Dad To 2

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 01:12:00 +0000

I found out that today is the International Holocaust Remembrance Day as designated by the United Nations. One of the few things I actually agree on with them.

I know that today, if you ask most young people on the street what was the Holocaust, or even "Who is Adolf Hitler", you will probably get a stumped look or a confused look from the person. Don't believe me? Go here and watch for yourself. It's actually disheartening to see.

From Wiki.Answers.com:

The word Holocaust generally refers to the deaths of Jews, but often other victims of Nazi Germany are often also included.
Although the exact figure will never be known, here are estimates:

The figure of 11 million people dead is often given but it is completely unclear where this figure comes from, and how it is calculated. It is far too low. One also encounters the range 11-17 million.

6 million of these were Jewish (close to two thirds of Europe's Jewish population) and about one quarter of these were children under 15.

Up to 270,000 were Roma/Sinti (Gypsies).

In addition, Hitler targeted homosexuals, Communists and other political dissidents, most Slavs, Jehovah's Witnesses, dissidents, some Protestant pastors and Catholic priests, black people, the mentally and physically disabled, and others. The figures include the camps as well as the mass graves in the countryside, killings in the street, organized mass shootings (such as Babi Yar, etc.) and basically, any person singled out for their race, religion, political beliefs, or their sexual orientation.
There are approximately 250 Holocaust museums and centers around the world where you can learn more, as well as extensive information elsewhere on the Internet.

Jews- 5.9 million

Soviet POW's- 3.3 million

Non-Jewish Poles- 1.8-2 million

Romanis ('gypsies')- 220,000- 270,000 (but even the higher figure may be too low)

Disabled- 200,000 - 250,000

Homosexuals- 5,000 - 15,000

Jehovah's Witnesses- 2,500 - 5,000

If you get a chance today, or any day for that matter, go to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and look at their website. Start with the following video.

Let us NEVER forget what happened. For those who forget the past are doomed to repeat the past. Eric

A Moment While Studying

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:55:00 +0000

To go along with my New Year's resolution for this year, I am doing one main reading plan for the year to get back into the Bible and many shorter topical reading plans. The current short reading plan I am doing is one on parenting and today's passages were from 1st Corinthians chapter 13, verses 1, 2 and 7.

It was while reading verses 1 and 2 from the Message translation that several thoughts came to me regarding my time as a child and how my childhood has affected me as a parent. Here are the verses I read, from the Message translation:

1Co 13:1-2 MSG If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. (2) If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing.

For a few years as I was growing up my mother had a roommate living with us. A female friend she knew from college whose name I won't mention, even though she has passed on from this life. During my years in which she lived with us, there were several times when I would do something wrong, or do something to help yet it would backfire, such as the time I used normal dish washing soap in the dishwasher, and the only things I would hear were "You're useless!" or "Idiot!" or "You will never amount to anything!". Yet whenever the roommate would be with other people, in social or intimate settings with other family members, her words were never hateful or hurtful. +

Those words at times still haunt me, even though I have become successful in life, thanks to God and my loving wife.

Thinking all of this led me to reflect on how I am as a parent. I know the power words have on a person, and I can honestly say that I have never said anything as hateful to my kids as what was said to me growing up. Now I am not infallible and I have yelled at my kids before. I have apologized afterwards to show them it wasn't appropriate, but I will never tell them they won't amount to anything or that they are idiots or anything like that because that is not what they are. They are both intelligent, promising kids with bright futures. And they are my daughters. They deserve better than what I got.

I feel I am rambling here and if you feel that way then I apologize. I think the whole premise of this is to simply ask this. Watch what you say to your kids. Words will stay with them for years and years and if all they hear from you are things that bring them down, that tear them down, then you are hurting them for far longer than you will ever know. Build them up. Bring them up. Love them up.

I wish I had been.

Eric

Sunday's Sermon Notes For January 22, 2012 -- Part One

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:02:00 +0000

This past Sunday's sermon continued the series we are currently studying titled "In His Image" and is the fourth sermon in the series. The sermon was titled "Becoming Like Jesus in Prayer". The sermon was given by Dr. Bill Brewer and it was one of the more intense ones I have heard him preach. He covered a lot of territory in this one, so we all held on and listened and (hopefully) I took good notes. Here are those notes.

