• Work has been exceptionally busy - but exceptionally rewarding of late.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Facebook, our company builds Facebook games and we currently have two very successful games that you can try out and play on Facebook.  You can learn more at our companies website: http://www.brokenbulbstudios.com I am exceptionally thankful for my opportunities at the company and the blessing of having a good job in the current economic climate.
• Due to the wonderful housing market, the possibility of moving anytime in the distant future seems impossible, as we’re well upside down on this house.  So we’ve decided we’re going to do some renovations!  We are in talks with a couple of contractors about converting our garage into a family room, and building on an additional office behind it, as well as expanding our porch.  It looks like we’ll definitely be getting started on the project in the next few weeks, and it should be pretty cool.  Will give Caleb some more space and us an extra bedroom.
• I’ve decided to abandon my gluten free diet, after about 2 months of efforts to fix my stomach problems.  I only improved about 10% over the time and the diet was exceptionally limiting as well as difficult to get enough calories to maintain weight.  We continue to pray for a means to solve the stomach problems all the while knowing God’s plan is better than ours for the trial.
• Lastly we ask for prayers for a couple of friends of ours and their kids as they go through an exceptionally difficult situation.  Pray that God may use the difficult situation to shine the light of the gospel into the hearts of those involved.  Also for great comfort to the families dealing with the difficult time and long recovery.

Life seems extraordinarily busy these days, which often times for me means a very busy mind. A mind divided by work and family, projects and events, from what seems like morning to sundown. This month I have several side projects I’ve committed to doing in the web design front along with the full time job, a one year old son to run around with, and we’re in the midst of trying to purchase a small townhouse as an investment property in the local neighborhood which has meant paperwork and more time. Also dealing with some medical tests and trying to get a fun little flag football team together in the midst of it all…(Gotta have fun too right?)

Yet as the crazy cloud swirls about me I feel a deepening need to get back to the basics. I’ve come to realize there is no great nobility within busyness, activity, and the like. Though this culture would demand such from you or expect such from you, you can slow down. You have that ability. Jeremiah 10:23 has always been one of the passages of scripture that has gripped me. It reads “I know, O LORD, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.” This world is determined to facilitate a self-indulgent-self-centric-self-interested person in us, one that does not “settle” for anything but accomplishment and a driven nature to succeed by it’s own standards. At what point can we step back? At what point can we slow down? One has to pursue silence to find it, and within such focus upon the basics every once in awhile, to realize that the steps before you were placed there before you walked them. That God is in control and it is his causes, purposes, and glory that is to be pursued with the driven nature that cannot be satisfied in anything else, no matter how hard we try.

I wanted to share this clip from the book The Pilgrim’s Progress. This four minutes is an incredibly powerful exchange between “Christian” and a man whom he finds in an iron cage of despair and misery. It speaks of one who once was an no longer is. The bewilderment of “Christian” by the man’s condition, a man whose heart is entirely hardened in rejection of the living God for the sake of the fleshly lusts of this world. It gripped me as I have begun to pour through the book again. Without question The Pilgrim’s Progress is one of my favorite books ever. If anyone wants a copy, let me know! John Bunyan is an amazing author. Check out the clip below:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

For those that haven’t read it or heard of it, Pilgrim’s progress is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan way back in 1678…has never been out of print and is one of the most heralded pieces of literature in history.

Caleb is 9 months old today. He’s doing a lot of growing these days. He spent quite a few nights waking up at random and crying, and we were curious why that was….but then Bri found the teeth. He’s cutting 4 new teeth bringing his grand total to 8 now. He’s also using those little teeth for lots of little finger foods, which has been fun to watch.

He’s cruising a little on furniture now, but mostly he’s crawling at a swift rate of speed, going wherever he wants to go whenever he wants to go there. This has brought the world of babyproofing to the forefront. From dog food bowls to tupperware cabinets, there’s alway something he wants to get in to. He’s everywhere. He’s also discovered how to point at objects. He loves pointing at new things and points to our mouth, cheeks and nose when Bri or I ask.

His 9 month check up is tomorrow so Bri will come back and post his 9 month stats when she returns.

***ETA***

We just got back from the doctor and Caleb looks nice and healthy. He’s in the 18% for weight and 60% for height. Apparently he has a crazy good memory because the second he saw the needles, he started crying and the moment they slapped the band-aid on him he stopped, knowing it was all over. Even the nurse was shocked that he remembered this from 3 months ago. Thankfully, we had no vaccines today, just a TB test, anemia test and the flu shot. He’s good to go until his one year check-up.

