Well, today was the first Sunday of Advent.  It was also a busy day for me.  In addition to my normal evening responsibilities of leading the worship service I also had the opportunity to bring the message to both the morning and evening services.  It was a message of HOPE based on the promises of Jeremiah and of Jesus in the book of Luke.

To make things a bit more challenging for me I came down with a pretty good cold on Thanksgiving day evening.  I spent a lot of Friday resting and was just praying that my voice would hold out.  In addition to the message I also sang Casting Crown’s version of “Glorious Day” at the end of my message to emphasize the points of my message.

The evening worship set consisted of:

O Come O Come Emmanuel
King of Glory
Everlasting God
My Message & Glorious Day
Sing To The King
Here Is Our King

The morning went really well and I was feeling pretty good.  My voice held out, I seemed to be doing better…but then evening came.  When we did our run through I could feel my voice starting to leave me.  I had to drop the key of “Glorious Day” down a whole step.  I made it through the whole service, but by the time we sang the last notes of “Here Is Our King” I was closer to sounding like Froggy from the little rascals than David Crowder (not that I sound like Crowder to begin with).

If you missed my message and want to here it you can find it by clicking here.

All in all it was a good day and I feel as if God was blessed.  I thank all of those that were lifting me up in prayer today – your prayers were felt.

As always, to read more recaps you can check out Fred McKinnon’s site and his Sunday Setlists post.

Today my first born – my son Taylor – turns 13!

I can still remember the day he was born…it was a Saturday, but not just any Saturday…it was the day of the big game – Ohio State vs. Michigan.  I had to work that morning but was looking forward to spending the afternoon in front of the TV relaxing and enjoying the game.

When I got home from work around 11:30 (30 minutes before kick-off) Beth said she was having some “issues” (which I will not go into here for fear of being beaten silly).  She didn’t think much of it since her due date was still a few weeks away.  I told her she should probably call the doctor “just to be safe”.   Well, the doctor informed her that her water had broken and that we needed to get to the hospital!!

So off we went – the radio was dialed into the game on the ride over, we got situated and comfortable (well…one of us at least), and I watched the game from a birthing suite at Akron General.  Beth was there, too – though she kept interrupting the game with some sort of “pains” (I was the one in pain though as I had to watch Ohio State blow their undefeated season and a chance at the National Championship as they blew a 9-0 lead to Michigan to lose the game 13-9).

Finally at around 12:30 am (I don’t remember the exact time) Taylor Scott Honnold was born.

Now 13 years later we continue to be amazed at how he is growing.  He’s becoming a teenager (unfortunately with the attitude to go with it), has a girlfriend, was in his first musical recently and we continue to watch him grow in his faith.

So – Happy Birthday Taylor!!   May you continue to grow as a young man and more importantly as a man of God.  I pray that I can be an example for you and that you will always strive to follow Christ.

H – O – P – E

Four small letters, one big word.

What do you hope for?
What do you dream of?
What are you waiting for?
Who do you place your hope in?

David had hope:

For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth. – Psalm 71:5

Isaiah knew about hope:

I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. – Isa 8:17

Paul referenced how Isaiah spoke of the hope that was to come:

And again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.” – Rom 15:12

On November 29th at both the morning and evening services I will have the opportunity to talk about hope.   About how two thousand years ago Jesus Christ was sent down to give us hope and how we have a hope that one day he will come back again.

I’m still not sure how exactly the final message will come together but I am looking forward to listening to God speak to me through His Word.

I hope that you will join us at one of these services.

This was a busy weekend in the Honnold household.  Taylor was in the Middle School Musical “The Big Bad Musical” which had it’s performances on Friday and Saturday night, I had a church conference on Saturday afternoon that I helped lead worship at, Beth and I led Kidz Church Sunday morning we had a piano\voice recital that all three kids were involved in on Sunday afternoon and I had our Sunday Evening Connexions worship service last night.

Beth’s mom and dad came up and stayed with us this weekend so they could take in all of the kids activities and visit, my mom and dad came up on Saturday night for the show.

My kids are so blessed to have both sets of grandparents around to love them and see them involved in all of these things.  Beth and I are very grateful for that.

Here’s hoping we can now get back to some sense of normalcy before the holidays….but with three kids (and one who will officially become a teenager in 8 days) I seriously doubt it!

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Eph 4:29

Simple question tonight – Are the things you’re saying helping others or hurting them?