Family: Tactical Zone.

Yesterday me, my dad, my brother in law and my nephew had an adventurous morning. Actually, for many of you we did the unthinkable. We went to the shooting range to fire off a couple of hundred rounds of ammunition. It was like one of those male bonding experiences, all the testosterone, it was great. I brought a couple of my pieces (for those in Palm Beach, GUNS) and my dad brought his, and we legally had at it. I must say the most enjoyable part was watching my nephew, Andrew, who is 14, shoot a gun for the first time. He did great. He wasn't nervous or anxious or anything. He was incredibly calm and fearless. My dad was a beast. He has a .357 magnum. Blew off some .38 rounds and some magnum rounds. I brought my little .32 and a .40 Glock. My brother in law, Dave, seemed to really enjoy the Glock as I always do. When we were done with the session, my dad suggested we head over to a place where we can get a soda and chat. That's where we really had a good time with some good old fashioned "guy talk". Dad told some old stories from his childhood in Kentucky. Honestly, there is nothing like firing off some ammo then going to Wendys and talking over a Coke with the guys. You should try it, you might like it.

Entertainment: I Love Sports.

I really enjoy sports. God was so gracious when He allowed sports to be created or started, or whatever you wanna call it. I just believe He allowed them. There is something in my DNA that just makes me quiver about certain teams. I hope that Im not alone here guys! With this in mind I figured I would "share" with you a few teams that I follow closely.

Baseball: As a kid I was an Atlanta Braves fan because they had Spring Training in my hometown. In 1993 I became a fan of our new local franchise, the Florida Marlins. As a Marlin fan I can boast about the 2 World Series victories in 8 years or I could whine about the 2 fire sales in 9 years. Its like this spoils the championships. Oh well, more championships than the Red Sox can boast about over the past 80 or so years!!


Football: My team is the Miami Dolphins. My first memories of following any type of team was the late 70's Dolphins with Bob Griese. To this day I still remind my friends of the only undefeated team in pro sports history, '72 Dolphins.


Basketball: This sport is close to my heart because I spent about 15 years of my life playing it. My team is the Miami Heat. Its fun following a franchise from its beginnings, as I have the Heat. Hopefully they can put together a run with D Wade & Shaq and compete for an NBA championship.


Overall: there's one team (or school, rather) I chose to talk about last. The U. AKA, the University of Miami. I had football and basketball season tickets for several years. I really enjoy watching top notch collegiate competition. I would say, of all of the sports teams I follow I am most passionate about the 'Canes. The real college football dynasty.

My Rant: I guess you see a pattern here, I am loyal to South Florida sports teams. There is nothing that peeves me more than people who don't support their local team, schools or what have you. Now that you have heard from me, I wanna hear from you! What are some of you teams? Why? Are you loyal? I look forward to some interesting responses.............

Entertainment: Great Television!

For a while I had not been watching a lot of TV series. I have been more of a movie guy or sports guy (Sportscenter in particular). What's amazing is since last January, when we got TiVo, we have been investigating some of the shows that have been released. Let me tell you, I have been blown away by some of these shows. Here are some of my favorite:









Smallville. This is so great because it is the story of Superman in a modern context. If you haven't caught this show yet, it is really fun to follow and see the story unfold. Thursday 8 PM on The WB

LOST. This is the show that I would call my second favorite. ABC has really hit a home run here! There's action (a plane crash, crazy animals and personal conflict), there's character development (incredible dynamics), and best of all, there's mystery! The mystery is so great that there are websites that a dedicated to solving some of them! If you haven't tried LOST yet, do it, you will not be disappointed. Wedenesday 9 PM on ABC.

The Office. I haven't really watched a whole lot of comedies, mainly because they are typically so crude. This show is so incredibly funny. It is a mockumentary on a group of typical office workers, where the workday consists of ego clashes and inappropriate behavior. Based on a British comedyof the same name. What makes it intriguing is its location, Scranton, Pa. Watch it Thursdays 9:30 PM on NBC.

Family: Chin-Hawk.

