Sun, Jan 29th - 11:54AM

End of the Spear

Hey,

    I got yesterday (Saturday) off! We have a project going, laying down about 10 yards of road base in our driveway. We are about half done.Since I rarely get a whole day off, yestrday would have been the perfect day to get about three yards done. But it was supposed to rain all day. We decided that if it was clear when we got up we'd work, if it wasn't we'd go to a bigger city and have some fun.
    When I woke up I checked and it was pretty bright outside. But when we got up we could hear that it was raining on the skylight in the bathroom! Darn, no looking back. Let's go to the city ! (The city in question here is Turlock) We visted a quilt store and a dress shop. Remember my resolution to get Taryn some quality time. Then we went to the theater and watched "The End Of The Spear".
    It was great! You all should go out and find it somewere and watch it. Its about the Saints, the missionaries that were killed by a tribe in the Amazon and the ministry that followed. I am intentionally being short on the description. If you want professional details here's the link www.endofthespear.com/  
    It says some interesting things about death. God put in my thoughts this week, "There is a victorious death"

Wed, Jan 25th - 7:17PM

An Apology

Wow,

I just looked down the page and saw how much I have been whinning. I'm so sorry.

Here's a confession. My walk isn't so great right now. Nothing special, just a litttle out of touch. I am making progress in several areas that I determined to fix this year. Mostly to be less stressed. We should finally have all of our people at work this week. I lanned a nice little weekend to the ocean. Things at church should get calmer.
But since I'm not talking to God very well right now, I seem to not have much else to say.
Anyway, I know that you all support me and its Ok if I complain, and you are praying, and all the stuff that you would answer, but I'm still sorry. I promise to lighten up from now on. To be more fun to read.

Thank you for your patience.

Wed, Jan 25th - 7:05PM

Hey,

Tonight is the last church event that we have our two biggest troublemakers in leadership. A better way to say that would be, after tonight our two biggest troublemakers will no longer be in leadership. One's three year term was over and the other resigned. (It was his reisgnation that was pretty nasty) They appear to want to go out with a bang. How God must view people who devote so much of their energy to harrassing God's work! Here's hopeing that you never have to read about them again. I do hope that they will either become satisfied here and be blessed, or go somewhere else and be blessed. Or at least that I quit writing about them.

Anyway I plan to share this with the people tonight.
I read about a writer who was trying to explain how a church should work. He looked at sports teams. The football team was well practiced and moved smoothly. The basketballl team was full of great athletes. The baseball team was controlled by the pitcher. None of those was right.
Then he went to a special olympics. He saw a race between a group of handicapped kids. They all joined hands and ran together. When one fell they all stopped and helped him up. Near the finish, no one leaned at the tape. They all finished at the same time.
That is what a church should be. Not competing, united. Helping each other. We are so like that. Not superstars. Each of us handicapped but working together. Supporting each other. The church is certainly not the people in the stands. Sitting there watching. Trying to decide whether to cheer or boo. The church is out on the track. Contributing their gifts.Following God.

Mon, Jan 23rd - 9:28PM

Just a little Christian History, OK?

Hey,

We looked this week at the Reformation.. It is amazing how much the world was changed by the invention of the printing press. Why? Because it produced Bibles for everyone.

Imagine before that, getting only the Bible teaching that someone wanted you to know, and that was often said in Latin, which you probably didn't speak. Suddenly, you can own a Bible. You no longer had to let someone tell you what God said. You could check what they were saying and see if God really said that. You could "feed" yourself whenever you wanted, you could read the parts that you needed, the parts that spoke to you. It removed the need for a priest, because you and God could converse without anyone else. It removed all the barriers between you and Him.

And maybe most importantly, it made God personal. He gave His word to you, not to some possibly corrupt rich person in Rome. He spoke to you, not to some one important who then would pass on his version to you. Once people read the Bible for themselves they wouldn't stand for "religion" any more. They just wanted God.

What is your Bible doing for you?

Fri, Jan 20th - 9:33AM

Hey,

This is an old Christian Rock song.

DC Talk \ What If I Stumble

What if I stumble?
What if I fall?

Is this one for the people?
Is this one for the Lord?
Or do I simply serenade for things I must afford?
You can jumble them together, my conflict still remains
Holiness is calling, in the midst of courting fame

Cause I see the trust in their eyes
Though the sky is falling
They need Your love in their lives
Compromise is calling

CHORUS:
What if I stumble, what if I fall?
What if I lose my step and I make fools of us all?
Will the love continue when my walk becomes a crawl?
What if I stumble, and what if I fall?

What if I stumble, what if I fall?
You never turn in the heat of it all
What if I stumble, what if I fall?

Father please forgive me for I can not compose
The fear that lives within me
Or the rate at which it grows
If struggle has a purpose
On the narrow road you've carved
Why do I dread my trespasses will leave a deadly scar

Do they see the fear in my eyes?
Are they so revealing?
This time I cannot disguise
All the doubt I'm feeling

What if I stumble?
Everyone's got to crawl when you know that
You're up against a wall, it's about to fall
Everyone's got to crawl when you know that (2x)

I hear You whispering my name [You say]
"My love for You will never change" [never change]

What if I stumble, what if I fall?
You never turn in the heat of it all
What if I stumble, what if I fall?
You are my comfort, and my God

Is this one for the people, is this one for the Lord?

