Pride

MMM...I really hate this word. This word causes humans many problems that could totally be avoided. We wear it like a piece of jewelry and shine it up every once in a while. Men hang onto it like it was the last steak at a family b-b-q. Women, are more subtle with theirs. They quietly move around it and cover it up with many different things. Us guys just aren't smart enough to hide it. Pride is something that I have realized over the last few days that will make or break my relationship with Sarah. I was reading a magazine and it was talking about keys to winning any battle and automatically I thought "Yeah, anything to win right?" Well, I got suckered into checking myself. Numbers two and three really hit me hard..."give up arrogant defensiveness and stubborn resistance. OUCH!!! Meaning that those stupid things that we argue over that should never have been a conversation need to go?! I'm still working on that... Secondly, "Humble yourself and become willing to do whatever it takes". Wow!!! Thats not asking much is it? But in the end, I want to love Sarah like Christ loves her. I want to as I Corinthians puts it, love her more than I love myself, love her without thinking me first, and love her without flying off the handle. It is a cumbersome task but it is worth it.

I want to take the "i" out of pride.

Good Day

the wonder of it all...

When I was younger, I remember having things in my life that I truly looked forward to. The excitement and build-up to the event was half of the fun. Then when the time came to go do that or get this it truly was awesome!!! I have a sneaking feeling that most of us have lost the wonder of life. We have things in our lives (i.e. vacations, days off, dates, friends getting married, etc etc) and they are fun to look forward to. It is human to look forward to things. Then, at least for me, when I get to the event it lets me down and I start looking for the next big thing...you ever feel this way?

As a Pastor this has become a real question for me. I love worship and I love a good sermon that challenges me and makes me think about something...anything. However, it seems that since becoming a full-time pastor, that I often times cannot "enjoy" a service or even an event. This happens because I am trying to make things run smoothly and without incident. I wonder if this is true for other pastors? I really havent asked them so...

Anyways...as I was getting ready to go to Kroger last night after I got back from taking Terry and Matt home (thanks guys for coming...it was amazing!) I opened the door and saw a beautiful sunset. It was as if God was telling me to enjoy the journey...smell the roses...kick up your feet...so maybe we all need to be reminded of that sometimes...


How great is our God

Personal stuff

Today, I am a tired man...last night was our Kick-off '05 and I think I yelled a thousand times for the kids to listen...they were amped up!!! Anyways...this week should be cool...Blueberry Festival..getting ready to move on the 10th...figuring out the stinking money for the youth group that was dumped on me...you know the normal stuff...I'll catch up with you tomorrow...


Good Day

How great is our God!

Seriously, How great is he? I know that he is the almighty, the creator of everything, the beginning and the end. He simply is. He created me and everyone I have ever or will ever come into contact with. He made the earth and every little thing in it...(even bugs like chiggers!!!) He separated the water from the land and made the fish fill the ocean. He set up food chains and made gold and silver and told the ocean to only go this far. He made stars in the heavens, a sun to give us light in the day and a moon for the night. He makes covenant after covenant and promises to never leave US, never people!!! Still, after realizing all of this and more...humans, made in the very image of God, doubt him. We doubt him by worrying, by "doing things ourselves or they won't get done" and so on and so forth. We sometimes wonder where the money for this or the finances to get that done are going to come from. Questions I always had were, "will I ever get married" and last summer before I got my job at Shiloh, "will I ever be a pastor". It is in our make-up to question things but to worry is...dare I say it...sinning!?!? Do you think worry is sin? Well what is sin...sin is anything that separates us from God...does your worry do that? Does worrying about this thing take it out of God's hands? Probably...this one hurts because I am as guilty as the next. So to the first question...how great is our God? Well, simply, he is going to be as great as you allow him to be. What do you think...is worry a sin? Do you struggle with it?

Good Day

Every knee

As I watched a documentary about 9/11 on the National Geographic Channel last night (I know, its sad) a reoccuring thought kept smacking me in the face. There were about 15 terrorists that committed suicide for allah. There were countless others on the planes that, by assumption were not Christians. Then, of the couple thousand people that were in the towers that day, how many didn't know Jesus? What about the firefighters that willingly gave up their lives, knowing that they were climbing to their death? There were pictures from the stairs as a firefighter was climbing the stairs as everyone else was going down. Now I know that the Bible says that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no one will enter into heaven but through him. But humor me for a second...does God have mercy on those who havent asked for forgiveness of their sins but saved countless lives that day? Doesnt the Bible say that there is no greater love to show that to lay your life down for another? I am sure that someone of the people asked for forgivness before they passed, but what about the ones that were busy trying to rescue people until the towers fell. So wondering what you thought...I guess this is the same question that I have heard about remote tribes and others that havent heard about Jesus. The Bible tells us that everyone will hear about Jesus before the end. But what about those who show the love that God showed us by sending his son without every asking for forgivness? Just wondering what you thought...

