January Party!

Homebuilders White Elephant Regift Exchange-Did you get one too many Christmas sweaters or how about suckers shaped like Sigmund Freud? Come to our post-Holiday White Elephant Regift Exchange! Bring the whole family to Caleb and Elizabeth's. We'll have pizzas, chips, veggies and dips. Feel free to bring a dessert. If you don't have an appropriate gift to unload, come anyway, we have plenty to share.
Let us know if you didn't get the evite for more details.

Christgiving Party

Thank you so much for coming to the Christgiving Party! The food was delicious and the kids were having so much fun they stayed out past 10p. Here are a couple of pictures from the night!

Christgiving Party

On Saturday December 6 we are celebrating both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Please join us for dinner at the Birch's house and lots of holiday fun. The turkey and drinks will be provided and it would be awesome if you could bring a side to add to the meal. Also, we will be having a Christmas ornament exchange! Bring a wrapped kid friendly ornament to exchange (because I'm sure they will be helping us:) Lastly, we will be collecting canned goods to donate at the party as well. We really hope you can celebrate the holidays with us!

Guys Lunch

Please join the HomeBuilder guys for lunch this Sunday at Sam's BBQ following church!!

politics...again

Another thought from John Piper's blog: (http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1998/1054_The_Other_Dark_Exchange_Homosexuality_Part_2/)

My closing declaration is this: God has not called us to win elections, but to win souls and hearts and minds; he has not called us to control Congress, but to preach the gospel; he has not called us to be safe, but to tell the truth. He has not called us to avoid conflict, but to love everyone (1 Thessalonians 3:12). So speak the truth in love, entrust your cause to God, and keep the glory of God in the center of your soul, so that all the planets of your passions will be pulled into their proper orbit.

This quote was in context of a lecture on homosexuality, but I thought it applied.

birch out!

vote, as though not voting

Weird title, huh? Well, it is the title of John Piper's latest Desiring God blog/email and it will make much more sense when actually reading it on his website: (http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee/ByDate/2008/3347_Let_Christians_Vote_As_Though_They_Were_Not_Voting/)

For those who don't want to read the whole article (I really recommend you do) I will give my own summary, though you will miss the richness of the scriptural refrences:

A Christian's priority is the kingdom of God, not the kingdoms of this world. Our primary concerns are the laws of God applied to the souls of men, not the laws of any country. Our eternal citizenship is in the kingdom of heaven, so it very much trumps any earthly kingdom citizenship we have. Our battles are not against flesh and blood, or people of this world, but against spiritual things.

I'm not saying don't vote, don't have an opinion, or do nothing in regards to american politics...but keep it in perspective. It is temporal...a secondary concern for a Christian. There isn't an absolute right or wrong answer with one party or candidate, even though there might be with any given issue...we are voting for the lesser of two (or more) evils, however you judge that. That isn't a slam on any candidate, it is just a fact of life when dealing with political systems whose loyalty is to other things (the nation, wealth, selfishness, etc.) before it is to God.


God bless...

casey

Upcoming HomeBuilder's Events

10/24 Noah's Ark Festival at HPBC

10/25 Bonfire with the Door

10/26 Meet in Chapel for Sunday School

10/26 Costume Party at the Ashcraft house at 4pm

10/27 Playgroup at Chick-Fil-a on Parmer at 9:45am

11/2 Girl's Night at 7:30 at Mandola's in the triangle

11/5 Playgroup at the Ashcraft's house at 9:45a (it's a Wednesday)

11/10 Playgroup at the Birch's at 3:45p (making boxes for Samaritan Purses)

11/16 Guy's Night at 7:30 at Sam's BBQ

12/6 Christgiving Party at the Birch's (Thanksgiving/Christmas party)

12/7 Sounds of Christmas at Worship Center at 6p (Orchestra and Ensemble groups)

12/14 Christmas Night of Praise at Worship Center at 6p

*if you didn't receive an evite for the bonfire or the costume party please know that you are welcome to come. Email me for more information:)

*more playgroups will be announced at a later date

*The Christgiving party is going to be so much fun. We are having a traditional spread of Thanksgiving/Christmas food along with an ornament exchange. There will be crafts for the kids and I'm already excited about it! We will also be collecting can goods at the party.

Fall Festivals

Fall Festivals

Noah's Ark Festival
October 24, 2008 5:30-8:30pm
Hyde Park Baptist Child Development Center is hosting their 21st annual Noah's Ark Festival. There will be games, train rides, pony rides, bouncey houses, food, a silent auction and more. Children can dress up as their favorite animal. Please come out and support this important ministry of our church.

Fall Festival
October 31, 2008 6-9 pm
First Baptist Church in Round Rock. There will be games, candy, inflatable jumpers, a silent auction, candy, and food. For more information, see www.fbcrr.org.


Fall Festival at Bannockburn Baptist Church
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October 31, 2008 The Bannockburn Baptist Church is hosting a Fall Festival October 31, 2008. The festival will be held from 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. at the church. There will be food, fun, games and lots of candy for preschoolers and children.
For more information visit www.bbcfamily

Community Candy Carnival
Join Fellowship Church Southwest and Bowie High School as they co host the 5th Annual Community Candy Carnival Sunday, October 26, 2008 from 4:30pm–7:30pm. This annual event is a free community initiative that benefits Bowie High School clubs and organizations, Capital Area Food Bank of Texas, and serves south Austin by providing a safe environment for a family-friendly Halloween alternative. The carnival event offers free admission, games, prizes, candy, activities, entertainment, and free or very inexpensive food, even public service demonstrations provided by the Austin Fire Department and Austin Police Department.
Food and drink, such as pizza and a soda, will be available for a nominal fee. Attendees will enjoy great live music for the length of the event, while having full access to the variety of festivities for all ages. Carnival attendees are encouraged and welcome to wear family-friendly costumes.

Bible 101 Catch Up

Hey everybody! I'm finally posting up the slides from the last three lessons...as well as the rest of the slides. These slides will undergo a reorder and touch up before I do this series again, though. I think I've settled on a different order of the lessons that makes more sense.

Here are some quick summaries of the last three lessons:

Bible Languages and Translations

In this lesson we talked about how the words of the biblical authors get to us from them writing the original in Greek or Hebrew to us reading it in English. We discussed textual criticism and how experts look at many manuscripts form the last two thousand years to come up with what the originals looked like. We also talked about how various English translations differ based on which critical texts they translated from, and their method of translation. Some translations take a more word for word or literal approach, while others take a more thought for thought approach. Both approaches have theirs pros an cons my personal recommendation is to have at least two tranlsations that cover both. No translation is perfect.

Bible Study Tools and Methods

In short, their are LOTS of tools out there to help you understand and apply the Bible to your life. Just be aware that these tools are human made and are capable of mistakes and biases.

The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible

Christians are often accused of using circular reasoning to defend our beliefs that the Bible is the inspired. I think it is true that we cannot prove with observable facts what we believe. However, it is not unreasonable. If we believe the gospel of Jesus we have to accpet the gospel accounts of his life as at least true and historiclaly accurate. Once we do that, we see that they tell us Jesus believed that the OT was the inspired and authoritative This lays the foundation for what we believe.

Here are the slides: http://www.sendspace.com/file/exf0tv

Help

As you guys know, Texas suffered quite a hit this weekend due to hurricane Ike. One of our close friends Lindsey, Shaun and Rylan (6 months old) lost everything. Their home had 6-8 feet of water in it when the surge hit. They also had their vehicle in their garage and lost that as well. They are such a sweet family who loves the Lord and trusts he will take care of them. I was hoping we could help them get back on their feet. Has it been a while since you cleaned out your closets? They lost all of their clothes, shoes, work clothes, baby blankets, crib sheets, baby toys, basically anything you can imagine. She is a 6th grade math teacher and he is a high school principal. If you feel like cleaning out your closet and donating any clothes or baby items you can bring them to church with you and I'll make sure they get them.
Her sizes:
M-L shirt
8-10 pants
6 shoe

His sizes:
L shirt
33, 34 pants
11.5 shoes

Baby clothes:
he is going to need 9-12 month clothes or bigger. he also lost all toys, blankets, etc.

