All posts in Faith
27
Mar
I don't like to admit I have one. No one does. But I'm being honest here. I do.
It's my head.
It's full of knowledge. It's true. It's not empty really. There's a lot of stuff in there - important stuff that gets me through life. How to tie my shoes, drive a car, work a computer, do graphic design. It lets me take care of my wife and boys. There are so many things that I couldn't do if I didn't know how.
So what's the problem? Read more
15
Sep
Where do I begin?
It has been a crazy two weeks. I had my family in town for a week. Sure, it's always nice to see family, but now that I have three boys of my own, it's also stressful. It's Grandma damage intensified and multiplied! During that same week, it was prep for one of the biggest shows of the year at my new job. There's just a lot of extra work that needs to be done, last minute, on-the-spot!
Read more
19
Jun
We did. Again. Only this time, we moved 6 hours from Greeley instead of just across town.
We felt like God was prompting us to move and do something different. Read more
20
Nov
I yield.
50And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
Matthew 27:50
Those words are so simple. Yet they carry so much weight.
Read more
16
Nov
And it's AWESOME.
Last week, I entered to win a Word Print from Designer Jim LePage and I won! Jim is a Christian graphic designer who took it upon himself to do one print for each book of the Bible. He just recently finished up the series with Revelation. Read more
13
MayAt a retreat with the leading men of our church at the YMCA in Estes Park. Discussing discipleship over church building.
I enjoyed the drive. It’s been some time since I’ve driven that far alone. Missed my wife and our conversation a ton… But it was good to have some quiet time with my thoughts.
My prayer on the way up was quite simple. To see God and be refreshed.
I know he will deliver, I just never know how.
29
Nov
It's almost that time of year. Christmas. The time of year that "All Christians" will tell you is the "most important time of year."
Of course it is. It's when God came to earth, born as fully flesh, and fully God, in the man Jesus Christ. Without the birth of Christ, we as Christians, would have nothing to believe in. We would have no redemption for a life full of sin, apart from God. If we believed as many of the Jewish faith, we would still be waiting for our messiah. Read more
20
Oct
This is a post a year in the making. . .
I'll admit it. I like Billy Idol. Why? I don't know, but I do. I was listening to his Devil's Playground album on the way home the other day when Plastic Jesus came on. I actually paid attention to the lyrics for the very first time, even though I've heard it many times before. Read more
11
Jul
Today in church, Doug spoke on John 18:28-19:16. Not that these are exceptionally cool notes, design wise, they do sum up things nicely. Read more
10
JunI’m not exactly sure.
I have been busy though! My wife and I have been busy creating an inventory of our life. To see your life boiled down to a one page Open Office (I’m no longer a MS Office user) Spreadsheet is pretty surreal. We can now see how much we are worth according to the “world’s” standards; it’s certainly not very much!
That’s a good thing though. We don’t want to be valuable in the world’s eyes. We want our family to be worth a lot in God’s eyes. Our focus on acquiring stuff was almost our undoing. We are finally past that and focusing on our family. Putting God first. Raising two boys to know and love God as we do.
God. Family. The Rest.
In Graphic Design news: I will be working on a few projects in the upcoming days. Hopefully I will have something design related to post in the very near future!
In Faith news: I am continuing my journey through Search the Scriptures and am working on a few blog posts related to my journey through Luke. It’s an amazing study guide and has really forced me to think deeply about what I read in the bible. Stay tuned for those posts as well.
That’s the short of it. Clearly the long of it is to come!
11
MayThat’s right. He does. And I’m okay with that.
One part of the Merriam Webster definition defines Ghetto as such:
2. a situation that resembles a ghetto especially in conferring inferior status or limiting opportunity
Hosea 10:12-15 (New International Version)
12 Sow for yourselves righteousness,
reap the fruit of unfailing love,
and break up your unplowed ground;
for it is time to seek the LORD,
until he comes
and showers righteousness on you.13 But you have planted wickedness,
you have reaped evil,
you have eaten the fruit of deception.
Because you have depended on your own strength
and on your many warriors,14 the roar of battle will rise against your people,
so that all your fortresses will be devastated—
as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle,
when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.15 Thus will it happen to you, O Bethel,
because your wickedness is great.
