New Missions Wall

Today we finished a new missions wall in our foyer. I think it turned out really amazing. The map is a very cool wood feature that is well done and we will finish it with pins showing the countries where the missionaries we support are serving. Our friends had purchased a map and had it displayed in their home showing the places they have visited in the world. We thought it was just the thing to visibly show our missionaries and keep missions front and central to our church. I believe that churches who prioritize missions are churches who are blessed by God and growing. I want to be a church that not only supports missions but sends people to the mission field. My prayer is that this wall will help keep missions before our church and help increase monthly gifts to missions as well.

Mathew 28:19-20

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

I know what God wants to do…

There are sometimes in a Christians life when God interrupts everything and supernaturally steps in with a fresh breath of his presence. Whether you are at church or simply praying in a solitary place. It’s a moment when you can barely speak. For me, it is always accompanied with tears.

I don’t know about you, but I want that every day. It just seems that it is a rare thing these days. When I experience these moments of God’s presence in my life, I realize what God wants to do! He wants us to be people who hunger after him. To seek him first; to long to be with him; to cry out for more of him and more of his presence in our lives. It’s only from this posture and heart that we can step into the rest of our lives with the power and presence of God’s spirit and have any eternal impact.

I want to never lose this! The problem is I find myself going through a day and putting my head on my pillow having not spent the time in God’s presence. So many distractions keep me from doing the one thing God wants me to do. But when I back up and evaluate what is most important in my life, family, and ministry… I would answer prayer.

Jesus understood the value of daily prayer. Scriptures often say that when he awoke, he found a solitary place to pray. He stayed connected to his father in heaven by prioritizing prayer. He lived the verse, “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”.

To stay close to God, to know his heart, to never stray from his power at work in my life. I want to constantly live feeling his breath in my life, his voice in my ears and his spirit leading me.

I believe that God wants the church to be a people who prioritize prayer. To take him at his word that if we will humble ourselves and pray, seek His face and turn from our wicked ways, then He will hear from heaven and forgive our sin, and heal our land (2 Chronicles 7:14).

I know what God wants to do! He wants to do something new and fresh in our midst. He wants to reveal himself in a new way. I think he is simply waiting for us to pray.

A New Normal

With the COVID-19 virus and a quarantine strategy in place, we are finding that much of our lives is under a new understanding of normal. During this VERY unusual and unprecedented time we are living in, I want to encourage you to maintain as much ‘normal’ as possible.

Often when tragedy strikes, we hunker down, step away, and disconnect from our lives. In our current society, much of that has been determined for us. Though we may be spending a lot more time at home for work, school, play… pretty much everything, we can still make an attempt to live with a new sense of normal. What I mean by that is: set an alarm to get you up at a specific time. Take a shower and get dressed. Do your hair. Read your bible. Pray. Do the dishes. Clean the kitchen. Mow the lawn.

Set up a system that helps you focus on things other than what is going on around the world. Find a new ‘normal’ in your life.

I know the temptation of sleeping in late, staying in your pajamas, binge watching TV all day; after all, who is going to notice or care? I believe that finding a schedule that keeps you engaged will help you de-stress your life and your thoughts. It will give you the opportunity to keep growing in your life and possibly keep you from going crazy. See the positive in the situation! What a great opportunity to get the yard looking nice for summer, the garage cleaned, the house put in order, that book read. Also, see the opportunity in more time with your family. Put a puzzle together, play some board games, take a walk. Just a few ideas to make the most of this situation we are all faced with. Remind yourself that it could be worse; then pray that it doesn’t get any worse!!! Stay committed to keeping your mind, heart, and soul healthy!

Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

Ready to Die!

I know that title sounds a little morbid.  I mean it in a very practical way though.  For some time Stacy and I have talked about putting together our Will and other documents that will aid in case one or both of us pass away.  Especially because our kids are very important to us and we want them to be taken care of.  The problem is, we’ve only talked about it for a long time!  We recently decided that we would do more than just talk, we actually did it!  We have been aware of legalzoom.com for quite some time which offers legal documents at a reduced price compared to hiring a lawyer.  The nice part is that these documents are put together and reviewed by actual lawyers and can be downloaded once complete.  We got our documents printed and went in to our bank which offers free notary services to those who bank there.  It is finally done!!!

