Rest

What a great week this has been! I left the office on Tuesday afternoon and haven't been back all week.

It has been a great week of sleeping in, eating lots, hanging out with my favorite people, catching up on reading, and long walks in the cold November air.

After a fairly busy season of ministry it feels particularily refreshing and reviving to have a few days away to rest and recuperate, and focus on family and all the things I am truly thankful for.

I look forward to jumping back in tomorrow, and heading into the Christmas season!

Brittnie and Benny playing in the kitchen

Thanksgiving feast at Robin's parent's house

Ready for another brisk walk

What I'm reading

Think On This

"...too many of us have lived with the name "church" or the name "Christian," but not with deep passion as Christ's revolutionary community of faith and mission. Christianity has been little more than a belief system for us, not a way of life. It has been an institution, not a mission for our lives. It has made us nice people with confidence of heaven after this life, but not world-changing revolutionaries with hope for justice and peace in this life. It has given us the identity of religious people, not the identity of courageous rescue workers."

McLaren, Brian D. "The Story We Find Ourselves In: Further Adventures Of A New Kind Of Christian." San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003.

Thankful

What am I most thankful for this Thanksgiving?
Here are three..



Robin

Brittnie

Benny



Man, I'm blessed!

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

The Race

In preparing my message for Sunday morning I am struck with conviction. We are currently doing a series on Acts with our Middle Schoolers. This week we are looking at Acts 20.

In Acts 20 we see Paul traveling quite a bit. He travels to Greece, Syria, Macedonia, Philippi, Toras, Assos, Mitylene, Kios, Samos, Miletus, and Ephesus, all on his way to Jerusalem. It is his words to the leaders in Ephesus that strike me.

He tells them that he is being compelled to go to Jerusalem, not knowing what may happen to him there. Clearly his life was in danger because of the radical message of grace that he was preaching. He says in verse 24, "..I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace." For someone like me, living in this prosperous American culture, that is a spirit that is hard to grasp. Paul elaborates further on this spirit in Philippians 3:7-11.

Here are some radical and for me very convicting words...

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."

That is the race I want to run...I think. It's a radical race. It's a race that I believe God wants me to run. It definitely requires a shift in thinking. We must see all the stuff we acquire in this life as "rubbish" and see living out the gospel of Jesus as the most important aspect of life.

What are your thoughts? What is it going to take to truly run such a race?

Turkey 'N Thanks

Saturday night was our annual Middle School Turkey 'N Thanks, or TNT as we like to to call it. What a great night!

Everything about the night was great! The food was incredible; some of the best turkey I have ever eaten! The fellowship was fantastic and worship was wonderful.



My Little Man even got into the spirit of things!

After stuffing ourselves silly, Tom shared some pretty crazy turkey trivia that we all laughed at, and AJ led us in a time of worship in which we had each table read a scripture dealing with thanksgiving between songs.



We also shared with one another the things in which we are thankful for.

Kevin then shared with us some fascinating history on Thanksgiving which made us all the more thankful for the country we live in.

We concluded the night with some amazing pumpkin and apple pie.

See all the pictures here. You'll wish you were there!

We have a lot to be thankful for!

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7

Guitar

This morning I got to play guitar in "big church." I got to play in the "bigs". It was very fun! Not only did I play, I got to play Jon's Gibson Les Paul. What a sweet guitar!

We played the Phillips Craig & Dean song, "Let The Worshippers Arise."

I love playing music. I used to play guitar in a band around the Portland area a number of years ago, as well as lead worship with my students. Anymore I am surrounded by people that are musically, far more gifted than I. I am thankful for Aaron and the great job he does in leading our students in worship each week. Recently I have joined Aaron and have been playing bass with our student worship band, and have enjoyed it immensely. There is something very cool about playing music with others, especailly when leading people in worship.

Thank you God for the gift of music!

Thankful Middle Schoolers

Last night at The Danger Zone, our Thursday night Middle School gathering, we spent some time in prayer being thankful. Before we prayed I asked everyone to think of just one thing they are thankful to God for. We then prayed.

It started out a little slow but then the thanks began pouring out! Students were thanking their God for their parents, their brothers and sisters, their friends, their salvation, their church, their youth group, their pets, their school, God's provisions, God's love, God's forgiveness, and on and on and on. It was incredible. What a great time of worship it was!

