• Welcome

    My Name is Dan Masters and this is my blog about attempting to live The Abundant Life as a Christian. Here I have posts about family, church, and my recent battle with Cancer.

It Can Be Tough Being A Transparent Christian

November 12, 2008 | By Dan

difficult While looking over a couple of posts here at The Abundant Life I noticed some spelling and grammar errors and started to correct them. In the process of cleaning up my inconsistencies I had to actually read some of the posts that I put up here and started to get a little embarrassed. The reason for my embarrassment was the fact that it has been tough being a Christian, going to church, and having a relationship with God over the last few years. Not only was it was it tough but I was sharing my struggles with the world. Looking back I wonder if that was a good idea as people (especially Christians – sorry) can be really judgmental.

To combat this concern I have to separate what I think people would say about me from what I know God says about me. Read More »

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Blast From the Past – Jason Lozano at Freedom Christian Center

November 12, 2008 | By Dan

I was setting up my iTunes podcasts with various ministries that I have been apart of and searched to see if Freedom International Christian Training Center with Pastor Jason Lozano had one. While I did not find Podcasts for his ministry I did find this cool video of his testimony that Kenneth Copeland Ministries did on him.

The thing that got me about this video is that I knew him when he first got started and actually helped him knock down a couple of the walls that he mentioned. The other part of the video that got me is that there is actually a picture of him and I together at around the 2:29 minute mark. It is really something to remember where he and I can from and to see where we are now. 

My congratulations go out to Jason, his wife and family, and his ministry for the blessing that God has on their lives.

P.S. Jason, if you read this setup some Podcasts of your messages so I can listen to them!

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A Little Maintenance Around Here

November 11, 2008 | By Dan

maintenance I have done a little maintenance around here so that things hopefully run a little better. I updated my email address so that I will actually get notifications when someone leaves a comment. I also added the feed from my blog network to the side panel. The final piece is that this blog is signed up at Text Link Ads so you can by an ad on this sit that will appear in the sidebar right below the search box.

Please let me know if you see anything funky.

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My Yearly Update Here at the Abundant Life

November 10, 2008 | By Dan

space-passing-time My last post was almost a year ago to the day. The reason for lack of posting here is several different reasons. The biggest reason is that I have 15 different blogs that I write and I have scaled down my writing on all of them. Another reason is that I have not been "engaged" spiritually as much as I was before which prompted this blog. My family and I attend church pretty regularly but are not currently involved in any ministries but do go to a connect group. I guess the message here is that things have settled down here spiritually – thank God.

Personally I feel pretty comfortable with my relationship with God and do have daily contact with Him. Recently I started reading several times a week out of my Bible and have started to listen to messages from different churches via Podcasts while at work. I feel that I am where God wants me to be and the recent step up in reading and listening are just the next step in my journey with Him. Also I have setup a personal journal that only I have access to where I can express my feelings good or bad and allow me to have another avenue to interact with God.

All-in-all it has been a good year and I feel that I have grown in my relationship with God which where I think we all want to be.

Posted in Christianity, Web Site News | 2 Comments

Wow, I Haven’t Posted Here in a While…

November 12, 2007 | By Dan

2007calendar I was just looking over the page rank of all on my sites and pulled this one up to check it also. I saw that the last post was about the Media Ministry which told me that I haven’t posted here in a while. In fact it has been about 7 months to be more exact.

Well here is a nice list of updates of what I have been doing the last 7 months:

  1. I quit the Media Ministry. I went to one training session and knew it was not time to get involved.
  2. I quit school. Was not the time either. I was not spending as much time with my family as I wanted. Also it was very expensive verses the return. 
  3. Started making some good, steady, money from blogging which helped our cash flow.
  4. In addition to the blogging I got a steady side part-time job doing web design.
  5. In addition to that I have had more side web design projects then I have wanted (OK, I wanted them).
  6. Prayed for the last 5 months about buying a bigger house and finally put the deposit down this past weekend on it.
  7. Have been pretty steady in going to church during that time.
  8. Had a “Connection” with my pastor. No, I have not met him but he said a couple of things in a service that I felt spiritually connected me to him/the church.
  9. Joined a “Connection Group” from the church. Went to the first and only meeting so far. It was cool. Really nice people.
  10. Feel like I am closer to God then ever. I am led more by His peace then ever before in my life. I am comfortable with not moving (if at all) until He tells me it is time to move.

