Week 12: Small Group Materials

I have not forgotten that I want to upload my small group materials as I use them. I thought we would move pretty quickly now that we are finished with the letters to the seven churches. It took us 7 meetings over 12 weeks (due to the holidays) to get through two chapters. I expected to be able to a chapter a week from here on out (with a few exceptions). However, we only got through the first 2 verses of chapter 4 Sunday night.

So, I will not post the notes on chapter 4 until after we finish next week. Here, though, is Chapter 5's Study Guide for those who would like it.

So Busy

I have been so busy and will continue to busy for the next couple of months. Lets take a look at my weekly schedule:

Sunday
I go to church typically from 7:30 AM to 12:30 PM. We then have play practice from 1:00 PM to 4:00 OM. Small group starts at 6:00, giving Erin and I just two hours to get home and prepare for our guests.

Monday - Friday
I, of course, work 8 AM to 5 PM everyday.

I am also trying to work 10 hours a week for Joe, by going into his office one evening a week and every Saturday. I am also try to get by PCA one evening a week. So that means my evenings are:

Evenings
Monday 7:45 PM - 10:15 PM - PCA work
Tuesday 5:30 PM - 9:30 PM - MCS work
Wed. 6:15 PM - 8:00 PM - Church/Play practice

Saturday
I usually try to work 9:00 AM to 4:oo PM at MCS.

Sometime in there, I need to prepare for the small group that I lead weekly by getting a study sheet ready and planning the discussion. Roll into that my priority to spend time with the baby and my wife, and you can see I have very little time left to blog. I have been feeling guilty about not blogging enough for my loyal readers (I am up to an average of 12 a day), but now ya'll can see why I have been somewhat quiet.

Memorizing Lines

After a close to a 10 year sabbatical, I am returning to the stage. Erin* and I have been asked to act in our churches Easter drama, "The Stone" (an original play by one of the members). The last time I remember being in a play was in 1984 or 1985 when I played Marley's Ghost in The Christmas Carol in sixth-grade. Since those days, my acting career has consisted only of VBS skits and sketches at camps, college club events, and mission trips. I can't remember the last time I was before an audience acting.

I have been part of productions in the intervening years on the technical staff. I have been the sound engineer for several other plays the church has done. I must say I am excited to step down from the sound booth and take on the role of the Apostle John. Erin will be playing Mary the sister of Lazarus. We were given our roles on Sunday and I have started memorizing my lines.

I have never been good at memorization (I failed many a spelling test in grade school due to my lack of ability to memorize). One of Randy's Rules of Life has been "Never memorize what you can look up." Even today I have to go reference books to remember programming syntax in a language I have been programming in over 5 years. I started memorizing my lines on Monday morning and have been taking the 20-30 minutes I have on the road going to work in the morning to work on my lines. I then use the drive back home to re-iterate my lines. Amazingly enough, I have been doing well. I have been a little shocked that I have been memorizing them so well and so fast, although I feel kind of weird talking to myself in the car.

* This is Erin's first time to be in a play. She did a very good job in the read-thru on Sunday but is very nervous that she will get stage fright and forget all of her lines. Please pray for her.

Revelation Small Group Materials

A post to bring all my small group materials up-to-date. Even though it has been like 6-weeks since the last post, we had Christmas, New Year, and church functions throughout the holiday season and have only met 3 times.

Week 9 - "The Dead Church: Sardis"

• Teacher Notes

Week 10 - "The Faithful Church: Philadelphia"

• Teacher Notes

Week 11 - "The Disgusting Church: Laodecia"

• Teacher Notes
• Homework: Chapter 4 Study Guide

Well, I did a bad thing...

I normally refrain from commenting on other people's blogs (other than my brother's). If I do post a comment, then I like for it to be somewhat anonymous, because the internet is full of very bad people. However, today as was using the "Blogger NavBar" to randomly sample blogs, I ran across "A Blog of Rage" (be wary about perusing this site if you are easily offended by liberal ideas or foul language). The author had posted an entry about Social Security and for some strange reason I felt compelled to comment for no other reason than just drive a socialist looney, so I cut-and-pasted excerpts from an earlier post I wrote.

I am kind of regretting commenting now because I drew the attention to myself. See, it didn't take long for the author to find my blog. Morbid curisoity drew me back to the site this evening to see what kind of reaction I had ignited. I got two people commenting on my comments. One is a idealouge who thinks the best way to handle an opposing idea is to call someone a name, while the other person (and original author) appears to be a well-reasoned guy who respects various ideas, even when he disagrees with them.

Then, to top off my unpredicatable behaviour, I have replied to thier replies. What is wrong with me? Am I out of my mind? I know that I will not change anyone's mind. I am just in a cantankerous mood and want to get under the skin of some stranger out there in cyberspace. Lesson learned. I did a bad thing and must vow to never, ever comment with stuff I have previously written.