I am excited for this weekend. Looking forward to a long
weekend with the kids. Thankful for veterans that served this country that gave
us freedom, seeing MSU play football and relaxing. Even more than that, I am
looking forward to teaching at my church and then baptizing my son Ty.
Ty has wanted to make this commitment to Christ for at least
two years, but we felt he wasn’t quite grasping what it meant until now. This
Sunday he is making that commitment to follow Christ. Hailee and I are excited
about that. Along with the excitement means over the past years every time Ty
asked about baptism, we had talks about faith. One of the points we made, just
because you give your life to Christ doesn’t mean life is going to get easier.
There is nothing stating after you accept Christ, you will
live happily ever after and have an easy life. If anything it can get tougher.
Satan will challenge you, life will get tough at times and sometimes you will
hit rock bottom. What we face as Christians in the USA is nothing compared to the persecution Christians face all over the world. People will make fun of you for your faith and treat you like
crap because you claim to be a Christian. Just because people treat you like
crap doesn’t mean you are supposed to treat them like crap too. You are called
to be loving and caring even when it’s tough. In the end it’s not our jobs as
Christians to payback wrong for wrong, everyone will have to answer to God one
day.
Paul shares this about facing tough times as Christians 2
Thessalonians 1:6-7: “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who
trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This
will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with
his powerful angels.”
We all will face God for our actions in this life when we
pass away. For some people, that is going to be a huge struggle. Knowing what
they did to people, what they thought of Jesus and how they lived this life.
It’s hard to be a Christian at times and it’s not easy. Paul reminds us that
when we have times of trouble as a Christian, God is there to comfort us. Maybe
it will happen in this lifetime, maybe it will happen after we pass away when
we continue with our eternal life.
I love the fact I get to witness my son making that decision
to follow Christ. I always pray that when the tough times happen in his life,
he will always know that he can always seek comfort in God, even during the
tough times. As an eight year old, Ty will face some struggles in life, I hope
I can be there to help him stay strong in faith through those moments.
If you are going through those tough times in faith, know
that God loves you. God is always there to comfort you through the good and the
bad. Always trust in him, even when you feel like the world is against you.
Church
league sports can crack me up. I love the idea of them. Get together have some
fun, play some sports and enjoy some Christian fellowship. For my experience,
this is not the case the majority of the time. (My personal opinion) I have
seen better sportsmanship in my Beer League Hockey Leagues then I ever have in
a church league sporting event. Now before you start throwing stones at me, I
believe the majority of people have great intentions with Church league sports,
but the minority ruin the experience. Still the one saving grace is prayer. At
the beginning there is usually prayer before the game starts. I love this
aspect. Usually the prayer includes showing a Christ like attitude, good
sportsmanship, keep us from getting hurt and other Christian standard prayer.
In the
years of doing church league sports, the prayer doesn’t really vary a ton. The
translation of the prayer: God we are about to treat each other really
horrible, please give us grace when we cuss at the ref/ump for using their
judgment that we disagree with. Please let Jesus shine through us because I am
not going to be a nice person for the game Amen. So when a real matter came up
to be prayed over, I didn’t think much of it.
Before
one game about seven or so years ago, I was talking with Todd Hein. Todd is
awesome and I really didn’t know much about him at the time. He was a great
ump, funny and tried to make sure everyone had a good time. Todd made church
league sports fun. I think Todd was umping the game that day and after the
prayer as we went our separate ways to the dugout, I mention to Todd that one
of my students was going to a significant medical procedure and to keep them in
your prayers. Todd said great, why wait, let’s pray. It through me off a little
bit, the game was about to start people were heading to the field. Todd didn’t
care we stopped right there and prayed for my student. After that prayer he
said he would be praying about it with the other teams/games the rest of the
night. What a cool thing, I don’t even know if Todd remembers this, but I had a
lot of respect for Todd since then (I had respect for him before but I had even
more now). I believe in the power of prayer and Paul share about prayer in
Colossians 4:2…
“Devote
yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”
Prayer
is powerful to a Christian. A line about prayer I liked stated “Prayer is not a
spiritual luxury but it is essential for growth.” As we live our lives, a
Christians prayer is an important part of our lives not an afterthought. I have
had to correct myself from my early walk in faith. I used to say the great line
you will be in my prayers or I will pray for that. Sometimes I would remember
sometimes I wouldn’t. Just like Todd showed how to stop at that moment and
pray, I have changed to do this. When people ask for prayer whether in person
or online, I will try to stop at that moment and pray. Rather then writing will
pray, I will write just prayed.
