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Category Archives: Personal

Our Creator knows us well

I am not sure why I haven’t posted anything in almost a month. It may be that I haven’t had anything relevant to say and I have been trying to limit the number of personal posts. After all who really wants to read about someone else’s life experiences. I know there may be some of my friends and family who do read those personal posts and I appreciate it. I am going to try and post something more often, but this year I am trying to post more relevant topics.

Now for the first post of this year. This past Sunday morning our associate Pastor, Eric, presented a message about people being made in the image of God and what that means. He used selected scripture verses to effectively describe what this means. The message definitely got me to thinking and I followed this thinking to my next logical step. Since we are made in the image of God and God is also our creator wouldn’t He know what is good for us and what is harmful? I say absolutely and this is what I would like to write about.

Whenever we begin a new year one of the things The Human Body we think about are resolutions for the new year. Some of the more popular resolutions are exercising and eating right, followed by a plethora of others. I think the common theme for most of them is starting a habit or a consistent activity that is better for us. I believe God not only has given us the knowledge that He exists and the knowledge to know right from wrong. But along this same line of thinking he has given us the knowledge to understand what is good for us and what is harmful. He has definitely given us this knowledge through His commands in His perfect scripture.

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Posted by barrydean on January 10, 2007 in Personal, Theology

Exercising my faith

08 Dec

If you trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and the savior of your eternal soul then you have exp lifting weights erienced the internal struggle the apostle Paul speaks of in Romans 7:15.

For what I am doing, I do not understand, for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing that I hate.

This verse is just an exerpt within the whole text and the context should be read as well. I believe Paul is referring to sin in his life that he personally struggled with. I can relate to this and lately I have had an idea as to a personal correlation between the sin I struggle with as a believer in Christ and the struggle in eating right when you have adopted an exercise regime in your life.

When I am consistently exercising, losing weight, and getting into better shape I have this struggle against old eating habits. When confronted with the temptation to over-eat, my mind says “you have worked so hard to get to this point and you want to go futher right?” That usually is motivation enough to be able to win against eating more sweets than I should. Which is my major downfall. But sometimes I give in and eat too much and feel remorse afterward. If I were not in the middle of getting into shape and the temptation came around I would find it much easier to give into it. The motivation factor of working against what I have accomplished lately would not exist.

The same holds true in my struggle against sin. When I am self-focused and world-focused I am vulnerable to the temptations that may come my way. My mind will say “what the heck I haven’t been focusing on anyone but me, one more won’t matter.” and that, my friends, is a definite heart issue (as my friend and pastor Chris P. would say). But on the other hand when I am consistently praying, studying God’s word, involved in ministry, trusting completely in God my motivation factor is very high to maintain this pattern. Granted if it were not for the Holy Spirit of God within me I would have no “will” power at all. Thanks be to Christ that He did provide a helper to come alongside me and encourage me to to Christ-like. The same Holy Spirit is available to everyone who believes and trusts in Christ, and in Christ alone to save them from condemnation.

Hopefully I have made myself clear on this little personal revelation. I wonder if anyone else reading this has experienced this? I would imagine if you know Christ it might make more sense. Please post comments.

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Posted by barrydean on December 8, 2006 in Personal, Praise, Theology

Working in the panhandle

05 Dec

Last night I drove out to Sidney, Nebraska to be present for the beginning of a new project for t Corporate Office in Sidney he world’s foremost outfitter. The drive wasn’t too awfully bad. It was only about 5 hours and I basically did it with only one stop for fuel and a sandwich.

Today I spent a good portion of the day in meetings trying to iron out some of the project requirements and definitions. I believe I am going to like the people on this project. The facilities at their headquarters are excellent, and I am using a much better PC. The building is huge on the inside and out. It will take me a little while to be comfortable finding my way around in it. I was able to find my buddy Steve who just recently moved out here to the middle of nowhere. He and his wife and I are going to try and get together for dinner tomorrow night That should be fun. I will probably grab some dinner on the way to the hotel tonight and veg-out in front of the television. They have cable, 75 channels and nothing’s on.

I have an idea for a creative correlation between another real life personal struggle much like the struggle we have with sin as believers. So stay tuned I may post it tomorrow night.

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Posted by barrydean on December 5, 2006 in Personal

The dating game

29 Nov

This past Saturday my lovely wife and I went out on a double date with some frien Dating image ds from church. It was an evening that we looked forward to and the expectations were exceeded in my estimation. We all went to a nice out of the way family Mexican restaurant. The food was delicious and very filling. They serve great enchiladas that are available with an assortment of fillings, one of which is cottage cheese. I had the beef and cottage cheese because I like cottage cheese but I’ve never had it on an enchilada. It was very good, and I ate every bite of it. After dinner we went to the theater to see The Guardian movie with Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. The film took the time to develop the main characters which seems to be missing from most of the latest movies being made. The movie was well enjoyed all around and the evening was a big hit.

