Well it’s been a while since I’ve blogged so I wanted to bring everyone up to date on the life of the Lopers and share a few things that Andrea & I are so thankful for.
Even with times that are challenging financially as I search for full-time employment God keeps providing. Andrea & I have so much to be thankful for. We are thankful that God has provided freelance hours for me during these past several months while I’m looking for employment and Andrea is out on maternity leave.
I am so thankful for the way God is moving at C3 Church. We have so many people coming to know and depend on Christ during these trying times. I am so thankful to be a part of the Management Team that God is using to impact the community.
And last but certainly not least we are so thankful for our new little son Dallas. Obviously with Dallas celebrating his 10 week birthday today he has been keeping Mom & Dad pretty busy but he has been the bright spot in our challenging year. At 10 weeks he is wearing 6 month old clothing. As of last Wednesday he is 14 lbs, 10 oz and 25.3 (over 2 ft tall!) inches long. Dallas is totally off the charts for height & weight. It could be that his grandfather (Andrea’s Dad) is 6.5′ and his great grandfather was close to 7′ tall so we think he might have the tall gene.
So a mixed bag of good and challenging but God has been very good to us and as long as we have Him and family we will be fine!
Now consider yourself updated!
The Mandisa Song, “He Is With You” is an incredible song of encouragement. Here are the lyrics:
HE IS WITH YOU
There’s a time to live
And a time to die
There’s a time to laugh
And a time to cry
There’s a time for war
And a time for peace
There’s a hand to hold
In the worst of these
He is with you when your faith is dead
And you can’t even get out of bed
Or your husband doesn’t kiss you anymore
He is with you when your baby’s gone
And your house is still,
And your heart’s a stone
Cryin’ God, what’d You do that for
He is with you
There’s a time for yes
And a time for no
There’s a time to be angry
And a time to let it go
There is a time to run
And a time to face it
There is love to see you
Through all of this
He is with you in the conference room
When the world is coming down on you
And your wife and kids don’t know you anymore
He is with you in the ICU
When the doctors don’t know what to do
And it scares you to the core
He is with you
We may weep for a time
But joy will come in the morning
The morning light
He is with you when your kids are grown
When there’s too much space
And you feel alone
And you’re worried if you
got it right or wrong
Yes He is with you
when you’ve given up on ever finding your true love
Someone who feels like home
He is with you
When nothing else is left
And you take your final breath
He is with you
God if you won’t take me over it then give me the strength to get through.
If you won’t take me around it then help me bear up under.
If you won’t take me out of it then help me stand.
Because I know your desired result is not what is at the end of it.
Your desire is who I become through the process.
By: Darrell Loper
Filed under: Personal, Politics, Pop Culture | Tags: Angry Constituents, Arlen Specter, Health Care Bill, Kathleen Sebelius
There needs to be change & it’s in the Congress of the United States of America!
I don’t blog as much anymore but I am not alone. It has been 15 days since my last blog but I believe that I along with everyone else has been hit by a hurricane that has wiped out our blogging. I think that hurricane’s name is “Twitter”. We still are blogging but it is now done in 150 characters or less. I believe it’s not because we don’t want to blog and share our thoughts. I just think it’s easier and faster to jot down a quick blurb about our lives every so often during the day. I also think it’s more spontaneous than blogging. When you blog you really have to organize thoughts and then put them in writing. With Twitter all you have to do is to post what you are thinking at the moment. No thinking about it, no organization required. We are also living in such a fast paced, quick world that our free time is less and less so tweeting is far more preferrable.
So as much as I tweet, I hope that blogging doesn’t go away completely. I love them both. Although I might not blog as much, I tweet all the time. So I promise to try to find time to blog a little more, but in the meantime follow me on Twitter. My Twitter ID is darrellloper. So see you on Twitter and on every once in a while on WordPress. So, where have all the blogs gone?
So let the storms rage high, the dark clouds rise,
They won’t worry me for I’m sheltered safe within the arms of God;
He walks with me and naught of Earth can harm me,
Sheltered safe within the arms of God.
Filed under: Church, Connections, Friends, LOVE, Personal | Tags: Diversity, Orange County, Orlando
One thing that I love about C3 Church that I don’t think that I have ever really talked about on my blog is the diversity that God has blessed us with. When I say diversity you might think I am only talking about race but you would be mistaken. Race is only one aspect of the diversity found at C3 Church. We not only have diversity in race but diversity in age. We have diversity in socio-economic levels. We have diversity in religious denominations or no religious affiliation at all. God has blessed C3 with just an incredible melting pot of different people with one desire to “love God and love others!”
I really believe that C3 church is truly a microcosm of Orlando. Orlando is a very diverse metropolitan area where many different races and cultures combine. I think that every church should reflect their culture through diversity. If you take an honest look at your church congregation and 98 percent of your congregation is representing only one race or culture then I think you are missing the boat. In fact Orange county is now so diverse that minorities are now the majority of the population in our county. C3 Church is in fact very close in mirroring this trend in the Central Florida area. It is truly a blessing to see our racial diversity at C3 Church.
I also heard it said that as we transitioned C3 Church to a more contemporary model that the older generations would not come. Well to be honest with you that could not be a more incorrect statement. Yes we had a lot of “churched” senior adults move to other churches in our transition but God has brought in a lot of older un-churched folks who have found Christ and some older Christ-followers that love others so much that they enjoy C3 Church and the work that is being done. So diversity in age, young and old!
We have people that speak English and second languages such as Spanish, French, German, Korean and the list goes on and on which represents a diversity of cultures. We also have Catholics, Methodist, Pentecostals, Baptists, Presbyterians, non-denominational, etc. and most of all un-churched religious backgrounds. Diversity is part of C3 Church.
I am so proud how God has given C3 Church the platform and ability to speak the truth of the love of Christ not only to a select few but to ALL people here in Orlando. Loving God and loving others, that’s what it’s about at C3! Love Wins!
To my beautiful wife. You are the most beautiful woman in the world! You are the glue that holds our house together. You will be the best mom ever. You will be the hottest mom ever. I love waking up beside you in the morning and I love going to sleep next to you at night. Even though life gets tough at times I know we can make it through together. Thanks for letting me lean on you many times. Thank you for loving my mom unconditionally. Thank you for loving me unconditionally. You are the best friend that I could ever have. I really do love you beyond what my feable attempts to put into words allows me to communicate. I love you Andrea, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Filed under: Personal
Alright. Everything I’m going to share is just from my heart. I know all of the truth of scripture and that God never leaves us or forsakes us and I believe that and have no doubts. I’m just going to share something with you that I have thought so many times, even from childhood and I’m sure many of you have thought at one time or another. Wouldn’t it be really cool if you could just sit down with Jesus face to face to talk and ask questions. I know, I know, we can pray and carry on convos with Him but I’m talking about sitting down with Him literally and just talking. Sometimes I imagine what it would feel like if I could have a real tangible and audible conversation with the Son of God. I often think about how much stronger I would be if this scenario could be played out and how comforting it would be for me. Then, I realize that the strength does not come with an easy convo but in the faith and believing even when you can’t see.
I think the disciples had it great because they could talk and do life with Jesus but even they had difficulty in believing at times even though they witnessed the miracles. So I’m no different than any other human being that has walked on the earth. It’s always going to be difficult to understand “things” and then have the ability to easily trust through difficult circumstances. Life will never get easy and there will always be struggles which makes it difficult at times to trust in the One who you can not even see, hear or touch. But,….then I think about what God “spoke” to us in the Bible, “Blessed are those that haven’t seen but still believe!” I grab hold of that and realize that everything will be OK.
loveworshiplovelife 