Month: June 2010

Travis Ranch HOA

Neighborhood pool in Travis Ranch | Photo by Jonathan Blundell

Well, we’ve moved… in case you missed that bit of news.

We’ve moved to Travis Ranch in Forney, Texas (aka Kaufman County Municipal Utility District No. 6).

It’s a beautiful, growing neighborhood, that’s part of a 1,600-2000 (depending on which news article or website you’re looking at) acre master planned community.

The neighborhood offers several great amenities, including an inline skating hockey rink, a pool, splash park and several playgrounds.

There are also plans for retail development and a marina to be added at some point in the future — just haven’t found a good site for detailed information on those additions.

We’ve already enjoyed the pool a few times, as well as walking the “trail” along the main roadway. I’m sure all the amenities, including the neighborhood elementary school (which is less than .5 a mile from our home) will be even more beneficial once the twins arrive.

But me being nosy like I am, I’ve been trying to find out as much as I can about the HOA, the full plans for the development and the Municipal Utility District we’re a part of.
Continue reading Travis Ranch HOA

Brandt Russo shares his story

Go the chance to officially meet Brandt Russo last night in Midlothian. Had a great time hanging out and catching up with him — and I was able to convince him to do a short video interview as well.

For more information check out:

adoptajesus.com
cantignorethepoor.bigcartel.com

Or listen to Brandt share his story on the Something Beautiful Podcast.

WordPress 3.0 is now available

I’ve been looking forward to this update for a while.

If for nothing else, this reason alone

Developers and network admins will appreciate the long-awaited merge of MU and WordPress, creating the new multi-site functionality which makes it possible to run one blog or ten million from the same installation.

I’m looking forward to merging several WordPress sites into one installation to save time and effort in the future.

https://videopress.com/v/wp-content/plugins/video/flvplayer.swf?ver=1.21

Huge props to everyone who work on making WordPress what it is! Keep up the great work.

As an added note, if you’re still using Blogger or perhaps WordPress.com (which runs on WordPress 3.0) and you’d like to make the switch to a self-hosted WordPress site, check out Hostgator, who I use for the vast majority of my sites (I was waiting for this WP release to move the rest of my sites to them). They offer one-click install and you can run all your blogs/sites on their servers for as little as $4.95 a month. And use coupon code JDBLUNDELL at check out to save $9.94 on your initial purchase. Click here to find out more.

Where love is — fear won’t tread

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I’ve been thinking a good deal about love and fear lately.

A couple thoughts that got things flowing in my mind…

Where love is fear won’t tread

– David Barnes

Is it true that perfect love drives out all fear?

– Bono

The idea brings up a lot of questions rolling around in my head. And hopefully some answers as well.

What is it that I fear?

My greatest fear is claustrophobia, but I also fear something happening to Laurie, the babies or my family. Occasionally I can be overcome with a fear of heights.

Can these be overcome by love?

I believe so. When I have someone who loves me and assures me that they’re their by my side — my fear will dissipate and I’ll be comforted by my loved one.

What about other fears?

Fear of threat from enemies, fear of strangers, fear of the unknown, fear of immigrants and the Taliban?

How about gays, democrats and Obama?

I truly believe love can drown out those fears as well.

God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.

We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.

If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.

1 John 4:16-21

So what’s the take home?

Should we fear anything?

Imagine if we experienced this kind of love everyday — perfect love.

Would you fear anything?

And once we’ve experienced this kind of perfect love — imagine if we shared it with the world around us.

Imagine if we loved in such a way that our spouses lived without fear… That our best friends lived without fear… That our neighbors lived without fear… And that our enemies lived without fear.

What would that do to your marriage, your neighborhood, your world?

Amazing!

We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.

God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us.

There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear.

#thenines 2010

Leadership Network is planning a repeat of last year’s #thenines event.

The event takes place for nine hours on Sept. 9, and features nine-minute messages from folks around the “Christian sphere” geared towards other Christian leaders.

Last year, they did a great job of mixing up the conversation, and this year they’re hoping to do more of the same — but allowing others to submit and vote for their “favorites.”

I could probably be nit-picky and say I think it’s silly that we’re voting for our “favorite Christian speakers” but instead I chose to take advantage of the opportunity and nominate some folks I think deserve to (and should) be heard and I invite you to do the same.

I nominated Greg Russinger, Jay Bakker, Mark Horvath, Shaun Groves and Cornel West.

I also voted for Andrew Jones (Tall Skinny Kiwi), Mike Rusch, Charles Lee, Shane Claiborne, Skye Jethani and Brian McLaren.

And I’m tempted to add Trucker Frank to the mix as well — but I have a feeling he’d turn them down :-).

Who do you think the Christian community needs to hear from? What voices have been left out?

You can vote online at http://twtpick.in/4k and you’ll apparently need a Twitter account to vote and nominate.

For more, you can read some of my thoughts from last year’s event:

ALAN HIRSCH SHARES DURING #THENINES
NOTES FROM #THENINES
SKYE JETHANI :: WHERE DOES OUR LEGITIMACY COME FROM?
“OFFICIAL” NOTES FROM #THENINES
VIDEOS FROM #THENINES ONLINE

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BTW… Everett Bogue’s new book, Minimalist Business, is now available. If you’re interested at all in building a business online, either full-time or part-time — it’ll be worth it to you to grab a copy. And if you buy it within the first 24-hours (before 10 a.m. PST, Wednesday morning) you’ll save some cash as well with his special “early bird pricing.” Get your copy here.

You can also read some of Everett’s other work, How to Create a Movement (FREE), The Art of Being Minimalist or his blog: farbeyondthestars.com