I would recommend dating your spouse on a consistent basis. It is something I am attempting to pursue with my wife. It is nice to spend time getting to know your wife again. It seems it is the only time we can put the day to day activities aside and focus on each other. I hope we will use this time to know each other so when the time arrives when we are alone together, and all of the kids are gone, we will have something to talk about, and things to do together because we still know each other. This weekend we will be attending my company Christmas party and we will be on another date for that.

God is good.

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Posted by barrydean on November 29, 2006 in Family, Personal, Praise

Back in the saddle again

17 Oct

The new job is very interesting and I am very excited to be doing geek work again. I am working on projects for the back office systems for the World’s Foremost Outfitter. I know something about the retail business having worked for Walmart in one of their retail stores a few years ago. So this is going to interesting to see how things work in the business behind the scenes so to speak. I have met some nice people already. Some of them I have worked with before and some I am meeting for the first time. They have already invited me to apply for an open position as a full time employee but I am not in a hurry to jump out of the consulting game yet. I have only just begun so to speak. Being here as a consultant gives me an opportunity to be inside and see how the company treats its employees and not actually be one. The only benefit I see so far for being an employee is that employees get a merchandise discount while contractors do not.
We had our church family conference this weekend with Kris Lundgaard. It was great. Kris was very good at explaining his ideas from his book “The Enemy Within” and he expanded on it quite a bit. The enemy we are constantly fighting against is our flesh. The spirit of God within the believer is always opposed to the flesh because the flesh which is related to the human fall rebels against God and righteousness. Kris expanded on his book by talking about another weapon against the flesh (enemy). This weapon is remembering the love of God for us. Remembering that God loves us so much that God the son was willing to come in flesh, suffer, and die in order to redeem His chosen from death. What a love.
On another sidebar I have started reading Steve Camp’s (yep the contemporary Christian artist) blog again. Man is he ever in the reformer camp (pun unintended). He wrote recently in his blog about contextualizing the Gospel. (I wonder if he recently attended the Desiring God conference) He argued using Charles Spurgeon as an example of someone who was not burdened to contextualize the Gospel but to proclaim it. Steve has had some very heated discussions as comments to his postings and they are definitely worth the read. I would love to have Steve come to our church and do a conference. I will be talking to the elders to see if this can be accomplished. Steve Camp’s blog can be found at the link below.
CAMPONTHIS enjoy.

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Posted by barrydean on October 17, 2006 in Personal

I’m such a geek

11 Oct

And I couldn’t be happier. It has been quite some time since I last posted. Much has happened. I have finally realized that door to door sales is not a career suited to me. I do admire those who can do it.
I will admit that the attraction of career independence and the possiblity of unlimited personal income was also an attraction. But the sales were just not coming. I couldn’t deal very well with the “no” after each presentation. So for the past week I have been considering going back to my original career in the Information Technology field. (Robin has been silently considering this longer.) This thinking was even more emphasized when I found her looking through the classifieds the other day in order to provide for some supplemental income.
About the middle of last week I got a phone call from a woman who works for a local consulting firm. My name was given to her from a good friend of mine and she that he had given me a raving reference, even knowing that I was no longer in the career field. She said they had some opportunities to present to me and wanted to know if I might be interested in meeting with them. I met with her and with their president. I really liked what I was hearing and seeing. Things have indeed progressed since last week. So much so that as of today I went to the office to fill out paperwork with their HR person in order to be officially hired. I will be working as a project leader at one of their client sites in Lincoln which happens to be Cabelas (very cool).
Praise the Lord!!
I am just amazed (God thing) at the way things have fallen into place (God thing) in such a short amount of time. (God thing) I have never been hired for a job so quickly, especially without doing much of the job searching work on my own. (again a God thing) When I met with everyone at the office the other day they were all amazed at how quickly this has all come together. I said that it was “defintely a God thing”.
I know that God is sovereign over everything in my life and that there was a reason I went through the sales adventure. I’m thinking it was to humble me for the most part. It had become a source of pride as of late. Enough of that, I didn’t mean to write an essay. I just wanted to share some of what has been going on recently. I will again try to make my posts more frequent.
Thanks be to God for His enduring patience.

