Christmas At Work

I absolutely love where I work!  Employee owned, every monthly and quarterly meeting is started out with a prayer and they love to have fun!  Now I don't really do the Halloween decorating thing, but I do like decorating for Christmas, so I decided to decorate my cube this year.  It's not complete as I still need to tidy up the lights some, and hang icicle lights from the ceiling above my cube, but here is where it is at right now. 

As you can tell, I have a certain theme: The University of Texas.  Tell me what you think.

Merry Christmas!

Eric

Upcoming Prison Ministry Event -- Prayer Request

Bill Glass' Champions for Life will be partnering up with the I Am Second Locked Up student ministry to have an opportunity to present the Gospel to the inmates at the Dawson State Jail this coming January 15th and we need your prayer support for this.

For those who follow my blog, or visit from time to time, you may have read of my last trip to the Dawson State Jail in Dallas, Texas back in November; this partnership with the I Am Second Locked Up student ministry has allowed me the opportunity to go back again to help spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to those behind the razor wire.

This will be a smaller event that we had last time, with only a total of 80 teammates attending from the Bill Glass Ministry.  I am looking forward to this, believe me, but we do need your help.  Not financially, but spiritually.  We need prayer cover for this.  The Dawson State Jail is a very dark place spiritually; you can literally feel it when you walk in.  Your prayers are are one of the biggest helps we can have.  Pray specifically for those on the inside to have their hearts softened and receptive to the Gospel message.  Pray for those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ to be praying and studying, and living a life that glorifies God, even on the inside.  Especially on the inside.

Pray for those of us who are going in.  Pray specifically that we are prepared to speak as the Holy Spirit directs us to.  Pray for our protection, physically and spiritually.  But most of all PRAY!  That is the biggest weapon we have; the prayers of the saints.

I am looking forward to this.  Thank you for your prayers.

Eric

A Fantastic Giveaway From Tyndale!

I haven't blogged about giveaways in a long time, but this one excites me enough to tell you about it.
 
Starting on November 29^th until December 24^th at the New Living Translation Facebook page page Tyndale is giving away lots of great prizes and something free for you, the reader, just for singing up.
By visiting the giveaway entry page (located on the NLT Facebook page, the link is under the profile picture) and entering your name and e-mail address you'll be entered to win the following prizes:

• One random person each day will win a Life Application Study Bible Family Pack (Guys Life Application Study Bible hc, Girls Life Application Study Bible hc, Student's Life Application Study Bible hc, Life Application Study Bible hc, Life Application Study Bible Large Print hc).
• One Random person each week will win an Apple iPad 2!

Everyone that signs up gets a free download copy of the Life Application Bible Study – Book of Luke!

So do yourself a favor and head over to the New Living Translation Facebook page and check it out!

Eric 

A Review of The 21-Day Dad's Challenge: Three Weeks To A Better Relationship With Your Kids Edited by Carey Casey

As the dad of two girls, I am always looking for good advice on how to deal with the ins and outs of how to be a better dad than I had in my life.  Besides the Bible, this is one of the best books I have ever read on this subject, and that is not something I say lightly.

The 21-Day Dad's Challenge : Three Weeks To A Better Relationship With Your Kids offers the reader 21 articles written by dads such as Carey Casey, Tony Dungy, Jim Daly, Randy Alcorn, Chip Ingram, Josh McDowell, Shaun Alexander just to name a few.  With chapter titles such as "What's in a Name", "I'm Sorry, I Was Wrong!", "No Experience Required" and "Where's Daddy?" the reader is presented not with nuggets of wisdom, but an entire avalanche of fatherly advice for those dads wanting or needing it.

The book itself is an easy read at 128 pages, but it is designed to not just be read, but one designed to be acted upon.  Each article contains a challenge relevant to the article as well as a place to help plan out the reader's actions to accomplish the challenge. To help the reader the book also utilizes QR Barcodes, readable by any QR barcode reader downloadable on most smartphones.  For those readers who do not have a QR Barcode reader, links are provided for the reader to type into any web browser.  Each of the barcodes take the reader to an online video for more information about the current challenge.

As an example, here is the QR Barcode for the introduction of the book.
                                     
                                          

I am highly recommending this book to everyone who is a dad, dad to be, or planning on being a dad.  Don't just read this book, but act upon this book.  Use it.  Your kids will thank you for it in ways you never dreamed of.

Five out of five stars!

(Disclosure:  I did receive an advanced copy of this book from Tyndale to review and made no promises as to the nature of my review.  The posted review is mine and mine alone.)

A Review of Awakening - A New Approach to Faith, Fasting, and Spiritual Freedom by Stovall Weems

One of the subjects I am interested in as a Follower of Christ is fasting.  Fasting is something that I do not do very often, so when I saw I had a chance to read and review Stovall Weems' book Awakening - A New Approach to Faith, Fasting, and Spiritual Freedom, I decided to opt for this book and see what I might be missing.

What I was missing was the feeling that I was reading the script for a 30 minute infomercial on Mr. Weems' approach to being closer to God. 

After reading through this book, and in some cases, re-reading parts of it, I am still not sure what Mr. Weems is trying to convey here.  I do not doubt Mr. Weems' faith, nor his beliefs, but there are many places I disagree with him.  I do not know if he believes in the so called "prosperity gospel" that is preached by people such as Kenneth Copeland or Creflo Dollar, but one section in particular of his book, on providing more room for God to fill in areas of your life dealt with tithing , and the prosperity message seemed to come out loud and clear.

Another aspect seemed to be weight loss.  Even though Mr. Weems stated in his book that fasting is not about weight loss, he wrote more than once about how much weight was lost after fasting.  I am not sure I can equivocate  getting closer to God with losing weight, but this is part of what I received from reading the book.

