Iowa Renewal Project

I am writing this blog post from my pocket pc in my hotel room via wi-fi (aaah, you gotta love tecnology). We were given the opportunity to come to this event sponsored by the Iowa Renewal Project (a group that is attempting to influence pastors with preaching the need to get involved politically). I listened to Bob McEwen deliver one of the most profound messages I have ever heard on our country's founding fathers. Then we heard Newt Gingrich speak on a similar topic (I got to meet him privately and shake his hand).

My wife's favorite part is that she got a new outfit. My boy's favorite part was swimming in the hotel pool. Mine was just getting a quick little get-away with my family!

For the families...

I went out on a tough ministry situation tonight. It involved alcohol, domestic violence and a lot of darkness. I took my youth minister along with me. Sometimes it is really hard to see how broken some families can become.

Lord, help the families of the church I serve in. Help them through their struggles. Become the center piece of their lives. Help them to know and see your love for them. Bind Satan from his incessant work in their lives as well. Keep him at bay.

Protect my own family, Lord. Keep my marriage strong and healthy. I am not a perfect husband, Lord, but I haven't fallen into the kind of darkness I saw tonight. Keep me from that. Help my sons to always see Jesus in me. Help them to know that who I am at church is exactly who I am at home. Help me to not be a hypocrite.

For the family we helped tonight. Help them to have peace in their home. Rest through the night. And help them to fight for their marriage. Help them to see that you have a dream for their marriage as well. Help them live for you, Lord.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Weekend at the 40

Well, this past weekend was a fun experience for me. I went down to southern Iowa (Lucas County) and had a camping excursion with my two sons and another guy from our church. We caught snakes, rode four wheelers and just had a fun time. Check out some of these photos...


Getting in the mud and just having a good time. Sometimes we all need to do that! I know I did. Check out these photos that I took that are a little more "pretty":



This was the original photo I took of these pretty daisies. But look at the same photo with a little touch-up in Photoshop:

Here's another set of pictures, with the original first:

Now for the touched-up version:

I really like taking photos of nature. I think if I weren't a pastor, that is probably what I would do for a living. When you take a good image and then add some easy filter effects with Photoshop, you can come up with some stunning photographs.

Once it's out, it can't go back in!

Last night my wife did something that I won't soon forget and hopefully my sons won't either. Tired of the recent rash of critical words and general bad attitudes coming out of their mouths (usually aimed at each other) she wanted to show them something that would hopefully graphically illustrate what she saw was the problem.

She went and got a tube of toothpaste and a paper plate and handed them to my oldest son. She then asked him to squeeze out all the paste onto the paper plate. At first, he just laughed thinking she was just being silly, but then when she told him again to do it in a firmer voice, he knew she was serious.

So he squeezed out all the toothpaste onto the paper plate into one big glob in the center of the plate. Then she took the squeezed tube and the pasted plate and handed it to my youngest son and asked him to put the paste back into the tube. He laughed nervously not knowing if she was really serious or not. She was.

So after only a moment's hesitation, he started trying to put the paste back into the squeezed out tube. It was a mess. And he soon discovered it was also impossible to do.

Then Shannon, my very wise wife, told the boys (me included) that when our words leave our mouth, they are impossible to take back. Putting your spoken words back in your mouth is as easy as putting toothpaste back in a tube you squeezed it out of.

So be mindful of your words that you speak to each other. They have great potential for ill or for good. Once it's out, it can't go back in!

Those Wacky Muslims

Sir Salman Rushdie celebrates his 60th birthday today in familiar circumstances: he is once again the subject of death threats across the Islamic world. You may remember him as the famous (or infamous depending on whether or not you are a Muslim) author of The Satanic Verses (1988) which is the tale of a prophet misled by the devil. Considered to be blasphemy all across the muslim world, this book has caused Rushdie more problems than good. Back when the book was released the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling on all Muslims to kill him.

What did he do now? Well, he has been recently knighted by Queen Elizabeth, thus unearthing the old wounds again. And Muslims are protesting in the streets of London, even burning effigies of the Queen and burning British flags. Even more extreme, is one of the government leaders in Pakistan, the foreign affairs minister, said this yesterday, "If somebody has to attack by strapping bombs to his body to protect the honor of the Prophet then it is justified." He later backed off that statement. But he still made it nonetheless.

Question for God when I get to heaven: What is up with them? They are all crazy lunatics.

I guess you could say that they are impassioned about what they believe…but if that is what it means to be passionate then I want to be apathetic. The "One True Prophet" Jesus came to love and show us a much better way. Muslims are deceived by Satan and fascinated with death. That is the center-piece of their belief system. Bloodshed and violence.

They will go the same way. He who lives by the sword dies by it.

Atomic Power

Dallas Willard wrote something in his book, The Divine Conspiracy, that I haven't been able to shake. He said it almost in passing. He said that man has unlocked and discovered within the absolute smallness of an atom are all the energies of the sun. And we have harnessed that power.

Yet contained within the smallness of a human, lies completely unlocked the power of God. Yet we struggle with sin.

What a thought?!

A Lesson From Violet

I did a funeral today for a gal named Violet. I was told that she was a devout Christian who read her Bible almost every day. She was very active in her church (their church was without a pastor...that's why I was called in) and taught Sunday School and played the piano.

Her two sons helped me plan out the service. But the interesting thing to me was the fact that neither of these guys attends church now. I wonder why that is.

It may be that having a real faith is more than attendance at church or even being involved in a congregation...I think we can get involved and miss the main point.

