Where did the trees go?

In just 3 hours, it's amazing what a few Kansans can do with chainsaws and pick up trucks. Amazing! Thank God for their hard work, team work, and service to our family. It feels like our back yard doubled in size. We removed 5 trees and about 6 shrubs. You'd have to be here to really appreciate it, but here's some before and after pictures:
The front yard before...
And after.
The back yard before...After.And we filled up the trailer pictured and about 5 more pick up beds. Phew! What a day!

Singing

While Andrew is away at school, Sandy does some pre-school time with the little ones. They read the Bible and do school work, but they also sing...

I think they like it.

Fire fighters

We went to the Emporia fire fighters event tonight. With free hot dogs, popcorn and fire helmets - how could we refuse?We've now gone to the Burbank, Arcadia, San Gabriel, and Emporia fire fighters' open houses. I think our kids are honorary fire fighters.So which one is the future police officer?

Training camp

Well, the Lakers opened up training camp and the pre-season has started. Andrew is working on joining the team in about 2023...he's got a ways to go. But I'm glad he's having fun with it.

Words and the heart

Paul Tripp also spoke at the Desiring God conference. One of his main points was that your words are really a reflection of your heart. He said that when you say something you regret, people often try and recover by saying, "I didn't mean to say that." However, if words are just a reflection of our evil hearts, then what we are really saying is, "Please forgive me for saying what I meant." Ouch.

And another one, if you listened to your words in the last month, would your words reflect the Kingdom of God or the kingdom of self - where people are just vehicles to do my bidding or obstacles in the way of getting what I want? I'm cringing just thinking about the possibility of hearing everything I spoke in the last month.

Tripp said that when you see problems as caused by your circumstances, then you stop seeking God's grace to change you. You need to realize that I am my greatest communication problem.

And boy do I need to keep working on that one. Sinclair Ferguson also talked about mastery of the tongue. He said for those who speak too much, one needs to be appropriately silent. But it's not enough simply to be silent. For those who are naturally not inclined to speak much, one needs to speak appropriately - words of grace.

Praise God that my salvation will never depend on my ability to master my tongue. But by God's infinite grace, He will change my heart and my words.

Ready for winter!

Last night, we went to our first Emporia HS game. It was my first time watching a HS football game since I was in HS, and it was a lot of fun. Even though it wasn't that cold (lows in the 50's), we bundled the kids up.Emery was very excited to wear her "new" used winter coat for the first time. She's pretty and puffy in pink, eh?

Why do we sing?

I'm still chewing on all that I heard at Desiring God. There's too much for my feeble mind to grasp it all. But Bob Kauflin's message on "What Happens When We Sing" was very thought provoking. I appreciated that he understood the importance of preaching and the complementary nature of singing. He said that songs should teach and admonish the church. They should never replace the preaching but should complement it. A good way to evaluate the depth of the worship songs at your church is to ask this question - If your church only had songs of worship, how well would your church know the Bible?

In thinking about Revelation 5, Kauflin said that Jesus didn't die to redeem individual soloists. He died to redeem a universal choir. The question is not - do you have a voice? The question is - do you have a song? Because of the Lamb that was slain, all believers have a new song regardless of voice. Our offerings of praise are only worthy of God because He hears it through His Son.

Kauflin also shared about a difficult time in his past when he felt hopeless and lost while as a pastor. In trying to work his way through this, a friend asked him how he was doing to which he responded that he felt hopeless. The friend responded that he wasn't hopeless enough. He felt hopeless because he was still trying to do it on his own. If he truly felt hopeless, then he would trust completely on the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

It is this truly hopeless perspective that I need to cultivate on a daily basis that I may revel all the more in the new song that I have been given by the blood of Christ.

I think the link changed from my previous post - to listen to Kauflin's message and more:
http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1423_conference_video/