Some of my favorite freelance website and graphic design website work I get to do is for Tamra Novak and The Cashmere Bouquet. Unlike most of my clients, I always wonder if the design is crazy enough.
The image above is a small piece of the front and back of their new business card that they hired me to design.
Home Invasion, Sacred Storm was a powerful reminder of the danger and bondage that can be caused through sexual sin, and it made me realize that I haven’t posted on the topic in a long time.
Just like any other guy I know, I am vulnerable to temptation in this area. And especially because of the amount of time I spend online, I have built up a series of roadblocks to help keep myself on course and keep my mind focused the right things. I thought I’d post some of those here in case others might find the list helpful.
Limiting Suggestive Media - Let’s face it, there’s a ton of junk out there that can get our minds going in the wrong direction. I’m careful about the books I read, the movies and shows I watch, the music I listen to, and even the apps I have on my iPhone, which leads me to the next point….
Blocked iPhone Applications – I’m one of the only people I know that’s never used Safari on my iPhone, so I know this makes me very strange. When I bought the phone, the first thing I did was hand it over to my wife and show her to lock the Safari and YouTube applications. For a long time, I wasn’t able to browse the internet at all on my iPhone, until I found a terrific free filtered browser for the iPhone….
Filtered Internet – Both my home PC and my iPhone have filtered internet. The cool part is that I’ve found good free software for both. For the PC, I use K9 Web Protection, and for the iPhone, I use Mobicip. If you haven’t tried these, you really need to check them out. (I also use the AdBlock Plus plugin for Firefox on my work and home computers to get rid of almost all internet ads.)
Accountability – All the other things are helpful, but alone they’re not enough. I need people who I can count on when I’m facing temptation, who know my weaknesses, who will graciously shine the light of truth into my life, and who will hear my confession to God, if I give into sin. I have about a dozen of these awesome people in my life (including my wife).
In this sin-saturated world, I really desire to walk in purity. I want to be totally committed to God and be careful about what I hear and see.
“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” – Phil 2:13
Prior to coming to Knoxville a year ago, I spent two years as a Campus Pastor at a second campus of my church. It was a great experience, God opened all of our eyes to new ways of doing church, and I built some lifelong friends, but we didn’t see a lot of growth or people coming to Christ. It was a time of enormous sowing, but very little reaping.
In some ways, things did not go the way we hoped and dreamed. It caused me to question my ability to lead and my capacity in ministry, and I began to work through my insecurities to rediscover that my personal worth has nothing to do with my performance. Through Christ, I have worth. I don’t have to spend my life trying to prove myself.
Now, a year later, I’ve found myself in the totally opposite situation. Things are going well. We’ve launched a new website, an Internet Campus, and done a bunch of other cool projects this year. The list of accomplishments is impressive, and people’s lives are being impacted each week through new initiatives.
Now that things are different, who gets the credit?
God, please protect me from my pride. Show me how to give you the credit and glory – for it all belongs to you.
All of these photos were taken within an hour drive of my home. Coming from the flat lands of Lubbock, Texas, it still blows my mind that I now live so close to this kind of view.
At Faith Promise, we just finished a marathon weekend of five productions of Home Invasion, Sacred Storm, a story of one family’s struggles and the spiritual battle happening around them.
The acting and script was great, and attendance was pretty amazing. All services combined, there were over 5,300 in attendance. From the stories I’ve heard, it’s clear that God impacted a lot of lives.
But not only was it an exciting day on our physical campus, it was also a great day on our Internet Campus as well. Combined online attendance for the day was 504 – a figure that is nearly three times our normal online weekend attendance.
The graphic above is a representation of the 279 connections during our 9:00 broadcast this evening.
Some other interesting stats for the iCampus today:
Looking through the kid’s candy today, I was reminded of something. There’s nothing like the letdown of discovering that you’ve eaten all of the good Halloween candy, only to be left with Tootsie Rolls (in all the assorted sizes). I like the pops, and some of the new flavors are OK, but I just can’t understand why the chocolate-flavored Tootsie Rolls continue to exist as candy filler.
Does anybody else here like Tootsie Rolls? Am I wrong here?
Instead, how about little packets of uncooked rice or beans? Or even Ramen noodles? That would still be lame, but it would be cheap, and you could at least make a meal when you were done eating all the good stuff.
One of the most anticipated parts of our trip was a visit to the Great Wall. Rather than going to the area most frequently visited in Beijing, we drove out to a part of the Wall that includes a ski-lift style gondola to get to the Wall and a toboggan slide to get back down. The view was amazing, and the slide was a lot of fun too.
I thought I filmed my ride down, but I must have accidentally turned off the video. So, while the video below isn’t mine, it’s a close approximation compared to most of the others I viewed.
I’ll post more photos of the Great Wall tomorrow.
