"a God who intended to create beings like us"

"the odds against a universe like ours emerging out of something like the big bang are enormous....I think clearly there are religious implications."

"it would be very difficult to explain why the universe should have begun in just this way, except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us."

- Physicist Stephen Hawking

1) Stephen Hawking, quoted in John Boslough, Masters of Time: Cosmology at the End of Innocence (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1992) 55.
2) Hawking, A Brief History of Time, 127.

Step of Faith

One of the basic tenents of Christianity is the belief that God answers prayer. The Bible teaches that God is powerful and prayer makes a difference. Here is an excellent prayer from James Emery White's book A Search for the Spiritual that anyone can start with .....

"God, I am not even sure that I believe you're there listening to this, but if you are, I want to find you. I really do want to know the truth. If you exist, please show yourself to me."

Do Blogs Violate The Bible?

A prudent man keeps his knowledge to himself, but the heart of fools blurts out folly. (Proverbs 12:23 NIV)

A man of knowledge uses words with restraint.... Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue. (Proverbs 17:27 and 28 NIV)

When words are many, sin is not absent; but he who holds his tongue is wise . (Proverbs 10:19 NIV)

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By rights, this should be my last blog entry. Oh the wisdom of shutting up! These Proverbs were penned by Solomon, a ruler considered to be one of the wisest in ancient history. They came from this past Sunday's sermon at church entitle 'Lip-O-Suction' which was based on the Bible verse in James which says "be quick to listen, slow to speak". The sermon did make me pause and consider if blogging is really a positive activity. Am I just shooting my mouth off, showing my stupidity?
It made me think back about why I created this blog in the first place. We live in a culture that is filled with activity and distraction. We keep ourselves so busy that it's easy to just float along and amuse ourselves. We never turn down the noise long enough to consider if there is more to life than all this. What is the meaning of life? Where did we come from and why are we here?
I believe that we are God's creation, created for a purpose. God's primary purpose in creating us was so that we could have a relationship with Him. I created this blog with the hope that readers would take a moment to turn off the noise and consider the God whole loves them. My goal has never been to spout off my own opinions (although sometimes I fall into that trap) but to do what I could to turn our attention to God.
The Bible teaches that God has revealed Himself to us through his Son, Jesus. To learn more about how Christ brings us to God you can click here to take the Life Hound 8 Minute Challenge

Mouth In Motion Before Brain in Gear - Workplace Edition

It's not easy being a Massachusetts Yankee living in the south, even though diversity and tolerance promotion seems to be the first agenda item at my company's staff meetings these days. Today we had a diversity ice breaker. Raise your hand if you're a male, raise your hand if you're a female, raise your hand if you were born in the south, raise your hand if you were born in the north, raise your hand if you were born outside of the United States. Then this wiseguy co-worker leans over and quietly says: 'Hey, being born in Massachusetts IS considered being born outside of the United States"! That was a swipe at Mass's liberal reputation.

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There is one thing that I don't understand about the corporate world. My company will kick off a big initiative. It will be an important, high level project that is frequently talked about by management. But then they ask for 'volunteers' to help with the project! What's with this volunteering approach? If you're sitting around and have time to volunteer for stuff maybe they don't really need you anyway! Let's take the first three people that volunteer and eliminate their positions. See if the company can live without them!

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I think the government needs to adopt one practice from the corporate world. That would be the concept of billing your time. Whenever we get asked by a project to assist with research or do analysis, we usually ask for a project number to bill the time to. I think the government should do the same thing. This would have been nice during General Petraeus's testimony before congress. The guy is supposed to come in and report on the situation in Iraq and instead our elected representatives waste at least 100 minutes of his time. He listens to congressman dis the Iraqi government, his microphone doesn't work, and protesters are allowed to disrupt the hearing. All this occurs before he even gets a chance to say his first sentence. Petraeus should have been allowed to bill that wasted time to congress. What a joke.

Life Hound Stories

The Lord has blessed me with some great kids. This is my son Josh enjoying a smore on a recent family camping trip. Josh is a great kid. He is very active and loves all athletics. He is currently playing football. Josh is into Transformers and loves to play with his brother and a friend from the neighborhood.

Josh's story is the latest on the Life Hound Stories page. Click here to read it!

Oldsters - Memory Lapse

An elderly couple had dinner at another couple's house, and after eating, the wives left the table and went into the kitchen. The two gentlemen were talking, and one said, "Last night we went out to a new restaurant and it was really great. I would recommend it very highly."

The other man said, "What is the name of the restaurant?" The first man thought and thought and finally said, "What is the name of that flower you give to someone you love? You know... The one that's red and has thorns."

"Do you mean a rose?" "Yes, that's the one," replied the man.

He then turned towards the kitchen and yelled, "Rose, what's the name of that restaurant we went to last night?"

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"LORD, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am. "Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. (Psalm 39: 4-5)

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A theme throughout the Old Testament is the brevity of life. This is hard to imagine when we are young but as we get older we realize what people mean when they say 'time flies'. Yet God has an eternal purpose for each of us and wants to build a relationship with us that never ends. You can learn more about having a relationship with God by taking the Life Hound 8 Minute Challenge

Important Additions to Life Hound

My analytics reports indicate that people from all over the world stumble upon my blog. Over the last month I've gotten hits from Ireland, Germany, Mexico, and Turkey. I am an American, though, and I have an American mindset and American challenges.

