How many trials or hardships have you had to endure through out your life? 5? 10? COUNTLESS!?!
I would fall under the "Countless" category.
Each time a problem or "trial" arose I sought after the easiest way out. I tried to focus on my strength to prevail in the time of struggle. I tired EVERYTHING I could to keep myself above the water and to be able to make it out in one piece.
After each circumstance that I made it through I told myself that I'd "Be prepared next time!". Well next time comes and it just seems that each time God opens my eyes to the truth or Shepard's me back into the flock, and then an entirely NEW PROBLEM shows itself to me!
For the longest time i prayed to God "God, your words have guided me to where I need to be. Each time I sit and pray. I sit and listen. I sit and read. I sit and learn. Lord, why can't you just open my eyes to all the troubles to come! Spare me the pain. Spare me the struggle!"
I was always looking for the easiest way out! Whether it was running from the problems or asking God to take them all away.
Now, in times of trials, faith grows weary. To be able to say to yourself "It will all be fine!" is mostly looked at as a joke. We live in a society and time that says "Without proof or assurance, you have no bases to assume anything!"
The question is, What Does God Say About Doubt? Where Is God In Times Of Need?
"Be Still and Know That I Am God.." Psalm 46:10. This was a hard one to learn. It's hard to accept that everything GOOD&BAD comes from the Father! It's hard to say "It will all be fine. God's with me".
But.... It's true.
To get through times of trials we must learn to lean on the only thing around us that's PERFECTLY STABLE...GOD!
In times of doubt we must ask for WISDOM! We must ask for FAITH! We must ask for UNDERSTANDING!
"...when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow!" James 1:2-3
Truth is, God tells us to use our BAD CIRCUMSTANCES or HARDSHIPS to REJOICE and GROW! "...Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go!" Joshua 1:9
God tells us Himself that He will be with us! So why fear!"The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,my shield and the horn of my salvation.He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior from violent men you save me. I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,and I am saved from my enemies. " 2 Samuel 22:2-4
For anyone who has "Doubts" do as God says "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."Matthew 7:7
ASK THE LORD YOUR GOD FOR THE WISDOM! ASK HIM FOR THE FAITH! ASK HIM TO OPEN YOUR EYES! HE WILL GIVE! JUST ASK WHEN IN DOUBT!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
The Jr. High Girls Ganged Me and Made Me Over! I Hope You All Know That Only a Pastor That Loves You Would Let You Do This To HIm! HAHA!
This is unbelievably disturbing.... But HILARIOUS!!!!! HAHAHAHA!!
Before
After
(What's going on with the Tribal marks on my face?!! hahaha!)
THEY MADE ME LEAD WORSHIP THIS WAY!!! HAHA!
Ok, you can laugh now... seriously... it's funny!
Before
After
(What's going on with the Tribal marks on my face?!! hahaha!)
THEY MADE ME LEAD WORSHIP THIS WAY!!! HAHA!
Ok, you can laugh now... seriously... it's funny!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Friendly Fire or Treason?
One of the major focuses of the U.S. military over the last few years, as we have been at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been to lower the rate of deaths caused by friendly fire. In World War II friendly fire had been responsible for nearly 12% of the deaths of U.S. troops and in Vietnam nearly 14%. Apparently, they have dropped the rate of friendly fire by 1% in the latest wars, but are still seeking to fix this issue.
Friendly fire is something that seems to come with the territory in battle. An allied soldier may jump in front of a weapon while it is being fired, or they are mistaken in the distance to be the enemy. In the Civil War, this was an even greater problem. No one was immune to it either because even great leaders such as Stonewall Jackson died this way.