Prayer
is a conversation with God. There are times when I am quiet and just try to
listen and other times I will vent at God about what’s going on in my life. If
there is one person you can talk to about anything, it’s God.
Where
are you with your prayer life? Is it essential or an afterthought? I thank
people like Todd who reminded me about dropping everything to pray and I try to
do this more and more. Even at a church league sports event we can stop and
have meaningful prayer. How do you need to respond in regards to prayer? How
can you improve your prayer life?
Confession time: I have no style. Clothes, style and I do
not mix. Anybody who knew me in high school knew I didn’t where jeans. I mostly
wore jogging pants and baggy t-shirts. It was not a style anybody repeated. I
choose to wear what was comfortable and sometimes ugly at times. Some of the
pants where really cheap and made an swoosh sound as I walked. A couple of my
friends would say you know when Joel was coming because you could hear the
swoosh. Life is full of choices.
We choose what clothes we where and we can choose what
personalities we show. Paul talks about different qualities we can choose to
have or cloth ourselves with in Colossians 3:12-14…
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved,
clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance
against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues
put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
Choose the right attribute for your life. Paul talked about
compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness and love. The
word bear in the original Greek scripture means to be patient with or to have
patience in the sense of enduring possibility. When becoming a Christian, we
are told what we can wear in regards to different characteristics. It’s our
choice what clothes we wear just like it’s our choice what we choose to show to
other people. We have the choice to show these different traits.
Instead of focusing on clothes you want to wear or what you
are wearing focus on what traits you choose to show. We have the ability to
show compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness and
love. Today, what is a trait you can focus on? How can you show people this
today?
Ultimately some people won’t be happy with you or you can do
something that irritates someone and they just don’t care for you after that.
Sadly as I reflect over who I am, I struggle with this. I
never want to be unliked and in the past have compromised my stands on certain
things because of this. Now this is nothing major like my faith of Jesus, but
just small debates that happens with life. It’s hard for me at times to take a
stance when I know it’s going to be unpopular.
As I contemplate who I am, I am trying to figure out what
cause this in me, I have started reading through Colossians.
Some of Colossians 1:9-10…
“We
continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the
wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and
please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the
knowledge of God.”
If my focus is pleasing people, I will always be let down.
This doesn’t mean that people have the wrong intentions with life, but it pales
in comparison to Jesus.
We (Christians) are trying to life a life worthy of the
Lord. We are called to be holy as God is holy. Man, talk about falling short of
this at times. Our goal is to please God in every way. The Bible Knowledge
Commentary puts it this way, “Merely pleasing people is incompatible with being
a servant of Christ.”
As I reflect over my own situation in life, am I trying to
please people or God? How am I falling short of this and what do I need to do
to change?
This is what I am reflecting on today, how about you?
I am dumbfounded
about garage doors. The first house Hailee and I owned a lady flipped the house
and put a beautiful garage door on the garage. It looked great but there was
only one problem, the garage wasn’t long enough. It could fit our Geo Prism at
the time but no chance of fitting out Grand Am. So we had a two and a half car
garage that could only fit a half car. Not making that mistake again, but yet I
make others.
