Always busy

Ya know it used to be that Monday through Friday was work, work, work, and then finally the weekend would come and it was time to chill and relax.  Seems the older I get, the less chillin’ is happenin’ lately.  Weekends seem busier than ever.  “Lord give me strength!” has been my prayer lately for myself.  I really feel like this little guy……

What does Christianity look like these days?

This is a response post to my good friend Jeremy Blount’s blog Thinkingdeep.wordpress.com question.  Click here to go to his blog and read to the bottom of post titled “More thoughts about yesterday” for the article link that raised the question of what does Christianity look like today.  These days we see more “fruits of the flesh”, Gal 5:19 (immorality, impurity, idolatry, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, diputes, dissensions, factions) from high profile (and low profile) Christians. What ever happened to the fruits of the Spirit shown towards non-Christians? Gal. 5:20 (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control.) If we are going to tell and show Jesus to others we need to be aware of what we are “advertising”.  Does my lifestyle mirror Jesus?  I may be the only “Jesus” that someone ever meets. What am I showing to them?   Am I condemning them or loving them?  Am I building them up or tearing them down? Hate the sin not the sinner. When’s the last time I helped the poor and needy? Or went on a missions trip or helped in the community, just to spread His love?  Or even stood up to right that which is wrong in this world? What does Christianity look like these days to non Christians? Why doesn’t it look like Jesus anymore?

Take a few minutes to see Hillsong’s example in this video. Don’t miss the end for a great quote from one of the singers.

A letter from our Heavenly Dad

I was going through some Psalms and one of my favorites is Psalm 139.  What a great comfort it is to know my heavenly Dad is watching over me in this messed up world.  And if/when the hard times come, He is in control and will never let go.  I keep thinking about the 75 or more that made decisions for Christ at Shoutfest 2007. I will never forget that day.  I was broken before God as I saw them hurting and crying, reaching out to Christ and letting go of the past and looking towards the future of a life with Him.  I thought of how Jesus could just look over a crowd of people and see that they were hurting inside and knew each persons story of heartache and pain.  Matthew 9:35-38.

Here is a video that many have probably heard or seen, but just listening to it can encourage and comfort you on those days you feel alone and you think God is so far off. 

Shout Fest 2007 Shippensburg PA! Were you there?

Well it’s Monday morning and I scheduled this day off because I knew it would be a late Sunday night. Wow, and what a great Sunday night it was.. Verticalfest once again put together a great lineup for Shout Fest 2007 in Shippensburg, PA.  Were you there?  I would love to hear what your highlights were and your favorite band that played. Here are a couple of my favorite moments:

I finally got to meet one of the members of Starfield  (my favorite band) and got to get some pics. One pic of them setting up their merch table, playing live, and one of John with my son Jeremy.

       

Also got to hear some more of my favorite bands-The Afters, Building 429, Storyside B and Seventh Day Slumber.. Sorry no pics. I would say the biggest highlight was when a group of us were able to pray with ones that came forward for the alter call given by speaker and frontman for Seveth Day Slumber, Joseph Rojas.  Wow what a powerful testimony he has. Just to see the people  run to the front of the stage to give their life to Christ or to recommit was so amazing to see. God’s hand just swept over the crowd.   I was able to pray with a couple of guys and it was amazing. Thanks to Jeremy Blount for asking me to be a part of that. Check out Jeremy’s blog and you will be blessed and encouraged.

 If anyone made it out alive from the mosh pit Pillar had going, I would love to hear your story!  My son tried to get me to go in but I knew I would get trampled!

Here is actual video from Shoutfest 2007 in Shippensburg with Starfield and Seventh Day Slumber.  Bad sound sorry.

This is Starfield live on The Logan Show.

Funniest commercial ever-I’m not sure why

Ok, my son Jeremy and I have lost count how many times we’ve watched this, but we crack up every time.  Not sure what makes it so funny! Please help us and tell us we’re not crazy! Funny, right? I guess it’s because the song has the most famous drum break in the history of music and everyone waits for that part of the song to come on.  I guess if you’ve never heard the song it won’t be that funny.  Maybe it’s because we’re really tired too…. or we’re just nerds.