Been working for a few weeks now on the sale of my baby, MagMyPic.com (no not Caleb!) - It’s been progressing well despite my lack of integral business-sale-knowledge. Mag has been a blast but it’s also lacked the proper (full-time) attention it deserves to continue growing. I look forward to seeing what the new owner will do with the site to make it all it can be. It will be another month of pretty intense work to get this thing moved and working good under new ownership…wish me luck!

Life has become something of a new adventure since Caleb arrived. I’m not sure if it’s what I expected or not, but it’s certainly a Caleb-centric existance and has been for the better part of 8 months. We try to get everything peripheral done during naptimes, go to events as long as we’re home in time for his bedtime, and we rise at the crack of “Waaaaaaaaaaa” every morning. Caleb runs the show!

It is through marriage first, and then fatherhood that I have come to understand the temptations and tribulations that come within these bonds. The apostle Paul speaks of the fact that within marriage, one’s interests are divided. At once, you are committed to the Lord’s affairs, and yet in another moment committed about how one might please his wife. The core principles within these verses is not to restrict or bring a bitter taste to marriage. It is written so that we might live a life in undivided devotion to the Lord, whether we are alone or together.

It is not mere coincidence that the verses prior to the ones about marriage speak of the truth that this world in it’s present form is indeed passing away. I cannot fathom or properly comprehend this, though I know that it is true, and I know that my passionate love and bonds with Bri and Caleb will change when this world does pass away, and that God shall be glorified in the redemption of his own.

It is easy to consume my mind with the passing world, living each and every day in order to please Bri or Caleb and losing site of an undivided devotion to the Lord, as a family. Rather than looking inward as though our family was huddled, looking only into each others faces, we must turn and hold hands and walk together in devotion to the Lord.

This is not very easy in waterfalls of spitup or hills of blocks and toys. Yet I know the greatest love and devotion I can show to my wife and my son is by lifting them up in the things that are not temporary, but the things that last when our time here has gone.

Caleb is 7 months today…that’s nuts! He’s starting to get himself up on his knees all by himself. I think he’ll be crawling pretty soon here…maybe a few weeks. It’s been a fun ride, one where all the hardships get covered over pretty quickly, and you look back at 7 months and barely remember the bad times…but if I were to sum up each month briefly….

Month 1 was sleep and poop…
Month 2 was sleep and reflux…
Month 3 was smiles and reflux…
Month 4 was giggles and relief…
Month 5 was sounds and sitting up…
Month 6 was squirmy curiosity…
Month 7 was playing, learning, and getting attention…

Month 8…fantasy football?

Bri doesn’t know I’m sneaking some of her newer photos online…so don’t tell her. Here’s a few new Caleb pics…

I just noticed that Bri’s last post was the 200th total post on this blog (including the posts moved over from my old blog…you know, before I got “married” and my wife started to run the show around here).

Never the less, the 200 posts have spanned over 4 years, with the first post all the way back in April of 2005. That’s a long time. 2005 was the year I first met Bri, it was the year I went on my Israel trip, and had a completely different job, residence, and quantity of wives and children then I have here in July of 2009.

In 4 years time, the blog has evolved and changed as much as I have. It’s a little bit of a walk down memory lane to look back at some of those early posts and see where I was emotionally, spiritually. Most of all, It’s interesting to see the sovereign hand of God turning my heart throughout the years. In four years there have been many joys and sorrows, many struggles and blessings, and much change. And yet God has not changed. He has not evolved. He does not look back upon the four years with regret, like you or I might. He looks upon it with a pleasure in His perfect will. What great joy there is to look back at the most difficult times you experience and see the sovereign hand of God shining brighter than that once darkened night.

May we all set before us the kingdom of God and not our own kingdoms. We’ve seen the kingdoms of five different celebrities fall in the last couple of weeks, none planned, none ready. Though we think we are safe, we do not have the assurance that we will see even tomorrow’s light. I don’t know that I will even make it to post 202. In four years there has been only one thing worth relying upon, worth striving for, that has not blown away like fleeting chaff in the wind, and that is God.

