Heart or mind?

We are doing a study in my house church called "Waking the Dead" by John Eldredge.
The focus is on the heart.
I once had a former friend tell me I required too much energy and was high maintenance.
Not nice.
After reading the following passage, I think it's fair to say that person lives from the mind and not from the heart.

"The heart lives in the far more bloody and magnificent realites of living and dying and loving and hating. That's why those who live from their minds are detached from life. Things don't seem to touch them very much;they puzzle at the way others are so affected by life, and they conclude others are emotional and unstable.
Meanwhile, those who live from the heart find those who live from the mind...unavailable. Yes, they are physically present. So is your computer."
The mind stands detached, but it is with the heart that we experience and respond to life in all it's fullness.
You cannot be the person God meant you to be, and you cannot live the life he meant you to live, unless you live from the heart.

Anniversary #23

These are my roses for my anniversary. I love the color pink so I thought these were a very pretty color :^) The card with the dog/cat is the one I gave Darrell plus an iTunes card. Darrell is a huge music lover so that's a good gift for him.
We did greeting for Frontline 9:30 service then ate breakfast at Mimi's Cafe at The Greene. That's a beautiful place to eat in and their food was good and reasonably priced. We walked around the Greene before they opened. It's such a nice atmosphere there. There were several people walking their dogs. We went to Books and Co. for a little bit. We then drove to my old neighborhood where I grew up, Greenmont Village.
I wanted to see the new school they had built. Except for the school, everything looks just as it did. We drove past my old house. It's blue now instead of yellow.
We watched football for a little bit. Cleveland vs Cincinnati. I watched online New York Jets vs. Arizona Cardinals instead..Brett rocked!! We decided to go walking at Cox Arboretum. They were having a garlic festival. We clipped our coupons and went to the grocery..we saved $45 in coupons!!
So now we're grilling out and watching football..Dallas vs Washington.. and just having a relaxing evening 'cause tomorrow is another work day!

Idolatry...The Golden Calf

These are my notes from the sermon at Apex

We started out by praying for an area in India called Orissa. In April, several members from Apex went over to India to share and experience house churches. In recent days, several churches and Christian leaders have been persecuted in an area about 200 miles from where they were. The video showed the churches and gave the numbers of people including children who have been persecuted for their faith. For those in missions we need to PLAN...P=prayer L=learn.don't keep your head in the sand A=action..how are house churches here reaching out N=news Share with others

Exodus 32 1-10
The Israelites have made it through the Red Sea 3 months earlier and now have a desert in front of them. Parallels many of our lives...we have a desert in front of us.
Moses had communed with God at least 5 times. During one of those times when he went up to the top of the mountain,he left Aaron in charge. They become restless,impatient, and vulnerable to idolatry.

Vulnerability to idols occurs when:

1 You expect God to operate on your time.

2 You perceive God's slowness to act as not caring for you

3 You are no longer thankful for God's faithfulness of grace.


The fruit of their idolatry is seen in:

1 Asserting ownership of God's gifts...When you assert ownership of something, you manipulate it.

2 Constructing a lie but ascribe that lie as God's truth..create a representation of God with their own means

3 Rejoice o er the lie..."indulge in revelry"

Even though their bodies experienced God's grace, their hearts were back in Egypt.
Where is the geographical location of your heart?
You may be sitting in a church but where is your heart?

A legend dies

I was sad to see that Paul Newman died :^( He is one of my favorite old timer actors.
I loved Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He had the most beautiful blue eyes!

The Swell Season in Columbus

Last night Darrell and I went to the Palace Theatre in Columbus to see The Swell Season. They were in the movie "Once" and won the Academy award for their song "Falling Slowly".

We got there early so we went to Buca di Beppo to eat. It's an italian restaurant that has huge portions of food. Our waiter was great. We found out he is from Lebanon and he works a full time 9 to 5 job as a junior stockbroker at Merrill Lynch and then waits tables as a second job. We had a 20 min walk back to the Palace so he made sure we got served quickly. The food is awesome if you ever have the chance to eat there.

There was an opening act that played for about 45 min. His name was Bill Callahan. He had a good voice but his songs and his voice was so monotone and kind of depressing. Darrell called him Eyore.

Bell X1 was playing at The Basement which is a couple of blocks away so they ran over and played 2 songs before Glenn and Mar came on. They are a band also from Ireland and they ran into each other accidentally that day.
They were REALLY good. I had never heard of them but their songs have been played on The OC and Grey's Anatomy.

Swell Season played for 2 hours and they were AWESOME!! They had band members from his group The Frames playing with them. They played the "Once" songs but they also played some newer songs that each of them had written. Glen Hansard is an amazing guitar player. I also like the way he gives the meaning behind the songs he sings.
Mar is shy but she sounds just like she did in the movie when she talks. She played guitar as well as piano. I can't believe she is only 20 yrs old!
If you ever get the chance to see them it's definitely worth it!

