A long Sunday at home...

...recuperating from a sinus infection. Saw this, and wanted to share:

Found @ www.reverendfun.com!

"Son, I'm Home": More parents move in with kids

Ran across this little bit today...read it but whatever you do, don't let your in-laws see this!

More parents move in with kids
In-laws, too, and others

By Greg Toppo and Anthony DeBarrosUSA TODAY

In the 1990s, your family came for dinner. Now they're moving in.

The number of parents, siblings and other relatives who live with adult heads of households grew 42% from 2000 to 2007, according to data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Leading the way: parents, up 67%, to 3.6 million.

The figures suggest it isn't only elderly parents moving in. The number of parents under 65 in these households increased by 75%, and those 65 and older were up 62%. Both groups outpaced the rise in the number of people in family households overall, which is up 6% since 2000.

"This is just a major trend," says Stephanie Coontz, a family history professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., who directs research at the Council on Contemporary Families.
Coontz suspects that a host of factors — among them higher housing costs and the USA's struggling economy — are prompting families to combine expenses. Also, intergenerational households are more common among the country's growing number of immigrants, she says.

But Coontz also notes that parent-child relationships are closer now than in the past. The downside, she says, is the emergence of the so-called helicopter parent who may hover too closely, but the upside is a tighter bond between generations and, in many cases, closer friendships between grown children and their parents. "I don't know how many of my students have told me, 'This may sound weird, but I talk to my parents more than I talk to my friends.' "

Read the rest here.

Notable quote...

"If there is no God, nothing matters. If there is a God, nothing else matters."

-Unknown

100!

Yes! 100...posts on the blog. Actually 101 for those of you scoring at home. We've been plugging away at church news, sermon notes, news about our culture, faith, and a little humor now and then since March 2008. Here's to more blog posts. Thanks go out to all of you who actually read these things!

Saturday chuckle...

Saw this bumper sticker tonight. I had to laugh, as anyone who's ever owned a truck will as well...

Time is getting away...

We're "bee bopping" our way through the week and we look up and WHAM! it's Wednesday. So, coming Thursday, sermon notes (tardy) along with things about the significance of tomorrow, September 11th. In the meantime, where were you when you heard...?

Notable quote

A real thought provoker came my way today- thought I'd share:

"Correct judgment comes from a place; that place is called experience."

-Author unknown

Sunday laugh (on a Monday)...

I guess this brings new meaning to the song "Come just as you are".

And free coffee too?!

What Coke and Mentos teach us about God's purpose

After a couple of weeks in children's church, I can say emphatically that I learn as much (or more) as do the kids. Today was no different. We were talking about God's purpose and plan for our lives and how that for each of us, there's a God-shaped hole that only He can fill inside us. Maybe you've seen or heard of the "pop" culture phenomena that the combination of coke and mentos candy has caused (if not, you can read here). For those of you who don't know, basically when a package (8-12) mentos are dropped into a two liter of soda, a geyser-like eruption occurs. The science behind this explosive combo can be found here.

So today with a two liter of cherry coke under one arm and a package of mentos in the other, we headed outside to create a geyser for ourselves. We first had a bottle of water, plopping the mentos into the H2O. Nothing happened. We told the kids that this is like when we put the wrong things into that God-shaped hole- whatever it is, nothing happens because God designed Himself to occupy that spot in our lives. You can put whatever you choose into that spot: other people, a job, money, a car, clothes, power, etc and nothing occurs.

Then we did the same thing with the cherry coke. The result was about an eight foot geyser of soda. When you introduce the right thing, the designed reaction occurs. Just like when God fills that hole inside of us- we find our purpose in His plan. We might as well be rocket-powered.

In John 7:38 Jesus said "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Perhaps for one second those kids saw how this verse works when the mentos were dropped into the coke.

(You can see the reactions of coke and mentos here)

Welcome FEEDJIT

You'll notice a box on the left hand side of the blog, most of the way down the page. Meet a fun little gadget called FEEDJIT. FEEDJIT shows you what geographical locations visit the church blog. Never fear though, your anonymity is safe as FEEDJIT won't display, record, or store a specific IP (internet provider) address- just someone's general (non-specific) geographical location. It's a neat way of discovering who stumbles upon the church blog and where in the world they're located.

Midweek Merriment

For some midweek fun, let's sample a series of church signs including one from a church that appears to enjoy inflicting its parishioners...

When God reaches through the daily grind...

...to meet you where you are. Have you ever been there, out in the course of your week like a thirsty person wandering through the desert trying to find their way through when God reaches through past your "to-do" list, your meeting schedule, your emails, the phone calls you have to return, the people you have to please...and finds you?

It's not as though you're backsliding but you're out there living like your success or failure is completely up to you...then God shows you another path. With our human ingenuity, we plot courses and plan moves. Yet God has another way many times and it's always the much better way in every respect. Proverbs 16:33 says "the lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD."

If anything, I'm guilty of knowing about the abundant life Jesus promises. Knowing about it and living it are two different things. I may know a lot about the Great Wall of China; experiencing it is another thing altogether since I've never been there. So it is with God and His promises; you can hear all about them- from the pulpit on Sunday and from the stories of your Christian friends- yet if you don't choose to fully follow Christ, you'll never experience it. By "experience" I'm not referring to some signs and wonders thing. Rather, I'm talking about knowing something is so because you've put it to the test in the rough-and-tumble workaday world in which we live and seen Him come through.

