We Will Serve The Lord

People sometimes ask me how long it takes to write a sermon.  The answer for today's sermon would be 28 years (that's the age of our oldest child).  I was reluctant to preach on parenting when the children were small thinking that the ideal time would be when they were grown.  Now that my children are grown, and the world has changed so much, I'm thinking parents really need help from someone much more in touch with the challenges of today's technology. 

But I preached today's sermon knowing that the basics of parenting never change.  That's why I love Joshua's declaration so much, "As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."  No matter what age you live in, no matter what's going on in the culture around you, this is surely where godly parenting always begins. 

Today's sermon was not intended to be deep or profound.  I seriously doubt anyone learned anything they didn't already know.  I decided to combine movie clips with personal testimony to encourage parents to do what they already know to do but to do it with conviction and sacrificial leadership.  There is not a single sacrifice Liz and I made in raising our children that we regret.  The three word sermon outline of Time, Talk, and Walk was truly a statement of our priorities.  My prayer is that every Christian family might make them theirs as well.

Happy Father's Day

For the first time in well over three decades my father was able to celebrate Father's Day with all of his children in the same room.  My dad has three sons and each of us have one daughter.  The girls got together over a year ago working on a plan to get all their fathers together at the same time.  It was difficult to find a place and time but after a lot of effort, it was decided that we should all go high in the Rocky Mountains to Buena Vista, Colorado. 

Mom and Dad live in Fort Collins, Colorado which is about a 4 hour drive.  My brother Paul lives in Canton, Texas and he had to drive about 16-18 hours to get here.  My oldest brother, Barry flew in from Los Angeles and I few in from Houston.  Paul came with his entire family (including his granddaughter, minus his son-in-law).  My daughter Elizabeth and her husband Jaime flew in from San Antonio and Barry's daughter, Beverly flew with him.  Of course my mom is with us as well.

Since Paul had to leave at 5 this morning we celebrated Father's Day last night.  There were a few cards and presents given but the most special part of the event was that we were all together.  Thank you Beverly, Elizabeth, and Kelley for making it happen.  Fathers deserve to be honored and you have given my dad the greatest gift possible.

Keep Swinging

With today's post this blog has been up for exactly one year. It was last Father's Day that we experimented with doing a service exclusively focused on men. Because of the success of that sermon we decided to do it again. It appears it may become a tradition for us.

"Man church" appears to be a bit hit but I'm not sure of the effectiveness of continuing the blog. It gets around 50 hits a week even if the comments are very sparse. For those of you who read the blog let me know if you think it is worth continuing.

Speaking of this morning's sermon, I know it's hard to believe this cute little scout went .000 one season in little league baseball but it's true. One entire season without a single hit.