I was asked to post more top ten lists, so here's one I've been thinking about for awhile. As some of you may know, I am a huge John Grisham fan. In fact, he's pretty much the only fiction author I read these days. He has published 21 books including one non-fiction work and four non-lawyer books. Eliminating those here's my ranking of Grisham's best works:
10. The Runaway Jury
9. The King of Torts - Having worked for a mass-tort lawyer this one hits home
8. The Street Lawyer - Money is not everything
7. The Summons
6. The Brethren
5. The Broker - Makes me want to visit Italy!
4. The Partner
3. The Testament - Redemptive theme
2. The Pelican Brief - Also a very good movie with a stellar cast
1. The Firm - A classic!
Let me know what you think.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Thursday, July 24, 2008
A Vegas Review
My wife and I were on vacation this past week. We flew from Bismarck to LA via Las Vegas (least expensive flight). We spent five days in the LA area visting family and friends. We attended the wedding of my wife's counsin and my wife attended a baby shower that I was able to get out of in order to spend time with my side of the family (i.e. golf with my Dad).
One of the highlights of our vacation was spending Sunday evening worshipping with the Evangelical Free Church in Redondo Beach. When my wife and I were involved in high school youth ministry growing up in the LA area, our youth group would use this church's facilities during the summer (close to the beach). Since we've been in the Free Church for the past ten years or so, we've always wanted to visit this congregation (one of the closest EFCA churches to where we grew up). We finally had the chance this past Sunday. We had a great time worshipping with them and were very encouraged by their warmth and friendliness and the message by the pastor. If you're looking for a bible-believing church with a loving community in the South Bay area, check out Redondo Beach EFCA.
After our time in LA we spent a couple days in Las Vegas (before flying back early Wednesday morning). We stayed at Excalibur and took advantage of their four pools! We also caught a Las Vegas 51s baseball game (Dodger's minor league team). The home team got pounded but we had a fun time anyway. It was a nice relaxing end to a fun-filled vacation.
By God's Grace, Jeff
One of the highlights of our vacation was spending Sunday evening worshipping with the Evangelical Free Church in Redondo Beach. When my wife and I were involved in high school youth ministry growing up in the LA area, our youth group would use this church's facilities during the summer (close to the beach). Since we've been in the Free Church for the past ten years or so, we've always wanted to visit this congregation (one of the closest EFCA churches to where we grew up). We finally had the chance this past Sunday. We had a great time worshipping with them and were very encouraged by their warmth and friendliness and the message by the pastor. If you're looking for a bible-believing church with a loving community in the South Bay area, check out Redondo Beach EFCA.
After our time in LA we spent a couple days in Las Vegas (before flying back early Wednesday morning). We stayed at Excalibur and took advantage of their four pools! We also caught a Las Vegas 51s baseball game (Dodger's minor league team). The home team got pounded but we had a fun time anyway. It was a nice relaxing end to a fun-filled vacation.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
County Fair Recap
Thanks for your prayers over this past weekend during our outreach at the McLean County Fair. We set up a table for the Thursday-Saturday event and passed out bottles of water and had resources available (e.g. tracts, devotionals, bibles). Attendance was down quite a bit this year, probably due to the weather (windy) and concurrent events in nearby towns. But we were still able to give away 120 water bottles. Our congregation stepped up so that I wasn't forced to man the booth the whole weekend but was actually able to finish the sermon. I had hoped for a better turn out (we have a 100 or so water bottles left) and more opportunities to interact with people but I trust that God will use this for His good purposes.
If our weekend wasn't busy enough, on Sunday afternoon we had the youth families over to our home for a BBQ and games (bocce ball and croquet). We had a great time re-connecting with them (since we haven't had regular youth events this summer). On Sunday morning I preached on Matthew 9:9-34 and the sermon was entitled "Redefining Discipleship." If you like to listen to it you can by clicking here.
Last night my wife and I watched the MLB home run derby. If you haven't heard yet about what Josh hamilton did, you're missing out! He hit a record 28 homers in the first round of the derby (the next highest was like 8). Unfortunately he wore himself out and ended up losing in the finals to Justin Morneau of the Twins. But the reason I mention this is not merely because he broke a record but because of who he is and what he's been through.
Josh Hamilton was the number one overall draft pick by Tampa Bay a number of years ago but because of his addiction to drugs didn't end up making it to the big leagues until last year with the Reds (now he's with Texas). The only reason he was even competing in the homer run derby last night was due to God's grace. His wife prayed for him all the time as he was struggling with drugs and it was a result of him coming to faith in Jesus that he was finally able to break his addiction, change his lifestyle and make it back into baseball. Just making it to the big leagues after so much time off would have been amazing but he is a very talented player who has a reak shot at winning the triple crown this year!
