Bring together or tear away

We all have the ability to bring people closer together with our actions or pull people away. There was a college basketball team a couple of years ago in which the team just missed the NCAA tournament after going 20-9. The next season they were supposed to be a major team that was going to go far in the tournament. Instead the team went 9-23. The team’s best player that was up for a national player of the year honor couldn’t hit a shot. He would still score 25 a game but it would take 30 shots to make it happen. They stopped working together and fell apart. The same thing can happen in our lives and in the church when we don’t fight for unity.

Unity is important in our lives and in church. Paul tried to bring to church in Thessalonica back together in the end of his book. Paul shares this in 2 Thessalonians 3:16-18, “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.”

There was a lot of division in the church and Paul’s goal was to bring the people together. The truth is what Paul hoped the individuals and the church would find. This truth was God’s will. If the people focused on this truth, the problems would go away. Paul often wrote to a scribe like figure and the fact Paul wrote the end of this book stands out. Paul wanted to unite the people.

We can bring peace. This section of scripture focuses on the matters inside the church, but can apply to our overall lives.

In our lives ask yourself…

Am I promoting unity or not?

At home?

At work or school?

With our friends?

With people we don’t care for?

We have the chance to bring peace in our lives.

That basketball team didn’t have unity, but the coach and team worked at it and the following year, they made the NCAA tournament and had the biggest win total change in college basketball. When we live in peace, good things happen.

How can you make peace happen in your life?

Have a great day.

Should have passed on French Class

One of my regrets in school was taking French over Spanish. In order to look good for college I knew I had to take a foreign language. I wanted to take Spanish but my sister was in French. I knew she did a good job kissing up to the teacher (Thanks Onna! Made my grade great for a while) and it would make it easier for me. I did enjoy what I learned and the teacher was good, but it was pointless. I never had a desire to go to France and I have used French maybe five times in my life. One time I can barely count because it was in Haiti. I was told they speak French/Creole. So I tried speaking some French, they spoke Creole and it was an extremely awkward five minute conversation.  Some things we learn are extremely practical if we remember them. Paul reminded the Thessalonians in the second book.

Education from the apostles was important. Paul shared this line with the people in 2 Thessalonians 2:15, “So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.” Stand firm to the knowledge the apostles gave. False prophets and teachers that spoke well but deceived people filled into the church. Paul wanted the people to stand firm on what he taught, be filled with the knowledge of Jesus and what he did, this way they would know the true truth.

We need to apply Jesus’s teachings to our own lives. French class wasn’t as beneficial for me, it was still a good class, just not practical. What Jesus taught was practical, beneficial and worth applying the teachings to our lives. With what Jesus taught, what do you need to apply to your lives?

Have a great day.

Christians don’t always live happily ever after

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.

Have a great day.

Gang members show more love than Christians

I’m out.

Simple words from a man. This man was mentioning how he recently became a Christian, giving up life in a gang to follow Jesus. He came into the church and said these two words to the pastor indicating he was going back to the gang. The Pastor replied, “Why are you out?” The man replied, because I thought following Jesus was a brotherhood. You have each other’s back, you care for one another and are around each other all the time. The man found the opposite to be true. This was a story from a book I read, I can’t remember which book it was (Maybe “It” by Craig Groeschel) but I believe it was a true story. Part of me wants to debate this. The church in general is better than this, but part of me thinks the opposite.

It was November 5, 2000 when I was baptized. It was a great day. One of the things I remember after getting baptized was a lady. This lady almost came running up to me saying loudly “Welcome to the family!” She gave me a big hug, I was thrown off by this. For the past two years I attended this church off and on, I never got more then a dirty look from this lady. I would be standing next to my friend Jason and she would talk lovingly to Jason and how great he was, than she wouldn’t even acknowledge I was there. One time in particular, she talked to Jason (While I was standing next to Jason), praised him for reciting scripture in Sunday School than looked up and down at me, giving me a dirty look and walking away. I was not a Christian at the time and I told Jason, “Dude, did you see the look she gave me, what’s her problem?” Those weren’t the exact words I said, but you get the point. He replied, “Don’t worry about that, she is like that to people she doesn’t know.” Until I became a Christian, I had not one positive interaction from this lady. This was part of the reason I didn’t get baptized earlier. I thought all Christians were hypocrites, they talked about love but didn’t show it. We need to change this.

