Well happy Mother's Day to all you mom's out there! I'm posting in pink just for you. We had a delightful time with my mom this afternoon, although most of it came while we were waiting foreeeeever to eat. All the restaurants were packed, even though we waited until mid-afternoon to go out. Oh well, we had a lot of good laughs while we waited!

* My stitches are out - praise God! The knee is healing wonderfully; thanks to all of you who prayed.

* The other day I mentioned that we should examine ourselves in light of Scripture to ensure that we are of the faith, as Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 13:5. Well, I wanted to pass along what I consider to be possibly the best way to examine yourself in light of Scripture: the six discipleship statements of Jesus....

In Luke 14:25-33 we find the first three...

* Anyone who does not hate his mother, brother, etc. can't be His disciple...."If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:26

* Anyone who doesn't take up his cross and follow Christ, cannot be His disciple...."Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:27

* Anyone who does not give up everything he has, cannot be His disciple....."So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:33

Three positive statements come from John....

* If you abide in His Word, you are truly His disciple....."If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:31-32

* You will know true disciples by their love for fellow believers...."By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:35

* You prove yourself to be His disciple if you bear much fruit...."By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." John 15:8

Quote of the day: "The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise God-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Man, do you ever feel like God is working all things together for your good? I know, I know, He always does that, but sometimes it's more apparent than others. Lately, God has so incredibly worked around here, there is no way anybody could take the credit but God. I think He likes it that way.

* Thought for the day: Why is it that most "Bible" studies these days study a book other than the Bible?

* Last week, due in large part to the fact that I couldn't work because of my stitches, we were able to go to a Rangers' game with some friends. It was loads of fun!

Here we have little little Shane, Daniel, Codi, Scotty, me and Rick....

This past offseason the Rangers traded for Josh Hamilton, a recovered drug addict who has given his life to Christ and is one of the best stories in baseball. He was actually out of baseball completely for three years (before he ever made it to the majors) and nearly lost his family in the process. Now he's happily married with two girls and he leads all of baseball in RBI's (that's "runs batted in" for you non-baseballers. ).

But here's the best part. When he comes up to bat, his intro song over the PA system is Phillips, Craig and Dean singing "You Saved The Day." It was awesome! When he came to bat, here's the part that blasted all over the stadium....

"You saved the day/the day you rolled the stone away/the empty grave is here to say/You reign!"

I think I have a new favorite player.

After the game, we went to eat at P.F. Changs. Hmmm....

* Quote of the day: "God isn't against you ever getting anything, but He is against you thinking you deserve it." - Author unknown

Currently Listening Top of My Lungs By Craig & Dean Phillips see related

I hate trimming hedges. I wish we could have a lawn care business without doing hedges, but people expect it, so we have to deliver. For a long time I have put off buying a really good, commercial grade hedge trimmer, because it's like an admission that I'm going to be trimming more hedges....that and the fact that they cost $300.

So last Monday I finally broke down and a gas-powered Echo hedge trimmer. Tuesday I was doing my very FIRST job with them and the very sharp blades brushed up to my jeans. I hardly felt anything, but made a mental note to be careful, because I could have hurt myself if I bumped into my leg.

Then I noticed my new work jeans were cut at the knee. Then I noticed a twinge of pain. Then I noticed the blood. Lots of it. By the time I got my pant leg pulled up I had a stream of blood running down my leg and into my sock. "Great," I thought. I went to get a bandage and then realized just how deep the cut was. So, pulling a trailer, I had to drive the truck back to my parents house, shifting with my right hand, holding the gash closed with my left and steering with....Um, my chin? I'm still not sure how I did that. lol

To make along story short, a couple of hours later I had nine stitches in my knee. *sigh* Did I mention I really hate trimming hedges?

At the dr's office I was sitting up watching the doctor start the second stitch when I started feeling bad. Not sure why, but I started getting really hot. I wanted to keep watching, but I figured I better sit back....and then.....

Yep, I looked kinda like that. lol....I woke up to calls of "JC, are you with us?" It was pretty funny. Jennifer was kind enough to drive me up there and she just about had a heart attack when I passed out. She started crying. Poor thing.

But there some good news. I went to a local medical center and they gave me a tetanus shot, stitches, unlimited follow up visits and removal of the stitches (that will happen Friday) for only $177. Thank the Lord for that!

That night I went to visit my friend, OL, who is in the hospital and his plight quickly made me stop thinking about my knee. He was hit by a drunk driver (whose passenger died) last weekend and he's in bad shape. He had a broken ankle, broken foot, broken arm in three places, broken collar bone, a couple of broken ribs and he's going to have to have a hip replacement, too...That's just what I can remember. Amazingly there were NO internal injuries! If you guys think about it, please be in prayer for OL, because he is in a lot of pain...

Sorry I don't have to cover more about all the crazy things going on around here lately. I have finals tomorrow at school, so you can be praying for me!

Quote of the day: "Sorrow is the garden in which God grows our blessings." - Woodrow Kroll

Wow. One week since I posted and a year's worth of events happened.....including a car, stitches, tickets and tornados. For now, I'm only going to cover the most important event of the week.

Today is my 15th birthday!!!!! Contrary to popular belief, I am not 15 in physical age, although I have been known to act that way a time or two. Actually, today is my 15th spiritual birthday - the only one that counts! Yep, May 2, 1993, when I was nine years old, I became a Christian. I no longer went to church because my parents were taking me along, I was going because I had a personal relationship with the God of the universe.

As I pondered the significance of this day to me personally, I started thinking about all the people in the world who look back at a time in their life when they "asked Jesus to come into their heart." Then, with what they believe to be their fire insurance firmly in hand, they proceed to go out and live life like the devil. Uh, that's not the way it works. Unfortunately, that's the way many people operate today.

Jesus made it very clear that "even the demons believe and shudder." (James 2:19) You do well to believe, but faith without works is dead! (James 2:14-26) God saved us not just to be forgiven, but to live a life of holiness (Mat. 7:16-21, 2 Thes. 3:13-15, 2 Tim. 2:15, 1 John 1:6-7, 2:3-6, 2:15, 3:6, 3:9). God demands perfection (Mat. 5:48).

Here's a great quote from a recent sermon Ryan was preaching....

"There is an alarming number of people in the church today who are not saved. Many people hang their salvation on a very weak peg, because most people point back to a point in their lives when they prayed the sinner's prayer - which is not even in the Bible. The fruit spoken of in Matthew 7 is directly related to a person's salvation....Those who are truly saved must do the will of God (James 1:21-22). If you can come to church and hear the Word of God without being moved to do the things you hear preached, you don't have a foundation of Christ (Matthew 7:24-27)....I don't base my salvation on what happened February 2, 1979; I base it on everything that has happened since then." - Ryan Dalgliesh

I hope you will take a moment to reflect on what God has done for you and then examine yourself to ensure that you are indeed of the faith. (2 Cor. 13:5) If you are, praise God!

Hey guys, thanks for the great comments on my last post. I will reply shortly, but for now I wanted to encouraged everybody to go see "Expelled," which is in theaters NOW! I had forgotten about it and somebody reminded me this week that it was already out. Last night I went to see it and I thought it was very well done! Regardless, this is something we really need to support as Christians. Click here to see a preview.

Quote of the day: "Faith is the willingness to receive whatever He wants to give, or the willingness not to have what He does not want to give...Furthermore, faith does not insist upon an explanation. It is enough to know His promise to give what is good - He knows so much more about that than we do." - Elisabeth Elliot