No Cell Phone?

I've been thinking lately about a major change. I would like to go back to the good old days. Back when people couldn't get a hold of you whenever they wanted. I'm all for being accessible, I just don't want to be on a leash.

I remember when I was a kid and people had to call you at your house and leave a message on your answering machine. You could then respond to people at your leisure. People in today's culture couldn't imagine life without a cell phone. How could you possibly survive?! Keep in mind that the vast majority of the world survived just fine without a cell phone for all of human history up until the last 10-15 years. Not only would it free me from the digital leash, it would also save me $75-$100 a month. I'm also thinking about getting an iPod Touch to replace the calendar, tasks, email, etc. functions of my current Blackberry. The drawback is that I'd only be "connected" when I was within range of an open Wi-Fi network. In the end, I don't think that would be a big deal. Being "dis-connected" would be the point of getting rid of the cell phone.

Do you think you could function without a cell phone? Do you think I should give it a shot?

Social Networking

Cary Schmidt is one of the assistant pastors at Lancaster Baptist Church.  He is a tremendously spiritual and wise man.  He has special wisdom when it comes to modern issues and technology.  He has a great philosophy about life and ministry.  He has written a couple of articles on his blog about social networking I think every blogging, facebooking, tweeting, RSS reading Christian needs to read. 

You can find them here and here. 

I agree wholeheartedly with a statement he made in the second post: “You might say these reasons apply to everything we do online—whether a blog, a website, or a twitter feed.”

I am still debating whether or not to jump in the Twitter bandwagon.  I might do it to publish a verse I read that day or a praise or prayer request.  Simply telling people what I’m doing sounds ridiculous.  I’ll let you know if I start tweeting.  By the time I do, that fad will be over.

I Think This is Funny...

I like golf and I love basketball. This is a funny video.

Why Does God Judge Right?

In my last post, I pointed out that every decision God makes is right.  God never makes a wrong decision.  That’s a pretty amazing concept.  Why does God judge right?

Answer this question: What is Solomon known for asking God for?

If you said wisdom, you’re wrong.  God gave him wisdom, but that’s not what he asked for.

1 Kings 3:9, “Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?”

Solomon asked for understanding.  He asked for understanding because he’d have the difficult task of judging.  He knew he’d have to make some tough decisions as the new king of Israel.

Knowledge, wisdom and understanding are all things the Bible tells us we should strive for.  Knowledge is the what, wisdom is the how and understanding is the why.  The reason God always judges right is because He is perfect in these three areas.  God knows what to do in every situation.  He knows how to do it.  He also knows why it should be done.

The main reason we have trouble with some of the decisions God makes is because we are not perfect in those three areas.  There are many times when we don’t know what to do or how to do it.  Even if we do know those things, we don’t always know why.  We must come to the place where we recognize that God is on the throne.  He is in charge.  He always makes right decisions.

We may not know why He does certain things, but we can be sure that He does.

Happy Birthday to Kim!

I just want to wish a happy 25th birthday to my awesome wife. You're the love of my life Kim!

5 Years!

I just wanted to say “I LOVE YOU” to my wife!  Today is our 5 year wedding anniversary.  So much has happened over those years, yet it seems like the time has flown by.

I remember we wanted to wait 4-5 years after we got married to have children.  Somehow, we already have two! 

The Touch of a Father

A lady in our church wrote me a very kind email this week.  You’d have to know her story to understand the true depth of what she said, but I believe the note will touch your heart either way.  It read:

“Thank you for the little things I see you do for your kids.  Holding your daughter is such a precious sight to me.  I hope you never get "too busy" to hold her, stroke her hair or give her hugs as she grows up.  Never stop holding her.  Trust me, your touch gives love and security, strength and acceptance to Kim, Jacquelynn and any future little girls in your family.  Receive this as from one who was very seldom touched by her father in an affirming way.  HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY!”

The note was a powerful reminder that I don’t ever want to do anything to hurt my kids.  If my love is that strong, imagine how deep the Father’s love for us.

Merry Christmas!

I just want to wish you and your family a very merry Christmas.  Thank God for the awesome gift He gave us in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  I love the proclamation of the angels in Luke 2: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

Why Us? (Portland Storm of the Century)

Two out of the last three winters we've been in a place that had the worst snow storm they've experienced in 40-50 years.  We lived just north of Denver during the winter of 06-07.  That year, they had a snow storm come through that dropped the most snow in 50 years.  Denver International Airport was completely shut down for 4 days and we saw drifts of snow upwards of 8 feet tall.  There was about 4 feet of snow in the flats.

Right now, we live in the Portland area and we just had the biggest snow storm this area has seen since 1968 over the weekend.  We have about a foot and a half of snow on the ground at our house in Dundee.  People in Oregon don't really know what to do with the snow.  As soon as the first snowflake hit the windshield, people started driving in to each other and in to ditches.