Paul shares some words that applied to the Thessalonians and they can apply to us today regarding love. 1 Thessalonians 3:12…

“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.”

Paul showed amazing love for people. Even from jail he wrote encouraging letters to people. He shared how hearing of their love for one another lifted his spirits. May your love increase and overflow not just for people in the Church but people outside the Church. I love the overflow line, that is how much we are supposed to love. Our love can be so much, it can overflow just like fizz from filling up a fountain drink, it can overflow.

We have the opportunity to show our faith by our love. Christians have a history for fighting and having bitterness in church over small trivial things: color of the carpets, getting rid of hymn books and showing words on a screen, calling a gym a gym instead of family life center etc. We as Christians need to still show love to each other even when there are disagreements. Our love is supposed to overflow from those inside the church to those outside the church.

For those who are Christians, who have you been bitter towards inside the church and why? As a Christian, who do you need to do a better job inside the church of showing love? Now in general, who can you show a love that is overflowing from you today?

We have the opportunity to show the world our love, how can you show your love today?

Have a great day.

The only way life could get better is if my wife made me a sandwich whenever I asked

Wives submit to your husbands. This phrase can tick people off. Why should I have to submit? Why is this in the Bible? Why would God be against women? Why does man have this much authority over women? The questions over this simple verse can go on and on. Let me try to shed some light on this subject.

This is from Colossians 3:18 but I will go over 19 too, “Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord…Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.”

This is what the Message translation says in verse 18-19, “Wives, understand and support your husbands by submitting to them in ways that honor the Master. Husbands, go all out in love for your wives, Don’t take advantage of them.”

It’s easy to look at scripture and manipulate scripture to say what you want it too. This is what Norman Geisler said in the Bible Knowledge Commentary about this scripture:

            “Wives are to submit to their husbands as their heads. This command was not limited to Paul’s day, as is obvious from two reasons he gave elsewhere: (1) the order of Creation (man was created first, then woman; 1 Tim. 2:13); (2) the order  within the Godhead (Christ submits to the Father; 1 Cor. 11:3). Submission or subordination does not mean inferiority; it simply means that the husband, not the wife, is head of the home. If he may be thought of as the “president,” she is           the “vice-president.”^[1] Of course there are moral limits to this submission; it is only as is fitting in the Lord. Just as obedience to government is commanded (Rom.13:1; Titus 3:1; 1 Peter 2:13) but only insofar as government takes its place under God (Ex. 1; Dan. 3; 6), even so a wife’s submission to her husband is only “in the Lord.” That is, she is not obligated to follow her husband’s leadership if it conflicts with specific scriptural commands.^[2]

It has to follow scriptural commands. This doesn’t mean if I want a sandwich, Hailee better make it for me without any grief. I think the verse 19 is just as important, Geisler said:

            “Husbands are responsible to love their wives (as Christ loved the church; Eph. 5:28–29). So they are to exercise loving leadership, not dictatorial dominion. Perhaps husbands need this reminder to be tender and loving as much or more than wives need the reminder not to usurp authority over their husbands. Assuming absolute authority will only embitter one’s wife, not endear her. The words be harsh translate pikrainesthe, which is more literally, “make bitter.” (A     different word is used in Col. 3:21; see comments there.) Wives, like tender and sensitive flowers (cf. 1 Peter 3:7), may wilt under authoritarian dominance but blossom with tender loving care. So in a maturing marriage the husband exercises compassionate care and his wife responds in willing submission to this loving leadership.^[3]

I love the phrase happy wife, happy life. If we aren’t trying to make our spouses happy, how do we expect to be happy? Marriage is about sacrifice, looking for each other’s best interest instead of our own. Yes, husbands are called to lead, but lead like Christ leads the church. Having the greatest love and ability to sacrifice himself for the Church. We are supposed to do that for our spouse.

Everyday I grow more in love with my wife. She has been really amazing to me through the years and even more over the past couple of weeks. I really don’t know where I would be without her.

If we claim to be Christian, our life is supposed to be honoring God. This needs to happen in marriage too. What are you doing to honor God in your marriage? What are you doing to show love for your spouse?

Have a great day.

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^[1] Norman L. Geisler, “Colossians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 683.

^[2] Norman L. Geisler, “Colossians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 683.

^[3] Norman L. Geisler, “Colossians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 683.

Choosing your personality like choosing the clothes you wear

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?

Have a great day.

