Re: Sunday June 25th

I told an embarassing story on myself this last Sunday. In the "Give and Take" teaching time, I was talking about doing the "natural" ministry or ministry in the area of our giftedness. I used my story as an example of what not to do. I was loaned a bike by a friend. She said it was a great bike, a man's bike- really expensive. You see Tina gave me some $$ to buy a bike as my father's day present- a really sweet gift. So I was trying our friends bike to see what I liked/needed. As I road on the streets of Palouse and struggled up the hills, I kept thinking this is a stupid bike! "She said it was a man's bike," I thought to myself, "but this is like a junior bike or something." You see I kept bumping my knees against the handles- there was no room to pedal. The brakes were in a weird place and it just felt strange. But it had been a long time since I had been on a bike, so I chalked it up to all the "technological changes" in the biking industry. Well, when I got home and dismounted the bike, I noticed something was very wrong. I had been riding the bike with the front end completely backwards. It looked like this picture below:

It should have looked like this:

I rode that bike all messed up! I scraped up my knee because in order to pedal I was rubbing against the handle bars. I waved at a bunch of people on my way home- and got several strange looks- it must have been a sight. When someone is forcing something and doing something "un-natural" it is pretty obvious, not always humorous, but in this case it was humorous.
Anyways- the point was- that God created each of us- saved each of us, and also gifted each of us. We need to go with that flow of truth and not against it. We need to accept the love of the Creator, the salvation of our Savior, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit- going against them, avoiding them and not believing in them and living into them is just going against our destiny.
The sermon was the story of Jesus calming the sea and storm, Mark 4:35-41, you can check it out here
Basically we need to believe that God is in our "boat" of life- and God will be with us always- believe it friends- God is with you in the storms of life.
Peace be with you....

Summer Days...

Summer is on the way! I thought I would throw a couple pictures and a graphic on the blog here- because sometimes having just words is pretty non-stimulating.
One is a picture of our park. One is graphic of a Palouse City map. And the other one is a historic picture of the St. Elmo hotel that is currently being restored by its owner and is painted a beautiful bright red- that alone is worth a visit to Palouse.
We are having a movie night this week, we are watching "Narnia" and having a dinner and popcorn- it should be fun. Its tomorrow- wednesday at 6ishpm.
I am excited by the many folks in our church that are proactively growing their faith. People are reading and studying the Bible and reading through provoking and faith challenging books- like Velvet Elvis and Irresistible Revolution.
I love watching people's faith/spirituality grow. I guess that's my main job, right? To aid people in their faith development- to help them become the child of God- that God has destined for them to be. I like that. It's a lot of fun.
That's a lot of what the sermon was about last week. The scriptures were two parables in Mark 4 about seeds, soil and the kingdom of God- the main point is the Kingdom of God is a life giving growth process- where people and movements grow into good things that God has destined for them.
Following worship we had a pretty lively Sunday school. We watched a clip from "Another World is Possible" the War DvD. It was challenging- on many levels. For me I guess I am getting convicted that I need to be a leader that helps create an environment where people can dialog about important and difficult issues- and help lead people from a situation of frustration and helplessness to one of loving action, thoughtful communication and service.
Prayer is so important. If we are to live as loving, honest, courageous people standing up for Justice- we need to be tapped into God's reality- we need to be attentive to the Holy Spirit- this is available always through honest prayer.
I will pray for you- if you will pray for me. Deal?

..it's been a while...

I couldn't seem to get my blog account to work last week- and it was a busy week besides- so I didn't get to posting.
Anyways Its been a fun couple of weeks. Danny is now a big 3 year old. A bunch of our family came down this weekend to celebrate- he loves seeing all his grandparents, aunts/uncles and cousins.
Graduation was also last week for Gar-Pal. It was a very nice ceremony, much different than my high school- I think it has something to do with having 24 graduates rather than 400+. I was the Baccalaureate speaker this year. The service was a combined effort of the five pastors from the five GarPal churches. My message was the rich young ruler story from Matthew. Basically my main point was that God has a story for your life and the best life possible is a life lived to honor God. Pretty simple.
I also had the sacred honor of ministering to a family. They lost Susan to a blood disorder on May 26th and we had the service just this Saturday. The death was sudden as she had not been diagnosed. She has two kids, a boy and a girl that need your prayers. I know the family because of a Bible study I do every other week in an adult family home that her sister and brother own. They are a wonderful, loving and compassionate family. Rest in peace Susan.
Sunday was a good day. We are continuting in our June theme of JEM. Justice+Evangelis=Mission of God . The sermon was from John 3:1-17. you can read it here at my sermon page.
Sunday school was good as we continued to watch the videos by Shane Claiborne- "Another World is Possible." It really ignited some discussion about how we should be loving and serving people in our community. I am excited about this.