If something doesn't fit them I know they will give the items to another needy family. Their entire town (Bridge City) was lost in the surge.

Thanks so much!

HomeBuilder Happenings

Thank you so much for the donations guys. We were able to donate 18 baskets worth over $600 dollars to the mission trip silent auction. Pretty amazing right?

We were also able to donate 2 boxes to the soldiers for spread the light.

Guys night is this Wednesday at 6:30 at Antonio's Tex Mex restaurant. Guys feel free to meet up for dinner and enjoy manly conversation while eating yummy food.

Also, we are celebrating both Judah and Casey's birthday this coming up Saturday. Dinner and dessert will be provided so please come and celebrate with us. It'll be at the Birch's home around 5:30. Email us for directions.

The Toddlers Bible

Hi, I mentioned to some of you about the great Bible my mom got for Lydia. Most kid's Bibles have too many words on a page or the pictures look silly...This one is called The Toddlers Bible by V. Gilbert Beers (yes its a paraphrase not a translation:) FaithKidz, Cook Communications Ministries. Its for kids from 1-3 and she loves it. All the stories are 4 pages long.
If anyone else has one they like you should comment on this post.
Thanks-Elizabeth

family commitement & domestic support

We continued discussing a list of His 5 largest emotional needs and Her 5 largest emotional needs. We finished talking about Family Commitment. Here are some things group members suggested during our discussion
How can we show our spouse our family commitment?

• Don't undermine the others authority, specifically Husbands make sure to support what the wife has decided if she is the one at home all day with the kids.
• It makes it easier to both be involved in the development if the course of action is decided on in agreement between the two of you. If it is all just one persons idea, the other is disinclined to help.
• Take care of the family in other ways too, not just domestic... wills, insurances, etc - family decisions that she for what ever reason can't or doesn't want to do.

What makes our spouses feel like we do not have family commitment?

• When we give our time to anything else, even normal work sometimes.
• When we make our spouses feel bad for working (this was said specifically about working mothers, but I think wives also make husbands feel guilty for working sometimes).
• If mothers stay home and a husband suggests that it would be better if she worked so they could have more money, making the mother seem unvalued.
  

Next we talked about His need for "Domestic Support" - loosely defined as 'he has a need for comfortable home, and needs his spouse to be supportive in that area'
We only got as far as to hear from Guys in the room about whether or not it was truly a need of theirs and I think it was a clear Yes. We agreed that we wanted our homes to be places of rest and refuge, especially right after work (which is typically when we are called on to take over for the mother). Women also, obviously, would like some domestic support, so here again is an example of how it is a felt need of both spouses. Men just typically rank it much higher on their list of needs than women do. According to his research this author says that men would typically give up affection, conversation, openness and honesty, as well as financial support and family commitment to have a spouse that provided domestic support. We also mentioned that men need to remember the other forms of "domestic support" that may wives provide, not just house stuff, things like keeping up with family members for us, doing the cordial stuff like RSVPin, thankyou cards and birthday cards, wedding presents, things that makes our household better, more hospitable and respected by others. We will pick up on this topic in a few weeks, and continue up the lists.

Here is some interesting reading. The first one, pay attention to the graph, which shows that historically men are doing heeps more work than they use to, and women are doing less than they use to. And, now the increase in work from single to married is about the same for men and women, women just already did alot more work to begin with while single. Also, since I still have access to most of UT's online library I looked up the original publication and I was surprised to find out that almost everything that men typically do around the house wasn't considered "housework", namely house maintenance and repair, yard work, and car repair & maintenance, which I kind of feel helps maintain the home so should have been included.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080403191009.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070827174300.htm

Admiration/family commitment

Ok, so we started discussing his & her five most important needs. Remember the loss of these needs, according to this author, is what leads to distance, lack of fulfillment and ultimately divorce. Here is the authors website if you care: http://www.marriagebuilders.com/graphic/mbi3300_needs.html

The his list is
1. sexual fullfillment, 2 recreational companionship, 3 attractive spouse, 4 domestic support, 5 admiration.
Her list is:
1. affection, 2 conversation/communication, 3 openness and honestly, 4 financial commitment, 5 family commitment.

We discussed that the order might switch around for some people, for example #2 seemed too high on the list for some guys, 5 too low. I am kind of shocked myself that this author says women need money (4) more than family commitment (5)... some women might reorder their list too, but we are going to discuss them in this order for simplicity.

Notes from today: We camped out on "admiration" alot, perhaps too much. Some thoughts about it that people in the class brought out:

• It does need to be verbal , and criticisms limited.
  
• It isn't the same as "respect" or even "appreciation" - it's much simpler.
  
• These needs are interconnected, if he is going to provide the financial & family commitment needs, he wants some admiration for that role.
• Yes, women have a need to be admired & appreciated, though this author says it is much less than the need men have, but it is important to note that these "needs" are not owned exclusively by one spouse.
  
• Admiration doesn't need to be for when things are done "perfect" - you can admire effort, willingness, attempt, thoughts, ideas, integrity, honesty, commitment.... not just jobs well done.
  
• We seemed to equate - and this is my fault - the need for admiration to the needs for self worth. I would say that if a man had the strongest self image possible - he would still be tempted to gravitate away from a spouse who did not full fill this kind of need. God can give him self-worth, but he still has a need to be admired by his spouse for that worth!
  

We began talking about "Family Commitment": here are initial thoughts and questions for next time.

• Women agreed that this was a true need.
  
• Women often carry the burden for the development of the kiddos, they need husbands to be as committed to it as they are.
  
• The synopsis I read says women want men to take a leadership role in the development of the kiddos, but it seemed to me that many ladies said the need was more for support of what they were doing - I'm interested in discussing these two situations.
• ? for next week - What gets in the way from women feeling fullfilled in this need? - guys and girls might have different answers. What are suggestions for men to DO to let the wives see their commitment?

Other comments: There is a tendency to say 'but what about me' or try to find out 'why do they need that' - We possibly talked too much about "why" men want admiration instead of "how" to lovingly fulfill that need. Also, while it is most certainly true that God meets our needs I would caution us that unless we address "how" that can lead us to feeling like "well - it isn't ultimately my job to do those things" when in fact it most certainly is. Take other needs, such as physical needs, God can certainly provide those to people, but it is most often done through others, and it is often up to us to do so. Interestingly reading the new testament we are told that meeting the physical needs of the poor is paramount to serving God himself, when we DO something to meet any need, God is involved through us whether it is a spiritual, emotional or physical need. Now, emotional needs are just as profound and God graciously meets them through other people. Be careful that the "get it from God" doesn't just equal fasting... fasting of course is a great spiritual discipline and Paul even talks about abstaining from sex to devote yourself to prayer (very much as fasting from a basic need) - but fasting forever has ... well.. negative consequences. My point is: yes, God ultimately provides for our needs... and he has provided a spouse to do so.

SplashJam will take place at Elizabeth Milburn Park on Sunday, August 31 from 1 to 8 pm. Their will be live music, swimming, games, prizes, and fireworks. Admission is $3 for adults and $1 for children (pool admission is seperate). The park is located at 1901 Sun Chase Blvd. The pool has slides and other water activities. It looks like it would be a lot of fun for the kids.

• Oak Hill United Methodist Church is hosting their Annual Summer Jam next Saturday, August 23 from 5 to 8 pm. Bands from local churches will be performing. Their will be barbecue and activities for the kids as well. The tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for children. Bring a lawn chair and a swim suit. The church is located at 7815 Hwy 290 West. This sounds like a good Christian family event.

DONATIONS PLEASE

Hey guys! We need your help. Our class is busy collecting items for several different reasons. First we are making a few baskets for a HPBC silent auction and we are making care packages for soldiers. If you can donate any of the following items that would be awesome. You can bring them to class or contact us.

