Christmas Wish List

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I have had several folks ask for a Christmas wish list. Rather than email it to a few who ask, and then re-email it to others, I’m going to post it here, apologies for those of you who read this blog for other reasons 😉

I have one heavily starred request on my paper list for my in-laws in Indiana. Many moons ago they got me an IU mug (probably to remind me where I should move when I get to ‘heaven’ 😉 ). That mug has been used so heavily that it has finally just cracked from temperature fluctuation over time (going from room temperature to 210 degrees over and over again apparently wears things out. Who knew?) I would like another one. The mugs remind me of that part of my family and I often pray for them as I drink my beverage. And, no, I don’t pray that they’d move to Colorado 🙂

Other things for the rest of the world:

  • Wood working clamps. 24 inches or so would be great!
  • PSP games (can be used, I’m not picky): SOCOM, Wipeout Pure, Tiger Woods, Star Wars Battlefront II, and Tony Hawk Skateboarding
  • Amazon has nice, high quality guitar cables: Monster Standard 100 Instrument cables, 12 ft
  • Jars of Clay’s new album, Good Monsters
  • A Shop Vac. Apparently Jessica doesn’t want to wade through saw dust

Just Like Dad…

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After our church service on Sunday (context: which I lead the singing during) one of the older gentlemen at church shook my had and said, “Your part was good.”  I thanked him for his complement.  Then he said, “It amazes me how much you remind me of your dad.  You’re like your dad only you have hair.”  Cracked me up.  Thanks, Art.  I’m glad to have hair.  I’m also glad to have a dad that when you say that its a complement 🙂

A Sight I Wish I Had Not Seen

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Note: This is a bit somber.  The events described within this post really got me thinking. 

Tonight on the way to the chiropractors, to continue my treatment for an automobile accident in June, I saw another accident.  One auto, and one motorized wheelchair presumably for a quadriplegic or very incapacitated person.  All I saw was the SUV mounted up onto the side of the wheel chair.  There was no one in the wheel chair because the emergency vehicles had taken that person away.  Traffic coming the other direction was almost completely stopped because the emergency vehicles had blocked so much of the road.

My best guess is that the person who was in the motorized wheelchair was going as fast as the motor would carry him across the street as the person who was driving, in the second lane so his vision was blocked by the car next to him (or her), slid into the crosswalk.  I imagine that neither person saw it coming until it was far too late.  I often slide into the crosswalk without thinking about it.

Accidents like that are possibly far worse in my imagination than reality.  However, the driver of that SUV is probably mortified and in an emotional state that only prescription drugs can bring down to a point where rest is possible.  I pray that all involved are somehow miraculously OK.  This holiday season with all of the fun and thankfulness around, please be careful while you drive.  Remember to be thankful for all of your family members.  I am.

I’m thankful for my whole family.  I’m thankful for my friends.  I’m thankful for the readers of this blog.  Please have a thankful and peaceful holiday season.  Be safe.

He Fought the Good Fight

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One of the elders at the church that Jessica and I have attended over the last two and a half years just went home to be with Jesus. Hal has been fighting cancer for some time now and his fight is over. What’s most amazing to me in this last half a year that we’ve known about Hal’s cancer is the number of people Hal has encouraged and witnessed to and offered hope to. You see Hal has taught classes on pain and suffering. Hal has been over God’s word many, many times teaching from it and living out what is in the text. Hal has told multiple stories about offering encouragement to chaplains that were responsible for coming in to cheer him up. Hal knew that what he was going through was not the end, and he knew that the suffering was their for his growth (Romans 8:28). He encouraged doctors to not cry (can you imagine being a doctor who is sad you’re losing a patient and the patient tells you to not worry because he’s excited about seeing his Savior?). Hal knew he was right where he needed to be and that the gospel needed to be shared there in the hospital or with various visitors.
I didn’t get to spend very much time with Hal compared to my dad or one of the other elders, Mike Doyle, but Hal and I had a few good conversations, and shortly before it was discovered that he had cancer he and his wife Lindey invited us over for dinner with the girls. Hal has been in the hospital and on bed rest for much of the last six months and so I really didn’t get a chance to visit with him. However, I kept feeling this deep sense of frustration because I know that there was much that Hal knew that I hadn’t learned yet. I suppose that the many recordings of Hal that we have will be a good source of teaching and I can learn much from what he explained as he exposited the Scriptures.