Then, as you scurry from one fire to the next, you know what it's like when God finds you, reaches down, and touches you reviving your spent soul and weary mind. This is the life He has for us...if we chose it for ourselves.

Dog Days of Summer...

We find ourselves in the "dog days" of summer (incidently you can find why it's called the dog days here)...people seem to be here and there, taking their last minute trips before fall comes, school begins, and it's back to the routine. We've gotten out of the routine here at the blog, working on papers for summer school classes, and taking those last minute trips all while doing some activity in conjunction with the recent election. But we're back and posting so, check back often. And we'll see ya at church...

HUH?

Here's hoping everyone's having a good week and staying cool in this heat. Looking forward to Sunday, but in the meantime grab a cold drink and read this story about how we're all going deaf from our personal audio devices, like the ipod and the fact that we all seem to be getting older (present company excluded).

One of three U.S. adults already suffers from some degree of hearing loss and the use of personal stereos and an aging population may create a hearing impairment epidemic, researchers said on Monday.

A team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore estimated that 55 million Americans have hearing loss in one or both ears, with men, whites and the least-educated most affected.
One out of six, or 29 million adults, have some trouble discerning speech, more than previous estimates, they reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"The prevalence of hearing loss in the United States is predicted to rise significantly because of an aging population and the growing use of personal listening devices. Indeed, there is concern that we may be facing an epidemic of hearing impairment," Dr. Yuri Agrawal of the Baltimore hospital wrote.

It is common for people to ignore or disavow hearing loss, the researchers said, leading to difficulty communicating that can result in productivity problems at work, depression, and less access to health care that ultimately raises the risk of sickness and death.

Hearing loss is common among people 70 and older, according to the report. But hearing loss also affected 8.5 percent of those in their 20s and 17 percent of people in their 30s. Exposure to workplace noise, firearms, and loud music were all risk factors.

Assessing health information collected from 5,700 Americans aged 20 to 69 years between 1999 and 2004 in the federal National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Agrawal and colleagues found men were twice as likely as women (21 percent versus 11 percent) to have speech-frequency hearing loss in one or both ears.

Whites were more than twice as prone to hearing loss than blacks, and those with less education were more at risk than those who completed high school or beyond.

Also dramatically increasing the chances of hearing loss were smoking, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Screening for hearing loss should begin in young adulthood, particularly for vulnerable groups, Agrawal concluded.

(Reporting by Andrew Stern; Editing by Maggie Fox and Eric Walsh)

Sunday laugh...

Back from a mini-vacation in sunny, hot Oklahoma. Trust that everyone had a great Sunday at church. And now, for something lighter...

These and more found @ http://www.reverendfun.com

Nice shirt...

Been meaning to talk about the handsome shirts which represent our church well where ever one goes. They, along with an equally handsome polo, were done by T.J. Sales who got them done and to us in very short order. Thanks to T.J. and the folks who did such a great job. And if you see someone out and about with the above shirt on, you've spotted a member of our church!

Notable quote...

"May you live all the days of your life."

-Jonathan Swift, Irish author (1667-1745)

Tony Snow on illness, mortality, and God's will

One year ago, Tony Snow penned a piece for "Christianity Today" about his experience battling cancer. Full of insight and perspective on illness, suffering, and God's place in it all, it's worth a read.

"Blessings arrive in unexpected packages—in my case, cancer.

Those of us with potentially fatal diseases—and there are millions in America today—find ourselves in the odd position of coping with our mortality while trying to fathom God's will. Although it would be the height of presumption to declare with confidence What It All Means, Scripture provides powerful hints and consolations.

The first is that we shouldn't spend too much time trying to answer the why questions: Why me? Why must people suffer? Why can't someone else get sick? We can't answer such things, and the questions themselves often are designed more to express our anguish than to solicit an answer.

I don't know why I have cancer, and I don't much care. It is what it is—a plain and indisputable fact. Yet even while staring into a mirror darkly, great and stunning truths begin to take shape. Our maladies define a central feature of our existence: We are fallen. We are imperfect. Our bodies give out.

But despite this—because of it—God offers the possibility of salvation and grace. We don't know how the narrative of our lives will end, but we get to choose how to use the interval between now and the moment we meet our Creator face-to-face."

More:

"The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change. You discover that Christianity is not something doughy, passive, pious, and soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But it also draws you into a world shorn of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, danger, shocks, reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies. Think of Paul, traipsing though the known world and contemplating trips to what must have seemed the antipodes (Spain), shaking the dust from his sandals, worrying not about the morrow, but only about the moment."

"What is man that Thou art mindful of him? We don't know much, but we know this: No matter where we are, no matter what we do, no matter how bleak or frightening our prospects, each and every one of us, each and every day, lies in the same safe and impregnable place—in the hollow of God's hand."

Notable quote...

"You are guilty; your pardon is of God."
-C.H. Spurgeon, "Prince of Preachers"
(1834-1892)

Sermon notes, other info coming Monday...

Sermon notes from Romans 3 coming tomorrow, along with other info about upcoming 4th of July events. In the mean time, it appears that our church has caught the eye of at least one driver for a major home improvement store. Maybe he'll come back when he can spend more time...