David C. Alves's Blog, page 14
July 12, 2012
My Book now Reduced to $4.99
This price should make it accessible to more readers.
It can also be borrowed for FREE by Amazon Prime members.
http://www.amazon.com/Were-sons-God-W...
July 11, 2012
Dear Readers & New Look for “David’s Place”
Wanted to give all my friends and readers a heads-up.
THEME CHANGE
I want to give you the best and easiest reading experience possible. I’ll be changing the look of my blog-site within the next couple of weeks (perhaps sooner). Don’t want you to be surprised when I do.
I hope you’ll like the new look and feel. Please take the time to comment once the change is made. Love to know what you think.
FOCUS
In addition, I thought it might be good to tell you about my focus here. I know that I’ve somewhat covered it in my ABOUT page, but not many people go to a blogger’s about page.
As someone on a spiritual journey to know God better, I write posts that I would like to read. Sometimes they’re on writing, or perhaps a review of a good book. Sometimes I simply need a laugh and post something humorous. I also post cultural warning signs so that fellow travelers will not be hurt along the path. Because foster care and adoption played a part in my childhood, I also write about that. And occasionally I post a devotional thought or journal entry from my various journals. My “How-to’s” seem to draw the most readers. Well . . . you get it. I intentionally mix it up–writing what I like reading.
CONTENT
Posting on a multiplicity of topics can prove frustrating for someone who’s looking for “a brand.” If you need a brand to subscribe to and follow my blog, check “categories” to filter my posts OR let it be this:
LOVE, LIFE, & ENCOURAGEMENT ALONG THE JOURNEY
I suppose that would be the sum of the parts.
FOLLOW
If anything in that brand appeals to you, then please follow my blog by either the follow button (if you’re on WordPress, signing up for email notifications, or subscribing to my post on Kindle.
COMMENTS
Though it’s not a requirement to read here. I would really appreciate it too if you would take the time to comment too so that we can develop a community. I know you’re busy, but it’s really great when I go to a site and follow discussions. They sometimes enlarge or enhance the author’s post. I’ve been helped by them as well.
THANKS
Well that’s about it. Thanks SO MUCH that you’ve read this far. And thanks for being a valued reader here at “David’s Place.” I appreciate your time and consider it a treasure.
BLESSINGS,
Filed under: ADOPTION/FOSTER CARE, Housekeeping, humor, Journal Entries, ON THE JOURNEY, Recommended Resources, Signs of the Times
July 8, 2012
TVtastebuddies: How to Eat Sunflower Seeds
This is a little something that me, Roland, and Floyd decided to produce. We needed some humor in our lives and also wanted to try to learn more about YouTube and video production. So we decided to capitalize on something all three of us have experience with here’s the result:
You may (or may not) want to “Like” TVtastebuddies on Facebook too. Please share with your friends. Can we go viral? Not sure what that means, but guess it means lots of viewers?
Filed under: humor, TVtastebuddies, Videos
July 5, 2012
Why Lifegroups Work
God is about family. He is moving His Church into families. Those organizational churches who get this are intentional about community and family. Those that don’t, or won’t, will continue to hold on to a corporate, organizational paradigm and God will remove His own from their care. Scripture says:
“Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.” (Psalm 68:5–6, ESV)
“For the shepherds are stupid and do not inquire of the Lord; therefore they have not prospered, and all their flock is scattered.” (Jeremiah 10:21, ESV)
Because God is doing this, Lifegroups and Christian community work. Traditional church leaders–who have a heart for God–are heeding God’s warnings and shedding historic, corporate, political structures for more organic, family and biblical community. Those who grasp, tightly to their own little papal kingdoms have buildings and programs that are emptying out and drying on the sapless vine.
Church families take the form of house churches, lifegroups, cell churches, home fellowships, etc. If Jesus is in the lead, he will build his church-family. Being in a Lifegroup (cell group) is a powerful antidote to poor choices. Intentional community can often prevent poor choices and deep hurt altogether. Granted, we all suffer in life at some point or another, but God wants us together, bearing one anothers’ burdens and encouraging each other on the journey. What happens to believers that have not been taught to value and prioritize community, rather than mere church attendance?