For Auction
-children's books
-mom's relaxation items (candles, soaps, lotions, good book, etc.)
-can get business to donate a gift card to auction
-can donate your time or craft for the auction as well (photography, art work, jewelry making, etc.)

For Soldier Care Package
-snacks (beef jerky, hard candy, mints, sunflower seeds, jaw breakers, gum etc.)
-nice letter
-things to do (books, magazines, deck of cards, dominoes, puzzles, dice, hacky sack, etc.)
-AT&T international calling card
-toiletries (sunblock, hand sanitizer, toothpaste, shampoo, icy hot packs, chap stick, foot powder, etc.)
-inflatable pillow, stress relief ball, pens, rayzors, disposable camera, etc.

Thanks so much for your help and support!!!

Children's/Families' Programs and Events

Wells Branch Community Library, 15001 Wells Port Drive does a Baby Sign Time every other Tuesday at 2:00 pm. The next one takes place Tuesday, August 26. I've not been to this specific program but I have attended a few of their storytimes and Brooklyn and I have really enjoyed them. This sounds like it would be a really neat program for those with pre-verbal children.

This Sunday - Bible Translations and Versions

Hey everyone!

Continuing in our Bible 101 series we now enter the third section which focuses on how best to study the Bible. To study the Bible, we have to actually read it (surprise, surprise). Given that most of us can't read ancient Hebrew and Greek in which the Bible was originally written in, we have to pick an English translation and rely on it to accurately relay the truths to us from the original languages. Therfore, kicking off this section we will be talking about English translations, trying to answer the following questions:

Which translation is best to use for study?
Are some translations better than others? Do the "KJV only" folks have good reasons why it is better?
What exactly are the differences between various translations?
Are there different approcahes to creating a translation?
Do all translations use the same source Hebrew and Greek texts?

So...bring your favorite translations and be prepared to tell us why you might prefer one over another as we talk about their unique characteristics and histories!

Recap Sunday 8-10

I feel like today went well, though I wish I had emphasized the difference between how Mr. D's and Mr. J's philosophical views contrasted with how they actually lived; The more "conservative" view sacrificed for his wife's career, and the more moderate seemed to his insistence that he get his way (like his new acquisitions... Glock, Motorcycle, flat screen...). Perhaps there is no real contradiction? Of course, you understand I orchestrated real data somewhat for discussion so I hope you do not criticize either man too much, I know you don't.

Over all I hope two points came across: 1) It was easy to pick apart my simplistic view of these two guys, but do you know your own problem areas, where you need to work? 2) We should remember this when we start to judge others who might have more obvious flaws...

The OT Canon Wrap Up

To recap Sunday's lesson on the OT canon, I realize I need to spend a little more time talking about how the 39 books we do have came together. The majority of the lesson on Sunday focused on what the OT Apocrypha is and where it came from and why other Christian traditions include it in their OT and we don't. Honestly, there is not much to say about how the other 39 books came to us. There is not much historical information on exactly how and when the Jews made their decisions on which books they considered scripture, other than this process (which may have taken place over hundreds of years) seemed to be complete and settled by the 3rd century BC or so.

Through quotations made by Jesus and the NT authors, as well as some other historical references, we are pretty confident that the books the Jews considered scripture in 1st century Palestine are the 39 books we (and the Jews) have today in our OT. There has been some speculation on the inclusion of three of the books, as we discussed; Esther, Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes, primarily due to their content (or lack of it).

To sum up our talk on the apocrypha, I'll just cut and paste from my conclusion slide:


•The 39 books Protestants use today were most likely the books considered scripture by Jesus and the apostles, without the apocrypha
•The Christian support for the apocrypha primarily came about through the Septuagint, or Greek translation of the OT
•The vast majority of the early and medieval church (2nd - 16th centuries) embraced the apocrypha as scripture to some degree
•Today it is generally universally recognized by those that include the apocrypha that it is not as authoritative as the other OT books

I guess one take away I have from this is that we shouldn't let the fact that some traditions place the apocryphal books in their OT cause too much division. Since most of the early church has found these books valuable to their faith, they may be worth the read, though I would stop short of basing any doctrine on them.

Here is the updated deck for download:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/0h54qn

Until next time...

-casey

Mission Opportunity

The Singles Department at Hyde Park is organizing a pair of supporting
Mission Trips to Paraguay (in South America between Brazil, Bolivia, and
Argentina). The first trip will be October 10th through 18th, and the
follow-on trip will be the 17th through 25th. They need a team of 10
people to attend each trip and already have several spots filled. The
second trip plans to organize and run a 3-on-3 basketball tournament and
use it as an opportunity for evangelism. The first trip will perform
promotion for the tournament and some door-to-door evangelism.



If you are interested in attending or supporting these Mission Trips,
Chuck Haddox (the HPBC minister to singles) is hosting an informational
session on this Sunday, August 3rd, in Room W218 after the 11am service.
Please come by if you can.

Next sunday

Next sunday: We are going to discuss two people that I know personally, we call them Mr. D and Mr. J. The point of issue will be how they personally portray biblical husband leadership in their family and to think about how we ourselves view biblical husband. There will be specific problems and positive things in each man's description for us to discuss. Read up on pertinant scripture about husbands and wives (1 Corinth 7, 13 and 14; Eph 5; 1 Peter 3; 1 Timothy - do a word search! (We can talk about wives later)

Recap on "evolution" talk

The first two points summarize what I said the first two weeks, in total I hope it might serve guidelines for how to defend your faith or help a struggling seeker/family member.

1). The creation story in the first two chapters of Genesis are complicated and allow multiple interpretation. The simplest interpretation, based on no other information is what we call young earth creationism. I argue that to properly understand passages in the bible that have complex and seemingly contradictory verses we need other information to help guide our interpretation of scripture, we should do so here. We do the same thing to most challenging verses, ask me for examples if you don't think so.
2) Evolutionary theory is like gravitational theory; and idea that is based on solid factual scientific evidence. The earth looks millions of years old. All Living beings look commonly derived.
3) Some science should be used to show that belief in God is not made impossible by even pure evolution such as evidence of the Big Bang, all matter and energy had a definite beginning!
4) The sheer improbability the Big Bang resulted in a universe capable of evolution is crazy, but it happened. It's like all 100 roulette tables in a casino coming up with exactly predicted numbers that stood in precise ratios to other tables; table 1 is .2 and half of table 2, which is one third table 3, etc.)
5) The Universal Moral Law would teach us to counter act evolution - even ardent evolutionist don't want pure evolution. Typically animals massacre, annihilate and kill those that stand in their way from their propagation. "The notion that there is something such as a common good would never occur to a lion. "We seem to have a lot of zebra left over from that last kill. Shall we drop over to visit with that pride down the block who seems to be struggling with all those new cubs?" (quoted from an evolution website)
6) I would then suggest that this at least makes the presence of a God possible, even ceding all evolution, and then begin to probe the heart: What do they want? Do they inwardly know they have a purpose? Does anything in them cry out for love, rescue, help, redemption? Do they know that some of what they do is wrong and in need of forgiveness? These things make me personally chose to believe.

Overall, we Christians need to be less concerned about being "right" about evolution vs creation. Give the evolutionist their data, they're not making it up, but they still need a Saviour. We need to quickly bring it to the heart of the matter.

I hope this little side trip was beneficial.

The New Testament Canon

Hello, everyone! Sorry I had to miss this Sunday.

I just wanted to recap our discussion on the New Testament Canon. I think that the signifcant take aways for me are:

1. The NT canonization process wasn't really as smooth or cut and dry as we are often led to believe, or as I would be most comfortable with.

2. Even though this is the case, I think an objective look at history still gives us great confidence in the NT as we know it today. It is nothing short of miraculous, to me, that by the 3rd century AD the bulk of the NT was almost universally agreed upon by churches and pastors that were spread from the British isles, to Spain, to North Africa, to Ethipopia, to Italy, to Greece, to Turkey, to Syria, etc.

