Random selections of other blogs. Note: I am not responsible for content on other blogs.
One of the most captivating books on Christian spirituality that I've read in the past few years has been Blue Like Jazz - Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality. Written by Donald Miller, it is equally challenging and entertaining. If you haven't read it, you should!
Here are a few Easter books for the little kids. All books are available at Family Christian Bookstores.
Easter Easter Almost Here
We'll pick a different winner every day.
www.freebeachball.com
If you enjoy occasionally peeking into the collective psyche of the world, you might try looking at Google Trends. Google takes in between 400-500 million searches a day. On the top end of the range, that works out to an average of 5,787 searches ... per second! I certainly add a few numbers to the daily search totals myself.
Google Trends (www.google.com/trends) is a new section of Google that allows you to see what the hottest search words and phrases are. As Google says, "Hot Trends highlights searches that have sudden surges in popularity." Many times you can tell what is in the news by looking at what gets searched for. Many times you’re just confused!
Just out of curiousity, I pulled it up for Friday, January 18. Top search phrase: "yin and yang." Number two: "sheep dash."
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution came in at number 14.
In a humbling display of arrogance, Google had the audacity to give me this message: "Your terms - Ken Hensley - do not have enough search volume to show graphs." At least I know my number of internet stalkers is fairly low -- at least on January 18.
While Christ-followers need to be aware of what is moving through our culture, it is also too easy to get caught up in it. The German theologian Karl Barth was once asked about what made for good preaching. His response: A Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. In other words, effective Christ-followers bridge two worlds -- the world we live in and the world of God.
When they compliment each other, there is tremendous synergy. Christians have harnessed the power of radio waves, television broadcasts, and the internet. These are not good or bad mediums -- they are neutral advances in culture until harnessed for good or bad. Creating music that fits the times is another powerful example of effectively bridging two worlds.
When the two worlds collide, we yield to the reality of God’s truth. Our challenge is to use culture when appropriate and to draw a line when necessary. This is the tension that authentic Christ-followers have lived with for centuries.
Add that to your Google Trends!
One of the lesson’s I learned while battling a recent cold ... cable news networks only track three stories at a time and use 12 different anchors to tell you the same thing, but in a slightly different way. And whenever a lead-in proclaims, "Breaking News" ... it’s probably not.
Yesterday happened to be Groundhog Day. Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania claims to be the home of the original groundhog and even gave it a name -- Punxsutawney Phil.
Every year the locals dress up in old-fashioned costumes and wait for Phil. We’re not quite sure how many “Phil’s” there actually are since groundhogs tend to look alike. But the locals have a good time nonetheless.
While doing some research into Groundhog Day, I came across a few lesser-known groundhogs:
Wiarton Willie of Wiarton, Ontario
Staten Island Chuck of in New York City, New York
Sir Walter Wally of Raleigh, North Carolina
Jimmy the Groundhog of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin
The last one sounds like a member of the groundhog mafia or possibly a retired sportscaster.
On the one hand, it’s kind of quaint that the men of Punxsutawney dress up in top hats and gather in a field at 4:30 in the morning to await Phil’s arrival. Six weeks of weather hangs in the balance.
It’s quite another matter to make life decisions based upon the behavior of a groundhog.
For several years I have been fascinated by how people go about making decisions. I’ve known coupon clippers who would drive to two or three different grocery stores to save fifty cents here and a dollar there. Some of these same people would turn right around and buy a $1,000 television without doing any comparison shopping whatsoever.
Retailers love impulse shoppers. In fact, there is a quite a bit of psychology that influences how a store is designed and where products are placed -- all in an effort to influence buying habits. Trust me, they’re not concerned with how to save you money.
How do we as Christ-followers make decisions? Several years ago, Pastor Bill Hybels wrote a book entitled, “Too Busy Not to Pray.” He was reacting to people who say, “I’m just too busy to pray.” The truth is, the busier you are, the more you need to pray!
Wow, it's 2008 already and this blog was last updated one month ago. In the blogosphere, that is grounds for a time-out. It's not that I've forgotten how to type ...
Let's see ... where to start. Hannah and Hope are both involved in softball (opening day is this Saturday). We're really pleased with their coaches and both girls are enjoying the game. What more could you ask for! Look for pictures to be posted once the season gets underway.
Hannah recently represented her school in the county-wide spelling bee for Christian schools. She came in second out of all the fifth graders. She was a bit nervous, but probably only her parents could tell.
Hope is working on a state report project on New York and will be dressing up as the Statue of Liberty :-)
On the baseball front ... my Christmas gift was season tickets to the Padres (20 game package). I'm stoked! As an added bonus, my parking garage for Blue Haven is a short five minute walk from Petco Park. Free parking! That alone should save me enough coin to buy a hot dog.