Genuine, just like a pair of leather pants

Leather pants sounded like such a good idea. Leather was a fashion statement with coats and for an extremely short time in pants. I think Scrubs did a great episode about leather pants with JD and Turk and how when they got money, they got leather pants. It ends up they were extremely stiff and grabbed the skin, instead of a night out, it was a night in for the TV doctors. Genuine leather can last for a while, fake leather cannot. I once had a fake leather jacket that was beautiful and Michigan State. I paid the price as it was imitation, within two months this awesome jacket was literally shredding. Sometimes there is a huge difference between genuine and not so genuine.

Paul was making this journey telling people about Jesus, he couldn’t be everywhere so he trained people to be there. One of the people he trained and sent out was Timothy. This is a line about what he thought of Timothy, “I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare.” Another way this is put, “I have no one quite like Timothy. He is loyal, and genuinely concerned for you. Most people around here are looking out for themselves, with little concern for the things of Jesus. But you know yourselves that Timothy’s the real thing. He’s been a devoted son to me as together we’ve delivered the Message.” Timothy was a great help and an asset.

Timothy was genuine it’s something we can strive to be like. The word in the original Greek Bible is legitimately, meaning to possess purported good character or quality. What a great statement someone else said about Timothy. Timothy was someone that looked out for others interest and cared for others. What if we did this?

I have been blessed by a ton of genuine people in my life. From my awesome wife Hailee to my large extended family and friends, I have numerous genuine people in my life. If something bad happened, I have a ton of people in my life that will be there for me. My goal is to be able to return the favor.

Timothy was an encourager and that is what we can all strive to be. Showing genuine concern for one another. What a different that can make in our lives at home, work, in public if we started to do this. Make a genuine difference in the world.

Have a great day.

Social media sadness

I grow weary of social media. Scrolling through my Facebook feed in the morning to see people sad about the election results, disappointed with the candidates and a lot of hatred. I see people share their close minded general life opinions they don’t have the ability to listen to others or gain knowledge from other people. I see parenting tips from close minded people who only have their thoughts on the way kids need to be raised and anything else is wrong. Sometimes the bad can overtake the good.

Even with this I am a fan of social media. Social media is the only way I can connect with friends and family I don’t get to see that often. I get to see the good news of people getting married, advancing in life, awesome family pictures and the occasional throwback where I get to see what life looks like at a younger age. There is so much hate and love on social media. What if we focused on the good?

Philippians 1:9-10…

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.”

Life is full of disappointments, but it doesn’t have to be. I was a stringer writing for the Lansing State Journal when one of our editors had a great idea of covering a full day of sports on the first day of Fall practice with a timeline and stories based on the timeline. I was assigned to go cover the Holt Ram girls swim team as they opened practice and write about what happens during that time of the day.

Holt at the time had won something amazing like 10 conference championships in a row (I don’t remember the exact number but it was impressive). Rather then getting in the pool and to work, coach Brent Pohlonski spent time addressing their attitudes. He explained how swimming is tough and sometimes we have a bad day as we head to practice. He told the team no matter what, to have fun and be happy. He said even if you have the worst day in the world, fake being happy. Soon enough you won’t have to fake being happy and truly enjoy being happy. This was amazing and you could see the team buy into this philosophy and it led to a great experience for the team. It was nice to be able to witness this communication between a coach, a winning team and most important a happy team.

Why does Paul talk so much about love, because we miss the point. What if we focused on love instead of hate and being judgmental? What if we showed this love through life and social media? How would life be different? We have a chance to lift people up or tear people down with what we say and how we act. We are supposed to lift people up. How can life change if you chose to be happy with your outlook on life rather then sad? We are called to be blameless for the day of Christ. Today, I am going to try focusing on love.

Have a great day.

Not being alert cost me two car mirrors

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?

Have a great day.

I make the money so I will do with it what I want

That wasn’t a joke this guy is serious. For the first time in a long time I was speechless. Several years ago I was riding in a car with a church leader as the subject switched to money and marriage. He went on to tell me him and his wife have an understanding with money. He is the head of the household, so he will do with it what he wants.

