Fuel To The Fire

Today Lorie and I watched waaaay too much TV (it was one of those days where your brain realizes you don't have to keep up so it just shuts down) and we ended up watching a show where the people in it were in the Bahamas eating barbecue chicken. And of course only one thing went through my mind. Caribbean Jerk Chicken. Mmmm...

We went shopping and since Lorie didn't want any (she doesn't quite like the spicy) I was all excited to cook this for myself. So I fired up the grill and started the potatoes (they take way longer but taste so good out there) and waited to do the chicken. I got it all spiced perfectly, ready to go. Took it out when it was ready and... no fire. Of all the times, the propane on the grill had run out.

And it got me thinking. How often do we have (or say we have) the fire, the excitement, the whatever it is at our churches but we've forgotten the fuel, prayer, Jesus. You can't have fire without gas. You can't have a place where people can come to meet with God if God isn't there and you haven't invited Him. This was a verse I memorized a long time ago (because it's so short):

I Thessalonians 5:17 ~ Never stop praying. (NLT)

T

It's All Okay If You Do What's Right

Now, don't be fooled by the title. It is not always easy to do the right thing, but it will always be okay (in a sense).

Here's where I'm getting it from. Reading the prophets has reminded me of all the stories of things they went through. Jeremiah was thrown in a well basically because a jail would be too nice for him. Ezekiel had to do all sorts of crazy things like lie on his side for over a year. Daniel was a prisoner who was thrown in with lions while his friends were almost burned to death. All this crazy stuff. But there are two verses in Ezekiel that helped it make sense. One comes after God tells Ezekiel he has to tell the people about funerals and death and things of that nature. The other is after God says the people won't like what Ezekiel has to say.

Ezekiel 3:1-3 ~ Then the Lord said to me, “Human, eat what you find; eat this scroll. Then go and speak to the people of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and He gave me the scroll to eat. He said to me, “Human, eat this scroll which I am giving you, and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. (NCV)

Ezekiel 3:7-9 ~ "But the people of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, because they are not willing to listen to Me. Yes, all the people of Israel are stubborn and will not obey. See, I now make you as stubborn and as hard as they are. I am making you as hard as a diamond, harder than stone. Don’t be afraid of them or be frightened by them, though they are a people who turn against Me." (NCV)

Both times God is saying this will be rough, but both times He reassures Ezekiel that he can do it. The words that need be told to someone else, they taste like honey to the one following God. The thing you have to do that you know will hurt, God makes you hard as diamond to do it.

It's funny how God gives you the right thing at the right time. I've been thinking about someone I should talk to, but how it's not my place or what not. And then I read this. And now I'm nervous because I think it's a hint, and who would I rather tick off, this other person, or God for not doing what I should..? (I hope the words are sweet and I'm hard as diamond...)

T

Magically Know

This seemed to be my theme for the day. That people think others around them magically know what's going on. I won't get into details because I might offend someone (I know, I must be in a nice mood) but I think there's a lot of people in the world that need to understand that just because something is in their head does not mean it's in the heads of those around them.

And even if you think the other person knows what you do, so what? Sometimes you need to ask even if you are sure they already know the question. I mean, really, that's kind of what prayer is. God still wants us to ask. There's a commitment in the asking, an acknowledgement that you are asking for something, not just expecting it.

So here's my challenge. Ask. Talk. Communicate. If you want something from somebody, don't take them or their situation (or your friendship, or their job, or their time, etc.) for granted. Don't treat them like you are entitled to them. Be nice.

T

Fastest Border Crossing Ever

Yes, believe it or not. Lorie and I took longer to get into Canada than to get into the United States. True story. When we got to the American border yesterday we were the second car in line, they looked at our paperwork and said "have a nice day". It was awesome!


But, of course, the reason for the visit was my nephew Travis' baptism, so here he is :)


T

"Only Troy"

Apparently this is a common theme that people talk about when mentioning me in Canada. These sorts of things only happen to Troy. And last night was no exception.

Lorie and I drove to London, Ontario. Nothing. The border took about 5 minutes (including waiting in line). Getting to Emily and Brian's, no problem. But then the excitement. The chipmunk.

Apparently on Thursday Brian brought a rug out of the garage and put it in the basement. When he dropped it he saw a chipmunk come shooting out and hide under furniture. After trying to catch him, Brian decided to close him in and try later.

So I showed up later. Last night we went downstairs and could not find him at all (which fostered Emily's fear that he had escaped the basement and was in the house somewhere). Then, after a few minutes, we found him sitting in a pot for a fake tree. Just sitting there, eyes almost closed. So tired, so hungry, so thirsty. I reached down and pet him and he didn't move at all (chipmunks are soft). I gently picked him up and started toward the door... when after a few steps he freaked out and either bit or scratched me (or both) and went flying. Well, a few minutes later we had him caught, but Emily and Lorie are now freaking out that I have rabies (thank you Internet once again).

After talking to a nurse on the phone they were convinced I probably did not have rabies, but I would need a tetanus shot. So this morning, guess what I had to go do? (We don't remember my last one, and you can get that shot over and over).

So yeah, I've been in Canada less than a day and already enjoyed the wildlife :)

T

The Little Things

I don't know what it is, but lately I've seen things that could (or do) go wrong in such a big way, but it all traces back to doing something little, just doing it right.

Kind of like the architect who built a library but didn't account for the weight of the books. Sadly, I've heard the story has happened in more than one place (you think they'd learn from one person's mistakes) but the story is the same every time. Someone designs a building. Beautiful. Then they build it. Also beautiful. But then they put the books in the library, and if you're like me and have moved a lot and read a lot, you know that books are heavy. And the story goes that each time the library had to be shut down or its purpose changed because it could not handle the weight of all the books. A little detail that changed the whole design.

If we simply do well with the little things first, the big things work themselves out. After all, there really is nothing big in our world, just big piles of little. The biggest pyramid is nothing but a lot of little bricks (but you need them all and they all need to be in the right place).

Even God thinks this way. From Jesus:

Luke 16:10a ~ “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones." (NLT)

So start taking the little things seriously, at work, at home, wherever. It makes a big difference.

T

A Year And A Half Siege?

Sorry, but I am finishing reading Jeremiah (a good book by the way) and in the story there's this little addition:

Jeremiah 52:4-5 ~ Then Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. They made a camp around the city and built devices all around the city walls to attack it. This happened on Zedekiah’s ninth year, tenth month, and tenth day as king. And the city was under attack until Zedekiah’s eleventh year as king. (NCV)

Can you even imagine, a year and a half siege on your town?! I mean, I know this happened a lot in history. In fact, my namesake, the city of Troy, the reason it was so powerful was because of two things, it had a thick wall no one could break through and it had an underground water supply, so all the Trojans had to do once attacked was bring the food in and close their doors.

But I think movies have kind of ruined this (they can't show a year and half siege, that's boring). But yes, people would live locked in their city walls every day hearing the thundering sounds of armies outside trying to get in.

Can you even imagine?

T

Lilacs

In our backyard and our front yard (and in the neighbor's yard) we have lilac bushes. They are awesome! Our yard smells beau-ti-ful. I love it.

Last night Lorie and I went out and harvested a few lilac flowers. We put them in the kitchen, in our bedroom, in the bathroom, etc. and now our house smells great. It's amazing how this little bush can make such a strong smell.

But you and I are no different.

II Corinthians 2:14-15 ~ In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, He brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life. (MSG)

We are supposed to be a sweet smell to those around us, one that points people to the reason we live, the reason we smell so nice, Jesus. Just a thought, but how do you smell to those around you?

T

What Does Spell Checker Say About Our Society?

In my last post I accidentally typed the word "thngs". It was supposed to be "things", but when I hit the spellchecker in this program, the word "thongs" came up first ("things" was third, after "thongs" then "thong's"). How sad is that?

T

Change Comes When You Want It

This is my new revelation that seems to be everywhere I look. If you really want something to change, no matter how big, how audacious, how long it seems to take, there's really only one factor that matters.

That you want it.

If you really want something to change, really, what can stand in your way? It may not be the most desired outcome, or it may take some work, things that people use as excuses for change, but when you finally hit that point where it matters to you and you want it bad enough, things will change.

I've been reading Jeremiah lately and God even has that point of needing change. The people of Judah were not living for Him, they were sacrificing to other idols, they were basically all out living against God, then God says this:

Jeremiah 44:21b-22a ~ Don’t you think God noticed? He noticed, all right. And He got fed up. Finally, He couldn’t take your evil behavior and your disgusting acts any longer. (MSG)

Even God hits that point where it's time for change. The question is do you merely want things to change, or do you need them to change? And if you need change, what are you willing to do about it?

T

Beauty Is What We Can't Have?

Last night at Downpour (our Bible Study) we started going through the Beatitudes and we somehow came on the topic of food. How we are not poor at all in our society, how we have way too much food, how the many people in other parts of the world view America as fat.

And for some reason it got me thinking. Three hundred years ago, look at the art. Almost all women were painted to be overweight. Not crazy obese, but by today's standards they would be overweight. And there was a reason. It was rare. This was a time when a majority of people were poor and hungry, everyone was thin. If you were overweight, that meant you were rich. You were special. So overweight became associated with beauty, it was something to be aspired to.

