Ordination Reading.

I have been working on my ordination reading lately. I just finished The Four Fold Gospel by A.B Simpson. It doesn't sound like the most interesting book in the world, and to be honest, it wasn't the most interesting book in the world. However, I was suprised by it.
Reading the chapter on Christ The Coming King, I was reminded of how great it is going to be to be re-united with Christ. We were created for a relationship with Christ, and finally, on that day, we will be reunited in that relationship. Its something that we don't really think about, either because we don't want to, or because it just seems so far off. But reading this book has reminded me that isn't not just something we can read about in a book. Its something that we will experience one way or another.
It seems like America, and probably the entire world, comes up with more excuses as to why the don't want to believe in God, or the second coming of Christ. Its a fairy-tale, we can take care of ourselves, I haven't seen God work in my life, if God was really loving, there wouldn't be some much crap in the world, ect. Why do we make these excuses? Do we really think that we'll convince God? Are you serious?
I think especially of the celebrities. The got all the money, fame, cars, homes and influence. It seems like the law doesn't apply to them. They can do what they want, when the want, and to whoever they want. If they do get caught, they'll just pay the right amount of money and all of the sudden, they are free. Its amazing.
Its also no wonder why many celebrities feel that they don't need a relationship with God. Sure, they say, "I'd like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" when they accept awards, but lets be honest, most celebrities don't have a relationship with Christ (sorry if I am off on this). Who needs heavenly help when they can just get whatever they want now?
Fame and fortune may get you out of a speeding ticket or murder (what up OJ), but there will come a day when the fame and fortune that we have all gained will mean nothing to us. The ONLY thing that will matter is what we did with Jesus Christ. Did we accept Him into our life, and receive the forgiveness that He gave His life for, or did we rely on our own strengths and abilites to go through life.
Either we will die, or we will experience the second coming of Christ, but either way, we will be accountable. Without Christ, the future is bleak! With Christ, the future is an amazing thing to think about, and some day experience.

So what does this mean? It means we need to examine our lives. Are we relying on our own abilities and stregnths? Are we looking for pleasures here on earth to fill the void and cover the pain in our lives? Are we too busy with our jobs and friends and families and hobbies and laziness to take time to have a relationship with Christ? I sure hope not.
God has offered a way to restoration. He longs for a relationship with you... yes, you! You may not be a celebrtity, you may not even have many friends, but God is crazy in love with you. No matter what your past is, no matter what you have or have not done in your relationship to Him, no matter how many times you have said no to Him. He still loves you. He still wants a relationship with you. He still wants to forgive you. He still wants to bring you home.

Its amazing isn't it? It's all yours if you want it.

Do you?

Monday Miscellaneous

Let's try this again.
Today I took Caden to the store to get something for lunch. I got cheap hotdogs, and cheetos. That is a healthy lunch right? They were the baked cheetos. Either way, it was tasty, and now Caden is sleeping.
Last night was a great night at youth group. I am really loving the split of the ages. I think that it is providing for more interaction between leaders and students, as well as more interaction between students. Everyone seems more willing to hang out and share. I still don't understand why the senoir highers love 4-square so much. But I gotta admit, I had fun playing last night.
TWINS... WOW what a week! I was lucky enough to go to the game with 3 guys from church. It was amazing! It was loud, it was fun, it was a HUGE WIN for the Twins. Then they go and lose the next two to the ROYALS of all people! Now we have to watch the White Sox game today to see if the Tigers roll over and play dead. In that case, I'll have to watch the Twins and White Sox play on Tuesday. I don't have a great feeling if that is the case. Oh well. I picked the Twins to finish 3rd this year in the division.
This week is going to be a busy one. I have to edit a video, prep 2 messages, prep a SS lesson, and work on details for the middle school retreat and future SS book study. I will also have a few meetings dropped in along the way. I am looking forward to it though. It should go by really fast.
Here's to hoping the twins win and next weeks post talks about the playoffs!

Tell Me Why!

