Wedding

Hello all,
For all you who think im so darn pretty or at least you want to see pictures from my wedding here is the link to the photographer who we hired. http://ruthphotography.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album50 enjoy i hope the lik works but if not have fun typing that in. I just wanted to say also i miss you all very much and i hope you all will let me know what is going on in your world and by all means please visit bring a gang. I would love to entertain you im my new town.

how can they?

How can they believe that stuff? I hear this statement a good deal from christians. I believe that this statement can be very dangerous. People believe things because that is either what they have been taught or what they have experienced. Just like we believe in Christ because we were taught about Him and experienced him. So our work as a christians should not be trying to understand their reasons, but to change their experiences. Christ said they will know you are mine by the love you have for each other. So lets show them why we believe and through us and the power of God may their ideas change as well.

Stereotyping is stupid

Yesterday me and my bride bought our first car. We bought a left over 2005 Jetta. Though it is a 2005 it is brand new. We got it for a great price and we are both very excited to have our first new car. It is graphite blue and it has all the cool stuff and since it was a left over we got it for a steal. yay new car. My brother though got a new dog which is even cooler. A 6 week old Boston Terrier. I have yet to see it but i can wait to see the little guy. One last note Happy Father's day to my Dad and all the dads out there. Dads Rule.

Merciful God and emotional praise

Today I was driving home from work. After a long day in front of the computer training a nice 40 minute commute actually sounded good. I was cruising along with a Christian radio station on. Something I don't normally do (to be honest I just like secular radio better). But the songs were just songs I love to listen to. And I had made previously in the week the commitment that while I commute each way for 40 minutes I would pray one way and praise on the other. But the songs were very powerful to my heart today. I don't usually get into vocal praise all that much but I know when I am truly praising God through song because I always tear up. And it was a wonderful trip back home today. Song after song as I sang during certain verses or words that were meaningful to me and my place right now I would feel myself tear up. It was just a wonderful 20 minutes or so of just truly connecting with God and being able to praise the King of the Universe and the one through whom all good things come. Praise God for his gracious and loving nature.

Half lives

I was driving to Charlotte after the honeymoon on our way to live in our new place. I was by myself since me and Tara had to take two cars down. In this time I began thinking about God and other things. I had a few good revelations. First I started thinking about the reception at my wedding and how Jesus related that to the kingdom of God. I remembered how much fun I had with all my friends and family but then I started thinking. Hey all these people may not get to celebrate this with me in heaven. It really put a fire in me to be more of a witness to my family and friends because I do not want them to miss out of the wonderful celebration that is our homecoming, our return to the presence of the Lord. I was also thinking about half-lives you know like in science class, but I was thinking our spiritual lives are a half life as well. If we don't know Jesus then we are living a half-life. And until we find him or should I say he finds us we are only half of what we could be. The thing about half-lives though is that after each half-life you lose half of the whole. Example start with 100 after one half life 50 after another 25 after one more 12.5 and so on. You see as we age and our half live continues to dwindle we have less and less of our whole selves left. This makes it harder for us to see and understand the workings of God. Think of a child and the faith of a child the half life of a child is as close to full as its going to be. I believe that is why Jesus asks us to have the faith of a child because they are more able to believe (less baggage). But the other wonderful thing about half-lives are that no matter how small you never completely eliminate all of it. it just keeps getting smaller. So this shows that no matter when and no matter the scars and baggage God always has a part of us that he can call out to. There is always something inside us wanting to be back in his presence. And God in his grace can take that piece no matter how big or how small and make us whole again. He can take away our half lives and make us again fully human. Praise God for this and for his Son Jesus Christ who makes us whole.

Married YAY

Hello all,
I am back from the long lay off and am looking forward to blogging again. This way all my readers can keep up to date with me and my WIFE. Well we have been married almost 3 weeks now and we are officially moved in to our apartment in Charlotte. We just got our phone and cable and internet (hence the blogging). The wedding was wonderful so much fun to be surrounded by friends and family. It really touched both me and Tara. I hope all had fun as we did. (if you have any pictures please send them our way). The honeymoon was GREAT. We went to the Dominican republic and it was beautiful. We did many fun things and had a great time. I start work tomorrow the 15th and our lives will be off and running. Please keep us in your prayers as we will have all of you in ours. And don't be strangers. We look forward to hearing from you and see you all soon.