New email...

Yippee! Yahoo!

I've got the new Yahoo! mail beta. It is pretty sweet and easy to use.

Will's first Easter Egg...

William's cousin Sean made him an Easter Egg at Pop and Mema's house. William says, "Thank you Sean!"

He is risen...

Three Crosses at Easter Sunrise overlooking the Brazos River, South of Mineral Wells, Texas

Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them-- yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

New Office...

Since Valerie did not have to work today, she decided to put me to work! We hung all of my Mother's watercolors series around the ceiling of my office. We also went ahead and hung my diplomas. Please disregard the clutter on my desk.

New frame...

My M.Div diploma finally got framed. Thanks goes to Mr. Joon Choi for the excellent job framing my sheepskin.

Devotional Thoughts with Saint Augustine...

If Augustine only knew that John Piper would later rip off all of his good ideas...

What is there in me that could be hidden from thee, Lord, to whose eyes the abysses of man's conscience are naked, even if I were unwilling to confess it to thee? In doing so I would only hide thee from myself, not myself from thee. But now that my groaning is witness to the fact that I am dissatisfied with myself, thou shinest forth and satisfiest. Thou art beloved and desired; so that I blush for myself, and renounce myself and choose thee, for I can neither please thee nor myself except in thee...for when I am wicked, to confess to thee means nothing less than to be dissatisfied with myself...
Saint Augustine, The Confessions, X.II

In this devotional thought, Augustine points out that our satisfaction is only truly found in God.

words that should be banished...

In my work lately, I've been reintroduced to the following word: soul-winner.

Soul-winner is a noun. It apparently is meant to describe an "effective" evangelist. An example of its possible usage in a sentence is: Billy Graham is a great soul-winner, because he has led thousands to the Lord.

This word troubles me...Exactly how many conversions must I oversee before I can be called a soul-winner? And is it still evangelism if I preach the gospel and they reject the message? If this happens, do I lose soul-winner points? Do I have to maintain a certain soul-winner batting average? I wonder if there is soul-winner club that I'd get invited to join?

What ever happened to the work of the Holy Spirit in all of this?!

In the end, I think that Paul would agree with my complaint against the idea of soul-winner. Paul writes to the Corinthians: I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 1 Corinthians 3:6-7

Pregnant Mama, Part Deux...

Here is another picture of Pregnant Valerie. This one should show little William a little better.

We had a long night on the little bed at the church. We are used to a queen size bed, but the church has a full size bed.

Needless to say it is becoming a tight fit for the three of us. It is one thing for Mommy to be kicked by William in the night, but it is another thing for Daddy to be kicked by William in the middle of the night!

Homerun!...

We had a church picnic tonight. We played softball afterwards. I hit a homerun! Ok, so it was an inside the park homerun, but it is still a homerun. I looked like Sid Bream running the bases.

(For those of you who do not know who Sid Bream is... Sid Bream was the firstbaseman for the Atlanta Braves. He had bad knees and could not run very fast. He scored the winning run against the Pittsburg Pirates in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 7 of the 1992 National League Championship Series. The play is immortalized with Skip Carey's call: Braves Win! Braves Win! Braves Win!)

More information on "the Slide" is available at wikipedia.

Pregnant Mama...

Here is a recent picture of Valerie. She really is showing quite a bit under her shirt, even though you may not be able to really tell.

I woke up in the middle of the night last night. I rolled over to touch Valerie's belly. Will kicked me again! I told him to go back to sleep. I think that he did. :o)

Jackpot!...

Thank you Aunt Julie for the baby clothes! We've hit the jackpot! There is a lot of clothes in those boxes. Valerie allready sorted through the boxes. She has even either put them away in the chest of drawers or hung them in the closet. Little William will certainly enjoy these clothes.

Classic Advice...

Heard this morning on the radio:
"If you are being run out of town, make sure that you get to the front of the crowd and wave. That way it will look like they are throwing you a parade!"

Q: On the nature of sermons, churches, and our beliefs...

What do we value in our sermons?
What makes a sermon good?

What do we value in a church?
On what grounds to you "pick" a church to attend?

Along the same lines, why do we believe what we believe?

I want to take some responses before I post my own response. So, please leave a response!

The Name Game...

So, we've been working on a name for our little boy. So far, we have definitely decided on William. The trouble is over the middle name. I like William Howard. Val likes William Carlan. Apparently, William Howard is an old name. Regardless, I like it; and I would rather have an old, distinguished name instead of these newer names like Scout or Hunter.

Either way, William Howard or William Carlan will both be good names. The name comes from my grandfather. His name was William Henry Howard Schley Carlan. My middle name comes from him also...

so I might go try to lobby a little harder for William Howard!