From The Heart of Worship Files by Matt Redman:

I have to admit this week is halfway over and it has already been difficult to keep focus. We leave next Monday for Gatlinburg with the whole family (Dad, Cheryl, Lisa & Kenneth & the boys). I think the double-shot of getting to spend a week with our family & having a true vacation for the first time in nearly two years is making the work days this week drag on. Everyone arrives on Saturday, though, which is only three days away, so I know the rest of week will be over before we know it.

We got the pool up yesterday & the boys proceeded to spend three hours swimming! I wasn't sure if we were ever going to get it up, though, as it required us to have a level piece of ground to place it on, which doesn't exist in our all-downhill yard! We've spent the past couple of weeks, off & on, digging up a 12x12 ft square and leveling it out. We finally finished Monday night (to much rejoicing).

Each Monday morning we have a department devotional time to start the week off. The subject matter varies from week to week, but it is a good chance to place on focus on Him before we get too involved and wrapped-up in all that the week holds for us.

Richard Dodge, one of the other Internet Producers here, gave the devotion yesterday morning. He was sharing some from a book he had been reading (can't remember the name off hand) and read Matthew 11:28-30: "'Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.'" He said that when we usually think of these verses we look at them as if Jesus is saying, "Come and dump your troubles on me and I will carry them for you." This is only the first part of what Jesus means here. What we miss is that He is issuing an invitation for us to come to Him. He doesn't just pick up and carry our burdens so that we can walk along on our own burden-free. No, He invites us to walk with Him, allowing Him to shoulder the burdens with us. It is an invitation to walk with Him - a 'bid' for time with us, so to speak.

The book Richard had been reading was one on relationships that talks about us 'bidding' on the relationships in our own lives. It might be intentionally holding the door open for someone else just so that you can say, "Hi, how are you doing?" to them. It is the intentional encounters that build relationships within our lives. Jesus does this, too. He desires for us to come and walk with Him, talk with Him, spend time getting to know one another.

I don't believe it's a five-minute walk down to the next corner, although He will take it. He desires a day-long, week-long, month-long (you get the picture) communion with the King of kings. Take some time today to come beside Him and drink Him in - He's waiting for you!

After a week of hanging on by what seem like next to nothing, Micah's loose tooth finally gave way and came out tonight. We had just put the boys down for bed & he came running out with his brother with a big grin on his face. He was so proud. He said, "I love this!" He's been waiting with eager anticipation for several days. I offered to help pull it out, but he didn't want anything to do with that.

We snapped a few shots and uploaded them to the gallery for you to enjoy. I have also started uploading the images in larger/higher quality format beginning with this batch. I know many of you are printing these out, so hopefully this will improve the quality of those prints a little. Simply click an image within a photo album to view it. Then in the top description bar for the photo, click the 'Full size' link (located under 'Date' & 'Size'). The screen will spill over the edges of the browser window to accomodate the large format of the picture.

We've had some good pictures laying around for the past month or so, so I decided to take some time to get them added to the gallery. In addition to a new set of pictures of Josiah's final soccer game, we've added six new photo albums. Click the link above or the picture in the right column to see them.