Then everything changed. Now, here in America at least. We have too much food. How many starving people do you think we could feed with the food that is thrown away by restaurants each night? (If only there was a way to preserve it and get it on a plane). We have so much food that according to our newspaper 4 out of 10 children in our schools is overweight. So it's actually harder to say no to food, and even harder to eat proper foods. That makes being thin hard, which then makes being thin the new goal.

Here's a whole new idea. Why don't we go for something even harder to find?

I Peter 3:3-5a ~ Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. This is how the holy women of old made themselves beautiful. (NLT)

Imagine how "beautiful" our society would be if we worked hard to make our inner person beautiful? What if we worked as hard as we work to make our outside beautiful? But then again, no paparazzi is going to chase you down to get a picture of your inner beauty and sell it on the Internet for thousands of dollars, so what's the point right? (and for everyone who's thinking that's wrong, how many pictures of celebrities do you see in a day through magazine, TV, Internet, etc.?)

Let's aim for something that's hard to have, inner beauty.

T

You Are Who You Hang Around With

Today I learned a little story about a sheep named Rolo. He's a nice little sheep, sad story. His mommy died when he was young so his owner put Rolo in with the sheep dogs. Now wouldn't you know it, the sheep thinks he's a dog. he herds ducks, he does tricks, I bet he even plays fetch. (I'm not making it up, check it out here).

This story happens quite often. You hear about animals that lost a parent or both and end up being adopted and acting like a completely different animal. Heck, after a tsunami a hippo and turtle became friends. So how does that happen? It's simple, you become whatever / whoever you hang around with. The Greek poet Menander said it years ago, and it was so true that Paul quoted it and put it in the Bible.

I Corinthians 15:33b ~ “Bad company corrupts good character.” (NLT)

Realize the opposite is true too. If you hang around good people, you're likely to become a good person. If you hang around dogs, you're likely to become a dog. If you don't like things in your life or where it's headed (or you like it and wonder why), try taking a look at who you invest your time with.

As someone once said, "Show me your friends and I'll show you your future." Just something to think about...

T

Great Proverb

But this one's not from the Bible, it's an old Chinese proverb I read the other day that stuck with me.

The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.

That is awesome. I don't know why but I was reading a little about all these people who did amazing things and there was only one reason, they wanted it to happen. Everything was impossible once. No one thought we could fly, no one thought we could carry computers in our pocket, etc., etc. The only reason those people succeeded is because they did not think of it as impossible. They knew there had to be a way.

So whatever you're struggling with, there is a way. I don't know what it is, you might be on the right path, you might not, but rest assured, there is a way.

T

We Love Our TV

Today I was reading about the first cable systems in the US, interesting stuff, guys wiring cable to high powered antenna's, all that fun stuff.

Anyway, there are some statistics about current cable TV usage in there. In America we spend $75 billion on cable a year. $75 billion! Think about that for a second, if we took that money and put it towards feeding the hungry, water shortages, etc, we would solve all water, food, shelter, etc. issues in the world in about 4 months!

Yet, who would make that sacrifice? I don't know, I used to live in the small mining town of Grande Cache about ten years ago when the mine shut down. It hit the town hard (in about a month the population dropped from 5000 to 3500). Crime went up. People went to the food bank. House payments were not made. But cable bills, not a problem. No one sold their 48" TV's. Food we could go without, shelter we would just not pay, but TV, that we kept.

I don't know. I like TV and all, but I think I spend too much time watching it, but if the average is 6-8 hours a day, what's too much? Imagine what we could do in just one year to help our world with $75 billion...

T

Can't Please Everyone

I was going to write something completely different, but was reading the Bible earlier (it's a good book, I've heard good things) and was reading a section in Matthew in which Jesus is talking about John the Baptist.

Matthew 11:18-19 ~ "For John didn’t spend his time eating and drinking, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man, [Jesus] on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ But wisdom is shown to be right by its results.”

How true it is. If you do one thing, people get mad, if you do the opposite, people get mad. I learned this so early on doing sound at church. Turn it up, people tell you it's too loud. Turn it down, people tell you it's not loud enough. No matter what, you can't please everyone. Someone will find fault in what you do.

So how do you decide? Jesus says it right there. Wisdom is shown to be right by it's results. In the sound thing, I always err on being too loud. Why? Too quiet and people don't hear the Word of God and don't sing. Too loud, people sing really loud and everyone hears what the pastor/speaker is trying to say. Now, I don't go to extremes and try to make eardrums hurt, but I go with which has the most desirable results.

I think there are a lot of people who have trouble trying to please everyone because they take their eyes of the goal (the results) and instead start focusing on the people around them. Our eyes have to always be on the goal. Maybe the goal needs to be more clearly defined so we can know where to go next, but we need to know what the focus should be and stay on course towards it.

After all, I work with teenagers. If my only concern was making them happy, we'd probably end up playing Wii all night and not talking about Jesus and how He wants us to live at all. But that's not my goal. That's not the results I want. I have very specific things I want students to know by the time they graduate, we have purposes that we follow and are trying to instill in all our students (Worshipping, Allying, Teaching, Equipping, Reaching). Stick to your goals, even if the path to them sometimes may change a bit, but stick to your goals, not pleasing those around you.

I Corinthians 9:25-26 ~ All those who compete in the games use self-control so they can win a crown. That crown is an earthly thing that lasts only a short time, but our crown will never be destroyed. So I do not run without a goal. I fight like a boxer who is hitting something—not just the air.

T

Great Quote

Earlier today I was reading a whole bunch of quotes about things not to do in life, from smart to stupid (like "don't follow the instructions of a guy missing three fingers" or "don't take an English course that requires you to read Beowulf"). But in the middle was this one:

You're born an original, don't die a copy. ~ John Mason

I just thought that was great. The Bible talks a lot about how we're all precious to God, how He made us each important in our own way, how we all have certain gifts to use for Him. And that's what we should be doing, living my life as me, not as someone else, but not in an egotistical way, but me for God.

Just something to think about...

T

Have We Faith?

Today I was reading in the gospels a section where Jesus heals a whole bunch of people. Dead people, blind people, etc. and each time He comments on their faith. Their faith healed them, Jesus is able to heal them because of their faith.

I wonder if we have faith in our day and age. We have an expectancy (like with electronics, we expect them to work, but is that faith?) but do we have faith in things that are out of the ordinary? I mean, we pray for someone to be healed, but do we believe they will actually be healed or that the doctor will know what surgery to give them?

I don't know, I just wonder if God is sitting back listening to our prayers for others, our churches, etc. and wanting to help, but is waiting for us to have the actual faith to back them up...

Mark 11:24 ~ So I tell you to believe that you have received the things you ask for in prayer, and God will give them to you.

T

White Washes All

So I was going to put a pic of the youth room all fancy on here, but changed my mind. If you want to see it, go to the room and see it :)

But, yesterday Shawn made a nice discovery. If you've ever painted before you know that sometimes it takes more than one coat (in the case of our orange, like 5 and it could still use more). So when we messed up, we edged with the color we needed. Orange edging had to be done a couple of times, blue at least two, but white, white only needed one. And that's when Shawn said something to the effect of how white seems to cover all.

And there's the Easter message. The pure holiness of God covers all. All we need to do is allow ourselves to be painted...

See you at the Good Friday Service.

T

New Coat Of Paint

It's amazing the difference a new coat of paint can make. Yesterday we painted the Youth Room (we still have more to do for those who can help Wed. at 10:00am...) and it's amazing the difference. Just a little paint on the walls makes it look a thousand times better.

And then we painted some benches that are going in the Youth Room too. An hour before they looked like hacked up piece of wood, now they look like something you might actually want to sit on.

It got me thinking if my life needs a new coat of paint. I know Christians don't like to talk about how they live their lives, we're saved by grace and that's all we need, but does the way I handle myself befit Christ? Am I talking in a way that reflects my faith? As much as we hate to admit it, we judge things by their outward appearances, like benches and rooms (if you don't believe me, go to your next job interview without showering wearing a T-shirt with holes in it). Is the outward part of my faith reflecting the inward part?

T

Quote Of The Day

Heart this while Lorie was watching TV. Some guys were preparing to do the SAT's and were complaining, then the wise old grandma said this:

If it's not hard, you're not learning anything.

Man, I wish we had more people who thought like that...

T

Someone Actually Made This

Tonight Lorie and I had a night where we drive around, stop in at random stores, just hang out and have fun. It was a nice night so we had fun.

Walking around Meijer, we found this board game. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27228. Are you kidding me? It's a game where you actually smell cards such as popcorn, skunk, manure?!

We really, really have too much time on our hands...

T

Earth Hour

So did you turn out your lights for earth hour (8:30 - 9:30)?

We did, and to be honest, it made me think a little. First, Lorie and I don't use much power anyway. I was raised if you leave a room you turn out the lights. But then again, we use more power than we need. Our computer was on, right now we have music on we don't really "need", but it is nice. And after we were done, I had to use the restroom, and was kind of glad I had lights when I did that...