Now checking
garage doors is a staple of getting a house. Our second house had a one care
garage and it was fine. We are more careful with checking the dimensions of the
garage and did with our third house. We made sure our vehicles could fit in it,
but it requires us to be careful. The doors is so tight that we have to
carefully enter and exist out of our garage door. Twice I was not careful. The
first time I cleared it in my first glance, but I was proven wrong. I caught
about half the mirror, broke the surrounding plastic and cracked the glass in
multiple spots. Not my finest moment, then last week I caught the thin corner
ever so slightly and it broke again. This was not as bad as the first time, but
I crack a corner of the plastic shell. Being alert cost me two mirrors and made
me question why someone would make a general two and a half car garage with
such a small window to get the vehicles in? Yet when it comes down to it, not
be alert cost me two mirrors.
Being alert is a
great trait and can cost greatly when we don’t use it. Every Friday I look
forward to the lighter side of sports when I watch the Not Top 10 on
Sportscenter. One of the shocking moments is when someone thinks they are done
and prematurely celebrates a victory. I have seen this happened in multiple
cycling events and a couple of long distance running events. Not being alert
cost these people a victory like it cost me my mirror (Multiple times).
Ephesians
6:18-19
“And pray in the
Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in
mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”
I firmly believe
in the power of prayer. I have seen it work multiple times in my life and in
the lives around me. Anything and everything can be prayed over, it’s giving our
concerns over to God. Some people don’t believe in prayer because it’s on God’s
timing instead of ours. We grow impatient when we pray and the results aren’t
immediate or we get the wrong results. Some times God knows what is better for
us then we do. Prayer is giving our worries, concerns and desires over to God
and trusting he knows what’s best. Sometimes you might be praying the same prayer
for months or years before things change. God’s timing is not our timing.
We are told to
be alert in prayer. One way this can be described is making an effort to learn
what could be a potential future threat. At times my prayer life can be
sporadic. If I see someone on social media asking for prayer, I come to the
conclusion if I don’t pray right then, I will forget. So I stop what I am doing
and say a prayer at that moment. My prayer life should be in overdrive right
now and I need to get back up to that level. Things I need to pray about, what
it’s like growing up with a teenage daughter and starting to look at her
dating. I need to pray about my future and what God has in store for me. I need
to pray for my life right now and how I can serve God and my family to the best
of my abilities just to name a few.
What do you need
to pray about or need to do to take that next step in prayer? As my anxiety can
overtake me, I need to do a better job in going to God in prayer. Relying on my
own abilities has cost me more then two mirrors, I need to be alert and
remember to up my prayer game, how about you?
No matter how small we are in the grand scheme of things, we
can play a big role by doing a small thing. The ALS challenge, Michael Brown
case and the ISIS/Christian persecution have weighed pretty heavy on my heart.
I have spent a good chunk of time praying over these situations. It’s a work of
art when we think outside ourselves and towards others. Yet could there be
something greater then thinking of others?
One thing I love about Christianity is the focus not on me
but others. Being a servant of Jesus is a rewarding thing and it doesn’t
include getting a raise, degree or new better job. Yet the goal of every
Christian is to please God with our lives, not ourselves or other people.
Paul shares this statement in Galatians 1:10, “Am I now
trying to win the approval of humans beings, or of God? Or am I trying to
please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a
servant of Christ.”
“If my goal was popularity, I wouldn’t bother being Christ’s
slave,” (the first half of verse 10 in The Message). People accused the author
Paul of teaching freedom from “The Law” in order to appeal to Gentiles. Paul
bluntness was to show not pleasing men but God. If Paul was trying to win the
appeal of the people, he wouldn’t try to call out those following false
gospels.
Jesus calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves but the
overall goal is to please God not people. There is nothing wrong with treating
others with respect but the overall goal is Jesus. Why do I do the things,
treat people with respect love and admiration? Jesus. Jesus is the underlining
goal of the person I try to please with my life. I might be far from imperfect,
I have many flaws yet I love Jesus and my goal with life is to strive to be
more pleasing to Jesus everyday. Who are you trying to please?
