Many times I feel as if I am the least deserving sinner of God’s love. I am thankful for Jesus about whom I knew something until I met and began to follow Him in March of 1975. From then on Thanksgiving had a real meaning!

I am thankful for:
- “Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me.”
- my wife of 27+ years, and my two sons that drive me crazy (some days, that’s a short trip).
- Another day to live in Christ–by His power–better than I did yesterday.

Have a great day, fellas!

I am grateful that the Lord ”…does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.” (Psalm 103:10 ESV)

I am thankful for my godly, amazing and beautiful wife Michelle.

I am grateful for my family…http://www.borrowedbreath.com/family/

I can’t think of anything God has created we should not be thankful for – even those things which might seem painful to us, at the time.

Specifically for me, though, I am thankful for my godly wife, my four children, and a family who loves me. Just in this, I have more than I deserve.

Keith,
Chris L. has done quite a few posts that are purely Bible Study / Educational. Check out his “Saved to What Purpose” series as well as the “De-Sanitizing Christmas” series. There are others too, as well as posts on his personal blog.

Keith,

I’m consistently working on one or two of those types of articles at any particular time (and they do take awhile to do). In the past year, I’ve written/finished a good number, including “Saved to What Purpose”, the days of Holy Week, de-Sanitizing Christmas, and a number of other one- or two-part studies (most get published on my own blog, though I’ve started double-posting to this one, as well.

Commentary articles with ODM’s, in general, are much more time-sensitive/reactive, though not always, such as with this one (which was several weeks in the making).

I suppose I could go out and copy/paste sermons from dead guys like Oswald Chambers, or living ones like Brennan Manning, etc., etc., but that seems like the lazy-man’s way out…

Tim: There were no comments on the linked post. Did I not understand your comment?

Chris L: You don’t have to just cut-and-paste from “dead guys.” For as little as $64.95/year, you can download “virtually every thing you need in your weekly preparations…from Sermons.com including: Sermons, Sermon Illustrations, Eulogies, PowerPoint Sermons, etc.” Also, Ed Young Jr. has a pretty good gig going at creativepastors.com (notice I didn’t provide the links). You could actually never write another sermon AGAIN!

Seriously though, why do you devote so much attention on basically two people? Do you feel like you’re making headway in disspelling what they are posting? Really, I’m being serious here. I find the “relationship” between yours and their site quite fascinating.

Tim: Do you spend as much time preparing your sermons and/or Sunday School lessons as you do addressing the “crap?”

Rick? You think he’s a convert? Okie-dokie.

Tim: This is where you and I have a very hard time communicating. The question was: Do you spend as much time preparing your sermons and/or Sunday School lessons as you do addressing the “crap?”

I did not ask for an amount of time. My kids do this to me. I really do try to be nice most of the time. I can be obtuse, irritating, smart-aleck, etc.; I’ve even have been known to hijack a thread…but, most of the time, in light of the disdain I have for the emergent church and it’s sympathizers, I TRY to be civil. I begin to become cranky when I ask what seems to be a very straightforward, simple question and I get an “amost answer.”

So, are you saying you spend the SAME amount of time (20-30 hours) preparing your sermon as you do addressing the “crap.”

PS: Have you ever thought back to that day you asked me to be part of your podcast and say to yourself: “Thank GOD he said ‘no’!?” I get the impression many times that you and I would probably be pretty good friends as long as we didn’t discuss church/religion/God, etc.

Tim: You brought up the 20-30 hours, not me. I have no idea how much time you spend on this blog. Again, that wasn’t the question. The question in it’s simpliest form was: which do you spend more time on–blog or sermons. You could have simply answered “sermons.” I would have been good with that.

In answer to your question: “Do you really think what I post here would take me 20-30 hours in a week to post?” I know that I spend some time looking up a lot of the terms and phrases you guys throw around here. Like I said, you come across as a pretty smart guy. Maybe you’ve got all those things in your head; I don’t. “…if the guys down at the VFW can’t understand you, its not worth saying.” (Tim Russert)

I think you try to make things too hard. (Sorry, I didn’t understand the “Wesleyan” comment.)

So surprise me. Are you glad I said “no?.” What differences stand out most to you? Are you saying we probably wouldn’t be friends?

Now there’s an answer the boys at the VFW can understand! That wasn’t so hard, was it?!

BTW, I honestly couldn’t tell you off the top of my head whether Ken or Ingrid were “calvinists.” I don’t know the theological preferences of the guy at “A Little Leaven.” (I mention those three because they are the blogs I frequent)

Being reformed/Calvinist, etc isn’t a criteria for me as far as the “watchdoggie” sites I read. I would assume there are plenty of Arminian watchdog sites that aren’t fans of Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, the emerging church, etc.