I am one of the fortunate people in this world that can pull off the whole bald thing. I have been shaving my head for about a dozen years now (thats 12 years for those of you in Palm Beach :) . I chose to shave my head because I admit it, I have been going bald. My thought was, I might as well finish it off so I won't be tempted to do the whole comb-over thing. Well, due to the lack of head hair, I have always had facial hair. Its one of those things a bald guy just has to have. I've had a gotee (who hasnt?), soul patch (quite popular these days), a beard (my wife hated it; she said I looked like an Amish guy). Of all of the creative facial hair do's I have had, I must say, the most impressive and unique do I have had is, what I wear these days, a chinhawk. Now, this isnt the first time I have sported one of these guys. I would say its the longest I've had kept a chinhawk. So you ask, what is a chinhawk? Well, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words; the picture here says it all about my chinhawk.

Merry Christmas!!

Its a few Christmas video's for all to enjoy and my gift to all of my fellow bloggers!!

Here is SNL's latest crack-up spoof on the whole Narnia movie craze. The Chronic-what-cles of Narnia. So what are you gonna do on Christmas Day? Pretty funny stuff......


You never know where the cameras may be rolling. Im sure Santa regrets this documentation......



Here you will see that my Grandma really gets into the whole decorating thing. I enjoy messing with her pimped out tree......



All jokes aside. Merry Christmas to you all. I hope and pray that your celebration of the birth of our Savior is real and reflective. Never forget the humble beginnings of a humble King who ended up dying a humble death for you and I. Peace & Prayers.

Family: When Will I Die?

I think we all ask the question "when will I die?" I know it's morbid and all but, you know all of those tests, the Stupid Test, Nerd Test, etc... Well nestled in there was the When Will I Die Test. This caught my attention and I took the test. Well as you can see, this computer test says I should live till Im 80 or so. That's great and all, but the fact is, man knows not his time. I mean, think about it, 10 out of 10 of us will die and none of us know when. That's one of God's great mysteries. He knows the how and when of each of us. If I live to 80 or 50 or 40, so be it. I know my life is in the hands of the God of this Universe. So when are you gonna die?

Adoption: From Guest Blogger, Penny G.

We began the process of adopting in August so we're 4 months into it, which isn't very long. It feels longer though. Our homestudy took longer than I expected. We had to wait to complete it until we could move forward with the rest of the paperwork. A couple of weeks ago we finished the homestudy and sent that in with some other paperwork to Immigration Services. It was sent back because they raised the fee and we didn't know it. We re-sent it on the 9th and expected a couple of weeks to go by before we were notified of when our fingerprint appointment would be. It came this past Thursday and our appointment is next Thursday! Once that is done we will await forms to be sent to us from the Department of Homeland Security to go into our dossier, which is basically our lives on paperwork. We have a few more papers to fill out and get notarized and then we will send everything to Tallahasee to get apostilled, which is baisically a notary of a notary. We will then send all of that to our adoption agency and they will send it to Russia where they will translate everything into Russian. This is when the real waiting begins as we are put into the Russian adoption system. It will probably be about 18 months before we get pictures of our children and about 6months after that until they are legally ours. We're praying that it won't be that long. Thankfully God is in control of everything and everything will happen is His perfect timing.

Entertainment: More Cow Bell!

I'm a huge Will Ferrell fan and this is one of his greatest Saturday Night Live moments, and I would say my favorite SNL moment. He plays a guy in the '70's band Blue Oyster Cult. Christopher Walken guest stars. "I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cow bell!"
So, what's your favorite SNL moment?

Ministry: Florida Snow.

Sunday night we had a huge snowball fight with about 200 or so students. It was incredible! We had this company that makes snow deliver about 4,000 pounds to us. We had it set up so that the middle school girls and guys and high school guys and girls were in opposite corners with 2 piles of snow in between them. We then had a countdown and then it was pure chaos! You should of seen it! Snow was flying everywhere! Thirty seconds into it the fight I was pelted in the face (it left a cut under my eye). It was unreal to see how a bunch of Florida kids play in a couple of piles of snow (it was like shaved ice). The purpose of this snowball fight? 23 kids repented and made a decision to follow Christ. Anyway, it was cool to see God use some pizza, music and Florida snow to provide an opportunity to reach out to a bunch of teenagers.

