God's Man

I remember as a child I was often filled with wonder. Do you know what that is? That feeling of smallness. That there is some much going on around you that you couldn't possibly understand it all. Even though I am a gigantic nerd I grew up in what used to be considered the country. Homes had yards. There were still farms. There was history all around us. Old homes that had been abandoned where nature had reclaimed what was built. Where trees provided shade and the grass was the only blanket you needed. When I talk to my daughter I don't detect the same level of wonder as she interact with the world. Maybe it is the difference between boys and girls. I remember sweeping adventures that went from one end of one neighborhood to the far end of another. We had tales about the old homes in our neighborhood. From the story of old man Barry who had killed his brother to assume his familes property to the old boarded up house that was packed full of boxes of money. Then th...

Image Credit to Me Having children is one of the greatest gifts that God gives to his men.  Only the gift of a wife has a bigger impact on the life of a man.  Embrace those whom God has given to you.  Remember your responsibilities to Provide, Protect, Honor and Teach those in your charge.  When God asks what did you do with what I gave you let it be said that you were a good steward. My prayer for you today men is that you live for the glory of God.  That you let that filter cover every interaction with your family.  That you would see your children and spouse as God sees them in Christ. The picture above is of my oldest.  There was a time when she couldn't ride her bike without training wheels.  There was a time when she only wanted to ride if I rode with her.  Those days are just about over.  While she enjoys riding with Dad she asks to ride on her own.  She is starting to want more independence.  One day I'll b...

I am in the process of conducting pre-marital counseling with a great couple at our church.  There wedding is rapidly approaching and I am excited for what God is doing in their lives.  When we discussed conflict we talked about building bridges instead of walls in their marriage.  Here are three of the tips that we discussed. Lower Your Voice and Speak Slowly Typically, the raised voice and rapid speech are telltale signs that we are out of control — that super-heated emotion is taking over. In those frames of mind, we usually come across as angry, hostile, controlling, but not in charge even of ourselves and our own emotions. A cool, calm low voice sends the message that we are not only in control, but that we have something of significance to offer the stressful situation. Say You Care Conflict arises when needs are not being met or when wants and desires are at cross-purposes. The underlying message is that the offending party “really doesn...

I love how my minds moves when I do these drills. This one is a bit off topic but it captures something that I have been working on for quite some time. As I opened this drill I allowed one of my novel's characters, now an old man to write down in his journal. He lives in a prison. A prison of his own making. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are moments where I can still hear the voices. Like echoes through time I can still hear the battle raging. I wonder if I will ever get beyond that moment. The smell of smoke and the clanging of weapons. The shouts of battle reflecting off of the armor of warriors who had seen both their first and last battle. Their young faces seem far to young to have been part of the carnage around them. The heat of fire still cascade through my mind. We had tapped into something in those days that no one even remembers in this age of peace. Time is short for one such as I and at my age you would think I would have all the answers. However because of my age I ...

Have you ever played checkers? I remember playing this game when I was a kid. It was fun especially that moment when you reach the other end of the board and proclaim "King Me". See the king was all powerful. Able to fly from one end of the board to the other. Not like the king in chess who could only move one tile. So the image you see above is something that I "drew" in a a program called Paper by Fifty Three while I was sitting in staff. This is no random doodle though. I have been experimenting with visual note taking as a way of remembering things. My Pastor was sharing with us that to be excellent you had to work to master 7 different things. Two of them were captured there. These 2 were the ones that stuck out to me. I have never been good at these 2 things. Reality has never meant much to me. I tend to see things in was that are not realistic. This is a blessing and a frustration point for myself and others. It means that I am not usually able ...

We have started a new sermon series called Chazown. Transliteration: chazown Pronunciation: khä·zōn' Part of Speech: masculine noun Root Word (Etymology): from chazah Outline of Biblical Usage: 1) vision a) vision (in ecstatic state) b) vision (in night) c) vision, oracle, prophecy (divine communication) d) vision (as title of book of prophecy)   What are you doing with God's vision for your life? Jump into finding it out! - God's Man  

Today is Father's Day and as I was thinking what I would post I started looking through some pictures that I have stored and I came across this one. In this picture we have my God son, Cameron, cooking crabs for the first time. It was the first time that he had really touched one. Even wearing those thick gloves he was still nervous being pinched. The other guy in the picture is my Dad, who I refer to as the old King. I know that this isn't the best picture of him but, with half his face gone but it illustrates an important thing about my Dad. My Dad has one of the biggest personalities that you will ever experience but you won't always notice it. Sometimes it is in your face but most of the time it is behind the scenes guiding you. Growing up we always called my Dad the foreman because when there was work going on he made sure that all us boys knew what we should be doing, what we were doing wrong and how to fix it. Like with Cameron he was showing him what to do, th...

