Fathers of Integrity

This Sunday is Father's Day and as I am one it sure makes me feel very inadequate. The importance of faithfulness and integrity come to mind as I think of Father' Day this year. My father is and has always been a true man. He taught me to be tough and to stand for myself. He showed me integrity of speech and that honesty is a precious commodity not to be squandered. Ken Love is a man of compassion and a big heart. He is not perfect and would readily admit that, but he always wanted me to know that I was loved, and he had no problem showing it and telling me as much.

My dad has served God for over 50 years now and is still very active in a ministry now outside the U.S. My mother and father are examples of faithfulness in marriage and in service to our great God. I pray that I will be able to say that and that my children will be able to express that about me when they are well gone and on their own. Integrity! A word that expresses my determination to do what I said I would. To keep my word and fulfill my promises.

I like how Tommy Nelson put it, "Reputation is who people think you are, but integrity is who you really are." As I preach, as I father our children, as I minister to my wife and those who come into my life, I pray it is accomplished through integrity. I pray that my heart will be able to stand in honesty before God and those around me and say, "I have done it to the best of my ability, done it according to God's Word, and done it to please and honor HIM and not necessarily you."

I want to live a life of integrity so that my life's legacy is God's glory. I hope my sons will grow up to become better fathers than I have ever been. I hope they will walk lives of honesty and deal with life as God would guide them. But where will they learn that if not through me? Who will teach them if I don't? Praise God for a dad who taught me to trust in our great God. Thank God for a father who demonstrated the ability I could have to trust in my Heavenly FATHER.

As a minister of the Gospel, I was challenged by a quote attributed to Clarence McCartney, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is quoted as saying, "The better the man, the better the preacher. When he kneels by the bed of the dying or when he mounts the pulpit stairs, every self denial he has made, every Christian forbearance he has shown, every resistance to sin and temptation will come back to strengthen his arm and give conviction to his voice. Likewise, every evasion of duty, indulgence of self, every compromise with evil, and every unworthy thought, work, or deed will be there at the head of the pulpit stairs to meet the minister on Sunday morning to take the light from his eyes and the power from his blow and the ring from his voice and the joy from his heart."


If sin has you in a stranglehold, you need to confess it and repent from it and then put your heart's attention back onto the mighty arm of God. Be in God's Word, spend time in prayer, and learn of Him. May we be fathers of integrity. May we be men of honesty and faithfulness to our sons and our daughters. May God fill our hearts with a hunger and a thirst that only His Spirit can fill and satisfy. May we then pass that on to the next generations!

Settling In

Well the boxes are fewer and the days are a bit more routine. Things seem to be settling down as we have made our move and are into the work here in our new ministry. The church is doing well and God has seen fit to bring visitors through our doors each week so far.

One or our prayers was that the Lord would begin to bring mature, Christian families to our church. considering our size I knew we would need people to help shoulder the load and also spread the enthusiasm we have about this great work. The Lord seems to have answered with at least one family so far.

Continue to pray that the Lord will help us reach this city. Over 200,000 souls need to hear the Gospel and we understand that we are just a piece in God's plan. However, we want to take back this city for Christ and truly make Him known.

Up to our Eyeballs

We have begun!.....Let the journey begin!.....The hardest step is the first one!....BROTHER! E-GAD! UGG!

So many cliches and exclamatory phrases come together when one begins this process of packing and thinking about what to keep and what to toss. I must say...the decisions are getting easier the more I get into this. Of course I will not let Kelly see me. No, I have not thrown out anything sentimental or important (to me).

We are finally wrapping up the basement and getting to a measure of control on what we have buried for these past 4 years, but then the real fun of packing up the breakables and everyday things. Kelly is a sport and is getting more and more into the "sport" of packing. We sure are hoping the truck is going to be big enough!

We close on our new home on January 31st. Pray that all the details will be settled and that we will be ready to go on that date. We then have our last Sunday here on February 24. I have the truck coming on Thursday and from there it is a mad dash to load and head out for WI. Pray for safety in packing and travelling. Kelly will be driving with the three little guys.

