Ice Fishing

A few pictures from the annual fishing trip... I'll maybe write some "literature" about the trip later...

Setting up to fish

Sunrise 3rd day

Sunrise 2nd day

Nearing sunset 1st day

Perch caught 3rd day

The Ice is upon us!

Today, it was cold... so cold in fact, we decided to take the day off. Yesterday held blizzard-like conditions making it somewhat dicey hanging from rafters, 15-20 feet up in the air with coveralls, snow boots, gloves and a ski mask on. The great thing about this weather is the fact that we are making ice! Ice fishing will be happening quite soon and for those of you who don't know, this is an activity that I look forward to year around!

It was nice to have a little break and have a day to stay warm and get a few things done. Hopefully, this evening will be just as relaxing and constructive as the day has been. Tomorrow, back to work and winter.

In other news, I started reading "The Power of Prayer," by E.M. Bounds. I have never read a book that is so convicting/challenging concerning prayer. It is fabulous!

Fighting Fire With Fire

What is it about fighting fire with fire?

Tonight, I went to a presentation done by a professor from Dordt College. The presentation was entitled, “How Christians Should Regard Islam.” This professor went through some of the history of Islam, through Muhammad’s life and some of his actions as well as some world history which occurred to promote the growth of Islam. The presentation was fascinating! He spoke about points of where Christians and Muslims differ and then, in turn, spoke on ways that Christians should look at and interact with Muslims. In the end, one of his main points was that only by showing the love of Christ and the justice of God the Father towards all of mankind can we begin to bring Muslims to Christ, which I felt, was a great point. No amount of arguing will ever bring anyone to Christianity. Of course, he said this more eloquently than I ever could.

Yet, there were some in the group of observers that were set on making Muslims look like complete evil enemies and that they are using guns to fight “us,” (which the professor also said how our government twists this) then we should fight back as well. They wanted to fight fire with fire. When do we ever fight fire with fire? Sure, sometimes firefighters will burn off a chunk of forest so that a forest fire cannot go past that point, but that is a little different than sending one fire towards another and hoping they go out. Every time I have seen it done, the two fires become one huge fire.

Don’t we fight fire with water? If my memory serves me correctly, firefighters still use water to extinguish fires. The love of Christ, that this professor was talking about, is water; soothing, life-giving water; water that washes away even the dirtiest stains and that cools even the hottest tempers.

How often don’t we fight fire with fire? Someone is shouting at us, so we shout back. They push us, so we push back. They hit us, so we hit back. The scorn us behind our backs, so we scorn them behind theirs. What does it look like to fight fire with water in each of these situations?

The Bible I read says to “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” and “when someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other as well.” Does this mean that we sit by and let evil happen? Absolutely not! But, what is the constructive, God honoring way to fight fire with water? Be creative and a great example to follow, Jesus the Christ.

More music!

Tonight was somewhat of a flip of yesterday. Yesterday, I commented on how awesome it can be with “messy” worship because when it happens, so often it is straight from the heart. After all, the Bible says to “make a joyful noise...” Not song. Noise.

Anyway, tonight, I went to see Avalon and Selah perform together and it was nothing less of outstanding! These are the type of people that make me want to be a better musician because of how good they are. All their notes, their harmonies and their cords are practiced to perfection where the timing just clicks and they are allowed to worship without worrying about the music. It just flows. Obviously that comes after hours of practice. It was the type of music that sends chills reverberating through your entire body because of how sweet and melodious the music is.

I cannot wait until the day we are in the new creation and there are musicians from Adam to today. I want to hear the harps, lyres, drums, flutes, horns, guitars, pianos and any other instrument all join together to worship the King! I want to hear jazz, classical, rock; music from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.

The last two days, God has once again showed me two awesome kinds of worship. One of pure heart, but not so musically, shall I say, pure. The other, almost painfully crisp and filled with energy pointing back towards heaven. Both have equal weight and both glorify God and I pray, that I can continue to love both my whole life.

Great

This weekend has been great! Every other week, I go to a church service in the Sioux Falls State Penitentiary and this Friday was when I was going to head over there for some worship and fellowship. Well, on the way there, I was tired and kind of lazy, but once I stepped through those doors, God picked me up and instantly filled me with his joy. While there, God blessed us with great conversation, good worship, a sermon I needed to hear and some great fellowship with new friends. All in all, a great night.

Then, Saturday, I was finally able to take the last 2 tests for my pilot’s license. It was a gorgeous day with the sun shining and light winds. The whole process was quite time consuming but after several hours of an oral test and flight test, I can now say that I am a certified pilot! It feels great to finally get to this stage after wanting to fly my entire life.

As for today, I got to sleep in, go to worship God at his house, take a nap, and ride motorcycle. There were several things that happened at church today, but one of them was fabulous! We had baptism and the younger kids are always invited up to witness the baptism. After that, they also sang a song for us. Well, they get lined up and about 3 or 4 of them were looking for mom and dad and upon finding them, their eyes lit up and started waving like crazy, saying, “Hey mom and dad, check this out! Look where I’m at!” As the song began, there were a couple of the kids that knew that song and they were going to sing it as loud as they could. Well, in doing so, they were off a little on the timing, but it was still awesome. It seems like we get so tied up in notes and rhythms and such sometimes, that we forget to worship and sing with all our hearts. I think we need a few more “messy” worship services.

For the rest of the day, we have Young People’s tonight and a meeting with Pastor Brown, so more good should be on the way.

Mornings

Lately, I have actually been enjoying my mornings. Sure, when that alarm goes off, all I want to do is role over and pull the covers tight over my face, especially now that the temperatures are dropping. It feels so good to stay in bed and feel the warmth and security.

Yet, lately, I have been enjoying my mornings a little more. When that alarm goes off and after pushing "snooze" a couple times, I sit up, say a little prayer to thank God for sleep and for a new day. The morning just feels like a new beginning. No matter what happened yesterday, it is in the past and now today, there are new things for God to use me to do and there are new tasks to be accomplished. There may have been sins and hard times the day before, but now, in the "new beginning," through God's grace, I am able to get up and join him once again in the war we are in.

I still love sleeping and don't like it too much when the alarm goes off, but the Lord definitely has pointed me more towards a positive outlook on the day; one of challenge and service.

Who knows? Maybe I'll start going to bed earlier so I can get to "tomorrow" faster.

Na... :)

I just got back from flying. Right now, I'm sitting outside, next to the grill as a few brats roast to perfection. The crickets are chirping as the light fades slowly with the falling sun. It is a beautiful evening!

Not a lot new has happened lately. At work, I finished putting trim and baseboard in one house and now I am moving to another one where the baseboard and trim will take much longer and probably be more frustrating, but it will look really nice when it's done. Hopefully.

Flying is going well. The end is near as I am within 5 hours and 3 tests from having my license. Stay tuned!

Here's a brief synopsis of what's going on...
Another church also approached me about doing a presentation on my trip last summer. It sounds like they would base their evening service around my talk, so we shall see what happens. Prison ministry continues to go well and one of the guys that I know is getting out next week. My church asked me to be a youth leader and I'm pretty sure I'll do that. Another church asked me to lead a young people's lesson. All in all, there are a lot of ways to serve and a lot of activities going on. Please pray for all those things.

That's about it. :)