Doctor, Heal Yourself or Preacher, Feed Yourself


I want to be transparent with my brothers and sisters in Christ (in all I do and say) so I’ve shared this truth (or better said confessed my sin) of not having a constant walk with Christ with the Men’s Small Group and with the Monday Night’s Small Group. I’ve studied to the furthest points in preparing to preach through the gospel of John and in preparing to teach through Hebrews but I have stopped feeding myself God’s Word. One day turned into a week and a week turned in a month and so on. I told myself that I was busy doing God’s work; too busy to eat. The Holy Spirit kept reminding me that Martha was too busy to seat at His feet and learn but Mary made the time to seat at His feet. My make-up is more like Martha than Mary but I need to stop and seat at my Master’s feet and learn of Him.

I can always tell when I’m not walking like I should when my temper isn’t as long as it usually is. The last week, my spirit has been dark to the point I just wanted to do nothing. That is not me at all. I just read two chapters of Revelation and man it was so sweet to my soul. I felt the loving embrace of my Lord welcoming to His feet. My dark mood is replaced with peace. I had forgotten what it feels like to seat and rest in my Master’s arms. Only one word can describe it; AWESOME.

I write this only to encourage you to keep your walk constant. If you have a good walk then great; it’s so easy to allow ministry to keep us from our true calling of knowing our Savior and learning from Him. That can only be done in reading His Words and speaking with Him. With teaching through Hebrews, I’ve been reminded that we can go to our Heavenly Father boldly through his Son anytime we want. The Old Testament people had to go through the priest and the high priest could only enter God’s presence once a year.

May God grant you peace in your daily walk with Him.

My Little Girl



On Wednesday night, I burned 2 CD’s full of Ripley’s photos to give to Teresa’s parents. I put all the photos we have of Ripley; from the ultra-sounds to the ones we took last week. It’s amazing how much she has changed. We just bought Ripley a new rocket ship (what we call her car-seat) because she out grew her first one. I saw a photo from Thanksgivings Day of 2009 where she barely took up half her first car-seat. It blew me away.

I can’t believe in just another 5 ½ weeks, Ripley will be one year old. God has blessed us with such a great little girl. This past year has taught me a lot on relying on God. After being just 5 days olds, we found out that Ripley was born with her lower intestines reversed. It’s called mal-rotation and on her 10th day she was in CHKD and having surgery. God carried Ripley, Teresa, and I through the surgery and recovery. There is no tell-tell sides of this condition other than a 2 inch scare that is barely noticeable. God is good.

Teresa’s aunt gave us the DVD series “So Your Baby Can Read” so Teresa has been watching it with Ripley. If you are not aware of this series, it helps children plan to read. We are in the first DVD which you watch until the child is 14 months old. Ripley is really learning; she is clapping all the time (one of the thing on the DVD) and yesterday she is starting to try to wave. She is very cute doing it. I’m praying that she has Teresa’s ability to learn fast and loves to read. She already has her beauty and now I’m hope she has Teresa’s brains. Poor girl has my energy level so she is always moving like her daddy.

Below are the newest photos of Ripley in action.