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Posted by barrydean on October 11, 2006 in Family, Personal, Praise

Waiting for the sale

21 Jul

Ok, first of all today was a great day to be outside. Next, I am only beginning to understand that sales is a tough but rewarding way to make a living. I am experiencing the tough part. I still haven’t made a sale yet. I know it only means that the first sale keeps getting closer the more presentations I do. Yesterday I went to Syracuse, NE and talked to about 12 households and did three full presentations. No sales. Scott says it was a productive day nonetheless. I gained experience in doing my presentation. Today I went to Fremont and got really frustrated. I was told by one gentleman that I didn’t know what I was talking about. He didn’t believe the facts and statistics I am using to illustrate the gaps in Medicare coverage. I guess my biggest frustration was that I didn’t feel spiritually prepared for the day. I need to get an earlier start, and pray with my wife before I head out for the day. I hope to remedy that Monday morning.
God is in control.

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Posted by barrydean on July 21, 2006 in Personal

It begins tomorrow

19 Jul

The day of my new career is here. I have been appointed and I can now begin to sell, sell, sell. I am totally relying on God to provide for me and my family in this new business. I have never really sold for a living before, let alone working for straight commissions. Praise God for this opportunity to be dependent on Him and Him alone. I thank God for my friend and mentor Scott. He has provided me with some great training so far. He will be providing feedback as I go through my sales opportunities for the remainder of this week. I would also like to thank my wife for being so patient and tolerant these past few weeks as I have been home and derailing her days. I know she has been more than ready for me to be out of the house and her hair. With God’s abundant grace we haven’t killed each other. God is good. I will post how my first day goes tomorrow.

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Posted by barrydean on July 19, 2006 in Family, Personal

Repenting from my absence

13 Jul

My absence was in part because of my feelings of irrelevance. My concern that that no one was reading my blog site. I allowed those feelings to dissuade me from doing what I enjoyed so much with this blog, and that was to express my thoughts and experiences. To write them down so I can review them later. Kind of like a diary of sorts although I write as if others will be reading it. If anyone is consistently reading it then that is a bonus. I have returned in part because of encouragement from my wife and because of inspiration from a blog I try to visit often.
Irish Calvinist is a blog site of a good friend of mine and brother in Christ. He shares some great insight and is very committed to posting something relevant every day. His site is visited by numerous folks and creates many comments and dialog.

My wife and I are also celebrating our wedding anniversary today. We have been Married 14 years now, and as my wife likes to say “and they didn’t think we would last”. We would not have made it if not for God’s rich and abundant grace. He gets all of the glory.

Much has happened since my last post in April. I shared that God had seen to it that my employment with HP was done and that it was time to move on. I have been led by God to pursue a totally different career than the one I have been in since 1985. I will be selling insurance. This is the kind of job where I will be totally dependent on God. It is work that is all commission. I will be going into folks homes and convincing them of their need for long term care insurance. It is a product I am only beginning to really believe in.

For the past few weeks I have been studying for the Life and Annuities / Accident and Health insurance exam. I failed it the first time and took it again a week later and passed it with flying colors. Praise be to God. I have also just finished my final college class to receive my BS degree in MIS. The class was Intermediate Algerbra. It is a required course for the MIS degree program. I tried taking CLEP tests in advanced math but failed because I have not studied any advanced math since high school. (A long time ago) I took the Algebra class at Metro Community College. It was a tough go but with God’s help and my wife’s encouragement I passed. Woo Hoo!!

The type of insurance I will be selling is one I can truly believe in. Nursing home or long term care insurance is a huge need for the elderly. It is a product that I am inspired to provide for the elderly. It helps to fill in the gaps of Medicare coverage. There are some rather large gaps. I am being mentored and trained by Scott, a friend of mine, who is very successful in this career and has eagerly been helping me get prepared for my new career. I will be selling under his agency. I will write about this some more at a later time. It may be boring to some, but I am learning to appreciate it.

To close out this much anticipated posting (ok, I may be fooling myself) I will use a quote I found that I think applies here.

“Repentance is a grace of God’s Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed.” By the puritan Thomas Watson.

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Posted by barrydean on July 13, 2006 in Family, Personal

Trusting in the Lord

11 Apr

I guess it is time to make another post to my blog. Much has happened since the last post and really the the biggest news is recent news. Glory is to the Lord, this week I was laid off from my job of six years. The news was a bit of a shock but work has been winding down as of late and the system I am very familiar with is being replaced by another system. Basically for the past several months all of us at this company have been working ourselves out of a job. My company (actually God) has provided us with a great severance package that will provide for us until the middle of July. Please be in prayer for my family as we process through this and for godly wisdom as I seek better employment. I have a few folks looking for work for me and I trust that God will provide. Everything in life is according to His timing.