In itself, conviction of sin cannot deliver anyone from bondage. Let’s say your sin is exposed publicly. It brings you sadness, sorrow and humiliation. It may even cause you to weep mightily. But this does not mean that you have been healed of your sin. The truth is, weeping and wailing often accompany a shallow, halfhearted repentance. The real fruit of genuine repentance is not just tears of grief, but a willingness to forsake the sin that led to such sorrow.  It is not enough merely to weep over your sins.

David Wilkerson. Knowing God by Name: Names of God That Bring Hope and Healing (pg. 89)

I’ve been teaching our young adults each week about how to discern God’s will for their lives. One of the books I’m reading is The Will of God: Answering the Hard Questions by James C. Howell. He stresses the role of others – namely the church – in playing a vital role in helping us discern God’s will for our lives. Here’s a powerful quote about this:

To sharpen our perception, and become more adept at God’s will, we submit ourselves to the routines of the Church, where we find friends, good company, a treasury of habits we Christians have found useful, having shaped millions of the faithful so they might know and do God’s will together. We worship with others; Sunday by Sunday, we sing hymns together, we listen to Scripture and a sermon, we bow our heads, we shuffle forward for Communion with a holy host of others—and over time we are reshaped into somebody more like Christ, more attuned to God, not alone but together as the Body of Christ.

Riding a motorcycle when it’s 100 degrees outside is only fun if you don’t have to stop. Stopping at a stop light on a blistering asphalt street surrounded by a city bus and school bus is not fun at all.

The Southern Baptists have converged on Houston this week for their annual convention. An anonymous poll of restaurant servers in the Houston area shows that they hate this convention because baptists “are pushy, don’t tip well, and always order dessert.” Not sure why the dessert thing is a problem, but the other two surely are. C’mon baptists. You can do better than that.

Saw on the news last night that New Mexico ranks last in the country when it comes to people who go to bed each night hungry. 20% of all adults and 30% of all children in the state don’t know where their next meal will come from. Something needs to be done to fix this. It’s a big problem – too big for any one of us – but we all can do something. A great place to start is by supporting your local food pantry by stocking their shelves and working their floors. Every little bit will help.

The little ants that have taken up residence in my house are indestructible. They have staved off every single one of my all-out attacks on their existence in my home. I’m about ready to go crazy – and use a flame thrower on them.

I’ve heard a handful of people say throughout this drought in New Mexico that if our nation would just repent, then God would send us rain. But, I don’t think our nation’s sin is the cause of this drought because so much of the nation is seeing plenty of rain. Maybe it’s just us New Mexicans…

Yet another attack in an Albuquerque church this past week. Seriously. This is ridiculous, sad, and unsettling.

I’m really bummed that I wasn’t able to get tickets for the Mumford and Sons concert last week in Taos. I tried.

There are times when living in a small house is not the greatest. But when it comes to cooling the place when it’s over 100 degrees outside, my old swamp cooler does a great job on our 1300 square feet. Woke up this morning and it was 67 degrees in the house. Michelle wasn’t very happy, but I was!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted this picture of a cactus I came across when hiking in the Sandia Mountains near my home. I entitled it, “Howdy Pardner.”

This past weekend, I came across this little feller. It seems that he got so excited he couldn’t help but leap for joy!

Michelle and I – along with some good friends – went on a long hike into the Sandia mountains yesterday: 2.5 miles in and 1700ft up. It took us about 3 hours round-trip, and we are pretty wiped-out today. However, the entire hike was worth it because we met this cactus cowboy at about 7300ft elevation. He was just standing by the trail in full-kick stance. Funny the things you see while exploring the mountains…

I love John Piper, and I love this video.  In March, Piper retired from the pastorate of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN after 33 years of service.  He then sat down with Collin Hansen of The Gospel Coalition to talk about his hopes for the future, including some reflections on his past 33 years as a pastor and how that has shaped him for what’s next.  This is rich, rich stuff!