The Cave

You cannot turn on the television or open a newspaper without hearing about the Swine Flu.  As believers what should be our thoughts and persecptive on this?

I ran across an article by a former professor of mine that I believe hits the nail on the head.  Check out Dr. Hershael York’s blog post about this:

A Little Less Conversation and a Little More Action Please

Let me leave you with a quote from Dr. York’s article:

The greatest loss of perspective is that we have learned to view those who are lost around us with indifference and detachment. While they perish, we play. While they die without Christ, we live without telling them. Nothing is more real than hell, but one wouldn’t know that by the way most Christians live.

God grant us perspective.

Very good article here by Ed Stetzer:  A Denomination (Continuing) in its Decline

I believe Dr. Stetzer correctly analyzes the situation and offers sound thoughts on what the response should be to this situation.  Southern Baptists can no longer afford to keep their heads in the sand and ignore this issue.  As Dr. Stetzer says, this must be our wake up call.

Let me leave you with a quote from the article:

I am grieved, but I also see opportunity if we can ignore the responses that are soon to follow explaining how it is all going fine and we just don’t need to worry. Those in charge know what to do to fix it. Instead, I think we need to see this as the bad news it is but also an opportunity to change.

It is an opportunity for discovering a regenerate church membership living on mission.
It is an open door to pray for God’s reviving of the church.
It is the motivation for a Great Commission Resurgence for all Christians, in the hearts of pastors, through a church planting renaissance, and in our denominational structure.

But change does not come easy for us. For that matter, it does not come easy for me. To illustrate and conclude, let me tell you something funny about myself– I have oddly-shaped feet. They are too wide in the middle to wear normal shoes. So, years ago I found a brand of shoe that fits and it is all I wear. Because they are hard to find and replace, I will literally wear out the soles of my shoes before buying new ones. My clue is normally a cold puddle of water accidentally stepped in. But the sting of the freezing water rushing over my toes usually motivates me to buy new shoes. Finding new shoes is a pain. It costs me time and resources. And I don’t like those pains in my life. I don’t like the pain of change.

Here is the principle: People do not change until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. And, neither do denominations…

So let me ask you a simple question: Are we hurting enough to make the changes we need?

Yesterday was Kenzie’s 7th birthday.  They had a party for her at church.  Here is a video of her trying to blow out the candles.

Happy Birthday Kenzie, Daddy loves you very much!!

Today I had the honor of preaching our town’s Good Friday Service.  As I was preparing, I spent a lot of time reflecting on the cross.  It truly is amazing what happened on that day and the eternal impact it has upon our lives.  I came across the words to this old hymn that I want to share here.  Rejoice in the wonderful cross today!

Church member passed this one along to me. . .

It is a busy time of year around our house with the girls involved in all kinds of sports. Kylie just finished up her first activity as she participated in Blast Ball, which is basically a very simplified version of t-ball played indoors.  Kenna is playing t-ball and had her first practice this past week. Kenzie is playing coach-pitch baseball and has her first practice on Monday.  And Kayla is playing soccer. It is our first opportunity at trying soccer, but the coach recruited her to play when he heard she was a good athlete and they needed a couple extra kids to fill out the roster. She had her first game today and their team won 6-2.  To top it all off, the first swim team parent meeting was this past week.  So it is definitely a spring full of sports around here.  I hope all the Cave Dwellers are having a good spring.

In our house the girls rooms have always been known as the pink room and the yellow room.  Well lately, the girls have decided that they wanted to paint their rooms.  So the work began this week in the yellow room. They are going with Dora colors that will have wide pink and orange stripes with small white stripes.  Here are some pics from the work. . .