Rancho Santa Margarita 2bd/2ba Condo For Rent

Approx. 1,000 sqft, 2bd/2ba available when you need it. Both bedrooms are large. One is a master with a walk-in closet. Fireplace, high ceilings, double sinks in both bathrooms, attached 1-car garage + easy parking for 2nd car, large porch, gas stove, refrigerator, microwave in spacious kitchen, dining room nook,inside full size washer/dryer, LOTS of storage, community pool and hot tub. (any appliances you don't need can be removed)

Being a Christian is Fun

Ever so often I'll get in a financial bind, or I'll see one coming up. I do get stressed about these just because it's my human nature. However, I know that God's always testing my faith a little when this happens.

This week has been one of those weeks. Business has been slow lately, but the bills are still coming due. This weekend I've spent a lot of time praying, stressing, and trusting that he has a plan.

Saturday I thought I had it all worked out. In the back of my mind I felt I was settling for something less than what God had in store, but at least it was a solution. (That's what Abraham did, too). Sure enough, that plan fell apart. In my mind I had such a peace about it and knew that God had another solution.

Right now it seems again like maybe I see the answer. This one is an answer that I feel good about and that it might be his will. I won't know until later. I'm kind of anxious to see what happens.

Being a Christian is fun. We get to learn some sweet lessons and see God's hand in the way things work out. The more we go through these times, the more we can relax and rely on God's faithfulness. The quicker we learn that God is faithful, the sooner we'll enjoy times like this.

It is amazing to know something is about to happen, but not have a clue what it is. And then see God pull it all together at the last minute. He seems to usually do it in a way that can be explained in no other way than that he had the solution all along and was waiting for the right time to pull it all together. That's how I feel about this situation. I'm starting to see the pieces come together.

Saddleback Refinery - Free Lunch Fridays Started Today

Today from 12:00 - 3:00 Saddleback Church's Refinery (Student Ministries building) was open to students for free lunch and games. What I loved about this event was the lack of programming. The program was to feed students, let them play the games and let staff and volunteers get to know them.

I met some incoming 9th graders, some older students who are totally tied in but I hadn't met before, and several students playing pool and shuffle board. It's so incredibly easy to meet and talk with students in this setting.

The highlight of my day was talking to a former small group student of mine who graduated a couple of years ago. He's had a little bit of trouble in his life and it was good to see that he's on the right path now. We caught up on life and recaptured some of the closeness we felt back in the day. It was awesome.

Free lunch Fridays happens every Friday until the end of July from 12:00 - 3:00. It's a great event for volunteers and students alike.

Dennis Beckner
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HIllary and Obama Unity Event Happening Right Now

I'm watching the event right now on Fox News. It's amazing what can happen in the course of a campaign. Hillary is endorsing Obama. He's sitting behind her approving of her words. Two months ago I would never have thought this would happen. If anything, I would have thought it would be the other way around. Just goes to show that you never know what's going to happen.

Dennis Beckner
Southern California Mobile Notary Public
Specializing in Loan Document Signings
BecknerMobileNotary.com
(949) 842-7682

Quote Of The Night

"The older you get, the more you read the Bible. You're cramming for the finals." - Some guy on David Letterman

I think it was funnier when I heard it on TV, but there it is for your enjoyment, too.

Great Video Clips

I just checked out this blog entry on MoreThanDodgeball.com that you need to check out. It's a bunch of short video clips that spoof the "The More You Know" commercials. Check it out by clicking here.

Launched A New Web Page

Just a quick announcement that I launched a new web page for my notary business the other day. There's not much to it. It's just a simple page to drum up notary business. It's at BecknerMobileNotary.com.

Pictures of Saddleback Church Refinery

Here are a few pictures I took of the Saddleback Church Refinery the other night. There's so much more to see. The food area is still being completed. I'll get pictures of that when it comes closer to completion.

This is the gymnasium (AKA Wildside (Jr High) room)
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This is a blurry picture of Kyle setting up the marque for open house. This will normally have the name of our current high school series. This is the entrance to the theater where the high school ministry meets. Pictures will come later of the inside.