Good Day

A Real Fountain of Youth

Here’s a thought…


I read the first 4 chapters of Genesis today and a couple of things struck me.

1. God didn’t kick Adam and Eve out because of their sin (he made them clothes and put it on them). This wasn’t the reason because if it was, wouldn’t he have just sent them out of the garden as soon as he found out? I think so.


2. God kicked Adam and Eve out because he didn’t want them to be able to eat from the Tree of Life. Now if we take this literal (which most of us take ALMOST all of the Bible literal, as in that it actually happened) that means that there was a real tree that gave the consumer eternal life. Can we believe that such a thing truly existed? Could it still be on earth being protected by an angel? Just a thought…

A mile wide and an inch deep

Good morning...

As I sat down this morning, my mind kept racing through the different things that I needed to get done. The list looks something like this: get sermon for sunday night, get sunday morning worship ready, get water games ready for sunday night, decorate the Oasis for sunday night, get my brakes changed, call the kids that werent here sunday and the list goes on and on...it seems that Youth Pastors get this way every once in a while. There are so many things that we are doing and then we get really good ideas that should be done and are probably in God's plan for the church but then we start becoming spread out over a ton of things. This causes some people who are not called to be pastors, such as laity helping to do these things, to use a buzzword: burnout. I have heard from various people talking to me about burning out and the such. I have seen it first hand and the effects it has on everyone involved. My dad did it. Still, I think there is something more dangerous for pastors in this area. I think there is a thing that is more hurtful to all involved and it is for the pastor to just go through the motions. There was a quote I heard in college that went something like this, "There is nothing more deadening to the soul than to constantly be on the outside of holy things". Get it? God wants our hearts to be in everything we do. He doesnt want a half-hearted attempt at anything. Pastors get so dry sometimes that all they are doing is going through the motions.
So thinking about this and hearing it from others has sent me into a different direction. I am trying, keyword is trying, to delegate things to others. It is hard for me, especially if I know that they are loaded down with so much of their own. I would rather do it myself and let them just enjoy being here. However, I will eventually get burnt out and be useless if I don't learn this eventually. What do you think? Is it hard for you to delegate?

Good day.

Just wondering...

In Matthew 19, Jesus gets asked about divorce. It is an interesting topic for Christians seeing that, according to Gallop (which is becoming an everyday occurance in most sermons I have heard) Poll, that the divorce rate for Christians is higher than for non-Christians. Thats crazy. My parents were divorced when I was around the age of nine. So I am well versed in all of the nuances of divorces. However, I want to ask you a question: When Jesus says you can only divorce for marital unfaithfulness what exactly is he talking about? Is it just sexually unfaithfulness? There were two thoughts on this in the 1st century. The Shammai believed that marital unfaithfulness was something indecent. The Hillel seem more like us today. They taught that you could divorce your wife is she did anything he disliked!!! The NIV study notes show us where Jesus stands, of course with the Shammai. That doesnt go where I want to go though...what about being spiritually unfaithful...or emotionally unfaithful? What happens when a marriage dissolves to nothing more than a replica of you and your college roommate who stay in the same apartment or house and fight over anything and everything? What does God have in mind for the marriages that end up like this where one or both of the people are miserable? What do you think? I'm still processing...

Good Day

random thoughts

Earlier this week the headlines of the major papers in the country read something about Israel and them pulling out of the Gaza Strip. This sends me back to the days when I lived with my dad. You see, my dad is an old-fashioned, standards=holiness type of Christian. He is a great man of God in my eyes but we differed on my subjects such as: women cutting their hair, wearing shorts, women wearing jeans and the sort, wearing jewelry, wearing make-up (which surprisingly never was an issue for me) and the sort. He still believes these today. But that is neither here nor there. He is envoloped by the end times. I can remember sitting through a six or seven video lesson about the end times and how things were in place for the rapture and the anti-christ to appear now!!! I was fooled back then into worrying myself sick that I was not going to graduate High School, go to college, get married, have kids, or live my life!!! I was kind of upset at God because as those who believe in this "nightwatching". The are waiting for the Rapture and all that follows. Or is it that they are waiting for the Tribulation? Who knows? My point is that while they are looking for these signs and stuff we are forgetting the main point for Christians: to tell others about Christ and the forgiveness of sins!!! As I said in my sermon on Sunday, the point is not Christianity or Christs return (right now), it is telling others about Christ. So in that train of thought: Jesus loves you...this I know...for the Bible tells me so...everyone to him belongs...they are weak but he is strong....yes Jesus does really love you!!!