Something to make you smile on a Monday :^)

CLEAN JOKES FOR SLIGHTLY TWISTED MINDS..

Quick thoughts from my weekend

Zach and I watched "Across the Universe" per his request. The music was good..the acting was B...kind of a bad remake of "Hair" only with Beatles music.

I've missed Zach's sense of humor...dry.

Von Maur is a beautiful store with the best shoe department ever but good night nurse..who can afford those prices!

Seeing grown men drool and take pictures of a $185,000 Ferrari that someone actually drove to The Greene made me laugh. I seriously wanted to see the driver...probably wasn't as "pretty" as the car :^)

It surprises me how much after effect there still is from the wind storm last week. Our friends Elizabeth and Rob came to hang out with us watching football and doing their laundry...they still have no power!!

Jon Zens wasn't a powerful speaker in volume but his words were extremely powerful

I am excited to find out that Neil Cole(Organic Church) is doing workshops at Apex in October!

One small tree sure does have a lot of limbs!! It took Darrell and I 2 hours to haul our tree limbs to the "designated" field. Luckily we had the use of a pick up truck from Serra. We had to transplant the ivy ground cover that was around our tree and it actually looks good around the light pole. I still think we'll need another tree to replace ours...but no more Bradford Pear trees!!

When your husband randomly stops in a sunflower field to pick a single sunflower for you after 2 hours of sweating..it doesn't really matter what you look or smell like..
you are loved.

I wish the weather would stay like this year around....I LOVE fall!!!!

"Love One Another"

These are my notes from the sermon tonight. We had a guest speaker..Jon Zens.
John 13
It was a Phil Wickham/Brooke Fraser worship night :^) It was nice to have Zach with us in service. Bona is still here as well. The Yosick family were here. Dylan was the one nice enough to bring Zach home with him.
There are still quite a few people without power in our service.

In the last hours of Jesus life, he chooses servant hood to be his last lesson to the disciples through foot washing.
He tell them they may not understand the importance now but they will. He is talking about in the future after the Holy Spirit has come.
Jesus didn't teach philosophy or theology. He taught life lessons. He did it through example.
verses 31-35
The commandment to love is old but Jesus says it's new. What's new about it? The phrase.."as I have loved you."
In John 15:12 Christ talks about laying down his life for his friends. Out of the act of the cross comes the command "Love one another"...a new redemptive event.
Many bible teachers wrongly use threats,loud language, to try to get people to do things.

Is the love of Christ on the cross sufficient for you to do good works as your motivator?
This is the key to watching world to see that we are his disciples. If our love is tainted or misdirected, the world won't know. There have been many breaches and divisions in the church. The world sees this. We need to show love to others.
That's not easy. It requires a commitment.
We're all like a bunch of porcupines..things sticking out that hurt others.
There are many examples of sacrificial love brought up in the New Testament by Paul.

Weiner races

I had no idea they had a race like this so close to us. Yesterday was the Weiner Races in Cincinnati to kick off their Oktoberfest. This is video of last year's race. The bun costume cracked me up. I think Pumpkin needs one of those!

A nice surprise on a Friday night

Darrell and I like to go to movies on my Fridays off. Our favorite theater? The movie theater at The Greene. They have the most comfortable chairs and best screen.
We decided to see "Burn After Reading" by the Coen brothers. It was definitely a quirky movie. Brad Pitt cracked me up.

We walked around after the movie. We wanted to check out the new Von Maur but they were getting ready to close so we'll have to check it out another day. We got coffee at Caribou and ran into Kendall and her friend. Kendall says she is still without power...bummmer!

We stopped at DLM to buy a steak to grill out.
When we got home..ZACH WAS HOME!!!
He came home with Dylan and decided to surprise us
It's going to be a great weekend!!

Phil Wickham on tour

Here's a new video Phil Wickham posted on his website. He is beginning his tour with Steve Fee and Meredith Andrews. Unfortunately he isn't coming close to Ohio but if you live elsewhere you may be able to see him !!
This is the song that we've just started to sing at Apex.

Let there be light

Let there be light....and there is once again at the Southards! Yay!!!
I don't think I'm going to rush out and fill my refrigerator just yet!

Ongoing frustration

We woke up at 4 am and had power. I came home from work and.....no power!
What is up with that! We found out from our neighbors that it went back down at 11 am
So Darrell and I are sitting at Starbucks in Centerville doing our "Waking the Dead" study for tomorrow night because we found out that Centerville has public wifi for free... a small consolation.
I'm definitely learning what it means to "simplify"!
.