My goal is that when I am laid into the earth and my sons stand at my graveside that they will say something like, "My dad inspired us to be closer to Jesus. He wasn't perfect but we want to have a faith in Jesus like he did."

If I can accomplish that, then I have accomplished my life's goal. Having people at my church be impressed with me doesn't count if my sons don't see it in my life. Being an influential member of a congregation (I'm told that Violet was) doesn't mean anything if I cannot leverage influence over my sons lives to live for Jesus.

It is most important that my family sees it in me rather than a church I attend being impressed with me.

My sons have to listen to me preach every week...but I want them to see the sermon I preach every day.

Comes in Three's

They say things happen in three's. I don't know if there's anything to that or not. But three cool things did happen to us today. We had kind of bartered some work with a friend that installs kitchen counter tops for a living. By barter, I mean that he got us a new counter top and installed it and I did some computer stuff for him. So he came today.

We also, of course had to have our kitchen sink taken out to do this, so we replaced the sink and bought all new fixtures for it. And our buddy, Nate came and did some fine plumbing work for us. He is in our small group. And just happens to be a very dear friend too.

And lastly, but maybe most importantly, we got our X-Box shipped back to us after it had broken down on us. And it came today while the counter top guy and the plumber were busy doing their thing.

So it came in three's. And that means, my boys were happy and Shannon was happy too!

A Demon Tale

I was visiting today with my youth pastor and we were talking about angels and demons and all that. And I relayed a story with him that I had forgotten about for some time.

My step-father, Steve Partin, (he is no longer my step-father but took on that role when I was 12 years old and held that until my mid twenties) is the one who actually shared this with me.

When he was young he grew up in a difficult environment. His father was an alcoholic prone to violence when he drank. His step-mother was more of a gentle-natured lady. But from time to time when his Steve's dad was drinking he would beat on his step-mom and Steve too (if he was in the vicinity).

So his home life wasn't good. Well, there were a couple of times where Steve told me about his step-mom was convinced that the home they lived in was haunted. She had seen and/or felt spirits that were "around" that place.

Their life at the time centered around caring for Brahma cattle and working the orange grove. So even though Steve was young, he was a fairly strong lad for his age. And that good old farm-style living was what that came from.

One particular night, Steve said he remembered laying in bed and hearing his dad getting louder and louder with his step-mom. Of course, he had been drinking and by the tone of his dad's voice he could tell that this was only going to have one inevitable conclusion.

So Steve, being a pretty strong young man, had already confronted his dad on a couple of separate occasions resulting in Steve keeping his step-mom from being hit, but Steve almost got killed in the process.

Listening, as he lay there, he was growing madder and madder at the situation. He decided in his heart he was going to stop his dad and not let him hit his step-mom. So he tried to get up.

But, and this is where the story gets strange, he felt as though he was being pinned down on his bed. He tried to get up but the feeling of being held down grew even stronger. He couldn't move no matter how hard he tried.

Then he felt a dead weight on his chest and he had to just sit there in the dark and cry as his father spun into a drunken rage and beat on his step-mom once again downstairs.

Way back when Steve originally told me this story, he was convinced it was the ghost who haunted that home that held him in his bed that night. I'm not so convinced.

I believe this happened to my step-dad, but I don't believe in ghosts. I believe that there was most certainly darkness in that home and that demonic forces literally were swimming with pleasure at all the dysfunction that took place there.

And the fact that Steve was going to stop his father that night means that those demons would not have been able to have all the fun that they ended up having as his dad beat his step-mom again. I believe they held him there. They stopped him.

I believe that demons can and do such things from time to time given the right circumstance...what do you think?

Our Hobby

Sinner Friendly

I have a buddy that preaches at another church in another state and he responded to our church's latest newsletter. In it, I included an article about the myths of being a purpose driven church. You can see the article here:

http://www.godsfort.org/resources/Newsletters/June2007.pdf

Well, he wanted me to see another view point about being a purpose driven church (of which I like to try to be). He said that being "seeker-friendly" would better be labeled being "sinner-friendly" in his mind. He think that the whole purpose driven mentality is making our church's too much like the world.

I responded and told him I considered it the highest compliment to be "sinner-friendly"...in fact, isn't that what they said about Jesus? I say, woe to the church that isn't "sinner-friendly!"

What else are we supposed to be about? Do we just lock ourselves in our pretty little buildings and admire our stain-glassed windows and say, "Glory to God!" No.

Just like I said last week in my sermon, I think our church's new slogan should be, "Hell...no!" Literally not one more person go to hell.

As Spurgeon said, "If they must go to hell, then let them go with my arms around their ankles! If they must go to hell, then let them have to push me aside first to be able to get there!"

Winning the lost...sinner friendly! Something that Jesus smiles about!

Pastor

My uncle in Seattle preaches at a small congregation and has a monthly aticle he publishes called "Scott's Thoughts." His latest article dealt with the use of the term "pastor" and whether or not it is correct for ministers to be called this or not.

Well, of course he diligently exegeted two passages of Scripture to undeniably prove that it is absolutely incorrect for Christians to call their preachers "pastor." Pshew! Man am I ever glad we got that issue cleared up! I was really worried about all the senseless usages of people calling their minister "pastor" that was going on.

Do you have any idea how much sinning is going on in churches across America with this? We have got to get the word out. In fact, maybe we could start an all-out campaign and call it "The Pastor-less Life" or "40 Days without a Pastor." That might do the trick.

Or maybe we could actually focus on the fact that people all around the church are dying and going to hell because too many ministers and pastors are focused on the wrong things!