I honestly couldn't imagine going out this way in war. After all of the training, team building, anxieties, mustered up courage and finally finding a purpose to truly fight for your country, that it would end at the tip of your buddies rifle. It seems like it would be all for not. Like everything you just went through and everything that you were fighting for was meaningless. If I'm going to die in battle, it better be by the hands of my enemy. The thought of dying at the hands of my enemy brings me courage. The thought of dying at the hands of my friend who can't point his rifle in the right direction causes me confusion and anxiety; not to mention lack of focus on what I am doing with having to keep an eye over my shoulder. If I can't trust my friend to fire in the right direction then who can I trust?
I feel this way about the church. How often have we died or been wounded at the hands of our brothers in Christ? How often have we struck our brother or sister with our tongue and watch them be destroyed over it? What is ever worse though is that the church (our church included) has not carelessly shot us, they have, at times, all together become our enemy. They have entrenched themselves on our side of the field but actually facing us and have shot us like they were shooting Satan himself. We have formed factions (better known as denominations) and clicks. We have hated each other and betrayed one another even unto death if necessary. Like Judas. I can't tell you how many times I have trusted someone or loved someone in the church that has shot me in the heart with their words or their actions, all on account of their pride and arrogance. All because I wasn't what they wanted me to be. They expected me to be perfect or conform to their "super awesome doctrine!" Apparently they had God wrapped so tightly in a box that there was no room for me in it.
I am no different. So often I have looked down my doctrinal nose at others in the church and shot them with my thoughts or words. I have put down other denominations and churches and people with different doctrinal stances. I have hated these people; people that Christ himself loves, I have said that I hated. I have hurt brothers in Christ. I have shot with cutting words and condemned men and women that I will spend eternity with. I have fought them as viciously (if not more so) as would have my own enemy. I have called them enemies. How is that right?
I am writing all of this, not because I am immune but because I am convicted.
I'm remembering the verse that says if you can't love your brother whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you haven't seen? I now realize how little I must have loved God, if at all. If I called my own brother my enemy then what did that make God who is the Father of my enemy?
The church (ours included) is in a critical state right now. We are engaged in a battle that is much bigger than you or I could imagine, and believe it or not, it's not against homosexuality or abortion. It's not against drugs or teen sex or drinking under age. The true battle is over the TRUE gospel of Jesus Christ. What is the true gospel of Jesus Christ? The very grace of Jesus Christ poured out in love for one another; for the lost; and even for our enemies. So often I look at the church in America and I am bewildered. How is this Jesus' church? We have wrecked the truth of the gospel, hated the lost, and shot our brothers. Something is really wrong and it's time that something changed.
Without love we have nothing. Without love we have no God, because God is love.
It's nearly impossible to avoid friendly fire while engaged in battle. It happens and it will happen in the church. However, It's one thing to hurt someone accidentally, it's all-together another thing to treat allies and brothers like they are our enemy. We call that treason.
Even Christ said, "If they are for us, than they are not against us."
Every person who claims the name of Christ, regardless of what we think of them or their doctrine or or the way they dress and smell is our brother in Jesus Christ. They are children of God, loved and adored by the person we call King and Father. If someone is loved by Christ, who are we to hate them or treat them like enemies?
How awesome would it be if we put our weapons down when facing each other and actually prayed for the brethren? What if we prayed for New Spring? What if we prayed for Concord Baptist and Redeemer? What if we prayed for our friend who stabbed us in the back last week or took our boyfriend/girlfriend? What if we started caring about the dorky kid or the kid that dressed weird or had a weird hair cut? What if we stopped shooting our brothers and offered them a helping hand? What if we started treating them like brothers and all turned our guns toward the true enemy, the world and Satan?
What would that kind of love do? What did it do in the Old Testament when the Isrealites joined together and called out to God? What happened when churches were united in cause in the New Testament?
It got crap done!! God Listened and helped every time! God had compassion and joined their cause. God isn't going to join a cause that defames His name. He will join our cause when we cry out together in unity and love.
