re:Think

I'm Now On MySpace.com

For those of you who still come by, which there have been a few, you will find me on myspace.com these days. I just started it and will soon have a CD for your listening enjoyment. In the next week or two you will be able to hear some of the songs that will be on said CD. So check me out there.

Oh, and there's also a blog there! (You didn't think I'd be on the web without one did you?)

Check it out! CLICK HERE

Thanks for journeying with me!

from †St. Valdez @ 4:31 PM | E-mail This Post Home

Blog Elsewhere

To my few friends, blog followers and family that still show up here to read this. I have decided to take a break from this blog. It may be a long while before I come back to this place. There are more important things in my life right now than keeping up with various blogs and trying to think of things to post to keep people coming back to this blog.

As most of you already know, I am the moderator of The Living Room blog, a colaberation between friends who live here in my hometown. You can keep up with me (and us) there. I'll retain owwnership of this blog, but won't be posting anything of substance for quite sometime, I'm sure.

Thank you to all who have come and journeyed with me here. I hope you join us in The Living Room. Until then, may God's favor and peace be with you all.

st.

from †St. Valdez @ 4:04 PM | E-mail This Post Home

"The Word of God" - The Bible (Part 1, Post 3)

Picking up where I left off a long time ago....

I wonder about things like the bible. Where exactly did it all come from? How did all of the books come to be in one collection? Who wrote the books? Why does the Protestant bible have less books than some of the Catholic bibles. Why are those books not included? How many other writings have been left out and why? How do we know the bible is without errors? Especially when there are so many variations in the many different manuscripts. How do we know that some of the people who copied the existing manuscripts we have from the manuscripts no longer in existence didn't add their own thoughts or explanations to what they copied? Why do we trust a group of scholars from thousands of years ago to have made the right choices in the books they chose? And why is it wrong for me to ask these questions?

Is the bible the centerpoint of our faith, so much to where if it did have errors or any of these other things that our faith would crumble? Sometimes I think Christians have regarded the bible almost to the point of worship. No, I don't think anyone will ever vocally give worship to the bible, but it is held in extremely high regards, so much to the point where it is called "The Word of God." Yet the scriptures themselves are clear in several places as to whom that name has been given, and it is Jesus.

One thing to notice...in all of my questioning and commenting, I have never once said anything about not living by the principles that are found within the bible. Never once have I said that we should discard it or modify it, add to it or take away from it.

Its as if long ago there were a great discovery by some of the spiritual leaders of the day, and if word got out about the discovery it was feared it would would shake Christianity to the core and cause mass apostasy, so it was covered up and they began telling everyone, these are the Christian beliefs, these are the things you have to just accept by faith and to question them is heresy and blasphemy, ... and nothing has changed today since then.

Its like saying the bible is inerrant and infallible, it is the very word of God, the men who wrote it were filled with the Spirit and couldn't possibly have made any mistakes, the men who copied the manuscripts were spiritual leaders in those days and couldn't possibly have made mistakes or inserted their own explanations or thoughts, and all of the men in both of the councils who decided which books to include and which books to exclude were spiritual leaders in those days and couldn't possibly have made a mistake or wrong choices and to question it is heresy and blasphemy.

To explore, to question, to search is, in many places, regarded as heresy, falling away, or losing faith. Yet in my own life exploring, questioning and searching out these things has brought more meaning and depth to my faith than many other things. Have I found everything I was taught to be correct or true? No. Have I fallen away or lost faith because of it? No. I'm confident in all of it that at the core of all my searching and questioning I will find Jesus and be that much more equipped to bring others to Him. In fact, I believe it is the Spirit leading me in my search.

from †St. Valdez @ 4:46 PM | E-mail This Post Home

Hiatus

Grace and peace to you all, this night. As you can tell, I've taken a bit of a hiatus from this blog. Part of it has been unintentional. The other part has been very intentional.