I thought he was joking. He then went on to explain if he decided to go golfing and it was between an average course that costs $40 for 18 holes and a cart or a nicer course that costs a lot more money he was going to take the one that costs more money. He said clear as day, “I make the money in our house, so I will do with it what I want. If I want to go golf at an expensive course I will.” The first 10 seconds, I was smiling and thought he was joking. I thought he was going to follow this up with a joke about making sure a sandwich was ready for him when he got home. After looking at his facial expressions and waiting another 10 seconds, I realized he was not joking and was dead serious. It was an awkward drive after that.

This goes back to one of the most misunderstood scriptures I deal with in premarital counseling that comes from the section Instructions for Christian Households Ephesians 5:21-6:9. The main scripture people use is 5:22, “Wives submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.”

It’s comical in a bad way how people can mess up this section. Verse 21, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” People miss the verse before this completely. Then if you look at the amount of verses. Paul gave women three verses to follow 22-24. Yet he gave men 25-33. Women you have three instructions and men, you need nine. I heard a sermon where the pastor said, women get this, they only need three verses, but men, we are a little thickheaded and Paul had to explain this out in further detail.

When talking about the husband as head of the household, The Bible Knowledge Commentary stated, “The reason for this submission is that the husband is the head of the wife (cf. 1 Cor. 11:3), and this is compared to Christ’s headship over the church (Eph. 5:23; cf. 4:15; Col. 1:18). As Christ is the Savior of the church, His body, so a husband should be the protector of his wife, who is “one flesh” with him (Gen. 2:24). As the church is in submission to Christ, so also a wife should be to her husband. It would be foolish to think of the church being head over Christ. But submission does not mean inferiority. It means that she recognizes that her husband is the head of the home and responds to him accordingly without usurping his authority to herself.^[1]

I personally believe that men are supposed to be the leaders in the home. A leader is not a dictator; it’s trying to know what’s best for the family. This can be a tough slippery slope as I have heard numerous stories of men abusing this. I have seen multiple marriages in trouble, the wife wanted and desperately needed the husband to go to marriage counseling only to be ignored. I have seen marriages in financial problems when the wife wanted to do a financial program like Dave Ramsey’s FPU program and the husband said, “We don’t need that.” One of the best ways I have heard this coming from a wife was, “Yes my husband is the head but I am the neck and I can turn the head anyway I please.”

 Men need to stand up and do what’s right. In verse 25, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” The word love in this section goes back to the Greek word agape or agapao. This is described as seeking the highest good for another person. This is what Jesus did for us when he died on the cross for our sins. He fully gave himself up for us. This is what Christ asks us to do in verse 21, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Christ fully gave himself up for us and we are called to do the same in marriage.

“A wife’s submission in no way hints that a husband may lord it over his spouse, as a despot commanding a slave. The “submit-love” relationship is a beautiful mixture of harmonious partnership in marriage.” – Bible Knowledge Commentary

If you are married, what is a way you can show love towards your spouse today? If it has been rocky lately, what can you do to help your spouse out and show them love in action today?

Have a great day.

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^[1] Harold W. Hoehner, “Ephesians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 640–641.

So much pain in love

It can be hard to show love to one another. When Jesus says, love your neighbor as yourself, it sounds simple. Yet we like to throw our minds in the mix and that makes hate more prevalent sometimes. I have been blessed to have some amazing neighbors and try to take care of them as they also take care of me. Not all my neighbors make loving an easy feat.

It’s easy to love neighbors when they say and do the right things, but what about when they don’t? A little while ago we had cable issues, our wifi kept disconnecting and soon we knew two hours of our life would be calling customer service. After four hours and three calls a technician came to our house. He checked inside our home system and then when outside to our box. He came back and said that our neighbor opened up the box and split our cable wire. Our neighbor was stealing cable from us for a couple of months. It’s easy to love neighbors that do what we think neighbors should do, it’s hard to love when they do the opposite.

Ephesians 4:31-5:2

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Follow God’s example, therefore as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

I will admit, I didn’t think highly of my neighbor after this happened. Yet this isn’t the love God was talking about. It’s easy to love the people we love, it’s hard to love everyone because we hold bitterness, rage and anger in us. Outburst of anger and settled feeling of anger have crept in my heart at times. If there were a couple of people I ran into in my daily life, love is not what I would want to say to them. I would want to say a couple other choice words. Yet, Jesus teaches us not to do this, why?

Jesus died for us. With how imperfect I am, Jesus still thought I was worth dying for. All the good and all the bad I have ever done in my life, Jesus still thought I was worth dying for. This is why we are called to let go of the hate because even while we were and still are sinners, Jesus didn’t give up on us and laid his life down for us.

