So hopefully we can get moving (down the road, that is) very soon. Beautiful mountains, plateaus & mesas flank us along I-40 and it is a very pleasant drive.
God is good!
All the time!
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Sunday, May 29, 2011
Nearly Home
Here we are just outside Gallup NM trying to get on down the road on the last leg of our journey to Phoenix and my body is rebelling because of dinner last night. (You fill in the gaps!)
So hopefully we can get moving (down the road, that is) very soon. Beautiful mountains, plateaus & mesas flank us along I-40 and it is a very pleasant drive.
God is good!
All the time!
So hopefully we can get moving (down the road, that is) very soon. Beautiful mountains, plateaus & mesas flank us along I-40 and it is a very pleasant drive.
God is good!
All the time!
Sunday, May 22, 2011
On the Road Again
Well, Michigan hasn't faded out of sight in our rear view mirrors just yet, but we're on the way back to Illinois, returning to the insanity and madness of packing for Arizona.
For the first time in a VERY LONG time, Cindy is driving on an Interstate freeway, since I have done nearly all such driving for the past 12 years. It's good to be a passenger and be able to legally write this blog while traveling down the road.
Tomorrow begins the arduous task ok attempting to fit, shove, stuff, cajole and cram the equivalent of "ten pounds of crap into a five pound sack" as we load our 28' ABF U-Pack semi tractor trailer, consuming as few linear feet as possible. The beauty of U-Pack is that you only pay for as much space as you actually use. So, rather than getting a standard 26' U-Haul truck and having 12' of unused, empty, space (which you still pay for) you pay for exactly how full you pack the load. ABF lowers your total cost of the move by shipping regular LTL freight behind your load. Sharing the cost of a driver, truck and trailer saves a lot of money.
Back to the reason we came to Michigan in the first place...
We had a wonderful weekend with Cindy's mom, sister, brother-in-law, neice, 3 nephews, (and associated young-ins) and my brother. What a blessing and bittersweet reunion it was. To top it off, I was also blessed to spend some time with my brother and his bible study group which meets Saturday AM's at "It's a Deli Thing", a quaint, quiet Christian-owned restaurant/deli on Main St. in Owosso. I highly recommend it! They have great prices, wonderful food and an awesome ambiance. We received superior service. I also was privileged to spend a couple hours with lifelong friends Mick & Jude, reminiscing about days & years past, sharing regarding current events in each others' lives and postulating about what God is doing in each of our lives and just generally catching up & visiting. What a blessing they are to me!
Stay tuned for more details of our trip.
For the first time in a VERY LONG time, Cindy is driving on an Interstate freeway, since I have done nearly all such driving for the past 12 years. It's good to be a passenger and be able to legally write this blog while traveling down the road.
Tomorrow begins the arduous task ok attempting to fit, shove, stuff, cajole and cram the equivalent of "ten pounds of crap into a five pound sack" as we load our 28' ABF U-Pack semi tractor trailer, consuming as few linear feet as possible. The beauty of U-Pack is that you only pay for as much space as you actually use. So, rather than getting a standard 26' U-Haul truck and having 12' of unused, empty, space (which you still pay for) you pay for exactly how full you pack the load. ABF lowers your total cost of the move by shipping regular LTL freight behind your load. Sharing the cost of a driver, truck and trailer saves a lot of money.
Back to the reason we came to Michigan in the first place...
We had a wonderful weekend with Cindy's mom, sister, brother-in-law, neice, 3 nephews, (and associated young-ins) and my brother. What a blessing and bittersweet reunion it was. To top it off, I was also blessed to spend some time with my brother and his bible study group which meets Saturday AM's at "It's a Deli Thing", a quaint, quiet Christian-owned restaurant/deli on Main St. in Owosso. I highly recommend it! They have great prices, wonderful food and an awesome ambiance. We received superior service. I also was privileged to spend a couple hours with lifelong friends Mick & Jude, reminiscing about days & years past, sharing regarding current events in each others' lives and postulating about what God is doing in each of our lives and just generally catching up & visiting. What a blessing they are to me!
Stay tuned for more details of our trip.