I have heard that America is going to hell in a hand basket and that the Holy Spirit is gone, but I don't believe that for a minute. The Holy Spirit is here. If he weren't then we wouldn't be here either. I think the gospel is waiting to explode into the world through us, but God is waiting for us to obey His command to love. This is a much harder command than the 10 commandments because it's not some list we can just check off. This is something deeper that can only come from Christ and through the Holy Spirit.
Let's start seeing the battle for what it is; a battle to show the world the Grace of Jesus Christ through love for Christ first, then the brethren and into the world.
Friendly fire is something that seems to come with the territory in battle. An allied soldier may jump in front of a weapon while it is being fired, or they are mistaken in the distance to be the enemy. In the Civil War, this was an even greater problem. No one was immune to it either because even great leaders such as Stonewall Jackson died this way.
I honestly couldn't imagine going out this way in war. After all of the training, team building, anxieties, mustered up courage and finally finding a purpose to truly fight for your country, that it would end at the tip of your buddies rifle. It seems like it would be all for not. Like everything you just went through and everything that you were fighting for was meaningless. If I'm going to die in battle, it better be by the hands of my enemy. The thought of dying at the hands of my enemy brings me courage. The thought of dying at the hands of my friend who can't point his rifle in the right direction causes me confusion and anxiety; not to mention lack of focus on what I am doing with having to keep an eye over my shoulder. If I can't trust my friend to fire in the right direction then who can I trust?
I feel this way about the church. How often have we died or been wounded at the hands of our brothers in Christ? How often have we struck our brother or sister with our tongue and watch them be destroyed over it? What is ever worse though is that the church (our church included) has not carelessly shot us, they have, at times, all together become our enemy. They have entrenched themselves on our side of the field but actually facing us and have shot us like they were shooting Satan himself. We have formed factions (better known as denominations) and clicks. We have hated each other and betrayed one another even unto death if necessary. Like Judas. I can't tell you how many times I have trusted someone or loved someone in the church that has shot me in the heart with their words or their actions, all on account of their pride and arrogance. All because I wasn't what they wanted me to be. They expected me to be perfect or conform to their "super awesome doctrine!" Apparently they had God wrapped so tightly in a box that there was no room for me in it.
I am no different. So often I have looked down my doctrinal nose at others in the church and shot them with my thoughts or words. I have put down other denominations and churches and people with different doctrinal stances. I have hated these people; people that Christ himself loves, I have said that I hated. I have hurt brothers in Christ. I have shot with cutting words and condemned men and women that I will spend eternity with. I have fought them as viciously (if not more so) as would have my own enemy. I have called them enemies. How is that right?
I am writing all of this, not because I am immune but because I am convicted.
I'm remembering the verse that says if you can't love your brother whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you haven't seen? I now realize how little I must have loved God, if at all. If I called my own brother my enemy then what did that make God who is the Father of my enemy?
The church (ours included) is in a critical state right now. We are engaged in a battle that is much bigger than you or I could imagine, and believe it or not, it's not against homosexuality or abortion. It's not against drugs or teen sex or drinking under age. The true battle is over the TRUE gospel of Jesus Christ. What is the true gospel of Jesus Christ? The very grace of Jesus Christ poured out in love for one another; for the lost; and even for our enemies. So often I look at the church in America and I am bewildered. How is this Jesus' church? We have wrecked the truth of the gospel, hated the lost, and shot our brothers. Something is really wrong and it's time that something changed.
Without love we have nothing. Without love we have no God, because God is love.
It's nearly impossible to avoid friendly fire while engaged in battle. It happens and it will happen in the church. However, It's one thing to hurt someone accidentally, it's all-together another thing to treat allies and brothers like they are our enemy. We call that treason.
Even Christ said, "If they are for us, than they are not against us."
Every person who claims the name of Christ, regardless of what we think of them or their doctrine or or the way they dress and smell is our brother in Jesus Christ. They are children of God, loved and adored by the person we call King and Father. If someone is loved by Christ, who are we to hate them or treat them like enemies?
