God Have Mercy on America

Last Sunday morning, Dr. David Gibbs III preached for our Sunday morning service. His sermon was a testimony/message wrapped around the Terri Schiavo case. Dr. Gibbs is an attorney for the Christian Law Association. He was the lead attorney for Terri's parents as they fought to preserve her life. What we heard last Sunday was beyond powerful. I've never heard a message that made me so burdened about the state of our country. I strongly suggest taking 35-40 minutes and listening to it. Click here and find the Sunday morning sermon from February 24th. The title is "Fighting for Dear Life."

Pray for our country.

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!

Characteristics of Great Faith

Matthew 8 tells a story that, I believe, contains one of the most powerful verses in all of the Bible.  In vs. 10, Jesus says, "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."  The faith of the centurion He met in this chapter was greater than any faith He'd ever come across.  He hadn't even found someone with faith like this among God's people.

As I looked at this passage the other day, I started wondering what it was about the faith of this man that impressed Jesus so much.  We don't have a lot of Scripture dealing with this man, but we do have a little and a few characteristics jumped out at me.

1. Great faith knows Who to turn to (vs. 5).  The faith of this centurion caused him to turn to Jesus when he was in need.

2. Great faith understands the need (vs. 6).  Strong faith gives us the eyes to see the needs of people around us.

3. Great faith causes compassion for others (vs. 6).  The man was obviously moved by the condition of his servant.  He told Jesus that the servant was "grievously tormented."

4. Great faith causes humility (vs. 8).  The centurion said he wasn't worthy for Jesus to come to his house.  Faith will make us humble before God as well.  By nature, faith is the reaction to our understanding that we can't.

5. Great faith recognizes the power of God (vs. 8).  The centurion told Jesus to simply speak and his servant would be healed.

6. Great faith knows who is in charge (vs. 9).  The military man understood a chain of command.  He also understood that God is always ultimately in charge.

Obviously, these thoughts could be elaborated on greatly, but I hope they at least get you thinking about your faith.  Do you see any of these characteristics in your life?

TBC Grand Opening

I'm sorry it's taken over a week to give a report on the Grand Opening service that took place on the 13th.  It's been busy.

God blessed the service in a great way.  At least 350 people were in attendance.  Over 30 families were there visiting for the first time.  At least 2 people trusted Christ as their Saviour.  It was a great event to be a part of.  We have a lot of work to do following up on all the visitors.  We're praying that many of them will find a place to grow in Christ right here at Timberline Baptist.

Another thing: Click here for an extremely powerful blog post by Trey Morgan.  It's a thought you've probably never thought of before and it will make you very grateful for God's grace.

Another thing, again: Kim is due in less than 2 weeks!  I'm going to have a baby girl!  We're very excited.  Pray that Jacqueline is healthy and happy.

Grand Opening Tomorrow!

It's been a very busy week at Timberline Baptist Church.  We just got done with an awesome Revival Meeting with Dr. John Goetsch.  God moved in our church in a powerful way.  Click here and listen to the Sunday night sermon called "God's Use of the Broken."  If you aren't challenged by that message, I don't know if it's possible for you to be challenged.

Tomorrow afternoon is our Grand Opening service for our new building.  We have invited the mayor of Sherwood, contractors who worked on the building, friends, family and coworkers.  We also mailed a postcard to 35,000 homes in the area.  We're not really sure what's going to happen.  God knows what we can handle.  I'll give a report on the day tomorrow afternoon.  Keep us in your prayers!

The Pursuit

I was thinking about our Declaration of Independence this morning and specifically about the famous statement: "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." As the differences between Republicans and Democrats are made blatantly obvious during this election season, a thought came to me. Liberal philosophies and politics has a tendency to feed a great character flaw in our society. That character flaw is the attitude of entitlement.

Nobody that I know would say we don't have the right to life, liberty and happiness. However, the welfare mentality that is prevelent on the Left has removed the idea of pursuing happiness. Our founding fathers were extremely wise. They understood that happiness is a right, but that it also takes work to achieve. We live in a day where more and more people want their retirement, health care, education, groceries, etc. taken care of for them. We are entitled to it after all. Our culture needs to regain the character trait of pursuing the happiness they have the God given right to enjoy.

Off subject: why is "Brit Stripped of Custody Rights" the 3rd of 3 major headlines on Foxnews.com right now? Do that many people really care? Sad.

Just Say it Already!

A friend of mine sent me this email today. Enjoy...

To All My Democrat Friends (few that there are):

Please accept with no obligation, implied or explicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

To All My Republican Friends:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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.