Favorite Posts

I've added a new feature to my blog: Favorite Posts. You may find it on the right side of this blog. It's a short collection of some of my favorite (but not necessarily most popular) posts. You will find a variety of topics from my personal experiences to issues with which I have wrestled over the years.

Guest Post at the Family Fountain Blog: The Challenge of Infertility

When my wife Janet and I were engaged to be married, we would talk for hours about our hopes and dreams. We would discuss careers, home life, and children. We planned to raise a household of biological and adopted children.


"The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps" (Proverbs 16:9, ESV). Our lives did not work out in quite the way we had planned. A couple of years into our marriage, we realized that we needed help. We had no children. After visiting a few doctors, we accepted our diagnosis. We were an infertile couple...


The rest of the post may be read on Warren Baldwin's Family Fountain blog at http://warrenbaldwin.blogspot.com/2011/04/guest-post-terry-laudett-challenge-of.html. You may also check out his blog by clicking on his name on my blog roll at the right side of this post. Thank you to Warren Baldwin for the opportunity to write a guest post for your blog!

Thankful

Since it's the month of Thanksgiving, I'm listing a few blessings for which I'm thankful today. I've been thinking about how much God has changed my life in the last 20 years in ways that I would not have imagined...but in ways for which I'm deeply thankful.

I'm thankful for my great wife. Janet and I have been married for 17 years. She has been my greatest encourager. She has been my best friend. She has been a wonderful partner in the joys and pains of life. No one could ask for a better wife.

I'm thankful for my outstanding son. Christopher is my 7-year old son. Before we were married, Janet and I talked about our dreams of adopting a child someday. We did not know that Christopher would be our only child, but we could not have asked for a more enjoyable little boy. It has been one of the honors of my life that God has entrusted me with the responsibilities and blessings of being Christopher's father.

I'm thankful for being a part of the Contact Church. Janet and I have been participants in the Tulsa urban ministry for 10 years. Eight years ago, the Contact Church was formed as a result of the urban ministry. Many people dream of being able to be a part of a church that reaches the urban poor. We have been blessed to experience it. We have been able to be a part of something very special.

I'm thankful for opportunities to share my faith. Nearly every day, I am asked by a co-worker, a friend, or an acquaintance about my faith in Jesus Christ. That was not happening until recent years. I have never had such opportunities fall into my lap so frequently. I can see God moving in the lives of others in my life every day. Also, I could not have imagined 20 years ago the opportunities that God has given me to share my faith through the internet. In addition to being able to reconnect through Facebook with friends and classmates from 25 years ago, I've been able to share my faith on this blog with people on every continent (except Antarctica). (I've been blown away when I have seen some of the countries from which I've seen visitors to this blog--especially those from closed Communist and Islamic nations.) It's hard to believe that God has entrusted me with such opportunities.

God has been very, very good to me.

"Make a joyful noise to the LORD,
all the earth!
Serve the LORD with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!

"Know that the LORD, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of
his pasture.

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

"For the LORD is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations" (Psalm 100).

Titus 2 in Action

Titus 2 in Action is one of my favorite blogs. Sonya Thompson, Kelly Combs, Sharon Sloan, Warren Baldwin, Heather Beals, and Stephanie write a variety of articles based on themes from this passage:

"But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us" (Titus 2:1-8).

The blog may be found at http://titus2inaction.blogspot.com/. (I'm sorry, but I cannot figure out how to create a link to the site.)

"Mockers" by Warren Baldwin

I discovered Warren Baldwin's blogs a few months ago. He quickly became one of my favorite bloggers. Check out http://warrenbaldwinbiblefountain.blogspot.com/2010/03/mockers.html to see a sample of his great work.

An Explanation

Due to pornographic spam in my comments section over the last 6 months, I have eliminated my comments section. I have deleted the comments as quickly as I have found them; but since they would not stop, I have deleted my comments section.

A Blog for Dads

"Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4).

Each workday morning, I start the day reading my Bible and a few of my favorite blogs as I eat my breakfast. (I go to work a few hours before Janet and Christopher need to get up.) Tony Dungy's blog (http://allprodad.com/dungy) is one of my favorites. With each entry, he encourages men to be good husbands and fathers. Men, if you want to start the day off well, read Tony Dungy's blog. You will find encouragement and inspiration as you begin the day.

Introducing My New Prayer Blog

I appreciate it when people pray for me, and I have discovered that people appreciate it when I pray for them. With that in mind, I have created a new blog at http://a-disciples-prayer-blog.blogspot.com. If you would like to pray with me, please visit my new blog and leave a comment. I want my new blog to be a place for us to share our concerns and our gratitude with each other and with God. Please join me in creating a community of prayer on my new blog.