Jesus loves us. This is why I need to still show love to my neighbor and those who I feel have wronged me because of the love of Jesus. Love is not easy, sometimes it can be a hard challenge when we let it. It’s time to let go of some hate and do a better job of showing genuine love to one another.

Have a great day.

Having a middle school kid

I feel as unprepared as ever today. My daughter will start her middle school life. It’s one of those where did time go moments? I am in awe of this moment. I have a middle school kid. Man, am I truly prepared for this? My beautiful daughter heading into sixth grade is so surreal to me. As ill prepared I feel, a lot of parents experience and make it through.

As I prepare for what the day brings I come across this in Ephesians 3:14-19…

For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I absolutely love what Paul shares. Being rooted and established in love makes me think of my yard this past year. I love to try to have a nice lawn and put down a ton of seed. Some of the seed didn’t take and there are bare spots. The grass that grew was able to survive the heat and didn’t dry out. It’s roots stood firm. There is something special about having that relationship with Jesus knowing you stand firm with life. This happens not only in the current time but also in the future we understand how much the father loves us.

This prayer was exactly what I needed today as I prepare for the journey that is about to start. I hope this prayer strikes a cord with you. As many head back to school over the up and coming days/weeks please say a prayer for them. Pray for their teachers, schools and administrators.

Have a great day.

Why is it hard to love Christians?

Today I have been reflecting on a couple of verses, Ephesians 1:15-16. “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people. I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”

I find it very easy for Christians to love God. This is the purpose of Sunday morning church, to praise and honor the one true God. God gave us Jesus to sacrifice for our sins. This is powerful. I am humbled every Sunday that God would do this for a sinner like myself. This is why I have faith, but the second half of this first sentence is extremely tough. We as Christians can truly struggle with love all God’s people.

Let me take you back a little while…I grew up Catholic, I have always loved Jesus and God, but not the church. By middle school I was weary of Church. A large group of people lived one way Sunday morning and another way the rest of the week. I was fed up with the church. Eventually I started attending Youth for Christ (Campus Life) and my friend Jason got me to go to church with him.  I started attending church infrequently.

I would go into church extremely timid. I didn’t know anyone other then Jason and his family. I would attend high school Sunday School, but everyone in the class for the most part looked like they didn’t want to be there. Nobody went out of his or her way to talk to me and people just knew me as Jason’s friend.

One time in particular a lady stopped Jason in the hallway and praised him for his Bible knowledge and answering questions in Sunday School. It was a three minute conversation, but at the end of it she looked up and down at me and walked away. I felt like dirt. This lady didn’t know me but shot daggers at me and treated me like I was scum. It took a while for me to move past this. Eventually I started attending church more frequently. Yet I felt like an outcast and felt out of place every Sunday. Eventually I moved passed that and got baptized one Sunday.  When I came down the stairs a group of people were there to congratulate me. One of the first people was this same lady who didn’t care for me and she said, “Welcome to the family!” It was the first time she said something nice to me in over two years of attending church. Christians then wonder why people don’t like them?

Christians can be some of the most hateful people. Westboro Baptist doesn’t help, but we all can tell story of Christians that act like awful people. I have had my moments where I haven’t acted Christian. Most ministers leave a church because of less then 10 people in their congregation. A minister could be liked by everyone in a 300 person congregation but still feel useless because of less then five people. I once met a person that tried singlehanded to run three ministers out of a church because he disagreed with them. I have been apart of three hour reviews where not one thing positive was said and left the meeting questioning my calling and if I am even meant to be a minister.

Ask any waitress which day they hate work and the majority they will tell you Sunday lunch because church people are lousy tippers and demand the most attention. I once had a conversation with a Christian who told me they wished a vulnerable looking guy would go to a downtown city protecting his second amendment rights. When one of the black thugs tried to mug him, he would use his second amendment rights and shoot him.  This way it would save taxpayers $40,000 a year.

We Christians are flawed people, but there is something we can do about this hate, change. We don’t have to be known as hateful people. We can choose to be loving and it starts within the church buildings. Love God and love his people, it’s so easy and we mess it up. We need to be encouragers of other believers. Whether we like them or not we are called to put or bitterness aside and show love. Paul praised the Ephesians for this. When we get in a praise mood rather then a bitter mood, it changes us. Stress and blood pressure can go down and love can flow again. If we truly want to be a representative of Christ in the world it starts with how we treat each other in a church building. Who will you encourage today? Who have you been bitter with and what will you do to change?

