Yesterday was a busy day. With Jerod’s help, I installed the laminate flooring in Blake and Grayson’s bedroom. Last evening we set up their beds. I was pleased with the results and the boys were happy with their new room. There are a few details to be done but it is finished for all practical purposes. Blake and Grayson each have their own desks and space to put their special things. 
I have not posted for a few days. It is Monday morning and I’m in my usual spot on the front porch. The week is shaping up to be somewhat busy. Today I’m going to install some laminate flooring in Grayson and Blake’s bedroom. This is a first, so I will be learning a lot. I’ve got two windows to prepare and paint on the recently painted side of our house. I will clean the remaining unpainted section of our house and, hopefully, get the last of the painting done this week. I’m working on a ventilation system for our basement/cellar to help reduce the moisture. It is a home grown solution so I’m anxious to see if it works.
Last week was eventful in a good way. On Tuesday’s, my friend Vladimir and I meet to talk and share our experience’s with each other. He is an interesting person and our discussions are lively and far ranging. We had one of the shepherding elders and his wife from First Alliance Church to visit us Tuesday evening. It was a very enjoyable occasion. I spent several hours completing the bed project for Blake and Grayson. It is waiting for the flooring to get set up.
We had two, as has become our custom, great worship experiences over the week-end. On Saturday evening’s we regularly attend Southland Christian Church. Jon Weese’s lesson on worship was very good as well as the worship experience. It has been a while since I have prostrated myself in prayer in a church assembly. It needs to become more of a normal experience. Sunday morning’s we usually attend First Alliance Church. Pastor Steve Elliott had a thoughtful and challenging lesson on promises, both God and ours. Here are two quotes that I noted from the lesson:
“If you have promises that you keep, then you are like God! NOT “you are God” but you are like God.”
“The promises we make form the future.”
The highlight of the weekend came when we drove to Elizabethtown, KY to attend an open house for Andrew Verble. Andrew is the young man who was in a serious car accident over a year ago. He sustained devastating head injuries and was not expected to survive and if he did, would not be functional. He did survive and has been in a miraculous process of recovery. He is currently in rehab in Texas and was given a pass to come home for a week. Yesterday was a great celebration of prayer and thanksgiving for his progress and continued recovery. God was honored.
If you haven’t noticed, I added a Library page to my blog. If you are interested in what I’m reading, check it out. The website I’m using is pretty good.
This morning was a special experience. Out for an early run, as I made my way around the path at Centennial Park, I looked to the east and the sun was breaking over the horizon and flooding the rolling hills with warm sunlight. I could only stop and worship.
Until I watched CBS Evening News tonight, I had no understanding of the tragic consequences of mortgage foreclosures. They featured a Florida family with a mother and two teen aged daughters. The way it was billed, I was expecting a pretty dire situation, but I wasn’t prepared for what I saw and heard. It was awful. I was stunned. One daughter, a pretty, articulate young woman, because of the family finances, had to find a job and contribute to family expenses. Can you imagine such a thing?
“How is it, realizing that you need your 16-year-old daughter to help pay the bills?” The mother was asked.
“It’s hurtful, it’s devastating, it’s humbling,” she said.
I think the story reflects a positive side of their difficult circumstances. But I guess I wouldn’t have bothered to watch the segment if I had realized it wasn’t bad news.
You can read the entire piece HERE.
For a number of different reasons, questions about the sovereignty of God have come up lately. Has God got a plan (detailed) for my life and is my purpose to figure it out? Does everything happen for a purpose?, are a couple of examples. I have purchased Greg Boyd’s God of the Possible. Ann and I are going to read through it together. I am somewhat familar with the concept of open theism and hopefully we will get a clearer understanding of a soverign God and how we relate to him as we read God of the Possible.