Down on the Farm!

The time for us to travel down to the farm came this year. In fact, that is were I'm communicated to you to day. The farm is about 15 miles Northwest of Corvallis Oregon. We are having a wonderful time with my family and friends. We hope that your season for family is going well and we pray that God will be real to you even more then He was the day before.

Thank God for His wonderful Gift

Have an Awesome Day

David

Watch your head!

The day we celebrate the one event that has changed the landscape here on earth. It wasn't an event that came out of the blue, it was told to us as the very earliest day's hear on earth.

"I'm declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers. He'll wound your head, you'll wound his heel." (Gen. 3:16 MSG)

These are the words of God himself, directed to the enemy of our Soul, Satan. These words came on the heals of the one choice that gave permission and actsess to humanity for a period of time. What was the act, well, let's say . . . is anyone hungry? When Adam and Eve said no to God's word and yes to doing their own thing, Satan was given an opportunity to distract and derail as many people that he could before his appointed time receive his ultiment punishment that was due him for his own personal error.

But before Satan could say YES, God said you better duck, because I have a plan. You see, the "HE" in verse sixteen, is Jesus. Yes, the baby born in Bethlehem some 2000+ years ago. Satan that he had won, but all he did was make a way for God's plan to be shown as he attended from the beginning.

Born this day, in the city of David, a savor is born which is Christ the Lord. A Savior, which would die for our sins. Christ, that was promised to come. Lord that would that would be great among the greatest.

Thank God for His wonderful Gift

Have an Awesome Day

David

Did He Know

At church yesterday, we looked at one question and what does it mean to us. What was it? A simple question … did Mary know about everything that would happen to her Son. We really didn’t come to any conclustions, but we did look at Mary choose to do before Jesus was ever born. What did she say? “My Soul will Magnify the Lord”. Did she know everything? Probably not, but in the knowing or the not knowing she choose to increase the knowledge with everything she had.

But today, I want to pose another question … Did HE know? Let me say it another way … When did he realize who he was and what He was about?

Yvone Pistole writes to this issue …

How did Jesus learn who He was? Did He learn from His mother's bedtime stories? Her stories must have been full of wise men, angels, and stars in the sky. Did Jesus ever crawl up in Mary's lap and say, "Momma, tell me the one about the angel again. What did he say to you that night?" or "Tell me the story of the wise men who brought those gifts." As He studied the Scriptures He must have seen His face on every page ... because His life was fulfilling every prophecy. Maybe Jesus knew who He was by the time He was twelve. He ditched His parents for two days to stay behind to confuse and confound the elders of the temple with His knowledge and questions. Can you imagine the panic in Mary's heart when she realized Jesus wasn't with them? She had been entrusted with God's child--and she lost Him! She raced back to Jerusalem to find Jesus teaching in the temple. She started to scold Him. "Where have you been? We've been worried sick about you." And Jesus said, "Don't you know I must be about My Father's business?" Mary knew Jesus and that He must be about His Father's business. Jesus was saying, don't you know? Aren't you the one who told me? Don't you remember the bedtime stories? Have you forgotten the angel? I must be about My Father's business.

Then there are the silent years in the life of Christ. Between age twelve and thirty, we don't know what happened. But it makes you wonder. Did Jesus ever perform miracles around the house? He could have. How would Mary know that He could turn the water into wine? And they must have had many discussions about when He would begin His public ministry, because when He was thirty, He was still living at home!

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled Himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8

Turning water into wine was just the beginning. From that moment on, Jesus began performing many miracles. He gave sight to the blind, a new mind to the demon-possessed, legs to the lame, a fresh start to the leper, and to all who would really listen ... a new life. And Mary saw it all. Jesus never traveled more than thirty miles from His birthplace. Surely she was there for the baptism, the feeding of the thousands, and every other major event of His life.

And she was there when they crucified Him. Most of the others had scattered like the wind. Peter was warming himself by a fire, denying he even knew Jesus. But Mary was there. That was her firstborn hanging on the cross. She had nursed Him. She had changed His diapers. She had watched Him learn to crawl and then walk. She had told Him bedtime stories. She had rocked Him and calmed His fears at night. James and Jude, the half-brothers of Jesus, were nowhere to be found. In fact, they didn't even believe in Jesus as Savior until after the Resurrection. It would be hard to acknowledge that your older brother was not just good ... He was God! But Mary saw it all! She was the first one to hold Him when He entered the world, and she was the last one to hold Him at the end of His life. Mary saw it all. The Birth, the Life, the Death. And Mary was there to see Him after the Resurrection. Jesus never asked us to remember His birth. He asked us to remember His death, because through His death we have found life. By believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and being baptized, we are saved. Peter had to believe for himself. Thomas had to believe for himself. James and Jude had to believe for themselves. Mary, the mother of Jesus, also needed a Savior. She had to believe for herself. And because we have chosen to believe in the virgin-born, crucified and risen Savior, Jesus Christ, we know we have received eternal life. And this, for sure, Mary knew

Have an Awesome Day

David

A Conversation with a writer

This last Monday night, I had a first. I was joined a friend of mine who is employed as a movie critic. He invited me to preview with him the new nativity movie. As part of his research, he had the privilege to interview the script writer for this movie. Mike Rich lives in Portland and for a contest wrote the script for "Finding Forrester". Since then Rich has penned "The Rookie", "Radio" and is the un-credited writer of "Miracle on Ice." Even though the interview was short in time, I thought the interacbetweenetwen the two was interesting . .Here here is a couple of the questions and answers.

Q: What do you want people talking about in the lobby after they see "The Nativity?"
A: I want them to really appreciate the faith of these two people (Mary & Joseph) because when we tell the story we don't think about the consequences of some of their decisions.

Q: How difficult is it to write dialogue for the mother of the savior of the world?
A: It's the biggest challenge in the world. She is such an iconic character. I had to choose each word with such great care because one wrong sentence, one slip-up and the whole character can be compromised. And if her character is compromised then the whole movie is compromised.

It seems like Rich is writing gave great thought to the importent individuals in the story of Christ. My question is, what can we learn from them. Did they know the story coming Messiah, did they know of his planned entrance to earth (I think they did!). Did they really know the personal impact of their selection in of being the father and mother of Jesus (if not, they would learn all to soon. Would they have the words to train him during his early years (if they didn't, God would grant them the words)

My prayer is that you would take time this week to concider these two and how you can gain strenght from them.

Have an awesome day

David

A Conversation in Heaven

This last Sunday at our church, one of our staff pastors gave a wonderful message about the truth of a relationship with God. There is a lot said about Christianity, but the truth needs to be heard. About half way through his message, Pastor Paul said something to the effect "imagine with me this conversation going on between the Son of God and God himself".

The father explains what he want to happen to redeem mankind. After a long list that included things like being born in the body of a baby, growing up in poverty, being persecuted and dying on a Cross, Jesus says to his father . . ."I got a great idea, how about you going to earth and I will say here in Heaven. Whither that conversation happy or not is not the point. The point is, He came! That's why we all Celebrate Christmas . .For the simple fact that he came, he didn't stay in heave but hie came to be with us!

Thank God he did!

Have an awesome day

David

A View into our future

One of our staff pastor's were leading us in prayer for our future this last Sunday. He paused and reflected on several words spoken by David in Psalms 118. Part of that reflection included the following verse.

Psalm 118:22-23 The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD'S doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.

A comment from another of our staff pastors after the reading of this verse was somthing to the effect. . .

"I find it interesting that we are looking to move into a bulding that was built for a grocery store that never succeeded (rejected) and we are taking the corner section of the building for a church."