There are a couple of items in our lives that cause us to have diluted prayer. The first of these is prosperity. After all, when we ask for "Our Daily Bread", it is a little difficult when you pantry is completely full. Also when you are living in a time of prosperity (not necessarily rich like Bill Gates, but you can pay the bills and have some left over to live comfortably), you find yourself tending not to pray. After all everything is going great, so why should we ask for anything from the Father. It is during these times that we tend to become more reliant on ourselves, and not reliant on God!

The second item that causes us to lead a diluted prayer life is our busyness . We have all of the modern conveniences at our disposal: cell phones, smart phones, laptops, tablets...and these are all supposed to save us time. What they are doing in fact are taking our time and making us more "disconnected" in a personal sense. They also allow us to take our time and stay online, checking email, surfing the internet and tweet and blog just to name a few. What does this do with our prayer life? It takes that time away from us. Of course it's not just our "smart" devices that cause the busyness of our lives. We can add to that list television, work, and even friends!

These are both things that we have to overcome to have a better prayer life!

One of the things that Dr. Brewer said resonated with the congregation and that was that "Prayer was Jesus' holy habit" and when you start looking at the scriptures that's true. Here are the verses that Dr. Brewer pointed out:

Luke 3: 21-22
Luke 5: 15-16
Luke 6: 12- 13
Luke 9:18
Luke 9:28

Jesus prayed in a number of ways and places. He prayed (I believe) both during and after his baptism by John. He prayed while alone and actually left everyone around Him to be secluded in his time in prayer. He prayed before making those most important decisions. He prayed in public, and he prayed while his most closest friends were with him.

Prayer was indeed a holy habit Jesus kept.

In part 2 of this post for this Sunday's sermon notes, I will go over what Dr. Brewer said about how Jesus taught us to pray, and what might further hinder us from having this holy habit we should all be keeping.

Have a great day,

Eric

A Review of Heart of Ice by Lis Wiehl with April Henry

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 03:28:00 +0000

Heart of Ice is a novel by Lis Wiehl with April Henry and is based on the "Triple Threat" characters Cassidy Shaw and her best friends Federal Prosecutor Allison Pierce and FBI Special Agent Nicole Hedge first introduced to Wiehl's readers in the novel Face of Betrayal. In Heart of Ice the Triple Threat women face an intense situation in dealing with a cunningly cold-blooded murderer.

This is the second book by Lis Wiehl I have read and though I did enjoy it towards the end, I struggled to read it from the beginning to nearly halfway through the book. The main reason for this was that I felt I was reading a modern fiction book more geared towards women than a mystery or suspense novel. With discussions among the characters about miscarriage and one character possibly dealing with breast cancer, I simply struggled with this portion of the novel and wanted more. More suspense, more action, a more faster pace. Eventually I did get those things.

The other thing that was difficult for me was knowing who the antagonist was almost immediately. I have to admit that when I read a mystery, I don't want to know who the killer is within the first few chapters. I want to know who was murdered, but not by whom! I want to try and match wits with the writer, attempt to try and figure out who exactly is the bad guy. This book does not allow the reader to do this in the style it is written in.

There are a number of positive things I want to say about this book. The characters are very well written and are not one dimensional; the reader should feel right there with them as they go about their daily lives. The plot is well done with various sub-plots written in and delightfully intertwined together. Dialog is well written and in most places fast paced. Not all, but in most places.

As this is the first Triple Threat novel I have read, I will not judge the entire series based on this novel. I will have to read at least the first novel to gain a better feel for the series. For this novel, I am giving it three (3) stars, not because I think this is a bad novel, but it is a novel that I believe is not quite my style. I would recommend this book to my friends, but I would have to let them know why I only gave it three stars.

(Disclosure: I did receive an advanced copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers to review and made no promises as to the nature of my review. The posted review is mine and mine alone.)

