Advent Devotions Online!

Check out the Advent devotions for 2008!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Morning's Devotional

Today, as I read my morning devotional, this is the verse I found…

…we do not yet see everything subjected to him. But we do see Jesus… Hebrews 2:8-9

The writer of the devotional wrote this…
“Are you troubled as you look out at the situation of the world? Well, according to the Bible, things are going to get worse… Christians have a glorious hope – the hope of salvation….”
Although we have this hope, we look at the morning headlines and we often get concerned. Perhaps you looked at today’s election results and you were concerned.
The writer continued…
“Satan, seeing our concern, attempts to exploit it to his own ends. ‘Things are getting worse, aren’t they?’ he says. ‘Why don’t you just admit that God has lost control of the world?’ If we did not have the helmet of salvation to put on at such a moment we would finish up with the same attitude as H.G. Wells, who, after the Second World W, wrote: ‘The spectacle of evil in the world has come near to breaking my spirit.’ Again I say, there is no protection in the world for the mind.”

Praise God that we although we do not yet see everything subjected to Jesus, we do see Jesus!
Continue to fight the fights we need to in order to preserve the Biblical values we hold dear!

Continue to pray for those in authority!

1 Timothy 2:1-3 (HCSB) 1 First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good, and it pleases God our Savior.

(Devotional quotes taken from “The Everyday with Jesus Bible” devotions by Selwyn Hughes)

heartbroken

I began some research for the message Sunday on "life" and discovered that there are over 37,000 abortions in Ohio each year. Over 1.2 million in the US each year.

I know I have heard numbers before, but this somehow got my attention. it really bothered me more than ever.

This is so much more than a political football.

Life is precious and we are allowing people to kill innocent lives every day.

My heart is broken.

here's another thing I found doing research - check it out!

Dave Ramsey's Plan

Dave Ramsey has a sensible plan for the government.
Good luck Dave!
government usually does not equal simple!

Anyway... if you want to see it go here...

I am no financial expert, but it makes sense to me.

DeSean Jackson

Going to the celebration before the ball passes the plane.
Bad move.

I like the MNF commentator - Nice dance, but did he score a touchdown?

Question:
Does this resemble the church's excitement over people making professions of faith?
Do we dance before discipleship and sometimes... drop the ball.



The worst part about it... he had done it before - in High School

missed opportunity

Went to the Indians game with my youngest son Monday night.
As always we went to the players parking lot for autographs afterwards.
Paul Byrd, an outspoken Christian player, came out and signed for at least a half an hour, chatting it up and being an all around nice guy.
I had just gotten his book as an early birthday present because he was scheduled to do a book signing on Friday. I talked to him about his book and told him i would be at the book signing.

Tuesday Paul Byrd was on his way to Boston. He was traded.

The book signing is canceled.

I shoulda brought my book Monday.

I missed an opportunity.

As much as I regret not thinking about doing that Monday night, I realize that there are probably much more important opportunities we miss as we go along.
Did I miss an opportunity to be a good witness to someone Monday night? or Tuesday? or ... well you get it.
Did I miss an opportunity to impact the kingdom this week.

Will I miss one next week?

I'll get the book signed someday. Maybe.

Until then, maybe I'll remember the more important things in life and not miss those opportunities.

.08 seconds

8/100 of a second. That was the difference between the gold and silver medal in the 4X100 swimming relay at the Olympics last night.

That's the difference between a champion and second place.

If you saw the race, you know that the the last 100 meters of the race was an incredible come from behind victory. It took just a little more effort. Enough to beat the French by .08 seconds.

Is there something you have been trying to win at? Some task you have sought to accomplish. Are you trying to serve God and just feel like giving up. Maybe your "failure" is only .08 seconds from a victory. Maybe you can depend on God for that extra ooomph to get you to the finish line.

Go for the Gold!

What's happening now?

VBS saw 177 kids in 99 families being led by over 70 volunteers from our church.

How fun!

