More about faith

God is continuing to teach Becca and I about faith through many ways. Let me share one with you.

Yesterday we purchased the airfare for our honeymoon. I have been looking at airfare for months. Recently I have found some really good deals, however this week the really good deals have been disappearing and yesterday I decided we needed to buy our airfare now before the prices went up too much farther. So I went and searched my good friend Orbitz and subsequently bought the tickets.

How does this relate to faith? Originally I wanted to have everything with the resorts in the Dominican arranged before we purchased the airfare. I believe part of this rationale was legitimate, however the other part was Chris wanting to be in control and have everything arranged very neatly. Purchasing the airfare yesterday, for me was an act of faith. I believe God will reward this in His timing.

Some of you have mentioned you have some thoughts on faith. I am curious to read them. Please post them in the comments area.

Have a great day and weekend!

TMSAISTI

Random events of today

Becca and I were shopping tonight at Target and a crazy thing happened. We were shopping for a couple who is getting married in May and guess who we ran into. The couple getting married in May! I am still in shock.

My blog has become even more exciting as you can now make comments. Thanks for Ameliou for guiding me to an easy place to make it happen.

Continuing my discussion of faith from yesterday, in my team's devotion time today we read a meditation from Oswald Chamber's book. The title of the devotion was Certain of uncertainty. The focus was challenging the reader regarding faith during time in life where you do not have clear direction of the future. I think God is trying to teach me about faith because that seems to be a pretty consistent topic of late. I continue to sense that change (more than just the wedding) is on the horizon. God has revealed some detail about this, however there is still of lot of uncertainty. I need to be patient and wait for God to reveal His plans, however even as I type that I realise that is hard because I want/need to be in control. Well enough deep thoughts for now.

44 days to go until the big day. TMSAISTI

Faith

I was struck with a thought about faith today. Is faith trusting God to care for the details of a given situation with the way in mind that it will be fixed or is faith "blindly" trusting God that He will care for the details? Sometimes it is so easy for me to say I have faith in God while plotting in my mind how I will bring the event to pass.

I must admit that the specific situation I was thinking with regards to faith was the wedding. It is easy for me to express trust in God that He will provide while at the same time thinking of how I can save money to pay for this, that and the other thing. I don't think that financial planning is necessarily bad, however I think in some cases it can prevent me from fully trusting God as I could.

This topic of faith is often discussed some much in Christian circles and consequently can be perceived negatively. I don't mean to come up with the new, perfect way for you to have faith, but rather to share my experiences.

TMSAISTI

An amazing weekend...

Becca and I had an amazing weekend in Boston. There will be many blog entries in the near future talking about little snipets of the weekend. We visited Cape Cod on Saturday and then Becca's church and other friends on Sunday. I was just so glad to meet them and enjoyed the time with them immensely. God is leading Becca and I and giving us wisdom for the future for which we are grateful.

Well just a brief post for now. Look for more later.

Another devotional thought

It seems like I'm sharing a lot from my devotions lately, however as I read today's meditation I knew I wanted to share this one as well.

The summary of the mediation was to value the position in which God places you. We may not always feel like we are in the limelight or that God is even using us. I have struggled with this thought of late, however at these God uses various means, including the Our Daily Bread to bring me back to reality.

Let me quote the closing thought from the meditation: "In God's service there are no high and low people, no high and low tasks. We all depend on one another..."

I was very encouraged by this thought and I trust you will be as well.

And, tmsaisti...

Thought from devotions today

I was reading Romans 12:1-21 today for devotions from the Our Daily Bread. I was struck by a small little word, then.

Verse 2 in the NIV reads, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will."

I was reflecting today that a lot of my prayers lately have been on the subject of trying to figure out what God wants me to do (e.g. honeymoon, misc wedding plans, future ministries, etc). I am not saying that we should go to Him in prayer when we need wisdom. We are told in James to do this very thing. However, I think that as I seek God's will I need to ensure I am following the directives of Romans 12:1,2. I need to ensure, with the Spirit's help, that I am submitting myself to God each day as my reasonable act of worship, and allowing God to renew my mind. Then I will be able to know what God will is.

These are my thoughts for today and I'm sticking to them...

