Sam

Remember Sam from the Luke 14 Dinner? He called my buddy Cary last night, so Cary and I went to hang with him late last night for three hours or so. More on the story later, but be praying for him. We are trying to figure out how to help him. We are trying to find a job for him (he is working now in unreliable/unsteady work...wants to work hard) and some housing (being dependent day to day on making cash makes it hard to have deposit money, so pays $30 each night for hotel as he earns money). Also, stable housing could get his wife and son back to Dallas from East Texas where they are staying with a relative.

It is clear for me to see how many of us could very easily be homeless.

Three loves, in no particular order on Monday

1. We love the LORD and are thankful that He loved us first.
2. We love our kids....ALL of them and we are anxious to have them all home with us!
3. We love LSU football....GEAUX Tigers! (Beau got to go the game...a once in a lifetime opportunity says he, yet he was there a few years ago and I'm sure hopes to be there again in years to come. Caleb and I watched it on TV with my grandmother...and Caleb followed every play and cheered a bunch!)

Where are you?

Even a trip through the animals of Africa at the zoo is seen through a new light. Everything we do makes us think of our kids:)

Week 14

As we ended 14 weeks of official waiting, my longing to have our children home grows. We are all so excited to have them here soon...almost everything makes me think of them...even not knowing anything about them. It is a very weird place to be....loving and longing for children we've never met. But i have had this even weirder thought... While I am ready for the referral tomorrow, I hate to think of the circumstances that bring these children to us. I was thinking today I wouldn't want those circumstances for any of my children...can't imagine something happening to bring Caleb or Hannah to that place of need. So this is where my mind is in constant confusion...longing for our kids to be home with us soon and hurting for them and their birth family. The magintude of loss involved in adoption is sad....thankfully we have a God that redeems all. So I thank the Lord for His sovereignty and goodness....shown in the truth of His Word....these have especially comforted me lately.....

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:18

Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. Isaiah 43:5

God sets the lonely in families. Psalm 68:6

Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength;They will mount up with wings like eagles,They will run and not get tired,They will walk and not become weary.Isaiah 40:31

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. Psalm 28:7

Here we are celebrating Jesus' birthday....

ZEPHANIAH

Beau here. So I wrapped up reading Matthew on Tuesday and decided to spend the last three days looking at the "popular" books of Malachi, Haggai, and Zephaniah. I know...you are saying to yourself "Wow, I was just reading Zephaniah today as well. That's my favorite book in the Bible!" Not. No worries, I often look down on the Minor Prophets myself, but then God uses days like today to remind me that He is purposeful in all He does, including preserving a three page letter from 622 B.C. like Zephaniah.

Let me share three verses that I meditated on today and then what I journaled. 1:4 says "I will remove from this place every trace of Baal worship, as well as the very memory of the pagan priests." For context, Baal (aka Beelzebub) was a false god (fertility god) during Biblical times, most prominently discussed in the ministry of Elijah. In short, Baal took people's eyes off God and onto themselves and toehr priorities.

1:8 says "On the day of the Lord's sacrificial meal, I will punish the princes and the king's sons, and all who wear foreign styles of clothing." The King's (Josiah) sons were immersed in society and living like the pagan (non-Jewish) people around them (i.e., dressing like them).

1:12 says "I will punish the people who are entrenched in their sin, those who think to themselves, 'The Lord neither rewards nor punishes.'" The people were finding joy in their sinful lives and figured there were no consequences to their wreckless lives nor did God have anything better to offer.

So I asked myself the following two questions. First, what idols are deeply entrenched i my life? Second, where have I fully assimilated into my non-Christian society? With the new year upon me, a time for resolutions, this is a great time to ask these questions!

I am still assessing my answer to the two questions, but here is a list of four things I am wrestling with.

1. Television can be such a time sink. It both takes time from things (family, Bible study, solitude, rest, friends) and fills my mind with unhealthy stuff (not many shows glorify godly men who lead and love their families). We cancelled cable three years ago to help combat this, but I still have more ground to gain both in how much time I spend here and what I expose myself to.

2. Way too many things compete for our money. We have totally confused the difference between wants and needs. 1 Timothy 6:8 tells us what we need "But if we have food and shelter, we will be satisfied with that." Natalie and I need to filter stewardship decisions through that verse as well as 2 Corinthians 8:14-15. Saying "I will give X%, save Y%, and spend the rest however I please" just doesn't cut it. I need to continue growing here, looking at God's word for direction, not this world (be it secular or church world).