Hi, my name is God's Man and I am a nerd.  I love reading and words in general.  Especially new words.  Today I found these lovelies laying around on the internet. Deontology Deontological ethics or deontology (from Greek deon , "obligation, duty"; and -logia ) is the normative ethical position that judges the morality of an action based on the action's adherence to a rule or rules. [1] It is sometimes described as "duty" or "obligation" or "rule" -based ethics, because rules "bind you to your duty". [2] Deontological ethics is commonly contrasted to consequentialism . [3] Deontological ethics is also contrasted to pragmatic ethics . Teleology A teleology is any philosophical account which holds that final causes exist in nature , meaning that design and purpose analogous to that found in human actions are inherent also in the rest of nature. The word comes from the Greek τέλος , telos ; root: τελε-, ...

I have decided that this is the Year of the Nerd.  There are so many movies that speak to my nerdiness (sp?).  Today I submit to you Wreck It Ralph surprisingly by Disney. Enjoy Your Weekend... - God's Man

The Bible calls us to test ourselves.  It is important to know where you are coming from, what you motivations are, and what is your primary focus.  Today's Utmost For His Highest Devotional asks this important question. Am I fulfilling this ministry of intercession deep within the hidden recesses of my life? There is no trap nor any danger at all of being deceived or of showing pride in true intercession. It is a hidden ministry that brings forth fruit through which the Father is glorified. Am I allowing my spiritual life to waste away, or am I focused, bringing everything to one central point— the atonement of my Lord? Is Jesus Christ more and more dominating every interest of my life? If the central point, or the most powerful influence, of my life is the atonement of the Lord, then every aspect of my life will bear fruit for Him. - Read the rest here  So I ask you to Jump into finding your focus today. -God's Man

Today's XKCD is incredibly relevant to our discussion today. As we look at the theme of Jump for this month's NaBloPoMo (National Blog Post Month) one of the things that we should make a habit of doing is trying new things. I went into the shoe store last week and tried on a pair of the Skeltoes from Fila.  I had looked at them many times but because of the weirdness of my feet I have ignored any shoe innovation.  I buy the same type of New balance shoe that I know fits my custom orthotics.  A weird thing happened when I tried them on.  They fit.  Even without my orthotic I could move around and they felt comfortable.  I am going to get a pair and see how working out with them feels (winking at Fila). Anyway,  Jump into something new today.  You never know what the outcome will be. -God's Man

I was listening to this sermon by Denny Burk about marriage .  He makes a distinction that many other pastor's have made.  It is a statement that I have shared with the couples that I have talked with, that you marriage is not about you or your spouse.  Your marriage is about the glory of God.  Denny, coming from Ephesians 5 asks wives if they know what is at stake in their submission to their husband?  He asks husbands if they know what is at stake in their love of their wives?  He asks the couples do they know what is at stake in their marriages?  Your marriage is supposed to reflect the relationship between Christ and His Church.  It is supposed to show God's glory. So as we continue to explore this month's theme of JUMP. Are ready to Jump into your marriage with this new focus? Always Chasing His Glory -God's Man

On our way home from the gym tonight my bride challenged the princesses to walk down the street to our house.  As they started walking I told them I would win the race. I was driving the car.  All of a sudden P.Mini jumped into full gear and took off at a run.  Huffing and puffing she ran and I cruised up beside her.  She jumped up to an even faster speed. Soon she began to get tired and started to slow down.  The car began to drift ahead of her.  She jumped back into gear and pushed herself until she, triumphantly, to the top of our hill.  She shouted,"I WIN!" as she jumped in front of our door where I took this picture. Never give up my friends.  You always have a little bit more to tap into. - God's Man

I am reading the book Platform, Get Notified in a Noisy World by Michael Hyatt.  In the first chapter he shares 3 insights from Steve Job's 2007 keynote presentation.  1. Create products you would personally use. 2. Create products that solve problems in unexpected ways. 3. Create products that exceed your customer's expectations. How does any of that relate to this month's theme?  Jumping In One of the first obstacles that we have to overcome is analysis paralysis.  Sometimes in order to get beyond this you have to do something.  This is especially true for smart people.  We have a tendancy to overthink, overplan and over-criticize our ideas.  Getting beyond this wall requires us to jump over our self-doubt and get moving. Apple made several decisions that were unheard of at the time.  They chose a design that they hoped would be intuitive even though it was different then the current paradigm. So how did they get there? They jumped in. ...