Through my bible study I write about what I read and what I
feel God is trying to teach me. I look at this time as personal devotion and
sometimes I share this in a public setting that God can use for other people
too. Yesterday’s section was on Orderly Worship. Worship is a has been a hot
topic button at so many churches as of late. As I was praying about it and
reading the scripture I debated writing about it. Could this offend people? Am
I truly qualified to talk about this subject? Am I doing this out of the wrong
desires? The more I read the scripture and prayed the more I felt God was
telling me to write this. So before you is what I learned about worship through
1 Corinthians 14…
I think back to my own desires of worship. If I had a choice
of worship music, DC Talk’s In the Light would
be played every Sunday. It’s a song that has always touched my heart and love
for the church and Jesus. This would be pointless. People would get tired of
hearing this song even if I wouldn’t. Those are my own desires. One question we
have to ask ourselves is what we want from worship? We have different songs,
instruments, singers and leaders that touch our hearts. We constantly have to
ask ourselves is the worship service supposed to be for me or for more then me?
At Seminary I was taking a preaching class and was taught
about humbleness from a man who has been preaching for about 40 years. Chuck
Sackett was teaching about the overall worship service. He said something along
the lines of…
“For the most part I don’t enjoy the worship at our church
and that is a good thing. I have been a Christian for over 50 years. If
everything we did was to make me happy we are pleasing an already baptized
believer who has been preaching for a very long time. That is not the intent of
the worship service.”
I pray that I have this humbleness when I am older. Worship
isn’t about my own desires, it’s about God. Hailee and I had a guest over the
weekend. This guest over the age of 50 has visited our church several times and
said this is the first time they felt the Spirit of God in the service. The
goal of the worship service is to plan a service designed to grow people closer
to God not to please people. If it was to please people I would imagine most
would want five minute sermon.
On a couple of different occasions we have had communion
mediations go longer then the three-five minutes they are supposed to go.
Sometimes I will have a guest with me and they will turn to me and say, wow
that was a great sermon, it was short and had a point. I have to tell them that
was the communion meditation. They will look at me with shock and disgust. One
said to me, “You mean I have to listen to two sermons!”
1 Corinthians 14:26 and 40…
“What then shall we say, brothers and sisters When you come
together, each of you has a hymn,or a word of instruction a
revelation, a tongue or an interpretation Everything must be done so that the
church may be built up.…. But everything should be done in a
fitting and orderly way.”
We need to make sure we try not to take scripture out of
context. Now there is much I can say about speaking in tongues and
interpretation but that will be for a separate time. One of the words I first
see that can cause division is the word hymn. We have to have a hymn. The word
hymn is translated from a word meaning Psalm. We need to make sure we aren’t
looking at just what we want with worship.
The Christian Church was broken up about musical instruments
in worship. Some people hated the use of the piano in the church. It caused a
church to divide. The people didn’t like the traditional hymn Hallelujah Thine the Glory. Why? It was
a bar song (The only place the piano was in were bars and carting that over to
the church was wrong) and titled “Hallelujah I’m a Bum.” Therefore the church
was divided on it. Honestly, I am glad they kept with the instruments in the
church. My brothers and sisters at non-instrumental church I have much love for
and no hatred. They still love Jesus just as much if not more then me, but we
can worship in that difference and still love each other.
The point of verse 26, we are supposed to be lifted up
through the worship service. In order to please God there has to be a plan and
practice to execute that plan. Opening Up
1 Corinthians…
“When Christians gather together to praise God and hear his
Word, nothing should be given prominence that draws attention to human
personalities or distracts from concentrating on the Lord himself and his
message to his people. ‘Does it edify?’ is a question to be asked about every
part of any coming together of the church.”
We are not supposed to have our own desires in mind with
worship. The musical aspect of worship is not supposed to be a request line.
People need to pray and think about the song selections to whether they tie in
with the overall message about God. This can take hours of planning and
sometimes we as non-worship ministers have no idea how much time and planning
goes into every aspect of a church service. I see this from the two worship ministers’
I have served beside in Wally and Kris. These guys put a ton of effort more
then anyone would know.
