Today was my last day at Graphics 3. I was about a week shy of finishing my sixth year there. It was tough leaving. I’ve really enjoyed my work in the printing industry. I’ve learned so much. It’s been great fun and at the same time a real challenge.

My co-workers gave me a real nice send off. They are a great bunch of people with whom I really enjoyed working. My job at Graphics 3 has been one of the best I’ve ever had.

Now our family looks forward to new opportunities for ministry and the challenges that come with them. This Sunday we say goodbye to our church family and in a week we’ll be loading our belongings to move four hours north to beautiful Higgins Lake, Michigan. We’re so thankful for the years we’ve had here and thankful for how they’ve prepared us for the work ahead.

Some celebrate 30 years of the right to “choose”. Others are saddened by choices that have been made during the last thirty years.

As a dad with eight children, whom I love with all my heart, I can’t imagine my wife and I having chosen to take the life of one of our little ones. They are all precious to me. Yet there are those who have made that choice. Certainly, choosing to have an abortion or helping someone make that decision is difficult.

We are not without help. God’s Word ought to direct us in all we do. Whether we are confronted with the choice or with those who choose we must ultimately turn to God’s Word for direction.

I want to offer up a few links to the sermons of John Piper on this subject as he has addressed this well over the years.

Rescuing Unborn Children: Required and Right - Proverbs 24:10-12
Abortion: Shall We Listen to Men or to God? - Acts 4:13-22
Compassion and the Killing of Children - Hebrews 10:32-35

There are also many resources. Here are a few…

Abortionfacts.com
National Right to Life
Care Net
Baptists for Life

For the next couple weeks or so you’ll see little posting from me here as our family prepares for our move up north. There are many arrangements to be made, boxes to be packed and goodbye’s to be said. The occasional post you see over the next few weeks will be while I’m unwinding from preparations for, the process of and settling in after, the move.

Six years ago we moved to Michigan so I could take a job at Graphics 3. Little did I know at the time that God would provide an opportunity for me to pastor in Jonesville just three and a half years ago.

Jonesville Baptist Church has been a great experience for us as a family. We love the folks here and I have truly enjoyed the fellowship we’ve shared and the opportunity to shepherd God has given me.

There are new ministry opportunities on the horizon for us though. I have recently accepted a call to pastor Higgins Lake Baptist Church, in Higgins Lake, Michigan. The Lord’s timing in this has been incredible and He once again proves He is in control. With great anticipation we look forward to our relocation to northern Michigan and the challenges and blessings that lie ahead.

With a bit of sadness we look around and realize we will miss those we’ve grown to love as family here in Jonesville. We have grown together in the cause of Christ. It is for the work the Lord has for us we must move on and we look forward to the new family we will join at Higgins Lake.

Soon we’ll share a photo or two of where we are going for those who’d like to see the beautiful surroundings the Lord is placing us in. We’ll begin the work at Higgins Lake during the first week of February. The Lord is good. In all things He has truly blessed us.

One of these could make a PC guy want to switch–come on, OS X is based on FreeBSD.

Lee Strobel speaks of the challenges of evangelism in this article from Rick Warren’s Ministry Toolbox. I think church leadership needs to do a better job of helping Christians understand their role in evangelizing the lost. So many in the church think they can’t do it. These thoughts are especially helpful;

“John 6:44 clearly says no one comes to Christ unless the Father draws Him. No one! If this is true, shouldn’t we depend upon God and not ourselves? To do so liberates us from feeling weighed down and having to be perfect. When we share the gospel, we do the best we can. We pray and rely on God. Then leave the results to Him. This is one burden God never meant for us to bear ourselves.”

My little brother’s birthday is today. Happy Birthday Nathan! Nathan is an awesome music minister at Northeastern Baptist Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He’s been the best little brother a guy could have. You ought to go check out his site and listen to some of his music. Better yet, make his day and buy one of his CD’s or leave him a comment below.

More MovableType tricks for future reference; Drop Down Menus. This code works pretty well for implementing drop down menus in MovableType. I may try it soon here or elsewhere.

I’m still in that mode that has me thinking about the things I want to work on during the year 2003. I suppose many of us feel as I do; that there is a lot of room for improvement in my life (yes I know, you agree, I need to make improvements in my life). That’s why I found Chuck Swindoll’s thoughts on the lists of Moses (Exodus 20:3-17) and Peter (2 Peter 1:5-8) so helpful in today’s devotional at Dallas Theological Seminary.

Look at Peter’s list…

• Be a diligent person.
  
• Don’t waver in your faith.
  
• Be known for uncompromising moral excellence.
  
• Enlarge your reservoir of knowledge; keep learning. Stay balanced; guard against extremes.
  
• Persevere.
  
• Make sure your godliness is free of hypocrisy.
  
• Treat others tactfully, graciously.
  
• Let your Christian love flow, let it flow, let it flow.

“If you take these lists seriously, two things are certain: 1) You won’t be the same person you were last year, and 2) You certainly won’t get bored.”

“Without God, life is a monotonous repetition of weeks, months, seasons, years, decades, and generations.”

I’m getting tired of hunting for the solution to the Internet Explorer browser bug that causes MovableType sites with their default style sheets to truncate the pages. Every time I help setup an MT site it seems I run into this problem and must try to remember the cure, so this link is more or less for my future reference. If you develop sites with MovableType you might find it useful also. FYI–using the following code before the closing </body> tag does the trick for me.

<div style=”clear:both;”></div>