New Update

I'm still working as a temp here at the Legal Office. When I started here just over a year ago, I didn't like it all that much & was looking forward to working somewhere else, but as I've gotten to know people better & learned how to do more things, this job has kind of grown on me, & I'm hopeful that it will become a permanent job soon. Angie just started working at Michael's the arts & crafts store, & from what she's told me it's a fun job! Her younger sister Margaret is getting married in June, & the wedding's on the beach in New Jersey, so we're looking forward to that! Life is a growing process & we don't know all that the Lord has for us, but we're okay!

Why do we make mistakes?

I get so frustrated with myself when I do things wrong. Most of the time I don't know if a decision was the wrong decision until later, but I feel still bad about it. I know Jesus Christ as my personal Savior; He is the Lord of my life & I know He guides my decisions -- so why does He allow me to make bad decisions?
For one thing, I learn from my mistakes & am better prepared for the future. I always remember what Rafiki said on the Lion King: "Yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it. Ha! You see? Now what are you going to do? It loses something when you can't hear the accent, but you know what I'm getting at...
It's more than what you learn, though. There are some people I know who seem to have it all together, & while I love them as my brothers & sisters in Christ, the truth is they frustrate me! It's the people who struggle with the same things I struggle with that encourage me. This applies not only to mistakes we make, but the hard things that happen that are beyond our control (my problem is sometimes I feel guilty about those things, too; but I shouldn't). Maybe God lets me make mistakes & deal with the consequences, as well as go through hard times, so I can be of more benefit to others who go through the same things. & there are always a lot of people who have it much worse than me!

Things we've learned...

David & Angelina Dunkerton – What we learn together:

It’s nearly May 2007; we’ve been married 1 year & 9 months. We could’ve been better prepared for our future together than we were—it was my error. At the time I was so set on being married (in my thinking I’d wanted to get married at age 20 or 21, & 24 seemed way too old, so we had to hurry up …).
Everybody I had known got married in college or right after, so I didn’t know anything else. My problem was that I had no idea how expensive life was, & I didn’t listen to Angie about it. Still, sometimes God uses our poor decisions to put us where He wants us, & I believe it was God’s will for us to get married when we did. I have so much to learn about life that Angie has already learned, & I need to be with her to learn these things. But we will still make sure our kids are better prepared than we were!
This is a song that, while it doesn’t completely describe Angie, makes me think of her, especially certain lines:

"She's Everything" (Brad Paisley)


She's a yellow pair of running shoes
A holey pair of jeans
She looks great in cheap sunglasses
She looks great in anything
She's “I want a piece of chocolate
Take me to a movie”
She's “I can't find a thing to wear”
Now & then she's moody

[Chorus]
& she's everything I ever wanted
& everything I need
I talk about her, I go on & on & on
'Cause she's everything to me

She's a Saturday out on the town
& a church girl on Sunday
She's a cross around her neck
& a cuss word 'cause its Monday
She's a bubble bath & candles
”Baby come & kiss me”
She's a one glass of wine
& she's feeling kinda tipsy

She's the giver I wish I could be
& the stealer of the covers
She's a picture in my wallet
Of my unborn children's mother
She's the hand that I'm holding
When I'm on my knees & praying
She's the answer to my prayer
& she's the song that I'm playing

She's the voice I love to hear
Someday when I'm ninety
She's that wooden rocking chair
I want rocking right beside me
Everyday that passes
I only love her more
Yeah, she's the one
That I'd lay down my own life for


And she's everything I ever wanted
And everything I need
She's everything to me
Yeah she's everything to me


There are a lot of things that we both have learned since we’ve been married, mostly from mistakes we’ve made:
I’ve learned that over the course of time, a couple can’t live on $7 or $8 an hour. A “Health Plan” is not the same as insurance, & it’s most likely a scam. Insurance is important, but it’s not always available.
Angie knows how to do things, & I need to go along with her plan instead of always insisting on mine. You need to look ahead & count the cost before you make a big commitment!
God has different ways of providing for you than the obvious ones you would prefer. When it comes down to it, for myself, I know God has a plan for us, & I need to not be so hard on myself. We can get what we need (& clothes & vacation can count as needs sometimes), trusting God to provide for it in His timing. We’re doing the best we know how—keeping in tune with God’s will & setting godly priorities—& that’s all the Lord expects from us. We can just be grateful that He’s in control!

Just had a thought...

I was just thinking about who God uses & how He uses them. In the beginning of the church, none of the church planters had set out to be church planters, because the church was brand-new. Peter (among others) was first a fisherman, & Jesus called him to give it up & follow Him; this was the general pattern with the 12 disciples. Paul, on the other hand, made tents, & it is said in Acts that even as a traveling church planter he still made tents; that is, in fact, how he made some of his contacts. In the same way Luke, as a doctor, traveled with Paul & others, but I'm under the impression he was still a doctor ("doctor" or "physician" may have been different back then from how it's considered today, but that's beside the point).
Today God has blessed us with many preachers & missionaries, many of whom did other things first, & many of whom went straight into vocational ministry. My dad, for example, was a computer programmer who gave up being a computer programmer to go into the ministry. Just as much, though, God uses people who have various occupations-- who also know His Word-- to serve Him in the local church as lay people. Any kind of ministry that is effective is completely by the grace of God, & He can use anyone, & He will put the people who follow His will whom He has chosen where they need to be, doing what they need to be doing, to bear fruit for Him. Today I am an office assistant in a Legal Office in Columbus, Ohio. Maybe God wants me to do something else someday, or maybe He wants me to stay here, but in either case I know He will use me. If you know Jesus as your Savior, & are studying God's Word as your authority, & are willing to do what God wants you to do, God will use you no matter how pointless you feel your occupation is!

White & Nerdy

"Weird Al" Yankovic's music video from his new album "Straight Outta Lynwood" (in stores Sept. 26)

Conan the Librarian

I should be a librarian!

Feedback from Chip Ingram...

I've been listening to a lot of archived broadcasts from "Living on the Edge" online lately, & today I was listening to a message: "Trusting God when He doesn't make sense", & Chip Ingram said something that meant a lot to me... Just like Lazarus had to die so Jesus could raise him from the dead, I had to die to my own agenda before Jesus could be the "resurrection" for my life. When I accepted Jesus as my Savior as a little boy, I died to my sin nature because Christ died in my place & was my resurrection for a new life. I still sin as a Christian & have to confess my sin & ask forgiveness (1 John 1:9)-- the sin nature is still there-- but I am no longer controlled by that sin nature. If you do not know Jesus as your Savior, that's what the history of what happened with Lazarus (see John 11) means for you-- that you need to believe & accept that Jesus died in your place for your sin; & in accepting this you have died with Christ & are dead to sin; & as the "Resurrection & the Life", Christ will be a new life for you.
I have been a Christian for over 20 years, but I have realized that there is another application for me now. I am a person who likes to make plans & see them happen, & I had an agenda in mind that I was going into vocational ministry someday. I always felt like I was open to whatever God had for me to do, but I have since realized that I wasn't really as open as I thought I was or needed to be. After settling in Columbus, I always would say that Angie & I were in a period of "transition", & that we were open to whatever God had for us for now; but someday we were going to an unreached place to serve in a church plant. That's all well & good, but it could well be that's not what God wants us to do. I had to die to my own agenda & accept wherever God places us-- & now it looks like God is making things happen. God has a plan for me, & I just have to let my own plans die & wait & see what He will do!
In posting my thoughts on a blog, I hope that people will read this & God will use it to help others to grow; but even if nobody reads it, it's still helpful to me, because writing & sharing is how I think & learn (that's why my posts are so long!)