year end

it's here...the end of the year 2008. wow! that does not seem possible, does it? where did the time go? what did i accomplish with my time in the year 2008? 8,760 hours...how many of them counted? all of them count, but how many counted? the hope of new resolutions, a clean slate! a new, God willing, 8,760 hours to live out.

this post right here is a good thought for the year end ...err, the new year beginning! I have not done that yet, but I am going to. And one of my resolutions will probably be to procrastinate less...lol

i am sitting here trying to think of regrets that i might have had over the past year, i am sure there are some, but i cant think of any. i have a ton of hopes/goals for next year, spiritual, personal, business...you name it, i have some ideas of goals in mind. i'm not ready to write them down on the world wide web as of yet...maybe in the next few days or so!

i'm off to paint my office! hope you all have a happy, safe, and FUN new year!

i love christmas presents

one quick thought before Christmas morn...

we went to mckinley's Christmas concert at hopdale last sunday night.  it is always good to see all of those kids up there singing and performing.  it is also good to go back and see what kim and i would still call home...i started serving in youth ministry there...so, it is and prob will always will be home.  

anyway, as is normally the case, most of the kids were up there standing mostly still and singing. then there was this one little girl that kept dancing and spinning and moving and talking and...you know, acting up.  the teacher sitting on the front row with her was about to lose it, i was laughing at the whole thing.  there is always one...

then i got to thinking, isnt that the joy of Christmas.  just singing and dancing and spinning and moving and talking...  we try to get our kids to sit still, behave, be polite...  maybe we miss the point and that little girl gets it!

i hope our Christmas and yours is filled with JOY!  uncontrollable, spinning, singing, laughing, talking, crazy JOY!

the biggest gap

well, this could be the biggest gap ever between two related posts.  i have been out of town with the family last weekend, just taking a break...which didnt end up too relaxing, but that is another post.  and i was in oklahoma working sunday night thru yesterday afternoon.  so, lots of thoughts between this post ,about my new friend mike, and today's post.

here are a few...

i kind of set you up.  you could have read the last post and went, wow...that daniel sure does have a "heart for the lost", he was willing to be in somewhere they serve beer  just to witness to someone...  ok, you probably didnt think that exactly...but you get my point.  

OR you could have thought, wow!  that daniel sure is an idiot...you cant go around buying beer for sinners and expect them to be saved!  daniel sure is "back sliding", he is the one who might need to be saved...again...  he has been going to that assemblies of God church...  lol

well, i've thought versions of both scenario's.  here is the reality of it.  i almost didn't say anything to mike.  i almost just clammed up...you know why?  sins of commission.  some how in my talking with someone about Jesus, i automatically focus on what i am doing, and if i can be a "good enough witness".  how in the world does one man's lack of a connection to the Creator of everything get turned into something about me and my depravity?  i don't know, that is my answer... i don't know.  but here are two things i think it could be; 

1. a conviction of the Holy Spirit.  the Holy Spirit could be convicting me of my actions and saying, "hey...what are you doing?"  "you don't need to be here"
2.  an enemy saying, "you are not good enough to say anything about this Jesus you believe in" "you are a loser and everyone in here is going to look at you like you are a loser if you start talking about Jesus"  "you freak" "religious whacko" ... you get the point

i am not for sure which it was that night, maybe some of both. i don't know!

i think, i have been conditioned to respond to sins of commission, the sins i commit.  i feel guilty, i repent, then i do it all over again.  i tend not to feel that way about sins of omission, the sin of apathy and doing nothing.  i have walked away from dozens of opportunities to talk about Jesus and after a day or so...i stop feeling bad about missing the opportunity.  

i once heard a guy speaking about sharing the Gospel, he shared with an atheist.  the atheist told him that if that were true... if the only way to have life was to follow Jesus, if God came to earth and died on a cross to take away the penalty of mine and your sins.  then this atheist said he would crawl over broken glass to tell the world about this Gospel.  

right after i originally posted about this experience with mike last week, i saw this post on SCL.  it is about what a christian should be vs. what a christian is.  and then, on the same site i saw this video from penn of penn and teller.  

in a season where everyone is blogging,  merry christmas, ask your self... what does it mean to me, Christ came, what does that mean to me?  and, how am i going to tell everyone i meet about the Saviour who came?  

