Check this out – FREE CONCERT!! How often do you hear that? Not too often! Well, I’m really excited about this so check out the info below. I’ve had the opportunity to see Shaun in a setting like this a few years ago and it was really cool. I also had the opportunity to sit in on a session of his at last years National Worship Leader Conference and it was great. He’s a fantastic artist, a great speaker and the message he brings and his passion and heart for seeing kids saved through Compassion International is just awesome!!

Hope to see you there next Saturday night!!

Contemporary Christian singer/songwriter Shaun Groves will be at the Wadsworth United Methodist Church for a free concert on Saturday night, June 7th at 7:00 p.m. Shaun released his first album, Invitation to Eavesdrop, in 2001, featuring the songs “Welcome Home”, “After the Music Fades” and “Abba Father”. He followed this up with the release of Twilight in 2003 and White Flag in 2005. In addition to his music Shaun is a gifted speaker – bringing humor, insight and a passion for sharing God’s Word and work through outreach. Shaun is a spokesman for Compassion International and has a passion for seeing lives changed one child at a time. In addition to ministering through his music he will also share of his recent trips to Uganda and the Dominican Republic with Compassion International. This event is free and open to the community. Shaun regularly updates his website at http://www.shaungroves.com/shlog and you can see a bunch of his videos at http://youtube.com/user/shaungroves – if you aren’t familiar with his music one of his more familiar songs is this one: http://youtube.com/watch?v=CRMyAPW0bDg

This is going to be a really wonderful night and I would love to see you all there. If you can help me get the word out by sending this on to others I would really appreciate it.

The church’s address is 195 Broad Street, Wadsworth, Ohio 44281. If anyone has any questions they can contact me for information at jeff@thehonnolds.com.

The family and I went to see Prince Caspian. While I felt it was probably about 20 – 30 minutes too long and I could have done with the Telmarines having a little lighter accents I did enjoy it. The action scenes were very exciting and they did an interesting job of interpreting most of what was in the book and getting it into the story. While they took out some of the more direct references that C.S. Lewis had made to the Bible such as the healing of Caspian’s near death nurse they kept others in.

Probably my favorite scene in the movie was when Aslan and Lucy were talking after she had finally left the others to seek him out. When Lucy has to look Aslan in the eyes and explain why she didn’t have the faith or the courage to leave her brothers and sister and follow after him even if they didn’t see him. How many times do we decide to just follow the crowd instead of following Christ as we know is right. The other interesting thing about this scene is that Aslan was always there – just waiting for Lucy. He didn’t get tired of waiting and leave her, he continued to call out to her until she finally realized that she needed to seek him out. In the same way God continues to wait for many of us to realize that it is only through Him that we are saved – the good news is that he will continue to call us and wait for us.

But the image that continues to stick with me is the scene at the river. After the trees are awakened and set upon the Telmarines they retreat back to the river. Once there Aslan appears on the opposite bank and roars – sending ripples across the water and awakening the “river god”.

There were a couple of things that struck me about this scene. The first was the way in which Aslan “awoke” the river god – he breathed over the water. In essence, Aslan breathed the breathe of life into the water. Once Aslan awoke the river god I couldn’t help but notice how much the face in the water reminded me of some of the images of Jesus that I’ve seen in the past. What I saw was Aslan (God) calling up the river god (his Son) in the form of Living Water. I couldn’t get this thought out of my mind as the water crashed over the Telmarines and engulfed the evil captain of the guard. Here was an image of Christ as the Living Water defeating and engulfing his enemies.

Maybe that’s not the way Disney intended it – maybe it is. I have no way of knowing. But I do know that’s what I saw. God showed me that only by following what we know is right – by following the one true God – will we ever be satisfied. We will never know true peace and we will never know ultimate victory over evil unless we put aside our own ways, our own desires and listen for His voice and follow him. May we all find the time to sit quietly and follow the one true God to wherever He is calling us.

So, today was spring yard work day. We had 9 yards of mulch delivered – it was a mountain in our driveway that Brooke wanted to climb! We also rented a bed cutter which is just a big giant saw for your flower beds – it’s a beast but man does it work! We’ve got nice deep edges around all of our flower beds now and most are a little (or a lot) wider thanks to some questionable steering on my part.

