Monday Ten

1. This has been a very exciting and busy past week.

2. This week will be equally exciting and busy.

3. I'll clue you in later in the week about this one's activities, but last week was Radicalis at Saddleback Church.

4. For the second year in a row, Rick Warren and his fellow leaders have placed the sold out conference on the Internet. Four straight days of the morning sessions.

5. This year's speakers included Rick; his wife, Kay; Steven Furtick; Matt Carter; Pete Wilson; Dave Gibbons and others. Furtick and Warren really rocked my world when they talked about Radical Faith.

6. I'm praying God would develop with in me a "radical faith."

7. I'm trying to dream up ways to interact my blog with social media. Have any suggestions?

8. Saddened to hear that Kansas City Chiefs announcer Bill Grigsby passed away over the weekend. His voice will be missed.

9. My alma mater did me proud Saturday when Missouri State beat Wichita State to win the Missouri Valley Conference regular season crown.

10. On that note, let the March Madness begin.

Radicalis 2011

Saddleback Church's annual Radicalis conference is going on this week. For four days, you can watch some great speakers talk about church, leadership and living the life God intends for you.

Visit the Radicalis website, and use the promo code RADRICK11 to get the video stream free.

Monday Ten

1. It's winter in the Ozarks, which means we can go from two weeks of snow to 70 degrees at the drop of a hat. Then, back to freezing weather a week later.

2. My family and I took advantage of last week's warm weather. We played a lot of basketball on my wife's new goal.

3. Yes, it's her goal. It was a Christmas gift. Although, one of my boys thinks it is his, since he likes basketball.

4. I have a new job. No, I'm not changing jobs. Instead, I have added a second. I'm now a freelance writer.

5. I have always enjoyed writing. Now, I can get paid to do it.

6. I'm hoping that freelance writing will get me into the habit of good writing, which will hopefully lead to some major coin down the road.

7. I think most people have a skill they can profit from on the side.

8. Tonight, I am watching a Hillsong DVD through my new sound system. It's going to be great.

9. Speaking of that sound system, I had a great chance to test it out Sunday with the Daytona 500.

10. I love NASCAR.

A Great Lesson My Church Taught Me

I will admit that sometimes I can have a very cynical attitude. I used to not be that way, but time has a way of changing optimism into cynicism. It can be a battle to constantly keep that glass half-full.

I used to be that way in my opinion about churches, and the sometimes strange things they can do. The unconventional ones could be the worst, or so I thought.

Today, I attend one of those unconventional churches. And, that has completely changed my perspective. We do some pretty off the wall things in our music and messages. They may be irreverent and funny. They might be ultra-serious. And, they all tend to draw some criticism, especially from the religious crowd outside the church.

But, this church has taught me a very important lesson. Criticism should be saved until the results become known.

Recently, we did a preaching series with a gag toy as the main element. You might expect that it drew a lot of angry phone calls and letters. But, at the end of the day, hundreds of people gave their lives to Jesus as a result of the irreverent sermons, because they dealt with the stuff that we face on a daily basis.

Just a thought for the next time you're tempted to jump on a church for one of it's unconventional methods.

Tithing - A Challenge Worth Investing Toward

This past weekend at North Point Church, Pastor Tommy kicked off a new tithing campaign. But, unlike the tithing campaigns you've likely seen in your church, this one is short term (three months) and comes with a money-back guarantee.

Click here to read more about the three-month challenge, and let me know what you think.

Monday Ten

Today is Valentines Day (aka: Singles Awareness Day). Here are ten things you should remember about this day.

1. Cash - You'll need it for dinner, flowers, chocolates, diamonds, etc.

2. Plastic - You probably need to replace #1 with this, because no one should be carrying around that much cash.

3. Reservations - If you're going out to eat tonight, you'd better have some.

4. Reservations - Unless you are proposing to your valentine tonight, ask the waiter to seat you away from anyone who is proposing. No one wants a crying woman or jilted dude sitting next to them.

5. Reservations - I would have reservations about you if your idea of a Valentines Day treat is dinner at McDonalds.

6. Card - If you're waiting until today to get a card for your Valentine, you are hosed. Your choices today are either a Scooby Doo card or a $10 fancy one that no one was stupid enough to buy.

7. Babysitter - I am taking the day off from work to spend with my wife. As such, we need a babysitter. You'll need one too if you have plans out on the town tonight.

8. Gift - Let's be honest. The whole notion that you have to buy your honey all this stuff for Valentines Day is a scam. The flowers and candy will all be gone on a week. And, you'll be paying those credit card payments for years on the bling you just bought her.

9. Gift - For the record, my wife likes roses. So, that's what she is getting today. And, maybe something extra special.

10. Words - Be sure to tell your valentine that you love him/her...unless you don't, and are planning on splitting up on Thursday.

Happy Valentines Day, babe.