Tue, Jan 17th - 9:17PM

Do You Ever Feel Like This?

Hey,

Do you ever feel like this?
I am sick and tired of being the understanding one. The one who turns the other cheek. The one who lets people at church say all kinds of things that aren't true, even wriite them in letters to the Board. And never even defends himself because it would stir up controversy. Are you ever tired of being more concerned about who your response might hurt than about expressing your anger? Tired of being someone in a responsible position. A position where a person shouldn'tbe petty. Shouldn't have a tmper tantrum. Shouldn't put his hands around someone's throat and throttle him. Just plain too tired to care what the kids would think if they heard that you lost it. Tired of saying, "Sure, I can do that too." Do you ever wish for just a little recognition, even when you know that's wrong? Not like an award or anything, just a thank you maybe.

Of course you never feel like that. That would be selfish. That would be weak. People would get worried and pray. They'd bother God about it when He has so much other stuff to worry about. And so do they. In fact they probably have things worse than you do, and they are wasting their energy thinking about you.

I'm sure that you never feel like that. Even for an hour. Neither do I.

Thu, Jan 12th - 9:42AM

Hey,

I write this one as a lesson and not a "Woe is me".

Yesterday we were remindered that the battle is never over. (Of course it is already won) Some of the trouble refered to in my last post came back for a visit. Someone is again stirring up trouble. It didn't sink us, or even change my mood really. It just reminds us that there will always be challenges.

Tue, Jan 10th - 10:27PM

Hey,

Ok, well apparently Christian History isn't for everyone. That's OK. I have learned not to be very concerned by numbers. The teaching was tricky too. For most of the class the information taught was all they knew on the subject, so getting into discussion was tough. But we managed some about how we respond to persecution and how the church evangelized by being like Christ.

I'm getting very excited about things at church. We managed to have a non-violent board meeting. It appears that the couple of troublemakers are backing off. Our new board should be elected next month and we can really start some new ministries. It would be so great to be talking about how to shepherd people instead of how to handle critics. There is still much to be decided, but at least we can begin working together, following God.

I am also really pleased with our college group. We have just really improved our worship singing time. We were having a lot of chatter and jokes between songs and thus no mood of worship, and sometimes some inappropriate talk. The last two times we met we have finally stopped the chatter and gotten people to get the mood. Some are even sharing testimony or verses between songs. It sounds obvious but the make-up of the group made that hard to achieve. The worship singing time is really good now. In fact, teaching after that is just a bonus now. 

Sun, Jan 8th - 11:37AM

Hey,

I'm going out of my comfort zone this morning and I'm a little nervous. For sis weeks I'll be teaching the adults instead of the teens. I've done that before, in fact I started wih the adult Sunday school classes but I'm rusty. But what more concerns me is that I'm teaching on Christian History.

This will be a class where most of the people know almost nothing about what I'm talking about and a few will know way more that I do. It doesn't have a Bible passage, which is always my source of comfort. And if you know Christian History you know that six weeks is a ridiculously short time to teach it. My estimate for covering it fairly well would be about a year.

Today we're talking about the early church, from 70 AD to 430 AD. It's about the church's growth, doctrine, persecution and eventually conquering of Rome. The point I want to push is that as the chruch competed with other religions and philosphies it won out because of the quality of the believers. We'll also cover wether it was a good thing that it became a power,

I'll tell you how it went.

Sun, Jan 1st - 10:56PM

Hey,

Man are we tired! The extra few hours to get to, and thru, church were very hard. Pretty much everyone else got some sleep in threre somewhere but being in charge, we didn't get the chance. Things went well. The games were good, the "lesson" was pretty tough to keep them on track, but I think at least the older ones got something. The ball drop was perfectly silly. I was happy with the amount of personal contact. We did watch too many movies but there's no way we could have kept creative programing going for 17 straight hours.

As I looked at what my priorities should be for this new year it was obvious that I need to do something about being too busy. I can't do much about work, but presumably they will give us our clerk back someday so we won't be shorthanded. I could get 10 hours a week back when that happens. We are hoping that the church politics will settle down soon. I am looking forward to adding some quality leaders (yes, and removing some others) in the next month. Its not a very strong resolution, but I think I need to resolve to look into getting out of youth work. We will be hiring a youth leader and I will at least try to back out almost comepletely. I think I would still host the college group but probably cut way back on teaching there too. I think I will be teaching more adult classes.

My wife, Taryn has been very sacrificial his year. She went through a hard year too, and didn't get a lot of time from me. I need to work on some quality time with her this year. I have built up 10 weeks of vacation, so I should be able to use that. I would also like to be more personal dealing with people too. Run less meetings, talk one- on -one more. I was blessed when I found time for that last year.

Personally, I am actually fairly happy with my prayer life right now. I don't have a great block of time set aside every day, but I am doing well in being "constant in prayer". But I still lack in devotions and Bible reading. I have a lot of books that I want to read, Philip Yancey, John Piper, and CS Lewis in paricular. I will have a goal of reading/studying through the New Testament this year. A small goal but I mean to do it slowly and well. I have benefited greatly from the blogs here, but I still have a goal of finding a daily devotional, and using it consistantly.

Ok, there it is. I'll stop so I don't overdo. They are vague but will do. Get out of some stuff at church, spend more time with Taryn, do more personal meetings, study the N.T., start a devotional.

I wish you all well in your resolutions. Remember, its not about a plan literally, its about growth.