Saturday, Saturday, Saturday nights allright!

Hey it's me again and it's another Saturday. Me and the misses are going to take the day and go gallyvanting all over Olathe, It's going to be great spending time with my favorite best friend forever. Hey I'm a lucky dog! Tomorrow's my favorite day of the week, as a matter of fact I don't know about you but just about everything I do all week is based around Sunday. Now I didn't say the Sabbath, because for me Sunday is not a total day of rest. It's a day of service to my Lord and His church. So I am starting to set aside part of my day on Saturday (whenever possible) to take a Sabbatical and just rest [cease to work] and celebrate all the Lord's done. This coupled with my Sunday afternoon full gospel nap ought to refresh my spirit. So if you can't tell, I'm excited about spending time with my lovly wife this evening, did I mention I was a lucky dog? Sometimes I love being me. God is awesome!

LIGHTEN UP!

Somebody just told me that my blogs are too heavy and they need to be lighter, and the sad thing is, I already knew this. So here goes...Clinton, Bush and Obama were on this plane and...NO, just kidding.
I guess I could do like some I've read and write about my every move. I'm sitting here at 1:18am on a Saturday morning (even though this post will record it's 2 hours earlier), but any way's I'm sitting here watching the Ovation channel and watching artist wishing I would start painting again, instead of just watching others express themselves through their talents.

Well I'll probably go to bed in a short while after I finish this post.

Hey I just saw a commercial about a website where I could purchase original Salvador Dali art pieces!...wow...let me get my check book.

Oh well heading for bed now...light enough?

This came out of my keyboard!

I know the Super Bowl is this Sunday but I also know that I serve a Supernatural God who deserves much more of my passionate commitment than anything this world could offer. Listen, I’ve seen those guys on TV who’re dedicated enough to the sport to go out in subzero weather with no shirts and painted faces. I’ve seen them jump up and down, clap, and yell their teams praises, especially when they’re team is giving their all and they’re winning. I’ve also witnessed people in their own homes get excited enough to stand and yell at their TV as if the players or refs can hear their cries.

Now I’m not saying any of this is wrong, but I am saying we need to show much more commitment and compassion to our King who has already gained the victory by giving His all. And I’m not asking for Christ followers to choose between church or football because frankly there really should be no competition between the two! All I’m saying is let’s make sure our devotion and commitment are greater to our God than it is to anyone or anything else in our lives.
"You shall have no other gods before me.” “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”
– Exodus 20.3-4

Stop, Drop and Roll!

All of us have probably done some things in our past that we can certainly feel bad for doing and totally regret. But whatever we’ve done, if we’ve asked the Lord to forgive us and we’ve done our best to not do it again, then I believe we should let it “be done”. You see I’m of the opinion that we can allow the enemy, or even our own self-conscious, [not our God-conscious], guilt us all up over our past mistakes, pitfalls or sins.

Which, brace yourself for this now, I wonder if that's a sin in itself?

Can guilt be sin?

I really think so.

Here’s my play on this thought, if you are guilty then guilt should certainly be expected, even welcomed as a Christ follower. Why? Because that’s the God-conscious telling us we need to change to be more like Christ, but if you’ve been forgiven then you’re not guilty any longer and that’s another story.

Let me just lay it out plain simple, if you’re forgiven then you are forgiven, and to feel guilt for something Christ has already forgiven you of and God has already forgotten could be, and in my book would be a sin. Because you’re guilt of a forgiven past is like saying Christ’s work of forgiveness on the cross and God’s forgetfulness in heaven was all in vein.

So let me ask you, or better yet you ask yourself this, "Have I ever done anything in my past that was so bad and so terrible that Christ’s blood cannot cover it and God’s grace cannot release it?" The answer to that is NO! Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." –Matthew 11.28-30

"So if you’re forgiven but still carrying guilt my suggestion to you is to stop, drop it and just roll with God’s forgiveness and grace.

The Valuable Void

I've had two recent events that have led to this post.
Today I was able to spend the entire day with just my wife, it was really great!
And yesterday around four in the evening I had the honor of doing a memorial service for a friend in the churches younger brother.

What do these two events have in common? Well these two events in my life, coupled with the fact that my brother and I are having to go through our fathers property and personal property for his estate have led me to receive a greater appreciation for first of all, everyone in my life, whom I will never again take for granted.

And second, I've gained a greater appreciation for what lasts forever.

No matter if you leave this life with fifty dollars or fifty million to your name, your true value is not found in what you leave behind, but in the void you leave behind. You really can't base the value of a persons life on what they had accumulated while they were here. Because true value is really based on how badly you are missed when you're gone. I can only hope the void I leave behind will be at least half that of my fathers.

Saturday vs. Sabbath day

Well it's Saturday again and here I am at the office trying to catch up on the "Lords work." You know, it seems I can't ever work in any down-time for myself. I mean even Jesus took time to go up to the mountains by himself for a little vacation. That's what the Sabbath is supposed to be about, a day of rest. I'm not complaining I'm just pondering the perplexities of the power, peace and prospect of a real "day off".

