I’ve changed the name of my blog to be DennisPoulette.com. The old domain, ymimexico.org, still exists, but all of my content has been imported here.
You probably know we’re going through a major transition as a family. Last weekend I finished selling and getting rid of most of our stuff we had accumulated for 11 years while living in Mexico, got on a plane, and came back to the USA to live and work as the Vice President of Training Operations for our mission organization.
We’re still missionaries. The role and the place have simply changed. This blog will still chronicle things I’m learning about life training youth workers around the world and working to continue to build a world-class organization.
I’m also planning on sharing most of what I write or share in other places here as well. I hope to write on linkedin, Medium, Daddysmac.com, and Ministeriojuvenil.com a little more in the coming months.
We’ll see how well that goes.
I hope that DennisPoulette.com can become an online “home” for me. I’ve got many interests, so for a while this might be a scattered place as I try to sort through thoughts on everything.
Thanks for coming on this ride with me. I’m looking forward to what the future holds.
When I was a little kid, I remember that every morning in our Christian School we would stand up, salute the American flag, salute the Christian flag, and the Bible. The pledges became such a habit that even now, I can recite them without really thinking.
This past weekend I was at a retreat with a local church and had some down time. There was an open Bible sitting on the table in front of me, so I started sketching it (something that brings me back to being a kid again). When I was finished with the sketch, I decided to write out the pledge to the Bible next to it. I think it turned out pretty well, and I really want to live my life with the Bible as a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Here’s my sketch (and the words to the pledge as I remember them):
We are getting to the end of the year when almost every Christian I know resolves to read the Bible through again the next year. I'm not sure how many times that has been one of my yearly goals. Do you do that?
If you are like me, you get into periods of your life in which you read the Bible like crazy, only to be followed by times when you go for a while without reading it like you should. Sometimes, I think, we don't realize what our Bible study is actually supposed to do for our lives. We sometimes just do it our of habit or because someone else has told us about its importance for our lives.
God's goal for us has to do with so much more than just reading through the Bible in a year.
One of my theology professors gave me me this idea of how theology is meant to function. The Bible, or our study of theology, is supposed to impact our head, heart, hands, and habitat.
Let me explain:
- Head: God's Word is to renew the way we think. Our sinful minds think a certain way, but the Bible is meant to come into our heads and cause us to think God's thoughts. We are to meditate on Scripture in order to reprogram the way we think and align our thoughts to His thoughts.
- Heart: The truth of the Bible is to reside in our hearts so that we come to love the truth that we know in our minds. The affections, or the part of us that values things, must see the truth of the Bible as something that is precious. Our hearts come to love what God loves and hate what He hates.
- Hands: After coming to know God's Word in our minds and loving it with our hearts, we begin to live according to those truths that we have come to know and love. Our actions are influenced by our affections, and having come to love God's truth, we will begin to live it out with our hands.
- Habitat: When we live according to what God's truth tells us, we begin to have an impact on our habitat. Our families, coworkers, friends, and neighborhoods will be impacted as our lives are restructured according to the truth of God.
As you begin a new year, may you resolve to allow God's Word to influence your head, penetrate your heart, guide your hands, and impact your habitat.
It’s incredible what can happen when we take the time to listen to people. That is exactly what WestJet, a Canadian airline, did at Christmastime.
They set up a virtual Santa Claus at the gate of a flight. The passengers would scan their boarding pass, and Santa asked them what they wanted for Christmas. This wasn’t just for the kids. It was for all of the passengers. Everyone thought it was fun and games until they got to their final destination.
While they were in the air, WestJet took the list, shopped for what was on it, and wrapped up the presents for the passengers. Watch the video below.
There are so many things that can be said about this. Sure, it is a publicity stunt by an airline, but at the same time, it shows that they care for their passengers. They took the time to listen and use what they learned to give something personal to those who asked. We could learn a lot just from that lesson alone. Instead of guessing what people are thinking, why don’t we take the time to listen?
On the other hand, this video reminds me of the verse in the Bible that says, “You do not have, because you do not ask.” I’m not saying we should ask God for a big TV, but we do have many reasons to cling to Him and ask Him for provision. We simply ignore the fact that God is there with the desire to listen to us. Take some time this Christmas to talk with Him. He will listen.
It is Thanksgiving in the USA today, and I got to thinking a little about what we are usually thankful for at this time of the year. We talk about how blessed we are and about all the wonderful things that God has given to us. Those things are good, but I’m reminded that the Biblical call to being thankful is not only in the good things but also in the bad things.
I bought the newest Shane & Shane album this week (affiliate link), mostly because of this song. It comes from a passage in Job 13:15 that says, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.”
We know the story of Job, and he was determined to hope in the grace of God despite all that had happened to him.
Our trust, our thankfulness, is not only in Him when all things are going well with us. God gives us good things, that is for sure. We are to be thankful for those things. But also in the trials and tribulations, we are to trust that His ways are higher than our ways and that He is God. We are to praise Him in all of it.
I hope you have a great Thanksgiving and that, despite what is going on in your life (good or bad), you can find a way to hope in Him.
We just got back from vacation. It was much needed, but now I feel like I need a vacation to rest! For a while now, my little princess has been asking us to go to Disney World so she can see the princesses. Thanks to our friends at Kissimmee Guest Services, we got some tickets to go to Disney World for one day during the first week of vacation.
We took lots of pictures (you can see them here), but this one is one of my favorite of all times.
My little girl was speechless when she walked into that castle room. Her interaction with each princess was so cute, and her timidness was evident. She slowly warmed up to them, but you could just tell that this was a special moment.
I wonder if one day that is how we will feel when we finally meet Jesus face to face. It’s like that old song, “I can only imagine.”
I wonder if we will be in such awe that we won’t know what to say. I wonder how we’ll act. One thing is for sure, that is going to be a great hug from our Savior.
What a wonderful day that will be!