Here are the points from the summary slide listed below:


•At least 18 books of the NT were quoted and considered to have some authority within ~100 years of Christ’s life.
•20 of the NT books were fully accepted by the whole church by around the 3rd Century, while the other 7 were also known and had some support.
•Today, all major Christian groups accept the 27 books of the NT as inspired, genuine, and authoritative except: the Syrian church only use 22; and some Eastern churches exclude Revelation
•The 7 books that have been ‘disputed’ at times carry no essential doctrines that are not also found in the other 20 books.

The updated Bible 101 slides can be found here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/o5dkeg

Right in line with our discussion the oldest 'complete' copy of the New Testament we have made the news last week because it is being published online. I think some of the details of the story are particlarly interesting in light of our class last Sunday: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/07/24/online.bible/index.html?iref=newssearch


PEACE

- casey

Rick Warren and politics

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/22/warren.qa/index.html

Interesting article on Rick Warren inviting both candidates to speak at his church.

August 2-get your babysitter lined up!!

I just wanted to say that I am soooo looking forward to our event planned without kids and I want lots of fun friends there for Beauty and the Beast Musical (which guys in the door says is cool) at Zilker Park on August 2. So I know it will be late and everyone will need to get someone to watch the kids and that can be complicated so start now to line up a family member, friend from the door, neighbor or someone for that night. If you are having a hard time finding one (we often still do as we don't know many people in the neighborhood yet) let's talk so everyone can come.
Posted by Elizabeth :)

Notes and comments on today's evolution talk

I want to clarify a few things and add some notes:

First: When I talked to a few people after church I realized I may have miscommunicated about the role of viruses. It is true that there are some defunct parts of DNA that could possibly be the result of some ancient virus that infected an ancestor egg or sperm cell. But I didn't not intend to tell the class that that is how all viruses act. Sure enough some viruses become integrated into the host DNA, becoming part of it for ever, examples are wart viruses, cold sores, herpes, HIV, etc. But not all viruses do that, and even fewer would infect egg or sperm cells and be passed on to offspring DNA. This is why it is taken as good evidence that species who share possible ancient infections, are related. These are too rare to show just coincidental occurrences in separate species, even if you think the world is billions of years old, (certainly not if you think it is <10,000).

Second: The example of the deficient vit. C gene is more convincing than I think I made it. I should have mentioned that making Vit. C is complicated and requites several parts, several cooperating machinery. We, and other primates, all have defunct genes that in other animals helps them to make vit. C. There are other mammals that have defunct vit. C genes in this process, namely fruit bats and guinea pigs. But their Vit. C making machinery is defunct for different reasons, they have a different genetic screw up, we and apes have the same screw ups. Let me give you a strange example to make the point. Let's say there is a blue eyed orphan kid with cystic fibrosis AND color blindness (both inherited genetic). We screen people claiming to be parents for a genetic match. Obviously using "blue eyes" would be a silly cause lots of people have blue eyes. Color blindness is caused by several things genetically so that, though better, isn't definitive. But cystic fibrosis is caused by very few types of genetic problems. A match for a parent that carries the same cystic fibrosis problem gene as the boy, AND the color blindness, is a match! Now, I know it is complicated, but our relatedness to apes is probably MORE founded than the hypothetical genetic test just described, for the exact same reasons. What I didn't have time to talk about is that this type of information also tells us, scientifically, that modern man, even in all his forms, probably have the same, THE SAME, ancestor... we all came from 1 or just a few father and mothers. (adam and eve?, who also couldn't make Vit. C!!!! - the bible is right!)

Thirdly: While it may absolutely be possible that species where created each in their own form, individually, there is alot of strange things that would have had to be created along with them. Such as: an absolutely defunct Vit. C machinery in Adam and Eve, that we all inherited... why?....and many other strange deficiencies in our DNA and other animals DNA that God would have had to have created in a deficient state.(why?) other examples are the human appendix - useless, the ability of a human infants to support their own weight by gripping onto something - now useless (but similar to other primates gripping onto mothers fur), and, in other animals, such as salmon fish's adipose fin (a useless fin), and many other things rendered useless over time (you can ask me for more examples). Why would he create useless things? I know some would say: perhaps we don't yet know their use... but it's pretty clear that a person with out an appendix... has no change ill or good what so ever.

Fourthly: We didn't have time to talk about how things are aged, but it would have been boring anyway, to sum up, what we are left with is these choices:
1. Things did evolve like they certainly scientifically look like they did. or
2. Things where created pretty much as is, but they LOOK like they evolved.
You see, the science isn't wrong at all to make the conclusions it makes. For example: If adam was made "from dust".. he was made an adult, we assume. So on day 2 of his life, if you looked at him, you would probably say he looked, .... 30 years old? But he was only 1 day old. What about trees, they have rings.... first tries presumably had rings too.. showing "incorrect" ages. The point is, from where the science data sits, it tells a certain story. If we choose to believe something else, it is by faith alone. What we should never do is ever ever, never never ever, give credence to wacky "creationist science" - the world looks old... if it is younger... it's a miracle..

Next time we'll talk about the part of science that leads to God and how to talk about that with seekers.

Summing Up our Faith and Politics Discussion

Based on requests and my own desire to recap our discussion...I'm recapping our discussion and adding some additional thoughts. Please feel free to add on comments as you want.

**disclaimer** - opinions expressed below are not necessarily the opinions of Hyde Park Baptist Church...nor do I claim to always be right. :)

First off...thanks to everyone for a GREAT discussion last week. It's great to see some passionate opinions being shared in the class, yet done in a way that is respectful of others who might not share the same opinion. I hope nobody felt intimidated or that they couldn't add in their two cents. In my summary below, I don't mean to say that everyone in the class walked away fully in agreement on every point...but I will try to show other sides of the discussion as I remember it. Actually, I've typed quite a novel, so you may want to grab a coffee real quick.

Let's run through some of the questions we asked...and I'll add a few from my own additional thoughts:

1. What is the purpose of earthly government?

The conclusion was that God instituted earthly government to provide order, by that we mean restraining our sinful natures for the good of society, and to provide some level of earthly justice. Heavenly or true justice will only be served at the final judgement...but government administers some level of temporary justice today for crimes against society. This is true regardless of how evil or holy any certain government might be...whether Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime or our founding fathers' nascent USA. See Romans 13 for reference.

2. Is the kingdom of God achieved through earthly government? Or, are the things we Christians are charged by God with responsibility to do supposed to be done through or even possible to achieve though earthly government?

The consensus was that, spreading the word of God, going into all the world and making disciples, loving our neighbors and our enemies, etc. are not things that are best served by human governments and laws. We, the church are charged with these things to accomplish them, completely irrespective of government.

Jesus' apparent refusal to be involved in politics is striking, given that he 1) was the Jewish Messiah, many prophecies of which are somewhat political in nature, and 2) the region of Judea in the early first century was a very politically charged environment. It was difficult being a public figure and not having a strong political stance. Jesus was taken in trial before the local Jewish court, the 'Jewish' king (Herod), and the Roman governor, all three and did not bother with political answers. Would Christ have had a more political bent in a democratic republic like our today where he could have voted?

It is kind of a moot point, in my opinion, because all things were the way they were for a reason. I would still suspect, though, that the spiritual nature of Jesus' first coming would still leave no time for earthly politics.

We did agree, however, that government policies could hamper or encourage the kingdom of God to some degree however. Obviously, laws restricting the free practice of Christianity, logically, could hamper its spread. However we also noted that, counter-intuitively, there are instances of history of where the government is decidedly anti-Christian and the church most flourishes (modern day China, the first few centuries of the church in Rome), whereas, governments that have been very favorable to Christianity have sometimes resulted in a watered-down, lazy or corrupt church (Constantine's Roman church, the "church" in America today).

3. What then, is our responsibility as Christians and as US citizens in our political environment?

Should we vote for the most "evil" candidate in hopes of a repressive policy so the church will be made pure and flourish again? (I'm kind of joking, here...)

Should we completely abstain from the political process?

Should we seek to legislate our Christian morality into the law of the land?

