Luke’s Notebook

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By the way, we played softball yesterday and won 7-2. I played the top of the first inning in flip-flops.

Romans 3:10-20

10As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;

11there is no one who understands,

no one who seeks God.

12All have turned away,

they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good,

not even one.”

13″Their throats are open graves;

their tongues practice deceit.”

“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”

14″Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

15″Their feet are swift to shed blood;

16ruin and misery mark their ways,

17and the way of peace they do not know.”

18″There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

“All have turned away.” “Not even one.” “None will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law.” Wow. What do you do when you stand guilty as charged? There’s not much else to say. I know I have no defense. I’m undeniably guilty. There’s no way to justify or sugarcoat it.

On My Cross - FFH

How wide is Your love

That You would stretch Your arms

And go around the world

And why for me would a Savior’s cry be heard

I don’t know

Why You went where I was meant to go

I don’t know

Why You love me so

Those were my nails

That was my crown

That pierced Your hands and Your brow

Those were my thorns

Those were my scorns

Those were my tears that fell down

And just as You said it would be

You did it all for me

After You counted the cost

You took my shame, my blame

On my cross

How deep is Your grace

That you could see my need

And chose to take my place

And then for me, these words I’d hear You say

Father no

Forgive them for they know not what they do

I will go

Because I love them so

That song really captures my mood. I know those were my nails, my thorns. All I can think is that I deserved to be up there. And I think it’s so key that we always remember that.

John 15:13

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

After that, how could you help but crying out to God and begging for His mercy, being blown away by the amazing love that He has for us?

Life is great. Really! So great.

It’s funny how it works.

For some reason, I am just not in the “mood” to make an entry. It’s strange how a seemingly trivial thing like a mood can make the difference in a lot of things. It sure can take some work to shake that feeling off.

Philippians 4:4:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

I guess right now still falls under “always,” doesn’t it? So, time to rejoice!

God is so good to us. There should be absolutely no room for apathy or discontentment. There is just so much to be thankful for. So much. Thank You, God!

It was a beautiful day. And a beautiful night. It’s a little bit cooler here than normal, with a high right around 80 degrees. It almost felt like an early-fall day or something. The air had a really “clean” feel to it. And this night is just gorgeous, as it is somewhat cool, and the sky is full of stars. I was out in our backyard earlier, and I was just marveling at the beauty of the sky. I even saw a shooting star.

I played a pair of softball games this evening. At 6:30, I was subbing for a friend’s team. At 8:30, our family played, but we lost 12-4. One thing that was really special for me was that I got to play first base the entire game. I hardly ever get to play first, as I’m almost always somewhere in the outfield, but I always jump at an opportunity to play in the infield.

It’s a nice change of pace, and I actually played first base for several years, so it’s pretty familiar territory. At any rate, I just had fun playing there this evening, even though we didn’t win. And, as I mentioned, it was a beautiful evening, so that made it all the more enjoyable just to be out in the fresh air.

Four years ago, our family began construction on our new house. June 26th, 2002, was when a few of us older guys, shovels in hand, started working on digging the footings for our house. That sweltering summer day was the beginning of the one-and-a-half-year adventure that was building this house.

We learned so much during the construction process. We obviously learned a lot of valuable construction skills, but more importantly we learned to lean all the more on our awesome God. The series of miracles, doors opening, and things just working out never ceased, as God was with us every step of the way. There is absolutely no way that I would be sitting here in my attic room, a good 35 feet above where the footings lie, without God’s hand. It was truly amazing how God had orchestrated so many different things throughout this marathon project. God is faithful.

Without further ado (by the way, I used to think it was further “adieu,” but not so), here are a few pictures from the first of many, many days on the job. I (and the rest of my brothers) were just learning on the fly, and the learning would go on for another year-and-a-half.

I can’t believe it’s been four years already. What an experience the whole project was. Wow. It’s pretty humbling to realize God’s awesome power and just how helpless we would be if we relied on our own feeble efforts to get things done.

Psalm 127:1

Unless the LORD builds the house,

its builders labor in vain.

Unless the LORD watches over the city,

the watchmen stand guard in vain.

Amen.

This evening, we had another wedding to videotape. This time, Paul, Mark, and I went to St. Henry’s Catholic Church in Belleville, and we covered this wedding. Immediately afterwards, Mark and I drove over to a nearby country club, where the reception was held.

In other news, I finally finished making up the network outlets in the basement. I recently ordered the faceplates and the keystone snap-in modules for the Cat5e, Cat3, and coaxial cables. The supplies arrived the other day, and so I was able to make up about seven outlets that are scattered across the basement. There’s something so satisfying about screwing on a faceplate. It finally looks complete. I really like networking. It’s really neat stuff.

I’m looking forward to this Sunday. The past couple of weeks have been very fun and exciting but unusually busy and tiring. *yawn* So I’m not going to mind lazying it up for a little bit.

Verizon Wireless has a new GPS tracking service called “Chaperone.” Sounds pretty interesting. I bet parents will love this feature. Kids might not be as thrilled. It’s really not a bad idea, though. It would also help, obviously, to locate your phone if it was lost or stolen.

And that’s this weekend’s technology report.

A few assorted things. It turns out that the documentary feature that I mentioned would air on TLC, not Discovery Health. I’m not sure where I got Discovery Health from. Oh, well.

This morning, I went to the YMCA with Dad. We had a good workout and some good chats during the drive to and fro.

We had a huge rainstorm this afternoon, washing out our 8:30/10:30 softball double-header. Our power actually went out for a little while this evening. Now that it’s back, I have a newfound appreciation for electricity! Another one of those conveniences that I all too often take for granted. Thank God for electricity!

There was… something else that I was going to mention, but I can’t remember it. Oh, well.

This isn’t it, but is anybody familiar with the group Merchant Band? They have some terrific songs.

Proverbs 12:15

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkens unto counsel is wise.

So true. The problem for me is I can think that I’ve got a pretty good grasp on things already, and it may not occur to me to seek wisdom from somebody else.

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

This one is kind of surprising. Those are some pretty strong words. So many times, well-meaning people will urge you to just “Follow your heart” in regards to some issue you have. But from this verse, it seems like just the opposite. Do we need to actually protect ourselves from our own hearts? Or is it just a matter of terminology? Obviously, nobody is referring to the physical heart.

Either way, it’s kind of interesting. Anybody have any thoughts on this? Oftentimes, people will warn “Guard your heart.” I think most people take that to mean protect your heart. But is it, in fact, the other way around?

EDIT:

I was searching for this verse, but I couldn’t find it until now. It’s Proverbs 4:23:

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.