When they interviewed him at the end of the derby last night he gave thanks to His Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now, most of the time when I hear an athlete say that I cringe and await the backlash due to their lives not reflecting their claim to follow Jesus. However in Josh's case, I was glad to hear him express His faith in Jesus and I'm sure that no matter what people who heard him say that think about Christianity, they have to be amazed at the fact that Josh at least believes that the only reason he was even able to compete in the home run derby last night was because of what Christ has done in his life.
By God's Grace, Jeff
If our weekend wasn't busy enough, on Sunday afternoon we had the youth families over to our home for a BBQ and games (bocce ball and croquet). We had a great time re-connecting with them (since we haven't had regular youth events this summer). On Sunday morning I preached on Matthew 9:9-34 and the sermon was entitled "Redefining Discipleship." If you like to listen to it you can by clicking here.
Last night my wife and I watched the MLB home run derby. If you haven't heard yet about what Josh hamilton did, you're missing out! He hit a record 28 homers in the first round of the derby (the next highest was like 8). Unfortunately he wore himself out and ended up losing in the finals to Justin Morneau of the Twins. But the reason I mention this is not merely because he broke a record but because of who he is and what he's been through.
Josh Hamilton was the number one overall draft pick by Tampa Bay a number of years ago but because of his addiction to drugs didn't end up making it to the big leagues until last year with the Reds (now he's with Texas). The only reason he was even competing in the homer run derby last night was due to God's grace. His wife prayed for him all the time as he was struggling with drugs and it was a result of him coming to faith in Jesus that he was finally able to break his addiction, change his lifestyle and make it back into baseball. Just making it to the big leagues after so much time off would have been amazing but he is a very talented player who has a reak shot at winning the triple crown this year!
When they interviewed him at the end of the derby last night he gave thanks to His Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now, most of the time when I hear an athlete say that I cringe and await the backlash due to their lives not reflecting their claim to follow Jesus. However in Josh's case, I was glad to hear him express His faith in Jesus and I'm sure that no matter what people who heard him say that think about Christianity, they have to be amazed at the fact that Josh at least believes that the only reason he was even able to compete in the home run derby last night was because of what Christ has done in his life.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Fireworks Across the Street
There are some big fireworks shows in Bismarck and Mandan but we didn't need to drive an hour for something we could see across the street! We thought about heading to Bismarck but decided to stay home. We had another family from the church over for a night of board games and when it finally got dark (10:30pm!!!) we saw quite a fireworks show put on by some neighbors through our kitchen window. Apparently you can purchase just about any fireworks around here and set them off on July 4-5 (expect for M80's). I don't know if I've ever lived in a place where you could legally purchase and set off legit fireworks (e.g. not just sparklers). It was a fun evening and best of all we hooked another family on Settlers of Catan!!!
I thought I was going to have the whole summer off from coaching basketball but I got a call Sunday night from the head coach of the varsity team asking if I could fill in coaching the summer league team on Monday night. So last night I drove the new school "mini-bus" to Hazen (45 minutes away but in Mountain time). The team won both games and since Hazen is a larger town (about 3000) they have a Subway and so we stopped on the way home for a "real" fast-food meal. It was a good time of reconnecting with the students.
This past Sunday I preached on Matthew 8:18-9:8 and the sermon was entitled "So, You Want to be a Disciple?" If you'd like to listen to the sermon click here. Please pray for our outreach at our county fair this Thursday-Saturday as our church will be hosting a booth, giving away free bottles of water and offering free resources about "The Living Water." Right now we don't have a lot of people signed up for shifts manning the table, so please pray that God would provide so I don't have to sit there all weekend with my laptop working on the sermon while handing out water bottles. Pray also for our conversations there.
By God's Grace, Jeff
I thought I was going to have the whole summer off from coaching basketball but I got a call Sunday night from the head coach of the varsity team asking if I could fill in coaching the summer league team on Monday night. So last night I drove the new school "mini-bus" to Hazen (45 minutes away but in Mountain time). The team won both games and since Hazen is a larger town (about 3000) they have a Subway and so we stopped on the way home for a "real" fast-food meal. It was a good time of reconnecting with the students.
