On my mind today

After we got home from church last night, I abused my wife in a shameful way - I forced her to endure "Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector." If you've not seen it, let me warn you - it is a really stupid movie - and I like stupid movies! It had almost no plot - just one-liner after one-liner. The story was beyond unbelievable - Larry as a health inspector at 5 Star restaurants? The characters were poorly constructed. . . . But I laughed until I was nearly sick! If you're in the mood for a stupid show with no story, no characters and no plot, here's your show!

In my reading today, I found a list of things to do to simulate living in a third-world country, far less prosperous than our own. Sometimes, I need a reminder of just how fortunate I truly am to be in a country with such privilege and wealth. I thought I'd share the list with you - if you're an FBC member, don't read it too carefully - I may use it on a Sunday morning! Identifying With the Poor: 9 Steps to Third World Living First, take out the furniture: leave a few old blankets, a kitchen table, maybe a wooden chair. You've never had a bed, remember? Second, throw out your clothes. Each person in the family may keep the oldest suit or dress, a shirt or blouse. The head of the family has the only pair of shoes. Third, all kitchen appliances have vanished. Keep a box of matches, a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt, a handful of onions, a dish of dried beans. Rescue the moldy potatoes from the garbage can: those are tonight's meal. Fourth, dismantle the bathr...

By now you've probably heard about my experiences last Saturday at Lake Palestine. Damon Hopkins and his family threw a wonderful party at their home on Lake Palestine. They had several Sea Doo Jet Skis which if you've never ridden one, they are a blast! Julie and I have ridden them before without incident. This time, however, would be different! There I was, riding along at around 30 MPH about to take a left hand turn to head back toward shore. Les Hopkins had warned me "That one's a little squirrely!" Oh that I would have listened! As I made my turn, the jet ski turned - I didn't. I continued in a straight line, right off into the water! Fortunately, the key came with me so it didn't keep running right toward shore. I swam and caught up to it (now without my sunglasses which the lake ate when I fell!). All I had to do was get back on, right? Right! . . . .Uh. . . Houston, we have a problem. Either I was too heavy or the jet ski was too light or my legs w...

This Sunday is Teacher / Staff / Administration Appreciation Sunday at FBC. We'll be honoring all our guests with a gift and a luncheon following our morning worship service. If you're a part of Frankston ISD, please accept this as a personal invitation to join us! We'd be ever so happy for you to come and allow us to honor your service to our most precious asset: our children.

Here's a new one. It was recently announced that China now forbids Tibetian monks from being reincarnated without permission. Here's the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20227400/site/newsweek/ Pretty ridiculous, no? I don't mean the permission part - I mean the reincarnation part!

One of the best parts of pastoring is connecting with children. Ryan and Jenzy Bizzell were kind enough to invite us for supper on Thursday evening. We had an amazing time! The Bizzell's oldest, Brink (4 yrs old) had created a masterpiece for me to commemorate the occasion. It's a wonderful rendition of he and I standing together. Not bad likeness, no? He certainly got the height differences correct. And I really love the height markers out to the side! As any great artist would do, he signed it for me and even made an envelope! Thanks Brink!

First a confession - we're M&M people in the worst way. We keep some around our house for rainy days. . . or sunny days. . .or snowy days. . .okay, any day at all will really do! :-) We found something curious in the last package. An M&M representative of the Trinity!

Yesterday, we began clearing a room for the music office to use for their extra music copies. After about an hour of dragging junk out, we discovered some amazing things in a file cabinet. We found Sunday School records and church ledgers from years gone by - many years gone by. The earliest records we found were from May 1919. Needless to say, we examined them carefully and placed them back with care. It was a little like holding history in your hand to consider the faithfulness of those who came before us, serving FBC during their lifetimes. It's a reminder that the calling God has placed on our lives is to be passionate - life is short!

Sorry for the delay in getting this good news to you - Wednesday is always busy. Our AC man came to the house on Tuesday night and installed a new unit for us. We're back in the cool again! Thanks to Brent Hoffman of Hoffman Heat and Air for the fine work.

Sometime Saturday night or Sunday morning, the air conditioner at the parsonage died a quiet death. Peacefully, it passed from us, its passing unnoticed until it was needed later Sunday afternoon. When it's demise was discovered, we lamented its loss with grief and great wailing. :-) The air conditioning man came to the house yesterday to tell us that was gone for good, not to be resurrected. After a brief prayer of repose, we relented and called the deacons. They've got the situation well in hand. A new unit has been ordered, ready for delivery and installation today.

Perhaps you've read the story reported recently in the Dallas Morning News about Mr. Cecil Sinclair, a Navy veteran and an openly gay member of the homosexual community (if you haven't, here's a link to a summary ). He passed away last week. High Pointe Church in Arlington (the old Johnson and Johnson facility at I-20 and 360), where Mr. Sinclair's brother was employed as a janitor, offered to host the service. Only later did the church learn the service was to embrace Mr. Sinclair's homosexuality and celebrate it as a natural way of life. Furthermore, there was no desire on the part of the family for the church to participate in any way other than facilities: no input in the service, no input into what was said or what was shown in the worship center in connection to the funeral. When the church withdrew the invitation since it was going to be an openly-homosexual service, the gay agenda kicked in. The indignity of their comments is predictable. If you disagree wi...

We got a call at the church office just a moment ago that I wanted to share with you. Ben Bostick has just been named Asst. Principle at a school in the Woodlands! He interviewed for the job while we were on Mission Trip. He's driving back today from Colorado so please pray for his safety and pray for his new work.

I was perusing my RSS today and came across what I thought simply HAD to be an inaccuracy. It seems a guy in Denver was so committed to texting on his new iPhone and yet so confounded that his thumbs weren't properly engineered to meet the task, he sought out a plastic surgeon to "correct" the problem. Yup, they surgically remapped his thumbs to allow him to better use his new phone for email, internet and text-messaging. That may be one of the most pathetic things I've ever heard. When interviewed about it, he said he thought he would be able to earn the cost of the surgery back in time saved by 2022 at the latest. What happens if he gets run over by a bus tomorrow? It reminds me of the man in Luke 12:13-21 who made bold plans with no consideration for the heart of God. The plans collapsed and he died quickly thereafter. It's my earnest hope this gentleman can avoid the same fate.

Here's an honest confession - I'm one of the worst golfers you'll ever meet. But I LOVE TO PLAY! Since we moved here, I've had the opportunity to play only twice, counting today. It's been a wild couple of weeks, so I decided today was a good day to spend playing golf at a wonderful course: Pine Dunes Golf and Resort. Ranked in the top 20 in the state by the Dallas Morning News . With a little cloud cover today, it was an exceptional day for golf. I played acceptably well (96 or 24+ par), although not nearly as well as my partner, Bryson Bean (85!). I hope to bring that number down. My home course in the Corsicana area was short and narrow - I hardly ever needed my driver. Pine Dunes is different to say the least!

Our search committee is all set and I'm thrilled with the makeup of the committee: Bryson Bean, Glenn "Coach" Holmans, Cody Bristow, Ann Maxwell, Cindy Wimpee and Janet Smith. We've received several resumes from interested parties and recommendations from some of our friends so it's coming together. Please pray for their important work!