POWER

If I stick my finger in a power socket, chances are pretty high that I will be electrocuted and possibly killed. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to stick your finger into socket just to see what happens? I'm not saying that I have a death wish, I've just been thinking about power lately.

I look up at the lights in my house and just wonder in amazement at the power that is held within these lights. The same power that can kill me, lights my house; the same power that could kill me entertains me with my TV. That is amazing power!

I think that the same is true with God. We have all heard the old sayings about tapping into the "power of God," but have we truly contemplated what that power can actually do. God's power is strong enough to kill us, yet so many times we have no desire to stick our fingers in the sockets so to speak.

We will wake up everyday and flip a switch and tap into the power that is so strong it could fry our brains, yet we will not do the same thing with our relationship with God and if you think that it is not about a relationship, you are wrong. There really isn't a better way to say that.

A lot of us out there go to church every week and sometimes more than once per week, yet we have no idea how to flip the power switch with our relationship with God. So many times we turn it into a religion more than a relationship. There is an old hymn that says "there is power in the blood," but my fear is that we who are "Christians" either don't believe that anymore, or just never knew what power was to begin with.

God's power can light up our lives to be radiant and to light up the darkness and as cheesy as that might sound, it is so true. If we are believers and followers of Jesus, then we should be the light everywhere we go, just like the light bulbs do in our homes.

I don't know about you, but I want to stick my finger in the God socket!

Taking a Break

I have come to a realization in my life as of today December 18, 2008. I have decided that I just do not like college. I hate that all you out there that read this might be in college and I do not want you to be dismayed. You should complete your degree and stay in school. I haven't said that I'm quitting school, but I do feel like it. That's why after much thought I have decided to take a 6 week break from school. I mean, it's only a 6 week break, then I am right back into hard classes that will help me continue my education towards a degree.

Now for the real reason that I am feeling this way lately and why I believe that while I need to finish school for me, I need to stop worrying about finishing school for anyone else but me and God.

I realize that God just doesn't care about a piece of paper whether it be a degree that says I have completed a track on pastoral studies, or even a piece of paper that says I am licensed to preach the Gospel. Why do we put so much emphasis on the paper more than the calling?

This is pretty much the problem that I am faced with right now. I want to continue to learn the rest of my life, but is a piece of paper saying that I learned really the answer? To be honest I could probably learn more from reading books that I enjoy than getting books for class that I don't like and don't read anyway. I can only say for the three years that I've been in school, I have probably only finished 1/10th of the reading. Some of the books I truly enjoy and still refer to and read today, however some of the books I just can not bring myself to read.

Is there anyone out there that feels that as a "Christian" society we put way too much emphasis on the piece of paper that says we are a preacher more than the calling the God has placed on our lives?

These are just my thoughts . . .

A quickie

It is late, and I am very tired. I haven't made a post in a long time and I'm not really sure the reason. Maybe I have been busy, and maybe I justed haven't had anything to say. I feel like I am beginning to have some thoughts well up inside me though and know that they will begin to come out here.

I'm not suggesting that I will be making posts here everyday, but will be doing my best to make posts as I feel God giving me something to say.

So for tonight, here is what's been going on in my feeble mind. . .

I know that God always has our best interests at heart. I know that he will always be there for us no matter if we serve him or if we fall away from him. I am not saying that I personally have fallen away from him at all, but know that sometimes we can let ourselves slip into a state of thinking that is not healthy. There are so many things that I believe God has called me to be and sometimes it is difficult to tread through that mucky water. I don't think that God will ever put anything in our path that doesn't have a reason. I don't think he will ever give us more than what we can handle.

God will be ther when we need him
God will hear us when we call
God will pick us up when we are down
God will allow us to love without condition
God will give us the desires of our hearts, no matter what that may be, even if it is seeing a relationship be restored.
God will bring us from dark to light
God will live with us
God will direct every step of our lives
God will forgive us . . .

There is nothing that can separate us from God's love and I know that when we feel like nothing will give; when we feel like we are too far away from him, we realize that all we have to do is turn to him for strength, love, and forgiveness.