God is a creative God. He so often injects confidance into a church that the direction they are heading matchs the future that he see's for that church.

Have an awesome day

David

Elton John has a few things to say

This morning my web browers took me to msn.com (it should take me there because it's my home page) and what did I see? A headline that said "Religion Encourages Hatred". These words came from one of the Top their singer/song writers of our generation.

Here are some other things he had to say . . . .

"I think religion has always tried to turn hatred toward gay people," John said in the Observer newspaper's Music Monthly Magazine. "Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays."

"From my point of view, I would ban religion completely. Organized religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into really hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate."

So is this all he had to say . . .well after digging a little, I discovered that the Associated Press grabbed just a few of the more juicy lines from the whole interview. Yes the three quotas above are what he said, but let me show you something else he said . . .

"From my point of view I would ban religion completely, even though there are some wonderful things about it. I love the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it, which I loved in Sunday school and I collected all the little stickers and put them in my book. But the reality is that organized religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate.

Let me say a few things . . .

First of all, it's intesting to note that John did go to some kind of "organized religion" to receive the wonderful stories of Christ. His words, "I love the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it, which I loved in Sunday school . . ." So one hand, he was benefited from Organized religion.

But John doesn't stop there. He turns the table and says now organized religion doesn't seem to work. IT turns people into hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate. Now John, do you really think that all people are lemmings walking mindlessly to a life full of hatred? I don't believe that. The same beautiful stories that you love are lived out in many wonderful people. So, John, just because you link your self to a church "organized religion" doesn't always end up in hatred.

Have an awesome day

David

Thematic Goals

One of the golden nuggets I took away from me this summer at Willow’s leadership summit was the introduction of the concept of Thematic Goals. In a nutshell a single, qualitative focus or rallying cry that is shared by the entire leadership team—and ultimately, by the entire organization-and that applies for only a specified period of time. The other important part of a Thematic Goal as it pertains to our church, is that it must go to support an excising priority of our church. The question is; why do it if it doesn’t go to help were we fell God is taking us.

We have just completed our fist thematic Goal for this year. It was decided by the leadership team to conduct a survey of our adults. The survey had questions that were directly connected to some common goals that we want to reach by 2010. The survey helped us as a team to know were we are at as a church in order to make adjustments for the future.

Here are some of the results.

Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior? 93 out of 94 said yes (99%)

Are you actively serving others at The Chapel? 57 out of 94 said yes 61%

Have you shared your testimony with a non-believer in the past six months? 51 out of said yes 54%

Do you read your bible? Daily - 26 (27%) Weekly - 30 (31%) Sometimes 35 (36%) Never - 6 (5%)

Have you participated in any outreach events in the past two years? 54 our of 94 said yes 57%

Even though these are some good numbers compared to other similar groups, we need to improve. Over the next few weeks, I would like to write about what this survey is saying and were we can improve in the key area’s at The Chapel.

So, until next week . . ..keep Loving God and Loving Others.

UnMasking

This week, my daughter and I will have a chance to talke to some of her classmates at college, here is just a small portion of the notes that we will be using.

How do I remove a mask?

First, you must acknowledge That You Wear Masks!

We all do it and the first person that you need to convince is your self …some times mask wearing is called for (work, when you are feeling ill and the situation calls for another attitude like sing in a concert. But first tell yourself that you do wear a mask from time to time.
People in various kinds of recovery groups would tell you that the first step to healing is to admit that you have a problem. So, it is important to be honest that you do sometimes wear masks; we all do. We need to establish this fact not to go on a guilt trip about it, but so that we can begin to remove them. So, here is the question – When, and with whom, do you wear masks? Is it with friends? A certain group/groups of friends? At school? At home? With adults?
We need to recognize those situations in our lives where we are wearing masks and doing something that doesn't reflect who we really are. Once we have the self-awareness of these particular situations we can deal with them. I think a lot of people continue to wear masks without even realizing it because they haven't really thought about the areas of their life where they wear masks.

Next you need to return to those Unmask times.

Can you remember 'back in the day' when you didn't wear masks so much? What were you like then? Many people struggle with the mask of being a follower, of doing what other people want them to do, rather than being themselves. What do you really like to do? Are there certain hobbies/sports/activities that you really like to do? Rediscover these. If you are not sure, you might want to begin experimenting with healthy and fun activities that sound interesting to you. Join a club, play a sport, volunteer for a charitable organization - all of these are great ways to meet new people, develop new interests, and rediscover who you really are.

Then follow that up by Hang-Out with people who are in the removal process just like you.

A wise friend of mine once said, "Show me your friends, and I will show you your future." Start trying to be open to more people. And remember, stop putting masks on other people – if you want to be mask-free, it is very important to stop judging other people – give lots of people a chance to be a good friend of yours. I have talked to lots of people who have labeled others inaccurately, and found out later that a person they thought to be very 'uncool' ended up being a great friend! Pray to God that he will lead you to people who will treasure you and love you as you are. Start looking for people who might be in a similar situation as you. Youth groups, youth masses and Christian people are great places to look because they are usually trying to be masks-free, too. If you need help finding a good youth group or youth Mass in your area, let me know.

And lastly, remember what Jesus did to keep the mask off?

The role model was Jesus. He was tempted in every way to put the mask on, but he didn’t. He was Himself all of the time.

When Jesus was sad, he cried. He didn't wear the masks of being a tough guy who doesn't cry. (John 11:35)

When Jesus was happy, he laughed and smiled. He went to parties, and was not afraid to have a good time. (John 2:1-11)

When Jesus was scared, He prayed. He knew He needed help, and was willing to ask His Father in heaven for help. (Matthew 26:36)

When Jesus needed others, He asked His friends for help. He knew He needed other people, too. (Matthew 26:38)

When Jesus saw people who needed a friend, He hung out with them. He wasn't afraid of what others might think. (Luke 5:29-30)

You see, Jesus never wore masks. So, He can help us to resist temptation to wear masks. So, when you struggle with masks, ask for Jesus to help you. He will. One of my regular prayers is "Jesus, make me into the person that you created me to be."

Follow Me

We had a wonderful time listening to one of our teaching Pastor's this last week-in. Part of the message had to do with servant leadership and the responsibility that they have to lead people to a whole, healthy please were they can flourish. The words "follow me" might not be to familiar to us, but the words mentors is.

I found an article by Lynn Anderson from www.heartlight.org . . and I incurage you read it below.

Ralph raised his hand in the middle of my presentation on mentors and challenged, "where is the word mentor used in the Bible." Admittedly, the word mentor does not appear in the Bible. It actually comes from Greek mythology, and has been popularized in our time by Erik Erikson. And cultural anthropologists tell us that almost every society has had "elders" of some kind. Whether they be tribal chieftains, village head-men, clan leaders or family patriarchs most every social unit across history and around the globe has clearly recognized adult role-models or Wisdom Figures. These are generally older, more experienced, stronger members of the group to whom the younger look for identity. However, until recently this role is conspicuously absent from modern American culture, at least in formal social structures. Nevertheless, informally, sometimes even subconsciously, we long for mentors. We seem to do better when they are in our lives. Plus this warning: when we don't find positive mentors, by default negative ones usually find us!

So spiritual mentors are extremely important in our spiritual development. And Biblical. No, Ralph, the word mentor is not in the Bible. But the concept is written all over the New Testament in the ministry of Jesus and of the apostles as well as in instructions for the rest of us.