Merry Christmas!

a guy i met...

i met a guy while i was in tulsa wed. night.  i was out with one of my customers and got to visiting with this other guy... it seems almost surreal, looking back, it was totally random.  anyway, we got to talking. sharing about family and past jobs, etc...  and he tells me that he has three girls and five grand kids (he is probably 50).  then he says, one of his grand kids is no longer with us. he died when he was 4 1/2 years old.  a household accident and the little boy lost his life.  i was caught off guard, to say the conversation switched gears is an understatement.  i told my new friend that i had lost my brother 6 years ago and i shared with him the story of how.  he had a similar reaction to mine just seconds before this.  ok...time out now.

let me fill you in on some details.  we are in a casino bar.  my new friend is a poker dealer and i had sat at his table earlier in the night and we got acquainted that way.  when he walked up, i asked if i could buy him a beer...b/c i thought he was a nice guy.  he had helped me out on a few plays and he was good at his job.  so we aren't exactly in a spiritual setting...it is pretty busy in this place... but it really is like it was he and i...i said to him, i dont know what you will think about this, and i am not a whacko...but if it hadnt been for Jesus, i wouldnt have made it.  and more than that i wouldnt be who i am today.  and i went on to tell him a little more about me...  he just kind of stepped back and said, "i'm not there yet".  and we dropped it and went back to small talk and getting to know one another.

so, if you are inclined to do such things...  i would ask that you pray for my friend "mike".  i will try and keep you updated on our relationship as time goes on.  i will try and fill you in on more details of this story as i have time.  have a great day!

new blog

this one time when my wife and i were on vacation with some friends. the girls went shopping and the guys went to play golf. when we all got back together, my wife says, "i bought you this green shirt, i wasn't for sure if you would like it or not....so, i bought you two of them." i was like, huh? it wasn't "exactly" like that, but very similar and that is the short version.
anyway, that was kind of my idea with starting another blog. i am not really that good at writing on one...so what the heck, i'll start another one! you are like, huh??
i started this blog this morning. you can read about it there, but basically i started it to have a place to keep me accountable, share some insights, and to focus this one a little on to something else.

so... enjoy!! have a good day! and check it out at www.just9moreminutes.blogspot.com .

honestly??

i went to jra on wed. night, curt preached a message that has stuck with me  this week.  it is something the Lord has been teaching me for a while now.   the idea is, do we only expect God to show up in the sensational environments...and if we do, do we miss Him in the ordinary.  in the day to day things of life, do we miss Him.

it got me to thinking...is my blog an accurate depiction of who i am, or is it a highlight reel?  this guy, whom i do not personally know but his is my favorite blog to read, is challenging me on the topic of, honesty and transparency.  so, i went back and looked through some of my post.  and THEN i looked at the gaps between some of the posts, and i thought about that time.  where was i?  what was i doing?  

here is the bottom line, i am not a super smart spiritual person.  i yell at my kids when i am in a hurry and they all of a sudden decide to be the slowest human beings on the face of the planet, i cuss enough to make a sailor blush on certain days, i look out for number one most of the time, there are way more days that i dont read my bible and dont have profound thoughts than days that i do, i love stuff!...cars, tv's, phones, toys...etc...   

i guess that really isnt the bottom line, this is...  i know that without the grace of Jesus, i am nothing.  and i know that you gotta love a God who says, you ARE jacked up...but i can work with that if you would just come on...follow me.  

so i guess my point is this (and it is mostly directed at me...lol) , quit focussing on how jacked up you are and quit portraying something your not!  start focusing on the One who tells you that He can work through you, despite how jacked up you are or i am!  one story in the bible makes me think of this, peter.  peter disowns Jesus 3 times, but later in Acts or the rest of the new testament...you read about peter leading a super natural life.  pretty amazing...

just wanted to be a little open n honest today...have a great weekend!

jacked up.... pt deux

here are some examples of what i am talking about... (this is going to be long...fyi)

Jesus says...

"and why do you worry about clothes?  see how the lilies of the field grow.  they do not labor or spin.  yet i tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, ... will he not much more clothe you, o you of little faith? So do not worry, ...  , and your heavenly Father knows you need them.  but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  each day has enough trouble of its own.(emphasis mine) matthew 6:28-34

how much time do you spend worrying?  i do it all the time...why?  no faith!

