where have you been?

I have not blogged a new entry in a looooong time.

I have so much running through my mind lately yet can't seem to take a moment and get it done in writing.

This summer is my 20 year high school reunion. WOW!!!! I can't wait to see my old class mates. I can't wait for them to meet my wife. I can't wait to meet their spouses and here how they are all doing. I hope and pray they conveniently forget certain stories from high school days:-).

As of this writing I am sort of blond. That's right. We told the church that if they raised $5000 for missions during our annual penny crusade campaign I would dye my hair blond. It's actually more of a golden color. Oh well...anything for the Kingdom.

Natalie is wrapping up her second season of soccer. She never ceases to amaze me. She is so fast and is learning so much about team work. She is fun to watch.

Micah is trying his best to keep up with his big sister. He has turned into a little monkey and is climbing on EVERYTHING!!!!

This fall Natalie could very well be in kindergarten. I'm not sure any of us are ready for that. However, she can't stay little forever.

It seems like the further I go in life the more tempted I am to use cliches like "I don't know what tomorrow holds but I know who holds tomorrow." Well, duh. I know God holds it I just wish He would spell things out in a little more detail for me. But, I guess that wouldn't be faith.

So with that in mind I reckon I should turn the light out. Close my eyes and see what God has for us when I open them again.

Can't wait.

this day

I will never forget this day. Rather, I will never forget this date. December 13, 2003 the most amazing woman in the world became my wife. There is so much about that day I will never forget. How I got choked up during the vows.

How beautiful she looked in her wedding dress.

How we got out of town on our way to the honeymoon just before an ice storm hit.

The last seven years have been more than worth it. We now have two kids. Two dogs. A mortgage. A minivan.

Sometimes I look in the mirror and I have to laugh and asked "when did you become an adult?"

I wouldn't trade the last seven years for anything. I can't wait to see what's next.

Today Allison had to go to work. Working for hospice provides many moments people will never forget. Today she told a family that their loved one would likely die within the next six months.

I'm sure they will never forget this day either. I'm sure they will never forget this Christmas.

Sometimes we remember because we want to.

Sometimes we remember because we can't forget.

Sometimes we remember because of the lessons we learn.

Sometimes we remember because we just can't help it.

Even though I can't remember every single day that I have lived I do remember people that God has used throughout my life to impact me in an empowering way.

My prayer today is that I may walk in a manner so that one day, maybe a day someone will never forget, they will remember me and think, "wow, he helped me walked a little closer to Jesus."

The Event-WJACC 4

The Event-WJACC 3

WJACC-the event

The Event-WJACC 2

Hearing from God and seeing Pastor Jones pt.3

#3-Is this idea something born out of prayer or something prayed on to be born?

Here's what I mean by this in a nut shell.

Am I experiencing intimate time with God so that I may hear and recognize His voice above all of the busy-ness and chaos that surrounds me? Or am I trying to come up with ideas that would be cool and relevant and praying that they are God's will?

God is such a creative and relevant God. He is better able to supply all we need including ideas and plans for His ministry. The question is are we still enough and quiet enough to hear Him?

#4-When you think God is telling you something is it confirmed by other believers?

First let me say this. If God wants to give you a message He'll tell you first before someone else. I had a well-meaning lady one time tell me, "God told me to tell you...". What was funny about that experience was God had not revealed to me anything like the message she was trying to convey. This is not the type of person I'm talking about here.

Here are the type of people that you want to seek out for confirmation.

a) Does this person have a track record of holy obedience to God's word?

b) Does this person have a track record of being still and quiet before God?

c) Does this person have a track record of living in and by the grace and love of God?

d) Is this someone who you find yourself submitted to in a discipling relationship?

e) Is this person coo-coo for cocoa puffs or do they tend to make sense?

Hearing from God is not an exact science and is not completely defined or described by anyone but I hope some of these things do help.

The big thing is...if you are never still you will rarely if ever hear the voice of God.

Like I said before, I don't know Pastor Jones personally so I can not speak to his ability to be still. However, I do know how still or not still I am. Now let me shut up and go listen for a while.

Hearing from God and seeing Pastor Jones pt.2

So how do we know if we are hearing from God?

Here's some thoughts on that.

#1-THE BIBLE...the WORD, the WORD, the WORD!!!

God never ever contradicts Himself. So if you want to know if God is telling you to do something the first question you need to ask is "does it line up with the Bible?" But in order to answer that you must know what the Bible says. Spend time in it. Soak it up. Read it. Meditate on it. Study it. Memorize it. Share it. Talk about it. Pray it. Am I making my point?

The Bible is living and active (Hebrews 4:12) and relevant every day in every way.

Another pastor once said, "if you can't hear God, read God." That's a great suggestion! Listen to God through His word...the Bible.

#2-Does this line up with Jesus' commands?