But it all goes back to what do we need? I know we live in a very rich society and it seems like we have a lot of needs because of what everyone else has, but do we really? Just because someone else has it do we therefore need it?

I don't know, just thinking about how many other people in the world manage to survive with much less than we have. Mind you, I say that while I'm sitting on my comfy couch writing something on the Internet on a laptop inside a home that is heated and sheltered from the rain outside while the music is playing on our stereo with nice cold iced tea on the coffee table (the remnants of my third meal of the day).

I really have to look into that wind generator...

T

I Love Zeus

Last night the Myricks dropped of their lovable ball of fur named Zeus. He's a bundle of fun, but today. Oh today. He managed to push out a piece of the fence and wiggle through while my back was turned. Chased him across seven different yards. He just kept running, no matter how much I yelled.

Let's just say that God was having fun teaching me patience today :)

T

But It's Okay, We're At Church

Today I was reading some Old Testament passages (kickin' it old school) when I found a little section where God says if there is only one person in the entire city who follows Him He will spare the city. But of course there was no one. And I started to wonder, how, how on earth can a group of people that were so dedicated to God end up with not a single person believing in Him. Then I found this:

Jeremiah 7:3-7 ~ This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: Change your lives and do what is right! Then I will let you live in this place. Don’t trust the lies of people who say, “This is the Temple of the Lord. This is the Temple of the Lord. This is the Temple of the Lord!” You must change your lives and do what is right. Be fair to each other. You must not be hard on strangers, orphans, and widows. Don’t kill innocent people in this place! Don’t follow other gods, or they will ruin your lives. If you do these things, I will let you live in this land that I gave to your ancestors to keep forever. (NCV)

Can you imagine, giving offerings to other gods, actually murdering people in church, but then saying "But we're doing it in God's house, so we still believe in Him. It's okay." And I again I wondered, how, how could anyone possibly get to that place. A place where they think any action is okay as long as they do it at a good location, a holy place.

But do we do that? Does the church in general have people who lie, cheat, steal, but they still show up to church on Sunday morning and since they visited the "Holy Place" whatever they do in life is then okay? Yes, we're forgiven and yes, we are saved by grace but doesn't that mean we should live like it? When Lorie says she loves me no matter what I do does that mean I should go out and spend all our money on prostitutes? Or does it mean I should live up to the love that she's giving me?

Yesterday at our church staff meeting yesterday, someone said this that got me thinking along the same lines. "I wonder how many times someone is at work and they do the job in an hour, but they charge the person three hours, all the while sipping coffee from one of our church mugs..."

Maybe we should start living up to the love and mercy and grace that God has bestowed on us...

Matthew 7:20 ~ Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. (NCV)

T

The Power Of Music

Today I was listening to one of my favorite online radio stations, movie soundtracks (when I'm at work, it's usually either that or nature sounds, Liz loves that one) and a song came on. Now realize, it's instrumental. It's hard to describe the song, but there's nothing in the tone at the beginning to suggest the tone or what song it is, but I immediately knew what it was. It was in a movie I haven't seen since I was 10, The Natural (it's about baseball). But when I was 10, that's all I did all summer was play/umpire/watch baseball (if I wasn't at church I was playing ball or swimming, or both).

But it's amazing how that works. I heard at most three seconds and I felt happy, I felt like dreaming, and I felt like playing outside. I knew what the song was right away. It just amazes me how music has the power to do that. That's also why I bought a CD last week and still haven't listened to it, I want to make sure everything's right when I do because forever I will be transported back to how I feel when I listen to it.

Anyway, I like music...

T

Lazy

So today, I did pretty much nothing. I was just so wiped out from the weekend I slept a lot and Lorie and I watched way too much TV (which is way better when you have more than five channels I might add).

But one of the reasons I was so tired was the comedy night, which it seems like everyone liked. So that was good. I got to talk with the comedians more than hear their act. I like them more now, they're nice guys.

Tomorrow, maybe a real blog, since I'll be back to normal life :)

T

People Always Want What They Can't Have

So today I was reading about the history of potatoes (what? You know you do too) and how they were originally considered a "dirty" food that only peasants would eat (maybe that's why I love them).

Then, in the mid 1700's, a French pharmacist named Antoine Parmentier was thrown in a German prison and fed only what? The dirt food of the poor. The problem is he came out of prison healthier than when he went in.

So he tried to convince the French King Louis XVI to get potatoes. But the king didn't want peasant food from Germany for his loyal subjects, but he made a concession. He gave Parmentier the cruddiest piece of land on the castle grounds that nothing grew on and said he could grow them there and see if potatoes would catch on.

But Parmentier was smart. First, it's potatoes, they grow anywhere. So they grew in the bad land. But he also put castle guards around the crop to protect his valuable food. He then told the guards to accept bribes secretly and let people steal the food if they tried. What happens when you tell people they can't have something? Within only a few decades so many people had stolen potatoes and planted them at home that potato farms were as numerous as wineries in France.

So basically, it's still true. People only want what they can't have...

T

Too Many Favorite Things

I got to combine a lot of my favorite things today. I was working outside while planning ahead (one of my new favorite things, believe it or not). It was great. It's kind of scary to think where technology has taken us, I worked outside with Internet (and had classical/soundtrack music going) while enjoying the sun and that one bird that keeps squawking just above my head. Add in the iced tea I had in my frosty mug and it was a good day.

And on an even better note, I'm still ahead of schedule on my collar bone. I have 100% mobility back, my strength is ahead of schedule, the only thing they're concerned about is my calcium deposits don't seem to be that big, so I still have to go back, over spring break, but that's okay!

T

What's Your Motivation?

So my lovely wife is making the screens for our Sunday morning services today, one of her many talents and jobs. And we briefly talked about all the names she has to put on the screens this week.

In our traditional services it is our Celtic Sunday so there's a little bit of special music, and for each song/group, Lorie makes a screen to let people know who's playing. Always nice.

But the reason we were talking about it is we remembered back to a while ago when Lorie for a sermon series did not put anyone's name on the screens. And for weeks, no one said anything. That is until someone realized their name wasn't up on the screen when they played. And boy did they complain.

It just makes me wonder why we need to put people's names in the bulletin, on the screens, etc. Yes, it's nice to recognize someone for giving back to God, but if that is the primary reason they give, so their name is "in lights" so to speak, is that really the right reason to be playing/singing for God?

If you're going to give something to God, just give it to God and don't worry about all the other stuff. This is from our Bible Study discussion tonight (see you there at 7:00!)

Matthew 6:1 ~ Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding. (MSG)

Do Not Attempt

Sorry, but I was watching TV a few minutes ago and sometimes, the stupid just gets to me.

It was a Maytag commercial, maybe you've seen it. They tell about the features of the washing machines, then they show a monster truck drive over two rows of machines. And in small print at the bottom:

Do Not Attempt

Really, I'll have to do my best. Because if I had enough money to buy a monster truck and thirty odd washing machines, you better believe I would use that money to drive over the machines just to make sure they were sturdy enough. Where am I going to find thirty Maytag washing machines? Drive to seventeen Sears?

Thank you, guy who makes the fine print, you may have saved my life...

T

Goals While Fasting

As most people know, Ash Wednesday (last week) kicked of a forty day period of fasting in the Church known as Lent.

During Downpour (our weekly Bible Study) last week we went to or church's Ash Wednesday service and then came back to the youth room to talk about what Ash Wednesday is, how it started, why we do it, etc. (it always amazes me a little how many people are willing to go through weird church rituals with next to no idea of what they are doing in and why). We talked about how it's really about your heart, not what you do. We talked about how instead of just giving something up you can take something else on, things like that.

So in the spirit of people fasting or giving something up without knowing why or focusing on the heart, I want to share something I was reading today. It's from a group of people who were fasting to God and they prayed to God, telling Him how they did all this fasting but it didn't help, how God seemed to have not cared about their act of suffering for Him. And here's what God said:

But the Lord says, “You do what pleases yourselves on these special days,
and you are unfair to your workers.
On these special days when you fast, you argue and fight
and hit each other with your fists.
You cannot do these things as you do now
and believe your prayers are heard in heaven.
This kind of special day is not what I want.
This is not the way I want people to be sorry for what they have done.
I don’t want people just to bow their heads like a plant
and wear rough cloth and lie in ashes to show their sadness.
This is what you do on your special days when you fast,
but do you think this is what the Lord wants?
“I will tell you the kind of fast I want:
Free the people you have put in prison unfairly
and undo their chains.
Free those to whom you are unfair
and stop their hard labor.
Share your food with the hungry
and bring poor, homeless people into your own homes.
When you see someone who has no clothes, give him yours,
and don’t refuse to help your own relatives.
Then your light will shine like the dawn,
and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your God will walk before you,
and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
Then you will call out, and the Lord will answer.
You will cry out, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ ~ Isaiah 58:3b-9a

So if you're fasting for Lent, may I ask why? And are you not just giving something up, but are you also living better, doing more, helping those God loves while fasting?