Have a great day.

Iron can sharpen Iron but not to be used to stab in the back

It feels weird not going to church. Even before going into ministry, Since becoming a Christian, I don’t like missing church. It never feels right. When I would miss I felt lost, I felt off. Yet today without having church services we can still have church. I am spending my morning reading my Bible. My family and I will do communion. Hailee and I will watch a service online. We can still do church, it won’t be the same as being around my loving church family though.

There is the phrase in Christian circles Iron sharpens iron. This is a great line for the church. Using one person to sharp another, we make one another better. Next weekend there is a great conference in this area for men, and this is the title for it: Iron Sharpens Iron. Such a great idea and men from our area will celebrate and grow together in faith. Sometimes this is done gently. Sometimes it involves tough love. The worst is when it’s used to make a sharp object to put into someone’s back. Christians can be quick to change face, that same iron sharpens iron can be brutal.

Hello, my name is Joel and I sin. I am not perfect, very far from it at times. Life has been painful at times, some my own doing and some outside my control. Some of the most painful has been from my own flesh and blood. From the people I wouldn’t expect it from, my brothers and sisters in Christ. I once took a class from Jim Estep about change and conflict management in the church. He opened the class with a line similar but not exact to: “We are all Christians we all love Jesus and therefore there is no conflict in the church. Class dismissed.” Everyone in this seminary class laughed, because we all knew it was the furthest from the truth. Fighting is the opposite of what Christians are called to be.

Galatians 6:1-5…

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.”

Restoring a car takes special tools, you wouldn’t just take a sledgehammer to restore it, likewise with restoring a person. Restoration does not mean forgive and forget. Restoration is using precise tools to fix the problem. Restoration can be gentle. It makes me think of how Andy fixed Woody’s arm in the first Toy Story. He didn’t go to town on Woody with duct tape, he was careful precise and that’s what we need to do with our fellow believers.

The restoration needs to be comprehensive. It can’t be done by someone with limited knowledge of faith and understanding. The word restore in verse one had two meanings. 1. It meant for setting broken bones. 2. For mending fishing nets. Restoration happens by Christians who are mature in faith and knowledgeable that no one is perfect and can fall into sin. Nobody needs to carry their own burdens, we all have troubles but being a Christian is taking and helping someone going through a rough time. We can help others through the tough times but we also need to reflect and see if we are in the wrong with our own life. If we don’t look at ourselves how do we expect to help others? We need to help others out and sometimes the best help is by helping ourselves.

When Christians can restore one another it can make a world of difference. When we can have a moment of self-reflection and start walking towards the path God intends us to walk, we can change our life and the life of people around us. Iron sharpens iron can be good or bad depending on how you use it. How can you sharpen iron today? Who can you restore today?

Have a great day.

A good cut of melon on a hot summer day

With three kids awake before seven, it can be a long day. It could be even worse when looking at my phone. I still felt a little cold and checked the temperature, -2. It was a good time to thank God. Here I am in a house that is just three feet, some wood, insulation and a heating vent away from this brutal temperature. I am blessed that I am on the inside looking out rather than the outside looking in. I say a prayer for those who don’t have homes and hopefully found some warm place to be indoors. Life can be full of glass half empty or half full moments. This weather makes me think what five months from now will be like. This weather makes me think how crazy this world can be. Five months from now we will forget about this cold, cold weather and start saying things like I can’t believe how warm it is. I look back to last summer and one of my favorite summertime things, relaxing and eating some good cantaloupe.

Cantaloupe has to be one of my all-time favorite fruits. It has such a smooth and great taste. The problem with this fruit, it’s like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. It’s not easy to pick out a good melon. I have tried all the methods: smelling, tapping, looking distinctly at the color and choosing one based on size. Sometimes they are great and sometimes they are a complete failure. I am about 50-50 with picking a good melon. Yet when I am right, there is nothing better than this beautiful great tasting fruit in the middle of the summer. It’s sometimes hard to pick great fruit, but it’s worth the gamble everytime.

 Good tasting fruit can be tough to find, but Paul uses good fruit as an example for what a good Christian looks like.