The second verse that goes hand and hand with this verse is
verse 40. The Corinthian church was struggling with the worship services and The Message writes verse 40 like this,
“Be courteous and considerate in everything.” The worship leader needs to look
at not their own preferences but God’s. The
Bible Exposition Commentary puts it this way…
“The Corinthian church was having special problems with
disorders in their public meetings (1 Cor. 11:17–23). The reason is not
difficult to determine: they were using their spiritual gifts to please
themselves and not to help their brethren. The key word was not edification, but exhibition. If you think that your
contribution to the service is more important than your brother’s contribution,
then you will either be impatient until he finishes, or you will interrupt him.”
From this section we are to learn that the worship service
is supposed to build the church up and it needs to be done to with careful
consideration. This is why I have a special love for those in this position.
The worship minister is not an easy position. We need to realize that we can be
part of the problem rather then the solution. No matter how much I want In the Light played every Sunday, it’s
my own selfish desires and not for the Glory of God.
When you worship this Sunday, no matter what the song, who’s
singing, who’s doing the communion meditation and who’s preaching, all the
Glory goes to God and not the individual.
What can you do to lift up God instead of yourself? This is
what God keeps telling me through this post.
I can barely clap and
sing at the same time. I told this to my church when I was in the interview
process with them. I have never enjoyed my voice and think I sound awful. For
this reason alone you won’t hear me every lead the musical side of worship.
This is a good thing for everyone.
Music is not my gift.
It’s not my strength and I love being able to worship next to my beautiful wife
because she has an amazing voice. I can worship our Lord and Savior as loud as
I want and be covered by her amazing voice. Singing is not my gift. Even though
my singing is below par, I can serve God. Jesus can use me just as much as you.
Serving God goes way
beyond preaching and leading music worship. You can be a great Christian, serve
God to the best of your abilities and not have a distinct gift of preaching or
singing in worship. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6…
“There are different
kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds
of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all
of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.”
We all have different
gifts and abilities. We are all not made the exact same way. Just like we have
different taste in food, we have different talent and skills. God can still use
us to the best of our abilities. Serving God does not require a Bible Theology
degree (That can help greatly though). Jesus used a group of people as apostles
that were failures as Rabbi’s.
According to Act 2:38
when we give our lives to Jesus we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have
different talents spiritually this is different then being able to throw a baseball
super fast or run at amazing speeds. Gifts can look like wisdom, knowledge,
joy, love, patience and self control to name a few.
God values you. He
thinks you are talented and have great potential. Even if you feel like a
reject or unloved, Jesus thinks you are special. You are one of a kind. Nobody
in this world is exactly like you. Jesus wants to use you to the best of your
abilities. What can you do to show love to someone else? How can you show
wisdom, joy, love and patience to others this week? You can make a difference
in someone else’s life this week.
No matter what I did the problem was still there. The crack
in our ceiling was not going to leave us. Two coats of paint (At different
times) did nothing compared to the crack. We tried plaster and tried to smooth
it out to no success. Everything we tried just wouldn’t work. We threw in the
towel, this crack in the ceiling of our home would not go away. It was to due
to the foundation shifting and left a crack we couldn’t fix.
We are people with cracks, holes and other things that keep
us from being the people we want to be. Sometimes we are shaky with what we
believe or want to accomplish. Maybe we have goals in mind but keep ourselves
from accomplishing them, sometimes we put our trust in what shouldn’t be
trusted. Our faith can even be shaken at times.
I was talking to a great friend in Tim Ramseier a while ago
when we talked about problems in youth ministry. Tim told me that we are
dealing with the first generation of parents who grew up in youth groups. He
told us that sadly the way you used to do youth ministry was having pizza,
games and maybe a little Bible. He mentioned about how this created problems
because these are the parents of the youth ministry kids today and sometimes
this is what they expect with youth ministry. Ministry has evolved, just like
nobody wants a big bulky TV anymore (Flat panel LCD or plasma is sweet), nobody
wants a water down faith. What based a foundation of faith?
1 Corinthians 3:10-13…
“By the grace God has given me I laid a foundation as wise
builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with
care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which
is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly
stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because
the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire
will test the quality of each person’s work.”
Nobody wants a gimmick. We all see infomercials that are
going to change the world with one product. Most of them don’t work and we
could spend $20 on garbage. Faith can be that way. People would put their faith
and trust in humans. In Paul’s time they would say I am a follower of Apollos
or this person or that person and put their faith wrapped around those people.