Weight: A Lifelong War To Win

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:59:00 +0000

There have been only a few times in my life when I haven't been fat. Growing up until I hit eleven and a two year span from 1999 until 2001. Besides those years of being at a normal weight, I have constantly been at a minimum of 100 pounds plus overweight.

But enough is enough and at 43, it is time to finally slim down to a healthy weight and keep it off.

At least according to my wife.

So I received an email from Weight Watchers this morning thanking me for signing up. Well, I didn't sign up, but the mystery was solved a few minutes later with an email from my wife saying I could thank her for signing me up. That was her way of saying "Honey, I love you and want you to stay in our life for a really long time." I am a very lucky man to have such a loving, caring wife.

So what does this mean to me?

Well, I have set some goals to meet, as well as a few challenges I intend to meet during this time of my life. Here they are:

Lose 5% of my weight for the first weight loss goal.
Walk (for now) a minimum of one (1) mile every day, no matter what the weather. In the case of sickness, bank extra miles. I want to complete at the minimum 356 miles this year. (And since I am already 15 miles in the hole, I need to make up for lost time.)
Participate in a race by the end of May. I will probably walk it, but I want to participate in a 3 or 5K race. I am not planning on winning, but I plan on finishing! And as a side bonus, I plan on grabbing the kids and having them participate with me.

Those are the goals so far for the first 90 days or so. I'll be updating the blog with how things are going.

Weight has been a battle for me all of my life, but this time I am not alone in the battle; I have loving help. So this time I plan on winning not only the battle, but winning the war.

Oh, and the starting point for me? 360 pounds. You can do the math on the rest.

Have a great day!

Eric

Sunday's Sermon Notes

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 06:01:00 +0000

I will be at the Dawson State Jail today, so I will not have my Sunday's Sermon Notes up. I will however write a post about how the ministry event went. Thanks for all your prayers!

Eric

Going back to the Dawson State Jail this Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:32:00 +0000

I know I've blogged about this earlier, but I wanted to reiterate that I would greatly appreciate your prayers for this event.

Bill Glass' Champions for Life will be partnering up with the I Am Second Locked Up student ministry to have an opportunity to present the Gospel to the inmates at the Dawson State Jail this coming January 15th and we need your prayer support for this.

For those who follow my blog, or visit from time to time, you may have read of my last trip to the Dawson State Jail in Dallas, Texas back in November; this partnership with the I Am Second Locked Up student ministry has allowed me the opportunity to go back again to help spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to those behind the razor wire.

This will be a smaller event that we had last time, with only a total of 80 teammates attending from the Bill Glass Ministry. I am looking forward to this, believe me, but we do need your help. Not financially, but spiritually. We need prayer cover for this. The Dawson State Jail is a very dark place spiritually; you can literally feel it when you walk in. Your prayers are are one of the biggest helps we can have. Pray specifically for those on the inside to have their hearts softened and receptive to the Gospel message. Pray for those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ to be praying and studying, and living a life that glorifies God, even on the inside. Especially on the inside.

Pray for those of us who are going in. Pray specifically that we are prepared to speak as the Holy Spirit directs us to. Pray for our protection, physically and spiritually. But most of all PRAY! That is the biggest weapon we have; the prayers of the saints.

I am looking forward to this. Thank you for your prayers.

Eric

A Review of The Walk by Shaun Alexander

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:03:00 +0000

One of the few professional athletes who claimed to be a follower of Christ and actually lived a life that not only glorified God, but actually proved they were a follow of Christ by the way the lived was and still is Shaun Alexander. So when I was offered a chance to read and review his book The Walk, I said yes.

I will be honest with you; I wasn't sure what to expect from reading Mr. Alexander's book. What I did find was a man who truly loves God and does everything he can to life a life that shows Christ to the world.

