Updates coming!

I am determined to update this more often now.  I actually even have internet at home, so I am without excuse.  Things are going well for us.  We are moved in, most of the boxes are unpacked, I even have my desk in my office!  Jayden lost his first tooth, he was pretty excited because he has been waiting for a couple years now to lose one.  JW is as crazy as ever, but he is really starting to grow up.  We definitely miss all of our friends back around Schenectady, but we don't miss their weather.  We have already begun forming some relationships here that are growing.  I can honestly say we fell in love with our people here immediately.  They aren't perfect, but neither are we.  In fact, much of them are probably more perfect than us, but they will catch up.

One of the things I am determined to do is to continue to focus on my own spiritual maturity.  The responsibility of being called "Pastor" is humbling and frightening.  I don't see how anyone could possibly ever even try to take on this responsibility without constantly being before God on their knees.  I know many are still wondering how they can help us.  I want to personally begin by asking for prayer.  As for what to pray, I digress (just for you Ian) to allowing someone else to speak for me...Paul.

Ephesians 6:19
19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in  the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness  the mystery of the gospel,

Spiritual Growth

It has been a VERY long time since I have posted.  It's hard to keep up with when I am already writing so much for my classes.  I also don't like posting unless I have something to say.  Seeing as we just celebrated Easter, perhaps more than ever the person of Christ is on my mind.  I have been digging more into what it means to be Christlike.  The obvious answers are to be a moral person who prays and reads the Word, but He was much more than that.  I recently dealt with the WWJD craze on a Wednesday night, stating that we can't do what He would do if we aren't living the way He lived.  His life was one of discipline and attention to the spiritual things that surround this world.  He focused on spending quality time with His Father, He took times of solitude to honestly reflect on what His purpose was, He fasted, He humbled Himself to serve others, He developed deep relationships with men who He had a special bond with, and above all, He lived a life of worship.
Obviously, we can never be as Jesus was (God), but we can mimic Him as much as possible with our lives.  If we do that, than we won't have to ask WWJD, because it will be our natural reaction.  Recently I heard that most new converts drop out of church after about four years.  There are all sorts of reasons for this to be true, but I have to think maybe it is just because they never grow.  You can only be a baby for so long.  The lack of spiritual maturity in the Body of Christ may be the reason for the fall out.  John 15:1-8 is a passage where Christ refers to Himself as the vine, with the believers being the branches.  Parts of this passage are used for many illustrations.  I encourage you to read it thinking about what it actually means to "abide in Christ".  If we abide in Him we will bear fruit, we will get what we desire, and we will be known as His disciples.  I have set my life's goal to becoming a better imitator of Christ.  There is no higher calling.

Comfortably Uncomfortable

I haven't blogged in a long time.  It's amazing how sick of writing you get when you have to do it for classes.  I should finish up my Masters in Religion and Pastoral Counseling this year, that is my goal anyway.  So far I have a 4.0, which I haven't had since well, nevermind.

The biggest event in my life since I last blogged was Jayden accepting Christ as his personal savior.  The question of how much a child understands, and how early is too early is always difficult, but I know Jayden gets it.  There is a good article on child evangelism at this site... http://www.frontlinemin.org/childevangelism.asp   I would recommend anybody with kids, or that works with kids to read it.  As parents our number one ministry is to our family, and there is nothing more important than explaining salvation to our kids so they can make their choice.  Maybe one day I'll put together a post just on sharing your faith with your own children.

Celebrate Recovery has become a large part of my life.  I have grown over the last few months in ways I never thought I needed to grow.  Some of the healing I have experienced just by being with a group of guys that struggle with some of the same issues while we support each other has opened my understanding Christian fellowship to a whole new level.  It is my prayer that more can surrender to God's will and direction for their lives in the same way, whether with CR or not.

I would describe my current life as comfortably uncomfortable.  I have learned to accept and appreciate that I can be happy while remaining uncomfortable.  This is a good thing, because I believe we must be uncomfortable if we want to achieve anything.  I know their are some people that get by off others' sacrifices, but I don't consider that success.  I believe God will always challenge us if we let Him.  If we aren't being challenged, we aren't growing.  If we aren't uncomfortable, than we aren't doing anything.  I have accepted that I actually need to be uncomfortable if I am going to serve God in any capacity.  I am ok with that.  I can deal with life in that way.  I'm comfortable with the whole idea.  I am comfortably uncomfortable.