How awesome would it be if we put our weapons down when facing each other and actually prayed for the brethren? What if we prayed for New Spring? What if we prayed for Concord Baptist and Redeemer? What if we prayed for our friend who stabbed us in the back last week or took our boyfriend/girlfriend? What if we started caring about the dorky kid or the kid that dressed weird or had a weird hair cut? What if we stopped shooting our brothers and offered them a helping hand? What if we started treating them like brothers and all turned our guns toward the true enemy, the world and Satan?
What would that kind of love do? What did it do in the Old Testament when the Isrealites joined together and called out to God? What happened when churches were united in cause in the New Testament?
It got crap done!! God Listened and helped every time! God had compassion and joined their cause. God isn't going to join a cause that defames His name. He will join our cause when we cry out together in unity and love.
I have heard that America is going to hell in a hand basket and that the Holy Spirit is gone, but I don't believe that for a minute. The Holy Spirit is here. If he weren't then we wouldn't be here either. I think the gospel is waiting to explode into the world through us, but God is waiting for us to obey His command to love. This is a much harder command than the 10 commandments because it's not some list we can just check off. This is something deeper that can only come from Christ and through the Holy Spirit.
Let's start seeing the battle for what it is; a battle to show the world the Grace of Jesus Christ through love for Christ first, then the brethren and into the world.
Monday, April 6, 2009
God Loves to Pop Bubble Wrap
Forever I thought that if I tried hard enough and thought long enough and read enough of my Bible I could figure God out. I could argue His existence and win the whole world over to God through my vast knowledge and wisdom of scripture. It would be easy. All the world needed was my great knowledge.
I hated experience and believed that the Holy Spirit only served to tweak my heart and make me a Christian and then never rear His ugly head again in my life. Never would that weird ghost do anything to me. After all, I heard he makes people get emotional. Emotions make us illogical and liberal! Like a girl. Well, more like a very emotional girl. I didn't want to be a girl because I am a man. I want no emotions, please, thank you! Emotions make us weird, like the Pentecostals. I feared if I let this Holy Ghost guy into my life He might make me fall down on the floor and start convulsing and speaking gibberish and telling people I talked to God. That wouldn't be right. After all I am a Presbyterian and we are too lofty for that mess. In fact we are very logical and resonable. There is no room for emotion in a Presbyterian. Especially a male Presbyterian. This Holy Spirit guy scared me and I wanted nothing to do with Him or His crazy antics.
Knowledge is safe. It keeps me from having to do anything. I can sit and read and learn all I want and don't have to do anything for anyone else or "feel" moved to do so either. "Feeling" moved sucks. What does "feeling" moved mean anyway? Without this feeling, I am better off because I can stay logical and self-controlled. I don't have to cry or feel convicted to feed the poor or be nice to my mom. I can just think about it and say that it is right and that is good enough. That IS good enough right? hmm!
I felt this way until just recently.
I think my wife was supposed to be a pentecostal and she just got lost somewhere along the way and by chance she fell into marraige with me. Poor girl. She likes to say she "feels" things and she cries a lot (that part may be my fault), but there is something even stranger than that that she does. She loves people unconditionally! Why would anyone do that? How could you possibly love someone without asking anything from them? She especially loves special needs people. This drove me nuts because all I could think was that God would give her one of these kinds of kids one day and my life would be over. He would give her this kind of kid because He knows she would love that person more than anything in the world and she would be completely content.
What about me God?!! I was freaking out. This kind of love was way to weird for me. I mean I need to get something back from a relationship. How can I possibly ever be godly if I have to be so self-sacrificial? I wouldn't have the energy to do anything good. She would though, and that makes me feel like crap.