The book itself is written for the common person. What I mean by that is that if you are looking for a grand theological discussion on Justification, Sanctification or other theological aspects of Christianity, then you will need to look elsewhere. What you are going to find is Mr. Alexander's interpretation of how a follower of Christ grows in life. Mr. Alexander lists five (5) stages of growth in a person's life. These stages are:

1. Wanderer/Wonderer -- When a person is an unbeliever

2. Believer -- When a person first believes in Jesus Christ

3. Example -- When a person has been a believer and now lives it in life.

4. Teacher -- When a person begins teaching others in the faith

5. Imparter -- When a person imparts unto other people things of God.

Each of these stages are presented as a section of the book and within each section are two additional chapters besides the chapter discussing the stage. The other two chapters are a great compliment and include a chapter on Trials, Traps and Victories and a chapter discussing how the Apostle Peter showed the particular growth stage in his life as told by the Bible. With all three chapters combined in each section, I thought Mr. Alexander did a good job of explaining the growth stages in his own words.

Besides the sections of the book on growth, there are other chapters giving insight to Mr. Alexander's life as a Christian and how he has gone through these growth stages. His style of writing is warm and you feel as though you are sitting with Mr. Alexander at a coffee shop, simply discussing the life of a follower of Christ. I do have to give a small warning though. If you have any reservations about miracles, or what some people would call Charismatic Christianity, then you will need to read this book with more of an open mind and thoughtful prayer. There were no "speaking in tongues" moments in the book, but there are lots of instances told by Mr. Alexander of the Holy Spirit in his life and ministry.

Overall I did enjoy this book, though it did take me a little longer to read than normal, as I decided to look up the scriptures that are quoted in Mr. Alexander's book. I do not have any problem in recommending this book to others and I am giving it four (4) stars.

Please note that this book was presented to me by Waterbrook Press for the purpose of reviewing the book. I did not promise, nor in any way indicate a positive or negative review to the publisher. The review as presented is mine and mine alone.

Sunday's Sermon Notes

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:11:00 +0000

I wanted to start a new feature on my blog called Sunday's Sermon Notes. These will be notes that I have taken during the sermon that is given at the church I attend by the various pastors. This serves a couple of purposes. One, it helps me to review and remember what was said, and two, it gives me a chance to share with you, my readers, the notes taken. I will be including the link to the podcast for the sermon given as soon as it's available, as well as the community group questions that are printed out for us to use in our community groups. (Our version of small group study groups.) I hope you enjoy this new feature, but most of all I pray God will use it to whatever degree to further His purpose and His kingdom.

The sermon today was the second in the series entitled "In His Image: Becoming More Like Jesus" and covered Matthew 4:18-22 and Luke 5:1-11.

One of the first things that Pastor Bill brought to our attention was that this was two separate times represented in the Bible, whereas I thought they were a single time told from two points of view. Pastor Bill said that call to Peter and the others by Jesus in Matthew was the first call and the call in Luke a "recall". Another way to look at it was that in Matthew, the response by Peter, Andrew, James and John to Jesus' call to "Follow Me" was an "immediate" following. They left everything and followed Jesus.

However, in the passages in Luke, there is a different response. Once Peter realizes the divinity of Jesus by the miraculous catch of fish, Peter falls to his knees (in the piles of smelly fish) and tells Jesus to "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!" Jesus tells them to not be afraid, for now they would be fishers of men. This time when they arrive on shore, all four leave their boats full of fish, and truly follow Him. Pastor Bill called this the "complete" following

So what were some of the things learned today? Here are three points taken from today's sermon.

Jesus calls us into a relationship with Him not religion. Christianity has always been about having a personal relationship with Christ whereas religion is something made by man; not by God.
Jesus calls us to be with Him, and become like Him. How is this done? Back when the twelve walked with Jesus, he taught them, mentored them, showed them what to do. Now we have the Bible to show us these things, to teach us how along with the indwelling Holy Spirit to lead us.
Jesus calls us to follow Him fully, not partially.

I have to admit that this last point is one that I am truly thinking about more and more. I know that my surrender to Jesus back in 1997 was real and I was truly changed in that moment, but I am not sure if I fully follow Him. To fully follow Him you need to love what He loves, hate what He hates and emulating Him.

I'll be honest, it's hard, but it is what we all have to do.

The last thing I took away from today's sermon was this: If we want those surrounding us to be transformed by Jesus Christ, then we ourselves MUST be fully transformed by Jesus Christ. I know that I am not yet at that point in my life but that is why I have chosen to follow through with my new year's resolution to do everything it takes to become more like Jesus Christ.