Voting for overtly evil and repressive policies that force people to do active wrong can't seem to be justified at all. We won't really entertain that thought any longer.

Should we then take up the mantra to seek to legalize our Christian morals...our sense of right and wrong? Surely, the saying that you shouldn't legislate morality is incorrect. All legislation is rooted in morality. But is that the open door for people to seek to legislate every aspect of what they consider right and wrong? To preserve justice, as governments are supposed to do, they typically outlaw most forms of murder...which is definitely a "wrong" in my book. How could I not support such a law? However, also a "wrong" in my book, is worshipping any God but the one true God of the Bible...or even being an atheist. Do I also want to legislate that moral for others?

Someone said, "no", because the Constitution protects the right of religious belief and practice. But certainly we have the power to amend the Constitution when we believe it is incorrect (remember the Constitution once said African-Americans were counted as 3/5th's a person). So surely, if we find fault or limitations with the Constitution, we have the ability and possibly the responsibility to change it. So if we believe that it is truly wrong for someone to not worship our God, why do we not seek to put that into law?

I think the answer is because we also believe that it is not right to force all of our beliefs and practices on other people. To some degree, we respect the rights of people to choose the right or wrong thing to do for themselves. Purely dictating one's behavior, anyway, does nothing eternally for them because it is the heart that is corrupt and damning, regardless of how they act on the outside. Again, God's kingdom is not furthered through earthly law.

4. So...if we believe that we should not force good morals on others...why have laws at all?

Remember question one above...the purpose of government is to preserve order and provide some degree of earthly justice, though it is temporal and imperfect. To preserve order some basic level of morality must be put into law...otherwise the potential end of human nature left alone is self destruction.

5. How do we decide then, which morals of ours ought to be legalized, and which ones should not?

In my opinion, this depends on the system of government. Since we are US citizens, I'll limit the answer to our form of government, a democratic republic. Our government is set up so that each citizen has the ability vote for a few key people to represent our opinion in the federal government: our Congressman, Senators, and president/vice president. The voting power on individual issues and legislation actually rests with these people who are supposed to represent us, or at least act in our best interest (key phrase "supposed to"). These Senators and Congressmen and women join with hundreds of others, ultimately representing every other citizen in the country and they fight and argue and compromise until most reach an agreement on what the law should or shouldn't be.

In other words, ultimately our laws in this country ideally reflect the common will (or morality) of the citizenry of the country...or as close to it as it can get. Basically...what ends up winning should ideally be the point where most American citizens can agree on something. Most people agree murder is wrong and should be discouraged...hence it is illegal. Most people seem to no longer agree that homosexuality is in itself a threat to society's order and so, while no law compels people to engage in homosexual behavior, people are largely no longer prohibited from practicing it either.

So, again, where does the Christian draw the line in voting on moral issues?

Given that we are not given specific instructions on how to interact with our political systems, I would label political opinion to mostly be considered a gray area from a scriptural point of view...or better put, a matter of conscience. There is no scriptural guide for us to compel non-believers to any behavior via government or otherwise. I know very good and well that I should give to the poor...should I be in favor of a law that requires all people to do so( via taxes!)? I don't think there is anything wrong with it...it might do some good (social security). But ultimately I am only held responsible for what I do as a believer to help people...not what my government forced others to do based on the input of a vote from someone who represents me.

So where to draw the line, as far as which issues to be concerned about and try to get legislated (or "un-legislated"), to me seems to be a matter of conscience. Ultimately, our priority as believers is the work of the church, of the kingdom of God. Earthly government plays only a small or incidental role in this, if any at all. But even though we are first citizens of God's kingdom, we are also, secondarily, citizens of the US of A. In that we have the right, or privilege, to participate in our government to some degree. I would not despise those who pay little attention to our political system in favor of the kingdom of God, but I cannot fault those feeling a strong conviction to represent God's kingdom in our political system as best as possible, to improve the degree of justice that our government protects. Certainly there is good in providing justice to the oppressed, even if it through government? But the specifics are fuzzy...could providing justice to the oppressed in America be defined as guaranteeing health care to all...how about protecting fetuses from abortion? If you had to choose between voting for someone who supported one and not the other, or someone else who held the opposite view? What if a candidate held his position only to acquire votes?

What I do feel strongly about, though, is that this secondary, temporal, and earthly subject of politics be not used to divide the body of Christ. We have freedom in how we approach our political system, if we approach it at all, and on which issues we give priority, all according to our conscience. Let us not judge one another in this respect, then, or devalue some one's faith based on their political opinions. May not the kingdom of Christ be torn based on our convictions about how earthly kingdoms are run.

Let us not be ignorant...

I wish I hadn't missed last Sunday!

We'll try to tackle an equally problematic question though. This Sunday will be very difficult for me; we will discuss some tenets of "Evolution" that are "fact" and perhaps we will have time to discuss some theological implications. Let me iterate the goals of the topic - that we/the church will be more able to reach out to co-workers/others and family members and be ready for the world view of our children. After this discussion, next time, we will have a finishing discussion about how we might then engage non-believers in conversation about our savior. See you on Sunday

Faith and Politics?

I hope this post finds everyone well and I hope everyone is having a great holiday. Look for a link at the end of this post to the slides presented in last weeks lesson on the books of the Bible.

This Sunday I want to take a one week diversion in our Bible 101 series to discuss the role of faith in our politics. I'm doing it partially because it is election year and the recent news regarding Obama and Dr. Dobson, and partially because I need some more study time to get a very solid historical understanding of the development of the Biblical canon before I teach on it.

I do not choose to enter the subject of politics in our Bible Study time lightly. In fact we have to be very careful in how we do it. I would like to have a very open discussion, but I know political issues can cause people to get emotional and argumentative...so we will simply stop if it gets to that.

A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Dobson, on his Focus on the Family radio show, commented on a speech Barack Obama made in 2006 to a Christian group that apparently leans toward the left of the political spectrum (see http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/24/evangelical.vote/index.html). Dr. Dobson and his co-host were very critical of Obama and some of his comments from the 2006 speech. I've read the entirety of Obama's speech and you can see it here: http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060628-call_to_renewal/. You can listen to the Focus on the Family commentary on the speech here: http://www.citizenlink.org/content/A000007770.cfm. And finally you can read some of it if you prefer here, but there is interspersed commentary by another pastor: http://ponderingpastor.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/dobson-vs-obama-dobson-needs-a-chill-pill/

My brief interpretation of Obama's speech is that he is discussing how Christians should engage the political process in our pluralistic society. Dr. Dobson has some obvious disagreements. I do not want to discuss what people think of Obama or Dobson Sunday morning, but rather use their discussion as a springboard to step back from the specifics of this year's presidential race and party politics and discuss how we as Christians should or can engage in our political process.

What does the Bible say about the role of believers and politics?
Do we have certain obligations?
Are there limits if we do?
Is there room for interpretation or disagreement?
How does the separation of church and state figure in?

I DO NOT want to get into discussion that bashes any particular candidates or parties...this is a more philosophic and theological based approach. So be warned I will cut short any talk of the sort.

So, think about it and come prepared to talk!

Here is a link to last week's Bible 101 slides: http://www.sendspace.com/file/o5bdro

Port Arthur Mission Trip

Port Arthur Family Mission Trip.
July 3rd is the last day to sign up if you are interested in being a part of this great project, July 17-20. If you can't go, the group really covets your prayers (prayer points will be coming out soon). And if you feel lead we would appreciate financial support. There will be opportunity to give at Sunday school. Thanks!