Mentoring in the church is unique, however, because here the mentor models more than style or vision. Rather this is spiritual leadership - even life-style and faith formation. With this kind of leadership, Jesus stood aggressive, competitive and controlling human leadership on its head. He said, "Who ever would be great among you must be your servant." (Matthew 2:25-28) And, "The son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."(Mark 10:45)

This, of course, means that spiritual leaders are to be identified in a radically different way and upon different criterion than leaders are usually recognized in other arenas: business, military, politics, athletics. Spiritual leaders are not necessarily to be admired on the basis of their business administration skills or their entrepreneurial leadership, but because of their shepherd hearts! Their servant life-style. Churches must not yield to the temptation to appoint leaders simply because they are men of high energy who "get things done," but because peace exudes from the center of all they do. Biblical leaders do their shepherding by mentoring.

God has written the mentor concept into human nature and that is why the concept is written into the Bible.

"Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ. "Jesus made his leadership style clear! He led out so that we can follow. He said, "If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." (Mt. 16:24-26 NIV) When he cut our marching orders he said, "Go...teach.... baptize....(then) teach them to observe all I have commanded you." In other words, "go lead people to Christ and help shape Christ-like life-styles."

Paul the apostle also, spelled out mentoring as his leadership model very simply. "Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ." (I Cor. 11:1) "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me "put it into practice." (Phil. 4:9) In other words, "let me mentor you. Let me be your role model."

He reminds new Christians at Thessalonica to "follow our example." (I Thes. 3:6) And Paul said, "we have made ourselves a model for you to follow." (v.9) Example! Teach! Model! These are all facets of mentoring which is an indispensable tool in developing fully devoted followers of Jesus and in transmitting the faith from one generation to the next.

Not only Jesus and the apostles, but elders as well do their work by mentoring. Peter charges flatly, "be examples to the flock." (I Pet. 5:4) And Paul explains to the elders at Ephesus, "You know how I lived the whole time I was with you"(Acts 20:17) and "In everything I did I showed you that by this kind of work we must help the weak." (v.35) In other words, Paul is telling the elders, "I showed you, now you show them." Bluntly: If a Christian leader is not mentoring someone, to that degree he or she is not living up to his or her calling.

Of course, God has filled the body of Christ with many potential mentors, besides those who are named as elders, or shepherds. And the official church leaders cannot personally meet all the mentoring needs of every Ted and Sally, Sue and Jerry and Jim. However, church leaders will automatically be mentors because, like it or not, people will look to them for spiritual leadership. They are "examples to the flock." Further, leaders of the church are charged to "help the weak and encourage the timid" and to "serve and care for the flock." And while it may not be possible for shepherds to personally, intentionally, hands-on mentor each sheep that needs mentored, they along with other church leaders are to help these needy sheep find godly mentors. To provide for the mentoring needs of their local community of faith, the leaders must be intentional, continually expanding the circle of mentors by "equipping others" to mentor.

However, whether or not the leaders of my church are mentoring me, I am called to be a mentor and to find mentors. You too. Again, let me challenge you to develop your GGTW list (Guys and Gals To Watch). Be intentional. Move in beside someone and build your life into theirs. And be intentional about finding mentors. Pull in beside spiritually exciting and mature persons that you admire and ask them to help you find a mentor. Who knows, that person may actually become the mentor you need.

Lord give The Chapel more servant leadres.

Have an awesome day.

David

The Good Samaritian

This Sunday our church dove into the story of the Good Samaritan. This story told by Jesus to a lawyer of the law I would say is known by more non-christians then most other stoires told by Christ. It might have to do with the fact that there are many people in this world that love to help others who are in Crisis. Think about it, a death in the family, the lost of a home to a fire or a the dreded sickness that starts with the letter "C". Beleiver or not, people gerneally responses in kind to crises.

But giving the context of the story and the back and forth diologe between Christ and the Lawyer, I think only one thing was being said and only one group of people God was calling out. So, what was the one thing and the one Group?

Well, simply said, He was calling out all beleivers to fullfull their directive from God to "Get R done" when it comes to helping people in crises.

This parable tells us that when we start with the law, we will never arrive at grace. But when we start with grace, we may well find that the law of love gets fulfilled simply and solely because of the kind of people we became after the grace of God lifted us up out of the ditch where our sin and the devil had left us to die.

Later in the New Testament, reflecting on his own conversion to faith in Jesus as Lord, the apostle Paul will say that the law brings death. That surely would have been the case for the man in the ditch in Luke 10. The law would have killed him, would have left him for dead no less than the thugs who mugged him in the first place. But grace saved him. Like a Samaritan stranger who shows up from out of nowhere, so grace always comes from out of a clear blue sky as a sheerly unexpected, undeserved gift.

We need that grace because if we are honest, we confess that on our own we tend to be pretty unloving a lot of the time. So how wonderful it is that, as it turns out, the only way to love God and neighbor is through the very same grace that also forgives our countless failures of love. But the more you get forgiven for being unloving, the more loving you want to be in return. So our question is not the lawyer's question of "What must I do to be saved?" Our question is "What did Jesus do to save us?" If you can get a good answer to that question, you won't need to hear Jesus say, "Go and do likewise." Grace will so fill you with love that you will want to go and do as Jesus did. You won't have to. You will want to.

Windows 2010 Pt. 4

This Sunday we finished up our serious outlining the future for the Chapel. The message was pretty clear today, the leaders we want at The Chapel are not Serve-Me leaders but Servant Leaders.

How can one most easily differentiate a Serve-ME Leader from a Servant Leader? Autocratic leadership rather than leadership by example is often the telltale evidence that a leader is not following in the footsteps of Jesus. If the leader emphasizes his mandate rather than his example, beware: worldly leadership is afoot!
Why is leadership by mandate rather than by example such a reliable indicator of the quality of leadership? Because it reveals a key characteristic, which differentiates a Servant-Me from a Servant Leader: the motives of the leader.

Although the differences between Servant Leadership and Serve-ME Leadership may be less obvious externally, their internal motives are worlds-apart.

The Serve-ME Leader prefers to lead by mandate rather than example because serving by example involves two actions which the Serve-ME Leader wants to avoid at all costs, which are; leaders and followers are all on level ground and secondly, servant leaders get their hands dirty.

Another difference in motivation between the Serve-ME leader and the Servant Leader is found in the focus of his interest.

The Servant Leader is concerned with the well being of others. In contrast, the Serve-ME Leader uses others to enhance his own well-being.

Another difference between Servant Leadership and Serve-ME Leadership is found in how the leader interacts with those under his influence.

The Serve-ME Leader seeks to control others in an attempt to manipulate the outcome of events. In contrast, the Servant Leader trusts that God owns the results of his actions. Therefore, he can rest in whatever destination God has in mind.

Since I’m on a roll, let me give you one more difference between servant leaders and serve-me leaders.

How about the difference between the Servant Leader and Serve-ME Leader as it proteins to the distance between the leader and those he leads. The Serve-ME Leader has a vested interest in maintaining a separation between himself and those he leads. This distance is established and reinforced in order to keep himself on a different, higher plane than those he leads. On the other hand, Servant Leader has grown beyond the need to control those he leads. Because he is focused on their well-being, his relationship with them cultivates trust and intimacy. This, in turn, becomes the basis of open communication producing an atmosphere of well-being and peace.

I think this last point is an important one for me, why, because I’m a relationship dude. I love people, and a distance between myself and the ones I serve has to be close or I would die.

Servant Leadership, so important and so needed in our churches today.

Windows 2010 Pt. 3

Well, we continued our journey through our 2010 goals and we landed on the topic of being a servant.

The Bible gives us a clue what kind of servant we need to be when it said, "if you want to be great in God's kingdom, learn to be the servant of all".