Here are some photos I just took outside our house.  Take a look at the carnage...

Our House

My Sisters PT Cruiser

Our Trash Cans

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm glad that I have Someone to thank for all the blessings I enjoy in my life.  Tell God about five things you are thankful to Him for.  It will make your day better.

Here's a statement I have written in the front of my Bible that keeps me thankful: Forgetting where we came from is the first step to forgetting what God has done for us.

Don't forget.  Be thankful.

Teaching My Son the Deity of Christ

I was having a conversation with my 3 year old son the other night and I was trying to teach him the deity of Christ.  I think he got a hold of that truth, but he got a little confused by another point.  Here's how the conversation went:

Me: "David, when we pray, who do we talk to?"

David: "Jesus!"

Me: "That's right!  Did you know that Jesus is God?"

David: "Jesus is God?"

Me: "Yes!  When you pray, you talk to Jesus and God because Jesus is God!"

David: "I talk to God, I talk to Jesus and I talk to Mary..."

Me: "No, you don't talk to Mary."

David: "You don't talk to Mary?"

Me: "No.  Mary is a person, not God."

David: "Mary is a person?"

Me: "Yes.  She's a person like Mommy."

David: "I can't talk to Mommy?"

A Few Good Pictures

Here is the cutest baby in the world (with Grandma Lori):

Here is a typical Sunday afternoon at the Casillas home:

If Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, why does it wipe you out so bad?

Wedding in Montana

My sister and I made the 9 hour drive from Portland to Missoula yesterday.  We had a good time and some good laughs.  We stopped at a gas station/restaurant/truck repair shop (that should tell you everything you need to know about it) in Umatilla, Oregon.  They had doughnuts on steroids for sale.  Literally, the maple bar was almost a foot long.  We saw a billboard that said, "When life sucks...there's hope."  It then gave an 800 number to call.  I thought: If I lived in Umatilla, I'd want an 800 number to call when life sucked.  Too funny.

The purpose of this trip was to officiate my cousin's wedding on their family ranch in Stevensville, MT.  Joe (my cousin) and Carrie did great and the ceremony went well.  The sound guys turned my microphone off with the music at the beginning of the ceremony causing an annoying pause and one of them to come to the mic to get it going.  I told the sound guys before the service that they would either be my best friends or my worst enemies.  It turned out to be the latter.  I also dropped Carrie's ring when the best man handed them to me.  There's always something that goes wrong in a wedding.  Those are the things that you remember.  Here are some pictures from the ceremony and reception.  Notice the natural backdrop that no church building could ever come close to matching.

The arch is where we stood during the ceremony.  When I look at this picture, I think...postcard.

My sister Casey (on the right) and my cousin Molly.

A great picture my sister took after Carrie and her dad passed her as they walked down the aisle.

It was a great privilege for me to officiate the wedding.

Weddings are a great celebration.  As I prepared for the ceremony, I was reminded of how marriage pictures Christ's relationship with the church (Ephesians 5).  I believe that if both parties in Christian marriages just kept that fact in mind, there would be a lot less problems in those relationships.

I was also reminded that marriage was the first institution God gave to man (Genesis 2).  Marriage came before the home (the union of a man and a woman is the foundation of the home), government, nations and even the local church.  Obviously, God holds marriage in high regard.  Too bad our culture doesn't really do the same.  Satan knows that when he destroys marriage, he destroys the societal example of Christ's relationship with the church.  It's another victory for him.  He loves anything that keeps people from seeing Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Pray for Joe and Carrie as they start their new life together.

More Global Warming Please

If I haven't already ticked off a liberal with something I've said on my blog, I just did with this post title.  Seriously though, where is summer?  I'm hearing of seasonable temperatures all over the country, but we're still in the dead of winter in the Portland area.  I'm glad to see "Global Warming" is alive and well.  Wait...I'm sorry...it's called "Climate Change" now.  I would like the climate to change.  We had one week of 90 degree weather a month ago and it's been in the 50's and raining ever since.  I seriously thought it was going to snow the other day.

I am going to ask the question regardless of the cliche factor: How is the weather where you are?

Jacquelynn Marie Casillas

It's official, we have a baby girl!  Jacquelynn was born at 8:41 last night.  She was 21 inches long and weighed 7 pounds and 6 ounces.  She's actually a little heftier than her brother was.  Here are some first pictures of the little beauty.

Here she is sleeping soundly.  She's a pretty good sleeper.

Jacquelynn with a proud Grandma Knutsen.

I'm a pretty proud dad too!

It was a good day.  Kim was in labor for about six hours after being induced at 11:30 AM.  The night wasn't over after everyone left the hospital.  My sister, Casey, was taking my son home in my car and she got side swiped at an intersection.  I was on the scene of the accident at midnight.  That wasn't exactly the first thing I wanted to do after being in the hospital all day.  Casey and David are fine.  The front bumper of my car is tied on with vinyl twine.

