An ocean of paper and gifts.
Landon's first Christmas.
Little Landon wearing Uncle Brian's Biker hat.
Mary and Sally enjoying the white Christmas.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Christmas at Grandma's
An ocean of paper and gifts.
Landon's first Christmas.
Little Landon wearing Uncle Brian's Biker hat.
Mary and Sally enjoying the white Christmas.
More Christmas Pics
Santa and Meme
Emily and Santa
Audrey and Santa
Nick entertaining us with a little Christmas music.
Meme and a plethora of kids.
Christmas 2009
My grandmother, Meme, with Audrey and Emily.
Mom, Meme, and Dad
Me, Meme, and Sally
The Boyne Family Christmas 2009 at Meme's house
Better Late than Never
Here is my Christmas lights on the house this year. Eerily similar to last year's.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Crazy Weather
The above image is a screen shot I took from KOTV's website. It shows a Severe Thunderstorm Warning, a tornado watch, a blizzard watch, a flash flood watch, and a winter storm watch ALL IN THE SAME VIEWING AREA!!
They tell us to expect up to 6 inches of snow tomorrow, even though right now it is 60 degrees today.
Gotta love Oklahoma.
A Question for Discussion
In the post below, I asked a question about life. However, a friend of mine, Monk-in-Training posed a better question in his response:
Why do you think this is?
On a side note, why are so many Christians accepting Mayan calendar issues as some sort of message from God?
Why do you think this is?
Monday, December 21, 2009
2 more years?
Winter Soltice 2012 - The end of the Mayan Calendar.
Whoop-ti-do.
Some think that it will be the end of the world. They even made a movie about 2012.
I personally don't think so.
However, how would your life change if you KNEW there were only two more years of life on Earth left? What would you do?
Whoop-ti-do.
Some think that it will be the end of the world. They even made a movie about 2012.
I personally don't think so.
However, how would your life change if you KNEW there were only two more years of life on Earth left? What would you do?
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Upside Down Christmas Video
Don't quit or give up on this video. Watch ALL the way. It has a GREAT message!
Upside Down from Pace Hartfield on Vimeo.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Oral Roberts - Dead but not gone
Tulsa TV evangelist and university founder, Oral Roberts, died yesterday with complications from pneumonia. He was 91.I have incredibly mixed emotions about Oral Roberts. Personally, I think he was a fake and his "healing" ministry was a sham. I am sickened by his "health, wealth, and prosperity" fake gospel. Unfortunately, that will be his legacy.
The "gospel" he preached claimed that God didn't want you to be sick or poor. SHOW ME IN THE BIBLE WHERE GOD EVER SAID THAT!!!!!
I heard a story from one of my older church members that goes like this:
"Back in the 1950's I went to get a haircut in Tulsa. The barber asked me if I had ever heard of Oral Roberts. We talked about him for a while and he admitted that he was Oral's father-in-law. We had a nice chat. Later that same week, I was watching Oral Roberts on TV from a crusade in Florida. A man so crippled that he could hardly walk came to the front. Oral exclaimed, "my beloved father-in-law! What has brought you to this pitiful circumstance?" At that, he seized hold of his father-in-law and "healed" him. He left the arena no longer limping or walking with a crutch."
My member told me that once he saw "that baloney" on TV, he knew Oral Roberts was a fake.
I know that there are multitudes who love him and his ministry. I know that there are countless people who have been saved through his ministry and praise God for that. I know that many people attribute healing from God through Oral Roberts. I sympathize with those who will miss him; any loss is a true loss. However, I just wish his false doctrine would have died with him.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Trans Siberian Orchestra
I took Sally and the girls to the Trans Siberian Orchestra last Friday night as part of their Christmas presents. We really had a good time.
The light/laser show was incredible.
The music was REALLY loud!
I was impressed with an element of the first part of the concert; it was the Christmas part. They sang Christmas carols and seemed to actually emphasize the birth of Jesus. The narration was a little hinky and kind of hard to follow, but you could tell that Christmas was about Jesus!