Guys' & Girls' Events

This Saturday, June 28th, is Girls' Day Out and Guys' Night Out. Girls will meet for BRUNCH at Hoovers in North Austin at 11AM. Guys will meet at Dart Bowl at 7PM. Email us with any questions: Homebuilders.hpbc@gmail.com

Belief in God, for a scientist

Let me review the goals of the discussion for the next few weeks-

1: That we may be better evangelist and that more people come to know Christ from a modern/skeptical city and world
2: That our faith in God and the scripture will grow
3: That our knowledge of scientific processes will increase

I intend to strengthen our ability to present belief in God as not only viable, but avoidable only by not wanting or being blind to see Him. Here is our general outline:

Week I; What does a 'creationist' believe? - we will read Genesis 1-2 in class together and discuss its literal meaning and implications.
Week II; What of "evolution" is "fact" - what will our kids learn in school. We will talk about facts of evolution that are very difficult to argue against - by difficult I mean that they are obviously true and you will discredit yourselves by not believing them (a lot of this you already believe) - and how creationism isn't hindered.
Week III: How best to explain your faith in light of science. We will focus on the WHY question, which obviously evolution cannot address. We must lead people to see that their heart yearns for a WHY - even if the world is 5 billion years old or something, and we have the answer to that!
Week IV: - open- to specific questions that arise if needed.

It will help our discussion if you respond with specific fears, ideas, beliefs, etc to this blog and I can help you more.

This coming sunday - and beyond

I have two ideas for continuation 'series" for the summer and I'd like some group input.

1: We could explore what I'd call "science and the bible" - starting with creation/evolution and I'd hope to bring a unique perspective having worked and studied in the biological and environmental science fields. This is an extremely relevant discussion as "creationism" is more and more looking like "wacko-ism" to the world and a huge stumbling block for people and even more so our children will grow up in a world that not only teachers evolution, but actively teaches against creationism.

2: Possibly well mingled with Casey's Bible 101, we could begin an exploration of some key recent Church figures. I have a list in mind that would include people like Westley, Toser, missionaries such as H. Taylor, but would take suggestions. This would lean heavily on some biographies I'm intending to read and a book of "classic devotionals" that highlights contributions of key figures in the past centuries.

Please could some people respond with their preferences.

Thanks
Caleb

Guys Night Out & Girls Day Out COMING SOON!

DON'T FORGET: This month's social event is GUYS NIGHT OUT and GIRLS DAY OUT! Both events are on SATURDAY, JUNE 28th. An evite will follow soon but we wanted to get the word out early that this event is coming up. Happy June/Summer!

Children's Museum

Yesterday 5 of the kids and moms were able to come to the playgroup. We went to the Children's Museum for toddler day. There were no kids over 3 so our little ones were able to run around like crazy. There was a story time, arts and crafts and singing. It was a great time. We weren't able to get pictures of all of the kids because they were very busy and in a million different directions. Here are a few pictures from our awesome day...

Children's Museum

We forgot to mention that it will be $8 total for both mom and toddler. Hope to see you there.

Toddler Day

Hey guys! Toddler day at the Children's Museum is this Monday. Feel free to join us for some fun.

Here is the schedule:

Mondays, 9am-noon
Toddler Storytime - 9:30am
Sing-a-long - 10:30am
The Smartest Artist Studio - 11:00am
All activities take place in the rotunda.
It costs $8 per parent & child.

We are going to meet at the museum in between 9am and 9:15am so the kids can be there in time for story time. Hope you can make it!

Review of last time; blurb on this time

Hi every one, Here's a quick review of what we talked about last time.

Problem of pain = The world is full of futility, pain, injustice, suffering. If there is a God he must not care, or he is good but not powerful. Either way...it's a problem!

Response 1: Recognition of the problem is evidence for a moral law/God's presence. If there is no God, then pain and suffering are SUPPOSE to happen... all of biological evolution/survival of fittest, etc is built on the competition for resources, struggle for power. So when we say, "that action is wrong!" you are invoking some sort of rule that is not implicit from the natural world..where did you get that rule? (Rom 1:20) (This doesn't even come close to a good recap)

Response 2: The God of Christianity can't be called uncaring, look at all he did to make things better, God in the flesh, died on the cross, taking our shame and sin...etc.

Response 3: Most would agree that at least some pain is "beneficial" such as the soreness of a good work out, or that some pain is "necessary" to bring about a better end, or prevent further pain (childbirth, pain that tells you to stay away). So I'd urge you that it is only a matter of perspective, in a sense, that all pain and suffering even SHOULD be prevented. (this leads to this week)

Now, this week we'll talk more about "how then shall we live" in the face of pain, problems, pesky problems, inconviences, true "suffering" etc.

I'd like people to reflect for a bit before sunday about what causes you the most pain suffering or sadness, no matter how small (actually, smaller can be better cause we can all relate).

Bible 101 - NT and future timelines

Hey everybody!

I'm sorry we had to breeze through the timelines quickly but I think we still had some good discussion. This completes the timelines themselves, but next we are going to go back and place the different books of the Bible on the timeline to better understand where they fit and what they are about. After that we plan to talk about how our Bible was put together and why some different Christian traditions have different lists than we do.

As always, I invite any feedback you may have so please hit me up here on the blog with anonymous comments, on email or in person.

God bless...


casey


(you can download the slides we've covered so far from the link below)

Bible 101 Section 1

Playgroup Location Change

Hey guys! Elizabeth woke up in the middle of the night sick:( Playgroup will now be at the Ashcraft's house instead of the Harris'. It's today at 9:45 or 10. For directions contact Tiffany at 512.431.8321

have a great day!

Family Fun Day Canceled

Hey guys! Family Fun Day at the Austin Zoo has been canceled. Sorry for the inconvenience. We hope to see you Sunday. Also, don't forget about playgroup at the Harris' house at 9:45am. Elizabeth will be teaching an awesome lesson to the kiddos.

DON'T FORGET: We're Monkeyin' Around at the ZOO THIS WEEKEND!

This Saturday should be a barrel-full of monkey fun at the Austin Zoo.  Please join us at 10AM with a sack lunch for some family fun!  

www.austinzoo.org

Upcoming Events

Hi Friends! First, I wanted to remind you about playgroup on Monday. It will be at the Birch's house around 3:45. Kathryn will be teaching an awesome lesson to the kids and it should be a fun time.

Also, our family fun day is around the corner. Saturday, May 17th we are meeting at the Austin Zoo at 10am. Bring a sack lunch and join us for a fun-filled day.

Married Life Live is coming up on May 16th. If you are interested in square dancing at the Quarries then make sure you purchase your tickets soon.

Oh, and guys-don't forget Mother's Day this Sunday!!!!! Caleb will also be teaching a fantastic lesson and we hope to see you.

Recap of last two (caleb) sundays

I have forgotten to put any followup on my last two sundays.

Several weeks ago we looked at lots of bible passages and verses about parenting. We started with some "scary" verses about how parents are held responsible for their children's behavior and actions. Then I claimed that verses in the bible about parenting seem to fit nicely into two broad categories. About children, and about parents. The about children category of verses contain verses telling children what to do(children obey your parents) and descriptions of wise children (proverbs - a wise son...) . The other category is where we focused and I claimed it could be broken into three sub categories. 1) parents need to discipline/be an authority. 2) Parents need to Teach their children about the Lord, and 3) parents need to be careful not to "exasperate" or drive their children away.

In hind site I was not pleased with my delivering of this discussion because we focused too much on how we discipline and not exasperate instead of focusing on the paucity of instruction we actually have in the bible and what this means for us. To me it means that I have alot of freedom in what/how to parent. Alot of our fears are that we think there is this "right" way to do things and we might be doing it wrong. Well, the bible only tells you to teach, not how. So lets be less fearfull, chose a way of teaching that suites the kiddos and Go!

Then my last sunday we discussed one specific thing about teaching our children the virtues we value as christians - by our own actions. We used the fruits of the spirit as our discussion guide and tried to think of how our actions could/do teach by example love joy peace patients kindness faithfulness gentleness goodness and selfcontrol.

This coming week.... BE EXCITED AND READY TO TALK!
(caleb)

Bible 101 - Section 1: What's the Bible About

It was great to see everyone in class this morning...we had a full house (13), I think the most we've had.

Well, we finished up the timline covering the OT this week and we will be going through the NT next time by talking about the life of Christ, the Acts of the new church and apostles, and even some about the different views of the end times.

