C&C

We have started teaching on doctrine in our College & Career class. Tomorrow we will continue to talk about sin. More specifically on how it lies waiting at the door.

The more I prepare the more I am reminded at how much I need to be cleansed. I don't ever want to find myself in a place where I refuse to repent: to plead and accept His mercy for my righteousness which is as filthy wrags...

I love the old song so much. I wish the verses wouldn't paint the picture that only those far away from Him need to be washed...

I want to be washed in the blood of the Lamb.
I need a cleansing from the fountain.
My soul is hungry. I've got this aching within.
I want to be washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Ode to Chick-fil-A







What does an ode have,
how is it written?
How can the World it tell
I love this chicken?
Chicken Mini's, Chicken Wraps,
Carrot and Raisin Salads.
And of course the Original
deserves it's own ballad.
Sweet Tea so perfect and who
doesn't love the cows
The Chicken Biscuit I adore.
My ode to Chick-fil-A.

Every year on the week of Valentines Texas Music Educators Association holds their annual conference in San Antonio. Last year we started a tradition I think we wont soon abandon. Julie attended the conference while I worked and Friday afternoon flew down to be with her.

This year we did the same and it was such a blessing to me. We got a great rate on the Double Tree hotel where we ordered in room service and spent the night enjoying each other's company.

In the Love Dare I found a list of 20 questions for your spouse and I think we got through 6. :) It is such a blessing to be married to someone that I can talk to. God is so good.

Afterwards we joined my Uncle David Ouellette and his wonderful family and will go to church with them tomorrow and continue a great time. Julie even got to meet my cousins Candy and Darren Murphy who were visiting from the pitiful state of Illinois :)

I will miss being at home and seeing God move, but my heart will be there. Happy Valentines!

Mario

Every now and again life gives us pictures. Some are pictures that take our breath away; I will never forget pulling the car to the side of the road to gaze at the majestic Pikes Peak while on I25. Some pictures warm your heart; I almost kidnapped a little girl in Wichita Falls one day because she heard my name and greeted me with it so enthusiastically when I was walking away. Other pictures never cease to make you laugh; YouTube "woman falls through floor."



I thought I would share one of those neat pictures with you. Some time around 1998 a man named Mario im'ed me. He had been searching profiles on AOL (if you can remember that world) and saw that I was studying Spanish in the United States.



"Mario from Portugal" as I would come to know him said that he was studying English, and asked if I would like to be his email pen pail so we could both work on our foreign languages. I consented and for about three months I kept up a correspondence.



But an interesting thing happened. I stopped emailing Mario quite some time ago, almost 10 years now, while he continued to email me. Every week or so an email will pop up in my inbox with the subject "friend" and Mario will tell me about his week (in much improved English) and sometimes throw in a devotional.



I have discarded more of these emails than I have ever opened, and regretfully I respond so infrequently. However, if and when I do respond the next day Mario has replied right back. Regardless of my silence Mario types on.


Now isn't that a neat picture?

Look Well

"The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going." – Proverbs 14:15

 

I feel like much of America has not looked well to our going.  I feel like we are economically headed in the wrong direction.

 

In the Oval Office Barack Obama passionately railed on executives that make too much money in bonuses in a "time like this".  Well though I could not agree more, what I don't agree with is the principle that he has any right to do anything about it.

 

The government has no clue what the value of goods and services are in a free market, because they can't.  I no more want the government dictating what Steve Jobs or Gary Kelly make than I want to talk on a government issued phone or fly on a government issued plane.

 

Oh but of course the problem is those bonuses came from government issued funds.  And that just is the problem.  When the government bailed out companies that were poorly managed and inefficiently run it could certainly not have expected those children to about face and behave properly.  Furthermore, the fact that they had not the foresight to prevent such misgivings and poor conduct are proof enough they have no business in the market.

 

And so today our fine looking president sternly warned congress of an impending irreversible economic crisis that would require a trillion dollar bailout.  How misguided could we be?

 

Romans 13:1 urges us to "submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established."  I think sometimes we as Christians forget that we are the established authority in our country.  God has ordained a country governed by the people.

 

I know that I am praying for our country and it's leaders.  I plead for you to join me. I also ask that we would "look well to our going" and take hold of the authority that God has ordained in us by being active in what ways we can. 

“A man with a testimony is never at the mercy of a man with an argument”

This anonymous author never argued with my brother. Seriously though, one of the qualities that I admire in Joseph James Ouellette is his unrelenting hold on truth. My brother is true to his Lord, true to his family, true to his church… he passionately holds to what he knows to be true. And speaking of passion, there are few who are spend themselves for the things they love and believe in like my older brother. I am so proud to follow him.

And so since today is his birthday I thought I would follow his lead and share a few interesting facts and fun memories that you may or may not know.

1) Joseph got REAL passionate one year in front of the Tabernacle at youth camp when a kid unloaded a packet of salt on his head. He literally (I am not exaggerating) picked the kid up by both cheeks and pinned him against the tin wall.
2) Joseph has not always been as skilled in the culinary arts as he is today, but yes he has always been adventurous in them. At the age of six or so he decided that he could cook on the gas space heater in our only bathroom and made chocolate chip eggs. Oh Joseph those tasted sooo bad. Thank the Lord you kept trying!
3) One summer while playing King of the Dock (kind of like King of the Hill, but on a wet slippery dock, (yes only boys…)) Joseph slipped and fell, hitting his head along his eyebrow and split open his skin very well. When we arrived at the Hospital in that small town, Joseph was very unimpressed with their presentation and fought my parents as to whether or not he could wait to drive all the way home to get the stitches sewn in civilization.
4) Perhaps his superior musical ability is somewhat akin to the fact that every week he would memorize his memory verse in a song. (Why didn’t I do that?)

My brother has blessed me my entire life. As a toddler he taught me his school lessons to ready me for school. As a child he would hold me when I would cry. As a youngster he protected me from neighborhood bullies. As a young man he told me with tears in his eyes how proud he was of me for letting God use me. As a man he has lead our family through years of adversity and shouldered loads that I could not bare. Happy Birthday, Joseph. I love you.