49 Reasons to Rejoice This Easter

There are many, many, many more reasons than these, but it was good to just think about and write down the difference in our lives Easter makes.  Every one of these is an enormous truth that is worth pondering.  Do you believe this?

"...He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." - Isaiah 53:5

Christ is freedom from fear,
Christ bears our burden,
Christ heals our hurt,
Christ handles our hardship,
Christ descended into our depravity,
Christ dissolves our darkness,
Christ forgives our failure,
Christ walks with the weak,
Christ helps the hopeless,
Christ holds the helpless,
Christ binds up the broken,
Christ carries our concerns,
Christ is the foundation for the fallen,
Christ is riches for the ruined,
Christ rewards us with rest,
Christ preserves His people,
Christ presents us faultless to the Father,
Christ ran our race,
Christ defeated our doom,
Christ won our war,
Christ controls all creation,
Christ receives the repentant
Christ rescues the ravaged,
Christ is always aware,
Christ shelters in the storm,
Christ restores the rejected,
Christ renews the rusted-out,
Christ secures our safety,
Christ obliterates our obligation,
Christ defends the desperate,
Christ patiently pardons,
Christ's love never lets go,
Christ character is changeless,
Christ is our matchless mediator,
Christ is a limitless Lion,
Christ roars at our regrets,
Christ runs after the rebel,
Christ is compassion for the condemned,
Christ is confidence for the confused,
Christ finds the forgotten,
Christ is our future forever,
Christ saves the sinking,
Christ will one day sink Satan,
Christ conquered the Cross,
Christ devoured death,
Christ is greater than the grave,
Christ is our everything,
Christ is not dead,
Christ is Risen.

Lots More Thankful Than We Are

I will be sharing this with our family today... Why?  Because I don't want to just be glued to a cell phone, facebook, or resolve to just be an incessant blog reader :)  I am pretty certain we should turn off all the electronic gadgetry for more than just a little while and just be lots more thankful than we are.

Maybe the link below will encourage you toward a deeper level of "I'm thankful...".  It's a short read and a profound one.  Or, better yet, maybe it will encourage you toward a first-time trust in and gratitude for our God and Creator.  Contrary to all of the popular human-sufficient thinking these days that says: "We can do anything!" with our super-human ingenuity and unstoppable know-how, um...we don't make rain...

The Great Work of God: Rain

Isaiah 64:4

Treehouse Update (again)

 

Fun times working on the treehouse! Good progress... Gotta figure out how to cut the roof to fit around the tree... and time to build the ladder this week.

Oh and we plan to decorate it for Christmas. We'll work on some video of that.

Treehouse Update (it's been a while)

So the work on the treehouse has become a little bit of an obsession.  I do nothing for days and days and then I work furiously on it all at once...  Lot's of progress over this past weekend.  Take a look below...working in the dark and hoping things are level and plumb.  The kids and Julie even braved the ladder and came up for the first time today... easier coming up than going down, right guys?

Next step:  build a ladder.  You should've seen my Dad and me driving back from Home Depot with 2- 2X8s 16ft long hanging off the back of my truck by 6ft and shoved through the open back window all the way to the rear view mirror.  ...He was skeptical.  ...I said that's why there is car insurance.  We made it!

LADDER:  To prep for this, today I pulled rise and run calculations from the good ol' internet (trust but verify).  We're gonna do a ladder at 65 degrees, 8-inch rise, 3.5ish-inch run.  Never done this before.  Maybe we should consider more medical insurance?

I'm seeing lights and a Christmas tree sittin in this thing soon... with timed Trans-Siberian Orchestra music.  Look out chick fil a!

Treehouse - Day 3

Day 3...

Productive, but slow. Measuring and cutting/notching the diagonal 4X4 tree braces was slow going.  And, I went back to exchange the 8' 4X4s for 12' 4X4s.  I wanted to make sure the diagonals were more than 45 degrees for support.

Anyway, 1 more joist to hang monday morning.  Then, I don't really know what will be next.  Decking for the floor or framing out walls etc.  I think the hardest parts might be done?  Not a lot of experience here, so I don't really know.

No injuries today - or none that drew blood :)  That's a good thing with 3 worship services to lead tomorrow!

Day 3 pics below...

Extreme Makeover - Treehouse Edition (Day 2)

Day 2 of treehouse work went... well... o.k.  Found out today that what we thought were plumb and square supports against the tree actually aren't so plumb and square.  But, adjustments were made and I think we are back in business.  Floor is framed out.  Cut one diagonal tree brace that will support against the tree at a 45 degree angle to center of outside rim joist - install it tomorrow.

Day 3 tomorrow.  Agenda:

1. cut 2 more diagonal tree braces that will support from 2 bottom corners of outside rim joist.  Not fun cuts to make.  Gotta remember: measure twice...cut once.

2. cut 2 diagonal tree braces for the tree edge rim joist (1 on each side of tree)

3. put in 2 more floor joist hangers and joists

4. put in some floor decking if time allows

Day 2 pics below.  Fun times!

Extreme Makeover - Treehouse Edition (Day 1)

We are building a treehouse in our backyard.  In the one tree that is treehouse-worthy.  I've never built a treehouse before but I've built plenty of "forts" in the woods growing up like most boys do.  And, I have a few tools.  So how hard could it really be?

Caroline asked for it first with a picture entitled "My Dream Treehouse" which she gave to me on Saturday.  So, Jackson and I headed to Home Depot.  I love my kids and I love to crank up any kind of saw.

Today was Day 1.

Caroline:  "Thank you Daddy.  It's gonna be awesome!"
Turner:  "THAT'S gonna be a treehouse?"
Jackson:  "No way I'm going up there."

INJURY REPORT:
Jackson was my leverage guy on the ground helping me hoist up each 2X6 with a rope.  He says he has blisters.
Julie was a good fill-in leverage girl on the ground too (Jackson's patience eventually ran out).  She says she has rope burn.
Greg got a good finger puncture from a nail.  Nice and bloody.

Below are some Day 1 pics.  Stay tuned for Day 2 probably Thursday or Friday.