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This is the 1/2 court basketball court.
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This is one of the many ministry-related walls in the Refinery. This particular wall currently is dedicated to the Global Soles Ministry. Students collected over 30,000 pairs of shoes to be distributed around the world. The goal is to collect 50,000. They're well on their way. There are several ministries highlighted throughout the Refinery. More pics to come later.
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This is another ministry-related wall. One of our recently-graduated students competes in the X-Games and has won many awards. He and some of his fellow competitors have formed a ministry called Riders For Christ. They travel around doing motorcycle stunts and sharing the gospel. They're having an amazing impact.
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This incredibly dark picture is of the ping pong table in the game area.
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This is obviously one of our pool tables. What is not so obvious is that the student on the right is playing his pool cue like a guitar. We're still trying to help him understand how this game is played.

You'll notice the clocks in the background on the wall. That is another one of the ministry walls dedicated to missions. Under each clock is a picture of students in a different part of the world for mission projects. The clocks are set to the local time of each country the pictures represent.
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This is a gigantic fan that hangs above the Refinery's game area. It's a super cool design element that adds to the feel they were going for.
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This is a bike I saw sitting behind the Refinery Sunday night. I thought it was kind of funny so I took a picture of it. You may be able to see some red writing in the bottom picture. It reads, "Jesus loves me... more than he loves you." I laughed when I saw it.
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This is one of the waterfalls in front of the building. There are a couple more smaller ones off to the right of where this picture is taken.
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This is the baptistery which is situated beside the waterfall in the picture above. The first baptism took place last Sunday night after the open house was over. It was amazing. Next weekend we will have our first baptism open to the student ministry.

Movie Reiview: Get Smart

Tonight I saw this movie with some friends who are way too young to have watched the TV show. They loved every minute of the movie. It was great from start to finish.

This was certainly my kind of flick. I love comedies and I grew up on a steady diet of the Get Smart TV show. It was like watching a new extended episode. My attention was glued to the screen the whole time. The story line made sense and had some good action and a lot of comedy. There were also several one political one-liners that you would have to enjoy regardless of your party affiliation. Both Democrats and Republicans got slammed a little. It was kind of subtle at times. You kind of have to know they were doing it.

The language and activity in this movie was reasonably clean; especially for a PG-13 movie. There were a couple of innuendos and foul words. However, by today's standards, this could have easily been rated PG.

I give this film a strong thumbs up. I'm already anxiously hoping for a sequel. The cast was terrific. I hope everybody comes back for another installment.

Thanks for reading,

Dennis

I Love Youth Ministry, Part 2

Tonight the Refinery at Saddleback Church opened for the first services. The Refinery is the new building on campus for the Wildside (Jr High) and High School Ministry. It will also be used on Thursday nights for CRAVE (College Ministry).

I attended both High School Ministry services. The first one had a good number of students. The second service was a full house. It was amazing. The staff did not disappoint. They had some good stuff going on during the service. It was the first week for the incoming freshmen so they had some fun welcoming them. Doug Fields knocked it out of the park with his message.

My favorite part of being in the Refinery tonight was being in the game area. It was super easy to connect with students. I started a game of pool with a one guy. As more people came to hang out, I turned it into a 2-on-2 game. Then another came to watch so I had him take my place while I stood there watching and talking to them while they played. They were all horrible at pool so we got to talk until the service started. They never did finish the game.

Something else I love about this building is how easy it is to spot kids who are alone. Now that we have the games going on, it's easy to get them involved or for them to feel involved by watching what's going on instead of sitting by themselves waiting for the service to start. The effectiveness of our ministry just jumped exponentially with this new facility.

This building was designed for ministry to be done in many ways. Lives will be eternally impacted for generations to come because of the vision of Saddleback Church and the generosity of its members. I'm honored to play a part in it.

Dennis Beckner

I Love Youth Ministry

Tonight I caught the last couple of hours at an event called Freshman Frenzy. It's where we bring all of the incoming freshmen on a bunch of fun events like laser tag, bowling, kill ball, etc. All we do is play and connect with them. At the end of the night we give out our summer calendar of events and some sign up forms. It a way of welcoming them into high school ministry.

Tonight during the games I sat on the sidelines and talked to students. I had some great conversations. This is one of my favorite events of the year because:

1. I get to help students feel like they made a good connection with the High School Ministry so they'll feel more welcomed when they come to other events and services
2. Freshmen are my favorite age group because they're entering a whole new part of life and welcome some direction. This event can serve as a launching pad for relationships which allow that to happen.
3. They're loud and out of control. I'd much rather ask a freshman to calm down than pry a sentence out of a senior. It's so fun to talk to these kids.
4. Seeing them all together oozes potential. I know many of them will not be in church anymore by their senior year. However, some of them will be leading our ministry by that time. I love seeing a group with so much potential and to start building bridges that will help them become leaders.

