New Wife, New Life, and Summer Reading

Greetings! I know it's been a while since my last post, but I've been busy. I was also taking a break from the blogging world. Some of you like my friend Tim have requested that I start posting again...so allow me to begin the matters of this post.


If you know me personally or if you have read my last post, you should know that I got married in May to the former Miss Amy Hunt (now Mrs. Amy Leverett). After the honeymoon, we found an apartment in Bedford, Texas (that's in the HEB area between Fort Worth and Dallas). Marriage is great, and I love my wife!

My new life began the day before I got married. On May 11th, I graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary with a masters degree that took three and a half years (it's a 97 hour program). That day marked moving from the world of a student. Now don't get me wrong, I beleive you should always be a student learning as much as possible. No, what I mean is this: no longer will I enjoy those flexible schedules, no longer will I pay outrageous prices for text books, no longer will I be able to greet my professors and fellow students in the hallways, and no longer will I have to write fifteen page papers on subjects of little interest to me. As I search for the place where God will lead me to serve, I am installing windows for Pella (that's a window and door company).

It's also been a while since I've posted what I've been reading. The following are the books I have read since May.

1. A Brief History of Hawaii - George Armitage. I picked this little book up on the Big Island because I wanted to know a little bit of the history of our 50th state. This small reference book highlights the major historical events in Hawaii's history from the original settling of the islands by voyagers in Polynesia to Hawaii becoming a state in 1959.


2. Cavalier King Charles Spaniel - Juliette Cunliffe. I wanted to read this book to get the scoop on our two pooches, Obi and Jack. This book goes into topics such as training, heath care, puppy care (handy because Jack is a puppy), everyday care, facts about the breed, etc. It is a comprehensive guide to owning and caring for our CKCSs.


3. The Most Important Year in a Man's Life: What Every Groom Needs to Know - Robert Wolgemuth & Mark DeVries. This one was helpful because I am a new groom. I gave this book to my friends Shannon and Amber Lane as a wedding gift, and I saw a copy of it later in a bookstore, so I bought it. Incidently, Robert and Mark's wives wrote the other half of the book, The Most Important Year in a Woman's Life: What Every Bride Needs to Know. Amy can read that one. I recomment this book to newlyweds because it goes into hot topics like money, communication, sex, and conflict.


4. Bringing Your Faith to Work: Answers for Break-Room Skeptics - Norman L. Geisler & Randy Douglass. Excellent book! Part one is about being salt and light in the workplace. Part two discusses the hot topics around the watercooler such as "Did humans evolve?", "If there is a God, why is there suffering in the world?", and "Is there only one way to God?" This book is a great resource of apologetic material for the Christian faith. Don't be intimidated, there are good answers to the tough questions people ask.


5. Heretics, Orthodoxy, and The Blatchford Controversies - G. K. Chesterton. This three-in-one volume was given to me by one of my best friends and groomsman Ben Joiner. You may recognize Chesterton's name because he is often quoted my many writers and speakers. He was a true genius who wrote about the paradoxes of life and Christianity. This was my second time reading Orthodoxy, and it is found on my top 25 books of all time list.


6. The Master Plan of Discipleship - Robert E. Coleman. This book takes a look at Acts and gleans principles of church growth through evangelism and discipleship. This is Coleman's follow-up book to his The Master Plan of Evangelism, for which Dr. Roy Fish wrote a study guide.


7. The Rick & Bubba Code: The Two Sexiest Fat Men Alive Unlock the Mysteries of the Universe - Rick Burgess & Bill "Bubba" Bussey. Humerous, honest, and deeply Southern!