 Galatians 5:22-23…

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

 Being a Christian and living life according to God’s way can be a losing battle. We can struggle daily to keep our composure. Sometimes we are good fruit, people can see us being full of everything talked about in this scripture. Other times we can fall short, we can be bad fruit. It’s a daily struggle what we bring to the table. There are days I do extremely well, but there are days I fall completely short. I mess up, I lose my cool, and am bad fruit. It’s a daily and sometimes hourly battle to be good fruit.

This is the challenge with faith. We have to look on the inside and produce on the outside. We can know everything the Bible teaches but unless we show the characteristics show above we fail. Living life God’s way is a challenge. Some days are extremely hard, but it’s during those times we are especially called to be good fruit.

 What will you become today? With this weather, with the bad stuff going on in your life, you can choose to be bitter, angry, mopey and miserable. What happens to bad fruit? It gets thrown out, people don’t eat it. People want to surround themselves with people that lift them up. Not saying you have to fake being happy (There are fruits that look great but taste awful) but knowing there so many things to still be thankful for can be a great start. Become what you believe, be full of love and peace today.

 

Have a great day.

Cut off WHAT????

I love what I do. Daily I get to spend time in God’s word. It’s a great blessing and always challenges me. Today it completely surprised me. Paul was dealing with some people trying to sway people away from Christ and his message. Instead they were trying to persuade people to go back to the old ways of faith. For anyone who was a male that just now came to faith (Later on in life) they would have to do what everyone faithful to God had to do, get circumcised. As a kid, this is a tough process, as an adult I couldn’t imagine doing it. This brings us to the harsh words Paul shared about the people leading those astray.

Galatians 5:12…

Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. ¹² As for those agitators I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

The Message…

If I were preaching that old message, no one would be offended if I mentioned the Cross now and then—it would be so watered-down it wouldn’t matter one way or the other. Why don’t these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves!

Ummm what? Paul is blunt, I love this about him. He was all about Christ. People were so wrapped into the old way and making sure they followed the old way. They didn’t like the freedom Jesus brought in faith. They couldn’t grasp the idea that grace save them and their wasn’t a hard conversion. Jesus and the Cross put an end to the old way of faith, it made circumcision and following the old Mosaic Law not needed.

So Paul uses extremely hard language to explain this. He wished that those so wrapped into the old way of circumcision would just cut it all off. Imagine if we did that today? You got a problem with someone and you tell them to go castrate themselves (You could say it’s biblical aka bad theology!). The author was referencing this act that some of the cult of Cybele in Asia Minor priests did during this period of time. Circumcision was once the main sign of faith, but now it had no major religious meaning just like then any other cutting traditions of other pagans.

Reflection, are we wrapped into the old way of doing faith? Are we so wrapped into traditions we stop looking at what Jesus did on the Cross? Are our personal opinions of Church and faith trumping what Jesus actually taught? I once talked to a guy that only liked the traditional original King James Bible. In his personal opinion he thought this was the Bible that Jesus used and he wanted understand the Bible that Jesus taught from (no joke). He couldn’t grasp the idea that Jesus didn’t use the King James Bible and it was about a 75-85% correct translation. Are your own ideas about faith trumping what Jesus truly taught? If so, it might be time to take a deeper look at scripture.

Have a great day.

I will take a grande cup of hate with a side order of embarrassment

Being called out is never fun. I was extremely timid in middle school. I rarely brushed my hair, had braces and thick wire framed glasses. I was not much to look at. Once class started I shut up and kept my head down. I had a teacher in middle school for enriched 7^th grade math, she hated me.

This teacher would make me feel awful on a weekly basis, it must have been part of her curriculum. One day we were working on math that I didn’t understand. All of a sudden, she calls my name, “JOE!” (She never called me Joel). I look up disappointed and startled. she says, “What’s the answer to question 4 JOE!” I replied, “I am not sure, I couldn’t figure it out.” She lays into me, C’MON JOE! YOU GOT TO UNDERSTAND THIS STUFF SOMETIME IF YOU WANT TO MOVE ON IN LIFE!” She then calls on my friend David, she loved David. DAVID! HELP JOE OUT!” My friend sitting next to me stated he couldn’t figure it out either, but she loved David. “Oh really? It’s alright David let’s go over problem 4 as a group.” WHAT!!!!! David sitting right next to me under his breathe laughs and said, “If you didn’t know the teacher hated you before, you do now!” 7^th grade math was tough for me. Being called out is not fun but sometimes can be necessary as we see from Paul.