I have been told in the past that I am crazy to expect middle school students to be still enough, and serious enough, to pray in a setting like that. How sad. These students know who their God is and are thankful for all that He has done, and continues to do in their lives. So am I.

Tomorrow night we have our annual Turkey 'N Thanks (TNT) with the students. It is a full on formal Thanksgiving style dinner; turkey, stuffing, potatoes, pie....the works! The purpose is to have a unique time of fellowship, enjoying a great meal, and to spend time, once again, expressing our thanks to God. I'll report on how the night goes and post some pictures. It's always a highlight of our year!

What are you thankful for this year?

iWipe

We have iTunes, iPod, iMac, iSight, iLife, iChat, and even iPastor (see the URL of this blog).

I now present to you....iWipe, the Apple-powered, wireless, portable toilet paper dispenser.

I knew I should never have gotten rid of my old Mac SE

Check this out.

Sorry I can't help it....I'm a Youth Pastor!

The Moon

Callie a student in my high school ministry posted a wonderful piece on her blog yesterday about the moon. You must read it.

As I arrived home to night I realized what it was that inspired her. I couldn't help but notice how big and how beautiful the moon was! It was shining so bright! I went right in and grabbed my camera.

When I look up into the heavens I can't help but think about how big, how awesome, our God is. The creator of all, the lover of me!

Perfectly, God created everything. He even set the moon in just the right spot. Did you know that if the moon were only 50,000 miles away from earth instead of 200,000, the tides might be so enormous that all the continents would be submerged in water?

Perfect.

I am moved to worship when I look up and see God's handiwork. I am thankful that He did it for me. To amaze me. To draw me in closer to Him.

Praise him, all his angels,
praise him, all his heavenly hosts.

Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars.

Praise him, you highest heavens
and you waters above the skies.
Psalm 148:2-4


Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures forever.

To him who alone does great wonders,
His love endures forever.

Who by his understanding made the heavens,
His love endures forever.

Who spread out the earth upon the waters,
His love endures forever.

Who made the great lights—
His love endures forever.

The sun to govern the day,
His love endures forever.

The moon and stars to govern the night;
His love endures forever.
Psalm 136:3-9

Centrality of Love

Here at the Grace Place our stated purpose is to Love God and Love Others To God. It is the core of what we strive to be. It is, I believe, what God desires of us, His Church.

To love God is expressed in our worship of Him. This of course encompasses much! Within the context of the church we often narrowly define worship as the worship service, and more specifically, singing. This last Sunday I spoke from Matthew 5:17-26. Verses 23-24 stood out to me the most.

Jesus is teaching here that if you are coming before Him in worship (offering your gift at the altar) and remember a conflict that you have with someone, to go and take care of that first, and then return to offer your gift of worship. God is not interested in our love for Him if we do not have love for others. How many times have we stood in church "worshipping" when we knew we were having problems with someone? Is that really worship? Jesus would say, no.

John makes it very clear in 1 John 4:20-21. If we say we "love God" and yet hate our brother, we are a liar. How can that be worship?

An important truth that has been rumbling around in my mind lately, one that I actually began thinking on after watching Rob Bell's new Nooma video, "Rhythm", is...the way we love others is the way we love God. I haven't always thought that way. I hope more will begin to.

Love is central. Love is central in our relationship to God, and it means much more than loving God alone, it involves how we love each other.

Let us strive to make the Church more focused on truly loving God and loving others...the two cannot be separated.

A Beautiful Collision

Quite often when I get a song stuck in my head it's a pretty annoying song. I'm sure you can relate. Today has been an exception. Here's the song that has been rattling around in my head all day today. It sure is a good one!

A Beautiful Collision
David Crowder

The heart breaking makes a sound
I never knew could be
So beautiful and loud
Fury-filled and we collide

So courageous until now
Fumbling and scared
So afraid You'll find me out
Alone here with my doubt

Here it comes a beautiful collision
Is happening now
There seems no end to where you begin and where I end now
You and I, collide

Something circling inside
Spaciously you fly
Infinite and white
Like the moon and sky
Collide

Here it comes a beautiful collision
Is happening now
There seems no end to where you begin and where I end now
You and I, collide

I am so thankful for the collision of God's heart with mine! It certainly is better than the collision I experienced Wednesday.

May there never be and end to where He begins and where I end.

For Laughs...