There is a large military training center near Columbus called Camp Atterbury. One of the chaplains on the base goes to our church and for the past 4 years he has organized a night of caroling on the base. This year, people in the church baked over 6000 cookies to hand out while caroling. (Karen baked several dozen.)

It was a moving experience. Most of the soldiers there are preparing to go to Iraq. In fact, some have shipped out since we were there on Wednesday night. I have never seen a more appreciative group than the 10 or so groups of soldiers we sang to. Many were crying and were sure to tell us thank you and that it meant a lot to them.

We carried several large boxes of cookies around to different barracks, the soldiers would come out, we would sing and the kids would hand out cookies to them. Elijah, our youngest (almost 3,) was a huge hit with the soldiers.

He would grab as many bags of cookies he could carry and go running up to the line of soldiers yelling, “here soldier!” They were eating it up. Several of them were sure to come find him to thank him after we were done singing. There was one place that had this small ditch with a little bit of ice an water. Elijah went up to it, stopped for a second like he was going to jump… then he did. Several of the soldiers, in unison, said, “Airborne!” “He’ll be in the 101st.”

It was a great experience, much more than I expected. And I was surprised at the sincere and heartfelt appreciation we got from the troops. Please pray for these soldiers as they make their way to Iraq.

Yesterday at church, Karen and I were helping in “kids church.” Towards the end, the kids were split up into small groups for discussion. After it was over, a little girl named Shelby from Karen’s group came over to me and asked, “Are you Mr. Riley?”
“Yeah,” I said. She just looked up at me and smiled with her big blue eyes and gave me a hug then went on her way.

Karen asked me if I met Shelby. I said I did and that she came up and gave me a hug. Karen said that Shelby was telling her that her parents have been (in a whisper) fighting and that they have to go to see a judge and might get divorced. Karen told her that my parents got divorced when I was little.

Shelby knows the pain that she is feeling and in the midst of it, felt compassion for someone else that had gone through the same thing. I don’t get very emotional about much but that simple act of love and compassion really touched me. I pray that Shelby’s mom and dad can work things out.

Bob Lepine of FamilyLife has started a new podcast titled Ear Reverent(iTunes need for link to work.)

His description of the podcast:
“Some people like to blog, but I often sit behind a microphone and interview people. This podcast is my audio blog so-to-speak about faith, culture, church, the arts… stuff that I like to think about.”

The first episode caught my attention. He talks with Jim Henderson who hired an atheist to visit churches with him in order to write a book, Jim and Casper Go to Church: Frank Conversation about Faith, Churches, and Well-Meaning Christians

Give it a listen…

This is a small article I wrote for our women’s ministry newsletter at church for the fall.

I enjoy this time of year. Two of my four kiddos just started back to school (and one more starting pre-k in a couple of weeks). That is only part of the excitement. For me, this time of the year means organization and a fresh start!
I tend to purge things that have been accumulating all year. Have you ever sat down at your desk and “sorted” through what is piled there? It is so freeing to throw things out. Due to my lacking summer organizing I found outdated coupons and receipts for that matter. There were also worksheets leftover from summer school. Ah, into the trash bag they went!
Another thing I enjoy is walking through the back to school isles. Not for reasons you may think. When I was little I LOVED school. I loved the new clothes shopping , new shoes, but most of all, the new school supplies. There is something about a fresh clean spiral notebook and a brand new pen that just gives me a tingle of pure joy!! That reminds me of a line from You’ve Got Mail starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. He says he would send her a “bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils” if he could. He is talking about the fall season and how it makes him feel. I find myself repeating that line during this time of year. Hey, for a weirdo like me, that is real romance! When stocking up for school supplies I actually buy myself a new pen and notebook. I can’t resist. What do I do with my new stuff? Hey, I am glad you asked.
I use the “fall” season and my new supplies to begin something new. In the past I have journaled or written letters. This year, my notebook is house to items and notes from my geneology. My pen? I will be using for a new Bible study.
Another reason I look forward to this time of year….it is like a clean slate for my spiritual life. Most people use January 1 as a time for resolutions for a new year. I use August to map out what I want to accomplish in my spiritual life. I was excited to see the excerpt in the bulletin for this fall’s Bible study. Since my move back to Indiana from Arkansas in December, I have been in a “spiritual slump. ” I have heard others call it a rut. Whatever it is called …I am ready to climb out! I am ready to apply what I learn in my walk and serve others! I am thankful God gives us new seasons to learn about him. I am thankful for fresh starts because right now….I have a lot of learning to do. Hey, that is an excuse to get another notebook!