Do it Anyway

Well yesterday I was making a delivery to one of the local stores (I deliver beverages) and I got to talking with the owner about how business was. I’m always in a hurry and unexpectantly this opened a flood gate. He must have been waiting for someone to ask him this question. After a 10 minute conversation of how he is barely making ends meet, and just trying to get through a 1 more year lease on the building and taking a second job to supplement his losses, and complaing about his customers…..you get the picture. After I sympathized with his trouble and started to leave he actually apoligized for “unloading” on me. I left and got back in my truck and sat thinking “what kind of hope could I give him.” I thought “Man he needs to be able to “unload” like that with people who care for him and could help him.” I thought of my Sunday School class first and other men’s groups that I know of at different churches.  Instantly I started thinking of excuses not to share my faith with him and to reach out to him. Through our conversation I could clearly tell from his choice of words that he may not be a regular attender of a local churh, if you know what I mean.  If I shared with him about going to church he would probably laugh at me and unload on me again about what he thought about “Christians” and “the church”. Yeah I was making up all kinds of excuses. So I said a quick prayer, put it in God’s hands and put a gospel tract in my back pocket and I did it anyway.  I went back in his store and said something like “ya know you said something about unloading and sharing your problems…do you happen to go to church anywhere in the area? Because I know from my own experience that at the church I go to, I have a Sunday School class that I attend where I can talk about what’s going on in my life and I know some other churches have men’s group where they can share and talk about things.” He  then told me he used to go to church 15-20 years ago and he really doesn’t believe in “that stuff” but he still has some morals. About that time a customer walked up and I ended up giving him a tract about “knowing God personally” (see FREE GIFT) and asked him to read it when he got a chance.  He said he would read it and I left.  

Ya know I came up with several excuses not to go back in there. Some I’m really ashamed to even type here.  I’m definitely not looking for any kind of praise here or a pat on the back, because God deserves all the glory. The point I’m trying to get across is that when you think of all the excuses not to show love to someone, to stop and listen to a hurting person and share what God has done in your own life, and maybe it just looks like a lost cause-DO IT ANYWAY.

Anyway

Martina McBride/Brad Warren/Brett Warren (BMI)

You can spend your whole life buildin’
Somethin’ from nothin’
One storm can come and blow it all away
Build it anyway

You can chase a dream
That seems so out of reach
And you know it might not ever come your way
Dream it anyway

(Chorus)
God is great, but sometimes life ain’t good
When I pray it doesn’t always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway
I do it anyway

This world’s gone crazy and it’s hard to believe
That tomorrow will be better than today
Believe it anyway
You can love someone with all your heart
For all the right reasons
And in a moment they can choose to walk away
Love ‘em anyway

(Repeat Chorus)

You can pour your soul out singin’
A song you believe in
That tomorrow they’ll forget you ever sang
Sing it anyway
Yeah sing it anyway

I sing
I dream
I love anyway

It’s a privilege to share our faith

Something quick I wanted to share.  My pastor shared something with a few of us tonight after visitation that really gave me a new perspective about sharing my faith with others and sharing the gospel. He said he counts it a privilege every time he gets to share the gospel with someone because God could have chosen His angels to do the job. But He chose us, His children, to be faithful in sharing His plan with others that don’t know Him. Wow, what a privilege…and a huge responsibilty for all believers. Matthew 28:18-20.

What do I have to do to get God to hear me?

I started reading in Isaiah chapter 1 this week and really had to stop to “chew” because their is is a lot of “meat” there in the first 17 verses!  I mean, ever feel like God isn’t listening to you or He seems distant? Maybe your prayers aren’t being answered? Look at Isaiah 1:1-17 and see what God’s response was to Israel when they turned away from God.  Verse 4 says:

“Alas, sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, Sons who act corruptly!  They have abandoned the Lord, They have despised the Holy One of Israel, They have turned away from Him”

They had turned away from God but they were still offering sacrifices, burning inscence to Him, keeping the observations of the certain festivals. They were continuing to sin with no remorse and still coming before God like nothing was wrong. In verse 13 and 14 He tells them how He feels about their sin and their fake worship-He hates it! It’s worthless to Him.  He says “I can not endure iniquity (sin) and the solemn assembly (gathering together before Him)”.

Here is how He responded to all their prayers, in verse 15,

“So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen……”

Wow this is pretty straight forward-if I continue in a sin,  living the way I know is wrong, and go to church or not go to church, act like a Christian, fake worship, and send up prayers to Him, is He going to hear those prayers?

Well here is how God will hear those prayers according to verse 16:

“Wash yourselves, make yourself clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight.  Cease to do evil.”

