Monday, October 27, 2008


Thanks to Amy Alabran for sending me this video. It goes along with this past months sermon series "Sent." It's powerful. Enjoy.

I'm Back...

Yes, I'm back. Last week I took a week of vacation to spend with my family and get somethings done around the house. What a relaxing and fun week. I got to spend a lot of time with Isaiah and Chloe. They enjoyed the week and I'm not sure how they will take this week now that dad is back to work. I'm excited to get back into things here at the office. Much to accomplish as we get ready for the launch of our small group system in January.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Enjoy this...

I took this from Paul Grabill's blog. I thought it was funny in explaining Wall-Street

From an email...
If you have difficulty understanding the current world financial situation, the following should help clear matters... Once upon a time in a village in Africa, a man announced to the villagers that he would buy local monkeys for $10 apiece.The villagers seeing there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.The man bought thousands at $10, but, as the supply started to diminish, the villagers slowed their efforts.So the man then announced that he would buy at $20. This rejuvenated the efforts of the villagers and they were catching monkeys once more.But again the supply diminished, and again people began returning to their farms and their previous, less affluent lives.The offer rate increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was rare to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now act as buyer, on his behalf.In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: 'Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $30 each. When he returns from the city, you can sell them back to him for $50.'The villagers, seeing an opportunity to squeeze a bit more out of this monkey business dug up their savings and bought back all the monkeys.They never saw the man or his assistant again; only monkeys ... everywhere!Welcome to Wall Street

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Learning...

I am still excited when I think back to last week and the time Pastor Art and I had to learn about Spiritual Gifts. And I am still growing in how to see them come alive in my personal life. There has been so much dirt thrown on them through the years, that even though I believe in the gifts, I was afraid of them and didn't know how to use them. My vision of a well that has shovel fulls of dirt being thrown into it to fill it up and then a gusher of water, like Old Faithful, bursting forth is exciting to me because I believe it is a picture of ushering in the gifts in a powerful way in this church. Then we will begin to minister out of the overflow of the anointing and not out of the bottom of the barrel. Not that we are doing that now, but in order for the church to grow healthy and strong you need worship, teaching, and the gifts to flow together.

Something that has come alive to me even more so now, is the command to die to myself and pick up my cross and follow Him. It seems the biggest problem in our churches today is that we are not really dieing to oursleves. We still have so much concern for how others see us, how we look, what will entertain us, that it hinders us from truly being a light for Jesus. Think about that. One person put it like this, we need a spiritual martyrdom, the killing of self, for His glory. Then we can truly begin to experience the gifts of the Spirit in an even greater way. I know that this is hard because I still wrestle with wanting to fit in but this is where knowing who we are in Jesus needs to take precedent over what this world thinks of me. In Jesus, we are princes and princesses, we are heirs, we are His workmanship, and so much more.

Lord, help us to overcome this world and the desires we have to want to fit in with it. Give us desires that draw us nearer to You and lead us to be a greater evangelist. This community needs You and it needs us to begin to represent You and the characteristics that go along with a life that is founded in You. Lead the way and may we all follow. Amen.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

For the Pastor's Wife

I thought this video was very thought provoking (and funny). I am going to watch what I say and always be sure to talk to Bethany before I say anything about her. I love you Bethany.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

My Tuesday Morning...

I am in Carlisle listening to David Lim speak on the "Gifts of the Spirit." He talked about how ALL of us can use ALL of the gifts. It was powerful. He talked about the fact that no one has a certain gift. You know what I mean? Some people say they have the gift of prophecy or healing but that is an untrue statement. The correct statement would be that they operate in those gifts more than other people and other gifts but they do not have that gift or possess that gift. Remember, God possesses all of the gifts and gives them out to all. If we are willing to seek the Lord and be ready to listen and be used any time, we can operate in any of the gifts.

In fact, after he taught, we took time to worship the Lord and listen to what He would speak to all of us. David Lim wrote down somethings that he felt God was speaking and then he had us share what we thought God was speaking. Do you know what? Everyone was hearing the same things. Do you know what else? Even I heard from the Lord.

I have to admit that I had fear when it came to the "Gifts of the Spirit." But that fear came from an improper view of the "Gifts." As I am learning about the "Gifts," I am beginning to better understand them and my part in seeing them operate in my life.

Oh, and what God showed me was that He was going to bring healing in the use of the Gifts of the Spirit to the church. This was shared many different ways today so I knew that God had spoken to me. It was very exciting. Oh and when I heard this, I didn't get goose bumps or feel like I was taken to a super natural plain. It was just something that the Lord dropped into my heart. It was awesome. Then when we began to worship the Lord again, the Lord dropped this in my heart, "Victory is in Jesus!" I am so excited. I am overcoming fear and learning how to truly see the "Gifts" at work in my life. Praise the Lord! And I can't wait to share with you all that I'm learning and begin to see the "Gifts" at work in all of your lives as well. Remember this prophetic word: "VICTORY IS IN JESUS!"

Somebody get your PRAISE on!

In the beginning...

I keep seeing this video posted on some different blogs and I think it is funny so I wanted to share it with all of you. Let me know what you think.

Friday, October 3, 2008

The Great Debate

I took time to watch the vp debate. An interesting point made by Gov. Palin was when she said that it was time Americans learned how to live within their means. I don't think you hear a lot of people saying that in the government. But I do believe that would help us a whole lot more than getting bigger paychecks, though that is nice. We do not know how to be happy with whatever we have like the apostle Paul talks about. We always want to be like the next person that looks like they are living the high life. Happines does not come from money. It comes from Jesus. If we could be happy with a decent wage, and by decent wage I mean a wage that meets our basic needs, what might that do for us?

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Lesson Learned

Monday as we joined together for noon time prayer 1 Samuel 15 was brought up. (Noon time prayer is where a couple different churches and pastors get together to pray for this community. It has been going on everyday at 12:00pm since September 2007.)

1 Samuel 15 is all about God telling Saul to go and completely destroy the Amalekites. Instead of completely destroying them, Saul saves the king and some animals. This is the beginning of the end of Saul's reign. He disobeyed God.

Saul wanted to sacrifice some of the animals to God. Sounds good, doesn't it? I began to wonder what I might do if I was put in that same position. Would I look at all of the animals and think of how they could bless the poor? Would I want to spare the children because they are only children? It lead me to think of how many times we compromise God's Word in the name of helping others.

As a believer in Jesus, I believe gambling is wrong. But, when someone wins the lottery, which is gambling, and they want to give the church a chunk, if not all of it, am I going to take it? Recently, a church received a winning lottery ticket from someone who had won. Sounds like a blessing, and maybe it was. Or maybe they compromised their belief that gambling is wrong because it benefited them in a tremendous way? I don't know. I don't know what I would do given the same situation. Yes, it could help the poor around the world, but at what cost. My only thought is am I opening the door to give Satan a foothold, just like Saul did, when I compromise what I know is right and wrong.

I know that God can do whatever He wants and use whatever He wants. I just wonder if we are being tested to see if we will compromise or hold to what we believe is truth. Holding to what we believe is true goes further, than compromising who I am and what I believe as a follower of Christ. I believe it would bring a greater blessing. And think of the example set if that winning lottery ticket was burned up or cashed in and the money burned up. Maybe it would look crazy and be crazy. Or maybe people would see that Christians will not compromise, even if when it benefits us to compromise. It might turn the world upside down.

Just some thoughts. What do you think?