Near to us

Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You ? Show us Your mercy, Lord, and grant us Your salvation. I will hear what the Lord will speak, for He will speak peace to His people and to His saints; but let them not turn back to folly. Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yes, the Lord will give what is good; and our land will yield its increase. –Psalms 85:6-12

2008 rolling along

When I think about this year, I think about the possibilities. It is fun to start new things because they are new(that is deep!). But, the year does seem to start with great ideas and hopes and dreams. It is like a race that you start running and before you know it you are at the finish line and you are asking yourself if there is anything left to finish with. You give it all you have knowing you can stop soon. Then, you recover and do it again. Each year brings certain challenges and opportunities.

Time seems to provide us with many open doors. It is always a question of what door we will open and select to walk through on this journey. I want my life to count and be a blessing to others. I want my time to be released in moments of needs and used with diligence to make it count.

I know my personality is that of a giver so it isn't always easy for me to be selfish with my time, but there are moments when we need to accomplish things that will open doors for others. I think that is part of what God has shown me so far this year that I am to clear paths and make open spaces for others so that they can walk into their destiny.

Well, I can't close my time here without a picture of one that I have been investing in. My nephew. He is 13 months now and walking and imitating much. How fun he is!! So, here is a new picture of him. I was thinking today that he literally changes before my eyes...wow, how fun to watch him grow. And, it made me think...how am I changing? What is God doing in me that is significant and noticeable?

new year

Wow, it is a new year and it is already Jan 13. I spent the last 3 days coaching with a leadership training conference at a local baptist church. It was a lot of fun and also a ton of work. The time was spent in discovering strengths and gifts that each person has and how to use them to advance the Kingdom and to improve communication skills. I worked with a team of college students. They were a blast and full of life.
The semester starts officially on Monday and I start teaching on Tuesday. I am mostly ready at least for the week ahead, but it sure has been nice to have some time off to catch up with things.
So, that is what is new with me in case you are one of the fortunate ones to be reading this.
Go Green Bay...no more Steelers this year.

tuning in

It is time to turn on our tuners and get rid of the static. There are many times that we live in a realm where we only hear in part, but God wants to reveal the fullness of His sounds to us. We need to walk out of the desolate places to the places that we can bring our thank offerings.
God is in the process of restoring new sounds:
"the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD, saying,
"Give thanks to the LORD Almighty,
for the LORD is good;
his love endures forever."
For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before,' says the LORD."
Jeremiah 33:11
Tune us into these sounds Lord.

His Mercy

A song that I was just listening to says, "wrapped in His mercy, I want to live and never leave." I was stuck on this thinking about the mercy of God that surrounds us and keeps us. Mercy is described as not getting what we deserve. We are wrapped in a place that He has made to keep us safe and secure.
Hebrews 4: 14-16(The Message):
Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let's not let it slip through our fingers. We don't have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He's been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let's walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.
I do know that I do need the help for sure!

reflections of the day

Well, the day is just getting started although it started a few hours ago. It seems I need time to really wake up and be able to function. I guess if I drank coffee that might happen faster. It is fall here and the snow has taken some time to fall on the ground, but the leaves are still mostly on the trees. So, I am reflecting on the changes that are taking place. It is fun when you are in between seasons and noticing one merging into the next. There are still traces of the one season and evidence of the next coming.
It is like that in our lives. Sometimes we are smack in the middle of a new season and we can remember the past and look forward to the next, but the season really captures our attention. I wasn't intending to get philosophical here, but it is important to enjoy the season of life that you are in and not be too anxious for it to change. In time, things do change and so do we. We are molded and shaped by the things going on around us and in time, those things will only be memories. Hmm...what is it that we are to learn this day? And, what is the next season going to be like? I do know that with God on my side, things only seem to get better.

Our heart

In I Samuel 16:7, it says that God looks into the heart. That is so cool that He doesn't look at who we are on the outside with things such as what we do, what we look like, how we work, but our insides.
Our heart...what is that all about? The very depth of our being. But, do we even know what is in there or how to ponder that without getting too inward?
He is looking for those "to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him." (2 Chronicles 16:9) How can our hearts become perfect?
God has the ability to change our heart and even give us a new heart that is perfect toward Him. We can keep our hearts perfect toward God by asking God to reveal and remove any thing in our heart that would keep us from loving Him with our whole heart.

Shining brilliantly

Daniel 12:3 (The Message) Men and women who have lived wisely and well will shine brilliantly, like the cloudless, star-strewn night skies. And those who put others on the right path to life will glow like stars forever.



The sun rises with simple colors blended together, touching the earth and the sky bringing light and textures. May our lives be such a brilliant display of His love that others would see and know Him.

