thoughts on god.

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This is speaking to me.

Posted by on 26 Sep 2008 | Tagged as: my life., thoughts on god.

We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts…We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else.

1 Thes 2:4, 6

Basically, I don’t give a flying flip about pleasing you. This serving God thing isn’t a popularity contest. It’s all about God.
It’s all about God.
It’s all about God.

God is really reminding me of this fact this week. May I never forget it!

India Persecution Update

Posted by on 24 Sep 2008 | Tagged as: my life., New Hope stuff., thoughts on church, thoughts on god., thoughts on life.

This Email was received from our missionary in India.
The missionary is currently stateside, while his wife and children are still in India.

Have you spent time considering what it would be like to be a Christian which persecution like this? Please keep our Christian brothers and sisters in India in your prayers and thoughts.

MY WIFE WAS ABLE TO CALL ME THAT THE HINDUS DESTROY A POLICE STATION AT RAIKIA 20 KM FROM G.UDAYAGIRI AND 4000 HINDU MILITANTS ARE ATTACKING THE G.UDAYAGIRI REFUGEE CAMP.THEY HAVE CUT THE POWER AND TELEPHONE CELL PHONE AND HAVE SENT THE LETTERS TO THE CHRISTIAN LEADERS TO KILL WITHIN 5 DAYS OF TIME. NEED MUCH PRAYERS FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHRISTIANS AND THE CHURCHES. THEY HAVE BLOCKED THE [Removed for Confidentiality’s sake].THINGS ARE NOT AT ALL GOOD. IAM CONCERN OF OUR STAF,CHILDREN AND BELIEVERS WHO ARE AT [Confidential] RIHGT NOW.

How would you fare if you were thrust into such a life?
How would the church fare?
How would your faith fare?
How would Jesus fare?

Psalm 117

Posted by on 05 Sep 2008 | Tagged as: thoughts on god.

Psalm 117 (ESV):

Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!

Perry Noble on ‘Hit between the eyes’

Posted by on 18 Jul 2008 | Tagged as: churches on the ball., thoughts on church, thoughts on god.

This morning my favorite blogger Perry Noble wrote this as advice to church planters (no, I have no intention to plant a church):

If someone isn’t angry at you then pray for God to set you on fire and lead you to preach a message that will hit the majority of your church between the eyes…and then HANG ON!

(Read the whole post in context here.)

What do you think? Is this wise advice to church planters?
Do you want to be ‘hit between the eyes’ by your pastor more often?

Controversies and Quarrels Lead to What?

Posted by on 07 May 2008 | Tagged as: thoughts on god., thoughts on life.

Yeah, I know I’m an eternal optimist, but have you ever noticed that those who seem to be always negative are a lot of times negative about things they actually don’t know anything about? And they’re willing to fight about it? Check this out:
1 Timothy 6:3-5:

If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.


YIKES!

Lord, May I never have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels resulting in envy, strife, malicious talk and constant friction. May I continually be one with truth.

Encounter on the Road to Work

Posted by on 07 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: my life., thoughts on god.

Today I share a story from my walk to work this morning.

For it to make sense, you have to understand my route. I walk 1 1/2 blocks on my road, then turn onto a road without any sidewalks for about 1/4 mile or so. This road is wide, with about a 3′ paved shoulder.

Note–people don’t normally walk on roads without sidewalks, right?

Well, today when I turned, there was a guy ahead of me by about 100 meters, and he was walking slower than I, so I knew I might catch him. I thought ‘What is he going to think when I pass him?’

I decided it was best to not pass, so I tried to stay back at least 20 meters. But as we approached my turn into work, this guy really slowed down–I think perhaps he was fiddling with an ipod or something. But I came up on him really quickly, and wasn’t really paying attention. As I prepared to turn and he was about two meters ahead of me, my shadow was in front of him. I wondered if he’d notice.
Sure enough, he did notice, and he turned around really, really quickly and had a look of horror on his face. I turned my corner, and smiled really big, and it made me laugh.

I think you had to be there to see this guy’s face when he realized someone was right behind him. It was so unexpected for him to encounter anyone on the road, he was so startled.

In our lives, it is in the times when we’re not paying attention to what’s going on around us that we seem to ‘forget’ about Jesus. Through my walk today, God was speaking to me–am I watching for God all the time? He’s right behind me, even when I’m not thinking about it…
And he’s right behind you, too.

Post-Injury Recovery Thoughts on Life

Posted by on 05 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: thoughts on god., thoughts on life.

In the past six weeks, I’ve injured both my finger and my knee.

I thought both would heal quickly. But as I recover, I’m finding it isn’t so quick.

My finger, although better, is tender to the touch at a specific angle. The problem here, is I forget about it until I hurt it. I don’t hurt it as long as I’m thinking about it–but it doesn’t hurt enough to think about it…

My knee is also much better than it was last week. But the past few days, my knee just feels swollen. It aches. It’s a constant reminder of my injury.