You know a day where you just do what you want to do, whether it's art, reading or just laying around in your P.J.'s with a bowl of cereal and a remote in your hand all day. We all need a break once in a while, not from God or from His work necessarily, but sometimes His work is allowing Him to work on you.

So take a break, read a book, paint, draw or watch HGTV all day! Whatever it is that gives you release or rest.

Bye, I'm taking my own adive.

worthyship

We just finished worship practice and let me tell you it was fee-nom-min-al!

Frankly I was feeling pretty down and really low before the guys showed up to practice but after they jammed I felt better and I even found myself singing while setting the sound. Music is amazing, but God is even more amazing because He invented it.

Todd and Jon are great and they are a great blessing, to not only the church but to me. And I praise God for them every day. If you're reading this, you're not going to want to miss worship this Sunday morning. Just thought I'd let you know.

IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED

There are many occasions were we seem to be unsuccessful at life’s endeavors and we wonder what went wrong or why we ended up in the shape we ended up in. And then at that point we like to look to God and ask, “Why God? Why did you allow this happen to me?” But maybe this question of “why” is misplaced and misdirected. Maybe instead of asking God “why” after the fact, maybe we’re in the predicament we’re in because we didn’t ask Him “what” and “when” questions beforehand.

In other words, maybe we blasted into one of life’s situations without considering the fact that we should have asked God “what” He wanted us to do and “when” He wanted us to do it. Or on the other hand, maybe we already knew the “what” and the “when” from God, but chose to ignore His will and we took matters into our own hands which falls under the category of being totally disobedient. And there are always consequences for being disobedient. So my suggestion for everyone is, if at first you don’t succeed, try being obedient. Just something for you to think about.

Finally in His will,

Jonah...[pastor ron]

not poisoned but stoned!

Hey I found something out! I wasn't poisoned, my body's just in the process of trying to pass some sort of stone...wa-hoo! Just thought I'd let you know.

your's truly,

stoned...kidney stoned that is.

Poisoned By Cappuccino

I didn't get a chance to write anything yesterday because I met our music minister for Cappuccino early in the morning and shortly after I returned home I ended up being one sick fella. And to be honest, I think I was poisoned! OK, not deliberately but accidentally. I have never felt that bad in that short amount of time in my entire life, even when I had my heart attack. But being sick yesterday afforded me two things, first I got some well deserved rest because I ended up in bed all day until this morning. And second I ended up praying for myself, my wife, my kids, everyone in the church, everyone in Pomona, the world, and I even prayed for my little dog.

Which led me to this thought, have you ever noticed how we can get into some pretty passionate prayer when we're in personal pain? Isn't it odd how we tend to pray harder when life gets harder? Here's a proposition to ponder, what if we prayed with the same zeal, the same compassion and the same fervency all the time instead of just when we're hurting, do you think we would see God move a little differently in our lives? I'm of the opinion that sometimes we take prayer for granted. We seem to hit our knees and give our little memorized request to God and then "pow", we're back up in less than two minutes and we're on our way, I mean it takes longer than that to order something on Ebay. I wonder what the world would be like if we prayed like our life or the lives of others depended on it? Oh yea they do. Just think about it then pray.

Yours truely, Poisoned

CONSUMED

Sometimes our fears, our indifferences and our concerns can cause us to run away from that which we should be running to. And in our attempt to run from those things which we do not appreciate, accept or agree with we can end up being consumed by unexpected consequences.

TODAY

This morning we talked about Joseph's pit and how God allows us to go through the pits of life because He's training us for the position He's set up for us in the palace. And that a life lived for God and for others is a life well lived.

Tonight was "Messengers of Doom" and we visited the fact that fear is contagous, but so is faith. We also talked about how David wrote Psalms 11 through chapter 16 as a faithful response to fearful predictions and we need to be like David and not allow our fear to stop our faith from being active.

IN THE FIRE

Life is full of trials, troubles and tribulations. Everyone has them, some greater than others. But I'm finding the old cliche' of "tested by fire" to be truer than ever before. Because when we go through bad or disheartening times we can choose to fumble and fail or stand and shine. We can either get better or get bitter; we can either climb above it or crash because of it and like the old saying goes "life is what you make of it."

But now that I've used every cliche' I can think of, let me drop this on you. Your life may be what you make of it but what you make of your life has an affect on the lives around you everyday. How you handle what life throws your way not only determines the outcome of your day, week, year or lifetime, but it can also affect the lives of others. Maybe the harsh or seemingly bad stuff God allows us to go through isn't always about us, maybe it's really about somebody else. Maybe that "stuff" is what forces us into becoming who we need to be for what lies beyond the now.

So the next time you're in the middle of having a bad day, take a minute to look around you and see who else may benefit from your experience "in the fire."