Just some random thoughts

In the office today we had a discussion about gossiping around the “water cooler” but since we don’t have a “water cooler” we meet by the scanner and fax machine (that seems to be obsolete in today’s high tech world) and share our stories. Now when I say gossip I mean small talk and not necessarily talking about others.Where do you all gather for your daily dish of office gossip?

I read an interesting blog about Facebook today. Seems like some folks are addicted to the Social Networking page that most of us belong to. This Blog starts out telling a story about a guy checking his Facebook page during Church then the writer goes on to explain how Facebook, Gmail and other internet usage are preventing him from his daily Bible reading. Now I will admit I spend some time one these places myself but let’s be honest with ourselves here, there are a hundred other things out there that will keep you from staying in the word on a daily basis. We have TV, music, video games, sports..ect.. ect more stuff to do than time to do it in. If you are not reading your Bible or a devotional book everyday don’t blame technology, the kids, or your job. Take responsibility. Blame yourself and make the effort to put your daily time with God first. Friends I am the biggest violator of this. I spend way too much time watching TV and goofing off on the internet but I have to blame myself and not these things.

Getting back to Facebook, I love it! I think it is a great tool to keep up with friends and loved ones. How do you all feel about technology(and Facebook/myspace/twitter) and being able to stay focused on God at the same time? I feel it’s a balance that we all can achieve and who knows we as Christians can even use technology to spread the good news. Below is the link to the Facebook Blog I mentioned earlier..Peace and Blessings my friends..Chris


http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0002003.cfm

Love is Faithful

Day 22: Love is faithful

I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the Lord.
—Hosea 2:20

TODAY’S DARE

Love is a choice, not a feeling. It is an initiated action, not a knee-jerk reaction. Choose today to be committed to love even if your spouse has lost most of their interest in receiving it. Say to them today in words similar to these, “I love you. Period. I choose to love you even if you don’t love me in return.”

Friends,


I know I have been hit and miss with my Love Dare blogging so bear with me. Today’s dare talks about being committed to love. It starts off with saying love is a choice. Wow I never really thought about that before. Do we choose to love someone? I always thought it was a feeling that you had no control over. I guess on the other hand you could choose not to hate someone. What are some of your feelings on this? I also heard something interesting in our Love dare Bible study the other night. Our teacher told us that you must “lead your heart instead of following it”. I am still trying to grasp what that means so again feel free to chime in. I guess it means you can will your self to love someone and lead your heart where your flesh doesn’t want to go.

Well getting back to the Dare. I usually tell Heidi I love her a good 10-15 times a day whether it be in person, cell phone, e-mail or text so I think we have this covered. But then I got to thinking if we tell each other “I love you” that many times a day why don’t we do the same for Jesus? I have to admit I am lucky if I pray once a day. That is an area that I really need to focus on. But I was thinking I can just close my eyes for a second and tell Jesus “I love you” and not ask for anything. I can tell him everytime I get in the car or better yet when I get out of the car and thank him at the same time for getting me to my destination safely. I can think of alot of times where I have a minute or two that I can just say I love you!. Well friends that’s my 2 cents for today. Let me know what you think…take care..Chris

Love dare..Day 14

Friends Thursdays Love Dare was:

Day 14

Purposefully neglect an activity you would normally do so you can spend quality time with your spouse. Do something he or she would love to do or a project they’d really like to work on. Just be together.

Well for the past week I have been playing a lot of online video games with my Brother so Thursday I decided to put down the games and spend some quality time with my baby. I started out by cooking dinner, then afterward we watched a movie together. It’s amazing how much time we could spend together but it always seems like we have other stuff to do. My suggestion would be spend quality first , then do whatever you thought was so important afterward. I always have a couple of hours after Heidi goes to bed to play games or piddle around the house. Thanks for stopping by..Your Brother in Christ…Chris

Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life.—Ecclesiastes 9:9 HCSB

Love Dare Blog

Friends,

I have started a blog just for doing the Love Dare. I will still maintain this on but wanted to get involved with others who are doing the Love Dare program. Today i will post a link and my first Blog post from the Love dare site. Feel free to put your 2cents, well 1cent in since were are in hard economic times.

http://lovedare.bhpublishinggroup.com/cbarnette1966/

Compelled by Love

Day 13

March 13th, 2009

Friends,

For the past couple of weeks Heidi and I have been attending a “Fireproof” Bible study at Westside Baptist in Jasper on Sunday evenings. I have decided to start blogging about this as a way of keeping up with our love dares and to share experiences with other couples going through the same thing. This is my first Blog on an actual dare and yes I know I am starting in the middle and out of order but if you look in the love dare book there are some things you can’t do on certain days. I am starting out with day 13 then I might jump back to some others. So here it is. Please feel free to comment and let me know what you came up with.
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"If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand".—Mark 3:25

TODAY’S DARE

Talk with your spouse about establishing healthy rules of engagement. If your mate is not ready for this, then write out your own personal rules to “fight” by. Resolve to abide by them when the next disagreement occurs.If a [...]