T

Almost Mucas Free And Able To Go To Canada

Sorry it's been a while. Last week both Lorie and I were out for days. 101+ fevers, aches, congestion, coughing, we share everything.

I will say that today I missed Canada a bit. I got a call at 8:00am (a great time to call when I'm sick by the way) and found out that again they want more forms with my passport. The only fun part, I think Canada is the only place in the world where you can get a call from the deepest French part of the country and have the person on the phone be Indian. I love diversity :)

I'll be blogging more, but to add to Liz's blog, the Sr. missions trip is almost full. If you still want to go or have a chance at the waiting list, you better sign up soon...

T

Does This Sound Like America?

Today I was reading a story about Hezekiah in the book of Isaiah. I've read it before, but with all the financial problems in America right now, it kind of had a new twist to me.

The back story, Hezekiah is the king of Judah and is about to die. He prays for God to heal him, so God does, giving him fifteen more years to live. Hezekiah happy.

Now the king of Babylon (right now starting out, one day super-power that will enslave Judah) hears about King Hezekiah's miraculous discovery and sends the king a gift. Nice gesture. So King Hezekiah in his thanks and ego for being healed shows the envoys (the guys who brought the gifts) around the entire palace, including the royal storehouses of gold and silver, all the expensive gifts given to God in the temple, etc.

Why did he flaunt his wealth? He's an idiot. But that's not the worst part. Isaiah comes to visit and tells the king that because he did this, one day in the future all of this wealth will be carried away. Even chldren born to the king will be taken as slaves. And after hearing this doomsday prophecy, here's Hezekiah's reaction:


Hezekiah told Isaiah, “These words from the Lord are good.” He said this because he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.” ~ Isaiah 39:8

He thought "no problem" because it doesn't directly affect him. Now does that sound like America?

"There's not enough oil to sustain the way you live."
"But there's enough for me now, right? So I can still drive my H3, right?"

Something to think about...

Another Perspective

Today we had a group of people come into the church who are building a Family Life Center kind of like ours (its' the same architect, slightly different design). I just happened to be in the gym and was able to talk to them for a few minutes, to answer questions, etc. Nice people.

It just kind of reiterated to me how important it is to get outside input on things, how hearing what someone else sees, even if you don't always follow it, at least knowing and maybe getting ideas from them is a good thing. Like these guys, we talked about our projection system in the Life Center, which is really bad (you can't be close to the stage and still see the screens), and no one would have told them that until I was there. And they even saw some things in our room I hadn't noticed, like the acoustics work (I'm just so used to it).

So whatever you're doing, get an outside opinion. It helps :)

Prov. 15:22 ~ Plans fail without good advice, but they succeed with the advice of many others. (NCV)

T

Two Hands!

My arm is finally out of the sling and I can type again (although I'm sucking at it)! I'm ahead of schedule according to my x-ray, but now I'm doing all sorts of physical therapy exercises (and they don't hurt at all, there's no excruciating pain when I lift my arm, no, none... maybe a little...)

Now I just need to have interesting things to day and I can blog again :)

T

No Blogging For A While

Sorry, but typing is not that easy anymore. See if you can figure out why. Liz saw it right away (hint, it's the collar bone).

T

Winter Retreat

Sorry I haven't been blogging all. Every moment I'm at my computer lately has been doing the Winter Retreat. It's funny how you can have everything done, then more appears.

Either way, I'm gearing up for this weekend. I hope you all are ready for some outdoor fun. We had lots of snow last night!!

T

Crosses Done... Kinda...

I'm almost done the crosses. One is completely done and standing in the Sanctuary, the one for NewSong, I ran out of nails so I will finish it tomorrow.

But a few more things that hit me today (literally).

The first one was while I was doing the first cross. I was working and had some worship songs on and then the old hymn "How Marvelous, How Wonderful" came on. Now, that hymn is always powerful with me, but when you're actually making a cross and it comes on, not to sound girly but I was trying my best not to cry. It was just crazy to think that this was the instrument used for my freedom.

Then Lorie and I put the nails in. If you want to know why the crosses are pre-nailed, come to church on Sunday, but yes, they both have small headed nails in them. Lorie left to go to the Sanctuary as I finished the nails myself (she said I was better at hammering) and I was going to move it. I realized I couldn't lift it because it was too tall to get through the door and still a little wet from the stain so I got the bright idea to use a dolly/cart. I put the cross on no problem. But then, the nice circular base started to twist, I had one hand on the cart, the other on the cross trying to make sure they didn't fall. There was only one thing I had to balance the cross, my head. Now for those of you keeping score, there are over a hundred tiny, small-headed nails in the front of the cross that were now pushing the weight of the cross into the side of my forehead. And it freaking hurt. I managed to stand it back up alright but I was thinking about how much that hurt then almost slapped myself again for being a woosie (see last post). I had the dull side of the nails, and not into my forehead like Jesus would have had. Again, realizing a little more what Jesus went through for me.

But then the clincher. This one's a little nicer. One cross done and in the Sanctuary, working on the second one and cleaning it up, making it look kinda pretty (which Arlene Reynolds said I shouldn't do, the real cross would have looked gnarly, and I agree but this is for the church so I wanted it to look somewhat decent). And I was doing it, songs like "Everything Glorious" and "Everlasting God" and "The Stand" came on and I realized hos God used the cross to make us pretty. How we are cleaned up and "made glorious" because of the cross.

Anyway, it's been a weird experience. What will be key is in seeing them used Sunday morning in church and Sunday night at our prayer night with the students. Maybe more on that later.

T

Crosses Are Heavy

I'm on day two of making the crosses for our church and today was a little rough. I have one pretty much done, the other one was causing me some trouble. I kept having to cut the crossbeam hole over and over. So that required me putting the cross together, seeing it doesn't fit, taking it apart, cutting a little tiny bit off, repeat many, many times. And as I was moving the main beam back and forth I started to think, "Boy, is this cross ever heavy." Then another thought went through my mind:

"Shut up".

I mean, I started thinking about how Jesus had to carry His cross, bloody and battered, falling on His bare knees all the time for what must have seemed like an eternity and here I am complaining "Oh, it's so heavy" in my comfy basement while I try and make my cross look all pretty.

Yeah, Jesus had it harder, and I thank Him for it...

T

Making Crosses

Sorry to mess up the website with my last post. But it's a cool video...

Anyway, tonight I was working on a special project for Celebrate Recovery. I was making crosses. And not little woosie crosses, seven feet tall, two of them.

As I was making them I started thinking about how hard this would have been two thousand years ago. I had a handy little table saw, they did not have electricity so it wouldn't have helped them. And then my thought processed deeper (which is scary) and I thought about the guy who's job is would have been to make crosses. After all, there were tons of crucifixions by the Romans, odds are there were guys who sole occupation was to make crosses for the Roman government. I mean, what goes through your mind every day as you make instruments of death and torture. Who will get this one? What did they do? How much will they suffer? Were they so calloused they didn't even care?

And what about the guy who made Jesus' cross? Did he know Who was going to carry it? Did he know God was going to be sentenced to death upon it? Would it have been more special or just another day at the office?

Yeah, it's bad when I stay up late, I start thinking...

T

Cool Bird Sounds

I happened to see this today. Anyone heard a bird imitate a chainsaw? (It's amazing, yet sad at the same time...)

Enjoy.

T

Less Is More

I was fortunate enough to go shopping on Saturday. Not to the mall or anything (thank the Lord) but to get groceries, pet stuff for Clover, etc. And everywhere Lorie and I went, lines, people everywhere, traffic, etc. And here's what I realized.

This is the busiest time of year. We all know it. We all expect it. If you think you're going to go outside and not wait it's just going to happen. You would think people would be more patient since they know life will be a little more chaotic.

So why is it that people seem less patient? Doesn't it make sense that since we need more patience at this time of year, at Christmas, focused on Christ who lived patience, we would give more out?

So as you shop for those last minute things (and I know you will), try to be a little more patient. Especially since it's not the part-time employee at Wal-Mart's fault that they are out of what you're looking for...

T

Another Wii Injury

Sorry Jen, but this one's for you. You're not the only one to hurt yourself playing Wii.

Mark Cavendish has set a lot of British records. He won four stages of the Tour de France this year, the best ever results by a British cyclist. He's won gold medals at numerous European races, including the World championship Madison, the Commonwealth Games Scratch Race, and won two stages of the Giro d'Italia this year.

But put him on a Wii platform to play a snowboard game, and he becomes a danger to himself -- and any furniture that happens to be nearby.

Cavendish was playing the snowboard game (no reports on whether it was Shaun White's new game), when he got a little too into it. While rocking with his feet and thumbs, he slipped off the platform substituting for a snowboard, fell and injured his calf muscle.

Now that takes some doing! The injury hurt a cyclists most important muscle (though in any kind of bike riding, all the muscles are important). But for road racers, the calf is used hard in every pedal stroke, both pressing down and pulling up.