Everyone got in on the act today, too (and no – Brooke did NOT drive the bed cutter – not until she’s 8).

Taylor started off by mowing the yard – his first time doing the whole yard – WOHOO cheap labor!! He also tried his hand at the mulch, but that didn’t go nearly as well. More mulch went THROUGH the pitchfork than went into the wheelbarrow!! He did help spread it though.

Brooke helped out spreading the mulch around but wasn’t too happy about it.

Ally and Nana even planted flowers in one of the new beds. Nana surprised us with a visit this weekend. It’s great to see her – but I’ll bet she wasn’t expecting to have to work for her dinner!!

As I sit here now after digging up two truckloads of sod and dirt, dumping it and helping with the mulch I can’t help but be thankful for Ibuprofen!! I have a feeling that’s what will get me through worship tomorrow morning.

I also can’t help but wish that Adam would have just stepped up and told the Eve “No”. I mean, come on! The guy doesn’t step up and put a stop to what the serpent is doing and then he goes and tries to pass the buck by blaming the woman! I know, I know – I’m a guy – I’m supposed to like that the woman gets the bad rap. But let’s be honest guys – when was the last time ANY of us tried to blame something that happened on our wives and actually think we could get away with it? Can you imagine what that conversation must have been like when Adam and Eve left the garden?

Adam: “Well, Eve. This is a fine mess you’ve gotten us into.”

Eve: “Me? You were standing right there! Why didn’t you say something? Instead you just tune me out and pretend you couldn’t hear what was going on with that serpent. Probably trying to invent some new sport or something so you could find an excuse not to sit and talk with me.  And on top of all that when God calls you out you blame ME? “

Adam: “But, but, but..”

Eve: “I hope you like the clothes God made us because you better not even think you’re going to be seeing THIS body naked again for a LONG time buddy!!”

OK, maybe it wasn’t exactly like that – and please note that has NO similarities to any conversation that my wife and I have EVER had! (I love you, honey). But I just kept thinking about Genesis 3:17 “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.” Well, I’m feeling the pain now. But luckily it’s a good pain. We finished that bit of work today and the house looks good.

Continue to pray for this family – especially the son.  I can not imagine what this young man is going through right now.  The Chapman’s have set-up a website where people can post a word of encouragement and see a video blog of Maria with Stephen that was shot a few months ago.  It just really makes you stop and think about life and how fragile it really is. 

Here is the e-mail I received today:

• If you’d like to express your condolences and get a glimpse of this beautiful little girl through a short video clip, click here.
• Mail to PO Box 150156 Nashville, TN 37215.
• In lieu of flowers, the Chapmans request any gifts be directed to Shaohannah’s Hope, click here.
  

I know I always tell people that my family comes first, but this has got me to thinking how often do I actually live this out?  How many times have I blown off a request from Taylor to do something because I was “too busy” doing something that probably could have waited for 30 minutes?  How often have I snapped at the kids because I was having a bad day and they were innocently asking a question?  How many times did I get upset with the kids just because they were being kids and goofing around?  Why don’t I spend time sitting with them and reading the bible?  Am I doing enough around the house to help Beth out?  How often do I let other things get in the way of spending time with my family – quality time, not just time sitting in the same room as them. 

The thing is that none of this is ground-breaking or new.  This is the type of stuff that I’ve heard in classes, seminars, Proimise Keeper events, books, etc.  I guess I need to take some time and really just examine myself and pray about this and make sure that I’m not just saying that they’re first but that I’m LIVING it.  I know having just finished Tony Dungy’s book that this was a central theme in that book – family first!  I also know that with the things I’ve been struggling with lately in my life and the plans that God has for me, how my family figures into it all is a huge piece of it.  It just seems like God has really been opening my eyes lately to the importance of family and the importance of being a strong example of Christ’s love to them.  I only pray that I can live up to that.