I don't know if any of this makes sense to you, like I said I am tired and it is late and I am just talking out loud here. Ponder on this . . . where in your life do you really need him today? Where are you secretly crying out for him? Remember, you are never but a conversation away from being in his arms. . .

Signs

I’m not sure why I do this, but maybe you’re like me and do this too. Do you ever make sure and read every church sign that you pass by? I do, basically because there are so many funny ones and then there are the one’s that say, “hey we put a lot of thought into this.” You know the ones that I’m talking about, like the one that says: “sign broken . . . message inside.” Or maybe you’ve seen the cheesy one like I saw this week that says: “if you can’t pray a door open, don’t pry it open.” That’s just funny; it doesn’t even make sense to me. But like I said before, maybe you’re not like me, maybe, just maybe, I am the type that gets pure joy out of the witty, or unwitty thinking of others. It gives me great joy to be able to remember these signs that then be able to tell my wife, or the other youth pastors here about them.

I recently moved and when I did my commute changed. The sad thing about this commute change is that I don’t get to pass by the two churches that always have the best signs. Now on my commute, I don’t get to see any church signs.

So what am I really getting at here? Well, last Friday I had to go to the eye doctor for my yearly exam (6 months late mind you) so I could refill my contacts. On my way to the eye doctor I passed a church right up the street from where I was going. This sign gave me something to really think about while in the waiting room.

Here’s what it said, this is all it said on this big sign: “Visitors Welcome.”

Now I know you were probably expecting something more spectacular, but that’s it: “Visitors Welcome.” I can also hear all of you out there saying, “Adam, that’s a great sign, its showing that visitors are welcome at that church.” Here’s the thought process that my mind went through when I saw that sign. I started thinking about what did that church do to make it necessary to put a sign out that tells visitors that they are welcomed at this church?

It may be absolutely nothing that they did, but why must we even have signs that say anything like that. Shouldn’t that be assumed? Now, I know the old saying if you assume you make a, well you know the rest. I mean, shouldn’t that be a known fact that visitors are welcomed? Shouldn’t we as Christ followers make it a point to ensure that when people do visit that they feel so welcomed, that they go and tell people how welcomed they felt? Would that make it unnecessary for us to have a sign outside that tells people they are welcomed to come?

I know I shouldn’t get this way when I see these things, but I just do. I want Jesus oozing out of me so much that people feel welcomed whether it is at the grocery store or when they walk into my church building. I want people to walk away knowing that there is love in this place. I don’t want a sign to tell people that there is love because we welcome visitors. Maybe I’m wrong here, but I just think that God wants us to love people so much that there is never a time that anyone can second guess whether we are warm and welcoming to our visitors.

My thought is this: When will we stop just putting out signs and really start just loving people?

Trash Talk

The raccoon is a horrible, yet intriguing animal. I say horrible because they get in your trash and love to spread it all over the place making you pick up nasty, fly infested, wet trash from the ground and put it back in your trash can; just to have the raccoon come back the next night and make the mess all over again. If you haven’t guessed, yes I have had a raccoon problem since the day I moved into my new house. This raccoon seems to love watermelon, mango, and well paper towels. I have caught him a few times and all I have to do is open the back door and then close it quickly and he runs off. He does this I think only to fool me into thinking he’s gone, because, no kidding, 3 min. later he’s back again digging through the trash.
I have lately been trying to think of how to dispose of this problem (not like killing it, just hurting it) so I have been thinking about paintball and this raccoon. I think that might startle him enough to stay away. I don’t know, maybe not; maybe I should just start putting a plate together for him and leaving it at the creeks bank by our house so he can just eat that. I even read that raccoons don’t like urine or ammonia. Well I’m not sure if my neighbors would appreciate me using my trash area as a bathroom and I haven’t bought any ammonia lately, so maybe I just need to come to grips with the fact that I have a pet raccoon.
So, the raccoon is horrible, right? Well, it is also an intriguing animal because of how smart they are. I mean an animal that knows how to snap the lid off of your trash can and dig for food. That’s one smart animal. The wildest thing is the gumption in which the raccoon goes after this food. I have been thinking about this for the last week. In my trash can there is something so good, so appetizing that this raccoon will do whatever it takes to get it. This raccoon will risk death (by me) in order to maybe find something worth eating in that trash can. Even if I don’t put anything that even smells like food, that raccoon will attempt to open and dig for something in the trash.
I think about life and church in general when I see this raccoon. I think about if there is anything in my life, or anything that we as a church are doing that make people want to do whatever it takes to get in. I’m not talking about just sitting around waiting for people to come to us at a building, or creating some great program for people to come to. I’m talking about are we being so missional, so community minded, so appealing that people are trying to get a piece of what we have? Are we putting enough good stuff in the trash can of community that people are clawing and prying to get in? I want to put something into society that is so good that people will do anything to get to it.
What’s the answer to this problem in my mind . . . love. The love of Christ, the love that has no end. The love that pursues from before time to the end of time. Love that is so intriguing that people will do anything to experience the joy of it.