Wow what a good Ideal. Come up with some ground rules before an argument or conflict arises. Well here is our list that we both came up with.

Day 13

Talk to your spouse about establishing healthy rules (guidelines) of engagement

1. No yelling or raising voices
2. Use speaker listener technique, Listen first to the other- then speak, no interruptions, and a promise to listen openly
3. No low blows or bringing up the past
4. Before speaking put best thought forward
5. Call time out when an issues get too heated and can’t be immediately resolved.
6. Pick good time for discussions (not while going to Church, getting ready for work, or on date/family nights/vacations or meal times)
7. No going to bed angry
8. End disagreement/discussion on good note, giving a hug, kiss and saying “I love you”

Romans 13

Friends,

In an attempt to get more into the Word and learn some scripture I have joined Tim Challies and his fellow bloggers in a weekly scripture memorization group. Each week Tim posts a passage of scripture for us to learn and memorize. I will attempt to keep up with this and blog a little on the scripture as well. This week we are memorizing Romans 13. This is a good one. I think my brother Tony quoted this to me after the election. The basic themes are Submission to Authorities and to Fulfilling the Law through Love.

After the election one of my co-workers (an Obama supporter) asked me if I was ok. As in was I disappointed? And my response was “I am great, my guy won!” She then looked at me like I was crazy and I explained that God is in control and that his will was being done. Romans 13:1 tells us “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” There you have it “those that exist have been instituted by God” he is in control and he knows best.

Now the second part of Romans 13 talks about how Love fulfills the Law. Wow how simple is that! Basically if you follow what Jesus says about love you will not break any of other the other Commandments? That’s it “you shall love your neighbor as yourself”. Romans 13:10 tells us “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” To quote the Beatles “all you need is love”. Just think of how much easier our lives would be if we could just remember that. I know I struggle with it sometimes.


Father God,

Thank you so much for giving us your inspired Word to help guide us through our lives here on Earth and to prepare us to one day to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and spend eternity with your Son. Father thank you for giving us your Son to who has shown us what true love is all about. Lord it’s in your name we pray. Amen

Romans 13

Submission to the Authorities

13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

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Fulfilling the Law Through Love
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8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Shopping for a Church

Friends,


Today I came across an interesting story on MSN about the new “American Mania” of shopping around for a Church. Shopping for a Church? Now I have heard of looking for a Church before but shopping? Do we shop for a new Job, or a new School? I think my Church is more personal than that. I think the article was referring to the White House statement saying the Obama Family was “still shopping for a Church in Washington”; well anyway besides the play on words here I believe a lot of Americans have been looking for a good place to worship and call home. According to this article “One in seven adult’s changes churches each year and another one in six attends a handful of churches on a rotating basis”. Wow that seems like a high number but I guess it’s possible. I know we have had a few people rotate in and out of our doors but not that many. But in today’s society we have more choices than ever about every aspect in our lives; examples are school, work, doctors and yes even Churches. Wow so many to choose from and so little time to do it. Now friends I am a firm believer in finding the perfect Church for your family no matter how long it takes.
While visiting my brother in Nashville over the past couple of years I have had the pleasure of visiting a number of Churches. Each one of them has been awesome and unique in their own way. I still don’t know which one I would choose if I lived up there but I do know I would find one who would love my family and I like their own. Kind of like my Westwood family. I know I got all mushy about Westwood in a previous post but I can’t help bragging on them. But back to the topic of Church shopping, what do look for when deciding on a Church to attend? What is it about the Church that makes you feel like a part of the family? How did you come about attending the Church you are at now? For me it was a matter of the Church finding my family. After moving here in 2000 we were visited by a group of folks from Westwood who invited us to Church a couple of times. At first we really didn’t get a warm fuzzy about Westwood but as we got to know some people we started to feel at home and really felt in our hearts it was the place to be. What’s your story?

Father God,

Thank you so much for not only giving us your Son but also giving us so many places to go and worship him as a family. Father thank you for our brothers and sisters in Christ who make our Churches more than just places of worship but homes where families can gather as one. It’s in your name that we pray. Amen

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MSN Article

http://www.slate.com/id/2211937/?gt1=38001