Being married five years has taken it's toll on my spiritual ego. I always thought I had everything figured out and was waiting for just the right moment to transform the world with my great knowledge, and make the world ready for Jesus to come back. I might even sacrifice myself upside down to show the world that I knew how to do it. Then this wild eyed, beautiful and crazy girl came along and messed it all up for me. Just when I thought I was ok, and just when I had God wrapped tightly in my gift wrapped box with a red bow on top, she came into my life and showed me how ridiculously wretched and awful I was. The audacity!
How could she do this to me?
My wife is the most illogical person I've ever met. Everytime I try to reason through something with her she just tosses my great knowedge to the wind and goes on her merry way. She is illogical and WAY too loving. If it were up to her all of our possessions would be down at the homeless shelter and I would be sleeping on a hard wood floor. She would give away her only meal on a deserted island to a starving monkey if she had the chance. This pissed me off! I would always tell her, "you can't just love somebody like that. I mean it's not natural. You have to look out for yourself in this world." After all, isn't that what Jesus said? Somewhere? Maybe? Now you are getting a good idea of what my God box looked like.
It baffles me that my wife is so godly. she really is. I actually think she is as close to Christ as anyone I've ever met. She has shamed me in ways that I can't tell you because she is so much better than me at everything spiritual. I sometimes fear that I will come home and have a homeless guy eating at my table or some mangy old dog eating my steak! She would do that too!
It used to tick me off that I put so much effort into figuring out God and after years of learning and figuring and building the systems to being an awesome Christian philosopher/ preacher/ guru, that this strange and emotional girl would enter into my life, never having read much of any scripture and off the cuff be more like Christ then me. It wasn't fair!
How could I have missed it. I'm supposed to be the one that is more like Christ because I have studied Him more.
I'm learning that God LOVES to break our boxes. I think it is because He likes to pop the bubble wrap inside. Every time I thought I had God figured out He destroyed my system. This is why we need the Holy Spirit. Because there is not a soul on earth that can understand this God that we serve. No system or law can hold him. He can break all of our petty little legalistic rules and it's ok. He's God! There is only one way to know God and that is through the Holy Spirit. My wife has the Holy Spirit coming out of her ears. The Holy Spirit is why we know God, and how we understand anything at all. He is the force within us that drives us to the truth, that sits with us on top of the Blue Ridge Mountains when the sun is setting and that shows us how filthy we are through emotional girls! In fact, He is the one that shows us through these emotional and unreasonable girls that we suck at life and they don't!
If I were going to leave you with anything it is this. Don't put God in a Box. He gets VERY clastrophobic! and don't let knowledge rule you. It only makes you dumber. Let the Holy Spirit guide you to the truth and let Him open your eyes. Trust His work in your life and not your own. And do not! I repeat, do not! marry a Spirit filled women if you want to keep your ego.
I love you Bonnie! He has done more for my walk with Christ through you than anyone else in the world.
Your brilliant youth pastor (I AM being sarcastic) Mark Wells
I hated experience and believed that the Holy Spirit only served to tweak my heart and make me a Christian and then never rear His ugly head again in my life. Never would that weird ghost do anything to me. After all, I heard he makes people get emotional. Emotions make us illogical and liberal! Like a girl. Well, more like a very emotional girl. I didn't want to be a girl because I am a man. I want no emotions, please, thank you! Emotions make us weird, like the Pentecostals. I feared if I let this Holy Ghost guy into my life He might make me fall down on the floor and start convulsing and speaking gibberish and telling people I talked to God. That wouldn't be right. After all I am a Presbyterian and we are too lofty for that mess. In fact we are very logical and resonable. There is no room for emotion in a Presbyterian. Especially a male Presbyterian. This Holy Spirit guy scared me and I wanted nothing to do with Him or His crazy antics.
Knowledge is safe. It keeps me from having to do anything. I can sit and read and learn all I want and don't have to do anything for anyone else or "feel" moved to do so either. "Feeling" moved sucks. What does "feeling" moved mean anyway? Without this feeling, I am better off because I can stay logical and self-controlled. I don't have to cry or feel convicted to feed the poor or be nice to my mom. I can just think about it and say that it is right and that is good enough. That IS good enough right? hmm!
