This is a test run of an episode intro that I plan on using on any of the podcasts that I post. In this test run I introduce the title of my podcast series, “Game Planning for Life”. Game Planning for Life is a podcast series dedicated to helping you build a winning game plan for the areas of life that matter most to you.
We have a family tradition of producing a high-quality short video for each of our son’s birthdays from 1-18 years old. This particular video chronicles the journey of our oldest son (Nathan) from 4 – 5 years old.
An incredible short film produced by a few students at the school where I currently serve as high school principal.
The following is their short description of the film:
God used words to speak everything into existence, but He modeled His greatest creation after Himself. Shaped by His hands, and given life by His breath, it was the closest thing to Him that He had ever created. It was good.
If you are in need of encouragement about WHO you are, take the 4 minutes and 58 seconds required to watch this video.
I was working for a while on revamping my blog at a new domain (www.coachnickcook.com), but ended up having to shut that site down.
I am in the midst of reorganizing this site, my original blog, so that I can begin posting to it once again. Feel free to cruise around archived material, but just know there may be links that don’t work and pages that aren’t finished. I hope to be back up and posting again soon!
Great video from NewPointe Community Church in northeast Ohio.
This video communicates clearly something that has been on my heart as of late: the big picture of what the Bible communicates as the Good News. The good news of why God has created us and what he is doing to ensure a current and ultimately future return to his intended purposes for the created universe, the earth, and human life.
The Bible communicates that the Creator God made the universe, earth, and humans that his creation might “teem” or flourish with vitality and perfect, loving communion with him (Genesis 1-2).
It also reveals how our first human ancestors started an ingrained trend that has been shared at some level by every human being since – making choices that break this communion with God and that bring about this chaotic thing that we know as death (Genesis 3).
From Genesis 3:15 up to Matthew 1 we follow the story line of how God chooses a group of people on earth from whose line he would raise up a male who would crush the problem of sin.
We learn in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John who this savior from Jewish decent is: Jesus of Nazareth. The male was God himself incarnate in human flesh. God became a man and he had come to live the life that we cannot live, to die a death that he would accept as a substitute punishment for all human sin, and to raise from the dead, forever demonstrating his power over this most dreaded portion of human existence – the wage he had assigned to sin: death.
From Acts 1 to the end of Revelation, we receive highlights of how, through Christ, God is working in and through human life to redeem, restore, and renew all of his creation.
This world can be a cruel, confusing place. Amidst these conditions, God has been and is making constant demonstration of his good, redeeming, restoring, and renewing will for his creation.
Lives transformed, marriages restored, communities rebuilt, diseases healed, enemies forgiven, innocent victims protected, the forgotten cared for. He regularly communicated that this type of redemption is what his kingdom is about and is why he came:
“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners” Luke 4:18
If you haven’t already: Stake your entire life and eternity on Jesus. Make the decision to trust Him on all of this. Receive his offer that His life, His death, and His resurrection secured a renewed, restored life for you. Choose to be a part of History. Choose to receive the Good News of Christ.
Great video to raise awareness of the realities of abortion, even within Christian churches throughout America. Here are a couple of stats from the video to get you thinking:
80% of unmarried evangelicals between the ages of 18-29 have had sex.
32% of unplanned pregnancies among evangelicals end in abortion.
This is not a teenage/inner city problem, it is also a young professional problem. It is not just a non-christian issue, it is a full cultural issue.
There are many ways you can help: honoring God with your body by not having pre-marrital sex, mentor someone to help prevent pre-marrital sex or encourage parenting/adoption, volunteer with or support a pro-life crisis pregnancy center, adopt a child from a unplanned pregnancy, support legislation and legislators who are working towards an end to legalized abortion.
I know most of my readers live in Ohio, here is a site that is a great place to start:
http://www.ohiolife.org/
We have a family tradition of producing a high-quality short video for each of our son’s birthdays from 1-18 years old. This particular video chronicles the journey of our youngest son (Shane) from 1 year – 2 years old.