I'd like to reiterate once again the importance of understanding the big picture story, or the bookends of time, as I like to call it. God's creation was good and perfect until sin caused it to be corrupted and cursed. God's plan from the start was to redeem his creation and its crown jewel, man. We see descriptions of our resurrected and glorified bodies and also a brand new heaven and earth we will enjoy with God forever. God becoming one of us and suffering for the curse is the single event that allows God to renew all of us and his creation.

This is the story of the Bible...the story that all of the characters and events fall into...the story all of us have entered into as well. I hope that by keeping that in mind, and by knowing the order in which events and people in the Bible occurred, the Bible will speak to us even more clearly when we read and study it.

I've attached the timeline as a PDF file for your reference if you want it. I'll add to it as we go further through the Bible 101 series.

Bible 101 Timeline

Next week

Next Monday's (5/5) playgroup will meet at 9:45 am at Umlauf Sculpture Garden, near Zilker Park. Come join us in the fun! (Our class calendar notes "teachers" of the lessons but we are not starting the lessons yet.)

Tuesday (5/6) is the Women's Mission Luncheon from 11:30 to 1pm at Hyde Park; childcare is available but let them know in advance if you'll be needing it.

Enjoy the weekend!

Sunday school, 5/4/08

Come join us Sunday morning, 5/4/08, 9:45 am to continue our discussion of the "Great Bible Timeline," the beginning of our Bible 101 series taught by Casey Birch. Look forward to seeing you all there!

Train ride?

Ride the rails of a miniature train that travels the 1 1/3 mile long track at Williamson County's Southwest Regional Park. The train operates on weekends from 10 am to 6 pm, weather permitting. The cost for the 15 minute ride is $2.50. For more information, go to www.cedarrockrailroad.com.


Southwest Regional Park is located near the intersection of 1431 and CR 175 (on the north side of 1431 ). The total park encompasses 800 acres, with about 100 acres built for fun and fitness. The first phase, which is complete, includes 10 soccer fields, 2 softball fields, cricket field, 8 tennis courts, 6 basketball courts, picnic shelters, disc golf, and a playscape, along with the train rides on the weekends.

There is also a 1.75 crushed granite hike and bike trail along the perimeter of the developed park.

Girls Night Out Canceled

Hi Ladies. This month girls night out has been canceled... we will try to get everyone together again soon!

Storytimes

Baby Bloomers at the Austin Children's Museum Children ages 3 and younger only between 9 and 12 a.m on Mondays. Storytime at 9:30; sing-a-long 10:30, The Little Explorer's Lab 11 a.m. $8 per parent/child pair.

Toddlertimes at Round Rock Public Library Children 18 mth to 3 yrs. Tuesdays at 9:30 and 10:30 a.m and Thursdays at 10:30 a.m.

Babytime at Round Rock Public Library Children 0 to 18 mths on Thursdays and 12 to 18 mths on Fridays at 9:30 a.m.

Monkey in the Middle Storytime at Wells Branch Community Library Children ages 1 to 2 who are not ready for a traditional sit down storytime. Fridays from 12:15 to 12:35 p.m.

Mother Goose Lap Sit Storytime at Wells Branch Community Library Children 0 to 18 mths. Fridays at 10 a.m.

Toddler Storytime at Wells Branch Community Library Children 18 to 36 mths. Fridays at 10:45 a.m.

Storytime at Family Connections Meeting Place (825 E. 53 1/2 St. E-101.) All ages. Fridays 10 to 11 a.m. This is a great resource for toys and other materials as well.

Baby Sign Time at Wells Branch Community Library Pre-verbal children. Tuesday April 29 2 p.m. I think this takes place every other Tuesday.

Ice cream anyone?

Baskin Robbins is honoring America 's Firefighters by selling ice cream for $.31 cents per scoop on Wednesday, April 30th between 5 and 10 pm. Grab your friends, and/or the kids and have a cool one! This fundraiser for the firefighters is an important one for them, so let's go out and have ice cream and support a great cause.

http://www.baskinrobbins.com/Promotion/31cent.aspx

National Day of Prayer

National Day of Prayer

Thursday, May 1st

First Playgroup!

Playgroup Tomorrow! April 14th

Hi Everyone. Just a reminder that tomorrow, Monday the 14th we will be having afternoon playgroup! Everyone meets at Northwest District Park at 3:45pm. Google the park for a good map! Hope to see you there.

Upcoming Events

Hey guys! We had so much fun at playgroup today and thanks for coming. The Birch's were so nice to host and had yummy snacks to share with everyone. There should be a group picture of our first playgroup on the blog soon.

We have an exciting few weeks ahead of us in HomeBuilders with tons of events. Here are a few of the events listed below...

PLAYGROUP: Monday, April 14th @ 3:45p @ Northwest District Park located just off of Shoal Creek in Central Austin

GUYS NIGHT: Friday, April 25th @ 7:00P @ Pluckers at Burnett and 183.

GIRLS NIGHT: Saturday, April 26th @ 7:00p @ Chez Zee (no kids allowed, yay!!!)

We really hope to see you there and please invite your friends!!!!

*Playgroup will be weekly so please stay tuned for future outings.

a song...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=E-v309XcfeA

This is my best friend, Blake (singing harmony), and his little brother, Ben, singing at GUTS church in Tulsa on Good Friday a couple of weeks ago. He and his brother were in a group called Shadowalk back in the day, and his brother was in a band called Hero Factor more recently...now he is a worship leader at GUTS. Both guys are immensely talented.

This performance has incredible meaning as both songs they sing have to do with God's peace in the midst of suffering. Their dad (like family to me too) passed away about a month ago unexpectedly and it understandly was devastating to the family.

I probably am not very objective given my relationship with the brothers and their family...but I find this performance amazing. I hope it blesses you too...

casey

Bible 101 feedback

I think most of you were there that first Sunday when Caleb and I were proposing topics to be covered in class. I mentioned the idea of a Bible 101 series...the primary purpose of which is to give everyone the foundation of understanding they need to read, understand and apply the Bible for themselves and their families.

It's not like a 12 week course (30-45 minutes per week) is going to turn everyone into Bible experts and scholars, I realize that. But this can be the starting point or a refresh on some of the foundations. I know you are likely to have very different backgrounds, as far as your familiartiy with the Bible. Some have been taught it their whole lives...others may still be relatively new to it. I believe this diversity in our class will really enrich our discussions.

I'm targeting this series to appeal to both folks starting from scratch, and those with a lot of knowledge already. Some of the things I plan on covering are requiring some heavy research for me, so I don't think anyone will be too bored. :) I want to focus on three main topics, which I've listed below as questions:

1. What is the Bible about? What's in it? What's the big picture story?

2. Where did the Bible come from? Who wrote it? Who compiled it and how?

3. How do I study go about studying and understanding it?

Obviously, discussion on these topics will dive into more specific questions and details. So, my question to the class...and what I would like to discuss on Sunday is...what are your thoughts and feedback on this Bible 101 series? More importantly, what are questions you have about the Bible yoiu would like answered or discussed (we don't have deifntie answers for everyting)? It may be that you have some nagging doubts you sturggle with. Doubts are nothing to be embarrassed about. Any believer who takes time to think about their faith will have doubts...especially in cultures that are increasingly hostile to faith.

[TOPIC CHANGE ALERT]
I saw that some folks responded to Caleb's survey that they have some doubts they would like to discuss. Some level of doubting, in my opinion, is evidence of faith. Please don't let that fact that you struggle with some doubt make you lose heart! To me, faith is not the blind acceptance of anything that is revealed to you. Unless you have worked it out and contemplated it for yourself...done some real soul searching...I'm not sure that belief is really valuable faith. If then, true faith requires questioning and introspection, it is inevitable that some doubts are raised in the process. I think true faith is, on one level, an informed decision to believe despite not having all of the evidence or information you might like to have. To believe despite doubts. Anyway...I suspect Caleb or I will discuss doubts in general one day in class.

[BACK ON TOPIC]

I look forward to discussing this with you all in class. If you want to give some immediate feedback, leave some comments on the blog. Or if you would rather provide some feedback anonymously, I think you can do that here on the blog as well.