At the beginning of June I was promoted to the manager position at Apple Creek Apartments, the complex I've been working at for the last two and a half years. So my work life has grown a bit since then. I've really enjoyed the change. My boss, the owner of the complex has come to town several times and we discussed improvements and new ideas and so far he has been willing to do just about everything we've brought to the table, which has been cool. So our work load had shifted to include some outdoor improvements and renovations, not to mention just keeping up with getting the apartments ready and rented, taking care of maintenance issues, etc.

Don't miss understand, I don't do all of these things by myself, the Lord has blessed me with a great staff. One of the maintenance guys was there before I took over, and we have had a good working relationship, as well as friendship for a while now. He has been a great asset for me in this transition. At the beginning of June we hired another maintenance guy who has been great! He has 19 years experience in this field and is a very hard worker. In April a new office person was hired on and she is now the Assistant Manager. She's been doing a great job at showing and renting apartments, as well as getting people checked in and situated. There has also been another individual who works for the owner, but not necessarily for the apartment complex, who has been helping out with some of the outdoor improvements. He has been a great help in some of the leg work.

So that's about the unintentional part. The intentional part goes something like this...

I haven't been satisfied with the way the posting has been going here. Life here, with friends and family has been rough lately. Our family is still going through a lot with the loss of my wife's mom. Some days things are good, other days are tough, and some of us just barely hold on. Then we've had friends who have had to walk through some very deep valleys, and we've been blessed to be a part of their lives and journey with them during these times. Some of you have read here just how tough their situations have been. And while we are, as I said, blessed to journey with them through these things, this particular blog was intended to be something other than what it has become. So a break is needed in order to refocus and re:Think (ha ha) what direction this blog needs to be going.

However, in the mean time, there has been a resurrection of sorts of a former blog that some of you may have followed. The Living Room, once a place of musings, rants, thoughts and conversations, is back and off to a great start. I've even brought along some friends. I'll list them by their screen names and link their blogger profiles as well so that you can check them out. The Project...our families used to go to church together, way back when. He has served in the military and other things you can read about. He lives here in town again, and we've connected in a cool way and have been journeying together for the past 7 months or so. Then there's RonStar...we've know each other since high school, have played in a couple of worship bands together , and he has been mentioned on this blog before. Needless to say, we've been good friends for a while. Last, but not the least, in any way, we have Walter "Boogodie Boogodie" Waiters...famous Blues/Southern Soul entertainter. Our friendship has matured over the past year or so. We got off to a rocky start, but have come to respect each other and bring each other to a fall out, rollin' on the floor, laughing spell over some of the most ordinary life events around our neighborhood.

re:Think will remain, but may only be posted to every so often over the next few months, until things get situated and refocused. Any CD information will be posted as soon as it comes available. But while you hold your breath, waiting for my return to re:Think, I invite you to breathe in a new air, a fresh look at a journey of life and faith among friends...trying to make it through to the next all in one peice and possibly bring along some others. Pull up a chair and join us at The Living Room.

Until next time, peace to you all.

st.

from †St. Valdez @ 8:07 PM | E-mail This Post Home

Time of Prayer

Tonight at 8:30 (CST) we will be having a time of prayer over and with the Starkey family at their house. For those of you who are close by, please feel welcome to join us. For those of you who are far away, we petition your prayers as well.

Please continue to lift them up.

st.

from †St. Valdez @ 4:54 PM | E-mail This Post Home

Walking Through

I was able to spend the evening with Ron and Kim after I got off work today. They are taking one day, sometimes one step, at a time and walking in the grace God has given. After some time at Kincannon we went back to their house. Ron and I played our guitars and sang for a while. It was a good time. I don't know that it had the affect either of us were halfway expecting, but we are sure the purpose for that time was served. I'm so grateful that we're here, in this time and place to be able to be with our friends, whom we consider to be part of our family.