I'm so glad that he said that we needed to learn, because servanthood doesn't come easy. Why is it that we are so filled with self when it comes to the life's we live.

But really if you think about it, the lives that God intended for us is quite the contrary to the way that most people think. But can we really have a servant that is filled with self. I don't think so, but then again, self seems to many times derail the very nature of servanthood.

Lord, let me learn more about me, so I can reduce the me, to help the we.

David

Windows 2010 Pt. 2

So we talked about the second Window of the Chapel on Sunday. It showed a church full of people passionate about find out what God's plan was for their life.

Isn't is it suppose to be like that? After all, the saying is true, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. It's True.

How are you going to find it? Well, three things, Feeding your soul with the Word of God, Communicating with God through the word, and prayer.

Do those three things, and God's Plan will unfold right before you!

David

Windows 2010

I had a wonderful time at our church yesterday . . .It was so great! Kids are back in school, the weather is starting to turn, and new life is just around the corner. But must of all, I had a chance to challenge our church about our future as a church. It was the beginning message of a series I titled "Windows 2010".

A few months ago, our staff and leadership started praying, discussing, and listening to what God wanted for our church in the future. As we began this process, we really didn't have any predetermine idea's, we just knew that God would show is what he wanted for us.

After a period of time, Four priorities came to light. They are not earth shattering nor revolutionary. There is probably a number of churches living for the same four priorities. The deference for us is simply . . .They are ours. As we peered into the windows of the future . . .One of the things we saw was our church would be filled with people sharing their story and the story of Christ so that others could also join in the journey toward Christ.

What is your story? Do you know the story of Christ? Are you sharing?

Join us as we do!

Emotions

Feelings aren't important." "Emotions get in the way." "Don't trust your feelings." "Don't feel sad." "Just trust God."

Have you ever heard advice like this? I suspect you have because many Christians have a serious misunderstanding about the Christian life. They think Christians should live stoic-like existences, especially as far as strong emotions are concerned

In preparation for our message this Sunday did a short study on emotions. Did you know the Bible describes more than 20 different emotions that Jesus felt? And they weren't all happy feelings either! Among others, Jesus felt affection, anguish, anger, compassion, distress, grief, gladness, indignation, joy, love, peace, sadness, sympathy, troubled and weary. If Christ is our model of perfect spiritual and emotional maturity, perhaps we can learn by taking a look at a few of Jesus' emotions!

Compassion If we asked Jesus' disciples for the one word that best described His feelings for the multitudes of people He encountered throughout His public ministry, they would reply, "compassion." It is the emotion most frequently attributed to Jesus. Matthew 9:36, for example, tells us, "When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." Jesus fed the four thousand because they hadn't eaten for three days and He had "compassion on these people" (Matthew 15:32). He also healed the two blind men beside the roadside out of compassion (Matthew 20:34). As a compassionate person, Jesus was profoundly moved by the sufferings and troubles of those He encountered.

Love If compassion characterizes Jesus' feelings toward the multitudes, love epitomizes His relationships with those closest to Him. John the hot tempered, impulsive follower who eventually became known as the Apostle of Love, tells us that as Lazarus lay dying, his sisters, Martha and Mary, sent this word to Jesus: "Lord, the one you love is sick." Then John records, "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus" (John 11:3-5).

"Jesus didn't try to be less thanhuman by shielding Himself from grief and pain. He allowed Himself to suffer these normal human emotions. "

Joy On two occasions Jesus described himself as joyful. Both are recorded by John. The first instance follows Jesus predicting His betrayal. Jesus said, "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete" (John 15:9-11).
Jesus connects His joy (which He wants His disciples to share) with remaining in the Father's love and obeying His command-ments. Jesus' joy, in other words, comes from a loving relationship "specifically, His relationship with His Father" regardless of His temporary circumstances.

Grief and Sorrow Jesus was pained when He saw others suffering or missing out on all that was available for them. In one of the most poignant moments of His public life, John tells us that when Jesus saw Mary weeping over Lazarus' death, "He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled." Then, as Mary and Martha were taking Jesus to the body of Lazarus, "Jesus wept." He didn't try, as we sometimes do in times of sorrow, to be outwardly "strong" and hide or deny His feelings. His strength showed through His tears. He had the strength to care enough to weep.

Jesus also wept over Jerusalem as though His heart was breaking. And when He healed the man with a shriveled hand on the Sabbath and the Pharisees disapproved, He was "deeply distressed (grieved) at their stubborn hearts (John 3:5).

Jesus didn't try to be less than human by shielding Himself from grief and pain. He allowed Himself to suffer these normal human emotions.

Anger Just as Jesus' compassionate nature at times led Him to grieve and sorrow, it also led Him to be angry. Perhaps the best known expression of His anger was when He drove the money changers out of the temple in Jerusalem at the Passover. John describes it this way: "So He made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves He said, 'Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!' " (John 2:15-16).

Think, too, of Jesus' interactions with the religious leaders of His day. They were periodically punctuated by assertive conflicts and sometimes angry confrontations. Jesus was angered by the callous legalism that led the Pharisees to be more committed to fulfilling the letter of the law than to lovingly doing good by healing or helping others on the Sabbath.

Like Christ, mature Christians will experience angry feelings, but those feelings will be stimulated by a love and concern for others and for righteousness rather than by the frustration of our own desires.

Peacefulness Along with love and compassion, one other emotion of Jesus seemed to have a unifying effect upon His entire personality. That is the emotion of peace. As Jesus prepared to leave His disciples in death He told them, "But a time is coming and has come, when you will be scattered, each to His own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:32-33).

Have an awesome day!

Worship Weave?

This last week-in, our message looked at the golden nuggets found in Psalm 139.

There is a year's worth of inspiration and messages a pastor can dig out of this one song.

In my study, I cam across an article that talked about the word "weave". The author was suggesting that the word not only communicated the process, but also the type.

Here is his concluding paragraph.

Psalm 139, then, is picking up on a known thread of imagery when it compares the formation of an infant in the womb to his being "woven" like a tent curtain. In the womb, the Lord weaves the tent that the infant will "wear" until he puts it off at death. With its allusions to the roqem work of the tabernacle, the Psalm goes further, implying not only that God has made the infant in the womb, but also that the infant is being woven into a dwelling for God. Abortion attacks not only a creature of God but a house of God.

The abortionist's instruments pierce through the unfinished roqem curtains and tread on holy ground. We are talking here not only about slaughter of the innocent but about sacrilege, a direct attack on "space" claimed by God. That is the most serious offense possible. Paul's warning hovers ominously over our nation: "If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy
him, for the temple of God is holy."

Another thought for you to meditate on this week.

David

Why Complain?

At The Chapel this week, we talked about the fine are of complaining. The topic came up as we looked at Psalm136 were David and the nation of Israel had all the rights to complain about the resent history, but choose to praise God for the things He gave them. Far more then we like, instead of thanking God for his blessings, we turn to complaining.

listed to what a young person by the name of Julia said about complaining.

People today are always complaining about this or that going on in their community. People feel the constant bubbling of frustration in their bellies but what does complaining and being frustrated do for these problems: nothing. People need to rise up and let their voices and opinions be heard. If people cannot devote time to their cause - to the struggle - then one is not helping. If a person is against/concerned about the ongoing cloud of racism hovering over us they can
a) join a group that takes action (rallies, pickets, marches),
b) read a newspaper or magazine about racial incidents so they know exactly what they're talking about when they march,
c) do community service once a week or month.

