Harrison Eli Toon

A short post to announce the arrival in Walnut Creek, California on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 10:46 am PDT of Harrison Eli Toon. Harrison was 8 lbs, 1.2 ozs and 19 3/4 inches long. He is of course beautiful and we are all so blessed and grateful that his mother Margaret and Harrison are doing so well.

Babies and Phones

When our new grandchild arrives this week, we will have had three new babies added to our immediate family in under a year! What an incredible blessing and either my wife or I have been able to be present in the area ( not in the room!!!) for all three. It is an exciting time in the life of our family. Dalia, Diana and.....who? We shall soon know!
Apparently all of it plus life is causing some stress in me though. How do I know, you ask? It has to do with phones. It began just last week. I have a new friend named George who was calling me for directions to a noon appointment just as I was getting in the car to leave the house. As I answered my state of the art, all bragging-rights-included Blackberry Storm I was perplexed to hear George lament, in a distinctive muffled tone, that he could barely hear me, but in his best English accent would soldier on to make himself understood. I was equally frustrated, trying to get in the car, find the key hole, answer George...why could I not hear him, why could he not hear me , when...oh, wait...what was this....ahhhhhhhh. Problem solved. Communication restored. How much better the phone works when it is held right side up.
But that happens to everyone, right? Not really worthy of any telling unless it is on one's one of 100 million blogs. But this next phone drone is a bit different.
We are staying in a motel close by the expectant parents. At night we are on standby to come back to the house if Mom has to leave to go to the hospital. Nature called in the middle of the night and I rose to assume the expected position when I noticed that the phone in the bathroom was blinking. Oh no! We had slept through the call to come back to the house! The blinking light indicated an urgent message! With one hand engaged ( remember the position part?) I reached with my other hand, quickly unlocked the phone from the wall, placed the receiver to my ear, heart racingly waiting to hear the "you have a message".....when I foggily recalled, in no particular order, that we were in an inexpensive motel that did not have a phone in the bathroom, that there was no tone coming into my ear much less a message, and that I was holding the hair dryer alongside my face...

I'll let you know about the new baby when he/ she arrives. I hope it happens in the middle of the day!

Random Musings for Wacko Times

Is it really true that there are over 30 camps on US soil where Islam radicals are training terrorists?

Someone said that they are glad they voted Democratic because they really do believe that people who can't tell us if it will rain on Friday can tell us that the polar ice caps will melt away in ten years.

Is Joe Biden really now in charge of overseeing both our involvement in Iraq and the disbursement of the bail out money?

Was I the only one who thought it bizarre to be lectured by Sean Penn of all people on how those who supported Prop 8 will be held in shame by their children and their grandchildren?

Should we be shuddering that Hillary Clinton is proposing 900 million in aid to Gaza, acting as if duly elected Hamas will not get its hands on that money?

Are there really foreign jobs waiting for bank CEO’s so we should worry about losing their talents? What foreign countries and what talents?

Doesn’t George Bush look 20 years younger already and doesn’t President Obama look 10 years older in a month?

What random musings are you having in these wild and wooly times? Do share!

Outside the Super Bowl

Super Bowl is a strange afternoon for a non-sports guy. It reminds me of when I was 20 something and walked by a church where a high school friend was being married. I had not been invited to the wedding and when I heard the fantastic organ rip I could only imagine what the whole wedding looked like. I feel like that day on Super Bowl.
The feeling is also like being a non drinker. Because I don’t drink, sometimes people don’t invite me to things if there is going to be alcohol around. I have explained often that it wasn’t THEIR drinking that got me in trouble and I don’t care if they drink, but still they often pass. I think they think I count their drinks. I don’t.
Perhaps at the core of it all is the whole pastor thing. I mean, who wants a pastor in the corner of the room when they are helping coach the team at the top of their lungs and perhaps at the extreme end of their vocabulary?
I remember one Super Bowl that I didn’t need an invitation to enjoy. There was this knock out with whom I was hitting successive bars in Pacific Beach. It was rainy and cold. We would duck into a pub, have a drink, go walk on the beach, go into another bar…all to the background of the Super Bowl playing on tv. The best part was necking under the PB pier. She’s in the kitchen starting on dinner as I write.
Turns out she liked a non-sports guy who quit drinking and chases after God. I think I’ll go see if she wants to take a ride down to the pier.

