Filed under: Conviction Hurts, Daily Living, Faith, Family, Friends, God is good, Jesus, Legacy Fellowship, Marriage, Ministry, Prayer, Religion, church, forgiveness | Tags: 2 Corinthians 12, God, Grace, Jesus, Paul
Over the last year or so I have noticed a disturbing trend in my life. It seems almost every Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday I am in a bad mood. For a good long while I never could put my finger on it. Why was I in a bad mood? I have a good job, a decent house and car, a loving and beautiful wife and a dog. I live the American dream.
I also have a relationship with Jesus Christ and about a year or so ago I began my stint as the youth pastor at Legacy Fellowship in Cedar Park. Coincidence? I think not. It took a while for me to figure it out. It wasn’t my wife I was getting perturbed at. It wasn’t my dog I wanted to strangle. I wasn’t bent out of shape about work and it certainly wasn’t God pestering me. You see, Tuesday is usually the day I do my sermon prep, Wednesday is the day I preach in Filter, the youth ministry at Legacy, and Sunday is what we in youth ministry call “Big Church”.
We have an enemy and he does not want us fulfill God’s calling in our lives. He does everything he can to deter me from hearing God’s voice and sharing His word with others. Sometimes he comes around waving old temptations in our faces. Sometimes he just makes us really irritable. We may find ourselves dealing with some sin we haven’t dealt with in months or years. We may jump down someone’s throat for almost nothing.
The trick to beating this is not just recognizing it. That is the necessary first step but it certainly is not the solution. No, the solution is getting with God and letting Him fight the fight with us. God sees our struggles and is on His toes waiting for us to admit them to Him, admit that we can’t beat them on our own and ask Him to help.
Paul asked God to remove a thorn from his side three times. He referred to is as a “messenger of Satan to torment me”. The Lord replied, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). What was the thorn in Paul’s side? There has been a lot of speculation but no one really knows. What I do know is I have my own thorns and I know that God’s grace is sufficient for me. I need but ask for it.
Filed under: Friends, wisdom | Tags: knowledge, learning, rhodes scholar, sharing, spelling, wisdom
Here are a few responses to the questioned I presented yesterday about wisdom and knowledge:
Knowledge is knowing things,Wisdom is too, but is shared.
Knowledge = input of factsWisdom = ability to use facts for your & other’s benefit
Knowledge is acquaintance with truths while wisdom is knowledge with just judgment.
Knowledge is simply pure fact based. Wisdom is knowing when to apply your knowledge….
Knowledge is the ability to learn, wisdom is applying what you learn.
My response was: Wisdom is the knowledge of what is good and true and applying it. Also, knowledge is learned while wisdom is earned.
Some pretty good responses in my opinion but I would like to dig a bit deeper into this. However, I don’t think anyone can give me a better response than the one an friend gave me:
They have different spellings.
Not all of my friends are Rhodes Scholars.
Filed under: Daily Living, Question of the day, wisdom | Tags: knowledge, Question of the day, wisdom
In your opinion, what is the difference between wisdom and knowledge?
Filed under: College, Leadership, Learning my trade, Ministry | Tags: College, David Kupelian, high school, John MacArthur, The Marketing of Evil, The Truth War
Going to school was never my favorite activity. I didn’t hate high school, just the school part, so I skipped class a lot and yet somehow managed to graduate with honors. I also didn’t necessarily hate college. I usually slept in, missed the class, dropped the class, retook the class, passed by the skin of my teeth and then found out I couldn’t transfer the class. When I decided I would go back to college to finish my degree it was quite a shock, not only to my folks, my brother and my friends, but to me as well. What on earth was I doing? And I was paying for it so I had to study and stuff.
Well, so far I have loved what I am learning. The first book I read for my first class was The Truth War by John MacArthur. It was a great book. I hated it at first because the author seems to be a very staunch, pious, dogmatic, old-school Christian. It seemed he was saying everything we are doing in the church today is wrong. Turns out, I was wrong. Some of his views are a bit ridged but I can’t say he’s not right most of the time.
The next book on the list is The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell us Corruption Disguised as Freedom by David Kupelian. I HIGHLY recommend this book. I am about half-way finished and I am riveted to it. It is a fantastic look at how we have been systematically and purposefully desensitized to so many of the things in the world we as Christians should not be desensitized to.
If you are in ministry, especially in a pastoral role, you simply must pick up this book.
If you have read these books, tell me what you think. I would love some dialogue about them. Now, if only I didn’t have to write papers on these books, then college would be GREAT!
Filed under: Conviction Hurts, Daily Living, Faith, Food, God is good, Jesus, Prayer, Religion, forgiveness, health | Tags: acid reflux, arsenic, forgiveness, God, grudges, health, Jesus, Matthew 6, resentment, sleep, Tums
I heard a great quote on the radio the other day and I had to share it. It goes a little something like this:
“Holding a grudge against someone is like taking a spoonful of arsenic everyday and hoping the other person dies”.
