The Land of Ozz

April

A good friend recommended this schedule. It was published back in 1983 by Fullgrowth Ministries of Tulsa, OK. Here is how that publication recommends you use their schedule:

If you follow this plan devised by Fullgrowth Ministries of Tulsa, Oklahoma, you’ll read the New Testament through twice and the Old Testament once during the next 12 months.

The plan recommends that you do your reading at a specific quiet time each day. If you miss a day, continue with the current day’s reading and catch up when you have extra time. After you finish your day’s reading, mark off that day.

The Old Testament portions are presented as nearly as possible in chronological order. Passages from prophets are included in the historical narrative where they were given, they are often given in a single day’s reading.

You’ll encounter Psalms throughout the year. Frequently, a Psalm that fits a particular passage has been placed with that passage.

As you enter the New Testament, you’ll read Luke and Acts first, then the letters - with periodic passages from other Gospels - and, finally, Revelation. Thus, the story of the life of Christ is constantly related to your Christian life.

I want to add how very important it is that you follow the guidelines given to read the passages for the date given and catch up when you have time. I have tried reading catch up stuff before the current day’s reading after a family crisis took me away from reading for a couple of days and it just didn’t work.

I have provided here the reading for the month of April. The photocopy that I have says that this schedule is copyrighted by Fullgrowth Ministries, but it also says, “feel free to re-print this chart for use in your church, Sunday school, or just to give to friends.” You are my friend if you got this far into this post. I hope this blesses you as much as it has my wife and me. I do plan to post each month’s schedule from the chart before each month begins in the future.

I plan to have more readings from The Living Bible posted sometime within the next week. Thanks for visiting my blog.

An exiting program is touring to promote modesty and dignity among young women. The Pure Fashion project is a “Celebration of Style and Virtue.” This project has been around for a couple of years and offers hope for young women seeking “Pure Fashion” for their wardrobes. The following is an excerpt from the Pure Fashion web site “About Us” page:

“Pure Fashion is a developmental program that enhances not only a young woman’s external appearance, but more importantly, her internal beauty. Our goal is to emphasize a young woman’s inherent dignity and therefore create in her a desire to dress and act in accordance with that dignity. We understand that many young women today are losing their sense of innocence at a very young age, and Pure Fashion aims to reverse this trend by offering a fun, exciting and effective virtue formation program that can impress the hearts and minds of young girls at a very critical stage in their lives.”

A “Pure Fashion” show is coming to a city near you soon. More than a dozen cities across the US and Canada are listed on the web site. Some of the cities listed with confirmed show dates are Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Other sites listed as coming soon are Baton Rouge, Calgary, Columbus, Miami, Minneapolis, North Shore, St. Louis, Tampa, and Toronto.

A local high school in Goose Creek, SC drew national media attention back in November 2003 when local police drew their guns and performed a drug search on a number of students. The local weekly paper The Goose Creek Gazette headlines this week read “Stratford students will be compensated for drug search” as a settlement may be near for “All Stratford High students on campus when a drug search made national headlines.” The story reports that “about 62 students and their families filed lawsuits after the incident contending the students’ constitutional rights were violated.”

“Fritz Jekel, an attorney for the students who filed lawsuits after the incident, told The Gazette Friday that all parties involved know that there were about 130-150 students in the main hallway on the day of the search. However, there were approximately 2,500 students on campus that day. Each one of those students will be mailed a notice to help determine who should be compensated from the proposed class-action suit.
Attorneys and parties involved met last Wednesday to discuss details of the tentative settlement.” Source

The ACLU filed a law suit on behalf of 20 of the students back in December 2003 after agreeing with the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

“…the Rev. Jesse Jackson called the drug search a “dragnet driven by race.” The lawsuit, however, does not include charges of racism. “The ACLU shares that concern…” Source

I watched as CNN covered the event from the street in front of the school back in November 2003. This school is less than a mile from my house.

We live in the country of the offended. I have been at the wrong end of a loaded gun more than once in my life. Military (not war related) experiences and less than desirable social circumstances gave me these experiences. I have never felt a need for suing anyone over it. I have not been scared for life as a result. I agree that the tactics used in the search of Stratford High were a little over the top, but compensating the entire campus of 2500 students is a bit extreme of a response.

I sat tonight watching a Billy Graham TV special. The TV special pointed to the Billy Graham Web Site where you can request a free copy of Beth Moore’s book “Jesus, the One and Only”. I heard about this free offer from my new friend Stacy Harper over at Mind and Media last week. I have recently signed on as a book reviewer with Mind and Media.

The message I received from the Billy Graham TV special was telling me once again how turning to Jesus can bring a peace that passes all understanding. I have spent much of the past two weeks listening to pastors in person, on the radio, on TV, and on tape or CD. I have listened to upwards of a dozen sermons in less than two weeks. This has become one of my favorite activities. I rarely listen to the radio unless there is a sermon on. I plug in a tape or CD on a particular subject when I can’t find a sermon on the radio. This week I have been listening to a sermon series by Dr. Charles Stanley. I have recently finished a series on Revelation by the late Dr. Adrian Rogers.

The best messages I have heard in recent months were at a local church in North Charleston, SC last week. The World Overcomers Ministries Christian Center hosted a faith conference. Boy was this great timing for me. There I got to hear Dr. Jerry Savelle and Dr. Charles Capps speak on faith. I also picked up a tape of Dr. Creflo Dollar who I got to hear in person last year at World Overcomers Ministries Christian Center.