Valentines Day is Coming

I like to refer to it as Singles Awareness Day. Regardless, Valentines Day is Monday.

Yes, this holiday is a commercial ploy to get you to spend your money on crap that won't last a week (flowers and chocolates). But, you still need to play the game. Because, Tuesday is coming, and guys, you don't want your woman being the only one at work without a good Valentines Day story.

Life is a Vapor

Yesterday was a bad one for motorists in Springfield. With the snow falling, roads became slippery and dangerous.

One mother with two kids in her SUV lost her life when she lost control of her vehicle and slid off the road and rolled into a large road sign. In an instant, she was here, and the next she was facing eternity.

The tragedy brought back haunting memories of an incident a couple of summers ago that easily could've had the same impact on my family. My wife was involved in a roll over crash not too far from yesterday's wreck. She survived.

Yesterday reminded me of James 4:14. Life is very short, and can end in an instant. All the more reason to live with purpose. Even more reason to live with Jesus as the driving force in your life.

The Snow That Will Never End

Those of you in the northern states and Canada are used to the white stuff on the ground from November until April, but here in the middle of the U.S., we aren't. So, a week after getting dumped on, we're getting it again.

As such, my day job will prevent me from blogging for a couple of days.

The Importance of Integrity and the Realization We Don't Have It

If you have ever had dealings with anyone of questionable character, you fully understand the importance that integrity plays in a person's life.

Recently, I learned that a person I have known for a long time has struggled with a very serious character failure for much of his adult life. He has led people to believe that he is something he is not. Now, if you knew the ways in which he has destroyed his integrity, you would no doubt be shocked.

But, here's reality -- there isn't a single person who has his or her integrity fully in check. Romans 3:23 points out this fact. It says that even if we have never committed adultery, been addicted to drugs, or murdered someone, there is still a flaw in our character that has allowed sin into our lives. We have all fallen short of God's standard.

I say all of this simply to point out that the next time someone you know has a major integrity failure, remember Romans 3:23, and do a self-examination of your own character. Then, whatever behavior you find that has you falling short of God's standard, seek His forgiveness and repent of that sin.

Do you have some ways to safe guard your integrity? I'd like to hear them.

Monday Ten

1. The Monday after the Superbowl should be a federal holiday so no one has to go to work. Seriously. Studies have shown that the Monday after the Superbowl is one of the least productive days of the year.

2. I watched the game with my wife and boys at the house. I had predicted on the air last Friday that the Packers would win 31-28. I wasn't far off. The Pack won 31-25.

3. Many people watch the Superbowl for the commercials, and there were some winners last night. Volkswagon had a couple of hits with the beetle ad, and our family's favorite, the Darth Vader kid.

4. Speaking of the commercials, it appears that the beer commercials have matured a bit. They weren't nearly as racy as they have been in the past. If there were Razzies for worst ads, Pepsi Max would have won all categories. Terrible, family un-friendly stuff.

5. A lot of people have been cracking on Christina Aguilera's botching the lyrics of the National Anthem. Two thoughts: a) You practice and memorize the lyrics to dozens of songs for a tour, but you can't get the lyrics right to a song you've sung since grade school? Seriously? b) Oversinging The Star-Spangled Banner does not make it any more pleasurable than forgetting the lyrics.

6. Halftime show with the Black Eyed Peas was about as terrible as the stuff my cat gacked up on my carpet Saturday night. Admittedly, I'm not that big of a Black Eyed Peas fan, but I don't have anything against them...except that they sounded terribly off key. But, I'll give the blame there to the sound crew that had weeks to prepare for this event only to show up and not do their job. It's the Superbowl halftime show. The number one rule is to make sure everyone's microphone is ON...unless they're lip synching, which the Peas were obviously not doing. Please, NFL, I beg you, hire me for half the money, and you'll get a good show. Better yet, Jerry Jones can hire me to coach the Cowboys and I'll do as good as they did last season.

7. The game was good, but the spread of food that my wife came up with was even better. Great chili, Pizza Hut's new pepperoni dipping sticks thing and a delicious crumb cake. The food rated better than the baby back ribs we used to get from Cheddars.

8. This past week's snow storm delayed delivery (by a day) of speakers for my new sound system. I'm using Pioneer's VSX-1020-k receiver and a pair of Sony SS-F7000 floor standing speakers. The Superbowl sounded awesome. I'll be reviewing these components in the near future.

9. Now that the Superbowl is over, I want to put my sound system to a real test. NASCAR is right around the corner. "Let's go racing, boys!"

10. Last, but not least in this special sports-themed 10, it is February, which means that Major League Baseball's Spring Training is around the corner.

Snowmageddon

When the snow strikes in blizzard-force, it impacts many parts of your life, and sometimes that involves a person's blog.

Yes, Snowmageddon '11 had me holed up in the house for the past couple of days trying to dig out. We'll resume blogging as normal next week.