The second half of the concert was actually best. They had pyrotechnics that were unbelievable. The picture above shows a platform that was raised 25 feet or so in the air. Pretty cool.
I might consider going again next year. Tickets were expensive ($48 each) and I'm not sure I'm willing to do that again.
Jesus WILL Return: Resistance is Futile
"Jesus WILL Return: Resistance is Futile" - I saw that on a church sign yesterday. It made me smile.
I don't like corny church signs. There is a church in town that has little sayings on it each week; some okay, some downright silly.
I think that if you are going to put messages up on a church sign it should either be announcements, Scripture, or bits of Truth.
Church signage can be a real ministry; it can also give churches a bad image. It takes a lot of effort to go out and change a message on a sign; you might as well make it "worth" your trouble.
In my own estimation, I've put out one "corny" sign; it was the first message on our new church sign that we installed last year. Here it is:
I don't like corny church signs. There is a church in town that has little sayings on it each week; some okay, some downright silly.
I think that if you are going to put messages up on a church sign it should either be announcements, Scripture, or bits of Truth.
Church signage can be a real ministry; it can also give churches a bad image. It takes a lot of effort to go out and change a message on a sign; you might as well make it "worth" your trouble.
In my own estimation, I've put out one "corny" sign; it was the first message on our new church sign that we installed last year. Here it is:
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Growing Pains
I'm very excited that our church is experiencing growing pains. It has had a very difficult previous ten years. However, I believe that God has taken us off the shelf, dusted us off, and is now beginning to use us!
Some of the difficulties in re-growing a nearly dead church is organizational problems. Since I arrived here, none of our committees have truly functioned as committees. People have seen a need and they just take care of it. In some ways, that isn't too bad. A problem comes when we start to have more people and everyone just starts doing what they want.
This summer, we completely re-vamped our committees and they now have an expectation that they are to meet and to function for the good of the church. So far, so good! I'm pleased with the way people are "owning" the responsibility of making the church run.
After two years, we now have "in place" Sunday School classes and teachers for all ages of people. We have devoted nursery workers, and teachers for toddlers through Youth. We have a new guy who is committed to our youth and have seen many kids brought into the church for the very first time in the past several weeks. In fact, 6 of them have been saved and four should be baptized this next Sunday!
One real problem is space. We have used one of our empty Sunday School classrooms for our Food Pantry Ministry. One was used for storage. One is needed for a Youth Office. We have plans to have an additional 2-3 new classes beginning after the first of the year. We don't have the space for it. We can empty out the one room that was used for storage- no problem. One class will need to meet in the fellowship hall. If there is a third class, they can meet in the sanctuary.
At our Annual Church Thanksgiving dinner, we all but packed out our fellowship hall. It only seats about 100 people and then not too comfortably. If God continues to work in our church as He's been doing lately, we won't have room for everyone next year to be seated in the fellowship hall!
One real problem that I want to avoid is having new people slip through the cracks. While we are having lots of people visit and join, our goal is to not just grow our church in numbers. The Great Commission says to "go and make disciples" not just members or attenders. I want to make sure that we have the resources in place to take care of our new people and not let them out the "back door". This concerns me more than anything about our church growth.
I am excited at the prospect of our church growing. I think the future holds a building program for us to increase the number of classrooms and for a larger room that can function as a fellowship hall and activity center. I'd love to see us change our current fellowship hall into our nursery because of the proximity to the sanctuary. I'd love to see a new suite of offices to handle current and future staffing needs.
I am very happy with the way things are going! God is doing amazing things here at Immanuel Southern Baptist Church! If you are in town, come join us!
Some of the difficulties in re-growing a nearly dead church is organizational problems. Since I arrived here, none of our committees have truly functioned as committees. People have seen a need and they just take care of it. In some ways, that isn't too bad. A problem comes when we start to have more people and everyone just starts doing what they want.
This summer, we completely re-vamped our committees and they now have an expectation that they are to meet and to function for the good of the church. So far, so good! I'm pleased with the way people are "owning" the responsibility of making the church run.