Funny story

Yesterday Becca and I went to Chicago with our friends, the Fleegers. Duane mentioned that he wanted to go the Apple store while we were in Chicago. Unfortunately, I was experiencing another slow brain moment. At first I thought Duane was referring to a stores where apples that are eaten could be purchased. However, Duane was referring to an Apple store where Apple computers can be purchased.

Oops...

Another week

Well I have been quite the blog-slacker this week. Amelia is making me look bad but it's all good.

Did everyone see the final Apprentice last night? I must admit I am getting into some of the reality TV shows. I probably won't watch the Apprentice when it comes back in the fall but it was interesting this season at least.

The other exciting news from this week (much more exciting than the Apprentice I should add) is Becca and I started pre-marital counseling. The pastor who is marrying us has a very unique, but good style toward counseling. We will meet with him for about a half hour or so during which he will present us a topic. The rest of the time Becca and I will spend together talking about that topic ourselves. During the next session we'll let him know what we came up with and go from there. Jonathan does not hold himself out to have all the answers and I find this perspective a refreshing one.

Tomorrow Becca and I are headed to Chicago with our friends the Fleegers. Hopefully we will be able to post some pics from the trip on the Blog next week.

Have a great weekend.

The Passion Of the Christ

I was reading Mark Lowry's rambling page (kind of like a blog) and saw a link to an article Mark read about the success of the Passion Of the Christ. Check it out...

Blog poll

This is the first of many Blog poll's which I'll invite you to participate in from time to time. Please email me your thoughts and I will post them once I get a few responses.

Poll Question #1: What is the purpose of Peeps?

Fun Easter weekend

It has been a while since I have posted on here so I better get cracking.

Becca and I went to Cleveland this weekend to visit my family. Overall I would say it was a good visit. We had a lot of relaxing time which I think we both needed. One of the highlights for me was going through a lot of books that I have stored at my parent's house to determine which will be kept and which will be given to Goodwill or Baker Book House.

We attended Grace Baptist Church yesterday. It hurts me to see the church where I was raised going through hard times. I know that God will use these circumstances to do incredible things, however it is still a bit painful in the meantime. There is only one staff member (the youth pastor) right now, and therefore he has a lot of responsibility. I would not have chosen anyone else to be in Steve's shoes right now, but I am sure it is difficult. Please pray for this church as it comes to your mind.

Well I must get going. Much to do at work this morning as I'm at Outlook training this afternoon. I always like learning about new software, just not necessarily after an afternoon two days in a row.

Have a great day!

10 Commandments Of Cell Phones

Ked posted these on Amelia's blog today and I had to share them with everyone. They are too funny.

I pasted them into a new web page on my site. All credit to Kedron.

Productive day

Wedding plans continue to move along today. Tonight we completed the mailing of the invitations and secured the wedding cake. It is always exciting to make decisions, however for some reason I am always reminded of things yet to go, the foremost in my mind right now being the honeymoon.

For those of you who do not know, Becca and I have won a few honeymoons. We hope to take two of them to the same resort in the Dominican Republic. As Becca and I were sending in the forms to apply for these honeymoons I came to realise how much of a process it will be to get these free stays in the resort. Please remember this issue in prayer as it comes to your mind.

Today felt like a productive day at work too. One of my co-workers is on vacation and another is leaving on vacation tomorrow so I'm covering for a couple of people. Many projects are in progress but are going well. I, however, was reminded today that God is in control and I'm not. Unfortunately, at times I need frequent reminders.

Well, like my friend Amelia, today was not that exciting of a day so I'm signing off, going to read some more of my book and go to bed.

Have a great night!

The end of the week

Well the end of another work week is here. I am continually amazed at how quickly. This weekend Becca and I are headed to Cleveland for wedding shower #1. I am actually very excited about how this shower came about. I kind of wanted to have one in Cleveland so people at the church where I grew up could meet Becca, however I wasn't sure how this was going to happen. A couple weeks ago I heard that a lady from the church, of her own initative was going to set one up for us. Needless to say, I was very excited.

Hope you have a great weekend! Enjoy the weather!

Engagement pictures

I wanted to let everyone know that the engagement pictures have been posted and they can be seen using the link on right side of the blog. Also, some of the links on the picture pages were incorrect, as of 9:10pm on Thursday night, all links have been checked and are correct.

All pictures posted are Copyright 2004 by Coastline Photography. If you would like to order any prints of these pictures please let me know.

Have a great night!