Bibliofile

Kevin Stilley is man who is giving away a ton of good (and maybe not so good, we will have to see) books. Anyone in their right mind would love to win such a prize. Check here more information. This could be a very interesting Christmas.

Check this out...

Go to YouTube and search for Phil Hansen to find more. Check out "Influences."

Da Jesus Book

A guy I work with is Hawaiian and just returned from a vacation back home. When he returned he begin dispensing gifts. Golf balls, little hula dancers in grass skirts, macadamia nuts cookies, you know the fair. But when he gave me my gift I was awe struck. He gave a me a Bible, a Hawaii Pidgin New Testament! Here is the "Lord's Prayer" in Pidgin:

“God, you our Fadda.
You stay inside da sky.
We like all da peopo know fo shua how you stay,
An dat you stay good an spesho,
An we like dem give you plenny respeck.
We like you come King fo everybody now.
We like everybody make jalike you like,
Ova hea inside da world,
Jalike da angel guys up inside da sky make jalike you like.
Give us da food we need fo today an every day.
Hemmo our shame, an let us go
Fo all da kine bad stuff we do to you,
Jalike us guys let da odda guys go awready,
And we no stay huhu wit dem
Fo all da kine bad stuff dey do to us.
No let us get chance fo do bad kine stuff,
But take us outa dea, so da Bad Guy no can hurt us.
Cuz you our King.
You get da real power,
An you stay awesome foeva.
Dass it!”

Here is John 3:16:

"God wen get so plenny love an aloha
fo da people inside da world,
dat he wen sen me,
his one an ony boy,
so dat everybody dat trus me no get cut off from God,
but get da real kine life dat stay to da max foeva."

This is so great!

Good Friday

This is the body of Jesus broken for you...
..............This is the blood of Jesus shed for you.

This is the body of Jesus broken for you...
..............This is the blood of Jesus shed for you.

This is the body of Jesus broken for you...
..............This is the blood of Jesus shed for you.

This is the body of Jesus broken for you...
..............This is the blood of Jesus shed for you.

This is the body of Jesus broken for you...
..............This is the blood of Jesus shed for you.

This is the body of Jesus broken for me...
..............This is the blood of Jesus shed for me.

God has had mercy on our souls!

Bed Time Stories

I have been trying to read a Bible story to the boys at night before bed. With this being Holy Week, Sunday I read them what is called the Triumphal Entry, Tonight I read them the last Passover and betrayal of Jesus at the hands of Judas (Matthew 20). This is a transcript of the conversation that followed with Fish and One Sock.

Ben: What happened to the criminals?
Dad: No, buddy they treated Jesus like a criminal and arrested him.
Jake: Was this at the Passover?
Dad: Yes. Jesus and his disciples would have celebrated the Passover tonight. They would have gone to the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus would have been arrested. Tomorrow is the day that we remember as the day Jesus was crucified on the cross.
Jake: Tomorrow?
Dad: Yes, tomorrow.
Jake: At what time?
Dad: At about noon, when you normally eat lunch.
Jake: I hate non-Christians!
Dad: Well Jake, we should love all people no matter if they are Christ followers or not. By the way, are you a "Christians?"
Jake: Well kinda.
Dad: Do you know what a Christian is?
Jake: Yeah, but i can't explain it.
Dad: If you can't explain are you really a Christian.
Jake: That is why I said, "kinda."
Dad: Do you want to know what a Christian is?
Jake: Yes.
Dad: A Christians is someone who believes Jesus is God, that he died on the cross for our sins and rose again on Easter Sunday.
Jake: So this is what don't get: who raised Jesus from the dead? Was it God or did Jesus raise himself.
Ben: Dad is Toby Mac real? (Ben was looking at an inlay card for Portable Sounds)
Dad: Yes, he is a real person. Jake, Jesus is God. There is God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit. Lets read John 10:17-18...So, Jesus raised himself.
Jake: So it was God the "J." Not God the "F" or God the "HS."
Dad: Well, the Bible says in other places that God the Father raised Jesus (Acts 2:24) and it says that God the Holy Spirit raised Jesus too (Romans 8:11).
Ben: Dad, where does Toby Mac live?
Dad: Tennessee, I think.
Jake: Somewhere near Nashville?
Dad: Yes, I think so.
Jake: So all three Gods raised Jesus.
Ben: Dad, how far is Tennessee?
Dad: Far. There is only one God, Jake, but three persons. (I had to really fight getting into the finer points of the Trinity here. That could come later, I wanted to get back to, "What is a Christian?") So, a Christian is someone who believes that Jesus is God, that he died on the cross for our sins and rose again on Easter Sunday. Because of this, a Christian is someone who obeys Jesus and does what he asks. Tomorrow we will go to worship and remember the death of Jesus on the cross.
Jake: How long was Jesus in the grave?
Dad: Three days. Now, worship tomorrow will be a time of being quite and sad.
Ben: Sad?
Dad: Yes, sad, because we remember that Jesus died on the cross for the bad things we do, so we don't have to. He died so we don't have to be separated from God.
Ben: So, we don't have to die?
Dad: No, we don't have to die. Good night.

I love my boys...I love my God!

I laughed at this...

I love You Tube.

12 Stones

Joshua 4:21-24
21Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future your children will ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22Then you can tell them, ‘This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and he kept it dry until you were all across, just as he did at the Red Sea when he dried it up until we had all crossed over. 24He did this so all the nations of the earth might know that the Lord’s hand is powerful, and so you might fear the Lord your God forever.” NLT

So, its April 1st. This year it is Palm Sunday and April Fools Day, an odd joining of two worlds. It also happens to be a memorial day for the Andersons. Today, three years ago, we left a beautiful city, a vibrant church community and all of our dreams to begin a year long nomadic trek through the valley of the shadow of death. Today, is the anniversary of when we left Santa Cruz, literally homeless. You can read that story here .
To remember this day and to celebrate God's faithfulness to us in our most desperate hour, we started a tradition. The day we left our small red house in Mt. Hermon just outside Santa Cruz, we packed everything we could into our car, including Jake and Ben, and sent the rest to a storage unit. So, now on April 1st we go out pack the trunk of our car (we use the van now) with stuff, not to haul around, but to give away. Since being in the Pacific North West and having a tie to a church in PDX that cares for homeless teens and other people downtown we choose to get a "trunk full" of whatever they need most. Mostly socks, individually packaged food stuffs, "Charmin To Go" toilet paper, toothbrush kits, tarps and deodorant, etc.
"Home PDX" is an off shoot of The Bridge and today was their first meeting. We literally met up with some friends (Jessi and Nathan Willard) underneath the Hawthorne St. bridge where Home PDX was gathering. Today they were just making friends and serving a free lunch to anyone who wanted. Ken the pastor was ever so gratetful for the trunk stuff and we were thankful for the chance to give and eat lunch with them.
So April 1, 2007, another year to thank God for his mercy, another year to care for others and another year of teaching our boys the lessons of our history.