're born that way - so they ought to be able to enjoy marriage, marriage is a religious and social thing because it's been that way for a "bazillion" years, etc, etc.
It is very simple to answer the question of whether marriage is a religious instituion or social construct. But to answer it will depend on your view of God's Word. If you believe it to be the authoritative book that has everything pertaining to life and Godliness, then the question is readily answered. Until you hold that view, you will struggle with being politically correct and speaking at the risk of offense. I hold the former view. I believe God's Word is the authoritative rule in my life. If I struggle with what it says, I struggle with God. If I come to a moment when I must choose between my thoughts on an issue or God's thoughts on an issue - I must choose God's thoughts and ways.
Marriage is an institution set up by God, ordained by Him at the time of the creation of Adam and Eve. It is not an issue of "Law", or man's construct. Moses didn't come up with marriage - God did. God's sacred plan for mankind is that a man leave mother and father and cleave to his wife, becoming one flesh. This isn't just God condoning a sexual union. One flesh goes much farther than that. Thus we see God's boundaries for marriage. One man - one woman - intimacy apart from all others. In the entirity of Scripture we see marriage fleshed out as the Holy Spirit revealed more through the writers of His Word.
I see marriage concisely defined well in the Westminster Confession of Faith, from which I partially quote: "...Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife, for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue, and of the Church with an holy seed; and for the preventing of uncleanness (sexual impropriety, including, but not limited to homosexuality)..."
Marriage is not a social construct. It is an institution ordained by God, initiated by God and held in sacred esteem by God. To distort it is to defiantly fly in the face of a Holy God. There is no other option for mankind to consider - it does not matter what the courts of this land may say - God has given us His best for us in the text of Scripture. To follow it is to ensure joy, peace and happiness as promised by Jesus Christ. To disobey is to invite the wrath of the Almighty.
My eldest son, Brice, entered an art show at Warsaw Community High School. The picture to his right is his entry - I think it's pretty cool. He has a natural talent for all things artistic.
The "zombie" picture was done by a Heather Piper - I don't know her, but I liked her stuff.
This painting is done by Shay Dixon. I seriously would pay some cash for it!
