This was a Christmas gift from my wonderful and hilarious sister. What can I say about this brilliant work of art?
I’m not sure I can access the deeper spiritual meaning of the electronic yodeling pickle. Instead, here are a few points for you to ponder today. I hope they enrich your life. 
1. First, you have to understand that on Christmas morning, of all the presents the family opened, our boys first and foremost gravitated towards this sonorous briny cucumber.
2. The boys have perfected the lip-sync of the electronic yodeling pickle. Classic.
3. In my more philosophical moments, my mind drifts to an unknown factory in China, where workers there are fabricating the electronic yodeling pickle for export to the U.S. What must they be thinking, as they complete their 10 hour shift on the assembly line of the electronic yodeling pickle? What images of our society are conjured in their minds, as they contemplate a people who demand such a product?
Comments, please!
Hope you had a great one. We had one of our best in years.
The highlights:
– Took family ice skating and skiing in the surprisingly nice mountains of North Carolina. (Where else but Charlotte can you drive 2 hours to go skiing or 2 hours to go to the beach? OK, California. But we don’t have to worry about earthquakes, wild fires, smog, or traffic. So there!)
– Had a wonderful Christmas with Marla and the boys back home. Good times, abounding in thankfulness for our Savior.
– Marla’s parents dropped by for a very nice visit.
– We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends here in Charlotte. Many of you came to our International Christmas Party. What a blast that was! The dream of a loving multi-ethnic group of passionate followers of Christ is becoming a reality.
– But perhaps the highlight of the Christmas season was seeing 5 precious people make decisions for Christ at the Christmas Service of our dear friends at the Vietnamese Christian Assembly of God. Pastor Timothy, Pastor Stephan, and the church are doing a wonderful job sharing the message of the Good News of Jesus Christ. It was a real honor to be invited to be a part of it. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Christmas than to share the message of Christ’s birth: it truly is “good news of great joy for all the people” (Luke 2:10)
What a beautiful time we shared on Saturday at our International Christmas Party!
By our counts, there were about 75 people from 13 nations celebrating with us!
It was just a foretaste of what heaven will be like, where we will worship our Savior with people from every nation, tribe, and people. (However, I expect heaven will feel less crowded than our bursting-at-the-seams house. On the other hand, the international cuisine we shared might rival what we’ll partake of in heaven!)
Here’s a link to some pictures on our Renaissance Church facebook page. Have you joined yet?
We had a great time this weekend distributing turkeys and groceries to under-resourced families in the Charlotte area. We were able to serve 11 families (over 60 people). Many told us that they were desperate, wondering where the money was going to come from to pay for a family celebration this Thanksgiving. We are so glad that we were able to help meet their physical needs in the name of our Savior. We also had the opportunity to minister the love, life, and hope of Jesus Christ to every family. Many received prayer. Several Bibles were given away.
I want to offer sincere thanks to all of you who made this Renaissance outreach possible. Thanks to our volunteers. Thank you again to those of you who gave. And thanks to Nova*s Bakery for donating fresh bread.
I’m thankful for so many things this Thanksgiving. Having the privilege of witnessing so many smiles this weekend is one of them. Happy Thanksgiving.
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
1 John 3:16-18
Jesus teaches us that we should love our neighbor.
You probably already know that.
It’s the putting it into practice that is the hard part.
“Who is my neighbor?” asked the expert in the law. Jesus responded with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Your neighbor is everyone – especially the one right in front of you.
“What does loving my neighbor look like?” The Scripture at the top addresses this question. It means being the Good Samaritan. Stopping for the one. Being inconvenienced. Taking a risk. Giving sacrificially of your time and your money. Stepping over barriers. Getting your hands dirty. Expecting nothing in return.
Love takes action. Compassion moves us to do something to alleviate the suffering, not just sympathize with it.
This Thanksgiving, Renaissance Church is helping needy families in the Charlotte area by supplying free turkeys and groceries. It’s a small gesture. But believe me, it can make a big difference to someone in need.
Know someone that needs a helping hand for the holidays? Contact us.