If a person is concerned about the homeless problem they should

a) talk to some of the homeless people on the street (not all of them are drunks, junkies, etc.),
b) work at a homeless shelter, helping to clean it up, etc.,
c) donate some of your old clothes to organizations that help the homeless.

The list could go on and on because there are so many concerns. But the simplest thing to do, which few participate in these days, is reading the newspaper. There are so many different problems circulating in our world today that people need to be educated. There are problems ranging from here to Kathmandu, Nepal, literally! People must daily read the newspaper and watch the news. Watch the news with your family; watch the morning news before school. Complaining and being frustrated does not help anyone or any cause. Doing it, fighting for your cause will do something. Each person has a voice, and it's loud and powerful and needs to be heard, not only by your friends but by your community.

These are words from a youth, a challenge to change your environment through action.

The Challenge that came to The Chapel yesterday was to choose to reduce your complaining. One of our Chapelities expressed to me after the service that to help him reduce the complaining we would simply say when someone asked him how his day was going, he would say "I can't complain". If pushed we plans on saying . . .my Pastor told me I can't complain, so, I can't complain.

Well, one way or another, my call to you is not to complain and do something about any injustice that you see going on.

Thoughts on Worship

I read a artical by Pastor Jim Shaddix challenged participants with his

“Top 10 Commandments” for setting a theology of music in worship.

Here is what he head to say.

10 Commandments for setting a theology of music in worship.

1. Thou shalt worship God, not worship worship.

“We are a people of extremes and we have a hard time maintaining a biblical balance,” Shaddix said. “A long time ago, people were nervous about the charismatic movement, so worship services became like funeral services. Now the pendulum has swung all the way to the other side and we have hand raising and clapping but lyrics without correct theology. In the revival of worship and the reaction of what we’ve seen, our focus is on the style rather than the object of our worship” God.

2. Thou shalt worship as a lifestyle and not as a music style.

“If there is a disconnect in what happens at the church event and what is happening in people’s daily lives, there is a problem,” Shaddix said. “That needs to be more important than if people are singing on the right key.”

3. Thou shalt make the Divine Seeker comfortable first and foremost.

Shaddix warned about trying to make seekers comfortable first and foremost rather than God, who seeks after non-Christians. Citing 1 Corinthians 14:23-25, Shaddix noted, “If the presence of God is thick in a place and His Word is communicated clearly, seekers will be transformed.”

4. Thou shalt use music as a sacrifice of praise, not as a synonym for worship.

Shaddix challenged today’s definition of worship as music only. Worship should include preaching and not be limited to music alone.

5. Thou shalt be theologically equipped.

As a former professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Shaddix shared his conviction that seminaries tend to give the impression that the study of theology is less important for those serving as ministers of music rather than senior pastors. “We’ve compartmentalized theological education and raised worship leaders to believe it isn’t important to know theology. Therefore they aren’t able to filter out songs that don’t accurately represent God.” He encouraged worship leaders to pursue the study of
theology in addition to technical skills.

6. Thou shalt reflect a holistic theology in worship content.

“Celebration is not the only kind of worship,” Shaddix said. “The Bible speaks of worship involving all seasons of life. Is there a place in our worship for saying, God, I don’t understand”?


7. Thou shalt worship in a rhythm of revelation and response.

“There is no worship without revelation,” Shaddix said. “God reveals Himself most clearly through His Word. We can’t separate the music from the preaching event. We have nothing to worship if God doesn’t reveal who He is.”

8. Thou shalt employ lyrics that reflect communal identity.

Shaddix encouraged the use of songs that represent worship on behalf of the entire church body rather than only individuals by incorporating songs that include “we” in the lyrics rather than “me.”

9. Thou shalt use technology with theological and pastoral sensitivity.

Shaddix agreed that the Bible speaks of worship including clashing cymbals and loud music. However, “Hearing others sing encourages worship. If amplification is so much that you can only hear the sound on stage rather than the people singing beside you, that isn’t good.”

10. Thou shalt foster worship that reflects the diversity and unity of heaven.

Shaddix encouraged worship leaders to keep the end in mind. “God is honored in worship when we strive to accomplish ethnic diversity and congregational unity.”

You can read the full article here at the Florida Baptist Witness Website...

From a new View

A few days ago, a friend of mine introduced me to a man by the name of Nick. The following is something he wrote for us to read.

The greatest impatience we experience in our walk with Christ is unanswered prayers. It feels that God doesn’t care anymore. We all go through storms in life and sometimes we feel so helpless and feel that there is no hope. It’s so hard to understand, with our limited wisdom, why our Loving God would let “bad things” happen in our lives. I thought, “if He loved me that much then why does He let me feel so much pain?” I questioned God’s existence, let alone His Love for me. We doubt the credibility of …

“For I know the plans I have for you”, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

Sometimes our pain, suffering, anxiety and depression seem so much more real than the promises of God. I share how God turned my life around from a life without limbs to a life without limits!

You may asked with that last phrase means? well, Nick Vujicic was born without limbs and doctors have no medical explanation for this birth “defect”. As you can imagine, he was faced with many challenges and obstacles, but the Lord gave him strength to have a burning desire to reach out and bring people to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Today, God is using him in a mighty way to challenge people to claim the promise of that future and hope. As Proverbs 3:5 says to trust the Lord with all you heart without understanding the circumstances in your life. God is a good God not because of your circumstances, but because God is Faithful and will not leave you!

He goes on to say It gives me no greater satisfaction than knowing that my life has a great purpose and can be used to Glorify God! My prayer is that you’d be encouraged and challenged to diligently seek the Lord with all your heart and see the great future and hope you have in Christ! May God continue to strengthen and nurture your heart according to His Perfect Will. Have a wonderful day knowing that God is with you every step of the way!

IF you would like so see/hear/watch Nick in action, please visit him at http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org

David

Go and have an awesome day

On Vacation

We are back! We took a couple of weeks off for some R&R. Trying to get back in the saddle again. It's hard to swing that leg around when you have some time off, but I'm trying real hard. It is good to be back though. Looking forward to seeing everyone again very soon.

David

Go and have an awesome day

On Vacation

Donna and I are on Vacation this week, thanks for praying for us and we will see you in a couple of weeks.

David

Go and have an awesome day

Everything we need

As I was preparing for the message that I was to deliver yesterday, I came across this wonderful reminder that God is everything we need!






The Lord is my Shepherd
THAT'S RELATIONSHIP!

I shall not want
THAT'S SUPPLY!

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures
THAT'S REST!

He leadeth me beside still waters
THAT'S REFRESHMENT!

He restoreth my soul
THAT'S HEALING!

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
THAT'S GUIDANCE!

For His name sake
THAT'S PURPOSE!

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
THAT'S TESTING!

I will fear no evil
THAT'S PROTECTION!

For Thou art with me
THAT'S FAITHFULNESS!

Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me
THAT'S DISCIPLINE!

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies
THAT'S HOPE!

Thou anointest my head with oil
THAT'S CONSECRATION!

My cup runneth over
THAT'S ABUNDANCE!

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life
THAT'S BLESSING!

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
THAT'S SECURITY!

Forever
THAT'S ETERNITY !

Go and have an awesome day

A Song of the Great Shepard

A famous actor was once the guest of honor at a social gathering where he received many requests to recite favorite excerpts from various literary works. An old preacher who happened to be there asked the actor to recite the twenty-third Psalm. The actor agreed on the condition that the preacher would also recite it. The actor’s recitation was beautifully intoned with great dramatic emphasis for which he received lengthy applause. The preacher’s voice was rough and broken from many years of preaching, and his diction was anything but polished. But when he finished there was not a dry eye in the room. When someone asked the actor what made the difference, he replied "I know the psalm, but he knows the Shepherd."