Tell me something. Why are Minnesota State Lottery Sales up 4% in July and August? With everyone afraid of a recession and the horrible personal and nation finance picture, WHY ARE PEOPLE BUYING LOTTERY TICKETS? This just does not make sense to me! I am not the greatest money mind in the world. In fact, I could use some "smart money 101" refreshers! But I am not giving my money to the lottery!
This just doesn't make sense. I am announcing that I will now be taking donations. If you give me donations of 1, 5 or 20 dollars, I might give some back to you. In fact, if you give me $10, I will give you $2 dollars back. GUARANTEED! You can send the cash or checks to me. Thanks for at least giving your money to a needy cause!
Save your money!

t-shirts half off (don't worry, I am fully dressed)

randomshirts.com is having their biggest sale ever. EVERYTHING is 1/2 off! I love their stuff! I have bought several shirts there for myself as well as for gifts. Go and check it out. They have some very funny shirts. And no, I am not getting any money for this commercial. Just wanted to share the info on a great sale.

Let me know if you get anything.

Monday Miscellaneous

I am all about copying good ideas. @kurt and @Josh both do a Monday Miscellaneous post on their blogs. (Full disclosure would point out the Josh stole the idea as well). Its a good idea, so I am going to steal it. There are many things that happen that just aren't blog worthy on their own, but coupled together with all the other worthless things happening and BAM, you have a completely worthless post! I am all about that. So here I go!

Today, I'm the only person in the office today. Everyone else is out playing, and I am here answering the phone and trying to get things done. Really I don't mind, I can have my music loud. I might change my mind if the phone starts ringing off the hook. So far so good...
This weekend I took our leaders to Menomonie for a training seminar. It was good. I was dissapointed that 10 of our leaders couldn't make it to the training. It was well done and the information was very usefull and practical. Its the kind of thing that you hope you never have to use, but if you do need to, you are glad that you have had some training...
Becuase of the training, it turned out to be a good excuse to bring Caden to the farm for the weekend. Grandma and Grandpa always want to spend time with Caden, so we thought this would be a great opportunity. Katie and I enjoyed a fun Saturday afternoon and evening without Caden. We went shopping, out to eat, and just hung out. It was GREAT... until the phone rang at 12:30am. Katie's parents had just gotten back from the ER with Caden. No big deal, he just was having troubles breathing... WHAT! Thankfully he is doing better now. Katie will be picking him up this afternoon and they have an appointment later today in St. Croix. Here's to hoping the ER bill doesn't keep us from shingling our roof this year! It doesn't matter, I am just glad that he is ok!...
VIKINGS WIN!!!! - Frerotte about it!
Finally, we had a great time at Sr. High Youth Group last night. There were several new faces there, which is always great! I am really excited about our Sunday Nights! Its going to be a lot different than the middle school night. Both of them have their unique advantages. I am just excited to be able to hang out with so many students. The highlight of the night was Luke puking up the red onion! NICE! Oh yeah, and our Sr. Highers started playing 4 square afterwords. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That is an elementarty game!

Told you it was random.

No, this isn't my church...

For those of you wondering, this is not the church that I work at. Thanks to John for sending me this pic. It did make me laugh!

Just to hold Josh Accountable

This is a post just to see if Josh is checking his igoogle at work. Did I catch you?

a proud day as a father!

Doesn't get much better than this! Even has a black eye in honor of the start of the football season!

Greatest Birthday GIft EVER

My wife is amazing. She got me the greatest birthday gift in the entire world this year! She got me a brander for steak! Yeah, its amazing I know. Please don't be jealous, its not good for your health!
So come on over and have yourself a "Folkestad Steak!"

Thanks babe for the great gift!

you simply have to read this!

So today I stumbled across a very disturbing find. David Hasselhoff has started a new social network site of sorts. This is just too crazy to be true. Does he REALLY think that he is this special? Here is a clip from the website.

In my travels round the world I have always been surprised that no matter where I go people recognize and know me, from Europe, Australia and India to the Philippines and the Zulu Nation in South Africa. This got me thinking... I realized that while two people from two entirely different countries and backgrounds may seem to have nothing in common, the only thing they might have in common is me... So I decided to start a network where people from across the world might come together and get a conversation started over me. Where it will lead, I don't know but the world would be a better place if everyone talked a little more to each other...