Want to help us express the love of God to Charlotte families? We’re collecting both funds and groceries. You can even help us deliver the food, if you want. Click here for more info.
When I was in medical school, I got to spend two months training in a French hospital. Every weekend, Marla and I (newly married) would take a road trip in our rented Citroen Saxo. It would barely make it up the hills. We became experts at locating the best pains au raisins, and all kinds of other French delicacies, and saw some very beautiful places. It was one of the best times of my life.
Over the long Thanksgiving weekend (no, the French don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, but we duly informed them that WE do, and that we would be needing a four day weekend), we visited Normandy, and particularly the famous beaches where the D-day invasion occurred.
The story of the invasion is truly fascinating. It’s a story of great courage, sacrifice, and teamwork. Inspiring stuff. There were so many heroes in those days of the summer of 1944. Some came home, many didn’t (as the American cemetery at Omaha beach illustrates above). Today, Veterans Day, we honor their sacrifice.
My strongest memory from the trip is my visit to the Airborne Museum in St. Mere Eglise. As I left the museum, a couple of French young men yelled to me from across the parking lot, “Thank you, Americans!”
Humbled, I smiled and waved. I was painfully aware that I didn’t pay a price for France’s freedom. Or America’s. So today, I give credit where credit is truly due.
Thank you, veterans!
It’s that time of the month again! Time for all-night prayer.
Renaissance Church is fueled by prayer. Why?
– Because we are interested in what GOD can do, not what we can do in our own strength.
– Because we believe God wants to work though us, so we need to be intimate with Him and fully yielded to Him.
– Because we minister out of the overflow of what God is doing in our own lives.
– Because God answers prayer!
– Because we can’t think of a better way to spend 7 hours than in God’s presence, helping to change the world for the better.
– Because this world is hungry for the Real Love, Real Power, and Real Change – that only God can provide.
I love to grill.
Not just hamburgers. All kinds of stuff. I’ve grilled Korean,
Persian, Brazilian, Moroccan, Pakistani, Italian, Jamaican, you name it.
I only use charcoal. No lighter fluid. I’m a purist. It just tastes better.
Got a favorite grilling recipe? Share it!
Disclosure: I get a lot of my best recipes from The Barbeque Bible by
Steve Raichlen. Great, great book.
We got a good chuckle out of this yogurt we found for sale in Brazil.
It’s a good reminder that when you are working cross-culturally, things aren’t always as they seem. What makes perfect sense to a person from one culture, seems totally inappropriate to someone from another.
Renaissance Church is going to be truly multi-cultural. So I’ m sure we’ll have plenty of opportunities to work through issues like this.
And after we’ve come to a mutual understanding… then we can laugh!
Paul is the Bible’s greatest example of ministering cross-culturally. He teaches us to never change the message of the gospel, but to be willing to do just about anything else to help people know Jesus. The fewer cultural barriers someone has to jump over to meet the Jesus we are preaching, the easier it is for them to come to Christ.
What can you do to bridge the cultural divide between yourself and a friend or coworker?
Pray about that. When you get an answer, go do it.
One things I’m doing is learning Spanish. I learned French as a youth – and that has served me well. It has allowed me to minister effectively in France and Quebec (and hopefully someday in French-speaking Africa). But in Charlotte, the language I most need besides English is Spanish. There are many unchurched Spanish speakers near our future church location. Someone needs to reach them.
Sign me up for whatever it takes.
I took Bryan and Steven fishing for the first time last weekend. It was my first time since childhood, as well.
Before I could even get the sunscreen on him, Bryan caught a fish! Steven caught 5 in about an hour. (With a little help from our friend, Pastor Tim.) I don’t think I’ve caught five fish in my entire life.
As a Dad, that is exactly what I want. I want my kids to surpass me in every area possible. I want my ceiling to be their floor.
Kids are capable of so much. We make a mistake when we leave them out of “spiritual” things. How else are they going to learn? They can learn to pray and worship. They can memorize Scripture. They can share the gospel effectively. They can be led by the Holy Spirit.
Why not?