Therefore when those people would fail them or they wouldn’t like what they had
to say, they would follow a different person rather than making Jesus their
foundation.
We can say we are different and put more effort on Jesus
Christ, but we can still have a shaky foundation. This is why people leave
churches or get mad when church isn’t going their way. Reasons people leave
churches I have heard…
“The preaching was boring to me.”
“The worship wasn’t appealing to me.”
“I served in this ministry for 20 years and they just want
to replace me.”
“This church tried to reach new people and it didn’t care
anymore about me.”
The church has never been about me, it’s always been about
Jesus. Jesus is what the foundation of faith needs to be based on. Everyone in
the church is a servant of Jesus, we do what we can do to reach more people or
to be a better servant of Christ. We all are people with sins and mistakes, but
Jesus can still use each of us to help other people out. No matter what
mistakes we have made, we can put our trust in Jesus.
When you look at your life, your cracks and scars it can be
a problem when you don’t go to the right person for help. When you have faith
issues Jesus gives us great people who can help us, but he also gives us prayer
and the ability to read his word in the Bible. Faith is based on the word of
God not a gimmick to get you in a church door.
What makes your faith today? Is it based on something around
you or something around Jesus? Have a great day.
At the time I was smart and confident, as time passes I can
see I was an idiot. My freshman class at Everett High School went out one day
and put a time capsule in the ground. We put down what we wanted to accomplish
in life. My list looked like this: get a full ride scholarship to either Michigan
State, Western or Central Michigan to run track or swim. If I failed at that I
wanted to be a sports writer. I put more stuff down but can’t remember it. As I
look back now, I wasn’t that bright.
I didn’t have a standout freshman season and in no way was
capable of getting a full ride as most swimmers and runner weren’t even offered
full scholarships. You couldn’t tell the 14 year old me this. I thought I would
work hard and improve. Man was I off base. Sometimes in life we give ourselves
more credit than we deserve. I thought I was wise and knew what I was talked
about. I was off base.
Sometimes in life we think we are wiser then we truly are.
No matter how smart, there is always someone smarter who knows more. I thought
this about faith, I thought I understood this and nobody could tell me
otherwise. God wisdom trumped my wisdom though.
1 Corinthians 2:6-8…
“We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature,
but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to
nothing. No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and
that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this
age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord or
glory.”
It took me all of high school to realize, God is way smarter
than me and there is a lot I don’t understand. Ever pray to God and not know
the result or be disappointed when things didn’t go your way? I have many
times, sometimes I look back at my prayers and think if I got what I wanted I
wouldn’t have been taught a valuable life lesson. Sometimes my prayers were a
want list from God, I want this….please make this happen…etc.
God’s wisdom goes beyond our own. There are many times he
has proved that I am not as smart as I think. I appreciate that time. It’s a
time where I can learn. Can you look back and see where you were wrong and
thought you were right? God’s wisdom goes beyond our own, it’s nice to know
that there is a greater plan that goes beyond our own understanding.
Why are we doing this was a thought as we sat in math class and used long division. Math was often like this, we did the work and were not sure why we did functions, proofs, finding x etc. What was the point? It didn't make any sense why we had to do it. When I look back from long division on, it was a challenge, but even at a young age long division got easier with time.
In life we have to deal with division of a different kind, sometimes it's a long division. I have seen this happen between friends, family, marriages, the church and people I love dearly. It's a sad state to see division of any kind, but God is still God and can bring us out of division when we trust in him.
1 Corinthians 1:10...
"I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought."
My church has been in the process of hiring a worship minister. After much prayer and consideration I saw our leaders move forward with this process. It's not an easy process feelings have been hurt and not everyone saw eye to eye with it and voiced concern. It's not an easy task as we move forward. When I read this verse it just sunk in. The church needs to be an example to the rest of the people. United we stand needs to be a statement for the whole church. There are things that we don't always understand but it still means we need to move forward united.