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Friday, May 20, 2011
Moving to Arizona
Visiting with family in Michigan this weekend, we have been musing about the fact that we have come full circle over the past nearly 32 years since Cindy and I married in 1979. Starting our lives together in Owosso, Michigan we wound up moving to Arizona in 1980 looking to go to School at DeVry Institute, which did not work out the way I expected. I ended up taking a job working at Power Communications, owned by a man who would become a lifelong friend. Three jobs and four promotions later, we wound up in Lombard, Illinois for two years then in Normal for the past 12. Here we are, at another turning point in our lives, moving back to Arizona so I can work for Randy once again, at his renamed company, ProComm. It's great to be going back to the warmth and sunshine of the Southwest, but there are things we will miss about the Midwest:
Robins
Squirrels
Cardenals
House Wrens
Changing of Seasons
Green lawns
Lots and lots of trees
And - last but certainly not least - the great friends we have met and grown to love at our Illinois Church Home, Grace Church.
I hope that during the next week, you will follow our adventures - and misadventures - as we finish packing, load the trailer, travel cross country and move into our new domicile in Glendale, AZ.
Blessings to you all!
Tim & Cindy
.
Robins
Squirrels
Cardenals
House Wrens
Changing of Seasons
Green lawns
Lots and lots of trees
And - last but certainly not least - the great friends we have met and grown to love at our Illinois Church Home, Grace Church.
I hope that during the next week, you will follow our adventures - and misadventures - as we finish packing, load the trailer, travel cross country and move into our new domicile in Glendale, AZ.
Blessings to you all!
Tim & Cindy
.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
TO Harris Faulkner - WE WANT NEWS NOT CLEAVAGE!
Fox News can no longer stand on it's own? You need to use sex to attract viewers? Harris, you are way better looking than Sheppard Smith - all you have to do is show up and you have our attention because you are, by any standard, a beautiful woman. But beauty aside, you are an excellent newsperson.
So why do you need to wear a top that leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination? We want to hear you report the news NOT ogle your exposed anatomy! COVER 'EM UP, HARRIS!
So why do you need to wear a top that leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination? We want to hear you report the news NOT ogle your exposed anatomy! COVER 'EM UP, HARRIS!
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Saturday, December 25, 2010
Happines VS True Joy
We all know what it is to feel happy about something. You're happy you got that new Wii controller for Christmas or happy your team won their most recent game or tournament or you're happy you beat the computer at a game of scrabble. Happiness is determined by circumstances. Happiness is fleeting, even changing moment by moment.
Joy, on the other hand, is NOT created by circumstances nor destroyed when those conditions change. True joy is from a heart right with God, one that is wholly surrendered to Christ in a loving relationship with The Almighty, The Creator of heaven and Earth in a state of grace known as salvation. This joy cannot be shattered, altered or taken away. Although some Christians allow their joy to be overshadowed in moments of weakness, the key is to walk in it so that while sadness may endure for a night, joy will come in the morning. Psalm 30:5b
Joy comes from the assurance that God will never leave us or forsake us, and that we are in His hands and no one can snatch us out of His hands, not even we ourselves. How does one receive that gift of joy that not only surpasses all human understanding but endures forever? By accepting the only Gift we truly need this or any Christmas: God's gift of salvation from our sins through Christ whose birth we celebrate each December 25th, whose life we read about in the Gospels, whose death we mourn on Good Friday and whose resurrection we celebrate each Easter morning.
The fact is, we live in a fallen world and we all have sinned. Sin separates us from God. This is a condition we cannot work our way out of. There is NOTHING we can do to earn a reprieve from the penalty of our sin, which is death and eternal separation from God. However when He was crucified Jesus Christ died in our place, taking upon Himself all the sins of the world. He died in our place so that we did not have to. When He rose from the dead He completed the work He was sent to Earth to do - to conquer sin and death on our behalf.
God offers us the free gift of salvation through His Son, Jesus. It is a gift, something we did not work for or earn. However, we must accept this gift. To accept this free gift, we must truly believe the Gospel story of salvation and pray to receive Christ into our hearts. If you wish to do this we are pleased to direct you to some resources where you can learn more and hear what you need to do. Please follow the link below and click on the banner in the lower right corner of the page called "The Story". Another link on that page which will help you understand this is called "The Facts of Life". Either of these will direct you to receiving God's Gift and entering into the life God intended for you. It is ONLY by receiving Jesus Christ as your savior and making Him Lord of every area of your life that you can have True Joy.
http://www.halasandphos.com/ministry.html
Joy, on the other hand, is NOT created by circumstances nor destroyed when those conditions change. True joy is from a heart right with God, one that is wholly surrendered to Christ in a loving relationship with The Almighty, The Creator of heaven and Earth in a state of grace known as salvation. This joy cannot be shattered, altered or taken away. Although some Christians allow their joy to be overshadowed in moments of weakness, the key is to walk in it so that while sadness may endure for a night, joy will come in the morning. Psalm 30:5b
Joy comes from the assurance that God will never leave us or forsake us, and that we are in His hands and no one can snatch us out of His hands, not even we ourselves. How does one receive that gift of joy that not only surpasses all human understanding but endures forever? By accepting the only Gift we truly need this or any Christmas: God's gift of salvation from our sins through Christ whose birth we celebrate each December 25th, whose life we read about in the Gospels, whose death we mourn on Good Friday and whose resurrection we celebrate each Easter morning.
