Nexus - Spiritual Emphasis Week

NEXUS Closing from Ken Kistler Photography

This week Dave, my brother-in-law, spoke at our school's spiritual emphasis week. They decided to call it NEXUS. Nexus, of course, means "the central or most important place." What a great week.

Dave began the messages speaking on the majesty of God. Tuesday he spoke about the meagerness of man. Wednesday he shared about the grace of God. All these messages connected. The holiness of God is necessary to know and understand before you can see our own meagerness, lack, and need. Once you see the need of man then, and only then, can you see how incredible God's grace is. Thursday Dave spoke about love. Once you've seen God's grace toward you then the reaction should be love for him which overflows in love toward others. Friday we wrapped up with a focus on serving.

Again, it was a great week. There was so much to consider.

Darby and Nora Slideshow

Darby

The other little boy I photographed yesterday was Darby. What a cute little kid!

Here are some pics.

More of My Niece

Yesterday Keara, Dave, Nora, and I traveled to Lombardi Farm (not Lombardi Field). It's a huge pumpkin farm on the far side of town. We joined up with Jason, Dana, and little Darby Hendrickson for some family pictures. A fun time was had by all!

Misreadings

Some thoughts from devotions for the last few days.

Yesterday I read through classic Psalm 96. “Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord, all the earth.”

I always enjoy that Psalm and feel like I could spend devotions every morning for days digging through its truths.

Apparently I wasn’t quite awake when I began reading yesterday. I found a new truth in verse 5.

Here’s what I read: “All the gods of the peoples are worthless IDIOTS!”

Of course it actually says they are worthless idols. I kind of liked my new, sleep-induced translation better. Maybe I ought to mail my correction to some new translation committee.

My Niece

I feel like I've been working on pictures for the last two months of my life. No, that's an exaggeration. Most of the time has been spent developing new school lessons and grading for my classes at Santa Clarita. That doesn't leave me much free time. The free time I do have has been spent editing pictures from my last two weddings of the summer.

Since I finally finished editing, I felt good taking out the camera and snapping some shots of my beautiful little niece. She was looking awful serious for the few moments I photographed her, but the cuteness still shines through.

An Evening Drive

Last night I took a drive into the mountains outside of Santa Clarita. What an experience! I always loved that fact that you could walk out of your apartment in Butler and within fifteen minutes be standing by one of a dozen lakes, in the woods, completely alone. That could never happen in Southern California, right?

In fact it can!

I took three right turns out of my drive way and within fifteen minutes was alone in the mountains. No lakes, of course. What a great way to get into nature.

It was too dark too soon to get many pictures, but I did snag this one on my drive home. Wish I could tell you it's from the top of a nameless mountain peak, but actually I took it behind the new Target on a hill overlooking town.

Oh well!

The Land Flowing with Panera and Starbucks

This morning I took the "VIA Challenge" at Starbucks. They asked me to differentiate between their Pike's Place Brew and the new Via Instant Coffee. Sorry to say, I was right. I guessed the Instant Coffee. The poor barista looked so disappointed.

"It was still good!" I tried to cheer him.

Simply by taking the test I was given a coupon for a free coffee. Ok, I got to tell you- the coupon is for the smallest, cheapest coffee that Starbucks sells. That said though, it's still free.

I'm still shocked by the number of coffee shops out here. Within a mile of my apartment you can get coffee at Starbucks, McDonalds, Coffee Kiosk, It's a Grind, or Panera. That's not all though. I did a quick search on the GPS as I was driving with my sister last week. Eight Starbucks popped up on the screen within three miles of where we were. In Butler there's not a single Starbucks in 13 miles let alone 3.

This morning I spent about 15 minutes in the car driving to the center of town just to visit my favorite Starbucks. A cute little stream flows behind it between a fountain on one end and a small waterfall on the other side. The patio beside the stream is shaded and little birds hop across the cobblestone to nibble on any crumbs dropped by the customers.

It's the perfect little place to enjoy Saturday morning devotions.

So with that I say "Adieu" to you and open the Word . . .