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About Mark Bland
I'm a disciple of Christ, husband, father, IT guy, and a book worm, so you never know what you're going to get. -
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a well lived bland life
I just started reading For All God's Worth by N.T. Wright. I started with the introduction, naturally, and the opening of the book was so deep and thought provoking that I thought I would blog-it. "How can you cope with the end of a world and the beginning of another one? How can you put an earthquake into a test-tube, or the sea into a bottle? How can you live with the terrifying thought that the hurricane has become human, that fire has become flesh, that life itself came to life and walked in our midst? Christianity...
April, 6 2008 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
It has been awhile since we've written. Life has been busy, but then again when hasn't it? The day after returning home from our cruise we were visited by the plumbing fairy who delivered tens of gallons of water to our basement. We spent a couple hours cleaning and vacuuming up the resulting mess, only to have the problem return not once but thrice. It became a little game we liked to call "What is going to be covered in sewage today?" After much thought and prayer we've decided to move at the end of our lease...
April, 1 2008 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
We went on a cruise. Not just any cruise, but a free cruise courtesy of Ellen DeGeneres and Celebrity Cruises. None of us had been to the Caribbean before, and it was quite the treat. Darren, Sarah, Jordan, his brother Max, Anna, and myself all embarked on this greatest of adventures. Pictures we see from the Caribbean all have lush green landscapes and incredibly blue oceans with white sandy beaches. Well, that's exactly what we saw. The Caribbean quite breathtaking. Our cruise was seven nights on board Celebrity...
March, 3 2008 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
Anna and I took a night out to the movie-plex last night and saw the movie "P.S. I love you". The movie is about a young widow who is coping with the untimely passing of her husband. The movie is extremely emotional, especially if you can relate or imagine the devastation that one would experience if they lost their spouse at a young age. Throughout the movie the widow experiences times of regret; she regrets being mad at her husband for, what now, seem like trivial things; she regrets not always enjoying her husband...
February, 13 2008 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
I just got done going through an in-depth study of the book of Acts and one of the principles that really stuck out to me was boldness. I really admired the boldness of the disciples and Paul especially when rebuking others or in the face of death. A couple examples that really stuck out to me: "Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, 'Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.' But...
February, 3 2008 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the avalanche in Colorado. It seems weird to celebrate the anniversary of something such as a car accident, but on the other hand it did bring us all closer together in a way a normal ski trip seems to fall short of accomplishing. During church a couple of weeks ago, one of our pastors, Doug, used the word communitas to describe a local body of believers. A communitas can be described as 'an intense community spirit, the feeling of great social equality, solidarity, and...
January, 7 2008 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
Where to start? The first four months of marriage have treated us excellently. We've enjoyed learning to live together and becoming our own family and starting our own traditions. We have already decided to create our own Christmas Eve tradition of going to our church service then spending the evening opening gifts from each other, eating a nice home-cooked meal, and peering out the window for Santa. Last January Mark found his fifteen minutes of fame after tumbling down the side of a mountain chased by an avalanche...
December, 24 2007 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
I woke up this morning and proceeded to venture out into the cold to scrape the ice and frost from the windshield of Vader, our brilliantly named '90 Isuzu Trooper. I followed my usual routine of roaring up the engine, grabbing the scrapper, then clearing off the windows. After making a full circle around the vehicle I attempted to gain reentry and was denied. Somehow, when I exited Vader, I also locked the door behind me. Although sleepy and only half caffeinated I remembered Anna's set of keys were in the house...
December, 10 2007 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
We should bring back castles. "With our forces combined, we could take over the world....or....Pittsburgh." Sometimes monarchies can be pretty good. We like to say "Huckabee." It reminds me (Anna) of saying "hug a bee." Except for the stinger, that sounds like a good idea. Bees don't get enough love. And they're pretty fuzzy. Let's build a snowman, we'll make him our best friend. We can call him Shannon. Shannon Wilson Bell....We can make him tall or we can make him not-so-tall. "Good gravy, Grandma!" Mark...
December, 7 2007 • 0 Comments • 0 Faves
I'm a disciple of Christ, husband, father, IT guy, and a book worm, so you never know what you're going to get.
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