See you Sunday...God bless!

casey

Recap of Sunday - 3/30

For those of you who missed, here is a recap of the lesson and discussion

We opened with discussion of what we fear in being new parents. Here is a sampling of answers
- that I will be a bad role model
- that I will have to do it alone
- that even if I do things right my child will still turn out ... somehow wrong
- that I will, even through my most earnest efforts, pass on only a cultural Christianity.

We then looked at the life of Jesus, and were encouraged to see Christ...
- did not fear the world around him (Mark 4:35-41)
- did not fear the future- instructed us to do the same (Luke 12:22-24, & James 4:13-17)
- did not fear the expectations of man and his responsibilities (Mark 1:35-39; 3:7-11).
hear we mean that Christ did not allow his "responsibilities" to get in the way of his desire to rest and rejuvenate in quite time alone with God and his friends.

We then tried to see if our fears mentioned at first reflect a life different than Christ's example
- We seem to fear the future alot : I think God tells us to leave that to him.

Are you trying to train your child in the way of the lord? That is all you can do, I think God is telling us to keep going, but leave the results to him. The future is not ours to govern. Let it go.

We then had a quick few ideas of how to "let it go", how to let go of our fears of parenting and such.
- I think you need to actively engage in things that confront your fears
Are you afraid of finances... give money away... tithe more, give to the poor - start small, give $5 away to the first good cause.
Do you struggle with work/responsibility controlling you. - Make a point to dismiss the work you "should" take home and calmly tell the boss that "I just had to spend time doing X (with family, etc) , I'll get it done as soon as I can."
Do you have a consistent fear that your parenting strategy is, though good, not going to be effective?.... Don't really have a strong suggestiong here.. sorry, ... pray! Tell God that this is your fear. Make plans to tell yourself that you don't know the future, aren't suppose to.

So that makes for a long recap. Next time I lead the discussion we'll talk about the paucity of biblical instruction in parenting. We get about 4 verses... honestly... we'll talk about it.

First Playgroup!!!!

We have our first funtastic playgroup scheduled for Monday, April 7th at 9:45. We will be meeting at the Birch's house and will let the kiddos run around while we visit. We hope to see you there. Email us for directions if you are interested.

Stroller.Cise Class

There is a new class for moms at the Quarries!!! Bring your baby with you in your stroller and make new friends while getting fit. Your first class is FREE!!! After the first class it's $3 a time.
-Meet at the entrance by the Welcome Center
-Bring your babies in their stroller
-Warm up by the tennis courts
-Exercise with your stroller in Balcones Woods neighborhood nearby
-Strength training with bands
-Stretching and abs

This sunday in homebuilders - Caleb

As we strive to be like Christ, one of the most common (especially in parents) human attribute that gets in the way is worry and fear. We are commanded to not worry. We are told to be like the flowers of the field and not work so hard at obtaining perfect situations in life. Come ready to talk about some of your real fears about our kiddos and be ready to discuss Christ's life in relation to his confidence and peacefulness.

This Saturday: Our First Official Class Social!!!!

This Saturday, March 29th, we welcome everyone who has young children and is interested in socializing with the Homebuilders Sunday School Class to join us at Northwest District Park.  The park is located just off of Shoal Creek in Central Austin.  We plan to gather at 4 P.M. with our families and a yummy snack to share with everyone!  Check out the link to our Evite at the bottom of this post.  If you have any questions please email us at Homebuilders.hpbc@gmail.com.

Resurrection Sunday

This Sunday is Easter, folks! So get ready to put on the Sunday best, park a few blocks away (if you're late) and get the easter eggs ready for the kiddos!

So I am being a little bit fecicious here, but seriously, this Sunday morning I want to talk about the Resurrection and what it means to us. Please take some time between now and Sunday and meditate on the Resurrection. Use 1 Corinthians 15 as a scriptural background in addition to the gospel accounts of Jesus' resurrection...and you can use some of Caleb's recommendations below for meditating on certain passages you find particularly meaningful to you!

Here a couple of questions to ponder:

1. How important is the Resurrection to my faith?

2. Does the Resurrection have any bearing on my day to day life? How does it affect me on any given day?

I look forward to seeing everyone Sunday morning!


- casey

Recap on Sunday 3/16 - prayer discussion

Here's a little recap on our discussion today with suggestions from me and the group.
We started with the assumption that we want to have better prayer lives than we currently do. I want to apologize again for planning too much and going over time. Elizabeth suggested that I keep the third part for another day and I should have listened. We may revisit again anyway.

When is a good time to pray?
a) time budget your prayer time - it needs to be a priority
b) model prayer with your kids - evening/morning/meals (but not only meals)
c) Also, when kids are asleep, plan time to try more earnest prayer. I suggested that the first 5 minutes of nap or night time, before we set to the work and chores we get done then. There is also the early morning standard. Elizabeth suggested a day that you fast from meals and pray instead. You could start first with just one meal, say lunch on monday, and pray instead and go further later.

How do we pray? - we had several suggestions
a)Don't ever shun the simple prayers that you model for your kids - lord thank you for X, etc.
b)Keep a list of things to pray about and go through it at a certain time.
b) We are normally familiar with "stress induced prayer" of supplication - this is an important time to pray. We need to be responsive to prayer needs at any time and be ready to pray for people in the moment or as we remember.
c) For me, using a "starter prayer" helps me get my mind and spirit going. I memorize a 3-4 line prayer that I created or I got from a book of prayers (like the episcopal book of prayer) and that gets me going onto more personal prayer.
d) use a structure like ACTS (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication) to help you remember to pray consistently.
e) Write your prayers out in a prayer journal - either as a stream of conscientious or compose a formal letter to God. (Casey reflected that a friend's grandfather did this for years and some of them were read at his funeral as a testimony to his devoted life. I hope I can be remembered in a similar way.)

How do we meditate on scripture (aka planned day dreaming) -
a) Actually, literally, repeat the verse a number of times in your mind or aloud to make sure you are familiar with it, memorizing it. ( I even write passages out 10 times in a row- old school memorization)
b) Ponder questions such as "what did he mean by that?" What does that word mean?
c) Key (in my opinion) to scripture meditation is Application and planning. What I mean by this is imaginative pondering/day dreaming of how you might apply this to your life, and actually make plans to do so in the near future.

Be ready to discuss how you tried to improve how much time you pray when we get back together. I'm going to post a survey on the blog for people to respond to later today. Please check it out.

Caleb

This Sunday in Homebuilders - Prayer - lead by Caleb

Hey Guys, On Sunday 3/16 I have planned for us to discuss the topic of prayer and meditation. Specifically I want us to focus on these questions.
1) When in my busy life am I going to pray!?
2) How in my busy life am I going to pray!?
3) What in the world do you mean by scripture meditation?!
3a&b What use is and how do you meditate on scripture.

I believe there are two ways to teacher/lead. One is from a position of mastery, as when a school teachers teaches math problems to her students. Another is one from a leader in an endevour to solve a problem together. This is more like when a professor has question and directs his team of personnel to answer it, all of the team, including the professor, learn in the process. This Sunday's lesson will certainly be from the second position. I will have some of my opinions ready, and we can discuss several from the group as well.

My hope and objective is that this discussion will help us all to pray more frequently and more earnestly for our families, the souls of our friends and our class. Remember, the goal is not to "understand" any philosophy of prayer so much as to "do" more prayer. So come ready to talk some practicals!

What fun we had Kicking off the Class...

First Class!!!!

Our first class was so much fun! Thanks to all who came. It was so nice to discuss the future of the class and the awesome lessons to come. Casey and Caleb did a great job of leading this morning. We had a total of 11 adults and 1 little one. What a great success!

HomeBuilders Kick Off Party

The kick off party was a great success! Thanks to the DeKonings for letting us bombard your house. It was great to see all of the children playing and meet some of the people in the current Door class. We look forward to seeing everyone bright and early in church tomorrow. Yay for donuts and fellowship!!! Also, don't forget the time change!!!