I really only wanted to remember February 10th for one reason, but now there's two.  Thanks for all your prayers!

Pleasing People

As I was preparing this week to teach my young couples adult Bible class, a thought hit me about pleasing people. I am teaching a series on decision making and we looked at the story of Ananias and Sapphira from Acts 5. The point I made this morning was that it is foolish to make decisions with the goal of pleasing people. Ananias and Sapphira wanted to please the apostles and other members of the church by saying they brought the full amount of the sale of their land. The problem they had was that they desired to please people, but they didn't desire to please God. They did a good thing. What they were doing had the potential to please good people. Still, what they did was not good. Why? Because of their motive.

As I was looking over my lesson last night (I taught it this morning), a very succint and powerful thought came to me. Think about this:

A godly person who wants to please godly people need only worry about pleasing God.

Who are you trying to please?

Gen Y Worker Continued...Again

Click here to read another article I came across regarding the Gen Y worker. Recognition of this issue seems to be growing in the reporting world. I would be very interested to hear your take on the matter.

A Challenge to My Post About the Gen Y Worker

Let me start by saying that I shouldn't really be surprised about the article I mentioned in my last post. 2 Timothy 3 gives us an insight into the last days. The first thing it tells us will characterize men in that time is that they will be "lovers of their own selves." When I read the article, it simply stunk with that attitude.

I emailed my post to a couple people that I am close to. One responded with a challenge to my point of view. Their email went like this (I have edited the email to keep the individual anonymous):

"I disagree with you on this one. If an employer wants to attract and retain good employees, then he/they must offer more than your typical factory or fast food outlet will offer. And that does include current technology (try working for any length of time without it), flexibility (often valued by the employee more than a monetary increase), and mentoring (it BITES to not be able to get your message across to someone who can make a difference and if your supervisor is inept on any level, this can be a real problem). Trust me, I have been in the workplace for 35+ years and even though I am not Generation Y, even I appreciate the items listed in the magazine article. If an employee is a good one (there's the catch), it really is worth doing what you can as an employer to retain them. Retraining new hires is time consuming and very costly to any organization. Turnover has been proven to be one of the greatest avoidable costs to a company. Enough for now. Just offering a different opinion!"

I will admit, I really don't have a problem with any of the main points of the article. I believe it's great for a company or organization to provide mentoring, to allow autonomy, to embrace current technology and to be flexible. My point is that these things aren't provided for the satisfaction of the employee, they are provided for the growth and profit of the company. I would be the first one to say that I like having the tools to do what my employer wants me to do. However, my having the tools is not and never should be the ultimate goal of my employer. The ultimate goal should be that the job he has assigned me to do gets done.

The tone of the article indicated to me that Gen Y is all about them (which is mostly true). In my humble opinion, that is a dangerous premise to found your life upon.

The Generation Y Worker

While I was on a break at work the other day, I picked up a magazine called Oregon Business. As I flipped through the pages of a publication I didn't really want to read, I came across an article that caught my attention. The title went like this: "How to satisfy the Generation Y worker." That statement struck me as backwards so I began to read.

One of the first things I learned was that I am a member of Gen Y. According to the article, this is the generation born between the late 70's and 1990. I was born in 1980.

Please understand something, I know that a lot has changed from the generations of the World Wars to my generation. One of those things is character. My generation lacks it. What I didn't realize is the degree to which it is lacked and how proud Gen Y is about it. In fact, it is something that should be accepted and catered to by previous generations according to the article I read. Click here if you would like to read the article yourself, but be ready to fight the gag reflex.

The article refers our "high self-esteem" that "results from years of parental encouragement." The author warns companies that "club membership isn't enough for these workers; they need reasons to feel loyal to a company." A few tips are then provided to help businesses attract and retain Gen Y workers.

Here are the tips:
1. Provide mentoring
2. Allow autonomy
3. Embrace current technology
4. Be flexible

Here's my take: as I said earlier, the whole premise of the article is totally backwards. When I saw the title, the first question that came to my mind was, "Since when is it the responsibility of the employer to satisfy the employee?" Isn't it the duty of the employee to satisfy the employer? That's why the employer hired him/her, isn't it? I'll tell you the only thing that should be necessary to satisfy any worker: a paycheck. The nature of this article and how it reflected on my generation literally made me sick to my stomach.

I wonder what Gen Z will be like...

A Record Setting Knife

When I saw this record setting Swiss army knife, my first thought was: Simple is good. Have you ever felt like you had more tools than you really needed? For the record, this knife has 87 tools. I saw this picture, laughed and wanted to share it with you. What does it make you think of?