Eatin' With Friends

Butch, Jo, Todd, Tim & Nancy

Rudy's BBQ

I'm in Oklahoma for a few days on business. They took me to this great bbq place.

Seagulls

Barnegat Light Lighthouse

Very Tasty

The best blueberry pancake I ever ate!

Breakfast

Barnegat Light, NJ

The Horizon Diner

Cool diner interior.

The Horizon Diner

We spent the night in Manahawkin, NJ and tried the Horizon Diner. Ella Mae had the flounder stuffed with crab meat. Excellent. I had the veal parmagiana. It was an actual filet of veal - not ground meat. Very tasty.

The Atlantic

Boardwalk

Cool Lighthouse

Then we decided to drive down along the New Jersey coast.

White Manna Hamburgers

Here's the grill. The burgers are pretty small - they call them sliders. They actually use Martin's Potato Rolls.

White Manna Hamburgers

On this trip we decided to only eat at diners. After some intense research, I found a few I wanted to try.

The first stop was in Hackensack - White Manna Hamburgers. It is an older style diner unit. They basically serve burgers, fries and a few other things. They also have a few breakfast items.

It was really small, very crowed and the burgers were great.

New Jersey Road Trip

We decided to take a little trip to celebrate my newly aquired semi-unemployed status.

What's Important?

I've been working my way through Larry Crabb's online counseling course at ChristianCourses.com which, by the way, I highly recommend. And it's free! On the last video that I watch, he said something like this: "Only when you want something better will you give up something that you shouldn't have or do."

In my own life, and in the lives of many of the guys I work with, we focus so much on the things we can't have or do. We tend to look at sin as something fun that God doesn't allow. So we really want it, but we know we shouldn't so we work hard at forcing down our real desires. And so it becomes a function of my will. Am I strong enough to hold. Usually not.

When start looking at sin the way God does, we realize that sin is hurtful and destructive, that pleasure is momentary and the consequences severe. And when we have the desire to seek after God more than anything else, when we live in his love and grace, when we want to know him in a deeper way, other desires and temptations become less powerful. Or as Larry says, you are making progress "when your interior world becomes more like Jesus so that your central delight is God and your central passion is to reveal what he is like to others." This is also true in the negative. When our deepest desire is to make money, get high, enjoy a hobby, etc., we sacrifice family, health, money and other things to achieve our goal.

Jesus commented on this many times. Here are two of the occasions;

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21 NKJV)

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matthew 6:33 NKJV)

Tea Time

Alexia and Mia with Grandma and Uncle Randy.

Moving

Raising wires to move a house down Rt 13 in Delaware

Changes

Last Friday I gave my notice at Appalachian that I will be leaving. It was a difficult decision but I felt it was time to move on to pursue something else. I'm just not sure what that something else is. I'm still involved with Erie Energy and would like to spend more time in prison ministry/mentoring. We'll see.

Benefit Concert

Good News from back stage.

Benefit Concert

Tonight was the annual concert to benefit the youth center. It was well attended and we raised over $3500. Here is the crownd listening to Garment of Praise.