Locusts

There are certain things that just creep me out. Ants the most! I was reading in the book of Joel the past couple of days about the locusts that destroyed Israel's crops. Not just one type of locust but four! I can't begin to imagine how creepy that must have been to not only see one army of these giant grasshoppers flying and crawling there way through everything, but to endure it four times. Not only that, but they were in the midst of a drought too. What a tough time!

You would have thought Israel would have learned their lesson and never turned their backs on God again. But they didn't! If they who had God doing miraculous stuff often couldn't stay focused on Him, is it any wonder that we have such a hard time? The apostle Paul said it best when he wrote that he does the very thing he doesn't want to do, and doesn't do the thing he wants to. That's honest! My prayer today is to have the Holy Spirit magnified in my life so that I will be constantly reminded of God. It says in Colossians that if we focus on Him the things of Earth will fade away. That's what I want! I hope that's what you want to!

Movie Review

If you haven't seen the movie "Babel" don't! In my opinion it's perhaps one of the worst movies ever made. I thought the story line sounded interesting. It didn't work, was way too long, the acting was poor, it was needlessly graphic and there was generally no real point to the whole thing.

I AM

Somewhere in my dreams I was thinking about Christmas. Not about presents, but about history. I was wondering when Christmas began. Yes, I know it began with the birth of Christ, but I'm talking aobut the celebration of Christ's birthday. We never see in the Bible anyone celebrating Jesus' birthday. You would have thought that the people with Him would have made a big deal about it, but they didn't. At least they never recorded it if they did, which I think would be odd.

I think the reason they didn't celebrate His birthday was because they realized that since He is God, he doesn't really have a birthday. He has always been and always will be, so there isn't a birthday! If we want to celebrate something, we should celebrate everyday that it is "I Am day"! God created everything for His pleasure and we should celebrate Him for who He is and for what He has done. He is the great "I Am" and everyday belongs to Him.

There isn't anything wrong with celebrating Christmas. I certainly will be. It's a great way to get our focus on the gift God gave us through Jesus. We need to remember that it isn't really His birthday, but a day to celebrate God humbling himself by becoming a man for our sake.

Every day is I AM day, so celebrate Him every day in everything you do!

Finally!

Sunday at 5:00pm it finally happened! I finally passed the kidney stone my body was working on since Tuesday night around 10pm. I saw the Dr. today and he said everything is good, I'll just be sore for a few more days. That I can handle!

Real Pain

My body hurts all the time because of a neuro-musculer disease that I suffer from. Some times the pain is excrutiating. Tuesday night I learned what real pain is. After a trip to the ER it was discovered that I have a kidney stone. It's only 2mm, but that little rock causes absolutely crippling pain. Last night I was feeling pretty good, so I thought the stone had past and I was just a little sore and tired from the ordeal.

Boy was I wrong! Today is Thanksgiving, and I truly am thankful for so many things that God has done and continues to do in my life. Paige's family was gathering had her mom & dad's house for dinner. It was all I could do to go, and stay a few hours. It seemed like an eternity! Not because I was at the in-laws (I really do love them!), but because I was and still am in so much pain. I'm drinking so much water I think I could fill a pool (but I won't).

It's a good thing I'm off for a couple of days, because I can't function on the medications that I'm on. I couldn't even drive today and I really hate that!

I am also thankful for the many prayers and phone calls that I've received. God is great and His people care! If you aren't in a church or in a small group, I strongly encourage it. It's great to have people that you can do life together with. When you fall they help you up, and when you're sick, they care for you.

Thanks!

Teamwork

I love to say when I am asked about my job that I have the greatest job on earth. I rally believe that. As the Pastor to New Believers, I get to serve people who are new and excited about their faith. How cool is that!

I also want to say though, that for every job I have had in the church (paid or unpaid), I would descibe it the same way. I would hope that every person that serves God would feel this way. When I was a Youth Pastor, an Associate Pastor, Pastor of Small Groups, Jr. High Director, Elder, and all the other stuff I've been called (not all good) in 20 years of ministry I have said that I have the greatest job on earth.