We are trying to connect with families who visited our VBS. We don't want to bug people, but when you know a good thing, you want others to know it too, and we know that going to church and following Jesus are really good things!

We have a family fun day on August 2nd
This will be different from anything we have ever done.
Families having fun - together.
9 to 1
lunch provided.
Come join us!

Vacation Bible School

VBS is coming!

It is actually coming Monday!

It has been a crazy week, and next week will be crazier!


I am beginning to look forward to the event - mainly because I am already exhausted with the preparation!

Hope to see you there!

Register here: PBC VBS Registration

Stuff Website

I just created a website with Google Pages.

I put a bunch of links to get me to stuff I use or have found useful.

Here it is...

Still Here

I know I have not written for a while, but I am still here. Still trying to figure it all out.

Relevance in our culture is very important. Not just with those outside the church, but those inside as well.

How can we be relevant?

Christians?

I have been thinking about how many people in church act and think.
Maybe they are not in your church or my church, but they are around.
If we are honest, I think we may be them sometimes.

These people...

• These people are long time church-going Christians.
  
• Church is very important to them.
  
• If you ask them, Jesus is very important to them.
  
• Jesus and the church are almost inseparable in their minds.
• They have never shared the good news with anyone in their daily lives
• They do a lot of good things in and with the church.
• They rarely involve themselves in a church activity/event involving missions or evangelism
• They love to eat with fellow Christians. This happens a lot.
• They will not immediately embrace a newcomer. They must wait to see if they attend for a while.
• They are not involved in their community - many times because it would conflict with church events/activities. Most of the time because they have no clue what their community is doing.
• There is an expectation that the Pastor/Staff will take care of evangelism.
• In their mind, the role of the deacon and staff is to minister to them.
• It is rare that they have any relationships outside the church.
• They give money to the church.

Jesus said: “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me." (John 15:5)

Since it is rare to see the "much fruit" from these people, sometimes I wonder if they are really believers...

Facebook

Hey:

I just was reading about various ways to use Facebook in ministry.

As a result I uploaded this blog onto my Facebook account.


You can download the book here.

It's a free e-book.

Vision, part 2

So we begin with the thought we are going to be simple, relational and external.
What next.

Then we dive into the vision statement.

Love God, love people, serve both!

How's that?

I know it is not what our church has said, but it certainly what I am adopting as my personal statement.

The discipleship process looks like this...

Learn to love God through worship >>> learn to love people through small group >>> learn to serve both people and God through any means possible.

Vision Part 1

simple...relational...external

I envision a church where we do not get so bogged down in ministry that we forget to serve Jesus.

I envision a church where we really get to know one another and the people in the world around us.

I envision a church where the ministry we do outside the walls is just as important as the ministry we do inside the walls.

God of Mercy and Judgement

I have recently been having this dialog with a genuine seeker. This is not an argument designed just for the sake of argument, but someone who is really struggling with this issue.

I am interested in anyone's perspective on the following:

God is a God of judgement and mercy.
He judges sin and some say that means he is the one then "sending" people to hell.
He provides redemption from sin through Christ on the cross.
But since He truly wants everyone to be saved (9 The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9)
why is there the possibility that some may never hear and thus die condemned?

One example of these people might be people who lived somewhere else in the world at the time of the crucifixion. It seems logically impossible that the message of Jesus would reach them.


I have some thoughts about this, but was curious if others want to chime in...

Writing

Here's and interesting blog I found about writing...

Seth Godin's Blog


I wonder if the fact that i am a bad blogger indicates that I am a bad writer?

MLB Widget added!

I added the MLB scoreboard to the left.
So cool!
Now I can watch the Indians triumph as I blog!

VBS articles

Here are two articles from Baptist Press about VBS


U.S.: VBS drew 1 in 16 elementary age kids


VBS wins souls

Even Better!

indians 10, chisox 8

Baseball is back!

The true sign of spring, Major League Baseball, is back!
And it is not snowing in Cleveland!
All seems to be right with the world.

