One-Another

A blog dedicated to helping encourage one another and stir one another up in love and good works that we might see Hebrews 10:24-25 become a greater reality in our lives. Also, a great place to share stories, photos, anouncements and pranks among friends! Welcome to our blog!

Friday, June 30, 2006

Would anyone like to go visit Wooddale Church, Sat. evening?

Quick news: I got my first new car! It's a Scion xB. Now I've got a snazzy ride!

Sat. (7/1), 5:15 pm: I'm going to attend the service at Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie. If anyone would like to go, I'd be happy to pick anyone up and give them a ride. (The xB seats 5.) I think Wooddale is a big church, like BBC size.

At the service we'll meet my friend Phil, and after service he's invited us to his house for hamburgers. Phil's been a Bible study leader for many years; I forgot the name of the Bible study, but I think it's a global one in which you go through the Bible every seven years. I promised Phil I would visit at least once before I left Minnesota.

So, yeah, if anyone would like to visit Wooddale with me and be treated to dinner, just let me know. (geoffhom@gmail.com; 612-481-0735) You can drive the xB, too. :-)

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Obedience ~ Continued

Feeling rebuked and challenged after reading Edwards is almost a "given" for believers it seems - and I think that Jonathan Edwards hit the nail on the head with this observation:

"The people manifested that they had a heart to intend to keep God's commandments, and to be very forward in those intentions; but God manifests, that this was far from being the thing that He desired, wherein true godliness consists, even a heart actually to keep them.

It is therefore exceedingly absurd, and even ridiculous, for any to pretend that they have a good heart, while they live a wicked life, or do not bring forth the fruit of universal holiness in their practice. For it is proved in fact that such men do not love God above all. It is foolish to dispute against plain fact and experience. Men that live in ways of sin, and yet flatter themselves that they shall go to heaven, or expect to be received hereafter as holy persons without a holy life and practice, act as though they expected to make a fool of their Judge. Which is implied in what the apostle Paul says Gal 6:7 "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." As much as to say "Do not deceive yourself with an expectation of reaping life everlasting hereafter, if you do not sow to the Spirit here; it is in vain to think that God will be made a fool of by you, that He will be shammed and baffled with shadows instead of substances, and with vain pretense instead of that good fruit which He expects, when the contrary to what you pretend appears plainly in your life before His face."

Excerpt from: The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards

Friday, June 23, 2006

Quote Board Episode III

QUOTABLE QUOTES FROM THE CABIN:

FIRST FUNNY
Geoff echoing Aaron's excitement about the luxurious pop-up camper he, Aaron and Devin were sleeping in. After Aaron exclaimed about the camper: "It's Jammin'!" Goeff, plain and clear chimed in, "It-is-jammin'."

I think Geoff is converting. Aaron's irresistable ghetto vocab has been influencing and re-forming even the most un-ghetto of the small group members. Way to go, Aaron for setting the example, and props, Geoff for being open to change. :)

SECOND FUNNY
In the car ride back from the cabin, Nate Hanes was heard humming a familiar tune by the Beach Boys ("Wish they all could be California girls")--but with some slight variations on the words: "Wish they all could be BBC girls..."

I think the words koolats (you know...the shorts that look like a skirt) and bonnets came up. Personally, I was thinking of adding the phrases "braids in their hair" or maybe even "know their theology..."

Anyone else think of some catchy lines that would describe what every male (*disclaimer: unmarried male) BBC small-group attendee wishes for BBC girls to be?

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Sneak Preview

So, lots of us have many more pictures than this...the following are simply to add the memories to our blog. Enjoy the sample and hopefully soon there will be a link where you can see everyone else's, too!


Happy...um....Thanksgiving? The grilled turkey was scrumptious and props to Michelle and her kitchen help who provided mouth-watering menu items all weekend! Posted by Picasa


Jon and Meg work on the Cat...ask Jon how his hands feel after sailing in the near-hurricane gusts that day... Posted by Picasa


Jen2 and Jess were state park kayak queens. An adventure through the reeds and weeds. Ah, memories! Posted by Picasa


Lisa's berries. What a great fruit salad that was! The essence of summer, for sure! Posted by Picasa


Grace, Meg, Jess and Nate Posted by Picasa


Geoff, Jess, Meg and Aaron enjoy a gorgeous Pelican Lake sunset. Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

One Another

One Another
Good Morning friends !
I'm thinking that it's pretty rare to find something written in recent days that rouses the soul to become more desperate for God and gives us a stronger desire for a more Holy heart .......wellp.......this poem has stayed with me since I heard it shortly after my conversion, and I thought that I'd share it with you.
It's called "The Vision"
I hope that it encourages your heart as it does mine - every time I read it!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So this guy comes up to me and says "what's the vision? What's the big idea?"
I open my mouth and words come out like this…The vision?
The vision is JESUS – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.
The vision is an army of young people.
You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism.
They laugh at 9-5 little prisons. They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday -
They wouldn't even notice. They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won. They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations.
They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying. What is the vision ?
The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry.
It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars.
It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure.
Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.
It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games.
This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day its soldiers choose to lose that they might one day win the great 'Well done' of faithful sons and daughters. Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don't need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!" And this is the sound of the underground. The whisper of history in the making, Foundations shaking, Revolutionaries dreaming once again, Mystery is scheming in whispers, Conspiracy is breathing…This is the sound of the underground....And the army is discipl(in)ed. Young people who beat their bodies into submission.
Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.
The tattoo on their back boasts "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain".
Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes. Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them ? Can hormones hold them back? Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them ?

And the generation prays ~ like a dying man with groans beyond talking, with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and with great barrow loads of laughter!
Waiting. Watching: 24 – 7 – 365.
Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.
They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive ~on the inside.
On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide. Would they surrender their image or their popularity?
They would lay down their very lives! - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell.
A throne for an electric chair.
With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days, they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them. Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.) Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus. Their words make demons scream in shopping centres.
Don't you hear them coming? Herald the weirdo's! Summon the losers and the freaks.
Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension.
Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily.. it will come soon. How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great 'Amen!' from countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.
Guaranteed.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

More Memorial Day pics

Thanks to Jon, Jess, Grace, Michelle, Aaron, Nate and everyone else for putting together such an encouraging time of fellowship!

In this pic (from l to r) are Devan, Lisa, Jess, Meg, Kurt, Mike, and Jenn.

Ralph (Grace's dad) and Jon.

























Our musical trio practices under a tree. And Linnea and Lisa.




Devan and Nate. Jordan and kids.






Jess.










Luke and Kurt.











Mike and Kristin.

Pics from the past few weeks


Pete kindly gave me a ride to United Noodles, supposedly the biggest Asian grocery store in the Midwest. It's right near downtown, but hard to find. Pete is holding a lotus leaf, which seemed pretty cheap to us. You know, in terms of square inch of lotus.












Gretchen sees something . . .










Gretchen, Jenn, and tree.










Nate, Jenn, and Gretchen do their impression of "Cingular."







Meg










Jenn does an advertisement for Aloe . . . the drink!









Grace and her parents (Ralph and ??).








The normally stately Jenn . . . caught flossing in public! The third pic is when Nate snuck up behind her. :-)














Rob










Jenn and her two sisters. Welcome to Bethlehem!