The great state of Tex-afornia

I had an acci-Dentist
So, I leave for work this morning and I happen to find my wife making her way to the dentist to have some teeth worked on, so I follow her to cheer her up. I walk into the dentist's office, not knowing that it was a trap. The hygenist (sp??) sees me and let me know that she's missed seeing me since my last appointment (over 2 years ago!). So, resigned to my fate I decide to schedule an appointment. It was my lucky day because there was a cancellation that morning and I could walk right in. Whooo fricken hoo! I am not an anti-dentite. In fact, our dentist is really great. And although I threw up once in a dentist chair I am not afraid. I was just not prepared to be poked and chiseled this morning. Good new though. Everything turned out ok and I was even given a cookie and Pepsi as I left (to ensure repeat business I suppose).

posted by Kevin @ 11:16 AM 0 Comments

Whew
Well, I have finished two take home finals. I am officially done with 1/4 of my classes. I still quite a bit to do on the fabled "Project that Wouldn't die!" but I am optimistic.

This weekend we had a sleepover with my middle school small group. Five hours of pillow fighting, two hours of hide and seek, cold pizza and snack cakes...what a night. I enjoy the bonding that happens at an overnighter. After two in the morning, everyone becomes friends. Got home on Saturday and had some heavy news dropped on me from a friend. Just pray that I can minister to him. It didn't help that I was dog tired from the night before.

I taught on the trinity for our high school group yesterday and learned about 20 minutes afterward that my fly had been undone the whole time. I know some guys saw it. All I can say is...dang! Oh well. I find that teaching high schoolers is much different than middle schoolers. I think I can get a laugh from a group of middle schoolers quite easily (bodily functions are a sure thing). High schoolers on the other hand are tricky. You have to put thought into. It has to be somewhat more sophisticated, yet still mention bodily humor. I guess in the end it call comes to farts and poo.

posted by Kevin @ 2:07 PM 0 Comments

The Project That Wouldn't Die!
I have been working on a school project for close to 5 weeks now and every time I open it back up again, it grows. It makes me want to smack my computer and yell, "Quit it!" It doesn't help that I only have two more weeks to finish it and I don't want to take that long.

In other school related news one of my professors announced his resignation last week. I happened to skip that day, so I didn't hear him read his letter of resignation. As far as I can tell, he could no longer adhere to the theological statements of the seminary. I am kind of bummed because I liked him a lot. He was honest with the relative strengths and weaknesses of differing views. He also tended to hold a more holistic approach to scripture. One good thing to come out of this is that he gave us the final already to take home and work on open note and book, which is a blessing because looking at this monstrosity I would have bombed it royally.

So, here's to Dr. Berghuis. May God bless your endeavors and grant you joy in the Lord!

posted by Kevin @ 11:44 AM 0 Comments

Silence
This morning I tried to be silent before God. It was an experiment in the ancient practices of early church leaders. My goal was to go for an hour with no music or talking. No agenda. No special prayers to pray. No decisions to gain wisdom about. Just my God and me. This isn't the first time I've tried this practice and I have enjoyed it immensely. So, what happened? I lasted closer to 20 minutes than 60. Much dissappointing. But I did feel that the silence was beneficial to my soul. I realize that you don't really know what's going on in the deep recesses of your soul until you are silent. I realized that there is joy in letting God wash over you. I can kinda see what the Buddhist gets from meditation. They seek to empty themselves. There is a piece to that. While I disagree on the their reasons for meditating. My silence is to gain closeness with God and to be filled by His thoughts, not simply the complete silence of dissapation. Even though I wasn't singing out loud a song kept popping into my head. The words "for your glory and your fame" rang true with my soul bringing me back to the focus of life. I felt a sense of freedom in knowing that I don't have to live up to my standard for my life. If I am not "successful" who cares? What I want is for people to know God more. A good thought to begin the day with.