Now I’m ready to die!  I don’t plan to for some time but I feel really good that if something did happen, my girls would be taken care of.  This has been a weight on me for quite some time and I thought I would blog about it to hopefully inspire some of you out there who have merely talked about it yourselves to take some action.  I know I’m glad I did!

 

Many Hands Make Light Work…

Thank you to everyone who came and helped unload our flooring!

We recently received our shipment of 10,500 Square Feet of flooring for our building renovation.  It came on 11 pallets and weighed a total of 19,000 pounds.  I called the company and said I was inquiring about what vehicle to bring to pick up our order and the man responded, “A semi-truck!”  At first I thought he was joking, but he said, “seriously, it’s around 20,000 pounds of product and your best bet is a semi-truck!”  I told him we happen to have two of those in our church and the plan was set.  Thankfully we had lots of help unloading and it only took 35 minutes to empty the truck.  Thank you Valentine for lending us your truck.

I love watching a group of people show up and be present in their world and make a difference.  We are better together!

God uses the mundane for the miraculous

This past January we preached a series titled, “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop!”  That phrase is one that I have been praying a lot lately.  I want it to sink into my heart and continue to motivate me to do what God has called me to do as a man, father, husband, and pastor.  It’s easy to become discouraged and want to throw in the towel.  Quite frankly, life is hard.  If you make it through one days challenges, take a short breath because another one’s right behind it.  If you’re not careful, you may stop right before God shows up and does the miraculous.  That was the point I loved the most in Pastor Chris Harold’s message during this series…

“God uses the mundane for the miraculous.”

In Joshua chapter 6, God had asked the Israelite’s to march around the city of Jericho each day for 6 days without saying a word.  I can imagine after they marched and returned to camp, they felt a little silly.  What was God’s purpose in something so mundane?  I can’t fully answer that question but I do know that if they had quit after day 6 they would have missed the victory of day 7.

On day 7 God asked them to march around the city 7 times but this day when Joshua gave the signal, they were to shout.  As they let out the victory cry, the walls of Jericho fell!

You may not understand all that God has you doing in your everyday life, it may even seem mundane, but keep trusting God to use it for the miraculous in your life.  There is value in continuing to do the right thing when it seems no one is noticing.  There is value in obeying God when it doesn’t make much sense.  There is value in staying motivated even when you don’t feel like it.

The reality is, we don’t have what it takes to make the walls fall in Jericho.  Our best option is obedience to what God has asked us to do.  He wants to get the glory for what happens in your life.

Let’s not stop!  Keep pursuing God.  Keep trusting him. Keep standing for him.  Don’t stop on day 6!  We never know what God will do in a day.  Let’s wake up with the expectation that today can be the day that God’s miracle breaks through.

I’m not going to Stop pursuing the things of God! I’m not going to stop trusting God!  I’m not going to stop standing for him!  I can’t and I won’t!

You are fearfully and wonderfully made!

So often in life we are beat down from negativity from the world focusing on our failures. The areas we fall short and don’t measure up to their standards.  The reality is we do fall short often; No one gets it right every time. What I love about the bible is that the focus isn’t just on what we do; It’s more focused on who we are!  This is where our value and identity comes from.

In Genesis 1:27 it states that we are formed in God’s image.

27 “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

In Psalm 139 it describes how beautiful you really are…

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works  are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

What an amazing truth!

Pastor Chris Harold recently used the analogy of PleyDough to illustrate that when we form and create something, our fingerprints get all over it.  God’s fingerprints are all over your life when he formed and created you.  You reflect His image!

Jesus taught often the value of human life.  He said there is not one bird that falls to the ground that our heavenly father doesn’t know about.  His point- How much more important are we than birds.  If he takes care of the birds and clothes the fields, how much more will he take care of us.