Examining our hearts daily is so important.  We need to search our hearts with the help of the Holy Spirit, to see if we have offended God in any way each day. If we confess these sins He is faithful to forgive and cleanse us.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to help you to have victory over sin in your life.  A submissive and clean heart is what He wants.  I really need to ask myself -is what I’m watching, listening to, looking at, reading, buying, giving my time to, saying, thinking, laughing at, doing or not doing, pleasing God or does He hate it?  We need to act like Jesus is standing right there beside us in everything we do-because He is.

Louie Giglio’s Indescribable Dvd

This morning in Sunday School we played  Louie Giglio’s “Indescribable” dvd. I highly recommend it to anyone.  Always brings tears to my eyes. The follow up dvd is even better titled “How Great Is Our God”.  If you are looking for Christmas gift ideas or birthday gifts these are perfect.    You can watch these over and over again. Go to http://268generation.com to order them.  If you’ve seen either of these 2 videos I would love to hear what you thought of them!  Here are some excerpts from “Indescribable”

 HERE IT IS!!!!!  CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE “INDESCRIBABLE” DVD!!!!!

Funny Friday-Never trust a cat!

Cats are evil. Enough said.

Aquire the Fire and Keep It Burning

All right summer’s over and your back to school. So maybe you went on a missions trip, or to a Christian Youth Conferenc, or maybe you attended a great Christian music concert or a summer Christian camp. You went to one or two of these events and you experienced God like never before. A spiritual high that you never wanted to come down off of. Maybe you made new commitments to Christ, or made promises to Him or even to some of your close friends. Maybe you bonded with some new friends. Oh and maybe you shared your faith with strangers like you never experienced before.  You even may have worshipped and praised God like you were the only one around not even caring what others would think of you-hands in the air and singin’ loud.

So what’s different now? Yeah I have the same struggle to keep the intensity burning sometimes.  Sometimes we are high on the emotion and come back only to lose that feeling we experienced. It’s a heart problem.

The heart is deceitful. We don’t feel like doing the things we should do.  The sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit. Gal 5:17.   Sometimes I don’t feel like going to church, or reading my Bible, or praying. Sometimes we just need to do it even when we don’t feel like it.  Funny how your feelings change once you finally do it. Paul wrote about his struggle in Romans 7:15-25.  I am still reading this book called “What Does God Want from Me?” and it tells of how to overcome this struggle. Here are some great quotes from the book.

“A big part of our struggle to love God with all our hearts is that we become hooked on feelings not realizing the heart is so much more”

“God wants us to have emotional feelings toward Him, but He wants our love to run on a deeper level.  You may be frustrated by your relationship with God because you can’t recapture the feelings you had on a missions trip or a summer camp. If so, you need to remind yourself that those special feelings are not the kind of heart love that sustains a relationship.  When it comes to your relationship with God, rather than than allowing your feelings to drive your actions, try taking action and see what happens to your feelings.”

Heart, Soul, and Mind-God wants them all

I’ve been going through a book called What Does God Want From Me? Jesus summed it up with “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”

Alright, time to examine my heart. This is going to be tough. It’s never easy. Don’t forget John 14:5, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

• What are you passionate about?
• How do you spend your time?
• What do you buy with your money?
• What do you dream about doing when you have some free time?
• What are you willing to suffer for?

Based on your answers, would you say you love God with all your heart?

Alright, time to examine my soul.

• Do you feel numb toward spiritual things; nothing about God excites you.
• Do you feel your life is shallow?
• Are you easily distracted during church, school, or while reading because of a conversation in your head?

Your soul needs 3 basic routines

• Silence/Solitude-Luke 5:15-16, Mark 1:35-37
• Prayer-try praying aloud when you are alone or writing out your prayers
• Simplicity-Look at all your “stuff”,take a look at your calender, look at your plans for the future. How much of it involves simplifying your life and how much involves complicating it?  GET UNCLUTTERED!

Had enough? Time to examine my mind.

• What do you believe?
• How strongly do you believe it?
• How important are your beliefs?

• Have you put away the Veggie Tales and started digging deeper into the understanding of Christ?

Wow these questions are hard to answer. But that’s not all. Do you remember the second greatest commandment according to Jesus? Check out this song from The Afters and let the chorus be your song to Jesus.  Click on the middle of the video to take you to video.