Turning 30

Today, I am 30. Interesting. My wife asked me what I am going to do now that I'm 30. So here we go.....
1. I want to live a christian life, a life of freedom, soaring above the clouds of dispair and chains of slavery to the heights of joy and the light of the eternal Son, Jesus Christ
2. I want to love the Lord God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and my neighbor as myself.
3 I want to have real friendships, where there isn't a lesson to learn or agenda behind each meeting but fellowship that uplifts, understands and encourages.
4 I want to love my wife as Christ loves the Church
5 I want to have a ernest expectation of heaven.

May the Lord bless you this day, may He cause His face to shine upon you, May you be blessed on your going in and your going out. May you feel his presence in every step you make in your life, the wrong ones and the right ones. May you feel His strength when you are weak for this is truly where our strength comes from.
The Lord Bless You.

The position of pastors

I will start this blog out stating that I respect the people in the position of pastor very much, but I do not respect the position of pastor.

The position itself puts to much pressure on one individual. Putting aside the fact that 40% drop out of ministry because they burn out, those that stay in are those that adapt. Adapt what you might ask. In order to survive in a continual demanding situation, pastors take a economical approach to ministry. Capitalism!

It is much easier to look at people and their demands from a capitilistic view point then from a ministerial one. I would go as far to say that the 40% that dropped out were actually doing it right.

One cannot sustain an approach that says that you must have it all together in order to lead the flock, because were human, unless they look at it from a business perspective.

1st - It's not personal, its business. Continually say this to yourself when people decide to leave your church. You did what you had to do, you told them the truth and if they can't handle the truth then they can go shopping somewhere else.

2nd - Hang you personnal problems on the personal problem coat rack before you enter work. Do not, and I say it again, DO NOT tell people your personnal problems. These are to be discussed at home and at home only. After all, how could you effectively direct people in their own lives if they knew of the problems in yours.

3rd - Make sure to take YTO time. It can be very stressful and alot of work to be spiritual for everyone else in the church. I know they pay you for this but you still need your time. Some important times to take are after the major rushes you get in the year, like Christmas, Easter and VBS.

Have a nice day.

I once was a pastor

I once was a pastor. Working my way up the ladder of success. Starting with children, then to assistant and in the end, Senior. I can't say I ever thought about the statistics. How long a pastor stays with one flock. On average of about 4 years. For some reason I thought I was different. For some reason I thought that people would not grow tired of my message. I thought that people would welcome me every week with open arms and you know, for the most part they did but I didn't. I grew tired of the same, every week. I grew tired of the message. I grew tired of the ME every week. I never did make it to senior. THAT'S OK.

I am not tired of living every day for Him. Living a freedom that I thought of but just didn't seem to get the hang of before. You could probably say that it was my fault but THAT'S OK.

verse of the day

The verse of the Day on Biblegateway is:
"Sanctify them by the Truth; Your word is Truth" John 17:17

Something Eve and I have been learning, especially as of late. What are our eyes seeing? What are we listening to?

On my way home the other day from the coffee house, when I usually just listen to the radio, I decided not to turn it on. I decided to just pray and meditate on the Lord. What a wonderful feeling. The last couple of days, instead of watching tv, Eve and I have been filling our evenings with praise and scripture. A Sharpening of our minds and of our spirits. It is all so wonderful.

Thank you Lord

Church at Home

Eve and I just worshiped the Lord in our home. We will be going over to worship the Lord at her brothers in a little while. I have been contemplating my view of the word 'church' lately and wondering how my view effects the way I live my christian life. In the word it says that we are the church. In the light of that "go to church", "had church" and "church building" just don't make any sense. Is it possible that I have been to caught up in the latter that it has kept me from being the former. I think I might try this, "be the church", "am the church" and "are the church" from now on. Till next time "be the church".

Pew

So I am sitting in our coffee house this morning, contemplating the meaning of life and I start to admire a pew that we use for one of our seats at a table. A solid piece of furniture with a ox blood color cushioned seat. Built to be sturdy and to last, with a cross engraged on the edge of the seat. Behind the pew there is a compartment that is meant to hold bibles or hymnals for those who would no doubt be sitting behind in another pew.

I started to wonder where it came from. What church was it in? Does it have a story? The most you can pick out from it is that at one time it was a pew in a church and now it is not. Sounds so simple doesn't. If it could talk, what does it like better, do you think?

Before it was used once a week. The people that sat in it, didn't say a word. There were sometimes where those who sat in it were lulled to sleep from the cushion. Been there, done that. Only for a couple of ours and then empty. Maybe it might get some attention during the week for cleaning.