Cavendish was supposed to go out and train on his bike after the game; but the calf injury meant he couldn't ride. This is not a good thing, because even in cycling's off season, riders on his level can't allow one smidgen of their fitness to evaporate by slacking on their training. He rides for Team Columbia, and the team has scheduled a training camp in Majorca for later this month. Cavendish, fairly new to the elite peleton and Columbia's top sprinter, will be expected to attend.

(Full Story @ http://outdoors.fanhouse.com/2008/12/12/champion-cyclist-injured-while-playing-his-wii/)

So learn a lesson, don't play Wii too much!

T

Get Inspired

I saw this today and just had to post it, too funny.



T

How Well Do You Know Jesus' Story?

I was doing some reading this week and the authors mentioned something I didn't think much about, well, until now.

If you were to ask the average person the story of Jesus, they'd mention Christmas. Most will add in Easter too. But very, very few seem to know what happened in the middle. And here at Christmas, I see it. Most people seem to know the Christmas story (the basics anyway) and most know the basics of Easter, but to name ten miracles, five parables, it gets a little harder.

And then the other author mentioned how we tell Jesus story without going into the big picture. Many people hear that Jesus died for their sins, but how many people know it was to restore us back to where we originally created to be with God? Not we're born sinners, but before we were born, we were created in the image of God to know Him! Christ is simply restoring something we have long forgotten and lost.

It makes the Christmas story more interesting, and it helps understand that the story of Jesus doesn't end in the manger... :)

T

Real Christmas Laws

Today I'm listening to classical Christmas music in my office and I found this list of laws from England I read a while ago. I thought you may like them. They are all still on the books, although I'm sure they are not thoroughly enforced.

~Playing sports on Christmas (except archery) is illegal.
~According to the Holy Days and Fasting Days Act all citizens are required to attend church on Christmas Day (and they must walk there and back, that's a part of the law).
~Christmas dinner is legally limited to only three courses. Mince Pie and Christmas pudding are not allowed, they are banned to be eaten on Christmas.
~Working on Christmas is banned.
~Hunting on Christmas is banned.

Now we laugh at those, but I don't know. To me it's kind of sad that we find it funny. Aren't those good suggestions for Christmas anyway, not over indulging, not working, spending time with God and family...?

T

I'm Back

It's nice to finally be home, with Thanksgiving and Liz, Lorie and I at YS (a Youth Pastor conference), it's been a busy two weeks.

But I have something for tonight. If you can, go out and look at the moon. Jupiter and Venus, the two brightest planets, are next to the moon tonight. I could even see them through the clouds, it looks like a real Procter & Gamble symbol :)

T

3 Year Old Road Rage

I'm sorry, but I saw the funniest thing today. I know it shouldn't be funny, but it was...

I walk in the gym and the preschool kids are playing, nothing new there. Now the preschool has a few Fisher-Price cars that a single kid can ride in, roof, doors, everything, there's just no floor so you move it with your feet. You get the idea. Now one girl was in a car and she was at a 90 degree angle with the wall, head on. She could not go forward or turn. The funny part was the kid behind her, he was also in a car and ramming her repeatedly like they were in bumper cars.

The girls has enough. She yells at him, gives a nice road rage face, then gets out, slams here door and pushes his car away. I know, it shouldn't be funny, but I just kept thinking, "Boy, we've trained our future well..."

T

Do You Give?

This article kind of sums up how Christians do not give to their own church.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081103/lf_nm_life/us_religion_giving_1

I just like the question what could God do with 133 Billion Dollars?!

T

Who's Inviting?

A quick recap on some things that have happened the last few days...

I go to lunch at the high schools here (HSE & FHS, sorry LN) and usually it consists of me sitting around a lot with a few people who know me well coming up and saying hi (which is always nice, please do that). A few weeks ago I met a guy who just walked up and said "hi". Nice guy, we talked for a few minutes, I told him who I was and about our church. Next Sunday he's there. He's now been here every week and last week he was even inviting new people. Then, just last Thursday, a guy walks in the church during NewSong practice for Youth Sunday (our Youth worship team practice for those that didn't understand the code). This guy knows no one here but said he just felt drawn to show up here at that time, the one Thursday a month when the people his age happen to be there having worship practice.

So I have two theories (or a third, which is both of them together). One is that quite possibly God is real, and even more possibly people are trying to find God and in their search God's Spirit is moving in our church and people are being led here to find God. My second is that perhaps God is tired of waiting for us to do what He asked us to do and tell people about His love, so tired of waiting that He is doing it Himself to kick start us a little. Or, like I said, possibly both of those things...

Either way, if God is here and if there aer people looking for Him and if He is calling to those people, perhaps we should jump on board and do our part. Our part can't be that hard, if people are coming to church without even being invited, imagine what would happen if we did invite them! If people are so desperate for God they are just appearing, imagine how receptive they would be to having a person say hello and talk to them about God.

Just a thought...

T

Punk'ins

Sorry it's been a few weeks, I've been a little behind with the pumpkins.

But there is good news! We sold more this year than in years before, even after throwing out hundreds and hundreds of rotten ones (I wish we hadn't thrown them out, people were buying them on Halloween!).

So a big thank-you to everyone who helped out this year. This will definately help our student ministry with our mission trips next year. Thanks again!

T

Adding Insult To Injury

I'm sorry, but this was just too stupid, funny and mean all at once. I read it today.

"When medieval Europeans burned witches, the victims' families had to pay for the firewood."

Now come on, that's just mean!

T

Magnifying Glass Theology

I just finished reading a book that I really enjoyed by Philip Yancey. Anyway, he said something that kind of got me near the end, although I don't think he meant for it to be as impacting as it was to me.

He talked about how sometimes we view the tapestry of God through a magnifying glass. Think of it like a person who is appraising a piece of art. They take out a magnifying glass and see the tiniest of cracks, the little specks of colors under that glass. The problem is, they can't see the full picture and lose the ability to admire it's beauty.

I wonder how many times we have done this with God, that we spend so much time arguing or mulling over some tiny, almost insignificant piece of theology so much so that we lose the ability to see the true beauty of who God is. We lose the sense of God's love for us.

Just wondering...

T

Best Ad Ever

The other night I was up late watching TV and this ad for the Honda CR-V came on. Usually, I don't care, but the pitch they gave this car was so ridiculous I wrote it down (and tried not to wake Lorie laughing). I tried to find it online, but couldn't, but trust me, this is what they said to show how awesome their vehicle is.

"Convenient, easy access door opening."

Really?! You can open the door? Easily? Yeah, those other cars, I was having such a hard time working the handle, the whole pulling thing. I'm glad they finally perfected that.

I guess what made it worse is after saying that they showed a woman opening the door and putting art in the back seat. It's so easy they had to show me how the door opens.

I am so fascinated I may need to trade in my Geo. Forget that it's small and old, I want doors that are easier to open darn it.

T

What Kind Of Impression Do You Leave?

Today I had the fun job of going to hotels and finding out their room rates in case people come visit our church. I repeat. Fun job.

Well, there is a hotel across the highway from the church. You can see the church from it's front door. It makes sense that we would go there first.

So I end up talking to the woman at the desk and telling her about what I'm looking for. She's very helpful, giving me prices, etc. Then I ask how many people can stay in a room. She's a little confused by the question so I explain that teenagers may be involved. She immediately gives me back my card, explains how the hotel has a "no teenager" policy (I don't know how that works) but it's because they are too messy and loud. I tell her it's for a church, it doesn't matter.

But that got me thinking, obviously the person who owns that hotel had something happen that forever left a bad impression on them of how a teenager will act in a hotel. And faith made no impact on how they viewed teenagers.

So my question to you is, what kind of impression do you leave with people...?

(I hope I do okay)

T

Question And Funny

First the question, why do we have to work so hard to get people to do their best? Or even better, why do we have to convince people to do their best? If you take a job or volunteer to do something, or join a sport, why on earth would you even consider doing it if you have no intention of giving your best? Or another one, do people honestly think this is the best they can do when it's obvious it's not? Sorry that was more than one question, it's just been bugging me today...

For the funny though, Lorie and I went to the zoo (of course) where we spent a lot of time looking at otters and things of that sort. We also had to go see Martin, the new baby cow. He was in his pen and friendly and really soft. So I pet Martin, and he liked it (as animals do). So Lorie goes to pet Martin, and he turns into her arm like most animals do when they like being pet. But as he turns in, he flicks his head and gives her this huge lick down her arm. It was really funny. It would have been funnier if she wasn't wearing my sweater...

T

Another Bad Church Experience

Today I was at lunch at Fishers High School, my first full lunch all year, and I ended up talking with a student who knew I was a youth pastor (it's not hard to figure out) and immediately told her story of the one time in her life she had been to church and why she wouldn't go back.

I won't bother getting to the details, but can everyone do me one of two favors. One, if you've never been to church or been to one bad church, realize they're not all the same. That's like saying "I went to a party and it was bad so I'm never going to any type of party again." There are different churches with different styles of music, different people, different approaches to worshipping God. And for those who ware in churches, can you please be nice to people? Be friendly? Say "hi"? It's amazing how many people I talk to who go to a church and cannot remember anyone saying "hi". That doesn't mean that absolutely nobody said hello, but greetings were few and far enough between that it didn't stick into their memory.