A Psalm of David

God, my shepherd! I don't need a thing.
You have bedded me down in lush meadows,
you find me quiet pools to drink from.
True to your word,
you let me catch my breath
and send me in the right direction.

Even when the way goes through
Death Valley,
I'm not afraid
when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd's crook
makes me feel secure.

You serve me a six-course dinner
right in front of my enemies.
You revive my drooping head;
my cup brims with blessing.

Your beauty and love chase after me
every day of my life.
I'm back home in the house of God
for the rest of my life.

I'm in Awe!

Let me start out by asking you a few questions.

(Q) Have you ever heard the phrase, the natural consequences of your actions?
(Q) Have you ever done something you shouldn’t have and gotten away with it but still feel badly or experience some other negative consequence because of it?

Asking yourselves questions like these will lead you to one place, growth. Growth in the area of wisdom. One one of the greatest places to find a huge amount of wisdom is found in the Psalms.

Many of the psalms make use of proverbs, numerical series, acrostics, and comparisons. These psalms also use direct instruction to teach and often do so by declaring the importance of godliness in speech, work, use of wealth, etc.. This is were we will find and grow the wisdom that we need.

Psalm 1 is a good example of gaining wisdom.

Psalm 1 (NIV)
1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

This psalm serves as a prologue for the entire Psalter and vividly portrays the type of person who will pray the spasm and be instructed by them. This person is a person of faith who is a believer in and a follower of the one true God. This person finds his joy in God’s Law. The word translated as blessed comes from the Hebrew word רשׁאָ is the Hebrew verb that means to go straight, go forward, or advance. When it takes the form of a noun(only in the plural construct form) אשרי it means happiness or blessedness.

In verse three we find that righteousness is described by way of a comparison to trees planted by streams of water. By reminding us that trees flourish when they are planted next to the source of their greatest need (water) the psalmist teaches us that the state of happiness or blessedness is not a reward but just the result, or natural consequence, of being close to our greatest need (God). Verses five and six describe the wicked and the result of their lifestyles. The final verse sums up the psalmist’s lesson: there are basically two types of people, those who follow God, are fed by his instruction and are happy (blessed) and those who are wicked and doomed, not as a punishment but as a natural consequence of their behavior.

Grow in Wisdom today.

David

I'm in Awe!

Last night while attending a home group, the facilitator (one or your assisting pastor’s) read from Isaiah 66:1-2)

Isaiah 66:1-2 reads, “Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool: where is the house that ye build unto Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things hath Mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My Word.”

We spend a long time talking about what it means to tremble at His Word.

Reading this morning, I came across another interesting verse found in Psalms 119. It says, “Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of Thy Word.

Weather we use the word tremble, or standing in awe, it would be a waste of words if it doesn’t move us. May I suggest a few thoughts of were we could move?

First, we are to tremble at the conviction of God’s holy Word. This we see in the example of the godly remnant in Ezra’s time. Concerning this godly remnant Ezra stated in Ezra 9:4, “Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been carried away; and I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice.” They trembled at God’s Word because of the transgression of the people. They trembled at the conviction of God’s holy Word.

Second, we are to tremble for the counsel of God’s holy Word. This we see in the example of the Philippian jailor. Concerning him Acts 16:29-30 reads, “Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” First, the piercing of God’s holy Word brought to his heart the conviction of sin and of his need of salvation. Then this jailor came to Paul and Silas trembling and seeking to know what the Lord would have him to do that he might be saved. He came trembling for the counsel of God’s holy Word. In like manner, when the Lord Jesus Christ spoke from heaven and confronted Saul on the road to Damascus, Acts 9:6 states concerning Saul, “And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” After receiving the conviction of God’s holy Word, He then trembled for the counsel of God’s holy Word.

Third, we are to tremble in obeying the commands of God’s holy Word. This we again see in the example of the godly remnant in Ezra’s time. In Ezra 10:3 they expressed their commitment unto the Lord, saying, “Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the Law.” They trembled at the commandments of God. Yea, they trembled unto commitment and obedience.

So, how are you looking and responding at the Word’s of God. Does it move you? I hope so.

David

Have a great week.

What is the Will of God . . .Really!

I really like talking to my friends on Sunday Morning . . .It's a blast. This last Sunday we talked about the "Will of God". Looking back at y church history, I would have to say that my life was filled with a myopic view of the Will of God. Not that His will is small, but it seemed like we, his kids, spent a lot of time trying to figure out every jot and titel of it. You can spend a lot of soul energy this one thing, so much that you don't have a lot of time left for doing His Will.

Isn't that the important part? Doing His will. I think so! We are told clearly in Romans 12 that God's will is that we would change, and in the changing, we would discover what His will is. But it's up to us to decided to change. So getting changing and find the will of God for you.

Have a great week.

What do you write on a Bio?

So last week, I was asked to write a biographical about my time in ministry. Now I know the drill, but nothing really of importance goes on the standard form. There are no names of people that helped you grow, there is no mention of the tough times that you went through that molded you into the person you are today, there is not laughter or love.

But I must write the standard bla bla bla. I’m encourage to think that God will not use the standard Biographical form with it comes to my life.

Have a great week.

David

Can you hear me Now?

Isn't it amazing that we know more about cell phones then we know about prayer?

Most everyone that carries a phone knows knows more about when and where the connections of there local area will send a great signal or a bad signal. How many times have you been talking to someone who is talking on a cell phone and they say to you "hey, I might loose you, I'm heading into a bad cell, I might loose you". You been there, haven't you.

Like I said, we know more about cell phone interference then we know about prayer interference.
And let me tell you, we all have a lot of prayer interference, don't we. Why don't you pause a moment and think about this a moment. What things do interfere with the your prayer signal?

Have a great day!

David

The Touch of Prayer

A few weeks ago, we my wife and I had a chance to go visit friends in DC. One of the sites we saw was the National Cathidreal. Found there, is the resting place of many famous people. One of those is Hellen Keller. She was an amazing woman. from nine months on to her death, she couild not see, or hear. How can a person in that condition know or learn about the world she lives in.

With the help of a dedicated teacher, she learned through the means of touch. With touch, her world became large.

Our lives are much the same, when we say yes to God, we enter into a world that is dark and silent. How we discover this world is through the touch of prayer. Wow, think of it, prayer is the way we know about God.

Do you want to know Him, talk to him, today!

Have a great day!

David

Resurrection Day

Churches all over this world taked about new life . . .Wow . . Don't you love it! Well, for the first time, our church staff defined what would be an Easter Win. There was a lot of discussion that went around the table, but they landed on three wins for the day.

1) To run out of coffee! The reason for this is on the back of our visitor cards, we gave our first time visitors a free flavored drink. So one way of knowing if visitors came, the coffee was gone . . .will the results are; we ran out of our free coffee, we ran out of water, and we started off with 4 gallons of products for coffee's and we only had 1/4 of a gallon left . . .not bad!

2) 10 or more visitor cards. Well, we came close, we had seven. Which represented about 29 first time guest. Now it's up to us to do a good followup with these fine folks.

3) 10 Stories of transformation. This is a hard one to evaluate . . and it might take a few weeks to shake out. But I can tell you of a couple I know of. One new couple came to church because their parents evented them. It had been about one year since they had visited the church . . .one family member had lost a close friend, but after the service, felt like like her hope had returned. Another individual made some major decisions to remove themselves from some addictive behaviors. One family that had been with us off and on over the last several years, made a new commenting to attendees more often.