Jesus says...

"do not judge, or you too will be judged.  for in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (matthew 7:1-2)

do you judge people?  i do it all the time...why? i don't know.  

Jesus says...

"ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  for everyone who ask receives; he who seeks find; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (matthew 7:7-8)

do you ask and expect to receive? i don't always...why?  little faith

Jesus says...

so in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prohets. (matthew 7:12)

do you always treat others the way you would want to be treated?  i dont always...why? i am selfish.  

one note on this last verse...Jesus takes the extremely difficult concept of living life and interacting with people and trying to figure out how to live the "christian life"....and he boils it down to this one simple statement...everything that has ever been told, all the people who were foretelling the coming of God, what they all meant to say is this...treat people the way you want to be treated!  kind of to say, if you can do that.  the world, it will be ok, if you just treat people the way you want to be treated.

pretty simple, huh?  i gotta run...go treat someone the way you want to be treated today.  

jacked up...

i am reading through the gospels...matthew 5 and 6 right now and they have me jacked up.  i think that i know what Jesus was about.  i think i know what living a Christian life is about and then i go back and read Matthew 5 and 6 , then i realize after not reading this very often...that i have it messed up.  i remember that my sin is a big deal to God, and Jesus isn't going to wink at me at the end of the day and say..."it's ok daniel, i died for that, so it is ok ; )"  (i dont know if Jesus gets emoticons or not...i just thought i would put one there in case he does)  

it is still early and i havent completed my thought process yet, so maybe i will post more on this later today...but you should go and read this.  see how you measure up to what Jesus is teaching... i dont measure up real well.  (i think this is one way the Holy Spirit works.)

Bible reading thoughts

it has been a while since i posted one of these...i had a minute, so, here is what i am thinking about today...

in Matthew 4 i read about the calling of the first disciples, and i had to ask...what is it about these guys that they instinctively dropped everything to follow Jesus? you can read about it here. how "holy" and "spritual" were these guys that they gave up everything they knew to follow the One they didnt really know...i mean, surely they had heard of Jesus...surely they must have had some foreknowledge and had seen something amazing in Him to be able to drop everything and just follow...right?

If you clicked the above link, you didnt read this verse. this verse got me to thinking today...a little detail i have looked over. the verse says, he saw two brothers..., maybe they had not been seen before, maybe they just did their job every day just like you and me and had never really been seen or noticed. and maybe no one had ever called on them to follow, to believe that they could actually do what Jesus was going to lead them to do... maybe it wasn't that they saw something so great in Jesus, maybe it was that Jesus saw something so great in them! maybe he even sees it in you and i...

maybe i am reading too much into it, but, for me...this is huge! to know that Jesus sees me is inspiring, to know that he believes in me to do what he is calling me to...that, to put it mildly, is helpful information!

and, in reference to fran and my comments on my last post, this fact seems huge to me. they were doing their job, they were fishermen...and Jesus simply says, come follow me, i will make you fishers of men. i will take what you know, and make it more important, more lasting...i will take your normal job and make it spiritual! no smoke, no big experience, just come and follow me...that's it. that's all you have to do...i will do the rest.... and i believe that you can do it, b/c i see you...i know what you're doing...i see you working and i believe i can take your normal job and if you follow me, i will turn it into something tremendous for my name!

this is where i am at today....you too? (inside joke...lol)

great post

just thought i would share this post from mark batterson . it is about the civil forum on global health sponsored by saddle back church, with their pastor rick warren.  just go and read the post... 

Thanksgiving

i hope you had a great thanksgiving.  it is one of my favorite holidays...just  a great time of reflection and thanks for who i am and all that i have been given.  this particular thanksgiving, i got to catch up on some reading...in between gorging myself at meals!  i read  Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson.  great book if you are interested in learning more about following the Holy Spirit in your day to day life.  

i relaxed a lot this past week!  hung out with family, ate a ton and read.  how bout you?  what is your favorite holiday?

facebook...

i turned my facebook back on.  it has been off for a while, i turned it back on a while back and have kicked around using it lately.  i just wasted time on it and myspace when i had them.  myspace was my networking channel of preference, i do not get facebook.  i dont know how to use it very well, we'll see how long it lasts this time....  if you have one, let me know, add me as a friend.