Paul in Galatians 3:1-2 (MSG) lays into the people…

“You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.

Paul calls out this group of people, they stopped caring about Jesus and tried to go back and focus more on the Law. This was the old way of thinking and not caring about Jesus. Paul basically calls them crazy and possessed. Clearly they weren’t thinking straight. Christ redeemed us so we don’t have to focus on the sacrifices, burnt offerings and the old way. Christ brought a new hope. Yet people were still wrapped into their traditions and how they used to do faith. They couldn’t grasp the grace of Jesus and were happy with the old way they felt comfortable with. The old way didn’t bring people to faith. It separated those who came from a religious background and those with no faith background. Paul called them out on it and it was greatly justified.

Being called out leaves us with a couple of different reactions. Just today a player talked about how the team they played yesterday wasn’t that good and was overrated. The problem with this player, they just lost to this “overrated” team 24-3. Hopefully he realizes what he said today. When someone calls you out, how do you respond? Whether in faith (Bad theology), health (eating better) or in your opinion in a hot topic button, do you listen and internalize or just right them off? Sometimes being called out isn’t a bad thing.

You can be broken and not know it.  Being called out can cause the greatest change in our life. We have to be humble enough to realize we are not perfect and have issues. I ran into a person that played a key role in me coming to faith, it was a couple of years since I have seen him. I asked how he was and where was his wife? He responded good and we are divorced now, it just wasn’t fun so we moved on. Wow! It wasn’t fun and within two years this faithful follower of Christ was done with his marriage. It was crushing. I used to work with an awesome guy and those who knew him knew he had a drinking problem (It cost him his job where I worked under him). I ran into him and asked how he was and the family? He said, oh man, I needed to get divorced, to many issues with that girl. It was crushing. His wife was amazing and this means he turned his back on his wife and 3 year old daughter.

Paul called out people that needed to be called out on. What do you need to be called out on? I had some blood work done and was told I needed to starting eating better or I could suffer for it. Sometimes we all need the awake up that Paul gave. What do you need to be told about? What needs to change in your life? You can change without being called out on. Make the change to make you better.

Have a great day.

High School Cafeteria, where would you sit?

I remember going into the high school cafeteria my freshman year and having know idea who I was going to sit with. In elementary school I attended Maplewood, 98 percent of the school went to Gardner for middle school, I went to Dwight Rich. Now I am going to Everett and 98 percent of people went to Sexton. Once again I found myself in an uncomfortable position, seeing a room full of people and not knowing a soul. What was I going to do?

I was not outgoing enough then to sit and strike up a conversation with anyone instead I was quiet and reserved. Finally I had a glimmer of hope, I find my friends David and Joseph. We weren’t extremely close, but we were still friends. They had a group of people they were already sitting beside and I went up and asked if I could sit with them. Even with new friends and family around them, they invited and allowed me to sit with them. I am thankful for that. Honestly, I would have felt so uncomfortable to sit with strangers as a freshman in high school just like I did with middle school.

Being left out is never fun. It’s worse when you are the one left out. Faith in Jesus is supposed to unite people, rich/poor, black/white/Asian or whatever cultural background you come from. Yet people had to deal with a lunch room situation in Galatians 2:11-21. Certain Christian came from a Jewish background while others came from a Gentile background (No faith). Paul comes up to a situation in which certain people were sitting with only their group of people and not associating themselves with other people.

Yet Paul wouldn’t just watch this happen, Galatians 2:14:15…

“When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

¹⁵ “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles ¹⁶ know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.”

Paul wouldn’t allow separation to occur among Christians. He called them out in front of the whole group. Jesus died for us and therefore the past is in the past and we are moving forward together because of Jesus. This is why I love the Paul and the Gospel, it’s not about us. Even though it happen, the church should be free of clique’s. Paul address this. We as believers in Christ are called to come together, unite with one another and be a blessing to other people. I love the church, as messed up as it can be sometimes (We are all sinners). There is no other place that can bring people together for one common goal and it’s not like a country club, it’s a place for everyone.

I cherish my friends Joseph and David. I am thankful for their friendship when we were younger and I love being able to keep up with these guys on social media. When you look at your own life, do you separate yourself from others? Do you cause division or bring people closer together? Jesus brought a ton of different people together and living for him requires us to do the same.

Have a great day.