I'm sure there is more but all in all, God was good to us at the Chapel and we had about 100 more people then what we normally have which is a jump of about 30%.

All thanks goes to God

David

A wild Email

Many of you know that our church "The Chapel" here in Troutdale Oregon merged with another local church. It's been a wonderful experience and a God thing. In the process of this merger, we made great effort in communicating this fact. We talked to our congrations about it, we got the paper involved and we placed it on our web site.

Well, I got an interesting email today, it was from a pastor back in Mississippi who had found our web site, read the article and had some questions about our merger because he was thinking about the same thing. So he emailed me.

I was was honored to talks to this man, (over the internet) about our merger. About half way through, I came to a realization, God is so Good. Well sure He his, David, didn't you know that . . .Well yes, but having His goodness in 3D is a good thing.

God is good . . .All the time and with this merger, he is good.

Thanks God for being so good.

David

Jet Lag

It's been a long time since I have been in a different time zone for any length of time. Adjusting to East Coast time wasn't bad . .Since I'm a early morning person . . Waking up early wasn't bad . .But coming back to the west coast . . .It was a killer being dead tired at 7pm at night.

I don't like being out of sink. The tempo, the rhythm, the schedule is all out of wack and I don't like it.

It would be nice to feel that in the spirit as well. Oh but many times it's there . .We just ignore it, or come up with excuses.

Last Day

So, it's our last day in DC and once again, we are heading down to the mall to see some more monuments. It's a good think to remember. It seems the older I get the more I need to focus on that. Remembering the past is a good thing to help us align ourselves in the direction of the future we are wanting to obtain.

Do you do that? Or do you use the past to remember how great it was or do we use the past to prop up and shaky present.

Think about that for a moment!

See you in Portland next week!

David

I Fortgot!

So, have you ever forgot something . . .yes I'm sure you have. As for me, I have never forgotten anything since, oh, how about yesterday! So I was showing our good friends this blog and noticed that I had forgot to post my Monday morning message. Our good friends are now living in Washington DC and we are visiting them this week. We arrived here on Wednesday Evening. Our flight begain in Portland. When we got to the airport, we discovered that our non-stop was really had one stop in LA before heading west. I guess I should of figured that but it was a little of a surprise.

After LA, we started East. I sat next to a nice gentleman from southern Oregon and we shared a lot of storie about kids and life. He had way more then me, so he did most the talking. As we talked along the way, I looked out side and noticed that it was starting to get dark. I turned just for a moment, it seemed and looked back and it was dark. I guess traveling east in a plan going 300+ miles an hour makes dark come a lot quicker.

And there lies my point . . . .dark comes quickly when were are traveling away from the sun so fast. It seem the same in natural life as well as with our spiritual lives as well. May I incourage you to turn toward the SON and you will never experince true darkness.

Have a His Day

David

Adjustments!

So, just for fun (haha) my wife, Donna, scheduled an eye appointment for us this last Friday. With our eyes getting weak in our old age, we thought it would be good to do so. Donna's eyes hadn't changed a bit from her surgery she had a few years ago, and mine. Well, I know what you are thinking, you area expecting me to say that mine had changed a lot, right? Well, I'm happy to tell you that my eyes hadn't changed a lot, but, but my stigmata had gotten a little worst. My Doc. Suggested that we would change my lenses a little to keep my eye site Sharpe.

You know, If didn't' got in and had the expert help me, even with a little adjustment, I would not of known what was happening. With our spiritual lives, we needed to do the same. We might not know the slight changed that are going on. But if we keep in contact with the spiritual expert. (The Holly Spirit) we might never know what's going on. Keep you eye on the expert, the Holy Spirit to keep our spiritual eyes sharp.

Have a His Day

David

Open your gift!

I had a really fund conversation with a few Young adults over lunch and we stated talking about Spiritual Gifts. It wasn't one of theses "out of the blue" kind of things, it actually was a "to be continued" from the message shared at The Chapel. For me, it was really exhilarating to see these young people come a live with the possibility of doing something big for God. Receiving a Big time dream from God and know that God would supple the gifts, talents, and partners to accomplish it.

Shouldn't we all be in that place. Excited for the possibilities of partnering with God and others to do something that would love others. I pray this.

Oh, if you would like to get an idea of your spiritual gift, check out this web site.




Have a great day!

David

Take a look!

In a recent conversation that I had with a friend of mine, he reminded me how important it is to have a goal and a purpose. His leadership team had just got away for a week-in retreat to work on what their church would call, prophetic priorities. In other words, it’s the goals for there church for the next five years. The title “prophetic priorities” I think gives it a bit to is and a declaration that without God, these goals would be not much more then sound bites.

So what about your prophetic priorities. What is God challenging you do work on these next 5 years. Ask God to revel them to you. Write them down. Give them life through planning and strategies. Then ask others to help you accomplish them. And during the process, don’t forget to evaluate, not just at the end, but through out.

At the beginning of 2005, our leadership team identified five components of our church that we need to breath some more life into. The included our Small groups, prayer, evangelism, first impressions (Sunday Hospitality) and new believers discipleship. Well, it’s time to evaluate.
If we are going to elevate these practices in our church we need to evaluate how we are doing.

So that’s my mission this week. I let you know how it goes.

Seek Him Today

David

A lesson from Ebay

Have you ever said to yourself, “I got to have it?” Well, that’s what I said a week ago and off to Ebay I went. To fond that perfect phone. It was an Audiovox 5600. The latest greatest and I had to have one. After reading one discretion and biding what I thought was a reasonable price, I waited for that special moment (that doesn’t come to often) that says I’m the winner. Well, I made it to that moment and guess what? I won the phone. But my excitement changed to despair when I received the phone a few days later. IT was not as described on Ebay. It wasn’t “like new” as said, there were missing parts and I wasn’t a very happy camper.

So I sent the seller a rather disappointing email, not expecting any reply, I thought I was stuck. Well, to my surprised, I did get a response. It seems that the seller was actually taking the word of a friend of what kind of condition the phone was in. Thus the description that really didn’t match the merchandise. And further to my surprise, the seller was willing to take the phone back and refund my money.

So, were is the lesion in all this, well, simply put. Don’t believe the description of another. See if for your self.

When it comes to our faith and the journey we are on with God, we need to go right to the Source. To see it up close and personal and not rely on another persons experience.

Seek Him Today

David

I hate Colds!

I hate colds and I have one. It started on Wednesday of this last week that plugged up feeling in the middle of your face. You know what’s coming on. Then it’s the soreness, the constant drip and low energy. Many on Sunday, after hearing me talk, asked why didn’t I get one of the staff members to speak? My reply is simple …it’s not that big of a deal. Oh is it?

The study surveyed 4,000 homes by telephone nationwide. 75% of the households surveyed reported suffering from a cold within the last year, with an average of 2.5 episodes a year. The households were asked to report their doctor bills, cost of over-the counter medication, and the cost of prescription drugs. They also reported days of work or school missed due to a cold.
The study found that Americans spend $2.9 billion on over-the-counter drugs and another $400 million on prescription medicines for relief of cold symptoms. Researchers discovered $1.1 billion dollars is spent every year on 41 million antibiotic prescriptions for cold sufferers, though antibiotics have no effect on a viral illness.

The battle against the common cold costs the US economy $40 billion dollars annually, more than other conditions like asthma, heart failure, and emphysema.
Mark Fendrick MD, from the Consortium for Health Outcomes, Innovation, and Cost
Effectiveness at the University if Michigan says the cost of missed days at work and school due to colds is often overlooked. He adds some of the costs may be unnecessary. Fendrick said, "What was a surprise, is how often the public uses the health care system to treat a cold. From a bottle of cough syrup to missed time at work and school, the price tag of catching a cold really adds up."