…lays the smack down.

I’m a big dork.

Last Sunday night the church we are attending had an all music worship service with these young guys playing amped up versions of standard praise and worship songs. The guitarist played a solo on one of the songs and put his leg up on the monitor all cool like.

The church asked me to play guitar this next Sunday. During practice this week, I thought it would be funny to imitate that guy. Not to be cool but to sort of mock it in a friendly kind of way (the guy was running the sound for practice.) Only when I did it, it was on the monitor on the other end of the stage. The angled, top heavy monitor. The monitor not designed to have a foot placed on top of it. As I did, it rolled backwards… and so did I. Landed flat on my back, guitar still in hand. A loud gasp went up from the other band members and singers. I think I even heard an “oh my God! Is he ok?”
I got back up and the practice continued on but I felt pretty stupid.

Got home and told Karen. She got a pretty big kick out of it.

The G Sides had an interesting post on decision making this morning. I started to write a comment on it, once I got to paragraph 3 I decided it should be a post on my own blog.

Grant was talking about a couple of people that have come to him this week for advice on making tough decisions. I did the same thing when we were deciding on whether to stay on staff with FamilyLife or not. He didn’t give me any answers but what he did do is ask me a few key questions to help me formulate my thoughts and help equip myself to make a good decision

I also started reading a book by Gary Friesen called Decision Making and the Will of God: A Biblical Alternative to the Traditional View. I cannot recommend this book enough. Go get it.

Back to our hard decision…
We are not yet on the “other side” of it. I am living with my parents, Karen and the kids are 600 miles away. Karen is about ready to pull her hair out, its already going gray,  waiting for our house to sell. (anyone looking for a 5 bedroom 2300 square foot house in Pleasant Forest?)
But, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, something I couldn’t see on the other side of the decision. All I saw was a very large, very thick brick wall. After we commited to our decision, its like that wall just crumbled in front of us. I got a good paying, fun job in less than a week with no interview. That was like the weight of the world being lifted off my shoulders.

Another thing we wanted to do in this decision is continue to seek places where we can be used by God to further his kingdom. The place where I work is about 70% Chinese, 15% Indian and 15% white American. I am working in a mission field. There is a chinese woman who leads a Bible study with a handfull of other Chinese Christians here. I want to work with those guys to help reach out to our co-workers. And I am in the process of laying a foundation with one of the younger guys here, his name is Hao. I invite him to play basketball with me at lunch and had him over for dinner last night, then we played Starcraft for a couple of hours with my younger brother. I don’t know where he stands spiritually, but I am in the middle of earning the right to talk to him about it.
We have also visted another church here. We decided when we move back that we are going to visit several churches and plug in where we can best be used. That may be the church we left when we moved to Little Rock but it may not be. Anyway, this church we visited is big on the members serving the body of Christ. The first sermon I heard there was about just that, about serving in the church using your talents and abilities. It struck a chord with me.

So, like I said, we are still in the middle of this decision but we see God at work in the midst of it and we take comfort in that.

I was so overcome this week by the expression of God’s love as deomonstrated through some precious people.  I sent out an email on Monday or Tuesday asking for help when I realized there was no way I could finish getting the house ready to sale.  Tuesday Debbie and her two daughters came over to help with laundry. That was like a lead weight being lifted off my shoulders.  After Bible study on Wednesday Sue came over and helped me clean…..even things I didn’t think of cleaning…..I just love Sue, she has been like a mentor to me.  Also on Wednesday Susanne came over to help…….her request was to clean my bathrooms…..WHAT?! gasp gasp…..you want to what???!!! I pray God blesses her in a special way…..we have 3 bathrooms….3 FULL bathrooms, two of which males regularly use. The downstairs and two of the bathrooms are now off limits, in an effort to keep the house clean.  Mike O and Doug came over to do lawn work…They went above and beyond what I needed help with. ( I guess I didn’t realize how much needed to be done!)  Mike O was Mike’s accountability partner. They have similar personalities and sense of humor.  He organized the garage, too!

Tammy picked up the kids numerous times for me last week to take them to school.  Very helpful as I was in the midst of a raging bladder infection and dehydration. Thursday night my back went into a muscle spasm so bad that my legs buckled and I fell  to the floor.  Holly brought us supper one evening. 

Now all we need is for someone to buy the house.  The pictures online are great. 

