Wonderings, thoughts, and everything else

In a recent Time Magazine report, it was discovered that the divorce rate across the country is down to 3.6 per 1000 people, it’s lowest number since 1970.  Cause for Celebration?  Probably Not.

You see, while the divorce rate is down, the number of unmarried couples living together is up 10-fold since 1960.  So the divorce rate is down which is good, but that may be caused by the fact that people are not getting married and living together instead.

Sometimes we have to look at all the factors before we celebrate!  Go here to see divorce rates by state. (Check out the D.C. stats- divorce rate has dropped 50.9%- highest drop in the country!)

This Summer our youth group is going to the StudentLife Camp in Mt. Bethel, PA for our summer camp.  It is always an amazing time for me to watch as our students grow during that week.  But camp is a little pricy.  The cost for one student to go to camp is $270.  And on top of that, we have about 3 or 4 families that have multiple kids in our youth group.  So we are asking people to provide youth scholarships for our students. 

If you feel like you could help provide a full or partial scholarship for one or more of our students to go to camp, please let me know.  Just leave a comment and I will get in touch with you. 

For all the American Idol Junkies out there, congrats to Jordin Sparks. She is the 2007 American Idol.  She has amazing vocals and great presence on the stage…and she is just 17.  That got me thinking, what was I doing at 17?   Hmmm. I believe I was preparing for my senior year of high school, working for my father’s landscaping business and just waiting to turn 18.  I believe Jordin has a better answer.

 But now the big question…what on earth is going to be on TV on Tuesday Nights?

Check this out.  Scientist have discovered that they can tell how a person is going to do on their SAT’s just by looking at their fingers, specifically the ring and index finger.  Next up, We can tell who you are going to marry just by looking at your big toe!  Check out the article here!

Today was a momentous day.  At dinner tonight, my daughter ate steak!  It has been a struggle for us to get Addison to even try meat, and tonight she asked for some steak.  What a great Day!

This past Sunday, I kicked off a new series with our teenagers called “Keepin’ It Real!- Taking the Bible to the extreme.  It started really well and I think the students are looking forward to the next three weeks.  Over the next three weeks I am going to give them some practical trips on how to study their Bible.  I am really looking forward to this series.

At the end of the lesson this week, I challenged the students to make a commitment to read their Bible for 15 minutes a day for the 4 weeks that this series is happening.  I had them sign a commitment card and turn it in.  It will be exciting to hear what they learn over the next 4 weeks.  To really show them I was serious, I told them that I am making the commitment to read my Bible for an extra 30 minutes a day.

So that is my commitment…3o extra minutes of Bible reading a day.

I got this thought in a email from a friend and I thought I would post it here. What would happen if we treated our Bible like our cell phone?
- What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
- What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
- What if we flipped through it several times a day?
- What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
- What if we treated it like we couldn’t live without it?
- What if we gave it to kids as gifts?
- What if we used it as we traveled?
- What if we used it in case of an emergency?
 

I hope the next time you reach for your cell phone, you will consider how much more important the Bible should be than your cell phone.

You know sometimes you just need a quiet place to read so you can finish those last two chapters of your book.  You know where I went?  The airport.  Yeah, oh so quiet.  Actually it was good.  I turned on the mp3 player kicked back in the ever so comfortable chairs at the gate and finished “The Barbarian Way”  by Erwin Mcmanus.  What an amazing book.  It definitely challenges your thinking.  The one big thing I took from it:  Follow God’s plan for your life, even if it bucks the trends.  Listen to God- be God-taught, God-moved and God-inspired.  Don’t let “cultured Christianity” tell you that you can’t do something.   Jesus was not civilized when He was on earth, so why do we have to be?  That is not to say that I should fight the church for the sake of fighting the church, but sometimes I need to be willing to step out and go with God instead of maintaining status quo.

 So needless to say, I learned a lot.  I finished the book Tuesday Night right before I hopped the plane to Myrtle Beach to spend a few days relaxing with the family.  I just started reading my next book “The Gospel According to Starbucks” by Leonard Sweet.  I am only 6 pages into it, but it already looks like a good read. 

Off again, a round of golf awaits…..FORE!

We’ve all been there.  You either just enjoyed a meal loaded with garlic and onions. Or you are sitting next to the guy who apparently eats garlic raw for breakfast.  And you are out of breath strips.  The guys’ breath smells like your gym bag after a weekend in your car in direct sunlight. What do you do?

I know sometimes I have kickin’ breath, so this was a great article to read.  There are some food options to help you rid yourself of that stanky breath.  So when you can’t brush, try this. Go Here.

After watching “Idol Gives Back” a couple weeks ago, we (LCC staff guys) started evaluating how we do individually and corporately to reach out into our community to help meet needs.  Honestly, we felt bad.  Yes we were concerned with helping out our community, but what kind of effort were we putting into doing something about it?  The answer was, ashamedly, not much.  But that is about to change!

During the month of May, LCC is going to be doing a food drive for one of our local community action center.  You can check the info out here