It’s really not a big deal that can turn into a big deal. We have a lot of things in our life that start out pretty small and insignificant that turns out to be huge in the end. More times then not, the results are not good.

For example look what happen to the Children of Israel. After years of oppression at the hands of their Egyptian captors, God sent Moses to deliver them. En route to the "Promised Land" God provided for their every need, yet they weren't satisfied with God's provisions. Verse five says, "And the people spoke against God and Moses, 'Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.'" There is a reason we call them the "Children of Israel," listen to them-don't they sound like a bunch of spoiled children? In one place they say they have no food. OK, being without food is a reason to complain. But then they say, we "loathe this miserable food." So which is it? Do they have food or not?

Philippians 2:14-16a gives some good advise to everyone who tends toward being a complainer. It says, "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life…." (NIV)

God punished them for their complaining. He sent fiery serpents to bite them. Some say these snakes are called "fiery" because of their color, others because their venom burnt as it entered the body. We don't know for sure which it is, but we do know that their bite was fatal, and the punishment brought the people to their knees. Verse 7 says, "So the people came to Moses and said, 'We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; intercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us.' And Moses interceded for the people."

Notice what they confessed to. They confessed that their murmuring against Moses was also against God. They also confessed that their complaining constituted sin. But also notice what they wanted God to take away-the punishment. They asked God to remove the punishment, but did not ask Him to remove their sin.

Like the Children of Israel, we are quick to ask God to remove our punishments and slow to ask Him to remove our sins. Have you ever considered what sin cost us?

A Gift to The Chapel!

In the last week, our church council has learned a lot about the wild and wacky world of buyers and sellers. In our case we are the sellers.

Over the years, many people sacrificed and shared their individual gifts to secure 2 acres of land and a building called Good News Church. With the merger competed between The Chapel and Good News and following the recondition of the leadership of Good News we begin what I thought would be a long process of selling the church property.

What I didn't know, is that it took a matter of only 21 days to come to a major decision.

I learned so much in this process. One, God is in control and many times, he leads you in places that may not match what the professionals recommend. But if you are praying, you can't make the wrong decision.

Another thing I learned is that relationships can be strengthen or weaken through the process. Thank the Lord, I can say with those I spend most the time with, it was strengthen.

All and all, I have learned a lot and I will be better prepared for next time.

have a great day!

A Call to Discipleship!

In doing some study and thinking about the church and discipleship, I came across some thoughts from other pastor's and churches . . .in organizing my thoughts, I came up with six stages of discipleship.

1. Investigation of the claims of Christ

2. Initial decision to be a follower of Christ

3. Identification by taking baptism (open confession and witness)

4. Incorporation - by joining the fellowship of a local church

5. Instruction - by receiving spiritual nurture from the Word of God

6. Involvement - as a responsible member in witness and service of the local
church and society.

these stages seem like a good order for moving through the stages of the Christian journey. I would say that the last three happens as a trio of stages. This list of stages also gives the church an opportunity to evaluate how we the church is doing in their callings.

Have an awesome day.

Unity Sunday!

From time to time, I will show video clips to had a little spice to illustrations or to drive a point home. Yesterday, I used a man on the street clip answer the simple question, "Why do people go to Church". It was amazing the reaction of those attending our Celebration Service. We started out laughing and ended up in silence. The producer of this clip did a very good job of driving their point across. That many people that don't go to Church don't know why those who do.

At first, the thought came . . .Then why don't they come to church and find out. That seems reasonable, after all, they need to know so they need to do something about it. Listen to me, "THEY", what is that all about. If I remember the bible correctly, we were encouraged to go out, not ask them to come in. We certainly have our work cut out for us.

Have a blessed day!

A Sunday of Merging

Wow, what a day!

As spoken about before, we celebrated the merging of two churches on Sunday at the Chapel. Good News Foursquare church and The Chapel began their new life together as one unified church.

One of the members shared with me that during a devotional time as they prayed about the merger, in his spirit he saw the birth of Christ and he was taken quickly to the verse in Luke chapter two that says “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” As he reflected on this picture and scripture, he felt the spirit of God saying to him, this is a picture of the new merged church, you are now together and will grow in wisdom, stature, and favor with men and God. Lord, let this be sow.

In a short conversation I had with Pastor Bruce, he did mention that some of the folks from Good News Foursquare was a little bit nervous, and rightly so. After all, they were doing most of the changing. From moving from there small building to the campus of Reynolds High School. From a known structure of the Sunday morning events, to a new order of events. From mingling with a few folks that they new very well to a church four times larger then theirs. No wonder they were a little bit nervoucs. But both Bruce and Betty were both excited to see the people of Good News very excited about the future after the service had concluded.

God surly has wonderful things planed for The Chapel as we start another Chapter together with new friends and a bright future.

God is Good, all the time!

Repeating is Good
Below you will find an artical that is on our web front page as well. It's about our upcoming merger.

A whole new chapter will begin as we celebrate our 9th birthday on January 15th of this New Year. This year is very special because we will have some new people to celebrate with. As many of you know, Good News Foursquare Church and The Chapel, a foursquare church here in Troutdale will be joining together to form one church. Pastor Bruce Olson and his wonderful wife Betty will be taking on a new role as Associate Pastor. For 13 years, they have been faithfully loving and serving the people of Good News and this will continue as they hand over their head pastor duties to Pastor David of The Chapel.

The merger of the two churches had its beginnings with Good News as they were looking for ways to become more effective in reaching new people in East County. Through conversations with the Mt. Hood District leadership, the option of merging with The Chapel became the clear choice to accomplish their heart's desire. With several meetings accomplished, the Council and membership of Good News Foursquare church voted unanimously to pursue this end. With the request made, the Council of The Chapel fully agreed that not only would this be good for Good News, but it could also be good for The Chapel and on December 11th, the membership of The Chapel also sent a strong message with an overwhelming majority saying "yes" to the merge.With the approval of the International Church forthcoming, the people of Good News Foursquare Church and The Chapel will become one church. Both congregations will be meeting at Reynolds High School on Sunday mornings. The Good News Church building on 192nd will serve as an ancillary facility for additional ministries throughout the week. We invite anyone in our area to come and celebrate with us at 10:30 am on January 15th for our first Sunday together.

Happy New Year

A frined and gifted leader, every Monday sends out a few words of incouragement for the week. I really injoyed what he had to say today so I pass it on to you.

New Year's Day customs and tradition vary greatly around the world. Here in the United States we kiss our spouse at midnight (if you can stay up that late), set off fireworks, and declare new resolutions. In other places, they exchange gifts (Haiti), eat 12 grapes for good luck (Spain/Peru), eat bread with a coin buried in it (Greece), and on goes the list of New Year’s customs.

In Wales, at midnight they open the back door at the first strike of midnight... ushering out the past. At the twelfth strike, they open the front door... welcoming in the new! WOW, I love the concept. Christians can celebrate the New Year with whatever customs they choose, but we get to celebrate "new" all the time!

The Psalmist said: "He put a new song in my mouth!" Ezekiel declared: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you." Paul wrote: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, and the new has come!"

As we enter the New Year, what "old" do you need to usher out the back door and what "new" do you need to open the front door to? Be bold... now is the time to receive His promise that "the new has come!"

This is truly a new year for The Chapel. I can say with convidence, this year will be like no other. I look forward to seeing the "new" happen with God's blessing.

Happy New Year.