Entertainment: Narnia-ization of the Church.

I love movies and all kinds of entertainment (in case you haven't noticed). Over the past several months I have been recieving all sorts of emails from the folks at the Chronicles of Narnia promotions department (because Im the youth pastor at my church, Im on some mailing lists). At first I was curious about the upcoming film. Well the emails were getting old and I started doing some critical thinking. If you are really into this whole Narnia thing then you should probably stop reading now. Here are a few articles I found and I was disturbed by:
1.) "The movie is linked to about 80 different brands ranging from Honey Nut Cheerios to Quilted Northern bath tissue to McDonald's Happy Meals." Bath tissue is the nice way to say toilet paper. Yes, Narnia T-P! I wonder if its 2 ply?
2.)" It's been a busy week in the media at First Baptist! CNN featured the church and its Narnia initiative on Showbiz Tonight and other Tuesday programs. New Sunday series for Advent!" These are the headlines from a church website.
3.) "Enter the SermonCentral.com Narnia Sermon Sweepstakes and win a FREE Trip to London, England ? The Land of C.S. Lewis!"
Oh my goodness! Read this article and cry! What happened to good Bible teaching, you know of the verse-by-verse flavor. Get rewarded for the best sermon about the movie....unreal.

All of this to say, I saw the movie today. It wasn't because I bought some toilet paper or a Happy Meal or because I needed an idea for a sermon. I saw it because I wanted to be entertained, and I was. I also was moved and impressed with the effort. But lets not get carried away with the whole Disney-induced Narnia propaganda-fest targeted towards the naive and deep pocketed Evangelical Christian community.

Entertainment: More Bigfoot.

I can never get enough of Bigfoot. Seriously, I have always been enamored with this big, hairy, mythological beast. I remember as a kid Bigfoot was a big deal. There were news reports common sightings and of course Hollywood got in on the action. A great cheese show from back in the day was the Six Million Dollar Man. There were a few episodes where Bigfoot made appearances, and it really freaked me out! It was like Bigfoot was this novelty and we couldn't get enough of him. The toy makers made an action figure and I got one for my birthday! I wonder if there are still sightings? Please feel free to share your Bigfoot stories. They still fascinate me.

Entertainment: Fake iPod.

This is one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time. I have seen fake Oakley sunglasses, Rolex watches, Gucci bags, dvd's and cd's, but I have never seen anything like this before. Someone found this in Istanbul, Turkey and I had to share it. For those of you that have not yet purchased an iPod because of the price, this one is for you! Im sure its FM tuner has great reception.

Ministry: Satisfied?

My friend Tony text messaged me today. I called him soon after. He invited me to come and have coffee with him at his boss' house. Tony and I go way back. I remember grabbing a cup of coffee with him and some of our other friends back in the day at our old hang out in downtown West Palm Beach. We have had many good chats over a cup of Joe. Years have passed. Different jobs, churches and even cars. One thing hasn't changed, we can still have a good conversation over a cup of coffee. In our time today, with the ocean as a backdrop (yes, this is a picture from the house!), we discussed the fruit of the Spirit from the Bible "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control". We concluded that the effective Christ follower has these fruit active in their lives. This is what makes us aliens in this world. This is what should draw people to Christ. The supernatural fruit of Gods Spirit in our lives. The Bible goes on and says
"....... Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." After this time with my old friend, with the ocean as a backdrop, I ask myself, am I satisfied, am I keeping in step with the Spirit? No and I hope never.

Entertainment: I DARE you to take this test!

After taking the Nerd test I saw the Stupid test. At first I didnt have enough guts to take it. After watching my wife take it I decided I should. How humbling!! Take this test and be honest! Let me know how stupid you are. I have a feeling that Im stupider than alot of you.