Revelation Podcast - Seals, Trumpets, Bowls Part 4 of 7

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What about your real kids? The most effective way to completely ruin your family. A parable for the church.

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Let’s pretend that your family has decided to foster or adopt a child.  The child has been in and out of houses and families.  You’re a good person - so you want what’s best for that child no matter the cost to you.  You also believe that welcoming that child into your family is what’s best for your kids, your spouse, and your marriage.  You know it’s going to be super hard and you don’t know what the end result will be.  You are scared.  You are worried.  But you have committed to love this child so that this child will be able to have the best thing a person can have - unconditional love.  You want your family to grow in love and showing love to a child who needs it is the way to do this.  And baby you are the one who’s going to provide it.  It will cost, but you are ready for it.  You are willing to walk through the fire. So the day comes for that child to join your family.  They are dropped off at your house.  What do you do?  I’m assuming that you will have some sort of plan.
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Palm Sunday and April Fool's Day

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1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” It is pure foolishness for Jesus to let himself be killed.  What good can he do when he is dead?  What miracles can he perform when he is dead? For so many people Jesus just comes off as dumb.  He is nice, but He is naive.  He doesn’t really understand the world. The teaching of the Bible is just too simple.  It’s too old.  It just doesn’t play in our world.  You cannot live like Jesus is really asking.  It’s being too fanatical.  It’s foolish.   The High Priest Caiaphas is right - we don’t need to know if Jesus really is God’s son or whatever He is claiming.  We need to make sure that we are secure politically and financially.  Jesus disrupts peace he doesn’t bring it.  They asked him to quiet down and Jesus said “no, you don’t understand.  These people are the one’s that get it.  Not you.  If you had any idea what I am d
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Mommy's got a baby in her tummy

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I like to do big things.  I like to take little moments and make way too much about them.  It doesn’t always work out well for me or those around me.  After I mow the lawn I will comment about how nice our yard looks about 100 times that day.  It’s not because I’m trying to draw attention to my work or that I am looking for praise, I’m just really captivated by how nice the yard looks when it’s freshly mowed.  I do the same thing with food.  I will talk about “that one meal” way too much, even to the point that I am annoying myself with it.  But I can’t stop making big things out of small things. Strike that. I want to be a dad, husband, and friend who makes things a big deal. So, when it came time for Mindy and I to announce to the kids that we were going to have a baby I knew that we had to do something fun.  We settled with having our friend take pictures of the moment when we told the kids so that we will be able to keep that moment alive forever in print.  I also thou
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Authentic Manhood - Reject Passivity

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Discouragement

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Adoption Update: We're going to get him!!!!

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We got our visa approval early this morning.  That means that we are going to Uganda to get Silas, get his visa, and bring him home to the states!  Boom! Last night was absolutely horrible.  We had a board meeting at church that went very well.  So I came home in a great mood around 9:30pm.  Mindy was watching a movie with her friend.  After she left Mindy came in and told me that, unless we hear Friday (this) morning, there is no way that his visa will be ready in time to get him this month.  Then she reminded me that if we don't get him in the next 30 days we have a couple of major things expiring and we would be set back for a few more months. It was a dark night.  It was hopeless.  I can't stress enough just how hopeless everything felt last night. Then the email came this morning and it is CONFIRMED that the visa is approved and there is now no longer any obstacles to us bringing Silas home! It takes a lot of faith to follow God.  It takes faith to believe in God
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Breastplate of Righteousness

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In our men's study last night we looked at the armor of God found in Ephesians chapter 6.  This is a very popular scripture for guys to study.  For good reason I think.  It's interesting.  It shows us a larger picture of reality than we are normally given.  It shows us that battle that is going on.  It shows us that the Kingdom of Heaven is, quite honestly, more real than the world that we see.  Time after time Jesus tells us that the kingdom of the world will fade away, but His kingdom will endure forever. In the battle that is happening at a cosmic scale we find a place.  What's the best way to win a fight?  Probably to not let your enemy know that there is a fight.  Satan has done an amazing job convincing many people and christians that there really is no "battle" happening.  From reading the Bible it is simply impossible to not realize that there is a battle happening. One of the pieces of armor that God has given us is the "Breastplate of Righteousn
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From Cowden, IL to Jinja, Uganda: Silas' coming home trip!

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We picked up Silas from the Orphanage in Jinja for the last time today.  Our trip has gone very well so far. We left Cowden at 8:30am Thursday morning and arrived in Entebbe, Uganda at 10:00pm local time on Friday (that’s 2:00pm in Cowden).  So we travelled for a total of 29.5 hours spending 15 of those in the air (7hrs and 8hrs).  Needless to say we are not ready for the loooong trip home yet.  The entire time we were travelling I kept wishing that we had brought Grace, Will, and Eden.  We have seen so many things that they would have just loved. We arrived in Uganda Friday night and Mindy’s friends Wayne and Tarah picked us up from the airport.  It was nice to be back in Uganda but we couldn’t really see anything because of how dark it was.  Uganda isn't lit well :).  We got back to their compound and basically went straight to bed.  Their home is lovely and our room is very nice. We woke up this morning and went to get Silas.  The drive is about 90 minutes to two h
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Authentic Manhood - Lead Courageously

This is part 3 in a 4 part series on a look at authentic manhood from Robert Lewis' book: Raising a Modern Day Knight . The third pillar of Biblical manhood is to Lead Courageously.  I'd like to point out first of all that it doesn't say "lead confidently."  There is a large difference between confidence and courage.  Courage is the ability to face your fears and not be paralyzed by them.  Courage is not the absence of fear.  It simply not being controlled by your fears. I lead with a lot of faith.  I place a lot of faith in people and a lot of faith in my own abilities.  I generally believe that everything will work out as long as we do our best.  I am not a visionary leader that sees things before they happen.  I hold fast to the maxim that "if we just do the right things over time we will succeed."  People around me generally have one of two reactions. Some people see that as a source of strength.  I worked with a lady in Omaha who would always
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