One Thousand Mornings

It was a drizzly morning today here in Alpine where Google Earth tells me our home is at exactly 1899 feet elevation. As I stood looking out at the leaves lying on the bank behind the pool ( wondering who would rake them and if they would blow away on their own) I thought of how many thousands of mornings I have been alive. It is a big number. And then I started to think about how many thousands of mornings I will remain alive. Of course I don't know that figure but I am certain it will be a lesser number than the other one.
Too much to get my head around. But a thousand mornings is not. I can grasp that number. It equates to a bit less than three years. Three years. A thousand mornings.
What can be lived in those thousand mornings? What can be seen that I have never really ever seen before? What caring and love can I show to those whom I do so love that I have not been showing? What can I hear from the God of the universe that I have never heard before? (I wonder if I can actually exercise 80% of the next thousand mornings?!)
Tomorrow in this life is promised to no man. Yet that very statement puts me on notice to be present to each of the thousand mornings in front of me.
How will you spend your next one thousand mornings?

Christ Bell

I received this over the holidays and found it to be such a reminder of who I am in Christ. I hope it reminds you or interests you as well, since who I am in Him is available to any one who chooses Him!

Christ Bell

THE BELL
I KNOW WHO I AM
I am God's child (John 1:12)
I am Christ's friend (John 15:15 )
I am united with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17)
I am bought with a price (1 Cor 6:19-20)
I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph. 1:1)
I am a personal witness of Christ. (Acts 1:8)
I am the salt & light of the earth (Matt 5:13-14)
I am a member of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27)
I am free forever from condemnation ( Rom. 8: 1-2)
I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant (Phil 3:20)
I am free from any charge against me (Rom. 8:31 -34)
I am a minister of reconciliation for God (2 Cor 5:17-21)
I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:18)
I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6)
I cannot be sepa rated from the love of God (Rom 8:35-39)
I am established, anointed, sealed by God (2 Cor 1:21-22 )
I am assured all things work together for good (Rom. 8:28 )
I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16 )
I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph. 3: 12 )
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13)
I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15: 1-5)
I am God's temple (1 Cor. 3: 16). I am complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10)
I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). I have been justified (Romans 5:1)
I am God's co-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1). I am God's workmanship (Eph. 2:10)
I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected. (Phil. 1: 5)
I have been redeemed and forgiven ( Col 1:14). I have been adopted as God's child (Eph 1:5)
I belong to God
Do you know
Who you are!?



'The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make His face shine upon you
And be gracious to you;
The LORD turn His face toward you
And give you peace..'
Numbers 6:24-26

New Year New Prayer

I have always struggled with New Year’s. A holiday that others welcome with sighs of release from the past year and with hopes held high for the new is a day from which my knee jerk is to pull back. Soundly pull back. Pull back as in OMGosh….what now?....pull back.

I know my reaction’s source. When I was running real estate offices, the New Year signaled that now we had to do it all over again: beat last year’s figures for sales, listings, and recruits and perform anew, clueless about what the economy would bring. I was much happier staying in the past year where we had proven ourselves and where we had laurels upon which to perch. The familiar knot in my stomach would ultimately motivate me to strive but initially all it did was hurt and I did not like it.

Now I pastor a church and I do not have the business concerns I had as a broker. Still there is the thought of new challenges. In 2009, how does the Lord desire to work through me to grow His kingdom, to reach those who either do not know Him or who do not attend church? What will the Lord have us do as we seek to disciple those who call East Valley their church home?

My approach is a lot different in ministry than it was in business. I would bring the concerns I had to the Lord in prayer then but it was pretty much a solo event. Large business settings are not usually supportive of group prayer. Now at the church the first week of the year is dedicated to the Lord, and as a body we bring all the concerns and thoughts in seven evenings crying out to Him. Quite a difference

I still pull back on New Year’s. But only to press forward into the Lord. It is a blessing to no longer have the knot in my stomach.

Phil 4:13