I'm not perfect in this; even today I was finding myself irritable and snappy, much to the determent of my family, but I will be continuing with this, or as some of my friends say, "keep on keeping on!" with this. I hope you will as well with me.

Have a good day!

Eric

New Year's Resolution So Far

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 20:56:00 +0000

So far so good. Of course it's only been a week for me, but I have not missed my morning quiet/devotion time. Granted I still don't have that time frame up to an hour yet, but I am working on it. Best I've done so far is 40 minutes and I'm averaging about 25 minutes per morning. Something about going to bed after 10:30 at night, then trying to wake up at 4:30.

I've decided to use youversion.com's list of reading plans to guide me for now. Specifically I am using the topical reading plans and the Solid Life Reading Plan.

I'll be staying the course, so keep me in prayer if you will, to stay on and do my best to work on my resolution for this new year. I realize that this is a resolution that will not stop at the end of this year, but will continue on until I am completed upon my physical death; however, I think it's a good resolution to keep on keeping on with.

I'll post more later on about how this is going. Until then, have a great day!

Eric

My New Year's Resolution 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 02:28:00 +0000

This year's resolution is a little different from all the other ones I've had in the past. It's always been weight loss, weight loss, weight loss for me. After all, I'm fat. I will admit that without issue. Don't believe me? Take a look at my picture to the left; the profile image picture I have. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Well, I told you that I was fat.

So my resolution this year is different and indeed is one that is more important than losing weight. This one involves eternity. At church this Sunday, we were challenged to the following new year's resolution: "In 2012 I will do whatever it takes to be transformed more into the image of Jesus Christ." And that is going to be exactly what I will strive to do this year. (And the next, and the next...)

The verses that were used for this sermon included the following:

Colossians 1:28 "He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ."
2 Corinthians 3:16-18 " But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate^[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."
Galatians 5:16-17 " ¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever^[a] you want.

During my time reading this morning I went back over those verses. After all, if that is where we started on Sunday, the very first day of the year, it was probably a good place to start this morning. So during my reading, I had to look up the word "walk" in the original Greek. I wanted to see what that word actually meant in the original language. Walk in the Greek is περιπατέω (peripatéō ) which does mean "to walk", but also means "I conduct my life, live".

So I could paraphrase Galations 5:16 like this: "So I say, conduct your life, live your life by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh."

So how do I keep this resolution. Live my life by the Spirit.

Here is what I'll be doing to accomplish that.

Set aside an hour of the morning, every morning, to read my Bible, but not to just read, but read with a purpose.
Pray. Paul tells us to pray constantly, and this is something I have slacked off on. I'm not sure about praying constantly, but I resolve not to slack on this.
Live my life as if Jesus were right beside me.
Be sure to pray before I hit the floor in the morning, asking the Holy Spirit to take control of the day as I surrender control of my life to Him.

I am sure there will be other things I will do as the year progresses, (like update my blog on how things are going), but one thing I do believe: As my spiritual life goes, so goes the rest of my life. So when someone asks me if I am planning on losing weight this year, I can look at them and tell them that no, I am not planning on it, but I believe I will lose weight. After all, As I am building up my spiritual side, I can't let the tent housing the Holy Spirit go to pot can I?

Eric

A Review of December 1941: 31 Days that Changed America and Saved the World by Craig Shirley

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 05:25:00 +0000

When I was first saw that I had an opportunity to read and review December 1941: 31 Days that Changed America and Saved the World by Craig Shirley, I jumped at the chance. One of my majors in college was history, and I grew up loving history so I hope you will understand my excitement at this chance. However, after reading Mr. Shirley's book, I was very disappointed, not only with factual errors I found during reading, but also for the various typos and misspellings in his book.

The premise of Mr. Shirley's book is to describe life in America during the month of December 1941, showing America as is struggled to maintain a neutral stance in the current war, then the shock of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and other points in the Pacific, then how America began to come together as a unified people after the attacks. Mr. Shirley does this by taking each day in December and presenting them as individual chapters. In each chapter Mr. Shirley then attempts to show the reader life during this crucial month in American history by using various articles from newspapers and magazines found during that time period.