That’s it. 7 months wrapped up in a 10 point list.

The last 7 months have been good and I really feel that God has been working on my character during that time. The biggest area that He has been working on me has been managing my time between being a good Christian/husband/father/son/employee/business owner. It can be challenging, some days are better then others, but I am here and still kicking.

I am not making any promises on when the next post will be or frequency of posts. I am still alive though and throw something up here when the spirit moves me.

Until then…

Posted in Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Family, Finances, God, Ministry, Web Site News | Leave a comment

My First Media Ministry Meeting Went Well

April 18, 2007 | By Dan

 I attended my first Media Ministry meeting last night and everything went cool. It is really nice to see that they are really organized and professional.

I signed up to operate the projector in the youth service and to operate camera 1 in the main sanctuary. It may be a couple of weeks before I start but I am excited.

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My Take on the Virginia Tech Shootings

April 18, 2007 | By Dan

Let me start by saying that my prayers go out to all of those involved in this situation – the families of the victims, the students of Virginia Tech, and everyone that tried to handle this situation as it unfolded. As terrible of a situation as this is My prayer is that God can give you peace in this situation and answers to why this happened.

When tragedy strikes such as the Hurricane Katrina and the Virginia Tech shootings the aftermath always brings up the question of why. Why did this happen? So things are completely out of our control such as a hurricane – we cannot control the weather. Other things while we cannot control them we may be able to influence them.

In the Katrina disaster one of the biggest issues that affected people was the fact that there were so many people left behind to weather the storm on their own. I think that most people would agree that the government really blotched up in a lot of areas in that situation that contributed to the pain and suffering that people experienced.

Read More »

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Taking a Step and Getting Involved

April 17, 2007 | By Dan

The time has come for me to get involved in the church. It was not time before but now it is time.

How do I know? It just feels right.

It was not the right time before because I need to get school going but now that it is and I am used to it so it is time to take the next step.

I have to be honest – my wife inspired me – without her even knowing it. She is the one that involved first by starting to help out with the kids. Seeing her get involved and meeting people stirred up the interest in me.

I have already put my feet to the pavement and emailed and met with the director of the media ministry. As a result of that meeting I am meeting with the rest of the group tonight.

Another byproduct of the meeting was him asking me what I wanted to do in the media ministry. I told him that whatever they needed me to do was fine as that is the attitude that was always expected at my other church’s that I attended.

Here I feel that it is a little different so I need to decide – and I have – I am going to petition to be apart of the video production team that makes up our video presentations ahead of time for services. I have not had as much experience in that area as the rest so it is an area that I can grow. I am hoping that it will fit with my schedule.

I will post tomorrow to tell how tonight went.

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Walking photo by tehtopo via Flickr

Posted in Christian Living, Ministry | Leave a comment

Looking to the Future to See what to do Now

March 29, 2007 | By Dan

Sometimes in life it is difficult to determine what the correct decision is for a particular situation. My wife was recently faced with a similar situation while trying to determine whether to return back to work part time.

The issue was that she had always wanted to stay home with the kids – that was her dream. Mine was to have a nice house in a nice area to the raise the kids. We had both gotten what we had wanted. But then my wife started looking for a part time position in order to have some extra cash. She ended up with a couple of hours a week at a local kids clothing store.

The job went well with here working just a couple hours here and there over the course of a couple months. After the Christmas season ended her hours were cut done and so she started looking for something else. She landed a job doing taxes and that is when things started to note work out so well.

The things was the company that she worked for was not managed very well and it was causing a lot of stress for my wife. The kids seemed to do OK with it so we were not too concerned. While my wife’s parents went on vacation for a few weeks she took the time off to stay with the kids. They both loved it.

When it was time to go back she decided not to and quit.

Read More »

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Where am I at with this Blog?

March 29, 2007 | By Dan

That is a really good question. As you can see I really have not blogged here recently. The main reason for that is that there have not been that many compelling "Christian" things going on lately. If Christian things have been going on I really have not felt like getting deep about them. Things are what they are.

What I think this blog needs is a little revival if not a little redirection. I think instead of me trying to be deep about stuff and give people Christian advise I should just say what I feel about things – from a Christian perspective. I think in that sense I will not feel so bound by a single subject and get things flowing here a bit.

So look for more posts on a semi-more regular basis.

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