Imagine that you are in your late twenties, happily married, with two little ones. You love your wife dearly. You enjoy going out to a lounge or dancing on a Saturday night. You enjoy friends over for cards or an occasional meal. You take the kids out to the in-laws on Sunday afternoon and then treat them to Butterfinger McFlurries on the way home. You struggle sometimes to make ends meet but life is good.
One day a colleague invites you to a Bible study at his house. Though a little uncomfortable, you enjoy the other guys. They do not seem too weird. So you decide you will attend again. After several weeks, you begin to realize that they have something you do not have. They experience a genuine camaraderie and seem to share their lives in real ways that you have secretly desired, but never attained for various reasons. You like the way the men hold each other accountable, but in a warm, caring way, not judgmentally. Then one night an insight rather overwhelms you—it is not what they have but Who they have that makes the difference in their lives. So after the meeting you turn from running your own life, from your sinful self-rule and give your life to Jesus Christ.
You begin to walk this life with Jesus and these brothers in a lifegroup. Though somewhat bewildered by all you don’t yet know, you find it difficult to contain your excitement. You seem to have this sense of joy and cleanness of heart. The shame of the past, the guilt over past actions has gone. You first share the transformation with your wife. Major problem—she isn’t as excited about this new direction as you are. She goes along with you, but makes it clear that she does not want to be “religious.” She and the kids attend church with you for a few weeks. Then she suggests that you take the kids. After all, you may have signed on for this new Jesus life, but she didn’t. She doesn’t mind the kids going because, after all, some values and morals in their lives could not hurt.
After many months, she approaches you and tells you that you have become distant. You don’t like to “have fun” the way you used to. You don’t enjoy the same people anymore. You seem to prefer your church-friends. You are more picky about how she tells little white lies and you seem holier-than-thou to her. The distance grows between the two of you. She begins staying out or coming home late. By accident, you find an email to another man.
Sound familiar? This is a typical scenario and only the people change. Most often it’s the other way around. The wife is the one who is transformed by Christ and rejected by the unbelieving husband. She found his email to another woman. This marriage, like so many before it, is in deep trouble. It does not have to, but it may end in divorce. The lifegroup can provide the support and prayer that may save this marriage, or at least support the believer through to whatever comes.
Try to imagine this second situation.
A young woman is in love with Jesus. She is finished with school and is out working. Days are great, but nights can be lonely. Every movie reminds her of romance and love. Walking down the sidewalk she sees a family laughing, a young couple holding hands and looking at each other with love and excitement. Loneliness digs in. She longs to have someone to share her life with too. She knows from her Bible studies and the pastor’s messages that she should not marry an “unsaved” guy. She’s heard some of the heartbreaking accounts of what a marriage to someone who doesn’t know the Lord can be like. Unfortunately, at church all the good men are taken. Few visitors show any promise. Her biological clock is ticking toward midnight. She gets impatient.
Some of her old girlfriends call her up on a particularly tough night for her. They invite her to drive them to the “Club 28.” She has been despondent that she’ll ever be married or have the children she has dreamed of. She knows that if she sits around thinking any more she’ll just go crazy. She decides to go.
There she notices an attractive man who seems to be a little shy, but enjoying the company of his friends. He notices her. After an hour or so, they are sitting together talking. She is impressed with his shy, but attentive manner. He is thoughtful and kind. He is well spoken and a good listener. She doesn’t know how, but she agrees to a date. An inner voice is gently warning her not to give her heart or affection. They continue to meet and though she has told herself that she wouldn’t even date someone who didn’t know Jesus, she knows that he is different. He’s so nice. He will surely come to know Jesus with her influence and friendship.
Her sisters-in-Christ gently but firmly warn her of the danger and pain ahead for her. But she knows that this relationship is different than any other. If they knew him the way she does, they would realize that God brought them together so that her love might be used to bring him to Christ.
Dating turns into friendship, friendship into love and she soon marries him. Within two years, he has tired of her church life and though he is not being unfaithful to her, they have little contact and nothing in common. More recently, he has been violent with her and then stormed out of the house. He has his friends and life. She is lonely again. Only now she has no chance of a relationship with a Christian man. She’s married, pregnant and alone. She is broken hearted and wondering why God let this happen to her. He still lives in the house, but they don’t speak. She still can’t see or admit her own sinful choices. It is God’s fault and she plans to compound her bad choices and sin by filing for divorce with no biblical ground.
What do these scenarios have in common?