My Lectio Divina experience

It is the expression of God’s love that He will never let us weather a storm for longer than we can handle. This is one of the statements that I felt in my spirit after meditating on Mark 6:45-52. In this story of Jesus walking on the water, it had never come alive for me like it did during this meditation session.

At this point Jesus had performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes and sent His disciples ahead of Him to cross the sea to Bethsaida. Jesus then went to pray on a mountaintop. It was at this point that I began to feel that He was seeking the Father’s will at this point on what He should do. He then sees His disciples struggling to row the boat in the wind and high waves of the sea. So Jesus walks out to them and in verse 48 it says, “He intended to go past them.” I have read this story thousands of times, but never had I stopped on that particular part. He was going to pass them. What does that mean? I struggled with this statement for a long time and came up with what I believe was happening. I may be taking this way out of context, but this is what God showed me during my time studying this passage.

Verse 52 in Mark says, “Their hearts were too hard to take it all in.” This is talking about the disciples who after seeing the miracle of the loaves were still not letting it penetrate their hearts. How could this be? I really struggle with this, I mean after seeing what they had seen, they still didn’t truly believe yet. When I read on past 52 (not sure if I was supposed to) it said that once they got to the other side people immediately recognized Jesus and sent their sick to just touch the hem of His garment and they would be healed, and many were healed that day.

This really led me to believe that when Jesus was going to pass them, it was so He could get ahead of them so when they landed they would see the miracles of all these healings and maybe their hearts would be penetrated and unhardened. Instead, they freaked out and He had to get in the boat to calm the waves, when He may have been going ahead of them for something greater.

I see that no matter what storm we have in our lives, God will always be there to calm it. Sometimes though, He may need to go ahead of us so we can see something great when the storm passes, but we get so freaked out by the storm that He must step in our boat and calm it and we may miss this something greater.

Lord, let me never miss out on you and let me always believe in everything that you do, no matter how little it may seem to me. I never want my heart to be hardened to Your work. Thank you for showing me this passage in a new light. Amen.

An interesting thought

I gave a talk this morning on serving and had a few after thoughts about it. We watched a video called "what would you do." It showed a man sitting on the side of the road with a sign saying "Need Help."

What would you do in this situation? It asked what if we thought that he wouldn't use the money for alcohol or what if he had a dibilitating mental illness, and then the stinger, what if he were God's son?

I got to thinking about this whole serving thing and how me focused we are here in America, even in the churches. I can't say that I don't fall into this category a lot of times, but why can't I change that? Why can't we all change that? I'm not talking about us becoming big time philanthropists or anything, but doing the small things that show people who Jesus really is and was.

What if we helped that mom whose baby throws their bottle halfway down the grocery store isle? What if we took our change and sent it off to help buy rice for starving children. How difficult is that really?

The small things, that's what we need to be about. We need to stop this meistic way of thinking and start looking for opportunities to serve our fellow humans in love. Is it really that hard? You know in the story of the good samaritan, after Jesus told the story He asked the keeper of the law who he thought was the neighbor to the guy, in which he replied the samaritan. Jesus tells the guy go do likewise.

To me, there's the answer to what we should be doing. We should not be avoiding but helping.