After two years, we now have "in place" Sunday School classes and teachers for all ages of people. We have devoted nursery workers, and teachers for toddlers through Youth. We have a new guy who is committed to our youth and have seen many kids brought into the church for the very first time in the past several weeks. In fact, 6 of them have been saved and four should be baptized this next Sunday!
One real problem is space. We have used one of our empty Sunday School classrooms for our Food Pantry Ministry. One was used for storage. One is needed for a Youth Office. We have plans to have an additional 2-3 new classes beginning after the first of the year. We don't have the space for it. We can empty out the one room that was used for storage- no problem. One class will need to meet in the fellowship hall. If there is a third class, they can meet in the sanctuary.
At our Annual Church Thanksgiving dinner, we all but packed out our fellowship hall. It only seats about 100 people and then not too comfortably. If God continues to work in our church as He's been doing lately, we won't have room for everyone next year to be seated in the fellowship hall!
One real problem that I want to avoid is having new people slip through the cracks. While we are having lots of people visit and join, our goal is to not just grow our church in numbers. The Great Commission says to "go and make disciples" not just members or attenders. I want to make sure that we have the resources in place to take care of our new people and not let them out the "back door". This concerns me more than anything about our church growth.
I am excited at the prospect of our church growing. I think the future holds a building program for us to increase the number of classrooms and for a larger room that can function as a fellowship hall and activity center. I'd love to see us change our current fellowship hall into our nursery because of the proximity to the sanctuary. I'd love to see a new suite of offices to handle current and future staffing needs.
I am very happy with the way things are going! God is doing amazing things here at Immanuel Southern Baptist Church! If you are in town, come join us!
Saturday, December 05, 2009
17 Years and counting
Seventeen years ago today, a rare early December snowstorm struck Northeastern Oklahoma. Many people could not come to the ceremony, including my own sister (who was great with child).
Seventeen years ago today, my life changed for the better. God allowed me to marry the woman He had prepared just for me!
I love you, Sally!
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Christmas "Mood"
I'm not yet in the Christmas "spirit" or "mood". I'm trying, but I just can't seem to get there. Perhaps it is the insane way that Christmas has become so commercialized that you find Santa Clauses and Jack O' Lanterns in the same aisle at Target.
We put up our Christmas lights on the house the week before Thanksgiving, because the weather was good. But, I didn't turn them on until AFTER Thanksgiving. (like you are supposed to) That didn't help. We put up my mother-in-law's Christmas tree the Friday after Thanksgiving then ours later that same evening. That didn't help either. We observed the First Sunday of Advent with the lighting of candles and the singing of Christmas songs in church last Sunday. Still not so much in the mood. I started listening to Christmas music. I suppose that has helped ever-so-slightly.
So, what's the deal?
I don't know. I'm not Scrooge, that's for sure. Historically, I've been more like Clark W. Griswold. But not this year.
Maybe I'm just tired of the commercialism. Maybe I'm tired of the secularization of Christmas. Maybe I'm just tired!
In any case, soon, I'll get a picture of our house all decorated up in lights and ribbons. It is a little different than last year, mainly in that I didn't put lights around the windows this year.
Christmas isn't a feeling or a state of mind; it is the observation of the birth of our Savior.
We put up our Christmas lights on the house the week before Thanksgiving, because the weather was good. But, I didn't turn them on until AFTER Thanksgiving. (like you are supposed to) That didn't help. We put up my mother-in-law's Christmas tree the Friday after Thanksgiving then ours later that same evening. That didn't help either. We observed the First Sunday of Advent with the lighting of candles and the singing of Christmas songs in church last Sunday. Still not so much in the mood. I started listening to Christmas music. I suppose that has helped ever-so-slightly.
So, what's the deal?
I don't know. I'm not Scrooge, that's for sure. Historically, I've been more like Clark W. Griswold. But not this year.
Maybe I'm just tired of the commercialism. Maybe I'm tired of the secularization of Christmas. Maybe I'm just tired!
In any case, soon, I'll get a picture of our house all decorated up in lights and ribbons. It is a little different than last year, mainly in that I didn't put lights around the windows this year.
Christmas isn't a feeling or a state of mind; it is the observation of the birth of our Savior.
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