If everyone has that view (not in a arrogant way) then the church will have the greatest team on earth! It was evident at Palm Valley Church last night. We had an event with some leaders of the church to show them what's ahead for our building plans. It took everyone, some doing things not in their "job description" to pull off the evening. Sure there were things that didn't go right, but the people who came didn't notice. That's what happens when good teams work together. Everyone can have the greatest job on the earth, and put together you have the greatest team on Earth. I think we do!

The End Is Near!

No, I'm not talking about the end of the world, I'm talking about the NASCAR season. This Sunday's race will be the last until Daytona in February :-( I think Jimmy Johnson will win the cup, but I'll still root for Dale Jr. The next couple of months are pretty dry for me sports wise. Soon the only sports on will be pro football and pro basketball (There's too little hockey on TV! I'll have to blog on that sometime.). I'll watch, but I'm not a huge fan of either sport. I like a good game as much as the next guy. I guess I'm a Sun's fan (In CA I guess I was a Laker's fan) but that's because I'm rooting for the home team. Anyway, back to NASCAR. It's been a good season except for Tony not making the chase. I'm not a huge Stewart fan, but he is a great driver and I think the chase is lacking without him. I think one thing they could do to make the chase better is to remove the cars 2 laps or more down if there is a caution with less than 10 laps to go. That would keep guys racing for 30th from taking out the guys racing for the top ten. I think they should do this season long, not just the chase races. They should simply freeze that part of the field in the positions they are in. I also think they should go back to the cars having to be the same as what is sold to the public (at least the skin anyway). That would force the manufacturers to make cars that are aerodynamic, handle better, and get better mileage. The engines should also be injected. No one sells a car with a carb anymore and haven't for several years. They should also use the same octain fuel that is available to the public. These changes would slow the cars down for a while, and make for better racing. One last thing. As much of a traditionist as I am, I love that Toyota is coming to cup next season. How long before Honda gets here? It will force the big three to be more creative. Besides, I think we get more American made Toyotas here than we do from the big three, so which car is more American?

As for the End being near, I'll just say that I've read the story and God wins!

With you or without you!

In my personal Bible study I finished Ruth and am now reading 1st Samuel. One thing that I have noticed is that God will accomplish His purposes with you or without you. It will go much better for you if He is able to do it with you. I was reading about God's desire to fulfill promises through certain people, but those people chose to go their own way and not follow God. When that happened, God found someone who was willing to be used by Him and accomplished His plan through that person instead.

It made me think about the church and individual Christians (Including myself). If I don't do what God has called me to do, He will find someone else who is willing and will accomplish His purposes through them. If that happens, bad things happen to me. Look at what happened to the Israelites in the Bible. Every time they chose to do their own thing, God used others to accompllish His purposes.

I'm not saying God is mean. God is truly just. His purposes are good, Holy, and perfect. It only makes sense to get on board and stay on board. I strive every day to know Him better and better so that I understand more fully His will and purposes for my life. I want Him to accomplish His purposes with me, how about you?

What a weekend!

What a weekend! Here's some highlights from the weekend.

1. Church was great as usual. We had a great guest worship leader in again this week. Greg was on and challenging as usual. We added a new couple to the Fresh Start team. Set-up and tear-down went quicker and smoother than usual. People accepted Christ and that always makes it a great week!

2. NASCAR was in town this weekend and we had a great time with friends at the race. Harvick owned it. Johnson was second. The title is his to lose I think. Jr. was in the top 10, but not enough to do anything.

3. The Reibeling's we here (Greg didn't make is :-( ). Ray and I have been friends for nearly all of my boys' lives. It was great to see him and his family this weekend. They came from CA for the race. We sat on the hill (which has pros and cons). I think we'll sit in the stands next year.

4. We're preparing for God to do big things next weekend!

NASCAR

I saw the first haulers in town yesterday. Most will arrive today for this weekends NASCAR races at PIR. I will only be going to Sunday's race. I should get there about the time the green flag drops. I love racing, but won't miss church for it. Especially right now. So many God things are happening at church I want to be there to see what He does next.

Jr. is still my favorite driver, but I like most of them. I am liking Denny Hamlin more and more. Jr. got my support somewhat by inheriting it since I was a huge Dale Earnhardt fan. Before that I was (and will always be) a Richard Petty fan.