On the flip side, I had one student today realize how easy it is to invite someone to church. Someone asked what I did, I told them, said they're welcome anytime and what do you know, they're thinking about it. And I'm a stranger. Imagine if a friend of theirs invited them...

T

Time

Okay, enough Monkey Kickball, you all beat me...

For some reason all day yesterday I was thinking about time and how we've made our lives so incredibly constrained by it. Let me explain.

Go all the way back to creation. God creates and there are only two units of time, evening and morning. Our day was divided into one of two, you were either in daylight, or you were in night. That's it.

Then, sometime, the standard for the day was split into 5. There was dawn (6:00), the mid-morning, or the 3rd hour (9:00), noon (12:00), mid-afternoon, or the 9th hour (3:00) and dusk (6:00). If you were to meet someone, you would use one of those first 4 times (you didn't usually meet after dark). Our day was now divided a little more...

Then at some point we divided our day into 24 hours. Some trace this back to the Babylonians using a 12 hour clock but I don't know how reliable that is. There is also evidence of Egyptians having a 12 hour clock in 1300 B.C. (10 hours day, 2 hours twilight, 12 hours night), but it wasn't in common practice like the 5 division Roman day. The Romans still recognized those hours (as evident by the 3rd hour, 6th hour, etc.) but were still 5 divisions in practice. Either way, for centuries this was used, mostly by astronomers and people related to the stars (navigators and scientists too). Why 24? Who knows. A common theory is because 24 is an easily divisible number (2,3,4,6,8,12).

But that wasn't enough.w had to break it down more. Back to those whacky Babylonians and their astronomers, at sometime between 300-100 B.C. they divided by 60 (again, easy to divide by) and created minutes and seconds. Now our lives are measured even more minutely.

But that's still not enough. If you watched the Olympics, you would have noticed that they needed to make time smaller, 100th's of a second. And for me, all the music stuff I do, well, that's even more minute. I go to 1000ths of a second.

We have made time so small, and in doing so, made it so big in importance. It just seems crazy to me that we would do that, we would micro mange ourselves into the 1000th's of a second.

And yet, through all this, it's still not right. A standard day, full revolution of the earth, well, that's only 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds...

T

I Beat Liz

My Monkey Ball Score (so far...)

http://totebo.com/mko.php?c=qporrrotBoutuorFBoUBoppsotrqUoD6OmouUEr

T

Poison Ivy

Sorry I haven't been on, I've been in and out of consciousness and energy the last few days. I got poison ivy from head to toe at the Guys Night Out last week. Right now I'm sitting at my desk feeling the itch on my arms and neck, it's awesome...

Life Hurts God Heals starts Sunday, hope to see you there!

T

The Right Thing

Sorry it's been a few days, I've been getting stuff ready for our new series at Drink Deep & The Refinery (our Sunday night program for students). Anyway...

Suffice it to say, I was watching TV the other day and heard something really profound. "Even if you do the right thing, it may not turn out the right way." That's true, isn't it? Think of the times where you told the truth, but you didn't get the forgiveness you expected but got in trouble.

But then I started thinking even more (scary) and thought about this. Who says what outcome is right? Well, obviously, we do. We have an outcome to every action that we think is the right one. Maybe we're not as smart as we think we are.

And one more thought with that. Does this mean that we start to decide what is right based on the outcome? I took that in ethics class, if we base all actions on what we think are the outcomes, it really waters down what is right and wrong...

Things to ponder.

T

More English Meanderings

I have another one for you, although this one was not as clear-cut when I read it...

I was reading a book in which the author used the word disgrace, but spelled it dis-grace. And that's when I started thinking. Really, the word is intended to mean a loss of grace, as in the acts that we see as "disgraceful" are really meant to be thought of as so repulsive that you can actually lose the grace of God for taking part in them. What a crazy idea!

But then I went further. What do we see as disgraceful? If you were to walk down the street and say "That's disgraceful", what would the person be doing? Begging on the street? Eating out of a trash can? How about something less, wearing something that was in style last season but definitely out now?

And aren't people who do those acts the ones who need grace? And yet surprisingly, when good, middle-class, upstanding Christians lower themselves to that level, their loving counterparts mutter under their breath "How disgraceful"...

T

Another Quirk Of The English Language

I can't be long, sorry, but here's a tiny fact I read tonight.

The word "listen" has the same letters as the word "silent".

Food for thought about our listening skills...

T

When People Want To Worship...

I meant to talk about this yesterday, but I got off track, sorry. On Tuesday night we went and saw Hillsong United (http://www2.hillsong.com/united/). A great worship concert, they did a really good job.

Two things I got out of it though. One, it was NewSong on crack. They were also in a gym on a stage inset like ours, just everything was slightly bigger, bigger gym, bigger stage, bigger sound, lots more people (obviously, there was a concert). But it gives me hope for the future.

But the second thing is what I've been thinking about the past few days. And I think about it every time I go to something like this. Just how much more different it is when people want to worship.

Now don't get me wrong, I know there are people who want to worship Sunday morning. But there are also those who are there because it is their duty, and I think the ones who want to be there hold back so they don't stand out. At concerts like the Hillsong one, you can't stand out. If anyone wants to worship God so much they go on a Tuesday night (some driving from other states) and pay extra money for a ticket on top of it, they really want to worship! People were really excited to be there!

I just wish I knew how to move more people from the state of apathy on Sunday mornings to that excitement...

T

How Smart Is Our Bunny...?

It's said in some circles you can tell the intelligence of an animal by how long it takes it to escape its habitat. To give an example, some zookeepers say this and say monkeys are very intelligent because they will use tools like screwdrivers to open air vents (pretty smart).

So today we were reading about our bunny and realized he needed more room, so we bought him a pen and put it up to his cage. Now thankfully my wife is smarter than I am and thought we should put him in it long before we go to bed just to see what happens (we let him run around it for a long time with the door open to get used to it). Needless to say, he was trying to squeeze through the bars to see us.

Anyway, I go to work on the computer and hear "He's out". Our bunny had discovered he could jump on top of his cage and make an easy exit around the bars. So we put a cardboard blocker on his cage. Done. We waited about half an hour, nothing, so we went to bed. While lying in bed I said to Lorie "Wouldn't it be funny if the bunny hopped by right now?" What's even stupider, while laughing, the bunny hopped by. No word of a lie, I had just finished saying it. The crazy little rabbit had figure out how to jump over the pen by using the side of the couch (we put him back in to watch and find out his trick). To see if it was a fluke we watched him do it three times, all in about 2 minutes.

Clover is now back in his normal home five feet in the air (it's on a stand, don't worry) and he's completely caged in. Too smart for his own good, he lost some freedom tonight...

Hey, aren't we like that. We're so smart we can make our own choices, do what we think is right, but in the long run we ruin our own freedom in the order God established...?

T

Vantage Point

Yeah, I saw this movie tonight after Drink Deep. I don't know, it's my kind of movie and I really liked it although it was a little different (but then again, so am I). I was thinking about a couple of things while watching it, but I'll focus on two for tonight.

One was a suicide bomber. Unfortunately, this is all too real in our world, people who are willing to kill themselves just to kill others for an ideal. But it got me thinking (and I talked with Lorie a bit about it). How on earth do people manage to get such devotion out of a person? I mean, I am completely devoted to God, I don't know if I would strap a bomb to my chest for Him, but I also know that He would never ask me to do that so we're good. But those people, they are so devoted to their cause that they are willing to kill themselves for it. We aren't even devoted enough to come to church more than twice a month (not to mention on time), or serve more than one hour Sunday morning, or give a full tithe, etc., etc.

But the other point was how this idea of finding the truth through many different vantage points is like our quest for God. In the movie, all these people are involved in seeing and being a part of one event, but because of who they are, their roles, their personalities, etc. they all see this event differently. It's only by all these perspectives together do we as a viewer see the whole truth. And I wonder how much of that is like how we see God. I have a view of God, but it is limited to my focus and corrupted my who I am. But, in getting many views maybe we can work together to see a more complete picture of who He is.

It's late, I'm rambling, but it was a good movie and got me thinking, not to mention about perceived reality and the ability of a heart to be persuaded, but we won't go into that.

T

The Power Of God

I know we hear all sorts of Old Testament stories about God and His power, but here's a newer one. You know me and astronomy...

So there's a researcher named James Jean, he's an astronomer in England. He figured out a way to find out how powerful the core of our sun is and how to explain it so people understand. Here's what he said. If you were to take a piece of the sun's core the size of the head of a pin (really tiny) and place it here on earth, it would generate so much heat that a person would die from that heat 84 miles away. To give some perspective, if we were to put that tiny, itty-bitty piece of sun in my house, someone on the south side of Fort Wayne would die from the heat...

That's incredibly powerful, and God made that so He is way more powerful than that! And to think, instead of using that power on us, His love is even stronger...

Gen. 1:16 ~ So God made the two larger lights, the sun to rule over the day and the moon to rule over the night; he also made the stars.