This nagging injuries got me thinking about how still good was the fact I at least did not need to apply for some injury attorney assistance (I heard about this Pace Law firm, poviding a good service, though), but also – about how much this is like those nagging sin issues in our lives. The thing we think we’re over, we forget about, and then when we forget about it, it pops up. As long as we’re thinking about protecting ourselves from it, we’re good, but then after a while, we slowly forget about it and stop thinking about protecting ourselves anymore…
The knee reminded me of sometimes our problems in life stay with us for a while–sometimes a choice we make when we’re young stays with us for the rest of our lives.

Jesus Complacency

Posted by on 24 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: random., thoughts on god.

Several days ago, I was looking through my blog reader, catching up on posts people had made.
I subscribe to around 25 blogs, some are friends, two are marketing gurus, and several are pastors of churches.

When browsing the different pastors, I thought I clicked on one certain pastor (who will remain nameless), and started reading, and the guy was completely not his normal self–he talked about Jesus. After I checked, it wasn’t wasn’t who I thought it was–it was instead Perry Noble (who talks about Jesus all the time).

I understand different bloggers have different personalities, but what happened was the pastor I thought I was reading has NEVER talked about Jesus, so when I thought he did, it was a shocker.

I never processed this before…some people just never talk about Jesus–they never talk about their faith, even. What a travesty to have a reputation as a pastor who doesn’t talk about Jesus on their so-called ministry blog.

FYI–the pastor in question is NOT in my links in my sidebar, and it’s no one I’ve ever met, so If you’re a friend of mine, I am NOT talking about you! 🙂 You are good… And don’t bother to ask who it was, because I refuse to talk bad about fellow Christians.

May I never become complacent in my walk with Jesus. May people always know I am a Jesus-follower first, and a man in ministry second. And may I never forget that.

Reason for Hope Seminar

Posted by on 21 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: random., thoughts on god.

I have made plans with my great friend Todd Helmkamp to attend the Reason for Hope seminar on February 1 & 2 at Trinity Evangelical Church (directions) in Fort Wayne.
This seminar will feature Dr. Craig Blomberg, Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary. Blomberg was one of the people interviewed in The Case for Christ.

Todd and I are looking forward to this conference, and would like to invite you to join us, too! The more the merrier! We have invited Todd F. and Jeremiah O., but haven’t heard final confirmations from them yet. [EDIT]Todd and Jeremiah are BOTH going to join us![/EDIT] Perhaps you would be in for a good intense lecture on apologetics from one of the world’s greatest, we’d love to have you join us as well. There are also some group sessions, too!

The cost is $20. You will need to register yourself, via snail mail. For your convenience, I have included a PDF version of the brochure here: Reason for Hope Brochure.

Life Lesson from Pumping Gasoline

Posted by on 21 Dec 2007 | Tagged as: my life., thoughts on god., thoughts on life.

Every morning, Emily and I leave for work at the same time. I have a one-minute commute, or a seven-minute walk (I am not walking through the winter though), and Emily has a 35-40 minute commute.

Needless to say, Emily uses much more gasoline in her car than I do in mine. I try to do most of her gasoline fill-ups, but sometimes she gets gas in Fort Wayne without letting me know she needs gas.

This morning on the way to work, Emily needed gas, so we stopped at our local S & S Express, and I pumped gas for her. I went in to pay as Emily drove off. The young lady behind the counter said, ‘You always pump gas for her, don’t you?’
I said, ‘Not always, but I do try to.’
‘I think that’s so cute,’ she said.
‘Sometimes she gets it without asking me, but when it’s cold outside, I especially like getting it for her.’
‘I think it’s so cute you two get along so well.’

As I left, those words stuck with me…’you two get along so well.’

I think that is key to making any marriage work. You have to do what the other person wants, even when you don’t want to. I don’t particularly enjoy standing out in 20-degree weather pumping gasoline, but when I do it instead of my wife, I am making a sacrifice for her, and she knows it. I gladly make that sacrifice for my wife.
She doesn’t like pumping gas ever, and when she can get a replacement to do it for her, she is indebted to her replacement, and she serves me well.

The thing is, this is just like what Jesus did for us–he was the replacement sacrifice for all we deserve for our screw ups and mess ups. Jesus made a sacrifice for us, do we serve him well?

The Shortcut that Isn’t a Shortcut

Posted by on 11 Dec 2007 | Tagged as: my life., thoughts on god., thoughts on life.

This morning I was thinking about my issues last night in getting my WiFi Router to work properly.

You see, I knew what I needed to do the whole time, but I thought I could figure it out by changing a setting on the notebook.
I knew what needed to be done, but I thought I could do it better myself. Turns out, I was wrong.

I think often in our own walk with Jesus, deep down we know what our next step should be, but we don’t like it, so we try to find a different route. The thing is–there often isn’t a second route. When we face a bridge, there’s only one way to cross it, and we need to do what needs to be done–no gallivanting around will get you across the bridge you face.

Next time you find yourself in a place in your walk with Jesus where you know the next step you need to take, just do it. Don’t waste your time trying to find a way around it–just do it.

I’m talking to myself here.

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