The fact is, we live in a fallen world and we all have sinned. Sin separates us from God. This is a condition we cannot work our way out of. There is NOTHING we can do to earn a reprieve from the penalty of our sin, which is death and eternal separation from God. However when He was crucified Jesus Christ died in our place, taking upon Himself all the sins of the world. He died in our place so that we did not have to. When He rose from the dead He completed the work He was sent to Earth to do - to conquer sin and death on our behalf.
God offers us the free gift of salvation through His Son, Jesus. It is a gift, something we did not work for or earn. However, we must accept this gift. To accept this free gift, we must truly believe the Gospel story of salvation and pray to receive Christ into our hearts. If you wish to do this we are pleased to direct you to some resources where you can learn more and hear what you need to do. Please follow the link below and click on the banner in the lower right corner of the page called "The Story". Another link on that page which will help you understand this is called "The Facts of Life". Either of these will direct you to receiving God's Gift and entering into the life God intended for you. It is ONLY by receiving Jesus Christ as your savior and making Him Lord of every area of your life that you can have True Joy.
http://www.halasandphos.com/ministry.html
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Thursday, December 16, 2010
Sharing Your Faith - "by Faith"
Read Hebrews 11:1-39...
Isn't it interesting how fearful we can become when an opportunity arises to share our faith? Have you ever experienced that knot in your throat, that dry, cotton-mouth feeling or the nervous jitters? Right as you're about to speak, does your mind race, running through a thousand scenarios of how you could crash and burn, or how you might really stink at witnessing? Does your voice go hoarse just before you begin to share or while you're in the midst of talking? Does your mind play tricks on you - "What if they heard me slip last week when I lost patience with that customer and muttered a complaint after I put them on hold to ask the boss yet another dumb question?"
Now consider the saints of old mentioned in today's reading. They were all flawed, fragile humans when they were called upon by God to do extraordinary things. If we read the whole story of each of their lives we see sins and failings which make some of our shortcomings pale in insignificance. Yet they all stepped out in faith "and it was accounted to them as righteousness". So don't worry or let fear take hold when you act in obedience to share Christ with another. Instead, ask God for strength for the task and remember His promise in 2 Perer1:3-8, that He has given us everything we need for the task and to live righteously.
So what is the "So what"? - It's this: the saints of old were moved by the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Spirit was UPON them, but you, as a born-again believer have the Holy Spirit dwelling WITHIN you. Allow Him to guide you as you share your testimony or speak about Christ to that friend or co-worker and leave the rest to God. Remember, worry is down payment on problems which have not occurred yet and in an account you do not want to draw interest!
Trust Jesus and share with boldness.
Isn't it interesting how fearful we can become when an opportunity arises to share our faith? Have you ever experienced that knot in your throat, that dry, cotton-mouth feeling or the nervous jitters? Right as you're about to speak, does your mind race, running through a thousand scenarios of how you could crash and burn, or how you might really stink at witnessing? Does your voice go hoarse just before you begin to share or while you're in the midst of talking? Does your mind play tricks on you - "What if they heard me slip last week when I lost patience with that customer and muttered a complaint after I put them on hold to ask the boss yet another dumb question?"
Now consider the saints of old mentioned in today's reading. They were all flawed, fragile humans when they were called upon by God to do extraordinary things. If we read the whole story of each of their lives we see sins and failings which make some of our shortcomings pale in insignificance. Yet they all stepped out in faith "and it was accounted to them as righteousness". So don't worry or let fear take hold when you act in obedience to share Christ with another. Instead, ask God for strength for the task and remember His promise in 2 Perer1:3-8, that He has given us everything we need for the task and to live righteously.
So what is the "So what"? - It's this: the saints of old were moved by the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Spirit was UPON them, but you, as a born-again believer have the Holy Spirit dwelling WITHIN you. Allow Him to guide you as you share your testimony or speak about Christ to that friend or co-worker and leave the rest to God. Remember, worry is down payment on problems which have not occurred yet and in an account you do not want to draw interest!
Trust Jesus and share with boldness.
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5
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