Today I had the pleasure to continue a tradition with my princesses. At the beginning of every summer the princesses and I enjoy a snowball at our favorite snowball stand in the area. P.Mighty had strawberry cheesecake while P.Mini had cotton candy. I love being a Dad. Always Chasing After His Glory -God's Man

  Welcome to June I am participating in National Blog Posting Month which is now hosted over at BlogHer .  The theme for this month is Jump. Back when I was doing the 30 Day Trial Challenge I stressed the point of Getting Started.  This is a key element to everything. You HAVE to actually do something. Like I mentioned in yesterday's post , today is the 1st day of MY New Year so the theme fits. Since this is the 1st post of 30 I will not overdo it.  I am just going to list the things that I am jumping into during the month of June. Physical Commute by Bike After many challenges with my bike(Schwinn) I am committing to riding to work 2-3 days a week. Mental Complete Reading List I will tackling these books this month. The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler/ Decision Making and the Will of God by Gary Freisen Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World by Michael Hyatt Gosel Centered Discipleship by Jonathan Dodson Spirtual Attend the 2 remaining Ma...

I found this gem in my inbox this morning. Time is a valuable asset that attracts many robbers. Today is May 31. The last day of the year for me. I know, I know. I can hear you saying, "You do know that there are 6 more months left in the year right?" While that is true on your calendar, MY calendar reads differently. A lot of this, looking back on it, has to do with the fact that I am/was incredibly egotistical as a kid. The year for me starts in the month of June for 2 reasons that are important to me. 1. June is my Birth Month My birthday is in June and so, for me, that makes June a special month. It is why I have always counted June as the beginning of my year. Now I keep up appearances for the rest of the world but my internal calender says today is the end of year.  2. Summer Begins in June As most kids will agree Summer is the best time of the year. It is what we wait. It is what we dream about. Time to just be, do whatever we want, sle...

Well National Novel Writers Month is coming up this November and I am looking forward to winning this year.  In order to do that I decided to challenge myself on the days that I do not do my workouts at lunch to have what I am calling the nanoLunch.  The rules are simple, see how many words you can crank out on your lunch break around whatever setting you find yourself in.  I had lunch at Ban Thai in Baltimore, MD today and cranked out 1,013 words in 45 minutes while eating my spicy string beans.  I present in all it's rushed and imperfect glory "The Organizer"   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   Sitting in a familiar place always relaxes me.   The clink of the glasses as people drink their beverages.   The sounds of forks clacking.   The gentle murmur of voices close enough to be heard but far enough away to be distinguishable.   It is amazing to me how it is to relax in scenarios like this.   I mean I s...

Yesterday's 30 Day Trial Post has now got persistence on my brain. Here is another story from Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. When Henry For decided to produce his famous V-8 motor, he chose to build an engine with the entire eight cylinders cast in one block. For instructed his engineers to produce a design for the engine. The design was drawn up on paper but the engineers agreed, to a man, that is was simply impossible to cast an eight-cylinder engine in one piece. Ford said, "Produce it anyway." "But," the replied, "it's impossible!" "Go ahead," Ford commanded, "and stay on the job until you succeed. No matter how much time is required" So the engineers went ahead. Six months went by. Nothing happened. Another six months passed, and still nothing. The engineers tried every conceivable plan to carry out the orders, but the thing seemed out of the question. "Impossible!" At the end of the year Ford ag...

So I felt as though I cheated earlier when I addressed one of my tasks today. I am supposed to write something and I posted a story about this awesome guy that I know. However I feel like I should share a little bit more about writing. It is one of those things that we grow up doing but since it was so intimately wrapped up in school, for a lot of us, we stop once school is out. So since my daughter Isana is writing a story about her day I figured I would write about the importance of writing. I loved writing as a kid. I would write strories in spiral notebooks. When my parents bought our first electronic typewriter I would sneak it out of their room and stay up all night writing stories. I was a nerd even then. My stories were mostly about my favorite comic book characters. I would weave fantastical tales of my acquiring super powers and joining them on adventure after adventure. When my eyes moved from comics to girls I used to write letters to them, they would never read t...