It is an interesting way to present the information to the reader; however, the information presented appears to me to have no structure to it whatsoever. The reader may be presented with life in Hollywood, then be switched to life in rural Alabama, only to read a few lines later about the war in Europe! I personally believe that Mr. Shirley should have broken the chapters down further into the various aspects of life he wished to present to the reader, instead of the jumbled array of information Mr. Shirley did present.

One of the key aspects of any book that touts itself as a history book, or a book dealing with history of any sort is facts and one of my main disappointments was error in facts presented in Mr. Shirley's book. One of the biggest or these errors, in my opinion was one I found on page 390. On that page, the reader is told that FDR directed Douglas MacArthur to rid Washington DC of the Bonus Marchers. The problem with that "fact" is that it is not a fact. FDR was not president during this moment in time: Hoover was. A glaring mistake like this should not happen in a book touted as a book on history. Another issue I had occurred on page 46. Quoting directly from Mr. Shirley's book: "It was raking in millions each week, mostly for the top four studios: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros." Mr. Shirley says the top four studios yet only three are mentioned by name. Again, these are only two examples of what I noticed as I read Mr. Shirley's book.

To simply sum up my review of Mr. Shirley's book, after reading his book, and with the mistakes found with supposed facts, typos and misspellings, I cannot recommend his book and give it only one star.

(Disclosure: I did receive an advanced copy of this book from Thomas Nelson to review and made no promises as to the nature of my review. The posted review is mine and mine alone.)

Counting Down Christmas One Video At A Time -- Joy To the World as sung by the Mississippi Mass Choir

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:39:00 +0000

Let the world know that Joy has come to the it through Jesus Christ! Joy to the World is a simple Christmas carol, but one that simply tells the truth. Joy! to the world, the Lord has come! What more should be said. What more could be said?

Enjoy this carol as sung by the Mississippi Mass Choir.

Merry Christmas!

Counting Down Christmas One Video at a Time -- White Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 23:35:00 +0000

One of the things I like to do at Christmas is watch the old Christmas movies. Movies that meant something, movies that the whole family could enjoy without fear of wondering if it was appropriate for children or not.

One of the movies I love is White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye and the title song is today's video in my Christmas Video Countdown. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

Counting Down Christmas One Video At A Time -- Joseph's Lullaby

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 23:40:00 +0000

This is one of the newer songs written for the Christmas season, written and performed by Mercy Me and I really don't know how popular it is, but this song has personal meaning to me. Sometimes Joseph is called the patron saint of step fathers, for even though Jesus was God's only Son, and wasn't Joseph's son, I can imagine Joseph taking Jesus in his arms and knowing that while Jesus was on earth and Joseph was alive, Joseph would take care of Jesus, as if Jesus were his first born son. And that's how I feel too. No matter if I wasn't there for the conception or the birth of my first born daughter, she is and will always be my first born child. So this one is for you and for her as well. Enjoy.

Merry Christmas!

Counting Down Christmas One Video At A Time -- Cantique De Noel (O Holy Night)

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 04:59:00 +0000

One of my all time favorite Christmas carols is Cantique De Noel (O Holy Night). And one of the best performances of this was done by the late great Luciano Pavarotti, singing alongside Placido Domingo. Close your eyes and let their interpretation bless you.

Merry Christmas!

Counting Down Christmas One Video At A Time -- Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 02:10:00 +0000

This is not one of my favorite carols per se, but it is one of my favorite collaborations of all time. David Bowie and Bing Crosby, singing together for Christmas was one of the most anticipated parts of the special they appeared in. I actually remember this special and thought it was great then and it is great now. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Merry Christmas!

Counting Down Christmas -- One Video At A Time -- Silent Night

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 03:23:00 +0000

Today's posting is actually a twofer! Silent Night is one of my all time favorite Christmas Carols and the two videos shown below are two of the most unique and all time best examples. I hope you enjoy.

Merry Christmas!