3. Sin doesn't really grieve me. Sin is everywhere. It is accepted in society. It is accepted in churches. It is glorified on TV. I have been desensitized to most sin (note: I think the best way to picture sin is to look at 1 Corinthians 10:31 for how we are to live "whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God." or James 4:17 where it says "so whoever knows what is good to do and does not do it is guilty of sin."). My men's group will be jumping into Jerry Bridges new book "Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate" next month, and I really hope to gain ground on this one.

4. I thirst for comfort way too much. Comfort is a near constant objective in my life. This causes me to not hear God's whispers (and loud screams!) to seek and serve Him. I all too often ask the question "will that serve my temporary thirst for..." instead of "is that was my all-knowing, all-loving Father would have me do?" Paul got it right when he said in Acts 20:24 "But I do not consider my life worth anything to myself, so that I may finish my task and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus..." And then Jesus tells us that the SELFISH thing to do is to follow His call, not our sinful ambition, when He says in Matthew 10:39 "whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life because of me will find it." Or as Jim Elliot (movie End of the Spear) put it "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."

So that and my $2 for a Grande Coffee is what I got to enjoy this morning for 30 minutes at the local coffee shop. Praying I actually do something with these thoughts...

A LUKE 14 DINNER...AND A PICTURE OF FRANK

Beau here. A dear friend of mine, Steve Faris, came up with the idea (ok...really stole idea from the Bible) of a Luke 14 dinner. In verse 12-14, it says:

Then he turned to his host. “When you put on a luncheon or a banquet,” he said, “don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you.”

So a group of us from Watermark partnered with our friends down at Cornerstone to reach out to some homeless and shelter neighbors. We each invited someone from the area and had a dinner at Joseph's House, a home in the neighborhood that Cornerstone owns. The dinner was last night. Anyway, I woke up yesterday morning and decided to invite Frank, even though he isn't from that neighborhood. So Caleb and I, along with a friend Cary and his daughter, headed down to McDonald's and the downtown library to find Frank. We found Frank at McD's and invited him. He excitedly accepted. We gave him a 5-pack of McD's bucks before we left and told him we would pick him up at 2pm at McDs. Now here is the cool thing. After we gave him the money, a friend of his walked into McD's, a homeless lady. Frank asked if we had another 5-pack, so he could give it to her as a gift. That was cool, and we had an extra one. We came back and picked up Frank at 2pm, and he had just finished using his 5-pack to buy him and another friend lunch.

Now here comes the huge surprise! I had some extra hotel points for Comfort Suites, so I got Frank a suite at the hotel for Saturday until Christmas day. We walked into the hotel room, and we had the fridge stocked with sodas, fruit, snacks, etc. We also had toiletries, new clothes, a roller duffel bag (huge benefit for a homeless guy who needs to drag all possessions everywhere he goes), etc. He was shocked and excited. In his words "I get to watch movies and football for four days!"

Cary and Sarah Tucker picked him up last night and brought him to the party. He had shaved, showered, etc. When Caleb saw him, he said "Mr Frank, you look really nice all dressed up." So without further wait, here is Frank (center) with me (right) and Jon Flaming (left).




So here is a little more info about Frank. He is 45 years old. He never met his Dad. He totally idolizes his mom, whom he hasn't seen in 13 years (more on that in a bit). He spent some time in foster care growing up (I didn't ask why). He has lived downtown on the streets since 2003 when he got out of Arkansas State Penitentiary where he spent about eight years for burglary. His brother died of AIDS in 2002 after using a bad needle in the early 90's when he was hooked on heroine. We are still trying to find his mom, whom he really misses. I had lunch with Frank today, and he is lovin the hotel room. I mentioned to him briefly that we have church Christmas Eve followed by a dinner at our home with another family. I also mentioned a traditional Christmas morning breakfast we have at a friend's hour with three other families. I told him we would be privileged to have him join us and to let me know. Well before I dropped him off back at the hotel, he said he wanted to come! Will be a lot of fun to party at church and my pad with him.

Anyway, we had a handful of Watermark families down at Joseph's House and were to have about 10 guests from the neighborhood. A couple didn't show up, so Steve decided to go look in the area to invite others. He was motivated to do that by this passage from Scripture.

1 Jesus also told them other parables. He said, 2 “The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. 3 When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come!

4 “So he sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!’ 5 But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business. 6 Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them.

7 “The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town. 8 And he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor. 9 Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’ 10 So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests.

