Bob's Blog

On May 16, 2008, Steven Curtis Chapman's 5 year old adopted daughter was killed when his 17 year old son accidentally ran over her in their driveway with the family's SUV. I recall a conversation that my 16 year old son and I had the day after this happened. He asked, "Dad, what do you say to someone when they do something like that." I remember responding that I did not know, but I was confident that the first words out of Steven Curtis Chapman's mouth to his son were critical. A father's words are powerful for the positive or for the negative, especially in a tragedy such as this. A few weeks ago, Steven Curtis Chapman and his family were on Larry King Live. They described the events of that day. I won't go into all of the details, but I did find out what Steven's first words were to his devastated son. After hitting his sister Maria, Will sprinted down the driveway trying to get away from the accident scene. He was tackled by his 18 year old...

...surpassing the usual or ordinary, heroic and impressive in quality! That is the definition of epic. When I think of films that are epics, I think of The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, Gone with the Wind and more recently, The Lord of the Rings. They are stories of epic struggle, life and death conflict and heroic action. Often, they are stories of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events. YOU HAVE BEEN BORN INTO AN EPIC! It is a story much like the story told in The Lord of the Rings. Your story, like theirs, begins in the middle of time. In fact, at first Frodo and Sam do not even realize that they are key players in a dangerous struggle that began hundreds of years before they were born. They can't see it. They live in blissful ignorance of the struggle that rages just outside the borders of their world. We too, live in ignorance of the epic struggle that we have been born into. Although for many of us there is one key difference. Ours is not a blissful ignoranc...

All of you are invited to the next JMC Cookout at 4pm on August, 23, 2008 at the Youth Center. All men and their sons are invited. We will have food, fellowship and games. Please bring a covered dish and a 2-liter. Don't forget to sign up at the Welcome Center at the church. Please see Bob Taylor or John Fernandes for more information.

Many of you know that we use a number of books written by John Eldredge in the JMC Men's Ministry. Some of you may not know what John Eldredge looks or sounds like. Here is a video of John summarizing his book called The Way of the Wild Heart .