When that day dawns,
the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.
My wife and I have been going through some very trying financial times since the end of 2008. We made poor decisions and were not focused on God at all. We thought we were, but very clearly, we had put material possessions on a pedestal far above God.
Never so clearly has a verse described the way we were living:
13 But you have planted wickedness,
you have reaped evil,
you have eaten the fruit of deception.
Nadine and I lived outside of our means for the first 4 years of our marriage. We planted material wants and desires above our want and desire to be close to God. We thought we had “put God” first in our marriage, but that was very clearly not the case.
Because God loves us, he was gracious and patient. We were slowly waking up to a true desire to put God first. Slowly, it was revealed to us what kind of fruit we were planting and that the “evil” harvest was about to be upon us. The “fruit of deception,” a material lifestyle was what we had planted and it was about to come crashing down.
I said God loves us. He does.
As we struggled with our human nature and God waited for us to return, He continued to provide. Somehow, His math worked, and we were able to pay our bills, keep food on the table, etc. We made it through 2009. We had glimpsed God, but were not fully ready to turn back to him.
Our son Tacen was born on December 16, 2009. He spent almost 4 extra days in the hospital because they “thought” he might be getting sick. It was a very stressful and trying time for Nadine and I both. Just a few weeks later at the end of January, Tacen was hospitalized again for 4 days as he battled RSV.
Not only were Nadine and I dealing with financial stress and health stress, we were both battling personal issues we had not given up to God or to each other. I was also dealing with health issues myself.
We look back now knowing things were extremely close to “breaking us and our marriage.”
Have I mentioned God loves us? That he is gracious?
God called. By his grace, we answered. Nadine and I have renewed our committment to God and his plan for our lives and our family.
12 Sow for yourselves righteousness,
reap the fruit of unfailing love,
and break up your unplowed ground;
for it is time to seek the LORD,
until he comes
and showers righteousness on you.
We have finally planted the right crop. We have put God first in our lives, before even each other. It has saved ourselves, our marriage and our family.
So what does this have to do with the Ghetto?
Being on the right path, God’s chosen path is difficult. He has provided for us so that we can learn from our mistakes and work through life’s storms relying on him. Now that Nadine and I are in the right place with God, it is time to reap our harvest.
We need to deal with the consequences of our planting, and that means we are in for tough financial times. We are looking at having to file bankruptcy and it’s possible, and highly likely, we will lose our house. We have to learn to live on my meager income with 4 people and make it work.
That means living with less. Less house. Less luxuries. Less amenities. Less material goods.
According to the world’s standards (which got us into this mess to begin with), we are reducing ourselves to living in the Ghetto. . . and we are okay with that.
God first. Family. The Rest.
Nadine and I are happy with God’s path for our lives. We know this road will be more difficult than anything we’ve faced so far. God is with us, and that is a very, very good thing.
06
MayIt never ceases to amaze me how God provides just the right encouragement at just the right time. My wife and I are looking at some financial hardship. We fully admit it was of our own doing. It’s something that’s easy to get into and ridiculously hard to get out of, especially when you try and do things “the right way” and not the way the world would have you do things.
I just happened to click the link for the This is Today devotional this afternoon. I wasn’t going to click the link today as I’ve been pretty swamped this afternoon, but had a minute of downtime so I clicked the link.
“The LORD is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.” 2 Chron 15:2
“But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.” 2 Chron 15:7
God knew exactly what I needed to hear. That if I seek him, I will find him. If I forsake him, he will forsake me. If I am strong, and work hard at making things right, I will be rewarded. Along with what I learned this morning about waiting for God, I can see that it’s going to be a long road, but one that God has set before me and one I must travel.
06
May
Today was part 6 (of many many parts) in my Search the Scriptures journey. Something stuck with me this morning. Read more
20
Apr
Odd. This is a blog that's supposed to be about Graphic Design. Yet, Faith is a part of me. Even a larger part than my "design inklings." So I guess it should be of no surprise that my first, real-live, actual post is not about design. But about faith... Read more
