Sunday, Sunday

Today was the first Sunday for our new service schedule. Dave Lautzenheiser had asked me to be

worship host in the 8:30 a.m. chapel service, and it was a blessing to be there. The choir sang two beautiful anthems, and Kim Rodarmel stunned with her clear, high soprano rendition of "Great Is Thy Faithfulness."

Trevor began a new sermon series, "Greater Than," and today's topic was "Greater Than My Anger." Five points I jotted down on my outline:

1. Allow God to search your heart for hidden anger (Psalm 4:4).

2. Do not harbor anger (Ephesians 4:26, 27). "In you anger do not sin."

3. Find your security in God (Psalm 4:8). Anger is almost always a byproduct of fear.

4. Repent from destructive speech and actions (Ephesians 4:29-31). Anger is usually expressed in destructive ways. Anger must always be expressed in love.

5. Forgiveness is the antidote for anger (Ephesians 4:32).

Frankly, I was concerned about attendance at this new, earlier time, but the room was comfortably full. (A few who used to attend the Blended service chose this service today.)

Evelyn attended the 9:00 service, and I snuck into the balcony to try out my new camera and listen to the end of the sermon. Then we hung out in the lobby and visited with friends before departing by 10:30.

The earlier start to the morning meant we were to breakfast and back home earlier than ever before, which made for a nice, long afternoon. I wrote a draft of my column for this week. We took our walk. I grabbed a shower and then went to Kroger's. We were able to get our lunches packed before supper, and then we enjoyed Costco's tomato basil soup and watched "Sixty Minutes," followed by a rerun of "Duck Dynasty" we had never seen. (We've become fans only recently, so there are a LOT of those episodes we've never seen!)

Dave rehearsed with the choir at 8:01 a.m. 

Planting Ideas

A highlight of my Friday was lunch with Rick Scruggs, Ben Simms, and John Nicholson at the barbecue restaurant beside the outlet mall halfway between Columbus and Cincinnati. Ben, with Lifeline Christian Mission, had invited me to a hockey game in Columbus between the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Calgary Flames Friday night. It was an opportunity for reps from area churches to enjoy the game and learn about a new church-planting effort in Canada. I decided not to make it to the game, but I invited these fellows to lunch so I could learn more about their work. We had good barbecue and an enjoyable visit. I was so glad to get to know all of them better, and I told Rick I'd ask him to write an article about what they're doing for our church planting issue later this year.
At work, we were handling details before Jim Nieman left for a week of spring break vacation. He was driving with his wife and daughter to Texas overnight last night! After work, Evelyn and I went from the sublime to the ridiculous--or at least from the very nice to the everyday. I had a Groupon to Teller's in Hyde Park. After a fine dinner of Florentine pizza and salads (Evelyn had the chopped; I had the steak salad--so good!) we adjourned to Costco where we stocked up on grape juice, toilet paper, almonds, tomato basil soup, and various bottles of over-the-counter drugs. Then we came home and watch two "Duck Dynasty" episodes and a "Frasier" rerun before calling it a night.

A Beautiful Sunrise, a Blustery Evening

Evelyn and I had a typical Friday "big night" after work this evening. Dinner at Olive Garden and then on to Costco. After spending $189+, we now have enough grape juice, toilet paper, paper towel, Greek yogurt, cans of low sodium V8 juice, and plastic bottles of orange juice to keep a Tea Party rally going for a week. Plus coffee, almonds, a package of cookies, a huge bag of naked pita chips, and organic tomato basil soup. (The latter is a special treat.) We never really started going to Sam's Club or Costco till our kids were grown and gone. Now we have a stocked pantry of these "bargains" and no one to use 'em except Evelyn and me. Give us a call if you'd like a snack or you have an emergency requiring paper products.
The day started with a beautiful sunrise. I stopped to snap it from the parking lot of our church building. Those clouds soon thickened, and the sun was covered up, never to be seen again the rest of the day. Blustery winds blew angry showers of rain and snow across asphalt and sidewalks intermittently through the day. After two days of almost-60 degrees, we shivered this evening as we ran from the car to our Friday-night destinations.

But the weather did nothing to discourage the crowds at Olive Garden and Costco.