IRAQ THE MODEL - The people have won!

IRAQ THE MODEL

What a great day for the people of Iraq!

perfect personality

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=person

 

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=personality

 

Just a couple of links that I have been thinking through today.  Dictionary links?  how exciting...  (yeah right!)

 

Actually, what got me thinking about person, and personality was a thought that came to my mind.

 

I don't even know how I got there, I am not sure where it will end up, and I am sure I will sound like a complete idiot trying to explain, but here goes.

 

The thought came to my mind, "Why don't people talk about God's personality more often?"  (if you can answer this question, please comment below.)

 

At least in my experience, it seems that people do not speak often about God's personality (as in:"the totality of an individual's behavioral and emotional characteristics").  Sure I often hear people refer to God's character, but is that really the same?  I think that people can have the same character qualities, but very different personalities. 

 

God created us in his image, and I don't believe that personalities appeared because of the fall.  They my have been a bit warped because of the fallen nature, but Adam and Eve had personalities from the beginning. 

 

Personalities are what set us apart and make us unique from one another.  There are so many different types. 

 

Like I said, I am not sure where this will end up, but it makes me think.  What is God's personality like?  Is that or can that be tainted by my perspective or opinion of who God is?  Or can my own personality skew my understanding of His?

 

What is the perfect personality?  Perfect sense of humor... perfect warmth... perfect strength??

 

...

 

I think too much sometimes.  :)

New blog

I started a new blog today called Duluth Happenings. I am really excited about it. The blog is going to be all about my home town, and various events going on. I will probably include personal commentary on local news, etc.

It really is an attempt at building a "bridge strategy" site, and I have this feeling that it could grow. I suppose it could grow too fast!

I never realized how much goes on in my city until I started trying to compile a list of events. sheesh!

Maybe I will start with just a few selected events each day.

Sounds like a good place to start!

Abston Church of Christ

A Lego church? Very interesting...Abston Church of Christ Check it out.

Northern Image-Afterthoughs

It's here!

I have really enjoyed this guys photography for years. Maybe because deep down I really enjoy the outdoors, and I love the area of the world that God has placed me in. There is no place like it!

Well, I noticed that he has started a blog to go along with his photo images, and I just had to add it to my blog roll. Pretty cool stuff... Northern Image-Afterthoughs

vision

While in prayer last week during our week of prayer and fasting, I believe God wanted to show me something. I had what I would call a vision similar to the image that I made above (except what I saw was in motion).

Water shooting up from a spring in the ground. Clear and clean... refreshing... bringing Life.

As I looked around, the ground was covered with dead, dry grass. Brown, brittle, no life in it.

I wondered out loud to the Lord, "Why is this grass so dry and brown when this Life giving spring pours water out continually?"

As I looked more closely at the ground, I noticed that the dirt was hard and compacted. The water would pour on to it and quickly run off as if falling on stone.

And the ground itself held tight to the dead grass. It could not be pulled out. It would just break off in your hand.

What God was trying to show me was the state of many hearts in the church (including my own). The ground is hard as stone clinging to old works (dead grass). God wants to break up that soil to be able to receive His Life again. With this will come new works, new Life, refreshing, and fruit of the Spirit.

God does not turn off the flow of His Life giving Spirit. It is all a matter of how willing we are to receive it.

Babies -- 100 Most Popular Names

Check out this list. Where do you fall.

BabyCenter | 2004 -- 100 Most Popular Names

I for one am not big on the "trendy names", but some of these are pretty cool.

We are expecting a baby in just a few weeks. What do you think we should name it???

Well, things have been clipping along.

The snow came, but we didn't get as much as they were predicting. At this point in the year everyone I talk to is pretty much tired of snow. We have a lot of it. We are all past the "white Christmas" effect.

Last week I had the opportunity to preach at my church. I am always so honored that they would ask me to do it. I had my sermon all planned to speak about spiritual warfare, and the enemy that we face these days, when right in the middle of the song service the Lord brought me to Isaiah 58. It was very timely as our church had a week of prayer and fasting this week. (I did also preach on the topic that I had prepared.)