I would someday like to take a full day silent retreat. Has anyone else a set aside a time of silence strictly for the purpose of listening to God? If so, what did you learn?

posted by Kevin @ 1:25 PM 0 Comments

Happy B-Day to my wife!
Today is my wife's birthday and I thought I'd spend some time bragging on here. Go to my wife's blog and wish her a happy day!

Top 10 Things I love about my wife:
10. She ALWAYS keeps me very well fed.
9. I melt everytime I see her smile.
8. She has a heart to make people feel welcome.
7. She doesn't mind walking in the rain (in fact she loves it!)
6. She plays video games (and does it very well)
5. She likes my big belly
4. She is stunning in just about anything she wears.
3. The kisses
2. She uses paint, pictures, and media to create masterpieces.
1. She has the most gorgeous green-brown eyes in the world.

I love you, babe!

posted by Kevin @ 9:51 AM 0 Comments

San Antonio
This past weekend we took a trip to the city of the Alamo. There was much relaxing and laughing to be had. We stayed at a really nice hotel on the riverwalk and ate great food. It was really good just to get away for a while. We went to the Alamo (of course) and saw some really cool spanish missions. Since it was Easter sunday, we weren't at church, but we did church by ouorselves and that really made the weekend enjoyable. Thanks sweety for such a great time!

posted by Kevin @ 11:32 AM 0 Comments

An Uplifting Easter Message...NOT!
From Relevantmagazine.com
A church trying to teach about the crucifixion of Jesus performed an Easter show with actors whipping the Easter bunny and breaking eggs, upsetting several parents and young children. People who attended Saturday's performance at the Pa. church, quoted performers as saying, "There is no Easter bunny," and described the show as being a demonstration of how Jesus was crucified. Um, there has got to be a better way than that of portraying Easter ...

posted by Kevin @ 10:28 AM 0 Comments

Homosexuality
Robert brought up the question of homosexuality on his blog. As I was commenting I realized there is much more in my mind, so I decided to finish the post here:

This is such a hot topic right now. I think a lot of it as to do with the legal decisions that homosexual people are pushing for in the courts. I have been struggling with this in my own mind. I had a friend in college who was a roommate and close friend. Everyone said he was gay, but since he denied it I believed him (though looking back it was pretty obvious). My junior year he started distancing himself from his friends and came out my senior year. I have always regretted not being able to minister to him (whether he didn't want to be my friend anymore or I was too intolerant, I don't know). Recently I have had multiple dreams where we have reconciled. In these dreams all that happens I give him a big hug and tell him that I love him. There is a lot of crying involved. I think my subconscious is feeling really guilty that I haven't reached out to him.

It seems to me that the church has put homosexuality over most other sins. We have already decided that someone who lives in the sin of homosexuality couldn't possibly be a Christian. But we act as if someone who habitually lies or gossips or is gluttonous is sinning less. Many Christians worry that if a homosexual comes into the church and we don't get them straight right away then the whole congregation will go to pot. There was something about Jesus that drew sinners to himself. The most Holy One was constantly accused of hanging with a crowd of sinners. Why has the church exuded the exact opposite vibe? Sinners (or the ones we designate as sinners) don't want to come to church to be condemned. The gospel is freedom and it is freedom for all.

posted by Kevin @ 10:15 AM 0 Comments

Ocean Dreams
It is a beautiful day! I really just love spring! I get to start wearing flip-flops and shorts again. Ok, so I started wearing shorts when the weather was 45 degrees. I am convinced that Texas hasn't taken the California boy out of me. I still LOVE hot weather. I still love anything to do with the ocean. In fact, I still have a bottle of Pacific ocean water on my desk that is about six years old. Man, I really really want to go to the ocean right now. Tuesday night we were helping a lady from our church in a garage sale and she was selling some CD's. One was the Beach Boys and one look at the CD made me ache for the ocean. I like the band and all, but me thinks it has more to do with the ocean than anything else.

posted by Kevin @ 11:20 AM 0 Comments