This evening, as his family prayed around his hospital bed the Lord decided that it was time for Hal to quit the suffering and begin the next part of eternity. I’m sure that the sound of the monitoring equipment alerting them to Hal’s resting heart was a tough, tough thing for them to hear, but I also know that they are relieved that their husband, or dad, or father-in-law is not suffering any more. As a body Holly Hills Bible Church has been very concerned. Some people have known Hal as a friend, a pastor and a mentor for a long, long time. Fortunately you can go online and listen to Hal’s teaching and testimony on the church website: http://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org.

Hal loved the Colorado Rockies and would often be seen after a Sunday service wearing a Rockies hat as he and Lindey were heading off to go watch a game. He’s a lot higher than a mile high now.

Hebrews 8:1-3

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Hebrews 8:1-3

1 Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
2 a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.
3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer.

This passage was part of the material that was covered in tonight’s Bible study that is taught by Elder Mike Doyle. This passage is in the greater context of Jesus’ Christ being qualified to be a priest due to His purity and perfection. That’s what the ‘such a high priest’ is in reference to. However, the passage is building on the platform of Christ’s high priesthood and emphasizing Christ’s current position on the seat next the God the Father’s throne. What is Christ doing on that throne? He’s ministering to us. Ephesians 1:3 says that we’re given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places with Christ. Christ’s blessing ministry is ongoing in the life of believers due to the once and for all work on the Cross.

While there is a huge amount that can be gleaned from this passage the point that got me thinking was that Christ is offering to each and every believer every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. We often focus on earthly wealth or earthly knowledge or earthly blessing. Do you walk in belief of your heavenly blessings right now? Christ is ministring them freely and abundantly. Have I been walking as though I have every spiritual blessing in my walk? No, the answer is that I haven’t been. However, I am now. I’m resting in the fact that I have been given those with my position in Christ.

More Fiber!

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Have you seen the commercial with all of the foods with holes in them?  Its a commercial for a fiber supplement.  Its a commercial for a fiber supplement you put in other foods.  Its a commercial for a fiber supplement that they suggest you put in spaghetti!  If God wanted fiber in my spaghetti He would have put celery in my spaghetti.  And cookies need fiber, too.  Don’t forget that.  You need more fiber in your yoghurt, your milk, your ice cream and your steak.  Fiber is apparently the other, other, other white meat.

Pardon me, I’ve gotta run.  Get it?  Run?  The runs?  Fiber.  Nevermind.

Germin’

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I just had a moment of temporary concern for myself.  Not my current self, but my old self.  The one that was a little boy.  My concept of that which was dirty was based solely on my eyes.  I couldn’t see the dirt, therefore it didn’t exist.  I was rolling my fingers on my trackball and reminded of the old game Centipede (its a new experience for me to have a trackball, so the Centipede flashbacks happen regularly still).  Centipede in pizza parlors.  Centipede at restaurants.  Centipede that thousands of grubby hands have touched.  And it was at that point in time that I was concerned that maybe as a kid I ingested a plethora of germs that my immune system kindly warded off.

I think I’m going to go wash my hands and then rub down my keyboard and desk with bleach or hydrochloric acid 😉

People Ask…

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People ask me, “Randy, what’s the best thing about having a recording studio in your home office?”  And I reply, “Knowing that if I actually had more time, I could record stuff.”  But people seldom ask, “Randy, what’s the worst thing about having a recording studio in your home office?”  Which would of course be the problem of me coughing and having approximately 12 or more strings resonate with my cough behind me.  That’s irritating!  Of course the upside is that when I finally debug some code and shout out, “Whoooo!,” they also resonate like a choir of angels.  OK, it doesn’t really sound like a choir of angels, it sounds like some guitar strings resonating quietly, but I have an over-active imagination.