We had a lot of fun and I think we'll see some great leaders come out of this group.

Dennis

Refinery Grand Opening

Got to the tail end of the Refinery opening tonight. It was so much fun to see the building all cleaned up and full of people who weren't all sweaty and working on projects. I'm anxious to see it full of students on Saturday night.

My Students Who Graduated

Tonight 4 of my small group Bible study students graduated high school. One of them, Tyler Runge, gave an amazing speech. He happened to win just about every honor and award they had to offer. Scott Anderson was 3rd in his class for GPA. Drew Duvall and Scott Johnson were the other two. All of them will be missed. I love to see them move on with life, but hate to see them leave my small group.


Tyler Runge and me


Drew Duvall, Scott Anderson and me


Scott Johnson and me

The Refinery (Saddleback Church's Student Ministry Building)

Worked there again today helping get it ready for the big opening weekend. Today I saw the fancy Starbucks-style coffee machine being wheeled in. Woo-hoo!!! This place is going to be amazing. Yesterday after I left they mounted these amazing murals on the walls highlighting different student-led ministries.

That's such a great way to:
1. Promote ministries
2. Show that students can do anything they set their minds to
3. Build up the students who step out to do something

The only bad part is that one of the murals has a typo. Yikes! That's gotta hurt a little.

Get Smart... The Movie!

I am so incredibly anxious for this movie to come out. The only downside is that there is a lot going on this week. Everything else is an upside. This could be the funniest thing to hit theaters since sliced bread. It doesn't make sense... just go with it.

BecknerMobileNotary.com

My brother bought this URL a while back and never did anything with it. Tonight I spent a little time to get "something" up. It will have to do for now. I'm just glad to have a web page to point people to. BecknerMobileNotary.com

Took The Day Off

I actually may take a few days off this week. The Student Ministry staff is working 12-hour days trying to get the Refinery ready to open this weekend. It's super exciting and there is a TON of work to do between now and Saturday. They also served a great lunch from Peppino's. If they keep doing that, I may just quit working all together and hang out around the office every day waiting for lunch.

The bonus to helping out is that I'm doing enough exercise by helping that I can skip the gym. Sweeeeeeeet! I love a little variety.

- Dennis

For Father's Day

Every year I buy something for myself for Father's Day. This year it was a milk shake mixer. The kind like Ruby's would use... metal cup that sits on a mixer stand... just not as powerful, I'm sure.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Someday I'll be one, too. 'Til then I guess I'll have to keep buying a little something for myself every year. After all, the money's got to be used on something, right?

- Dennis

Eagle Scout Ceremony Today

Today I gave the opening and closing prayers at an Eagle Scout ceremony for one of my students. I don't even think I knew he was in the boy scouts until he asked me to participate in the ceremony a couple of weeks ago. However, during the ceremony I realized that this was a major part of his life. His dad and brother are also eagle scouts. This was a big deal.

He didn't come to small group very often because he always had lacrosse practice on Wednesday nights. The few times he was at Bible study, however, he was very involved. I just didn't get to know him very well because he was rarely there.

One of the things I need to work on is getting into the lives of my students... even the absent ones.

Since I'm working on evaluating my life, I'll add this to the list.

Adding Twitter To Your Blog

I saw this on another blog and was super excited. If you have a Twitter account (http://twitter.com) ... and you SHOULD have a (free) Twitter account... you can use this link to add it to your blog http://twitter.com/badges/blogger. When you choose how many tweets you want to include, just click the blogger logo and Twitter will add it to your blog for you. It's amazing. Of course you can then go in and customize the location of your tweets on your blog after it's done.

Thanks for reading,

Dennis

Tracking Your Visitors

A friend was asking how to add a counter to a blog. That got me curious. Blogger has a few to choose from. However, I just used the one I've been using for years and it worked great and gave very simple, easy to follow instructions.

Go to http://www.statcounter.com for more information

Thanks for reading,

Dennis

Spiritual Goals: What Paths Do I Need To Clear?