Eph. 3:18-19 ~ And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

T

Idiot Job

Okay, I have to change the blog, and when I put more pics up, I need to have more text first, otherwise the Fire & Water page goes nuts.

But today, learned an interesting fact. The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas has 12 gardeners on staff. Okay, that seems normal. But here's the catch. Their job is to take care of the artificial plants.

Now is that really a "gardener"?

T

Camping Vacation

Okay, sorry I haven't written in a while, it's because I was cut off from civilization. Last Sunday we had Fire & Water Sunday (the students were in charge of all morning services) and we had our Back To School Bash. So after, Lorie and I left town.

We decided to go camping. Here's a picture of our little campsite in Tippecanoe River Campgrounds. It was our first time with this tent (Lorie didn't like my mini so we got a new one). Okay, this one was a little large, but we were compromising. We camped a little less my way (hike until you find water, poop in the forest) and a little more like she does (we had a mattress, which I will be honest, was really comfy).



Since it is a state park, we did a bit of hiking (we're nature people). Here's a picture of the waterfowl preserve we went by. The fun part about it is it's an otter release point, unfortunately, we saw no otters (that would have made Lorie's year!). But we did see all sorts of other woodland creatures. Our list was deer, wild turkey, blue and black herons, woodpeckers (and other birds), squirrels, chipmunks, turtles, frogs, and of course, Clover's favorite, bunnies.

Here's one of the bunnies who was lying out waiting for us. We saw a few, but this guy was all stretched out and posed. Anyway...

One more of the pretty areas we saw. I have to go, but I'll put more pics up later, amybe even of my textbook cooking fires...

T

Improv Christianity

This morning I was awoken by thunder at way too early of an hour and was lying there with many things going through my head, this being one of them. I don't know why, and I don't know if it was in a dream or something, but it made pretty good sense at 6am with only 4 1/2 hours sleep.

Anyway, here was the thought. That we have Acting Christians and Improv Christians. And I don't mean improv by making up your own faith. Here's what I mean.

Think of your favorite comedic actor. How funny they are. How they make you laugh. Now there's only one problem. They do not actually say anything of their own. Every line they give, everything they say, it is all written by someone else. They are fed lines. Now, they may deliver them well, but the idea, the essence of what makes you laugh is not theirs. Now improv is the opposite. The actor, they make up everything, every single word that comes out of their mouth is completely and 100% theirs.

So this was my thinking this morning. How many Acting Christians do we have? People that say they believe in Jesus, but they really don't own their faith at all. They can't say anything they believe themselves, all they can do is recite what's been told to them. Like comedic actors, they can do it well, but it's still not their faith, their simply giving out someone else's interpretation of God and saying it the best they can. I think we need more Improv Christians. Improv is messier, it's not as scripted, it's harder to follow sometimes, but it is all theirs. The Christian doing "improv", it's what they believe, it's what they adhere to, it's them doing the best they can to figure out who God is and explain it to others.

I think we need more Improv Christians, not just actors who can recite lines well...

T

Too Much Freedom?

It's a question I've heard before. When I was growing up my English teacher had two foreign exchange students from a semi-Communist country stay with her and she told us about how they saw us in Canada as having too much freedom. How since we don't have as many rules we end up hurting ourselves more, since there is no strong opposing force like in their homeland we end up not really respecting authority and it comes to our own detriment because we end up hurting ourselves.

Tonight I was reading about the Temptation of Jesus (you can find it in Matthew 4 or Luke 4 if you're interested). The author was talking about how Jesus could have used that moment of temptation to "fix" our world, but instead left us with the freedom to do what we want, even ultimately reject Him. We are left with so much freedom spiritually that we can even allow our spirits to die...

But that's the beauty of God. He gives us the freedom to decide whether or not to serve Him, and He doesn't even try to make it easy by giving us some miraculous sign in the sky or by revealing Himself as we see fit. Instead, He gives us almost more freedom than we can handle to make a choice to serve Him. Why? It's quite simple. Because devotion caused by an outside force is called oppression. Devotion by choice out of freedom is called love.

Last night at Drink Deep we talked about how I cannot (or can anyone else) force God on someone. It is a choice and if you want to get to know God better it is up to you to spend time with Him, up to you to read your Bible, up to you to serve, up to you to love, up to you to ______. No one else can do that for you, part of being free is it is up to you, for better or for worse. (If you want to talk about that more, we have a discussion on Sunday nights at http://www.fumcfireandwater.net/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=79&page=1#Item_0).

Just something to think about. As William Wallace said in Braveheart, "And what will you do with that freedom?" As the Apostle Paul said, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." (Galatians 5:1a).

T

Coahoma, Day 6 (Friday)

This is it, our last day. One van got up nice and early and were on the road by 5:35 (lunatics). All I know is they made it home safely and they were flying (very few potty breaks I hear).

As for the rest of us, we were up at 6:30 and cleaning. The boy's bathroom never smelled so good. Cleaned everything and anything all before 8:30, where we went out to our meeting place and said our last good-bye's. Except for one little difference, all of us being from the same church, and some of us missing. So we didn't really have a long tearful good-bye with lots of pictures. But, we did give lots of hugs to the Youthworks staff and had a final prayer with the mayor.

The drive home, long and uneventful. I don't like coming home from the south (I've done this drive before) because you have a section where you switch states almost every hour, but then you hit southern Illinois. And it keeps going, and going, and going.

Bu, we finally made it home, almost right on time as predicted. The only fun part about being home, Steve Williams dented the van in the parking lot. That's right, we drove 2000 miles, nothing, but in our own parking lot, while home, that's when we dent the van. It could be worse, no one was hurt and the damage was very minor, but oh the fun that added.

So that's it in a nutshell, our trip to MS. Hopefully others that went will comment or you can read the discussion boards at our website to find out more, and there are some pics up there too (www.fumcfireandwater.com). Until next year, mindless drivel from me to come!

T

Coahoma, Day 5 (Thursday)

Okay, so this was the hardest day of the trip by far. There's a couple of reasons, like these...

First, my group ended up going to a retirement home for the morning. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I was told that every person we talked to had some form of Alzheimer's. That makes things tough right away. But, we get there, first walk in, and there a woman who says nothing other than "Help Me! Please!" It was soooo hard. She didn't understand the nurses were helping her, and they were completely loving to her, thank goodness. I ended up talking with a guy who grew up in Mississippi, then moved to Chicago for a while and is now back home. Having Lorie's family in Chicago it was easy to talk to him, and having Adam with me (the biggest Bears fan around) we had a good talk. He also like to color, he worked really hard at coloring a picture of an apple. It was also weird that people there were allowed to have snuff. It was a little odd.

After that we went to the last day of sports camp, even hotter than before. Hottest day yet, the guys were even harder to work with, and our students were now a little more tired. it just was a great combination, but we got through it, we managed to talk to the kids about Jesus and obedience. That's the most important thing :)

What made it worse was on the hottest day after we played football. How did we do? I threw the game winning interception. But that was followed by a shower, and yet again clean socks have never felt so good.

For dinner we had a community dinner. The mayor made his home-made fried chicken, the rumor is he actually injected spice and hot sauce into the chicken. It was awesome. Honestly, it was great to have southern home cooking again. I didn't realize how much I missed it. So dinner was great!

Then came the footwashing ceremony. Always great, but with one minor problem. Right before dinner the air conditioner broke in our meeting room. It had to have been 100 degrees in there with 90% humidity. Don't believe me? When I walked in I could suck the moisture out of the air. Then the Youthworkers asked me to play a worship song to buy them a few minutes. I was sweating after the second chord. It was incredibly hot. But, prayer is always more important. We (our wonderful adult ministers!) prayed with every single student, some more than once. People were praying and caring for each other for hours. We didn't stop until after 11:45, and honestly, the only reason we stopped that early was the stinging in our eyes from the combination of sweat and tears and 90% humidity. The students were so great together, we actually ended up staying up a little and letting them shower at night, it was only fair.

It's odd, we've been a Youthworks trip before and we knew the footwashing was coming, but it was really great. Adults who had never been on the trip before were asking to pray with students, people were running all over and talking with other students, praying for them, hugging, caring, just actually living the love of Christ and praying for their friends.

So that was the last night, trip home tomorrow.

T

Coahoma, Day 4 (Wednesday)

Sorry this post is late, I was busy last night...

Either way, Wednesday was a fun day for some people. Most the people on workcamps now change to kids club and some on kids club go to do workcamps. So the first part of the morning was a little orientation again. But, it was great for those switching, a new role and a new view of Coahoma. For my group, we ended up getting a few things done for the next two days of Outrageous Sports Camp and then finished with more of the boarding up windows we started yesterday.

The afternoon was spent outside playing basketball again, but today was even hotter. Because of that a few kids didn't show up, which is a down side, but it was also burning up on the asphalt, which made it a little harder. But it must have been okay because after our sports camp a few of the students went out and played a game of Ultimate Frisbee, i was busy taking a nice, long shower. Apparently it was a good game though, 20-19.