Hurricane Ike in Ohio

The picture above is what we came home to Sun morning after going to church. We also lost some shingles off of our roof but this was MINOR compared to what we saw later as we drove around. It was total chaos with no power anywhere in Springboro and Centerville. After spending 3 hours chopping down part of the tree and dragging tree branches we thought we would go get an icee at the Speedway down the street. Little did we know what was going on outside our little cul de sac world. No power....trees down everywhere...no traffic lights working..roofs blown off. It looked like a tornado ripped through here. I honestly felt blessed (which was different than what I felt coming home to the picture above)
We just got our power back on at 4 am. It's an odd thing spending 2 days with no power and doing everything by candlelight.
I think God had a message for all of us...you think you have it bad until you get out of your own little bubble and see what the big picture is.

Idol Disintegration

These are my notes from Rob's sermon tonight.

I have to say that worship tonight was AWESOME. There is something about the Sat night service that really connects with me and worship. We sang one of Phil's songs "This is Worship" and 2 David Crowder "O Praise Him" and "Only You" , a Phil Wickham song "Divine Romance" and my all time favorite Hillsong Worship "From The Inside Out"

Romans 1:21-32

Idol Disintegration
It disintegrates our hearts from the inside out.

What is the process in which Idolatry happens?

It begins with a heart of inverted glory

All of our hearts are worshiping hearts but what is the object of that worship?
Sin can make the heart of worship out of control.
We direct our worship to the world and to ourselves.

It proceeds to exchanging truth for lie

We substitute something or someone to support the lie
We change careers, we change friends, we change our relationships
The hallmark of our idolatrous culture is seen in the warping of God's natural beauty of sexuality in marriage of man and woman i.e. bisexuality,homosexuality,bestiality.
Sexuality outside the confines of Christ..you can't be holy and sexually immoral at the same time

It creates a searing of the conscience
God's protective hand is removed.
We function on autopilot

It culminates in a lifestyle where being under God's wrath is normal
We have celebrations....for ourselves

Questions to ask for potential idolatry

1. What do you not have in your life that you think if you have it, it would make you happy and fulfilled?

2. What do you now have that if taking it away would leave you unhappy or devastated?

3. What are you preoccupied with?

4. Is there something you desire so much that you are willing to disappoint or hurt others to have it?
If they have it, do you turn to jealousy or Jesus for comfort?

A good recipe

I'm always looking for easy recipes to try. Last week I found one for brownie cookies on a website by Jessica Turner.
They were really good. The girls from my Tuesday night bible study liked them and I had leftovers so I took them to house church. Darrell took peanut butter and put a little dollop on top of them if you like the chocolate/pnut butter combo.

Here's the recipe

1 box of brownie mix
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
2 eggs

Mix it together with a spoon or honestly I used my hands to knead it into pliable dough.
Place small balls on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 8 to 10 min. I have a convection oven so it was 10 min. for me. They may seem too soft when you take them out but let them cool and they get harder so don't overcook them.
They taste like small brownies!
I'm sure you can add things like confectioner sugar or icing if you want but I liked mine just plain.

Jessica is married to Matthew Paul Turner who is one of my favorite writers. He has a book called "Churched" coming out in October which I'll be doing a blog on for his blog tour of the book. Make sure you check it out!

Kristen made a quick trip home last night to have her braces fitted and showed me a video of Kim Walker which I had seen on my friend Adam's blog. I love her voice and I love this song..I think because it's cathartic.

Sept 11, 2001 Never forgotten

Do you remember this day? I had just left my dentist appt. and had gotten to work. We had a TV in our classroom and the outpatient educators had a class..everyone was watching in horror at what had happened. I remember feeling sick to my stomach and feeling helpless.


When things don't make sense...this song does

You Know Why!!!

I'm sure this scene makes every man hurt but I'm also sure that every woman honestly at some time can think of someone she would have liked to see this revenge inflicted on.

From "What Happens In Vegas"

Oppression

Psalm 129
A song of ascents.
1 They have greatly oppressed me from my youth—
let Israel say-

2 they have greatly oppressed me from my youth,
but they have not gained the victory over me.

3 Plowmen have plowed my back
and made their furrows long.

4 But the LORD is righteous;
he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.

5 May all who hate Zion
be turned back in shame.

6 May they be like grass on the roof,
which withers before it can grow;

7 with it the reaper cannot fill his hands,
nor the one who gathers fill his arms.

8 May those who pass by not say,
"The blessing of the LORD be upon you;
we bless you in the name of the LORD."


I don't ever remember reading this Psalm until I started doing my "Stepping Up" study yesterday.
The meaning of the Psalm really gave me insight into people who are oppressed but also why some people end up being the oppressor.