Good Day

just a thought

I was just reading Matthew's account of Jesus walking on water and then Peter's failed attempt at the same thing. Jesus asked him why did you doubt...but what did Peter doubt? Jesus? No because he believed enough to jump into a roaring sea. That Jesus could save him? No, refer to the first answer. What did he doubt? He doubted himself. We call on others to have faith in God and that will get them where they need to go. Still, why do so many fail at half-hearted attempts at going deeper with Christ than we've ever been? I am starting to think it is because of the diminished value we have placed on human beings. In the couples devotional that Sarah and I are doing it talked about us being children of God. We need to treat the other person in the relationship like they were literally God's child. Can you imagine? God as a father in-law?! Yikes! Sarah's dad is imposing enough (not that I am scared of him or anything but I think he looks like Hulk Hogan in the face)...anyways...we have dropped the ball on this I think. As a pastor I deal with people everyday, its my job. Its my calling. I hear so many people talking about this person or that person that it sometimes, if I am not careful, causes me to start spewing their thoughts out of my mouth. It is like yawning, once someone starts it is hard to stop. To the point: We need to work on not only treating others as children of God made in His likeness...but by having more faith in ourselves. The kind of faith that God has in us. Get out of the boat!!!

This past sunday morning

I am in a relatively small rural church in the northern part of Indiana. It reminds me a lot of home and the types of services that we had sunday after sunday. My senior pastor was gone this past week so that left the preaching duties to me one sunday morning! I love preaching and getting a message to the people in different ways. I am not a great preacher and I am not that creative. But last week, the moon must have been in line with me or something because I changed things up a little bit. Sunday morning service usually goes something like this: Welcome/announcements, songs, tithe, songs, pastoral prayer, special song and then the sermon. Well I threw a curveball that was welcomed by some and almost caused an ambulance to be summoned. I had the welcome and announcements, the special song and THEN I did the sermon!!! After which we sang and I did the pastoral prayer. Here is where it gets humorous. I was doing the pastoral prayer and as soon as I get done there is an elderly saint of the church standing in front of the pulpit waiving wildly his check and telling me that I had forgot to take the offering!!! I laughed out loud (I think) and told him that it was next and you should have heard the sigh from the congregation!!!! Oh boy...after church I got the normal "I loved your sermon" and "the nod" from most of the men. I got one note that said the service was "awesome" and another lady said that I was "refreshing". I had a good time switching it up. Sometimes we get into such a groove we forget to actually listen to what is being said. Oh the joy of being young and having people blow off what you do and use your youthful exhuberance as the excuse!!! I had a great time doing it though...it was different for even me. I will never forget the look on the mans face though as long as I live! God is good all the time!!!

House hunting and keeping the faith

As Sarah and I have been looking for a place to live the stress has been building up. It didnt hit me all of the sudden but after family camp last week the pressure just kept adding up. I was looking at a house yesterday and called the number and got an answering machine. Then Sarah asked me to pray about it...novel idea. So I stopped right there and prayed about it. I asked that God's will would be done and that he would open the right doors and close the wrong ones. Still, I really liked that house. I would go as far as saying that, if the house looks good on the inside as it does on the outside, that I would sign the lease today. But that got me thinking...do we really use faith in God in our everyday lives? It seems to me that we have become a culture that is increasingly turning into a "I have to see it to believe it" country. We make most of our decisions on "common sense". Do we trust God to work in situations like these? Or do we just think that he sits back watching us live our lives? Which ever one we decide really shapes not just our daily lives but our daily faith. I want to have more faith, more daily faith in the daily things...still sometimes it seems too trivial for the creator of the universe to open doors for me to live in a house in northern Indiana. Then I am reminded of the old spiritual, "his eye is on the sparrow so I know he is watching me!" I need to trust him not only in the big, life-altering things but also in the daily, minute, mundane things. Good day...

Pressed but not crushed

I love being in the ministry. Who wouldn't if you were called to do it? I prepared for it to the best of my ability at Indiana Wesleyan. Still sometimes I feel inadequate when I get around those who have been in ministry longer than I have. I hear of the things that they have planned and the activities that they are doing and they seem to dwarf anything that I could come up with. I guess the assessment that I got from the Senior pastor who did a good portion of my practicum work during college is right. He said that I wasn't someone who would come into a situation and be great and blow everyone away. He said that he seen me as being a pastor that comes along and makes friendships and slowly makes changes in the lives around me (of course God does the changing, but through me). At first I was kind of offended. Now, I am afraid that he was right. BUT... I dont want to be that guy. Anyways...


I strongly dislike the summer...there is really nothing of great importance going on in the world of sports. That leaves me relegated to watching "Unwrapped" on the Food Network!!! At first it was ok...but I am ready for some Football and Playoff baseball(the only kind that really matters) and then some IU basketball!!! I love the winter not just for the cold weather but for the sports and this year...for the wedding! I am pumped about getting married in less than 90 days...can hardly wait.

Me and the girl