11 “But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. 12 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?’ But the man had no reply. 13 Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Well he found three people. The first one is Sam (picture immediately below) whom Steve had never met. He was waiting at a bus stop in 30 degree weather with a thin coat on...shivering. Steve scared him a bit by pulling up to invite him. Sam said "I am not used to white guys in Suburbans pulling up to chat." LOL. So Sam went to Auburn University, is incredibly articulate, and knows his Bible in a very deep and mature way. He moved to Dallas a month ago, lives in a shelter, and has a wife and kids staying with a friend in East Texas while he tries to settle here. They are on the wait list for a free apartment at Interfaith Housing Coalition, an East Dallas ministry we have served at for years. That was great to hear, and I will need to call down there this week to see where Sam's family is on the wait list. Sam was in the Army after college and was a quartermaster. My buddy Cary Tucker, also at the party, was a West Point Grad and quartermaster as well. They got to share fun stories. So Sam is coming to Watermark with us tomorrow as well and wants to start coming to church with us this week. He got to chat with Todd Wagner, our senior pastor, for a while last night and really liked his teaching style. So here is a pic of Sam with the Tucker's and Flaming's.

So how about the other two impromptu invitees. They are Willis and Dee (pictured below) a mid-50's married couple who live on the streets downtown. We have all met them before at Cornerstone's soup kitchen. Steve saw them where they live, in a field, huddled around a little fire they made. They came in and were super quiet...obviously very uncomfortable (no surprise). So they were very quiet. Then we had a makeshift band do carols for 30 minutes followed by Steve sharing the gospel. After that we handed out gifts to the guests. Earlier that day Natalie and I decided to buy some extra gifts in case someone unexpected showed up. Well those gifts went to Willis and Dee who then were do overwhelmed they started hugging and weeping. They told Sarah Tucker "we thought God had long ago forgotten about us." They were moved. After that, Todd Wagner sat with Willis and more personally shared the gospel with Willis, and I had the privilege of joining in on that (which is what the picture is below...Dee right beside Willis). So Willis accepted Christ last night and we got to join with the host of angels praising Christ over that last night.


Here is a picture of Bobby Silva, his son, and Larry, a guy Bobby has been pouring into recently.

Anyway, good times. All these folks were overwhelmed by the gifts, though we all received gifts from God last night as we learned more about the Father's heart for all His children. I look forward to seeing Frank and Sam again tomorrow.

Introducing Katherine Jewel....

Remember Cabbage Patch dolls? Well we added one to our family yesterday:) Hannah "adopted" this cutie when her Grandma gave it to her as a Christmas present. Hannah enjoyed the adoption papers (a few less than we have had to fill out), and she loves the clothes Grandma made for her baby. And Hannah decided to keep the given name....Kafrin Jooooool (Katherine Jewel).

Yesterday was a bit hard for me as I was so hoping we would hear something from our agency by Christmas. As yesterday came and went, the Lord was so sweet to remind me of why we are having the best Christmas ever. Our kids are more excited about Christmas than ever before...which makes our side of the waiting so much easier. Yet I really long to be able to share that fun and love with our future kids. It is so hard not knowing what their life is like right now. We know we are waiting on the Lord's perfect plan....and we all have a God given peace about it (philippians 4:6-7).

And tonight I get to meet Frank (see old post) at a dinner a friend is hosting. I will try to get a picture. Our family is so excited! The kids will get to play Santa, and see the love of Christ in action. A great way to kick off the Christmas "weekend"!!!!

And Katherine Jewel...who could ask for more? Isn't she the cutest?

Merry Christmas- Third Day

Merry Christmas- Third Day

"There's a little girl trembling on a cold December morn
Crying for momma's arms
At an orphanage just outside a little China town
Where the forgotten are
But half a world away I hang the stockings by the fire
And dream about the day when I can finally call you mine

It's Christmas time again but you're not home
Your family is here and yet you're somewhere else alone
And so tonight I pray that God will come and hold you in his arms
And tell you from my heart I wish you Merry Christmas

As I hang the tinsel on the tree and watch the twinkling lights
I'm warmed by the fire's glow
Outside the children tumble in a wonderland of white,
Make angels in the snow
But half a world away you try your best to fight the tears
And hope that heaven's angels come to carry you here

It's Christmas time again but you're not home
Your family is here and yet you're somewhere else alone
And so tonight I pray that God will come and hold you in his arms
And tell you from my heart
I wish you Merry Christmas

Christmas is a time to celebrate the holy child
and we celebrate his perfect gift of love
He came to earth to give his lifeand prepare a place for us
So we could have a home with him above

It's Christmas time again and now you're home
Your family is here so you will never be alone
So tonight before you go to sleep, I'll hold you in my arms
And I'll tell you from my heart, and I'll you from my heart
I wish you Merry Christmas "
-"Merry Christmas," Third Day.

Christmas 2007