klink

There have been and continue to be so many changes in my life and the lives of my family members. My wife while continuing to care for our baby son Alexander is now studying for her NCLEX for the second time. She is using an online preparation course we purchased from Kaplan. So far she has found it to be quite helpful. We also just got a puppy. The puppy is a nine week old German Shepherd and Siberian Husky mix that we have named Odin. I have spent the better part of a week over the extended Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend trying to crate/house train the Odin. So far it's working, but I am very tired. We also have some changes that will involve a redistricting of churches and new responsibilities on my part. All in all it makes for some pretty hectic times. Hopefully the dust will settle soon. I need to see where I am going. Oh and getting some sleep would be nice too.

You know it really has been a roller coaster ride for my family and I as of late. Financially there have been ups and downs and emotionally it has been taxing for numerous reasons. Liz lost her mom Karen, our Prius was in an accident that put the car in the shop for almost a month and Alexander has not slept well at night. This last issue has been the most difficult. I think I can say that much of what we have been dealing with would have been blunted if we had enough rest. It is so hard right now to be consistent with my ministry and to do much more than what I have to do. We're about to go to Alabama for Christmas. We will leave early Sunday morning. With the onset of this trip we all seem to be getting sick. Matthew has been coughing. Alexander has congestion and Liz and I are on the verge of a cold. We're really under the weather, which is an apt description because we are unaccustomed to the fifty degree drop in temperature that happened a few days ago. The vast difference...

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and this year seems to be flying by. In so many ways I am blessed and I know that I need to continue to focus on that. I love my family and I think and feel that God is leading in my professional life. Liz's mom has been here since last Friday. She is staying a week to be with us over Thanksgiving. We've played a lot of Wii already and I know that Liz feels a little closer to home having her here. Water continues to flow under the bridge of life and I hope that I'm drinking as much of it in as I can.

For most of my life I have asked questions. I think it is important to ask questions. Without inquiry there really is never any understanding. However whereas most people ask questions that start with what, when, where, who and how I have often tried to ask why. I have endeavored to understand why I or anybody else would do what they are doing. I have tried to understand why God does what he does and this is where I think my problem lies. When it comes to asking questions we must ask what God wants us to do and then try and figure out how to do it. However I think that sometimes the why is beyond our reach. I think of the discussion between Job and God where God tries to illustrate that his thoughts are beyond are thoughts and his ways are different than our ways. Truly who can know the mind of God. Sometimes asking the why only leads us to doubt what was done for us and is being done through God's continual involvement in our lives. It isn't that God doesn't want us to ask...

How best do we order society? What is the role of the government? Most people would agree that the aim of any society is to produce the most good for the most people. The problem comes in when you try to define who determines what is best for society. Traditionally the debate is between giving the power to a few or to the many. There are merits to both approaches. By giving power to the few those few are able to accomplish what may have been hindered by a multitude of conflicting ideas. However this too is the weakness because if the few do not have the diversity of opinions of the many they will not be able to adequately represent all of the people. A few can move quickly but with less connection to the people and the many will represent the diversity but will be hindered by their numbers. The founders of the constitution of this country attempted to find some balancing principle between the few and the many. We are not a direct democracy which may come as a surprise to many people. A...

I am reading William Dembski's book "The Design Revolution." The book is well written and I am sure that I will have continuing thoughts on the content of the book. Currently I have noticed that design theorists do not attempt to attach any specific attributes with the presupposed designing intelligence. They merely presuppose design based upon the first step of the scientific method: observation. Observation leads design theorists to propose that there are possible explanations of existing biological structures that give evidence of design. In contemplating their methods it is clear to me that they must presuppose design. However I realize also that the adverse is true when it comes to naturalists. They predispose that there is no design and that the biological structures that exist today do not arise out of design. In essence they predispose that life is undesigned. Therefore design theorists presuppose that the biological structures arise because of design while the na...

It's been more than a week now since I completed the week of prayer at Burleson Adventist School. I really think that it went well. The students were respectful and engaged. I spoke out biblical characters and my theme or title was "Lessons from the Little Ones." I tried to highlight what five people: Moses, David, Daniel, Esther, and Jesus learned during their childhood. I really enjoyed it and at the end I offered an invitation to the older group of kids to have bible studies: the week of prayer was divided into two groups with grades Pre-K through 4th in the earlier section and 5th through 8th in the following section. In the younger section a girl from 4th grade requested bible studies without any promptings and in the older section a fifth grade boy also requested bible studies. I'm looking forward to working with both of these children.