We are very excited about what the Lord is going to do. For sure we know it will be Him and most certainly not us. After closing we will try to put some additional pictures on the blogs to let those of you who care see what it has for an interior.

Audios for now! (For all those missionary friends learning Spanish like David.)

A Clip of Worship

Came across this from FaithVisuals, and thought I would share it. Seems to have some necessary ingredients for our day and how we approach this aspect of the "worship service." Click on the link here.

Back Again

August? Hard to believe that it has been so long ago, but I guess this is my world of thoughts and if anyone other than myself is reading this, then, all I can say is, "I am back!" Now we will have to see for how long.

I know we have been on this little discourse about Eternal Security, but I am going to go away for a moment and just catch up with my own thoughts as to where I am these days.

As a family we are soon to move to another ministry come March. The Lord has seen fit to move us from our place here in Nebraska to a ministry in Wisconsin. Sometimes I would love to think that the Lord would have me in a much warmer environment, but I guess we are destined to hang around the arctic regions of this great country. Proverbs 3:5, 6 keep coming up as an age old principle of God's direction and our need as well as our ability to "Trust in the Lord." God has certainly been doing some great things to confirm that this is His will and not our pushing or pulling to have our way.

When we set out as a family to determine if God was certainly moving us from our place here, I was praying that the Lord would establish it within the heart of my wife as well. I was so concerned that Kelly be certain and very connected to this decision. The past few places we have served it has been really more my call and her willingness. This time I was asking the Lord to seal it sure within her heart and let it be her coming to terms with the way the Lord was working as much as in my heart.

I can still remember the night that Kelly and I were on our knees praying about this new opportunity and us both in tears just asking the Lord for wisdom. After we got up she turned to me and said, "Let's go!" Wow!

The other aspect was a place to live. We have lived in a parsonage ever since coming to Nebraska and we had no idea if we even could get a loan or if we could even afford the housing market we were going into. Every time we have attempted to get into the market, it has always been a bit out of reach. So, we went and followed a realtor around for a few hours. Found some places that were really to far away from our church. We were just afraid that we would not be able to host people in our home and be able to offer an important part of our ministry, hospitality. We found one house about 30 minutes away and in need of some repair, but Kelly and I both just had no peace about making any offer on it.

We came home a bit discouraged, and yet we both knew that if the Lord wanted us in this place that He was going to work it all out. On January 6, 2008, I officially resigned as pastor of our church. It was very difficult. And yet in many ways, I find that God is ready to move here as well as in our move to Wisconsin. The morning of that Sunday, our realtor emailed a MLS sheet of a house in the area where we were hoping to find a home. The problem is that these homes are several thousands of dollars above our range. However, this one was in foreclosure and had been marked down "several thousands of dollars" below even the assessed price. I called Kelly and told her to look at it right away. Right then and there I knew that it was the one. Yeah, right! I hoped, but I figured that by the time we actually got back up there to look it would be gone. I know....."Oh ye of little faith."

Kelly and I planned a trip up to the area we are going to live and we set up an appointment to look at nearly 20 homes. We were determined to look and find our home in one day. We knew now what we could afford and so we set out. This house from the email was in our list. It was still on the market. No offers had been made and we were going to get to see it.

We looked at probably 5-6 houses before we got to it. Then, as soon as we walked in, Kelly and I both knew that this was our home. It gives me chills! We put in an offer still lower than what the bank had it listed for. We know that we were going to get it though. Yeah, right! We still didn't understand that God was truly working on our behalf. We got a counter offer that night and we countered yet again. The problem was that we didn't get it into them in time before they closed, so we had to wait all night until 10:00 the next morning. Our realtor, by the way here name is Angel, called and confirmed that we were accepted! We could hardly believe it. Oh, God is so Good! Can you taste it?

To imagine that He would consider me and my family! It does the bank of faith good to see the handiwork of God. It does our hearts good to know that He truly answers prayer. It does our children good to hear that God works and here is proof. We close the 31st and will move in on March 1. May God be praised!


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books