This one is closely related to the first. Jesus gave us two great instructions in scripture. Love God with everything you have and love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:36-40)

Go and make disciples. (Matthew 28:18-20)

If believe God is telling you to do something and it does not line up with one of these two instructions then you know it is not God talking. Plain and simple.

more to come...

Hearing from God and seeing Pastor Jones pt.1

As a lot of you know Pastor Jones is a pastor of a church in Gainesville, FL who over the last few weeks has dominated headlines with his plans to perform a Koran book burning on September 11th.

His reasoning is that this will communicate to the world the evils of Islam and that he believes God told him to do it.

This story has bothered me so much that I changed gears yesterday and preached on hearing from God and the examples of burning and fire in the Bible. Here is my take on Pastor Jones.

(Just to clarify...I do not know Pastor Jones personally and have never met him so what little I know about him has come from the media.)

Through out several interviews Pastor Jones stated that God told him to have a "Koran book burning."

Then he stated that they would cancel the burning if the Islamic leaders in New York would cancel and/or move the building of a mosque further away from ground zero. After what seemed like plans to meet with these leaders in NY the pastor said the burning had been suspended until further notice. The last news story I saw reported that no meeting ever came about but yet now Pastor Jones is saying that God does not want the burning to happen "now or ever".

So here's my questions.

If God tells you to do something and then you change plans based on striking a deal with a religion that you are convinced is evil then what does that say about what you think of God's word?

Is God's word just a bargaining chip? Is it a negotiable word?

If you truly believe you are hearing from God then is God just wishy washy and changes His plans on a whim?

OR in light of all of this, are you really hearing from God or are you coming up with some ideas and tagging God's name on it?

So how do we know if we are hearing from God? I'm going to offer some suggestions over the next couple of post. Stay tuned.

The Event-WJACC

WJACC folks...be on the look out for more info on what "The Event" is and how it may impact your life!!!!

website editing

I'm in the midst of trying to learn the all of the editing process for our church website. Here is a taste of what I've started working on.

things I don't understand

Here are a couple of things that do not make sense to me.

1) Why do people leave witness tracts on the urinal in the men's bathroom? To be honest I've never seen a piece of paper stuck in a urinal pipe or sitting up on top and thought "hey I think that might have something to do with eternity and life and might be something I should consider taking home."

2) Why do some people leave a witness tract on the table at a restaurant and leave either a lousy tip or no tip at all? I can tell you from personal experience that the wait staff at your local restaurant are not busting their tails to serve you so that they may gather more reading material.

Here's the thing...tracts NEVER take the place of personal conversations so unless you are will to sit down with someone and walk them through the message of a witness track then please just keep it in your pocket. To leave it in the bathroom or to leave it with little to no tip communicates just how little you think about the message inside of it.

There, that feels a little better.

PS. Christians...please!!!! I beg you! Stop leaving lousy tips when you go out to eat. It's ridiculous the reputation we have. We should be known for our generosity. Not our stenginous!!!

There, that feels even better.

Dying to Live and Radical

I just finished ordering two books that I anticipate making an impact on a lot of my teaching and preaching coming up.

The first book is by a friend of mine, Clayton King. His book "Dying to Live" looks to be a call of total surrender to Jesus Christ with everything we have.

The second is one that was recommend to me just today. "Radical" seems to be carrying the same message as Clayton's book but throught the voice of David Platt, a pastor in Alabama.

I can't wait to get my hands on both of these. Below is a short video clip of Clayton's thoughts behind the book. Enjoy.

the burnout question- pt. 3

4. Improper view of family.

The one can be a very touchy subject. However, I think it's fair to say that if your family becomes "expendable" when compared to ministry then you are very likely to burnout on both. I've heard several pastors state the following phrase so I'm not sure who to credit it to. "Don't sacrifice your family on the altar of ministry!"

If you are passionate about ministry and yet neglect your family then the price is too high and I have a tough time seeing a scriptural directive instructing us to follow such a path.

5. Improper view of rest.

Have you heard or said one of these?
"I'll sleep when I'm dead."
"I'll rest when Jesus comes."
"Just let me do one more thing and then I'll go to bed."
"I don't have time to take a day off/vacation."

All of these are lies straight from the pit of hell. God did not design us to go with out breaks. He intentionally made us and then commanded us to take a break every seven days (at the bare minimum). Without rest we have no energy to give our passions the attention they need and deserve, much less anything else in our lives.

So there you have it. Five things that can lead us to burnout doing something we are passionate about. This is obviously not an exhaustive list but I hope it helps in some way.

The key is a balanced life and the only one who can grant complete balance for each person is God Himself. So start today in seeking direction from Him and pause a moment to listen to what His Spirit is telling you right now.

the burnout question- pt. 2

2. Improper view of others.

How we view other people can dramatically affect our ability to pursue our passions without burning out.