My friend Matt sent out a facebook note asking people to send back 15 books that you’ve read that will “stick with you”  - After replying to that, Bri urged me to post them on here because I’ve been neglectful of the ol’ Holloblog lately.  So here they are…some old, some new, some tried, some true.  Some probably included becuase of what they’ve brought me “to” either spiritually or intellectually, or where they’ve brought me from..and some just plain fun, with no great impact on either

1. The Bible
2. Mere Christianity
3. Don’t Waste Your Life
4. The Great Divorce
5. The Imitation of Christ
6. The Screwtape Letters
7. A Tale of three Kings: A Study in Brokenness
8. Harry Potter Series
9. The Chronicles of Narnia
10. The Lost World
11. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
12. Congo
13. The Problem of Pain
14. Jesus and the Victory of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, Volume 2)
15. Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality

I’m sure there are some forgotton, but one of the rules was ones you could think of or remember in 15 minutes!  Feel free to reply with some of your favs even if you don’t have 15 to type.

Note: All the links above are affiliate linked to Amazon, so if you end up buying any, a % of the price will be given to us, which we’ll funnel along to Compassion International.  So you can read and help at the same time!

So I decided to begin to gauge some interest in selling MagMyPic.com.  Mag has been my baby along with Matt for what’s going on two years.   We started the site with hopes of success, but we weren’t really prepared for the type of success we’d end up having.  We started the site and as the hits trickled in, we would get excited…the day we hit 1,000 hits a day, the day we hit 10,000 hits in a day.  Then the whole thing blew up, and before you know it we were pushing 80,000 visitors today, making 70,000 magazines a day and in a whirlwind while we tried to keep servers up and running.  But it was fun.  

Mag eventually settled down and we partnered with pYzam/TreeRoom who promoted the site with us.  It’s cruising along okay I suppose, but between full-time jobs, full-time babies and such, I’ve decided to at least look at selling it and moving on from Mag once and for all.  We’ve seen some interest so far but not quite in the price range we’re hoping for, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.  Either way, Mag’s been a fun and unexpected journey that has been good to us and hopefully helped teach us a lot about the industry that we can apply to all of our future ventures.

Bri and I have been playing a bunch of chess lately…seems like we go through a chess phase every year or so.  After about 10 games back and forth, I’ve come to realize that chess is simply a medium for one to live out their entire personality in a game.  I play chess exactly the same way that I live life.  So does Bri.

I’m quick to get excited at an opportunity on the board, so quick in fact that it bites me in the butt sometimes.  If I see something that looks like a great move I sometimes lack the patience to think through it, and I make the move instantly so as not to miss it.  It pays off sometimes in a big way, but it seems like I end up getting taken by my blind excitement as I leave an opening on the table.  I feel like it’s a perfect parallel to the way I am at work sometimes.  Not necessarily blind to all the consequences but when I see something that can be great for the company, I want to run to it as fast as I possibly can.  Checkmate is just around the corner some of the time.  But sometimes it’s not, and I just don’t want to believe it.

Bri plays her personality to a tee as well.  Methodical with each big decision, frustrated with an oversight if she somehow misses something.  Super excited for the big moves.  At least I can win some battles in chess…Bri wins all the real life ones.  :-)

My brother Ryan and his wife Amanda welcomed Kaiden Charles Holloway into the world today! He’s a healthy little boy that’s 6 pounds, 12 ounces and I think they said 20 1/2 inches long. They went in to the hospital at about 3am this morning and she gave birth sometime around 4-5 this evening. We stopped by and visited with them and everyone’s doing well. They’ll be spending the night in the hospital tonight and then going home soon. Thought I’d make a quick post and share a picture of Caleb’s new cousin though, so everyone can sneak a peek! If you want to send a note to Ryan, you can email him at ryanholloway AT gmail DOT com.

Yesterday, Easter Sunday, I posted the first post on why Christ suffered and died: To Absorb the Wrath of God. So today is day #2 focusing on the greatest event in human history. (Keep in mind I’m “ordering” these for the sake of organization, not importance) Also Bri will be posting a four month Caleb update (so fast eh?!?!) tomorrow after his doc appt.

#2 - Christ Suffered and Died to Please His Heavenly Father

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief – Isaiah 53:10

Christ loved us and gave himself up for us,
a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. – Ephesians 5:2

Jesus did not wrestle his angry Father to the floor of heaven and
take the whip out of his hand. He did not force him to be merciful
to humanity. His death was not the begrudging consent of
God to be lenient to sinners. No, what Jesus did when he suffered
and died was the Father’s idea. It was a breathtaking strategy,
conceived even before creation, as God saw and planned the history
of the world. That is why the Bible speaks of God’s “purpose
and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began”
(2 Timothy 1:9).

