Walking with Jesus

. The days keep rolling by. They just don't stop, do they? Josiah isn't coming back. I keep expecting to see him. I keep wanting to pray over him inside his mommy's belly. I half-forget when I'm asleep. I still see his face, his nose, his lips, his ribs, the soles of his feet, his hands... But, it's fading. I can't remember exactly what his back looked like, or the tops of his feet. I remember his fingernails, but not his toenails. I've begun the slow process of losing him. My pain reminds me I'm alive. Olivia's pain reminds me I am a husband, as well as a father. We're taking care of each other as best we can. God is holding us, but with our faces buried in his chest we can"t really see him. Our family and friends are helping so much. We have food in the fridge. Josiah's flowers are arranged on the piano, where he would have climbed and played. (Olivia watered them last night when she couldn't sleep.) Sympathy cards surround them

. .

. Josiah Keith Brigham was born into the arms of Jesus on Friday, March 18, 2011 at 2:08pm. We will never forget him. It has been suggested that all you really have in life is a dash between two dates; how you fill in the dash is up to you. But, what do you say when there is no dash? What do you make of a life with only one date to mark it? In Jeremiah, the word of the LORD came to His prophet during the reign of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” The Psalmist declares that God’s knowledge of man is perfect from the skillful forming of his inmost parts while he is still in his mother’s womb and that God’s thoughts for each of us outnumber the sands. In this context, he proclaims, “I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Josiah Keith Brigham was fearfully and wonderfully made, and I am proud to have him for my son. My biggest fear is th

. Josiah Keith Brigham Josiah Keith Brigham, beloved son of Bryan Keith Brigham and Olivia Marta Brigham, was born and went to be with Jesus on March 18, 2011 at 2:08 PM. He is loved and missed greatly by grandparents Richard and Ellen Brigham, Gary and Diana Fambro, and Tamas and Klara Lility; uncles and aunts Kevin Brigham, David Brigham, and Robert and Cynthia Horacek; cousins Ilona, Isabella, and Korbin; great-grandmother Dorothea Goodwin; best-buddy Gracey; and many other family members and friends. Graveside service will be held Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 2:08 PM at Elmwood Memorial Park in Abilene. .

Today I stretched a little when I woke up. You know, I touched my toes, pulled on my legs, twisted my body... I warmed up for the day. This is becoming more and more of a necessity as I mature. I used to be able to throw back flips without even thinking about it. Now, I don't even think about it. I'm doing a lot of warming up these days. I'm warming up for our son: painting his room, buying his clothes, searching for addresses for people we haven't seen in a while. I'm warming up for school, in case that still happens: studying Hebrew and Greek once in a while. I'm warming up for ministry: working with some guys who need the Lord, remembering my heart for specific needs, and trying to be a better husband. And, I guess I'm also warming up for Eternity: reading my Bible, keeping my heart focused on Him, praying, working with my hands. Jesus is coming back, and this life is just seed time. The harvest is near, and the reward is everlasting. Warming up for e

. My wife is a photographer, as you may know, who specializes in pregnancy photos. So, you might imagine my hesitation at considering taking some pregnancy photos for her. However, Olivia is also a wonderfully loving woman and a great subject. We had a lot of fun taking these, and I hope they show you a bit of our joy in being pregnant.   . .

. It’s 2 AM. Last night I had a dream. It was a mystery dream, a crime being solved and a perpetrator caught. Some civilized animals were attempting in their humorously inadequate ways to catch a mysterious thief. They would devise some elaborate scheme, see it falling to ruin, and then the scene would freeze, and back up to 10 or 15 minutes earlier in the story, with the possibility of changing the events and the unsuccessful outcome. It was an amusing dream, and I watched as it moved progressively backwards from after midnight to early evening to the preceding dusk. I saw a mouse and a spider perched on a bookshelf/nook, ready to catch the thief, but he came at them from behind, from through a crack in the wall behind their perch. The scene froze and backed up. I saw a possum dropping an elaborate net onto the roof of a car, where it left a mark, showing that the trap would work. Yet, the culprit came at the bait another way and the possum fumbled with the branch and dropped it wron

"...Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control..." I am an action-oriented guy. So, why haven't I realized that each of these words are not just descriptions of things you possess? They are things you DO! I guess I've always seen the list (whether you see the fruit of the Spirit as 9 different items, or as LOVE: followed by 8 specific characteristics of LOVE) as things given to describing followers of Jesus. Today, however, I saw more. I have patience , rather,  having patience is something I do. The same can be said for each of the final six: to doing patience , we add  doing kindness, doing good, doing faithful, doing gentle, doing self-control . Even doing love seems possible if you think of specific acts. But, can we do joy or do peace ? If I can show God's character (albeit in a glass dimly), by doing the other fruit, what of these two? What of Joy ? What of Peace ? I suppose then, in order to be consis

. This was one of our videos last Sunday at Beltway . In our study on healing, it adresses the question: "What about when God doesn't heal?" .