I felt this way until just recently.
I think my wife was supposed to be a pentecostal and she just got lost somewhere along the way and by chance she fell into marraige with me. Poor girl. She likes to say she "feels" things and she cries a lot (that part may be my fault), but there is something even stranger than that that she does. She loves people unconditionally! Why would anyone do that? How could you possibly love someone without asking anything from them? She especially loves special needs people. This drove me nuts because all I could think was that God would give her one of these kinds of kids one day and my life would be over. He would give her this kind of kid because He knows she would love that person more than anything in the world and she would be completely content.
What about me God?!! I was freaking out. This kind of love was way to weird for me. I mean I need to get something back from a relationship. How can I possibly ever be godly if I have to be so self-sacrificial? I wouldn't have the energy to do anything good. She would though, and that makes me feel like crap.
Being married five years has taken it's toll on my spiritual ego. I always thought I had everything figured out and was waiting for just the right moment to transform the world with my great knowledge, and make the world ready for Jesus to come back. I might even sacrifice myself upside down to show the world that I knew how to do it. Then this wild eyed, beautiful and crazy girl came along and messed it all up for me. Just when I thought I was ok, and just when I had God wrapped tightly in my gift wrapped box with a red bow on top, she came into my life and showed me how ridiculously wretched and awful I was. The audacity!
How could she do this to me?
My wife is the most illogical person I've ever met. Everytime I try to reason through something with her she just tosses my great knowedge to the wind and goes on her merry way. She is illogical and WAY too loving. If it were up to her all of our possessions would be down at the homeless shelter and I would be sleeping on a hard wood floor. She would give away her only meal on a deserted island to a starving monkey if she had the chance. This pissed me off! I would always tell her, "you can't just love somebody like that. I mean it's not natural. You have to look out for yourself in this world." After all, isn't that what Jesus said? Somewhere? Maybe? Now you are getting a good idea of what my God box looked like.
It baffles me that my wife is so godly. she really is. I actually think she is as close to Christ as anyone I've ever met. She has shamed me in ways that I can't tell you because she is so much better than me at everything spiritual. I sometimes fear that I will come home and have a homeless guy eating at my table or some mangy old dog eating my steak! She would do that too!
It used to tick me off that I put so much effort into figuring out God and after years of learning and figuring and building the systems to being an awesome Christian philosopher/ preacher/ guru, that this strange and emotional girl would enter into my life, never having read much of any scripture and off the cuff be more like Christ then me. It wasn't fair!
How could I have missed it. I'm supposed to be the one that is more like Christ because I have studied Him more.
I'm learning that God LOVES to break our boxes. I think it is because He likes to pop the bubble wrap inside. Every time I thought I had God figured out He destroyed my system. This is why we need the Holy Spirit. Because there is not a soul on earth that can understand this God that we serve. No system or law can hold him. He can break all of our petty little legalistic rules and it's ok. He's God! There is only one way to know God and that is through the Holy Spirit. My wife has the Holy Spirit coming out of her ears. The Holy Spirit is why we know God, and how we understand anything at all. He is the force within us that drives us to the truth, that sits with us on top of the Blue Ridge Mountains when the sun is setting and that shows us how filthy we are through emotional girls! In fact, He is the one that shows us through these emotional and unreasonable girls that we suck at life and they don't!
If I were going to leave you with anything it is this. Don't put God in a Box. He gets VERY clastrophobic! and don't let knowledge rule you. It only makes you dumber. Let the Holy Spirit guide you to the truth and let Him open your eyes. Trust His work in your life and not your own. And do not! I repeat, do not! marry a Spirit filled women if you want to keep your ego.
I love you Bonnie! He has done more for my walk with Christ through you than anyone else in the world.
Your brilliant youth pastor (I AM being sarcastic) Mark Wells
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