God's plan

When I first started this thing, I said that I would leave some thoughts two to three times per week. Well, that didn't happen in the first week and now I am trying to make up for it. My newest thought is that being sick sucks. I have been sick for the last three days and during this time, I have learned that the world goes on without me.

Have you ever thought about that? No matter what you are currently doing, nothing is so important that the world will not go on if you are not there. This is a scary thought, but it is also a comforting thought.

A comforting thought!! Is the medicine getting to my head?

No I think that it is scary and comforting at the same time because God just knows what He is doing. Every day that I open my eyes, it means that God still has a purpose and a plan for this life that I live. If one day I went to sleep and opened my eyes in heaven, then I would know that my time on earth was done, and now it was time for me to live eternally with God. In the meantime, the world would continue, God would continue to be in everything that I was doing on earth, even if I wasn't there.

Thinking of this makes me so thankful that God has lead me to the life of ministry that I now live. I know that God doesn't need me, but He chose me to do His work. This is a humbling thought; God could do it without me, or He could have chose someone else, but He chose me to be His voice in this world. In fact, He choose every one of us to do exactly what we are doing now, whether it is working a cash register or being in middle school, He has a purpose and a plan for everything we do, every day He allows us to continue this work on earth.

Be encouraged today, that God has a Plan and Purpose for YOU!! Any situation that we face, any problem that you have, any job you work is in His plan. We are a loved people and we need to recognize it.

Because of all this, we should never fear anything, for if we make it through any situation, we should recognize that God still has a purpose for us. Think about that . . . no matter what we go through, if we make it, we still have purpose! What an amazing creator!!

Significance

I was doing my school work this week and had to answer a question about significance.

This got me thinking about what that really means, to have significance. Stop for a minute and think what that word means to you.

Here is the definition: importance, or consequence.

Take that word importance and ask yourself this question: do I feel important? Do you? Really?

If you are like me, then you probably don't feel important very often. Is importance a feeling?

I know that we all have this inner desire to feel important or have significance in our lives and most of the time we struggle to have that feeling. After reading and studying what significance is in my class, the answer became clear. Author Dr. Larry Crabb believes that significance is directly related to motivation. Where you are motivated is where you will find significance. So this got me thinking even more. If I am motivated to commit a crime, do I find significance in that crime? I believe that the answer is yes, I would find significance in that. I would feel important because so many people would be paying attention to me; the police, judges, inmates, lawyers, etc. But is that what I want to feel siginificant for?

Of course it is not why I want to feel significant!

I will tell you this, God can give you significance, even if it is in the small things. There are so many people out there in the world who give to good causes, serve in their communities and beleive that they are significant because of that. The truth, however, is that only in serving God will you ever find true significance.

Now I know that you may be reading this and are young or feel that you will never feel significant because of things you've done, or things you think you can't do. But let me tell you that if you are a child of God, YOU ARE SIGNIFICANT!

Look at Jeremiah, a guy who thought that he wasn't good enough to be a prophet, but God had something else to say about that:

"Ah, Sovereign Lord," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child. But the Lord said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the Lord. Jeremiah 1:6-8

See Jeremiah said he didn't know how to speak because he was young, but God told him not to say those things to do what the Lord asked him to do and not be afraid of anyone because God will protect him.

But . . . it doesn't stop there, see for you and me, if we were told that, there is no way that we would just say, "oh, ok I see I should just do what you say Lord and you will rescue me, great let's go!" That's not what we would say. . . we would want to know more:

"Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant." Jeremiah 1:9-10

God said to Jeremiah that He would make Jeremiah significant, the He would give him significance. That if Jeremiah followed God wherever He told him to go, He would be significant.

Jeremiah's motivation was easy, God told him directly what to do to feel significant. For us it may not be as easy, but we must remember that our motivation will lead us to significance. If we are motivated to follow God wherever He takes us, we will be significant in God's eye's, and isn't that what really matters?

A Quick Welcome

I wanted to write and welcome any of you who will be reading my blog. Periodically I will post on here, trying for at least three times per week. Have fun, read and be encouraged in your walk.