This past Sunday I preached on Matthew 8:18-9:8 and the sermon was entitled "So, You Want to be a Disciple?" If you'd like to listen to the sermon click here. Please pray for our outreach at our county fair this Thursday-Saturday as our church will be hosting a booth, giving away free bottles of water and offering free resources about "The Living Water." Right now we don't have a lot of people signed up for shifts manning the table, so please pray that God would provide so I don't have to sit there all weekend with my laptop working on the sermon while handing out water bottles. Pray also for our conversations there.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Surprising Healer - Matthew 8:1-17
This past Sunday I preached on Matthew 8:1-17 and the sermon was entitled "Surprising Healer." In this section of Matthew, Jesus heals three people that would not have been considered prime candidates for a Jewish rabbi to help. In it we see that Jesus is more concerned with God's will than man's tradition and that He not only came to physically heal those living in first century palestine but to provide spiritual healing to people from all cutures and all times; to all who repent of theirs sins and trust in Him by faith.
If you'd like to listen to the sermon you can by clicking here.
By God's Grace, Jeff
If you'd like to listen to the sermon you can by clicking here.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Monday, June 30, 2008
Facincating ND Facts
To give those of you who've never been to North Dakota a better sense of what life looks like in ND, here's a top ten list of interesting facts (North Dakota Agricultural Facts 2008):
- 1 in 4 workers are employed in farming/ranching
- ND grows enough corn to produce almost 750 million gallons of ethanol a year
- 90% of the state's land is made up of farms/ranches
- ND annually produces enough beef for 100 million burgers
- There are over 30,000 farms/ranches
- ND produces over 90% of America's flaxseed and canola
- In under 10 seconds, enough wheat can be harvested for 70 loaves of bread
- The state's farmland could cover 12 million city blocks
- Enough wheat is grown yearly to produce nearly 15 billion loaves of bread
- The soybean production annually is enough for over 200 billion crayons
I hope this gives you a better understanding of our landscape.
By God's Grace, Jeff
Friday, June 27, 2008
A North Dakota Luau
My in-laws have been in town this week and so we've been doing a lot of touristy stuff. Actually apparently there's not much touristy stuff in ND since it ranks dead last in vacation destinations among the fifty states. Anyway, we took them to the Lewis and Clark interpretive center in Washburn (built near where they wintered in 1804), the heritage center in Bismarck, the International Peace Garden (on the border with Canada) and the Knife River indian village.
But maybe the most fun we had was taking them to Medora. If ever there was a tourist trap in North Dakota, this is it. Medora is located by the Teddy Roosevelt National Park (TR spent quite a bit of time in ND before his years in the oval office), features a bunch of shops and restaurants, an outstanding golf course, the Chateau De Mores (a house built by a French aristocrat who owned started up a meat packing plant in the town), and most importantly the nationally renown "Medora Musical" (a country/western production that changes every year). Before attending the musical we ate at the "Pitchfork Fondue" (steaks are cooked in large vats of oil with the help of some pitchforks). As a couple people joked before we went, "Make sure you know what they used the pitchfork for before!" The location of the dinner and musical is in a beautiful setting on one of the numerous buffs in and around the national park. The best way I could describe this event is the North Dakota version of a Hawaiin luau.
This past Sunday we had our "Worship in the Park" service and it went exceptionally well. We had some families from the community join us as well as a number of relatives who happened to be in town. The weather was great and of course we had plenty of food at the BBQ. Thanks for all of your prayers regarding this event. From the feeback I've heard even from those in town who didn't attend, everyone was appreciative that a church would seek to serve the community that way. You can pray for two other outreaches we have scheduled for this summer: a booth at the county fair (July 10-12) and one at Undewood's harvest fest (Aug. 9).
By God's Grace, Jeff
But maybe the most fun we had was taking them to Medora. If ever there was a tourist trap in North Dakota, this is it. Medora is located by the Teddy Roosevelt National Park (TR spent quite a bit of time in ND before his years in the oval office), features a bunch of shops and restaurants, an outstanding golf course, the Chateau De Mores (a house built by a French aristocrat who owned started up a meat packing plant in the town), and most importantly the nationally renown "Medora Musical" (a country/western production that changes every year). Before attending the musical we ate at the "Pitchfork Fondue" (steaks are cooked in large vats of oil with the help of some pitchforks). As a couple people joked before we went, "Make sure you know what they used the pitchfork for before!" The location of the dinner and musical is in a beautiful setting on one of the numerous buffs in and around the national park. The best way I could describe this event is the North Dakota version of a Hawaiin luau.
This past Sunday we had our "Worship in the Park" service and it went exceptionally well. We had some families from the community join us as well as a number of relatives who happened to be in town. The weather was great and of course we had plenty of food at the BBQ. Thanks for all of your prayers regarding this event. From the feeback I've heard even from those in town who didn't attend, everyone was appreciative that a church would seek to serve the community that way. You can pray for two other outreaches we have scheduled for this summer: a booth at the county fair (July 10-12) and one at Undewood's harvest fest (Aug. 9).
By God's Grace, Jeff
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