"If we don't allow God to heal our hearts,minds,and habits, we will continue to allow people to walk all over us or we'll become people who walk all over them.
Perhaps you've had an oppressive background but you're inclined to think you don't do either one. If you've never sought Christ's healing please allow me to gently suggest that people who walk on others rarely if ever recognize it."

Wow! That's why some people are mean...they don't even realize it..how sad.

I've definitely been walked on in my life..but I've also been cut free from those people in time...and it's ok to express or vent feelings about those people as long as I don't take their judgment into my own hands. That's hard. My human tendency is to hurt right back. I need to walk away but unfortunately I'm not so good at that but I'm getting better.
Older and wiser.

He proves that he can still play

I couldn't watch it on TV but I followed it on the computer.
He still has it :^)

Tatum...What were you thinking?

I read this article this morning by Kevin Hench and it made me laugh..especially the part where he returns the luggage empty and his justification for taking it.




Tatum Bell Hop

While many Bengals have spent their checkered careers accumulating unwanted baggage, former All-Pro tailback Rudi Johnson needed only a couple of hours to shed his baggage in Detroit.

Apparently not everyone was watching the quiet dignity with which the last men cut from the Dallas Cowboys on Hard Knocks accepted their releases.

According to reports, Tatum Bell, the man who was cut to make room for Rudi, was so displeased with his displacement he left the Lions' facility with the Gucci luggage Johnson had received as a Pro Bowl gift. Bell contends it was all a misunderstanding, but at the very least he seems to have proven he deserves a spot in the NFL ... he'd fit right in with Rudi's old team.

The bags were returned without their contents by an unidentified woman.

"I got the bags back — empty," Johnson said. "So he's got a bunch of my underclothes. What he's going to do with that, I don't know. He's got some socks and boxers."

Bell issued this bizarre non-denial to the Detroit Free Press:

"I wasn't thinking or nothing," he said. "I just grabbed the backpack and grabbed the other bag. They weren't in nobody's locker or nothing like that. They were just sitting there by the computer area right there. I grabbed them and put them in the car."

Oh, well, as long as they were in the computer area and you grabbed them and put them in your car, by all means, help yourself to the contents therein.

Idolatry...What is it?

So we are starting a new series of messages at Apex. Idolatry. Should be good.
I love when Issac and Phil lead worship and tonight was good.
Hillsong United,Jason Morant,Phil Wickham, and Charlie Hall.."Give us clean hands Give us pure hearts" I remember hearing Kristen singing that in my head.

Ezekiel 14:1-11

In the east...ie India..they are out in the open with their idols
In the west....we hide our idols

Anything we love and pursue in place of God is an idol

Idolatry is 2 sided
You can worship something bad but there are things that are good that are worshiped such as food,church,our spouses,sexuality.

ANYTHING that is substituted for God. Idolatry can be very subtle.

The womb of idolatry is within the human heart.
In the Old Testament is was idols...the counterpart in the New Testament? Desires

FUNDAMENTAL IDOL STRUCTURES

1 Comfort

Values...love privacy,lack of stress,freedom from obligations

Price you pay...Reduced Productivity..they take a lesser job and income to obtain a stress free life

Greatest nightmare...stress and demands (not enough freedom to obtain a stress free life

Others often feel....hurt(because the person comes across that they do not care

Problem emotion....boredom


2 Approval

Values..affirmation..love..relationships

Price you pay..Burdened,feel responsible

Greatest nightmare..rejection(will suppress or bypass conflict)

Others often feel...smothered

Problem emotion...Fear



3 Control

Values...self discipline,certainty, standards

Price you pay...loneliness;spontaneity (willing to stand alone which can isolate them from others

Greatest nightmare..uncertainty

Others often feel..condemned(will push people to accept their standards)

Problem emotion..worry


4 Power

Values..success; winning, influence

Price you pay...Burdened,responsible,irritable, isolate themselves

Greatest nightmare..humiliation (failure)

Others often feel..used

Problem emotion..anger




Consequences of Idolatry

1 It obstructs our view of God's glory..it makes it hard for us to pray and worship

2 Produces estrangement from God's protection..God's protective hand goes away

3 It provides God's wrath

God gets directly involved with idolaters
God will allow you to experience the full pit of sin in order to elevate you to see God's full glory
God will recapture your hearts

Sarah Palin...impressive speech

I was very interested to hear Sarah Palin speak. I've read articles about her but I was totally impressed with how she spoke and how she presented her family despite negative press.
I loved her quote on hockey moms...the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is lipstick :^)

Holiday at Home

We went to the Holiday at Home this morning with our friends from house church. There is a picture of Hyleas Fountain who is from Kettering and won the silver medal for the heptathlon in the Beijing Olympics. The Budweiser Clydesdales were also in the parade with Bud the dalmation. They are absolutely beautiful and enormous up close!