Sunday Night
Posted on May 11 2008 at 07:53 PM
The end of Sunday Night is always a great and terrible time. I say that to mean I usually can’t decide how I feel about it. For the most part I feel beat up and exhausted, but I also feel like it was worth it. All the problems and worries that get brought into this place on Sunday Night and we all seek some incredible answer to all of our problems and eventually find ourselves laying everything down at the dirty, pierced feet of a Jewish Carpenter. It’s amazing. We don’t really walk out of the building with every single problem solved, but we walk out with God. And we know that there are other people like us who have no hope other than Christ and we can see them next Sunday Night.
Over the last few days I’ve really had an issue with getting upset at people around me. I scream inside my own head wondering why everyone cannot see what I see. They can’t do everything the way I know it should be done. Then tonight at the end of the night I’m standing in a random circle in the kitchen with 7 or 8 other guys. I’m surrounded by speech impediments, failed marriages, former addicts, struggling marriages, former homelessness, loneliness, and depression. Is it wrong of me to say that in that circle I felt at home. I saw what my vision of church has always been about; broken people being broken in the hands of God. We hid nothing from each other because we didn’t have to. We are messed up, but we are God’s. That moment brought me to understand that even though someone doesn’t see things exactly the way I do or does something that just totally ticks me off, they’re just broken people, even when they don’t want to admit it. I’m going to pray for them. When I get mad I’m going to remember that their broken and I’m broken and that we can learn from each other, love each other, and be real with each other.
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Randomness
Posted on May 09 2008 at 12:04 PM
In the middle ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. This is where the term to wear your heart on your sleeve come from.
Babies are born with about 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 bones in our body.
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Psalm 15
Posted on March 27 2008 at 01:41 PM
Hey I was reading my Bible today and Psalm 15 just floored me. I thought I would print it on here and share it with some of ya’ll.
Psalm 15
A psalm of David.
1 Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord?
Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?
2 Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right,
speaking the truth from sincere hearts.
3 Those who refuse to gossip
or harm their neighbors
or speak evil of their friends.
4 Those who despise flagrant sinners,
and honor the faithful followers of the Lord,
and keep their promises even when it hurts.
5 Those who lend money without charging interest,
and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.
Such people will stand firm forever.
I wonder if this should be our check list when we come to worship God.
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Yet
Posted on March 06 2008 at 09:02 AM
The walls keep falling down.
Structures shake.
People fall to the ground.
You weigh the pain by the pound.
Yet you dance.
The sky is full of smoke.
Hunger grows.
Truth makes the masses choke.
They burn the books the poets wrote.
Yet you dance.
Riots crash down like waves.
Insults fly.
Rocks fall down like rain.
The Captain’s carnival is marching insane.
Yet you dance.
The whole world grows cold.
Life fades.
We all look for a hand to hold.
Death comes leaving stories untold.
Yet you…
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Calvary Baptist
Posted on March 06 2008 at 08:44 AM
I got to speak @ Calvary Baptist last night for their monthly Rock night. That is pretty ironic if you know any of the details of the last 3 and a half years, but is too long a story to sit down and type out right now. I spoke on the Lordship of Christ and how we all serve something. I think one of our biggest mistakes in recent Christianity is that we have been big on Jesus as our Savior and Friend (which are both true), but have not talked enough about Jesus as Lord. Jesus longs to be our Savior and desires to be our friend, but He demands to be our Lord. In fact, upon His return everyone doesn’t come together and sing kumbaya. Everyone doesn’t give a big group hug like their finally meeting back up with an old buddy. They don’t even exclaim the great Savior has arrived. The Bible says every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Him as Lord. He is Lord. And as such He is entitled to anything that is ours. Our families, jobs, futures, intellect. It is all His.
I ended the night challenging the students to come up and confess to me and Brandon (their youth pastor) the things that were keeping them from allowing Christ to have total Lordship in their lives. It was awesome. I talked and prayed with about five students while Brandon prayed with students as well. I really miss student ministry. I think many of the paths that are chosen for life and faith happen while we are teenagers. It was great to be able to minister to that demographic again. Today I get to meet with the college students for Bible study which I also love. I make mention of that so I can ask you to pray for Elyss. She was meeting with us for Bible study, but she entered basic training Monday. Sorry for the space between blogs. I’ll try to be more prompt.