Some thoughts I journaled tonight at Starbucks about goals for my spiritual life. This is stuff I'm going to evaluate over the next few days/weeks/months:

• Hebrews 12:1 "...Let us strip off every weight that slows us down..."

1. --What is distracting me from my calling?
2. --What is using my resources that should be used for God?
3. --What am I doing that can be enhanced by adding a ministry element to it?

• "...especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress..."

1. Where am I missing the mark (standard) God has set for me?
2. What are my sins of omission?
3. What are my sins of commission?

• "...and let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us."

1. Am I on a detour from God's calling on my life?

--Spiritually?
--Relationally?
--Ethically?
--Ministerially?
--Financially?

(The answer to this question will clarify the path I need to mark out - Hebrews 12:13)

(The bullet point above is where I'll spend a lot of time in the days to come)

• Hebrews 12:2 "We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish..."

A thought I've had a few times recently is that I am completely incapable of being like Christ on my own. It's kind of like water is incapable of having color on its own. It, exactly like us, is either contaminated or enhanced by what it contains.

Keeping my eyes on Jesus, truly investing my life in his, will allow him to display his qualities (fruit of the Spirit) in and through me. Likewise, keeping my eyes on Jesus will reveal the path he wants me to mark out and then walk down. Realistically, Jesus is clearing the path through me in the form of discipline.

• "...He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterward. Now he is seated in the place of highest honor beside God's throne in heaven."

I have to think that he also found joy on the cross knowing that he was paving the way for our salvation. We, however, refuse to die a death to pride when we won't help others find that salvation. He mastered his cross, to many of us apologize for ours or keep it hidden so as not to offend or appear intolerant.

Spiritual Goals: Where do I need spiritual development?

Context: I'm on the warpath right now... trying to do some self-evaluation spiritually.

The problem with this exercise (evaluating my spiritual life) is that, by the fact that I'm evaluating my spiritual life, I feel like I must be doing pretty well. However, I know that's not necessarily true. I need to know where God wants to change, challenge and correct me. Today, however, seeing where I needed some attention came a little easier than I would have liked.

This morning I felt uncomfortably corrected by God. Today was bill-paying day. As I wrote the check for the last bill, a guilt-laden realization descended over me. It was almost like an invisible blanket I could feel snuggly wrapped all around me.

A little explanation... I don't get paid like most people. My income comes in small increments of $150 or $200 checks. Some days I don't get any checks, other days I can get several. It all depends on when they arrive. They're like time bombs with no display for the minutes... but in a good way.

Because of my unusual situation, I keep a list of how much I owe in tithe. When the amount gets high enough, I schedule a payment to my church through my online banking. It's a good system that works well for me.

Here's why the guilt... After I wrote the check for my last bill and my bank account was almost depleted, I remembered that I had not paid my tithe. I had to move money from one account to another so I could even afford to pay God. He was getting my leftovers... and I was lucky there were leftovers to give. I hadn't given him my first and best.

Lesson learned... I'm not a bad guy. I have a great relationship with my Creator... maybe that's why I felt so guilty about giving him crumbs. I love him and serve him faithfully. However, today he reminded me that he comes first; before my bills, before other priorities, before myself.

That's his deal with me - "Remain in me and I will remain in you", "Apart from me, you can do nothing", "Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you", "God disciplines those he loves", "God's proves his love through discipline" - that last one was the title of Hebrews chapter 2 which is where I've been reading the past couple of days.

Bottom line... My tithe wasn't the issue today. Tithe ALWAYS gets paid. That's non-negotiable for me. The source of today's celestial rebuke was that my priorities were out of order and God got the leftovers. His check is in my wallet and will be in the offering basket instead of paid online. That way he'll get his before my other bills clear the bank. God comes first.

Marking Out A Straight Path - Spiritual Direction

Tonight I was reading Hebrews chapter 12.

Verses 12-13 were very inspiring,

"So take a new grip with your tired hands and stand firm on your shaky legs. Mark out a straight path for your feet. Then those who follow you, though they are weak and lame, will not stumble and fall but will become strong."

Most people I know (including me lately) don't mark out a straight path for their feet spiritually. They try to live the Christian life, but don't have a long-term plan of where they want to go or how they want to develop.

These verses have inspired me to evaluate my spiritual life and consider where I'm at, where I'm heading, and how I may need to adjust my direction.

Thanks for reading,

Dennis