This week surely has been a battle for me. I have seen victories and defeats in my own personal life. And here I stand... a bit worn out from it all. I am so looking forward to church tomorrow.

My wife has just passed her 35 week mark in her pregnancy. We are looking to hold off on having the baby for at least another 2 weeks. (For those who do not know, my wife has been having early labor since Christmas. She is not due until Feb. 24, so she is now on bed-rest and medication to slow down the labor.) A couple more weeks and the baby will be much healthier.

I got to hold my new neice this evening, and I didn't want to let her go! Isabella Grace. She is beautiful. She is perfect. And she couldn't have a better set of parents. I am so happy for them. God bless that family!

I spent the morning shoveling snow. Then I was off to get my daughter her very first "big girl bed". She is so excited to finally have a normal sized bed in her room. It is amazing how a child enjoys the simple things so much. Note to self... be more like that!

More weather...

OK... so here is the latest weather related post on this site. Does weather really form that big of an impression on my little life or what?

Severe Weather Alert from the National Weather Service
...BAYFIELD WI-CARLTON/SOUTH ST. LOUIS MN-DOUGLAS WI- SOUTHERN LAKE/NORTH SHORE MN- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF... DULUTH AND SUPERIOR 559 AM CST THU JAN 20 2005

... LAKE EFFECT SNOW WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM CST FRIDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN DULUTH MN HAS ISSUED A LAKE EFFECT SNOW WARNING.

LOCALIZED HEAVY SNOWFALLS OF 6 TO 10 INCHES TODAY AND 4 TO 6 MORE INCHES TONIGHT WILL RESULT IN UP TO 16 INCHES OF SNOW IN A FEW AREAS FROM THE BAYFIELD PENINSULA WESTWARD THROUGH THE DULUTH AREA THEN UP MUCH OF THE NORTH SHORE BY FRIDAY MORNING. WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO BE INSIGNIFICANT, BUT VERY HEAVY FALLING SNOW MAY BLOCK SOME SECONDARY ROADS, MAKE OTHER ROADS DIFFICULT TO TRAVEL, AND RESULT IN VERY LOW VISIBILITIES WITH BRIEFLY DANGEROUS WHITE-OUT CONDITIONS.

ANY TRAVEL IS STRONGLY DISCOURAGED. IF YOU LEAVE THE SAFETY OF BEING INDOORS, YOU ARE PUTTING YOUR LIFE AT RISK.

...

weather.com - Local Severe Weather Alerts Details

Here

A small piece of good news in my book...

Crosswalk.com - Prayer Okay at Inauguration, US Supreme Court Says

I don't know where this guy gets off on all his faulty legal arguments. Isn't it ironic that in trying to liberate the US from Christianity, he ends up forcing his beliefs on everyone??? I would like to hear him explain that one...

Yahoo! News - Bishops Screen Catholic Priests on Cruises

What the world?

Yahoo! News - Bishops Screen Catholic Priests on Cruises

Very interesting...

Not much time, and so much to say...

Well the reason I say not much time is that it is so late... I have to go to bed so that I can wake-up and start it all over again!

But I do have quite a bit of topics to blog about. How about I list them as a teaser and sooner or later we will get around to telling about them? Here goes (in no particular order):

• Sunday's sermon (which I had the honor to preach)
• I am an uncle! Again!
• New web browser
• Internet evangelism
• Latest news on my wifes pregnancy
• How I am soooo tired and busy (just thought I would throw that in because that seems to come up a lot in these posts.)
• Oh... and of course the weather, and how I love it and my wife hates it.

I am sure there is more, but I really do need to go to bed.

Until then...

C-C-C-Cold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has been extremely cold here in the northland! -20 with -30 to -50 degree windchills will make anyone want to stay inside!

So, what is there to do while you are sitting around indoors? Well, the first thing the comes to mind is watch TV.

