Life. Liberty. And the pursuit of God.

I am really feeling sickly today. Someone must have put the “get sick voodoo” on me this morning. After Church this morning, I realized I was getting sick. I guess I was running on adrenaline all morning. My throat hurts and I am exhausted. We left for a few days vacation this afternoon and now I am praying that I will be able to enjoy my vacation without being sick.

I have been practicing my Ricky Bobby chant this afternoon: “Help me Jesus! Help me Jewish God! Help me Allah! AAAAAHHH! Help me Tom Cruise! Tom Cruise, use your witchcraft on me to get the fire off me! Help me, Oprah Winfrey!”

Amen and Goodnight.

jto

So I took up running about four years ago. It has been a great stress reliever for me. Last year I trained for two half marathons and had to drop out of both – one due to work and the other due to a foot injury. Anyway, earlier this week my wife and I decided to enter a half (13.1 miles) in Dallas on February 9. This is really not enough time to train sufficiently but we are going to give it a shot anyway.

For the last four or five months I have just been running three milers a few times a week to get outside and keep up some cardio. Today I put in a 5 mile run to start getting some distance. I’ll keep you posted. Like you care – but, hey, this is my blog.

Tonight we had our first public Christmas Eve worship service at a local park. Here is the breakdown on the event:

• Thanks to all of our volunteers. Most got there at 1:00 and stayed until 8:00 on Christmas Eve – amazing. They worked their rumps off so others could hear the message of Christ. Thank you all. I know the sacrifice you made today.
• We had about 350 people at worship tonight. This far exceeded my goal of at least 100.
• We ran out of hot chocolate really quick. We’ll know better next year.
• We need better lighting next year – stage was too dark.
• We need better wireless mics for our actors if we do another skit outdoors.
• Did I mention we had about 350 people there? The unofficial count was about four thousand (that was my count) but the more official count was around 350 (it’s hard to be accurate out there).

Also I found out that there are two Christmas Elves leaving yard art at our house. I suspected one or the other at first, but settled on one only to find out it was both. They made our Christmas such a blast – thanks guys. We looked forward to waking up and seeing if anything was in our yard. Y’all are cool, even though you’re not.

So last night the Bandit returned and left us this festive holiday archway. The Bandit left it close to the side of our house and plugged it in. I had to move it to the front door. I guess the Bandit did not want to get caught by my sophisticated security system.

Anyway, I know I have a dead “evergreen” at the front of the house. I am going to take it down with my Christmas decorations in 2011.

THANKS FOR THE HOLIDAY CHEER BANDITO!!!!!

We had a great day at Dayspring. We had a combined worship service today with the kids and adults in the same theater. It was fun to see all the faces together. We had our first baptism today (the young lady did awesome) and the kids lit advent candles in the service. We had 157 at worship today and I preached the second shortest sermon I ever preached (11minutes). The shortest was my first because I said everything I knew about the subject, spoke in double time and was done in about 9 minutes.

Now I am looking forward to worship at Bergfeld Park tomorrow night at 6:00. If you are in town, put on your coat and join us!

So I have a couple of suspects for the Christmas mischeive that is going on around here. But the number one suspect right now is a neighbor. Police will tell you that the victims of crime usually know the perpetrator. Crime (mischief in this case) is usually not random.

My first piece of evidence is this Dayspring Sign that sits in their yard. I am not sure what this proves, but it does prove they know us. Also, most Dayspringers have a warped sense of humor since they are able to handle my preaching each week.

My second piece of evidence is this Christmas yard art. This PROVES that this couple knows where to find Christmas yard paraphernalia.

And now I am feeling like Perry Mason. Here is the big finale! Take into States evidence these red ribbons on my neighbor’s house. Hmmmm. They look very similar to the ribbons on these two reindeer that showed up in my yard last night.

Ok. So, I don’t have enough evidence to charge them yet. But I am building my case. I am going to put out surveillance cameras tonight.