Changes

I have made a few changes to my blog this week. I deleted the previous two posts, because I did not enjoy reading them. If I found them irritating, why should I expose others to them? So they no longer exist.

More noticeably, I have deleted several links on my blog. For a few days, I have been locked out from posting on my blog, because blogger.com has a program to lock blogs it believes may be spam blogs. Apparently, a large number of links can cause the program to mistakenly believe that a blog is a spam blog. Therefore, I have deleted my Favorite Web Sites section, Christian Charities section, and several blogs from my Blog Roll section. I apologize to bloggers that I had to delete. I tried to eliminate mostly dormant blogs, but a few active blogs were deleted also even though I liked them. I hope you understand.

Thanks for reading.

Good Stuff

Here are a few good items on the Internet this week:

Terry Rush discusses how compassion adds meaning to life at http://terryrush.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-find-meaning-in-life.html.

Mike writes about sex as a birthday gift at http://theupperroom.typepad.com/the_upper_room/2008/07/birthday-gift.html. Be sure to check out the link in his post, also.

Arron Chambers challenges readers to a fun contest at http://www.christianstandard.com/2008/07/road-nonsense.html.

The Christian Chronicle contains a good book review about why Christians sometimes leave the faith of their youth, but Linda Jackson's comment on the right side of the page is even more powerful than the article at http://www.christianchronicle.org/article2158416~Why_do_some_Christians_leave_the_faith_of_their_youth%3F.

The Christian Chronicle offers advice about being faithful and evangelistic among people who reject Jesus Christ as the only way to eternal life at http://www.christianchronicle.org/article2158415~Love%2C_tolerance_and_hope_in_Jesus. Be sure to check the link in the article to the story about baseball legend Bobby Murcer's life of faith, too.

I hope you enjoy the articles. Thanks for reading!

Hot Links

Here are a few posts and articles worth reading:

Trey Morgan provides great advice for husbands at http://www.treymorgan.net/2008/07/real-men-dote.html.

Mike relates a heart-breaking story of a family neglected in their time of need by their local church at http://theupperroom.typepad.com/the_upper_room/2008/07/alone-in-church.html.

Phil Sanders offers some insightful analysis of data from the Pew Forum's latest religious survey of Americans at http://philanswers.blogspot.com/2008/07/conviction-crisis.html.

Allen Hickerson mentions the small rural church that he serves. Its Vacation Bible School was a success. I appreciate the effort of a small congregation in a small town exerting the energy to help the children in their area to know Christ. His post is at http://allens-brain.blogspot.com/2008/07/cornland-ccs-vbs-1st-night-success.html.

Rubel Shelly reminds us that God gets mad and that it's okay for us to get mad too at http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200807/20080711_godgetsmad.html.

Sarah Logsdon writes about the women of the Contact Church who are mentoring the girls and young women in our congregation. Please don't miss this one at http://urbanlogfamily.blogspot.com/2008/07/scared-enough-to-change.html.

Thanks for reading!

Recommended Blog Posts

I appreciate the thoughts of Mike at the Upper Room Blog. I don't know much about him, but I like the way he thinks and writes. In fact, I often say to myself, I wish I had written that post, after reading his blog. He has some good thoughts about "Rethinking Church" at http://theupperroom.typepad.com/the_upper_room/2008/06/rethinking-church.html.

John Piper has listed "20 Reasons I Don't Take Potshots at Fundamentalists" at http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1251_20_reasons_i_dont_take_potshots_at_fundamentalists/. I agree with almost all of his list (except my father is not a fundamentalist), but I especially echo the sentiments of Reason #20. People to my left also believe I'm a fundamentalist, and there are a lot of people to my left.

Why Do I Blog?

"The purposes of a man's heart are deep waters,
but a man of understanding draws them out" (Proverbs 20:5, NIV).

Why do I blog?

1. Blogging helps me to think through some ideas, concepts, and events in my life. It's a discipline that clears away some of the nonsense. When I am able to write about something, I am forced to give it a little more thought.

2. Someday, I want my son Christopher to know what I have been thinking. If I were to die tonight, he would have many fond memories of his dad. However, at age 5, those memories would become hazy and possibly confused as the years would pass. With my blog, he would be able to know me a little better. He would know what I love, hate, hope to see, and fear to ponder. He would be able to read about my challenges, failures, and victories. He would be able to sense some of my personality (although my sense of humor does not come across much on my blog). My wife Janet would not need to read my blog to learn such information, but my son would at this point in his life. This blog would be a gift for him.

3. A few other people may read this blog. I hope that they would be able to receive encouragement to trust God and follow Jesus Christ. I hope that my words would be able to provide some insight about life that could help in some way. Perhaps people may learn from some of the things I have done right and some of the things I have done wrong. I do not know how many people read this blog, but it doesn't matter much. If anyone benefits, it's a bonus.