Stevie Nicks

The Temptations

Counting Down Christmas -- One Video At A Time -- Christmas Canon by Trans-Siberian Orchestra

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:54:00 +0000

This is my favorite time of the year. The music, decorations, cheer and the giving. Of course, with my faith, this is a celebration for me and my family as well. With that said, until the day of Christmas, I would like to post videos of some of my favorite Christmas music for you to enjoy. Merry Christmas!

Christmas At Work

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:29:00 +0000

I absolutely love where I work! Employee owned, every monthly and quarterly meeting is started out with a prayer and they love to have fun! Now I don't really do the Halloween decorating thing, but I do like decorating for Christmas, so I decided to decorate my cube this year. It's not complete as I still need to tidy up the lights some, and hang icicle lights from the ceiling above my cube, but here is where it is at right now.

As you can tell, I have a certain theme: The University of Texas. Tell me what you think.

Merry Christmas!

Eric

Upcoming Prison Ministry Event -- Prayer Request

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:07:00 +0000

Bill Glass' Champions for Life will be partnering up with the I Am Second Locked Up student ministry to have an opportunity to present the Gospel to the inmates at the Dawson State Jail this coming January 15th and we need your prayer support for this.

For those who follow my blog, or visit from time to time, you may have read of my last trip to the Dawson State Jail in Dallas, Texas back in November; this partnership with the I Am Second Locked Up student ministry has allowed me the opportunity to go back again to help spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to those behind the razor wire.

This will be a smaller event that we had last time, with only a total of 80 teammates attending from the Bill Glass Ministry. I am looking forward to this, believe me, but we do need your help. Not financially, but spiritually. We need prayer cover for this. The Dawson State Jail is a very dark place spiritually; you can literally feel it when you walk in. Your prayers are are one of the biggest helps we can have. Pray specifically for those on the inside to have their hearts softened and receptive to the Gospel message. Pray for those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ to be praying and studying, and living a life that glorifies God, even on the inside. Especially on the inside.

Pray for those of us who are going in. Pray specifically that we are prepared to speak as the Holy Spirit directs us to. Pray for our protection, physically and spiritually. But most of all PRAY! That is the biggest weapon we have; the prayers of the saints.

I am looking forward to this. Thank you for your prayers.

Eric

A Fantastic Giveaway From Tyndale!

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:17:00 +0000

I haven't blogged about giveaways in a long time, but this one excites me enough to tell you about it.

Starting on November 29^th until December 24^th at the New Living Translation Facebook page page Tyndale is giving away lots of great prizes and something free for you, the reader, just for singing up.
By visiting the giveaway entry page (located on the NLT Facebook page, the link is under the profile picture) and entering your name and e-mail address you'll be entered to win the following prizes:

One random person each day will win a Life Application Study Bible Family Pack (Guys Life Application Study Bible hc, Girls Life Application Study Bible hc, Student's Life Application Study Bible hc, Life Application Study Bible hc, Life Application Study Bible Large Print hc).
One Random person each week will win an Apple iPad 2!

Everyone that signs up gets a free download copy of the Life Application Bible Study – Book of Luke!

So do yourself a favor and head over to the New Living Translation Facebook page and check it out!

Eric

A Review of The 21-Day Dad's Challenge: Three Weeks To A Better Relationship With Your Kids Edited by Carey Casey

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 21:49:00 +0000

As the dad of two girls, I am always looking for good advice on how to deal with the ins and outs of how to be a better dad than I had in my life. Besides the Bible, this is one of the best books I have ever read on this subject, and that is not something I say lightly.

The 21-Day Dad's Challenge : Three Weeks To A Better Relationship With Your Kids offers the reader 21 articles written by dads such as Carey Casey, Tony Dungy, Jim Daly, Randy Alcorn, Chip Ingram, Josh McDowell, Shaun Alexander just to name a few. With chapter titles such as "What's in a Name", "I'm Sorry, I Was Wrong!", "No Experience Required" and "Where's Daddy?" the reader is presented not with nuggets of wisdom, but an entire avalanche of fatherly advice for those dads wanting or needing it.

