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Simon Says > Jesus Says I saw this video from Francis Chan about making disciples and it really hits home when he compares how most of us have all played "Simon Says" as a kid, but yet we think that when Jesus says all we need...

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Heart Check For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others...

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Keep Me Humble I occasionally publish notes on my YouVersion profile, but for some reason they don't always show up, so I will also post them here. After reading Luke 8:9-14 I decided to write a letter to God and...

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Merry Christmas 2010 This year seems to have flown by! I am not happy to see it end, but I am thrilled for 2011 to start. This past year I found myself in several interesting places ministry-wise. Many of you know that...

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My Light Will Shine This year I am taking the page from a friend of mine, Adam McLane, and I will not only be passing out candy for Halloween but I will also have some coffee and hot chocolate for the parents that are walking...

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Bloggin’ Through 2009

Category : Random

It is that time again to recap the past year, so as I usually do I went back and looked at the first post of every month and provided a link to them below with a little commentary.

January – The year started off with me debating whether I watch Football or Hockey. Hockey won out because for the first time in pretty much my lifetime Michigan was not playing in a college football bowl game. Sadly the same thing happened again this year. I sure hope that Coach Rod can turn it around this next year. Progress was made but not going to a bowl game 3 years in a row is unacceptable.

February – The month of February found me unemployed and in the state of Texas hoping to land a job with a church in Texas. So my first post of the month was a Texas Recap. I ended up not getting the job, which was very disappointing but we have always asked God to close the doors that we were not supposed to go through.

March – I started of the month with a reflection on the Funny Things We Say. Many people have noticed how much I talk about how much I love my wife and find her beautiful. There is a reason behind it besides the fact that it is true. This blog post explains why.

April – Once again I came to the realization that I Need to Grow Up. Nothing more needs to be said.

May – In May I had grown tired of being asked, “Why Are You Selling Your House?” and so I answered the question publicly for everyone. Sadly, we are still trying to sell our house because Chase Bank sucks and has taken so long on the 6 offers we have given them for our short sale that all 6 buyers have walked away. Hopefully, it will sell in 2010? Especially since we don’t live there anymore.

June – I found myself once again reflecting on the fact that Love Wins. The news of the abortion doctor, Dr. Tiller, being murdered by a “pro-life” person while Dr. Tiller was attending church was the biggest news of the day. I added my own thoughts to what happened in my blog post.

July – The crazy roller coaster ride that I call my life began a new phase this month and all I could do was echo the words of Mike Yaconelli, What A Ride! While we were up in northern Michigan camping I got the call that The River Church wanted to bring me down as their youth pastor, so we began to work towards that with the elders there. It is so weird to think that it has only been a few months that we have been here, because it feels like we have always been here. We love our new church and friends here in Cincinnati.

August – We said Goodbye, No See Ya Later to our home state of Michigan. With all that was going on with packing, moving, unpacking and then settling into the new youth pastor job at The River I didn’t blog other then this post.

September – I was looking for Someone to Pinch Me, because I was (and still am) amazed at how blessed me and my family are to be here in Cincinnati and to be a part of The River Church community. I look forward to the many, many years that we will be here.

October – I started off the month of October warning people that I Am Going to Step on Some Toes and I know that I did, but I also hoped that I inspired some people to make some healthy choices.

November – The month of November had me asking, Porter Family Snowball Fight and then talked about the Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas controversy.

That was my year in a nutshell. Now I need to get busy with my goals for 2010. Should it be twenty-ten or two thousand and ten? What is your preference?

Why Are You Selling Your House?

Category : Life

Are you moving? Did you get a job? What will you do if you sell your house and have no where to go?

These are the questions that Kimmy and I have been asked quite a lot since we listed our house for sale last week. The simple answers to the questions are:

“No, we are not moving other than in faith.”
“No, I haven’t gotten a job yet.”
“If I don’t have a job and our house sells we will probably move in with my parents for a while.”

The reality is that we are selling our house that we moved into about 7 and a half years ago because we can’t afford to live here much longer with me only collecting unemployment. Plus, we are really believing that I will end up getting a job soon and that will quite likely involve a move out of state. I do not have anything lined up at this time and it is simply a matter of faith, because we believe God is going to open up a door for me to become a youth pastor at a church. As I mentioned in a previous post my wife and I are at peace about this job loss and we have the same peace about selling our house.

The other reality is that now is the best time for us to try to sell our house since a short sale is the only way we can do it and given the current economic climate it is making this time perfect for us to do it. A short sale is basically when you sell your home for less than you owe and the bank forgives the difference. If this goes through our credit will only take a hit for one year and we will not have to pay taxes on the difference that is considered “income”. We bought our house for $141,000 in August of 2001 and it has pretty much dropped in value every year. We currently have it listed for $75,000 and you can see the listing here. It is sad to think that we have essentially only paid rent on our house, which was supposed to be a great investment.

However, we realize that we had a great place that we raised our family in a great neighborhood in a great school district that had a great elementary that my kids attended. So we are very grateful for our time here. We are also excited to think about the fact that someone is going to get an amazing deal on a great house in a wonderful neighborhood to raise their family. So if you are looking for a house check ours out here.

I recently saw this video from Francis Chan and I thought it was very appropriate for what we are going though at this time. I don’t want to just live a safe life. I won’t to be daring enough to impress my Judge.

After watching that video I saw this on someone’s status update on their Facebook page and it kind of rocked my world. It is one of those deep thoughts.

“When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.”

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