The evening was a quick dinner of pizza (always good) followed by a church service in Jonestown. It was a very excited, spirited service with a great choir. The speaker did a great job, she talked about her ordeal with cancer and how she kept waiting for God to heal her, but instead He was more concerned that she praise Him despite her situation instead of taking her our of the situation. It was also good for the students, they all got really into it, now they just need to understand that we can be that excited at our church, just someone needs to start it...

It was another late night and because we got out of club late, we got brownies in our small group time followed by bed (and again, people were out almost right away, the problem was right before bed we had a small serenade... from Aladdin...).

T

Coahoma, Day 3 (Tuesday)

Another hot and sunny day. At least I got to sleep in... until 7:15... Knock-off name cereal tastes great at 7:23...

Today our focus was on poverty. The devotions were really good focusing on what poverty means, what real poverty is, etc. We started out the day working, painting boards to be put on the broken windows of the school house. Everyone worked hard, well, except me. I painted a bit then got talking to the mayor, a great guy. We talked about some of the things we could do for Coahoma, and after a little discussion and looking at what projects we can do, Derrick (Youthworker staff) went to town and got some supplies. That's one reason I like Youthworks. Although there is no way we could get everything done, split the work over a month and 4 different work groups, it can happen. I like being a part of a bigger plan. The downside, town is far away and we got lots of supplies, so I didn't get lunch for a while, we had to go to sports camp right away.

Yeah, another nightmare there. The school decided to paint the stage in the gym, meaning we were not able to run our basketball camp in there (I wonder if they did it on purpose). So we moved to the outdoor court at the park in the middle of town. Oh so hot. But, it worked out. Day two is always a little better, we know a the kids better. Can't complain too much when you're playing basketball all day. And talking about Jesus. A great combination.

Getting back, we found out the other groups had been working really, really hard. They got most of their projects done, not just a little bit done, but done well and completed so the groups tomorrow need new jobs. Great day! Followed by tacos, the day just keeps getting better...

For our evening activity we went to Alabama to a lookout over the Mississippi river. It's crazy to think that a hundred years ago before the levee's the Mississippi would divert 25 miles in any direction, giving Coahoma a luscious topsoil great for farming. Now, it stays still so we can see it and cross it easily. For the activity, still focusing on poverty, the groups were given the actual finances of some people in Coahoma and told to budget. It's not easy to make $540 a month feed and clothe 4 kids. It was a great exercise for the students, especially when some of them realized their summer job makes more than an entire family. On the way home, Rich's van got lost, so all of us waiting sang worship. Everyone was super loud, it was great. We then talked more about poverty. You could hear the collective gasp when they learned that 80% of the world lived in sub-standard housing. they kind of expected only a small portion would have Internet, but a roof, you kind of hope that's universal.

That should have been the end of the night, but people were really hyper (thanks in part to Rich Clark buying them Mountain Dew). The guys were loud and joking, even Steve Williams was laughing hard. The girls, just as hyper, with an end result of Alex Clark breaking her toe jumping from one bunk bed to another. She's fine, but it was the excitement of the night. After turning out the hall lights, everyone was in asleep pretty quick.

For some groups it was the last day on their work camps/kids club. Most of the groups switch tomorrow. We'll have to see what happens with that...

T

Coahoma, Day 2 (Monday)

So as if sleeping on that tiny bunk bed (plus being in a strange place) didn't take away my zzz's, being on breakfast crew and having to start breakfast at 6:45 sure helped. On the plus side, we got it out of the way right off the bat, and it was sunny so that helped us get up, but it was still waaaay too early. Luckily all we had to do was put out cereal and the lunch stuff (I used a knife at 7:00am, not wise).

Our morning was orientation, all the groups learning about what they would be doing for the next few days. I ended up being in Outrageous Sports Camp, or in layman's terms, playing basketball for the week. We played a little game to get to know all of us on the crew, which was really for the benefit of Annie (our leader, a.k.a. Sporty Spice) since we all knew each other. We found out we were going to be talking about obedience for the week, by far a favorite with teenagers. We spent the morning figuring out the drills we would be doing (and testing them, of course) and getting together our questions for the small group discussion. After that was lunch and off to camp.

Now here's what I mean about "off to camp". In previous weeks it had just been the teens from Coahoma. This week we were taking them in vans to Jonestown a few minutes away and doing a combined camp at the elementary school there. We were told to expect about 8-10 from Coahoma, then when we get to Jonestown another 7-10, so 15-20 total. Yeah, not even close. More like 60 with all of us together. And all 60 on summer vacation, extremely hyper, and oh so willing to learn about obedience. It was mass chaos. On the plus side, our students did awesome! We had to make more small groups meaning people who weren't expecting to talk were suddenly leading, and they did a great job.

So after running around with 10-14 year olds for 2+ hours, I finally got my first shower in Coahoma. It wasn't the Ritz, but I will say this, there is no better feeling than clean socks. Oh how wondrous.

We also got to see a little bit more of Coahoma as we drove to and from Jonestown. It's always weird to see a small house, perfectly white, red trim, bars on the windows, it's own propane tank, satellite, little lights down the driveway and side of the house, then next to is a two room shack that's barely together. But one memory of Louisiana came flooding back to me. Everyone has a satellite dish. Everyone. It seems like people do not worry about their houses, but we all need TV. They also seem to like their cars too. Washed and shined, sitting in the driveway of a house that hasn't been painted since Nixon was in office.

A few hours later was my highlight of the night. We went to the Blues Museum in Clarksdale (http://www.deltabluesmuseum.org/). Being a musician and my father's son, it was great. A whole section dedicated to Muddy Waters and a guitar built from his old house, Robert Johnson stuff (none of the students knew who he was, I was so disappointed), I think my favorite has to be one of the locals named "Supa Chiken" with his guitar the "Chikentar". Anyway, I loved it. I ended up being the slowest, reading everything, looking at all the stuff, it was a great time. Then we headed to the small stage outside and got a real blues concert from Bill "Howl-N Madd" Perry (http://howl-n-madd.com/). He was great. I wasn't too happy that most of his songs for the students talked about whiskey, but he was a great guy and talked to everyone who wanted to after a few minutes. And one more note on that, since he'd kill me if I didn't say it, next year he will be in the movie "The Way Of War" with Cuba Gooding Jr. He only mentioned it about 60 times.

After we came back and had club together followed by what is normally "Church Small Group Time". Since we were all one big church we tried splitting everyone into smaller groups, and it seemed to work really well. Almost every single person added to the conversation (a little different from the night before where we all stayed together since it was the first night). But the people I had were great and talkative. Right up until a little bit before bed, at which everyone fell asleep just as quick as the night before (ah, quiet bliss...)

More tomorrow.

T

Coahoma, Day 1 (Sunday)

So I'm going to do like past years and relate what happened on the missions trip exactly a week behind what really happened (there was no Internet there). Feel free to add comments for those who went!

So we left almost on time, 15 min. late. Not up to par with me, but I'll live through it. The only problem with the drive was at the point I realized that I forgot my sunglasses and my water bottle (and it's a big one I got for free, ask Kim Brown, she had the same one!) Not much happened on the way down, except for moving Steve Williams' van, a bad idea since everyone inside got mad and asked for him back (they must really love that guy).

We pulled up and realized just how small this town is (325). There were run down factories/cotton gins around and lots of houses that were falling apart, not to mention a tornado had apparently been through a few months before, huge trees were up rooted everywhere. But the town did not lack anything when it came to hospitality. Everyone waved as we came in and once we were there we immediately were playing sports with the people, I ended up playing baseball (or some version thereof). The only thing some people had to get used to was the fact that everyone, and I mean everyone, was black. There is one white family in town, the official statistic is 98.5% African-American (thanks Tay).

We actually got in a little early which was nice, it gave us a chance to meet the staff. The Youthworks guys and gals were really friendly, and it was easy to bond with them since we were the only church. And, another first, I was able to sit down with Jody (head Youthwork guy there) and split our students into the work stations/sites before dinner! I don't think that has ever, ever happened before. It was a great feeling to know that I was done the most time consuming piece, and also the one I am usually the most hated for ("But I don't want to do that...). We also got to unload our stuff in our "Air conditioned" rooms. Let's just say the swamp coolers in Mexico gave off more cool air...

We got to look around a little. We're staying "downtown" which basically is a little gravel circle with buildings around it. Our sleeping quarters is the old school. Our club room is in the building next to us which is church/town hall/mayor's office. He lives across the road in one of the nicer houses (and one of the few with bars on the doors and windows). We'll get to him a little later.

The only thing left is bedtime. A miracle happened. Everyone went to be happy, and everyone was out in about five minutes. By far the best time we've ever had falling asleep. Except for the fact that I'm in a really short bunk-bed under Adam Sopoci. More tomorrow!

T

Off On A Missions Trip

Sorry I haven't been on lately, I've been pre-occupied. On Sunday we're leaving on a missions trip to Coahoma, MS! The last few days have been doing the bestest part of any missions trip, paperwork! There's nothing more exciting than organizing, photocopying, filing people's health insurance information, covenants, all that fun stuff...

I'm going to try and blog from MS, we'll see if we have internet. But for today, all the paperwork is done and I have the T-Shirts. Oooooo...

T