I am thankful for each and everyone of the people who have helped and/or offered words of encouragement.  I couldn’t do this without their help. Thank you, LORD!!

Thanks to this post over at Greg Fielder’s “everything that’s on my mind” I’ve discovered the genius of Lark News. It is a fake news site written by Christians to satirize, lampoon and generally poke fun at Christian culture (sort of a Christian version of TheOnion.com.) I was reading some of it yesterday at my desk, in tears, I was laughing so hard. If you are easily offended you may want to stay away but if you have no problem laughing at yourself I’m sure you will enjoy it as much as I do.

Some sample headlines:
Outsourced prayer lines confuse callers (my favorite)
Youth pastor hazing on the rise
Suburban church celebrates minute level of diversity
Man arrested for drunk-in-the-Spirit driving

Here’s one for Grant:
Youth Pastor overestimates preaching ability after wowing main service

I was going to post this yesterday and forgot to do it.

I finally got to play guitar at church again this week! I played once back in November and then had to run the soundboard a few times when I was scheduled to play (I like running the soundboard too.)

I got to play electric. Its been a while and I was a little rusty, a sour note or two, lost my place on one song, but I felt like I hit a groove on one or two of the songs. I think I play again towards the end of August. Looking forward to it.

There is quite a conversation going on over at the G Sides about the Church, politics and how much the Church (along with Christian organizations) should be involved

Rowland (former worship pastor at our church) made a good point about churches returning to and focusing on what is important. In it he said:

You wonder if so many churches are just spinning their wheels doing all the programs and even praying so hard for “the Spirit to come down”, but it never happens because they forget the basics….the poor, the destitute, the lost. Makes me think we just need to return to the basics of preaching the Gospel, Worshipping, feeding the poor, visiting prisons, etc…

Why do we separate out “worship” from those other things. “Worship” has become a euphemism for singing songs. I’m not picking on Rowland here, I do the same thing and most other people do too. I typed “worship” into the search on BibleGateway.com, only one verse actually mentioned music along with worship.

The whole assembly bowed in worship, while the singers sang and the trumpeters played. All this continued until the sacrifice of the burnt offering was completed. 2 Chronicles 29:28

A good majority of verses use some variation of the therm “bowed down and worshiped.” Several also talk about serving along with worshiping, that is, putting actions to our worship. I love music and singing praises to God and it is definitely part of worship but worship is so much more.

So Rowland wasn’t wrong but all of the things he listed are worship, not just music. We worship God by humbling ourselves before him (bowing down), and making ourselves available to be used by him, to put actions to our worship.

This Sunday we had a guest pastor who gave an overview of Proverbs. As he was speaking my mind began to wander and I started thinking about my favorite verse in Proverbs: As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. Proverbs 26:11*

Pretty gross but it is memorable and gets the point across.

That led to me thinking about other crude and gross verses in the Bible which then led to to thinking about our Christian culture and our emphasis on being “proper” and “polite” and “dignified.” Sure, all of those things have their place and we shouldn’t be rude and crude just for the sake of it but sometimes it is necessary.

Toward the beginning of Ezekiel, God has him lay on his side and drink specific amounts of water and eat specific amounts and types of beans and grains. Somehow, its all supposed to symbolize the siege of Jerusalem or something. Then God tells him how he is to cook it:

Eat the food as you would a barley cake; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel.” The LORD said, “In this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them.” 

Then I said, “Not so, Sovereign LORD! I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything found dead or torn by wild animals. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”

“Very well,” he said, “I will let you bake your bread over cow manure instead of human excrement.” Ezekiel 4:12-15

Alright, that’s just gross.

Ok, that stuff is sort of borderline. I could see a pastor explaining it from the pulpit, maybe a few people would be offended but no big deal. Its just poop, its not like it was crude talk about sex. That would be going too far.

Uh oh…

Later in Ezekiel, God is talking about Jerusalem and using the metaphor of Jerusalem being a prostitute:

There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. So you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when in Egypt your bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled.

Ezekiel 23:20 

Uh… did he just say “genitals like a donkey?” And I’ve never seen a horse’s emission but I get the picture.

Now, that crosses the line of decency. You just can’t talk about that stuff in church, it wouldn’t be proper.

*You know the song “As the Deer?” “As the dear panteth of the water so my soul longeth after you…” I’ve always wanted to make a version called “As the Dog.” “As the dog returns to vomit so a fool repeats his fol-ly.” It’ll be the next “Lord I Lift Your Name On High” I tell ya!]]>