Now it is used every day. Kids climbing all over it and instead of a bible or a hymnal, there is a torah and cribbage board (don't ask). Crumbs are constantly all over the cushion and the people that are sitting in it are in a deep conversation, or not.

Of course, we all know that a pew can't talk, doesn't have any emotions and absulately no brain power. A cute little allegory. Allegory of what you might say? An allegory of our Christian life. Think about it!

the old and the new

I have been proactive in my scripture reading lately. Thinking of the old while I read the new. It has been quit rewarding. It says in the scripture that the old testament and those that belonged to it were seeing in a dim light. Kind of like they perceived half of what was to come. That which was in the old, such as the temple or the laws, were reflections of the new. Imperfect copies of that which was perfect. The temple that God layed out for Moses was a reflection of the perfect temple in heaven. The law of the sabbath, which was to rest from your works, was a reflection of the the Lord of the Sabbath, our Sabbath, Jesus Christ, who allows us to rest from our works. Thus the scripture that says " we are saved by grace and not by works, lest anyone should boast.

Was reading Romans Chapter 4 today and everything started to come ALIVE! it says in the last verse of chapter 3, which I refered to in my previous blog "in fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law" Chapter 4 goes on to explain how Abraham was justified by his faith hundereds of years before the law came. Faith came first. In the old testament we have and image of that which is perfect. through Abraham, Faith came first, then came the law. In our relationship with God, Faith comes first, so that we then can fulfill the law. What makes us children of Abraham is not that we were born as a Jew but that we have faith in God. When we have faith in God we are then children of promise and not children of bondage. Which brings me to another point. Maybe the story of Isaac and Ishmael, is not the story of Jews and Muslims but is a story of those who are children of God and those who are children of the world, no matter what nationality they are! After all, if we are friends with God, we are then enemies of the world. mmmmmmm......something to think about.

refill my cup

So I have been out at the coffee house all day today and it has been pretty slow. Eve and I both were going crazy! We had some friends and family stop by for nice conversation but other then that, the day has been pretty uneventful. Eve had to leave, she was so crazy.



I titled today's blog 'refill my cup' because that is exactly what I needed. I need to have God fill my cup day in and day out. I need to have the baptism of the Holy Spirit over and over again. In the book of Acts there was multiple times where they were filled, and I am sure there were many more times. It's quit odd how I started to think about this. I have constantly nursed the same coffee mug all day. Casually going to the same airpot and topping off what I have left, if there is any left. The last time I went to the airpot, I started to think about how I would like to get refilled like the coffee cup I was drinking. The Holy Spirit is awesome, isn't He. To think that He can take the simple fact of me filling my coffee mug and remind me that I need more of him is far from what I can understand but close enough that I can partake.

Holy Spirit, please fill me anew. Fill me with your love and kindness, patience and gentleness, faithfulness and peace, joy and goodness. Fill me to overflowing, so that I can effect others. My wife and my friends, my family and those that I serve from a day to day basis. Help me to be humble and thankful. Bring your words to my mind, so that I can be renewed. Let the son rise on my day, to wisk away any darkness. Let your river flow over my rough edges to smooth my soul. Let your fire burn within my innermost being so that I may pure. Let your rain bring refreshing to my mind, will and emotions.

I leave whoever may read this with this scripture:
Romans 3:31
"...In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law"

Toothless Tiger Chai

Today I am out at the coffee house with my wife! I am loving this. Have you ever had a dream of owning your own coffee house with your spouse and both of you wanting to work together? Sounds crazy doesn't it. However, that is our dream, and on that one special day a week which I hope to become more days of the week, I get to live that dream. I get to get up in the morning with my wife and go to our own coffee house. No corporate, no district supervisor and no rules (except the ones we set for our own business). If a light bulb is out, I can take my time replacing it!!!!

It is funny how the Lord works. We were just talking to one of our customers today about that. The Lord really is unpredictable. I hope to never put Him in a box again. There are some things that I do know about Him though and I wanted to take some time today to list them
1. He is Loving
2. He is faithful
3. He is patient
4. He is all powerful
5. He is unpredictable
6. He is caring
7. He is all knowing
8. He is always listening
9. He is interceding for us at the right hand of the Father
10. He will never leave us nor forsake us!

Enjoy your day and my the God of the universe bless you richly with His grace!