The book itself is an easy read at 128 pages, but it is designed to not just be read, but one designed to be acted upon. Each article contains a challenge relevant to the article as well as a place to help plan out the reader's actions to accomplish the challenge. To help the reader the book also utilizes QR Barcodes, readable by any QR barcode reader downloadable on most smartphones. For those readers who do not have a QR Barcode reader, links are provided for the reader to type into any web browser. Each of the barcodes take the reader to an online video for more information about the current challenge.

As an example, here is the QR Barcode for the introduction of the book.

I am highly recommending this book to everyone who is a dad, dad to be, or planning on being a dad. Don't just read this book, but act upon this book. Use it. Your kids will thank you for it in ways you never dreamed of.

Five out of five stars!

(Disclosure: I did receive an advanced copy of this book from Tyndale to review and made no promises as to the nature of my review. The posted review is mine and mine alone.)

A Review of Awakening - A New Approach to Faith, Fasting, and Spiritual Freedom by Stovall Weems

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:08:00 +0000

One of the subjects I am interested in as a Follower of Christ is fasting. Fasting is something that I do not do very often, so when I saw I had a chance to read and review Stovall Weems' book Awakening - A New Approach to Faith, Fasting, and Spiritual Freedom, I decided to opt for this book and see what I might be missing.

What I was missing was the feeling that I was reading the script for a 30 minute infomercial on Mr. Weems' approach to being closer to God.

After reading through this book, and in some cases, re-reading parts of it, I am still not sure what Mr. Weems is trying to convey here. I do not doubt Mr. Weems' faith, nor his beliefs, but there are many places I disagree with him. I do not know if he believes in the so called "prosperity gospel" that is preached by people such as Kenneth Copeland or Creflo Dollar, but one section in particular of his book, on providing more room for God to fill in areas of your life dealt with tithing , and the prosperity message seemed to come out loud and clear.

Another aspect seemed to be weight loss. Even though Mr. Weems stated in his book that fasting is not about weight loss, he wrote more than once about how much weight was lost after fasting. I am not sure I can equivocate getting closer to God with losing weight, but this is part of what I received from reading the book.

Mr. Weems does attempt to back up his writing by quoting scripture, however, anyone who actually does study the Bible will tell you that anyone can take a single scripture and make it fit their need. It is when you read the scripture in context to the ones around it that you derive the real meaning of the quoted scripture. I believe that Mr. Weems has taken some, not all but some scripture out of context for his book. I am not saying that there is not any meat in this book, indeed there are some very good morsels to find, but they are few and far in between.

I am giving this book two out of five stars, and sadly, this is one book that I am not recommending to my friends and colleagues.

A Review of Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well by Billy Graham

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Dickey) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:35:00 +0000

There are two things a person can be sure of in this world: death and taxes. I would like to add a third thing a person can be sure of and that is the faith Billy Graham has in Jesus Christ.

I have just finished reading Reverend Graham's latest book, Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well and I can say that I am not disappointed in it. This is not to say that there are a couple of areas in the book when I felt that the advice given by Reverend Graham seemed redundant and very basic to me as well as times that the focus of the book was more towards a more aged and elderly audience than to a general audience that included people of my age group or younger. ( I am 43.)

With that said however, Reverend Graham's emphasis is on Jesus Christ and the reader's relationship with Him and this is shown in every facet of his writing in this book. Reverend Graham encourages the readers of this book to not drift away, nor fade away, but live strong as you age, passing down the accumulated knowledge and wisdom to those younger than the readers of this book. The title of the book says it all: finishing well in life and faith.

Reverend Graham still shows his love for everyone in this world as at least twice in this book he encourages his readers to pause and accept the free gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ. Reverend Graham is best known as an evangelist for Jesus Christ and he is still going strong in his calling as shown in this book.

Reading this book did feel to me like I was sitting down on the front porch with the grandfather everyone wants or needs and listening to the years of knowledge and wisdom being poured forth, and I listened to every word. Yes, the book sometimes is a slow read, but bear with it; finishing the book will give you insight on how to best prepare for your years to come.

I am giving this book four stars and am recommending this book to you.

Please note that this book was provided to me by Thomas Nelson Publishers for review. I did not promise nor guarantee in any way a positive review. This review is mine and mine alone and was not influenced by any outside party.