Love Speak

     So much of our lives revolve around communication.  The way we engage each other, the way we teach and learn from one another, even the way we feel about ourselves is directly influenced by communication.  Most communication we deal with is non-verbal, and sometimes in contrast to what is said verbally.  We may say, "Yeah honey, you look great in that Moo Moo!" but the look of disgust on our faces tells the obvious truth.  Christ tells us to love others, and to show love we must communicate.
     What is it we are communicating to those who are difficult to love?  Are we telling them we love them as we look for an exit?  Are we verbally telling out spouse we forgive them, yet letting our body language say we will hold a grudge?
     If we are believers, we have no choice but to love, but it shouldn't be viewed as a requirement.  We love others because the love we have received.  We shouldn't do it out of guilt, and we should never fake it for vain obedience.
     Take the time to tell people you love them, with more than words (insert song if you like).

Happy day! It's almost snow time!

I had a great time at our open house last week.  Thanks to all who came, it was fun to fill the house with friends.  I have basically spent the week preparing for winter.  I put new a plugs and a battery in "Sarge", put a new fuel line on the snow blower, cleaned up the garage, bought flashlights, and got sticks to mark the side of the drive so I don't plow the yard.  Next I am getting snow tires for the car.

It is a lot of work preparing for the coming storms.  I seem to be putting lots of time doing things that I can't see any real results from for a while (some of you are hoping a LONG while).  I actually can't wait to fire up the Jeep and plow away.  Once the snow comes, hopefully I'll be prepared.  I'm sure we will still have problems, but the preparation should make most of it much easier to deal with.

Life works the same way.  We know the storms will come, and we should prepare for them.  If we aren't prepared, then the smallest storm can became a major life crisis.  The storms can overwhelm us if don't prepare ourselves ahead of time.  Too often we don't think about it.  We are too busy enjoying the "mountain top" to think about the coming valleys.  I'm not saying we shouldn't enjoy the mountain top, but we know that troubles will come our way and we should prepare for them while it's easier to do so.  I was able to complete a great deal of my prep work when it was 75 degrees outside.  I was able to enjoy the sun and comforting warmth while getting work done.  We should enjoy the Son's comfort while we are working on ourselves to prepare for life's troubles.  If we are growing spiritually and daily communing with God when things are good, we won't be desperately trying to contact Him when they aren't.  We'll have had Him with us every step of the way.

Plug time--  We are halfway through Life's Healing Choices at Sonrise, and are closing in our official Celebration Service for Celebrate Recovery (CR).  If we can poor ourselves into learning how to overcome our hurts, hangups, and habits when times are good, we can better apply that knowledge to getting through them when times are bad.  CR is great for doing both the prep work and the recovery process.  The Celebration Service is Friday, November 13th at Sonrise.

Growing Toward Rest

The past few weeks have been a spiritual step ladder.  It's always fun to have spiritual highs, but this has been even better.  It has been a steady growth, moving step by step, toward a deeper relationship with Christ.  Personal reflection along with a fresh injection of Christ's teachings have provided a new awakening to the love of God for us.  This past weekend, for example, was amazing to see God working in the hearts of those at Sonrise.  I was thrilled to be able to share what God was showing me about giving EVERYTHING to Him and the healing that doing so can bring.

I talked about it this past Sunday, but it seems to keep coming up to me.  If we are unwilling to give EVERYTHING to God, than we cannot heal.  The things we decide to hold back are the things we need healing from.  It is easy to give God the good things, but we try to hang on to our hurts, hang-ups, and habits.  Those are exactly what we need healing from!

The basic reason we don't want to give those up is fear.  We fear that God can't love us the way we are, that He can't heal us from our past, that He can't help us overcome the things we struggle with, or that we will have to give up the sins we cherish.  Quite honestly, we fear commitment.

The verse that has become my current favorite address this struggle is 2 Timothy 1:7.  Christ hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but the spirit of power, love, and self-control.  Those are exactly what we need to be made whole.  Who wouldn't jump at the offer to receive power over that which we are powerless, love for where we are unlovely, and self-control to overcome our personal struggles?  All He wants us to do is commit to Him, give Him all our burdens, and He will give us rest.  I am happy to be getting that.  I enjoy resting in Him.

Time to make a change

We started Life's Healing Choices this week.  It's always encouraging when you've been looking forward to something for a long time for it to finally arrive.  One of the points made in the book is that we don't make any changes until the pain in our lives is greater than the pain related with making that change.  How much pain do we want to go through before we change?

I have a pretty high pain tolerance.  I don't like pain, but I can deal with it.  This allows me to do some really stupid things, not caring about the physical consequences.  While playing football on astroturf I continually tore my knee up.  It was like sliding on gravel every time I dove to make a play.  When it came game time, I intentionally banged my knee on the wall to open it up a bit so I wouldn't be bothered the whole game by it.  Here's an idea, how about wrapping it?  I guess that would have been too much trouble and I would have missed playing time.

I do the same thing relationally.  It takes me a long time to decide to stop the bleeding when things go bad.  I don't mind being hurt a bit, but if it keeps happening, a change is needed.  Rather than beating ourselves up over things, we need to let God just wrap it up.  We can't fix it ourselves, or we already would have.  We can't, so we don't.