Every parents worst fear is to lose a child. I just saw this over on another site and am left in shock. I can’t even begin to imagine what they are going through. Knowing how much his kids mean to him. I just keep thinking of the story behind the song “Cinderella” and … I’m going up to kiss my kids right now.

Chapman daughter struck, killed by car in driveway

Which is NOT a bad thing.  Finally made it through the entire jury selection process.  I was not selected to serve on the jury for this case.  I’ve got to say, it would have been interesting – but I’m not too upset about it as it would have been about a six week commitment.  I’ve got a bunch of stuff I want to start posting here.  I missed the post I was hoping to put up yesterday so I may hold that one for a week.  I’ve got some other ones churning around my little mind. 

But for now – enjoy this little diversion from the British show “The IT Crowd”.  Remember that I work as a supervisor over a desktop services group and also work with our help desk.  Luckily none of them serve our customers like this!  May it brighten your afternoon just a little.  Oh – and if you aren’t a techie geek like me – sorry.

Ok, it’s been a while since I updated this.  My life is crazy right now!  You see, here’s the deal.  I was randomly selected to serve my civic duty as a juror.  This week is the jury selection and we’re getting ready to start day three of it tomorrow.  I’ve got to tell you – it’s a lot of fun.  Imagine sitting in a room all day and not being able to do anything but read.  Oh, and hopefully you BROUGHT something to read – otherwise you’re reading copies of The Economist, People, or Sports Illustrated from about a year ago.  Which is good if you need to catch up.

I will say, today I took Tony Dungy’s book “Quiet Strength” and knocked off about half of it.  FANTASTIC BOOK!!  It’s basically his life but it’s focused on how God has worked in his life from the beginning, how God as always been with him and how is faith has gotten him through.  It’s got some great football stuff in it as well – but it’s more about leading, living and being a faithful follower of Jesus Christ.  Great stuff!

So…that’s been my life these last few days and again tomorrow (at least).  I do have a great post for Thursday when Carlos over at Ragamuffinsoul.com puts up his Creative Chaos for the day.  Hopefully I’ll have something else up before then.  Maybe I’ll get ambitious tonight or tomorrow.  You’ll just have to come back to find out!

So, Sunday is Mother’s Day. I love the idea of Mother’s Day, if anyone deserves a thank you for who they are and all they do it’s my wife. It’s the execution that challenges me. With my wife it’s always next to impossible to get her something. She has a ton of books- many half-read. She isn’t into knick-knacks – we’ve got shelves full of them. She doesn’t want kitchen gear – “Here’s a beautiful new toaster, honey. Now, let’s see how it works while you make me some breakfast.” Choosing the perfect gift for Beth has always been a challenge for me.

So, what do you get a woman like that? How about a clean house? Beth loves to have a clean house. It’s just one of those things that see enjoys and lately that’s been a bit of a…well, a challenge. You see, every night it’s soccer, softball, soccer, piano, meetings, soccer…well – you get the idea. So last night she went out with one of her friends which gave the kids and I the house to ourselves. While the kids would have probably liked to watch a movie, play some games or something we turned it into a clean the house night! We cleaned every room on every floor. Dusting, sweeping, mopping, you name it. It was pretty fun and the kids were all pretty excited about seeing mom’s reaction when she got home.

Of course, keeping the house clean will be the next challenge! So, the weekend continues tonight with…well, we don’t know yet – but I’m sure it will be fun and enjoyable for Beth and the kids (and me of course).

So, Over at one of my favorite blog sites – Ragamuffinsoul.com – Carlos hosts a weekly post called “Creative Chaos” where a bunch of people have an opportunity to share their stuff and learn from each other. 

As I mentioned in a previous post this past Sunday was our Youth Sunday and the theme was “Silence is not an option” with an emphasis on evangelism.  As part of the Sunday morning service someone came up with the idea to put together a video to help punch some of the points home.  The video starts off asking a hypothetical what if – what if you had found the cure for AIDS and could save millions of lives.  Would you share that life saving information or keep it to yourself?  Since we know the answer to how to save our eternal lives – Jesus Christ – why aren’t we sharing it? 

Here’s the video that the youth put together with the help of the youth group director and one of the advisors. 

So – what will YOU do?