Ultimately, Jesus used his life to communicate how important you are.  He says that you are someone worth dying for!  He was willing to go to the cross for you.  That is how valuable you are to him!  Today, rest in who you are!  See yourself how God sees you! Believe what God says about you! When the world tries to beat you down when you don’t measure up, remind yourself that you are loved by the one who knows you best!

When your life starts to get stale…

I’ve been pondering lately the breath of God in scripture.  In Genesis 2:7 it states, “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”  The same God who spoke and the universe came into existence can surely breathe and cause man to become a living being.  It is also interesting that when Jesus appeared to his disciples before going to the father, he breathed on them. His breath was timely for all that was about to happen in their lives (Receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, launching the church, and living for the mission of God).

Last Sunday as I came to the stage to pray over our church I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me that we need a fresh breath of God in our lives.  I have been praying this in my own life, “Breathe on me Lord!”.  As we see in scripture when God breathes on you, He breathes new life, strength, courage, resolve.  He gives you what you need to go through life and live for His glory. We’ve all experienced times when life becomes stale; when we become weak, even weary, and need a fresh touch from God to renew our strength.  That’s what I sensed Sunday.

If you keep the analogy simply, for anyone to breathe on our lives we must be in close proximity to them.  Maybe God is waiting for us to draw near to him so that he can breathe into us.

One way is to spend time in reading and studying the bible.  In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 it says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”  God uses scripture to mold us into the person he wants us to be.  It equips us, strengthens us, and brings new life to us. 

The second way is through prayer and waiting on God.  I love the verses in Isaiah 40 which state, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.“ (NASB)

If you are feeling that life is getting a little stale, determine to position yourself in close proximity to God and allow his breathe to fill your life!

Oh So Close!

For the last several weeks we’ve been announcing that we are close to closing on our new building.  It gets to be a bit embarrassing to keep making the same announcement.  Today we are scheduled to sign papers.  If you’ve ever bought a house or building, you know that the final thing before closing is signing the paperwork and bringing your money to the table.  I can finally say that we are right at the finish line and expect to close either tomorrow or Friday (Yeah!!!!!!!).

The irony of being at the finish line is that it’s also a starting line.  Once we own the building we start to work to get it back in shape to be a place where the church gathers and worships our God.

We have scheduled our first work day this Saturday from 9am to 12pm at the new property.  We will be removing some overgrown bushes, trees, and brush in order to make room for new landscaping.  I can’t wait to watch the transformation in the coming months and step into our new home.  On your marks, get set, let’s go!

Letting Go of Clutter!

About 6 years ago Stacy and I stood in our garage and were thinking about where we could add more shelves to store things.  I remember the moment when Stacy said, “Instead of building more shelves to store more stuff, what if we just got rid of things and lived with less!”  In that moment something shifted in both of our hearts and we have been on a journey to live with less.

Getting rid of things is an emotional process!  There is a particular reason we’ve bought each of our items and a reason we have held onto them.  That reason (multiplied by 1000) is why clutter fills up our houses and our garages.  It’s also the reason its so hard to let it go.  Each item holds some value to us.

Since that day, we have worked countless days to get to the point where we love EVERY area of our house.  I wish I can say its been easy but it hasn’t; It is hard and difficult.  Once you arrive, in a sense that is when the real work begins because you have to maintain it!

Approximately 3 years ago we reached one of our best places we’ve been so far.  Having gotten rid of a lot, Stacy finished the garage while I was out of town and it looked fabulous.  We celebrated and worked hard to keep it clean.  We did for a while but like so many areas, after time we were back to clutter.

We’ve been working hard for the past few days to go another round.  Some moments we feel like we are winning and others we feel like we’ve been punched in the gut.  But we are going to keep fighting.

I can’t believe how many things we’ve let go of over the last 6 years.  I can’t believe how much stuff we still have!  Our goal is when you come over to our house and open a cupboard, you notice how little we have and the extra space on the shelf.  When you go into our garage, you will find our cars actually live in there and you will wonder how we keep our house so clean.  We will smile because there will hardly be anything in there.

Until then…