Mike Edmisten

Cool piece in The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Amelia section about our church.

Click here to check it out.

If you notice a decrease in junk email today, it might be because one of the world’s biggest spammers is now in prison. Robert Alan Soloway was arrested yesterday in Seattle. “He’s one of the top 10 spammers in the world,” said Tim Cranton, a Microsoft Corp. lawyer.

Soloway had been living the good life. A ritzy apartment, a Mercedes convertible, etc. Apparently spamming is a lucrative business. But now he could possibly be looking at decades in prison.

Emailers rejoice!

With the holiday weekend, I’m a little late posting my heroes from last week. Better late than never. My servant-heroes from last week are…

Joe & Shelley Turner
John & Julie Bach
Nicki Edmisten
Ken Bunton
Jim Bettle
Andy Kemp
J.W. Cassell

These folks all took time out of their holiday weekend to spruce up Jim & Jenny Willison’s yard. Very cool to see people step up and help this family while Jim is serving in Iraq.

And a special thanks to Dawn Coppola for bringing a cake on Saturday!

Props to all of you for your hard work and your servant hearts. You are my ACC servant-heroes of the week.

Ryan Freel should be released from the hospital today after a very scary outfield collision with Norris Hopper in yesterday’s Reds game. I love the gutsy style he brings to the table everyday. Unfortunately when you play all out, as Ryan Freel does, these things can happen.

You can see video of the collision here. (Keep in mind that this link takes you off my blog. It’s the only place I could find the video, but there’s some inappropriate content elsewhere on the site.)

Hopefully Freel will be back getting his jersey dirty again soon!

After a long holiday weekend, it’s time for most of us to head back to work. Thought this would be a good time to share some thoughts on the theology of work.

God has called his people to be holy. In other words, to be set apart. To be different. Work is one of those areas where we can be set apart from our world.

My theology of work comes straight from these verses. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” (Colossians 3:23-24, NIV)

As God’s people, the quality of our work sets us apart. Getting the job done isn’t enough. Since we’re working for God instead of a human boss, we’re called to do the job well. Doesn’t matter what your job is. You can do your job well, to the glory of God.

I’m sure there are some who are muttering, “But you don’t understand. I hate my job! My boss is a jerk. My pay is too low. My mundane job is the very definition of boring.”

Look back at the verses from Colossians again. If your boss is a jerk, remember you’re not working for him/her anyway. You are “working for the Lord.”

If your pay is too low, remember “you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.”

If your job is boring, remember that you don’t have to have an exciting job to please God. He said, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart.” Mark Batterson wrote, “One of the greatest acts of worship is to do a good job at a bad job.”

While we’re thinking through all of this, it’s important to remember that Jesus worked. The Bible tells us that Jesus went through the entirety of the human experience, and that includes work. He worked as a carpenter. A blue-collar, hard-working, underpaid carpenter. And I am convinced that Jesus worked hard at being an excellent carpenter. Dorothy Sayers wrote, “No crooked table legs or ill-fitting drawers, I dare say, came out of the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth.”

The average American will spend over 100,000 hours at the workplace in his/her lifetime. That means that you and I have 100,000 opportunities to honor God through our work.

I grew up in a family steeped in military pride and tradition. My grandfather served in the Army during World War II. My uncle was in the Air Force. My brother was in the Marine Corps. My father’s service as a Marine in Vietnam earned him the Silver Star.

I’ve taken a little blogging break over the holiday weekend, but I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to say thanks. Thanks to all our servicemen and women who are fighting so that we can enjoy peaceful picnics and barbecues today. Take a minute and pray for them and their families who miss them so much.

This day is especially poignant for our church family since one of our own has recently been deployed to Iraq. Praying a special blessing on Jim as he serves, and on Jenny, Kaitlyn, and Nathan (their unborn baby boy) as they wait on him to return.

My family spent the evening working at Jim & Jenny Willison’s house along with a few other folks from our church. Several people will be back working again tomorrow morning. It’s awesome to be able to help this special family while Jim is away serving our country in Iraq. I can’t think of a better way to spend a few hours on this Memorial Day weekend.

It’s official. The Reds have the worst record in in the Majors. In an article about last night’s game, this line from the Enquirer’s Mark Sheldon says it all. “Whenever the Reds did find a potential spark, they used their own water buckets to douse it.”

Errors. Stupid mistakes. An inept bullpen. The inability to advance runners. I’m not a fair weather fan, but…

Recently there was a tattoo parlor here in Amelia with a sign that really grabbed my attention. Their sign said, “Jesus loves me, tattoos and all.”

Some random questions…

Who would disagree with their sign?

Is their sign a statement, possibly directed at the church?

What “Christian” attitudes do you think they’ve run into because of their “tats”?

If you are offended, then why are you offended?

Instead of answering these questions myself, I’ll step out of the way and leave them for you to ponder.

What a great experience! I loved every second of judging the Senior Exit Action Projects done by a few AHS seniors. These students have worked hard all year on these projects and it really showed.

I’m convinced that, on the whole, kids today are getting a bum rap. I’m sure there were some lazy students who presented a lackluster SEAP today, but they definitely weren’t in my group. These kids applied themselves, worked hard, and produced a project they could be proud of.

Can’t wait to do it again next year!