One reason I'm looking forward to this race is some good friends are coming from Cali to go with Paige and I. Ray and his family are coming. Tyler is a huge Stewart fan. So much so his room has been pictured on the fan club web site. My friend Greg will be coming too. I can't wait to see how he is doing. He lost his wife not long ago. I can't imagine how my life would be changed if I lost Paige, and don't want to think about it. I think Greg's loss drove home for me the fact that we aren't promised tomorrow and I want Paige to know how much I love and appreciate her every day. These guys have been my friends for over 15 years. I can't wait to see them!

Today will hopefully be a quiet day since most of our staff are out of town. Tonight is our last meeting of the New Believer's Growth Group that's been meeting at our house. While I'll miss these people, it will be great to spend some time with our regular Home team in the coming weeks. We'll start a new group at our house in late January.

Back to NASCAR. Jr. still has a shot at the title, but I almost hope Jimmy Johnson gets it. He's been runner up enough. If he ends up 2nd again this year that would be so frustrating!

No on Yes, Yes on No!

It's finally here. Election day is here and will be over soon. Don't get me wrong, I love election day, it's just the seemingly endless months leading up to it that I don't like. The endless commercials filled with half truth's (If that much), the he did this, she didn't do that, and the empashioned pleas of those "hurt" by the opposing candidate, are just plain nausiating! So called clean election laws deal mostly with money, not with the content or tone of campaigns. Yes we need to hear the truth about those we elect, but I don't care about what they may have said twenty years ago. If we are all held publicly accountable for everything we did or said in our past, no one would be qualified to run for anything!

I'll also be glad that my cell phone will stop ringing with recorded messages from everyone from actors to the president urging me to vote for so and so. Somewhere along the line, the cell phone number I now have, for work, was registered by someone as their contact number. Now I get all these calls and I can't do anything about it. Do not call lists and caller id are meaningless to no-profits. So, I'm glad that the 3 to 4 calls per day that I have been getting will finally stop.

As for the actual election, I heard last night that we have the longest ballot in the country. I believe it! There are so many propositions for things, there are even propositions to cancel other propositions. How rediculous is that! The wording is so coniving that if you don't want something you have to vote yes, and if you do want something you have to vote no. The writers fugure most people will listen to the adds or just read the sentence or two description of what the measure "does" and vote for it. Because of this, people end up voting for things they don't want. The system is broken and needs to be fixed. I am all in favor of the proposition system because it allows us to pass laws that the legislature is to chicken to pass on their own, but something needs to be done. There needs to be a "stupid" law regarding laws and propositions. The law needs to say that for something to pass it has to be clearly, concisely, and honestly worded, in language a 6th grader can understand. Adds should only be able to support the side that paid for it and not attack the other side or other person. In other words, if this passes, or if you are elected, what is the benefit to the community?!

Of course a law like this would never get passed. Polititians wouldn't stand for it. For some, the only way they can get elected is to bash the other guy so hard that he wins by default. I hate elections where we elect the lesser of two evils, when we don't like either choice, but we vote for one to make sure that the other guy doesn't get in.

I wish we could go back to the way it was in the beginning. Elected officials would come for a short time to do state, or country, business then return to work on their farm or whatever their normal job was. Polititians did what their constituents wanted because they had a relationship with them, and if they didn't, someone else was sent the next time. Of course, we didn't have 50 states and 300 million people then either, but there must be a way to go back to a government that is "of the people, by the people, and for the people". The day will be over before too long, don't forget to vote!

God Breathed

If you've ever been around someone with bad breath, you know how powerful breath can be. But God's breath has ultimate power. Most Christians are familiar with 2 Timothy 3:16 that says that Scripture is "God breathed", but did you know that this phrase variation of the phrase appears more than 30 times in the Bible? I didn't!

I was reading in Genesis where God breathed into adam giving him life and it occured to me that this is the same phrase used in the Timothy passage. I decided to do a search and begin a study of God's breath. What power! God doesn't even need to use his hands. Just the breath of Him exhaling, which for us is used up air, has the power to create or destroy. His breath gives us life and the Holy Spirit, and it gives us His Word.

How cool is that, that the very breath of God has this much power. Imagine how much more power is in His hands!