by
Chet
5. March 2010 07:57
We come into the world with a longing to be known and a deep-seated fear that we aren’t what we should be. We are set up for a crisis of identity. And then, says Frederick Buechner, the world goes to work:Starting with the rather too pretty young woman and the charming but rather unstable young man, who together know no more about being parents than they do the far side of the moon, the world sets in to making us what the world would like us to be, and because we have to survive after all, we try to make ourselves into something that we hope the world will like better than it apparently did the selves we originally were. That is the story of all our lives, needless to say, and in the process of living out that story, the original, shimmering self gets buried so deep that most of us hardly end up living out of it at all. Instead, we live out all the other selves which we are constantly putting on and taking off like coats and hats against the world’s weather. (Telling Secret...
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by
Chet
18. February 2010 11:15
Thus says the Lord:"Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the Lord. For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, A land of salt without inhabitant."Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord And whose trust is the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not e anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit."
Jeremiah 17:5-8These verses spoke to me this morning. I as go through the book of Jeremiah and the Psalms, it is so clear that God wants our hearts back, even in the midst of our deepest rebellions against Him.
This is actually from 2007, but found it on an old brokendown blog and wanted to get it back up here
I love the picture of the tree planted by water. I have a tree like this in my own yard....
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by
Chet
13. February 2010 22:11
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I gave a devotional / testimony type of thing at a Valentines Banquet tonight with some friends & family from church... along with a couple hecklers in the crowd. Wanted to get it jotted down in my blog so I can come back to it later...
When I volunteered to share a devotional tonight, I had one of those strange feelings where you know exactly what you want to share, but have absolutely no idea how you’re going to get it out of your heart, up your throat, and out of your mouth. Ever been there? In fact, as I thought about that, I realized I’m in that situation quite often, particularly, it seems, in my marriage. I have something great to say, to really inspire and encourage my wife, or just make her day, and how does it come out? Not at all as in...
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by
Chet
31. January 2010 17:23
So I had an extra batch of banana bread ingredients the other day, and decided to try something new. It wound up both looking kinda yummy, tasting great, and only adding a few extra calories to my daily intake (if you only take one bite a day, that is). Here's the recipe, for all my inspired fans who asked for it. ;-)
CAKE
2 cups sugar
1 cup crisco
3 eggs, warmed to room temperature (or thereabouts)
1 3/4 cups mashed bananas (they work best if you mash them by hand so there are still some lumps)
3 cups flour
1 1/4 cups buttermilk (1 1/4 cup milk + 1 tablespoon vinegar), warmed to room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla (or a tiny bit extra for flavor)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup walnuts (crushed or small pieces, however you want them)
1/2 cut pecans (crushed or halved, however you want them)
TOPPING
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup buttermilk (1/4 cup milk + just a little bit of vinegar, maybe a pi...
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by
Chet
12. January 2010 09:08
So yeah, we're on our way to having another kiddo. Three months along, actually. We thought we'd take a sec to both share the good news and also request your prayers over Erin and her health during the next weeks and months. If you know the story of her pregnancy with Colton, you may have heard about our couple trips to the ER with blood pressure spikes. They never occured before her pregnancy, and haven't been around since, until now. This time things seem a little different. Her blood pressure is up, but not up like crazy yet, but she has had some other weird episodes where her heart just "pounds" really hard for a few minutes, once up to almost an hour. She's been to the ER once to get it checked out, but since she's pregnant, there were only so many tests they could run (no X-Ray, CAT scan, etc.). Her obstetrician referred her to a cardiologist, which she should get in to see here in the next week or two.
So while we're again floored with joy about the news of the baby doing fin...
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by
Chet
6. January 2010 11:07
Tonight I'm leading the youth group at our church in an hour I'm calling Lessons Learned from a Microwave. This past Sunday, we had a group of them out for the afternoon to perform a variety of "science" experiments using a Microwave to cook different objects. If I remember correctly, we nuked a banana, 4 hot dogs, marshmellows, an orange, a CD, two frozen eggs, a fruit snack, semi-frozen grapes, a cell phone, and a large ball of aluminum foil. While some of these objects behaved "as expected" or did not show much in terms of exciting results, others surprised us. Overall, it was a great afternoon, and in the process no one got hurt, we didn't need the fire extinguisher, and I believe a variety of lessons, or at least life truths, can be taken from the experience. I'm going to share our videos, along with some of those things they've made me think of, with the teens tonight. I'm also curious what they will come up with as applications of the knowledge we have gained. These are the type...
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by
Chet
5. January 2010 06:58
We read the beattitudes today on the Daily /Audio Bible. How opposite these are from the world we live in, and the "blessed are those" that seem to be the natural way we find happiness.
From the readalong site for today:
3 “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him,[a] for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. 4 God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. 6 God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice,[b] for they will be satisfied. 7 God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. 9 God ...
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by
Chet
20. December 2009 21:26
Merry Christmas! As I sit down to write this letter, I have the daunting task of looking back over the past year & try to decide what moments have been most noteworthy. Colton is now 3, so the number of stories I have on a daily basis could fill a book.Colton celebrated his 3rd birthday with a Little Einstein’s Party held in the barn. This is the first year that I have made his cake – Rocket from The Little Einstein’s. In September, Colton started preschool. He really enjoys it. When I pick him up, he tells what letter they worked on today & I ask if he was good that day. Without fail, he ponders a moment and then replies, “A little bit. I was talking.” Trains are still a favorite for Colton. This year we were able to take two train rides. In September, we took a weekend trip to Nashville, TN & took a ride on Thomas the Train. Just a few weeks ago, we got to ride on anoth...
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by
Chet
3. December 2009 12:50
I had the dream of anyone who's ever taught a group of teenagers happen to me last night. One of the girls, a 16 year old (or maybe she's 15, I can't remember now, but I'll guestimate on the high side to give her a moral boost when she reads this) came up to me afterwards to tell me why she and another girl had not been there for youth group that night, because they were helping out with Team Kid, which is some sort of somethingorother where they were teaching younger kids about Holiness, at least on that particular night. So she asks me, "Do you know what that word means? Holy?"
"Well sure, I say... it means 'set apart.'" I don't know if she was expecting a bigger answer or not, but that's my understanding of the basic meaning of the word, and it was right on what they'd apparently been teaching, so we're on the same wavelength. "So," I ask her... "are you holy?"
..Gears start turning... "Well, yeah, I guess so... you know, when I ask forgiveness... but only God's really holy.... ...
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by
Chet
5. November 2009 09:59
This is an extended excerpt from a newsletter I received yesterday from The Noble Heart. It's an excellent picture of walking with God through the dark times.
Night vision. It feels like night vision is required when looking into our own life or the life of another. We can make out the shape of some things that seem to be significant in the discovery of who we are, but they remain fairly dim and undefined or can disappear altogether. I remember several late evenings (actually early mornings) getting up and walking into the kitchen to get a pain reliever for a headache. I would leave the lights off hoping not to wake my wife and avoiding any other reasons for my head to hurt. As I would walk through the dark living room, I would sometimes catch a glimpse of a pair of shoes or the vacuum cleaner with my peripheral vision. As I tried to focus directly on it, it would often disappear. As soon as I looked straight ahead, I would see i...
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