I never knew how good God was at creative financing.We have now gone 10 months with no guaranteed paycheck and we are still alive and kicking! This past month was the first time that we have not raised enough money to cover our entire paycheck. We ended up around $500 short of our full pay for April.Dara and I decided to just tighten things up and simply make it work. I went to go pay my mortgage payment this week and found a great surprise. Our payment for this month was put off for the month because we had just redone our loan. One more month. One more story of God's amazing provision!God...

I have found recently a hunger for understanding the Bible like I have never known before. I figured I would shoot a blog post out there to give a glimpse on how I do my devotions. This can be one of the most frustrating parts of our relationship with God - most of us don't know how to spend time with Him on our own. What I'm about to share is constantly evolving and I have not cornered the market on time spent with God.- I pick a book of the Bible that I want to study. This is literally as simple as staring at the table of contents and praying, "what should I read next?"- Once I have picked...

I have never been one to come up with a good April Fools joke. Until today. I just updated my Facebook status to say "Dara and I just found out we are pregnant with #5!". It blew up. Congratulations all around for us via responses to my status. I guess it's easy to believe considering we have 4 kids and the oldest on is 5 years old :-)Fun joke. Now it's over 🙂

Ephesians 4:1 - Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. It is so easy to read Ephesians 4 - a portion of scripture famous for its beautiful description of unity - and completely fly by the first part of the first sentence. Paul is writing this incredibly encouraging and edifying letter from jail. From jail. He goes on to give an incredibly description of the active role we must play in striving for unity. All of this from a prison cell.This challenges me today to take a hard look at my own life when I face...

Max and I were out on the field throwing, fielding ground balls, catching and batting during baseball practice and a huge wave of emotion came over me tonight. I remembered dreaming of this for so long. After finding out we were have a baby boy almost six years ago I instantly began dreaming about the day that my boy and I could be on the diamond together playing a game that we both loved. It happened tonight.He was having so much fun out there. He was genuinely excited to be running and hitting and playing. It made my heart swell with pride to see him out there having such a good time. I...

5am is way too early to get robbed.I pulled into the parking lot at the coffee shop this morning and found my co-worker sitting in her car. We never enter or leave the store alone at open or close for safety reasons. Across from her was a guy suspiciously sitting in his car. I called her on her phone and told her to stay in the car. I looked across the parking lot and saw another car in the darkest part of our parking lot with another person just sitting in the car. Totally creepy.I called 911 and asked them to send an officer to check it out. A few minutes later a THIRD car came rolling...

I like to write down the things God is speaking to me so that I can look back on the process. I keep a journal (I use a program called Journler) on my computer that tracks our journey. I was reading some old entries today and I came across an entry from February 23, 2008."I don't want to step outside of your path to take my own." I hold on to Psalm 119:105 with all my heart - "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." I have found over and over again that time spent in the Word of God is exponentially more effective than all the best plans we can make on our own.I believe that...

God is faithful.Two days ago all signs were pointing to the fact that we did not have enough money for next month's paycheck. Yesterday $650 came in and we just received another $625 today. That brings our two day total to $1,275 of completely unexpected money coming in just in time.I remember blogging a couple of days ago "I Believe". God has taught Dara and I so much about trusting him and simply believing. I made a conscious decision three months ago that I would stop worrying and simply trust. God promised he would provide, so I decided to take that and believe with child like faith. It...

We just got a completely unexpected check today for $650. We're one miracle of provision closer to reaching our salary for next month. This never gets old 🙂

I spent the day with a phenomenal 22 year old leader. He is a friend of mine (to remain nameless) that is considering a huge move in his life. We spent the day together dreaming of the way ministry can look like in the future. I was challenged by his capacity to dream God-sized dreams. I was challenged by the fact that there was no fear in his voice as he articulated the huge things that God has placed in his heart.I am a dreamer. A visionary. I love to look out on the horizon and believe God for the impossible. If you have a God-sized dream, chase after it and never give up. If you have a...