All About Love

Love Love Love Love Love
It's all about Love.
Jesus says Love God is the first commandment and the second (like unto it) is love your neighbor. Jesus says love one another. John tells us that love is from God and God is love. It's all about love.

That's one reason we chose the word Love in our church's statement.
Love God, Love Others, Reach the World.

I originally even wanted Love the World - but it sounded too much like we wanted to be of the world not in it.

It is all about love - but of course knowing that does not make it any easier.

As any one can tell you love is not easy.

Love is hard work.

Blizzard 2008

Well, here we are in the blizzard of 2008. Here are pics of my driveway.
It is still snowing, so we will have to do it again before this is all over or when this is all over.

copy cat blog

I am such a lousy blogger ... Tonight I thought I would refer you to another blog.

My friend Matt recently wrote (among other things):
"Any church that doesn’t pursue the unbeliever is powerless and dry."
matt's recent blog

I would add to his good thoughts on relevance and the church that any church that does not love each other is also destined to be powerless and dry.

I might even go on to say that we will show our love for God not by the spread of the gospel but by our love for one another, and that the spread of the gospel will come as a direct result of that love.

1 John 4:12

Good blog Matt... it got me thinking... I am greatly afraid that we are irrelevant. I just hope we can turn it around before anyone notices... (too late?)

Scary statistic of the day...

There are an estimated 77 million kids online today, and there is a 100 percent chance of a child encountering a predator in a chat room, according to the FBI.
According to this article

100 percent chance!
So if your teen is in a chat room for teens one of the others in the room is a predator - most likely pretending to be a teen. One FBI agent posed as a 13 year old in a chat room and after the investigation discovered that the other 22 people in the "teen" chat room were adults.

God help us. God protect our children.

Personally, I think I will just keep chat rooms closed in my home, not just to my teens, but to anyone. These people are not welcome in my home.

Create a Snack Shack for 2008 VBS

Recreation Reef - 2008 VBS Decoration

VBSI 2008 Pictures

Soul and Spirit

So here we are in the Baptist Faith and Message Class at our church and I am facilitating and I am breezing through the section on "man" and the question comes.

What's up with this whole soul and spirit thing?

So I explain the trichotomy/dichotomy issue as best as I can - because you know, I didn't study up on that one.

So now I am doing the homework on it. So if anyone is reading and has any insight...

feel free to help out.

saved but lost in a world gone mad

I was rummaging yesterday in the church and came across a diary of sorts. It was actually a teenagers letters to a friend written in a notebook. It was from days gone by. The teen had a lot of angst and anger. This was a 15-year old believer who struggled with alcohol, drugs, smoking, anger, hurting himself, death and suicide.
It makes me wonder if we are looking at this teenager every week in the faces of all the "good kids" that walk in our doors.
It makes me sad that we don't see them, but it makes me sadder that sometimes we don't want to see them. Do we discourage honesty so that we can feel good about ourselves and our families? Do we communicate to adults that they need to have everything together and so they just hide that which is falling apart - until it's too late?

We need to help those who are saved, but lost in a world gone mad.

Does anybody hear her?

Happy New Year

It's that time again when we all make resolutions to do something better than we did before. Of course no one really believes anyone will do that. I imagine at least 8 to 10 people out there have resolved to become President this year, but only one will win. Probably 30-40 % of America (or more) have resolved to lose weight or excercise or get healthy. We tend to think it won't happen.
I heard recently that change only happens because of one of two things - reward or pain. If we see a big enough benefit, or in reverse if we see the big enough pain if we don't do it, then we change. Diet changes (at least for a little while) after a heart attack (Pain). Excercise increases after the birth of children (want to live longer and play with kids longer - reward)
I have opted for the "get healthy" route for my resolution. I like this better than "lose weight." First, in some aspects it's easier because you can be healthy and not lose a ton of weight.
But, it can be more difficult, because I can lose weight and not be living a healthy lifestyle.
Well, that's at least one of my resolutions, we'll see how it goes.