In my thirty-five years of ministry, I have seen them played out over and over. The details differ, but the human situation is the same. And both lead to heartache and deep pain. Those who get caught up in these situations and make the wrong decisions have great difficulty getting back on track with the Lord. Or they don’t ever get back. Not that the Lord doesn’t love them, they just find it hard to forgive themselves and the churches they often attend don’t know how to flow in the authority of forgiveness that could restore them.
This place of spiritual zero-to-the-bone can be avoided. Intentional community can often prevent poor choices and deep hurt altogether. That is true for several reasons. The choices can be different if the person is connected to community instead of Sunday go-to-church Christianity. Churches who meet as Lifegroups, in community often provide the kind of fellowship and togetherness that avoids these scenarios, if its members foster a lifestyle–rather than meeting–mentality.
Lifegroups should embrace the family of a new believer, not just the new believer. When this happens, often the unbelieving spouse will connect with one or more of the personalities in the group. The group can bring value to the family by considering the family needs, by engaging in the life of the family of a new believer.
Imagine that you are in your late twenties, happily married, with two little ones. You love your wife dearly. You enjoy going out to a lounge or dancing on a Saturday night. You enjoy friends over for cards or an occasional meal. You take the kids out to the in-laws on Sunday afternoon and then treat them to Butterfinger McFlurries on the way home. You struggle sometimes to make ends meet but life is good.
One day a colleague invites you to a Bible study at his house. Though a little uncomfortable, you enjoy the other guys. They do not seem too weird. So you decide you will attend again. After several weeks, you begin to realize that they have something you do not have. They experience a genuine camaraderie and seem to share their lives in real ways that you have secretly desired, but never attained for various reasons. You like the way the men hold each other accountable, but in a warm, caring way, not judgmentally. Then one night an insight rather overwhelms you—it is not what they have but Who they have that makes the difference in their lives. So after the meeting you turn from running your own life, from your sinful self-rule and give your life to Jesus Christ.
You begin to walk this life with Jesus and these brothers. Though somewhat bewildered by all you don’t know, you find it difficult to contain your excitement. You seem to have this sense of joy and cleanness of heart. The shame of the past, the guilt over past actions has gone. You first share the transformation with your wife. Major problem—she isn’t as excited about this new direction as you are. She goes along with you, but makes it clear that she does not want to be “religious.” She and the kids attend church with you for a few weeks. Then she suggests that you take the kids. After all, you may have signed on for this new Jesus life, but she didn’t. She doesn’t mind the kids going because, after all, some values and morals in their lives could not hurt.
After many months, she approaches you and tells you that you have become distant. You don’t like to “have fun” the way you used to. You don’t enjoy the same people anymore. You seem to prefer your church-friends. You are more picky about how she tells little white lies and you seem holier-than-thou to her. The distance grows between the two of you. She begins staying out or coming home late. By accident, you find an email to another man.
Sound familiar? This is a typical scenario and only the people change. Most often it’s the other way around. The wife is the one who is transformed by Christ and rejected by the unbelieving husband. This marriage, like so many before it, is headed for trouble. It does not have to, but it may end in divorce.
Try to imagine this second situation. A young woman is in love with Jesus. But she is finished with school and is out working. Days are great, but nights can be lonely. Every movie reminds her of romance and love. Walking down the sidewalk she sees a family laughing, a young couple holding hands and looking at each other with love and excitement. Loneliness sets in. She longs to have someone to share her life with. She knows from her Bible studies and the pastor’s sermons that she should not marry an “unsaved” guy. She’s heard some of the heartbreaking accounts of what a marriage to someone who doesn’t know the Lord can be like. Unfortunately, at church all the good men are taken. Few visitors show any promise. Her biological clock is ticking toward midnight. She gets impatient.
Some of her old girlfriends call her up on a particularly tough night for her. They invite her to drive them to the “Club 28.” She has been despondent that she’ll ever be married or have the children she has dreamed of. She knows that if she sits around thinking any more she’ll just go crazy. She decides to go.
There she notices an attractive man who seems to be a little shy, but enjoying the company of his friends. He notices her. After an hour or so, they are sitting together talking. She is impressed with his shy, but attentive manner. He is thoughtful and kind. He is well spoken and a good listener. She doesn’t know how, but she agrees to a date. They continue to meet and though she has told herself that she wouldn’t even date someone who didn’t know Jesus, she knows that he is different. He’s so nice. He will surely come to know Jesus with her influence and friendship. Her sisters-in-Christ gently but firmly warn her of the danger and pain ahead for her. But she knows that this relationship is different than any other. If they knew him the way she does, they would realize that God brought them together so that her love might be used to bring him to Christ.