A question we have to ask ourselves with life...Are we causing division or unity? With what we say is it making a situation better or worse? I have seen marriages struggle and end in divorce. I have seen marriages I thought were going to end in divorce be remarkably saved and improved.
Life is full of long division and not just in math. Yet division can go away when we all move towards the same goal. We never will always agree with everyone, but there is beauty when we trust what we don't always understand.
Are you the one that is creating division in your life, among your loved ones, among the house of Jesus? If so what can you to help to be unified? You can be divided or united. Which do you choose?
Have a great day.
Ever noticed the people you are the closest too are the same
ones you joke way too much with? My friend Jason has been the closest friend I
have had for the longest amount of time, 17 years. Often in order to help us
deal with stress and such we would say things to each other that would try to
lighten the mood and level of stress. We would often tell each other to die
when we ended a conversation. We would end conversations like the title to this
blog. It isn’t true but basically would lighten the mood to let us know don’t
take everything that happens as life or death.
Jason and I cared for each other and often I would pray for
him and he would do the same for me we just never talked about it. This past
week he was talking to me and said, “I was praying for what you were going through.”
I knew we prayed for each other but we never really talked about it. We were
close and sometimes missed the point of friendship. Prayer does matter in life and
I truly believe that, yet prayer wasn’t always a huge priority.
I had a bad habit for a while. Years ago people would ask me
to pray for them, and I would say it and often forget. We are people of the
moment. I came into the realization that if I do not pray for things right
then, I most likely won’t pray for them. As a result I changed the way I pray.
When people ask for prayer on social media, rather than saying I will pray, I
write just prayed because I will pray for it before writing a response. We all
need help in life, prayer can change and mold us.
Even the greatest Christians in the Bible ask for prayer.
Paul spends the end of chapter 15 in the book of Romans talking about prayer
for him.
Romans 15:30-33…
“I urge you, brothers and sisters, by
our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle
by praying to God for me.Pray that I may be kept safe from the
unbelievers in Judea and that the contribution I take to Jerusalem may be
favorably received by the Lord’s people there, so that I may
come to you with joy, by God’s will, and in your company be refreshed.The
God of peace be with you all. Amen.”
Paul did some amazing things in his life. He still was
seeking prayer for problems in his life and what was happening with the contributions.
People gave him to give to the church in Jerusalem would be received with open
arms. He wanted to bring joy with and hoped they would feel refreshed.I love verse 32-33 coming with joy, being
refreshed and through the God of peace be with them all. I love it and what
pray and God can do.
Everyone needs prayer and I am one of those people. We all
know people in our lives that could use prayer. Who can you pray for today or
what can you ask prayer for? While we do joke around a lot, Jason and I do pray
for each other and care for each other. Prayer shows that you care and you are
not afraid to admit there is a God who loves you and wants to be involved in
your life. All you have to do is go to him.
Some dreams can be so vivid. I was spending a holiday in
Michigan staying over at my mother and father in laws house. Things were going
great when we started to watch some old video reminiscing over what happened in
the past. After a while of watching happened and life changed.
When I awoke, my life was completely different. I wasn’t
married, I didn’t have kids yet I was the same age. I never went into ministry
and was still a sports writer. I couldn’t grasp or know the life I was supposed
to lead. I started living my life as a single sports writer. I still ended up
in Terre Haute and lived in my old house. Man, I couldn’t get a better house as
a single sports writer?
Life was good, I something was different but it was good. I
started going out my front door and a voice came out of nowhere saying I wasn’t
leading the life I was meant to have. It was like a punch hit me, I turned
around to see what it was and no one was there. I kept moving and the voice came
back, soon a person appeared like a ghost. The person then said this was not
the life I was meant to have.
He showed me what life was supposed to be. How I was married
with four kids living in a nice house and working in ministry. I was flabbergasted.
This wasn’t a life I originally wanted. Yet this man said, your life will
change right now and it will be greatly improved. Soon I was on a fast track to
change and have the life this ghost told me I was supposed to have. I met
Hailee for the first time, something sparked and soon I was awake by the alarm.