My favorite message this past week was from Dr. Jerry Savelle last Wednesday night. He told one story of a farmer named Upe that ended up being the delivery man for one a God’s many blessings to Savelle’s ministry. I was so affected by the story that I went around for a couple of days openly asking God, “where’s Upe?” Well, God answered my question. Upe showed up at my house last week. Upe did not literally come to our house, but the same types of blessings poured out on our family last week that Dr. Savelle spoke of in his message. I can only say that my wife and I sat with our mouth’s wide open when realizing what God had done for us. We literally recieved more than one finacial blessing within days of asking for God’s help. All it took was being obedient and having faith. I say “All it took” like it was some easy deal. It was not easy by any streatch of the imagination.

I had been struggling for weeks with questions regarding my son’s recent diagnosis that have the cardiologist calling for open-heart surgery sometime within the next few weeks. Other things bearing down on me were two missed promotion attempts in recent months plus some personal financial questions that needed answers. We finally put our house on the market last week to help us to begin to move towards financial freedom. My wife and I struggled for months over whether to try to sell our house or not. We finally bit the bullet and put our financial future in God’s hands. People who find out that we are selling the house ask, “where are you going.” I proudly say, “I don’t know. The answer to that question is up to God.” We are looking into other homes that will fit or current budget a little better, but we really aren’t at all worried about it. God has a plan and we will follow it.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD. Isaiah 55 :8 (NIV)

Maybe our next home will be on an air strip. Maybe our next family vehicle will look like this:

I am pleased to announce that there is now a place on the Internet where you can go to get the truth about authors Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo. The web site is Ezzotruth.com. The site is published by supporters of the Ezzos and includes a strong list of sponsors including many of my personal friends.

The Ezzotruth.com web site focuses on providing “…reliable information about Growing Families International (GFI), Gary Ezzo, Anne Marie Ezzo, or their parenting books, CDs and DVDs such as On Becoming Babywise or Growing Kids God’s Way…” As a class leader for the Ezzo teachings I get questions from time to time about rumors that circulate on the Internet about the Ezzos. Most of the stories come from propaganda web sites or from a small pack of folks who gather on forums for “Ezzo parenting philosophy discussions.” These forum sites are very much off balanced against the GFI (Growing Families International) material.

A few notable features of the Ezzotruth.com web site include responses to GFI critics including Dr. James Dobson of Focus on The Family, Dr. Matthew Aney, Christian Research Institute (CRI) articles, and several radical supporters of Attachment Parenting.

I am proud to have our testimony about the GFI material posted on the Ezzotruth.com web site. Here is a copy of our testimony as it reads on the Ezzotruth.com web site.

The Growing Kids Gods Way program has truly changed our family for the better. God has been working in our home and we believe that he has been working on us directly through the learning tools provided in Growing Kids Gods Way (GKGW) and the programs leading up to it. The one thing that Sherry and I each continue to repeat is how much our relationship with God has changed over the past two years. The second most significant change that has occurred is our husband-wife relationship. We have found peace and solid direction in the GKGW program.

We came to the Prep for Parenting program by what we thought was an accident. We had never heard of the program. Sherry became pregnant in 2002 and we had started looking for guidance on parenting. Sherry saw a class in the church Small Group Book titled “Preparation for Parenting”. We agreed that it would be as good of a place to start as any. Now we know that God put that Small Group Book in Sherry’s hands and lead her to the right page. We took Prep for Parenting and realized immediately that this was exactly what we needed. What we did not realize was how our lives would be changed by Prep for Parenting, Prep for Toddler, and Growing Kids Gods Way.

The common thing that Sherry and I realize is how much more we value our relationships with God. We have both become more diligent in our praying, Bible reading and witnessing as a result of GKGW. We have both come to realize that in order to be a better parent we must first become better children of God. Sherry said that the saying that Gary uses in the video “you will only be as good of a parent as you are a wife” could easily be replaced with “you will only be as good of a parent as you are a Christian”. That is not something that Sherry would have said two years ago. Now she believes it and tries to live it. I have found myself actually looking at people with a different attitude on Friday morning during my drive to work simply due to what I learned on Thursday night in our GKGW class.

Our marriage relationship has been improved through our learning in GKGW as well as our taking and facilitating previous classes. We have realized how important our marriage relationship is to our family’s future. We have become much better at communicating with each other as well as praying together. We never prayed together other than asking God to bless our food prior to getting involved in these classes. Our home is also a living example of what couch time can do for a child. We love to go on dates and were thrilled to have this program reinforce our desire to continue to grow our relationship with each other.

The GKGW program is a great building block for any family. It is amazingly clear to see how important GKGW is when looking around at the direction of so many people in our society. GKGW is contrary to everything that society teaches our educators and parents. GKGW is fundamentally the opposite of what Sherry was taught in her training to be an educator and to work with children. We believe that GKGW is balanced, rounded, common sense, and it speaks the truth. We love the fact that our child stands out in a positive way. We are pleased to hear compliments from strangers concerning our child’s behavior. Better than that, we believe that God is pleased to have other people affected in such a positive manner by our child’s actions. The most important thing that we believe is that our children are much more likely to grow up and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior as a result of the growth that our family is experiencing from Growing Kids Gods Way.

We thank God for bringing the Ezzos into our home.

Hank and Sherry, South Carolina
(Source)

I want to congratulate Tom and Evangeline Reed on this awesome Internet resource concerning Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo and the GFI Material.

I have spun up the old Tech Land of Ozz blog as well as Grill’n Time. New posts were added last night to these blogs as well as Caden’s Page:

Grill’n Time - Childhood Concoction
Tech Land - Sketchy Subject Assignment
Caden’s Page - No results today concerning Caden’s pending open-heart surgery.