Dating turns into friendship, friendship into love and she soon marries him. Within two years, he has tired of her church life and though he is not being unfaithful to her, they have little contact and nothing in common. More recently, he has been violent with her and then stormed out of the house. He has his friends and life and she is lonely again. Only now she has no chance of a relationship with a Christian man. She is broken hearted and wondering why God let this happen to her. She still can’t see her own sinful choices. It is God’s fault and she is planning to file for divorce.
What do these scenarios have in common?
In my thirty-five years of ministry, I have seen them played out over and over. The details differ, but the human situation is the same. And both lead to heartache and deep pain. Those who get caught up in these situations and make the wrong decisions have great difficulty getting back on track with the Lord. Or they don’t ever get back. Not that the Lord doesn’t love them, they just find it hard to forgive themselves and the churches they often attend don’t know how to flow in the authority of forgiveness that could restore them.
This place of spiritual zero-to-the-bone can be avoided. The choices can be different if the person is connected to community instead of Sunday go-to-church Christianity. Their only hope is intentional community. Churches who meet as Lifegroups, in community often provide the kind of fellowship and togetherness that avoids these scenarios, if its members foster a lifestyle–rather than meeting–mentality. Lifegroups invite Jesus to be at the center and make them a caring family–spiritually gifted fellow travelers. They hold together and love God’s ways and Word. Lifegroups are more interested in loving one another and impacting their communities than filling their buildings.
That’s why Lifegroups work.
©2012, David C Alves
Related articles
Church Must Grow Smaller (luiponifasio.wordpress.com)
Filed under: Books, Consider It, Insights, ON THE JOURNEY, Recommended Resources, Signs of the Times
July 1, 2012
Realm of Fay ” 4 Haikus”
The Haiku art form is beautiful; it can even be stunning. The Haikus at Five Reflections so inspired me that I decided to post a link to my attempt at “Four Haikus” at my Litblog–Realm of Fay.
FYI – David Fay is my birth name. I use it for my poetry, fiction, literary essays, etc.
Please visit Five Reflections too. When we find something worth mentioning, isn’t it great to pass that along?
LITTLE COMMERCIAL:
This blog, David’s Place and my Litblog, Realm of Fay are both available for your Kindle.
Simply click on either title, it’ll take you to Amazon and a 15-day FREE trial. You might want to check out my wife’s blog Marcy’s Walk. Her blog is available on Kindle too at Marcy’s Walk on Kindle.
Thanks for reading.
Filed under: FOR READERS, FOR WRITERS
June 29, 2012
Support Meat Without Antibiotics
This is really important. Hormones and antibiotics lace our meats. Marcy and I stopped eating store-bought meat two years ago. We eat SOME meats, but they’re organic, range-grazed, non-GMO, non-antibiotic, meats, fish, & fowl. What about you? Are you accidentally and unknowingly poisoning yourself? Your family?
PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH A “FRIEND.”
You may just save his/her life!
Sign the Petition too: http://www.meatwithoutdrugs.org/
You asked where Marcy and I get our meats? The Healthy Buffalo, in Chichester, NH.
Yes, they will ship to you. No, we do not work for them. We’re new customers and LOVE what they offer.
The Healthy Buffalo
The Healthy Buffalo on Facebook
Related articles
The CAFO – MRSA Connection (ediblearia.com)
Majority Of Consumers Prefer Food Without Antibiotics (thinkprogress.org)
Poll: Americans Don’t Want Antibiotics in Their Meat | Mother Jones (drabes.org)
Avoiding antibiotics in meat getting harder: report (ctv.ca)
The Deadly Addiction to Cheap Meat (inthesetimes.com)
Avoiding antibiotics in meat (wxyz.com)
Our Meat: No Antibiotics, Ever (wholefoodsmarket.com)
Filed under: ADOPTION/FOSTER CARE, Consider It, Health and Wellness, In the News, Recommended Resources, Videos
June 26, 2012
John 10:27 – Jesus Still Speaks Today?
