I haven't posted in a while due to a new addition to the family.  A little over a week ago someone dropped off a baby on our doorstep and we decided to  adopt.  Here's a picture of the little one:

A neighbor found the cat on the side of a major thoroughfare behind our subdivision and brought it to us since we are "cat people"... as she put it.

Some time ago I was trying to explain to my children how our deeds have greater value after we are redeemed than before we are redeemed.

The analogy of a coupon came to mind:

The inherent value of the coupon is only 1/100 of a cent. You would have to gather up 100 coupons to get a single penny! That is like our deeds before we are redeemed:

...And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment...

- Isaiah 64:6

Front time to time I receive messages from a dear brother in Messiah, Kevin Smithson.  He travels extensively with his bride, Heather, and shares amazing stories of faith.  Here is his latest:

I have desired to get information out to you all about some awesome things GOD is doing and our many travels since getting back to TX.  However, I have not made the time to get it done.  When I saw this I definitely wanted to get this great story to you.   So, even though it is nearly a month since he sent it, here it is.

I've been busy lately working on a new article about "speaking in tongues".  It came up as a discussion point lately and I wanted to find out what all Scripture had to say about it.  I've been working on it for the past few days (sorry, no posts to the blog during that period) but the article is now complete so give it a look and post some feedback! :)

"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our  iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we  are healed."- Isaiah 53:5

I was thinking of this passage this morning as I was wrapping tefillin.  For  those of you who aren't familiar with tefillin they look like this:

During a men's study today an interesting analogy I have been using was further fleshed out by a friend of mine, Jon Coll.  The analogy is one involving football and faith.

By coming to faith in Yeshua we have "joined His team" so to speak.  We are each called to "play in the game" we are assigned.  We are also called to play by the rules: to act honorably (Hebrew 13:18) and to stop sinning (1 Corinthians 15:34) .  The basic rules that apply to every player are the "rules" found in Torah: the traditionally counted 613 commandments.  Everyone has the same "out of bounds", the same rules regarding fouls, etc.  Even though every person plays by the same rules the "Coach" gives each person individual assignments and tasks to carry out.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently delivered their "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey" results online.  A Fox News analysis of the report indicated that almost half of the 35,000+ Americans surveyed had "left the faith tradition of their upbringing" to either switch to a different denomination or completely different religion (including no religious affiliation at all).

Part of the change has been attributed to the very mobile and fluid nature of our society.  Given that over 22 million Americans moved to a new home between March 1999 and March 2000 and over 8 million Americans moved to a new state in 2006 America is definitely mobile.

On Monday Fox News reported that a large crane fell and killed several people.  What is believed to be the last of the bodies were recovered today. The Associated Press reported an additional development today: a city inspector was charged with falsifying an inspection report related to the crane that collapsed.

After about 6 weeks I have finished a study regarding when Yeshua was crucified.  The "Good Friday" idea doesn't match what we find in the pages of Scripture.  I was surprised to find out what day Scripture tells us He was crucified.  Here is the article.

I get a news digest from CNN each morning and an interesting article recently came up about how people were getting ill with a rather unusual set of symptoms.  It turns out the problem was caused by a fine mist of pig brain tissue these folks were inhaling as a result of working in a slaughter house.  One of the women interviewed went from being able to walk to needing a wheelchair in 4 months.