Wow! More than a month!

Wow! More than a month has gone by since my last post.  That has got to change.  I have so many things running through my head.  And I need to express them  Yet, there doesn't seem to be the time to put them down on paper or on the blog.

But that is one of the changes that I am looking to make in this coming year.  I am going to try to be more frequent in posting.  I am trying to be more disciplined in jotting down my thoughts into my journal for ease of reference later.

And, as an aside, I am going to try to read more this year.  For those who know me personally, you know what a major challenge that will be for me this coming year.  But, nevertheless, that is what I am hoping to do in the coming days, weeks and months.  In fact, I picked up a book from my shelf this morning while I was enjoying my 2nd, 3rd and 4th cups of coffee.  I made it through the introduction and the first two chapters.  A fairly good start I would say.

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Life Gets Busy

When you look at your blog and realize that an entire month has gone by since your last post, you are too busy!

Consider this passage.

"We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth for someone else to spend."

Psalm 39:6 NLT

Well, I don't know about the wealth sentence. But, I find myself rushing around a lot lately. Perhaps I should slow down and enjoy what God is doing around me right now.

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Launching a new blog

Well, I decided to go ahead and launch a new blog.  It is called, "What is it there for(e)?"  I have no plans to diminish the frequency of posting to this one.  But, I don't think that this one fits exactly with what I am wanting to do on "What is it there for(e)?" blog. 

It is still in its infancy.  I don't have a lot of the extras or widgets on it yet.  But, it is launched.  And that is the goal for this week-end.  I have another post already to go.  But, I will post it later on this week-end.

I hope you will be an active participant in the dialog on the new blog also.  Feel free to send me suggestions for good "Therefore" posts. 

After all, isn't that what blogs are there for?

My Favorite Posts for 2008

I have not been as prolific as I set out to be earlier this year. But, I am OK with that. Upon reflection, I am offering these as my favorite posts for this past year. They did not generate a ton of comments necessarily. But, these are ones that spoke to me, even if they did not speak to you as much. They are in no particular order.

Serving God or Knowing God -- A Generational Thing

Less Like Scars

Worshiping or Murmuring

Sinner or Saint

Sincere -- Sincerely Wrong

Family . . .

Pursuing Love . . . Redeeming Love

What were some of the blog postings from the blogs that you visit regularly that really spoke to you this year? Respond with a link to the blog that you found it on and we will all search for it and let it speak to us.

And thanks for reading and sharing.

Spring Cleaning

It is that time of year again. At least it is down here in Houston, TX. It was 81 degrees today. It is time for a little spring cleaning.

Recently I had to clean my office at work. It desperately needed it. I had let over 6 years of papers and trade publications pile up and completely obscure most of the work surfaces in my office. So, I did a little spring cleaning.

We were able to reclaim the front room in our home that had been used by our son for a business that he operated out of our house. It is now clean and in the process of being redecorated to suit my wife’s taste. So, that was a little more spring cleaning.

My brother recently began blogging and I looked at his new blog. It was incredibly neat and clean. I looked at mine. Hmmh. Not so much. I must confess to a little “blog envy”. Mine was cluttered by a lot of extraneous “counters”, maps and other widgets that I have added over the last few years and don’t really need or even use. So, I did a little spring cleaning on the blog. (I know, it probably needs some more cleaning!)

Then it hit me.

Are there things that I have allowed to clutter up my life? Are there little extra “widgets” that take my focus off of Jesus Christ? Not that they are inherently wrong. But do they keep me so busy maintaing all those little extras that I slowly lose focus on the main thing. So, I am doing a little Spiritual spring cleaning. I am looking to simplify my Spiritual focus and get it solely and squarely on Jesus. I think that makes sense. That is even Biblical.

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Psalm 139:23-24 RSV

How do you do it?

I read a lot of blogs throughout the course of a week. Most of them are Christian themed or theology related. And most of them are written or updated daily.

My question is...

How do you do it? For those of you who are pastors or in some other full-time ministry, I can see it being a part of your daily ministerial and professional activities. But how do the rest of you do it? How do you manage to keep your blog fresh and hold down a real job?!? I am struggling!

Oh well. If that is my biggest problem, then I am truly blessed!

Updated Blog Layout

I updated the blog with a new layout and some new content. What do you think of the layout? For those of you who are using Blogger, what do you think of the changes from the author perspective?