No wonder a theology has developed that thinks Jesus doesn’t communicate with us today.
[image error]
Related articles
Jesus Calls :: Known, Know and Follow (thepauls.wordpress.com)
Filed under: Bits and Pieces, Consider It, humor
June 23, 2012
Posts on Adoption & Foster Care
Children sleeping in Mulberry Street (1890) Art. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The following are two posts that I’ve written that relate to adoption and foster care. I hope that something here is helpful to my new and first-time readers:
An Adoptive Mom’s Heart
Letter to an adoptive mom, encouraging her to recognize the gift of God in her desire to love her adopted children
The Old Suitcase
The moment healing love broke the spell of fear that I was locked in as a six year old who couldn’t trust that I was loved and would never be sent back to foster care.
Sign up on the top, right to receive an email notification when I publish new posts.
You can also visit me at David C Alves on Facebook and “Like” my author page.
Related articles
My Adoption Journey (she: Brenda) (oneshetwoshe.com)
Families Matter! (and) Family matters? (policyperformanceconsultants.wordpress.com)
The Bair Foundation Joins Christian Alliance for Orphans (prweb.com)
Noy signs Foster Care Act (hreplib.wordpress.com)
Filed under: ADOPTION/FOSTER CARE
June 21, 2012
Just Reviewed: Sabbath Keeping
Sabbath Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest by Lynne M. Baab
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sabbath Keeping is a fresh look at an important antidote to our chronic busyness.
I love it that Lynne Baab does not approach the topic from the vantage-point of “law.” Rather, she comes at it through a seasonal metaphor. Life is full of seasons. Sabbath rest is an organic, season in our week. It is a rhythm of life. Those who participate in this special gift of God–one day out of seven–experience a harvest of peace and joy in the midst of their lives.
She also gives practical helps for those interested in going deeper or launching into a Sabbath. She gives multiple solutions for those who want to move out of the cultural torrent, to the still waters of a deeper spirituality.
Since I have been keeping a Sabbath with my wife for two years now, I find her suggestions and conclusions to be right on target. I highly recommend this book to veterans or those just thinking about the need for a quiet space in their week.
Filed under: Books, FOR READERS, ON THE JOURNEY, Recommended Resources
June 17, 2012
Cultural Implosion Advancing
English: Third generation Amazon Kindle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The following story by Joel Rosenberg, in his newsletter, simply adds support to my post entitled: At the Middle of the End: No Way Out. The following paragraph appeared in “FlashTraffic:”
CULTURAL IMPLOSION? — It’s hard to make up stuff like this. “A West Virginia man who was traveling across the United States gathering material for a book about kindness in America was shot and wounded while eating lunch in Montana, police said on Monday,” Reuters reports. “Ray Doland, 32, was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the arm following the incident near Glasgow, Montana on Saturday, Valley County Sheriff Glen Meier said. Doland was still in hospital on Monday but was expected to recover, Meier said.” The sad and bizarre story comes on the heels of a new FBI crime stats report indicating a big jump in the number of murders in small towns across America. While overall crime went down slightly last year, murders in towns of under 10,000 people spiked 18.3%. –from Joel Rosenberg’s “Flashtraffic” Newsletter
I purchased and am reading Implosion. I just downloaded it on my Kindle. I KNOW it will be good. It’s a little pricey. Perhaps the publisher (Tyndale House) is trying to encourage readers to purchase the hardcover.
Usually Kindle books are under $10. This one is $14.84. And you can buy the hardcover version NEW for $14.99, only a few cents more. What are they thinking? I’m trying not to let that take away from the important premise of Implosion. I see it coming and have tried to alert people to be ready by knowing that they are right with our Father-God. My heart longs for a nation that honors Christ. That has seldom been the case. At least during the Great Awakenings, a wave of hunger for God abounded. But can that happen for this reprobate nation? I waver in my hope. I KNOW God can move, I just don’t believe His Justice will allow it this time. Otherwise, He’d have to clear Sodom & Gomorrah.
Related articles
BILLY GRAHAM’S DAUGHTER COMMENDS “IMPLOSION”: Book releases nationwide today. (flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com)
I will lift my eyes!!! (sistersforchrist.wordpress.com)
(flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com)
At the Middle of the End: No Way Out? (davidcalves.com)
Filed under: Books, Consider It, FOR READERS, Signs of the Times