One of the great challenges that I think we face in this country is the tremendous amount of media and distraction that can fill our minds and our time. We are a sports and entertainment obsessed nation. Songwriter Randy Stonehill used to write about our 'fear of silence'. He once surmised that if we ever permitted silence into our lives we would have the unpleasant experience of 'hearing what our aching hearts had to say'.

I started this blog 10 months ago because I believe that people in our culture fill their lives with so many distractions and diversions that we miss out on the awesome gift of the presence of God in our lives. (Me included.) I believe that God created mankind to experience a loving, relationship with Him but we are so 'distracted' down here that we miss out on that relationship. I chose as a theme for this blog 'the hound of heaven' based on the idea that God loves us and wants to have a relationship with us.

I have added two important new links to the upper right hand corner of this blog under the heading of LIFE AND DEATH STUFF. 'Life Hound Stories' is intended to be a place where I will post the stories of those who have said 'yes' to Christ and have jumped into a relationship with God. I have added my own story first but hope to add many more in the coming months.

Also under LIFE AND DEATH STUFF is a more critical link to a page entitled the 'Life Hound 8 Minute Challenge'. This link outlines the basic teachings of Christianity, which can be reviewed in 8 minutes. It contains truths that all readers should review and decide upon.

I hope you'll check out and comment on these new posts! Again they are in the top right hand corner of the blog under LIFE AND DEATH STUFF.

Oldsters - Just Like A Kid

Two elderly gentlemen from a retirement center were sitting on a bench under a tree when one turns to the other and says: "Slim, I'm 83 years old now and I'm just full of aches and pains. I know you're about my age. How do you feel?" Slim says, "I feel just like a newborn baby."

"Really!? Like a newborn baby!?"

“Yep. No hair, no teeth, and I think I just wet my pants."

The World's Funnest Game

Caleb, Josh, and I played our NEW Settlers of Catan game for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I got to place my settlements first. I was the Pumpkonians and the game lasted 4 hours and 1 minute because Caleb (the Strawberrians) and I kept going back and forth with the longest road. (Caleb ended up with it.)

I ended up winning but I was very proud of how the boys did. The game ended at 12:16 a.m.! In the picture you can see Caleb's longest (red) road. Caleb ended with 9 points and Josh ended with 8 points. We ate Jennie's chocolate chips during the game and when Jennie got home she was mad at us.

Since then we've had another game, this time with our friends Julian and Brenda. It was their first time playing but they did quite well. Julian tried some techniques that I'd never seen before: extortion via placement of the robber and the three way trade. It was great fun! (I won't mention who won since it wasn't me.)

Oldsters - Ahead of the Curve

An elderly gentleman had serious hearing problems for a number of years. He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed the gentleman to hear 100% The elderly gentleman went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said, "Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again." The gentleman replied, "Oh, I haven't told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I've changed my will three times!"

WalMart Bitternes

A couple of weeks ago Jennie brought home a huge box of 4 lamps from Walmart that had to be assembled. I got an uneasy feeling when I noticed that the box appeared to have been opened and carelessly resealed with Scotch tape. I proceeded to open the box, because I knew Walmart would never place a returned, defective item back out on the floor. It took me 2 hours to take everything out of the box. As I started assembling the first lamp I noticed that a lampshade was defective. I spent another two hours putting everything back in the box.

Yesterday, when I got home from work, I noticed a familiar looking box in the living room. In fact, it had that same, messy, Scotch tape look. I glared at Jennie. She sheepishly replied that she had a big argument with herself about taking another chance with those Walmart lamps. I glared at her again as she ran out the door to go scrapbooking with some of her friends.

As her car pulled out of the garage I proceeded to dive into box number two. My first step was to carefully inspect all four lampshades. Things were looking up, defect free lampshades ..... check. My optimism quickly vanished, though, when I peered into the box and saw a partially assembled lamp. Why would a partially assembled lamp be in the box?!

I didn't panic though. I figured some nice Walmart employee was just trying to help me get started. I pulled out the instructions and immediately noticed that there was an important piece missing from the assembled lamp. I frantically searched the box and quickly realized why box number two had been returned .... a critical, missing piece.

I spent another two hours repackaging the box (not as carefully as I had repackaged box number one). I spent an additional 30 minutes vacuuming the residual packaging stuff off the carpet. I attached a note to the box informing Jennie that no more Walmart lamps were allowed in our home. I slid the box to a part of the living room where Jennie would be sure to trip over it when she got home. I'm still bitter, but expect to be over it by Christmas.

“Then came Peter to him (Jesus), and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” Matthew 18: 21 - 22

It's All About Me!

A couple of years ago the youth group from my old church was raising money for a missions trip by selling t-shirts. I bought one and still have the shirt. The church's name is printed on the back and on the front, in large letters, it reads "It's Not About Me". One day, while I was wearing the t-shirt out in public, a person who was walking in my general direction took note of the shirt. She made eye contact with me and in perfect deadpan said "Yeah, it's about ME"..... I think she was joking.

"Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.' " Matthew 16: 24 - 25