Have you ever seen someone and dreaded talking with them because you know the conversation will take more effort than you want to give at the moment? Or have you ever look at someone only to see what you can get from them? There are millions of ways we look at each other all the time that have nothing to do with love. God's love allows us the ability to see each other in such a unique way. We see others as valuable, important, and worth our time and effort.

Don't get me wrong, people drive me nuts sometimes but if I'm honest with myself it's in those moments that I'm relying more on the flesh than on the Spirit.

3. Improper view of God.

God needs me.
God will only do this if...
God can't...

This one is simple. If you have caught yourself saying or thinking any of the above statements you have fallen into a trap. These statements are not biblical and just plain "ain't true".

If you think God needs you to accomplish anything think again. He may want you. He may choose to use you. He may invite you to play a part in what He is doing. However, to be so bold as to think the God of the universe can not accomplish a task without you is a recipe for disaster.

Not to mention this type of thinking will wear you out FAST!

Two more to come...

the burnout question-pt1

Last week one of, if not THE greatest basketball coaches of all time died at the age of 99. John Wooden (the "Wizard of Westwood") was a man who very few, if any, have anything bad to say about. He was a teacher, thinker, coach and all around good guy who stood for honesty and integrity.I mention Wooden because I think he addressed the issue of burn out in the following way. He always taught his players to seek two things in life. LOVE and BALANCE.It seems to me that when we are lacking in one of these two areas then we are in danger of experiencing what some people would consider "burn out". There are five things that I want to share this week that I believe leads us directly towards a lack of love and balance and thus into the pit of burn out.

1. Improper view of ourselves.

Sometimes we are tempted to think one of two ways. Either we are better than we really are or we are less valuable than we really are. Both ideas cause us to cripple ourselves of our usefulness. If we think we are better then we are so full of pride that it really doesn't matter what is happening around us. If we think less of ourselves then why would we put any effort into life. Afterall, what I do doesn't matter or make a difference at all.

The best way to defeat this is to let God tell you who you really are. It's His power and authority that really accomplishes things anyway. So why not trust in what HE says. As a believer in Christ you are His child, His friend, His sheep, His saint, His ambassador, His beloved...simply put you are HIS.

The next 4 are coming soon...

question about burnout

This morning a great question was brought to my attention.

"If you are passionate about something how can you burnout doing it?"

I had some immediate thoughts about that question but I wanted to throw it out there in blog world to see if anyone else has some thoughts before I offer any.

So how would you respond to that question? Especially as it pertains to ministry.
Let me know.

Art of Imagination

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in a National Church Leaders conference in Dowling Park, FL. It was a great conference full of challenges that I took a lot from.

Throughout the conference we enjoyed an artist that came in and painted beautiful pictures during the general sessions and main seminars. The subject of these paintings were the topics the speakers were addressing.

During our breaks I had several conversations with other pastors and leaders about the paintings. Here are some of the statements I heard.

"What does that painting mean?"
"Just tell me what it means."
"What does he think it means?"

I found myself becoming somewhat irritated by some of these statements and questions. At first I couldn't explain why but then it hit me. Everyone seemed to what to be given the meaning that one person had rather than stretching their imaginations to interpret each painting.

I find myself in the same predicament sometimes as a pastor. At times people are merely satisfied with whatever the pastor thinks about God rather than seeking, searching, and experiencing God for themselves.

This is not a statement to lessen the role of pastor in the local church. However, if the pastor is always spoon feeding who HE knows God to be and people are not searching the scriptures for themselves then they are missing out on a lot of the adventure and experience of God in their own walk with Him.

So here is a simple exercise to try and get your imagination jump started this morning.
I John 4:8 tells us that "God is Love."
How many ways can you describe God's love?
Take a moment and write down as many things as you can.
Then take a break. Come back to it later and see if you can add anything.
Then ask a friend to do the same thing and compare notes.

I'd be very curious to see if God doesn't spark your imagination some.

Psalm 33:11

Just a glimpse into one of my devotional times recently.

"The counsel of the Lord stands forever.
The plans of His heart from generation to generation."

What God accomplishes lasts for an eternity. If God does it then it will last. His plans pass through generations of lives.

One of the greatest things I can do is remind the next generation of God's plans. Remind them that if they want to see something last forever then learn to rely on and trust God's plans, not our own.

Lord,
Please help me be a part of passing the news of Your greatness on to the next generation.
Amen.

New Blood/Fresh Ideas

We had our monthly Daycare Board and Church Board meetings. We welcomed 4 new people onto the Daycare Board this year and last night was their first meeting. It was, by far, the best one we've had since I've been a part of the ministry here. With new people came new ideas for how to improve the function of the already great daycare. People shared new marketing strategies, helpful personnel approaches, and even some financial aspects that we had not seen or taken before.

As much as I pride myself on trying to look at things in several different ways last night reminded of a very important lessen. Team effort, rightly directed, is a much stronger and more productive force than individual elbow grease.

Some times you have to shake things up a little to get different results. I can not wait to see what God does with the rest of this year.