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My grandad
Posted on February 19 2008 at 12:55 PM
My granddad is in the hospital. I got an update today that said they’re afraid his kidneys are shutting down. Also the right side of his heart is damaged and is non operational. That’s a tough pill to swallow. As I was holding Deci this morning and thinking about my granddad I really started to understand the brevity of life. From dust we come and to dust we will return. We’ve got a sitter lined up tomorrow so I am going to go spend some time with my granddad. He is a believer and has been a constant supporter and friend through out my life. He always makes me laugh. I love him. If I’m not in the office much the next few days, I apologize in advance. I may be a little slow on phone calls and emails. Just pray for him when you get the chance. Thanks.
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Beths wedding
Posted on February 16 2008 at 01:24 PM
In about 40 minutes I’m going to be preaching Beth Fulmer and John Miller’s wedding. It’s kind of weird. This is the second student from one of my youth ministries I’ve married off. You want to protect these students so much, even when your not really their student pastor any more. I’m proud of Beth though. She has made it through a lot in her life and she came out shining like a jewel. I think God refined her through the whole process of her life. She stands as the woman of God she is because of all that God brought her through. She has met an awesome God fearing man in John too. I wish them both many years of happiness and ministry. I know God can and will use them to accomplish great things for His name sake.
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Crazy Day
Posted on February 15 2008 at 09:04 AM
I can already tell today is going to be one of those crazy days. You know the ones where you kinda of enjoy every thing that is going on, but you really wish it would spread itself out a little bit. When I really step back and look at it though I just shake my head and laugh, because it’s not like anything really sneaks up on me. I think I just have a natural tendency to pile on. So what exactly is the craziness you ask? Well Friday is the day that Matt, Nick, and Jessica are all off which means anything that happens around here I get to handle which is sometimes fun and always weird. You would be surprised the people I get to meet on a daily basis. I’ll actually try to follow this blog up with an update of the visitors of the day. The other things are I’ve got a wedding rehearsal tonight at 6. Beth Fulmer and John Miller are getting married. I think this may be the first marriage that Lifepoint can take responsibility for. They are going to make a cool couple. I’m super excited for them. Also, I’m performing the wedding tomorrow at 3 and I’m preaching Sunday morning. Add onto that that my daughter is getting dropped off here at 12:30, because her gram has a doctors appointment. Then when Audrey gets off we have to take our daughter, Deci, to the doctor. On top of that my grandfather is in the Huntsville hospital with congestive heart failure, kidney problems, and fluid build up. And this morning I got a note that a t.v. and dvd player needed to be moved into the nursery. Yeah for me this weekend huh.
On the good side, there is supposedly a guy from Ireland who is trying to contact me about speaking at a conference over there this Summer. He called on my off day so I’m hoping he calls back today. I won Oak Park Ball yesterday, which gives me a 3-0 record. Also, at my weight watchers weigh-in I lost 12.6 pounds last week which put my total at 23.8 pounds lost. I’m pretty stoked about that.
At college Bible study we read the last part of John chapter 5. This is where Jesus claims his deity as the the son of God. My favorite verse in there is where Jesus says he doesn’t seek the approval or disapproval of men. I think that is an awesome idea. We should be so in tune with the will of our heavenly father that the approval or disapproval of men doesn’t matter. Too many times I think we are trying to impress the person ahead of us, sometimes even in our spiritual life. We want to feel validated for everything going on in our life. How powerful we would be as Christians if we chased hard after Christ like steadfast warriors with our task at hand. I want to focus in, to see God’s face, and follow Him with determination.
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The new blog page
Posted on February 12 2008 at 10:56 AM
Say we’ve got this new blog space called becoming fools. I really think that is so appropriate. The more I seem to follow after Christ the more it seems ridiculous to many people. I love how David put it though when he said, “I’ll become even more undignified than this for my God”. I intend to write about randomness right along side any spiritual experiences I am going through. I want to share scripture that moves me and books that I’m enjoying. I think there will probably be some poetry thrown up there and latest movie reviews. I’ll probably talk a lot about the joys of fatherhood and how much I’m hating this diet. All in all, I just want to be real and hopefully you will be entertained, maybe educated, but mostly a deep sigh of relief knowing there is someone who is struggling through this journey with you.
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