New guitar player

This is my nephew with one of my guitars. I was giving him some lessons and trying to teach him the way to carefully strum the strings, but he likes to just pound on it. He is 9 months today. I guess it is just good that he is happy. He is also crawling everywhere now and clapping.
Oh, the joys of watching a young child learn and grow up!!

I am also watching my students as they seem really into listening to me lecture this year. I feel like telling them to read the paper or daydream, but they seem to be into listening. I guess that is good, but it is strange to notice their intensity. Maybe I have more valuable things to say as I get older??

We are...Penn State!!

beautiful day

Wow, what a beautiful day!! I was out there in the sun for a little bit, but now I am inside watching the US Open Tennis match. It is hard to look at the lovely day and stay inside, but I really like watching tennis. Soon, I will go back out to enjoy the most amazing day.
School has been going well so far. We are done with one week now.
We won our first big football game of the year, but it wasn't a big team Next weekend, it will be just so crazy here with Notre Dame coming to town. So far I have 2 tailgate invites, but no tickets...it is just too expensive for me.

Time for school again

School is starting once again next week. The students have started to move into campus which means that the streets are packed with parents and things. I was just thinking today that I miss the quiet of the summer campus. It is nice to enjoy the campus without the thousands of students running around. But, I am excited about the season ahead and the possibilities of seeing more come to know our Jesus.
We will have many new contacts with new students and new opportunities to share the life that is in us. I pray for many open hearts. It seems students are open to so many things and desire to know that which is genuine. I pray for many people to be gathered into His truth. There are so many things trying to capture their attention and minimize the reality of knowing God.

words to the song

My Beloved: Kari Jobe

You’re My Beloved
You’re My Bride
To sing over you is My delight
Come away with Me
My love

Under My mercy
Come and wait
‘Till we are standing face to face
I see no stain on you
My child

You’re Beautiful to Me
So Beautiful to Me

I sing over you My song of peace
Cast all your cares down at My feet
Come and find your rest in Me

I’ll breathe My life inside of you
I’ll bear you up on eagle’s wings
And hide you in the shadow of My strength
I’ll take you to My quiet waters
I’ll restore your soul
Come rest in Me and be made whole

We are His beloved

There is a new CD that I just got by Kari Jobe . I think she is incredible, her voice is beautiful and her song "My Beloved" is awesome. It really ministered to me. As a person who loves to worship Jesus, and who understands the importance of telling the Lord how I feel about him and pouring my love out to him, this songs has great importance b/c it is written as if the Lord is singing to me. It is amazing to hear how the Lord feels about us, to know he loves us. Let the Lord sing His love over you while listening to this song and others on her myspace.
It is just such an amazing thought to think about His great love towards us.

all my young fun family

Just to be fair I really need to post a photo of my niece(Kate) and 2 nephews(JR and Joey). The two that look very Italian live in Texas and were just here a couple of weeks ago. So, we did a cute little photo, but they just weren't into it like we wanted. They have a lot of energy and basically run non-stop. We had a lot of family time and playing in the park time.

my nephew

Yesterday, I got to spend about 5 hours with my nephew, JR. He is only 7 months now. We had such fun and life is so simple when around him. I think I was just enjoying the quietness and joyfulness of being with him. He has such a fun laugh and smile. He sits up now and imitates my sounds. He loves standing, but can't do it on his own yet. And, he loves me and gives me lots of kisses.

winds are blowing

There were some very strong winds blowing here in my yard last night. It was not just in my yard, but all over and the lights even went out.
(Psalm 104:4 )He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants.
What are the messages that He sent to us last night?

sardinia

I just returned from a wonderful time on the island of Sardinia. It was great to just enjoy the beauty of God's creation and be fully engulfed in the smells and the sights. I loved my times of exploration of places that were off the main roads. There is so much history there and so much diversity of views. You have the ruins, the sea, and the mountains. Along with these are the winding roads that seem to go to the most amazing places.

Getting ready

Now, I am getting ready for a fun trip to the land across the ocean.
I am flying out to London on Monday and then to Sardinia. I went there last year for a few days and was so in love with it that I had to return. This time for 7 days and a different part of the island. It is like paradise and I can't wait to see more.
Check back for some more updates.

Many words

Today, I read about 30 ten page papers and several other papers and certainly find the abundance of words is overwhelming.

Ecclesiastes 5:7
Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.

So...I will stand in awe of our God instead!!!

time to reflect

Today I was reading in a book by Henri Nouwen. He made a good statement that I wanted to share.
" A life that is not reflected upon eventually loses its meaning and becomes boring."

What a great reason to ponder what is going on in our life. When we do we take time to find meaning and significance in what we are all about.