So here is HoffSpace. There are videos and photos of the adventures of my life (THAT NO ONE ELSE GETS TO SEE) and also from the lives of other members. Read the discussions or start a forum on a topic that interests you. Check out Hoff TV, where I go live often. Chat with other members from around the world and make friends. Design your own home page. Add music and share your lives with others. Send me the weird, wonderful and wacky things that are happening in your life. Tell me the stories of how you are making a difference in your life and, if you need my help, ask... One man or woman CAN make a difference...

I am speachless...
check it out for yourself!

kansas city roadtrip

Brad, Bryan, Nick and I took a quick trip to Kansas City to watch the Twins play on Friday and Saturday night. It was a BLAST! We saw some great baseball, ate some GREAT BBQ and saw a couple cool museums and the college basketball hall of fame.
here are a few pictures from the trip.

Caden the Jet ski man

Had a blast at our Middle School beach party! Huge thanks to the Fisk's for allowing us to crash at their cabin for a few hours! It was a blast, but the highlight of the night was taking Caden out on the Jet ski. Not sure he knew what was happening, but it was a fun time! I had to make sure that Uncle Kevin wasn't the first to get him out on the Jet Ski :)

Good times! Good times!

Crazy Sky

Saw these amazing clouds this am. As always, the picture doesn't do it justice. But check it out anyway. Did anyone else see them? CRAZY

Chris

I'm not dead

Just a quick post to tell you that I am not Dead...

In the past 7 days I have been to 3 Twins games, Valleyfair, been the only pastor in the office, hung out with the family, prepared a sermon, worked on messages for a wedding and Big Sandy, and prepared a sermon for Sunday. Whew! I can't wait for Sunday afternoon!

In my "spare time" I did make up this promo picture for our Biker Sunday coming up in August. It started out as a joke, but I actually like it...

My new workout plan

Watch This video and get a sneak peak into my new workout plan.

Think it will work?

Do Hard Things

I just started reading a book called Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris. They are twin 19 year olds who are challenging teenagers to "rebel against low expectations." I've made it through the first couple chapters and have to say that I am impressed.

Here are some early impressions:
1. The authors think highly of themselves (not necessarily cocky)
2. The authors are motivated and have great ideas
3. They think for themselves
4. They had solid parents who expected great things from them

I think that this book would be a great book for any teenager (or parent of one) to read. Teenagers are too often just tossed into a meaningless age grouping. Too old to be children, but not good enough to be an adult. The Harris' fight that stereotype. They want more to be expected of them, and of other young people their age. I think more people should think this way! (both teens and adults about teens)

Quote from the book:

In the chapters that follow, we want to show you that deep down you want to do hard things, and what's more, you can do hard things. What you'll discover is a whole new way of living your teen years and of living the rest of your life. God's Word and all of history demonstrates that we are far more capable than we think. This world is trying to trap you by tying its pathetic piece of twine around your ankle. We want to help you break the twine.

As I said, I've only read the first 3 chapters of the book. From what I have read, I am impressed. These are things that teenagers, and young people (like myself) need to hear. What's the best part about the book? It doesn't come from a 50 year old that has forgotten what its like to be a teenager. (no offense intended) It comes straight from two 19 year olds who have been Doing Hard Things for a while now.

Go check it out. Have you read it? I'd like to hear your thoughts on it.

Caption Needed...

This picture was just too awesome! Do you have a caption for it? I wanna be like this when I am old.

And you thought you had a big mouth!

Next week at youth group, we'll be talking about how our mouths sometimes get us in trouble. So, today I was searching through the internet for examples/illustrations. I found this video that absolutely blew me away! Check it out!

That is ONE BIG MOUTH!

For what it's worth
Chris

Not your normal delivery

Found this clip over at my buddy's blog. This might just be the craziest delivery in the history of baseball! Although I don't agree with the umpire's call at the end, it does confirm my that umpires are blind, no matter what country they work in.