This was one of the most vivid dreams I have ever had in my life. What if life
ended up different for you? Would you be happy or sad?
I was living a good life in my dream until I felt an
overwhelming sense of emptiness. Being a single sports writer away from my
friends and loved ones without a family felt good until I saw the people that
were supposed to be in my life.There
was love I had in my vision that I didn’t have in my dream.
As I recall and write this, I was reading scripture this
morning and this was the first two verses I read, Romans 12:9-10…
“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is
good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”
Honor others above yourself. Love calls us to live life
differently. Not to do things out of selfish desire and think about how we can
help other people out. If there is something that is evil, stay away from that
and think about how you can make live better by helping other people out.
In my dream I thought life was good until that ghost changed
my thought.
When I awoke not in the life God put before me, an
overwhelming sense of abandonment came over. I truly love my wife, kids and
ministry. I feel unworthy to have a life I love so much. I thank God for that.
God couldn’t have given me a better spouse than Hailee and four wonderful kids.
It made me think of the life I wouldn’t have had without
God. God taught me so much and without going to Campus Life all that time ago,
I never would have met Hailee. Things happen in our life that is better than
our own understanding. I thank God for this life and hope to continue to show
other people love the same way Christ showed me. If you are not living the life
you envision, try this. Helping and showing other people love you wouldn’t
normally show love. Maybe because they hurt you or you don’t think about
helping strangers out. Life can change when we think outside our own life and
towards others.
It’s fun to watch the TV show Cops, it’s even better in
person. Hailee and I lived in a questionable area in Lansing, MI. While it
would be classified as a bad area, there were mostly good people with just a
few bad apples that ruined it. One of the bad apples lived across the street.
It wasn’t even the family, it was a relative. This was when the fun began.
I arrived home to see a SWAT vehicle parked across the
street. This was better than what I was doing so I stopped and watched Cops
from my front porch. They got the guy arrested and a whole bunch of SWAT
members were walking around with semi-automatic guns and rifles. I should have
grabbed some popcorn because this show was awesome. I even got to witness the
slowest get away possible.
As the situation died, another began. As the cops were talking
and the front driveway was blocked by a couple of officers. A person walked
right out the front door unnoticed and into a car in the driveway. Once the car
was started, the officers noticed the car starting to move and one blocked the
car from leaving and the other knocked on the window to get the person to stop.
The car started edging away slowly and ignored the cops. Finally the cop
knocked with the gun they had. The person stopped and got out, it was a 70+
year old women. Man, that was the slowest get away in the world. You can’t make
this stuff up. The relative of hers was into selling drugs among other things.
The family and neighbor needed help, what could I do?
Ignoring situations don’t prevent bad things from happening.
Watching this was fun and interesting yet sad. They were a family in which one got
into a bad situation and lived their lives selling drugs, how can I help with
that? Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)…
“So here’s what I
want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your
sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before
God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can
do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it
without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from
the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond
to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of
immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in
you.”
We can either watch lives get ruined or do something to
change lives. I look back at that situation in that neighborhood, I could have
tried helping my neighbors or get to know them better instead of just watching.
You can talk bad about this generation or you can do something to help.
Everyone can help even an 80 year old lady in a Mexico
prison. A lady who grew up in Beverly Hills went to one of the most dangerous prisons
in Mexico. She started serving and loving the inmates in a very dangerous
situation. She even broke up a riot.
She could have thought she couldn’t help the situation, but
God did. God puts people in your life for a reason, some for friendship, some
for love, some for you to love. We aren’t going to get along with everyone we
meet, but we can still show them love. We aren’t supposed to live life for the American
dream. We are called to help others out when they are down.
God brings the best out of us. Jesus gave us the ability to
show love to other people because he showed love to us. I wonder what would
happen if I showed love to the people around me in Lansing? While you can’t go
back, you can go forward, who can you help in your life today? Who can you
serve and encourage today? God gave you his best in his son Jesus for your
sins, one of the best ways to help others out is to serve them the way God
served us. Who can you help today?