LifePoint is doing well and we recently launched a new LifeGroup (that's our version of small groups).
For those of you snowed under, it's never too early to love your swimming pool. To show my sensitive side, here's a promo code you can use at Blue Haven Pools and Spas to save 10% of every purchase over $50 and get free shipping and handling.
Use "ILOVEMYPOOL" during checkout and we'll do the rest.
It’s hard to believe we’re winding down another year. Though I know that minutes still have sixty seconds and a day is comprised of twenty-four hours, it sure seems like time is moving faster the older I get. Or maybe life is moving at the same pace it always has but my reflexes are just a bit slower.
The story of the past twelve months has been an interesting one. As the story unfolded, the evidence of God’s presence was on every page.
LifePoint celebrated her second anniversary, a feat not shared by every new church start-up. In church planting terminology, we were a “parachute drop.” That means we started without the benefit of mother church -- in fact, we started with a handful of people who simply wanted to follow a dream of starting a new church.
Much like a child learns to crawl, then walk, and eventually run, we have gone through our own growth spurts as a child. Numbers only tell part of the story; you can’t quantify things like renewed hope, forgiveness, and friendship. Numbers are important to the extent that they reflect individuals who are encountering God and giving their lives to Jesus.
Are we everything as a church that I had hoped we would be? Yes and no. We are far from perfect; if you’re looking for the perfect church, you’ve stumbled in to the wrong place. But when you serve an infinite God who can do the impossible, the opportunities for future growth remain as limitless as God.
I believe as much today as I did back in 2005 that San Diego needs more churches like LifePoint. I also believe that San Diego needs a healthy, growing LifePoint. We cannot become complacent -- or God forbid, defeated -- when so many of our friends and neighbors do not have life-changing relationship with Jesus.
As your pastor, I pledge to you that I will seek God’s direction, listen to his voice, and try to model his values within our church. Will you join me in this adventure?
One of the more interesting features we added to the Healthy Start section is a body mass index calculator. It uses information published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition to help determine your optimal weight based upon your height. Note: it does operate on the honor system :-)
Over at my day job -- Blue Haven Pools & Spas Supplies Direct -- we have created a holiday clearance section where every item is 20% off. These are items that we have stock and are ready to ship. If you're looking to buy your favorite blogger a gift, you might consider The Tingler ... it looks painful but I'm sure it feels fantastic!
As I'm returning from lunch at Quiznos (I highly recommended the Prime Rib and Peppercorn sandwich on Rosemary Parmesan bread) I pass this homeless fellow carrying his bags, etc., and his portable radio. In my younger, more hip days we called them boomboxes.
What is this fellow listening to? A song from Les Miserables -- "On My Own," the solo by Eponine.
Click here to read more about "On My Own" on Wikipedia.
One of the items we picked up at Blue Haven Pools & Spas for our holiday catalog are artificial Christmas trees. And these are not your big-box discount store trees ... these are really nice trees. Click here to see our collection of artificial Christmas trees.
LifePoint is partnering with Pomerado Christian Church in Poway to provide relief and assistance to families who lost or suffered damage in the recent San Diego fires. We are collecting gift cards from stores such as Home Depot, Lowes, Wal-Mart, etc., that will be distributed by Pomerado Christian Church to families in their community. You may bring your gift card to any LifePoint event and we will route them to PCC. Thank you for your help and support!
Every now and then I'll crank out a line in a message that I really like -- I should do that more often! Here is one that came to me as I writing out tomorrow's message: "Sometimes we beat our drum so loud that we drown out the music of God."
In good lawyer terms, "on or around" my birthday I decided to shave off my goatee. This also coincided with a new pair of glasses and a haircut. No need to worry about a fancy sports car ... my 1996 Honda Accord is paid for!
People in San Diego talk about visiting the snow for an afternoon. Growing up in Illinois, the snow visited you ... for about three months out of the year. I would have loved to have had one of the winter inflatables that we sell at Blue Haven Pools & Spas Supplies Direct. Given that I made due with the lid to a garbage can, I would have been in snow heaven on a Rugged Rush Snow Tube or a Nordic Express. Of course, I'm too old for that now ... :-)
See them all in our holiday section.
We've been working on several projects at Blue Haven related to the launch of our holiday catalog. One of the most effective was a recent email blast we sent out to over 54,000 people. It's been really cool to see the results roll in. The email blast was a basic HTML newsletter that I designed, similar to the ones I send out for LifePoint.
Another project that has consumed much time has been our Whitehall section. Whitehall is a leading provider of home and garden decorations and accents. They are especially well known for their weathervanes. We created a special landing page that features only Whitehall products. Take a peek and let me know what you think.