I think that is an absolutely fantastic quote. It is one to live by. It is also one that is difficult to master. I am guilty of holding grudges and had struggled for years with one in particular. I believe I have finally forgiven said person and I rarely think about what happened anymore, but it took nearly tens years to do so. I know my heart is healthier now that I have forgiven those trespasses against me. I also know that, had I not done so, my prayers for forgiveness would have been futile. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6 that “if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions” (vv. 14-15). Ouch!
By forgiving others, not only do we gain forgiveness from God, we also gain health in our heart, mind and bodies. Studies have shown that resentment can lead to many health problems. I am sure my grudge never helped my Acid Reflux.
Do you want to sleep better? Do you want to stop eating a bottle of Tums every week? (I mean really, arsenic can’t be good for the stomach.) Ask yourself this question; is there someone in your life you need to forgive?
Filed under: Daily Living, Random Junk, Relationships | Tags: greetings, morning, salutations
So this morning I say to a co-worker, “Morning”. I typically leave the “good” part off of that unless it truly is. I don’t like to lie.
In response my co-worker says, “You look grumpy”, and walks away.
What?
Sheesh!
Filed under: Faith, God is good, Jesus, Religion, health | Tags: debt, Faith, God, healing, Heaven, Jesus, promises, the bible, VISA
Ever since the news of my kidney ailment I have been pondering something; when will we believe what we believe? I have thought about this for days now. Do we truly take hold of the promises of God? There are so many to choose from, are we going to believe just the good ones? Are we going to believe just the “feasible” ones? Are we just going to believe we are going to Heaven? Or are we going to believe all of them? Yes, all of them. Even the ones that may seem a bit out there.
The bible tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). IMPOSSIBLE. Ouch. Sometimes the bible hurts. But if it says that God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Eph 3:20), why wouldn’t we believe in something like divine healing? I am trying.
Six years ago I moved back to Houston from Austin. I moved back with a mountain of credit card debt. I couldn’t find a good job so I took what I could find. I worked as a mover for a while and got hurt. I couldn’t work for about a three or four weeks so I was paying all my bills with a credit card. When I finally found another job it wasn’t a very good one and didn’t cover my bills. I had to humble myself and call my Uncle to ask for a job back home.
When I moved back I really gave my life back to the Lord. I had know God for years and years but I never really surrendered to Him. This time it was different. The big thing I knew I needed to do was trust Him with everything, including my finances. It was so very hard to cut a check every time I got paid but I did. I faithfully gave at least 10% of my check to my church. Soon it became a joy to do it. I saw my income grow and grow. I also saw my mountain of debt disappear in six months. SIX MONTHS!!! Okay, so the debt wasn’t $100,000 or anything, but it was a good sized down payment on a house or a very nice used car. We are talking 5 digits here. And if you are reading this Mom, please don’t tell Dad.
I believed for something that looked insurmountable. Many people take years and years to pay off that much debt. I wanted it gone. God honored my faithful giving and my prayers. I believed He would take care of me and He did.
Why can’t I surrender everything to Him like I did that? Why do I have a hard time believing God can heal something I haven’t even seen? I saw my debt and He erased it, and He never promised me He would pay off my VISA. But there is a promise that says, “By His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). I will believe what I believe. As much as I believe I am a saved by His grace, I will believe I am healed by His wounds. He has already suffered my infirmities so I know there is no reason to suffer them myself.
Filed under: Food, Friends, Games, God is good, Jesus, Leadership, Legacy Fellowship, Ministry, Teenagers, Youth Ministry, church | Tags: dreams, God, Jesus, pizza, preaching, stupid games, Teenagers, youth
Last night we did things a bit different in youth service. Tony, our lead pastor and former youth pastor, lead service for us. We went all out, at least as far as our budget allowed. I told you about mounting the new TV; that proved to be a great tool and I will be putting it too good use…if I can just figure out how to use Power Point. We also had some prizes to give away (if you were lucky at guessing salaries). Most importantly, we brought in pizza. Pizza makes everything better. Maybe not, but it’s pretty good, especially when you haven’t eaten all day, which I hadn’t.
Anyway, we played games, Tony preached about our dreams and God’s plans, we ate food. We all had a good time. There were almost twice as many kids there last night as usual. What an awesome thing. One of the newer students invited 3 girls from school. So that means one of my students, we’ll call him TyChi, the student responsible for bringing her, is responsible for inviting (and the students actually showed up) 7 students. Kudos dude! That is awesome. I am really proud of you.
It really was a good night. The sermon Tony preached was good and relative. I think the students were touched by it. Well, they had to be because I know the Holy Spirit was there permeating their hearts.
Thanks Tony. Thanks Cheri. Thanks TyChi. Thanks to all of the other students. You all had a hand in making last night a great night. Most of all, thank you Jesus. You make it all possible.