I watch way too much TV. I admit it. Sometimes, I would rather sit and watch TV than do something constructive. It never used to be this way. When Martha and I were first married, we didn't even have a TV. (yes on-purpose!) We didn't want one, and this is the reason why. I knew that once we got the TV, I would watch it. And watch it I do. Here is the shocker... I actually went out and bought a TV last fall. This was our first "store-bought" TV. Up until that point we just got everbody's left-over TVs for free. It is kindof like a drug. You can't live with it, but then you feel like you can't live without it. I guess this will be one of my struggles for the rest of my days. I don't like TV, but I enjoy it so... what am I to do.

I am making it sound worse than it is, but at night sometimes I have to force myself not to watch. I am always glad when I do.

Last night was not one of those nights. I sat and watched 2 TV dramas that I had absolutely no interest in. Third Watch... some sort of police/emergency services soap opera, and I forget what the other one is called, but people were dieing of small pox. Pretty depressing.

I had to ask myself, what is with America's fascination with terrorism. Suddenly that is almost all I see on the TV dramas. I know that it is nothing new, but it just seems to be so hyped these days! Everything is what if this happened... and lets make a drama about that blowing up... and on and on...

Maybe I should give up on TV... there is not much to redeem there...

I also have the opportunity to preach at my local church tomorrow. Please pray with me that His word will go forth into receiving hearts.

I will let you know what I preach on. Maybe in my next post.

God Bless!

yes your (wannabe) nerdiness

Hey! Check it out...

I guess I am a nerd just for taking this silly quiz!

What was that?

Hey! My mom is buying a new vehicle, and my wife asked her if it is "jeepish". Not an SUV, but "jeepish". Is this a word? I guess it is now.

I guess I have to cut her some slack as she is on pre-term labor drugs that make her a little out of it.

News on that front... she is doing fine so far. Taking it easy. We went to the doctor and nothing had changed. So that is good. 3-4 more weeks to go!

Looking forward to another 3-6 inches of snow tomorrow. Then the temps are supposed to dip to -30 F! Time to bundle up!

Well, I am off to do some grocery shopping for the week before the snow flies!

God bless!

I found my camera!

Yes, it was missing for about a month, but now I found it.

It is sort of a long story on how it happened. I brought the camera with to an event I cannot remember (and it doesn't help that I didn't take pictures of the mysterious event). At that point, the camera was mistakenly left in the car for a few days. I noticed that it was in the car and I didn't want to leave it in there forever, so I decided to place it in with a bucket of tools that was in the back. (I had planned to bring them in at some point.) A few days later I went to my mother's house to paint and I brought the bucket of tools in to use on the job. As I was sorting through my tools, I found the camera, and for some odd reason I put it on the stairs in my mother's house (these are the stairs leading up to my sister's room, but my sister is away at college so no one ever goes up there.), and that is where it sat for about a month. Saturday I was at my mom's house and I had a vague recollection of putting the camera on the stairs (sort of like dejavu). I checked and lo-and-behold there it was!

So, we missed taking picture of Christmas and New Years. Maybe I should stage some photos so we can pretend we got some. I could get some crinkled up wrapping paper and set it next to my son and say "smile like you just opened a present"!

Yeah right! Like I have that much time on my hands.

At any rate, I guess I don't have any excuse for not placing more images on this site. We will see...

New icons

Check out the new icons for the old blog! We got rid of the fish and flower for now, and went with these:

Mike -->



Martha -->



I guess that will help differentiate our posts so that you can all ignore mine and read Martha's again! :)

got a resolution?

Just wondering if you made any resolutions this year?

I know some people that refuse to make them because they always end up breaking them, or they think that they shouldn't have to wait for a new year to change bad habits. I don't think I have ever made any serious resolutions for a new year that I can remember. I think it is just because I haven't thought of it.

Maybe I should resolve to post more on this blog this year. Yeah... that could work.

I do like the idea of starting a new year with fresh vision for the future. I really believe that this new year is going to bring some GREAT things!

I hope you have a blessed 2005!