Please pray for us all as we go through the day tomorrow. It will be a difficult time.

from †St. Valdez @ 10:03 PM | E-mail This Post Home

Celebration in Honor of Ryan Starkey

The celebration in honor of Ryan Starkey will be this Saturday, May 13, 2006 at 2:00 p.m. at the Kincannon Funeral Home with graveside services to follow. The family has requested no black attire, as they would like to celebrate the life of their son.

Please pray for them during the coming days and weeks ahead.

Blessings and peace to you all.

from †St. Valdez @ 2:03 PM | E-mail This Post Home

Awestruck by My Children

Tonight, before putting my kids to bed, my daughter, Kanzy (5 years old), suggested that we pray for baby Ryan (Ron and Kim's baby boy). We sort of let my daughter be "in charge" of the prayer time since it was her suggestion. She wanted Brenda to pray first and then she prayed. I have never seen or heard a 5 year old pray with such fervor and compassion in my life. I could only weep as I sat and listened to my little girl as she prayed for Ron, Kim, Taylor, Kourtney and the loss of their baby and brother, Ryan. She was so thankful that God was "holding baby Ryan as good" as He was. As I began to pray I broke down in tears again, and then watched in amazement as she pulled tissues from the tissue box and began wiping our tears from our cheeks. One by one she wiped my tears away, Brenda's tears, and then her brother, Drayton's tears.

As my son, Drayton (8 years old), began to pray and weep over his friends, which included The Starkey family, Jacob and thankfulness for our friends and family that are still around in our lives, Brenda and I were so totally blown away at the heart of our son and daughter. A total feeling of loss, yet gratitude that little Ryan was able to get "just a peek of this world." Then he lost all words, and just wept, as my daughter wiped his tears and brought comfort.

Then Kanzy began to pray again for our friends and family, asking God to "help Ron and Kim to stay together and still be a family because we're all a family together."

Never in my life have I seen such power and awareness flow from children as I saw tonight in my own living room. There was so much more depth in it all than what I can describe here. We spent about 30 minutes just sitting there on the couch praying and letting them take care of each other and bringing comfort to us all. We answered some questions about Heaven and dying. Then I watched as my family embraced each other and listened as my little girl said she wanted to "be strong" for us because this time is hard and we're all a family.

So totally grateful and humbled by the Spirit moving in and through my children this evening. Even more...convicted to be better examples than we have been of being the body of Christ to one another.

My children "get it." They have "got it" long before many adults even begin to think about "getting it." So amazing.

Blessed be the name of the Lord! You give and take away, yet our hearts will choose to say, blessed be Your name!

from †St. Valdez @ 9:21 PM | E-mail This Post Home

Pray For The Starkey Family

Would you please pray for my friends, Ron and Kim Starkey (and their family). They lost their son this morning. He was only a few months old. They took him to the hospital because he wasn't breathing. He passed away around 5:40 a.m. This will be difficult, to say the least.

Thanks and peace to you this day.
st.

from †St. Valdez @ 4:16 AM | E-mail This Post Home

What Jacob Has

Jacob has Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis. It is a rare disease, as you will read at the above link. From what I know, it is treated with much the same kinds of "medicine" as cancer (i.e. chemo & radiation), but according to the doctors, it is less severe than cancer, in Jacob's case.

So overall, it's great news for Jacob, and great news to his family. I spoke with Tommy a while ago and he was on his way back home from Oklahoma City, after being with Jacob for his second round of chemotherapy. Our conversations have been short, but from the sounds of it, Jacob is back at school. As soon as I find out how often Jacob receives his treatments, I'll let you all know.

Even though it's a great relief that Jacob doesn't have cancer, there's still a long journey ahead for him and his family. I'm sure they would covet your prayers.

Sorry it took so long for me to get this down. Things have been hectic here. I'd love to be able to stay in step on the blog, but things just haven't allowed for it lately.

Peace to you all.

from †St. Valdez @ 8:00 PM | E-mail This Post Home