Mr. Weems does attempt to back up his writing by quoting scripture, however, anyone who actually does study the Bible will tell you that anyone can take a single scripture and make it fit their need.  It is when you read the scripture in context to the ones around it that you derive the real meaning of the quoted scripture.  I believe that Mr. Weems has taken some, not all but some scripture out of context for his book.  I am not saying that there is not any meat in this book, indeed there are some very good morsels to find, but they are few and far in between. 

I am giving this book two out of five stars, and sadly, this is one book that I am not recommending to my friends and colleagues.

Please note that this book was presented to me by Waterbrook Press for the purpose of reviewing the book.  I did not promise, nor in any way indicate a positive or negative review to the publisher.  The review as presented is mine and mine alone.

A Review of Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well by Billy Graham

There are two things a person can be sure of in this world: death and taxes.  I would like to add a third thing a person can be sure of and that is the faith Billy Graham has in Jesus Christ.

I have just finished reading Reverend Graham's latest book, Nearing Home: Life,  Faith, and Finishing Well and I can say that I am not disappointed in it.  This is not to say that there are a couple of areas in the book when I felt that the advice given by Reverend Graham seemed redundant and very basic to me as well as times that the focus of the book was more towards a more aged and elderly audience than to a general audience that included people of my age group or younger.  ( I am 43.) 

With that said however, Reverend Graham's emphasis is on Jesus Christ and the reader's relationship with Him and this is shown in every facet of his writing in this book.  Reverend Graham encourages the readers of this book to not drift away, nor fade away, but live strong as you age, passing down the accumulated knowledge and wisdom to those younger than the readers of this book.  The title of the book says it all: finishing well in life and faith. 

Reverend Graham still shows his love for everyone in this world as at least twice in this book he encourages his readers to pause and accept the free gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ.  Reverend Graham is best known as an evangelist for Jesus Christ and he is still going strong in his calling as shown in this book. 

Reading this book did feel to me like I was sitting down on the front porch with the grandfather everyone wants or needs and listening to the years of knowledge and wisdom being poured forth, and I listened to every word.  Yes, the book sometimes is a slow read, but bear with it; finishing the book will give you insight on how to best prepare for your years to come. 

I am giving this book four stars and am recommending this book to you.

Please note that this book was provided to me by Thomas Nelson Publishers for review.  I did not promise nor guarantee in any way a positive review.   This review is mine and mine alone and was not influenced by any outside party.

Back to Prison with Bill Glass

I am exhausted. 

This weekend was the Bill Glass' Prison Ministry's DFW Weekend of Champions event.  19 prisons. 12,000 inmates.  Over 850 men and women giving their time and money to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to those locked up behind the razor wire. 

The results?  3673 total responses to the Gospel including 1623 first time!  I had the privilege of leading one of those first timers to Christ, and challenged another to re-dedicate his life to Christ.

I was at the Dawson State Jail, right outside downtown Dallas and out of all of the prison units I have ever been to, this had to have been the most oppressive and depressive of them all.

Front of the Dawson State Jail

People waiting to visit their loved ones in the Dawson State Jail.

This prison unit is located in an 11 story building right across from the Dallas County Jail and Justice Complex and is run by the CCA, which is a private prison management corporation.  This is a state prison, but is run by this private corporation.   It is a coed facility with the men housed on floors three, four and five, and the women housed on floors six through 10.  Of course we had women ministering to women and men to men.

I was assigned to the third floor, pod C, which houses 54 men.  The spiritual oppression was thick, and was felt by all three of us as we walked in.  During the first hour or so of being in the pod, I watched as one of my fellow team mates talked with two of the men from the pod; I was sitting a few feet away from them praying under my breath, rebuking the enemy and praying for boldness and for God to send me those ready to hear his call.

I have to say that this had to be the most difficult unit to hold a ministry event in.  The platform speakers had to use their natural voices only; no PA system was available for some reason, even though we had one on the floor that was brought with us.  When the speakers did speak, they had to deal with flushing toilets, TVs turned on, domino games,  other inmates speaking, and sleeping inmates.  It wasn't impossible, but was difficult. 

After the first speaker, I was seated at one of the metal tables when I had first two, then three inmates sit with me, all of whom professed to be believing Christians.  I asked them questions about their spiritual beliefs and decided to go ahead and go through the tract we use anyway, as a "just in case" measure.  About halfway through this, we were joined by another younger, tattooed inmate.  I asked him about his beliefs and he said he wasn't sure about them.  I told the others at the table that I wanted to focus on the youngster, since he was not sure and they were and they all agreed with me.  It took about 20 minutes, asking him what he thought of each scripture that was read, then if he said he was confused, I did my best (with the Holy Spirit's help) to explain what each one meant.  At the end I asked him if he wanted to accept Christ as his savior he said he did.  We prayed together and we all welcomed him to the family!  I have to say it was one of the most rewarding feelings of my life.

A few hours later, I spoke with another inmate who confessed Christ as his Lord and Savior, but had fallen away in his faith.  After speaking for another hour I finally asked him why he was waiting to re-dedicate his life to Christ and he answer that he wanted to wait until he had his life straightened up.  I told him that today is the day of salvation, not tomorrow.  Finally I looked at him and told him, "You're doing a cop out and you need to quit.  Make your decision now and stick to it!"  He looked at me with a very startled look and told me no one had ever spoken like that to him until now, but that I was right.  He held out his hand which I took and he prayed right then to repent and re-dedicate his life.   I really like it when the Holy Spirit makes a move like that!

The rest of the weekend was about the same for us.  Lots of distractions, some seekers, but mostly it was lonely inmates who were very happy to just have someone new to talk to.  So that's what we mostly did.  Listen.  And in listening, I hope that we showed them the love of Christ.

Eric