THROW THE NET ON THE OTHER SIDE

There is a story in the scripture where Jesus is on the shore teaching the crowd. They continue to press in on Him until He has nowhere to go but onto a boat of one of the local fisherman and have him put out from the shore. I am sure that Jesus was quit aware of the man's name and how influential he would become in the near future. The story goes that the men had been fishing all night and had caught nothing. They were tired and were calling it a day, when Jesus tells them to cast their net on the other side of the boat. That doesn't make sense! Peter replies that they had been fishing all night and had caught nothing. What would one more cast make? Same boat, same net and same lake.

The approach that we take, so many times to ministry, is to start asking ourselves what is wrong with the boat? What is wrong with our net? What is wrong with our lake? We will become discouraged and try to find a different boat or net or lake when there might have been nothing wrong with it in the first place. It could be quit possible that lack of fish is the will of God. How unimportant this story would have been if they were actually catching fish. What glory would God get out of that?

So here we are. Fishing for men in a boat, net and lake that are not producing. At least in my eyes. I am sure there is much more going on that I am not aware of. I found myself sitting there thinking about my tactics/goals/purpose and this story came to mind. In fact it almost was like Jesus said right to me "throw your net on the other side". Not anything different from what I tried in the past but to just do it again.

I am not claiming to have any key to ministry here, just a wondering thought that made me think about the word 'Persistence'.

double honor?

Double honor? What does that mean? I had a conversation with a friend about a month ago concerning some questions that I had on the validity of paying pastors. 1 Timothy 5:17 says "The eldars who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching" I found three different versions of this in commentaries. 1. A minister of the church is to be double paid.
2. A minister is to recieve honor and also pay.
3. A minister is to recieve double honor as in, honor for being a minister and added honor for working hard at it.
Concerning the first, I have to be honost. The only people I believe seeing this scripture as a definition to the verse are those ministers who are greedy. Double pay? Double pay from what? I don't even see what is suppose to be the right pay amount. It seems odd to me that this scripture would be talking about paying someone double. It doesn't flow with scripture at all. If we were to take a look at what the early church was doing in the book of Acts and see that they all sold their properties and shared among one another so that there was no want. That would mean that there wasn't one person or a group of people being paid, in money, to do what God had already told them to do. Every recieved what they needed, despite what part of service they were doing in the church. Paul also referances in scripture that they should reflect what he taught them and how he worked while he was with them. He worked so that he wouldn't be an extra burden to those that he was serving. The other interesting thing about this scripture is that if you were to look at the importance that Paul is puting on where the church's money should be going, the first and formost should go to the poor and the widow. Exactly where the tithes and offering were going to in the book of Malachi.
I will touch on 2 and 3 in further blogs.
same blog channel, different blog time, thanks for tuning in.

Why family works

I have often wondered why the church familys that I have been part of always seem to come up short with what my real family is like. Yes we have our problems and there are those that do not know the Lord but why do we continue to get together? Invite each other to family gatherings and out of all our faults we still love each other. There is a bond that happens in a family that just doesn't seem explainable to me. In a modern day church in America, you might have something that in a way reflects a family but as soon as something turns somebody off. Their gone. Why stay at one church when there is hundreds more to be part of. If the pastor says something wrong at one church, then you can just go to another. Countless families end up "church hopping" going from one to another. In the early church, they called each other brothers and sisters. I would think there was a reason why they called each other that. Maybe it was to continually remind themselves that no matter what happened between each other they were still family. We have gotten away from that. How many people in a church do you hear say brother, so and so or sister, so and so. Very few. My wife and I have started to call our friends that come into the coffee house (brothers and sisters). It seems to fit. We don't go to the church they do but who cares. They share the same Lord and the same Father. It has been part of the journey, to realise that you are part of a family and that you can't just throw away brothers and sisters, even though you might disagree with them. Today I am surounded by family both in the Lord and also family in marriage. Thank you Jesus!

The Journey

Ok, here is the meaning of the title. My wife and I have been on a journey. What kind of journey, you may ask? A spiritual one! Ok, so here is the point, if for some reason you find yourself not liking the whole spiritual thing, that you can stop reading and find something else on the internet because this is not for anyone else but for me and those who may be like minded. I also wanted to write down my ideas somewhere so I can keep track and maybe (if I am lucky get feedback). Also, I am not an English major, nor do I aspire to be, so there may be times where my sentences continue to run on and on and on. Just bear, I will get to my point sooner or later. My wife and I felt very comfortable in what some would consider traditional church and have now found ourselves looking for something different and that is where the journey begins. In the Lord of the Rings Bilbo Baggins says "it's a wonderful and dangerous business walking out your front door". I guess you can say that my wife and I just walked out the front door and have no idea where we will be swept off too.