I'm excited to hang out with my lovely bride tonight. We will be heading over to Saint Ann in Uptown. You are welcome to join us, just let us know you are coming and we will see if we can get you a seat at our table.
2010 has been a GREAT Year. God has blessed me and my family. I would not want to be in any other place or doing any other job. I feel like I am right where I am supposed to be. It's a good feeling.
Looking forward to see what 2011 brings for:
The Awakening LeverageU
Will I finish Seminary?
Will Matthew learn to ride his new trike?
To Be continued in the new year....
Since it's the last day of December, I wanted to post the "Feliz Navidad" Ogilvie E-Card that we sent out to a few Family members and close friends. May all enjoy the great choreography and singing as this new year begins.
Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!
This song moved me tonight in such a way that i had to stand up at my kitchen Table and worship my God. I'll let the Lyrics tell my story. Listen to it here:
No mountain, no valley, no gain or loss we know could keep us from Your love No sickness, no secret, no chain is strong enough to keep us from Your love to keep us from Your love
How high, how wide No matter where I am, healing is in Your hands How deep, How strong, And now by Your grace I stand, healing is in Your hands
Our present, our future, our past is in Your hands We're covered by Your blood We're covered by Your blood
How high, How wide no matter where I am, healing is in Your hands How deep, How strong And now by Your grace I stand, healing is in Your hands
In all things, we know that. We are more than conquerors. You keep us by your love. You keep us by your love.
Have you ever had an experience like that? Where you are are moved to just worship God? Tell me about it.
Usually it's the epic fails that grab out attention so much that we just have to blog about it. But this is the opposite. It encountered such an epic win for Starbucks that I just have to let the world know! The Starbucks in Firewheel (North Garland which is North of Dallas) went the extra mile this year during Christmas and I think it will have a big payoff over the long term. The manager of this store creatively drew by hand the different baristas of this location and then turned it into a Christmas card. Then, this manager asked the baristas for the names of all the "regulars" (meaning the barista knows their name and drink order). The manager then hand wrote all the regulars Christmas cards - envelopes included and taped them all over the store!! They are every where. Here's what I thought as I saw them:
1. Am I up here? Of course, who wouldn't think that?
2. Wow, these baristas know a lot of people!!! They are serious about building relationships with their customers.
3. After not finding my name up there (but finding my wife's!) I felt like I was missing out!!! I wanted to be up on the wall, especially if my wife was!!!
4. Guess where I'm buying my next cup of coffee?
Because I don't qualify as a regular, I don't have an envelope and thus I do not know what the picture looks like. Once Shannon get's her card, I will take a picture and put it up here. It shouldn't be too long before she picks it up, she's a regular.
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UPDATE: I finally got my hands on a copy of the Card that Uma Nguyen, the Starbucks manager at this location created by hand. Again, this is a hand drawn cartoon sketch of each of the baristas at this location, and then she wrote a paragraph note to each person. To use the term by Seth Godin, she's a Linchpin!
What are our anticipations before Christmas this year? Is it the family gathering together? Are you anticipating Christmas dinner?Or maybe it’s all the music, lights and decorations that come with the season?OK, let’s be honest, don’t we all anticipate the presents?We have been trained from a young age that Christmas is about giving and receiving gifts?Did your childhood Christmas morning look like one of those Video’s you find on YouTube with screaming children going crazy of the Nintendo 64? (It’s there, look it up.)
What do we anticipate this Christmas?Another way of saying this is, “what do we hope for this year?”Listen, here’s what you need to realize as we get ready for this Christmas season:What you anticipate for Christmas will influence your perception of Christmas.If your perception is the lens through which you look at Christmas your anticipations of Christmas are the frames holding that lens in place.
Every year, millions of people fly through Christmas and they miss it entirely.The teaching team has decided to address that and for the next four weeks we want to do a series that prepares us for Christmas.We want to help you and ourselves frame Christmas well and understand its full significance in our lives.
Today we will look back to the time right before the very first Christmas.Before Christ was born there was also an anticipation taking place.It was the anticipation of the Messiah.
This year, agree to let God’s promises fuel your anticipations. His promises to you are Salvation, peace, the Holy Spirit. All these promises are fulfilled through Christ.
We remember these promises through a season celebrated by the Church for hundreds of years called Advent. Advent means “coming” and begins the fourth Sunday before December 25th, and calls us to anticipate the birth of Christ. It’s about the hope we have for the Messiah that is yet to come.
And so as a community, we wait, we anticipate. Why? Because, like Israel over 2000 years ago we claim today that all is not as it should be. All the promises have not yet been fulfilled. As the Israelites anticipated the birth of their messiah, today, we remember the birth but again, anticipate the return of the messiah.
How will you anticipate the coming of the Messiah during Christmas this year?
What Promises of God will you reflect on as you prepare for Christmas?