Already in the Jewish Scriptures the plan was unfolding. The
prophet Isaiah foretold the sufferings of the Messiah, who was to
take the place of sinners. He said that the Christ would be “smitten
by God” in our place.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we
esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our
iniquities. . . . All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on
him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)

But what is most astonishing about this substitution of Christ
for sinners is that it was God’s idea. Christ did not intrude on
God’s plan to punish sinners. God planned for him to be there.
One Old Testament prophet says, “It was the will of the LORD to
crush him; he has put him to grief” (Isaiah 53:10).

This explains the paradox of the New Testament. On the one
hand, the suffering of Christ is an outpouring of God’s wrath
because of sin. But on the other hand, Christ’s suffering is a beautiful
act of submission and obedience to the will of the Father. So
Christ cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?” (Matthew 27:46). And yet the Bible says that the suffering
of Christ was a fragrance to God. “Christ loved us and gave
himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God”
(Ephesians 5:2).

Oh, that we might worship the terrible wonder of the love of
God! It is not sentimental. It is not simple. For our sake God did
the impossible: He poured out his wrath on his own Son—the one
whose submission made him infinitely unworthy to receive it. Yet
the Son’s very willingness to receive it was precious in God’s sight.
The wrath-bearer was infinitely loved.

The above is an excerpt from John Piper’s “The Passion of Jesus Christ” - Download the entire book free of charge here.

Happy Easter!  What an awesome day this has been.  A time to reflect upon the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ, a time spent with family and friends in celebration.  We had a fun time with Caleb, as he got the opportunity to spend some quality time with the Grandparents and the Great-Grandparents, as well as his uncle and aunt.

Reflecting upon today, we might ask what was the purpose of the death of Christ?

I thought it might be edifying to go through John Piper’s “The Passion of Jesus Christ” (50 Reasons Why He Came To Die) - one post per reason, one at a time.  Perhaps this 50 days might be a time to grow in understanding of the greatest event in human history - the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Why did he suffer and die?

Appropriatly, post #1 is on Easter Sunday:

#1 - Christ Suffered and Died to Absorb the Wrath of God

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a
curse for us—for it is written,

“Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” - Galatians 3:13

“God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood,
to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness,
because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” - Romans 3:25

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us
and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” - 1 John 4:10

If God were not just, there would be no demand for his Son to
suffer and die. And if God were not loving, there would be no willingness
for his Son to suffer and die. But God is both just and loving.
Therefore his love is willing to meet the demands of his justice.
God’s law demanded, “You shall love the LORD your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”
(Deuteronomy 6:5). But we have all loved other things more.

This is what sin is—dishonoring God by preferring other things over
him, and acting on those preferences. Therefore, the Bible says,
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans
3:23). We glorify what we enjoy most. And it isn’t God.

Therefore sin is not small, because it is not against a small
Sovereign. The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the
one insulted. The Creator of the universe is infinitely worthy of
respect and admiration and loyalty. Therefore, failure to love him
is not trivial—it is treason. It defames God and destroys human
happiness.

Since God is just, he does not sweep these crimes under the rug
of the universe. He feels a holy wrath against them. They deserve to
be punished, and he has made this clear: “For the wages of sin is
death” (Romans 6:23). “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4).
There is a holy curse hanging over all sin. Not to punish would
be unjust. The demeaning of God would be endorsed. A lie would
reign at the core of reality. Therefore, God says, “Cursed be everyone
who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the
Law, and do them” (Galatians 3:10; Deuteronomy 27:26).

But the love of God does not rest with the curse that hangs over
all sinful humanity. He is not content to show wrath, no matter how
holy it is. Therefore God sends his own Son to absorb his wrath and
bear the curse for all who trust him. “Christ redeemed us from the
curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).
This is the meaning of the word “propitiation” in the text
quoted above (Romans 3:25). It refers to the removal of God’s
wrath by providing a substitute. The substitute is provided by God
himself. The substitute, Jesus Christ, does not just cancel the
wrath; he absorbs it and diverts it from us to himself. God’s wrath
is just, and it was spent, not withdrawn.

Let us not trifle with God or trivialize his love. We will never
stand in awe of being loved by God until we reckon with the seriousness
of our sin and the justice of his wrath against us. But
when, by grace, we waken to our unworthiness, then we may look
at the suffering and death of Christ and say, “In this is love, not
that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to
be the [wrath-absorbing] propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

The above is an excerpt from John Piper’s “The Passion of Jesus Christ” - Download the entire book free of charge here.